This is it? I paid 60 bucks for this?
The music is ok, it fits, but is pretty much the same as it was on the dream cast. The star wars music is good, but Star Wars shouldn't even be involved in this game.
The dialog and is cheesy, voice acting is weak and the in-game voice samples are way too prominent. I can't even play this game around my girlfriend or friends because they hear the voice samples and instinctively start to repeat and mock them because they are repetitive and sound so ridiculous. How many times do I have to hear "this is it" "not so fast" or "im sorry"? Oh yeah,every time I do that move I have to hear it. I find myself avoiding some moves so I don't have to hear them talk. Keep it on japanese voices so you don't laugh or get annoyed. Its much better when you don't know what they are saying.
The character editor makes sense to me because I have played games all my life, but it is very confusing to anyone who hasn't. The order the design elements are in, the way you change your body type or pitch of your voice, the way the color black and having no equipment selected appear to be the same thing, for some reason you can't just start with a blank character - you have to auto-generate one and then get rid of all the equipment, there are no tool tips for any of the options, the way the tabs on the menu's are, the confusing stat and skill selection...game spot says its a "robust" designer, but its definately not user friendly to someone that isn't a hardcore gamer.
The story mode is one word, lame. Its very easy on normal, which is fine but why don't you make that the easy setting. The initial stories are told with text only, the cutscenes are alright animation wise but they make no sense unless you spend time studying the characters in the museum and the voice acting is god awful cheese.
Seriously, in like 20 minutes you can unlock most of the characters and the rest of the time you spend getting items for your character editor. Of course when you get a new item it just says something like "new equipment is available for purchase" and you don't even know what it is till you brave all your loading screens and go to the editor and see you got a lame pair of boots. The conditions to get these pieces are totally random too, its like they had a computer generate the conditions (for example - block 3 times and you get these gloves). And from what I can see, they don't even tell you the conditions you have to go buy a strategy guide or look online. Shouldn't the game do that work for you. Motivation is goal oriented behavior, why are you going to work for equipment you don't even know what it is or how to get it?
And what is my motivation to keep playing this game? How are they going to make you play this game for more than 3 days and feel ok with paying top dollar for it? I have no clue. Unlocking equipment? Or playing tower mode and just reaching a point where you throw the controller because the computer is so cheap ( I have flash backs of playing street fighter for SNES and breaking my controller when I couldn't beat M. Bison, this game hasn't progressed much since then as far as game modes). There is online play, but there isn't really a skill matching system so I play people that have no life other than this game and kill me over and over and over, fun.
Oh wait they have a skill system. Its really not that great. The skills are nothing epic. They are a nice addition, but seem overly complex they way they are presented and somehow lifeless. You can play this game knowing nothing about skills and you will do fine. Thats how much of a difference they dont' make.
I've always thought fighting games seemed like half games, because you have these great characters and great moves but zero interactivity with the environment, no adventures to go on, just 1 on 1 fights. This game doesn't break the mold in any way. Its Soul Calibur one with better graphics and a crappier single player mode. I am angry I spent 60 bucks on it because I read all these review of how great it is, when it hasn't really progressed. You can break equipment, thats cool except its been done before and its cool to play with for 5 minutes.
And why are there even Star Wars characters in this game? Don't get me wrong. I love Star Wars movies, but they have to balance the game so your jedi loses everything that is cool about him. Light sabers break swords in one hit. Jedi dont' run out of force power in 3 moves. I see Darth Vader dying to Mitsurugi and think WTF? Darth Vader can toss him across the room by waiving his hand, but why do I keep nailing on his neck and his head hasn't fallen off, my light saber seems defective.
So why do I give this game a 6 if I hate the game so bad? Because the core element of Soul Calibur is there and I like it. Good responsive controls in a weapon fighting game. I just wish they fixed certain aspects of the controls to discourage button mashing, you can play this game and be quite good at it by just blindly hitting buttons, which makes me think what the eff is the point of learning moves.
and speaking of which, what is up with the way the buttons are explained in the moves list. Why do they always use the buttons A B K and G. Seriously, just use the actual buttons that are on the game pad. It would make it much more approachable. And there should be some fun tutorial for every character where you train and use every one of your moves. Hey, i can't complain Im not making games for a living...but if I was in charge of this game's development I'd be screaming at the designer telling him this crap was unacceptable while it was still on paper before i made this game that does nothing to progress the Soul Calibur series to current technologies capablities other than a graphical face life and a bunch of characters to choose in an otherwise empty world.