Now, now… I know how we all feel about Arakune players in BlazBlue: Central Fiction. To say that they are not the most-liked is a polite understatement. But just in case you aren’t aware of just how vile, disgusting, unfair, overpowered Arakune is, this is the video you need to see and share in misery with friends.
SugoiSmallFry took nine precious months out of his life to create ｢Unspeakable Evil｣, a combo video and character tutorial monstrosity in one. Starting out with a story edited from BlazBlue‘s sprites and animation, the lengthy clip goes into showing how to perform the dirtiest cross-ups and hard-to-blockable setups, that may result in ragequits. The visual editing is fairly impressive (occasionally meme-ing a bit), showing button inputs and even a chart that displays what type of mix-ups Arakune can perform in a “Block with me” sequence.
The latter half is a compilation of pretty practical situations that Arakune can turn around into a full Curse and some character-specific tricks. SugoiSmallFry shows how to get around common tools and defensive measures from fighters like Ragna, Lambda-11, Rachel, Jin, and others. Arakune can even disgustingly combo into a full Curse from a Counter Assault. Though the video is technically about CF 1.0, Arakune is relatively unchanged, combo-wise, in the current version.
And it seems like Arakune players have new theme songs to brand them, which are, bizarrely enough, remixes of I Feel Good and Wonderwall (though it’s actually called Wallspin). Yes. You read this correctly.
The release of Dragon Ball FighterZ is nearly upon us, and you may have already been doing whatever you can to get the upper hand on the competition, including playing in the beta version. While there’s already a good amount of footage available online — particularly on YouTube — it’s not the most handy resource to search. Thankfully, there’s something better.
keeponrock.in, who has similar websites for BlazBlue: Central Fiction and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, has made an online video database for Dragon Ball FighterZ. It’s a very useful tool, particularly if you know exactly what you’re looking for; you can narrow the search terms with a lot of parameters, such as specific characters, channels, players, and even versions. So if you want to see players who have used Beerus with Gohan and Frieza, or any other combinations, it’s a wonderful service.
What’s more, you can always catalogue videos by adding them to the site. Click an icon in the upper left-hand corner and press “add a video” to proceed. If you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out to keeponrock.in via Twitter, and refer to this handy visual guide:
“BlazBlue À la carte Battle” will launch with 20 DLC characters and a lower price to test the waters.
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle became the subject of fiery internet discussions (including on SRK as well) after a recent announcement during Arc System Works’ 2017 Fighting Game Award. The event culminated with a somewhat controversial reveal of a release date alongside 20 planned DLC characters.
Just as many other fighting game enthusiasts around the web, we have been wondering about what this means for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle‘s price and future. A recent Famitsu interview with the game’s producer and BlazBlue creator, Toshimichi Mori (pictured on the right, above), sheds some light on the company’s strategy behind shipping 20 launch characters and an additional 20 optional, paid warriors from colliding universes.
Siliconera’s Sato breaks down some of the Famitsu interview, estimating that since BBTAG will be priced at 5,800 yen, the US price won’t be a standard $60 (though DLC can bring it up to around that point). Arc System Works plans on releasing the game at a lower price so that fans can see if they enjoy the game and want to support it. If ASW sees enough appreciation, they may continue working on Cross Tag Battle.
Additionally, the interview reveals that the game is designed “with the premise of playing with a gamepad.” Furthermore, Mori wants to keep Japanese and international players at a more even ground by not having an early arcade release of the title.
Evo Japan is nearly upon us, and soon, many members of the FGC community will find themselves in the Land of the Rising Sun for the first time. While most of the arrangments probably have been made if you’re indeed going, a little extra research on how to get around and behave won’t hurt. After all, while there is a lot of information in English, there’s still a language barrier present, and Japanese customs are very different.
Luckily, known Japanese Guilty Gear player (and very good Venom), 310, put together and quick and easy guide with useful links that talks about a few things you need to know. In his Travel Guide for the FGC, he points to some good money exchange spots in Akihabara and Ikebukuro, and some tips for trains (which, importantly, don’t run 24 hours). Scroll to the bottom to see some important travel words.
But what’s going to be really important for FGC players is the “Arcade Etiquette” section. For one, you have to understand how lines in the arcade work. You shouldn’t play again if you’ve lost if there are any people behind you, unless they are fine with it. Also, some arcades allow smoking, but not all places do. 310 also gave map links to all the arcades you’d like to visit and listed their “main” games.
Recently, he updated the original doc — and welcomes questions. Check out the full guide on Evernote.
information updated. thank you for your RT. give me your idea and ask some question.
Good news for Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] fans who are excited about the upcoming US and European console releases of the game. Aksys Games recently announced that the game will, in fact, support legacy controllers. That means arcade sticks which only worked with the PlayStation 3 will work in this version of UNISTon newer consoles. What’s more, PS3 owners will be able to play with those who own the PS4 versions of the game.
This is in addition to everything else the [st] update offers — such as a robust Tutorial Mode that teaches the game, Challenge missions for characters, and a lengthy story mode titled Chronicle. Those who attend the upcoming Frosty Faustings X tournament can try out the localized version there!
Oh, a few people were asking about cross-play and legacy stick support for #UNIST. The answers are: Cross-play: Between PS3 and PS4. Sorry VitaKun. ;_; Legacy stick support: Yep. Your mileage may vary, but the PS3 sticks in the office worked.
Speaking of #UNIST, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] is up for pre-order! With more characters, more single player modes, and A LOT more story, now's the time to jump into the series. Oh, and PS3/PS4 cross-play and legacy stick support!
The European edition is similarly coming out on February 9th, and there’s a special UNIST “End of Dawn” edition available as well. Also, make sure to read up on the recap of the UNIST scene in 2017.
Attracting new competitive players to the fighting game scene isn’t easy — though arguably, it’s much easier than it was ever before, thanks to the widespread availability of streaming, esports organizations, and prizes. But the latest episode of Exploring Fighting Games argues that this also encourages people to be viewers rather than competitors.
Episode 12 talks about how team tournaments can help more fledgling fighting game competitors enjoy their time at events. Quoting Max Wertheimer’s Productive Thinking, the episode proposes something that can help out. By adding more cooperative aspects to the play, newcomers won’t be as discouraged to try and veterans won’t be as bored, as given in a badminton analogy. When forming teams with members of diverse skill levels and matching them against opponents in a similar order, the tournament experience will benefit those players more. Additionally, it’s a good way for players to bond with people they might not have normally talked about.
It’s a very interesting propostion; although many majors commonly feature team competitions, they usually allow those who sign up make up their own teams.
The recent Fighting Game Awards from Arc System Works culminated in a monumental BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle announcement. Up to this point, we’ve been trickle-fed monthly character reveals, often spread across the colliding universes (though usually leaning heavily on BlazBlue’s). At the end of the BlazBlue: Central Fiction tournament, the company gave us a release date for BBTAG (May 31st for Japan, June 5th for the US), revealed the expected Blake Belladona from RWBY, and showed off a fancy “Limited Box” that will contain multiple goodies.
That’s not what caught the attention of most fans. It turns out that Blake won’t be part of the base game; rather, she is part of the paid DLC content. What’s more, we now know that the base cast is 20 characters. However, an additional 20 characters will be available for purchase as add-on content. So yes, 50 percent of the game’s cast needs to be purchased. This is surprising, and problematic.
In a way, it’s not that strange that BBTAG has a large number of DLC characters. After all, the combined character pool from BlazBlue, Persona, Under Night In-Birth, and RWBY is quite huge, easily reaching 80 combatants. It’s all the more reason to be surprised at a skimpy launch cast of only 20 fighters. Though Arc System Works generally pushes quality over quantity (The first BlazBlue installment, Calamity Trigger, started with just 12, after all), most players are already familiar with the cast.
This could possibly have something to do with the release date. Personally, I predicted the game would ship sometime in the fall; the end of May is much sooner than expected. Coming out before Evolution 2018 is surely the goal there — though, as an aside, it’s hard to see BBTAG taking up a main stage slot among a crowded roster of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and BBCF itself. Naysaying aside, the release date might be a premonition of a rushed title, which explains the somewhat slim cast and a large number of DLC characters.
In announcing 20 launch DLC fighters, Arc System Works is breaking a new record, and already the reception is largely negative. No other fighting game in history has had so many characters blocked off by a paywall. We know the price point of the game in yen: 5,800 in retail, a little less via download, which is roughly $52 at the current exchange rate. Given that ASW sticks to their expected $7.99 per character (and hopefully, they “generously” offer the same price for each three-character pack), buying all the DLC should cost you $64. The “All-in-one” pack could be cheaper, however, and we don’t know how much the Limited Box will cost yet. This suggests the DLC could cost more than the base game itself.
Aside the outrageous cost there, what’s even worse is how ASW is deciding who is a “base” character and who is a “premium,” (paid) character. Take the RWBY characters, for instance. Two of the core ladies, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, are included. Blake however is a separate charge, and there’s a good chance the same will be true of Yang (ASW denoted one character DLC that isn’t a bundle of three). This is such an obviously ruthless business move that it hurts to see it. Personally, I think of DLC characters as extra content, maybe some kind of special character, but separating the four main girls of the show with a paywall is just greedy. I’d like to see older, more powerful people from the show as DLC, like Qrow, Raven, Ozpin, but not the heroines. Imagine if Jin Kisaragi, Noel Vermillion, or Rachel Alucard were not included in the base title.
There’s another thorn in this “core” character DLC kerfuffle. BBTAG is a rehash of sorts of characters we’ve already seen and have played for years. Don’t get me wrong, I love Litchi Faye Ling, I main Amane Nishiki, and enjoy wrecking people with Ken and Koromaru in Persona Arena. But should they show up as paid DLC, having played those characters for years and having had them available as base characters before is aggravating.
But what’s really problematic about this is the initial offering. The starting casts for all the non-BB titles are very skimpy, at just four characters per universe, with RWBY getting only two:
Persona 4 Arena
Yu Narukami
Yosuke Hanamura
Chie Satonaka
Yukiko Amagi
Under Night In-Birth
Hyde
Linne
Waldstein
Gordeau
RWBY
Ruby Rose
Weiss Schnee
There’s not much one can say about this: it’s disappointing. While surely there will be devoted fans who will get the product or the Limited Box, having such a large number of tournament-legal characters is a problem for competitive players. Not only will organizers have to worry about providing complete setups, but also, as someone who personally doesn’t buy every possible DLC character, it will be easy to run into issues when playing casual games with friends who use certain paid content. There’s a difference between having single-player additional content and fighting game extras. So many DLC walls put up a hindrance to competition and learning match-ups.
Some marketing or executive gurus decided to split team RWBY with a DLC paywall.
DLC in of itself is expected and common practice. It wouldn’t be as problematic if the roster’s balance skewed a bit more to a bigger base, but seeing so many additional, paid characters is outrageous. Had they reserved a couple of special, extra characters as launch DLC — sure, we could stomach that. With such a large cast, it’s a given that ArcSys would reserve some as DLC. However, they definitely crossed the line here.
Hopefully, the company sees the overall disappointment from fans and does something to rectify the situation. As it stands, the future of BBTAG may very well be ruined at the start. In the past, ASW has released “Extend” editions (which is a problem I’ve also written about) that ship with all the DLC characters. I can see many people withholding from buying BBTAG at first, waiting on discounts, thus weakening the initial community for what otherwise could be a very fun game.
And for those saying “Capcom does this all the time, but when ArcSys does it, it’s OK” — nope. This is the time. This is ArcSys getting called out for their DLC practices.
“From a developer that’s been making games since you were a zygote… comes another entry in the granddaddy of game series about beating the crap out of people in public… Street Fighter V!”
The release of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is upon us, so now is a better time than ever to reflect on the game’s… tumultuous development. The trials and travails of Capcom’s star child are on display in hilarious-yet-poignant fashion in the new “Honest Game Trailers” edition from Smosh Games.
The trailer breaks down the transfer from Street Fighter IV‘s “oily buff boys” to SFV’s “clay banana ponytails” as well as the obsession with all things V, like V-Trigger and so on. Whether online play makes you want to ragequit the game for life or commit to training even harder, there’s no denying the enjoyment of watching other people play the title online, as evidenced by its popularity. Whether you agree or disagree with some of what the trailer points out, it’s undeniably hilarious and sometimes just too accurate.
The Dragon Ball FighterZ open beta happened this weekend, for better or worse. Despite some issues, hopefully everyone who wanted to had the opportunity to test out the game and at least get some matches in. For those who are looking to get a competitive edge on this upcoming title, this impressions write-up from one of the early top DBFZ players, Nakkiel, is a must-read.
Nakkiel’s Dragon Ball FighterZ beta impressions begin with general notes on system mechanics, noting some changes in tagging. It’s a bit different from what it used to be beforehand. He warns about carefully using the Guard Cancel Tag. Nakkiel talks about the Reflect mechanic at length, explaining that there won’t be certain option selects with it as some people thought. Overall damage has increased as well, making resource spending a bit more meaningful, he writes.
After briefly talking about netcode quality, Nakkiel shares discusses some of the characters. He discusses some nerfs on Android 18, like the EX command grab being significantly slower than before. On the other hand, Adult Gohan feels very good to play and may even come across as overpowered to some less-experienced players who aren’t as familiar with defensive techniques. He also writes a bit about Kid Buu, Goku, and Vegeta.
As usual, Joniosan’s channel is a reliable source of top quality Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 footage. Our coverage of Mikaten continues with another exciting set. World’s most famous Zato=1 player, “Lord” Ogawa, battles Herken (Haaken), who uses Sol, in a dramatic first-to-ten.
Herken’s Sol is the real king of the spectacle here. His nickname should be “one touch death” Sol. He starts off by dominating Ogawa for several rounds, showing extremely optimized combos and capitalizing just about from every hit. Practically every combo ends in a corner-carry knockdown. What’s more, Herken plays around Zato=1 and his minion like few people can; even though Sol doesn’t have too many neutral tools, the player does whatever he can to avoid getting caught in tough pressure from Ogawa. It’s definitely a must-watch. Don’t forget to adjust your system’s sound balance to hear only English commentary.
