A sequence of Twitter posts from Soul Calibur director Daishi Odashima suggest a possible new direction for the series. The hope is to make an announcement about the next game in mid-May, but Odashima already dropped a few details about development.
“This time we plan on reducing commands like A+K so moves are easier to pull off on pad,” said Odashima, referring to the set of moves that requires players to hit both X and B on a 360 controller, or square and circle on a PS3 controller. The combination has always been awkward on controllers, with many players mapping the combo to the triggers or shoulder buttons.
The change speaks to a different philosophy going forward, which Odashima all but confirmed in a following tweet: “Difficult commands only limits the moves players can use but changing them suddenly may make things feel strange. The balance is hard.”
Surely, screwing with the formula can be a death wish in an avid fighting game community, but recent titles like Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Street Fighter 4 for 3DS, and Mortal Kombat prove that helping casual players can make a huge difference.
For Soul Calibur, that assistance will most likely mean the removal of frame-specific attacks that were added to the series over time. The strictly-timed attacks were thrown in for the hardcore crowd, but ultimately have no business in a game trying to reach a wider audience.
We’ll hopefully find out just how much the series will change when the alleged announcement hits next month.
