Soul Calibur 3 + what Namco has done right (fighting games)

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3142254

After reading this I'm jumping up and down lol. This is one helluva rabbit out of a hat that they've pulled. I've been wondering for a long time now that 3D fighters have pretty much evolved as much as they could in their current state. How many joystick/button combinations for oves/multiparts havent been used yet? Out of a (still) discrete 8 directions, 4 or so buttons. Some double tap + hold can give you an extra couple of moves for the nexe sequel but you will also get to a point where you will hit diminshing returns for more moves added and more moves memorised. Unless the lifebar ends up growing bigger or the damage being drastically reduced, there's only so many moves that you will use per fight and some are more effective than others.

Looks like the designers realised this and took a different approach instead of the usual sequel route. Giving context to why people fight as well as giving them multiple options and variety to learn different facets of the game beyond memorising a movelist was a stroke of genius. Learn by doing. The more variety and fun to spice up the fighting the better. Memorising the movelist in practice mode is the only "artificial" barrier to a fighting game nowadays.

I've loved seeing the Namco fighters, but especially the Soul Calibur series grow from being dial-a-combos to fighting games where one can literally figure out the combos or evolve new ones just by paying close attention. For example, the move being abstracted away so you can focus on where you want to hit, someone wants to kick low, they press down and kick, the kick that you get may be different depending on stance, posture, position but it will be aimed where you want. Another example is that the dial-a-combos are just the beginning, variances in falling speed, juggles and positioning are just some of the factors that can create opportunities to string together more combos and moves together, again things that you can figure out yourself instead of looking at a faq/movelist.

I suspect the fighting system hasn't changed a whole lot, but I'm looking forward to all the other goodies they've added. I'm so damn excited to play this, I may even buy a PS2 for it lol. Yes right before the next-gens are due out :P

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