OK - it's been over a week now since the game's release. I'm still playing the game and I'm still enjoying it; happily sinking in close to 20 hours well after the fact that I've completed story mode and I'm just now aiming to 1,000 this game's gamescore. Seriously, say what you want about achievements in games, but they are the reason to keep Single-Player-minded gamers around for the long haul in SCV.. However, I'm actually enjoying playing Online again.. I enjoyed it in SCIV, (when I could find matches..) and now that this game's netcode is improved, it's easier to find matchups and earn experience against good other Soul Calibur players..
the7k, I'll hand it to ya - if it weren't for your adament defense of the game's multiplayer and sheer conviction about it's intrinsic worth, I may not have bothered. But now, I'm glad I gave it more of a chance, since it really is set up to entertain players as more than just "Wait, choose fighter, wait, fight, wait, repeat.." Lobbies in the Coliseo are a nice touch, ranked match leveling is difficult, yet progress-able, and I've only encountered two out matches out of 100+ so far that lagged with a 1-connection. It's a really nice system.... This really might be the best Soul Calibur yet....
..except that Namco went ahead and broke it's own damn game. Boy, did they screw things up. And I honestly never would have known if I didn't see it first-hand while playing multiplayer.
Why, in the name of everything Namco has done with this series, have they completely and utterly fucked up the priority system in this game? Since when do large oafs like Astaroth and Nightmare have more priority of attacks over faster, shorter range fighters like Maxi and Raphael??
(Quick example - I've been playing the Soul series ever since it was released on the PSX as Soul Blade in the 90's, and I've been an avid player since. As a real-life fencer, I was ecstatic when in II, they represented my style with Raphael. He's been my go-to character ever since. Raphael is NOT easy to master by any stretch. If you spam vertical B's all day, you're going to be KO'd and perfected instantly.. But what he lacks in power he makes up for in speed. He's one of the better mid-range characters, and probably the best poker in the series, period. So why the HELL, does Astaroth's horizontal A cancel out Raph's lightning fast Forward-B,B,B dash, without fail?? In ever game since II, that's NEVER happened!)That's just one example among many I could think of to illustrate how ass-backwards the priority in this game is.
Another HUGE complaint: Nightmare.
Nightmare should be freakin' BANNED from any Ranked or Tourny games because it's an instant win for any button-masher or noob who wants an easy win. Seriously, people - it's not even fair. "Oh, it's not bad at all - you just have to dodge, cancel guard and out poke Nightmare and he's a cinch!" Except that Namco made that impossible by giving Nightmare the highest priority award in the game, and allows his massive swords hit-detection to span literally 1/2 of the freakin' screen!! Oh, and while they were at it, they decided he needed a hefty speed boost as well, because now he's a god-damned Olympic sprinter! That, is complete BULLSHIT! It's like if Capcom went ahead and said: "You know, Zangief is kind of slow? Let's give him rocket-powered roller skates. Oh, and that spinning clothesline? Let's up the range on it, because otherwise nobody will ever get close enough to him to get hit. We wouldn't want that."
Finally, and not least of all, my biggest complaint of Soul Calibur V - the freakin' Guard Breaks. Fuck you, Namco - seriously! I can't tell you how many times I play online and some E-ranked newb decides to pick (quess who??) and immediately spams vertical B and the occasional F,F,B. Well, I can't side-step it because the reach is too wide, and trying to out slash or poke him is out of the question because the priority isn't in anyone else's favor. All I can do is block and await an opening. Except that before an opening happens to finally land a hit, a blue-and-green cloud of Fuck-You happens, signaling that my guard has shattered for turtling and he gets, (what else?) a free series of combos to effectively Perfect my ass. What. The. Hell?? A freakin' Guard Break? Are you serious? You know, I get that in a game like this, there might be ways to exploit the block and just turtle one's way to victory - but when your opponent does nothing but spam one freaking attack button and exploit the games shoddy priority system and hit-detection, what can you possibly do in defense? It's as if Namco decided to penalize players for being defensive in a god-damned sword-fighting game!!! This is why Guilty Gear and BlazBlue have those combo-breaking bursts that you can use once a match for just such an occassion of relentless ass-kicking. WHICH is what this game should have had instead of their piss-poor excuse for a guard cancel, (which, by the way, doesn't ever work because the other player will just do it right back and continue their assault..) Seriously, Namco should have implemented a Guard Burst for such cheesey combos.
But Wait - They...Did?? That's right. They actually thought about this scenario and actually gave one character the ability to burst out a red bubble/mist/aura like thingy, (ala Smash Bros,) to deflect and cancel an opponent's combo. Thank God!! I'm picking that fighter - who is it??
....Astaroth.
So, that's my rant, ladies and gents. I'm sorry if it offends anybody, and I apologize for the length, but I just had to vent my frustration with this game.
As soon as I get my 1000 gamerscore, I might play it a little bit more online with friends, but ultimately, I don't see myself putting much more stock into this one. Somebody mentioned earlier here something about this being the end of the Soul series if sales don't do well. I seriously doubt this will be it for the series, as both the Soul games and Tekken are Namco's milk and butter. It'll be a while, for sure, but they'll release another game. And when they do, I pray to the PacMan gods that they either completely rebuild the gameplay and ruleset, or at least go back to Soul Calibur II's system. That one seemed to please the most people as the most balanced in the series. But as it stands, barring any patches Namco will probably not release for this game, Soul Calibur V ranks as one of the most unbalanced fighters I have ever played. And that sucks, because I really had high hopes for this game....
(ok, 7k, let me have it!
)
