Alongside Capcom, Namco really are the masters of the fighting genre. As such, they elected to break away from the norm of mapping two punches and two kick attacks to the face buttons, instead building another gameplay style from the ground up - one that favoured weapons, dodging and placement on the field more than simply learning combos and hoping for the best. Now you had to worry about stepping out the ring as such a thing would be an instant loss, you had weapon lengths and angles to consider when fighting, and a reduced roster from that of Tekken made character balancing even more important. This would go on to become the renowned Soul Calibur series, but was also the beginning (alongside Virtua Fighter) of fighters that separated the button-bashers from those wanting to really learn and master their characters.
