Why do some people say Soul Calibur III doesn't have the "magic" that Soul Calibur II had?

[HydroJames]

I hear from some people that SCIII didn't have charm that SCII had...

But, why?

Not only was SCIII's game-play was the most faithful to II's, but it also better music, the biggest selection of characters, and superior casual modes.

...So, what's wrong with III?

 

[Nyte]

A lot of competitive players don't like it due to being unbalanced. Personally, I've sank so many hours into it as a kid that it's kind of embarrassing.

 

[HydroJames]

Yeah, from what I've heard, the console version was an unbalanced, glitchy mess, while the arcade versions (which were released after the console version) rebalanced the roster and resolved most of the glitches, earning more acclaim from the competitive community.

 

[Nyte]

Yeah, from what I've heard, the console version was an unbalanced, glitchy mess, while the arcade versions (which were released after the console version) rebalanced the roster and resolved most of the glitches, earning more acclaim from the competitive community.

Yeah, but it doesn't come with all the awesome stuff vanilla SCIII has. If they made an SCIII HD Online, I would like them to combine the gameplay of the Arcade Edition with the content of the vanilla game. Too bad that would take actual effort on Namco's part.

 

[Ryuhza]

My guesses:

"No Link" (and by extension, no Spawn, no Heihachi, no Charade, no... gghh... Necrid)
"PS2 only" (and by extension, there are surely those who never played it extensively and are instead judging from Youtube or playing at a friend's house)
"Unbalanced/Buggy"
"The UI was different"
"Didn't have -small feature that was in SCII-"
"It wasn't the one I played first"
"It's bloated"

But whatever, it's still my favorite by far. Last SoulCalibur with seriously big ambitions that were mostly realized. Maybe the only SoulCalibur with ambitions so big.

If a fixed SoulCalibur III HD never comes about... the world will be a sadder place for it.

 

[Lost_in_Tactics]

Hmmm... SC II is considered to be the holy grail of the series.

From my interpretation of what has been stated on various outlets online - it has more to do with the gameplay mechanics not the (glitches/bugs).

What I've read, it has to do with them taking out the step guard, 2G mind games that would ensue after GI and many other fighting mechanics that were in SC II which allowed any of the characters in the roster to be played more freely in regards to your style... defensive/offensive - hybrid.

SC III, supposedly stripped these away and thus, made the game more stringent.

If you want real, truthful answers ask Mr. Soul Calibur himself Aris - on his twitch channel or youtube channel: Avoid the Puddle

In the video below he explains the 'why' in several sections of the video. If you want your answer or some idea - watch/listen the entire video.

Personally I love SC II more than any of the others and my reasons are basically what the man is saying below. But he gets deeper since his understanding is far reaching than mine.

 

[SSfox]

And i agree with that, it's still my favorite SC by far and one of my favorite Fighting game ever.

More fun to play, had a better feel when play (dunno how to explain that but, yeah, it's about the feel), Close Camera style was better.

So yeah, SC2 is by far my favorite, especially when it comes to gameplay.

SC4 is my least favorite, SC3 and SC5 are very good, but didn't had that SC2 magic.

Never been able to play SC1 on DC back then as i was studying and couldn't afford it at that time, but i remember that i wanted to play this game very badly, and i felt love in Ivy the first second i saw her in the Intro when it was showcased on a TV show on Gameone. So only get to play SC1 when it came on Xbox 360 in remastered version, and it's as expected a great SC great, and pretty way ahead on its time. It's funny on how i was surprise on how way less moves Ivy had in this game lol, she was a really huge step up on SC2.

I played Soul Edge as well on PSX, my brother lent a PSX and one of the games with it was SE, we were playing a bunch of tons of VS games, it was so much fun, even my brother that only touch a pad nowaday just to play some Fifa or GTA was playing and enjoying hella a lot this game, and myself of course enjoyed this game as well, my favorite character on the game and the one i was using mostly was Li Long, it was about a week or so, it was really a great game especially on its time, but the true magic for me was in 2004 when first time i played SC2, and i still admire this game a lot to this day, it really age crazy well imo, great aesthetics, deep and fun gameplay, so unique with its own identity, this game is just legendary.