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This Week In Sales: The Soul Isn’t Burning Anymore…

By Ishaan . February 8, 2012 . 4:33pm

Period: The week of January 30th – February 5th (2012)

Top-seller: Resident Evil: Revelations – 43,575

Nintendo 3DS sales: 75,018 | Total sales: 4,864,396

PlayStation Vita sales: 17,141 | Total sales: 552,564

 

This Week In Sales: The Soul Isnt Burning Anymore...

Namco Bandai may want to rethink the old Soulcalibur tagline, at least in Japan. Soulcalibur V was released in the region last week, and sold just 43,500 copies on PlayStation 3 and another 7,500 on Xbox 360.

 

In comparison, Soulcalibur IV sold 74,607 copies on PlayStation and 34,786 copies on Xbox 360 in its opening week in 2008. A sorry state of affairs for the franchise.

 

Soulcalibur V only debuted at the #2 spot on the top-20 chart. The #1 spot was stolen by Resident Evil: Revelations, almost at 200,000 copies sold in its second week on the market. Meanwhile, Tales of Innnocence R on the PlayStation Vita dropped all the way from #3 to #14, with 63,250 copies sold so far.

 

Speaking of the Vita, this week’s new Vita release was Ragnarok Odyssey, selling 33,500 copies in its first week.

 

The full top-20 software sales list for the week was as follows:

 

LwTwTitleWeekly SalesTotal SalesSys.Publisher
02.01.Resident Evil: Revelations43,575190,1343DSCapcom
New02.Soulcalibur V34,328NewPS3Namco Bandai
New03.Photo Kano34,095NewPSPKadokawa
New04.Ragnarok Odyssey33,496NewPSVGungHo
01.05.Armored Core V30,775194,681PS3From Software
04.06.Mario Kart 726,7911,460,7493DSNintendo
05.07.Monster Hunter 3G24,1281,211,0263DSCapcom
07.08.Super Mario 3D Land22,8171,311,3123DSNintendo
New09.Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition21,416NewPS3Sony
New10.Dragon Age II19,928
New
PS3Spike
09.11.Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure9,51156,0373DSSega
New12.Monster Hunter Frontier Online: Forward .3 Premium Package9,047New360Capcom
10.13.Inazuma Eleven Go: Shine/Dark8,960379,7643DSLevel 5
03.14.Tales of Innocence R8,39763,250PSVNamco Bandai
12.15.Just Dance Wii7,851527,050WiiNintendo
New16.Soulcalibur V7,679New360Namco Bandai
14.17.Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP the Best)6,875185,853PSPCapcom
17.18.Wii Sports Resort5,635862,118WiiNintendo
15.19.Final Fantasy XIII-25,336774,415PS3Square Enix
19.20.Mario Kart Wii5,0683,500,168WiiNintendo

 

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media-Create and Geimin.net.


  • Dianatos

    Well, nice knowing you Soul Series.

    • http://www.siliconera.com Ishaan

      This isn’t true. Low sales in Japan doesn’t necessarily mean low sales everywhere else. :)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q6NXXGMO5XNSMJ64NIHYHFP56A Vince

    Looks like the current quality of the game has came back to haunt Bamco.

     

    • raymk

      not really the soul series has never sold as good in japan as it has in the U.S.  I expected low numbers in japan for this game. 

  • http://twitter.com/atmey Atmey

    There has been many fighting games in the last two years, including SFIV. No wonder it is having a hard time. There is also RE: Revelations.

  • WonderSteve

    With the amount of DLC these fighting games can get.

    I am very reluctant to buy immediately when they first come out. It is much safer to wait for a version down the road with most of the DLC.

    • Crimson_Cloud

      Maybe like a Complete Edition or something? Well yeah, if it ever gets updated with something else then new songs and character clothes.

  • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

    PHOTO KANO = 神げー!= GODLY GAME, GOOD THING IS IN 3rd pLACE i hope to see more games like that, not only its sexy, even if it doesnt has that much dialogues the stories are good and there are like 2 ver of each girl’s ver depending on what club you join (there are 2 photo clubs) and there are so many girls, and damn, sexy

    • Aoshi00

      I thought very hard about getting Photo Kano or not w/ New Love Plus coming so close and also Touch Shiyo Love Application lol..  but the reviews seem to be good so I ended up ordering it, will ship w/ other games later this month like Under Defeat.. better make room on my memory card to take pics.. I still haven’t played the AKB48 in Guam game yet.. way too much backlog :(…

      • aoihana

        I just bought and received Photo Kano, and to be honest, I haven’t even played it, but I’m already regretting it. Not that I think it’s bad, or I heard bad things, but I just realized I bought a game that will be overshadowed by New Love Plus in about 10 days. (*^ワ^*)

        I should have waited, but the cute kanojo’s got to me, sadly. Well, at least I’ll get a week or so out of it! (◕‿◕✿)

        Speaking of Love Plus, don’t you find the picture taking kind of annoying, at least, when it doesn’t go your way? (*^ワ^*)

        When ever I pop out the camera, it’s like they think it’s a gun, or something! Sometimes, it’s a chore getting them to pose. (^▽^)

        • Aoshi00

          you’re scaring me w/ the word regret :).. I know.. I actually pre-ordered Photo Kano like last year before its delayed release, then knowing New Love Plus (also delayed) would be out around the same time I canceled it.  But now I’ve heard good things about it, I just didn’t want to miss it, the girls seem cute w/ full voices and good animation..

          I’m still waiting for AmiAmi or other places to open up orders on that Love Plus LE (not cheap, almost like 10000 yen).. So now I got 3D (Photo Kano), 3D-3D (New Love Plus), & 3D 3D 3D (AKB48 in Guam) lol..  I won’t get Photo Kano until maybe in early March though since I have several games to be shipped together..  did you get the petit nendoroid?

          • aoihana

            Yeah, but I’m really just regretting buying it so early, since New Love Plus is out in less than a week! I think it will be neglected. (*^ワ^*)

            I tried looking for the Love Plus LE’s, but I couldn’t find any in stock! I think I will just have to go with the standard, sadly. I was going to get AKB48 in Guam, but I don’t know, it seemed kind of weird. (Yeah, I know, coming from someone who plays Love Plus) I just think dating sims with real girls are awkward. 

            Unfortunately, I didn’t get the Nendoroid, CDJapan was out of the bonus. I had just become interested in it, honestly. I ordered it last week! (´_`。)

          • Aoshi00

            No nendoroid huh, that’s too bad, oh well, it’s only a petite one :).. I’m still waiting for the artbook LE (so expensive *.*), if it’s not available, I would just settle for the regular ed I guess.. real girls too weird huh lol.. it’s the bikinis that made me get it :)…

          • aoihana

            Yeah, it’s a shame I didn’t get it, but I arrived too late!

            I was actually waiting to see if an LE would become available, but I just went and ordered the regular.

            I just pre-ordered yesterday, and now I may have to wait 1-4 days following release! (*≧m≦*)

            Even so, I hope it ships on release! (。>。<。)

          • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

            Photo kano is awesome, it satisfies your ecchi soul more too haha, love plus is more kawaii-ish, and i dont think it has pantsu shots, does it xD? (if it does i SERIOUSLY hate even more region block, fck life, manaka T.T).

            Meh, even without this, just taking photos and whatnot, the stories arent bad, its really entretaining, and kawaii, and with the 2 stories stuff it has a lot of replay value (considering there might be like 3 secret girls, with even a teacher).

            If you like loveplus aoshi, and i know you do, you will be 100% satisfied with photo kano

        • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

          Dont REGRET IT!!, DONT BE WEAK, love plus =/= photo kano, and i still like psp screen more like 3DS’s, anyway they are 2 very diff experiences, and love plus is time consuming at the beginning, but after a while, you just play it little bits each day

      • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

        Good thing photo kano is getting good reviews, it really was taken care by good hands, looks so good, also, i know your backlog feeling, YOU ARE NOT ALONE, and damn aoshi, ive been really considering touch shiyo, but as you know, ps3 games are more expensive than psp´s (even if its not that much different, but, i have limits lol) so im still wondering what to do T.T; i REALLY want the game, but what i wonder is if paying that much money will be worth it, as in, the stories are long, i mean, there seems to be 4 main girls (and that other girl that appears in the PVs, but maybe she is a secret char you can get after you beat the girl’s stories or something) still, considering what i have played until now, 4 girls on a school based story (and ecchi based too) doesnt seems that is going to be that big, the ecchi part seems to be well crafted enough tho, but the story is really important too, i imagine they might have more than “good” and “bad” endings, maybe there are more than 1 good ending and whatnot, but really, i at least wish to know if it will take as much time, as for example, steins;gate, to beat the stories of all the girls or so, considering how much i would need to pay for the ps3 game… Im really lost in this part…

    • PoweredByHentai

      I want PhotoKano and I’d love to see it optimized for the PS Vita where it simply makes more sense control-wise and whatnot.

      My wallet dies next week because my PS Vita ships out next week so I’m debating between getting PhotoKano now vs waiting for a Vita version.

  • Daniel13789

    I still wish Namco gave Project Soul the time they needed for this game. It had so much potential… Thanks Namco, thanks for pretty much killing such a great series ._.

    • http://twitter.com/JezzSan Jezzy

       Yea, you can just feel how rushed this game is… Lack of single player content, 3 mimics, numerous glitches… Hope PS will offer some patches to address some of the issues.

    • raymk

      Its not dead these are just the japan sales which have never been better than the U.S sales.

      • Daniel13789

         Oh wow, I overlooked the fact that these are indeed the japanese sales…

  • Ladius

    People are overreacting, fighting games would have never resurrected this gen if their sales mirrored Japan’s (and this goes for every beat’em up, from SF4 to KoF13). 

    Of course SC5′s Japanese debut is really disappointing, but the American and European sales are what will make this a success or a disaster.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevi-Johnson-el/100001847029873 Kevi Johnson-el

    soul calibur is more of a europe game than japan just like marvel 3 is more of a U.S game so this isnt really bad seeing how the U.S and Europe is all over sc5 

    • raymk

      Haha finally someone else who see’s the light. 

  • neo_firenze

    It’s still the second best selling game of the week…  Some of the loss is perhaps attributable to the general Japanese economy and game retail market in 2012 (both are weaker) as opposed to 2008.  Relative to the competition, we’re still talking about a game that easily sold better than anything else for non-portables for the week.  Might be a sobering reflection of the Japanese game industry as a whole (further evidence might be no 1mil+ selling games in Japan in 2011 outside of two Mario 3DS games), but not necessarily something unique to Soul Calibur.

    And SC is a series that has traditionally seen stronger support in the US market than in Japan, so maybe there’s some hope for Namco there.

    FWIW, the game is fun and seems built with long-term competition in mind. Definitely pared down single player options compared to past entries in the series though, which some types of players will surely dislike.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QX5LRTLTCQEJQ3IXCBUNDILFIE Ryan Saotome

      SC4 sold 110k first week in Japan, for comparison. Its a flop.

      • neo_firenze

         Did you read a word I wrote? 

        2008 Japan is not 2012 Japan.  There are other economic and industry factors at work here.  Pretty much ALL games are performing worse now than comparable games 4-5 years ago. 

      • raymk

        SCIV sold 2 million units overall and japan sales for SC have always been not so good. 

  • Spirit Macardi

    Uh oh, a Namco franchise didn’t sell as much as they hoped. That means they’re going to suddenly completely disown it instead of trying to find out what went wrong and do better next time.

    I’m sure Klonoa, Tower of Druaga, and Mappy could use the company in Namco limbo.

    • Hinataharem

      Ahhh

      I remember Mappy :3

    • EDGEucator

      Klonoa 3 would be so sexy on Wii U if Namco put in the effort.

      • Spirit Macardi

         Yes. Yes a thousand times.

        Though, this year is the 15th anniversary of the series and so far Namco hasn’t acknowledged it in the slightest. I want more of the dream-traveling wind kitty ;_;

  • Croix

    I’m sorry to say, but I feel that SC5′s low sales were deserved. In my (very personal) opinion, the game has little in the way of a solid single player experience, especially in contrast to SC3, and the tweaks to the existing mechanics have made it frustrating to play against others as well. This is mainly because there are too many exploits that people can make use of to the point where skill in actually fighting matters little.

    I’m glad to see Revelations up there, at any rate. I hear it’s rather good, and if that’s true, I hope it maintains the sales record to prove it.

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/EnvyMizuhashi Garyuu

      SC3 had the best single-player content, but it wasn’t initially released in arcades, therefore the game was unbalanced to a fault.

      I dunno about SCIV’s case. It probably had a couple of loketests, but balancing issues were still addressed through online patching.

      As for V……infinite Nightmare OTG Brave Edge FTW…………yeah.

      Still, I don’t think the news about balancing issues spread like absolute wildfire in Japan. Heck, NB mostly did loketests in Europe, almost ignoring Japan. I think the sales issue had to do with the aesthetics being presented (hopefully NOT having to do with T&A), like the characters. Guess they really don’t like fiendish looking knights with big swords to compensate. Or that they’re not interested in 3D fighters anymore. But what do I know, right?

      I wanna see the sales for the west. I know they still have good faith in the franchise and I hope Ezio contributed to the cause.

      • http://www.genkaibreak.com Code

        Maybe it’s just me, but Namco’s fighters always feel pretty mediocre when it comes to balance T_T” I mean I know I’ve heard of a few loketests for SCV, but honestly I can’t help but feel like much time was invested into balancing the game. Like SCIII, and SCIV I just feel like the series needs to be overhauled. 

        I’ve spent the week off/on playing SCV at locals, just out of curiosity; and to me it just feels like the changes to the game mechanics just aren’t addressing long running issues the series has had o~o’ I mean I think some of the changes are alright but just overall it’s more different, then better opo;

        • Croix

          As someone who has always enjoyed a more solitary gaming experience, I don’t generally mind if the characters are unbalanced. Neither SC2 nor SC3 were considered to be very balanced, but it didn’t matter, because they were fun to play. At least, that was how I saw it. SC4 did try to balance things out a lot, and I don’t think they did a terrible job on it (I was comfortable playing online, but I’m no tournament pro or anything).

          SC5 also removed a lot from the series. There’s a single story mode, rather than one for each character (even compared to SC4, we get a lot of info for two of the new characters, but little to nothing for anyone else), and unlocking items for creation is done purely by leveling up, which means fighting single player modes against AI. No more money system which lets you skew the order in which you unlock items, and no challenge mode for particular items like the Tower of Souls (for as frustrating as it was, I prefer it to this level system). And naturally, this is to say nothing of the characters themselves being removed in many cases.

          For me, what I think of is the question of why people play Soul Calibur as a series in the first place. In recent games, one answer is the customization options, though nothing compares to the multitude of styles available in SC3. This still somewhat holds up, maybe as well as SC4, but it’s more tedious to unlock many of the items. Another answer is for a different kind of playstyle, one that had a bit more of a strategic approach and went at a slightly slower pace than other fighters. This kind of falls apart now, as characters are now geared toward stringing long combos together off of bounces, and notably focus more on vertical/straight line attacks than anything to their sides. The balance of ‘A’ and ‘B’ attacks has changed into something much less eloquent with the way many of the newer combos are setup. And if you are someone who plays for story or familiar characters, well….

          • http://www.genkaibreak.com Code

            Basically summing up what I feel, Soul Calibur series doesn’t know what it wants to be >w<'

          • Croix

            No joke. The real kicker here is that I really liked what it used to be.

            The future remains to be seen. Rather, I suppose, whether or not we will be seeing more of it remains to be seen. I do like the concept of the series, and I’d hate to see it trail off into oblivion (not saying it will), but I feel that the changes made in this installment are pretty damaging to what the series once was.

    • Nemesis_Dawn

      It really makes me sad to see what the series has become, after SCIII. That one was my favorite of the series.

  • konsama

    Wow, i wouldn’t  have thought it would be that far behind, and gotta say even the highest games in list sold somewhat few, could it be that most if not all the games in list are sequels/spin offs rather than new games?
    But back to SCV, it’s really sad, let’s hope it does better on the occident, of course they’ll have to change the ads they used in Japan xD. 

  • aoihana

    Very unfortunate for Soulcalibur indeed! (´∩`。)

    Well, on the plus side, another Vita game is on the top charts this week, so that’s awesome. (ノ>▽<。)ノ

    Although Vita hardware sales aren’t picking up, at least they aren’t plummeting, from what I recall, anyway. Didn’t they do around 20k units last week? At least it’s steady! ლ(´ڡ`ლ)

    I went ahead and picked up Photo Kano, I just got it today, actually. I haven’t tried it, but it should keep me busy for the next week or so until I get New Love Plus! (◕‿◕✿)

    • PoweredByHentai

      Gravity Daze and Ragnarok Odyssey just shipped out from AmiAmi for me.  :D

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Craig-Mikucki/655263876 Craig Mikucki

      I was just scrolling on and on and your emoticons made me stop and read. Good tactic.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QX5LRTLTCQEJQ3IXCBUNDILFIE Ryan Saotome

    Hopefully this’ll teach them to not abandon the casuals in the future. Single player is vital.

    • EDGEucator

      I agree.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hector-Gomez/614956949 Hector Gomez

       Hard-core play story too, over and over again(if good).

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Carmona/100000347329518 Christopher Carmona

    Somebody import Ragnarok Odyssey for me.

  • http://twitter.com/salarta salarta

    The sadder state of affairs for the Soul Calibur series is what Soul Calibur V did to it, and that the series will likely never recover. It’s practically impossible.

    We have a development team that cared absolutely nothing about the series’ most important characters, instead choosing to use them as nothing more than background fodder to make their additions to the franchise have some semblance of worth. In their eagerness to disrespect several aspects of the series’ past for their own selfish and greedy whims, they forced a story development that can’t be undone. Seventeen years passed. Most of the characters are treated as either dead or too old to take part anymore, replaced by their “kids.”

    The fanbase is now fragmented. We have some “fans” that think all the characters that got cut deserved to be thrown away like garbage and replaced by hip new models; returning the old characters and removing the new ones will piss them off. We have some fans that loved the roster and series as a whole as it was, and will never touch the series again so long as installments treat characters like Sophitia and Taki like they aren’t worth anything; I fall into this group. So make a game that combines all the characters? No, that will just make things worse. A bloated roster is deadly. Look at Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

    I believe the solution to this dilemma would have to be to pull a Mortal Kombat 9 on the series. Daishi pretty much murdered the chances of the series continuing on as it is now, the only way to recover from that would be a retelling/retcon, with changes, that allows the team to re-evaluate why the hell everyone fell in love with the series enough for it to get up to Soul Calibur V in the first place.

    … But that would require Namco Bandai being willing to fund another installment. And there’s a very strong chance that they won’t. They have Tekken. Back when Daishi was petitioning Soul Calibur fans to show they want another game, he had to do it because the company had decided they didn’t need two fighting games around. Daishi proceeded to use his golden opportunity of reviving the series as a platform to make his fanfic ideas into canon, and rashly kicked out a massive swath of characters that were the core reason fans signed his petition to start with. Cue fans not buying it. Cue Namco Bandai thinking lack of sales means lack of interest in the series, rather than understanding the real problem was how Daishi went about this installment.

    Another petition isn’t going to convince Namco Bandai to let another game go through that does right by the series and its characters. I want them to do so, because I really do want to see another Soul Calibur game, a real Soul Calibur V. But they have no incentive. As I said, they have Tekken. Why risk making another game, one that gives the fans what they want, when they can just make another Tekken product?

    • http://twitter.com/ReverendJohnW The Rev

       Soul Clalibur V is selling out in the states and the consensus amongst REAL fans of the series is that it’s the best game since II.

      • mirumu

        I guess by “REAL fans” you mean the fighting game community? They seem to be the only ones saying nice things about it.

        • Nemesis_Dawn

          I’d go so far as to say it’s not even the ENTIRE fighting game community, just the tournament players are saying nice things about it.

          • EggmaniMN

            They’re the only ones with an opinion that matters so that’s just fine. It’s mindboggling that you guys are complaining about a fighting game being a really good fighting game because it doesn’t cater to a specific character fetish boner that you’ve had since middle school.

          • mirumu

            You think Namco will keep making new games if no one but tournament players will buy them? I’m all for fighting games being properly balanced, location tests, etc, but if they don’t appeal to a wider audience and don’t sell then we all lose.

          • Nemesis_Dawn

            Yes, because they certainly made Street Fighter 3 a success, didn’t they. 

          • EggmaniMN

             SF3 was in a completely different situation, but feel free to continue being terrible.

            And yes, Namco likely will continue making new SC games if tournament players buy them.

            They don’t need a wider audience who just wants retarded gear to pick up that break the game. They want people to learn to understand and enjoy an actual fighting game and its mechanics.

            And SC5 still has more single player stuff to do than both Marvel and SSF4. So uh, you going to cry about those too? Those totally weren’t going to sell well because they don’t have enough retarded stuff for the single player people! Whatever.

          • Nemesis_Dawn

            Uh, there’s complete intros, endings, and rival conversations for how many characters in SSF4? That’s already more than SCV has. MVC3 at least has profiles and endings for every character. That’s more than SCV has.

            And what the creators of SCV want, is to make money. They don’t make games so a bunch of their friends and you can play them. They make them so people will give them back the money invested in the game and more, so they can make a profit. Namco is a business, after all.

          • http://twitter.com/salarta salarta

            It’s mindboggling that you’re not complaining about a fighting game not having more respect for its history because you have a tourney boner!

            I’ve said it before, I’ll say it many times: while gameplay does matter more for a fighting game, if we’re going to say “screw the characters” and ignore its past, then fighting games may as well just be stick figures. For its time, prior to SCIV, the Soul Calibur series was the best fighting game for use of story. That was the main draw for a lot of people, including myself. Was it fun? Hell yes, and that gave plenty more reason to keep playing it even after the story was done.

            You may not give a damn, but other fans of the series, ones that recognize that video games have moved beyond the Atari days and have more about them besides gameplay, do.

          • http://twitter.com/salarta salarta

            And after reading your message down lower…

            No, Namco isn’t going to keep this series alive if only tournament players buy it. Why do you think they were willing to let it die after SCIV, before Daishi came along and petitioned the whole internet for the series to continue? They didn’t think it had enough interest to be worth investing money in. They already have Tekken. They don’t need Soul Calibur. The only reason to keep Soul Calibur alive, for them, is to make money. If they are not making much of a profit, or worse if they lost money, they aren’t going to keep it around just because tourney players will buy it.

            The absolute best you can possibly hope for if it appeals only to tourney players, giving you a very generous benefit of doubt, is that it will see a very limited release on a tiny budget with barely any time in development and no long-term support. Which, by the way, would hurt tourney players; less time in development means less time to test for bugs and balancing, and no long-term support means few or no patches, resulting in nobody playing it, resulting in the series dying anyway.

            Nemesis_Dawn’s example is very appropriate. There’s a reason Capcom changed course after Street Fighter 3, and it’s not because they figured getting by with the support of just tourney players was good enough.

      • Ladius

        Yup, this whole situation makes me remember the flames about Street Fighter 3 and Garou Mark of the Wolves being betrayals of their respective franchises. Moreover, SC5′s cast is more in line with the old main characters than SF3 or Garou’s, and there are much more “survivors” than in those other games.

        Also, the decisive factors here are the American and European sales, not the Japanese ones, and apparently those are going far better.

        • Nemesis_Dawn

          You do remember that SF3 pretty much killed the Street Fighter franchise from how poorly it did, right? Sure, the tournament players loved it, but nobody else. Sounds very familiar, actually.

          If you only appeal to the tournament players, you’re not going to last very long. At the very least, they should have paid special attention to the single player aspects of the game, which is the major complaint about this one.

          • Ladius

            Actually, I was talking exactly about that: a quality game that gets underappreciated and flamed because the fans can’t think about anything but the change in its cast.

            That said, luckily SC5 seems to be doing just fine outside of Japan, and those are the sales that will actually matter for the series’ future.

          • PoweredByHentai

            Are we talking about strictly SF3 or are we including SF3 Third Strike?  Because Third Strike was made infamous with this video:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeM0rH_4ung 

        • http://www.siliconera.com Ishaan

          Woah, woah. Quality game that’s underappreciated because of its cast was just one of SF3′s problems. Even Capcom admit that the game was way too advanced for entry-level players. I don’t think anyone would argue with that…

          I do agree with @Nemesis_Dawn:disqus that games like SF3 shouldn’t be attempted unless your intention is to focus only on the most enthusiastic of players and close the game off to everyone else. In this day and age, it simply isn’t viable anymore, unless you happen to be a smaller budget game.

          • Ladius

            The niche appeal is surely one of the reasons behind SF3′s lack of success, but back in the days the clamor was all about how Capcom dared to change the beloved SF cast in such a radical way (not to mention the somewhat different art direction compared to the AlphaZero games and the rather tiny number of playable characters in the first version), not about the gameplay changes (of course people talked about them, too, but as usual that was a minority compared to the “where’s my favorite main?!” crowd).
             
            All in all, I think there are two completely different kind of audiences to consider: the vast majority buying your games for the charactersart directiontraditionsp modes and the niche minority that enjoy them on a technical level and endlessly discuss matchups, combos, patches and so on.
             
            SF3 had the unlucky fate of displeasing the first audience in an historical moment when people were starting to think 2d fighters were pretty much a relic, and its depth, rather than condemning it, saved it in the long run making it a mainstay of beu tournament. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think an identical SF3 (cast-wise) with more “casual-friendly” mechanics would have had a wild success when it was released, and in turn it would have had significantly less in the upcoming years.

          • http://www.siliconera.com Ishaan

            I completely agree that people play fighters for different reasons. There is, of course, a set of people that buy fighters based on their favourite characters, like you pointed out. 

            I think the problem is that SF3 “got it wrong on all fronts,” so to speak. They dropped all sense of familiarity, and even for people that dared to venture in to try the game regardless, it wasn’t an easy game to come to terms with. 

            It says a lot that they effectively had to use the “back to basics” card with SFIV, because that’s what the majority of people want. And yet, despite that, look at how many new and diverse characters IV has. We got Juri, Hakan, El Fuerte, C. Viper, Rufus etc. 

            I’m just saying, I think SFIV is a great example of having something for everyone, which is obviously what 3 was lacking when you get down to it. :)

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QX5LRTLTCQEJQ3IXCBUNDILFIE Ryan Saotome

        You do realize the preorders for it in USA were only 1/3 of what SC4 had, right? If anything, its probably doing worse than SC4 did first week.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hector-Gomez/614956949 Hector Gomez

          still is way better than SC4, wich sold a lot for Dart vader/Aprentice characters.

    • epy

      Its the old tale of companies catering to newcomers rather than the established fanbase. The whole time skip “reboot” was probably meant to attract those who felt intimidated by the series’ lore. And what about what the fanbase wants? “Ah, those guys? They will be back anyways”.

      This may sound silly but when I knew my favorite characters were out of the game, it stopped being a week one purchase for me. Sure, I’ll get it eventually but by then Bamco won’t be looking at the sale charts anymore

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Morandi/100000837836996 Daniel Morandi

        Like I said before, you have to fear the words of “we try to appeal a wider audience” because hardly ever those games will please the fans and they aren’t attracting much people.

        They make game casual, less interesting and the most important thing is that they would probably get rid of things that make the series unique on his own way.

        • http://twitter.com/salarta salarta

          Completely accurate here.

          As a general concept, trying to appeal to a wider audience could be a good thing. The trouble is doing it right. I always go back to Mortal Kombat 9 as an example because they did it right. They stopped with the gimmicks (create-a-fatality), listened to what fans said they wanted (true fatalities back, back to its roots, cut the alternate-fighting-styles approach, better use of lore in a story mode, etc), then promoted those elements. Soul Calibur V did it wrong, for reasons I said before.

          All it really takes to appeal to a wider audience is raising what’s already there to its best state, then marketing that fact more doggedly. We didn’t need Sophitia and Taki abruptly kicked out of the series to allow the team to force in a few stereotypically “popular” character types. All Soul Calibur needed was better displaying that the fighting gameplay is fun, Sophitia is a warrior mother perhaps fighting for her children, Taki is a badass demon-slaying ninja, etc. They already had awesome characters that would appeal to wider audiences. The only changes this series needed were tweaks to gameplay and better treatment of the characters they already had.

          As it stands, Daishi threw most of the babies out with the bath water and tried to replace them with toy dolls. Sure, those dolls may have a list of attributes you can tick off that fit what a lot of people say they want, but they’re artificial, superficial, lacking the same kind of life and uniqueness that the actual babies had.

          Wider audiences just need better representation and marketing of the greatness that was already there, and true sellers in any industry are the leaders that innovate with new and original (but respectful to the series’ history) directions, not followers that merely copy all the attributes seen in top sellers. This is the same reason any game labeled as a “killer” of the best game in its genre is guaranteed to fail. It means the game was created solely to try to rip off the top seller and “do everything better.” Even if it does do everything better, players will judge it harshly for being an imitation.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Morandi/100000837836996 Daniel Morandi

            You got me there. MK9 was fantastic, atracting new people and pleasing the fans at the same time. Is hard to make things like that really so I say if you really aren’t going to put an equal effort in your game just don’t try to appeal a wider audience, please. Is something to tell to any company.

            And I agree with everything you said. The game feels rushed too, I bet it would be a better game if SCV were realesed at the end of this year.

          • http://twitter.com/salarta salarta

             I’m sure it would be a better game if it was released at the end of the year, but honestly I’m glad it was rushed, and sales suffered for it. I’ve hated the whole concept behind this game ever since Daishi announced the time skip. Not to say I wasn’t open to it if it was handled right, but I knew right away that the time skip would be an excuse for the team to be dicks and remove tons of characters for stupid reasons.

            Every video game I’ve played to date where the company goes out of its way to advertise a time skip, I’ve learned it means “We changed things that didn’t need changing, things that make this a slap in the face to everything that came before, here’s a half-assed excuse we decided on to try to make you buy it anyway!” 3rd Birthday ruined Parasite Eve and Aya Brea, Final Fantasy X-2 ruined Final Fantasy X and all its characters, and I’m sure others I can’t think of right now. Soul Calibur V joins that list.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Roberto-Armando-Iraheta/775564143 Roberto Armando Iraheta

      The SC series is a stupid popular brand. They can always wait a few years and release another one.

  • http://twitter.com/FaithlessMr Bruno Silva

    Expected Ragnarok Odyssey to chart higher. Still glad that Innocence R charted this week, and I hope it keeps up. I also predict XIII-2 will reach the 800k copies sold domestically soon, I guess it won’t break the one million mark as soon as I expected. Still, glad it’s still selling, despite the slow initial sales, I guess it’s far from being a flop, sales wise, domestically, as many claimed it was initially (even if the previous game sold three times as much on the first week!)

    XIII sales were strong initially but it quickly dropped, and many stores slashed the prices, so…I’d say the best way to judge that would be to see if stores are actually selling out their stock for this game or not.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/jodecideion?feature=mhum TheWon and Only

    With each new game this series has dropped from it’s peak that was Soul Calibur 2. It needs to be redone or just forgotten if they can’t create something that interest people.  I understand overall people in Japan are not buying a lot of games like they use too. Still they are buying what they like to play. So as a developer make the game fun or interest to play. Instead of doing the same old thing with the only improvement is the graphics. Maybe then people will get excited about the franchise again.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-Caronia/100001408827015 Ian Caronia

    Ishaan, you really scared me with the “sorry state” and “soul isn’t burning anymore” stuff. Yes, the game’s 30K drop in sales is surprising (I’m not including the 360 since 1. There was no gimmicky “guest character console split” this time and 2. With each passing year the 360 is shown to be crap to the Japanese populace at large, so of course its sales would suck).

    However, you show us that the game made #2. That’s not bad when the game that beat it was a Resident Evil (a franchise that doesn’t seem to be taking risks since RE4) on the 3DS. Not to sound bigoted, but the Japanese populace friggin loves Nintendo products from what I’ve seen. I’m the surprised the Monster Hunter games didn’t beat Soul Calibur V.

    Anyway, though you’re right the sales (especially if you do include the 360 sales) really aren’t up to snuff at all for what 4 made, I don’t think this is a foreboding thing. The soul’s not burning anymore, true, but it’s not extinguished. More like a Luke-warm soul these days.

    • malek86

      I’m not sure how exactly the chart spot matters. The chart spot is just a relative number: if it were released the same week as other important games, it would be much lower.

      Sales do matter, and those don’t seem too high.

      • raymk

        Honestly they don’t matter in japan to much though as the western sales were always were they made their money from the Soul series.  Its not burning in japan because it never was hot down there.

  • Nemesis_Dawn

    Considering how little effort was put into the single player aspects of SCV (how can they not, at least, match SCIII?!?), I can only hope it does just as poorly in the states.

    • http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/members/55321.html FinalArcadia

      SCIII had my favorite single player mode in the whole series. I liked the map that you could sort-of choose your path on, and the times you had to input button commands were fun.

      I would LOVE for the series to return to that style of 1P mode, instead of only focusing primarily on one character (Patroklos). Individual story modes are the way to go.

  • kuro_chan666

    PhotoKano on the 3rd place? NICE! So there still are some people with HEARTS OF PASSION burning inside their chest!
    Though, it’s just the first week, yeah…

    And about BoobsCalibur – NO WONDER it sold so little in Japan. They’ve made a game that was all about single-player STORY into a just crappy fighting with cameo-characters. They also didn’t match the previous games in terms of story.
    No wonder. No wonder.
    Though, some of my friends STILL ordered it, being SC-fags. 
    I don’t like 3D fightings at all, so I just pirated it and after seeing what was done, deleted it immediately.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Morandi/100000837836996 Daniel Morandi

      I didnt pre-order anything but I bough it just to have fun in online battles and to create my own character. The single player mode is horribly, truly a shame that SC become something like this. I hardly ever play online so for me the single player modes are important.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Roberto-Armando-Iraheta/775564143 Roberto Armando Iraheta

      The sad thing is that they’re cashing in on the 2D fighter craze of late, cranking it out as fast as possible, and advertising it as a “evolution for the series”. The problem with that is that SC has never really been a hardcore technical fighter like its other competitors, much like DOA. They should’ve left this one on the cooker for longer.

  • http://twitter.com/DanijoEX DanijoEX

    It’s good to see another Vita title on the list.

    • Testsubject909

      Just pretty sad that it comes with news of a game that really should have had more getting some bad sales.

      [edit]
      And by more, I mean more content.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jraimey Justin Raimey

    I don’t really blame the results.  Yes, the game has incredible graphics, but there’s major balance issues and what was with the story mode?  There really wasn’t any hard work put into the game in my opinion, but I still like it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Roberto-Armando-Iraheta/775564143 Roberto Armando Iraheta

    Doesn’t surprise me at all. SCV looks to be such a lazy effort on Namco’s part. They barely finished the product in a year, it’s got atrocious new character designs, tacked-on gameplay elements from “hot 2D fighters”, a fighting system that only rewards relentless offensive and very few defensive options, a joke of a story mode, a lacking arcade mode, a lack of returning characters/ character styles (where the hell is Bangoo?), EX characters and 3 mimics and no real arcade mode and forced DLC to top it off.

    It’s about as lazy as you can get for a fighting game. Just look at King of Fighters XIII that is being done by SNK, which is near bankruptcy and offers more content than this. For shame.

    Nice try Namcot. I’ll be waiting for Tekken Tag.

    • raymk

      Its never sold good in japan though.  Look at SC2,3 and 4 the sales are never better than the U.S sales.  Its not a surprise at all seeing as it was more popular in the west. 

  • DisgaeaGuy11

    I guess Soul Calibur 3 will remain as the series’ best. I absolutely hated SCIV, really thought they’d redeem the series with this one. 

  • EDGEucator

    Not surprised , the title is lacking 1p modes (Tales of Souls & Chronicle of the Sword) & 4-5 characters ( Talim , Zasalamel , Seong Mi-na , Setzuka &
    Yun Seong “at the least”). Those characters should have been in place of these copy slots, [Elysium , Kilik , Edge Master , Alpha-Patrokolos & Omega
    Pyrra].
    Add in the fact that big names were taken out of the game or were
    irrelevant in this title ,: (Taki , Xianghua , Kilik , Talim & Yun
    Seong) , the short & dry Story/Campaign Mode & there not being a story (Prologue & Epilogue) for each character in arcade mode (?????).
    SCV is a decent game , just not worth the price it’s at now , which is
    $60. I might still get it used someday …  it depends on when
    SkullGirls comes out & if Namco shows signs of there being a updated SoulCalibur 5 disc. (Which if SkullGirls keeps me busy until around DOA5 time , i may just pass on SCV.)
    I guess Namco either 1.Was Lazy , 2.Rushed the game or 3.Wanted to test the waters like that other capcompany & see how little work they could put into a title for it to be well received.
    Either way , I’m still happy that the series is continuing & not ending like it was planned to at SC4. That’s the best thing that came out this game :)

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/7RK2RJAG3D4KUDSFHHKHGQHYOI Xrysostomos

      you’re right in most things but the gameplay this time is so smooth and enjoyable it doesnt matter, its better than sc4 by far

      • EDGEucator

        Oh , i agree 100% w/you on the gameplay aspect being better.
        Namco did well with creating a smooth transition from the old system to the new one. (Something similar to Mortal Kombat 9). I’ve rarely read or seen people complain about it being to fast or to overwhelming.

  • icecoffemix

    So not even their best shot of Ivy could save the franchise?

  • Novac

    Im glad it sold poorly,maybe it will get them to think twice about trying to release a game that is 90% Multiplayer and 10% Singleplayer.

    I have played Neo Geo fighters with more content than this game.

  • http://twitter.com/Leivra Leivra

    I didn’t bought the game after seeing the reviews, even though I’m huge fan of SC.
    I’m very disappointing at the how the series is going down. I thought the SC team has understand us, and I thought they will fix the problems that the SC IV has, and focus more on the story (and recreate the other stuff which was only existed on SC III) and not online. But instead of that, they create a whole game about multiplayer and remove most of the singleplayer stuff (in other worlds, they continued from where they left in SC IV).
    I regret that I’ve been following that failure Daishi and thinking that he will change the series to a far better than SC III, hahaha what was I thinking?!
    I’m glad to see the sales went down, they deserve it.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Wayne-LaBranch/100002132711844 Wayne LaBranch

      They Fixed the gameplay from SCIV which was good but lacked everything else.  They really rushed this game soo bad (seriously how do Arcade Mode not have character endings and bad enough its a new roster of characters, we like to know who the hell they are :l)

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hector-Gomez/614956949 Hector Gomez

       U should buy it the story is short but entertaining if u take it slow.

  • Danny Kriegbaum Laursen

    Guess Namco should have drop Legendary Souls and made some Arcade endings for every character, maybe even a weapon mode.

    • http://www.facebook.com/benjtan Benjamin Tan

      if only they didnt rush the game and release it quater 4 instead..

  • Crimson_Cloud

    Moving so many years ahead just to introduce the offspring of Sophitia seemed like a bad move for me, as many other good characters didn’t make it. But that wasn’t the real issue. The single player is seriously lacking. Aside from hit-or-miss story mode, cheap Legendary Souls, and strip-down arcade mode there is nothing to do except online play and character creation. If you have home pals who play the game too, then this game is really fun as you horse around with your buddies trying to make different characters. And online is pretty much entertaining too. But for others who aren’t major online players/don’t have gamer friends the game has little to offer. Soul Calibur IV was a bit weak regarding that, but this one is even worse. I know people will say ”What do you want, it’s a fighting game and there was only VS mode back into the old days!”. Problem is that this time is different then before and maybe I wouldn’t minded so much if older SC games originally didn’t have awesome content like Tales of Souls & Chronicle of the Sword. For heaven’s sake, even football games have more mods to play these days. I’m sorry to say it but this game seriously needs some DLC patches concerning new content.

  • brian yep

    This is shocking.
    Photo Kano at #3.

  • http://www.facebook.com/VirusChris Christopher Nunes

    It’s a sad shame of an affair for Soul Calibur in Japan. I got into the series starting from Soul Calibur 2, as I saw an Ad of it in a magazine as it was promoting the guest character Link in it and I had to get it as I love Legend of Zelda, and soon fall in love with the series. Granted I’m a casual gamer and fighter, though I like to go to tournaments to test my skills, and I love how it wasn’t over-the-top technical with the fighting mechanics and it made it easy for me to grasp the controls and want to learn the commands.

    I got Soul Calibur V as it looked really good with the gameplay mechanics, which I have to say is on par with SC2 as it’s fast and innovative, and I wasn’t too keen on the 17 year jump at first like most people but I gave it some time and I love the new characters but it would’ve been great if some of the old characters were still around as well.

    I’m not much of an online gamer, as my internet connection frankly sucks at times, but I still give it a whirl but being focus mostly on Online aspect isn’t really a good deal (unlike CoD which strives on it) and it being rush doesn’t help. My favorite SC game in the series is Soul Calibur 3 because it had the BEST Single Player content in the series and I loved it for it, and it gave birth to the Character Creation mode to the series and I loved that even more.

    I especially like my own Created Character have their own Story Mode to use, heck even SCIV had a bit of Story Mode for them and it made it feel like they were important to the story as well, and the details in Chronicles of the Sword were awesome and I wish they brought that back! Tales of Soul really brought the game’s story to the next level and it felt like I had control over each character’s decisions and the input endings rock! ^_^

    SCIV came up short on that, but I enjoyed the new characters and the Bonus characters (I miss my cute Oni girl Kamikirimusi… ;_;), but they improved a few things even the Create-a-Soul but I didn’t like how they removed certain options that SC3′s CaS Mode had. In a way SC3′s CaS Mode was the best in the series with an many CaS options and I miss SCIV and SCV added on to that than remove them.

    SCV easily has the best gameplay in the series which is it strongest point, but sadly it’s Single Player content is lacking. I enjoy the game for what it is and I’m not complaining, but I wish there was a Story Mode for our Created Characters again. It feels like they’re more like Trophies to show off now instead of be used in a way that ties them to the game’s lore, which I liked in SCIII and SCIV.

    Also even though I enjoyed SCV’s Story Mode, I wish it gave as an option to view the story as a hold through the different eyes of each characters. Like playing as Leixia and seeing how she meet up with Natsu, Maxi, and Xiba until they meet with Patroklos or seeing what Raphael was doing while everything was going down. It could still end with Patroklos and Pyrrha but they could’ve dived a bit deeper into the other characters’ past and stories.

    There’s no Museum mode to show their profiles so it’s like scratching your head wondering what these guys are doing there in the first place if they’re not really important to the story. I mean even some of the minor characters in the past games HAD some level of background story that motivated them but here you don’t know a single thing about them and Story Mode didn’t really dive deep into their lives which is sad.

    It’s a fighting game, yes, but it’s much more than that! There’s a whole lore to the game and I enjoy that aspect of that while fighting many enemies to reach the character’s conclusion in the story.

    I hate to see the sales flop for it, but I hope it shows Namco Bandai that RUSHING a game within a year to release it isn’t the wisest of ideas and I hope they start to shape up a bit as it’s not worth $60 (Collector’s Edition should’ve been that price at least) and hoping give developers more time to work on their projects.

    It’s fine if you want to release it but IT IS UNACCEPTABLE to release a rushed incomplete game that you plan to patch it through DLC. That’s not how you handle a game or it’s series and it’s just poor business making skills. I bet if it was given 4 to 5 more months it would’ve been more solid than it is today.

    I like the series to continue and I hope SCVI fixes what SCV lacked because of the company and give this series is saving grace.

  • fayt255

    I decided to rent SCV over buying to see if I like the new characters, then to find out they have no profiles for them. SCV is fun to play but their is just hardly any content to keep you going, The story mode only follows one character instead of how you had a story mode for most all the characters in SCIV. Still I hope they make more SC games but give me more content.

  • Locklear93

    I hate to say it, but in some ways, I find SCV worse than SCIII, which had previously been the only Soul series game I considered “bad.”  While it’s certainly a matter of taste, the main character of its story mode is unlikable and obnoxious, and since it’s so heavily focused on him, the real reason I personally play fighters is very badly damaged.  Outside of the story mode and character creation, there’s just very little to occupy me, so… yes, SCV is kind of getting what I feel the title deserves.

    As a long time Soul series fan–since Soul Edge/Blade even–it pains me to say it, but I got more value and (and I REALLY hate admitting this) a better plot from the Mortal Kombat reboot.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hector-Gomez/614956949 Hector Gomez

       ya story seems rushed i wanted to see what was Natu’s mission, and how Aeon Turned into a lizard, or how Viola met Z.W.E.I. etc. they primised more story D:

  • Wahyudi Cahya Putra

    + amazing character creation
    + good online battles

    - Lack of story modes
    - Too many mimics characters
    - Lack of single player modes

    my suggestion:

    Improve single player modes like challenges modes and chronicles of sword like SC III,  because not all people like online gaming.

    • Ladius

      Some of your “-” aren’t true: there is a 3-hours story mode, and I won’t say there’s a lack of single player contents considering how they have fleshed out the quick battles, the various paths of arcade mode and the Legendary Souls mode. Also, the extensive character creation is a given in this series, but you should consider how other games don’t have anything like it.

      You’re right about the mimic characters, though.

      • Crimson_Cloud

        It’s actually a shame that such awesome character creation can’t be used for nothing other then VS mode. If you played some of the WWE games you would know the joy in creating your character and seeing him/her in a story mode with cutscenes. It’s much more fun when the game makes you feel like your character is a part of it’s world. ^^

        • Ladius

          Yeah, that style has its own charm, much like in the DefJam games, most wrpgs and a ton of GTA-style sandbox games. Then again, that kind of narrative approach wouldn’t mix very well with SC’s character-driven story, I fear.

          • Crimson_Cloud

            It’s not very character-driven anymore haha ;)

            But yeah, I know what you mean, and they could have made a separate mod for that, not the story like in SCV but like in Chronicles of the Sword or something. And although the Arcade ending for created character in SCIV isn’t something to boast about, it was still a nice touch. They could have expended that.  Now, we have nothing.

        • http://www.facebook.com/VirusChris Christopher Nunes

          That’s why I loved SC3′s CotS mode and SC4′s Story Mode that include CaS into it, that is the reason I LOVE the Character Creation mode. The sight and joy of seeing your character be a part of the game’s world always puts a smile in my face.

          I was disappoint to find out that wasn’t the case for SC5. I really wish Namco allowed PS more time to work on the game to fine-tune it, polish it, and add in some key features for Single Player mode to make it enjoy for casual and tournament players.

          • Crimson_Cloud

            Indeed. ^^

  • http://profiles.google.com/isidorembuma Isidore M’Buma

    There is a tendency among fighting games developpers to focus exclusively on the online portion of games. Is it an excuse to release unfinished games?

    Naruto UNS Generations is the next example, no story mode and the only few new features are online modes. The same goes for Soulcalibur V, and SFxTekken won’t be different apparently…

    Soulcalibur I to III, the Blazblue series, the new KOF are good examples of rich solo modes. Personnaly, I play a bit of online, but it gets boring fast. We need story modes, missions modes, chronicle modes…!!!

    • Nemesis_Dawn

      Kotaku already showed that SFXTekken has individual intros for each team, which probably also means endings and possibly rival battles. That’s already more than this has.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kuhile-Brodeur/100000150368876 Kuhile Brodeur

    I don’t even think added Talim as DLC could save them. I don’t intend on buying this game until it’s about $18.

    • Crimson_Cloud

      If they patch up the arcade mode with ending story sequence for every character, return some of the old characters and insert some single player mode in which you can use your created character SCV could pretty much be saved. DLC can do wonders but of course they will just keep piling up character creation clothing and music, which is much easier for them…

  • Palmer Nyako

    soulcalibur isn’t fun.
    not as fluid as tekken or street fighter.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hector-Gomez/614956949 Hector Gomez

       obviously u dont know how to play SC xD

  • protofox

    from what i know they worked closely with the calibur tournament community, so from that its not surprising the game is 90% mulitplayer, and 10% single player.  it seems like was built pretty much for the tournament circuits worldwide and not just causal fighters and such. as i enjoy playing this game on a high level this isnt a problem for me..but i will say.. i reaallllyyy miss the SCIII  story mode with the maps and battles a pretty decent story length..bring something like that back in DLC..its not hard namco. 

  • Kitestwinblades

    I’m sure it’ll pick up. Character creation is just too awesome this time around.
    Could I submit mines?

  • Fitzkrieg

    Well, considering that Namco gave Odashima and the rest of Project Soul less than a year to make SoulCalibur V, the product quality isn’t too bad.

    Of course I would have loved to see more story (I’ve always been a SoulCalibur aficionado, myself), but considering the time they were given, I’m more than happy with what we have.

    I wasn’t honestly expecting to ever see another SoulCalibur game after how unanimously ‘meh’ SCIV was, so I’m just glad we got another one.

  • TheMysticalNinja

    So I guess this means Soul Calibur is more popular in the west then in Japan now.

  • PrinceHeir

    i just hope the next Soul Calibur games would focus on single player modes and

    content and tons of old characters back :P

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