User Review : Soulcalibur IV

Where did the space go? And how did Namco manage to screw this up?

I want to start by saying this is my first review i'm submitting here. I've written reviews which have been limited to my blog on a message board i frequent. i'm copy-pasting this one mostly since its the most recent game i've reviewed. there are some changes, but... screw it, i'm just gonna do this.
EDIT: let me just point out that i'm copy-pasting from MY OWN post before anyone gets the wrong idea. i'm willing to link to the original if necessary

Hard to believe its been 3 years since Soul Calibur III came out. i've only been playing it every other time i opened my PS2's disc tray. It had its fair share of flaws with its new features but there's no denying that the battling is one of the most solid systems in recent fighting franchises. while SCIV corrects some of these problems, it oddly creates new ones with its extra features.
Well, let's start with core gameplay, this might be the only place the game has truly improved. all the old stuff is there, but now armor degrades, and you can do fatal attacks by building up your soul gauge and depleting the opponent's. armor degradation is also visible as clothing gets torn, or outright destroyed. this often leaves custom characters in their undies and it still amazes me that Ivy isn't completely naked when a single string snaps. while the changes weren't really necessary they do add an identity to the gameplay, so that it feels unlike any other fighter. however, enemies are a little too vulnerable to throws this time. they've also added a tag-team mechanic.
But we all know that the fighting system's good. it's probably the best new fighting franchise since Smash Bros. came out. the other features is where it has suffered, let's go Zero Punctuation on it's ass and talk about that. the gameplay modes feel weaker. the last game's story mode had some actual scenes to watch, quick-time events, and it at least wasn't linear, giving the player plenty of choices, and 2 different endings for each character. Not that the story's the best thing in gaming either. The writing is terrible and inconsistent. Is Algol a crazed man hungry for power with no conscience, or does he just want to be loved? in this story mode, every character goes through pretty much the same events until the very end cutscene. and sometimes the final boss is different. the "mission" mode this time is the tower of souls, which is needlessly hard. part of the reason is the way-too-deep-for-a-fighter character creation, which i'll touch on later. also, replay value takes a major blow, since the art galleries are practically empty, and i unlocked all the characters in about 2 hours. there's no playable tutorial either, which would really help to understand things like the soul gauge and finishes.
now, in the last game, character creation wasn't too much to look at since half the parts looked just like something else you could equip and no matter what you made, it screamed "player-created" unlike say, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon where they could blend in perfectly with stock characters, or stand out if you please. but it had good ideas, like multiple layers of shirts and pants. this game, those layers are ditched, and character design feels much more restricted. for example i want the character i base off of me to wear a jacket with a shirt under it, and for his pants to have a belt. well, i could do that in the last game, but in this one all i can get is the jacket, and i have to wear under armor, because i can't just equip a shirt under it. and the underarmor is limited to chain mail, or something too intricate. and some of the pants have belts, and some don't, even though belts were choosable in the last game. The parts you DO get have a lot less variety too. the only plus-side is that they can blend in with stock characters, because the secondary costumes of stock characters parts become available, but i wish the game had made both costumes available. and the down-side of that up-side is that there aren't any fighting styles dedicated to custom characters like the last game, and you have to choose from stock characters. i like Xianghua's fighting style, but her animations get carried over and my male character sticks out his butt and tries to show off non-existent cleavage.
also, whatever you're wearing DETERMINES YOUR STATS!!! I'm sorry Namco, if i wanted to spend three hours finding the best equipment, i'd have played your Tales series, or Xenosaga! When you invited me to your best fighting franchise, I thought I could go through three menus and be fighting people for the next two hours. yeah, i didn't complain about the leveling up in SCIII, because it was only in one mode and it would be about 15 hours of play before i started doing the same thing again to level up more. well, whatever just give me my best weapon and I'll get started. WHAT? I have to go all the way to character creation and make a new character JUST to use that weapon?! and the best weapons only have one useless effect attached?! the point of customization is to make something all your own, not equip whatever works best. stats apply in story mode, and tower of lost souls. you also have to equip abilities and level up styles, which kind of goes against the jump-in-and-play, balanced style fighting games are about. i'm not saying they should be easy, i'm just saying fighting games should at least TRY to be about skill and balance, not menu-wading. one good thing about character creation is that you can now change more things about the character themself, like voice pitch and muscularity and physique. i'm sure that will satisfy everybody who wanted inhumanly large breasts on their created females last time.
oh, and those creation parts have to be unlocked by fulfilling some stupid objectives in the tower, or stupid objectives everywhere else called "honors." look at battle records in options for them because it took me half a week to figure that out. i didn't mind buying them last time, cause i could get money by doing just about anything, and i could look at them before buying, but now the developers are actively trying to stop me from making a decent character.
Everything being said, they improved what matters, and arcade (where stats don't apply) is excellent. but there are just a few too many lags in the way you go about combat that keep me from saying it surpasses its predecessors. this is most apparent in that there's only two new full-fledged characters, and five side characters that could have and should have been complete characters, but both their story modes and fighting styles were half-hearted, mostly stolen from other characters. for example, Shura would be one of my new favorite characters if her taunt wasn't the same as Cervantes', which has him firing a gun that Shura doesn't, yet she still manages to make a muzzle flash and bang. Polish, people! well, there are the star wars characters. i'm not crazy about them actually being in the game (i've heard Yoda and Darth Vader may become available through DLC to the system they're not on. no confirmation, but that empty character slot seems very promising) but i will say it got me excited for Force Unleashed. if the apprentice is half as badass as he is in this game, he should be very exciting to play as.

let me just lay down some ground rules for character creation for future fighters:
1. stats and clothing should be completely separate. am i saying a bikini chick should be able to have more defense than an armor-clad knight? yes. yes i am.
2. unique fighting styles are a plus. if not, at least make it so i don't get girly animations on male characters if i like a girl's style.
3. all parts should be available, at least for purchase in an in-game store at the start of the game, or should be easily attainable by playing through the game once.
4. Pretty much be exactly like Mortal Kombat: Armageddon's creator. there. i said it.

Fun Fact: the first fighting game i played that was "too deep" with customization was DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2. what, did everybody look at it and say "hey! all that menu-wading and stats not determined by skill should be in every fighting game!" We have to do something about this. take action. be responsible. talk to your fighting game developer about useless RPG-elements... before their friends do.