Month: December 2017

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Soul Calibur VI rumors continue to swirl ahead of tonight’s Game Awards

Will it soon be time to return to the Stage of History? Over the past few months, a myriad of rumors and leaks have been springing up for several different fighting games… including the highly-anticipated, yet currently-unconfirmed sixth entry in Bandai Namco Entertainment’s beloved Tale of Souls and Swords.

After the 20th Anniversary only provided us with a historical retrospective on the franchise, many likely felt that the series may have perhaps been lost to time, but for those of whose Souls still burned brightly, a leaker by the name of DasVergeben began making posts on both reddit and 8WayRun that have been hinting to the game being announced sometime this month.

Top French Soul Calibur player Hayate made a video discussing all of the current news and rumors (corroborated with tidbits from his own personal sources) that strongly hint at the return of series veterans Kilik, Nightmare, Siegfried, Tira, Chai Xianghua, Talim, Zasalamel — as well as an eighth new character who would serve as Kilik’s rival, also personifying the supposedly-scrapped Fighting Style mechanic by being able to choose between battling with his twin blades separately, or combining together into a larger single sword. You can hear Hayate’s full thoughts below:

This leaker has been making even more posts on the 8WayRun forums, posting under his Vergeben account

So you know that newcomer I was talking about?
You know that style switching/multiple moveset thing I was talking about?
This is how it works:
https://i.imgur.com/rHSmsMm.jpg
Before you ask, no, the character is not Darth Maul. lol
But his weapon was the inspiration for the new guy’s. I needed a visual to express the idea.
And before you worry, no, it’s not a lightsaber, they are swords. More like Cao Pi’s Dual Blade from Dynasty Warriors 5 and 8 from what I hear, which is the same idea.
The new guy uses two swords that he can fight with separate, or combine them and fight that way. Two different movesets in one character.
He’s Kilik’s new rival. And is an assassin.

They tried weapon switch/multiple moveset thing and were dedicated to making it work.
> Some serious problems arose because of it.
> Mostly abandoned in the form they wanted it originally be as far as I know to get the game out of development hell because of it. But there was some kind of V-Trigger styled mechanic in the game as far back as July, which could tie into retaining semblances of it and what they could in certain characters. Though I can’t say for sure yet if there is definitely a connection between the two, but it would make sense.
> The weapon switch/multiple moveset idea was intentionally meant to be highlighted, exist, and live on in the new character that uses two swords that he can combine together and also fight with that way.

Vergeben also backed up Hayate’s claims about Siegfried, Talim and Zasalamel’s returns and also noted that things may be rocky for any V debutant, not named Viola or Z.W.E.I.

Would anyone truly be sad if only Viola and ZWEI were carried over from V?
I can understand liking Pat’s style, but that seems to be the only thing most would even be sad about.

Pyrrha seems to generally be disliked and annoying, with Pyrrha Omega being the thing most people even think is worth retaining and focusing on if she did come back.
Natsu…. needs work to salvage, and I could see them do it. But if they didn’t want to bother doing it…. I would not be surprised.
Xiba was pretty reviled and his shtick got tired and annoying because he was one-dimensional with the only thing that was ever explained that…. he’s hungry…. and in outside info confirmed that he’s Kilik’s bastard son.
Leixia…. was just kind of there simply to replace her mom but more of her “cuteness” played up than they did for Xianghua.

I won’t even bother talking about Elysium, and Dampierre isn’t even technically from V.
I suppose my point is more that, if they “cut the fat” and kept the things that were more original yet underdeveloped (Viola and ZWEI), but dedicated the time and effort to do so, I don’t forsee too much blowback from many at all aside from Pat fans more than anyone.

Finally, Marcus Sellars, a reviewer, editor and writer for multiple Nintendo-related publications, including JapaneseNintendo.com and NinSwitchNet, Liked a Twitter reply from a fan asking, “Will SC6 have any showing at TGA tomorrow?” He also claims that SCVI will be one of “five unannounced games” at Bandai Namco Entertainment’s event on December 15th, of which Nintendo will supposedly have a very large presence at — perhaps we’ll see Link return as a Switch-exclusive guest after all?

Stay locked to Shoryuken and tune into The Game Awards tonight at 5:30 PM PT (7:30 PM CT/8:30 PM ET) at this link. In the meantime, why not take a trip down memory lane with last year’s 20th Anniversary trailer?

Sources: Hayate EIN; Marcus_Sellars (Twitter); 8WayRun (forums); Bandai Namco Entertainment America

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Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis: Is Mago truly the last boss?

Kenryo “Mago” Hayashi has long been the highest-rated player without a sponsor on the Capcom Pro Tour. Last year saw him squeeze his Karin into the Capcom Cup bracket by a hair, winning the Asia Regional Finals to qualify. He later finished just outside of top 16 in the finals.

This year saw him took advantage of the points system, allowing him to qualify a lot sooner than November. Will the 2D God still be worshiped after the tournament?

sfv-karin-sappo-750

No Laughing Matter

Mago has made serious strides in improving his game over the last year. He has become one of the most aggressive Karins on the planet. You’ll often see him using his footsies game to set up a full out onslaught during a match. His pressure is enough to make a lot of players crack, including some who usually would not usually be so inclined.

Rashid SFVWhile Karin is one of the best characters in the cast — and has been for the entirety of the game’s lifespan — she still suffers some downsides in certain match-ups. Mago has opted to use that as incentive to train up a secondary in Rashid, and has brought him out throughout the year — including at OzHadou Nationals, where he used it to prevent ROF’s Birdie from making it to top 8. These are two solid characters that, despite having different toolsets, have one goal in mind: oppression.

Results-oriented

This oppression has given Mago a large swath of success this season. In fifteen events on the circuit, he has managed to top 8 eight times. He also focused the entirety of this season on the CPT, not allowing himself to be distracted by invitational events in China, France, the United States, or Canada. He also opted not to attend Brooklyn Beatdown. The goal for him was clear: to get noticed by his play on the CPT, and to parlay that play into a chance at winning Capcom Cup. His focus more than rewarded him with that opportunity.

Defense

sfv-karin-vtrigger-tall-1If there’s one thing that Mago struggles with, it’s his own defensive play. While we’d expect Mago to have a complete repertoire of tools, he has mainly relied on his offensive options to score his wins. In an offensive game such as Street Fighter V, it’s an understandable tactic. But the problem is that people forget that because this is an offensive game, having strong defense is almost paramount to winning. Once you get opened up by an opponent’s offense, it’s hard to stop the onslaught.

Mago thrives when he is applying the pressure, but cracks when the pressure is applied to him. This makes characters like Rashid and Ibuki difficult for him to deal with. It’s why, in the above video, we saw it go down to the wire against Tachikawa, and why he later folded to Moke’s Rashid at the same event.

Results Lacking

And that brings me to the next point. Upon losing to Moke at OHN, that became his highest-placing finish on the CPT this year. While OHN had a solid lineup of players, having your sole second place finish be at a ranking event, and not being able to replicate that anywhere else, doesn’t exude confidence in your play. When you also factor in last year’s performance, which included two wins, a Ranking and Premier event, it makes you wonder if Hayashi has really done enough to put himself in position to win the big one.

Final Thoughts

Don’t start praying to Mago just yet. Let’s not forget that Tokido’s appointed “Last Boss” at Evo 2017 lost in pools to a Connecticut-based Necalli player, and never even made it out. Let’s also not forget that Mago is about to go up against players that are all too familiar with his style of play, and will know how to exploit his weaknesses.

Mago could crack top 16, but it’s hard to put him any higher than that, given what we’ve seen this year.

Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!

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– Absolver Updated with New 3v3 Mode & a 50% Discount

Sloclap has announced that a brand new update has been deployed to Absolver that brings 3v3 “Overtake” mode into the game. In addition, players can look forward to new character customization options as well as updated PvP features. The patch has been released for both PlayStation 4 and PC. Lastly, to celebrate the new content, Absolver is currently 50% off on Steam and at the PlayStation 4 in North and South America.