The Retrospective 02.22.07: Soul Calibur
Posted by Sean McCabe on 02.22.2007
Shiver me timbers, an ultimate weapon wielding ghost pirate boss? Best boss concept evar! A Tale of soul and swords is eternally retold this week in The Retrospective.
Well, I didn't receive any suggestions for what series to cover this week; just as well I have Soul Calibur here to dissect for your enjoyment. But before we start…
I want to say that I am greatly saddened by the death of Mike Awesome. And it is even sadder that it is apparently a suicide case. I always enjoyed his work whenever I saw it, and that included a lot of powerbombing people through tables, which is always entertaining. His last match at One Night Stand with Masato Tanaka was an example of why he called himself Mike Awesome, he lived up to his name in that match, as in many others, and I also never thought badly of what he did in his move to WCW, it was perfectly understandable as far as I am concerned.
RIP, Master of the Awesome Bomb..
Now for feedback
From Josh Holeczay –
I just skimmed through your column and have to say that even at a short glance, I do not agree with your views. First off, I am so sick and tired of all the Kennedy worship. I've become somewhat of a fan of his lately, after his Last Ride Match with Taker. But the problem I have is that the only thing you IWC guys seem to focus on is how great his announcing thing is, or as you put it "his shtick is what we.... like to call "fucking awesome"." His shtick is what we real wrestling fans like to call f'n lame. That is the whole reason why all my friends and I have hated him ever since he showed up. Wow, he says his name and then echoes it again, what a great gimmick. It's probably one of the worst since the age of Repo Man and Aldo Montoya. I try to like him for his in ring ability, but it's hard to when he does that super lame, annoying gimmick that you're all so in love with for whatever reason. And I also disagree about his finisher. The Greenbay Plunge is awesome. I've always loved that move just as the standard version, so it's that much cooler and better doing it off of the ropes. Now about your crying about Ric Flair's days in the main event title scene being over, and them giving Undertaker one final run. Ric Flair is going to be 58 years old in 2 weeks, and Undertaker will only be 42 at WrestleMania. Taker is 16 years younger, not to mention that his career is only 23 years old and Flair's is 35. There's really no point in trying to compare them in that respect, so your point is meaningless. And lastly (because this is taking too long), about your fantasy booking in video games. I often hear about how great Fire Pro is (and I'd love to play it. Why won't they bring it to the US?), so I won't dispute that, but it's where you mentioned American wrestling games that I have a problem. "It was quite possible to do in WWF Attitude, Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy. Also in most of the Smackdown games, though some are deeply inferior..." I don't even know how to respond. That truly sounds like the ramblings of a crazy person. There is no way to run your own league on any of those PS1 or N64 games. This feature wasn't even introduced in any way until Here Comes the Pain when you got to run the draft. It was then greatly improved in Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 when they added GM Mode. See it's right there in the name. And then they made it even better this year. It might not touch Fire Pro, but it is way, way better than anything we've ever seen in the states. I'm just so sick and tired of old school N64 fan boys telling me how great No Mercy is. I have every single wrestling game for NES, SNES, N64, PS1, & PS2, 50 total, and Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 is by far the best game.
That's all for now. Just thought I'd give my opinion. I do agree that Edge & Cena have fought too many times & with what you said about CM Punk.
Later
Hi, thanks for the reply; that was actually what I was looking for. The last wrestling based replies I got were pretty, well, no, make that flat out retarded. But yours is something I can definitely work with.
First of all, Kennedy. I really don't think there's anything wrong with what he does because it is A. not cartoonish, which you seem to think, and the reason is B. He has the voice for it. He has a great voice, and that is why it works. He ought to become a ring announcer when he retires; he's great at it. And I think it's just wonderfully arrogant that he feels he's the only one worthy of announcing himself, it fits in great with being a cocky heel or face. In truth, he's just like The Rock when his personality started coming out, and Kennedy is definitely better in the ring than The Rock is, or at least potentially could be anyway. Never liked the way the Rock wrestled. The Greenbay Plunge is an awesome move and I have no problem with Kennedy continuing to use it, if anything it's his Swanton I don't like and he ought to replace that as his primary finisher with something that is easier to hit. So that can be his quick finish and the Greenbay Plunge can be his ultimate weapon as it were.
My point about Flair stems from the simple fact that he deserves to go out on a high note. I just feel that if he is denied this, no one deserves better because no one has worked as hard in this business as he has, and that goes for anybody. Still, if he winds up elevating Carlito by being a motivational type character, then that's better than jobbing to a guy who's gimmick should be dying every week >_>
The final thing is, something you really got the complete wrong end of the stick on, but perhaps I'm at fault for not wording myself clearly enough.
"It was quite possible to do in WWF Attitude, Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy. Also in most of the Smackdown games, though *some* are deeply inferior... in their customisation limits"
What I meant by this was not that all Smackdown's are inferior, but that some of them, namely Smackdown!, Just Bring it and Smackdown Vs Raw are the main culprits, and even so, only really in what you can do in them as far as customisation goes. The Smackdown series is decent, although to be frank, the N64 games are better from a gameplay perspective. That's true, and I don't care if you think I'm an N64 fanboy or not, because there's probably a lot of truth to that seeing as how it's my most fondly remembered console. And the last point is you can run your own league without needing some kind of mode, and especially not that GM mode which was totally shitty anyway. What you don't get about that mode is that is very limited in that you have to play by its rules, and work by limits. It's a half assed sim, whereas what I am talking about is simply an E-fed done by the player from scratch, based purely on matches and angles and not any finances or contracts or ratings. All you need is some pen and paper to record things, that's all. All a game needs is a really good CAW, belts available in exhibition and possibly a Create a PPV although I wouldn't even say that is required. And you can do things quite easily. It's not about needing a structured mode for it; it's simply about having the freedom to be able to do it and a decent CAW mode to build it from. So, my advice to you is to use your imagination, that's the most important thing in the end.
Anyway, thanks for the email, it's the first serious feedback I've had in weeks, and I certainly don't mind that it's mostly in disagreement with me, that's what makes for interesting reading when I put it in the column.
Alright, I want to get to business quite quickly now
The Introspective
This week I've been playing Champions: Return to Arms and Okami. Okami is as good as you've heard, and then some. A beautiful game. Champions is a pretty decent cross of Diablo with Gauntlet. I created Low Ki on Fire Pro Returns, complete with the Ghetto Stomp, Ki Krusher and barrages of stiff kicks.
I also bring you another random video. This combines the greatest combos of King of Fighters 2002 with one of the best songs from power metal legends Stratovarius. A very, very nice video both form a technical and just a sheer pwnage point of view.
As for news this week, Sony have continued to make themselves look like idiots, Crackdown is apparently everything GTA isn't (i.e. fun) and Manhunt 2 is coming to the Wii. Nintendo's attitude is reportedly "Pay attention to the age rating or use the Wii's parental lock system". Now if only people could sensibly follow those directions we'd live in a better society without ambulance chasing lawyers and claims that terrorists use flight simulators as training. It has been, however, a pretty uneventful week. Ah well, since I promised last week another 1337 piece of fanart
VG Babe of the Week: Iroha
She was the first VG Babe of the Week, but I used SNK's official art, but this was how I first saw this character rendered. No wonder I imported Samurai Spirits: Tenkaichi Kenkakuten.
Now I think its time for The Breakdown
Soul Edge/Blade
Developer: Namco
Format: Arcade/PSX
Release: 1995/97
Notes: Released originally as Soul Edge in 1995, an improved version would circulate arcades the year after and be the actual basis for the console port.
3D fighters were still very much in their infancy in 1995, with only Virtua Fighter and Tekken ruling the roost, both strictly hand-to-hand fighters. Soul Edge would be the first 3D fighter, which, in the spirit of the great Samurai Showdown series, would arm each character on its roster with a favoured weapon. Throw in a suitably simple yet interesting legend of a weapon capable of bestowing ultimate power in a time of history that was tumultuous and war torn to say the least, and you got the recipe for quite the masterful ruckus.
Soul Edge would introduce many characters who would become quite iconic in the genre, including the stoic Samurai Mitsurugi, Grecian goddess Sophitia and the tight-suit wearing Ninja Taki. Graphically the game was extremely impressive and pushed the PSX hardware, with only Tekken 3 later offering better visuals. The game offered a myriad of different modes including the excellent Edge Master mode, that was like a quest/story kind of mode that allowed players to gain more weapons for the characters, up to eight for each of the game's ten main characters. This really added to the games longevity for the solo player, something that this series would never be shy on.
Where is shines best though is the gameplay. Coming from the same team that made Tekken, it was surprising to see Soul Edge operate very differently from that game. It is much faster, and based around quick combos and active physics, not Tekken's stiff animated style. The characters were well balanced although I always though Cervantes was somewhat over-powered, but as he does wield the Soul Edge it does make sense. This game gave a lot of reasons for two gamers to test their mettle against one another in weapons combat, and this game would go on to become one of the most fondly remembered games of the 32/64 bit generation.
In Retrospect: I had so much fun with this game, and it stands as one of the best games available on the PSX and one of the best weapons fighers ever made alongside such alumni as Samurai Showdown 2 and Last Blade.
Soul Calibur
Developer: Namco
Format: Arcade/Dreamcast
Release: 1998/1999
Notes: Earned a perfect 40/40 from Famitsu, second of only six games to ever do so, and was a launch title for the Dreamcast in North America.
Ah, the one game in the series I never actually played. Well, Namco would expand the roster from Soul Edge, almost double it in fact, though the majority of the new characters used fighting styles that were "borrowed" from pre-existing characters, such as Maxi being an upgraded Li Long, Lizardman using a Roman sword and shield combo similar to Sophitia and Kilik borrowing the style of Seung Mina.
The game was a smash hit on the Dreamcast, and a critical success to, garnering probably the best review scores since Streetfighter 2 entered the scene. Graphically the game showed what the Dreamcast could actually do when pushed, which unfortunately was very rare for it. The main addition to the game is the Mission Mode, for which the player would complete various missions in order to unlock extras, most notably Exhibition videos known as Kata's which sees each character give a physical demonstration with their chosen weapon. The full arsenal of weapons feature for each character was missing however.
In Retrospect: By all accounts a fantastic game, although the Missions mode and the lack of extra weapons, and the fact that I don't care so much for the artistic renderings of the characters makes me question just how good I would personally find it. Still, probably a must have game if you still own a Dreamcast.
Soul Calibur II
Developer: Namco
Format: Arcade/PS2/Xbox/Gamecube
Release: 2002/2003/2003/2003
Notes: All three console ports included an exclusive character to that version. Heihachi Mishima from Tekken for the PS2 version, popular Todd Mcfarlane character Spawn for the Xbox version, and Nintendo Icon Link for the Gamecube version. The Gamecube version sold the most copies, quite possibly due to the devotion of Nintendo aficionados.
Ah, Soul Calibur 2. Arguably one of the most hyped releases in the history of the fighting game genre, it had a lot to live up to after it's two successful forebears. It included much cleaner presentation, improves graphics, an expansion of the Mission mode and a greatly expanded roster introducing new faces like Raphael and my personal favourite, Cassandra into the mix. Of course, whilst it was well received and sold well, some take issue with certain aspects of the game.
You see, the game had some elements that favoured the defensive player. Parrying and Guard breaks were heavily simplified from the previous game, and blocking was faster, so that a player could conceivably sidestep and block almost anything that comes their way. Still the key word there is "conceivably". Personally, I think it's more whining than anything else, as there are still plenty ways of getting around those kinds of defences. And I applaud a game that actually doesn't make it easy for super fast players to spam cheap offence and destroy their opponent with ease. I guess I'm biased here because traditionally I am a defensive style player, and this game actually suited my style more than any other, I was practically unbeatable with Cassandra. But "practically" again is the key word. This game favours a more balanced mix of offence and defence as I'm not kidding when I say most games in this genre are 90% offence, and though it's not the most popular of positions, I think this game is greater for it.
Oh, and this time each character had an arsenal of 10 weapons. Yays!
In Retrospect: Ironically it is in retrospect that a lot of people would look down on this game. But it's my favourite of the series so far.
Soul Calibur III
Publisher: Namco
Format: PS2/Arcade
Release: 2005/2006
Notes: The arcade version of the game was actually released after the console version. It was PS2 exclusive, which was questioned by many giving the exceptional performance of SC2 on the Gamecube.
Soul Calibur 3 is an interesting thing. Whilst there was much speculation about the game featuring online play when it was first announced, those rumours were quickly silenced by the game's executive producer who revealed the philosophy behind the development of the game, to focus on content to give those that play the game offline as much reason to have fun with the game as possible. This necessitated the addition of various new modes and features, many of which were, well, rather questionable in practice. First was the Chronicles of the Sword mode, replacing the quest/mission modes of previous games. This was a strategy-based mode offering a fantasy story. I found this mode to be horribly unbalanced in its difficulty, and that's not very good considering most of the game's content is unlocked through it. Next is the Create a fighter mode. This mode first was used to expand the available character roster by adding 16 or so presets to the roster of 20 existing characters. Interestingly, two of these presets are Hwang and Li Long, making their appearances back in the series for the first time since Soul Edge. The Create a fighter mode itself was relatively interesting, but limited when it came to choosing fighting styles.
Also, many changes were made to the movesets of many of the characters. For the record, I feel most characters were either nerfed or overpowered to a ridiculous extent from Soul Calibur 2, making this the most unbalanced game yet. Soul Calibur 3 has a lot of good things about it, and is a competent fighter, but did not herald a return to the sheer quality for the series like most thought it would.
In Retrospect: Soul Calibur 3 was decent enough, but lacked in terms of gameplay for all of the content it added. However, I'm sure Namco's heart was in the right place.
Soul Calibur IV is apparently in the planning stages for the Wii and the PS3, if you believe in rumours. You do, don't you?
This has been the Retrospective, and starting from now and for the next few weeks, things are going to be sporadic here to say the least as essay writing season once again air's its ugly head. So as such, I won't make any promises for what you'll see each week. It might be Theo doing Donkey Kong Country for all you know. Scary, huh?
