I totally forgot to mention the game announcements they made on the last day of EVO in yesterday's post. So after the end of every tournament, publishers of each of those respective games came out with an announcement for their new games or new content for their existing games (except for Nintendo because it's Nintendo). Sure, you can say that publishers are just taking advantage of an already hyped up audience to get them excited for more new stuff from them, but what better way to advertise it than to show it to the exact audience it was meant for?
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite's roster was unfortunately leaked and the list of characters were rather disappointing. It seems that the leaked info has been accurate so far as Gamora and Jedah was revealed after the Grand Finals of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was over. I'm pretty familiar with Jedah since I've played the Vampire Savior/Darkstalkers games, but Gamora is new to me as I know nothing about Guardians of the Galaxy. I have to say that both characters look really good. They look so good, in fact, that it kind of points out how awkward or poorly designed some of the other characters look. I have a problem with a lot of the game's presentation: character faces, some of the user-interface, the in-game announcers voice, the contrast in quality between the background environment with some of the characters, etc. Moreso, I'm worried about the netcode. It's been a year and a half since Street Fighter V has been released and after an entire year did they fix the major problems I had that prevented me from playing the game and now it works but with poor online play. Is Capcom really ready to release MvC:I? I'm cautiously excited. The gameplay certainly seems solid and there are a select few characters I'm really excited for (X and the leaked info on Monster Hunter character, whatever that means).
[Arc System Works - BBCF Jubei reveal, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, Arika's New Game]
At the end of the Grand Finals for BlazBlue Central Fiction, the announcer asked the crowd "Do you love BlazBlue?" *YEAAAAAAH* "Do you want more?" WHOA, HOLD ON A SECOND, WHAT'S GOING ON? I was thinking "Is it a new BlazBlue game? I didn't think there'd be more." Then I saw the yellow coat and realized it was Jubei, which I was still really excited for because I thought the idea of him being in the game was dropped and I really like his character. So here I am, already cheering and screaming with excitement and then this trailer starts playing without any introduction:
I was so confused. "They just showed Jubei coming to BlazBlue: Central Fiction and now they're showing an upcoming project?" It seemed like another BlazBlue game. But then all of a sudden Yu Narukami from Persona 4 and Hyde from Under Night In-Birth showed up on both sides of the screen and I'm just freaking out and screaming even more! And then I've been waiting for that RWBY fighting game announcement that was hinted and leaked a week earlier. Hearing Ruby's voice immediately made me realize that they were going to be part of the crossover, which I was absolutely ecstatic for because I know that they'll handle the characters with even more care. This one trailer alone won my heart and nothing else that day compared. I never realized how much I wanted a cross over between these IPs until now.
You know, I don't even remember if this was shown after BlazBlue or Tekken 7. But Arika did show off more of their newest project that was first believed to be an April Fools joke earlier this year. It looked waaay too good to be a joke, and yet the sound effects and music kind of made me wonder. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Street Fighter EX and I only played EX3 on the PS2. But from the actual gameplay footages I've seen of this project, it seems like a wonderful addition to the fighting game scene. I'm sure a lot of fans are excited to see Skullomania. I'm just happy to see Hokuto as she was my favorite other than Nanase.
[NamcoBandai - Tekken 7 - Geese Howard Guest Character Reveal]
So I didn't know about the "Guest Character DLC" thing and everyone that kept up with the news was expecting someone but didn't know who. I wouldn't have guessed Geese Howard, but it was surprising and exciting.....and a little sad because he looks so much better here than he did in The King of Fighters XIV. Honestly, my initial reaction to this was the same exact reaction I had when he was revealed in KoF14 with "oh god, he's back" running through my mind. So Geese Howard is from Fatal Fury and has been in multiple SNK games since then. His theme song causes as much PTSD in me as much as M. Bison's theme song from Street Fighter II does as Geese Howard was one of the most frustrating boss battles in fighting games from my younger days. He looks great and fits well with the rest of the Tekken cast.
NamcoBandai also revealed Trunks in Dragon Ball Fighters Z, but it doesn't seem worth mentioning. Just knowing that he's in the roster and that we'll be getting the game next year is good enough news.
[Capcom - Street Fighter V - Abigail Reveal]
So I didn't know exactly who the new character was going to be, but I kind of had a feeling that it wouldn't be a character I'd be interested in from the silhouette they teased for Season 2 DLCs. The silhouette filled up the entire panel, but even then I wouldn't have guessed that he'd be this big. He's so large that his head reaches the life bars in the game. Abigail is apparently one of the enemies from Final Fight, much like Hugo and Poison. I generally don't like large and slow characters unless the damage output compensates for it. He definitely puts out a lot of damage, but he's so large and slow that it's really hard to engage the faster and more obnoxious characters in the cast (I watched Daigo play him against a Guile) He's certainly full of personality. But even then, this is probably not going to be a character I'll be picking up with my Fight Money.
Man, this was Nintendo's chance for free advertisement and they passed up on it. I can only hope that there's some sort of news for Super Smash Bros. in the near future.
Although seemingly monotonous and tired, it's become such a tradition for me to enjoy the Summer events every year now. I felt so excited leading up to it, relished in it, and now feel a bit sad that it's over. I don't feel nearly as empty as I do every year (maybe I'm getting used to the feeling), but I can definitely say I enjoyed the Summer events this year: E3, Summer Steam Sales, Summer Games Done Quick, and EVO Championship. E3 was discussed in last month's post.
To say I "bought some games" would be an understatement. Between May and now, I've accumulated 50 games. In early May, I picked up Mass Effect: Andromeda for $35 just to play online multiplayer with a friend since I wasn't quite ready to play the campaign. Multiplayer is a survival kind of mode and I was a little disappointed. It's still fun, but there aren't that many levels and enemy types so it can get a bit stale. Mid-May, I pre-ordered Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada and grabbed Tales of Xillia and XenoBlade Chronicles at check-out. I didn't get to play much of Samurai Warriors: SoS, but I plan to right after I finish up NieR: Automata. I was willing to pick up an Early Access game called Dead Cells that is influenced by Metroidvania games. It's a challenging Rogue-like Action-platformer that's a lot of fun, but is one of those unforgiving games I might never finish. It's hard to imagine that I had bought Shadow Warrior 2 back in May since it felt like a long time ago that I got together with friends and played it a bunch. It's a wild game and I had a lot of fun with it. At the end of May, I was really excited to pick up Tekken 7 and Guilty Gear Xrd -Rev 2- and actually played a decent amount of them so far. I got through all of arcade and story mode for Tekken 7 and have been just enjoying Treasure Battle and trying to improve playing certain characters. It's been a very long time since I've actually sat down and tried to learn a character in a Tekken game and it felt really nice. Guilty Gear Xrd -Rev2- I have mostly played multi-player with a few arcade mode so far, so there's actually a LOT more I'm going to get out of playing it. I had went through GGXrd -SIGN-'s story right before Rev 2 released so that I'd be up-to-date story. I did the same with BlazBlue Chronophantasma (which I swear took 20-30+ hours to do) before I picked up Central Fiction during the Steam Summer Sales. I pre-ordered Valkyria Revolution and sadly had to push it back in queue since I'm getting through NieR Automata right now. For Steam Summer Sales, I picked up a lot of classic type genre games like Fighting games, Shoot-em-Ups, and Platformers. One particular game to note I picked up was Killing Floor 2. It's finally out of Early Access and most of my friends had it already. After picking it up, we've played it together quite a lot and has become the most played game the past month. I picked up a lot of other multiplayer games to play with friends and it's been kind of wild how much I bought to do so. Summer Steam Sales was surprisingly great this year. I was really happy with most of my purchases, if not all, and I've been having a lot of fun getting through them. Summer Games Done Quick was a bit disappointing this time around. I saw a lot of games I wasn't interested in seeing run throughout the event, but then I quickly realized that most of them were streamed in the middle of the night. I skipped a lot of runs throughout the week either because I haven't played through the game yet (preventing spoilers) or I just wasn't interested. It was still a week I enjoyed relaxing, talking to friends while we watched the streams and played games together.
EVO felt like a mixed experience, but it was overall entertaining and a great way to end the Summer events. I paid more attention to Anime EVO this year and saw some really fun tournaments for games that I like that generally don't get much attention. Unfortunately, I don't see any uploads of the tournaments for Anime EVO for this year. At the end of the first day was the King of Fighters 14 Finals. It was a pretty good final and that reversal on the very last round was EVO moment material.
Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2's Grand Finals was okay. I was sad that there weren't any Millia players in Top 8, but there was a Jack-O player. Omito's Johnny was fairly consistent throughout his journey through Top 8, so it wasn't too surprising to see the outcome. Leo can be a tricky character to deal with, so the Grand Finals had some interesting moments.
I didn't really bother watching Injustice 2. I watched it for a bit and got bored. I kind of knew that would happen since I didn't particularly enjoy watching Injustice 1 either as it felt slow and kind of clunky. It was fun playing through Injustice 1, but it's not a game I particularly like watching. Moreso, a lot of stages in the 2nd game are so dark!
Super Smash Bros. Melee was a bit disappointing. It was clear that the Smash elites would make it to Top 8 and the three former winners of EVO were fighting hard for another win to their record (Mang0 has won 2 while Armada and HungryBox have won once each). Armada put Mang0 into losers brackets early in the Top 8 and it was a bit painful to watch as Mang0 was making the same mistakes he made going up against Armada 2 years ago at EVO. Aside from multiple Self-Destructs (SD), Mang0 tends to get zoned out to the edges of the stage by Armada and easily gets punished whenever Armada waits for him in the middle of the stage.
Mang0 managed to beat HungryBox in losers bracket to make it to Grand Finals and hopefully learn something from the matches he had against Armada earlier. But as expected, the same mistakes were being made (although lessened) and Armada had complete control over the flow of the fight in too many instances. Armada earned his 2nd EVO win and he stuck with his Peach pick this time around. I suppose that's at least better than seeing another Fox mirror match.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was also pretty disappointing in the same exact fashion as Super Smash Bros. Melee. The finals for UMvC3 was fairly early and would end around 10AM in the morning, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to wake up for that. The night before, I saw that Justin Wong was still in the tournament and I wondered if he made it to Top 8. I was going to go back to bed if he wasn't and sadly he was knocked out before then. But then I saw ChrisG's name on the list and was curious if he was able to win a 2nd time at EVO.
ChrisG was put into loser's bracket by RyanLV's unusual team consisting of Morrigan, Phoenix and Chun-Li. I don't remember the last time I saw Chun-Li at a tournament. In fact, I kind of forgot that she was even in the game. RyanLV would utilize Chun-Li's aerial kicks to stay suspended in mid-air to burn out ChrisG's infamous wall of Morrigan's Soul Fist and then engage after the super wears off. Climbing back into Grand Finals, ChrisG tried to find an opening in RyanLV's defense as he did his usual combo of Soul Fists and Doom missiles, but RyanLV's tactics and engagements seemed to really confuse ChrisG and RyanLV was able to capitalize on some of the desperation attacks ChrisG put out. It wasn't exactly a one-sided match, but it really felt as if RyanLV was able to control the match in his favor the entire time. His team has a high risk, high reward output just from having Phoenix in his team. Phoenix is the squishiest character in the game, but with one of the scariest damage output when she transforms into Dark Phoenix from a level 5 super meter. That risk certainly paid off as it was the key to winning the last round for RyanLV. Although it was a bit boring for a Grand Finals, I have to praise RyanLV for finding an answer to ChrisG's strategy that many competitors couldn't get past for so many years.
BlazBlue: Central Fiction was so exhausting to watch. It's really scary just how good players can get in this game where even one mistake might cost you the entire match. A friend and I joked about how glad we were that the Arakune player didn't make it into Grand Finals. Arakune's main weapon is "curse" where a homing fog follows the enemy player until they touch them which causes bugs to fly all over the screen and either open up the player to an attack or keep them in block-stun while their health is being chipped away. It's a bit boring and disheartening to see.
Ryusei is quite the character. I've never seen a pro fighting game player so energetic and happy all the time. Even when losing he's seen smiling and laughing. His pressure game with Carl is pretty disgusting and leaves little room to engage. Fenritti played Jin and relied a lot on resets and poking into hit confirms. So it was quite a treat to see him fight against such pressure and make some great plays throughout the match. BlazBlue CF was one of the better Grand Finals we saw this year at EVO.
I felt like I was able to enjoy watching Tekken 7 a lot more this year since I actually got to play the game and understand the mechanics a lot better.
Having actually played the game now, I'm able to see the little details that make this game fun to watch as much as it is to play. The environments are so beautiful. The effects and art style makes the game feel more modern but not so realistic that it takes away the magic of it being a videogame. The slow-motion, camera zoom when both players are close to being knocked out and both pull out an attack really adds to the suspense and excitement. It was a pretty good Grand Finals, but I have to say that the last game was pretty brutal.
I was rather conflicted on who to root for on Super Smash Bros. Wii U's Grand Finals. I like ZeRo as a player and would be happy to see him win at EVO a 2nd time. But at the same time, I like Bayonetta as a character and Salem is one of the few pro players to stick with her after she was nerfed so hard where she fell from top tier down to middle tier.
It was a grueling fight between the two players and it brought them to the last round. ZeRo with still two stocks left and Salem already up to 101% on his last stock, who would win? It was definitely an EVO moment right at the end.
Street Fighter V was certainly something else this year. There were a lot more character variation in Top 8. New up and coming pro-players made their way to the finals. And the Grand Finals will certainly be a match fans will talk about years later.
Having reached Top 8 three times in the past 6 years that I've watched EVO, Tokido was quite familiar with the fierce competition that awaited him. Up and coming pro player Punk has been garnering quite the attention the past half year and got to Grand Finals without losing a single match throughout the EVO event. The first set, before the bracket reset, was quite nerve wracking. Both players demonstrated why they reached Grand Finals with careful engagements with little to no error. It was quite the tug-n-pull between Punk immaculate reactions and execution in defensive play against Tokido's fast and aggressive pressure. After the bracket reset, Tokido just went super saiyan and went in without hesitation. It's as if it was an entirely different person playing. After the match was over and Tokido had a chance to speak to the crowd. He said something quite simple, but carried so much weight, meaning and sincerity behind it that it left commentator James Chen in tears.
"Fighting Games is something so great." -Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi 2017
It's not a new sight to see James Chen cry as he's a passionate man who cares deeply for the Fighting game scene and the community that supports it. It was an exciting and emotional end to EVO and I was happy to share the experience with my friends (through voice chat) and even my sister this year. She got to go to EVO and watch the tournaments on site and we exchanged more text messages with each other talking about it than we normally do from an entire year. EVO was so much fun to watch this year.
My Short Rant on Fighting Games:
I've talked a lot about fighting games in the past. I love seeing the different techniques and skills each character has, the story behind each one, the music, the art, the presentation. Fighting games have so much depth to them. But there's something else that Fighting games brings to videogames that I don't talk about much, and that's a community. Fighting games were created just for the pure entertainment like any other game back in days of Arcades. Many other arcade games have competitions on the highest score, but fighting games are a little different. Fighting games have players directly compete against one another. This sort of competition is much more intimate and personal. You would think that this sort of competitive game would cause animosity between players (and of course it does in some cases), but somehow it has brought many strangers together because of the love they have for a particular game. Many players would try to prove themselves to be the best at the game that they love playing and soon it became a chain reaction of competitions between cities, states, and now regions. What was a showcase to show who was the best slowly became a community of fans who get together to meet new people, better themselves against new opponents, and the celebration of the games that they love. Now we have people who play on a professional level and people who watch who may not even play the games. Through fighting games fans gather to share their passion and love for the games with others. Competitors find reason to improve themselves to be able to triumph over others. I do talk a lot about how videogames bring people together, but fighting games take it one step further as it creates an intimate relationship by nature because it has one player directly in confrontation with another player. By now, pro players are so used to seeing each other at tournaments that it's like a mini-reunion every time they go compete. Through fighting games, friends are made, names are cheered, journeys are taken, rivalries are created, and tears are shed because there are so many people willing to invest so much time and energy into these games that they're so passionate about. It is because of this that Tokido's words hold so much weight behind them. Fighting games are truly great.
