Wow. Soul Calibur VI has a distinction I never thought I’d reach -- an award I never thought I’d give out. Certainly, it’s a good game; fast, furious, and fun. I want to put more time into it, so I can learn the ins and outs as I transcend history and the world in online battles. At the same time? I’m about one night’s sleep away from deciding that I don’t care about the game anymore.
All I want to do is make a bunch of custom characters. Screw the rest of the game.
To reiterate, I don’t say that lightly. Having been burnt out on Dragon Ball FighterZ (though I did give it another shot by way of picking up Broly…with mixed results), I need another fighter in my life. Timing and credibility put Soul Calibur VI in a prime spot to be my main squeeze -- a status tempered slightly by way of me playing it on my brother’s PC instead of my native PS4 habitat, but whatever. He’s under the impression that online play on the PC is much less frustrating than on PS4; given the lag-infested matches, or lack thereof, I’ve played in other games -- DBFZ well among them -- I could do without that headache.
But now I barely even care. I mean, I’ll start playing the game seriously at some point; as a longtime fan of the series, I’ve got no choice. Still, I’m in no rush right now. Why would I be? The limiters are off; near as I can tell, I’ll never have to worry about keeping up in an arms race with my brother in terms of match-winning tech. I haven’t touched Street Fighter V’s online suite in months (I’ll be back someday, Falke, I just had to go to the corner store to pick up some lotto tickets). It’s long since been established, in my mind at least, that I’m competent enough at any given fighter to be whatever qualifies as “middle of the road” from game to game. No fool, but no expert. My pride and humility are secure.
So it’s time to indulge.
The character creation suite in SC6 is one of the most appreciable things I’ve seen in a game all year. While it’s not the first in the franchise to offer it -- SC3 holds that title -- we’re talking about the latest offering for the latest consoles, with all of the processing power that that implies. Admittedly, the offerings in Bandai Namco’s latest aren’t the be-all and end-all. Not accounting for unlockable/purchasable items, the default selection of options is a bit sparser than I’d like. That may be a casualty of modern-day development, given that at one point it was implied that SC6 not selling well would kill the franchise; if you know where to look, you can see where they cut corners with the game. (No more 2P, dev-designed costumes for the main roster.) Still, what’s here is more than enough to satisfy if you’re willing to dive deep.
Right out of the gate, there’s some stuff you can mess around with. Choose your race (which, AFAIK, has no bearing on your stats), choose your gender, and then go ham with whatever you’ve got on tap. Hairstyles, equipment, body type, voice, face, the works. There don’t seem to be any original fighting styles like there were in previous games -- which is a real shame, because if they brought back the Devil Jin style, so many of my characters would be viable and accurately represented. I have a weak spot for fist-fighters, you see. I could do without the wings and lasers, but…eh, I could manage.
There’s been some controversy lately about whether or not custom characters should be allowed in ranked matches. It’s not hard to see why. One of the biggest stat modifiers is the character height, so you’re allowed to make your dream fighter smol or tol at your leisure. A short fighter has greater power, but lesser reach; for tall characters, it’s the opposite. You’d think that a larger fighter would also pack more power, but given that those are the two main stats the devs made overt, there’s no helping it.
The end result is plain to see. I figured as much from the beta, but it does make a difference when you change your character’s physical parameters. By design, Sophitia doesn’t have the range of, say, Kilik or Ivy; you can push the needle in the opposite direction, however, by making your own, taller version of Sophitia (or just a custom fighter who borrows her moveset). There’s a perceptible difference on the virtual and psychological level. More importantly? Changing your character’s size impacts how vulnerable they are to certain combos. This is a massive deal for an audience who can and will scrutinize games down to individual, split-second frames.
I was about to type “I guess the moral of the story is don’t make a big character”, but that might not be true. Big-body boys might be susceptible to more combos -- guys like Hugo and Sentinel say hi -- but in exchange, that extra range may be worth the risk. Imagine a fighter with Talim’s speed, but an extra foot of arm length. That’s kind of scary. Likewise, your custom Tiny Tim gets a defensive edge if he eats a combo (with the power boost for the return offense), but it won’t matter if your opponent can dance out of your piddling range.
Is that approach the devs’ idea of balance? Maybe. It’s more likely that it’s a happy coincidence, though. We’ll know for sure if they address the complaints and discrepancies via a patch…which they can just as easily ignore if they decide that addressing the complaints costs too much money or time or resources or human empathy. And in turn? The diehards and purists could decide to ignore custom characters entirely, or flat out reject them. Mii Fighters aren’t even close to relevant in Smash Bros. 4 because of their variable nature, so I don’t know if it’ll be that big of an issue. Then again, the complaint is that the customs are clogging up ranked matches online, not tournaments, and even Smash had the wherewithal to preemptively lock them out. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo…
Sorry guys. It looks like it’s not online, but onwhine.
Even if this controversy is troublesome (though still valid), it’s at least gotten people talking. And who knows? Maybe it’ll light a fire under the dev team. Or maybe the sales numbers of the game will do the coaxing. Either route -- the latter more so, I’m guessing -- will lead to more options down the line. In which case? I am absolutely down for that. Based on the reactions and receptacles across the net, it’s safe to say I’m not the only one with creative fever.
It’s too early to say for sure, but I’d like to think that SC6’s character creator suite is going to elevate the game past the red line -- the deciding factor in whether the franchise goes straight to the trash, or if it goes forward from here on. In which case? I’m not just embracing that; I want the devs to double, triple, and quadruple-down on what they’ve wrought upon the populace. They’ve tapped a niche that’s laid dormant for far too long. People want to create and express themselves, and any game that has the means/import to do so on a wide scale is just setting itself up for a big windfall. Follow through on that. There’s an audience for it, so go nuts and give them more.
Give me more.
If they don’t go full ham with SC6, then I hope they do with the next one. If they have to quarantine created characters, then so be it -- but in doing so, let me go balls to the wall with options. Give me more hairstyles. More armor pieces. Clothing and equipment that both fits into the style/cultures of the day, and complete garbage from every modern decade (or out of it). Got people complaining about character imbalance and hitbox shenanigans with character sizes? Ignore them. Quintuple-down. I want to see guys who make Astaroth look like Peter Dinklage, or fighters who barely have an edge on Yoda. Break the limit on character sliders so I can jack up proportions to my heart’s content.
And the stats? Oh man, the stats. Let me lay into those. Don’t just stop with height being the decider (and weapon style, I guess, but whatever). I want to be able to dump attribute points into whatever I want, no questions asked. Let me make the tank of my dreams -- slow as a legless moose, but damn near invincible as a result. It’ll be nuts. But you know what? I’d revel in it. Savor it. Why? Because it’s my ideal. My creation. Giving players full ownership of their creations and endeavors is a shining road toward success.
To the game’s credit? While there are times when it seems like there aren’t enough options, or some baffling omissions (damn it, just give me some shoulder-length hair with volume!), you have many options to create something at or near your imagined designs. Prior to release, my mission statement was simple: I wanted to make a mummy. I succeeded. Granted, I learned the hard way that if you want to use your creation in the OC-specific Libra of Souls mode, you have to make them in that mode at the start, not via the creation suite.
The reason why I was wary of getting in too deep with the creation suite beyond “make a mummy and go” is because I know myself. I know that I’m exactly the type of person who’ll spend hours and days on end trying to bring his characters to life. Couple it with my perfectionist streak -- in which even a single stroke, strand, or pixel out of line necessitates completely starting over -- and you’ve got a recipe for ruin. Given that, there’s a good chance this game will kill me.
Here’s the thing about Libra of Souls: even if you make a skele-man, at any point you can pause your adventure and remake your character from scratch with no lost progress. No one will bat an eye if you leap across genders or species (hooray for being inclusive, I guess), so feel free to do whatever you want, as many times as you want.
At some point, my bro’s going to ask me if I’ve made any progress on unlocking stuff. That’s…going to be an awkward conversation.
It would have been easy -- and better for my sanity -- if I just stuck with a mummy and ran. But I had to push it to the limit. And you know what? I’m glad I did. While I can’t say it wasn’t my intention, I was struck by a bolt of inspiration. “Wait,” I thought. “If I can create anyone I want, then what would happen if I recreated my character from Xenoblade Chronicles X?” As it turns out, the game provided a solid answer. My girl Lariat lives again.
If I could get the hairstyle right, it’d be more than just a near-perfect recreation. Xenoblade Chronicles X got me where I needed to be, but lagged behind in more than one respect. No changes to proportions, dreadfully-limited hair selections, choices locked behind body type, awful options for certain body types…all you could do was change the height, at least in the US version that ripped out the controversial bust slider. Given that Lariat was and still is the tank of the group, it’s distressing that I couldn’t make the absolute amazon I envisioned. Height can only go so far if you don’t have the muscles for it.
Now here’s SC6 with the hot fix. I’m not just allowed -- no, privileged to make a lady who looks like she can handle weapons of ludicrous size (complete with muscle definition) if I so deign. Whether by luck or fate, I had virtually everything I needed to recreate her default outfit 1:1. Freckles? No problem. Yellow camo tank top? No problem. Black pants as shiny as they are keen to deify even the most modest of asses? No problem. If I fooled around a bit more with the options -- you can add extra objects all over your OC’s body -- then I’d bet I could recreate minor details like the robot arm on her right and the pink ribbon on her left. But until that glorious day comes, I’m satisfied. My grown-ass woman is on the scene, and I couldn’t be happier.
Well, I could if I could commit to her weapon of choice. In XCX she used polearms, but I don’t know if I want to bind her to Seong Mi-na’s moveset given that the real fighter’s girly personality bleeds into her attack animations and thus don’t mesh 100% with Lariat’s persona of “the strongest, coolest, most badass woman in the universe”. I mean I guess I could ignore it if I really tried. On the other hand, it’d be easy to switch off to another guy like Siegfried or Astaroth, but what about their posture? Their animations? I could always make her mimic Raphael or Sophitia given that they’re my mains, and I’m sure Libra of Souls will get progressively harder, necessitating my expertise in combat, so I need to think carefully about...
Sorry. I got carried away.
You know, it’s been a good while since I’ve gotten deep into a character creator. Well, it’s been less time for me than some others, given the stuff I’ve played in the last year or so. (Should probably talk about those at some point.) Still, it’s nice to have a creation suite with prestige and money behind it, with a genre and options that really let me flex my muscles.
It’s more than just an afterthought here. Would I like more options? Certainly, and there’s room for them. With that said, what’s here is deceptively strong, letting you create a number of characters, OC or canon, if you’ve got the will for it. Frankly, I think that’s the best thing to come out of this game. Being able to show off your art -- a part of yourself, rendered with some of the best hardware on the market right now -- is a sweet pleasure. It’s a way to build camaraderie, like trading ghost stories around the campfire. Given that? I really do hope that SC6, and plenty of other games from here on, embrace that potential. If we can’t count on devs to make good characters, then let’s at least hope they’ll let us make our own.
So on that note? Good job, dev team. I hope you live to dev another day.
Also, good job on the music. You made a stunningly good remix for the museum.
You’ve earned your paychecks. And not just because you’ve given gamers the tools they need to flood Soul Calibur with Bowsette clones.
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