More damage, game speed was faster. Everybody was broken in their own way. (well not really, but still)
Tager could get like 8k off an RC combo. Just doing something like 5D > atomic collider > 6C > 5D would get you like 3-4k. Damage scaling was way less. Combos were shorter but did a lot of damage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=041l_YN_qbs
Guard libra (the guardbreak system) also promoted aggressive attacking. You had a shared bar between players, and it was like a tug of war. Whenever you blocked an attack, it swung towards you. When it was all the way over you got guard broken. Compare that to guard primers where you can block forever and just have to look out for certain moves.