Soul Calibur II

Shinji

I'm weak. Despite positively not being able to afford it, I've imported Soul Calibur 2 for the GameCube, slapped an RGB conversion cable on a US cube, and calloused my thumbs quite severely playing it.

My god it's good. The soul is certainly still burning.

At first it feels like Soul Calibur 1.5 - a lot of the moves are the same and they've not fiddled with the balance of the game much. If it ain't broke, don't fix it - however, as you get into it, you notice quite a few changes. Obviously there are new characters (and in the GameCube version, you can play as Link - which is very cool ), new stages and so on; one of the things it took me quite a while to notice is that stages now have walls sometimes, so you'll often get rings where you can't perform a ring-out at every edge. They've put in a system similar to Dead or Alive 3 where the right move next to a wall will slam someone against it and remove a little more health, though.

Speaking of Dead or Alive 3, they've also made the ladies more, er, pneumatic in places. Not to the ridiculous extent that DOA does, it's just part of an overall improved focus on graphics... At first it's hard to see what they've really changed graphically, but if you put it side by side with the DC version, it really looks a lot better. Some of the stages are incredible, and the character models are beautifully detailed.

The control system works perfectly on the GC pad, which I didn't expect. In fact, I think I'd be annoyed at having to play it on the Xbox or PS2 pads now, with their conventional button layout. I'll be interested to try it with a proper arcade stick, but I doubt it'll play any better - it's simply ideally balanced for the GC pad layout and GC analogue stick (yes, analogue stick. Use the d-pad if you like, but it plays like a dream on the stick).

It's really still got the Soul Calibur magic about it, too. I'm not the worlds greatest beat 'em up fan by any means, but I sat last night and played almost 100 versus rounds of this, and there's a really nasty callous on my left thumb now. Stunningly good fun. I've only scratched the surface of the mission mode, too - there's quite an in depth story/mission system in there, which gives you money that allows you to unlock new weapons, features and costumes, and your character also levels up throughout it, but I'm not sure what exactly that does for you. It's a little tricky playing this bit in Japanese (the menus are in English, but the descriptions of what you have to do in each stage are Japanese....)

Anyone bringing a TV that takes RGB or S-video to Megalan?

Mr. Fancypants

Looks fantastic, my main worry was the GC control pad and i am so glad it seems to work great with it. I think i will wait for a US/Europe release tho'.

Mark

Oh good god I *need* it.

Thankfully Ive never really played the first one so its going to be a new experience .

Whens it out our side anyway and how potentially exam damaging are we talking here?

bugs

Played it in the arcade quite a bit, much better than SC1 which i wasn't a great fan of. Much less of a bash fest than the first (course i could be wrong :P )

Arcade stick is the only way to go for these types of games. Most of the home reviews seem to have stuck the GC pad as last out of the systems.

I'll grab meself a copy of the ps2 import soon enough and see what happens then :ninja:

Shinji

Most of the people I've seen talking about the game so far are hardcore beat 'em up nuts, so I'm disregarding their opinions really. I've played the PS2 version and the GC version, and I certainly prefer the GC control system - only vaguely annoying thing is the soul charge on the Z button, but I never use that anyway

I'd disagree about calling the first game a bash fest, but hey.

Mark - it's not out here until after the summer I believe. EA are releasing the PS2 and XBox versions, still no word on the GC version but it may be published by Nintendo themselves (so, er, sometime in 2006 in Europe then).

Tusky

Loved the original but will wait for euro release i rekon danke for the review shinji !

BLITZ_Molloy

Playing with the anaogue stick? Hah, ha ha ha. You need an arcade stick, and fast.

I'm looking forward to this a fair bit. I generally prefer VF series but I need something more accessable to play with friends too.

Shinji

Playing with the anaogue stick? Hah, ha ha ha. You need an arcade stick, and fast.

Not necessarily. They've obviously put a fair bit of work into making it all work nicely on the GC analogue stick, and thanks the the octagonal cutout that the stick uses, it's damn nice and precise too. Obviously this isn't something that would work for all fighting games but it's certainly nice and playable for SC2. GC button layout is perfect for it as well, which obviously wouldn't be replicated on any arcade stick controller.

bugs

The games got 4 buttons, its no different to tekken, SF, or any other fighting game. They all work better on a stick. Even if you don't like the actual stick itself, you can hardly maintain that a tiny controller with tiny buttons can be better than the microswitched giant buttons on an arcade stick.
And with SC the only thing that would affect the setup is if you put the guard button in an annoying position.

Shinji

you can hardly maintain that a tiny controller with tiny buttons can be better than the microswitched giant buttons on an arcade stick.

Entirely depends what you're used to. I don't play much in arcades and never have, so I'm far more used to using shoulder buttons (block in SC) and hitting multiple buttons by covering two or more with my thumb. I know it sounds awkward, but if you've been playing games like this exclusively on a pad for a long time, it really does feel like the natural way to play them

GC pad is perfectly suited to that - most importantmoves are on are Shoulder + facebutton (throws), or A+Y, A+X - which are both perfect for covering with the ball of your thumb.

Like most console gamers, I'd probably not know where to start with an arcade stick setup. I'd have to learn the entire game from scratch. Arcade sticks really are the preserve of hardcore beat 'em up nerds for the most part.

BLITZ_Molloy

The microswitched stick and buttons are essential if you want to get anyway good. I'm not much of a SC player but in Virtua Fighter 4 you have to hit 3 buttons at once to recover from falls and to do striking evades, wiggle the stick to recover from staggers and often enter 3 diff throw evades in half a second. There's no way to do these things properly without the interface the game was designed for originally, these games are just ports after all.

bugs

I will agree with ya there, arcade sticks are not easy to get used to. I started used the namco one round about tekken 2, soul edge time. And at the start, it was a total nitemare, as everything seems very hard to get to grips with.

But on getting used to it, you'll notice how much easier it is to play these games, you just can't move around as fluidly on a pad, compared with a stick. Any kind of button combination is easily achieved as the buttons are a doddle to get at and press simultaneously. That said, there are good arcade sticks and there are bad ones. And most arcades in ireland tend to have some stinkers. Sega's naomi cabinets generally have the perfect sticks and buttons, so theres little chance of going wrong with them.

Wouldn't say its hardcore tho, i do play alot of fighting games but i do it with a stick as its more enjoyable. And theres less chance of missing something on tiny buttons and smashing the pad

Monty - the one and only

Originally posted by Shinji

Anyone bringing a TV that takes RGB or S-video to Megalan?

I was thinking of bringing my own cube along, I've got one of those portable lcd screens for it, which has RGB connections on it

DannyD

This is indeed the best game out there.I played Soul Calibur 1 on my Dreamcast last night and am getting Soul Calibur 2 for the xbox this week.The legend will never die.

.ak

Looks really, really nice. I've seen nothing but good reviews of it. But I still have to say, my money is waiting for Guilty Gear X2. They finally released it this week over here in lil' ol Europe. :P I still have to read a review on GGX2 where it doesn't start off with 'The greatest fighting game EVER'. Still, SCII is on my list too.


-DA-

bugs

Originally posted by Dark-Angel
But I still have to say, my money is waiting for Guilty Gear X2. They finally released it this week over here in lil' ol Europe. :P I still have to read a review on GGX2 where it doesn't start off with 'The greatest fighting game EVER'. Still, SCII is on my list too.

Got a Jap copy of GGXX ages ago, after playing the first one for a good while. Its not that much different to X, actually almost identical to plus bar the 5 new characters. Not really a great change from the original, but if you like 2d fighters and can actually find ppl who are still willing to play them, you'll like it.

Asuka

Originally posted by Dark-Angel
But I still have to say, my money is waiting for Guilty Gear X2. They finally released it this week over here in lil' ol Europe. :P I still have to read a review on GGX2 where it doesn't start off with 'The greatest fighting game EVER'.

This has been out for weeks, unless Im very much mistaken, or been sucked into a time warp where Ive played it for longer than its been out.

Its fun, but bugs is right - its almost identical to Guilty Gear X. There are some elements which have been tweaked, but there are no major changes to speak of. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing - a good thing, because Guilty Gear X sure as hell wasnt broke, but a bad thing because its about time it got updated all the same - this is a game which got its first release on DreamCast. As for comparisons with Soul Calibur - I really dont think they can be justified in any way. I maintain that 2d fighters and 3d fighters are totally different games.

A

DannyD

Played the xbox Japanese version last night.http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/21658.asp
Average Review: 92.0%

What a game.The graphics are amazing.The Japanese audio adds to the excitement.Some amazing characters lined up.Too easy in single player mode but who plays this sort of a game by themselves ?

batman_oh

hmm played it for the first time there, couldnt be arsed before
its alright, not a whole lot better than the first
i can see the appeal, but its not my cup of bananas really, its ok, nice lookin, but the limitations of the first seem to be still there, and i HATE the movement