Sword-based fighting game The Last Blade 2, originally published in 1998, has just arrived on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita platforms.
A sequel to the original The Last Blade, it features a cast of 18 characters rendered in old school pixel graphics. Each member can fight in one of three styles that emphasize either power, speed, or a combination of the two. Various types of repels allow players to turn the tide on their foe, and there are plenty of flashy techniques like “Super Secret Slash” to make short work of life bars.
The Last Blade 2 now features Cross Buy, Cross Play, and Cross Save between the PS4 and Vita systems. Check out the trailer below to see the game in action.
The Last Blade 2 is now available on PSN for $14.99 (with a discount for PS+ members).
This weekend’s big event is Combo Breaker, a Chicago-land tourney with all the major games. But amidst killer pot bonuses and fierce competition, several indie games will also have a chance to get some time in the spotlight.
The indie lineup includes eight titles, most of them featuring fighting game aspects to some degree, though some obviously favor our genre of choice more than others.
Pocket Rumble, inspired by Neo Geo Pocket SNK fighters, adapts Street Fighter philosophy onto a mobile screen. By simplifying inputs and the entry barrier, Cardboard Robot Games wants players to focus on reading the opponent and coming up with strategies. Currently, the game is up on Steam Early Access.
Fearless Night by Shobu Games hearkens back to the legacy of fast-paced, arcade titles while adding in a forward-thinking mindset for today’s competitive standards. Features like hit box and frame data displays are already built-in, and the game takes advantage of a rollback netcode for responsive online play. The game is Greenlit on Steam, and the latest build is available to download from the Fearless Night website.
Super Combat Jr. II packs voxel-style graphics into a fast-paced, arena deathmatch game. The local multiplayer title pits 2-4 players armed with bombs, arrows, guns, and whatever else they can equip against one another. Before facing off, each fighter has an opportunity to customize their character with six armors and as many as 18 weapons. The game draws inspiration from Legend of Zelda, Hotline Miami, and Street Fighter. Super Combat Jr. II is purchasable on itch.io right now.
While it’s not as much of a fighting game as the other selections, behind this saucy title lies a delicious party game starring sports-driven animals. eight titles in their indie games lineup. Stay tuned to SRK for continued coverage of the event.
Graham Wolfe has been a bountiful source of various bits of strategy and information about Street Fighter V. Since the game’s launch, the long time Street Fighter veteran has been posting small videos detailing useful information about the game on Twitter.
Trying to keep track of all his offerings can get a bit tedious, since digging through Twitter isn’t always the simplest matter. To address this, Wolfe has made all of his Tweets so far available to find on his WordPress blog.
This is a great resource for any Street Fighter V players looking to learn more about the game. Wolfe’s tips, while short, often showcase small details that bring to light vulnerabilities in certain characters and tactics that seem strong at first. While we covered Wolfe’s tips earlier in the month, the amount of information present has continued to grow since then, and is definitely worth a second look.
Late yesterday, the folks at Capcom took to Twitter to announce that they’ve got something special in store for viewers tuning in to the Street Fighter V finals at Combo Breaker.
While the Tweet leaves much to be desired when it comes to information surrounding the nature of the announcement, it’s hard to imagine that Capcom will be sharing anything other than news related to upcoming Street Fighter V content. While smart Fight Money may be on learning more about the upcoming iteration of the Boxer who most certainly has Bison Dollars on the brain, we can all hold out for learning more about the future characters we’re most looking forward to.
Ibuki, anyone? No? Alright.
Combo Breaker is set to take place this weekend, May 27-29 in St. Charles, Illinois. For more information surrounding the event, you can head over to their official website.
It’s doubtful that you haven’t heard about William “TSM|Leffen” Hjelte’s P-1 Visa issues by now. I’m not going to be going over the nitty gritty here; that was already done at length earlier this month here on SRK. The important footnote is that the response to Leffen being denied a Visa was huge. In response to this perceived injustice, a petition was started on the official White House site. The petition requests that all eSports players should be allowed Athlete Visas. Competitors in League of Legends are considered athletes by the government and have been given Visas, so the case for eSports competitors getting Visas has already been made, and won, in some ways.
How the petition site works is that if you get 100,000 signatures within 30 days, you’ll get an official response from the White House on the matter within 60 days of the petition’s closure. While a “yes” isn’t guaranteed–and no one should get their hopes too high–getting this petition to the goal number is definitely a step in the right direction. If the White House moves in our favor, it could mean that many other international eSports players could have their lives made easier moving forward.
Once more, It’s important to stress that reaching this goal doesn’t guarantee anything, so please keep expectations reasonable.
TSM|Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios has recently returned to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competition at Toronto’s Get On My Level 2016, after a finger injury that kept him from playing his favorite game for two months.
Now that he’s back in the Smash action, he takes some time in his latest video to describe his top five favorite moments–as in “epic,” “unique,” or “amazing,” in his words–from Smash 4 tournament history. Such moments include the SoCal vs. Tristate Crew Battle from earlier this year, and Smash 4’s first appearance at Evo.
A few months back, we ran a story on SPLITFRAME’s upcoming Street Fighter Shadaloo Psycho FS Transporter XL arcade stick bag. This updated version of their FS Transporter XL bag is perfect for carrying larger sized sticks such as the HORI RAP Premium VLX Hayabusa that we reviewed recently.
Now for those who’re looking at picking one of these up, or who have already pre-ordered one, we have some good news. Originally slated to ship on June 1, SPLITFRAME has announced that the new Shadaloo Psycho FS Transporter XL is currently available.
For those who still haven’t ordered, the Shadaloo Psycho FS Transporter XL will be retailing at a reduced “pre-order price” of $104.98 up until the end of this week. After this week, the bag will retail for $119.98–that is, if there are any left. Only 175 pieces of this will be made so anyone interested in getting one should order now before stocks run out.
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round is no stranger to costumes based on the IPs of other companies. The most recent one of these was a series of Tatsunoko costumes that came out last January.
For their next batch of crossover costumes however, the company is moving back to the realm of video games. Specifically, Team NINJA is partnering with Gust Co. for a series of costumes based on the latter’s Atelier series of Japanese role-playing games.
For those interested in how the costumes look, you can check them out in this new trailer from Team NINJA.
These new costumes should be available by May 24 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Scene veterans Brett and St1ickBuG recently began a podcast dedicated to the airdasher subgenre. After their introductory episode, the duo’s latest tackles a recent blog post by Machaboo, a translated version of which you can find on Reddit. The post takes a beginner’s approach on having a mindset that’s applicable to growing as a fighting game player.
Brett and St1ckBug discuss at length player attitudes and common behaviors. They point out how pride can get in the way of one of the simpler ways to get better, which is asking everyone questions and accepting advice. Being open-minded is the basis for growing as a player, apart from hours of grinding in training mode.
Be sure to hit them up on Twitter and Twitch with questions as suggestions, as they’re open to shaping the podcast with some community involvement.
Because Rivals of Aether is still in early access, the game sees frequent updates adding all manner of content ranging from new characters and stages to new modes and, of course, gameplay tweaks.
Earlier today, the game received a patch moving it from version 0.13.0 to version 0.14.0, and with the new version came a host of new features–everything from a Ranked Mode to characteristics of certain moves changing. Thankfully, Risuno of the Beefy Aether Doods is on hand in a new video to break down what’s changing and what’s new in this version of the platform fighter.
You can check out the video below, and continue on to see the full patch notes.
Rival of Aether ver.0.14.0 Patch Notes
GENERAL
Tutorial mode added – Learn about the mechanics of Rivals of Aether from your good friend Orby!
Local Menu rearranged to better organize the different modes.
Rumble feature added for Xinput controllers. Rumble can be turned on/off on a per-profile bases in the custom controls menu.
Drift DI is now dependent on your horizontal speed in hitstun. When moving under 5 pixels per frame, you get the full effect of drift DI. When moving over 10 pixels per frame, you get 1/2 of the full effect. In between those two speeds is a linear gradient. This change increases the effectiveness of horizontal kill moves.
Added whiff landing lag to certain aerials, which means the move will not autocancel if it misses. This mechanic serves to make certain aerials very slightly more punishable on whiff (e.g. Forsburn Dair).
Increased the time of flinches caused by Jabs from 13 > 16 frames to ensure that more grounded Jabs into Tilts cannot be countered with a parry.
Crouch Canceling max knockback increased from 6 > 8.
Crouch Canceling Flinch Time reduced from 13 > 9.
Crouch Canceling is a stronger defensive option now for players to experiment with, particularly against projectiles which can be hard to parry during online matches.
Attack, Special, and Strong Buffers are cleared when leaving hitstun into tumble state, requiring players to time their Combo Breaker tool instead of mashing them. (example: Zetterburn Neutral Special)
Shockwaves now appear when you are hit with a move that would kill you with no DI or drift DI.
Previously, any move over a certain knockback value would create a shockwave.
The HUD now has visual feedback for player damage and deaths.
Bug Fix: Diagonal directional inputs are now processed the same in local and online modes. Up and down are now prioritized over left and right in online mode.
Bug Fix: Parrying an opponent’s Uspecial will no longer cause them to have weird momentum shifts. This mostly affects Wrastor and Maypul.
ZETTERBURN
Zetterburn is still doing well but can struggle because of his limited movement options particularly in the air. We wanted to give players the ability to use Down Special in more interesting ways as well as make Neutral Special feel a bit smoother by lowering its hitpause making the jump cancel more reliable.
Aerial Dspecial now gives a forward and upward boost.
Nair landing lag 10 > 7.
Whiff landing lag added to Dair.
Uncharged Nspecial hitpause 7 > 3, making combos more fluid by allowing players to jump cancel it more consistently.
Charged Nspecial can be jump-cancelled again.
Charged Nspecial now has the same knockback as uncharged Nspecial. This is because charged
Neutral Special didn’t feel like an earned KO nor was it particularly fun to play against. Instead we are making it safe again but lowering its effectiveness at high percents.
Dair knockback scaling .5 > .65. This makes the spike more powerful than some of the others in the game giving Zetterburn a bit of off stage power to make up for the risk of being off stage.
Dair hitbox height 50 > 75 (reaches the same distance downward, but farther upward).
Uair sourspot hitbox resized and moved to match the animation better.
Uair sweetspot moved to be in the center of the animation.
Dspecial knockback scaling .65 > .55.
Dspecial landing hitbox centered and resized 130×70 > 120×60.
Bug Fix: Can no longer airdodge out of Uspecial after it was parried.
Bug Fix: Fixed hurtboxes for Uair, Ftilt, and Ustrong.
ORCANE
Orcane is best whale dog 2015 and 2016 now. Congrats to Orcane.
Whiff landing lag added to Bair and Uair.
Uspecial sweetspot base knockback 12 > 11, scaling 1.45 > 1.4. This is to slightly reduce its effectiveness as a parry punish.
Uspecial sourspot scaling 1.05 > 1.1. This is to make the regular hit a bit more potent.
Bubble butt hitbox width 30 > 20.
Bubble butt hitbox moved closer to Orcane’s body. These two are to reduce the disjoint of bubble butt as it is risky to throw yourself at opponents.
Bubble SDI effectiveness increased from 50% to 100%.
Bug Fix: Fixed hurtboxes for Ustrong, puddle Ustrong, puddle Fstrong, and puddle Fspecial.
Bug fix: Orcane puddle can now exist on a moving pillar.
WRASTOR
For Wrastor, we are still trying to balance him out by removing reliance on Tornado and spreading out his KO potential elsewhere. We also wanted to make his Jump Canceled tilts more noticeable as many players were not even aware the mechanic existed.
Nair landing lag 16 > 8.
Whiff landing lag added to Fair, Bair, and Dair.
Nspecial SDI modifier x1 > x2.
Nspecial horizontal acceleration and speed reduced from .75x normal to .65x normal.
Nspecial Final hit knockback scaling reduced from .7 to .55.
Nspecial min time 42 > 40, max time 62 > 60.
Fspecial recovery 7 > 11.
Sourspot Fstrong base knockback 5 > 6.
Extended parry lag on strong attacks (extends parry lag to ~57 frames usually).
Dair hurtbox extended to reduce disjoint.
Prat land time 14 > 24.
Uspecial sweetspot scaling 1.1 > 1.25.
Bair knockback scaling .6 > .8, active frames 10 > 2 (turned into a sweetspot).
Second hitbox added to bair with the same knockback and active frames of the previous bair, but a smaller hitbox.
Wrastor can jump-cancel his tilts immediately after the last hitbox hits instead of only during the recovery frames (makes a 2-3 frame difference). This is because Wrastor has jump cancelled tilts as part of his design but they never felt impactful due to the late cancel opportunities. The recovery on each tilt was increased to balance out the risk of each.
Wrastor Ftilt Whiff Lag increased from 16 > 18.
Wrastor Dtilt Recovery increased from 12 > 14.
Wrastor Utilt Recovery increased from 12 > 14.
Wrastor Uair now has a center hitbox that deals 6 damage and knocks very slightly higher than the other hitboxes.
Bug Fix: Parrying Dspecial will no longer send him forward.
Bug Fix: Hitting with the last frame of Wrastor Dspecial will no longer cause him to fall to the ground instead of doing a backflip.
Bug Fix: Fixed hurtbox for Dstrong.
KRAGG
For Kragg, we wanted to address Pillar Spam even more as the move is still leaned on by many players particularly online. We have made it more risky for Kragg to use pillar on stage by increasing his landing lag after falling off a broken pillar. We also normalized the end lag for throwing rocks.
Fair autocancel frame 24 > 15 (autocancels right after the active frames).
Fair landing lag 10 > 9.
Dair endlag 10 > 16.
Whiff landing lag added to Fair and Dair.
Prat fall horizontal acceleration .85 > .5. Makes Kragg more easily punished when his pillar is broken.
Dstrong whiff lag 0 > 18 (normally 14 endlag).
Nthrow and Fthrow endlag 5 > 10.
Uthrow endlag 4 > 10.
Dthrow endlag 8 > 10.
Fstrong scaling 1.1 > 1.25.
Fstrong startup 22 > 24.
Rock’s horizontal momentum when deflected is now based on damage of the deflecting move.
Increased the range to pick up rock from 4px to 12px.
Wrastor’s slipstream goes behind rocks visually, increasing rock visibility when simple effects are turned on.
Added sound effect when rock is deflected.
New animation for Back Air to make it easier to see on backgrounds the same color as Kragg.
Pillar now has an offscreen indicator.
Prat Land time after falling off a broken pillar increased from 11 > 30. Remains 11 when landing after a pillarless Up Special.
Opponents can now tech on top of a pillar to avoid being put into Prat Fall during the tech frames.
Bug Fix: Removed Kragg’s ability to pull multiple rocks by himself (not the glitch that requires multiple Kraggs)
FORSBURN
For Forsburn we wanted to add some counter play to the cookie cutter combo approach of only using smoke for Combust. Now opponents can knock smoke out of Forsburn with powerful attacks and Forsburn has to work a bit harder to get the smoke.
Getting hit by a move with over 15 knockback will cause Forsburn to lose all smoke charges.
Uspecial upward leniency 96 > 50. Makes recovering from below the stage a bit more strict.
Nair landing lag 6 > 7.
Dair landing lag 7 > 8.
Dair spike angle 270 > 290.
Whiff landing lag added to Dair and Nair.
Dash attack base knockback 7 > 8.
Forsburn now gets smoke on inhale 5 frames later, meaning he can be interrupted more easily.
Whifflag on dstrong 0 > 30 (normally 20 endlag).
Directional input for Fspecial is read earlier in the attack, preventing accidental side swapping with the clone.
Fstrong hit 1 causes Kragg to lose more speed than before so that Forsburn isn’t punished for turning Kragg around when spaced properly.
MAYPUL
For Maypul, we wanted to keep her a fast character with quick options but wanted to reduce reliance on Neutral Air by giving it some whiff lag and lowering the disjoint. We also wanted to lower the amount of guaranteed KOs that Maypul gets from wrapping opponents with Strong Attacks by pushing the percents up.
Dash Attack whiff lag 16 > 20.
Nair landing lag 16 > 9.
Nair autocancel frame 4 > 2.
Nair hurtbox extended.
Dair landing lag 5 > 7.
Bair hurtbox extended.
Base wrap frames 30 > 24, wrap scaling .2 > .14.
Whiff landing lag added to Nair and Dair.
Jab hit 2 base knockback 4 > 5.
Jab hit 2 whifflag 0 > 13.
Dtilt width 100 > 70 (reaches the same distance forward, but not as far back). This is to reduce her insane tech chasing ability.
Aerial dspecial goes into special fall. To make it more consistent with Forward Special and give it some counter play when used mid combo.
Plant attack active frames 3 > 1. Makes rolling to avoid the attack more consistent.
Walljump now goes slightly outward instead of straight up.
Uspecial Sling base increased from 4 > 6. Sling Time by distance increased slightly.
Bug Fix: Removed inconsistent forward burst on jab combo.
Bug Fix: If a wall is destroyed while Maypul is clinging onto it, she will automatically walljump.
ABSA
For Absa, we wanted to tweak Forward tilt to give her a faster option on tap and the long whipe we know on hold. We also wanted to rework Down Special to make sure there was some risk to putting one on yourself since the reward is still pretty great.
Ftilt now differentiates between tap/hold inputs. Halfway through the startup of the move, if you are not holding the attack button anymore, Absa will do a quicker, minimum-range Ftilt. If you are holding the attack button, she will do the full-range version. Full-range Ftilt is the same speed as before.
Fair and Bair sweetspots moved to be centered on the sweetspot visual.
Fair and Bair sweetspot size increased by 2px.
Dair Sour Spot hitbox reduced in size.
Uair autocancel frame 28 > 20.
Whiff landing lag added to Uair.
Prat fall horizontal acceleration .5 > .4.
Uspecial aerial movement restricted for a few frames longer after Uspecial finishes (before going into prat fall).
Cloud kick hitboxes are now centered on the cloud instead of Absa’s foot.
Parrying another Absa’s Fspecial no longer makes the cloud yours, destroying your existing cloud.
Instead, it just destroys the Fspecial cloud. This fixes a bug that caused Absa to not go into parry stun when Fspecial was parried by another Absa.
Cloudless Dspecial now creates a cloud at Absa’s position and starts the normal Dspecial chain around it.
Holding Dspecial will charge the move. When fully charged, the chain lightning will follow Absa.
Bug Fix: Removed double jump to Nspecial super jump.
Bug Fix: Fixed hurtboxes for Nspecial and taunt.
ETALUS
For Etalus, we wanted to beef up the damage on some of his strong attacks and clean up some bugs and awkward interactions with Up Air and Neutral Special.
Whiff landing lag added to Fair, Bair, and Dair.
Weak hitbox added in the middle of Dstrong. Etalus can be punished for hitting with this hitbox.
Bair hitbox width 100 > 120 (reaches the same distance backward, but extends further forward).
Uair separated into two separate hits. This prevents Uair from trading so favorably with other moves. On a clean hit, the move functions identically to before.
Uair has a 45 frame cooldown on hit. This is to prevent linking up to 4 Uairs on an opponent frozen on a platform.
Dstrong strong hit base knockback 7 > 6.
Dstrong damage weak hit 4 > 6, strong hit 11 > 12.
Ustrong damage weak hit 2 > 3, strong hit 11 > 12.
Ustrong weak hit hitstun modifier 1 > 1.2.
Rolling opponents are no longer invincible when frozen.
Ice will not start melting if any Etalus is using Nspecial.
Can act slightly earlier out of Uspecial (min actionable speed -3 > -8).
Fstrong Ice Hitbox reduced from 120×120 to 100×80.
Dstrong Ice Hitbox reduced from 120×120 to 100×100.
Ustrong Ice Hitbox reduced from 120×120 to 100×100.
Parrying Fspecial now destroys the icicles instead of reflecting them
Etalus AI is no longer terrible at using his recovery options. He’s still no genius but at least he isn’t terrible.
ONLINE
Ranked Mode has been added! You can play to raise your Ranked Score and ascend the Ranked
Leaderboard. Your score is based on the Elo System where wins earn you points and losses subtract points. The better the competition, the more points you will earn.
There are two brackets for Ranked Mode matchmaking during early access. Players above 1200
Ranked Score and players below. We will assess if this is working based on the size of the community and scores that we see as time progresses.
There is now information given to you about an opponent before you accept a match in matchmaking. This includes the ping (connection indicator) as well as the self-appointed region of your opponent. After accepting a Ranked Match, you will earn a disconnect if you quit or disconnect before the set is complete.
Online Stats is a new category in the online menu that allows you to check out your position on the
Ranked Leaderboard or view your in-game stats for Local, Online or Ranked.
