Soul Calibur VI

[Blade]

It still bugs me that he's a Capcom loyalist, but I guess beggars can't be choosers.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Curious what you mean by, "a Capcom loyalist" in this context.





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[Blade]

Let's just say I've been observing his channel for some time now, and it's very rare for him to play anything consistently other than Capcom games (Soul Calibur might be a rare exception).

I mean, yeah, he occasionally plays stuff like Mortal Kombat out of the blue, but he drops it almost immediately after and goes back to Capcom games.

Even stuff like BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Killer Instinct, Injustice, Skullgirls... there's just a ton of stuff he doesn't play for very long and just swings back to Capcom.

It was pretty sad watching him go on and on about Marvel Infinite.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I don't know if I'd agree with you on that at all, or what you've been watching if you think that. He plays a lot of games as they're at their peaks, because that's when people are most online to play them with and when you get the best matches in those games. But... that's what you have to do if you're going to run a successful gaming channel.

Case-in-point, just look over his VODs from what he's done this year since January: He plays a SHITTON of Dragonball FighterZ more than anything. He's played SFV, Tekken 7, & Injustice consistently when there're DLC/Updates for them. He even does other non-fighting game things like FFXIV, FFXV, & Monster Hunter, when he's not doing a flashback / retro fighting games day on his Twitch stream. He also plays a lot of Souls-type games when they're new as well.

He hasn't really done any streaming of MCVI since November. Even though he unabashedly REALLY likes it because of how fun it is to play, he's also VERY openly critical of its art, not to mention how Capcom handled the game as a whole. If you're just looking at the content he curates for YouTube – If you understand running YouTube as a job, those videos are based off of what his YT audience will give views for. It's the reason that he streams Smash Brothers a fair bit, but is VERY unlikely to put any of that on YouTube because of how aggressive Nintendo is with demonetization of anything involving their content.

If you think him playing a non-Capcom game is a fluke or that he just drops anything else to go back to them, I don't think you're really as familiar with his content as you think. He definitely loves Capcom games (especially given this what this last E3 has in store), but he's not attached to it WAY more than other games at all.




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[Blade]

I agree with you that he has to play and feature games that people are in to when the scene is active for those games (or DLC comes out), but... I dunno.

I guess, from my perspective I'd love to see him play more obscure titles or stuff that's not as well-known or mainstream so more people get to see it.

DBFZ > pretty popular and well-known
T7 > also well-known and goes way back
Injustice > goes part and parcel with the MK crowd
Monster Hunter > also popular
FF games > popular (Dissidia NT didn't last long from what I saw)
Souls games > popular


You have to understand, I'm a diehard ARC System Works fan, so when I see a guy showcasing fighting games, I'd like them to show stuff that not only people know is good, but also need to know more about.

He's done a little Xrd, barely scratched BlazBlue (nevermind BBTag), and I haven't seen hide nor hair of older GG games like Accent Core from him.

Melty Blood, Yatagarasu, Under Night In-Birth, heck Samurai Shodown and Last Blade...

Well, that's just my small opinion, so let's not derail the topic any further.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

The stream was a fucking blast, btw. It's worth hitting up the Twitch VOD of it if you've got some time.

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[X-SOLDIER]

Some more from the VOD/Stream. There's likely to be more coming soon as he splits it out, which is pretty neat, because these it only include the raw game audio.

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[X-SOLDIER]

This is actually pretty rad.

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[Blade]

They've been doing crafts like this for a while now, so it's impressive they've gone this far.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

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[Blade]

I'll be honest, I'm not sure Voldo's outfit is safe for kids to see, hahahah.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

It never has been any more than Ivy's were.




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[X-SOLDIER]

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[Blade]

Ten bucks says Astaroth players will spam his axe sweep move all day like they always did, lol

 

[X-SOLDIER]

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[Joe]

Awww yis my girl Tira.

 

[Joe]

And like that my hype is gone and I won't be buying this game. Pisses me off.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Things like this make me wonder if it's a result of studio income and development cycles to be able to do so much work, working more from the dev cycle that's based on initial game sales income post-initial-release. It doesn't bother me, since living games can be taken care of really well, but it's definitely an irksome practice on some levels.



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[Ite]

Their excuses absolutely hold no water. They seem to be going for the "Tira was an afterthought and won't be ready by launch, so she HAS to be DLC."

1. Make her free.
2. She's a mainstay character. Fuck you.
3. If she won't be ready by launch, how is she a "Day 1" DLC??
4. They actually said she was added "because of the immense community demand for her" which absolutely means that she was MONETISED because she was popular.

I honestly think we should boycott this game altogether to send a clear message to AAA gaming. Of course, that won't happen, but they've lost my business, at least.

 

[Joe]

I am 100% boycotting this game. ^

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Their excuses absolutely hold no water. They seem to be going for the "Tira was an afterthought and won't be ready by launch, so she HAS to be DLC."

1. Make her free.
2. She's a mainstay character. Fuck you.
3. If she won't be ready by launch, how is she a "Day 1" DLC??
4. They actually said she was added "because of the immense community demand for her" which absolutely means that she was MONETISED because she was popular.

So, I checked the quotes they gave from this article, which I'll quote and try to dissect what sounds legit vs. what sounds shitty:

"I know it hasn't been the most popular decision, we had people being pretty mad, not understanding what's happening there. So, the idea is Tira has been a huge request from the community since we announced the game, and when we realised how popular Tira was, we decided to integrate her into the game. Unfortunately, it was late into the development process, The public usually sees a game when it's announced, roughly a year before it's released, but a game's development can take two years, three years -- it's a long, long process. So we started developing Tira -- her model, her abilities, her gameplay -- late into development, so we can make it work to be there on release, but we can't make it work to be in the game when we submit. The end of [the game's] development is way before the release of the game."

So, back to your points:

1. Yeah. Do THIS. Period.

2. It looks like not ALL the big Soul Calibur characters were planned for this. They're drawing a majority of the cast (revealed so far) from SC2 and very few outside of that. Given how they talked about it, she wasn't in that initial list for a long time and I definitely believe that. It makes sense especially given when she comes in to Nightmare's story and when it seems like they're setting this. Working in software development, it makes sense that if they became aware of a big push to get her in the game that they worked hard to add her in, and they have enough to show her off in a trailer, but that can still be a ways before she actually works as a character. Additionally, because she's a late addition, she's gonna feel different because she was literally an after-the-fact addition and not a big planned integration, if that's the case.

3. Sprint planning for software release. Given how roadmaps work in software, you're prioritizing the things that you need for game release, which is everything that you need to send to publishers with the game finished, as-is for physical copies. That means everything initially planned is good to go by then, which it will be. Her being a "Day 1 DLC" character means that they believe that between the game going gold and the actual street date, that they can get her working as an additional fighter. Her status as "Day 1 DLC" also means that they're openly separating her from how closely her role/story/etc. is integrated with the other core parts of the game. If she wasn't added until later, there're story beats and other elements that she won't be a part of EVEN IF they still managed to get her workable and cram her in in time for the physical release. Given the timelines and presentation it sounds like there's a reason that she's listed as a "Day 1 DLC" character even though the full in-game roster hasn't been revealed.

4. 100% this, and that's why this situation feels so shady. Even if you're gonna do a season pass with DLC fighters in it like basically every fighting game ever does, this comes off as scummy. They totally announced her to build up hype that she WILL be available at launch for the people who want her. That did its job. If she's DLC, it's still apparent to most folks that she's been added afterwards and won't feel as completely tied in as the other character. ...But then they just shot themselves in the foot at the same time by putting her behind the Season Pass. If you made her a free, "Day 1 DLC" character and STILL announced a Season Pass with more fighters, people wouldn't be shredding them apart in the same way.

Here's my tl;dr take on it all: This definitely feels like something where they wanted to keep the hype of having her at launch because the fans wanted her when the game dropped, while also making it so that her and the other Season Pass DLC characters are apparent as separate additions that are different from the core cast of the on-disc game. They didn't make the connection of why doing both things at once was completely the worst possible way to go about accomplishing it. I'd definitely chalk this one up to stupid rather than greedy/malicious, but it doesn't make it any less shitty.



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[Blade]

I am 100% boycotting this game. ^

Seeing as how Tira wasn't in the original Soul Calibur, I don't really care what fans have to say about DLC anyway.

You're the same people who said you'd boycott BlazBlue Crosstag and now here we all are with Season Passes.
Get over yourself.

I just hope they make the Character creation more advanced and less recycled than SCV. Valkyrie Armor couldn't be equipped with anything else... so I hope they improve it among other outfits.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Nah, I totally get why this's rubbed people the wrong way & why people're mad about it. There's still the possibility that it could be that this is just another company's flat-out a shitty money-grubbing move – in which case it totally deserves a boycott. There are a ton of shitty practices that (if successful) motivate other greedy companies to try that shit, too. Personally, I don't think that it's deserving of a boycott if you take the big picture into account IF I'm right in what I'm gleaning from the situation, which assumes the following:

1. It looks like she'd've been delivered as a Season Pass DLC character regardless – but they pushed to get her out by launch.
2. They pushed hard with her as a "Day 1 DLC" because they want to keep the most fans happy by having a previously-not-present fan favourite character when it lands to help boost their initial sales numbers and help the team make even more continual content for it.
3. Any of the Season Pass DLC characters won't be as closely tied into the main game in the same way that the other on-dics characters are.

Since insofar as I can tell, she'd've been a Season Pass character who's more just a fighter than a part of what they're doing in the rest of the game, it's really just a PR fuckup more than anything for me, and it's one that I get and am not bothered by at all assuming that context is correct. Still, it's worth at least being vocal about, because it's a practice we don't want companies to think that we're ok with as consumers.



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[X-SOLDIER]

Looks like we know who our main big bad is for this game.



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[Blade]

I'm at a point in life where I realize the cost of doing business is more expensive than regular people seem to think,
and in addition, your typical Game PLUS DLC is 70 bucks on average unless there's ludicrous amounts of add-ons like Dead or Alive or GalGun have, which were rather notorious for their practices.

Dead or Alive, to be honest I've seen/played enough of it to know it's not all that interesting, so adding DLC to spice things up was the only thing they could do at the time... that's why DoA6 is sink or swim for them.

GalGun had expensive DLC because of ESRB (for obvious reasons), because your average videogame doesn't go so far as to include nudity as a selling point.

For Soul Calibur VI, I have concerns about the character creator elements being recycled from SCV, but given the new combat elements and the character diversity, it will be loads better than the previous game which relied too heavily on Edge Master Mokujin characters.