Soul Calibur V - Discussion and Online Play ?

[Amiria]

I got the game on February the 2nd and since then played a lot in Single Player to get to level 52/53 where all customization items are unlocked.

I haven't touched Online yet but I'll soon do it. As soon as I can make a system update for my PS3, but currently I can't get it to connect to the Internet.

My thoughts so far:

Graphics
Still better than SC4, especially the effect of light and shadow on the characters. The many stages also look great.

Characters

Many characters didn't make the 17-year time skip and not all of them have a successor in the game. Maybe they or their styles or other styles will come later as DLC.

Amy, Rock, Seong Mi-na (but see Xiba, below), Talim, Yun-Seong and Zasalamel are gone without a replacement.

Dampierre is as of now only available to pre-orders (USA, Asia ?) or the limited edition (Europe ?) but he will become available to all as DLC. I don't have him yet.

Devil Jin from Tekken is there as a style exclusive to custom characters. I hope they'll bring in more styles as DLC (e.g. of those missing listed above, Hwang, Li Long, and the bonus styles from SC3)

Ezio Auditore from the Assassin's Creed series is the official bonus character in SC5.

Leixia is Xianghua's daughter. Her style reminds me more of pre-SC4 Xianghua (no SXS stance) with some moves from the Chinese Blade bonus style (SC3).

Natsu is Taki's apprentice. If a style in this game is overpowered it is allegedly this.

Sophitia's children: (Alpha) Patroklos and Pyrrha (Omega) - their styles replace Sophitia and Cassandra's styles. Except for Alpha Patroklos, with his style he is the successor of Setsuka (without the umbrella).

Xiba is a replacement for both Kilik and Seong Mi-na. His style combines moves from both of them.

Viola and Z.W.E.I. are newcomers with completely new styles. (although for those familiar with Namco's other fighter franchise -> they seem to have based some of Viola's moves of Lili (Tekken).

I mainly played Leixia, Xiba and Raphael so far. As I said, there are quite some changes to Leixia (Xianghua's heiress), Xiba plays like a strong mix of his two predecessors. Raphael doesn't seem to have changed much.

CAS - Create a Soul - Character Customization
This is quite amazing, a huge improvement from SC4 with options to change the size and body shape (individual parts) of a character. You can also add a great variety of patterns and stickers to their skin and equipment. You can also change the colour of most weapons and the colour of the trail the weapons make when they are swung.

But not all is as good as its ought to be. None of the 2nd (or even 1st) player costume gear of the main cast is available for custom characters (like it was in SC4). This is quite irksome since those items generally look(ed) much better then most of the normal CAS-items.

Without those, my creations in SC5 still don't look as good as in SC4. I really hope that they'll amend this soon with a DLC. At least the stuff from the SC4 2nd player costumes should be easy to convert to and implement into SC5.

E.g. from SC4 costumes I need Hilde's princess dress, Sophitia's breastplate, Ivy's skirt and gloves, Rock's gear, Raphael's gear, Cassandra's gear, etc. STOP, I WANT IT ALL AND I WANT IT NOW !

Online Play
As I said, I haven't played it yet but from what I have read it should be much much better than SC4 and also Tekken 6. Better interface and a much better netcode => greatly reduced lag.

GitP Souls Unite ?
This could be the place to gather XBL and PSN account names of us GitP people for Online Play.

PSN account names (GitP member: PSN)
Amiria: vapidorapido
Illieas: Illieas
IrnBruAddict: IrnBruAddict
littlebottom: JAWS3D

XBL account names (GitP member: XBL)
Deth Muncher: Palataka
Ursus the Grim: Ursus the Grim

[Illieas]

PSN: Illieas

MAining xiba and pyrrha.

pyrrha plays mostly like sophitia back in the day many same moves but the lows on her are slower. the new ex moves are the craziest things. everyone of hers ends with her at plus frames. we are talking +8 to +10.

Xiba seems to have better options than kilik while also sporting a less ranged game. most move place him closer to the enemy then sometimes i feel comfortable with. but he is much easier to play. he is down to two slide moves and no ashuras. and one stance. it almost a complete move set overhaul. I will miss 22AAA. it the one move i miss the most.

[Toastkart]

I've had the game for about a week, and I'm still not quite sure I like it as well as I did previous editions. With all the good things, there are also a lot of things that are obviously missing.

I'm a long time Cassandra player, and Pyrrha and Patroklos just don't cut it as replacements. Pyrrha's a little closer to Cassandra's style, but she feels slower, has really sucky throw animations (and some of the animations in general), and is probably the most annoying character in recent memory. I really hate the "I'm sorry" attitude every time she hits someone.

Patroklos is different enough to be fun in his own right, but in some ways he feels very limited. I also miss Zasalamel and Seung Mina. I too keep hearing rumors that there will be character/fighting style dlcs, but I'm not holding out hope considering the nature of the dlcs for SCIV.

I'm enjoying playing Viola. Still wish I knew more about what I was doing. I can pull off some amazing looking combos, but half the time I can't pull it off again. I think it's kind of odd that her hand claw is part of her costume, not part of her weapon.

In more general terms, I really dislike how faster in some ways and slower in others the game seems. Attacking feels faster, but sidestepping, rolling, even just getting up from being knocked down (and is it just me, or are there about double the number of knockdowns per match as there were in previous games?) all feel slower and less responsive.

The game's ai seems all over the place. Sometimes it just stands there and lets me tear it a new one. Other times I get caught in a single combo and killed without being able to do anything because they keep chaining moves off of me while I'm on the ground and can't respond. I also don't like that the ai can pull off a critical edge without moving.

I've sometimes seen the more difficult ais outright cheat. Blocking moves while facing to the side, blocking moves that would hit them from behind (Viola's orb in particular), pick me up off the ground using standing throws, and their moves having higher priority over my attacks even when they shouldn't.

CaS is nice, but it does have some problems. A few items have different colour palettes than the majority, making it occasionally difficult to have a good colour scheme. Not a big issue. Too few faces, for both men and women, and half the ones there are suck. The voices not only lack in variety of things to say, but changing pitch/tone makes the voice sound incredibly mechanical, which is vastly different from SCIV. I'm with Amiria, too, the 2p costumes from SCIV need to make a comeback. I'd pay for a dlc with them in it, as I used several pieces from multiple characters. Certain weapons can't have their colour changed, mostly the 1p, 2p, and the master. There's an awful lot of clipping for certain equipment pieces.

[littlebottom]

i got some gripes with the game, but im enjoying it none-the less,

PSN: JAWS3D

dont ask, my father named it because he took the day off when I Bought the ps3 on day of release and he made the profile, ive still no idea why he named it that

If you add me on PSN, send a message just saying your GIANTITP username so i know to add you. also note im from the UK so my connection to some of you fellows over in america might be a bit shabby (not sure yet, not tried, not even sure if Soul Calibur 5 lets you play online with people further than your own continent yet)

[Metahuman1]

Wait:

Raphael is still running around, but Amy is no more? What gives?

[littlebottom]

i think raphael mentions her, so shes still alive, just not... killing people.

[Amiria]

@ littlebottom

I send you a friends request a long time ago when I had a thread about Soul Calibur 4. You should still have it in your message box because on my PS3 you are marked as "Pending response to your Friends request.", just like Illieas at the moment.

For connection speed / lag it shouldn't really matter how far away on earth you are from your opponent. I (Germany) once played Tekken 6 online with someone really far away (Japan) and everything was shiny. And the netcode of SC5 is better than that of Tekken 6.

@ Evrine

I never mained the Alexandra sisters although I played them a bit more in SC4. But I miss them too. I really don't like Pyrrha's attitude and her pre- and post-battle animations (both Pyrrha versions). I also miss Cassandra's dynamic battle stance. But gameplay-wise her styles are solid and so I gave normal Pyrrha's style a try for a CAS character.

I think I'll also try out Viola. My primary custom character is Amiria - a wizard - and that style with the magic orb would be very fitting for her. I already went over her movelist and made some notes but so far it is all theory for me.

[Illieas]

Wait:

Raphael is still running around, but Amy is no more? What gives?

rumor mill is spinning about that that i can't confirm either way

Spoiler

Show

Viola is rumored to be Amy all grown up.

@amiria
i am extremely busy at work so i have actually gone home since i posted...

[Amiria]

@amiria
i am extremely busy at work so i have actually gone home since i posted...

Eh, I don't blame you of anything, no need to hurry.

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Tried online, only rarely experienced some lag.

Fought 7 times so far with a Leixia custom character: 5 player matches (lost all of them), 2 ranked matches (1 win, one loss). Hmm, didn't think that I was so bad, a Xiba player really destroyed me 2 or 3 times in player matches.

I should really incorporate Brave Edge and Critical Edge in my play style. I still don't get the "236_236" input for Critical Edge fast and consistently enough. But there's no excuse to not use that Brave Edge move from Leixia's "WR B".

So, online is fun, would be more fun if I'd won more. Brave Edge and Critical Edge have a much greater effect on gameplay than SC4's Critical Finish moves. I'm not really comfortable with that yet.

And I know that when I play offline versus matches with my best friend (who has no PS3 or 360) that he most likely won't use them. And so I'll also won't use them there.

[OFWGKTA]

Game is pretty baller so far, though what they've done to Ivy makes me

[GungHo]

What did they do to Ivy?

[Illieas]

will be on sporatically this weekend. I hit the thinking too hard stage of fighting games. But next weekend i will heading out with my friends to winter brawl happy to meet any OOTSer if you come along.

[Amiria]

What did they do to Ivy?

I don't know ... I didn't play her at all so far I guess moves have changed, moves have gone, etc. I read that she changed quite a bit and plays more like in SC3 or even earlier SC titles.

Most move lists have shrunken / were streamlined for SC5. As far as I'm concerned that's a good thing, fewer moves to memorize and fewer useless moves (at least that's the case for Leixia - my main - and the only character that I really begun to learn in SC5 as of now).

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News from the online front. I'm still bad, but not universally. My player match record is now an abysmal 10 losses vs. 0 (zero) wins !

But things look much better in ranked games. I got my first rank increase to "E4" with 2 losses vs. 5 wins (leveling up on 4 consecutive wins).

[MCerberus]

No Talim makes me sad, I was banned from using Talim by my friends (and Link, but that was waaaay long ago). Never went online with 4 though.

[OFWGKTA]

What did they do to Ivy?

They basically took everything she away from her. She's missing Coiled and Embraced stance, many of her staple and useful moves are gone, and her command throw input seems easier at first but it's basically impossible to kara now. basically if you played Ivy in any game previously you're basically relarning everything, it's hella foul when you throw in the fact that they said she would be based off of her SC2 version and has nowhere near the options she had in SC2.

[Amiria]

My computer's power supply just died, luckily apparently without damaging other parts. Now i post from the ps3 without a keyboard. I won't post much or at all until i can fix the computer on monday.

[MCerberus]

My computer's power supply just died, luckily apparently without damaging other parts. Now i post from the ps3 without a keyboard. I won't post much or at all until i can fix the computer on monday.

Well at least it died instead of failed. Although now you have to deal with the only thing I find on the same level of annoyance as IDE ribbons and case-to-motherboard pins (so tiny, so angry)

[littlebottom]

@ littlebottom

I send you a friends request a long time ago when I had a thread about Soul Calibur 4. You should still have it in your message box because on my PS3 you are marked as "Pending response to your Friends request.", just like Illieas at the moment.

For connection speed / lag it shouldn't really matter how far away on earth you are from your opponent. I (Germany) once played Tekken 6 online with someone really far away (Japan) and everything was shiny. And the netcode of SC5 is better than that of Tekken 6.

Oh? really? ill go look at my old inbox, proberbly missed it

on the reduced movelist front, i think it works for some but not for others. oddly ive had different main characters for every fighter game virtually ever.

for example, back in tekken 2 i used to play primarily devil. tekken 3, yoshimitsu, tekken 4... i didnt really have a main character :S tekken 5, i used hworang (sp?) tekken 6 i use steve.

soul calibur 2 i used link (i miss him dearly), soul calibur 3, sigfried (and a little yun sung), soul calibur 4 cervantes, and in 5 ive not decided, but going from cervantes in 4 to cervantes in 5 has been a bit of an annoyance, just because easily pulled off moves are now harder and changed button combos, and harder moves are easier, (like the simple unblockable gun shot is much easier in 5 than 4, if only because in 4 it was square and circle at the same time.) but im sure if i got used to it, i would find it overall an improvement even with the moves i like changed. but on other characters, i dont like the changes at all, although they are less noticeable to me since i know the other characters less, but maxi is much much slower, i dont like that, although he was the button bashers dream in the old one, i feel he needed changing in other ways, (less sudden changes from high to low hits that make them near impossible to block them all) rather than slow him down.

[Amiria]

Reached rank "E3" with 10 wins vs. 5 losses. Pyrrha's style seems quite good because I used it accidently 2 times in ranked matches without really knowing it. Still, I'll stay with Leixia in ranked, unless things really get bad ... then I might try Xiba or Nightmare.

I went through Ivy's move list and yeah, they took away her stances. Still, I don't think that she's got weaker because of that. Ivy in SC4 had probably the longest move list (along with Voldo ?) because of all those stances and the many different but also redundant moves out of them. She's still quite complex in SC5 but at least a beginner / casual gamer now can get some enjoyment out of playing her style.

That makes me wonder what they did to Voldo ... but I prefer to not look at him unless it is unavoidable.

[Psyren]

No Kilik?

Ruined FOREVER
Okay, I'll try that new guy

[Amiria]

Well, Kilik is in there, more or less, maybe less. He is one of the mimics (the one who mimics all the male styles). His staff style is inherited by Xiba.

It should be possible to make Kilik as a custom character with Xiba's style. How good it will look depends on the base items and your artistic skill usage with all those colors, patterns and stickers.

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I tried Ezio and didn't really like his style. For a trophy / achievement it is necessary to win several matches (ranked) with him. I don't feel like trying that now or in the near future.

The 2nd DLC pack arrived today. Imo they are overpriced for what they deliver. This one had 4 animal heads / masks, a short kimono, a skirt and a top (both from Zafina's (Tekken 6) wardrobe), and finally 2 stickers (dragon tattoo and demon face). Still, I already used some of them for custom characters.

I already made ~35 custom characters. I'm quite content with the look of them but it could be better. There are so many restrictions with what items you can combine and clipping-related issues. I hope they'll fix some of those problems or at least release the SC4 costume stuff as DLC for a fair price soon.

[Illieas]

No Kilik?

Ruined FOREVER
Okay, I'll try that new guy

kilik is in. he is just a male mimic character. when he mimics xiba he get his old 22AAA which is nice.

be on later today gonna be working with xiba and tira.

[Amiria]

I miss Seong Mi-na in this game. She always stood in Kilik's shadow and she was considerably weaker in SC4 than in SC3 (because they made her style a bit more distinct from Kilik's - and her new moves just didn't compare to those she lost).

But in SC3 she was good, especially vs. the AI. My main character in "Chronicles of the Sword" mode used a different style, but against the hardest enemies my Gladiator with Soul of Seong Mi-na came into play. She was also most efficient against the final boss (that cheating, input-reading, silly-haired bastard Strife).

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I still haven't played online against someone from GitP. I also didn't have the opportunity to play against other people offline in the last 2 weeks. Playing vs. the CPU isn't that much fun but it should be ok for taking the first steps while learning a new style.

My choice went to (normal) Patroklos in custom character form. Mainly because of the better pre- and post-battle animations compared to the Pyrrhas. And because the shield with the lion face is really fitting for my custom character. The Pyrrha styles might be a bit stronger but I don't think that this would make a real difference at my level of play.

[Ursus the Grim]

I'm not terribly good at the game, but I'm really enjoying it. Especially the fleshing of Aeon. When I bust out the wings and unblockable fireballs, the shock factor really unsettles my opponents, and I find it easier to connect with than his Critical Edge. Aside from him, I main Siegfried and Mitsurugi, which gets me a lot of hate but whatever.

My biggest issue is when the Sophitia kids get in close. I don't have that huge of a problem with any of the other fast characters, but every swing I take either seems to be blocked or countered and I quickly lose the reach advantage I like to establish.

[IrnBruAddict]

How did I not see this thread sooner?

PSN: IrnBruAddict (mostly hang out in the London lounge)

Gotta say I love this game, more than SC 4 but still not as much as SC 2. I could moan about them taking out 2 of my 3 main fighters and the one outfit I needed to remake my old SC 4 character, but I love the improvements. Specials are easier, the story is actually good (if short and restricted) and and the combat flows better, especially online.

I mained Seigfried, Talim and Yun-Seung in SC4 but now I use Maxi and Ivy. I like Natsu but agree she is overpowered, and have heard the same of Devil Jin who my friend mains.

They need the child of Talim and Yun-Seung who uses her weapons and his kicks for DLC, then this game would be complete. I know they won't but a guy can hope, can't he?

[Calemyr]

I personally really like Alpha Patraklos. Not the character so much as the weapon style - especially with a cane sword, it looks like the martial art of a refined swordsman. That combined with the fact that it kinda reminds me of a martial art I studied a few years ago (another one with a premium placed on keeping the blade in the scabbard between strikes) makes it just appeal to me. I know I'm not using it to the fullest, but the aesthetics and the familiarity drive me to improve.

My biggest gripe about the game (other than my own inability to play it effectively) has got to be the CaS system. Yeah, it's improved on a number of fronts (body type, better options, etc), but it comes at a horrible cost in the booster pack-style manner you get more costume bits. Back in 4 you earned points you could spend on those things - you got to see them before you put down the cash. Now, I have no idea what will get unlocked when or where, and have no idea if anything even remotely resembling what I'd like to see will ever show its face. It's extremely frustrating.

That and Ivy. Get a grip, lady. You've been out of the ring for 17 years. You're no longer some identity-starved little girl who can't decide whether she's a professional swordsman or a stripper. Besides, you always looked better in your practical outfits, anyway.

[Deth Muncher]

My 360 Gamertag is Palataka. I recommend following the tournament rules and not even bothering to learn a custom character with the Devil Jin style - it's busted and a half, and banned in all tourneys.

[Amiria]

I played a few rounds with IrnBruAddict, good games.

What I don't like is the waiting time in player games (rooms) until you can fight, the more people there are the longer you have to wait. Especially when I see that someone who's way beyond my skills stays in the winner's slot ... and also always uses the same character.

Like today when I was in a more relaxed but pretty full room. A Viola player came just after I had was switched out (after winning and losing each once) and steamrollered quite everyone else. It was really a pleasure to watch that new (and somewhat underrated) character played so well. Excellent defense and beautiful combos. The only one who put up a fight was a Cervantes but he had to resort to a more brutal, ugly play style to keep up. Well, then it was my turn and I was quickly dispatched. Viola stayed in game with no sign of taking a break and I didn't feel like waiting another 10 minutes to get trounced again.

Best to make a private room and invite just one or two friends. Waiting just one fight isn't too long and those who fight know that they still have an audience.

Although I mainly play Soul of Leixia and started to get better with Soul of Patroklos I still like to use almost all other styles to show the CAS characters which I made with them (although I have no real idea how to win with them, I just use those easy to use / memorize staple moves that I've come to know for them). Best to play with friends who are like-minded I guess.

Oh, and here comes the first CAS screenshot in this thread from me (made with the option in the PS3 XMB menu).

Spoiler

Show

Nina

A Pen & Paper RPG character (Mongoose's Conan D20 2nd Ed. => a Brythunian Thief 3 / Temptress 3 / Barbarian 1 / Martial Disciple 1) recreated in Soul Calibur. Like most of my CAS characters.

The lion is the symbol of Ishtar, one of the gods that she prays to. So I made her outfit lion-themed with 3 stickers (1 on the breastplate and 2 identical, mirror-inverted on the leather wrap) and a lion's head tattoo on her upper back (not visible here). Goes along well with this shield from Soul of Patroklos but I also started to use this outfit for her primary style, Soul of Leixia.

[Ursus the Grim]

Welp, I've got to throw my hat into the ring with the mob on Natsu being overpowered.

Now, I'm bad at this game, like really bad. So I'm experienced at losing. When I go up against most people, I lose to a combination of poor blocking, lack of move variation, and a host of other factors.

But Natsu? Natsu brings it to another level. What's that? You've managed to block an attack? I'm behind you, shaving off one third of your health with an attack you can't block. Or I'm in front of you, grappling you for half of that health. Or I'm above you, requiring you to switch your guards or move faster than my teleportation. One might think a character with a reach advantage could survive better, but she just closes the distance with a variety of evasion moves and proceeds to counterattack every single thing you try to do. Its pretty ridiculous. After I took five minutes to use her in training, I played her against some friends and it was a blowout. They ragequit on me, no less, and honestly I can't blame them.

Not seeing where the big complaints on Devil Jin are though. Most of his unblockables are telegraphed, and most people starting with him have trouble stringing his attacks together.

Finally got my No-Hitter achievement. Now that was unpleasant. I'm sure Ezio could be a great character, but he's just not my style.

Now I need to figure out who to main. I used to main Mitsurugi and Siegfried, but with the new stat pie, its like the game is laughing at me for "Ease of Use" too. I'm thinking Aeon, but I really can't get into flowing with him.

Thoughts? Criticism? Tea Party?

BTW, my gamertag is the same as my username. Feel free to friend me, just send me a message letting me know you're from the Playground.

[littlebottom]

yeah, i hate natsu too.

that said ignore the "ease of use" just play one you like. I still dont really have a main in 5 yet, so still using cervantes for now, and im sure he has been slown down, im almost posative he has been badly nerfed from 4. okay they needed to take away his ability to spam certain moves, fine, but they took away his ability to do them to any effect at all now.