Story Presentation Preferences

[ElegantRaven]

Across the web lately, I've seen a few people criticise the presentation of SCVI's Soul Chronicles Mode due to its visual novel style of telling its story. I was thinking - am I the only one who sort of actually prefers it this way? I feel like the drawn portraits emanate more personality than rendered cutscenes would. Also, there is to take into account that if we had rendered cutscenes, the budget needed for that would lead to a massive cut in story content, which honestly I'd say is pretty substantial currently. Not even accounting for Libra of Souls, Soul Chronicles as it is is the best story mode thus far in a fighting game, IMHO, due to how much screentime and focus each character and their individual arc gets, as well as the typical main story of course. I also wanted to know if I was the only one who felt this way. I mean, I get that NRS story modes get a lot of praise (which I do understand, even though I feel the writing in most of them is awful...), but the characters only get focus in their specific chapters which don't last anywhere near as long as the Soul Chronicles of an individual character in this game. Also, what's extremely significant to me is that EVERY character has their canon arc shown to us in quite a bit of detail here - in NRS story modes, around maybe 40% of the roster or more are reduced to opponent bait. So yeah, kinda two points I made here that ended in a ramble...anyway, yeah, just wanted to know if I was the only one who felt this way and if anyone else has another perspective on the topic.

 

[Ukkesh]

Across the web lately, I've seen a few people criticise the presentation of SCVI's Soul Chronicles Mode due to its visual novel style of telling its story. I was thinking - am I the only one who sort of actually prefers it this way? I feel like the drawn portraits emanate more personality than rendered cutscenes would. Also, there is to take into account that if we had rendered cutscenes, the budget needed for that would lead to a massive cut in story content, which honestly I'd say is pretty substantial currently. Not even accounting for Libra of Souls, Soul Chronicles as it is is the best story mode thus far in a fighting game, IMHO, due to how much screentime and focus each character and their individual arc gets, as well as the typical main story of course. I also wanted to know if I was the only one who felt this way. I mean, I get that NRS story modes get a lot of praise (which I do understand, even though I feel the writing in most of them is awful...), but the characters only get focus in their specific chapters which don't last anywhere near as long as the Soul Chronicles of an individual character in this game. Also, what's extremely significant to me is that EVERY character has their canon arc shown to us in quite a bit of detail here - in NRS story modes, around maybe 40% of the roster or more are reduced to opponent bait. So yeah, kinda two points I made here that ended in a ramble...anyway, yeah, just wanted to know if I was the only one who felt this way and if anyone else has another perspective on the topic.

Yeah, Ip erosnally believe the style is more interesting. I enjoy fire emblem games, and I feel that if you can get across personality through a small collection of facial expressions, It really makes the character. I just like the art style tool.

 

[Nightmare966]

The style is not bad, but there's a few things that irk me in the Story Mode. One of them is everyone that's in contact with Soul Calibur being oblivious that Soul Calibur is Soul Calibur. I know why many wouldn't know, but am I supposed to think that Nightmare through Soul Edge or Kilik and Xianghua at no point discover this fact when they see it with their own eyes?

The other is the lack of cutscenes for the MAIN Story. I mean, I'd have loved to see proper stuff happen besides Kilik vs Groh and Xianghua finishing Inferno. I feel like the story had enough moments to present. Then again I know why this did not happen, same reason the game doesn't have a proper "20 years special" intro -- lack of money.

The last one, too, is the lack of explanation as to why all of a sudden revisiting the OG Timeline matters. There's a motif of a clocks in everything related to loading screens and main menu, up to points it seems it's Zasalamel levels of responsible.

Individual characters and such are great in Visual Novel style though, in fact it brings fonds memories of SCII with the picture endings. I wish they could have had more money for proper ending themes like back then.

 

[sytus]

SC6 single player content is serviceable nothing more and is no way near the perfection SC3 single player content is. The presentation and execution from scene to scene is extremely disjointed (no flow between them) and the dialogue is bloated, not excessive but noticeable. What saves Chronicles for me is the performances of the voice actors. Even though they're incredibly cheesy they're always in character which I consider the most important factor as that pulls you into the world. As for Libra of Souls I've only played a bit and I'm already speeding through the dialogue because it's full of that "waffle about nothing" writing. Also NRS story isn't all that, it just gets the praise it does because it came at the right time where single player content in fighting games was at it's lowest, plus a much needed reboot to the MK franchise and mechanics which have been flagging since MK4.

 

[DanteSC3]

I thought it did a great job, personally, and far better than I expected upon my initial impression. I thought it would be like SoulCalibur V again, possibly, but the level of detail and emotion that are in these is just like night and day. And Libra of Soul is also neat, kind of like a greatest hits album of all the alternative game modes from previous games, and, the real kicker for me, the storyline is absolutely canon and weaves in to Soul Chronicle excellently. Your point about Soul Calibur being a secret to everybody, even those who have wielded it, is valid, but it also fits the narrative. I guess, if I had to try and justify it, they were caught in the moment, and Xianghua's sword transforming into a holy spirit sword isn't much more farfetched than Kilik's transformation. What was more important was defeating the enemy, and when they did, the sword faded away once more.

 

[Allyjandro]

it’s not as good as SC3.

 

[SomeRandomHuman]

no way near the perfection SC3 single player content is

it’s not as good as SC3

There is no point in comparing it to SC3, I doubt SC series would get such amount of resources to create a "second SC3 in terms of content-packing, but also not broken mechanically". Comparing it to relatively recent SCIV-V makes much more sense and it's MILES better than those two.
I expect that SC series needs to success at least two times (SCVI and VII), before recieving true big budget (though if SCVI is good, it will certainly be bigger in SCVII).

 

[Kraft_D]

i would have like to see a little more artwork to give the events more life. The main story ark does a good job of this but I would have liked to have seen more on the individual episodes, like a beginning and end or mid and end.

Voice acting wasn’t really doing it for me at first, then I switched to Japanese, problem solved!

 

[Aiddon]

It's by far the best story mode SC has done because they actually go in depth with the characters allow us to learn about their histories, their personalities, and just who they are, which we really haven't gotten in the series outside of supplementary material. We actually get to see the massacre as Ling Sheng Su, Taki fleeing from the Fu-Ma, Sophitia meeting Rothion, and Raphael's exile and eventual return to France. These are hugely important events that define these characters and seeing them gives proper context.

As for the presentation itself, I actually do prefer visual novel style because it gets right to the point and lets the narrative focus on what matters without frills or excess. It's probably the best story mode in a fighting game outside of Blazblue.

 

[Fatal_Exodus]

I personally like this the best because Soul Chronicle shows exactly how every character’s stories line up over the course of history, coupled with the fact that they added new flavor text in the Museum that is easily accessible just by backing out of the Soul Chronicle. I also like the fact that the visual novel style is so beautifully illustrated and well voiced. The SC series has always had pretty lackluster real time engine cutscenes (hello SCIII, IV, and V) so I’ll happily take the unique drawings over shoddy animation.

Don’t quite understand why others are saying it’s incomparable to SCIII. You wanna talk bloated? SCIII’s story mode was basically a “choose your own adventure” with extra bells and whistles, but lacked a whole lot of substance because every route was virtually the same with the same exact premeditated cutscenes that are wholly dependent on if you picked A versus B. The endings were unique with the QTE aspect, but some of them were reduced to basically comic relief and in the grand scheme of things only a few of them were actually canon and contributed to an actual narrative (something that dwindled with IV and V failed to bring to fruition).

Soul Chronicle in conjunction with Libra of Soul does a lot for the series not only in giving the existing canon wider exposure, but also reestablishing and expanding on it in a way that doesn’t seem arbitrary or unnecessary.

 

[sytus]

There is no point in comparing it to SC3, I doubt SC series would get such amount of resources to create a "second SC3 in terms of content-packing, but also not broken mechanically". Comparing it to relatively recent SCIV-V makes much more sense and it's MILES better than those two.
I expect that SC series needs to success at least two times (SCVI and VII), before recieving true big budget (though if SCVI is good, it will certainly be bigger in SCVII).

I will compare it to SC3 because it's important to recognize where the strengths in the series are but not only that, Libra of Souls is filled with extra side content so the argument of lack of resources is to blame is moot. Presentation and execution of scenes is extremely poor and this is undeniable. An analogy would be say in a nightclub you've got this tune that is building up the mood of the crowd and just before the climax you cut off the music for a minute. When you start it again you've killed the suspense and create boredom with the crowd. Now repeat that process all the way through the night. Can you imagine the frustration of the crowd who now just want to get it over and done with because it's ruining their experience. That's SC6 single player content in a nutshell. This is an easy fix by simply putting focus on the flow of scenes. This isn't some expensive or unreasonable thing to plan out, all it takes is using things like music or an animated map to mask the loading to create a consistent flow just like SC3 does perfectly. Again SC6 single player content is serviceable nothing more and there's no reason to replay the single player content as the suspense gets broken every time you do it.

 

[SinseiPo]

Presentation is good.
Execution is good.
Pacing is good.

They brought back most of the characters.
They brought back most of the moves for the characters butchered in SCV.

I like both story modes! I like the whole single player experience. I'm glad and grateful Namco brought it back. Its a welcome experience
after the tower of lost souls in IV and the disaster V.

I wonder if there is some way to add more single player experience in future season passes.

I had decided to quit the series after the SCV debacle.

SC VI has restored my fascination with the game again (especially the single player experience)