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i LOVED Soul Calibur on DC. But..Was it really that good? (10/10s) Or was it just the time and place?
- Thread starter nogoodnamesleft
- Start date
OP, were you around when the game came out? It's really hard to impart how revolutionary that game was when it came out if you weren't there to experience it.
You seem to be fixated on removing the game from the context with which it was released, but I think acknowledging that this was the game that, after decades of trying, finally brought the arcade experience home is and should still be part of the reason why SC1 the game that it is. No other game had done that before as successfully.
You seem to be fixated on removing the game from the context with which it was released, but I think acknowledging that this was the game that, after decades of trying, finally brought the arcade experience home is and should still be part of the reason why SC1 the game that it is. No other game had done that before as successfully.
It's still my favorite Soul Calibur game till this day. It was jaw dropping seeing it for the first time on 9/9/99 and the Xbox Live version still looks great. It still deserves the 10/10.
I mean... just go through the top 20 games on metacritic, for all of them you will find people saying "its overrated" and "its aged poorly".
You CANT remove the reception of a media from its position in time.
Tony hawk? Great game, but you will be hardpressed for certain types of gamers to give such an arcady game such high praise.
OoT? people are pissing on it for peing obsolet and needing a remake for years now. (not the majority mind you, just a sizable chunk)
Red dead Redemption 2 has 97 and even after release people said its overindulgent and that it prioritizes its hyper realistic animations over gameplay/feel...
BotW? "has no dungeons" "has no music" "empty world" "bad zelda game" "ugly graphics"...
Just wait for BotW2 , when that checks most of those boxes it probably will be lower in scores than the first one, since it wont have that "wow" effect.
Having inpact gives an artistic piece a lot of leavay and pushes it past its flaws.
Over time the impact gets lost (since others do it as well, imitate it, so you dont associate the inpact with the game anymore), and then the game itself is maybe standing worse than some of its succesors, while having a higher metacritic rating.
All three. Yes it was that good, especially for that time and place. Fighting game that looked way better at home than its most recent arcade counterpoint was not a normal thing. The fact that it played well and has extras was a plus. Also it was just kinda fun to see a Namco game on Sega hardware.
OP
OP
Yep that's kinda what I was getting at- can a subjectively better game actually be received worse than a previous entry simply because it wasn't as "impactful"? It's a really interesting thing to me :)
It was so fast. The counter system, the way you rotated around your opponent, the cast of unique, memorable fighters... Soul Calibur made Tekken and Virtua Fighter feel almost like 2D games.
It also looked at ran sooo good on the Dreamcast. Even today, it holds up wonderfully. Better than any 3D game before its sequel, which was better content wise but nowhere near as groundbreaking and impressive for its time.
Too bad the franchise kinda went downhill from there.
It also looked at ran sooo good on the Dreamcast. Even today, it holds up wonderfully. Better than any 3D game before its sequel, which was better content wise but nowhere near as groundbreaking and impressive for its time.
Too bad the franchise kinda went downhill from there.
You can play it on 360 and One/Series through backwards compatibility.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, a big part of that is: those a re review scored.
Do you see a difference between reviews and critique?
I do. A review is more functional: is this a good product to buy.
In the context of a review a score makes sense for me.
Its more or less how much does a reviewer think this game is
worth the money and time it wants from you, does it function as advertised, etc.
A 10/10 in a review is essentially "thats the hot new shit".
A games critique goes deeper, needs context (genre, historical, background, etc), maybe frames the whole thing in a specific context, and and and.
I see it more as a deconstruction and learning experience in an academic sense...and the far more interesting take to talk about games.
Soul Calibur was sold out when I got my DC, so I had Sonic with no memory card. a couple weeks later for my birthday my mom gave me some money to get a game, and I went and grabbed SC....it really was THAT fucking good. I enjoyed Sonic just fine, but I played Soul Calibur like it was crack.
That's not the same version.
I had it with my launch DC and it was and is an absolute belter of a game..
Looked fantastic plays fantastic sounds fantastic and the biggest jump between generations I've experienced (compare Tekken 3 on PS1)
It's one of my all time favourites...
It's one of the all time greats... Not just a product of its time
Looked fantastic plays fantastic sounds fantastic and the biggest jump between generations I've experienced (compare Tekken 3 on PS1)
It's one of my all time favourites...
It's one of the all time greats... Not just a product of its time
OP
OP
watched it so many times :lol
I think I worded my question wrong. I'm not denying or questioning it's greatness. My question was more "has it been surpassed? And if so, why was that game not received as well as the first game? Is it because of the huge impact the first game had more than the game itself?"
This game was incredible. In terms of console experience, it was like skipping two gens. I couldn't believe I was playing it in my living room.
It's still a 10/10 game. It's completely insane how much they got right. The later games added tons of content and obviously better graphics, but I still feel that it has the edge (!) in terms of gameplay. It helps that it's a game for the CRT era with no lag, everything just feels so immediate. I have the arcade version and it looks like crap on a stick, but even then the animations and gameplay hold up 22 years later. When it released, it just blew everything away. Even with a super beefy PC, the best you could get was Unreal and characters in that game still looked like Quake models with fancy textures, it mostly had big environments and cool effects. Soul Calibur was two steps beyond anything except, I guess, Virtua Fighter 3, but the art direction helped a lot there, and VF3 having a shitty DC port ruined that game's chances.
Besides the honeymoon period, I didn't really like SC2. I hated all the new characters and they pushed a lot of the Soul Blade crew out of the game entirely or into irrelevant bonus fighter status, plus the guest characters ruined the purity of the game. SC3 was super pretty at the time and had the character creation which was mindblowing, plus all those fun extra movesets to mess around with. SC4 was just strange and even more ruined by guests. SC5 and SC6 are definitely back to the old standard, but with tiny little budgets and I still don't really like the super move thing. So overall SC->SC6->SC5->SC3->SC2/SC4.
Besides the honeymoon period, I didn't really like SC2. I hated all the new characters and they pushed a lot of the Soul Blade crew out of the game entirely or into irrelevant bonus fighter status, plus the guest characters ruined the purity of the game. SC3 was super pretty at the time and had the character creation which was mindblowing, plus all those fun extra movesets to mess around with. SC4 was just strange and even more ruined by guests. SC5 and SC6 are definitely back to the old standard, but with tiny little budgets and I still don't really like the super move thing. So overall SC->SC6->SC5->SC3->SC2/SC4.
The game was 10/10 and still is. It was the perfect game. I remember some friends used to PS1 graphics were not believing what they were seeing at first and thought they were looking at CGI.
But it was the whole package. Graphics, music, gameplay and even single player was great. I still think it's the best Soul Calibur and best fighting game ever.
But it was the whole package. Graphics, music, gameplay and even single player was great. I still think it's the best Soul Calibur and best fighting game ever.
Almost my ranking exactly, lol. I put SC6 above SC1, though. I enjoy the new mechanics for the most part.
SC6 is great. There's really only a couple of guests, and Haohmaru and Gerelt actually fit pretty well. 2B is completely wrong, but gameplay-wise she's not worse than, say, Azwel with his teleporting weapon crap.
At the time it definitely was. Looked great, played great and had lots of replay value. Personally don't see much point in talking about if it's been surpassed. I'm sure it has been but that doesn't take anything at all away from it. It's still a 10/10, a classic.
Tekken 3 was the set, and this was the spike, in terms of the late-'90s streak of better-than-arcade fidelity and fluidity. Add the fact that they built so much single-player content (something severely lacking in most home arcade-fighter ports), and you really had something head-and-shoulders above the fray.
Also, the PS2 was still a ways out, so that September 1999 period was pretty big in terms of Sega having zero peer in terms of home console power. NFL 2K right next to SC1 was also mindblowing at the time; EA's semi-3D sports games looked like trash in comparison.
Also, the PS2 was still a ways out, so that September 1999 period was pretty big in terms of Sega having zero peer in terms of home console power. NFL 2K right next to SC1 was also mindblowing at the time; EA's semi-3D sports games looked like trash in comparison.
This thread makes me sad. Soul Calibur used to be so good.
I tried to latest one on gamepass and oof. Something just felt and looked wrong with it.
I tried to latest one on gamepass and oof. Something just felt and looked wrong with it.
All of my hype for the Dreamcast launch was around this game. I was a huge fan of SoulEdge/SoulBlade, and enjoyed the one time I got to play Calibur in the arcade. Never has a game hooked my friends and I this deeply. My friends, who were not and are not big fighting game people, were blown away the first time I showed them it. We'd play it all weekend, every weekend for months. Some of my greatest memories are related to that game. It's absolutely a 10/10.
I had a Japanese PS2, and imported SC2 to get it five months early, that's how excited I was for it. It's a good game but it never captured the same feelings as 1 for me and my friends.
I had a Japanese PS2, and imported SC2 to get it five months early, that's how excited I was for it. It's a good game but it never captured the same feelings as 1 for me and my friends.
For its time it was an incredible launch game that had it all. Soul Calibur on Dreamcast stood out from the pack.
This is what really set it over the top for me. No other fighting game before it added so much for the home release. SC was the innovator in that aspect and every fighting game released at home borrows from it in that way.
I mean who fucking thought you could have so much fun just remaking your own intro video?
What was wrong with VF3's port? I've never seen a breakdown but I thought it was an excellent port - just not very much to it.
It was THAT good and you just had to be there. to see it.
It looked amazing, better than the arcade version. It ran at a solid 60 fps and it was just a very solid fighting game and a breath of fresh air from other 3d jugglers like Tekken and VF, which to me always felt more robotic and not fluid in motion.
SC just felt so damn smooth to play in 3d, with weapons and everything just flowed nicely and they had a very solid roster of different characters as well. So much fun.
It was extremely good and still holds up.
It looked amazing, better than the arcade version. It ran at a solid 60 fps and it was just a very solid fighting game and a breath of fresh air from other 3d jugglers like Tekken and VF, which to me always felt more robotic and not fluid in motion.
SC just felt so damn smooth to play in 3d, with weapons and everything just flowed nicely and they had a very solid roster of different characters as well. So much fun.
It was extremely good and still holds up.
30 FPS, for starters...
It's an absolute shit port in every way that was farmed out to some third party dev but running at 30 FPS was the main reason.
Dude, Scores are always tied to the current state of the industry and what was capable on the platform.
Every game and their reviews are a product of their time. End of story