Gameplay:
For my second session I asked a couple of my friends to aid in me my research by trying out the multiplayer mode. They happily obliged. Immediately I noticed how captivating and interactive the game becomes. Both my friend and I were jumping around and yelling at the t.v. within 5 minutes. Since neither of us had played the game before today, we played every round with a new character, which only added to the suspense and fun.
Design:
As my friend Jackie and I kept playing the game, I started to realize something; She was kicking my butt! At first I thought it was because she was using a character with an especially long sword, but sure enough, she still managed to destroy me with every character she picked. After a few rounds...and after secretly accepting the fact that she was winning by skill, not chance, I complimented her on her win streak. She happily said, " Yeah, I'm really comfortable with fighting games and I just adjusted to this one." And that's when I realized, Soul Caliber III was developed FOR fighting game gamers. Even though Jackie had never played this game before, her past experience with fighter games perfectly set her up with this game and the controls came completely natural to her.
One aspect of the design of this game that I think adds to its popularity is the mix of easily pulled off moves that look fancy, with the ability to knock players up and off of the stage. This not only makes players feel like they're really good really fast, but it also adds to the strategy that players can use to defeat their opponents. The levels themselves are also somewhat interactive in that players can smash the ground into little pieces with certain moves and even smash other players into the ground. This kind of interactive level is something i can definitely see our design team trying to incorporate into our own game.
Another aspect of the game that I really thought of as interesting and intriguing was the idea of buying new weapons, armor, and items for your character. I don't know if this has been the case with past Soul Calibers, but since I'm new to the franchise, I found it very innovative for a fighting game and really fun to get into. I'm not sure exactly what effects these upgrades have on the character, but there are little pictures next to each one which symbolize a power-up that comes with the weapon. This is a very smart move on the designers' side because it allows them to add another mechanic to the gameplay which involves money you win from winning fights and strategy in picking exactly what you want to buy and how you want to use it.
The one thing that seemed like a flaw to me was the inconsistency of the difficulty of my opponents. One would assume that as you progressed through the game, your foes would grow in difficulty, but it seemed to me that every character went back and forth. This wasn't necessarily something to dislike about the game, as it was just very annoying. Overall I greatly enjoyed this game and can see myself playing it often in the future.
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