It is, but the designs so far are less overdesigned than Arcsys games.
King of Fighters 15 released today. My first impression of the PC port is pretty positive, though I’ve heard non-standard controllers have issues, and there’s a bit of options wonkiness, but nothing major.
The game seems to be very well received, lots of cool characters and lots of good options, but a lot of grime.
Evo 2022 was one of the best Evos. I watched the Evo finals for SFV because my brother wanted to, but otherwise I didn’t really care for the game.
Then Idom’s fairy tale run through loser’s bracket happened. A pad player who cut his teeth on online play takes it all the way from losers to a grand finals reset with a non-meta character. It’s like he’s playing a different game than everyone else.
Idom’s ability to read his opponent and take the advantage borders on preternatural. He mains Laura, and you’d be fooled into thinking she is basically a broken character the way he plays her. When he gets his V-Trigger he sets up these insane pushes across the screen where Laura’s slow electric projectile pressures the opponent to defend while Idom tries to find the angle to get a grapple. It seems so overwhelming that when an opponent manages to slip through Idom’s advancing offense it seems amazing. His streak against Kawano that takes him to the reset is phenomenal - Kawano’s ability to adapt and find a way to run the clock out on Idom got him a well-deserved win in the end. But Idom is going to get an Evo win sooner rather than later, I’d wager. He’s already put together quite the name for himself between taking it to the finals against Kawano and a more symbolic victory against Daigo earlier in the bracket.
Beyond that the Tekken finals were also very memorable. More for the operatic drama of it all. Everyone was whispering that Arslan Ash, a young upstart Pakistani, would make waves against the established top players like Knee and JDCR. Ash gets knocked into losers in the top 48, and surprisingly his training partner, another Pakistani named Khan, keeps amassing wins making it to Top 8 winners. Ash claws his way through losers and Khan suffers a fairly decisive defeat in the winner’s final against Knee. This places them against one another. To get a chance at the grand finals, Ash has to defeat his partner he came to Evo with - but Khan takes the victory, only to be placed up against Knee again, who he just was dominated by a match before, to compete in the grand finals. Khan switches to a much more aggressive and technical playstyle, and manages to rise to the occassion, barely scoring a reset. While Knee eventually gets the win in the reset finals, Khan went from basically a sidenote in Ash’s story to an indepedent figure in the FGC with this tournament. I’m a huge fan of his now as well. He’d be the big story of this Evo if it weren’t for Idom.
Of course it’s also worth noting the crowd energy at an in-person Evo was incredible. It’ll make a fighting game fan out of anyone.
I was watching from home and I agree 100% that SFV was just stellar. What a way for a game to go out on the big stage. That was awesome to see.
Tekken was good too, but while the gameplay in KOF XV was exciting, it was pretty clear who was the best player there. Guilty Gear: Strive just goes on tooooo long. It reminds me a little of Dragon Ball FighterZzzzzzz that way.
I enjoyed the crowd freaking out when Bridget was revealed as the first character in Season 2 of GGST, and then freaking out again when the release date was revealed to be the very next day. :)
Bridget’s story changes have been well, controversial, but very well received in most respectable quarters.
A friend of mine who works at a trans clinic and is involved heavily in the anime-FGC said she now has to teach some kids how to play Strive. It’s amazing how much faster she picks characters up, even if I can usually compete when we play mains. She’s a damn good teacher and incredibly nice.
SFV , Tekken, and Melty finals were really good. SNK definitely won the Evo announcements, followed by Arcsys.
I wish I liked KOFXV, they do a lot right, but the gameplay is super stale to me, not having changed much in 20 years. New Garou interests me, and Samsho getting rollback meant I bought it and will sit on it 9 months (I doubt it hits a better sale price)
Arcsys gets props for Bridget and DBFZ rollback. Cygames and Namco get the sideeye for ignoring rollback.
A generl consensus among my 3D fighter friends is we’re dreading Namco next gen- we have low confidence in Tekken 8 and Soul Calibur 7 (if that even happens), and VF we have no idea if we’ll get a decent product or even any product (we believe Evo 2024 there will be something).
iDom was already the Capcom Cup champion back in 2019 before the pandemic, so he’s no stranger to big results.
What’s a good fighting game to try to get into semi-seriously right now? Guilty Gear? Street Fighter? One of the Dragon Balls?
I’ve looked very seriously at Dragonball FighterZ on PS4/5 recently as the anime type flash and really cinematic moves that break the camera angle way beyond kick, kick, punch, kick seem super awesome.
However, then I watched a “beginner” video about “basic” gameplay that was chaining together multiple linked chains of button presses and directional movement in super regimented ways. At some point while watching it, I was reminded of why I dont play those games anymore. What is going on on the screen looks fun and cool, but the input, muscle memory, and split second timing practice required to do it really clashes with my old man (body, reflexes, time obligations) reality. Still, I keep thinking about trying it out even if the modern genre is totally at odds with youthful nostalgia.
Guilty Gear Strive is pretty approachable in my opinion. But not a lot of single player content there. For that I’d go with something like Injustice 2 or SoulCalibur VI.
Strive has a solid playerbase, good netcode, and is moderate difficulty.
Calibur has low playerbase , mediocre netcode, but is low difficulty. I enjoy it more but I’d recommend SFV or Strive.
I’m 45 and I can still complete online some, even if not at the levels I once could.
DBFZ will explode in popularity when it gets rollback, but it will be online warriors coming back, which could make it hard.
Arturo “Sabin” Sanchez is a longtime FGC member that also runs tournaments. Turns out he’s been skimming from the prize pools and paying winners late. His publicly streamed claim response to this coming out was that because Matcherino wasn’t paying him on time, he skimmed the money to pay himself and this arrangement was something everyone understood. Everyone else involved says differently. It’s been kind of a shitshow.
For those who are enjoying SF6, take a look at Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising which came out last week
It does a lot of things SF6 does well, including Modern Controls, has a fall guys mode, some less stressful gameplay, and has a free version on Steam.
I’ve been really impressed with the overall package.
Tekken 8 Demo also out now on Steam, but I’ve been not too impressed with what Tekken 8 is showing.
Oh hey, if you want to do a GBVSR gaming night, I’m up for it! I love it. Super fun. Though I’m struggling to find a main… so far I had the most fun with Charlotta, Cagliostro, and Zeta. Metera was fun too (I do like zoners). So yeah, if you want to play, ping me on Steam!
It does look pretty cool. I like the anime animation cancelling a bit more than in Strive, although I still want to play Strive at some point. (Too bad it’s only 50% on the Steam sale – I was hoping for more. Maybe I’ll just play it on Game Pass next time I renew.)
I’ll check both games out this weekend, at least do the training modes and understand what they’re trying to do. I certainly don’t have time for a new fighting game!
Oh heck yeah, Anila is one of the free characters right now. I watched a Sajam video of him playing her. It looked hilarious with all the sheep flying everywhere.
Anila and Lowain are the “comic relief” characters. They’re hilarious.
Tried downloading this, but unfortunately it seems to have a compatibility issue with APUs at the moment and crashes on launch. Hopefully they’ll fix it soon, or I’ll try it on the desktop once I get home.
Tekken did nothing for me in the first 20 minutes so I uninstalled it.
I fired up Granblue and I instantly knew I was playing a Japanese game because it told me it didn’t find any save data and had to create it for me. Thanks.