Our own Tournament of Power still has a lot of time left! Keep practicing!
We’ve seen a lot of tech videos for Dragon Ball FighterZ come through our tipline, covering everything from team-building strategy, fundamental game mechanics, and combo after combo after combo, from throughout the game’s cast! Since the roundups were put together based on what came in when, not sorted by character, we’re re-compiling them by fighter to make it easier to find something for your individual team members.
This time, let’s look at what we’ve seen so far for Hit!
Hit lacks a traditional low 2A, which you would think would be a crippling liability in a Versus-Style game. He can still force mid/lows easily, as you can see in this demonstration from @Cato__.
TGN Anime has a guide to arguably DBFZ’s most unique fighter.
Hit’s unusual moveset means he has to take some different combo routes to get decent damage. As Warui Neko-kun shows, though, damage scaling works out pretty well for Hit overall.
While the FGC waits with bated breath on the release of Paradise Arcade Shop’s upcoming Magenta optical stick, a few reviewers have gotten their hands on a preview copy of the lever. Jonyfraze is one said reviewer, and broke down the stick in a recent video.
He discusses the program interface and the stick itself — and calls it the best stick he’s every played on. He also says the customization possibilities will make this the stick of choice for players of multiple games and characters.
A world that exists only for battle needs warriors to sustain it.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is a fairly complex and fairly unusual game, and it arguably has the deck stacked against it in terms of establishing a firm foothold in the fighting game community. As a team-based arena fighter with very specialized needs for local multiplayer, it already is pretty far off the beaten path of traditional fighters — and it’s come to the market in the immediate wake of Dragon Ball FighterZ, not to mention competing for attention against Street Fighter, Tekken, Marvel vs. Capcom, BlazBlue… you name it, we’re inundated with games to choose from right now. What does Dissidia offer to warrant your time and attention?
For the love of battle
There is a singular draw to Dissidia that will pretty much answer that question — the Final Fantasy universe, of course. If you aren’t already emotionally invested in the Final Fantasy series on some level, it’s a long shot that this game would even be a blip on your radar. No doubt about it: the Final Fantasy license is the main attraction here, the chance to take your favorite heroes and villains into battle, revisit memorable locales, listen to the swell of the epic tunes from iconic moments in stories past. If you love Final Fantasy, chances are you’re already playing this game. The visual and auditory presentation easily does justice to the Final Fantasy source material. Including at least one playable character (usually two — typically the main protagonist and main antagonist) from every main-line Final Fantasy title, odds are you’ll find more than one character you love in the roster. The attention to detail on these fighters, the stages based on their respective worlds, and both updated and original music tracks from each game — this is pretty much a love letter from the Final Fantasy franchise to the fighting game genre. Hearing the new arrangement of “Antipyretic” from Final Fantasy Tactics was already enough to get me fired up for battle.
The tools of battle
To elaborate on the gameplay system, for those unfamiliar: if you love Final Fantasy, but prefer your action to be turn-based, you’re in for a bit of a shock — as you’ll have to steel yourself for some crazy stuff here. Dissidia is fast-paced, chaotic, and demands some time and practice to get a good handle on the control scheme. Once you get used to it, there is a lot of fun to be had here, for sure. With three-on-three fights in large arenas with varied terrain, and the summoning mechanic thrown into the mix, there is a lot going on at any given time, and it’s very easy to be blindsided by unexpected attacks, or have the tables turned on you from a last-minute summon. Battles you think are in the bag can turn on a dime, but the good news is it goes both ways, and you’ll find yourself unexpectedly victorious once in a while.
Dissidia’s battle mechanics use an interesting HP/Bravery system, with a separate attack button for each. Each team has three points (one for each player, essentially), and a fighter being felled in combat deducts one — whether it’s each player once or the same one three times, the result is the same. Fighters have HP, and are incapacitated when they lose all of it — but in order to deal HP damage to an opponent, you must first build your Bravery up (and reduce theirs) by using Bravery attacks. Your Bravery determines how much HP damage you can deal with your HP attacks; build it up enough and you can incapacitate a foe with a single stroke, definitely satisfying! You also gradually charge up special “EX abilities”: essentially Dissidia NT’s take on special moves, these can be magic or physical attacks that deal damage, or spells that buff yourself/your allies or debuff your enemies. Naturally, all of these — not to mention each fighter’s regular moveset — are based on classic Final Fantasy attacks used by the characters in their respective games, staying true to the series.
With three enemies to handle, you need to get used to utilizing your movement options — dashing, jumping, evading — and using the lock-on system to keep track of your opponent and watch out for who’s eyeing you up for a kill. Camera controls can be a bit troublesome, and in the heat of battle it can be easy to momentarily lose track of your targeted enemy or where you want to go — easily fatal, unfortunately. You need to keep an eye on your teammates too, of course; you can cooperate to extend combos and really lay the hurt down if you get your team synergy going. And there’s the summon cores to worry about.
The summoning system in Dissidia NT is based around “cores” that appear on the battlefield. Attacking them fills your team’s summon gauge, and allows you to call in your chosen monstrous ally when full. These powerful beings can turn the tide for or against you — they remain on the battlefield for a set period of time, attacking and laying traps for the opposing team, as well as powering up your team’s EX abilities. You don’t need to pull off a summon to win — but it sure helps.
The way of battle
The game has fairly robust offline options, and by playing against the CPU you earn customization options for the characters through earning Treasure (i.e. loot boxes of a sort, that each provide three random items when opened) or Gil that you can use to purchase them directly. You also earn “Memoria” — which is used to gradually unlock the cutscenes and battles of the Story mode, in a rather interesting arrangement that makes what is basically the usual watch a movie/fight/repeat story mode formula feel a little fresher, if only by making you play other modes to open it up and “earn” access to its branched paths. Story mode also includes boss battles against the game’s summons — which can be pretty difficult (even infuriating) until you level up enough to pack a bigger punch against them.
Online however, can be a mixed bag — matchmaking times can still be long, and lag still rears its ugly head. And this is a problem for a game that is fundamentally designed for three human beings to face off against each other. Unlike its anime-based arena fighter sibling Gundam Versus (which includes a one-on-one option, at least online), Dissidia is insistent on its team-based design, with no game modes that don’t utilize a three-on-three format (a few fights in Story mode do mix up that formula, though, with 2-on-3 fights, or the aforementioned boss battles). Even the offline versus-CPU modes make you fight with CPU teammates at all times (which will even send chat greetings before/after/during fights to encourage you, which is kind of endearing). Playing against the CPU with AI teammates can still be entertaining — but really, that’s not enough to support any kind of long-term interest.
There is no built-in local setup option — frankly, the game interface and presentation would not work in split-screen, anyway. That means six consoles, six monitors, and some LAN-foolery to run the game at a local or event… and some intrepid TOs have done this already, but it is a lot of effort and resources for a game that threatens to fall to the wayside as a niche title.
The future of battle
Now, Square Enix isn’t finished adding to Dissidia NT, and the game could still benefit greatly from some one-on-one “dueling” modes, and some built-in support for local setup — like a dedicated LAN mode. In terms of gameplay, this game has the chops to hold interest if supported, and there is enough crossover between the FGC and Final Fantasy fanatics to warrant giving this game continued attention. If Dissidia’s world — built for and sustained by endless conflict — is to survive in our own competitive landscape, it’s going to fall to the community to push this game’s visibility and reach out to new players to support its fledgling scene. So, let’s follow that moogle’s advice, and “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Our own Tournament of Power still has a lot of time left! Keep practicing!
We’ve seen a lot of tech videos for Dragon Ball FighterZ come through our tipline, covering everything from team-building strategy, fundamental game mechanics, and combo after combo after combo, from throughout the game’s cast! Since the roundups were put together based on what came in when, not sorted by character, we’re re-compiling them by fighter to make it easier to find something for your individual team members.
This time, let’s look at what we’ve seen so far for Android 16!
Two meters, two assists, and one mixup is all you need to kill with this Android 16 setup from @Antinomy001.
Tired of all those Gokus, yet? There’s a character made specifically to dunk on them: here’s Persona Entertainment‘s exploration of Android 16’s combo potential.
@gramofdatahas a meter positive block string with the game’s Goku-dunking grappler:
rooflemonger shows off some great starting combos for Android 16:
He’s also broken down the mix-up situation that occurs after 16 lands his light command grab: helpful to know for those playing as — and fighting against — the robo-grappler.
SuspiciousLock demonstrates a touch of death combo that Android 16 can do on his own, given 5 bars of meter (without having to use Sparking Blast).
As always, thanks to all content creators out there, and everyone that sent in tip! Keep an eye on Shoryuken for future DBFZ roundups!
Our own Tournament of Power still has a lot of time left! Keep practicing!
We’ve seen a lot of tech videos for Dragon Ball FighterZ come through our tipline, covering everything from team-building strategy, fundamental game mechanics, and combo after combo after combo, from throughout the game’s cast! Since the roundups were put together based on what came in when, not sorted by character, we’re re-compiling them by fighter to make it easier to find something for your individual team members.
This time, let’s look at what we’ve seen so far for Yamcha!
mahouko08 has a 4 bar, 2 assist combo that nets 7.3k in damage with our Lord Yamcha.
It’s time for the second part of our interview with Arc System Works! As we mentioned in the previous article, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the fighting-game-focused company. We had a great opportunity to talk to Daisuke Ishiwatari of Guilty Gear, Toshimichi Mori of BlazBlue, and Minoru Kidooka, the CEO of the company.
While the first part focused a lot more on the upcoming BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, this time, we turn more to Daisuke Ishiwatari, asking him what’s next for Guilty Gear. The future isn’t clear yet for the series, as we do not know what’s coming after Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2. We discuss the latest patch for the game, development philosophy, and how Ishiwatari feels about the series’ direction; the others chime in with final comments.
The following conversation was live-translated by an ASW interpreter, and has been edited for clarity and length.
Woocash: Switching to Guilty Gear, I know there’s a patch out now, but fans are still eagerly waiting for the next thing. What’s next for the series?
Daisuke Ishiwatari: As for Guilty Gear’s future… I think, for the franchise, one of themes of it is preserving the feeling you’d get while playing the previous versions. But what that does at the same time, is it creates a prerequisite for new consumers or fans who want to join the community, it creates a large wall. One large theme that I have right now is that previously, I wouldn’t mess with that sort of fundamental feeling or structure of Guilty Gear, but I’m experimenting a little bit with how we can explore a way to kind of level the playing field for new fans who might want to be part of the community.
I don’t have anything specific to tell you right now, but it is a current theme of mine, and investigating and exploring what we can do to make everyone happy. As developers of the Guilty Gear franchise for so long, I think it’s safe to say we understand fully what Guilty Gear is and what it represents and what we want fans to feel when they play it. But in transitioning to the next era of Guilty Gear even, what we strive to do is making especially a lot of older fans feel when they first hold the controller is: wow, is this really Guilty Gear? Am I playing GG right now? But upon diving deeper, they realize: okay, this is GG.
So I think we want to go for a little bit of that freshness, and that’s kind of the [goal] right now.
Woocash: A little bit of old and a little bit of new?
Ishiwatari: Yeah, I’m really trying to go back to the origin, derive GG’s fundamental core and rethink how it should be presented. Not just the core of GG, but the core essence of fighting games in general, and rethink GG from that perspective.
Woocash: You’ve said before that the budget for REV 2 was one new character and one old character. Is this sort of philosophy still active for the future, bringing a mix of old and brand new characters?
Ishiwatari: I don’t know if I would necessarily confine it to one old/one new character, but of course, with any project, there is the issue of scheduling and budget. If I were able to do anything I wanted to, I don’t know if I would ever finish the game. So, with that in mind, I try to always create the best combination that I think fans want to see and enjoy based on the constraints I’m given.
Woocash: I have to ask, specifically, because many fans are asking about this (even though he’s not my favorite character, my favorite is Anji, I hope he makes it in!), but people really want to know about Order Sol and A.B.A.
Ishiwatari: Of course, the prerequisites of any further development is for the game to perform well in the marketplace. So as much as I want to say, hey, we’re going to put every single character in the game, but I think we really need to assess where it stands. As creators, I also want to present something in its best, possible, completed state, which doesn’t necessarily always mean having all the characters as much as possible. In Japan, Bridget is the hot pick right now [laughs]!
Woocash: I know that Ishiwatari-san is not the balance expert, but I still want to ask about the newest patch and its aim. Some people have sort of mixed reactions to it, and these are very early impressions; such as Faust getting many new things, Johnny getting new things while he is already considered a strong character, perhaps Answer is not getting enough, etc.
Ishiwatari: I think with any patch or update in a game that’s so sensitive and dependent on balance, there are going to be reactions when things change. Some may be very polarized, and of course, as you’ve said, I’m not super hands-on with the design of the balance of the game. That being said, the team that I work with that adjusts the balance and looks at all these elements, always tells me, “Wait for three months from now and see what people are saying.”
Immediate reactions are always going to be very polarized, but the balance team is always thinking about the long-term longevity of the game and insisting that we’ll see what the users say after three months — that will be the true determiner of how this patch is to be received.
With GG, of course there are a lot of subtleties and minuscule changes that can affect the game. I think that first impressions of a patch don’t always see the entire picture, so to speak. I think once the patch is out there for three months, people will start to understand the intent behind the balance changes, and what they were designed to do.
Woocash: Some companies, like Blizzard, when releasing a patch, do “developer commentaries,” short explanations along patch notes. Is there any thought to do something similar?
Ishiwatari: I think that a large part of fighting game community culture that we’ve grown up in and are developing is the aspect of discovery. As players play the game, they’ll uncover new elements. I think that there’s joy in that process of discovery. Maybe if the current climate is changing and what Blizzard is doing is the right answer, or maybe it’s about communicating to fans and giving them hints or something close to the answer while not taking away that joy of discovery; maybe there is something to be learned from how they are releasing patches and adding commentary to them.
Woocash: How do you gather feedback from players? I’m sure that’s easier in Japan, from arcades, but for example, what is a good way for US players to reach ASW to tell them something? What are your strategies? How can players convey how they feel about game balance and updates?
Ishiwatari: Currently, at least in the Japanese ecosystem, we use social media as a large source for collecting feedback; our development team is also very close to the top players in Japan, so we get a lot of feedback as to balance gameplay mechanics there. In terms of overseas feedback, I think that’s a large part of what ASW-America is designed and intended to do. I would actually like to ask the rest of my team at ASW about how that’s going to look if you go to the home page, talk to us on social [media], or on ArcLive [their Twitch stream]. There’s a lot of sources that can start building that channel of communication.
Mori: I feel the same way.
Kidooka: Again, going back to our conversation at the beginning of your interview, which is the entire purpose of ASW-America, I know a lot of these responses may seem a little fuzzy to you right now, but that’s because I think, to a large part, they are — we don’t know exactly how it’s going to behave, it’s going to be a creature of its own. Where the channels of communication are going to be built and how we’re going to interface with the fans is still to be seen. A large part of why we’re here and doing this interview is an extension of that intent. We’ll find out, so reach out to us on any channel and we’ll see where it takes us.
Woocash: We’re starting to see companies like Capcom bring out their old games in Anniversary Editions, and this is ASW’s 30th year. Are there any plans for something along those lines? For instance, there’s still a very active GG Accent Core community, but there’s no PlayStation 4 version. Fans would love to see that game specifically done in GGPO netcode.
Kidooka: As you mention, it is the company’s 30th anniversary, not so much highlighting or singling out one game, but it is important to have some kind of celebration of what ASW is. That might be Accent Core, but not necessarily. But the exact date of the anniversary is May 12th, so we would like to have something to present of some news by that point in terms of anniversary editions, etc.
Ishiwatari: Please stay tuned!
Woocash: A fan was asking about GG light novels. Are there any plans on expanding merchandise offers in countries outside of Japan?
Ishiwatari: In Japan, it’s easier to forecast the demand for these types of goods. The cost to develop a similar type of merchandise in the US still remains to be seen, and there’s a lot of research that needs to be done; we’re not sure if it will sell 10 copies or a million. So, it’s one of those things that we need to, again, feel out with the community and the audience and begin to hone in on what people want and [see whether] there is an opportunity or a way to bring some of those contents over to the US.
Woocash: One fan was curious — I guess they want some music recommendations! — they’re asking what are some recent music that you guys have been listening to?
Ishiwatari: Of course, I’ve been listening to a rock band, they’re not necessarily metal: The Struts. I don’t think they have a second album yet, but that being said, they’re a very melodic, old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll.
Mori: Miss Android and Egoist. They’re a group that originally showed in the Guilty Crown anime. They’re starting to pop up more in real life too, and it’s a very interesting transition I guess.
Woocash: Open floor to you, what would you like to say to Shoryuken readers and ASW fans?
Ishiwatari: I rarely get the opportunity to come to the US, and most of the time that I do, I come for the purpose of media interviews or some kind of event. You know, it’s a very common thing to be asked, any comments for fans, and I always say the same thing, but I’m going to spin out of that mold for this. With the invention of BBTAG, it’s becoming more and more normal and acceptable to have a bunch of different franchises collaborate in one universe. You see that with all the superhero movies as well.
As an extension of this, instead of having one franchise and asking other people or making a game based on characters from one franchise, I think it would be really cool if there was some fighting game platform where franchise or IP holders would come to us and say, “Hey, please let our character join your fighting game tournament,” and just have this platform where characters would come to our door to participate. I think that would be a really cool format to create a fighting game.
And of course, my long-term goal with that is to have Family Guy participate some point.
Mori: With the formation of ASW America and celebrating BBTAG, going back to what Mr. Kidooka said about closing the gap between ASW and the fans and the community as the first step of that — not just with social media and everything that we’re doing — is ArcLive. We launched ArcLive broadcasts to interact with fans. So building upon these foundations and extending the channels in which fans can communicate with us as a team is really important to us. When I say building the community, I don’t want to make a community that’s very inward-facing and has a high barrier to entry. The idea is to share this with people and that is something I want to make sure is conveyed correctly and truly. It’s our intent to have people understand where we are as developers, and open the doors and have people join us and celebrate fighting games as opposed to having just a very tight-knit, hardcore community.
Kidooka: Marking the 30th anniversary of ASW, really looking back, we started out as a very, very small company, and I think it’s safe to say the growth was very slow. Here we are 30 years later, finally forming a US branch. I know I’ve said “stay tuned” many times throughout this interview. Now what I want to say with that is “Don’t stay tuned for the next one or two years,” but look at it as a span of long-term growth. Of course, BlazBlue and Guilty Gear are the flagship games of ASW, but there are many other games we are developing and many other areas we want to explore. In doing so, we also want fans to learn what ASW is and hear the story behind all the products. As a business, of course, it’s easy to say we work to make profits, and that is a part of what we’re doing, but more so than that, it is also to see why we create certain games, what we’re trying to do with this game. With the first ArcLive, we had Daisuke and Mori featured and interviewed, but I want to set up other developers and have the US community hear their story and perspective on what they think gaming is and why we’re developing certain games.
And that’s all, folks. Once again, a big thanks to Arc System Works for the interview and translation. Remember to refer to the Part 1 of our ASW interview, in case you missed it. And if you want to hear even more from Ishiwatari and Mori, read up on our Evo 2017 interview.
Acting as the inaugural event for Esports Arena Las Vegas and the opening leg of the Smash Masters League, expect the top of the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tree turning out for Battle of Vegas. Running from March 24th-25th, this event will see players competing for a share of a $25,000 prize pool, as well as for points on the global Smash Masters League leaderboard.
While the majority of Smash Masters League events will take place at Esports Arenas across the world, certain tournaments have partnered with Esports Arena to act as ranking events. So far, Full Bloom 4 and Respawn 6 are confirmed as partnered tournaments, with more announcements to come in the future.
For more information on the Smash Masters League, check out its official website and if you wish to participate in Battle for Vegas, registration is available on smash.gg. Keep in mind that unlike most Smash tournaments, Battle for Vegas is singles-only — so don’t rely on a friend to carry you to the big bucks!
This past weekend, 21 of Japan’s finest fighters gathered in Osaka for the 37th installment of the montly(ish) tournament series, Mix Up Night. This month, the event played host to the recently-released Dragon Ball FighterZ, giving a chance to see the power levels of the Land of the Rising Sun’s greatest warriors on full display.
You can see a full replay of all streamed matches below, courtesy of Jourdal.
After the Grand Finals, a victorious GO1 grabbed a microphone and channeled 2018 WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg by proclaiming that, “You’re next, SonicFox!” (which you can see at the 3:31:50 mark). Following the Echo Fox member’s dominant 6-0 victory over Evil Genius’s Chris G (to win Winter Brawl 12), he responded with the infamous Kenshiro quote from Fist of the North Star: “Goichi, you are already dead!” as well as the following tweet.
GOICHI COME. IVE BEEN MEANING TO TAKE YOUR HEAD AND SHOW YOU WHOS PERFECT https://t.co/wQOfFEHVjr
With the likes of CO|GO1 and Dogura, GGP|Kazunoko, and other top Japanese players hopping in their space pods to invade Atlanta, Georgia at Final Round 2018 in March, will Fox and the other Z Fighters be able to defend the Earth from the colonization of Planet Vegeta? We’ll have to find out March 16-18th, at the Georgia Convention Center on the next episode of Dragon Ball FighterZ!
The Final Round staff have even gotten in on the fun, tweeting this poster of GO1 and SonicFox facing off — a la Beerus and Goku, in the official poster for Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods.
If you’ve been wondering about how the ship system in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire work, look no further than the latest backer update from the good folks at Obsidian Entertainment. The best part is that it comes complete with sock puppets!
Our own Tournament of Power still has a lot of time left! Keep practicing!
We’ve seen a lot of tech videos for Dragon Ball FighterZ come through our tipline, covering everything from team-building strategy, fundamental game mechanics, and combo after combo after combo, from throughout the game’s cast! Since the roundups were put together based on what came in when, not sorted by character, we’re re-compiling them by fighter to make it easier to find something for your individual team members.
This time, let’s look at what we’ve seen so far for Vegeta (both Super Saiyan and SSGSS versions)!
Brandon Pollard shows off the strength of anchor Vegeta with these Sparking Blast combos.
desk continues his exploration of the Blue Saiyans with these SSGSS Vegeta combos.
Here’s Persona Entertainment’s combo exhibition:
Doctopus shares a solo 4.4K combo for 1-bar starting, with Vegeta’s divekick.
Clayton chapman shows of the combo potential of both forms of Vegeta…
As always, thanks to all content creators out there, and everyone that sent in tip! Keep an eye on Shoryuken for future DBFZ roundups!
