Author: Luke "Woocash" Siuty

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New Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 exhibitions resume as Tension Pulse returns

Despite a lack of updates or a new version of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, the community continues to support the game! One way to catch some high-level action is through Silva and zenzen’s exhibition series Tension Pulse. The series had a great run in 2018, and today marks its return, so make sure to not miss it.

Tonight, it’s a slightly different format than in the past. Fighters from the North American region will fight each other in a FT5 round-robin style. We have PepperySplash using Venom, TheArm fighting with Ramlethal, BxA|dotNova with Jack-O’, and BxA|Blaze with Raven. It will be interesting to see how each of those characters fares against one another.

BxA|Sway and RaphTx will man the commentator stations, keeping up the hype and explaining the action as it goes. The exhibition takes place tonight, at 9:00 PM ET/8:00 PM CT/6:00 PM PT on Silva_Hime’s Twitch channel.

Since this is still the same version of REV 2, a lot of the previous episodes are still relevant; check them out on Silva’s YouTube channel.

Sources: Tension Pulse Twitter; Silva YouTube

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Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament cancelled at Anime Ascension due to “unforeseen circumstances”

Aksys Games released a concerning statement regarding their upcoming, annual Anime Ascension tournament. Unfortunately, the February 2019 event won’t be running Dragon Ball FighterZ, despite earlier promises. If you’ve been aiming to compete in, you might have to change your itinerary.

The publisher did not disclose the reason, however, the community overwhelmingly points to Toei Animation, who owns the rights to the series, and is notorious for being very protective of their intellectual property.

The decision is a controversial one for fighting game fans for at least two counts: for one, many players, such as top player Yohosie, were set to compete in DBFZ at the event:

Secondarily, this seems to be setting a concerning precedent for DBFZ players: they are worried that the game will only be allowed to play at the World Tour tournaments. The title failed to make it into Evo Japan despite it’s enormous popularity, and was pulled in November at DreamHack Atlanta.

We will update the story if an official statement regarding this situation appears.

Source: Aksys Games Twitter; Yohosie

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FGC documentary “A Fighting Chance” shows community grassroots in action

From the Battle of the Bay to Evolution Championships 2018, the fighting game community has grown immensely over the years with the rise of esports. Though big organizations continue to invest in platforms and players, we can’t forget about the building blocks of the scene.

A new documentary from MR. Z takes a closer look at fighting games. Rather than focusing on the big and the glamorous, the video shows a different aspect of Mike “ElvenShadow” Boczar, the co-organizer of Frosty Faustings. ElvenShadow is seen at his home, during “Garage Gear” a monthly event he started to host from his very own garage. With setups supplied by its attendees, it’s a great example of the spirit of the FGC; the event welcomes multiple games as ElvenShadow tries to fit as many guests in his garage (and outside!) as possible. The video also shows Michigan’s Lennel “L-Train” Dinkins at Youmacon, an anime convention which is also a big event for fighting game enthusiasts.

Check out the short documentary from the fledgling video maker below and give him a shout out to support his future ventures with our community.

Source: MR. Z

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How historically accurate are SoulCalibur characters?

Obviously recognizing the sheer ridiculousness of the SoulCalibur universe — the spandex demon-slaying ninja, the whip-sword dominatrix, Yoshimitsu’s antics, to name a few — the sixth game does make some attempt to at least organize the timeline in a digestible format. Now that we see actual dates from the story to follow the events, as well as years of background history for each warrior, YouTuber and video game documentarian Super Bunnyhop took a detailed look. Take a seat, because this lesson on the Stage of History is long, detailed, and educational.

It’s not without a sense of humor, though! He walks us through the general historical background and Bandai Namco’s positive spin on the “Age of Discovery” which was also full of bloodshed and religious warfare. The grim, medieval reality doesn’t exactly line up with the colorful video game, but Super Bunnyhop dissects where the creators drew inspiration to craft their vision. For instance, remember the weapon demonstrations made for every character in the past games? There’s a historical, martial-arts background for that.

At about the eight minute mark, he gets into the Japanese characters, Yoshimitsu, Taki, and Mitsurugi. He sheds light on how Sophitia’s background could have been much more accurate if she was from Sparta as opposed to Athens. After them, the video switches focus to Voldo, Siegfried, and Cervantes.

It may be a bit lengthy, but personally, I’m a fan of Super Bunnyhop’s analytical video game essays. Check it out below:

Source: Super Bunnyhop

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What if Skullgirls was the Fifth Fate in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle?

Arc System Works is keeping quiet about the future of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, having teased that a fifth franchise is coming to the collaboration at some point. The company has previously teased about which franchises they might want to work with, among them Avatar: The Last Airbender and Skullgirls, which they publish in Japan.

A fan took it upon themselves to showcase how a fight between existing characters in BBTAG and the Skullgirls would look like. Though not entirely finished (missing a background and such) it’s a pretty neat “concept video” displaying a choreographed battle. They expertly use sprites from both franchises as they match Ragna and Ruby against Painwheel. Yosuke, Yu, and Yang step in, aiding the two scythe warriors. We also get to see what a possible opening between Filia and Ragna would look like; other Skullgirls characters also show up.

Check it out below. Would you be happy if Skullgirls made it into the cast? Let us know in the comments.

Source: XxZackAttack27xX

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SoulCalibur VI sales trail behind II’s & IV’s; Game figures 6th on October’s best-selling list

As October rolled into November, the NPD (which tracks e-commerce sales) released numbers on video game sales for that month. For us fighting game fans, the monumental release in October was, of course, SoulCalibur VI. Since the series awakens after six years, it’s certainly worth a look to see how the game is performing in the market.

Here is the list of the top ten best-selling games of October 2018:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII**
  2. Red Dead Redemption II
  3. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
  4. NBA 2K19
  5. Super Mario Party*
  6. SoulCalibur VI
  7. FIFA 19**
  8. Marvel’s Spider-Man
  9. Madden NFL 19**
  10. WWE 2K19

*Does not include digital sales.
**Does not include PC digital sales.

It’s not surprising to see big blockbusters like Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption II figuring at the top; the Souls game earned a respectable sixth place.

“SoulCalibur VI debuts as the sixth best-selling game of October,” said Mat Piscatella, an NPD analyst, in VentureBeat’s piece. “SoulCalibur VI achieved the third highest launch month dollar sales for the franchise in tracked history, trailing only SoulCalibur IV and SoulCalibur II.”

While the sales don’t measure up to II’s, it’s important to remember that game launched on three major consoles at the time; though SCVI is multiplatform as well, many gamers own a console and a PC as well. This October was certainly a crowded launch, so upcoming SoulCalibur VI DLC could spike up sales again.

Bandai Namco is surely constantly evaluating the game’s performance in the market, which could affect their future support for the product. We’ll have to wait and see how much effort they plan to put into it; for now, we know that more patches and DLC characters on their way in the future.

Source: NPD via VentureBeat

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NieR: Automata’s 2B is SoulCalibur VI’s second guest character

Mission: Eliminate the entity known as Soul Edge

Bandai Namco has been teasing a reveal for Paris Games Week, and indeed, Kayane’s interview with director Motohiro Okubo revealed a surprising announcement.

NieR: Automata‘s protagonist, 2B, is joining the cast of SoulCalibur VI at the Stage of History in 1586 A.D.

Shortly after the announcement, the official Twitter account posted the English-version trailer of 2B. It features Ivy traveling to the future in year 11945 to what looks like 2B’s own stage. She will be accompanied by her BGM, weapons, and costume parts that will be usable in Create-A-Character Mode. You can see her Critical Edge attack towards the end of the trailer.

Looks like fans of Yoko Taro’s action game got exactly what they wanted! Even Kayane herself has asked Okubo if there’s a chance 2B would be a guest character in the game.

Enjoy the trailer below and stay tuned for more details about 2B as they surface.

Source: SoulCalibur Twitter; Bandai Namco YouTube

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SoulCalibur VI input lag tested — and it’s comparable to Street Fighter V

As SoulCalibur VI is now available, some may be wondering about input lag in the game. Any seasoned fighting game fan wants to know the precise milliseconds between the timing of their input and the resulting animation on the screen. French computer science developer WydD put Bandai Namco’s latest fighter through the wringer, and unfortunately, the results aren’t the best.

Per his testing on PlayStation 4, SCVI has approximately 5.42 frames of lag, variable by stability. This positions right around Street Fighter V‘s estimated 5.37 frames of delay, and slower than Tekken 7‘s reduced lag (4.60 frames).

The chart below displays the results:

SC VI lag test

WydD said that due to a “weird bug” the stability came out to 72%. He also cross-checked with other games to make sure the issue isn’t with his console. SoulCalibur VI has legacy controller mode, and that didn’t affect testing either.

lag chart ps4 10.2018

Having played the game at various events in an offline setting, I definitely felt a fair amount of input delay. Whether Bandai Namco is going to patch the game to reduce this remains to be seen; however, before letting this deter you from purchasing, make sure to check out Shoryuken’s own review of SoulCalibur VI to help guide your decision!

Sources: WydD; Google Docs

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The Soul Edge and SoulCalibur swords come to life in this “Man at Arms: Reforged” video

The Soul swords are said to manifest their shape based on the spirit and personality of their wielders, but at a cost… Thankfully, creating Soul Edge and SoulCalibur, the evil sword and its good counterpart, is just like bread and butter for the Man at Arms: Reforged blacksmiths. Having made Link’s Master Sword and many other blades known throughout pop culture, the team is commissioned by Bandai Namco to step onto the Stage of History.

Soul Edge is so large, it can’t even fit on the drawing board! Though its size is impressive, the sleek SoulCalibur, used by Xianghua, also provides a challenge. It’s made of two separate swords that need to be joined together. The end piece is also a decorative undertaking, as it’s a multi-faced statue. Soul Edge, on the other hand, needs to have an eye made, and the pieces meld together to hold a firm structure.

Kayane appears in the video, lending some game lore to the process, talking about the backstory of the blades. In the end, the power of these swords turns out pretty difficult to wield… for mere mortals, anyway.

SoulCalibur VI releases this week, on October 19th, on Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Source: AWE me

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Learn the basics of SoulCalibur VI with MarkMan in this quick video

As you’ve most likely heard, SoulCalibur VI will finally be available for purchase on our devices later this week — on October 19th. If you’ve never played the series, but are curious or want to introduce a friend to the game, let them know about this introductory video from Bandai Namco.

MarkMan narrates the video, first going over the basics of movement. Note that in order to crouch or jump, you have to hold the Guard button, because normally, pressing up and down will make your character strafe in the appropriate direction; this is the famous 8-Way Run! For those who played the series before, the horizontal versus vertical attack system is familiar. The “rock-paper-scissors” nature of this system is reflected in a new battle mechanic, Reversal Edge. By pressing B+G, you enter a parrying stance, blocking any attacks except for Guard Breaks and Unblockables, then hit the opponent. On contact, the two fighters enter a clash cinematic where pressing A defeats K, B overcomes A, and K counters B. Additional movement options are available.

Sort of similar to SoulCalibur V, a power meter returns. This time, it can be used either for Soul Charge (a temporary, powered-up state), Critical Edge attacks (supers) or some character-specific attacks. Note that if your opponent is on the match point, you will always get a full bar of power, and the meter has a capacity for two actions.

Check out the video below to get ready for the release of SoulCalibur VI:

Source: Bandai Namco

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