SiegfriedFM
Member
IS THIS WHERE I LOL ABOUT BEWBS AND COMPLAIN ABOUT JAGGIES AND LAG?
No. That's what the Soulcalibur IV Official Thread is for. Please go there. This thread is for discussing custom characters and costumes.
WHY THIS THREAD?
The character creation mode is back from Soulcalibur III and is even more expansive this time around. You can change the 2P costumes of the original characters with any unlockable piece and create brand new characters from scratch.
HOW TO GET STARTED
This won't be a FAQ on how to get every single piece of equipment. Unlike Soulcalibur III, which had you buy everything from a shop, in Soulcalibur IV you unlock items either by generally levelling up your characters through play time, getting "honours" or Achievements, or by completing certain hidden tasks within Tower of Souls (eg "win without ringouts", "win using only a certain attack"). Note that unlocking 30 honours unlocks MOST normally unlockable items including the tower rewards (there seems to be a few items that take longer, not confirmed yet).
Here's a Japanese page which lists all items with pictures, very handy even if you can't read the exact name of each piece.
Each item may have numbers attached to it in one of five categories, as well as modify attack, defense and HP values. The numbers are used to buy special abilities, which in themselves require a certain level of the style you're using. You can level up the style by simply playing with the original character or any customized characters based on it.
NOTE: Certain items (i e school uniforms for males and females) are only available in the LE versions at the moment. Additional items can be downloaded through Xbox Live and PSN. Currently these contain classic costume parts.
IDEAS FOR YOUR CHARACTERS
Your character can obviously be anything you like. Personally, I prefer to create characters who could "realistically" appear in the early 1590's. Here I will add useful links for inspiration and specific persons you could create. Of course, if you want to make your Chuck Norrises and Hitlers, feel free to.
To start out with, in the year 1591 (most likely date for the game):
* The famous Golem of Prague was rumoured to be around.
* Sir Francis Drake was sailing the seven seas after having been involved in the Anglo-Spanish naval war.
* Miyamoto Musashi was six years old and was not quite that good a fighter yet.
* The first water closet was invented in England. A few years later, there was a huge plague in London. These events may not be related.
* Hideyoshi ruled Japan (references to this has already been made in Taki's SC1 stage etc).
* Galileo Galilei was a student at Pisa, not having reached his famous conclusions yet.
* Leonardo da Vinci was dead, about 50 years ago, but his inventions could certainly have been realized in this universe.
* The year before, the Roanoke Colony, Virginia, was found deserted, possibly invaded by unknown forces.
* Witch trials are being held, especially in Scotland.
FEATURES
Note that characters, like in Soulcalibur III, has two layers of clothing. In this game, these are used for the armor break system. Since you're quite likely to have your upper armor broken, plan ahead for how you want your character to look without it. Tower of Souls has some premade characters who walk around in panties when you've stripped their armor.
There are many more colors this time. There are 10 palettes of varying saturation, each including the same range of colors as Soulcalibur III. Note that skin color doesn't use its own gimped palette anymore, so making dark-skinned people should be quite possible. However, underwear still follow its own palette so it's hard to make "skin colored" clothing.
There is a grid where you can set your combination of "physique" and "muscle" (-50 to 50 for both). Physique for men equals muscle size. -50 is a quite scrawny guy, while +50 is Rock. Physique for women equals breast size. -50 is Talim, +50 is Ivy. Muscle equals muscle definition for both genders but is not very apparent on women. You can't change height.
LIMITATIONS
There is a total of 50 slots to save costumes. Any existing character can have up to 48 costumes on top of their original 2, but this is taken from your total, so if you made 48 different costumes for Ivy, you could only make 2 other costumes or characters.
Every CaS (Create-a-Soul, terminology from SC3) must be based on an original character. You can't base one on on the Star Wars characters, and not on any of the anime guests either (since they're using someone else's moves to begin with).
Some items override each other. Specifically, many heavy chest items (dresses, mostly) removes things like skirts that would just clip.
You can't edit the costumes of the Star Wars characters. If you try, you go into the regular CaS menu but all you can change are stat-changing accessories. Sorry, no unmasked Vader or bikini Yoda.
Some characters have limited equipment possibilities. You can't give Yoshimitsu any head piece that doesn't cover his entire head and you can't change or remove his jacket or pants. Unfortunately, this means that you can't give him a Tekken 2 outfit even though the items necessary are available in the game (mask, strawhat and kimono). Nightmare and Lizardman also can't use some slots. You also can't edit Algol's outfit at all.
THREAD RULES
Post your custom characters in this thread. A picture is helpful but not required for color guides. While it doesn't seem like you can export or share characters, there's a quick reference page which lists all your settings in one screen: this can be useful for screenshots. Just make sure to note the following:
* Name, voice and affiliation settings (if you feel that it's necessary).
Eg:
Name: Shaana
* Base character.
Eg:
Style: Siegfried
* Specific weapon (if necessary).
Eg:
Weapon: Requiem
* Armor pieces in each slot.
Eg:
Head: Warrior's Headdress
* Face, hair and other physical features.
* Story and background (optional).
Layout: Please update your original post with additional characters/costumes as you make them.
Disclaimer: Please let me know of any confirmed info that could be useful in this OP. I will update as I unlock more stuff.