dmhawkmoon:
I see a lot of talk about the difficulty... Does anyone else play fighters almost exclusively two player? I mess around one player, but damn, no way would I care if the one player mode was too hard, easy, etc. It's the multiplayer that's where it's at! How's part three with a friend: that's what I'd like to hear.
Here's the thing - multiplayer the game si incredible. Because movements are more fluid, the amount of strategy involved in gameplay exceeds SSIV and even SSII. Dealing with human opponents, the mind games you can play are immense.
example - Hanzo has a fire snake that returns after covering a certain distance. in bust, with full pow, I like to throw the snake, and dash at the opponent - then I play a high low game. In dash, hit B to do a dashing low sweep, or do the Mozu otoshi - or, if you have full pow, you can do his DM out of the dash, which will catch them overhead or take them out of the air. Of course Hanzo's monkey dance is much more utilable in SSIII than later installments.
Basically there are a lot of moves, animation, and freedoms that didn't exist in SSII, and were removed from SSIV. Genjuro's QCF+slash can hit up to 5 times - not the case at all in SSII or IV. Haohmaru's dirt attack was actually useful in setting up long combos. Galford's lightning attacks comboed better, and didn't take from his plasma blade, plus button mashers wouldn't have to deal with his plasma spark problem as was the case in IV. Gaira had more range because the screen scaling moved in enough to tighten the area and give him a chance to take people on (which was definitely not the case in SSIV where he could get sodomized by half the roster without getting in a shot). Ukyo - he lost a lot of animation in SSIV. SSIII - yes, his tsubame gaeshi isn't a projectile anymore, and his after image attack sucks, but in bust mode, you have the most versatile Ukyo ever. Combined with his full animation musouzankouka DM, you also have the best looking Ukyo.
.... So you see, there's so much to do for a 2 player game. I used to play this game for hours in college with my old friends. But we didn't have teh same fun with SSIV. We only played SSII and SSIII, and that was through 1997.
......
But single player is where I really just can't get over the game. When you play against a person, you expect to lose 1 in 4 matches at least right? So when people lose against the CPU in SSIII, they feel like the computer is cheap and too hard. I would say that actually, the computer has adjusted to your patterns and that you should consider a change in strategy once in a while. Just like playing against a friend. And that's how I see the CPU, like a human almost. It's that smart. I don't see it taking less damage than it deals ever. I see it knowing what I am going to do and reacting. There hasn't been such a good AI since. Why? Because people don't want a challenge. They want a victory. I guess that's why they picked up the joystick in the first place - escapism. That's why the AI patterns in SSIV, Last Blade 1 and 2, and KoF games are so easy to get down, leaving the game boring unless in 2 player.
IMO.
IMO.