Game Design, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Soul Calibur IV Patch 1.03 Hits Japan. I Love You, Internet
There are plenty of things I hate about the internet: it has made me frustrated, sad, angry and even disillusioned with the world. However, it’s not all bad. It brings me laughs, news and now even a patch for Soul Calibur IV. The ability to patch is something I love about next-gen systems. Developers’ opportunity to fix balance issues and bugs is essential to fighting games in particular, where a single buggy move can change the face of the game and sometimes completely ruin it. This was very apparent with Soul Calibur IV’s predecessor: Soul Calibur III.
Soon after its release, Soul Calibur III’s reputation was ruined by the discovery of one thing: the Variable Cancel. The Variable Cancel allowed players to cancel their throw animations midway through. The result? The player getting thrown is still locked into the throw animation and is helpless, while the player performing the throw gets to move around willy-nilly. This obviously lead to some ridiculously glitchy combos like Yoshimitsu’s 75% dmg atrocity shown here. Without the ability to patch the home console version of the game on the Playstation 2, the glitch was unable to be fixed.
Thankfully, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 don’t have this problem. Soon after the game’s release, an infinite combo was found for Ivy. This time Namco is able to fix its mistakes and try to keep Soul Calibur IV as balanced as possible, hopefully creating a competitive community that never formed with Soul Calibur III.
The changes identified so far are as follows. Although the patch hasn’t hit U.S. shores yet, I would advise you to adjust your game plan if you rely on any of the following moves.
(Copied and pasted from 8WR forums )
System Changes
- Soul Crushes are harder to pull off (moves generally take off less from the soul gauge)
- You can JI throws
Ivy:
-SW WS B is FIXED…. it hits TOTALLY different, SW WS B -> BT A+B no longer forward RO and can’t follow up with the old combo, so no more infinites..
-whip 6A+B does less damage
Algol:
-3B~41236B->3B - damage scaled down to 70 (before was 90)
-if 22B is hit in the air… it no longer provides a stun for 2A+B to bounce juggle
-8A+B in juggles will set them flying backwards… for BT B+K so 33B -> 8A+B -> BT B+K … it does horrible damage compared to before… he mentioned something like 50? yeah
-66A+G throw pushes further back
Cassandra:
- 66B+K doesn’t pick up the opponent like before…
- you can do five i236[b] in a row lol… (probably shitty damage)
Sophitia:
-BB damage is weaker now
-3A+B hit airborne once
Yoshimitsu:
-a:B+K damage is weaker, and can not follow up with 3AB UNLESS you do 2a:B before that…. making it harder
-44bA no longer rapes soul gauge like before.. takes around four 44bA against the wall for CF… not like before two 44bA no walls…..
Amy:
-3BA no longer rapes soul gauge does less damage
Raphael:
- BB no longer tracks like no tomorrow… but you can still punish him on block lol
Setsuka:
-A+G throw is 5 less damage
Voldo:
- BS 236A no longer stuns
- BS 22B won’t relaunch the airborne opponent
- combo damage is weaker
Astaroth:
- 6K is -14
Xianghua:
- 214B+G B hits Astaroth
Talim:
- A+K Tech Jump time is less
Cervantes:
-11K has less advantage on block
Tira:
-infinite against talim doesn’t work (didn’t even know there was an infinite lol)
- 2A no longer whiffs
Thanks Internet. You complete me.
Tags: Patch, Soul Calibur
