This didn't work out the first time I tried it, but per the suggestion of A Black Falcon, I'm going to try it again.
To enter, post what character you want, which weapon you want to use (if you don't know the name, a description will do. If no weapon is picked, the characters original weapon will be used), and if you like you can choose a skin too. You can pick any one of the 25 characters in the roster, but the only console-specific character available is Link. Heihachi and Spawn fans need not apply. Once we have enough to stage a tournament, I'll do one-on-one battles in a bracket formation in the Battle Theater until we have a winner.
All battles will be best 2 out of 3 and be held in the Mansion Library stage.
So, sign up!
<b>EdenMaster</b> - Cervantes - Falchion
<b>Dark Jaguar</b> - Link - Great Fairy Sword (I mean, Black Rose Sword...)
<b>A Black Falcon</b> - Seung Mina - Soul Edge (Complete)
<b>Great Rumbler</b> - Nightmare - Soul Edge
<b>Sacred Jellybean</b> - Voldo - Manus & Ayus
<b>Nick Burns</b> - Astaroth - Thanatos
I assume you unlocked them all then.
I'm tempted to go Assassin, but instead...
Dark Jaguar - Link (Great Fairy Sword (I like to call it the Black Rose Sword, sounds more awesomer with lightning and da blooood)) - Green Tunic (They should have added a REAL alternate costume like everyone else got, including the other system exclusives. I know exactly what one it shoulda been too! The cool alternate should have been Demon Link from Majora's Mask! You know, when you put on the Fierce Diety mask.)
Seung Mina, Costume #1, Soul Edge. The Hraesvaelger (sp?) is awesome damage-wise, but dealing with the life drain is a pain... I prefer the Soul Edge. :)
I got kind of bored using Cassandra all the time (great character, but variety is good), so I picked one that was quite different and harder to learn to play as... she's great though, and so cheap with all the 'hit people on the ground' attacks... :D
Link's got that "I flip over your arm and then smack you outta da ring" cheap throw move that all beginners just love :D.
There are a LOT of cheap characters in Soul Calibur II... it's one of the issues with the game really, how many of the characters are so cheap and easy to be good with... honestly, I prefer fighting games with battles that last longer and a more clear skill-to-victory connection -- while the good player will win more games, newbies can definitely win a good amount with just button mashing.
Nightmare - Whichever weapon is coolest.
Who's that guy with the claws for hands? *does a google search*
Voldo! Yeah, him. And I don't know what weapon... *shrugs* I'll leave that up to you, since I've only played Soul Edge in the arcades.
OB1 - Megaman, with super bomb blast and automatic match winner.
I hate Voldo... so annoying and so good...
Every character is "cheap", but in that sense, they are balanced yes? Actually I'd say SC2 is pretty much fully balanced. The cheap moves allow even a beginner to stand a chance, but with skill such moves can be overcome and then comes the big battles that can get down to little half-dances with quick jab moves.
Balanced? No, I'd say that it's definitely balanced towards the smaller and faster characters and away from the slow and powerful ones... and most of the people who I know who have played it agree.
Would the SC players here say that it's less balanced that Super Smash Bros: Melee? Because Melee *is* a very balanced fighter... probably the most balanced I've ever played.
(but Fox still 0wnz everyone)
Actually I've found a charaacter like Nightmare can be VERY dangerous in the right hands. Slow, but with proper timing and the length of that weapon, it doesn't matter because a good player can keep a quick fighter away long enough to totally smashinate them, into the ground. I still prefer quick characters in all fighting games, I prefer learning the main strength of them, the whole "it doesn't matter how powerful you are if you can't hit me" thing.
SSBM is a pretty balanced game, but so is SC2. Really I'd say they are about even, but they both are not yet PERFECT.
Now, when these two games are released with both online and some massive writable medium support, like a hard disk for example, and the right hooks, then balancing issues will be correctable by the makers of the game without having to release 30 versions of the same game! Then, much like the masters at Blizzard for example, any balance issues, as they are discovered, can be compensated for and corrected with updates you can download.
Yes, I would say that it's less balanced than Melee. While some characters are bad, you can still be quite good with them if you know how... in Soul Calibur you can win, but it's because of how short fights are and how much luck and button mashing is a factor... there is probably more strategy involved in a game of SSB.
I'd put Soul Calibur II's balance closer (though probably not quite at) the balance in Capcom vs SNK... that is, it's not completely balanced but it's fun anyway...
Button mashers in Soul Calibur II CAN win, that's true. They can slam their controllers and yes, they can do damage and win the fight. That being said, anytime I see someone playing like that, I have to keep myself from laughing. They have no idea what moves they're doing, involuntarily Soul Charging, and they don't block.
I usually play as Cervantes. He's slow and if you watch him, you can tell what moves he's going to do. The way to play (and win with style) is with strategy. Thinking ahead is invaluable. I envision the moves I'm going to use, how they will affect my opponent, what to do if it hits, and what to do if they block (and what kind of counter attacks to expect depending on the character I'm fighting), and this goes through my mind with the quickest jab to the most complex combo. I've played against Nick Burns here in person, and he can certainly attest to my skill.
Button mashers are a pitiful sight in Soul Calibur II, and I love nothing more than using pure skill to smash them to pieces.
Regardless of what it may seem, Soul Calibur II is vey well balanced. Quick characters have an advantage over slow ones, and powerful characters have an advantage over weak ones. Every character on the rosters is either quick and weak, or powerful and slow, with very little middle ground. To that end, every slow character has quick moves that are weak, and every quick character has powerful moves that take a long time to execute. Think about it. Nightmare and Astaroth have no quick attacks that do an extreme amount of damage. Xianghua and Taki have no powerful attacks that can be done with the press of a button. That is the essence of balance. There's also the added factor of Ring Out potential, but remove that aspect from every character, and you have a very balanced fight.
Show me one example (naming characters would be nice) that shows a glaring presence of any imbalance in the game.
Honestly I can't think ahead like that in battle, I'm just acting and reacting. If I get a full second of time to think, I may think of doing a fake out or a cancel, but that takes a while to formulate, I just can't think like that as I'm doing it.
You have to really know what your character is capable of to be able to do it. I can only do it effectively with Cervantes, Yoshimitsu, Raphael, and Voldo. Everybody else, I just don't know their moves well enough to formulate strategies.
I try to remember some moves with the characters I use most, but mostly I just do stuff... the game doesn't have much of an emphasis on special moves after all...
VF4 is by far the most balanced fighter ever. Each character is incredibly unique but has no advantage over another among skilled players.
Then it's got one up on Soul Calibur II in that regard... and yes that is a pretty good game. I wish it was out on Cube...
A Black Falcon Wrote:Then it's got one up on Soul Calibur II in that regard...
You're missing my point. No character has any advantage over another in SCII either. You just percieve so because of speed. Speed players are quicker than the slower ones, but do a lot less damage per hit. Power players can win a match with a few well-timed strikes and good blocking.
Speed or power is the trade-off you take wiht any character in any fighting game. Normally, the fast characters aren't strong and the slow characters are. This, in no way, is advantageous to the speed player. In skilled hands, a power player can obliterate the fastest button masher on earth.
It's not just because of speed. If that were the case it'd seem like that in all fighting games while that is not true. Yes, I tend to prefer faster characters, but not always... but in this game it's not close. I do kind of like Nightmare, but not because he's all that good...
I'm not missing your point, I'm just disagreeing with it. :)
I mean, this game has really fast characters who hit a lot and do good amounts of damage! When combined with the extremely short health bars that mean battles will be over quickly, it leads to imbalance...
Perhaps you should use one of your favorite fast characters against my friend's Astaroth... That may change your mind. You may find yourself saying "3 hits?! That's so cheap!".
The results are in!
To fill the two open slots, I simply used Charades. So here are the final rankings. Read and feel smart.
First round battles:
A Black Falcon VS Charade - A Black Falcon wins in 2 battles
Nick Burns VS Charade - Charade wins in 2 battles
Sacred Jellybean VS EdenMaster - EdenMaster in 3 battles
Great Rumbler VS Dark Jaguar - Great Rumbler in 2 battles
Second Round:
A Black Falcon VS Charade - A Black Falcon wins in 2 battles
EdenMaster VS Great Rumbler - EdenMaster in 3 battles.
Final Round:
A Black Falcon VS EdenMaster - A Black Falcon in 3 battles.
A Black Falcon wins!
Now, since we got a pitiful six entries, enjoy your first and ONLY SCII tournament win. Last time I'm doing it :).
Beating Charade twice isn't much of a challenge. :)
Why not? Charade isn't weaker than whoever he's imitating.
To top it off, one of the weapons Charade used was Ivy's joke weapon :). You can't really say Charade itself if an easy opponent. Not only that, but also the weapon he weilds.
Charade is one of the more fun characters to play, IMO. I mean, you get to play a different character every battle!
Quote:I mean, this game has really fast characters who hit a lot and do good amounts of damage! When combined with the extremely short health bars that mean battles will be over quickly, it leads to imbalance...
It also has very powerful characters that can stop a fast characters charge and smash them into the ground before they can return to their feet. The only fast character that does reasonable damage per hit is Xianghua. With Taki, Talim, and even Raphael you have to hit a lot of times to take down an opponent.
Do you Guard Impact? I don't care how fast you are, I Guard Impact you and you're going to feel some hurting.
I don't like Taki... Talim is pretty good though and Raphael is ridiculous. Xianghua is pretty good too, but not as good as Talim or Raphael... though as I said my favorites are Cassandra and Seung Mina.
Guard Impact? Which are those... I think I can do Guard Break moves with some characters (the really slow ones that always hit), but I don't know about those...
Oh, come on :D
You Guard Impact by pressing guard and forward or back at the moment an opponents strike will hit you. Doing it correctly will leave your opponent fumbling over his weapons for a couple seconds, allowing you to get in a powerful hit or throw. It's tricky and not at all for beginners, but if you know your opponents moves well enough it can be an invaluable tool, and quick characters who attack in rapid succession are just begging for it.
Yes, Raphael is a good character but I wouldn't exactly call him "ridiculous". Sure he's got some powerful and quick moves, but his command list is so limited until you start pulling out his fancy moves. He falls into patterns and all you need to do is block his attacks and punish him.
No, I don't know that move. It mentioned it in one of the tutorials but pulling it off was really hard and I didn't try it again really... I guess it could help against fast characters, but I still think that they're better than the slower ones.
As for Charade, he tries to be everyone (and kind of is) but is worse than all of them... kind of cool but bad.
A Black Falcon Wrote:As for Charade, he tries to be everyone (and kind of is) but is worse than all of them... kind of cool but bad.
...
Nnnoooo...
Charade randomly picks a character in the beginning of the battle, and from that moment on, he is EXACTLY like fighting the character he is imitating. No difference whatsoever.
Exactly. He's the "random character" option, only it also randomly changes between rounds.
Xianpha (however that's spelled) is fun, because she's fast but also is the master of cancelling (just kidding!). That's where people running around guard impacting get punished right there.
nightmare, with the Soul Calibre? (the one that heals you when you hit someone) costume? doesn't matter.
If he's exactly like them then why does he seem to be copying them exactly, but isn't as good as the actual characters... because it definitely seems that way. The character's idea has promise but in practice he's not very good.
Charade adopts the AI of the character he is imitating. Except for appearance and lack of a voice, it's exactly like fighting the real character. The perception that he's somehow "worse" than the originals is all in your head.
Charade is the wild card for people who love all the characters (like me :D). Playing a Survival with him is great!
Yeah, it's all mental. It's a rather common thing, in the same catagory as those who believe ripoff nonsense "sound devices" actually improve audio quality (read: shakra stones). Unfortunatly, a double blind test would be pretty impossible to do here unless the game was reprogrammed. But, if we are doing that we might as well show you the code that says he acts exactly the same.
Try it out. Try picking a character and charade and keep starting battles until charade matches the first chosen character. Make it 2P, that's important (also, so you don't have to match weapons, choose normal 2P, not extra). Now, trade blows. Have him hit, then recieve the SAME hit. Check the health of both. They should be the same. Get them by each other, then hit an attack button at the same time for both of them, they should strike at the exact same time.
Charade is purely a copycat. In fact, he's a straight ripoff of Edgemaster from SC1. Edgemaster also just randomly copied one of the characters exactly (Voldo being a more disturbing example). You also could play as Inferno, and it too was the exact same thing. Well, not EXACT. It actually was BETTER than whoever it was imitating because it could use special Inferno exclusive moves no matter who it was copying (such as the fly into the air, spin around like a nut, then dive at the enemy move). Now, this meant one thing, Inferno was NOT a balanced character. Did those few extra moves really help that much? Not really in most situations, but it was still a possible advantage in some that was certainly not warrented. So, they ditched the super powered Inferno and just had an Edgemaster clone, Charade.
Necrid is an interesting one. That style isn't really unique but rather a specific set of moves all selected from each of the existing characters. Ya know, the way it's pulled off some of the weapon morphs seem a little odd just to be doing the job of THAT specific move :D. Like, pulling out a shield just to use the sword to hit then losing the shield.
If that is so then why is the computer so bad with Charade? Why does Charade-as-anyone seem to be an easier fight than that person themself? And why has he been so bad the few times I've used him...
Quote:as those who believe ripoff nonsense "sound devices" actually improve audio quality (read: shakra stones)
... what?
I just explained why, it's all in your head. It seems to be that bad because you believe he is that bad, but it's just not the case. Charade performs just as well as whoever he is imitating. That's exactly what he's programmed to do.
*tapes special sound coins to TV* I can totally hear an improvement!
haha, i tried to enter this thing after it was over. maybe i should have read some of it instead of just replying.
Well, the reason you percieve him as an easy opponent has alreayd been covered, it's purely mental.
The reason you do poorly when you play as him? That's easy. I've heard the hardest character in SCII to master is in fact Charade, in that you have to master all the OTHER characters if you truly want to master Charade. If you're good with all the characters, then you're good with Charade. If you're good with one or two characters, then you'll do okay if you get them, but you'll obviously die if you land on a character you're unfamiliar with. Happens to me all the time. I can't count the number of times I've been doing well with Charade, and then die because I simply get dealt a character I'm bad with like Xianghua, Ivy, or Maxi. If you consistantly get characters you know (or know all the characters decently enough), then Charade is a very fun character to play.
It's all in your head, man. Charade poses just as much of a threat to you as though you were fighting the character he was mimicking. I've been beaten by Charades before when he became a good character. There's no more shame in losing to him than to any other character.