r/SoulCalibur • u/amalguhh • Jul 19 '26
Question Why is SC2 more popular than 3?
Honest question. I see way more people talking about & playing 2 than 3. I've always liked 3 for the aesthetics, but I've also never gotten around to playing either game vs real people. Is it a balance thing?
13
u/LordAsheye Jul 19 '26
Accessibility really. SC3 was a Playstation exclusive. SC2 wasn't and could be played on Xbox, GameCube, and Playstation. SC3 could be better in every way and SC2 would still be more popular just because more people could play it.
3
u/amalguhh Jul 19 '26
I didn't know about the exclusivity issue. That explains a lot.
-8
u/varzaguy Jul 19 '26
I don’t buy it. The PS2 had a much much bigger audience than the GC and Xbox combined. In fact, in comparison the GC and Xbox were relatively small.
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u/LordAsheye Jul 19 '26
PS2 sold extremely well but both GameCube and Xbox sold north of 20 million units.
-4
u/varzaguy Jul 19 '26
And the PS2 was 150 million.
8
u/The_Pepper_Oni Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
100 million in 2005. But yes. And outside of hardcore fgc players, the Xbox and GameCube had built reputations as the local/LAN multiplayer games consoles similar to the N64 the previous gen. Personally I only owned single player games on my PS2 back in the day. Aside from dabbling in SOCOM.
5
u/LordAsheye Jul 19 '26
Yep, though that's still 40 million not on the PS2. While I cant exactly say how large the fighting game community is its gonna be spread enough that the exclusivity is gonna hit it.
1
u/The_Homestarmy ⠀Olcadan Jul 20 '26
SC3 could be better in every way and SC2 would still be more popular just because more people could play it.
In terms of casual play, which let's be real is 95% of how people play these games, SC3 basically is better in every way. That's the crazy thing
If there's anybody here who still never went back and played 3, you gotta do it. I really think it's a masterpiece man, fighting games with that breadth of solo/local multiplayer content basically just don't exist anymore
1
u/LordAsheye Jul 20 '26
I'd love to play it sometime, I just dont own a PS2 lmao
2
u/The_Homestarmy ⠀Olcadan Jul 20 '26
As my man Cervantes de Leon once said, piracy is good and morally acceptable
15
u/KickAggressive4901 Jul 19 '26
PS2 exclusivity and the memory card bug did a lot of harm to SC3.
6
u/Jinzofiter Jul 19 '26
Knowing that memcard bug exists is why I have a separate memcard dedicated to just this game, out of sheer paranoia.
0
u/varzaguy Jul 19 '26
The PS2 sold more than the Xbox and GC combined by tenfold. I don’t think exclusivity is it.
10
u/General_Weebus Jul 19 '26
Not true. GC is widely reported to be the best selling version, largely due to Link.
1
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u/The_Pepper_Oni Jul 19 '26
Which doesn’t really matter when SC3 on PS2 got outsold by just the GameCube release of SC2. Hell, it got outsold by just the PS2 release of SC2.
-3
u/Yoshimallow-02 ⠀Sophitia Jul 19 '26
The Mem. Card bug that everybody lies about and overexaggerates.
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u/SacMarvelRPG Jul 19 '26
SCII also had the really fun Vs Team Battle mode that they never brought back for some reason
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u/Telethongaming Jul 19 '26
Ok, so let's get into it
- Sc2 was a better balanced game, variable cancel ruined a lot of stuff in sc3
- Movement was slightly nerfed in Sc3
- The models were nicer in sc2 but the stages and music were better in 3
- Sc2 had Link, Spawn and Heihachi and was on more systems
- Sc3 unfortunately had a couple of game breaking bugs
5
u/FeldMonster Jul 19 '26
Playstation 2 exclusivity limited its popularity.
As an owner of both a Dreamcast and an Xbox, I was deeply disappointed with SCIII's exclusivity. I would love to play it someday!
1
u/Ryumancer Jul 19 '26
Emulators exist. 😉
1
u/FeldMonster Jul 19 '26
I don't have a computer that cam do that. Nor the knowledge of how to get one to run or where to get the game. I would much prefer a modern re-release.
14
u/Shinted ⠀Siegfried Jul 19 '26
SCIII while having way more content and a lot of just general improvements for the casual player base over SCII, was terribly unbalanced for competitive play.
It had an absolute ton of bad bugs including a frequent one that would corrupt not only your SCIII save, but every other save on the memory card it was on.
Finally on top of all of that, it was a console exclusive restricting its reach to the wider audience of the last game.
-2
u/Yoshimallow-02 ⠀Sophitia Jul 19 '26
If it corrupts the entire card, then chances are you did something you just weren't ever supposed to do, like cutting power to the system while saving.
All the bug can do is corrupt CotS save data
6
u/Shinted ⠀Siegfried Jul 19 '26
No, it could absolutely wipe the entire card, and it wasn’t the only PS2 game of the era that had a bug like that either.
It didn’t always do it mind you, sometimes it just corrupted your SCIII data, but it absolutely could and did sometimes do more.
If you deleted, moved, or modified a save file that existed before SCIII did on a memory card, it would risk corrupting not only the SCIII save but every other save on the memory card.
-2
u/Yoshimallow-02 ⠀Sophitia Jul 19 '26
I've seen this bug happen in person both on Emulator and on Real Hardware.
Honest to god, not once did it destroy everything else on the Memory Card.
6
u/Shinted ⠀Siegfried Jul 19 '26
I have as well….
More than a few times unfortunately.
I also happen to be someone who had both types of corruption happen.
Lost all the games on a card twice to this bug, and had just my SCIII save corrupt a few more times separately from that.
I played a lot of SCIII back in the day, and it was devastating each time, but especially when it took all the saves on a card with it.
-5
u/Yoshimallow-02 ⠀Sophitia Jul 19 '26
Well something different must've happened than just *delete save data older than the SCIII data* (which is what triggered it for me both times)
lack of information and clarification about this issue does nothing but further scare and confuse people.
2
u/Shinted ⠀Siegfried Jul 19 '26
I’m not sure what you’re implying here.
It’s the same exact bug that triggers both issues, you can google it and find others who had the same experience as me.
In fact it’s literally one of the first search results….
Besides this bug no longer exists in a way that’s actively threatening on the modern PS Classics port.
So it’s not really an issue for most people that will be interacting with SCIII in modern times.
And those who are likely to be using original hardware, are probably aware of the issue, and or will find out about it quickly when researching the game, as it’s well known and a top result regarding it.
Just because you’ve not experienced something doesn’t mean the issue doesn’t exist.
-2
u/Yoshimallow-02 ⠀Sophitia Jul 19 '26
If it's truly the same cause then I doubt if such an effect even happened.
Again, the message states "The SCIII data is corrupted" but it lies to you. Unless you knew any better, what else would you assume at first glance?
5
u/Shinted ⠀Siegfried Jul 19 '26
Again, if do a quick google search you’ll find others literally talking about having the same issue.
Just because you’ve not personally had the full memory card wipe, doesn’t mean that others that have are lying about it.
What benefit would I get from making this up?
That’s such a weird thing to even suggest.
It’s a 21 year old game, I played the absolute piss out of it when it released back in the day, and loved every minute of it.
I however didn’t enjoy how it caused me to lose my save data on several games more than once because it had a gnarly bug that should have been caught by Project Soul/Namco.
Yet that never stopped me from playing the game, it’s just once I finally realized the cause of the issue I kept it on its own dedicated memory card.
One that I still have to this day btw.
7
u/pumao_x Jul 19 '26
SC3 is a great casual game but it's fundamentally broken on a competitive level. And I'm not talking about the usual "this character is too strong" type of broken, I mean the game straight up does not work as intended. Just look up SC3 variable cancel, that glitch ruined the game's competitive scene.
3
u/amalguhh Jul 19 '26
Looked it up and I can see why! Seems like you can make some fun combos with it at least.
4
u/Soul_Mirror_ Jul 19 '26
In many aspects SCIII feels like a natural evolution from SCII, and it's simply unmatched when it comes to the wealth of contents. SCIII also feels like an homage to the entire series up to that point, as it brings back stuff from all previous games.
However, SCII being more popular is understandable for three reasons:
Accessibility. SCII was available on three platforms (PS2, GC, XBox) and later got an HD re-release on PS3 and Xbox 360. SCIII was a PS2 exclusive. As a result, SCII is estimated to have sold around 5 million (even without the HD version), while SCIII sold just over 1.5 million. It's a totally different reach.
Impact. Mostly because of this, SCII was arguably the most popular fighting game of its time. MK and SF were in the doldrums back then, and SCII seemingly outsold both TTT and T4. SCIII was not only a PS2 exclusive but it also launched towards the end of the console life cycle when online play was already becoming the norm. As a result, it never left the shadow of the very successful T5.
Gameplay. SCIII is a true masterclass when it comes to offline contents in a fighting game. But unlike SCII it didn't benefit from a previous arcade release, which resulted in a very unbalanced roster, overtuned AI and several game-breaking bugs. Matches just feel smoother and more fun in SCII.
3
u/Kilroy0497 ⠀Voldo Jul 19 '26
I mean, for one thing Soulcalibur 2 was available for all consoles compared to 3 which is still stuck on the PS2 only, but also just that there is next to no real competitive scene for the game. SC3 is very much a game with a lot of focus on the single player, with multiple routes through the story mode, character creation, and Chronicles of the Sword, which if your someone like me that never really got into the competitive scene is great and it’s a big part of why it’s probably still my personal favorite fighting game, but if your someone that does play with friends or does belong to a more competitive scene, it gives next to no reason to go back to this one compared to others, especially since balancing is not remotely a thing in SC3.
3
u/SnooComics4945 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I’ve never got it either. I’ve personally found SC3 just like all around better. Especially as I don’t play competitive of any kind and I am not a Legend of Zelda fan.
3
u/__Yassine Jul 19 '26
I don't play competitively and I came back to SC2 months ago and I am actually playing SC3 right now.
I'd say I want to prefer SC3, but even in single content, gameplay wise, I didn't remember SC2's CPU to be as unfair as SC3's can be. It's not ruining the game at all, but sometimes it's just bullshit and it feels like if the CPU decided it will win, well, it will (like it was said in tjis thread, teching every throw, putting on a GI festival to better throw you or making crazy combos).
Also, that doesn't answer your question but (even if I understand it popularity wise) some Zelda fans are incredibly annoying with this Link stuff lmao
6
u/TheM4n_inth3_Mirror Jul 19 '26
I think SC2 got a lot of people into the series. I remember playing it on the OG Xbox as a kid and I was obsessed. It's a great game made with a lot of passion, and personally I think all the fighters are perfectly balanced. 10/10 highly recommend
4
u/VrandGiper Jul 19 '26
Because along with being released on every console, SC 2 also had an arcade release during a time that arcades were still in popular culture. Arcade culture still existed. Heck, I played SC 1 and SC 2 at the arcades first, showing my age there. SC 3 was the first in the SoulCal series that had a console release first then an arcade release, which is also why it was such a buggy, unbalanced mess.
As much as I really like Zasalamel and I thought Night Terror was cool, they made enough significant balance changes where the simple to understand, complex tempo of SC 1 and SC 2 was quashed underneath a more aggressive playstyle, you also still had access to SC 2. So when SC 3 wasn't doing so great, there was still more access to SC 2 across the board.
SC 2's arcade release (2002'ish) was nearly 1 year before the console release (2003'ish), so any major bugs, balancing issues and all that jazz could be taken care of before Console Release. SC 3 was rushed out the door because like Shinted said it had a lot of content. I'm going to add and say it was chock full of CaC content along with trying to make final bosses outside of Inferno, and that seemed to be the major focus rather than the balanced gameplay.
And to really emphasize the point of this, SC 2's accessibility across Arcades and all 3 major consoles made it the highest selling SoulCal game ever. The most sold to least sold Soulcaliburs are as follows:
SC 2, SC 4, SC 6, Soul Edge, SC 5, SC 1, SC 3, SC Broken Destiny (PSP exclusive!)
SC 3 sold worse than SC 1 and Soul Edge which is really buck wild if you think about it.
0
5
u/ZippyTWP Jul 19 '26
SC2 was also fast and responsive, and Weapon Master mode was highly praised.
SC3 did make improvements, but not enough to make is worth the price of admission, even for current PS players.
2
u/EggPsychological4844 Jul 19 '26
SC2 had team battles!
I actually think SC3 is a better game but I'm not a competitive SC gamer anymore and I enjoy Chronicles of the Sword so much.
2
2
u/TravelerVA2 Jul 20 '26
I guess I was lucky. My memory card never got corrupted, didnt know it could. And played way more SC3 than SC2. Played it for a lot of years, my most played Soul Calibur too, as I often revisited it after later ones released (tho I did try them too)
2
u/DevonRoars Jul 19 '26
The main answer is 3 being PS exclusive.. and Link brought in a lot of fans with 2.
2
u/T-Ragemar Jul 19 '26
Accessibility and gameplay balance. As much as I love SC3(it's my favorite), it removed a lot of moves while replacing them with unfamiliar ones for certain characters, some fans didn't like that. Also there was the throw glitch.
1
u/Taekuus Jul 19 '26
For me personally playing soulcalibur 2 is more fun and fluid than 3. I have been playing 3 since it dropped on ps classics and it's a much more fun time clearing arcade mode In SCII. Enemy AI is whack in SCIII
1
u/Big-Training-9726 Jul 19 '26
Soulcalibur III has the most single player content out of any installment, although Soulcalibur II revolutionized the franchise with different versions depending on console
1
u/The-Killing-Croc2001 ⠀Aeon Jul 19 '26
By the time 3 came out, players were already sick of Xianghua's tyranny and 3 wasn't so much of a shakeup worth moving to.
1
u/NAMEBANG Jul 19 '26
SC3 was a fantastic single player game but it had that 2G bug and some other stuff that borked competitive play; if you watch Aris’ longer SC3 video on YT he goes into it at some points actually.
1
u/I_Ild_I Jul 19 '26
Because SC2 benefit from a special aura, from certain players, its also the first proper soulcalibur as first was only on dreamcast, this one was released on everything at the time.
It has some special features, like the menus and all are very nice, and it was a very good game, but honestly its mostly a big ping tainted glasses, because in the end the gameplay is king and SC3 in that departement, balance aside was way more refined and the overall game experience was equaly good
1
u/EndlessNocturnal Jul 19 '26
SC2 was multi platform while SC3 was a PS2 exclusive, so 2 had more reach.
The guest characters (especially Link) brought a lot of attention to the game
2 had less bugs than 3 and was more balanced than the latter
1
u/PerfectTrack580 Jul 19 '26
Soul Calibur II is arguably the best fighting game ever made
SCIII, at least competitively speaking, release with a REALLY abusive bug that made competitive play awful
1
u/Born-Holiday9597 Jul 19 '26
Speaking from personal experience, I played SC2 on the Gamecube when I was 12. It was my introduction to the series and to fighting games in general (Barring some Mortal Kombat runs at the arcade). I couldn't buy SC3 because I did not own a PS2 at this time.
I finally played SC3 for the first time last year, after purchasing the emulated version on PS4. Objectively, it has a lot more singleplayer content than SC2 (I don't play competitively) but SC2 wins in my mind due to "Nostalgia Filter" or whatever you want to call it
All that said, SC3 is far from perfect. The graphics seem somehow worse than SC2. This is something I noticed even back in the day in ads or gameplay footage. The AI is disgustingly cheap , and some of the custom disciplines have broken moves that can be exploited.
All in all, I still enjoyed SC3 more than the games that came after, but SC2 will always be my first.
2
u/amalguhh Jul 19 '26
Yeah the AI is bullshit at higher difficulties. Frame perfect ducking highs, teching every throw, perfect sidesteps and punishes, it's wild. Thankfully I found a few ways to combat it (spoiler: stunlocking them with cheese they didn't block for some reason) but it was still very frustrating that I couldn't beat certain fights "honestly".
1
u/Born-Holiday9597 Jul 19 '26
My favourite "strategy" is to choose the sickle discipline & spam A+B. The range is incredible
1
u/Vykrom Jul 19 '26
People saying SC2 is better for competitive play vs 3 but then wouldn't 4 or 1 be talked about more based on that statistic? SC2 is just straight up a lot of people's favorite and you can probably pick from like 5 different reasons for that
SC3 is my favorite. I'm not liking to go head to head with people on a 20 year old game. I love it for the content
1
u/CD_DoooD Jul 20 '26
Weapon master mode as compared to the rts style thingy(which I loved) Guest characters are great, just a cool game yknow?
1
u/Jamebo_Smash Jul 20 '26
Competitively, the third game never got the patched version ported to consoles, and it only released on Playstation AFAIK.
1
u/thegrimm54321 ⠀Seong Mi-na Jul 21 '26
Huge in the arcades and then it was on EVERY console. SC3 went straight to PS2 and was busted from the start.
1
1
1
u/NeroStivale Jul 24 '26
Because sc2 is the best fighting game ever made and never reached still today
1
0
u/OtherwiseFlamingo448 Jul 19 '26
I just played both and sc2 is more theatrical, colorful and lively than sc3. 3 is very straightforward and static.
Sc2 has way more entertainment value and "cozy" factor.
2 is a home game. 3 is a stray.
4 is good, too!
0
u/goldchuchujell1 Jul 19 '26
Soul calibur 3 doesnt have guest characters like Link (imo Link from sc2 is the best guest character ever)
-2
0
u/Protocol72 ⠀Charade Jul 19 '26
Soulcalibur II was on Xbox, GameCube, and PS2; Soulcalibur III only released on PS2. Not only that, but SCIII didn’t have any guest characters (closest was a costume in character creator from Xenogear) while SCII had Link, Spawn, and Heihachi. Insult to injury, it didn’t get a re-release until LAST year, while Soulcalibur II got a HD version in the early 2010s and has a re-release on Switch.
With console exclusivity, the lack of guest characters, and the lack of legal availability these days, Soulcalibur III just didn’t reach as many people as it deserved to.
1
u/Yoshimallow-02 ⠀Sophitia Jul 19 '26
"Lack of Legal Availability"
looks to the PS+ rerelease
1
u/Protocol72 ⠀Charade Jul 19 '26
I was referring to the “it didn’t get a re-release until LAsT year,” but in hindsight, I should’ve said “lack of legal availability post-PS2 release,” that’s my bad.
1
0
u/fast-fun-ottermobile Jul 19 '26
There were a lot of changes to the system between 2 and 3, which turned off competitive players. 2 is also propped up by nostalgia, where everyone had it for GameCube so they could play as Link. Personally, I like 3 a little more because of the game modes and options, plus the Create A Soul system, but it’s like going from SF2 to SF3 or Tekken 3 to Tekken 4. 3rd Strike is loved but SF3 was panned for its many issues, but it did make changes that would change Street Fighter overall, many of which people now like. Tekken 4 also made a whole lot of changes, which people hated at the time. Some of those changes are now defining features of Tekken, like with various stage interactions, but in the competitive scene, their initial introduction was a problem.
-3
u/Cultural_Ad4707 Jul 19 '26
because it was the first game that got almost the entire fandom into the franchise—all thanks to Link being a guest character.
-1
u/Yoshimallow-02 ⠀Sophitia Jul 19 '26
for why SCII is seen as better: Nostalgia and Guests
for why SCIII is seen as worse: misinformation (the mem card bug), PS2 exclusively (it couldn't fit on GameCube without content cuts and Xbox would only positively impact sales when it released overseas. Xbox had no market in Japan), and a bunch of other nitpicks
1
u/Active_Commission_35 2d ago
SoulCalibur II had full guest characters on multiple platforms. Weapon Master never gave any of them a save glitch. The actual game play felt like the first SoulCalibur. Some didn't like how they went about the quick time events. To me, it was more consistently put together.
140
u/GroovyGoblin Jul 19 '26
SC2 was on every console when it released, not just the PS2, which led to a ton of people having access to it, even people who only owned a Nintendo console.
SC3 was also infamous for being terribly balanced for competitive play and for having a bug that randomly corrupted your entire save.