Topic: Soul Calibur 2 too easy ???

[tom91]

I read in many groups and review that the game was very easy and that some people finished the game in one or to days.
Finished certainly meant : "the adventure part"

As I still do not bought this game (Europe...), i'd like to know if there is a level of difficulty to choose in such case ?
If so, at which one do you play ?

As my first Combat game (yes, never played tekken or streetfighter), will it be a good choice ?

[Bill Aurion]

Obviously these guys were playing on easy.  There are several difficulties to choose from, so nothing to worry about there

[tom91]

ok thanx

[S-U-P-E-R]

A guy on PSO said he was "undefetable" at SC2. I asked him how old he was and if he's been playing in the arcades for a week, and he said he was 13 and just got it for his GameCube.



so we all better just quit now guys

[Grey Ninja]

I still haven't finished the second quest in Weapons Master, and I still get my ass handed to me like you wouldn't believe when I crank the difficulty.  I am not new to video games at all.  

[S-U-P-E-R]

Difficulty is pretty relative when you have or have not been playing fighting games hardcore for ten years

[PIAC]

i suck at it, bezerker stresses me owf, enough to snap my disc in half... stupid bezerker..

[Caliban]

SC2 can be annoying to pass in some parts of Weapon Master mode but just because for example I needed some more practice in doing combos and also some practice doing guard impacts. BTW Weapon Master mode has its dificulty already set(as you can check by the number of stars on the profile of each mission).

Edit: About these player passing the game in two days it's quite possible as I have passed the game in 25 hours and some minutes and that's including the time of me watching the art gallery, theatre mode and other stuff non-playable.

[Pale]

I find beating weapon master mode can be fairly easy if you find the right set of moves and repeat.  It feels major cheapass though and it doesnt work agains a human so i try not to.  If you want a really easy way to beat the computer in weapon master mode.. (for those levels you are frustrated on) Try Seung Mina's running toward 3 kick combo over and over.  It works espeically well on stages where you can get ring outs.  Cheap ass I know..but it saves frustration.

[KDR_11k]

Pale: Cassandra's running P+K is quite good, too. Most CPU enemies seem to try to hit you, but that attack is really fast and does a LOT (between 20 and 40%, depending on enemy) of damage. If you time it well you can hit 'em again when they try to stand up. Rinse, repeat.

I think the game is a bit frustrating, once you're knocked down it's pretty hard to get on your feet again. Often I lose like 50% of my health when I fall and get comboed before being able to do anything. In my book, anything that can do that much damage shouldn't be that hard to avoid. Okay, my book also says nothing should do that much damage, but I guess that is preferrence.
Also, Nightmare and Astaroth seem to be vastly superior to the rest. Astaroth's low-> high attack is pretty evil and his attacks do way too much damage.
When I hear people talk about favourite characters, it's almost always Nightmare or Astaroth, maybe a few Talim-fans. This doesn't sound like good balancing...

[Bill Aurion]

Tip - when on the ground, hold down...you will starting rolling around, avoiding most attacks(though sometimes Ivy or Kilik can get you with a spinning attack)...When your opponent uses a slow move, that is your time to get up and strike

[S-U-P-E-R]

Nightmare is definitely NOT near the top character in the game, but they all seem to be pretty well balanced, except I'm pretty sure that Maxi and YunSung are proven stinkers. I don't think Raphael is that hot, either, but I'm open to being proven wrong...

Fun fact, arcade units of SC2 (and SC1 and all the Tekkens, I think) have a built in chart of most-played characters. At our arcade, Nightmare (13%-ish) is most popular, followed by Kilik (12%-ish), and then uh... I think the rest are sort of a close margin. Most people I see playing are Kilik, Raphael, Nightmare, and Ivy.

I would say, though, that Nightmare and Astaroth are by far the best choices against most players, because most players are "newbie idiots lol!11". If you get up by rapidly tapping an attack button, randomly throw out moves, or are just careless at all, a good Astaroth or Nightmare WILL bust you for 1/5 to 1/3 of your life with NO risk to themselves whaaaaaaat-so-ever.

So, in order to beat these guys, you need to learn these:
- Get up by tapping guard. This gets you up and blocking faster than a roll or attack or ANYTHING. This is most important, I think. Also, if you're taptaptapping an attack button, a good player will just smash you flat with some giant weapon.
- Guard a lot against these guys. There are some slow moves that you can punish.
- Against Nightmare, work on disrupting his "flow" - that's how (a good) Nightmare wins, by seamlessly and constantly moving from stance to stance with wacky combinations of highs and lows and sidesteps. You guess wrong and BAM! There goes a quarter of your life. Watch for obvious chances to guard impact, throw, or jab/kick quickly. Astaroth, however, works with lots of sudden starts and stops. Take advantage of any HESITATION he makes.

As a self-proclaimed Nightmare god (olol) the characters that give me the most trouble are Cassandra, Xiuanagngnhhwa, and Ivy. Xianghua is great for disrupting "flow" and has that obnoxious fake attack into throw. Ivy can control close and far distances better than Nightmare, so NM has to stick to 'mid' range and uh, hope he doesn't get violently cornholed by Ivy's giant combo that goes something like this: (jump+A+B, A, B, F+B). I might be a little off but damn, it hurts.

[KDR_11k]

Maybe I'm lacking the speed necessary to identify an attack and block two different heights in less than half a second, but I never manage to block the first hit. Subsequent ones, yes, but the first one...
Also, that active defense thing rarely works for me, I think I need to study when you are supposed to activate it.
Does anybody ever use soul attacks? Those seem pretty useless to me, while you preppare that thing the enemy just beats the crap out of you.

BTW, how does Yoshimitsu do in comparison to the others?

[S-U-P-E-R]

It's not so much speed as it is psychology, prediction, and punishing patterns.

You'll get used to doing guard impacts soon enough, the margin is pretty wide (especially compared to Street Fighter 3 olol) and even easier to do than in SC1. Imagine "hitting" their attack with it, maybe?  Try doing it IMMEDIATELY after somebody does a guard impact on you, so you guard impact whatever they throw out (probably a throw - you can guard impact throws, but it seems like the margin is way smaller). This will work on like, medium-skill people, until they learn that they can HESITATE and then throw a counter-guard-impacty-thing.

Soul charging usefulness varies per character. REMEMBER, you can move and soul charge at the same time (unlike SC1). For my buddy Nightmare, I only use it when my opponent runs away  or we're full-screen apart for some reason (Except when the opponent can be a threat then, which is basically only with Ivy or ololol Link I guess). What it does for Nightmare, is it makes moves like his running+B or running+K:B unblockable. This opens up for some deviousness; like, if they are a good player, and expect a soul-charge unblockable (which CAN be guard impacted, unlike a regular unblockable, if I remember) and tries to guard impact it, boy golly are they surprised when I slide or throw them. Totally mindf-cks them, too.

(Oh, for the PS2 crew, Heihachi needs to Soul Charge for his supergoddamnlong chain combo, from what I remember)

Yoshimitsu is supposed to be good, but I've never known a good Yoshimitsu player...

[Pale]

I don't like the guard impact using a GCN controller.  I much prefer using the should button to guard and for throws, but I cannot time the analogness of it for a guard impact.  So I have to somehow remember to switch down to b in order to guard impact.  Did anyone get that official SCII arcade stick?  Is it any good?