“I’m not interested in (Cody) because I only like top tier characters. That’s why I dropped Necalli… why would I want to struggle?”
In addition to being witty and amusing, UYU|Kami’s is laser-focused on efficiency: that’s the take-away from his entertaining interview with BornFree, at least:
The origin of his focus originates from a much more serious place than his demeanor would lead you to believe, though: Street Fighter locals became a form of escape for a difficult living situation the future UYU pro was in. Humorous and inspirational, Kami’s story is a worthwhile one to listen to, both for for his thoughts on approaching the game, and for an example of giving your all, regardless of your situation.
While hearing developers talk about the actual development process of their games is nothing new today, this was something almost unheard off back in the 1990s. As such, it’s always a treat when developers get to talk about their games from that era.
In a recent issue, as part of their coverage of the upcoming NEO GEO Mini, Famitsu got a chance to talk to some of SNK’s developers who worked on some of the classic games back in the 1990s. This included designers Noboyuki Kuroki, and Naoto Abe, as well as the sound team’s Hideki Asanaka.
Among the game’s they discuss are the original Fatal Fury games, where Asanaka discusses how they were left to their own devices, allowing their diverse influences to be heard in the soundtrack. They also discuss how the voice work in the first game was originally done by the staff, before they transitioned to hiring the Osaka Drama Troupe for the second game onward, and then having voice actors for The King of Fighters series from the very start.
Speaking of The King of Fighters, they discuss how different the lead character, Kyo was, from their previous work. Kuroki states that their first reaction to seeing Kyo in a school uniform was “Wow.” Especially considering how much more “macho” their character designs in Fatal Fury were.
In addition to this, they also go a bit into Garou: Mark of the Wolves specifically about how it never got a sequel, and how that sequel would have turned out had it been made. Abe states that he recals that the scenario for the story had already been written up to the ending (beyond the original, which ended on a cliffhanger). Additionally, Kuroki also states that he had already created new moves for Rock Howard and B. Jenet.
Of course, this is just part of what they talk about. Check out a translated version of the interview over at Siliconera.
Arc System Works likes to facilitate conversation, and their latest effort shows Toshimichi Mori answering fan-submitted queries. The selected Twitter questions cover a variety of topics, with many asking about possible future projects that the company might tackle.
There’s a lot of questions about turning various anime franchises into fighting games, but he’s also asked about BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, the most recent fighting game release from the company. For now, there are no plans for a “second wave” of DLC for the game. Mori would like to solidify plans to introduce more RWBY characters (he likes Adam, while many staff members like Penny), but he says more fan support is needed. He does recognize that Central Fiction is its own, mainline game and that the support for it might not be over yet.
Make sure to turn on the Closed Captions function on YouTube for the following clips.
The second part drives at some other games Arc System Works has worked on. After working on Dragon Ball FighterZ, Mori isn’t sure yet what the next anime game could be. Someone specifically asks about turning Disgaea into a fighting game, and Mori gives a mysterious “I see, cool”.
When asked about the future BlazBlue: Central Fiction‘s Kokonoe and Sector 7 (the organization she’s part of), he points to Dark War, a mobile game that’s currently only in Japan, but Mori would “love it” if it was released internationally. Finally, when asked about the possibility of Persona 5 Arena, Mori says that he can’t say anything, and that the fans should ask Atlus instead.
“The biggest barrier you could ever put on yourself is thinking there is a ‘right way’ to play.”
Few people had as a meteoric of a rise in the FGC at such an early age as Chris “CJ Truth” Jayson did when he made top 32 at Evo 2011 in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. The protege of Jebailey came out of nowhere and took out top players with his hyper aggressive Fei Long and has have a reputation of being a fearsome opponent ever since.
Seven years later, CJ Truth still has the same boundless energy that seemed to possess him before. But while his passion for fighting games (and Fei Long) is still as palpable and entertaining as ever, he’s gained some concrete insight from his years of tournament play that balance out BornFree‘s most recent interview.
UYU|Yuyu is one of the most recognizable Ling Xiaoyu players in the world right now in Tekken 7. The demand and expectation of being a high-level player might seem like a dream on the surface, but as she reveals in her latest interview with UYU, it has its own drawbacks and difficulties.
Drawing from her experiences at Wednesday Night Fights and Combo Breaker, Yuyu explains the different energy between the large American majors and the arcade experience she grew up in.
French computer scientist and fighting game wizard WydD explains Street Fighter V’s cyclical latency on the PlayStation 4, while netcode sleuth DigitalHalftones returns with additional videos to further explain the game’s rollback issues.
Editor’s note: Yesterday we peeked inside the Pandora’s Box that is input latency in Street Fighter V, both online and offline. But it seems that was only the beginning of this tricky subject; here’s a follow-up to provide a closer look at some of the lag issues that SFV players — and competitors — are dealing with while we play!
Fighting game player and tech detective DigitalHalftones recently uploaded a YouTube video dissecting Street Fighter V’s rollback netcode, and his findings revealed a shocking discovery: to make up for one-sided rollback, the game’s netcode would introduce lag to another player should their opponent experience even a slight drop in connection. By connecting a PlayStation 4 console and a PC to one network and manually lowering the framerate, DigitalHalftones was able to prove that the opposing connection would lag in turn. This meant that whatever latency was recorded at the end of a round would be introduced in the following round: in other words, SFV outright creates lag to even out the connection between two players. (Original video follows below.)
Fair’s fair in online play.
DigitalHalftones returned with a second, two-minute video (above) in response to comments about crossplay being a potential factor for the lag he recorded. As in the first video, he used the same setup of a PS4 and PC wired to a single internet connection. He began his subsequent experiment by lowering the framerate from 60 fps to 10 fps on his PC, observing that the PC character was skipping on the PS4 side. He then pushed the framerate back up to 60 fps, and while the PC side smoothed out, the PS4 continued to lag, with PC Cammy still skipping across the screen. However, upon the start of the next round, both sides were completely smooth.
DigitalHalftones explained that this event was due to frames dropped at the start of the round, not his connection’s latency between the two systems. “What’s happening is, at the start of the round, when it says ‘Fight,’ the game is looking at the latency, but it’s also looking at the framerate,” he states over the video. “What happens is, when the PS4 lags behind by a couple of frames at the start of the round, the netcode is thinking that’s actual lag. So, say the game is lagging 1 frame, 2 frames, 3 frames? They’re reading that as milliseconds at a time.” With a single frame being equal to 16.6 milliseconds, three frames would be equal to 49.98 ms of artificial lag, causing the opponent’s side to lag just as much in an effort to even out the connection.
“It’s not crossplay that’s the issue,” DigitalHalftones stated. “It’s the system not being able to run or maintain 60 fps, and the netcode. It’s because of the variable input time for the framerate on the PS4.” As is commonly known, PS4s tend to lag when loading — which explains why rounds get worse for players over time when fighting opponents on the console. Through this additional experiment, DigitalHalftones was able to prove that a variable framerate during the start of a round will incite additional rollback that isn’t part of the game.
The ebb and flow of input latency.
The term “variable” was also recently uttered by fighting game scientist WydD, who used it to describe his findings of Street Fighter V’s input delay on the PlayStation 4. So far, WydD has tested the game on PC, the PS4 Pro, and the PS4 Slim, where he discovered the game’s variable input latency. He now breaks down his findings in layman’s terms, explaining the cyclical nature of the delay and how it affects gameplay.
“Basically, the game has some kind of internal timer inside its engine,” he stated. “When you plot the amount of lag frames over time during my measures, you get this weird cycle.” The cycle in question looks like an active heart monitor, with lag cycling from 4 frames up to 7 frames, then back down to 4 frames once more. “Basically, when you play the game on a PS4 offline — like in a tournament setup — your input lag is around 4 frames, then goes to 5 frames after a while, then 6 frames, and finally 7 frames… to finally drop to 4 frames again.”
While the cycle is relatively constant, WydD observed that the exact time of the switches varies from session to session, resulting in literally variable input delay. “The timing of the steps varies between sessions, but the overall shape is the same, and the length of the cycle is always around a minute,” he explained. While he stated that he isn’t one hundred percent confident of his findings, he hasn’t observed this cycle on PC, citing colleagues Noodalls and DisplayLag as others who have found similar results.
The terror of the input lag cycle.
This variable input delay could definitely have negative effects on players as they duke it out on screen, particularly in regards to hit confirms and reaction timing. “It doesn’t interfere a lot in combos due to the input leniency of SFV,” WydD stated. “The game engine tolerates 5 frames of timing for a 1 frame link. If you’re lucky, you are at the beginning of the cycle and you are generally 3 frames faster in terms of reaction.”
While SFV’s leniency might help give players a fighting chance in this regard, instances can occur that tilt the scale towards saltiness. “There can be other weird instances, like someone presses a light punch and the opponent presses medium/heavy punch one frame after, and the medium punch actually hits anyway because you had a 7 frame delay on the light punch,” he said. “That’s never been seen in experiment, but technically, this could happen.”
WydD also created a series of images that visually represent his findings to better describe this phenomenon. Using Ibuki’s sprite from 3rd Strike, WydD pinpointed the exact frame in which delay begins. Once the command was executed, the screen lost color, and stayed gray until Ibuki’s attack animation was completed. This graphic utilizes his methodology as explained in his YouTube video, but he has since stated that he has improved this setup.
Both WydD’s and DigitalHalftone’s findings indicate that Street Fighter V still has a plethora of issues, at least on the PlayStation 4 platform. With frame drops resulting in actual netcode latency — and worse, the variable, cyclical input delay — the console version of the game leaves much to be desired. As seen in Brandon Chia’s loss in the SEA CPT Online 2, the console version’s build (which is also the CPT tournament standard) can definitely affect players’ performance, potentially leading to whiffed normals and botched reaction times — which, at worst, can cost a competitor a win during an important tournament.
With over 2.5 million units sold, Dragon Ball FighterZ is an unequivocal success for a fighting game. Eurogamer recently got to talk to the game’s producer, Bandai Namco’s Tomoko Hiroki — as well as its director, Arc System Work’s Junya Motomura — about its success, and the factors that led to it. This includes the appeal of the game’s source material, as well as how the game’s broken out beyond the core audience. To this, Hiroki replies that it’s because they were “able to deliver to users quite a surprising animated expression, as well as a genuine fighting game mechanic,” continuing with, ” we believe the fusion of these two was quite impactful for the users.”
In regards to being able to stay true to the style of the original anime, Motomura cites their experience with the Guilty Gear games — they knew how to achieve that look. The main challenge was in taking their previous work, then getting the style to match the visual style of Dragon Ball. This was helped by paying homage with a lot of references to moments in the series in the games itself, something that came easily because they had fans of the franchise on the team. “A lot of us are fans of Dragon Ball, so we had a lot of people who were well informed about Dragon Ball, who knew the basic aspects of it,” Motomura states.
The other challenge was to create a game that appeals to both fans of the Dragon Ball franchise, in addition to fighting game fans. They cite the 3-on-3 tag team system as something that helps, since fans would like to play different characters. Additionally, they decided that they wanted to focus less on execution, and more on mind games.
That said, the system Dragon Ball FighterZ is built on is pretty free and open, allowing players to pull off a lot of things — including touch-of-death combos. On the latter, Motomura stated that the team didn’t want to limit the players’ freedom to discover things. In addition to this, he also stated that there was a lot more to discover in the game, and that some characters were underutilized as of yet. Hiroki actually points to Frieza in particular as one such character.
Of course, this is just part of what they talk about in the interview. Head on over to Eurogamer to read the whole thing.
SoulCalibur VI producer Motohiro Okubo broke down the upcoming game’s newest features in a recent blog post, detailing everything fans should know in order to get acquainted with the latest title.
On July 20th, Motohiro Okubo wrote up a blog post that introduced both veterans and newbies of the Soul Calibur series to the latest game’s brand-new features. Okubo expressed that he is applying “key lessons” from his work with Tekken 7 into the weapons-based 3D fighter, while keeping the gameplay both fresh and true to the series’ previous titles.
Reversal Edge
The game’s new elements include the Reversal Edge and Lethal Hit, alongside original mechanics like the Soul Charge and Guard Hit. Okubo expressed that the Reversal Edge was a product of the game’s developers wanting newer players to “have fun, excel, and compete against players that have more knowledge and experience” through a fair and balanced means. When players land a successful Reversal Edge, a slow motion sequence is triggered, wherein a kind of rock-paper-scissors mini-game ensues. If players choose the correct action in answer to their enemy, they are rewarded with definite damage, removing the need for in-depth knowledge on characters and gameplay.
Much like the Guard Impact system, the Reversal Edge allows players to parry incoming attacks — this time automatically. The longer a player holds down the Reversal Edge button, the longer they can parry their opponent’s strikes. The Reversal Edge also builds meter, allowing access to the Soul Charge and Critical Edge systems. In sum, the Reversal Edge gives opportunities for newer players on a more even playing field, and eliminates the need for hard data in favor of reading one’s opponent and guessing their next moves.
Soul Charge
While the Soul Charge is a returning mechanic, SCVI aims to make it quite different from its predecessors. SCVI’s Soul Charge will give characters power ups, allowing players to utilize additional moves and deal greater damage for a limited time. Characters’ Soul Charges will also give them different visual properties, “drastically” changing their appearance. According to Okubo, the manner in which the Soul Charge is used will largely determine players’ playstyles, and allow them freedom to express themselves in they way they choose to play the game.
Lethal Hit
The Lethal Hit is another new element of the SoulCalibur series. While different for each character, the Lethal Hit triggers another slow-motion sequence when successfully executed. In this sequence, players deal a damaging attack, which opens up the opponent for a follow-up hit. Unlike the Reversal Edge, the Lethal Hit is meant for players to showcase their knowledge and skill; it isn’t easily triggered, and players who can pull a number of Lethal Hits are shown to be high-level. Additionally, Lethal Hits break away characters’ armor for a satisfying, visual reward of the winning player’s strength.
There are only three months left until SoulCalibur VI’s completion, and Okubo has stated that the game’s character roster is not yet complete. With Evo just around the corner, the possibility of a character reveal is high, and game’s new elements could be further explored in forthcoming trailers.
Among the various subcultures in the fighting game community, there are those who take particular interest in the still-preferred controller for fighting games: the arcade stick. As part of this, a number of folks cultivates collections of arcade sticks.
One such player is Jimmy Gallegos, more commonly known in the community as Jimmy ShoeGazer. While most collectors tend to focus on OEM arcade sticks and limited edition releases, ShoeGazer instead focuses his collections on custom-built arcade sticks. Specifically, ShoeGazer collects custom arcade sticks by Sam “B15SDM” Kurd.
B15’s arcade sticks have a reputation of being some of the most elaborate and beautiful custom creations around, and some of the most expensive. For many collectors, they’re worth the price however, as B15’s works of wood, metal, acrylic, and paint are often considered works of art on their own, taking on various themes such as “steam punk” or even franchises such as One Piece or Star Wars.
Now, for those who’re either curious about the type of person who collects these — or is looking to start collecting themselves, ShoeGazer is the subject of this new interview from Jon “Jonyfraze” Bonilla. As part of the interview, ShoeGazer not only talks about his background in gaming, he also showcases some of his favorite pieces in his collection — and the latest B15SDM custom that he has commissioned. This new stick, based on Guilty Gear Xrd‘s Bedman, is set to be debuted at Evo 2018.
As most fans already know, SoulCalibur VI will be set in an earlier era in the series’ history. The game specifically goes back in time to the period of the first two SoulCalibur games. Recently, as part of their SDCC livestream, IGN Live got a chance to talk to SoulCalibur brand manager Mark Religioso about the move back to this specific point in time. Specifically, he discusses how they’re approaching this retelling.
For SoulCalibur VI, the story is told through Kilik’s point of view. This is a reflection of the tag line “history hides away more than one truth,” with the game showing “the truth” so to speak, as Kilik sees it. That said, despite the story being from Kilik’s point of view, newcomer Grøh will also be something of a protagonist in the game’s story mode as well — though they didn’t divulge any further details on him.
In addition to this, they also talk about Voldo, who was confirmed at SDCC. Specifically, they talk a bit about how he’s become iconic to the franchise, and also go a bit into how he’s changed in this game. You can check out all this at the 1 hour, 5 minute mark in the video below.
SoulCalibur VI launches on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One on October 19, 2018.
