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"Fighting Game Thread 2025" , posted Sun 16 Mar 23:41post reply

The last thread was getting chunky, so it's time for a new one.

An article about the never completed Mortal Kombat 1.5. I'm always fascinated by these strange alternative paths a long running series could have gone down.






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"Re(1):Fighting Game Thread 2025" , posted Wed 19 Mar 23:42post reply

With all the zany turns that the MK franchise has taken, I'm honestly surprised they never tried their hand at kart racing. Putting a gory parody of Mario Kart as a minigame and calling it Nitro would be the perfect thing to breathe life into the flailing MK1.





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"Re(2):Fighting Game Thread 2025" , posted Thu 20 Mar 06:40post reply

quote:
With all the zany turns that the MK franchise has taken, I'm honestly surprised they never tried their hand at kart racing. Putting a gory parody of Mario Kart as a minigame and calling it Nitro would be the perfect thing to breathe life into the flailing MK1.



They did; MK Armageddon has a kart racing minigame titled Motor Kombat.





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"Re(3):Fighting Game Thread 2025" , posted Thu 20 Mar 23:15post reply

quote:
They did; MK Armageddon has a kart racing minigame titled Motor Kombat.



Color me surprised then. Maybe bringing it back won't bolster MK1's chances after all.

But enough derailment, have a Tekken 8 collab with the new Atelier game because why not.





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"Re(4):Fighting Game Thread 2025" , posted Fri 21 Mar 02:32post reply

quote:
They did; MK Armageddon has a kart racing minigame titled Motor Kombat.


Color me surprised then. Maybe bringing it back won't bolster MK1's chances after all.

But enough derailment, have a Tekken 8 collab with the new Atelier game because why not.



MK1's situation is quite curious, indeed. It sold more than SF6 and Tekken 8, which should indicate it was successful, yet it seems WB Games may cancel its Season 3. Sure, apparently Season 2 didn't do as well as they expected, but still, it's not like the overall project failed.

Oh well. Anyway, the Tekken 8/Atelier collab is unexpected, but looks nice nevertheless.





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"Re(5):Futbol of the Wolves" , posted Thu 27 Mar 03:02post reply

They actually put him in, the madlads

And yet, he looks like a more boring Roberto. But whatever gets the game to sell, right?





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"Re(6):Futbol of the Wolves" , posted Thu 27 Mar 03:52post reply

quote:
They actually put him in, the madlads

And yet, he looks like a more boring Roberto. But whatever gets the game to sell, right?



He looks so out of place







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"Re(6):Futbol of the Messatsu" , posted Thu 27 Mar 05:37post reply

quote:
They actually put him in, the madlads

And yet, he looks like a more boring Roberto. But whatever gets the game to sell, right?



I immediately thought of that mmcafe fellow who went to football camp, it's so strangely funny to me





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"Re(7):Futbol of the Wolves" , posted Thu 27 Mar 06:47post reply

quote:
They actually put him in, the madlads

And yet, he looks like a more boring Roberto. But whatever gets the game to sell, right?


He looks so out of place



Quite a random choice, indeed. We already knew Cristiano would be involved with CotW somehow, but I expected him to be a special narrator or voice actor. He does seem to have some cool attacks, though.

But... is he part of the default roster or a later DLC fighter? If he's one of the 17 initial fighters, honestly, that's a weird move; even Ken, Chun-Li and Mr. Big would make more sense as default CotW fighters.





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"Re(8):Futbol of the Wolves" , posted Thu 27 Mar 09:26post reply

quote:
They actually put him in, the madlads

And yet, he looks like a more boring Roberto. But whatever gets the game to sell, right?


He looks so out of place


Quite a random choice, indeed. We already knew Cristiano would be involved with CotW somehow, but I expected him to be a special narrator or voice actor. He does seem to have some cool attacks, though.

But... is he part of the default roster or a later DLC fighter? If he's one of the 17 initial fighters, honestly, that's a weird move; even Ken, Chun-Li and Mr. Big would make more sense as default CotW fighters.



It is odd that he doesn't seem to be a guest character or DLC, he just lives there. Fame is a strange thing, and this guy has a great deal of it, but in terms of fit.... idk man. To me this feels like the strangest guest character since Norimaro.





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"Re(9):Futbol of the Wolves" , posted Thu 27 Mar 22:45post reply

Outside of the cynical synergy of SNK and his football club being under the same ownership I cannot fathom why this was done. It's doubtful that his inclusion is going to move the needle much on the sales of a sequel to a 26 year old fighting game. Wouldn't his fans want him in a sports game instead of a system-dense title like CotW? Even assuming a Ronaldo fan buys CotW they are going to get instantly vaporized by a Rock player who studied the beta like it was their job. Also, why does he look so terrible? CotW is never going to look as good as what came before, but Ronaldo looks like he came out of a character creator. Everyone has to answer to someone, but this is another one of those guest characters that screams managerial meddling instead of something the game developers thought would be cool.







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"Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves" , posted Thu 27 Mar 23:59post reply

I'm biaised because I wasn't feeling the game anyway, but I don't particularly mind. That game has the biggest "straight bro" energy this side of CoD anyway (that and the whole guest DJ thing, with DJs who stopped being cool 5 years ago, and apparently one of those will also be a guest playable character if the datamining is to be believed?).
On one hand it is sad it happened to a series that used to be respectable, but on the other, one guy with tons of money is basically buying a game company to make the game of his dreams, and honestly, if I were in his place, you would have a new Vampire Savior with Army of Lovers for the soundtrack and Brigitte Fontaine as a secret character.
So I'm less disappointed than I'm jealous.

But also Nintendo just showed Saga Frontier 2, a new Rythm Tengoku, and... Salamander 3???
So it balances out.







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"Re(6):Futbol of the Wolves" , posted Fri 28 Mar 00:22post reply

quote:
And yet, he looks like a more boring Roberto.

I immediately thought of that mmcafe fellow who went to football camp, it's so strangely funny to me

I think we can judge the quality of the company we keep by the quality of offhand, casual references and mental associations made in conversation. The fact that Ronaldo instead most immediately brings to mind the striker from the best fighting game (world) together with our very own graduated hazzann is thus proof we are at the top of the game!





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"Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves+MKvsSF" , posted Fri 28 Mar 02:27post reply

quote:
that and the whole guest DJ thing, with DJs who stopped being cool 5 years ago, and apparently one of those will also be a guest playable character if the datamining is to be believed?.


Really? Oh dear...

quote:
and honestly, if I were in his place, you would have a new Vampire Savior with Army of Lovers for the soundtrack and Brigitte Fontaine as a secret character.


That's... actually not a bad idea. I could get behind that.

---

Anyway, speaking of news about weird video game crossovers, Fortnite will get Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kitana and Raiden skins (Sub-Zero was already released, in fact), meaning that people will get to see MK kombatants against SF fighters in an official video game for the first time (sure, a third-person shooter probably isn't the kind of game most people wanted for this crossover to happen).





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"Re(2):Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves+MKvsSF" , posted Fri 28 Mar 23:06post reply

quote:
Anyway, speaking of news about weird video game crossovers, Fortnite will get Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kitana and Raiden skins (Sub-Zero was already released, in fact), meaning that people will get to see MK kombatants against SF fighters in an official video game for the first time (sure, a third-person shooter probably isn't the kind of game most people wanted for this crossover to happen).


I don't know how a game that will let Hatsune Miku blast Scorpion with a shotgun became the biggest thing ever, but good for them.

In other news, Project L 2XKO, the money laundering scheme fighting game from Riot, announced that after many years of work it is finally going to launch with a roster of ten characters. Welp.







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"Re(3):Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves+MKvsSF" , posted Sat 29 Mar 05:29post reply

quote:
In other news, Project L 2XKO, the money laundering scheme fighting game from Riot, announced that after many years of work it is finally going to launch with a roster of ten characters. Welp.



The irony of not waiting to change the name until now so they could have made it "TKO". Which leads into the perfect meme of "TKO LOL".

I wish I even cared a little about this game to even chuckle at that. Thanks for nothing, Arcane season 2.







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"Re(3):Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves+MKvsSF" , posted Sat 29 Mar 07:20post reply

quote:
it is finally going to launch with a roster of ten characters. Welp.

No one is laughing at Skullgirls now!





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"Re(3):Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves+MKvsSF" , posted Mon 31 Mar 03:56post reply

quote:
I don't know how a game that will let Hatsune Miku blast Scorpion with a shotgun became the biggest thing ever, but good for them.



Indeed.

Now there is an official trailer showing the kombatants in Fortnite. Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Raiden look pretty good. Kitana... well, I get that her original UMK3 outfit could be quite inappropriate for a game aimed at all ages, but her new shorts look kinda bad. If the developers wanted her to be a bit more covered up, it would be better to just give her full pants like the ones she has in MK11 (and that look pretty good).

Also, if Kitana is in Fortnite, they should have added Mileena as well; in my opinion, there are some characters who should always be present together in all video games (like Ralf & Clark, Mature & Vice, Yun & Yang, and so on).





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"Re(4):Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves+MKvsSF" , posted Mon 31 Mar 10:22post reply

quote:
The irony of not waiting to change the name until now so they could have made it "TKO". Which leads into the perfect meme of "TKO LOL".

I wish I even cared a little about this game to even chuckle at that. Thanks for nothing, Arcane season 2.



The secret has been in the name all along. People thought the "X" was "times" (2 person teams, two KOs to win, 2XKO), but it was really the roster size displayed as a Roman numeral.

I keep forgetting Arcane season 2 exists. I feel like I should watch it, but I expect it to be much less interesting and less focused.







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"Re(5):Re(10):Futbol of the Wolves+MKvsSF" , posted Tue 1 Apr 23:44post reply

quote:
I keep forgetting Arcane season 2 exists. I feel like I should watch it, but I expect it to be much less interesting and less focused.



Trust me, don't bother. Despite what was said in interviews, it's painfully clear they had to rush the story because the suits at Riot stepped in midway through production and said they only had the one season to wrap everything up.

Just take the cliffhanger from season 1 and form your own headcanon, at least there Vi will be useful unlike here where she jobbed the entire time.







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"King of Kusoge Fist" , posted Thu 3 Apr 22:50post reply

I just watched a few matches played on the most recent update to Tekken 8; what the heck is going on with that game?





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"Re(1):King of Kusoge Fist" , posted Thu 3 Apr 23:00post reply

quote:
I just watched a few matches played on the most recent update to Tekken 8; what the heck is going on with that game?


Magic!







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"Re(2):King of Kusoge Fist" , posted Thu 3 Apr 23:19post reply

Did I hear that Soul Calibur II, the best-playing one, is going to be on Switch 2?! Now there’s the reason I need a new system for once—I can finally stop playing SC VI while wishing it were just a little more like II and a little less like III+.





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"Re(3):King of Kusoge Fist" , posted Fri 4 Apr 03:39post reply

quote:
Did I hear that Soul Calibur II, the best-playing one, is going to be on Switch 2?! Now there’s the reason I need a new system for once—I can finally stop playing SC VI while wishing it were just a little more like II and a little less like III+.



Yes, it is! The question now is whether Heihachi and Spawn will also be present in it - when the PS2 and Xbox versions were adapted to the more modern consoles, players could have access to both characters regardless of which console they were playing.

(I suppose Link will remain exclusive to the Switch 2 port)





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"the soul still burns!" , posted Fri 4 Apr 20:19post reply

quote:
Did I hear that Soul Calibur II, the best-playing one, is going to be on Switch 2?! Now there’s the reason I need a new system for once—I can finally stop playing SC VI while wishing it were just a little more like II and a little less like III+.


Yes, it is! The question now is whether Heihachi and Spawn will also be present in it - when the PS2 and Xbox versions were adapted to the more modern consoles, players could have access to both characters regardless of which console they were playing.

(I suppose Link will remain exclusive to the Switch 2 port)

This is great news! It's hard to even remember that there was another downloadable port of SCII in PS3 days, and while I don't think anyone played it, I'm reminded that they did indeed have all three guest characters.

As always, including with the recent classic Street Fighter collections, the key is whether the port can manage to build up a community of players when all the serious fans are already on linked emulated versions. Fightcade kind of obviated the need for SF collections, and for some odd reason the Dolphin Gamecube emulator seems to be the venue of choice for online SCII. I kind of wonder why that is! I have a hard time imagining that the Gamecube version had the most players in the old days, though I sort of faintly recall that maybe it was for some reason a very good port, especially where the more widely played (I assume) PS2 version had inexplicable slowdown on Talim's stage and elsewhere.





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"Re(1):the soul still burns!" , posted Fri 11 Apr 16:43post reply

quote:
Did I hear that Soul Calibur II, the best-playing one, is going to be on Switch 2?! Now there’s the reason I need a new system for once—I can finally stop playing SC VI while wishing it were just a little more like II and a little less like III+.


Yes, it is! The question now is whether Heihachi and Spawn will also be present in it - when the PS2 and Xbox versions were adapted to the more modern consoles, players could have access to both characters regardless of which console they were playing.

(I suppose Link will remain exclusive to the Switch 2 port)
This is great news! It's hard to even remember that there was another downloadable port of SCII in PS3 days, and while I don't think anyone played it, I'm reminded that they did indeed have all three guest characters.

As always, including with the recent classic Street Fighter collections, the key is whether the port can manage to build up a community of players when all the serious fans are already on linked emulated versions. Fightcade kind of obviated the need for SF collections, and for some odd reason the Dolphin Gamecube emulator seems to be the venue of choice for online SCII. I kind of wonder why that is! I have a hard time imagining that the Gamecube version had the most players in the old days, though I sort of faintly recall that maybe it was for some reason a very good port, especially where the more widely played (I assume) PS2 version had inexplicable slowdown on Talim's stage and

-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --


I've never understood Soul Calibur on a deeper level. But I can say with certainty that the newer games just don't feel as good to play as the older ones. I figure part of that is nostalgia, but I think there must be some deeper mechanical issues at play too (like how modern attempts at Beat em Ups rarely ever feel as good as Final Fight). Could you elaborate on what sets Soul Calibur 2 apart for you?

I LOVED Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast. I think it's the best button masher ever made, and I mean that as the highest compliment. The way the characters react to your inputs is really intuitive. It's a game where someone with absolutely no skill can still have fun cos what happens on screen matches up really well with what they're doing with their hands. And you can eventually feel out different characters without actually memorizing their hundreds of moves. You just kind of know what the difference will be between a regular tap and a F+tap and a F-F + Tap and holding a button down vs not etc. Everything FEELS right! The newer Soul Caliburs still actually have that element, but for some reason they just don't feel as good and I can't put my finger on it!






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"Nobi Calibur II" , posted Fri 11 Apr 19:29post reply

Viscount Nobi-ngton, I am so glad A) that you are here and B) that you are talking about one of my favorite fighting games, and the only one I can unselfconsciously claim to be "quite good" at. I can't wait to play it again for the first time in years!

I LOVE Soul Calibur I like you, and its presentation is actually better than II: it's miles prettier than the arcade, it has so many wonderful modes and so much artwork with just the right pacing to unlocking the fun, and the guard impact system is great and at its most complex. Soul Calibur II is actually a step down in presentation in that it has fewer characters and modes, but it plays the best and the fastest. Soul Calibur III feels like you're playing in the mud with a way worse system (and you are). Soul Calibur IV feels like you're playing in the mud, while also underwater. Soul Calibur V feels like...who knows, no one has ever played Soul Calibur V, except Iggy and Pollyanna and I'm not sure I believe them, though I sort of admire Namco's perverse bravery in "pulling a SF III" by replacing all their iconic characters with new, far worse characters with similar attributes! Soul Calibur VI is basically Soul Calibur III, but at it's least played at Soul Calibur II speeds.

So why does Soul Calibur II feel and play so great? Part of it's the smoothness and speed, including with which you move in and out of the background (8-way run), far more easily than Soul Calibur I and much more like Tobal 2 in the best possible way. (I really love Tobal 2! And I know you do too!) This is important because it connects to three other things that make SCII perfect and which all its successors fail at: 1) moves that track opponents laterally when they are moving into the background, 2) moves to attack opponents with when you yourself are moving into the background, many of which are knock-downs, and 3) a large number of knock-down moves in general, many of which also track into the background.

In a game where jumping is mostly irrelevant, this variability of trips and 3D field attacks/escapes is key, otherwise you're just left bored out of your mind mashing only attack and block with virtually no consequence or variation, which is why III and onward feel like some dumb chanbara (and not even Onee-chanbara!) or punchfests...it's rock-paper-scissors, but with just rock and rock. From III onwards, no one ever gets tripped, and there's never any need to move into the background because most of your moves don't work while in 8-way run and none of them knock down anyway. Either Soul Calibur I and II were the world's biggest accidents, the fabled monkeys producing Shakespeare on a typewriter randomly over a million years, or someone (everyone?!) fundamentally, 120% misunderstood how movement and thus fun worked, starting from SCIII.

In SC II, it's a constant high-mid-low attack three-choice guessing game paired with high-mid and mid-low guard impacts, a slightly simpler two-choice guessing game that might let you break free of a beatdown or alternatively to continue to press an attack by anticipating and parrying an opponent's counterattack to your whiffed aggression (it's like if SFIII's blocking parries were actually fun and exciting! I hate SFIII! But you knew that too!). And when you have the ability to have all kind of attacks to/from the 8-way run, you have an incredibly fluid and high-motion game, where people are getting grabbed and tripped, rolling away in and out of the background after knock-down in order to escape, or alternatively getting up immediately to take a gamble on a well-timed guard impact at the right height, or playing one of many guessing games between similar three beat moves that either end mid or low/trip for the final hit.

SC II may have some silly Todd McFarlane character wedged in and it doesn't have enough stages compared with SC I, but it still looks beautiful today and it plays like the constant flow of the swordfight of your dreams.

THE SOUL STILL BURNS!





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"Re(1):Nobi Calibur II" , posted Mon 14 Apr 03:31post reply

quote:
Viscount Nobi-ngton, I am so glad A) that you are here and B) that you are talking about one of my favorite fighting games, and the only one I can unselfconsciously claim to be "quite good" at. I can't wait to play it again for the first time in years!

I LOVE Soul Calibur I like you, and its presentation is actually better than II: it's miles prettier than the arcade, it has so many wonderful modes and so much artwork with just the right pacing to unlocking the fun, and the guard impact system is great and at its most complex. Soul Calibur II is actually a step down in presentation in that it has fewer characters and modes, but it plays the best and the fastest. Soul Calibur III feels like you're playing in the mud with a way worse system (and you are). Soul Calibur IV feels like you're playing in the mud, while also underwater. Soul Calibur V feels like...who knows, no one has ever played Soul Calibur V, except Iggy and Pollyanna and I'm not sure I believe them, though I sort of admire Namco's perverse bravery in "pulling a SF III" by replacing all their iconic characters with new, far worse characters with similar attributes! Soul Calibur VI is basically Soul Calibur III, but at it's least played at Soul Calibur II speeds.

So why does Soul Calibur II feel and play so great? Part of it's the smoothness and speed, including with which you move in and out of the background (8-way run), far more easily than Soul Calibur I and much more like Tobal 2 in the best possibl

-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --


Thank you for the detailed reply! You articulated so many things that I could only vaguely feel, thank you for taking the time to explain it all so well!

One really great point that you brought up is that Soul Calibur and Soul Calibur 2 had really really good full 3D movement. That's something that I feel like 3D fighting games actually moved away from over the years. The movement in the earlier Soul Calibur games felt SO GOOD and they gave more meaning to stabbing/swinging attacks (and the direction of their arcs!) than they'd ever have in a 2D playing game. They also lead to the best ring outs of any fighting game! I know Smash is totally based around Ring Outs, but it's Soul Calibur where i've had the biggest belly bursting laughs in reaction to ringouts, the funniest game mechanic in fighting games.

I wish I had more to add to this conversation. Oh hey, have you seen this rad cover of The Edge of Soul?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw6mh_QJAEw

It's incredible!

Here's how I rank the Soul games:
Soul Calibur - Most complete package overall
Soul Calibur 2 - Best gameplay
Soul Edge - Best Intro Ever






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"Re(2):Nobi Calibur II" , posted Tue 15 Apr 04:50post reply

Thanks to Maou for the precise write-up of what made SC2 work. When I think about it, when I play later games in the series I'm getting the most enjoyment out of the fundamentals that are at the core of the game and, at best, endured the extra techniques constantly layered on top. For example, Reversal Edge was an overly complicated, generally useless trick that halted the pace of the match for a cinematic guessing game. It made SC6 momentarily turn into an NRS title, which is something no one wanted. I can understand the need to try new things, but tacking on new systems without thinking about how they will interact with the core mechanics of the game is not a good idea.

Thinking about this streamlined design philosophy is why I am both looking forward to and dreading VF6. Please Sega, don't add heat mechanics.







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"Re(3):Nobi Calibur II" , posted Wed 16 Apr 00:31post reply

quote:
Soul Calibur - Most complete package overall
Soul Calibur 2 - Best gameplay
Soul Edge - Best Intro Ever

100% on the money. Interestingly, the other two most important criteria also produce the same rank order:

-Soul Calibur - adjustable underwear color code for Sophitia
-Soul Calibur 2 - angle of Seung Mina's throw animation
-Soul Edge - "Sophitia!!" special outfit from the opening movie

OR

-Soul Calibur - possibility of creating a nearly perfect opening movie via the adjustable characters in each part of the sequence : 1) inevitably, the version you create is the one true version, or 2) Astaroth in every scene, including Sophitia's dainty "flinching against the cold wind" scene, which is also perfect
-Soul Calibur 2 - worse opening, but fun competition to see who can press a button to do a battle cry at the last minute before the loading screen ends
-Soul Edge - opening so perfect as to make playing the rest of the game impossible
quote:
The movement in the earlier Soul Calibur games felt SO GOOD and they gave more meaning to stabbing/swinging attacks (and the direction of their arcs!) than they'd ever have in a 2D playing game.
So true! As a Nightmare/Siegfried main, this is an especially joyous aspect of the game. A tiny reason SCII is the best: Nightmare has this one lateral attack where he makes maybe a 540 degree mid-level swing with his sword, but if you hold the attack button as he goes all the way around, he pulls the sword up at the end back to starting position at an angle to make a tiny, spiteful little low hit to his opponent's ankle that can throw people off.

Did someone say ring outs? Soul Calibur I and II have such good throws (how emblematic that over the course of the weaker later entries, throws ended up being 100% useless and easily blockable by SC VI, without even using guard impact) that getting chucked out of/near to the edge of the ring is a real danger and strategy. I think SCII is the first game where you might actually dangle halfway off the cliff rather than floating stiffly in mid-air. Speaking of yucks regarding ring-outs, this is in contrast to the slightly weird physics of Tobal 2's ring edges, where you would literally get sucked out of the area if you dangled even a little bit over the edge.





人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は...