New Soul Calibur IV characters announced

[At Home 0]

Frames? Could you explain that to me.

[Thoth 0]

Frames? Could you explain that to me.

 

A just frame is a concept taken from Tekken. Entering the input of a move during a specific frame during another move will result in new attacks or attacks with modified properties.

 

Paul in Tekken has a Just Frame on one of his power punch combos.

Steve, last I checked, had a metric shitton.

 

In SC4:

 

Misturugi's Neutral A+B has a just frame on the second hit by pressing B.

Pretty sure Sophitia's QCF Dash has a just frame or two in there as well.

 

Just Frames reward execution and punish button-mashing, as well as provide additional execution options without the need to add additional move commands.

[Jer 0]

Got a chance to spend a few hours with it.

 

What I like:

 

- It's really pretty. The character designs are getting a little old, but the environments are beautiful.

 

- The just-frame additions to normal moves are pretty cool. There's been some just-frames in SC since 2, but they're more part of the system now. If you do a normal move with better execution, your character flashes yellow and the properties are different. Like if you do Sophie's 236B really fast like an EWGF, or if you do Mitsu's K~B really fast. Neat. It gives something to practice in a game that's never really rewarded execution. And it seems like there's a lot of them.

 

- Online isn't as horrible as people have been saying. It's like T5: DR - if you're geographically close to the other guy, it's okay. Just don't expect to block lows or GI with any regularity.

 

- Critical finish is totally inoffensive. It's kind of neat occasionally without ever getting in the way.

 

- Create-a-fighter is extensive, if you're into that kind of thing.

 

What I don't like:

 

- It feels like everyone's stuck in molasses. Seriously, it's like every move is 2 frames slower than before. Why they'd take the slowest major fighting series and make it slower, I have no idea.

 

- Less advantage on hit, more disadvantage on block. Namco said they added critical finish to encourage rushdown, but if they want rushdown, why would they make most moves unsafe and make a lot of moves minus on hit? It's like impossible to rush down safely with anyone.

 

- They made GI worse for no reason. You can't GI throws now? What? No one even used it in SC3, they should have made it better!

 

- Characters didn't get enough new stuff. Like, I went through Sophie's movelist and only found two new moves I'd even consider using. For a true sequel, that's pretty damn weak.

 

Overall it seems good, not great. If it ends up being balanced, at least it'll be better than SC3...

[Exslade ZX 0]

Alright after playing this for a while, I have to say this is a pretty damn fun game. The CAS is awesome. There aren't even really THAT many pieces to choose from (actually there kind of are) but the fact you can change the color to whatever you see fit, makes pretty much anything possible. I've got some pretty good replicas of most of the DC Universe. In a pretty interesting event, playing as Superman earlier, I got match up against a Batman, which I thought was pretty funny.

 

I do have to say, the fuckin online sucks. Seriously, out of a little over 20 matches, I've faced pretty much all Kilik's. I've faced 2 Cervantes, and that Batman, and the rest Kilik's. And that's it. And most of them, I can't do shit against. They spam that damn forward Y combo or whatever it is, which I suppose you can could sidestep to get away from, that is if you can get up, but then they start with the repeated horizontal attack. It's just really f'n annoying.

 

I'm never going to get better at this game, (well I'll have to just use training I guess) because eventually, I'm down and then I have to resort to spamming. And I use Yun-seong, who's reach isn't nearly as far. I don't know, I'm just venting, but it seems I've either got someone just using Kilik's damn forward attack, or I'm facing some Lvl 90 fucker who teleports all over the ring with Cervantes. I've found no in between.

[Jer 0]

Yeah, there are a lot of trash Kiliks online. It normally doesn't matter because they're all really bad, but it can be frustrating because the horrible strings like AAB or step AAA that you'd normally GI to close range, you can't GI because of the lag. I have never successfully GIed AAB online. I stopped trying.

 

Almost all of his strings are disadvantage on block, though, so just block the whole string and then throw out a down A or BB.

 

Anyway, I'm really liking Cervy in this game. I think I just needed a new character to make the game feel less stale. <3 his 1A.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Remember Eminem's Soul Calibur Rap?

 

The background music is from Cervantes' stage.

[AndrewTS 0]

Remember Eminem's Soul Calibur Rap?

 

I didn't even remember Eminem.

 

I rented the game, but still am not Gold-connected or looking to (just send out some bill payments. =P); however, first impressions have not been good. The interface was pretty confusing (I was trying to create a soul without using an existing character as a template, but didn't realize I had to choose that one randomish-block in the center to do that, and only found it out by reading the manual which worded it vaguely.

 

Then I noticed that to create a new character, you pretty much have to randomize something to start with, which sucks because I'd rather have a vanilla character to built upon, rather than keep randomizing to come up with something that isn't so far off/terrible looking and loaded with crap. Then there's the lack of good creation parts, since apparently you need to do unlocking just for the right to be able to buy this stuff (ugh).

 

Oh, and I really suck at the game something fierce, too. it does seem a hell of a lot slower than the last one I played much of (SC2).

[Exslade ZX 0]

Remember Eminem's Soul Calibur Rap?

Then I noticed that to create a new character, you pretty much have to randomize something to start with, which sucks because I'd rather have a vanilla character to built upon, rather than keep randomizing to come up with something that isn't so far off/terrible looking and loaded with crap..

Just randomize his one, and remove all of their clothes to start with, as that's pretty much the same thing.It's a lot easier to create what you're looking for without clothes already on.

[AndrewTS 0]

Yeah, that's the obvious solution, but why the hell would they make it that way? It's like opening a packet of printer paper to see that it has been scribbled on in pencil. Sure, you can take an eraser and clear it to blank paper, but why the hell should you have to do that in a character creation mode?

[Jer 0]

The interface was pretty confusing (I was trying to create a soul without using an existing character as a template, but didn't realize I had to choose that one randomish-block in the center to do that, and only found it out by reading the manual which worded it vaguely.

 

Haha, that makes me feel like less of an idiot now. I went through and customized Cervantes, then tried to rename him, but "Edit Name" was greyed out, and it took me quite awhile to realize that to rename a character, you have to create a new one. And then it took me quite awhile to figure out how to create a new one. It's so stupid that you can't just rename your edits of the normal characters. I want my Cervantes to look like Cervantes, I don't want to have to try to make a new character look like Cervantes just so I can name him JerIsTrash.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

The interface was pretty confusing (I was trying to create a soul without using an existing character as a template, but didn't realize I had to choose that one randomish-block in the center to do that, and only found it out by reading the manual which worded it vaguely.

 

Haha, that makes me feel like less of an idiot now. I went through and customized Cervantes, then tried to rename him, but "Edit Name" was greyed out, and it took me quite awhile to realize that to rename a character, you have to create a new one. And then it took me quite awhile to figure out how to create a new one. It's so stupid that you can't just rename your edits of the normal characters. I want my Cervantes to look like Cervantes, I don't want to have to try to make a new character look like Cervantes just so I can name him JerIsTrash.

 

Same happened here lol

 

Just got around to having some online matches too, had 2 laggy matches, the rest where against 1 move wonders to throw you out of the ring or against people who would pin you against the wall and combo you to death. Its a shame really that people will do that for a cheap win, but there's nothing you can do to stop them. Had a good game agaisnt one guy, so added him to my friends list and we had a few more good games against each other with various people.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Yoda is a little shit. Darth Vader is much more fun to play plus his ending is awesome.