Soul Calibur 5
So I'm a bit late to this party, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted this game or not, so I decided to wait for the price to drop. Probably a good thing, though it's not a bad game. SC5 is a better follow-up to the Soul Calibur series than RE6 was to the Resident Evil series, and it doesn't play terribly different, so if you've played the previous games you know what to expect.
That said, what they did change was for the worse. First up, many of the characters (mostly the women) have been replaced with younger versions. Leixia is a younger Xianghua, Natsu is a younger Taki, Pyrrah is a younger Sophia (and in her alternate form, Cassandra), and that idiot who acts like a monkey is a younger Kilik (I forget his name, so you can tell how much I like that guy). They have the same moves (for the most part), but they're obviously bait to appeal to a younger audience. A lot of characters and their movesets are entirely gone, too. Zasalamel, Seung Mina, Amy, Rock, Talim and Yunsung and their movesets are nowhere to be seen. I'm a little disappointed in that, because this means no custom characters who use scythes or clubs (or, like, use a Korean style).
There are only two "real" new characters: Z.W.E.I. and, um... some girl in a cloak with a magic orb. E.I.N. is a badass wannabe who summons a spirit wolf and the other girl, um, I don't like enough to learn her name.
All of the replacement characters are pretty disappointing compared to the originals, though. Pyrrah doesn't stop whining, Natsu's too upbeat to be a ninja, monkeydude... ugh, don't get me started.
The story blows. It's all about Patroklos. As in, you play Patroklos for soemthing like 15 of the battles, Pyrrah for like 3 and Z.W.E.I. for 2. Some characters (like Mitsurugi) don't appear in the story at all, others (like Leixia, monkeydude, Maxi and Natsu) are shoehorned in. Maxi and Natsu only have one line each. Halfway through, Patroklos decides to use "a style he learned long ago." It's Setsuna's style. Why does Patroklos, a Greek-born swordsman working in Hungary, know a style from Japan? Never explained. Along with so many other things, like, just who are some of these people, anyhow? Why's Maxi hanging out with a bunch of teens from different countries in the middle of Germany? What's the deal with the hooded girl, who tags along (unplayable) for one mission then vanishes completely from the story? Why's Patroklos so upset about the idea that he was killing humans all along when in the intro he clearly didn't give a damn if they were malfested or not? What's the deal with Aeon? Is he the same Lizardman who has his identity back now, or is he some new Lizardman? He doesn't even show up in the story, so you'll never know.
Finally, there's the hidden characters. Aside from Pyrrah's Cassandra style and Patroklos's Setsuna stance, you have three Edge Masters. You know, that guy who changes his style every round to match one of the other characters? He was kinda cool, but do we really need three of them? I'm surprised they didn't bring back Inferno while they're at it. And then there's Algol. He was an okay boss, I suppose, but if you asked me whether I'd rather have him, or one of the other missing characters, he'd definitely be at the bottom of the list.
At least character creation is the best yet. Thankfully, stats are gone, so you can have your characters wear whatever you want and not have to worry about their performance. You start with a pretty good selection of appear (mostly lifted from SC4) and can unlock more as you go on. You can also detail gear, applying patterns and whatnot.
Now for probably the dumbest part: The super meter. Ok, it's really a Soul Meter or somesuch, but it's the same thing. Fill it up by attacking or getting attacked, then unleash a powerful supermove. The move differs for each character, and some of them have much better moves than the others. For instance, Ivy has a crappy short range throw with a long start up, so it's usually easy to avoid, while Leixia has a combo move she can use after knocking you into the air, making it impossible to avoid. As near as I can tell, this replaces the instant death move in SC4, which I actually didn't mind that much since the requirements for executing it were so steep.
But more importantly, Guard Impacts. Now they take half a level of super meter. So would you rather use a powerful move, or attempt to cancel two attacks with a maneuver that could fail if you don't predict your opponents successfully anyhow? Even if you do, you can only have 2 levels of soul meter at a time, so that's all of four impacts you can make at once. Guard Impacts used to be the best defense against button mashing, but now that that's gone, mash away folks.
Summary: Soul Calibur 5 is alright for what it is, but the changes from previous entries in the series are generally for the worse. Don't pay full price for it.
That said, what they did change was for the worse. First up, many of the characters (mostly the women) have been replaced with younger versions. Leixia is a younger Xianghua, Natsu is a younger Taki, Pyrrah is a younger Sophia (and in her alternate form, Cassandra), and that idiot who acts like a monkey is a younger Kilik (I forget his name, so you can tell how much I like that guy). They have the same moves (for the most part), but they're obviously bait to appeal to a younger audience. A lot of characters and their movesets are entirely gone, too. Zasalamel, Seung Mina, Amy, Rock, Talim and Yunsung and their movesets are nowhere to be seen. I'm a little disappointed in that, because this means no custom characters who use scythes or clubs (or, like, use a Korean style).
There are only two "real" new characters: Z.W.E.I. and, um... some girl in a cloak with a magic orb. E.I.N. is a badass wannabe who summons a spirit wolf and the other girl, um, I don't like enough to learn her name.
All of the replacement characters are pretty disappointing compared to the originals, though. Pyrrah doesn't stop whining, Natsu's too upbeat to be a ninja, monkeydude... ugh, don't get me started.
The story blows. It's all about Patroklos. As in, you play Patroklos for soemthing like 15 of the battles, Pyrrah for like 3 and Z.W.E.I. for 2. Some characters (like Mitsurugi) don't appear in the story at all, others (like Leixia, monkeydude, Maxi and Natsu) are shoehorned in. Maxi and Natsu only have one line each. Halfway through, Patroklos decides to use "a style he learned long ago." It's Setsuna's style. Why does Patroklos, a Greek-born swordsman working in Hungary, know a style from Japan? Never explained. Along with so many other things, like, just who are some of these people, anyhow? Why's Maxi hanging out with a bunch of teens from different countries in the middle of Germany? What's the deal with the hooded girl, who tags along (unplayable) for one mission then vanishes completely from the story? Why's Patroklos so upset about the idea that he was killing humans all along when in the intro he clearly didn't give a damn if they were malfested or not? What's the deal with Aeon? Is he the same Lizardman who has his identity back now, or is he some new Lizardman? He doesn't even show up in the story, so you'll never know.
Finally, there's the hidden characters. Aside from Pyrrah's Cassandra style and Patroklos's Setsuna stance, you have three Edge Masters. You know, that guy who changes his style every round to match one of the other characters? He was kinda cool, but do we really need three of them? I'm surprised they didn't bring back Inferno while they're at it. And then there's Algol. He was an okay boss, I suppose, but if you asked me whether I'd rather have him, or one of the other missing characters, he'd definitely be at the bottom of the list.
At least character creation is the best yet. Thankfully, stats are gone, so you can have your characters wear whatever you want and not have to worry about their performance. You start with a pretty good selection of appear (mostly lifted from SC4) and can unlock more as you go on. You can also detail gear, applying patterns and whatnot.
Now for probably the dumbest part: The super meter. Ok, it's really a Soul Meter or somesuch, but it's the same thing. Fill it up by attacking or getting attacked, then unleash a powerful supermove. The move differs for each character, and some of them have much better moves than the others. For instance, Ivy has a crappy short range throw with a long start up, so it's usually easy to avoid, while Leixia has a combo move she can use after knocking you into the air, making it impossible to avoid. As near as I can tell, this replaces the instant death move in SC4, which I actually didn't mind that much since the requirements for executing it were so steep.
But more importantly, Guard Impacts. Now they take half a level of super meter. So would you rather use a powerful move, or attempt to cancel two attacks with a maneuver that could fail if you don't predict your opponents successfully anyhow? Even if you do, you can only have 2 levels of soul meter at a time, so that's all of four impacts you can make at once. Guard Impacts used to be the best defense against button mashing, but now that that's gone, mash away folks.
Summary: Soul Calibur 5 is alright for what it is, but the changes from previous entries in the series are generally for the worse. Don't pay full price for it.