The Video Game Revue

Soul Calibur III - Arena Missions Bug

I've found a bug in Soul Calibur III! At least, I'm pretty sure I have. Whever I play one of the "Missions" from the Arena battle mode, whatever money I collect from beating the mission replaces my current gold total rather than adding to it. For instance, let's say I have 2,200 gold to spend at the item shop, etc. And let's say I beat the Coin Collector mission on easy (although I find that this bug happens with any mission) and earn 11,407 gold. When I go to the shop, my total gold will not be the expected 13,607, but rather 11,407. I'm glad I didn't find this bug in the game much later, after saving up 500,000 gold or something like that.

Now that I think about it, does the gold that you earn from completing a stage ever stack? I was quite certain that it did--that if I played, say, three story mode games in a row, I'd have earned in the ballpark of 150,000 gold added to my total, rather than just the gold that I got in the most recent playthrough. Am I mistaken, or did some programmer accidentally do a "gold_total = gold" where "gold_total += gold" was intended?

In either case, I find it unfortunate because Arena Missions strike me as a fun and convenient way to rack up lots of gold for unlocking items, but since the gold that you earn clobbers your existing total, you can't, say, play three missions in a row winning 20k gold each time to get a 60k gold item. If you try, you'll end up at the item shop with only 20k gold in your pocket. What a bummer.

In other news, I've started playing through Final Fantasy IV Advance which is completely awesome. I can't tell you how happy I am that they chose to do the "silent" intro version of Cecil's Red Wings raiding Mysidia rather than the childish American SNES adaptation version with the unnecessary "no! you can't do this! aaah!" dialogue added. The former is true to the Japanese original, and more dramatic, I think. Even if they manage to mess up the rest of the game, I'll still be happy about that one bit.

In any case, I look forward to pouring dozens of hours into FF IV Advance, but hopefully not in such a way that it keeps me from finishing Digital Devil Saga and Disgaea. It's the Christmas season, and I already have my family to keep me from that. :)

posted by Parappa @ 12:37 PM