It's one of those games that is horribly unbalanced in my opinion. Seems like you take a very short time getting up to the boss, but then the boss himself takes hours sometimes. What's also horrible with him is that the way in which his moves are set up, there are a few unblockable moves and he does things seemingly faster than your average human could do, and his mimiced moves are more potent than those he ripped the moves from.. and yet, once unlocked, he's a useable character??!!
The creator had promised that it would be a less complicated system over all, and I suppose it's kind of simplified in terms of the number of super ultra combo's etc.. but the fact that I have to learn how to do those JUST to have the chance to unlock the remaining characters makes me more than a little angry. To me, at the very least, if you unlock characters, it should be the way they have it for a few in this one, which is finish the game with so-and-so, and it unlocks whats-their-name..
Not this, get a perfect, then win with two ultras and no continues to unlock this guy.. I've been reading the techniques some people use to defeat this boss guy and it completely poves the fact that as a company, Capcom put no time into strategy on this character.. it's just spam and over balancing on the moves to make him difficult.. because in order to defeat him, they use cheap techniques to defeat him, often using the time limit to make it through the round by hitting him a few times and then doing your damned best not to get hit the remainder of the round!
Why is it such a solid company with a product which assures them of repeated purchases year after year, can not put some of those resources to actually IMPROVING the game beyond a few visual perks? Creating a well tested balance, with definite skills.
Soul Calibur has constantly maintained that balance, it's not an especially difficult interface and it's nearly full 3D play style. Sort of a 2D plus playstyle because of the side step ability. There aren't a lot of projectile moves, hit detection is fairly well done. The balance of each character is well done for the most part, and the AI makes great use of guard breaks and counters that are based on timing to make the game difficult and skills based. You have to build strategy, rather than search for the cheap moves in order to win.
Seriously conflicted over this game, because as a fan, I do enjoy much of the game and visuals, as well as the music.. however, this boss, and the method of unlocking some characters has left me with a bad taste in my mouth..
anyone else have any comments?
He was certainly the weakest character in SF2 (with Dhalsim a close second), so that's a real surprise. I wonder how much of a difference the arcade stick will make, as I play with the 360 pad which really isn't well-suited for playing classic 2D beat'em ups. I wish I could still use that great SNES controller...
