Soulcalibur VI DLC Discussion Thread

I wouldn't be shocked if the Rock stage was this:
Ea-zHWHXgAEDsn1.jpg
 
Actually Stonehenge would be a amazing stage to have. I don't know how they would configure the stage though, Project Soul would probably have to build some arena next to it as if a battle tournament was taking place there due to the summer solstice.
 
The thing is, Stonehenge would not be Project Soul's style. In the twenty-five years Namco have been making these games, not once has a level referenced an actual specific historical location. Sometimes you get a reference to as specific city of antiquity, but that's about it. They don't really reference specifical real-world landmarks. For example, if they want to represent Egypt, they don't show you the pyramids at Giza, or the Sphinx, or the temple at Karnak. Instead they show you a huge battle platform in some unnamed tomb, or another situated atop a giant stone being pulleyed up next to some scafolding abreast a construction work one-hundred times larger than anything ever actually created in the classical world. They most hint vaguely at the classical world but use their own fictional constructions to fill in the specifics: I'd be very surprised if they started dropping in the more 'touristy' real locations instead, all of the sudden.
 
Takamatsu Castle??
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Good call. I had meant to add "That I can recall" to that sentence. Still, it's rather an outlier, and even then, you'll notice it's a very fictionalized version of the castle. I just wouldn't expect to start seeing major historical sites in the game: it clashes with their fictional history too much.
 
The thing is, Stonehenge would not be Project Soul's style. In the twenty-five years Namco have been making these games, not once has a level referenced an actual specific historical location. Sometimes you get a reference to as specific city of antiquity, but that's about it. They don't really reference specifical real-world landmarks. For example, if they want to represent Egypt, they don't show you the pyramids at Giza, or the Sphinx, or the temple at Karnak. Instead they show you a huge battle platform in some unnamed tomb, or another situated atop a giant stone being pulleyed up next to some scafolding abreast a construction work one-hundred times larger than anything ever actually created in the classical world. They most hint vaguely at the classical world but use their own fictional constructions to fill in the specifics: I'd be very surprised if they started dropping in the more 'touristy' real locations instead, all of the sudden.

This is actually a thoroughly good observation. So yeah, Stonehenge wouldn't be stage. However your points about what Project Soul does with regards to landmarks is that they reference them in non-specific ways, so they could do Stonehenge but in a completely outlandish way like this image here (though a bit closer to the landmark).

Stonehenge.jpg


Well LisaK proved us wrong.
 
Unless Hwang makes a big splash in his supposed DLC debut, I suspect in SCVII that X and Y will be default roster characters and Hwang will be DLC fare....

As much as I love Hwang I think it's too late for him to ever be a non DLC roster character...
 
Unless Hwang makes a big splash in his supposed DLC debut, I suspect in SCVII that X and Y will be default roster characters and Hwang will be DLC fare....

As much as I love Hwang I think it's too late for him to ever be a non DLC roster character...
I was thinking more generally about this and SCVII - who can we assume will be in the base roster for that game and who will be DLC? It doesn’t seem right that just because a character was DLC in SCVI means that they then can’t be in the base roster in SCVII. In fact the optimist in me would like to think most of if not all of the DLC characters in SCVI will make the base roster next time round (excluding guests and budget providing)..
 
I was thinking more generally about this and SCVII - who can we assume will be in the base roster for that game and who will be DLC? It doesn’t seem right that just because a character was DLC in SCVI means that they then can’t be in the base roster in SCVII. In fact the optimist in me would like to think most of if not all of the DLC characters in SCVI will make the base roster next time round (excluding guests and budget providing)..

As of now there are 25 characters (including setsuka and hwang if leaks are true) that would be suitable to return in SCVII from the roster. I took out the guest and inferno. If we add a potential Season 3 that adds 3-4 more characters who could come back in VII too. SC has never really topped 30 characters on launch which is why I'm hesitant to assume that we would get that.

Plus we would need at least one guest for SCVII and at least one to two newcomers for SCVII. With how small project soul is I think they would cut the least popular characters and either use them for DLC or omit them entirely.
 
I think the only reason the character roster in SC6 was pruned like it was is because of all the changes to the moves and mechanics that were made to each character, plus the work in SC5 being scrapped due to the dislike of the new generation. With the commands all over the place in SC4 and the stripped back movesets in SC5, SC6 had to have a lot of work done to it's core to get it where it is now, and that's not even including the new stuff that was added like Lethal Hits, universal Break Attacks, Reversal Edge and the new meter behaviour. Going forward, I think SC7 will be more about refining the direction the series is currently going in rather than reinventing the wheel again, and if we get all the legacy characters for SC6, then I'm confident they will appear in SC7 as all the grunt of the work has already been completed.
 
I have high hopes for SC7 if the dev team generally is retained.
Big props to the SC6 dev team for the following:

• Focus and refinement of each character's niches (intended strengths and weaknesses) that makes each character play unique and pretty much slayed the "clones" argument in 1 series.

• Lethal hit conditions help cement the "intended" use of certain moves, which help define the characters. Of course you can play without using them, but it shows the dev's plans. Replacing SC5's random bonus damage for "clean hit" damage to SC6's conditional special combos is one of the best decisions in this game's history.

• certain commands are pretty universal (with some rare exceptions) that help you learn the basics of the characters. The character unique differences seem to branch out from this foundation of basics. It felt like in SC4/5 at least, the basic foundations and character unique traits were sort of arbitrary and good moves were just sort of randomly sprinkled throughout the movelist simply by chance and not intention.
There are exceptions, but most of this is universal
AA - quickest step kill, low risk low damage
BB - low risk mid string, generally fast
K - short range, fast high kick
3A - mid step kill, slower
3B - mid launcher, hits grounded
3K - safe mid short range poke
2K - low fast kick, (-) frame on hit, hits grounded
2A - crouching fast step kill, short range but good frames on hit/block
2B - hits grounded
1A - slower tracking low
1B - linear slower low
1K - slower low kick
8A/8B/8K - jump attacks
A+B - guard break that LH against GI/RE
A+G / 4A+G - grabs
running kick

• Combo paths (for most characters) seem to have a LOT of options compared to SC5. There is almost always one optimal solution, but the other choices may only result in 5% less damage which makes the attack commands seem to "fit together" better. The combo scaling seems to be "carefully" considered rather than just a lucky coincidence, due to the fact how consistent across characters this is.

• RE parry isn't perfect, but I think its still a better design than SC5's just guard. There's actual counter play against RE, being the following:
i) step in anticipation
ii) guard break, especially those with LH on hard reads
iii) RE safe pokes
iv) strings with ambiguous length of hits
Theres no counterplay against JG except hoping the opponent messes up their execution since there is no resource cost or drawback

Suggestions for polishing RE (ie making it disruptive and flow-breaking) could be an entire discussion.

• Despite the movelist pruning in SC5, which the Dev explained as trying to add a purpose to every move and trimming away useless strings, it feels like each character in SC5 had a smaller list of "good useable moves" compared to SC6

• Conditional (move specific or matchup specific) voice quotes are pretty cool and are a fun little touch.

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The things that the SC7 team needs to focus more on would be (yes, SC6 is not a perfect game and there are actual shortcomings comapred to previous versions)
• 2p costumes. Soul Calibur always had really creative zany designs as 2p
• Armor break is going tostay, and its kinda sad that SC4 had the best armor "tear/shatter" rather than in SC6 where things just disappear. The DLC characters fair much better in this regard
• Greater stage variations/choices. SC5 really hit it out of the park with the stage diversity + every character had a theme music.
• Other fluff like intro cinematics, but things like this is almost like a strict budget issue.
• Upgrade the mesh/textures of the weapons. The weapons themselves (to me at least) is as important as the wielder. Look at Mitsurugi's hilt wraps for his katana or Seong Mina's weapon:
 
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I was thinking more generally about this and SCVII - who can we assume will be in the base roster for that game and who will be DLC? It doesn’t seem right that just because a character was DLC in SCVI means that they then can’t be in the base roster in SCVII. In fact the optimist in me would like to think most of if not all of the DLC characters in SCVI will make the base roster next time round (excluding guests and budget providing)..
As of now there are 25 characters (including setsuka and hwang if leaks are true) that would be suitable to return in SCVII from the roster. I took out the guest and inferno. If we add a potential Season 3 that adds 3-4 more characters who could come back in VII too. SC has never really topped 30 characters on launch which is why I'm hesitant to assume that we would get that.

Plus we would need at least one guest for SCVII and at least one to two newcomers for SCVII. With how small project soul is I think they would cut the least popular characters and either use them for DLC or omit them entirely.
I think Dissidia has the right end of the stick here. Indeed, i would go further and say, much as we might not like to hear it, we ought to be expecting exactly the opposite trend. We are simply done with the days of getting huge rosters off the bat: the future of this industry, particularly as concerns this genre (and even more particularly, the games with lower market share within the genre) is the continuing support DLC model. I think you will see content increasingly serialized and that you will be paying more for the complete roster, but as a consequence, those rosters will get larger by the end of a game's DLC support cycle, even if the same roster is somewhat anemic for the base game.

And I feel this is something we should celebrate and embrace, not treat as stinginess on the part of the developer. This has been a longtime coming: developers in this genre in particular have been squeezed between a stagnate price for the base product, skyrocketing production costs, and decreased buy-in for many years now, and that's the biggest part of why both the quality and quantity of content in some classic fighter franchises has plummeted. It's taken them a long time to convince the consumer that multiple season passes are worth the price of admission and now that they've got there, expect them to double down in the next generation. I expect you will get anywhere from 16-24 characters in the base game for SCVII, but that by the time the last DLC character drops, you might have a massive roster in the vein of 40 characters.

At least, that's how I hope it goes. But for those expecting the entire SCVI roster (DLC characters and all) to show up in SCVII's base game, I'm afraid that's just a pipe dream. The numbers just don't add up for that--and this is a business, where those numbers are king over just about any other consideration.
 
Certain commands are pretty universal (with some rare exceptions) that help you learn the basics of the characters. The character unique differences seem to branch out from this foundation of basics.

In comparison to past games, the basics are even more universal. I personally find this to be one of the crowning changes in SC6 as you're no longer scratching your head when using a new character, trying to remember what command does a low (for example) as they are all universally 1A, 1B, 1K across all characters.


Some thoughts on what I would like to see implemented and removed when it comes to mechanics.

RE has got to go. It was a decent experiment and while it's no longer the tedious bitch it was in season 1, it's still a mini game in a competitive fighting game which is never going to match the main mechanics.

More delay attack moves. What I mean by that is having moves or strings where you hold down a button and delay the swing. Some characters in game even buff those delay attacks to a Break Attacks. This is where I think SC7 really needs to focus on. It would add tons of mind games and would allow players have more freedom with their character. I don't think I'm alone with the opinion that it's great to see players play the same character in different ways (I'm still butt mad that Taki's neutral was butchered in SC6, let alone the shit lows which makes her ridgid as fuck to play).

Make Soul Charge moves normal moves. I like SC6's Soul Charge but I don't like having moves locked behind it. Just balance them accordingly. Soul Charge already buffs moves with chip damage and there are other ways to buff moves like turning certain moves into Break Attacks, Just Frames or extend the reach of some moves while in Soul Charge (Maxi's 6A+B is a great example).

Bring back advance step guard. It would give people the option to shuffle away from an opponent who is applying pressure. No idea why this was removed.
 
In comparison to past games, the basics are even more universal. I personally find this to be one of the crowning changes in SC6 as you're no longer scratching your head when using a new character, trying to remember what command does a low (for example) as they are all universally 1A, 1B, 1K across all characters.


Some thoughts on what I would like to see implemented and removed when it comes to mechanics.

RE has got to go. It was a decent experiment and while it's no longer the tedious bitch it was in season 1, it's still a mini game in a competitive fighting game which is never going to match the main mechanics.

More delay attack moves. What I mean by that is having moves or strings where you hold down a button and delay the swing. Some characters in game even buff those delay attacks to a Break Attacks. This is where I think SC7 really needs to focus on. It would add tons of mind games and would allow players have more freedom with their character. I don't think I'm alone with the opinion that it's great to see players play the same character in different ways (I'm still butt mad that Taki's neutral was butchered in SC6, let alone the shit lows which makes her ridgid as fuck to play).

Make Soul Charge moves normal moves. I like SC6's Soul Charge but I don't like having moves locked behind it. Just balance them accordingly. Soul Charge already buffs moves with chip damage and there are other ways to buff moves like turning certain moves into Break Attacks, Just Frames or extend the reach of some moves while in Soul Charge (Maxi's 6A+B is a great example).

Bring back advance step guard. It would give people the option to shuffle away from an opponent who is applying pressure. No idea why this was removed.
I kinda want to see the characters RE specific attacks reworked into actual moves for the cast. Astaroth for example would get some benefit to his RO game if his RE B was reworked into a regular move in his move list. Perhaps retune it into a Counter hit move (possibly a Just Frame) to avoid making it completely ridiculous, if they decide to scrap RE.

As for Soul Charge. Yes, I hate exclusives being locked inside that state. Voldo’s Landfish for example, which isn’t even that good in this game.
 
Here's a question:

Is every character's RE attack and RE A/B/K brand new animations created in SC6 ? I know that the movement animations mainly are (there are exceptions like Raph's RE4 was his old SC2 214)

I dare say it is (groh and azwel for sure) but i'm unfamiliar with like about 70% of the cast.

I'm not even sure about the first attack in Ivy's RE BBBBB, though the rest of the string is clearly her SE B series
Nightmare's RE A is actually different from his 44A (his 44A animation is 2 handed and hits more with the flat of the blade, while his RE A the sword is swung by his monster arm and connects more with the edge).
 
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