With the PlayStation 4 release of Dissisia Finaal Fantasy NT just a month and a bit away, Square Enix is starting to ramp up promotion for the game. As part of this, they’ve just released the opening cinematic for the game.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT‘s opening cinematic does its best to showcase the game’s premise. It introduces the game’s basic setup, with the gods Materia and Spiritus summoning Final Fantasy heroes and villains who then face off against each other. Along the way, we see classic confrontations: such as Cloud taking on Sephiroth, as well as some unexpected team-ups from characters from different-numbered installments of this storied franchise.
Check out the cinematic below:
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT launches on PlayStation 4 on January 11 in Japan, and January 30 in the West.
While most people these days play fighting games on PlayStation 4 or PC, more than a few folks do play them on Xbox One. For those Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite players on Microsoft’s console, Capcom has released a warning regarding a possible issue that can cause players to lose their saves, under very specific circumstances.
The issue only affects players who have the physical disc version of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. If these players have already updated their game to the latest content patch, and then have to uninstall and reinstall the game for whatever reason, they run the risk of losing their saved game if they play the game without updating it with the latest patch first.
Now while this glitch only affects a small subset of the game’s players, Capcom has deemed it serious enough to post a bulletin about it on Capcom-Unity. They currently state that there is no known fix for this (not even a patch, for obvious reasons), and warn players to make sure to get the latest update for the game in case they ever have to reinstall it after updating.
As the final Dragon Ball FighterZ character trailer ahead of Jump Festa later this month, Bandai Namco have at last shown Adult Gohan in action. Rather than his rage-filled teenage counterpart, this version of Gohan is cool, calm and collected — wielding power to rival that of Super Saiyan 3.
He retains his Mach Kick special from his teenage incarnation, but a lot of the moves shown in this trailer are specific to Adult Gohan. New attacks include the Masenko at his QCF+Ki move, an impact palm which sends the opponent flying to the other side of the screen and a rapid jab attack that leads into an overhead shoulder drop. His Level 3 Super — Ultimate Kamehameha — has him firing an energy beam horizontally, similar to Teen Gohan’s Father Son Kamehameha.
The great mystery that remains with Adult Gohan is still his “Unlock Potential” Super, which augments many of his other moves based on the number of Super bars plowed into it. From this trailer, we have confirmation that activating this Install Super will cause a blowback effect, allowing Gohan to continue a combo via a Super Dash. Besides that though, this trailer did not give us any inclining as to how the power-up works in battle.
Hopefully, Jump Festa will give us details on how all the recently announced characters play, as well as unveiling the rumored final four fighters. Stick with Shoryuken for all the details, once the show starts on December 16th.
We’ve known for some time now that Arcana Heart: Love Max Six Stars!!!!!! would be coming to Steam this December — we just didn’t know exactly when, until now. Arc System Works and Examu have officially revealed the ports release date: December 12.
The port of the arcade original was made possible through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and Backerkit early this year. The PC version of Arcana Heart 3: Love Max Six Stars!!!!!! on Steam will come with all the new characters introduced in the arcade update. This is in addition to a new character named Shark Girl, and a new arcana called “Paraclesia,” that were stretch goals for the aforementioned crowdfund campaign.
For those interested in picking up the game when it hits on December 12, the game is set to retail for ¥2,980. No details on how much it’ll cost in the West have yet been given.
One of the biggest features coming to the Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition update is, as the name implies, the long-awaited Arcade Mode. Initially missing from the game — in favor of both a General, and Character-specific Story Modes, the Street Fighter V’s Arcade Mode seems to go above and beyond the usual arcade mode experience.
A new blog post over on Capcom-Unity drops some details regarding Arcade Mode. One of these is something that was previously hinted at during the update’s initial reveal. Specifically, Arcade Mode will feature multiple ladders based on previous games in the Street Fighter franchise.
The blog post details how these ladders work. Choosing a specific ladder based on a past game will limit which characters are present in that ladder — both for your own selection and as opponents. For example, picking the Street Fighter Alpha ladder will only have characters who appeared in those games. Some exceptions do occur, with new SFV characters like Kolin or Zeku “standing in” for other related characters in certain ladders. Where available, opponents appear in era-appropriate Nostalgia costumes, too.
Speaking of Street Fighter III, Arcade Mode takes a page from that game by giving the players a choice of one of two opponents to fight in each rung of the ladder.
In addition to this, some ladders will also have a new version of the barrel bonus stage. This time however, there will be a second, AI controlled character who will help keep the barrels coming back to the center of the screen with their moves, helping the player reach 20 barrel target.
Of course, Arcade Mode wouldn’t be the same without endings. It seems that Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is going to be chock full of individual character endings — over 200 of them, to be precise. How to unlock each ending will be detailed in the game’s Gallery Mode. The conditions themselves run the gamut from simply completing a ladder, to getting a “Perfect” on the bonus stage.
The Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition update hits PC and PlayStation 4 on January 16th, 2018. For those looking to try it out before it hits home, it will be playable at the PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, CA this weekend from Dec. 9-10. In the meantime, here are a few more screenshots of Arcade Mode.
Looking to add a Vice to your life? Well, don’t. That’s bad. Unless it’s The King of Fighters XIV‘s Vice. Then, sure, go ahead!
While it may be billed as a quick combo video, Coliflowerz’ latest Vice Guide is actually an excellent primer for new players looking to pick up this Orochi descendant. This video breaks down this mobile grappler’s move-set and options thoroughly before moving in to beginner-to-intermediate combos. Included with these combos are tips for spacing and meter requirements.
It goes without saying that Red Bull’s & Cygames Beast’s Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis is having a banner year. The long-time Zangief main stuck to his guns despite his hesitance in Season 1 with the character, and the rewards for doing so were immense. With detractors doubting the character’s tournament viability, Lewis became the first Zangief main to take a CPT Premier event with the character, at CEO.
Now, will he be the first Zangief main to hoist the Capcom Cup — and test its durability by giving it a Spinning Piledriver?
Muscle with a Dash of Demon
We could argue for a long time about who is better between Itabashi Zangief and Snake Eyez with the Red Cyclone. While Itazan has stellar results going pure Zangief, he has yet to close out an event. Snake Eyez was able to win a major, but had to fall back on his Akuma secondary to achieve it. Does having a secondary make Snake Eyez a lesser Zangief player?
Not necessarily. We talked about Itazan’s struggles, and he does have issues in various match-ups that he will inevitably face on his road through a tournament. The problem is he doesn’t mitigate those difficult match-ups with another character, and thus suffers in a lack of wins for it.
Snake Eyez at least positions himself at a chance to win events. While he was able to shock the world with his top 8 performance at Evo 2014 in Ultra Street Fighter IV using purely Zangief, later results would see him gravitate toward using Evil Ryu to mitigate his bad match-ups. He carried this over in Street Fighter V with Akuma. As a result, those bad match-ups are marginalized. These are the marks of a champion, and Snake Eyez has made himself that this season.
Low Seed, Big Potential
One of the things to note is despite his CEO win, he is seeded lower than Itazan. But if you look at the events the two have played, it makes sense. Lewis stuck mostly to North American events, and this allowed him time to play Ranking events to get points to qualify. Itazan played fewer events, but placed high in several Premier events, as well as Evo, to get the leg up.
But if you look at his records, out of 11 CPT events he played — including Toryuken where he didn’t make it out of pools — Snake Eyez made it to top 8 of a staggering seven. This consistency is why when he’s prepared mentally to play, he is a dangerous man regardless of seeding.
Evo and Beyond
High expectations were on Lewis at Evo 2017 after his victory at CEO. However, he failed to make it out of his second round of pools due to a loss against Imstilldadaddy. While he did make a mistake at the end of the game that cost him the match, perhaps the bigger mistake was sticking to Zangief in a match-up that favors Guile in the first place.
Since then, he was able to make two top 8s, but his results have slipped some. He was unable to make top 16 at Brooklyn Beatdown, and went out just inside of top 64 at the North American Regional Finals Last Chance Qualifier. While the latter tournament was of lesser consequence since he was already qualified for Capcom Cup, Brooklyn Beatdown was definitely a thorn in his side. Losing to both Justin Wong and John Takeuchi, we saw no instance of his Akuma being played. While playing Zangief against Karin made sense, he most certainly could’ve considered Akuma against Takeuchi’s Rashid, and didn’t. Is it possible that he’s starting to go the way of Itazan, and rock Zangief exclusively again?
Final Thoughts
If he is doing that, it’s going to be detrimental to his success at Capcom Cup. With his Akuma on point, there is no doubt he can shake people in tournament. With just Zangief, he faces the same problems Itazan does with an upper half of the bracket that’s chock full of his most difficult match-ups — his very first opponent will be Oil King’s Rashid.
He needs to come with his both his characters intact to have a chance. Without that, he could see himself out quickly. With that, the sky is the limit.
The Nintendo Switch is slowly but surely building a library of fighting game and fighting game-related titles. The latest of these is 5pb’s fighting game and beat ’em up hybrid Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive.
Originally released for PlayStation 4 back in July of 2015, Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive, co-developed by MAGES., is the latest update to Phantom Breakers‘s spin-off “Battle Grounds” series. The game uses a multi-plane system (first pioneered by Treasure for Yu Yu Hakusho – Makyou Toitsusen and Guardian Heroes) to allow for up to four players to fight against each other, or together against waves of foes in beat ’em up fashion, while still retaining fighting game-style controls.
Check out the trailer for Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrivefor Nintendo Switch below.
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive arrives on Nintendo Switch via the eShop on December 7.
Hoping to tie up a year’s worth of amazing Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 competition, Mikado Arcade is gearing up for the third series of its Tenkaichi Budoukai. Bringing together eight of Japan’s best Guilty Gear players, this grueling round robin league will see one talented competitor crowned as “The Best Under Heaven.”
If you’re not familiar with the Tenkaichi Budoukai (outside of Dragon Ball), players are split into two groups of four — the Spade League and the Heart League. Within these groups, competitors fight against all other combatants in first-to-10 sets. From each league, the overall winner (based on their match record and win/loss differentials) will go on to a final championship group. There is still hope for the second and third place players though, as they are placed in a single-elimination, first-to-five bracket, with the winner claiming the third spot in the championship group.
As for the groups, they are made up of Guilty Gear legends, threats from outside of Tokyo and recent champions. You can find a full breakdown of each competitor via this Twitlonger, but here are the cliff notes:
Group A
Omito (Johnny/Evo 2017 champion)
Ogawa (Zato=1/Arc Revo 2017 champion)
Zadi (Raven/Runner-up of Pre-Evo Japan 賽 [sài])
Haaken (Sol/Top 8 placer from Pre-Evo Japan 賽 [sài])
Group B
Nage (Faust/GODSGARDEN 12 champion)
Tomo TM57 (Leo/Arc Revo 2017 and Evo 2017 runner-up)
Tourio (I-No/Two-time Arc Revo Top 8 placer)
Fumo (Elphelt/Jespa Top 8 placer)
Similar to ELEAGUE, these matches will take place over a series of weekends — with the first Group B match taking place on December 16th. For those who wish to tune in live via Twitch, there will be Japanese commentary via Jonio-san, as well as live English commentary, courtesy of our very own Majinobama. If you cannot stay up to catch each set live, every match will be uploaded to the official Mikado Arcade YouTube channel.
For the preliminary match schedule, check out this Twitlonger but stay locked to either Jonio-san or Majinobama‘s Twitter accounts for all the latest updates on Tenkaichi Budoukai Series 3. Whether you’re a Guilty Gear veteran or a casual spectator, you do not want miss this league.
Bandai Namco Games will be one of the video game companies that will be in attendance at Jump Festa 2017. With this being the Shonen Jump event, it should be no surprise then that they’ll be bringing Dragon Ball FighterZ with them.
This news isn’t just for those attending the event. As part of bringing the game there, Bandai Namco has confirmed that they will be showing off a brand new trailer for Dragon Ball FighterZ at Jump Festa.
Jump Festa 2017 takes place on December 16 to 17, 2017, right in the middle of the month when Bandai Namco tends to reveal new characters. With this in mind, it’s likely that we’ll get new character reveals with this trailer.
In addition to the trailer, Bandai Namco will also be holding a pre-release tournament for Dragon Ball FighterZ on the second day of Jump Festa.
Dragon Ball FighterZ launches on PlayStation 4, PC, and XBox One on January 26 in most of the world, followed by February 1 in Japan.
We could argue for a long time about who is better between Itabashi Zangief and Snake Eyez with the Red Cyclone. While Itazan has stellar results going pure Zangief, he has yet to close out an event. Snake Eyez was able to win a major, but had to fall back on his Akuma secondary to achieve it. Does having a secondary make Snake Eyez a lesser Zangief player?