Soul Calibur/Soul Series

Did they finally put a movelist exercise in there?

I hate that Soul series' practice modes lack that. I feel like it should be standard in 3D fighters.

Picked it up.

Turns out that yeah, I'm pretty terrible at this. It reminds me a lot of Tekken, except not one-limb-one-button, and one of the face buttons is guard (which I keep hitting, thinking it does something else :P).

Soul Calibur has a fairly simple setup. A attacks are horizontal. B attacks are vertical. and K attacks are kicks, which tend to be quick but weak, or short ranged. There's more too it, but the basic concept shouldn't be too hard to grasp.

I understand it fine. I'm just abjectly terrible at 3D fighters. 2D fighters are hit and miss (I like to think that I'm actually pretty good at Injustice), but I can't get a handle on 3D fighters for some reason. Can't figure out the combos, or something.

But didn't it have that? There was the thing to show you the move done correctly, and then you could stop it and do it. At least, in II and III.

I think you're appraoching it wrong? Soul Calibur isn't like Blazblue or Marvel or even Tekken where you need like 10 hit+ combo strings.

Have not played either of the first two, and I've never even approached that in Tekken, so I have no idea what you're talking about. :|

If I recall, the 10 hit combos are usually like the last move on the move list, and the hardest to pull off by far. So no, you don't really need them.

But yeah, Soul Calibur is a lot more simple than most fighters I've seen. And it's probably better off for it.

I rather dislike the meter/super system SCV added. Just seems so ME TOO!!! and catering to the wrong kinds of players.

Soul Calibur has been more about controlling your effective distance, knowing attack speeds and (trying) to read then counter your opponent's moves, rather than setting up long strings of combos. And while the meter system is an interesting experiment for the series, I agree that it goes against that 'flow' the series has had that set it apart from other 3D fighters. I mean, with the rather large loss you get from Guard Impacts now (1/4 of your meter, even if it misses!) I find it very pointless and risky to attempt it, even with its current 'GI any attack' properties. That, and I have none of the reflexes necessary to pull off Just Guards... T_T

Yeah, I preferred the gameplay without the meter. Me and my friend moved back to Soul Calibur IV for a bit, just because we missed guard-impacting.

Okay, after playing around with a couple of the characters, I think I've found one I might actually be able to play as. Raphael.

Ahahahaha didn't work with me too well. :| Maybe I have an incompatible playstyle, I dunno. He was better in IV, when Shave Damage was a thing.

edited 1st May '14 3:48:57 PM by Knowlessman

I don't know what that means.

Older Soul Caliburs had special attributes applied to weapons and customizations (only for certain modes, of course). One of those was "shave damage", which meant that even if an opponent blocks a strike from you, your attack shaves still off a much smaller portion of their health. Raphael has a lot of attacks that strike multiple times in rapid succession, so it'd be especially beneficial for him to have a shave damage attribute.

edited 1st May '14 4:45:46 PM by Ryuhza

That's in almost every fighting game, and called chip damage.

I just know it was in IV, and have a vague inkling that most fighting games have chip damage. :/ What surprises me is that it's not a trope, or at least its trope doesn't go by that name.

Most games only have chip damage for certain powerful moves. I think the only game I've played that has chip damage for everything was Tekken 3, and even that was a toggleable option in the menu.

Most games have it for everything. At least, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Capcom Vs Whatever, off the top of my head.

Injustice has it too.

Basically, any fighter that has a bonus for a Flawless Victory has chip damage because you're still getting hit, even if you're blocking.

I think Soul Calibur IV's shave damage was a little beefier though, since it was just one of many possible special attributes.

There is a(n incorrect) definition of Chip Damage on the Scratch Damage page. Since it's such a prevalent thing, the opposite, Blocking Stops All Damage, is a separate trope.

Okay, just realized that R2 is A+B+K, which both makes things a lot easier, and explains why R2 seemed to do nothing when I was trying to figure out what it did.

Speaking of the controls, I always set LT to Guard. Makes things easier, and that's where it was in II.

edited 2nd May '14 9:29:48 AM by Knowlessman

I used to have it to L1/LB, because I found it easier to hold than x, until I started trying to do guard impacts. I also have R1/RB set to K, to make A+K and B+K easier to do (not that A+K moves exist anymore, outside of Yoshimitsu...)