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to begin let me say that i know there is another topic about sc3 anticipation or something similar already in general gaming chat, but seeing as the release of the game is now right around the corner, the demo has been released, and information about the game's system is emerging, i wanted to make a more specific topic to address certain facets of the game in a more in-depth manner. if you just want to discuss your anticipation for the game, or you'd like to let us know whether you will or will not be getting the game, please post in here. with that being said, let's get down to business.

so, yeah, the demo is out, and i think i'd like to talk about that first. it's not very expansive at all (expectedly, of course); you can either play tira or mitsurugi in v mode, fight a couple story battles with kilik, or mess around with character creation (choice between ninja and dancer only) and fight a couple of battles with the character you made. still, even in the limited scope of the offering, several things stuck me immediately as quite different from the previous installment. immeidately upon starting up the game, i noticed a pace dfifference from sc2 -- the game plays and feels a bit faster than its immediate predecessor. the next thing i noticed was that the gi system from sc1 is back -- 6/3g to parry/repel mids and highs, 4/1g to parry/repel mids and lows. i also noticed that it seems to be harder to gi; it could be becaused i am not yet used to the new pace and my timing is off, but i think it's because the frame window was shortened in gi -- of the gi's i was able to sucessfully pull off, about half were pgi; to this day i don't even get half pgis in sc2. the third big difference in the remapping of characters' moves. only miturugi and kilik were availible for play (tira, of course, was avalible for play, but she's brand new), but i noticed that several moves they had in sc2 were remapped to different inputs (some of kilik's moves take on their sc1 input, and mitu's probably do, too, but i didn't play him until sc2), and some moves were absent altogether, being replaced by totally new moves. especially notable was the dumping of kilik's monument stance (i think it's monument, the 214 stance) in favour of a brand new and probably more useful stance complete with techstep and a gi that seems to be much more useful than monument's ever was. finally, the break wiondow for throws seems to have been reduced, but again, it may just be my non-adjustment so far.

probably the biggest change is the introduction of new stun properties -- in sc3, apparently, you can actually chainstun/counter-combo your opponent if you hit them on counter. being as every time you finish story mode or a single v battle, the demo resets to the very first opening screen where you select the game you want to play, i haven't spent too much time trrying my patience, but it seems that if you are able to hit your opponent with an on-counter stun, you are guaranteed on-counter properties for the rest of your combo. furthermore, if you so choose, you can substitute a double-over stun for the counter-combo, effectively chainstunning your opponent and presenting you with an excellent 2-choice opportunity. really i imagine this will add a whole new dimension to what was already the deepest fighter on the market, especially in the cases of characters like cassie and taki whose game is about pressure instead of juggle-guarantees.

the create-a-characters have failed to impress me. it seems namco got lazy and instead of using more-or-less unique movesets for the characters, they dumped a bunch of sc and tekken code into their movelists and were done with it. the ninja is a great deal better than the dancer; it has some of taki's exact moves and a few that are very similar, as well as a few odd moves from tekken, but there are enough unique moves to give the character a personality of its own. however, some of the animation on the ninja very much disappoints me -- it seems awkward and choppy. the dancer, on the other hand, got a bunch of voldo moves, a bunch of christie moves (and a few from other tk chars), and maybe a handful of her own unique moves. of course, i was never looking forward to the create-a-character, anyway, but if namco uses cas as such a selling point, at least it should be a great deal more refined than the demo would bode it to be.

aesthetically, the game is very pleasing. sc2, while having expansive environments and excellent character models, was very short on detail (both in the stages and the character costumes themselves). the new costumes -- you can see almost all of them on the internet -- for the most part (kilik 2p, wtf), seem to be much more detailed and colourful. the environments are unquestionably more detailed; you can interact with the floor and walls, and you can even destroy parts of the stages create hole by which to ring out your opponent. finally, the environment backgrounds are full-3d for a pretty long way back. i'm really not sure how they managed to fit all the detail in and still run without lag.

as far as hopes i have for the game, i really, really hope the namco testers spent a very great deal of time with the game trying to iron out abusable bugs and whatnot; since the game is not coming to arcade before console, there will be no time to release updates and revisions addressing heavily-abusable bugs. that, right now, is my biggest concern. i don't guess i have too many hopes that weren't more or less confirmed by the demo; i don't want a tk-style juggle-50% guarantee-rinse-repeat formula of playstyle; the infinitely more necessary 2-choice mindgame and training of sc2 has always been my favourite facet of the game, and by all means the demo seems to keep that same feel, if not making it a bit more quick and dynamic. if anything, ac seems to have been upgraded to offset the faster pace. oh, and i hope namco addressed sophie's linearity. i simply can't see it working in sc3 at the high level. perhaps they could have given raphael some better tracking, as well...besides that, i was pretty much content with the formulae they used for the sc2 characters. maybe fix xianghua's stepwhoring and tone ivy down a bit.

well, that's all for now, but i'll be sure to post back in this thread if anyone is led to reply. feel free to add your hopes, anticipations, and impressions.

Right off the bat I'd like to mention that I'm not a huge Soul Calibur enthusiast,, so I don't know the ins and outs of its gaemplay, but I must say that I'm excited about SC3. Now then,

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especially notable was the dumping of kilik's monument stance (i think it's monument, the 214 stance) in favour of a brand new and probably more useful stance complete with techstep and a gi that seems to be much more useful than monument's ever was.

2 1 4 is indeed the Monument Stance. I'm pretty happy with this decision, seeing as the Monument Stance was one of the most ridiculous parts of Kilik's arsenal. Not to say that it wasn't useful, I could tell if one practiced it enough he could build it into his routine, but I always found myself having to try really hard to land this perfectly and even then I had to remember to use it since it's just not that convenient. I didn't feel the move was worth the effort and I'm glad Namco thought so too.

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the create-a-characters have failed to impress me. it seems namco got lazy and instead of using more-or-less unique movesets for the characters, they dumped a bunch of sc and tekken code into their movelists and were done with it. the ninja is a great deal better than the dancer; it has some of taki's exact moves and a few that are very similar, as well as a few odd moves from tekken, but there are enough unique moves to give the character a personality of its own. however, some of the animation on the ninja very much disappoints me -- it seems awkward and choppy.

The Create-a-Character mode did catch my interest at first, but I suppose I always knew in the back of my mind that it would suck horribly. To be honost, a custimization mode in a fighting game like Soul Calibur is just a bad idea in general. It'll probably improve with further installments, but for now, if all you said was true, I'll probably stick to the original characters.

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as far as hopes i have for the game, i really, really hope the namco testers spent a very great deal of time with the game trying to iron out abusable bugs and whatnot; since the game is not coming to arcade before console, there will be no time to release updates and revisions addressing heavily-abusable bugs..

What a stupid choice, having console come out at the same time as arcade. They'll probably try to pull that "NEW SUPAR VERSION" crap they just did with Tekken 5.

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i don't want a tk-style juggle-50% guarantee-rinse-repeat formula of playstyle; the infinitely more necessary 2-choice mindgame and training of sc2 has always been my favourite facet of the game,

Hoho, let's not forget we're talking about a 3D fighter here. That would be nice, but let's not hold our breath.


So all in all, I should really just get my lazy ass out and try this demo. BTW, goz, next time you might want to tone down the terminology because you might scare some people off. Unless that was your intention.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...