A tale of overpriced DLC, eternally retold

(tags game, Soul Calibur)

The first game I wanted to play from yesterday's buying spree is Soul Calibur 4.

I am a bit disappointed with it though. The static graphics look stunning, but when things move, it feels a bit sluggish. I keep questioning if this game is the 60fps or the 30fps. Well, when I mean 60fps, I mean does it feel like Soul Calibur 1? Of course in a fighting game like this, limbs move too fast to track, and swords gleam like midnight racing taillights. Plus my fetish with eyes makes me dissatisfied with Xianghua. She looks totally uncanny.

I also checked the voice actress. Ryoko Shintani. Ugh. Shintani is no substitute for Aya Hisakawa. Actually, at first, everything was in English again, but Xianghua's lines sounded so laughable that I switched it to Japanese, thus encountering Shintani. Besides, I like the voices in Japanese anyway. Mitsurugi's taunts carry weight, and more importantly, I can tell what moves are going to be executed.

Other things that seemed strange. There was an update for the game already. I got 5 Achievement Points just for boot up the game. I've been unlocking some strange Achievements, like "Numeric God: The last two numbers of total play time and remaining time in a victorious battle were the same." That was worth 20 points. Call it beginners luck.

I also get points for customizing an existing character and creating a new character. Yes I was busy mixing and matching clothing, and though I am hot for the zettai ryouiki, I've been covering up more skin than I expected. I found it disconcerting that knocking off my "Princess Dress" on Xianghua had her covorting with just her two-piece underwear, so now she goes out with chainmail undies. I thought I wasn't a prude.

I forgot how fighting games deprecate moves. Soul Calibur only reminds me that I can't use the moves from SC1 in SC4. Ugh.

Well I want to get back into it, so let me get to the point of this post. There is some DLC already. There are 17 tracks of music, 80 XBLP each or at a discount of 1200 XBLP for all. The other thing is some customize parts (pack 1) for 100 XBLP. Music as DLC, I did not anticipate. Is this good or bad in comparison to the DLC furor over Beautiful Katamari where at-cost new levels were about 400KB downloads?