Darth Vader and Yoda Playable in Soul Calibur IV

Posted on Thursday 10th January 2008 at 02:11 by laszlow

Yes, you read that headline correctly. It's probably safe to say that this will bring new fans to the series.

While the inclusion of the unlockable characters of Link, Spawn, and Heihachi in Soul Calibur II was a very popular move, the Namco series of fighting games has hit a low point recently with the critically reviled Soul Calibur Legends for the Nintendo Wii. Hopefully SC IV retains the high production values and tight gameplay of it's more popular predecessors while keeping the cast of characters diverse and entertaining.

Source: 1UP

Posted in: Gaming Industry News

Written by	laszlow
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Comments

Death Penalty	Comment 1: 2008-01-10 03:20
	Wow... despite not being the biggest fan of Soul Calibur, i definately want to play as yoda. very badly. and i haven't the slightest idea why.
Silver_Zombie	Comment 2: 2008-01-10 07:30
	Lol. Now I know as who I'll be playing in SC4. Too bad the game's for the PS3, I won't enjoy kicking Vader's arse as Yoda as much as I want ;)
Dark Paladin Danny	Comment 3: 2008-01-10 13:57
	Umm... Wow.... Seriously... Wow But won't Yoda's 2 foot tallness make him extremely unfair in battle?
The Modern Aged	Comment 4: 2008-01-10 17:02
	Hm, I wonder how they're gonna balance them. Those who masters The Force are deadly in both close and ranged combat.
SilverMaduin	Comment 5: 2008-01-10 19:58
	Quote (The Modern Aged @ 10th January 2008 19:02) Hm, I wonder how they're gonna balance them. They're not. Soul Calibur didn't have much in the way of balance in SC2 and SC3, so why should 4 have any more?
The Modern Aged	Comment 6: 2008-01-10 21:01
	I find some balance in at least SC2. But maybe you're right. It's fun to kick ass without any competition too.
laszlow	Comment 7: 2008-01-10 21:38
	I honestly think that SC2 is the most balanced game in the series and a pretty strong example of game balance. Even the top-tier characters like Cervantes, Ivy, and Xianghua have clear disadvantages against certain characters and zero foolproof techniques for any of them. I've placed in and won tournaments using only middle-tier characters, and only because three of my favorite characters are middle- to low-tier. And furthermore, SC2 manages to be friendly to button-mashers while also allowing experienced players to always have a clear edge over the mashers, and has neither a painful learning curve (ie Virtua Fighter) or a relatively shallow mash-friendly curve (ie Dead or Alive). Basically, SC2 is a pretty damn deep and entertaining fighter that's both n00b-friendly and tournament-friendly, and for that reason Soul Calibur is my favorite series of 3D fighters. Soul Calibur III, on the other hand, is a near-broken game when it comes to things like variable cancels and tier lists, so it doesn't nearly have the competitive community that SC2 does. But yeah, Yoda and Vader could very easily be broken, but who cares? Since each of them are console exclusives (Vader for PS3, Yoda for 360), neither will be tournament-legal anyhow, and as far as fanservice characters go, I think that either of them is way better than the Link/Spawn/Heihachi fansplosion from the console versions of SC2.
blue~wild~angel	Comment 8: 2008-01-11 23:29
	Quote I honestly think that SC2 is the most balanced game in the series and a pretty strong example of game balance. Even the top-tier characters like Cervantes, Ivy, and Xianghua have clear disadvantages against certain characters and zero foolproof techniques for any of them. I've placed in and won tournaments using only middle-tier characters, and only because three of my favorite characters are middle- to low-tier. as far as fighting game balance goes, sc2 pretty much rapes everything this side of the original street fighter (where both chars were identical). that being said, the top-tiers in that game are still pretty much unbeatable, in the right hands, for a mid-to-low tier character played by anything less than an career sc expert. in a game where little pokes constitute the majority of the damage traded between fighters, the availability of ridiculous, frame-quick, long-range, tech-dodging moves in some characters' repertoires (x sticks out like a sore thumb) simply gives them a near insurmountable advantage. Quote Soul Calibur III, on the other hand, is a near-broken game when it comes to things like variable cancels and tier lists, so it doesn't nearly have the competitive community that SC2 does. so whines the community. sc3 is no less broken than sc2 was; in fact, step-G in sc2 was FAR more conceptually game-breaking than vc is in sc3; step-G effectively eliminated the primary usefulness of horizontal strikes, which is to catch a slick stepper who's trying to draf vert whiffs. vc in 3 is so situational you will probably never see it in tourney play outside of 2 characters: mitu (upon whom it admittedly confers further unneeded godhood) and setuka (who reeeally needs it since her lows are so shitty; she has no other options to force a duck). i think the main problem the community has with sc3 is that it is a game far less forgiving than any of its predecessors. you mess up in sc2, you eat a poke and (literally) jump back to avoid getting caught in a nasty wakeup mindgame. you screw it up in 3, and you might eat 50% life with wakeup whose expected return is probably close to another 25. you really just can't mess up in the faster-paced, higher-risk-v-reward environment of 3, and i think people whose styles of play were quite proficient technically but fairly sloppy in the domain of the metagame just lost patience very quickly due to an unwillingness to attenuate the aggressive habits they had built up playing poke calibur 2. on the one hand, it is accused of being a game of little balance, but this is a function of the lack of creative originality in the american community. i do recall everybody was rather surprised when a foreigner came in and snatched up our national title with a character nobody had ever given much thought to previously; what is to say there aren't other characters whose most effective styles of play have yet to be discovered? when sc3 first dropped, everyone was whining about sophie, who has probably the most powerful whiff-drawing and -punishing tools in the game. not 6 months later, you could hardly find an individual who still played sophie on the tourney circuit. ivy players were horrified that they lost infinite 6b and 6b8. link still plays her to great effect, nevermind not having any practice outside of his own borthers, as he lives in the middle of nowhere. the americans just play every character exactly like they see someone else do in the vids, and they become stagnant very quickly. anyway, as far as yoda and darth vader are concerned, really, this could do it for me. dr may very well be the last fighting game i've been able to stomach. as a diehard fan from the earliest incarnations who was terribly put off by the inclusion of fantreats link and spawn in sc2, i don't know whether i'll be able to take seriously a fighting game with cartoony scifi characters wielding weapons even more conceptually ludicrous than tira's doughnut of death.
leilong	Comment 9: 2008-01-12 02:31
	Well, I did buy SC2 for Link on the GC, so we'll see if the Wii is utilized as a sword, cuz if I can lightsaber my way around the game as Vader, I'm all in.
laszlow	Comment 10: 2008-01-12 03:08
	Quote (leilong @ 11th January 2008 21:31) Well, I did buy SC2 for Link on the GC, so we'll see if the Wii is utilized as a sword, cuz if I can lightsaber my way around the game as Vader, I'm all in. SC IV is very unlikely to hit the Wii, as it can't render visuals in 720p.
Gigantuar	Comment 11: 2008-01-17 19:38
	Wow, too bad I don't own PS3 or the 360 D: If I get any of these versions, it'l most likely be the PS3 one... Yay for Vader!
The Modern Aged	Comment 12: 2008-01-17 20:26
	Mitsurugi's sword can stop Vader's lightsaber. Nice.
painreaver	Comment 13: 2008-01-28 01:11
	Poo. I have to buy a PS3 to be Vader? lol Maybe I'll just have to get the "cheap" $399 one.
Anh	Comment 14: 2008-02-11 22:27
	Yes. that is so cool, but really I think they should of used someone else besides Darth Vader, cause to me he seems alittle too dry.... Yoda is alright, I would love to play it. But I want to play with Ivy the most..... yes... it is good....
painreaver	Comment 15: 2008-02-13 20:09
	Vader is cool, but now that I think about it, Darth Maul would have probably been a better choice for speed and ferocity.
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