1432: SoulCalibur \\ Dreamcast \\ Exploring Menus, Modes, Missions, Voldo Arcade & Time Attack, etc!
1Trying out single-player options and gameplay modes in the Japanese version of SoulCalibur on a Japanese Dreamcast! I play through Arcade and Time Attack as Voldo (those modes appear to be pretty much the same, except Time Attack has a fixed difficulty setting that feels about equivalent to the default Medium difficulty), fumble my way through some Missions, unlock some Gallery art, etc.
My SoulCalibur playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzPwGDz0dDKenVJhMmW-GHbG
0:00 - game intro
4:21 - Options
7:55 - Practice
23:23 - Voldo Arcade
38:15 - ending & credits
42:17 - 2-on-2 Team Battle
45:04 - 8-on-8 Team Battle
58:07 - Voldo Time Attack
1:10:25 - Voldo Survival
1:16:27 - Battle Theater (CPU-vs-CPU)
1:20:40 - Mission Battle
1:21:52 - Sword Saint's Grotto 1
1:23:07 - Training Part 2
1:24:47 - Training Part 1
1:27:52 - Training Part 3
1:29:19 - Training Part 5
1:30:04 - Training Part 4
1:36:27 - Art Gallery - unlocking
1:42:34 - Indian port city 1
1:56:52 - Quick Character Selection option
Toggle to 2P costume with Y button. According to a FAQ, five characters have a 3rd costume, unlocked in Mission Battle mode. Uh and GameFAQs says two of the female characters have selectable color underwear--in the Japanese version only. I did not try this; I already developed what I felt was an awkward sort of crush on Ivy when I played the NA version of this game back in the day and uh yeah gonna try not fixating on bits of virtual women's clothing. : P
"Quick Character Selection" just makes the portraits on the character selection screen slightly smaller, I think. ^ _^ Do love the quick continue (if "Character Change at Continue" is off) in Arcade mode. Start button doesn't pause in Time Attack and Survival, which freaked me out a little, but I guess they're trying to establish a level playing field for leaderboard competition.
8-on-8 Team Battle definitely feels copied from Tekken (3 I suppose; I mentioned 4 but that was on PS2, four years after SC (2002 vs 1998)), as does the menu thumbnail in Options showing which modes use each option. OH yeah well they're both Namco franchises--boy did I space on that--so there we go.
Had to use my phone's translation cam to figure out a few missions from their pause screen hint in Japanese--like the one where you just have to run in a circle around Edge Master. ^ _^ Tricky one was the one where I had to hit the opponent with an unblockable; finally tried a move with a purple oval next to it in the pause Command List, and that did it. There are a lot of spheroids per move shown on the Command List and I'm not sure what they mean.
Controls turned out to be easier to map to my rewired PS4 stick (to DC through Brook Super Converter) 'cause all you have to do is hold the button you want to set, then left/right to pick the function. A means Horizontal Attack and B means Vertical Attack, that's a little confusing esp since A and B are also names of DC face buttons. : P I'd wanted to unmap Guard entirely 'cause I don't like holding a button all the time, but it's also used for throws (there are two: G+A and G+B; there's also a Kick button), and for recoveries and parries/repels; I don't seem to be smart enough to remember to use recoveries and I'm definitely not good enough at fighting games to use parries or repels so I suppose I could just map the two throw buttons instead--err well aside from that one early mission where you have to use a parry/repel, maybe. = P
Forgot how effectively an orchestral score like the one here turns my mumbles into real gibberish; gotta use a lower game volume next time.
Voldo is from Palermo in Sicily and the game is set in 1586!
6/6/23
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