This generation, the console of choice for fighting games has primarily been the PlayStation 4, with the PC and Xbox One following up a bit behind. Nintendo’s consoles however –the late Wii U, and now the Switch — have traditionally been bereft of fighting games save for a few outliers and Nintendo’s own Super Smash Bros. series. However, that doesn’t meant that this can’t change.
One person who believes that the Switch can be a system for fighting games is BlazBlue creator Toshimichi Mori. The Switch, and the likelihood of a BlazBlue title appearing on it, were topics that were brought up in a recent interview with Mori on Red Bull eSports.
Regarding the Switch, Mori believes that with the introduction of titles such as ARMS, fighting games can find a home on Nintendo’s hybrid console. As for BlazBlue — the logo of which was spotted in list of upcoming titles for the Switch at a Nintendo event earlier this year — Mori states that he “unfortunately can’t say much today.”
Of course, this is just part of what they talked about. Mori also talks about BlazBlue itself and continuing after the end of the “Ragna Arc.” Additionally, he also talks about supporting players, even going as far as stating which specific player he’d like to support.
As previously reported, SNK is working on a new CG animated series called The King of Fighters: Destiny. While the previous trailer focused largely on the backstory of the Bogards, this trailer shows off some action sequences, and previously missing characters.
While there is still no date set for release, SNK promises it will air with 24 episodes. The series will be purchasable through Steam. Those that have some yen laying around (and access to the Japanese PlayStation Store) will be happy to know KOFXIV is also on sale. It’s marked down to ¥2160, or about $20 dollars USD.
Within the current generation of fighting games, we’ve seen a growing trend of younger players finding success and going professional. Street Fighter V alone has seen players such as Evo 2017 runner-up (and current Capcom Pro Tour global points leader) Victor “Punk” Woodley from Panda Global, and reigning Capcom Cup champion Du “NuckleDu” Dang from Team Liquid. Now, another prodigy may be on the rise.
Relic Gaming has announced that they have signed Toffee as their first Street Fighter V player. The 15-year old Canadian from Ottawa, Ontario has been making waves in her region with her impressive Ibuki performances — including a tournament win that made the front page of Kotaku’s Compete blog, and earned her congratulations from top players such as Razer’s Seon-woo “Infiltration” Lee, Kun Xian Ho, and Echo Fox’s Justin Wong.
While she’s being signed as a Street Fighter V player, Toffee plays and competes in other fighters as well, such as the The King of Fighters XIV.
Known more for competing in games such as Call of Duty and Counter-Strike, Relic Gaming has recently started to look into the fighting game community. Prior to singing Toffee, Relic had signed known Florida Super Smash Bros. player and tournament organizer Rocket.
Toffee’s signing should help encourage younger players — particularly young women — looking to make their names known in fighting games. Congratulations from Shoryuken, Toffee!
A new generation of warriors will compete to prove their worth.
The wurm hungers for the sacrifice of noble warriors — and we hunger for more gameplay footage of messhof’s sequel to the indie darling Nidhogg — Nidhogg II! Feast your eyes on all the violence below, as presented through the sequel’s vibrant — and still bizarre — visuals.
Check out the release announcement to learn more about the design process that led to Nidhogg II‘s gameplay additions and art overhaul.
It would appear NetherRealm Studios (in conjunction with developer Raw Thrills) are doing a location test for a new arcade game based off of their Injustice series. Before you get too excited though, note that I said “based”– as according to early reports from arcadeheroes.com, this is far from a port of the eponymous console title.
Instead, it’s a port of their free-to-play team-based mobile game. Originally spotted at a Dave & Buster’s in Addison, IL by Twitter user jbean353535, the game has no joystick or movement options. There’s just attack (Quick Attack, Strong Attack, and Special Attack) and defense (Block).
The game may allow you to play against real human opponents, but its leveling and card system seem like poor replacements for the fighting game experience most here would want. Still, it’s nice to see NRS going back to their roots with an arcade game. Who knows where this odd little project may lead?
You can read more about the system specs and card system over on arcadeheroes.com.
Evolution 2017 provided unprecedented access to Arc System Works — as the company’s booth granted the opportunity for fans worldwide to watch a constant stream, and the ability for attendees to meet and interact with the developers as well.
Shoryuken had the opportunity for a short interview with both Daisuke Ishiwatari and Toshimichi Mori. The former is a highly respected designer, director, artist, and musician behind the Guilty Gear series. He also contributes music composition to “Team Blue’s” BlazBlue, which, at one point, was marked as the spiritual successor to Guilty Gear. Mori produces and designs BlazBlue, continuing work on the series up to the latest release, Central Fiction, and as we learned at Evolution 2017, the series is not over.
Note that this interview took place before the big announcements after the BlazBlue: Central Fiction grand finals, and — as expected — Mori kept the news secure behind his smirk. Ever wondered who his favorite character is in BlazBlue (and outside BlazBlue)? However, he does reveal something interesting about an image he posted a long time ago, and we learn more about what’s coming to Guilty Gear in the future.
The following conversation was made possible thanks to a translator provided by Arc System Works. Responses are edited for clarity.
Luke “Woocash” Siuty: Mori-san, in a Forbes interview, you said you would like to work on a RWBY game. And there are rumors that something will be shown at Evo…
Toshimichi Mori [producer of the BlazBlue series]: I knew that was going to be a question you were going to ask, and I’m not really sure why is there a rumor like that.
Woocash: Okay, so Arc Sys is not working on that.
Mori: Yes. [That comment] was incidental but regrettable [laughs].
Woocash: Are either of you working on Dragon Ball FighterZ? What’s your involvement?
Daisuke Ishiwatari [creator of the Guilty Gear series]: No, we are not.
Woocash: But it uses the same engine as Guilty Gear, doesn’t it?
Ishiwatari: I mean, there’s some small, casual advice I have given, but not in a big-scale level, like in a meeting or anything.
Woocash: Mori-san, can you talk about BlazBlue on the Nintendo Switch?
Mori: Ehhhhhhh… We’re doing our best right now!
Woocash: Is it going to be different from a traditional fighting game? Can you talk about that?
Mori: It’s a pretty hard question to answer at the current stage.
Woocash: Ishiwatari-san, is there more content coming to Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, such as After Story C, or anything else?
Ishiwatari: One thing I can say for sure is that we are going to add Story Mode C on it.
Woocash: Will there be an announcement after Guilty Gear finishes?
Ishiwatari: No, there won’t be [laughs]. [And there wasn’t]
Woocash: Mori-san, who is your personal favorite from the BlazBlue cast?
Mori: I get this question a lot, and my answer is probably going to be, “all my characters are my favorite,” but if you were going to go with the length of relationship, Haku-men has the longest one with me. Because that’s the character that I had a rough idea about back when I was a school boy. I’ve been keeping this idea when I was in the position of making my own title. I decided to put him in that.
Woocash: I wanted to ask you about your Twitter banner. It has “Apocalypse,” on it, is that just a teaser, project, or…?
Mori: You will figure it out in around two years. Well, at some point but no later than two years, it could be sooner.
Toshimichi Mori’s Twitter banner. A similar image originally appeared in the Arc System Works 25th Anniversary Official Character Collection artbook, featuring Alpha -No 01-, supposedly the first Murakumo unit, which appears to be a fusion of Ragna the Bloodedge and Nu-13.
Woocash: Ishiwatari-san, I wanted to ask about Baiken’s design. What was it like to bring her into Xrd, and update her visual and gameplay style? Her design is a lot “busier.”
Ishiwatari: The first thing about that, the reason for Baiken’s difference in appearance, is that since it’s a new [entry in the] Guilty Gear series, we wanted to make sure that she will also look new, so that’s why we wanted to make her look completely different.
My inspiration came from a US Baiken cosplayer. I was fascinated. The cosplayer had a mixture of Western elements on it, so I thought, “maybe that would be a good idea.” The reason for the battle system changes was because in the previous version, because she was defense-based with the Guard Canceling, she tended to mostly turtle herself rather than going on the offense. We wanted to make her be a little more aggressive and capable in going on the offense rather than sheltering herself.
Woocash: Mori-san, I want to ask about Central Fiction’s gameplay in comparison to older games. CF seems to be faster, more explosive, you get Overdrive back a lot faster, etc. You ever think about toning it down, do you feel it’s a little too much, too fast?
Mori: Currently, I believe Central Fiction is the complete form of the BlazBlue series. From Chrono Phantasma, all of those systems, I made up the new system additions myself. After that, I had a discussion with the staff about how we can perfect things, and the result of that is Central Fiction. If I ever get to work on a new BlazBlue series, I would actually start the system from zero.
Woocash: Why start over?
Mori: Personally, for me, Central Fiction is a complete format, so I don’t want to touch that or add something or modify. If I want to start something new, I’d rather start fresh.
Woocash: You were also saying you don’t really want to work on fighting games anymore. Can you comment on that?
Mori: It’s not like I hate fighting games. It’s just that I’ve been working on fighting games for such a long time. It’s like a food thing — even if it’s your favorite, if you keep eating it over and over, you’ll get tired of it. So perhaps I wanted to work on something new for myself. My core philosophy is to entertain people. A fighting game isn’t the only way to entertain people, and I want to find what other way I can give joy to people.
Woocash: Ishiwatari-san, Answer is the character that nobody expected would become playable. Tell me about the timing of putting him in REV 2, and how did you come up with this idea of a “Business Ninja?”
Ishiwatari: Timing? Hmm, that’s difficult… The concept of the Business Ninja, I already had that idea even before he became a playable character, and you can see him in Story Mode. When working on REV 2, I was given the permission of adding two characters: one is a completely new character, and one is from the previous Guilty Gear series. Based on my decision, the character who won that position was Answer.
The original idea, the first concept came from needing to make a secretary for Chipp. So since he’s a secretary, he’s more of a businessman. But, since Chipp is a ninja, he should also be a ninja as well. So that’s what created the concept of a “Businessman Ninja.” Also, another background for his design is him having three lenses. One on the forehead. The reason for that is because he can see through his brain, so that’s what also led to his design.
Woocash: The mind eye.
Ishiwatari: Yes.
Woocash: Are you thinking about doing another character poll? You’ve done one in the past with Dizzy.
Ishiwatari: Ahh, I’m not thinking about it right now, but the event itself was quite successful, so if there’s a chance I could do it, I would have felt I’d do it.
Mori: Player-wise, it was quite successful, but as the designers, we were like, “ah man, really?!” We can’t work in advance, we need to work on it after getting the result, so we don’t have that much of a time frame. So it’s really hard!
Woocash: Was Dizzy a surprising result then?
Ishiwatari: Well, we were kind of expecting Dizzy to be chosen, but because of her design, there’s two of her summons [Necro and Undine], so design-wise, it was a pretty time-consuming character, so there was staff saying, “please don’t be her, please don’t be her!”
Woocash: Mori-san, is there going to be an announcement tomorrow about BlazBlue?
Mori: You’ll know.
Woocash: Is there somebody from the cast, or from the story that you also wanted to make a playable character but didn’t get a chance to?
Mori: Personally, to be honest, I did want to make Trinity playable. She has a good design.
Woocash: What would her powers be? Drive? Fighting style?
Mori: She would be a more honest material summoner than Platinum is. I’m not sure that I can talk about this, but the easiest way to describe it probably is Iceman from X-Men: Children of the Atom, he’s my favorite. I always wanted to make a character like that.
Trinity Glassfille
Woocash: Is that why Jin is so strong right now?
Mori: Jin… It’s not like I like the ice, but Iceman’s character system.
Woocash: No way! [jokingly]
Mori: I would say Jin is an easy-to-use character.
Woocash: Ishiwatari-san, do you ever think about voicing Sol again?
Ishiwatari: No.
Woocash: Why not?
Ishiwatari: Guilty Gear now is fully-voiced, it would be really disrespectful to professional actors if there’s one amateur mixed amongst professional actors.
Woocash: Did you ever have an unused character idea that never made it in?
Ishiwatari: Yes, there’s a lot, but I can’t say any.
Woocash: Mori-san, favorite thing about Las Vegas?
Mori: I can’t win on casinos, so… the food is more expensive! But I love this atmosphere. I love America.
As previously reported, Fatal Fury‘s Geese Howard is coming to Tekken 7 as its second guest character. The classic SNK boss will be coming as DLC to Bandai Namco’s fighter some time later this winter.
For those looking for a better look at Geese Howard, as well as his “Geese Tower” stage, Bandai Namco has released a series of new screenshots (via Avoiding the Puddle). You can check all of these out in the galleries below!
After months of silence, major changes are on their way to BlazBlue: Central Fiction — and no, not in the form of Extend. The official Japanese BlazBlue Twitter unexpectedly published a document containing BBCF 2.0 version changes, which include touch-ups to general system mechanics as well as adjustments to every single character. Changes vary from major to minor.
HiagoXYZ, RideTheIcening, superscience890, and others have worked since last night to translate the patch notes for the English-speaking community. Check out their work in the BBCF 2.0 Changes List on a Google Document.
The other big news is Jubei. The cat-samurai-sensei is making his way to arcades with the patch on August 3rd, alongside the patch. Expect to see gameplay breakdowns and footage around that point.
Let us know your thoughts about the patch notes in the comments below; are the changes going to cause a character switch?
In the latest issue of V-Jump, Bandai Namco have revealed that old school Z-Fighters Piccolo and Krillin are the next characters to join the Dragon Ball FighterZ roster. According to the magazine, Krillin’s Supers will be Scattering Bullet and Destructo Disc, while Piccolo will have Light Grenade and Special Beam Cannon.
Krillin’s Destructo Disc will be similar to Freeza’s Death Saucer, being an unblockable projectile which the opponent must dodge. Krillin can also charge up the Super, similar to Gohan’s Father Son Kamehameha. The article also briefly discusses DBFZ’s online system, which has chibi versions of the game’s cast wandering round a lobby, similar to how Guilty Gear Xrd handles matches.
Evolution 2017 has come to an end. As usual, the world’s largest fighting game tournament drew a number of eyeballs to it’s main stage. Thanks to the efforts of SRKRanking and Reddit, we have a reasonably clear snapshot of how each game preformed at this year’s event on Twitch.tv.
From SRKRanking, we have peak performance numbers on the main evo channel:
As noted in the detailed breakdown of the stats on Reddit, these numbers may not account for outside forces, such as: other streaming services/ESPN/DisneyXD not being counted and Twitch being down for one hour during Smash 4 finals.
Ishiwatari: The first thing about that, the reason for Baiken’s difference in appearance, is that since it’s a new [entry in the] Guilty Gear series, we wanted to make sure that she will also look new, so that’s why we wanted to make her look completely different.
