I've started exploring the various missions and other bells and whistles. I've tried everthing but the online play so far; I've realized that I still have a long way to go with learning the controls, and I'd like to make as big a splash as possible. Plus in a wireless networking house, stretching a cable down the stairs and across the living room isn't such a wonderful idea.
My biggest complaint so far is that all of the features in the game are terribly documented. New features are revealed in a prompt that merely says what kind of feature it is ("You have unlocked 1 weapon!") and the only way I've found to stop things from showing up as "new" is to buy them. I have very little clue about how to work the characer generator, still; I think that I've figured everything that's obvious out, but left unanswered are questions about whether armor actually changes stats or not. I'm not sure whether weapons change your attack stats, either -- purchased weapons each seem to have two special abilities, which are represented by graphics that are entirely unexplained in most places.
On the other hand, the missions are a new twist and are very interesting. It's a good idea to break them up into categories as they have been, because that way failing at one doesn't mean failure overall. There are what appear to be 10 different types of mission, and beating one unlocks the same kind of mission at a higher difficulty level.
The unique character generator is a nice idea, but I haven't found any way to level the people up yet. Again, it's entirely undocumented. Experience makes sense in the strategy game that's included, but I can't figure this other part out yet.
Speaking of which, the strategy game is quite good. People who have already played enough to become decent at improvising shouldn't have much trouble, although the level 60 astaroth is a nuisance...
The sound continues to amaze. I really like the THX logo.
I put my official controller back in, instead of my AirFlo controller, and the controls were somewhat improved. They're still more exacting; you need to be standing straight up for most moves to work, instead of having a very lenient game. I think they adjusted the curve to add a much greater skill factor for the online play.
A lot of the bigger characters seem to have been sped up compared to my favorite, Taki. Combos seem more vital to the gameplay, while the move lists don't seem to have everything on them. There are a lot of small tweaks; deflections now require you to be facing the opponent, and the button combination is pickier. The AI has improved drastically at medium levels, but so far it doesn't seem to have the same bite at extreme difficulty. I did about as well against Extreme characters in the 3rd edition of this game as I do now against the 2nd, and I'm still not used to all the changes.
They've readded some characters (for example, Rock, who was -- shall we say -- sorely missed). Console-unique characters are gone. There are more generic characters, and they seem more powerful than previous incarnations; about as strong as your regular character in most ways.
There are several modes now, many of which you need to unlock. Story mode has been redone in much the same way that it was for the first game, Soul Blade, but with some marked improvements. You pick a character, and fight a linear series of battles (no navigating the world map over and over this time). You're given a couple reaction tests, and a few branching choices that shape who you fight and where you go. Difficulty ramps up quickly, and in the end it's not much different from Arcade Mode. You can't save, and in the end it only takes a few minutes to play through.
There is now a dedicated shop where you can spend your hard-earned money. More on that later, but you can in fact buy weapons and armor, and other miscellaneous things.
The graphics are better than the previous versions of the game, but not by a huge amount. The music doesn't seem to have the same breadth of genre as in previous games, but it fits the theme slightly better. The introduction movie is excellent as always, but I don't think it matches Soul Blade's. The menu music, might I add, is perfect.
I haven't had a chance to look at the internet game yet. Select apparently pulls you out of the combat and back to the title screen instantly, without any confirmation checks; I discovered this to my extreme dismay. The controls feel a little muddier. But the action is faster and seems to be more skill-based than twitch-based. And I still haven't figured out Taki's "backflip out of trouble" move that was so easy in Soul Blade... time to hit GameFAQs.
More information as I get further into it.
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