Locking game-critical content needs to stop.

[walrusmonger]

I'm trying to unlock Akuma now, and it is torture playing throught the game with characters like Gen- I had to face Seth 23 times on very easy mode before I beat him....

[whoisKeel]

At least this seems do-able

I know I'll never unlock all the cups for F-zero GX (gamecube). That one really bothers me.

[G-Boobie]

Exactly the point I was going to make. What would you really prefer:
- All characters available from the beginning, and nothing to achieve.
- Some characters need to be unlocked, motivating game play.
- Paying hard earned cash for extra characters. People moaned enough about paying for extra costumes. Imagine the reaction if you had to actually pay for Cammy!

What you've just stated in your post is that the only unlockables that matter to people are characters: you're ignoring all the other unlockable content, which seems a bit short sighted. I've seen plenty of achievement whores in various forums and lobbies, and I've seen some pretty convincing celebrities in Soul Calibur 4's custom character editors.

What I still haven't seen addressed yet is that there is always plenty of other stuff to unlock besides the characters in most recent fighting games. When you take into consideration the achievements, trophies, icons, badges, movies, artwork, titles, and so on in Street Fighter IV, I think you can see that there's plenty to 'achieve' without putting some characters out of people's reach.

Consider also that not everyone buying the game is particularly skilled, or interested in becoming skilled enough to get the two perfects, three ultra finishes, and then beating Seth without losing necessary to unlock Gouken. I should also add that you need to unlock Gouken and Akuma to then acquire Seth.

I never heard one single word of complaint that the only unlockable character in Virtua Fighter 5 was the secret boss. Not one. I think the costumes, icons, and ranks were enough to satisfy even the most hardcore. To assume that allowing players access to game critical content, such as all the characters in the roster, is going to render the game uninteresting or boring is asinine.

[ubersaurus]

I don't get the big deal here. I'm a tournament player. I wanted to get all the characters fast, so I could play around with em before a tourney sunday.

How long did it take to get Gen, Fei Long, Rose, Cammy, Sakura, and Dan? About an hour.

Akuma and Gouken? An additional 30 minutes.

Seth took me until today to get, but that was with only playing a bit each night since the unlockfest the first day. Seriously, it's not that hard. One round, easiest difficulty, 30 second rounds. I blew through it no problem. And if they didn't lock em, I'd probably have never gone through arcade mode!

Locking characters in fighters isn't anything new, and I'm just glad it's not anywhere near as painful as the locks in Capcom vs SNK 1 or Marvel 2 were. I don't really care about extra colors, or taunts, or movies, or any of that shit - I may get it, I may not - and anyone who is interested in just playing the game with their friends probably doesn't either.

Edit: Dan is totally viable in SF4. he may look like a goon, but he surprisingly doesn't suck.

[JunkTheMagicDragon]

I don't get the big deal here. I'm a tournament player.

that's just it. not everyone's a tournament player.

i suck at fighting games. i'm a button-masher. i will prob never have the skills to unlock them all on my own, but i'd still like to have a full roster to play with friends.

:edit:

just saw this on joystiq. guy on gamevideos unlocks all the characters using hard kick on autofire (easiest mode). that'd be the option for me.

[CosmicMonkey]

What you've just stated in your post is that the only unlockables that matter to people are characters: you're ignoring all the other unlockable content, which seems a bit short sighted.

Um, no. You were the one who started this thread to moan about the absolute chore of having to unlock the characters in the game.

Personally, I'm looking forward to unlocking characters, costumes and whatever else. I'll be firing up IV as soon as the kids are in bed at half 7.

[ubersaurus]

that's just it. not everyone's a tournament player.

i suck at fighting games. i'm a button-masher. i will prob never have the skills to unlock them all on my own, but i'd still like to have a full roster to play with friends.

:edit:

just saw this on joystiq. guy on gamevideos unlocks all the characters using hard kick on autofire (easiest mode). that'd be the option for me.

Yeah, but like, beating everyone in the game requires you to be able to jump in with an attack, do a standing fierce or something, and maybe a special move. I got Akuma and Gouken just by doing jump roundhouse, stand fierce, fierce shoryuken with Sakura, because the computer fell for it EVERY time.

I'm not that good of a tournament player, and I'm certainly not used to SF4. But if you can do the most basic of combos, you can unlock everyone in pretty short order.