Soul Calibur on XBLA ...??

Post by **link343** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:39 am

Here is my 2 cents:

I just downloaded it and it seems to be a Port of the Dreamcast version. It handles good, looks beauitful but one thing is missing. Oh yeah, ONLINE PLAY! There is no online on this port. What was Namco-Bandai Thinking? This game would have been awesome on live. It just feels incomplete. The Price tag of 800 MS Points, to me, does not really justify an offline only experience with this game. If it had online, It would have been greatness.

Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:08 am

^Apparently Namco was well into the development of this port before Microsoft raised the limit on XBLA size. There was enough time to incorporate a few more elements, but not enough to really nail online play, add mission mode and the possible transition to widescreen play (I'm glad they didn't do this anyway). So those things lost out.

Yes, it would have been better to wait and make online play work. They will probably lose a LOT of potential customers.

800 points to play one of the greatest and most influential fighting games seems like nothing...if you don't already have it on DC, that is. This game is certainly worth more than 90 percent of the crap they put out.

Post by **Mozgus** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:05 am

Does Soul Calibur 4 have online play? If not, then there's your answer.

Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:34 am

Mozgus wrote:Does Soul Calibur 4 have online play? If not, then there's your answer.

It does indeed have online versus (including taking your created characters online). And Darth Vader (PS3 only...Xbox gets Yoda).

[Another arcade rant] I'm a little worried since SCIV has not been released in arcades...this is always the best place for developers to test mechanics. Nearly every traditional fighting game still gets an arcade release first. SCIII was the first Soul game not to be originally in arcades and it suffered a little from small glitches and imbalances in the fighting mechanic. It was eventually fixed, but only in the later arcade version. SCI and II were much better when they were ported because of the extra play-testing by random experts in the game centers.

I suppose now they can fix things with patches and updates...so no big deal.

Post by **Mozgus** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:18 pm

Doctor Fugue wrote:
Mozgus wrote:Does Soul Calibur 4 have online play? If not, then there's your answer.

It does indeed have online versus (including taking your created characters online). And Darth Vader (PS3 only...Xbox gets Yoda).

[Another arcade rant] I'm a little worried since SCIV has not been released in arcades...this is always the best place for developers to test mechanics. Nearly every traditional fighting game still gets an arcade release first. SCIII was the first Soul game not to be originally in arcades and it suffered a little from small glitches and imbalances in the fighting mechanic. It was eventually fixed, but only in the later arcade version. SCI and II were much better when they were ported because of the extra play-testing by random experts in the game centers.

I suppose now they can fix things with patches and updates...so no big deal.

But will they? I'm already convinced that SC4 will be even less hardcore balanced than SC3 was. What you said is true. There's a reason why Tekken 6 has been in arcades for a while now. I mean when you start throwing in star wars characters, that just says to me that you aren't focused on the hardcore player anymore. You're more about making a pretty superficial experience. The new ridiculous tit ratios only further prove my point.

Post by **Ramatut4001** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:43 am

RadarScope1 wrote:Ramatut4001 has the full game so maybe he can give a full report.

Busted. I got it despite the fact that I have one of my DCs hooked up via VGA to the same TV as my 360. I'm such a loser, I wanted more achievements! I haven't played it too much but it seems to work pretty well. The mission mode is gone but it looks great and seems to control well. The load times are fast since it's using the HDD. They have nice gray SC logos tiled in the pillarboxing, which is a nice touch. Not too distracting but still something there. Getting a ring-out is still one of my favorite gaming moments ever.

Post by **RadarScope1** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:51 pm

Thanks for the impressions man. Nice to hear it from someone very familiar with the DC version as well. I think I'm going to get a little later this summer. Some games just feel right and are a joy to go back and play and I think this will be one of them for me.