Author: Crow_Spaceboy

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Game a-cho provides almost 3 hours of footage of Daemon Bride, the Examu fighter that got left behind

While Examu is known predominately for their air-dash-heavy fighting series Arcana Heart, the small 30-person company has tried their hand at quite a few fighters since their inception in 1999. Aquapazza, Nitroplus Blasterz, and Arcana Heart’s numerous sequels all did well enough to keep this small company with big competitive dreams afloat. Every fighter that Examu has put out has survived long enough to make it to consoles, and some have dedicated-enough followings to garner major tournament play to this day.

With one notable, console-less exception.

Daemon Bride was the second franchise from Examu after their modest success with Arcana Heart. Examu’s work has an obvious style and market: their games and settings are at the intersection of cute anime and competitive Japanese arcade culture. Where Arcana Heart leaned heavily towards the cute anime side, 2009’s Daemon Bride was an attempt at being more serious, detailed, and gritty. Its projectile-focused gameplay evoked the frenzied, nuanced pace of the shmup genre, while its airdash and homing cancel mechanics still kept it spiritually close enough to Arcana Heart. Since Arc System Works’s BlazBlue had come out the year before, I can imagine Daemon Bride was an attempt to get in the ground floor of this more grown-up anime resurgence.

It didn’t work. Daemon Bride received one title update in 2011 (Daemon Bride: Additional Gain) then quietly disappeared from the market. Examu’s later works, Aquapazza and Nitroplus Blasterz, backed far away from Daemon Bride’s shmup inspiration, and returned to Examu’s cuter, less serious looking art style.

Those that still want to play it will have to make a bit of a trek over to the Japanese arcade Game a-cho. Thankfully, the good folks there have provided us with hours of recent high-level gameplay footage. Regardless of Daemon Bride‘s fate, there was something special enough there in its direction to keep some players playing, even today.

Source: GAMEacho

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Yasuyuki Oda talks Real Bout Fatal Fury series’ behind-the-scenes development with PlayStation blog

Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2 releases on the PlayStation 4 tomorrow, March 28th, 2017, and includes Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 – The Newcomers. Just ahead of it’s launch, game director Yasuyuki Oda sat down with PlayStation Blog to reveal some of the problems and challenges the series had during development.

There’s a lot of great trivia and insight into what went on during game design back in the mid ’90s: cartridge recalls because of missing hitboxes on attacks, accidental inclusion of a debug command for supers, and the real reason why Geese Howard wouldn’t stay dead in Real Bout. The cartridge recall seems the most harrowing to me–patches are hard enough for companies these days, doing an actual product recall must have been a nightmare! Quoting Oda himself:

“In those days patches were obviously not possible like they are now and we actually discovered after release of the first lot of MVS cartridges that Billy Kane’s short hop A had no hitbox!” Oda has a bitter smile on his face as he remembers the incident. “We were forced to recall the cartridges already out in the wild to fix this mistake, which was quite an undertaking.”

You can read the full interview here.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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Cloud9 hints at sponsoring Street Fighter V players, requests applicants

Formed in 2012, Cloud9 is one of America’s–if not the world’s–largest and most successful esports organizations. They’ve sponsored players and teams in over nine different games, and brought home championships in the majority of them. While the company’s main focus has been first person shooters and MOBAs, they have a couple of fighting game players under their umbrella too, in the form of Smash pros Joseph “MangO” Marquez and Elliot “Ally” Carroza-Oyarce.

Recently, the company completed a Series A round, which is a term used to describe the first time a company performs a large round of venture capital financing. With almost serendipitous timing, Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne had an interview with PVP live, and dropped the following brief quip:

I love Street Fighter. If you’re a talented player contact danan@cloud9.gg and let us know you’re interested in Cloud9.

It doesn’t get more straightforward then that. Considering how highly competitive Cloud9 is, it’s difficult to think this offer will go to someone that hasn’t already been doing well on the major tournament scene. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on the company to see who they give their prefix to next.

Source: PVPLive

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Brush up on your King of Fighters XIV fundamentals with Apolo Loussalier’s Buffering and Defense Tutorials

King Of Fighters XIV Player Apolo Loussalier is hoping to help new KOF players with their execution and understanding of the game. To this end, he’s created two short, easy to digest videos for those interested in stepping up their game.

Titled “KOF XIV Classroom”, the series covers both typical 2D fighter fundamentals and KOFXIV system specific mechanics.  The buffering video above focuses mostly on execution for combos…

…while his ‘Finding Gaps’ video focuses on exactly that, figuring out when to strike during your opponent’s long block strings. Helpfully, the ‘Find Gaps’ video also is broken into English and Portuguese.

Source: Apolo Loussalier

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Glitch reveals CPU Kuma in the arcade version of Tekken 7: Fated Retribution

Love him or hate him, Kuma is something of a mascot for the Tekken series, dating all the way back to Tekken 1. His announcement as a console-exclusive character wasn’t much of a surprise, but his recent appearance as a CPU opponent in a Japanese arcade is.

It’s easy to assume that this version of Kuma is likely not console-ready: he has Paul’s portrait, for starters, and his in-game model is very different from what was put in the trailer. Still, it’s an early look into what the developers were working on, and there’s something amusing about the jokester bear defying his own release date.

Harada himself responded to the video, and Tekken player Flying Wonkey translated the tweet for English audiences:

Looks like this was going to be a surprise that got let out of the bag too soon for the Japanese audience.

Source: @_PeintreCelebre

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If anything is delaying Tekken 7’s console release, it’s probably Gigas’s hitboxes

Big body type characters typically get the short end of the stick in fighting games. They are big targets, almost always slower then the main cast, and typically end up getting hit by higher damage combos because of their frame. Additionally, hitbox problems are common in fighting games–and 3D fighters are no exception to this.

But if you go searching for strange interactions in Tekken 7: Fated Retribution, there’s one character that seems to show up on the losing end more often then others. For whatever reason, the new cybernetic golem Gigas can’t seem to catch a break, no matter what the situation is.

Here’s some examples of Gigas’s massive hurtbox liability…

It doesn’t just happen when he’s on defense, either. Those big limbs of his will find ways to pass through his opponents, even when the attacks themselves are true mids.

 

It would also seem that his tall height is a problem too. The beast can occasionally find himself too tall for his jab to hit properly, even in punish situations.

Given the humorous nature of many of the videos, it appears that Gigas’s problems are something of a meme at this point in the Japanese arcade scene. This is exactly the sort of thing that gets scrutinized and polished as games near their console release, so hopefully the new guy can get some love before June.

Sources: @norunnokakurega; @tatsushis; @wotemotow; @katatumuri0604

 

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Conversations and Fireballs: UltraDavid covers the player and character selection for the ELEAGUE Invitational

Popular FGC commentator David “UltraDavid” Graham sat down with Michael Martin of Yahoo! Esports for an excellent half hour chat about ELEAGUE’s players, characters, and the nature of age in the fighting game genre.

After expressing an overall satisfaction with the player selection of ELEAGUE, UltraDavid gives a reasonably impassioned defense of Season 2’s character strengths and tiers. He points out the wide character variety present with the selected 32, and notes that some players are known to be character wild cards (or example, Infilitration and LPN.) He also pointed out, historically, that the first year of game is played very differently than what ends up being established later down the line. His citation is, of course, the highly inefficient way Street Fighter IV was played when it first came out, and how player base reactions to SFIV mirrors what’s happening with SFV, and most new games in general.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating parts of the interview is UltraDavid’s point to the overall higher level of play of all players in this modern age. “I feel the level of play in low levels is much higher than it was in earlier fighting games,” he ponders aloud. “Thinking back… we were probably not that great at fighting games in the mid/early 2000s. In a room full of 100 people, you pick out the best player in that room, then take that same player and put him in a room full of 10,000 players. Statistically, the best player is probably not the same person anymore. I think now, with so many more people playing, everyone is just better at fighting games now.”

Source: Yahoo! Esports

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Take a stance! Understanding King’s Jaguar Step, Crouch Dash, and more in Tekken 7: Fated Retribution

Take a stance! is an article series designed to help you analytically approach the wide world of stances in Tekken.

Last time we looked at stances in Tekken 7, we talked about the wildly evasive Ling Xiaoyu. As she’s one of the most stance-heavy characters in the game, let’s pull back a bit and pick apart someone a little less convoluted: Tekken’s Tiger Mask inspired luchador, King.

“Stances” aren’t synonymous with the feline grappler, and for good reason: King never needs to use them for combo filler, and can win entire rounds by bullying opponents with his great pokes and powerful grab chains. His stances, instead, are supplementary options that flesh out King’s movelist and mobility.

There’s three basic stances to consider for King: Back Turned, Jaguar Step, and Crouch Dash. I’ve listed these in order of least-to-most-likely to encounter in a match.

Note: for those unfamiliar, here’s how to read Tekken notation.

Back Turned Stance

King’s back turned options are a little anemic. Still, can go into back turned manually via a few moves, and he has unique moves from this state, so it’s worth at least acknowledging.

Entry moves into Back Turned Stance:

Input Hit level Impact Frame Block Stun Hit Stun Counter Hit Stun Notes
1+2 m 18~19 RBT -11~-10 -2~-1 0~+1
d/f+4, 3, 4, B l, h, m (TJ) 14 RBT -8 KND CS
d/f+3+4 (Close) Sm (TJ)(, h(Throw)) 28 RG( RBT) Throw(KND) Throw(KND) Throw(KND)
b+4 (Close) h 15 RBT -6 KND KND
b+4 h 16~21 RBT -17~-12 KND KND

As you can see, all of King’s transitions are minus on block. Being able to attack from any of your stance transitions on block relies on your opponent committing to an incorrect option. If your opponent knows their frame data, they will likely either go for a fast mid (i12 or i13 type stuff, typically df+1’s), or jabs and crouch jabs.

But since no one is 100% perfect at reading the situation, these stance transitions are at least somewhat viable for reasons other than frame data. 1+2 is a string starter, so your opponent must be willing to press a button immediately after blocking it. (Which, of course, means you could have landed the rest of the 1+2 string on them instead.) b+4, when blocked at close range, pushes the enemy uncomfortably far away. D/F+3+4 preys on your opponent’s knowledge of its startup animation, as they must crouch, step, or jab this move before it connects with their guard. You have things to play with here, it’s just all risky.

It doesn’t stop being risky once you look at the moves he has access to, either:

Input Hit level Impact Frame Block Stun Hit Stun Counter Hit Stun Notes
BT 3+4 JGS Jaguar Step Transition
BT 1 or 2 h 8 -8 +3 +3
BT 1+2 h(!) 27~29 KND KND KND
BT D+1 or D+2 Sm (TC) 10 -5 +6 +6 Tech Crouch
BT 3 m 13 -16 +7 CS JF with 1+2 for hit throw
BT D+3 l(TC) 14 -14 -2 -2 Tech Crouch
BT 4 h 10 -8 KND KND
BT d+4 l (TJ) 22~24 RC -17~-15 KND KND Tech Jump
BT 1+4 m(!) KND KND KND Tech Jump

Your “safest” options are, as usual with Tekken, your jabs and crouch jabs. You also have access to a generic low kick in BT D+3. In addition to these, you have some very flashy, high damage, high risk options.

BT 3 is awful on block (-16) but hits grounded (useful after some knockdown setups!) and, if you input a just frame 1+2, leads to an attack throw. If your opponent doesn’t know how unsafe this rarely used option is, congrats: you’ve just got away with murder.

BT 1+2 and BT D+4 both exist for the same reason. These attacks brutally punish standing blocks (the former being an unblockable, the latter being a knockdown low), but have technically react-able startups. These are great tests of your opponent’s animation reactions.

A King player whiffing 1+2 for a Back Turned Moonsault setup.

BT 1+4, King’s famous Moonsault, is another curious unblockable. Its slow startup makes it technically even more reactable then BT 1+2, but it jumps very high and it has a wide hitbox to the side, so it’s possible to clip someone when they try to step it. There’s two correct ways to deal with this: either enter a sidewalk and completely move around it (it’s easier if you sidestep, then backdash cancel away from King so he doesn’t clip you.) Or! You can jab him as he’s coming down and float King for a full combo. The timing is somewhat precise here–do it too early and King will go over your jab, and do it too late and you’ll get, quite literally, bodied.

King, like we mentioned in the Ling article, can also pivot away from back turned stance by inputting a down-back direction. This creates space and, after some transitions, can allow you to whiff punish some poor button choices. This may potentially frustrate your opponents to chase you down with dashes or longer range (and slower) attacks. If they start doing this, they are now open to all your BT attacks!

All in all, King’s BT isn’t enough to base your entire game plan around, but peppered in enough versus an opponent, especially in longer sets, can give you some valuable information on how much your opponent really knows about King. Landing BT 3 JF, BT D+4 or BT 1+2 will make your opponent stop and think long and hard about their lives (and rapidly disappearing lifebar).

Jaguar Step

Jaguar Step will likely seem unwieldy when you first encounter it. No strings or moves cancel into it. Almost all options are steppable, and the ones that aren’t (JGS df+3) are unsafe on block. Gross, right? So why would you use this?

There’s some curious quirks about the way JGS works. First off, it instantly tech jumps. With the right read, it can easily blow up auto-pilot crouch jabs. If you hold JGS, you continue to spin. “Charging” this stance makes your moves more powerful and safer on block. That step killing kick mentioned before that carried so much risk becomes a frame trap after two spins, for example. Any opponent that remains passive versus JGS will find themselves dealing with a more frightening mixup than if they had just tried to jab you.

Ah, but since you’re jumping, they should always just jab you anyways, right? After all, that’ll float you for a full combo. What risk do they have?

Let’s jump into JGS’s full range of options…

Input Hit Level Speed Block Stun Hit Stun Counter Hit Stun Notes
3+4 (to JGS) (Special) (TJ)(JGS) Tech Jump
b+3+4 (to JGS (backwards)) (Special) (TJ)(JGS (backwards)) Tech Jump
3+4, 1 (one spin) h 19(43) -5 CS CS
3+4, 1 (two-five spins) h – -1 CS CS
3+4, 2 (one spin) m 11~12 (35) -9~-8 +2~+3 (+13~+14 OC) +2~+3 (+13~+14 OC)
3+4, 2 (two-five spins) m – -2~-1 +2~+3 (+13~+14 OC) +2~+3 (+13~+14 OC)
3+4, 3 (one spin) m (TJ) 22(46) -5 KND KND Tech Jump
3+4, 3 (two-five spins) m (TJ) – -1 KND KND Tech Jump
3+4, 3, 2+3 (Close) m (TJ), (throw) 22(170) RG -15~-11 OC KND KND
3+4, 3, 2+3 m (TJ) 22(170) RG -10~+6 OC -13~+3 OC -13~+3 OC
3+4, 4 (one spin) h 17(41) +8 KND KND Tail spin
3+4, 4 (two-five spins) h! – KND KND KND Tail spin
3+4, d/f+4 (one spin) m 17~18 (41) -17~-16 KND KND
3+4, d/f+4 (two-five spins) m – +8~+9 KND KND
3+4, 1+4 or 3+4, 2+3 h(Throw) 12(36~) Throw

Right away you’ll notice the relative strength of JGS 2. This mid is safe and i35 at its fastest speed (that includes the JGS startup). While blocking this may be easy for the opponent, jabbing it on reaction is a little trickier, particularly when King could just JGS into block/duck. And pity the ragdoll that gets hit by this move while crouching–that’s a free crouch grab attempt for King that must be broken by the opponent. All crouching grabs have the same startup animation for King, so it becomes a pure 50/50. JGS 2 is a powerful tool.

So, let’s say they decided to just sit there and stand guard. You may have noticed you have no lows from JGS, but you do have JGS 1+3 and 2+4. These throw startups cannot be distinguished from each other and lead to hilariously high damage grab chains. Between JGS 2 and JGS chain grabs, you have a brutal, respectable mixup.

Maybe they can try crouch jabbing? Not only would a held JGS blow this up, but JGS 3 is a jumping mid that knocks down and is safe on block.

There’s a lot of good things to say about most of the JGS options. Many are safe, lead to combos and work in conjunction with each other to keep the opponent guessing. Your only real weakness is the slow startup of the stance, but once again, the options and freedom of the stance outweigh this hurdle.

Two quick asides: one, you can also do a retreating JGS with b.3+4. Two, you can do JGS from back turned. It sends you in the wrong direction. Why you would do this is anyone’s guess, but hey, it’s there.

Crouch Dash

Crouch Dashing is great for anyone that has it, as it provides forward movement and ducks at the same time. However, it is not universal. Not every character has a crouch dash and not every character’s crouch dash is executed the same way. King, for example, can CD with:

f, n, d, d/f

But he cannot cancel immediately into another CD the way, say, the Mishima’s can. If you want to do repeated crouch dashing with King, it’d have to look something like this:

f,n,d,d/f,  f,f, n, d, d/f, etc…

It’s a little tougher! But it’s also mostly trivia, as King isn’t nearly as reliant on Crouch Dashing as, say, a Mishima is. Still, your options from a CD are solid.

Input Hit Level Speed Block Stun Hit Stun Counterhit Stun Notes
f, n, d, D/F (Special) RC Recovers Crouching, allows WS and FC options
f, n, d, D/F+1 l (TC) 30 RC(34~) -9 KND KND
f, n, d, D/F+4 m (TJ) 15(19~) -9 CS CS
f, n, d, D/F+1+2 m 20~22 (24~) -10?~-9s? KND KND
f, n, d, D/F+2+3 or D/F+1+4 h(Throw) 12 Throw(KND)

In particular, his CD contains an assortment of very strong, practical mids. Of these, CD+4 is of note, as it’s a counter-hit combo starting mid that is very, very fast for what it does. Since he attacks with his knee, this also means it cannot be countered by parries.

Don’t forget that since CD gives you incredible forward movement, so you have access to one of the most irritating mid pokes in the game–a forward moving WS+4. Generic WS+4’s are the fastest WS punish options across the board and by doing a crouch dash, you can add range to yours that others cannot. The difference between CD+4 and CD into WS+4 is that you hold down-forward when inputting CD+4, whereas you let it go then press 4 to get the WS attack.

A King player mixing up CD and Backdash to lure out whiffed pokes, before finally dashing in and landing a chain grab starter.

As with most things CD related, it is worth noting that his CD is also a chain grab starter. Just like with JGS, CD+1+3 and CD+2+4 have identical animations, so your opponent cannot go by sight to break these. They must either anticipate duck, or guess 1 or 2 to break.

CD+1 is also worth noting, as it tests the reaction time of your opponent. This attack is very slow and easy to block, but also safe. Remember how I mentioned WS+4 is a generic fast option for all characters? King has a parry for kicks. So, you intentionally make them block CD+1, and parry- since WS+4 is the go to button for many players, you’ve just scored yourself some surprise damage, a knockdown, and a frustrated opponent!

If you’re fighting against a CD-happy King, remember that the real threat is when he gets in–chain grabs have to be at point blank range and his only lows from a CD are the seeable CD+1 or the low damage, disadvantage on hit lows like FC+3 and FC+df+4. You can intercept him easily out of CD with longer range pokes, or just block mid at ranges you know he can’t chain grab you from.

And that’s it! As King player, these options aren’t so much the centerpiece of your game, as much as they are options to flesh out your main neutral tools. And because they aren’t your main tools, they serve as great knowledge checks for unsuspecting foes. And as a King opponent, it’s important to know these tricks are in King’s back pocket at all times, particularly his chain grab starters and distance-munching crouch dashes.

Sources: INATEKKEN [for frame data]; TekkenZaibatsu

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HORI’s Sako now also sponsored by SCARZ, will discuss Street Fighter V and STEEL COMBAT on Famitsu

Earlier this month, Japanese Esport team SCARZ made their Street Fighter V debut by signing the 2013 Capcom Cup Champ Naoto Sako (from HORI) as their lone fighting game representative.

Fresh off the heels of obtaining a second sponsorship, Sako will be appearing tomorrow on the web show of famous gaming magazine Famitsu to discuss both Street Fighter V and VR Fighting Game STEEL COMBAT. It’s a bit of a surprising game to bring up, but Sako is someone known to play well in virtually any fighting game, appearing on TV in the past for Pokkén Tournament and having expressed interest in For Honor.

The web show will be streamed on several platforms, including YouTube.

Source: Famitsu

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VesperArcade examines Ryu’s buffs in the upcoming balance update for Street Fighter V Season 2

Missed the patch notes, or having trouble visualizing what some of the incoming Ryu changes means for your character? VesperArcade has you covered.

Ryu’s nerfs at the beginning of Season 2 all but killed his neutral and mid range poking game in Street Fighter V. Of all the changes requested for this balance update, calls for Ryu buffs were among the loudest from the community. The famous SF protagonist (and possibly estranged main of the legendary Twitch.Hx.CYG BST|Daigo Umehara) will be received a number of logical, no nonsense buffs: Standing LK and Standing MP will have their forward hitboxes expanded, though it’s unclear if st.LK’s will be reverted fully to its Season 1 range or if it’s some strange compromise between the its original form and the newly-nerfed version.

In addition to the other universal light Shoryuken buffs, Ryu’s medium and heavy Shoryukens are getting various invincibility properties. Medium will be a more viable anti-air, and heavy will be useful for blowing up block strings ending in fireballs. There’s also a mysterious change to Ryu’s crouching HP animation. Considering Ryu already has a fairly unique c.HP animation that changes on standing opponents, it’s difficult to speculate what this change is–or why–without more information.

VesperArcade concludes these changes will help Ryu overall, but it’s still nowhere near close to reverting him back to Season 1. Perhaps the bigger question is: will Umehara return to his original world warrior after this balance patch hits?

Source: VesperArcade