Category: News

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Arc System Works stream interviews Ishiwatari and Mori, teases upcoming announcements

Yesterday, Arc System Works streamed for over an hour, showcasing interesting developer interviews with the top developers. The famed Daisuke Ishiwatari of Guilty Gear and Toshimichi Mori of BlazBlue were present, alongside Mike “Ninja Viking,” who translated Japanese into English. James Chen acted as the host, leading the show and asking the two developers questions.

Here’s a breakdown of the show:

  • James Chen first met Daisuke Ishiwatari about twenty years ago at University of California-Los Angeles, where he obtained his first copy of Guilty Gear. Unfortunately, it wasn’t signed as he thought!
  • Mori wanted to make a “dream match-up” of the various fighting game universes, which is how Cross Tag Battle came to be.
  • Mori has always been a fan of Monty Oum and caught wind of RWBY in Japan. Before the show was localized, Mori wanted to collaborate with Rooster Teeth on it. The collaboration happened thanks to a Forbes interview which the Rooster Teeth team saw and then reached out to ASW. The companies first met for a “greet and meet” before actually working together.
  • While Mori is very excited about BBTAG being part of the Evo 2018 lineup, he feels a little sad that BlazBlue: Central Fiction isn’t on the main stage (which is the title that he heavily worked on over the years).
  • When it comes to the release of BBTAG, Mori emphasizes having as much of an even start for players around the world as possible, which is why the release dates are close and there isn’t an arcade release.
  • When asked about their favorite weapons, Mori said that there is a “very high scythe ratio.” Chen asked if there will be any fan weapons, showing Amane’s fan, but the developer points out we already have Yukiko Amagi. Ishiwatari answered: “Azrael’s fists.”
  • Mori’s favorite character from Guilty Gear is Order Sol, and Ishiwatari’s favorite BlazBlue characters include Taokaka and Nine, but lately he’s intrigued by Haku-men.
  • When asked if Mori intends to continue the BlazBlue story after CF, he said he can’t really share anything just yet.
  • Mori presented his game designers with the challenge of integrating the characters from different games into one and making their systems work.
  • When asked which characters were the hardest to design, Ishiwatari feels all of them more or less were very difficult. Mori said Ragna and Litchi. It took a lot of time to capture the “protagonist look” for Ragna, and as for Litchi, well, Mori said it’s best to have male designers work on characters like that. Her design is Chinese-inspired, which is fairly common in Japanese manga/anime. Designing Litchi taught him a lot, but he can’t go into specifics.
  • Ishiwatari simply wanted more people to listen to heavy metal and through naming a lot of attacks in his games; he wanted to share names of songs and bands he likes.
  • Picking characters for BBTAG came down to balancing the game. It’s a combination of selecting which characters from different series should make it and making a balanced game.
  • Ishiwatari would love to feature some Capcom, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter characters in his games as playing their titles inspired him to work on fighting games. Mori brought up Powerpuff Girls.
  • Mori’s favorite Astral Heats are Haku-men and Bang’s.
  • Many fans keep asking whether BBTAG will be fully dubbed in English, but the company has no comment at this time.

While there were no new announcements, Arc System Works has a press event coming up this week in California, where their American branch is located.

Source: Arc System Works Twitch

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Street Fighter V Extra Battle update: Chun-Li crossover costume, Golden Shadaloo soldiers, and more!

Mark your calendars to ensure you don’t miss any of the Extra Battle goodies.

Via the Capcom-Unity blog, Capcom’s Andy Wong has provided details as to the next batch of Extra Battle challenges coming to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. Most significantly, the big one to watch out for is the next Crossover Costume: this time, you can earn the chance to dress up Chun-Li like Star Gladiator‘s June Lin Milliam.

sfv chun-li june crossover costume 2
sfv chun-li june crossover costume 1

Some details on June, from Capcom-Unity:

June Lin Milliam is a rhythmic gymnast from the Star Gladiator series that spawned two games, Star Gladiator – Episode 1: Final Crusade (1996) and Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein (1998). On the outside, June has a cheerful and upbeat personality that acts as a mask for the pain she experiences every day following the murder of her parents by the madman, Bilstein. Sharing a similar tragedy with her father having been killed by M. Bison, Chun-Li understands the weight behind wearing this June Crossover Costume.

star gladiator june

Unlocking the June outfit in SFV works the same as it did for Rashid’s Viewtiful Joe costume: you’ll need to complete all four of the scheduled challenges to earn the four costume components. Make sure to log in on these dates:

sfvae extra battle chun-li june crossover costume schedule

Capcom has also announced more chances to earn Fight Money and EXP off some Golden Shadaloo Soldiers — based on the FM costs and their names, sounds like these might be tougher than previous ones. Monster Hunter fans won’t want to miss the chance to unlock some MH music in the (currently mysterious) “Proof of a Hero” special challenge.

sfvae extra battle golden shadaloo soldiers schedule 2 sfvae extra battle proof of a hero schedule

As usual, the challenge schedules are subject to change. Make sure to keep an eye out for the Monster Hunter crossover costumes coming as well — the first of those challenges is expected on the 27th of February.

Source: Capcom-Unity

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Worlds collide: It’s Leffen vs. SonicFox in these Dragon Ball FighterZ online matches

After their minor misunderstanding over Leffen’s comments on his stream, Echo Fox’s SonicFox and TSM’s Leffen finally met in ranked for some high-level Dragon Ball FighterZ sets!

SonicFox, having a long-established pedigree in the FGC for NRS games, Skullgirls, and (as of late) MvC:I, has already jumped out in front as one of the most dominating players in DBFZ. The surprise (to most) is how strong Leffen is at the game. While Super Smash Bros. and traditional fighters may seem like different universes, make no mistake that the years of technical practice are translating for Leffen. This, coupled with the fact that Leffen has also been playing many traditional fighters along with his Smash practice over the years, and his success in this game is really no surprise at all. Check out the sets below!

Source: William Hjelte

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Chris Tatarian is calling all Ken mains to #StopPlayingKen in Street Fighter V

In a recent multi-post Twitter series, longtime Ken main Chris Tatarian has called the Ken community to take new action on behalf of Ken’s gameplay issues in Street Fighter V. After having tweeted at and emailed Capcom multiple times over the past year about various Ken inconsistencies, Chris is saying enough is enough.

This call is stemming from a larger range of frustrations the Ken community at large has been sharing, on Twitter primarily. Most complaints involve serious inconsistencies with Ken’s combos (BnB’s dropping on counter hit, juggles not connecting seemingly at random, moves not linking that normally do, etc.) and the lack of resolve on Capcom’s part to make Ken a “fully-functioning” character. At this point — after having his DM’s filled with Ken mains across the world begging Chris to speak out definitively — Chris is calling for an outright protest of the character. Using the hashtags #StopPlayingKen and #FixKensInconsistencies, players are starting to join the fray.

You can view the following videos on Twitter.

Source: Chris Tatarian (Twitter)

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Blanka’s full Street Fighter V movelist and stats are now on the CFN Portal

We now know when our boy Blanka will be coming back to us, and we also know what his V-Skill and V-Triggers will be. However, what many longtime Blanka players are wondering is how his movelist has transitioned into Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. Well, now we know, since Capcom has uploaded Blanka’s full movelist onto the CFN Portal site.

In Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, it seems that Blanka has retained most of his moves from previous games, and his moves still retain the charge motions as in previous games, and even the multi-tap (or piano) input for his electricity (with no directional input option added, like in the case of Chun-Li’s Hyakuretsukyaku). The main new addition to his moveset is the Wild Hunt command grab. This is done by a half circle back plus punch input, which may also give us some clues on its properties (most command grabs starting with a forward input have longer, more visible start ups).

As for his “Dynamic Rolling” Critical Art, unlike Guile, Blanka does not require a charge input. Instead, he simply has to do two quarter circles forward into punch to execute it.

sfvae_blanka_movelist

In addition to his movelist, the CFN Portal also shows his stats. Both his life and stun values are listed as 1,000 — basically middle of the road, with him not being too squishy, or too chunky. This information should help players prepare to play as Blanka once he arrives next Tuesday, February 20.

Source: CFN Portal

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Combo Breaker is boasting a $500 pot bonus for Super Street Fighter II Turbo

In 2017, the largest midwestern major of the year — Combo Breaker — played host to one of the largest Super Street Fighter II Turbo events in a long time, with 117 players vying for a chance to take home a tabletop arcade cabinet supplied by Paradise Arcade Shop. While nothing of that nature has materialized this year (yet), there are still other incentives to encourage people to play.

One Frame Link has recently announced that they will be supplying ST with a $500 pot bonus for Combo Breaker 2018. When you factor in that this is also a stop on the qualification circuit for the Tournament of Legends 3 — which will culminate at Canada Cup 2018 — you have multiple reasons to show up to Chicago to play this event.

Sources: Atari; COMBO BREAKER

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See Street Fighter V’s Warrior of the Amazon in action during tonight’s WSO Blanka showcase

Ahead of his release next week, Capcom UK are going to show off Blanka tonight during their regular Tuesday night WSO Sessions. As normal, expect a full breakdown of Blanka’s normals, specials and both of his V-Triggers from Capcom UK’s Matthew Edwards and Logan Sama, before some of the UK’s best Street Fighter V players show off the electric beastman in some live matches.

For those wanting to watch live, this Blanka showcase will be over on the Capcom Fighters Twitch channel at 8:00 PM GMT/12:00 PM PT. Don’t worry if you don’t catch this stream, as Capcom Unity will also be running its own Blanka showcase stream at 3:00 PM PT.

Source: Capcom Fighters

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Capcom officially enters the Japanese esports scene with the opening of the Capcom Esports Club on February 17th

As Japan goes all-in on esports, Capcom have announced that they will officially be entering the Japanese esports market in 2018. According to an official press release, Capcom are looking to hold more tournaments within Japan in the coming year, to compliment “its existing North American esports business activities”.

The expansion in the world of Japanese esports will begin on February 17th, with the opening of the Capcom Esports Club at the Plaza Capcom arcade in Kichijoji, Tokyo. From this starting location, Capcom is hoping to expand into arcades across the country, with the view of holding regular qualifying tournaments for Japan’s new pro licenses.

This press release also confirms that Tokyo Games Show 2018 will be a Premier event on the 2018 Capcom Pro Tour, with Capcom hoping to “offer pro licenses to the winners of this event.”

While it certainly bodes well for the future of Street Fighter V in Japan, the worry is that the introduction of pro licenses will sharpen the division between those with licenses and those without. Capcom have stated that all Capcom Pro Tour events will remain as open bracket tournaments, but there is the fear that pro-only invitationals may become the norm in Japan.

Source: Capcom Japan

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– Hawaiian Bill Targets Games with Loot Boxes & Limiting Sales to Minors

The Hawaii Tribune is reporting that four bills are moving through the state legislature that take direct and specific aim at games featuring loot boxes. Two of them would prohibit the sale of games with loot boxes costing real world money to anyone under 21. Two other bills would require “publisher to prominently label games containing such randomized purchase systems, as well as disclose the probability rates of receiving each loot box reward.”