Category: News

Back in the summer, we ran a preview article on AOne Game’s upcoming horror fighter Omen of Sorrow, based on the then-current public build. Now, with a new build playable to the public at Evo Japan, we just couldn’t resist the chance to check out how the game is shaping up.

We already covered the basics of the game in our original preview. However, here’s a quick recap of what it’s all about. Omen of Sorrow is a horror-themed fighter that focuses on fast paced, ground based combat, in the vein of The King of Fighters series, or Street Fighter Alpha 3, with a tiny smidge of Under Night In-Birth thrown in. As part of this, it features a unique “Blessed” gauge that fills up whenever the player commits to any forward motion or action.

The most prominent option given by the “Blessed” gauge is the ability to cancel any move into a special, called a “Bold Cancel,” by consuming two stocks. Other options include a “Retreat,” similar to backwards EX rolls in The King of Fighters, and a Blessed Mode that allows for full-on custom combos at the cost of all three stocks of the meter.

Losing all of your Blessed gauge, either from being too passive in defending, or simply overusing the options when there isn’t enough meter, results in a “Doomed” state. When “Doomed,” players lose access to all of a character’s throws and special moves. More importantly, it makes any incoming heavy attack break their guard.

In theory, this seems like the game would heavily encourage rushing down. And to a point, it does. It’s pretty easy to win just by staying in an opponent’s face and building Blessed gauge, while keeping them from building their own, especially with characters like the Fei Long-esque werewolf Caleb.

However, with the right character (and in the hands of the right player), zoning and distance-based play is still possible, and viable in the game. During my time at the AOne Games booth at Evo, I was matched up with Grapht’s Leah “Gllty” Hayes, a player known for favoring technical zoning characters. While she initially struggled while trying out characters like Zafkiel, she soon found her groove with Dr. Hyde, the game’s zoning-slash-grappler hybrid.

Dr. Hyde’s main trick is that he can toss out vials which have various effects. One drains Blessed gauge, one knocks down, and another particularly nasty one slows his opponent down (even their jumps, which become extra-floaty). These vials can be either rolled on the ground, or thrown in an arc in the air. These are complimented by a command grab that can be ended in different ways depending on the button pressed. The command grab has significant range, making it a great way to punish people trying to get past the vials.

By using a combination of rolled and thrown vials, and then command grabbing me when I did make it past the pattern, Gllty was able to rack up a number of wins against my Caleb. The latter did have an arcing slash move that’s supposed to go over the rolled vials, but it kept getting clipped in the legs — something the developers said shouldn’t be happening. In the end, I was forced to switch to Gabriel and scoring knockdowns with his projectile to try to get in.

There was also a counter zoner in the lineup at Evo, Vladislav III, who automatically teleports close when his projectiles hit — but I didn’t have the opportunity to test him out (mostly due to bull-headedness, trying to win with Gabriel!).

The thing to note is that Dr. Hyde isn’t even the “true” zoner in the game’s cast. The developers pointed out that they still had two true zoning characters in the works that weren’t ready for Evo Japan. This shows that, despite the game’s momentum-heavy rushdown focus, it’s still possible to play a zoning-based style in it. It seems then that AOne Games isn’t sacrificing playstyle variety in favor of puret rushdown.

This is also helped by the rather long stages. While this seems somewhat an odd choice that could possibly slow the game down, the long stages actually do seem to work. Once players have enough Blessed meter, they can easily pull off combos that cover a lot of ground. From what was on show at Evo, most bread-and-butter combos here would probably count as near-fullscreen corner-carry combos in other games.

If there was anything that could slow the game down, at least in the Evo Japan build, it was how having super meter regenerates life. Now in our earlier preview, super meter built quite slowly, so this wasn’t much of an issue. Super meter in this build, however, seemed to build much faster — and combined with the life regen mechanic, resulted in rounds that took longer than they should. From my own experience, this resulted in players simply sitting on multiple bars of meter to keep the health regen up — especially since Bold Cancel combos using the Blessed meter seemed to do decent damage without needing to use super meter for EX moves or supers.

Other than that though, the game itself felt pretty solid. The Blessed gauge is an interesting system to encourage more active play, doing more to urge players to be aggressive with Bold Cancels and custom combos, while still punishing those who play too passively. On top of that, the character design seems to promise some playstyle variety despite the focus on aggression — making sure those who prefer non-rushdown playstyles aren’t alienated.

It was only a matter of time, folks. The premier northern California tournament league series by PandoraHouse, NorCal Fight Club, is coming back for its third entry — featuring Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition.

First popping up almost four years ago with Ultra Street Fighter IV, NCFC has featured some of the best talent such as LPN, EG|Ricki Ortiz, Julio, Hoodaman, BJ Unchained, and other notable players showcasing their skills with prizes, pride, and glory on the line. NCFC3 looks to be no exception in 2018 with SFVAE not only bringing back the aforementioned seasoned veterans, but also attracting the local newcomers that have been on the rise in the Bay Area to level up their game and get their names known in the fighting game community.

The first qualifier for NCFC3 will be hosted and streamed by ShowdownGG this Friday night in San Francisco, CA at the Folsom Street Foundry. More format details and the date for the next qualifier will be announced later this week. Check out the announcement and first hype trailer in the tweet below. If you’re interested in competing or spectating the event, check out the source links at the end of the post!

Qualifiers for NorCal Fight Club 3 is upon us! We have partnered with @ShowdownGG for the first event of #NCFC3! When? Friday, February 2nd at @FSFoundry. Will you be there? RT and share! #FGChttps://t.co/XufTfxjRgT

— PandoraHouse (@ThePandoraHouse) January 25, 2018

Sources: PandoraHouse; smash.gg; Facebook; ShowdownGG

Very few people were satisfied in 2017 when Twitch.Hx.CYG BST|Daigo Umehara made the move from Ryu to Guile in Street Fighter V. At the beginning of Season 3, Daigo flirted with the possibility of using his old main — but in the end, we saw him sticking to his guns, still using Guile.

While many are disappointed, Twin Galaxies examined his choices. They discussed his choice with Justin Wong, who believes Umehara will never return to Ryu in Street Fighter V, but also examined the fact that he has been known to abandon the character midway through a game’s run — switching to Ken in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and Yun in Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, for example. Read their full article here.

Source: Twin Galaxies

There was quite a bit of playful jeering at the fact that so many NEO GEO titles were coming to the Nintendo Switch, but it appears that it’s SNK who has gotten the last laugh. An official report from HAMSTER Corporation, one of SNK’s digital publishing partners, confirms that downloads of NEO GEO Switch ports have exceed 1 Million.

In late November of last year, a Forbes article highlighted a sudden spike in SNK’s yearly profits, and insisted that it was due to the high sales of the affordable, mulitplayer-friendly Nintendo Switch ports of NEO GEO classics. It’s debatable whether the return of their arcade hits were the sole factor in the company’s financial prosperity last year, but judging by the numbers, it’s obvious that the ports were very well-received.

A business model that equals increased profits is good news for SNK fans hoping to see the legendary gaming company continue to forge a path towards the future. Hopefully this successful Nintendo partnership is just the beginning of what they have in store!

Source: My Nintendo News via HAMSTER Corporation

Or see these intense battles for the first time, if you missed the stream!

While not the first appearance of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition at a tournament event, Evo Japan was certainly the biggest showing for the new version of Street Fighter V, following the release of the upgrade by less than two weeks! Many eyes were focused on this tournament to see the massive array of Street Fighter talent battling for the first SFVAE Evo top spot.

Watching the stream live in North America was a labor of love for those that decided to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, thanks to the time difference between North America and Japan! But — in no way did it disappoint. The action was intense, and the new V-Triggers showed their power and their potential to shake up the game. The top 8 was composed of both longtime competitors and fresher faces.

The top of winners bracket saw MOV take on John Takeuchi — a perfect example of the above. John Takeuchi has readily adopted Rashid’s new V-Trigger II (Easifa), which is becoming recognized as a powerful way to apply more damage, as opposed to the single-shot Ysaar whirlwind. MOV stuck with Chun-Li’s Renkiko; his Chun-Li looking much like it has in prior seasons. The result of this match-up was an overwhelming 3-0 win for Takeuchi, with MOV only managing to snag some rounds in between Rashid’s furious assault with a couple of surprise instant-overhead heel kicks.

There were two famous Chun-Li players on the winners side of top 8, and next HumanBomb had his chance against Infiltration. Infiltration’s Menat showcased how terrifying the fortune-teller can be, merging her zoning and complex combos into a force that couldn’t be slowed down. HumanBomb couldn’t take a single game either, following MOV to losers bracket after a 3-0 win for Infiltration.

Despite their losses, the Chun-Li mains were showing off how different Chun-Li’s approach can be between the two V-Triggers now available to her; HumanBomb chose to use the new Kikosho V-Trigger, demonstrating a much different approach to each fight than MOV. It’s looking like the variety we’ve wanted to see in SFV — providing players different ways to utilize the same character — is indeed part of Arcade Edition.

On the losers side, the battle kicked off with Tokido facing StormKUBO, newly-sponsored by new esports team Atlas Bear. And StormKUBO was ready to represent his team by flattening Tokido’s trademark Akuma with that biggest of big-bodies: Abigail!

Abigail-haters found plenty to fear here, as it was looking like Abigail’s brute strength was going to be too much for the Raging Demon — but Tokido carefully tuned his play to ensure he was getting more hurt in on his opponent than he was soaking up, and sent Abigail packing.

Daigo Umehara was up against Itabashi Zangief in the next losers match. Contrary to his classic tag, Itazan had been trying out his own Abigail at the event, and many wondered if that was who we’d see against Umehara’s Guile. But the Red Cyclone was the one that came out for the fight.

While Itazan showed (as usual) capacity to inflict scary amounts of damage without warning, Daigo’s Guile — now equipped with the Knife Edge (V-Trigger II) and looking very comfortable overall — was on point, and eliminated Itazan 3-0.

As losers bracket progressed, HumanBomb was next to fall victim to Tokido’s murderous intent. While Tokido had stuck to Akuma’s V-Trigger I (Dohatsu Shoten) in the fight against StormKUBO (which did grant him a Shun Goku Satsu K.O., too!), he switched to the new V-Trigger II (Shiretsu Hasshi) for his fight against HumanBomb’s Chun-Li. Despite HumanBomb’s valiant efforts, the Demon’s onslaught couldn’t be survived, and Tokido moved on with a 3-0 win.

MOV was next against Umehara, and Daigo’s Guile was as solid as the match before — if not more so. He made quick work of MOV’s Chun-Li with an oppressive 3-0 victory — another one! — and both of the Chun-Li mains from winners bracket had been sent home.

That brought us to a fight that many were undoubtedly hoping to see: Tokido vs. Umehara! While Tokido showed off some of Akuma’s VTII damage potential in this fierce fight, Daigo was a man with a mission in this bracket — and not even Tokido would stand in his way. Daigo claimed another 3-0 victory, and eliminated the 2017 Evo champion from Evo Japan. Was the Beast going to take the Street Fighter trophy for Japan’s first Evo for himself…?

Back to the winners side, it was Infiltration’s turn to face John Takeuchi’s Rashid, in Winners Finals — and as effective as his Menat had been before, he couldn’t keep the Turbulent Wind from slipping in and doing serious damage. After losing two games, Infiltration switched from Menat to Juri, and started to make what looked like a strong comeback — but it wasn’t quite enough, and he fell to fight in Losers Finals.

Now facing Umehara, Infiltration switched back to Menat — and Daigo’s charge towards the Grand Finals from losers bracket met an unfortunate twist of fate. His Guile had torn through his prior opponents almost too easily, but Infiltration’s Menat baffled and frustrated him at every turn. His momentum broken, Daigo’s destiny became clear — and Infiltration went on for a runback against Takeuchi.

Now down to Infiltration vs. Takeuchi, we saw Infiltration pick up on his Juri-powered comeback against Takeuchi right where he left off. While Takeuchi managed to claim a couple of games for himself, Infiltration pushed through the tough fights to a bracket reset — and on to claim the first Street Fighter V Evo Japan championship as his own!

As he pointed out himself, Infiltration is now the only competitor to hold an Evo and Evo Japan Street Fighter V championship. Meanwhile, we saw strong showings from perennial competitors, as well as Daigo Umehara nearly Flash Kicking his way into an Evo Grand Finals — and a notable rising star in John Takeuchi and his superb Rashid. After this spectacular showing for the game at Evo Japan, this looks like it could be one of the most exciting seasons for Street Fighter V yet.

If you want to check out SFVAE footage from prior to top 8, head over to the Capcom Fighters YouTube channel!

Sources: Evo Japan (stream); evo2kvids

An expanded collection of the sounds of Street Fighter V is on the way.

With a game update as expansive as Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, it comes as no surprise that Capcom is pushing out an updated soundtrack set to cover the growing selection of music in the game. And we’re getting exactly that: this new CD soundtrack will feature the DLC content music that the original soundtrack release lacks — covering character themes up to Season 3’s still-unreleased Blanka and Falke, according to the announcement at Evo Japan. The retooled themes from prior games — used in SFVAE’s Arcade Mode — will also be included in this 3-disc collection.

The soundtrack launches in Japan on February 14, 2018. Want to get your hands on one? You can pre-order it from a number of online retailers; check out listings on Amazon Japan, PLAY-ASIA, and CD Japan! Expect this CD set to run you between about ¥3800 and ¥4700 (approx. $35-$44 USD) before shipping, depending on the importer.

Sources: Evo Japan (stream); PLAY-ASIA; Amazon Japan; CD Japan