Though famous commentary duo Ketchup and Mustard are primarily known as NRS specialists, Ryan “Ketchup” Neal was a huge fan of the Street Fighter EX series growing up. This is a point he makes clear in his introduction to the beta of Arika’s latest project, Fighting EX Layer:
If you’ve wondered what the movement and mechanics of the latest beta are like and haven’t had the chance to try it yet (or are just interested in hearing an NRS player gush over run-chains!), you’ll want to check out the above video. Ketchup lays down the game’s mechanics, its ties to the EX series, and more in this informative breakdown.
Looking for a beer that’ll piledrive you? Well, if your tolerance has as much vitality as Zangief, you might want to pick up a few of these Russian-style imperial stouts the next time you’re out. Given the familiar likeness being sold its label, you’ll know it when you see it:
This is assuming you can find it, of course. Shared on reddit by user signalflow313, “Zangief’s Bearhug’ is a Russian Imperial Stout made by Short’s Brewing Company, a Michigan brewery. You can seek out this beer using the site’s beer locator, but your unlikely to find results if you’re outside the North-East.
At this weekend’s Jump Festa, Square Enix announced that they would be holding a series of open beta weekends for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT for PlayStation 4 owners in Japan.
The open beta for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is open to all players with a Japanese PSN account. More importantly, a PlayStation Plus account is not required. For those with Japanese PSN accounts interested in joining the beta, it’s set to take place from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM Japan Time on the following weekends.
December 23 and 24
December 30 and 31
January 6 and 7
Those who join the beta will have access to the Class Match, Rush Battle, Story, Customization, and Treasure modes.
As for the West, Square Enix has yet to say anything on whether or not they’ll have a beta outside of Japan.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT will launch on PlayStation 4 on January 11 in Japan and January 30 in North America and Europe.
A major part of not only SoCal’s, but the North American Super Smash Bros. scene, Esports Arena is looking to expanding their influence in 2018 with the Smash Masters League. While it is set to be a global competitive league for both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, we still don’t know a whole lot about how this circuit is going to work.
Next Tuesday, December 19, @BamOfThePpl and @tchnicallytchno will have a special Smash Masters League Stream! Tune in at 5PM PST!
Luckily, the team over at Esports Arena are planning to host a live AMA on Twitch next Tuesday to answer questions about the Smash Masters League. If you’re itching to find out more about this potentially game-changing league, make sure to tune in on December 19th at 5pm PST, over on the ESA Smash Twitch channel.
For those looking to be a part of the Smash Masters League — whether it’s as a TO, a player or an influencer — register your interest over on its official website.
It’s turned into quite the weekend for Dragon Ball FighterZ fans, as tons of information has come out from Japan’s Jump Festa event. Following the trailer reveal yesterday, we’ve finally seen a live gameplay demo of Dragon Ball FighterZ, complete with new characters Goku Black, Hit, Gotenks and Beerus. Not only that, but this footage shows how DBFZ’s Dramatic Productions play out in real-time.
In the livestream, the combination of Goku and Freeza as point characters and the match taking place on the Planet Namek triggered the “Awakening Super Saiyan” Dramatic Production, with the match opening re-enacting how Goku gained the power of Super Saiyan. Following Freeza’s defeat by Goku at the end of the match, DBFZ instantly transitions into the Dramatic Finish, where Goku finishes Freeza off as he escapes the exploding planet. By the looks of it, you need to have triggered the Doomed Namek stage transformation to get this finish — but expect confirmation of this nearer DBFZ’s launch.
Enough about Dramatic Productions, we all want to know about the new characters. Beerus is the character that gets the most screen-time during this footage, as we see both his Level 1 and Level 3 supers, as well as his unique projectiles. As shown in previous screenshots, his unique projectiles are his Cataclysmic Orbs — energy spheres which orbit around Beerus. Similar to Guilty Gear’s Venom, Beerus can attack these projectiles to move them into specific positions, allowing the God of Destruction to set up some devilish traps. He can create up to six orbs at once, and can move them at will — they do disappear after a short while if they do not connect with a foe.
His Level 1 super is his trademark Sphere of Destruction, where he throws a giant, sun-shaped projectile at the opponent. By spending another super bar, Beerus can detonate the sphere for added damage. His Level 3 is the Hakai, a command grab where he pulls the enemy close and then blasts them with destruction energy. If the opponent dies from this Level 3, they disintegrate into pure energy.
Being an evil version of Goku, it makes sense that Goku Black revels in blindsiding the opponent with tricky moves. Along with his trademark energy blade and Black Kamehameha, Black can call upon Zamasu to restrain opponents for a second, so he power up an attack. As for his Violent Fierce God Slicer Level 3, it can be performed both on the ground and in the air, with Black firing out a energy slash from his giant scythe.
Unfortunately, we don’t see much of Hit and Gotenks’ moves, as they are too busy getting beaten up. Hopefully, we will get extensive live character breakdowns from the special Dragon Ball FighterZ livestream this coming Monday.
We’re going through another Dragon Ball FighterZ information blowout at the moment, with Jump Festa currently happening in Japan and the game’s launch just over a month away. From picking potential fighters to a discussion about DBFZ’s core systems, these 4Gamerinterviews covers some of the changes that have been made to the game’s engine since the closed beta. Originally in Japanese, thanks must go to HiagoXYZ on Twitter for translating these interviews into English.
Responding to the feedback from the beta, Arc System Works have upped the amount of damage that combos do. At present, you can “deal about 30~40% of a character’s HP in a single combo using no meter.” When you add in supers mid-combo, players can do “at least 50% damage” from a single exchange, with Arc System Works trying to balance DBFZ at around “2 combos per character kill.” With Level 3 Sparking Blast activated, a Level 3 super should do around 70% damage at the very least. The interview also revealed that while in Sparking Blast, holding down the Vanish button will have you teleport behind the opponent without doing a kick — giving you new ways to surprise the enemy.
Previous Arc System Works games have added in a Simplified control scheme so brand new players can jump in straight away and start doing cool-looking combos. Seeing as Dragon Ball FighterZ has a simple control scheme to begin with, there will be no alternative control scheme in the full release. You’ll of course be able to remap buttons and so forth, but there’s no set simple control method. Speaking of remapping and changing things, this interview has confirmed that characters will only have “a single assist skill”, rather than selectable assists like in Marvel or Skullgirls.
As is the case with any big fighting game nowadays, the esports potential of Dragon Ball FighterZ was asked about. While the team have of course entertained the idea, producer Tomoko Hiroki stated that the team are”fully focused on the game’s development and haven’t bothered putting effort on that yet.” The team “wanted to concentrate [on] developing a game everyone can acknowledge as a competitive one,” rather than going in with their sights set on DBFZ being the next major esport.
Theinterviews go into more detail about creating interesting fighting game characters from Dragon Ball’s rich history, designing a game that’s fun to both watch and play, as well as some hints about the game’s Story Mode.
While the game has been to more than a few trade shows, we really haven’t seen much in terms of live gameplay of Dragon Ball FighterZ. It seems that that’s going to change this coming Monday as Bandai Namco is planning a special live stream of the game.
The Dragon Ball FighterZ special live stream this Monday will have a couple of FGC regulars on hand. Noted fighting game YouTuber Maximilian Christiansen will be joined by Carl “Perfect Legend” White. Alongside them will be Dragon Ball YouTuber Rhymestyle, representing the DBZ fan community.
The stream itself will start at 12 PM Pacific (3 PM Eastern) on Monday, December 18 on Bandai Namco US’s Twitch channel.
In keeping with the spirit of the season, Trion Worlds is spreading holiday cheer in Rift, Trove, ArcheAge, Defiance and Atlas Reactor. Players can head into any one (or all) of the games for good seasonal fun.
NeoRussell of Toronto Top Tiers has announced the return of Canada East Championships in 2018, March 9-11. The tournament is in its fifth year, and will be held alongside EGLX — a gaming convention held in Toronto, Ontario.
The tournament will feature $2,000 CAD in pot bonuses spread across nine games, with the actual splits to be determined later. Featured at the event will be the following titles:
Tekken 7 (PlayStation 4)
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition (PlayStation 4)
Dragon Ball FighterZ (PlayStation 4)
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (PlayStation 4)
The King of Fighters XIV (PlayStation 4)
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 (PlayStation 4)
Samurai Showdown V Special (PlayStation 4)
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S (Super Famicom)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo (Supergun)
Sign-ups are now open, and expect more announcements to come later.
With Jump Festa currently going on in Japan, Bandai Namco have finally released the long-awaited fourth Dragon Ball FighterZ trailer. Along with showing gameplay of Hit, Beerus and Goku Black, this action-packed trailer shows off some of the ‘Dramatic Productions’ that were teased in this week’s V-Jump.
Let’s tackle the new characters first. Hit is the close-combat specialist of the trio, using his Time Skip to close the gap against his opponents. He has a special counter move, which allows him to soak a single hit before striking back, while his Pure Progress Level 3 super has him freezing his foe in place, before unleashing a barrage of Vital Point Attacks.
As was seen in his screenshots, Goku Black can call upon Zamasu to help with certain attacks. Not only does the evil Kaioshin restrain enemies for certain specials, he assists Goku Black in charging up specific Ki attacks. This trailer unfortunately doesn’t reveal much else about Black’s play-style, besides the fact he has a divekick which has him kicking the opponent into the ground and using their body like a surfboard.
Beerus looks to be the trickiest of the three recently revealed characters — which makes sense, what with him being Universe 7’s God of Destruction. Along with his Sphere of Destruction super, Beerus can summon smaller Cataclysmic Orbs which he can actually kick towards his opponent. I can already foresee some evil Beerus setplay, with players creating a Cataclysmic Orb minefield on screen.
Recreating select scenes from the anime, Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s Dramatic Productions can happen at both the beginning and the end of a match, depending on the character match-up. The very first one in the trailer recreated Goku going Super Saiyan for the first time, following Freeza’s murder of Krillin. Some of the other Dramatic Productions in the trailer showed Gohan awakening Super Saiyan 2 for the first time, Goku killing Kid Buu with the Super Spirit Bomb, Chiaotzu sacrificing himself to kill Nappa and the ending of Goku’s fight against Beerus from the Battle of Gods movie. It’ll be interesting to see just how many of these Dramatic Productions will be in the full game, and what exactly triggers them.
Elsewhere, this trailer confirms various small things like Piccolo appearing in Gotenks’ Level 3 if he is on your team and the cave where Goku and Beerus fought in the Battle of Gods movie being a stage. The trailer’s end card also promoted the special music pack which adds songs like Cha La Head Cha La, We Gotta Power as well as BGM from the original show into Dragon Ball FighterZ. I wonder if Western fans will be able to get a music pack, featuring the Bruce Falconer music from the Funimation dub.
