After Two Terrible Games In The Soul Calibur Series, My Soul Does Not Burn!
Aris ON Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 12:21AM 
Harada had some last minute news for us today. Apparently a new Soul Calibur game is now under development and the producer of the series is now Daishi Odashima. From what I have gathered, he worked on SC3 and SC4 and now he is the lead producer of the series. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the franchise, here’s a quick history lesson for you guys.
In 2002 Namco released Soul Calibur 2 in the arcades. This was the first game in the series that was widely accepted as a mainstream competitive fighting game. The game was balanced, easy to pick up, and had a strong competitive scene across the country and the world all the way up until Soul Calibur 3.
In 2005 Namco released Soul Calibur 3 on console only. This was a major mistake because at this point online patching was impossible. The game was riddled with game breaking bugs and balance issues that made it nearly unplayable. The proof was clearly in the pudding as it was never accepted as a mainstream fighting game and its tournament life on a national level lasted no more then a few months.
In 2006 Namco released a arcade version of SC3 but at this point the community was dead and people didn't want to pay for a game that they already bought on console.
In 2008 Namco released Soul Calibur 4 on console once again. Now this game was interesting. The game seemed quite good at first. It had some hope of becoming a legitimate competitive fighting game. However, as the game evolved, certain balance issues were discovered. Namco addressed this with a major balance patch which was a breath of fresh air to the community. Unfortunately, because SC4 wasn't widely played on pad in Japan, Namco failed to realize that the character Hilde had some easily exploitable abilities when mapping multiple buttons to do the same command. This was unfortunately never patched and is what eventually made SC4 arguably one of the most unbalanced games in recent history.
For the record, I attempted to convince the Soul Calibur community to ban Hilde from competitive tournaments in an attempt to save the game from its tournament death. Unfortunately, I was met with a unanimously oppositional attitude. Most people responded with...
"You just don’t know how to beat her."
"Stop bitching and learn how to play against her."
Soon after, I quit playing Soul Calibur 4 because it became clear the game was a sinking ship and a waste of my time.
The community died shortly after I left. A few months ago, they finally decided to ban Hilde. Clearly a case of too little, too late.
This brings me to my opinion of the franchise at this point. After the failure of Soul Calibur 3 and 4, I have personally lost faith. I may sound bitter and that's because I am. The Soul Calibur series is very unique and has tons of potential in today's budding fighting game scene, but I would be lying if I said that I have high expectations for the next game in the series. I would love to see Namco produce a high quality product this time around but I definitely won’t be holding my breath.
My soul does not burn. What are you going to do about it Namco?
Reader Comments (30)
i'm surprised by the lack of vc shit on youtube... that was some of the most ridiculous shit ever in a fighting game, and they even knew about that shit when they were writing the official guide for the game?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd8rWl9fQWY
no faith. but this could be a turning point. sc was mainly trying to sell itself on gimmicks instead of actual competitive potential, so maybe a new director will keep the yoda's and link's away and focus on making a good game.
Oh man... that glitch vid you embedded starts off looking like it's no big deal and acceptable, but once it gets to the half way point, the bugs get crazy. People are fighting upside down and shit..
Also, I want to point out some things to the non-soul calibur players on the site about that Hilde juggle. It would almost guarantee a knock out (instant loss) from anywhere on the screen and it would take away a shitload of health. That juggle starter is a safe mid that reaches half way across the screen. Even if you thought about mixing her up after you block the launcher, she has a move that she can do after it that reverses everything. It allows her to do the launcher all day long. Aris considered her the most unbalanced character in any fighting game he's ever played.
@subt-L, Thanks for the link. I added it to the post.
that glitch video isnt that bad. we need to see some vc cancels with people backthrowing themselves.
insomnotek: i could only find this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yDNVOzKNp4
for some reason, there isn't very much on this shit. that backthrow shit was absolutely hilarious.
I hate being the nice guy but yea III and IV were ass.
II had issues but we loved em <3!
@MarkMan yeah, that is a really insightful way of putting it. Soul Calibur II's bugs had a weird way of adding depth and fun to the game. III and IV's made you pull your hair out and hate the series.
algol balltanians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nK5ANtqjrQ
SAB is the only reason why namco patched sc4 when it did
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOgyWAeqjsk
last one i swear, dont ban me. 2 hit combo for half life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Mmsp9OuIA#t=2m18s
It may sound sad but I actually feel the same as Aris. Eventhough I used to love the series and SC2 is still my favorite fighting game, I’m not hyped.
The game won’t shine unless they are going to change A LOT from the two latest installments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD0UQXZnArs – this video’s intro shows what what do I think of SC3… sad but true.
I dunno, Hilde was very stupid. But she isn't Ivan Fucking Ooze. Fun fact though, Hilde didn't win very many actual Majors that SC4 was a part of.(Hilde didn't win SB3, NEC9 or 10, Devastation09, EVO09, SC4 Nats*this was a disaster in and of itself though, these were top of my head before the ban went into effect*) And most bandwagon Hildes never made it too far. Only ones who really did anything results wise were RTD and Cedric. People who mained her.
SC4 wasn't nearly the mess SC3 was though.
SC4 moreso slapped everyone in the face when the game got no new patches and the "update" was released on PSP for a quick buck. I looked on Youtube for this match up on SC3, only found it on google video...but this, is SC3 at its finest. :p
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1842888779583317052#
So SC4 is the most unbalanced game in history due to one character that has been banned since 2009? Okay.
I would like to debate with people, but its hard when so many people on the internet are clueless when it comes to SC4 and spread misinformation. I still had people who talked to me at NEC a few weeks ago and had no idea that Hilde was banned when we have it clearly stated in the current ruleset on 8WayRun.com. I also had to have an announcement created on our frontpage about the ban because of how much misinformation gets spread and people don't take 5 minutes to check and find out the correct information about the game. I don't know what else to do besides putting the current ruleset on a t-shirt and wear it to every tournament.
http://www.8wayrun.com/wiki/tournament-ruleset/
But it's crazy how so many people say SC4 is ass but list no specifics and have nothing else to mention besides Hilde who has been banned for a long time. I just wish SC4 had an update to the console version instead of being released on the PSP. Tekken 5 and 6 were ass until they were updated to DR and BR respectively. I don't get why Namco didn't do the same for SC, but that's out of my control and is what killed the game for alot of people when BD came out for the PSP after EVO. That really felt like a slap in the face to the community for the game.
I know people think SC2 is the greatest thing since sliced bread and free hookers, but that game is so boring competitively. SC4 has its issues but it is nowhere near terrible. My suggestion for those who may be interested is to find out for yourself and come to your own conclusion. That's what I do for any fighting game that I play and not to just solely go by the word of people from the net.
Ultimately, I want to see SC return to being one of the best if not the best fighting games out there. While people quit and call the game trash, I decided to stick with the game and do what I can to change things. And I know alot of people are skeptical as to what Namco will do. I used to be one and think that they didn't care about Calibur and only cared about Tekken. But what Namco has shown me lately and with their renewed interest in the community which was gone for a long time has me optimistic about the future. Plus they also have my ear so I am going to see where that takes us. Hopefully it leads to alot of great things.
SC sucks now. I came from Soul Calibur but I dunno if I'll ever go back. HIf there is no arcade release, Namco better know we will have no faith immediately and the game will automatically be dismissed. Ever since the game left arcades it has been ass. You wanna make SC5 good this how you do it IMHO.
1.) Go back to SC2 style and work from there. The characters, the mechanics, and the style.
2.) Release the game in arcades and allow the community to play test the game. I remember SC2 going through like 4 or 5 versions in the arcade before we got to console. That's a good thing.
3.) Remove all these BS minigame mods. No one likes the and create a character too, that crap is garbage. If you wanna spend time on something invest it into a REAL story mod.
4.) Make the game balanced.
5.) My personal complaint and want, bring Maxi back to SC2 style. The ability to be creative with him in that game was amazing which is why I loved playing him.
@Malice I don't know who you're referring to when you say, "so many people on the internet are clueless when it comes to SC4 and spread misinformation". When it comes to this conversation, I can say that I've personally met the majority of people talking and they all gave SC4 a fair shot.
Off the bat, Aris is wrong about Hilde. She was banned in 2009 and not a few months ago. It's stuff like that that I am mainly referring to and which is what gets spread around the net.
If you gave the game a fair shot and didn't like it, then there's nothing wrong with that. That's what people should do for any fighting game that they may be interested in. That's what I did with Tekken 6, but it died after a month over here and the online was ass until it was finally patched. Now I'm just waiting to give TTT2 a shot and see how that turns out.
But all I wanted to say is that SC4 is not terrible. It could have been perfect with an update, but it's better than some of these other fighting games that are out there currently.
brings back memories. The days when online patches for ps2 were impossible. sc3 had more glitches than any fighter Iv'e ever seen.
Don't know about the sc scene being dead......There are still sc fanboys out there. 8wayrun.com has become the main core of soul calibur as of late.
Long story short SC4 could not mature due to balance issues that made the game trash. Hilde was just ridiculous on pad. She was strong without it but binds made her broke. If we look at Dev we see that there were no hildes, thats why she didnt win. The top players of SC4 only used the top tiered characters only. Very few of them placed well consistently without having an extremely strong character. If we take out Hilde we have a relatively balanced game but the issue with the game was that there was no major balancing that would be necessarily for the game to thrive. SC3 was stupid due to VC and the TERRIBLE balancing. SC4 was bad with no patching. In all honesty even Amy has no real disadvantage on offense and her multiple options on offense and defense make here extremely good and she cant be punished hard. The game ended up having characters that have no chance of winning if there is someone with a top tier character. If you think otherwise, have a Mina vs Hilde fight. 10-0 hilde everytime. This issue just crapped on the game. Also most of the community took an elitist view of things which didn't help. Sad but that really killed the game... just the nut riding was stupid.
If they release another SC game I PRAY that they make an arcade version FIRST to work out the kinks and let it get back to its roots instead of this console only release. I do believe that if they can go back to arcades and release a game and have the ability to balance it then it may be hype. Most solid competitive FG's out today are first in arcade and then have a great shake at getting the balance great. If its another console release then I may be forced to look at it like those dragonball and naruto games. Good for a few weeks but not invest time.
P.S. alot of the top players were good only because of the characters. If we look around we see that those folks who were considered top in SC don't really have good basics in games in general. They cant translate to other games at all. Heck Cedric only won with hilde. Any other character and it was bad. He dominated Norcal without the ability to break grabs or shake stuns... jus sayin.