Over heightened expectations.
I was one among the groups of people who greatly anticipated Soul Calibur 2, when it was announced, and was somewhat dissapointed by the lack of certain improvements that could have been left out of the game. Even more bummed that I had Heihachi as a main character, I somewhat wrote this off.
Again, Soul Calibur 3 came around the corner, and perhaps I had expectations higher then I should have. Especially after playing Tekken 5.
The menu presentation, first off, seems a little unpolished to me, like something out of an older game. Now, I don't care what a game looks like most the time, but really it feels like at least the opening options should have more shine to them, you dig?
The character creation feature is there, and it's fairly well done. Though, I feel it's somewhat limited. There are wrestling games out there with a much more complex choices that somehow still allow you vast amounts of freedom. You can unlock items to make the character Jin Kazama from Tekken fame, but the end result looks little like him.
The quest modes have been replaced by a sort of strategy game, and though there are challenges available, they seem broken in that you have to quit each time to select a new one. Certainly, not as appealing to me as the original SC's quest mode was.
Still, the create-a-character feature is there, and the fighting styles made specifically for them, I felt, were actually superior to that of the main characters.
In regular Namco style, three new characters have been added to the roster, and sadly, true to Namco style, they hold little to no appeal over the older mainstream cast.
Older characters make returns as well, one in particular, my favorite one, Hwang, though to be honest, they share the create-a-character styles, and for those die-hard fans, it's quite butchered.
Basically, SCIII is a game that comes so very very close to being worthy of its' predecessor, but just misses is in alot of places. Especially after playing Tekken 5, a game I'd consider near perfect, this game just lacks the polish it needed. Especially since it wasn't really given a chance in the arcade first to gauge fan reactions, and make necessary changes.
Oh yeah, unskippable cutscenes... Lame.