Usually this would be the opportunity to pine after a Rival Schools 3 (Project Justice) or Power Stone 3, or heavens forbid (see what I did there?) an actual honest-to-goodness Shenmue III!
But no. This time Ill go for a well-established franchise. That said, the prospect of a sequel is not set in stone…
Ever since those dearly missed Dreamcast days, where in my opinion a golden age of innovation of fighting games began with the advent of Soulcalibur. Now, I have moaned aplenty about the lack of structural innovation in the vast majority of fighting games and most of us ignore what can be done to innovate mechanically based on the assumption that there is not much room for growth.
But there is. And games like Power Stone and Soulcaliburs spiritual forebear Soul Blade hold the answers. On playing the Power Stone series, I thought to myself, this was as close to a barroom brawl simulator as we were ever going to get. You could pick up anything and everything that wasnt nailed down to use as a weapon. Hell, you could even use guns!
Now, I wouldnt go that far in the case of Soulcalibur. But in Soul Blade, you could be disarmed. It was meant as a punishment and suddenly these highly skilled martial artists would transform into clumsy, lumbering oafs right before your eyes. What if you expanded on an unarmed move list? You should be able to use most, if not all of your kicks except where the weapon are used as a crutch.
Yet, we could go further. And here is why I suggest SoulCalibur as the template as it is already closest to the concept: what if the characters could use the other characters weapons? Obviously of varying degrees of aptitude, but what if you built move sets for all the characters with most of the weapons? I say most, as there would be restrictions. I dont think Xianghua is going to be able to even pick up Astaroths axe or Siegfrieds zweihander, let alone use them all that well. That said, those giant claymores – that I believe were meant for heavy cavalry – werent excessively heavy. But it would still take strength to use well.
So, lets pit Maxi against Siegfried. Certain special moves or heavy blows or maybe even guard impacts could see the combatants weapons knocked from their hands. Maxi then picks up the zweihander while Siegfried picks up the nunchucks. Even though the nunchucks are significantly lighter, Siegfried is not as adept with it. Still, he would have his own unique take on it. He wouldnt be able to pull of any of Maxis flamboyant spins and pirouettes (though Kilik and Xianghua might) but he would still know enough that swinging it across someones face would likely hurt. As he wears plate armour, he may even get closer to use more grappling moves, like throttling Maxi with his own nunchucks!
Maxi, on the other hand, never uses a sword. But Im sure he knows what the sharp end is for. He might use the giant blade much more defensively – like a shield, but with two pointy edges. And could Sophitia lose both sword and shield during a match? Knocking a shield out of someones grip is more difficult than a weapon – but not impossible. And even so, a shield is not just for defence, as she already amply demonstrates.
What about Ivys whip blade? I think only characters versed in magic or with a connection to Soul Edge would be able to transform it from one state to another. So that would be AstaRead More – Source
