Eternal Champions lives in the hearts of many old school fighting game players as one of the best titles in the 16-bit era. Having a unique niche as a console-only title, it and its Sega CD sequel–Challenge from the Dark Side–received large amounts of praise in the North American markets. It was a big enough hit that Sega of Japan actually canceled a third potential title for the Saturn, out of fear that it would draw too much attention away from Virtua Fighter. To this day, the intellectual property has been unavailable to series producer Michael Latham.
That has not prevented him from moving on. He has recently released a poll to the community, asking players if they would like a “spiritual successor” to the Eternal Champions series. As a spiritual successor, it would not retain any of the characters or story of the original, but would be using mechanics similar to the original in a more modern format.
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.”
Here’s some surprising news: Sega recently announced that it would be releasing a brand-new Virtual-On game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. However, that’s not all that makes it surprising–the game, called A Certain Magical Virtual-On, is a crossover between the series and Dengeki Bunko’s Toaru Majutsu no Index (“A Certain Magical Index”) light novel and anime series.
Released in 1996, Cyber Troopers Virtual-On represented a break from the 3D fighting games of the time, featuring unique twin analog stick controls and an over-the-shoulder perspective. Despite this–or maybe because of it–the series has gained a dedicated following, while garnering high praise; Evo co-founder Seth Killian has stated that it was the “best example” of a 3D game that implemented the values that fireballs bring to traditional 2D fighters.
As for how all this relates to A Certain Magical Index, well it seems that the game’s story (written by A Certain Magical Index author Kazuma Kamachi) sets up Virtual-On as a actual sport in that series’ world. Characters from the series such as Touma Kamijou and Mikoto Misaka will be piloting Virtuaroids around Academy City. As part of this, the special abilities of these characters in the series will now be a part of the arsenal these Virtuaroids can use.
As for how the game actually plays: sadly Sega has yet to release any gameplay footage. However, they do state that the they intend to make use of all the experience they’ve gained working on the series to maintain the “high speed battle action” that it is known for.
A Certain Magical Virtual-On is set to release on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita sometime in 2018. In the meantime, here’s Sega’s announcement trailer for the game.
This weekend, Arc System Works held an event in Japan to showcase the upcoming version of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2. The event included overviews of the new characters, as well as returning ones, and some important news–especially for those going to Evolution 2017.
Later on, top players staged some exhibition matches. First up is Answer. They go through most of his moves and show off his air-dashing capability. By setting scrolls on the screen, Answer can cling to them and then expand his movement options as well as chain combo hits. That starts at 1:08:10.
At 1:19:50, Baiken comes up, the second new character in REV 2. The Lone Samurai brandishes a blade and stomps the ground to spring Tatami mats. She also can enter Azami, a parry stance that allows several follow-ups to turn the table against the opponent.
After that, the new characters fight each other, and the rest of the stream also has returning REV 2 characters duking it out with the balance changes applied. Another big news from the event is that Arc System Works and Aksys Games are donating to the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue:Central Fiction Evolution 2017 prizes–$10,000 for each game.
Enjoy the stream below from Mr_Biscuits, and look forward to seeing a lot more REV 2 footage soon, as this version is officially launching in arcades this week.
(Note there is some NFSW language in the video below.)
After becoming the Evo Champion in 2013 with Gen–a generally-underused character at the time–there weren’t many in the community who didn’t know RZR|Xian’s name. Though he hasn’t made such a high-profile splash since then–not until Final Round 20, at least–he’s been a consistent force through the remainder of Street Fighter IV’s era, and has continued to try to make things happen in Street Fighter V.
Xian takes the time to talk with FGCnow, and is interviewed about his choice of characters, how and why he’s stuck with F.A.N.G, his newly-successful Ibuki showcased at Final Round, and his opinions on the game as a whole. He also comments on his participation in the upcoming ELEAGUE Invitational event, the competition there, and also his opinion on Japan’s presence in SFV. It’s a great interview, so be sure to check it out here!
In a game like The King of Fighters XIV, with such an expansive roster–one that’s still growing with DLC characters–there’s a nonstop flow of new tech being discovered. We’ve rounded up the latest batch of tech and combos for you today, so hopefully there’s something here to help you level up your own game!
To start off, we have a few neat Guard Crush setups from community regular Gatoray, for several different characters.
We also have a few combo exhibitions from a few a different sources. We have a Kukri showcasing from Luan Gabriel, a Maxima combo video from Setsuna_MX, and lastly a Yuri combo movie from COMBONAUTS.
Lastly, we have some combo guides from Coliflowerz, featuring both Choi Bounge and Angel.
So, SFV players: how did you do? Did you get back any lost LP?
Considering the messy network conditions Street Fighter V players have been dealing with, it seems Capcom is in fact taking some action to improve our experience, even before the new Capcom Fighters Network patch rolls out. Yesterday’s server maintenance period–to prepare for the new CFN’s PC beta test–apparently also included an LP rebalancing to adjust the totals since last December:
During maintenance we performed LP recalculation based on all battle log data for Fighter IDs that logged in post Dec 21st, 2016.
Despite how simple the premise of the genre seems to be, fighting games are quite difficult to get into. Whether your trying the genre out yourself, or trying to get your friends to join in, the nuances of the genre can often be a bit much to take in.
For those who’re just starting out with fighters and are struggling to learn, Frabisaur has started an excellent new video series called the Fighter’s Dojo. Unlike most videos put out by the community–which focus on helping existing players get better–the Fighter’s Dojo focuses instead on players who are just starting out with the genre from scratch.
Despite being a relatively new series –it only has two episodes as of writing this–the Fighter’s Dojo has already garnered positive feedback from community figures such as James Chen, and Stephen “Sajam” Lyon. You can see why in the first episode alone, where Frabisaur talks about something a lot of new players gloss over: figuring out how the game wants to be played. Specifically, he takes Street Fighter and uses it as an example on how to break down how to figure this out. Of course, don’t just take our word for it, check out the episode 1, alongside episode 2 which talks about offense and defense, below.
As the mainstream Smash games were duking it out on the main stage at Genesis 4, the side streams bustled with activity from other communities. Catherine, Street Fighter V and Towerfall all had their place in the sun, with an entire row on the left side of the convention hall dedicated to these side games. Here you could find the Rivals of Aether community, playing together in the largest single gathering of fans that the platform fighter has ever seen. Players from all over the USA and a few contenders from Europe had made the journey to San Jose to share the love of Rivals and battle it out for the Rivals Championship Series crown.
It is a community of mixed heritage, with veteran Smashers, multi-game competitors and players whose first platform fighter was Rivals of Aether. They wielded tools of all descriptions, from battle scared Gamecube controllers, to light up Xbox 360 pads and pristine Xbox One controllers. The tournament organizers even commissioned special Gamecube to Xbox controller adapters so all fans were welcome to play. From just watching friendlies, the Rivals community seems like quite the melting pot of players, with all attendees just enjoying their chance to play the game that they love with fellow competitors.
As someone who dabbled with Rivals upon its initial Early Access launch, the speed at which players were fighting was a marvel to watch. With dedicated players mastering each character’s kit, as well as now integrating wavelands and wavedashes into their general movement, matches are like a furious ballet as players weave in and out of neutral. Speaking to Tandori, a top Maypul player, Rivals is a game with the “tech of something like Melee with the punishing combos of 64”, meaning that a single hit in neutral can lead into death. If there was anything that players should learn going into Rivals, “movement, movement and movement” was Tandori’s mantra.
The combination of speed and raw power makes Rivals an explosive game to watch. With every character having this burst damage capability, it ensures that almost every character gets a look in at the competitive level. “I really love that every character can win honestly,” said Fullstream, one of the top contenders going into the event. “There’s always something else you can do and I love how you’re almost expected to learn to play more than one character,” meaning that character diversity is actively encouraged at the higher levels of play.
Having said that, Rivals creator Dan Fornace still believes that there is more work to be done to bring out each character’s true potential. Forsburn is one such fighter, a character who can kick up clouds of smoke to hide in, as well as summon a clone of himself to confuse his enemies. For a character based on deception, Fornace believes that there is still room to bring out the best of his kit. He said that the team “experimented with turning his moveset into something like Cloud’s from Smash 4, where each special can be powered up”. While “they liked the variety it was meant to bring”, what happened was that “none of the powered up specials (with the exception of Down Special) felt cool enough to match the rest of his design.” As such, the team are currently in the process of refining the character to make him a viable threat in competitive play, while also keeping true to the initial design idea of this deceptive assassin.
Etalus is an example of a character that took a typical Smash archetype and made it work for high level play. While grapplers and big bodies like Bowser and DK seldom make it past mid-tier, the burly polar bear Etalus goes toe to toe with the faster fighters in Rivals. The success of Etalus main Arcanine at Genesis–who was able to beat one of the titans of Rivals Ralph–is a testament to how the Rivals design team was able to make a heavy character be a viable threat in a platform fighter.
As for Genesis itself, the tournament was the final event of the RCS and saw all the major contenders in Rivals finally collected in one place. The three titans of the game, Ralph, MrLz and Fullstream were there, alongside Europe’s best player Khaos and other major threats like Arcanine and CakeAssault. According to Tandori and Dan, these three are like the pillars of high level Rivals. For Tandori, you can see Ralph as “the veteran” who cut his teeth on Melee, MrLz is “the prodigy” who is trying to make his mark like he did in Project M, while Fullstream is “the worker” with Rivals being his first competitive game. Speaking to Fullstream, his love but lack of access to Melee actually spurred him to play Rivals, as the tech skill and speed looked so similar.
Dan likened Ralph and Fullstream to “ZeRo and MKLeo”, with Ralph “dominating the Rivals scene during Early Access and not dropping a set (even in small online events) for months.” Fullstream on the other hand came out of nowhere, winning the Rivals tournament at SXSW 2016 before going onto win almost every other event he entered and racking up the most amount of points in the US branch of the RCS. Fullstream was certainly prepared to win, stating that he was going to “beat everybody” when I talked to him before the tournament began.
Luckily for him, he kept up his promise. Unfortunately, the fated Ralph and Fullstream set didn’t materialise as Fullstream made it all the way to Winners’ Finals without dropping a game. It was actually Arcanine’s Etalus that drew first blood against Fullstream, taking him all the way to game 5. Having already upset the bracket by defeating Ralph, Fullstream had to not only deal with a high level Etalus, but work out Arcanine’s ferocious playstyle. According to Dan, there had just recently been a change to Etalus’ ice armour mechanic just before Genesis 4, adding yet another hurdle for Fullstream to deal with. While on the verge of a reverse 3-0 from the polar bear from the frozen north, Fullstream held his nerve and won the set 3-2. Arcanine would eventually get third, losing to MrLz’s Maypul in yet another five game set, come losers finals.
Ralph did not go quietly however, as his match against CakeAssault in Losers’ was, by Dan’s admission, “as one of the craziest Rivals sets of all time.”. Ralph was set to take the match quite comfortably, taking a quick 2-0 lead with his battle-hardened Orcane. In a stroke of either desperation or pure genius, CakeAssault switched off of Wrastor and picked Zetterburn. As Rivals’ most straight forward character, CakeAssault’s Zetterburn switch would mean he would have to beat Ralph with pure fundamentals, rather than with gimmicks. The switch did pay off, with the flaming lion beating the four legged seal in games 3 and 4. The crowd started to then rally behind CakeAssault going into game five, chanting his name as he was primed to take out the number one seed for the event. However, disaster struck as CakeAssault threw away a stock lead after purposely killing himself after he thought he’d taken Ralph’s final stock. Ralph was able to recover, racking up a quick 50% and making CakeAssault the potential recipient of the infamous “taunt to get bodied” combo. However, fate sided with the plucky Zetterburn with CakeAssault securing the win with a super-powered uppercut.
If Genesis 4 is anything to go by, Rivals of Aether has a bright competitive future ahead of it. But, you may ask, what is in the pipeline following the game’s full release? A special guest character is planned for release in the spring, with a pack of four new DLC characters and another guest fighter before the end of the year. This will finish off the cast with a grand total of 14 fighters. “I now know how Sakurai and his team felt in some ways,” said Dan when discussing the guest character selection process. If all else fails, the design team will just “not show the results though and add Bayonetta.”
As for future tournaments, RCS Season two is planned to start shortly after launch, with Dan, community manager George Rogers and several Rivals TOs already planning out events for the future. The first main event to watch out for will be CEO Dreamland in April, which even has its own special DLC which reskins a stage to look like the famous CEO wrestling ring. The Rivals team are great for cool community features like skins and taunts, with special event and holiday skins coming out at regular intervals. My bright pink Valentine’s Day Zetterburn has been my favourite, I have to say. Dan calls the RCS “baby esports”, with the team trying to work within a relatively limited budget to hold quality events. Events like Genesis and CEO, as well as online events run with the help of smash.gg have been “a huge benefit” but it has meant leveraging development time to attend tournaments. With the main bulk of development wrapping up with the game’s release, expect the second season of the RCS to be bigger and better than the last.
Dan’s main advice for platform fighter designers to “experiment and iterate” on Smash in order to create something fresh. Rivals embraces the competitive nature of platform fighters results in much needed concessions like tutorials and an extensive training mode, but it comes at the cost of losing the instant accessibility of Smash. However, Dan hopes that by focusing on fluid movement and teaching new players about the basics of movement, both casual and traditional fighting game players will take to Rivals much quicker than something like Melee.
From both the community and mechanical side of the equation, Rivals of Aether sets a hopeful precedent for the future of platform fighters. With their popularity only growing, now is the time to join in on the fun.
In a recent Arc System Works stream–the same one that showed off the new opening for REV 2–the news of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2’s and BlazBlue: Central Fiction’s inclusion in Evo 2017 was celebrated with the announcement of a $10,000 prize pool bonus for each title.
After showing off Baiken and Answer they celebrated both Rev2 and BBCF being at EVO and will be putting 10,000 dollars into each game! pic.twitter.com/6mjwIEselE
This is obviously a very significant contribution to the pot, which is only piling on to the already feverish hype for these anime games both taking their place on the main stage this year. This also might be a good sign for ASW’s future plans for the community, as they may be looking to provide even more support in the days to come.
