After an exciting announcement and two SoulCalibur VI trailers, we can finally get a longer look at the game itself; though we’ve seen snippets of Mitsurugi versus Sophitia, we haven’t had a chance to see live gameplay. So, it’s all the more exciting to see a 10-minute interview with producer Motohiro Okubo that displays plenty of live gameplay.
There’s one sentence in particular from later on in the interview that should really please venerated fans of the series:
SoulCalibur is definitely going to feel very familiar for those who have played and experienced the franchise in the past. And going into a little more depth, what we wanted to recreate was some of that fast responsiveness that you would see in SoulCalibur II, as well as what we believe is kind of the completed form of balance in character interactions and mechanics that you saw in SoulCalibur V.
We also hear a better explanation of the Reversal Edge mechanic, which first involves parrying and counter-attacking, and then forces a rock-paper-scissor game of sorts. Characters can pick from a horizontal or vertical attack or a dodge. The initial parries work on high, mid, and low attacks. It’s also good to see that Guard Impacts seem to be back in their more traditional form (though Misturugi tries many times, he hasn’t properly landed any Guard Impacts. But it appears that they don’t cost meter, like in V.)
Overall, there’s many gameplay elements show, and the the interview gives a lot of insight into the ongoing development of the game, which is slated for sometime in 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms. Check it out below:
Over the weekend, Warner Bros. dropped a new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming adaptation of Ernest Cline’s videogame-themed novel. Previous trailers for the film already showcased a number of pop culture and video game references, and this one had even more — and something special for fighting game fans.
Among the many cameos in the trailer are some from the granddaddy of all fighting games, Street Fighter II. The most prominent has to be none other than the first lady of female fighting game characters, Chun-Li, who can be spotted as part of a charge of other characters at around 2 minutes and 5 seconds into the trailer.
However, in addition to this, Ryu also makes a cameo appearance. The eternal wanderer can be seen continuing his wandering journey walking alongside race cars at the start of a race at around 43 seconds in the trailer.
Of course, the Street Fighter cameos are just two of the dozens of cameos in the trailer below. Check it out, and see who else is in the trailer.
Have you been following ARIKA’s latest fighting game, Fighting EX Layer? This spiritual successor to the Street Fighter EX serieshas been riding a monumental hype train ever since its official reveal at Evo, and players the world over have been waiting to try it out the beta since its announcement. If all goes according to plan and if you’re in the right region, you can jump into ARIKA’s dream project:
North/South America:
USA
Brazil
Chile
Ecuador
Honduras
Paraguay
Canada
Argentina
Colombia
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Peru
Mexico
Bolivia
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Panama
Uruguay
EMEA:
Australia
New Zealand
Austria
Bahrain
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany:
Greece:
Hungary
Iceland
India
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Kuwait
Lebanon
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
UAE
UK
Ukraine
Asia:
Japan
Tomorrow the Fighting EX Layer Beta version will be released around the world, and while there are no restrictions on sharing footage through streaming/media sites, we ask that you contact us if you find any cases of improper usage. #FEXL
At the time of this writing, Fighting EX Layer is already up on the US PlayStation Store.
There are a few variables in the way of you getting to try it out. You need a PlayStation Plus membership, and you need to wait for the game to load on your region’s PlayStation Store. Unfortunately not even ARIKA knows when this will happen, but they do suggest that it will start around “lunch time” in each area. For a full list of notes from the developers regarding this beta test, including the full list of countries expected to get the beta, please check out the official announcement on Facebook.
Gravity Interactive is getting ready to unleash a new mobile game based on Ragnarok Online. Called Ragnarok RUSH, the game lets players take part as swordsman, archer, mage, acolyte or thief. The key is to build a team of monsters and head out to war. RUSH will feature daily quests, challenges and rewards, many of which can be accomplished in just a few minutes’ time.
Sakura’s initial gameplay trailer for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition hinted at a character with both new and familiar moves, and variety of way to combo and juggle her opponents with her V-Triggers. Now, we know how these will work thanks to more details from Capcom-Unity.
Having finally graduated from high-school, Sakura now hones her fighting skills while working part-time at an arcade. As part of her growth, she now gains a new move in the form her Tengyo Hadouken: a fireball that she fires diagonally into their air. It’s similar to her diagonal hadouken from the Marvel Vs. games (though that one had a different story behind it — Sakura just couldn’t control her fireballs, causing them to fly up).
Tengyo Hadouken (as seen in the trailer) is a new special move.
Meanwhile, one of her old moves, Sakura Otoshi, now becomes part of her V-Skill, Haru Kaze. As with her old Sakura Otoshi, Haru Kaze has Sakura leaping into the air towards her opponent, ready to give an overhand smash. The difference is that the overhand Sakura Otoshi smash is just one of her options out of Haru Kaze. By pressing kick, instead of punch, she will do Oukakyaku, which some players will recognize as her divekick from Capcom vs. SNK 2. Finally, pressing light punch and light kick will have her do a command grab called Kashinfu, which has her use her opponents as a springboard, similar to her old throw animation.
Sakura Otoshi is just one option out of the Haru Kaze V-Skill.
As for her V-Triggers, the trailer hinted at them changing the properties of her special moves, to allow her create extended combos and juggles — and we can confirm that that is the case. The difference between her two V-Triggers is what specific specials they modify.
Her first V-Trigger, called Haru Arashi, has her fists enveloped in blue energy. When this is active, her Hadouken and Tengyo Hadouken are powered up, giving them an additional hit that puts her opponent in a juggle state. This allows her to land extra hits after hitting with either move. In addition to this, hitting fierce punch and roundhouse kick at the same time again has her pull off a powerful palm thrust, called Hogasho.
Haru Arashi lets Sakura juggle out of her Hadoukens.
Sakura Senpu, her second V-Trigger, on the other hand powers up Sakura’s Shouoken and Senpuukyaku. Both moves become improved versions of their EX versions, and gain an extra hit that sends her opponent flying. This allows Sakura to cancel into her V-Skill into either Sakura Otoshi or Oukakyaku to extend her combos.
Sakura Senpu lets her use V-Skill to combo out of Shouoken and Shunpuukyaku.
Finally: Sakura’s Critical Art, Sakura Rain, takes inspiration from all her previous super moves. At first, the move seems to simply be a powered-up super fireball. However, if Sakura lands this move right next to an opponent, it goes into the extended animation that’s based on both her classic Haru Ichiban and Midare Zakura supers.
Final hit of her Critical Art, Sakura Rain.
In addition to her V-System moves, the Capcom-Unity blog also gave us our first look at her alternate costumes; Sakura has 3 costumes: her Story mode outfit (which seems to be what she wears to her job in the arcade), a Battle outfit that has her wearing a white dougi similar to Ryu, and of course her classic schoolgirl uniform as a Nostalgia costume. Of these, the Battle outfit will be included for those who purchase the season 3 character pass.
Sakura hits Street Fighter V right alongside the Arcade Edition update on January 16, 2018. In the meantime, here are a few more screenshots of her.
Asmodee Digital and Fantasy Flight Interactive have announced Lord of the Rings Living Card Game. Avid TCG players will recognize Fantasy Flight as the innovators behind a table top TCG called The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. “Living” TCGs remove randomness and focus on story through a narrative-driven experience.
Not just one, not just two, but the entire character roster for Street Fighter V‘s 3rd season was just announced at Capcom Cup 2017! Starting on January 16th — the launch date for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition — the characters joining the roster are:
Sakura
Blanka
Falke
Cody
G
Sagat
By the way the characters are ordered in the Season 3 Character Pass artwork, the characters are set to arrive in that order, with the Muay Thai king Sagat finishing off Season 3. While Falke and G are the only new characters in this upcoming season, every returning fighter has received a costume change: Sakura has changed out of her school uniform since graduation, Blanka has grown out his ginger mane, Cody’s ditched the prison outfit and is sporting a swish new suit, while Sagat is wrapped up in a traveler’s cape. As for Falke and G, Falke looks to be one of Ed’s fellow Shadaloo cadets while G looks like Abraham Lincoln, if he ran a magic-themed disco during the ’70s.
As Sakura is the first character in this pack, Capcom have also released her character trailer. Labelled “The Exuberant Youth”, this version of Sakura works part-time in an arcade as she looks forward to her future. Expect a full V-Skill and V-Trigger breakdown from Capcom in the next few days but based on the trailer, Sakura’s juggling skills have only gotten better since she left school. Sakura also comes with her own stage, which has players fighting in her yard while her younger brother plays video games in the background. I wonder if he’s playing Street Fighter too…
Are you happy with the upcoming suite of characters? Is there anyone missing? Leave us your thoughts on the Season 3 roster in the comments below.
Hopefully the first of many reveals coming out of Capcom Cup 2017, Capcom have finally unveiled the long-awaited Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, coming to PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC in May 2018 for $39.99. Starting with the original Street Fighter and working all the way up to Street Fighter III: Third Strike, this collection is a must-own for any fighting game fan.
Along with the games, this collection will include “comprehensive galleries” of Street Fighter artwork, an interactive sprite viewer, never before seen concept art as well as a sound archive featuring all of those classic Street Fighter tunes. As part of its special Museum mode, you’ll even get to see the initial pitch documents for certain entries in the series. For those wanting the full games list, it is as follows:
Street Fighter
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II Champion Edition
Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting
Street Fighter II The New Challengers
Street Fighter II Turbo
Street Fighter Alpha
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Street Fighter III
Street Fighter III: Second Impact
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Out of those 12 games, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III: Third Strike will be playable online with Casual, Ranked and Lobby matches. Based on the description on Capcom-Unity, these games will run on rollback-style netcode, with players being able to set their own level of input latency via an in-game menu. In Lobby matches, you’ll even be able to play against CPU opponents as you wait for your next match.
For those who want to bone up on their Street Fighter history, this collection is the way to do it. I personally cannot wait for the Switch version, so I can suck at Third Strike while I’m on the train.
With this being announced so shortly before the promised date, full details on the patch should hopefully come soon. There’s no word on whether there will be any further changes planned for this patch, but as we know from past experience, big changes sometimes show up unannounced.
Sector K Games’ early access sci-fi fighter Punch Planet received a major patch today that added in various new stage sound effects, animations, and balance changes. You can see the full patch notes here.
Fans of Dog and Tyara will likely notice the most changes: both characters received a significant amount of hitbox and damage adjustments, and even some new animations such as a new hold animation opponents suffer when grabbed by Dog.
