Author: Franz "d3v" Co

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Skullgirls, Fate/stay night, Avatar? – Arc System Works asks what other series players would love to see added to BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

Despite only having BlazBlue in the title, Arc System Works’ BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle actually combines a number of franchises into one tag team fighting game. In addition to the titular series, it also has characters from Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth EXE:Late, as well as the anime series RWBY.

That said, for some players, that just might not be enough, and they might want characters from other series to join in as well! That was part of the focus of a recent Facebook Live stream by Arc System Works from Sakuracon 2018. During the stream, Arc System Works America’s president asked some fans about what characters and franchises they’d like to see added into the game, stating that ArcSys is listening to fans’ tweets and suggestions.

The interesting thing, however, involves the franchises that they did mention. One of these was none other than Skullgirls. The Marvel-esque tag-team fighter has become a cult favorite in the fighting game community, and ArcSys says that it being added into BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle could be a possibility, thanks to the fact that ArcSys publishes the game in Japan.

Another popular series mentioned was Fate/stay night series. This series’ sister franchise from Type-Moon, Tsukihime, already has a fighting game franchise in Melty Blood, however, Fate hasn’t really hit it big in fighting games yet, outside of a couple of spin-off titles.

Finally, they also mentioned Nickelodeon’s Avatar: the Last Airbender. This series (and its sequel The Legend of Korra) is such a ripe series for creating a fighting game from that it’s surprising that no one has made one yet. ArcSys stated that getting this series into the game is their big “pie in the sky”, but that it would be amazing if it ever did happen.

In addition to this, they also talked about a few other things, including how this would be the first time Under Night characters would receive English voices, and more.

You can check out the video below (warning, it is vertically oriented!). The relevant bit start at around 25 minutes into it.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is set to launch on PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC on May 31 in Japan, June 5 in North America, with a European release following soon after.

Source: Arc System Works (Facebook)

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The King of Fighters ’97 Global Match launches on April 5 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita

A while back, we reported that SNK was bringing an online-enabled port of The King of Fighters ’97 called the King of Fighters ’97 Global Match to PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and PC. Now, we know when the game will come out — at least for the first two platforms.

A post on the PlayStation Blog has revealed that The King of Fighters ’97 Global Match is coming out on April 5 for PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita. As for the PC version, no word has been given, as of yet.

Representing the final chapter of the “Orochi Saga”, The King of Fighters ’97 has garnered itself quite the cult following — especially in China. With the online play available in this version, it will allow players from all over the globe to fight each other in this cult classic.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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Capcom celebrated April Fool’s Day with “Hado Stone” — a Street Fighter V online card game featuring Ed (but not Blanka-chan)

While we had some fun having the esteemed James Carlos Blanka Esq. (a.k.a. Jimmy) do some of the news over Easter, Capcom had other plans to celebrate April Fool’s Day. Over the weekend, they launched a Street Fighter-based online card game called Hado Stone.

The online card game features Ed, who’s been given a new backstory involving an “Ancient Warrior Deck” (inherited from his father) that he must now use in the “Hado Champions Cup in Osaka.” This is no ordinary card game however — as cards themselves are made from the titular “Hado Stone”. A long time ago the power of the Hado was sealed into the demonic stone. A wizard then turned the stone into the cards, which have then become the focus of bloody battles for over half a millennium.

Players must pick one of four hero cards and then create a deck of cards composed of various fighting games moves and techniques. Once they’ve created their deck, then can then face off against one of the Four Kings of Shadaloo. Hado Stone is actually still playable over on the official CFN site at the time of publication — probably not for much longer, however.

We had our guest Editor for Annoying Holidays and Hot Takes, Jimmy Blanka, give the game a spin — and these were his impressions.

blanka-chan avatarGame good, but lacks hero cards. Needs Blanka hero card — but would be OP, because Blanka greatest at card games! Blanka beat Dan every time in Magic: the Gathering. Free-to-play online card game market too saturated… Plush dolls better investment! Should have sold Blanka-chan doll in Hado Stone store.

That’s right, in addition to the Hado Stone game, Capcom also has a corresponding store with a number of goods, including an Ed dakimakura, Dhalsim’s afternoon tea set, Hado Stone expansion packs, as well the official Hado Stone comic book “Hado Stone: the Young Commander.” Sadly, majority of these goods either already sold out, or only sold domestically in Japan. That said — players can still download the free “Perfect Ed Cosplay” PDF.

Source: Capcom Fighters Network

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Dragon Ball FighterZ damage scaling glitch allows Frieza to set up easy touch-of-death combos with Sparking Blast

Recently, we reported on how Captain Ginyu in Dragon Ball FighterZ can abuse a glitch to create infinite combos. Now, another glitch has been found with another character that, while not exactly setting up full infinites, also allows them to easily kill off an opposing character.

The character this time is Frieza, and this glitch allows him to set up what may be the easiest touch-of-death combos in the game so far — as long as he still has a teammate to back him up. As Urin_boh demonstrates in a couple of videos on Twitter, while in Sparking Blast, his standing medium attack into super deals more damage than normal… With this, he can call in his teammate to perform a level 5 Meteor attack that will kill off his opponent.

The easiest character to pull this off with is Teen Gohan, thanks to the damage of his “Father and Son Kamehameha,” as you can see in the tweet below.

However, even with a character who can only pull off a level 3 Meteor that can’t be enhanced to level 5, this still allows for some very big damage — to the point that a character who isn’t at full health will probably get taken out anyway.

Source: Urin_boh

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Olaf Redland breaks down SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy’s latest build from WNF

As previously reported, NIS America brought SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy to Wednesday Night Fights last week. This gave players at the event a chance to try out the game, and figure out how it actually works! One of the players at WNF last week was Olaf Redland. Now, some of you may recall Redland from the early breakdowns he provided for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite; now he’s done the same for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. Redland has provided a pretty heft list of notes over on TwitLonger. Some of it is stuff we’ve already previously heard about, however there’s also a ton of new stuff, including character-specific things.

Among the things he goes into depth about is the game’s item system. For those who may not have heard about this, in this game, boxes randomly spawn during a match and players can use this to equip certain items. Currently, item usage is mapped to the right analog stick — this makes it tricky to use for arcade stick users, and SNK is apparently looking into solutions for this. In the breakdown, Redland lists all of the known items so far, and their effects.

In addition to this, he also lists the known rules for things such as juggles, characters specials, and blocking. On juggles, he notes that there are some rules to limit them — for example, air-to-air moves can only be used once, meanwhile grounded moves that hit multiple times now only hit once.

For special moves in the new “Smash-like” system (direction plus the S button), he notes that there is a general theme to what combination of S and any direction does. For example, forward and S always seems to put out a projectile (if the character has one) meanwhile down and S is an anti-air.

As for blocking, as previously mentioned, the game uses a block button (again, like Smash). This produces a shield around the character that blocks all attacks, except for throws. Pressing the block button in the air, however, will instead produce an air dodge.

Now, another thing we’ve also known about for awhile is the fact that you need to do supers to knock out a character. Without a super, a character instead gets dizzied when their life bar goes down. With this in mind, Redland the current strategy for the game seems to be to go for the dizzy, raw tag, then use the tagged-in character’s meter to go for a super.

Of course, this is just part of Redland’s notes. He also goes a bit more about things such as characters normals, the rules for special canceling — and of course, individual character notes. Check out Redland’s SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy notes here.

Source: Olaf Redland

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The new Dragon Ball FighterZ update contains no balance changes

In this modern gaming landscape, where everything is connected to the internet and regular patching is widespread, it’s almost expected that balance changes come with any and every update to a game… but that isn’t be the case for Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s latest patch, however.

In a recent tweet, Bandai Namco has confirmed that the upcoming patch — that will add Broly and Bardock to Dragon Ball FighterZ — will contain no balance changes whatsoever.

This should elicit a sigh of relief from players worried that they would have to deal with changes to the characters they’re using. However, some may be disappointed — especially in light of the infinite combos that have recently come to light.

Source: Bandai Namco Entertainment (Twitter)

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The Tar Pit Club has signed Kinderparty, SBK, Sketch, and Imma Aries Baby for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and other fighting games

Despite all the odds against it, the Marvel vs. Capcom scene continues to soldier on. Recently, more notable players from the community have gotten sponsorships: Hayden “Kinderparty” Griswold, Tauseef “SBK” Anam, Alex “Sketch” Aguirre, and Aries “Imma Aries Baby” Johnson have all been signed by the Tar Pit Club.

All of these players have made names for themselves playing both Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Additionally, Kinderparty has also been one of the hosts of the Marvel Live! podcast.

As the the Tar Pit Club, while it may not be a familiar name in esports, it actually does have its roots in the community. The team was founded by Travis “Tarpit” Case, who has become a community leader in the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite community, being the founder of the r/MvCI subreddit. Prior to that, he was also one of the people behind the “Make Marvel Great Again” hoodies from last year’s Evo fund drive that saw Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 return to Evo for one last time.

Though Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is likely the main game they’ll focus on, the team’s site also lists Vampire Savior, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Street Fighter. As such, it’s likely that we’ll see them compete in these games as well.

While the Tar Pit Club isn’t exactly at the same level as more-established esports teams such as Echo Fox or Evil Geniuses, its humble roots reflect the kind of grassroots spirit that has kept the fighting game community alive throughout the years.We here at Shoryuken wish Kinderparty, SBK, Sketch, Imma Aries Baby, and The Tar Pit Club the best in this new endeavor!

Source: The Tar Pit Club

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Tranquilo! Assen na yo! Namco has a new Tekken 7 x New Japan Pro Wrestling collaboration, featuring Tetsuya Naito

With the launch of Tekken 7 Bandai Namco went into a collaboration with New Japan Pro Wrestling for both in-game content, as well as merchandise. The initial wave of these was focused on stars such as IGPW Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika “Rainmaker” Okada, the Ace Hiroshi Tanahashi, as well Bullet Club leader Kenny Omega. Now, more collaboration content is coming — and it promises to be ungovernable.

The latest Tekken 7 and NJPW collaboration involves none other than Los Ingobernables de Japon leader Tetsuya Naito. The collaboration specifically involves Naito and Tekken’s Devil Jin. It so far involves a line of clothing, T-shirts, hoodies, and wrist bands.

For those not familiar with him, Tetsuya Naito started out as the “Stardust Genius”, but initially failed to get traction with the fans. This all changed after a trip to Mexico where he joined up with La Sombra (current NXT Champion Andrade Cien Almas) as part of the latter’s Los Ingobernables stable. His return to NJPW saw him bring a new attitude called “Tranquilo” that caught the attention of the fans leading to the formation of Los Ingobernables de Japon — arguably the most popular stable in New Japan Pro Wrestling at the moment.

For those interested in the collaboration, the merchandise can be ordered via Bandai Namco’s official online store. As for whether or not this collaboration will also include future in-game content, no details have yet have been revealed.

Source: Bandai Namco

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Square Enix reveals their release schedule for DLC characters in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

Hot on the heels of the reveal of the game’s first DLC character Vayne, Square Enix has now released a schedule for when the remaining Dissidia Final Fantasy NT DLC characters will arrive.

The schedule, which you can see in the tweet below, shows that we can expect to see characters arrive on a regular basis — every two months. This means that the next DLC character (this time a male from the earlier games in the series) is set to arrive in June, with the final planned DLC character coming in February of next year.

For more information on who these DLC characters might be, check out our previous coverage of Square Enix’s hints as to their identities.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is currently available on PlayStation 4.

Source: Final Fantasy

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Applications for Evo 2018 volunteer tournament judges are now open

While many people come to Evo to either compete or just watch some great fighting game action, there are many people who also come looking to help out in the community. For any players who would like to do the latter, here’s some news you might want to check out: applications for volunteer tournament judges for Evo 2018 are now open. Players interested in helping out with brackets at Evo can head on over to the official application page.

As stated above, being a tournament judge at Evo is a volunteer position. However — despite this, judges will still get some great perks. This includes food for on both Friday and Saturday (as long as you are judging a tournament that day) as well as an official Evo tournament judge T-shirt.

The only requirements are a familiarity with running a double-elimination bracket, on top of passion for competitive gaming. Judges are also expected to take care of their own transportation and lodging at Evo.

Source: Evo (Twitter)