The last time I wrote about Melty here, it was in the early months of 1.05's release. Now 1.07 is out and the game is looking better and better.
1.05 was very short lived, and the response to it was very mixed. There were just as many people who loved the changes as those who thought they were terrible. The game was drastically different to the point where many people felt it didn't play like Melty anymore. There was still one thing that everyone agreed on though, and that was the game needed more time for playtesting before release. Specifically things like C-Kohaku's 5c giving easy OTG relaunches and Powerd Ciel in general made it really obvious that the game wasn't thorougly tested. The new OTG relaunch mechanic, which I felt gave the game some extra spice, was also kind of a mixed bag. The main problem was that some characters could abuse it to no end(C-Kohaku), while others literally gained nothing from it(Wara).
Surprisingly 1.05 ended up being a very balanced game. The top tier was very silly, but 1.05 gave a lot of improvements to characters who have been traditionally terrible in the series. C-Roa, C-Seifuku Akiha, and C and H-Arc were some characters who were completely garbage in the previous 2-3 revisions of Melty, and this version was able to give them some nice tools from both system changes and character specific changes to make them competitive.
The game didn't last long enough for there to be a tier list made by surveying top players, but there was one that the entire Japanese BBS basically agreed upon. It was:
S Kohaku PCiel HisuKoha Ryougi
A+ Shiki Arc Nanaya Warc Satsuki Miyako Len Aoko
A Everybody else
A- VSion Mech-Hisui
Top Nero player SAT also made his own list, which is almost exactly the same:
A+ Kohaku HisuKoha Ryougi PCiel
A Everyobdy else
A- (Nero) Mech-Hisui VSion
And top Miyako player Kanna made his own list as well:
A+ Leo's Ryougi, PCiel
A Everybody else
A- VSion
Leo best character in the game!
1.07 is out right now, and it's brought a few new things to the table. First off is a new character in the form of Archetype Earth, who was previously a broken boss in the PS2 version of AA. She's probably the most unique character in the game, having an omnidimensional flight mechanic that drains meter. OTG relaunches are still in the game, but they seem to have been toned down considerably. The damage in general seems to have been lowered a bit, compared to 1.05.
Archetype Earth, or Hime as the Japanese are calling her, is a really interesting character. I originally thought that her flight mode was balanced by it 1)draining meter and 2)disabling her ability to block. But from all the footage that's been released, it does seem like she can block during flight. Maybe the vulnerability only lasts for a few frames in the beginning of her flight? I'll have to actually play her to figure this out.
Hime seems pretty strong right now, as her flight gives her unparalleled movement options relative to the cast. Her normals and specials also have a ton of range and are easily hit confirmable into combos. Her damage seems to be on the low side, but I suspect this is because it's an early stage of the game where people haven't yet ironed out optimal combos. Her defense modifier seems pretty terrible: if I had to estimate she looks like she's between Warc and Wara.
If the main theme of 1.05 was buffing characters who were traditionally bad, I would say the theme of 1.07 is charged moves. Almost every single character in the game has gained new charged moves, which is a pretty funny way to add new moves into the game without drawing any new animations. It's hard to say how much these new moves add to the game from the footage we have, but some characters like C-Wara and C-Akiha get some nice new combos.
The overall reception to 1.07 right now has been overwhelmingly positive. Some people on the BBS think it's the best version by far. I'm really happy with the direction Melty has been going since 1.05, so I'm pretty hype for 1.07's PC release. Archetype Earth is a really cool character too, and as the sole character in the game with any kind of cleavage, I am obligated to play her!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Changing Seasons
I haven't really mentioned this in my blog, but I spent the past 2 years at Mt. San Antonio College taking random classes there. My original plan after graduating was to go to Pharmacy school, and there were still some prerequisite classes that Pharm required so I ended up going to Mt. SAC community college to take care of that. Mt SAC is like 10 mins from my house so this was pretty convenient. One of the classes that I had to take was Anatomy, but I had the worst luck with registration dates so I had to wait a whole year before I finally got a good reg date to add in. During that year I was basically taking useless classes with the expectations that having some units under my belt would help me get a better registration date, but this was clearly not the case!
Anyway, I eventually got into Anatomy, but during that wasted year I was starting to consider other paths too like continuing Chemistry into a Masters program or just getting a Chemistry related job. I applied to a lot of places and even enlisted the help of a headhunter but it was impossible to get anything without experience. So the other thing I was thinking about was that my Chemistry knowledge was starting to fade at this time, so one option would be to keep it sharp through tutoring. I knew Mt. SAC had a Learning Assistance program so I applied to be a Chemistry tutor, and they actually accepted me! Except, that there was apparently no demand for Chemistry tutors so they made me a Math tutor instead.
So I then spent the next year taking more random classes + Anatomy, while working part time as a Math tutor. It was a good experience and I met a lot of cool people. And in the end, it was a good choice for me to consider other career options, because after taking Anatomy I knew I would not like the Pharmacy program. Don't get me wrong, I didn't do bad: I actually got one of the highest scores in the class. I just disliked the class, and I was like man... if I go into Pharmacy, it's just gonna be more and more of this same kind of stuff.
The main thing I disliked about Anatomy was the sheer amount of memorization. That's not to say that you can do good just by memorizing. It's just that, at the core of every subject and discipline is problem solving. In math(undergraduate, at least) you can learn the basic background and some formulas for a mathematical concept, and in almost no time at all you can start applying those formulas to solve problems. In anatomy, you have to memorize a million vocabulary words, functions, and locations before you can even begin to apply that knowledge. Maybe if I was a bit younger, back when my mind was sharp, I could handle this but this is not something that I can stomach anymore.
We're almost in present time now! During my time at Mt SAC when I was tutoring, I decided to continue my studies in Chemistry and go for a Masters degree. I got accepted into both schools I applied to, and chose Cal Poly Pomona since it's the closest one. Saving money is good.
In the acceptance letter, the Dean of the Chemistry department also said that there was a demand for new Chemistry teacher assistants. I had been tutoring math for a year by now, and this looked like a good opportunity to brush up on my General Chemistry skills while doing my Masters program, so I applied. That ended up being an extremely painful process in itself and it's a long story, so the gist of it is that the department was actually going through a bit of drama the past few years and was also in the process of moving. So it was hard to get in contact with people and get consistent answers.
So imagine my surprise when I found out that I got accepted! Initially I expected that the TA job would be pretty simple: I would grade papers, transport materials for the professor of the course, and hold a discussion section as a supplement to the main lecture. But it turned out to be much more than I expected. CSU Pomona doesn't even have discussion sections, for one. The classes that they made me TA were two Freshman Chemistry lab courses. At UCLA, the lab courses have a lecture that is handled by the professor, and actual labs that are supervised by the TAs. Well at Cal Poly the lab only meets once a week, so the lectures and the labs are handled by TAs. So in essence, I'm more of a lab instructor than a TA at this point. This also means that I have to hold office hours and check my school e-mail often for any questions asked by students. I really wanted to have both my math tutoring job at Mt SAC and Chemistry TA position at CSU Pomona at the same time, but you can see that the TA position had a lot more responsibilities than I expected. So I had to quit my tutoring job, and this made me sad because I really liked the people I worked with.
So as you can tell, my life has been going through some major changes recently. I'm still trying to adjust to this new lifestyle of being a Masters student and a Chemistry lab instructor at the same time. It's been going very well so far but I can get very tired during the week, which makes me appreciate weekends a lot more now.
I think the best thing that I've taken from both my math tutoring job and this new TA position is that it's made me a much better student. I remember from math tutoring when I would get students who were clearly not going to class and just going to tutoring for homework help. Initially I was really annoyed at them, and then I realized, "That was me when I was in undergrad." So being able to experience education on the other side has really helped me out.
One last random thing I wanted to mention is that Wednesday Night Fights has moved to Super Arcade, which is right across from Mt. SAC. They have Skullgirls there on a somewhat frequent basis, and I've really wanted to go but my Wednesdays this quarter are super busy to the point where I'm too tired to do anything after school that day. This makes me sad, but I'll find some way to play Skullgirls!
Anyway, I eventually got into Anatomy, but during that wasted year I was starting to consider other paths too like continuing Chemistry into a Masters program or just getting a Chemistry related job. I applied to a lot of places and even enlisted the help of a headhunter but it was impossible to get anything without experience. So the other thing I was thinking about was that my Chemistry knowledge was starting to fade at this time, so one option would be to keep it sharp through tutoring. I knew Mt. SAC had a Learning Assistance program so I applied to be a Chemistry tutor, and they actually accepted me! Except, that there was apparently no demand for Chemistry tutors so they made me a Math tutor instead.
So I then spent the next year taking more random classes + Anatomy, while working part time as a Math tutor. It was a good experience and I met a lot of cool people. And in the end, it was a good choice for me to consider other career options, because after taking Anatomy I knew I would not like the Pharmacy program. Don't get me wrong, I didn't do bad: I actually got one of the highest scores in the class. I just disliked the class, and I was like man... if I go into Pharmacy, it's just gonna be more and more of this same kind of stuff.
The main thing I disliked about Anatomy was the sheer amount of memorization. That's not to say that you can do good just by memorizing. It's just that, at the core of every subject and discipline is problem solving. In math(undergraduate, at least) you can learn the basic background and some formulas for a mathematical concept, and in almost no time at all you can start applying those formulas to solve problems. In anatomy, you have to memorize a million vocabulary words, functions, and locations before you can even begin to apply that knowledge. Maybe if I was a bit younger, back when my mind was sharp, I could handle this but this is not something that I can stomach anymore.
We're almost in present time now! During my time at Mt SAC when I was tutoring, I decided to continue my studies in Chemistry and go for a Masters degree. I got accepted into both schools I applied to, and chose Cal Poly Pomona since it's the closest one. Saving money is good.
In the acceptance letter, the Dean of the Chemistry department also said that there was a demand for new Chemistry teacher assistants. I had been tutoring math for a year by now, and this looked like a good opportunity to brush up on my General Chemistry skills while doing my Masters program, so I applied. That ended up being an extremely painful process in itself and it's a long story, so the gist of it is that the department was actually going through a bit of drama the past few years and was also in the process of moving. So it was hard to get in contact with people and get consistent answers.
So imagine my surprise when I found out that I got accepted! Initially I expected that the TA job would be pretty simple: I would grade papers, transport materials for the professor of the course, and hold a discussion section as a supplement to the main lecture. But it turned out to be much more than I expected. CSU Pomona doesn't even have discussion sections, for one. The classes that they made me TA were two Freshman Chemistry lab courses. At UCLA, the lab courses have a lecture that is handled by the professor, and actual labs that are supervised by the TAs. Well at Cal Poly the lab only meets once a week, so the lectures and the labs are handled by TAs. So in essence, I'm more of a lab instructor than a TA at this point. This also means that I have to hold office hours and check my school e-mail often for any questions asked by students. I really wanted to have both my math tutoring job at Mt SAC and Chemistry TA position at CSU Pomona at the same time, but you can see that the TA position had a lot more responsibilities than I expected. So I had to quit my tutoring job, and this made me sad because I really liked the people I worked with.
So as you can tell, my life has been going through some major changes recently. I'm still trying to adjust to this new lifestyle of being a Masters student and a Chemistry lab instructor at the same time. It's been going very well so far but I can get very tired during the week, which makes me appreciate weekends a lot more now.
I think the best thing that I've taken from both my math tutoring job and this new TA position is that it's made me a much better student. I remember from math tutoring when I would get students who were clearly not going to class and just going to tutoring for homework help. Initially I was really annoyed at them, and then I realized, "That was me when I was in undergrad." So being able to experience education on the other side has really helped me out.
One last random thing I wanted to mention is that Wednesday Night Fights has moved to Super Arcade, which is right across from Mt. SAC. They have Skullgirls there on a somewhat frequent basis, and I've really wanted to go but my Wednesdays this quarter are super busy to the point where I'm too tired to do anything after school that day. This makes me sad, but I'll find some way to play Skullgirls!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Cynthia the Mission
is a terrible, terrible manga. I remember exactly what compelled me to read it. I saw this image:
I had to know what events in the plot would lead up to this, so that was my hook. If I had to describe Cynthia the Mission, it's like a really silly version of Kill Bill, where a girl is trying to escape her assassin heritage. Except that in this case, this girl is just starting high school and is bald. This girl, who is named Cynthia, is a master martial artist and has several friends in her school... who are also amazing martial artists. The manga is really violent and there are a lot of different fighting styles displayed.
Anywho, Cynthia the Mission has that shonen manga problem where characters have constant flashbacks of their past when fighting. Along with flashbacks, there's also long explanations of their fighting styles: if a character hits his opponent with a new move, he must spend the next 10 pages explaining the origin of the attack and how it works! Characters frequently break the fourth wall and make really silly facial expressions when fighting. There's also a HILARIOUS set of chapters about a girl with hypnotic power attempting to assassinate George W. Bush. So I'm guessing the author wanted to let the readers know that it wasn't intended to be read seriously but that doesn't make it any less terrible.
However! Even though this manga is so awful I read it in ernest and ended up finishing the whole thing this weekend because there is a really great character in this mess of a story. It's Cybele Rou, who is Cynthia's older sister. As you might guess, she's a master martial artist and assassin. She's the main antagonist of the story, as she is the one who wants Cynthia to be a master assassin.
Anyway, Cybele is amazing. She's easily one of my favorite manga characters, as she's pretty much everything I want in a strong female character. She also likes cosplaying while fighting: off the top of my head, I remember her wearing a maid outfit, a teacher's uniform, lingerie, cheongsam, and a bunnygirl outfit. It's most likely fanservice, but I like to think of it as being so confident that she just wears whatever she wants, haha.
Cynthia the Mission is pretty obscure, but I guess Cybele was popular enough to get her own figure!
It kind of threw me off to see her with green hair. I kept thinking of her as a blonde in the manga, especially since Cynthia is a blonde too.
 |
| Kinda reminds me of Ichi the Killer. |
Anywho, Cynthia the Mission has that shonen manga problem where characters have constant flashbacks of their past when fighting. Along with flashbacks, there's also long explanations of their fighting styles: if a character hits his opponent with a new move, he must spend the next 10 pages explaining the origin of the attack and how it works! Characters frequently break the fourth wall and make really silly facial expressions when fighting. There's also a HILARIOUS set of chapters about a girl with hypnotic power attempting to assassinate George W. Bush. So I'm guessing the author wanted to let the readers know that it wasn't intended to be read seriously but that doesn't make it any less terrible.
However! Even though this manga is so awful I read it in ernest and ended up finishing the whole thing this weekend because there is a really great character in this mess of a story. It's Cybele Rou, who is Cynthia's older sister. As you might guess, she's a master martial artist and assassin. She's the main antagonist of the story, as she is the one who wants Cynthia to be a master assassin.
Anyway, Cybele is amazing. She's easily one of my favorite manga characters, as she's pretty much everything I want in a strong female character. She also likes cosplaying while fighting: off the top of my head, I remember her wearing a maid outfit, a teacher's uniform, lingerie, cheongsam, and a bunnygirl outfit. It's most likely fanservice, but I like to think of it as being so confident that she just wears whatever she wants, haha.
Cynthia the Mission is pretty obscure, but I guess Cybele was popular enough to get her own figure!
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| On the left, Cybele in bunnygirl costume during the Tournament arc. On the right, Akiha lookalike Araya Kuga. |
Monday, August 29, 2011
EFZ Akane
However, Akane is also the hardest character I've ever played. Her combos and setups require pixel perfect spacing and impeccable timing. To add insult to injury, everything is character specific and situational too. Characters in EFZ have widely varying hitboxes, weights, and wakeup times. This is a character that absolutely requires training mode. I've spent a lot of time on and off the past few years trying to learn her and even now I can only do about 15% of what she's capable of.
If I had to describe Akane in one sentence, it would be that she's a mutant lovechild of Millia and Gouki/Akuma. She has many of their signature moves, and is a lot like Millia in that she fights with her shapeshifting hair and her mixups and movement options are so good. She has Akuma's demonflip, and it's also a major part of her gameplay.
I guess I'll start by describing her most notable normals. She has great A normals, as they're very fast and have good utility in combos and pressure. 5a is a good antiair to use after RGing an opponent's air attack. Her 2b is a forward moving slide that recovers quickly, and her 2c sweep has a lot of range so everything she does on the ground combos into it easily.
66c is one of her most important normals. As the input suggests, she can only do it while dashing. It looks a lot like her ground throw, in that she pushes the opponent away with both hands outstretched. 66c is integral to Akane's corner combos, because when she hits an airborne opponent with this, the opponent goes flying and if they were near a wall, then the opponent will then bounce upward off the wall and slowly float back down. The wallbounce is untechable for a VERY long time so Akane can almost always do a followup combo into a big setup. In this clip, Akane does a very difficult and optimized combo off of an overhead starter involving three 66c wallbounces into a mixup.
j.c is another very important normal. Akane takes her hair, forms it into a big hammer, and strikes downward with it. What makes this move so good is that it has crossup hitboxes and also knocks down opponents if they were hit in the air. I mentioned in the earlier EFZ post that the game does not have crossup protection, so everybody in the game that has an air normal that hits crossup can abuse this to no end. Akane is no different, and here's a good example of her using it. In this clip, she gets a knockdown on UNKNOWN with an EX move. She then does a dash momentum forward jump to make it appear as if her j.c is going to hit crossup. But it's a fake, and it ends up hitting from the left. She then combos into a simple knockdown into another series of mixups.
I mentioned earlier that Akane has Akuma's demonflip. She does, but hers are actually better than Akuma's for several reasons. One of which is that she actually has two of them. First off, 214x. It's called Assault Leap, but this is the classic Akuma demonflip. The button strength determines how far it goes. If Akane doesn't press anything during the descent, then she'll land and do a slide which is highly punishable on block, just like Akuma. But if it hits, it allows her to do a followup combo(in the corner). Like Akuma, she has many followups for the descent portion of the flip:
-If she presses C, then she'll do the classic Akuma divekick followup. It doesn't hit high, though.
-If she inputs 4C, then she'll do an upgraded version of the Akuma demonflip throw followup. It's upgraded in that it 1)throws both ground and airborne opponents 2)allows Akane to combo afterwards.
-If she presses 236x, then she'll throw out a hairpin just like Millia's Silent Force. It's not as good as Millia's though, because she doesn't get free movement after. Akane doesn't need to pick up the pin, however: she can throw as many as she wants. 236c makes her do an EX version of the pin, which is actually a lot like Anji's butterfly: if the opponent blocks the EX pin, it will bounce up and then fall back down for another hit.
The other "demonflip" she has is done with 412x, and it's called Trick Leap. This is quite a bit different than the classic one with the parabolic arc. Instead, Akane ascends almost instantly, and then falls straight down for the descent. As usual, button strength determines the distance travelled, and she has all of the same followups for the descent from Assaut Leap. However, Trick Leap has an additional followup which is done by pressing 2c. This makes Akane form a hair drill on her feet, while she descends straight down. It's very reminiscent of Morrigan's Pursuit attack.
One thing I failed to mention about the demonflips is that they can both be done in the air. This is ridiculous, and it basically gives Akane a third jump. So along with the universal movement options, Akane has two demonflips which can be done both on the ground and in air, and they have tons of followups including a projectile and a divekick. The demon flips are integral to Akane's gameplay. They aid her movement so much to the point where Akane should never get antiaired if played right. The dive kick and drill hair followups are also really important in combos and left/right mixups too.
Akane has Millia's Bad Moon, and it's the exact same input in j.236x. Except it's called Bad Waffle, as Akane encloses herself in two huge hair waffles and crashes down towards the ground. In some ways, it's better and worse than Millia's. It's worse in the sense that it isn't as fast: TK Bad Waffle is pretty easy to react to in EFZ, while TK Bad Moon is really difficult. But it's better in that there are multiple versions of it. First off, j.236c(EX Bad Waffle) is pretty useless, so I won't bother talking about that. j.236a does the classic Bad Moon attack, and it's very useful to tack on at the end of air-to-ground strings for a surprise overhead. Is your opponent getting used to blocking high twice against your IAD j.ab airstrings? Do IAD j.ab j.236a instead for that surprise high hit. The E force meter charges fairly quickly in this game, so Akane will usually have enough to do an IC to cancel the Bad Waffle recovery and go into a combo. Bad Waffle floats the opponent, so ICing the recovery is one of the most common combo starters. j.236b is interesting in that it makes Akane float back in the air a bit before she attacks. This sounds kind of useless at first, since it's slower than the A version, but it's amazing for faking a crossup. For example, say you just knocked down your opponent and you are now airdashing to the left over them on okizeme. It seems like you are going to cross them up(and land on their left), but before you land you press j.236b. j.236b makes Akane float back in the other direction a bit, so it makes her cross up yet again, resulting in her doing her Bad Moon attack from the right side. Very very evil.
Akane's 236 specials are pretty unique in that she calls forth her friend Shiko to help her out. The A version is a lot like MvC2 Commando's Captain Strike, where Shiko flies across the screen. It's a very nice antiair, and it has some uses in corner combos too. The B version makes Shiko dash up from your side to the opponent and punch them. It has quite a bit of delay on it, so it can be used for throw setups. You can knock your opponent down in the corner, summon Shiko with 236b, and then throw the opponent right before Shiko hits them. The C version is an EX move, and it makes Shiko ride across the screen on her scooter... from the other side of the screen. This is an amazing move, as it makes Akane impossible to zone out. Characters can't keep her away using fireballs because EX Shiko can easily be summoned on reaction. It knocks down too, so Akane can go straight into okizeme for it. EX Shiko is also needed for Akane's general midscreen BNB.
Akane has 3 supers, and they're all pretty useful. 641236 is the Shiko super, and each button does a different thing. The A version is the Lvl1, and it's not really that great... The B version is the Lvl2, and it's actually very good as there's a fair amount of startup invincibility. This is pretty much the only move that Akane can reversal with. The C version is the Lvl3, and it makes Shiko do a frog uppercut after a bit of delay. This is actually unblockable, so there's some good uses for it. More on this later.
214214 makes Akane set up her Absolute Rejection Barrier, but it's really just Urien's Aegis Reflector. It's not quite as good though, because it only hits once. It's also unique in that all three versions of her Reflector are Lvl1 supers, unlike the others where the super gets progressively stronger depending on which button is pressed. A Reflector sets one up very close to her, the B reflector sets one up far away, and the C reflector sets it up in the air(lol). As you might guess, the C version isn't very useful.
236236 makes Akane shoot up a bunch of hair swords in the sky, which come crashing down after some delay. It's very reminiscent of War Machine's War Destroyer super. Not much to say here... the button strength determines what Lvl the super will be and thus how much damage it will do. This super has some great utility in corner mixups.
Akane's Final Memory, which is called Unpleasant Hell Murder, is pretty awesome. It's Akuma's Raging Demon, and it even has the exact same input! Unfortunately it's not very useful because EFZ has so much more movement options than Street Fighter. It's also an FM, so it can't be used very often, since it requires Akane to 1)have Lvl3 meter and 2)be in critical, flashing red life. It has some good utility in RG exchanges, though.
Akane's mixups are amazing, and she has a good number of them. I already mentioned the utility of j.c earlier, and it's usually a good choice for mixup if she doesn't have any meter available. Here's a mixup she can use from a double overhead starter. In this clip, Akane ICs the second overhead into a nice double 66c combo. She jump-cancels the second 66c into a backwards jump and then an airdash to push Unknown into the corner. This maneuver is interesting because it pushes the opponent into the corner with a tiny bit of space behind them. Which means that they can be crossed up. And this is exactly what happens afterwards: Akane jumps towards Unknown and makes it very difficult to tell whether j.c will hit crossup or not. It crosses up Unknown in the corner, and she then hitconfirms into a simple knockdown. I should also note that instead of j.c, she could have used Trick Leap into the drill hair attack for a similar effect(ambiguous left/right).
The earlier mixup employed the 66c wallbounce and required no meter. If Akane has meter, she can use her 236236 hair sword super for another evil mixup. The idea is to get use 66c to get a close to corner knockdown, and send out the hair sword super. There's a bit of delay on the super, so the swords will come down and hit meaty on the opponent's wakeup. Since EFZ has no crossup protection, Akane can then use her jumps and demonflips for an easy left/right mixup. If Akane does this perfectly, she can make it so that there's a 1f difference between left/right. So the opponent must guess this mixup as it's unreactable. In this clip, Akane lands a throw and cancels it with a Blue IC. She then goes into a big double 66c corner combo. She starts the mixup after 66c, summoning Shiko A and backdashing into the corner followed by a Lvl2 hair sword super. You might notice Sayuri's juggle bar vanished right before the super activated, which means that she could have air teched. Well teching is dangerous in this game because there's actually a fair amount of time you are completely defenseless after teching. If Sayuri had air teched there, she would have been unable to guard the hair sword super and would have eaten the entirety of it. So Sayuri opts not to tech, and falls to the ground. The swords hit meaty, and Akane jumps over Sayuri. I can't even tell if this was a crossup or not, but Sayuri gets hit, and Akane does a combo and the mixup resets into itself. So so dirty.
The other big mixup that Akane gets involves her Aegis Reflector. The idea is to get a midscreen knockdown and set up the B version of the reflector. Usually the distance will be just perfect so that the reflector will be placed right on top of the opponent. Meaning that the opponent will wake up into it. Akane can then use her jumps, airdashes, and demon flips for a left/right mixup. If done perfectly this is also a 1f left/right, so opponent has to guess. This mixup resets into itself, and it can also go into the mixups she gets from 66c too if she was close to the corner. In this clip, Akane does a simple knockdown combo into B reflector on Shiori. She then dashes forward, making it seem like whatever demon flip she uses will cross up the opponent. But instead, she stops her dash short with 6a, and goes into the B version of Trick Leap, which almost crosses up Shiori, but doesn't. Shiori guesses wrong, and Akane does the drill hair followup into a combo, resetting back into the same mixup. In this clip, Akane does a simple knockdown combo on Ayu into B reflector. She then does a dash momentum IAD, which makes her sail over Ayu's head for a crossup. Ayu guesses wrong, and Akane is able to combo Ayu into a corner hair sword mixup.
So you might think that it ends here with all these amazing mixups. But this is EFZ: the bullshit doesn't stop in this game. And indeed, Akane has something even better than a mixup: an unblockable setup. She can't go for this very often, since it requires a Lvl3 super, but it's pretty ridiculous nonetheless. The idea is to set up the Lvl3 Shiko super after a corner 66c, and then use the knockdown property on j.c to send the opponent into the ground, so that they will wake up into a meaty unblockable. However, j.c is interesting in that while it sends the opponent towards the ground, it's air techable if the opponent's juggle bar is small enough. In this clip, this is exactly what happens. Akane gets a double 66c combo on Mishio, and cancels the 66c into the Lvl3 Shiko frog uppercut super. Akane then jumps to j.c Mishio into the ground. However, the combo count is at 23 hits, and the power indicator is fairly low too(at 66.4), so j.c becomes techable. Mishio techs, but Akane anticipates this and airdash cancels her j.c into j.ab. Mishio is totally vulnerable when teching, so she is forced to eat the j.ab and take almost 3k damage. If Mishio had decided not to tech, she would have been hit meaty by the frog uppercut unblockable, and taken upwards of 5k damage.
I'll end this post with another clip. This extremely one-sided match shows what is pretty much a perfect Akane game: mixups after mixups with the opponent guessing wrong every time. The real fun is in the 1st round though, and it begins at around 18 seconds. Akane gets a knockdown combo into Aegis Reflector. She does an unseeable left/right by simply jumping over Ikumi. Ikumi guesses wrong, and Akane combos her into the corner ending with a j.c knockdown. The j.c is done at the just the right distance so that there's space behind Ikumi in the corner. Akane then does Trick Leap into the drill hair attack. It seems like it will crossup, but it doesn't and Ikumi gets hit again. Akane combos off of this into a corner hair sword mixup. This is unseeable, so Ikumi guesses wrong again and Akane wins the round. So basically, this was 3 completely different mixups back-to-back. There's a strange beauty in seeing these mixups reset into each other.
But I think the most amazing part of Akane is that even though she has all this broken stuff, she isn't even considered S tier. It really shows what EFZ is all about in that nothing is too broken in this game.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Eternal Fighter Zero
Anime Expo 2011 happened a while back and I ended up not going because there were no guests there that I was interested in. However, there was one thing that I wanted to join, which was the EFZ tourney and meetup organized by the SoCal scene. They were able to get a good amount of players from all around, so I'm pretty sad for missing this, but that weekend ended up being really busy for me.
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| Ice beam! |
The characters in EFZ all come from KEY, a company that is known for making visual novels. I haven't played any of their VNs, so I have no knowledge of the backstory of any of the characters. There are 22 characters in total(23 if you count the boss), which is a pretty big cast for doujin fighting game standards. The cast is quite diverse too, as there's a good variety of fighting styles present: there's a good amount of rushdown chars, there's a boxer(Kaori), a character with an assist like Carl(Minagi), 5 characters with Morrigan style triangle dashes(Akiko, Ayu, Makoto, Misuzu, Sayuri), and a good deal of defensive/zoning/trap characters as well. There are no grapplers, though. There are also a lot of characters that have different "modes" and whose standard play involves switching between them. For example, the character Mio has a long-range and short-range mode which both have a very different set of normals and specials. Nanase has a bamboo sword which can actually be tossed away if she does a DP, so her moves change when she's bare-handed. Another example is the spear girl Mishio, who has very different combos and specials in her Fire and Lightning modes.
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| Mother vs daughter |
The mechanics in EFZ are what would be considered pretty standard for airdasher, or "anime" games in today's context. Every character has a double jump and an airdash. You can do a dj and then airdash, but not vice versa. Airdashes are interesting in that their length can be controlled by how long the forward input is held. For example, with some characters you can make your airdash drop to the ground quickly by letting go of forward early, and you can make the airdash go on really long by holding forward. Many normals are jump cancellable on hit and block, and chain combos are the main method of dealing damage. Chain combos follow the usual weak->medium->strong sequence, while specials can be thrown in anywhere you want in between. There are throws and airthrows(but no throwbreaks!), ground normals are air unblockable, and most air normals are airdash cancellable. There is no guard bar, and thus there are no guardcrushes and death by chip damage. There are two meters: an E force meter(used for ICs and EX moves) that constantly increases, only stopping when that character is getting hit, and an SP gauge(used for supers) that goes from 1-3. And typical of doujin games, there is no timer.
One of the mechanics in EFZ that really makes it unique among all other fighters is Recoil Guard. I mentioned earlier that there is no guard bar nor death by chip damage, so at first glance this makes blocking seem really strong. And in some ways it is, since you can't die if you just block forever. But you won't, because mixups in this game are ridiculous. People nowadays talk about "vortexes" and how GG has really strong okizeme; these people haven't played EFZ. Many characters in this game get 4-way mixups that reset into themselves off of knockdowns. There's also a lot of characters that get GG style projectile assisted okizeme, where a multi-hit projectile or some fireball with huge blockstun is set up on a character's wakeup, giving the player on offense a lot of time to mix up the opponent. So how does this relate to Recoil Guard(RG)? RG is basically just like instant blocking or just defending in other fighting games. It reduces the blockstun on a guarded attack, and it's also the only way for someone to airguard a ground normal. In EFZ, the RG window is actually really big and the difference of blockstun is quite significant as well: many safe attack strings become unsafe when RGed. So RGing is quite strong, and it might seem problematic like it is in Garou MoTW. But it's not, and it's actually needed: one look at the EFZ frame data will make it very clear as to why. Everybody in EFZ has Vampire Savior like normals: almost everything is +f on hit and block. If RG wasn't in the game, some characters would literally have infinite pressure.
Another interesting thing about RG is that when one player does it, the other player can actually counter RG. This leads to some funny moments in matches where two players get into a big RG war and all you see is the game pausing and characters flashing white. But it's a nice mechanic because it makes it so that the attacker who got his attack RGed still has options.
One of my favorite parts of the EFZ system is in its juggle meter. This is a bar that shows up underneath a character whenever they are getting comboed. It basically shows how much untechable time a move has. So a move with a lot of stun will have a big bar that drains slowly, while a move with little stun will have a smaller bar that drains fast. Most fighting game players are probably already used to just feeling out untechable times, but it's nice for the game to show you exactly how much there is for every move.
Another thing I like a lot is that once the bar drains completely, the player that was getting hit is completely invincible during their reeling animation. One effect of this is that there are no invalid combos in EFZ. So there's no need to be mashing air tech during combos to prevent invalids, and it also eliminates dumb netplay combos that you might see in other games(ex. Slayer 5k6h on an air opponent). Air teching is actually really risky in EFZ because you are vulnerable for a short period of time after the tech, so it's very common for people to just let themselves fall to the ground after getting hit by an air combo. I like this mechanic a lot because it actually helps both players: it forces the player doing the combo to put in the time to get their execution down because of the lack of invalid combos, and the player getting comboed doesn't need to be mashing tech to get out of invalids.
Like many airdash games, EFZ has a Roman Cancel mechanic in it called Instant Charge(IC). It uses the E force meter which constantly increases. Pretty much everything can be ICed: normals(hit and block only), specials and supers(hit, block, and whiff), and throws. What makes the EFZ version of the roman cancel unique is that there are actually two ICs. There's a red IC, which is basically the normal roman cancel. It happens whenever an IC is done during the first half of the E force meter, when it's colored red. The other IC is the blue one, and it happens when an IC is done during the 2nd half of the E force meter, when it's colored light blue. The blue IC is unique in that it 1)increases the untechable time/juggle meter on all moves, allowing for longer combos and combos that aren't normally possible and 2)decreases the scaling so that every attack does more damage. In EFZ, the combo counter is actually quite informative, as it also gives information on the scaling of moves through a "Power" indicator. In the beginning of a combo, the Power will probably be somewhere from 80-100, and at the end it could be at 20-40 power. Blue IC can really jack up the scaling and make it so that you start combos at 130 power, so most blue IC combos do huge damage.
Going back to what I mentioned earlier about okizeme in EFZ, another reason why it's so good in this game is because there is no crossup protection. Some characters, like the one I use, can really abuse this and create left/right mixups that have a 1f difference between crossup and non-crossup. Which basically means that the person on defense has to guess in those situations. And indeed, it's not uncommon to see huge momentum swings in this game. Knockdowns aren't guaranteed death though: even though EFZ has fewer defensive options than other games, the defensive options that it does have(RG) are really strong.
Another aspect of the game that I like a lot is that it's very ground based. Many airdash games nowadays have a very diluted version of footsies: very little walking at all, lots of dashing, and most of the game time being spent in the air because of the strength of chicken guarding. You see this a lot in games like Melty Blood and BlazBlue, which have so many air options that being on the ground is almost disadvantageous. I could talk about this more, but Xenozip has beaten me to the punch and has written a series of very informative posts about this subject. EFZ manages to avoid turning into a big jump fest of a game by doing two things. 1st is that the blockstun from chicken guarding is HUGE. In most games that have a chicken guard mechanic, blockstun is greatly reduced compared to that of ground guarding. In games like MB and BB, the air blockstun is so minimal that you can double jump almost immediately after so that you can stay in the air even longer. Not in EFZ, though. When you chicken guard in EFZ, you are basically going to get dragged down to the ground. The 2nd thing that EFZ does to avoid making the game too air-based is in airthrow strength. Airthrows are quite good in EFZ as they have a lot more range than ground throws, and the damage they do is good too.
I don't think there's ever been an official tier list made for EFZ, but from my experience and from all the videos I've watched, the game is pretty balanced. There are no unplayable characters, and the weaker characters like Doppel and Awake Nayuki all get a good amount of play and have won major tournies. There are definitely some really strong characters that get played a lot more than others though, like Mishio, Misaki, Mayu, and Shiori.
I've been talking mostly about the positive aspects of EFZ, but there are some things that I really don't like about it too. The first, and biggest thing being its command interpreter. This is actually the reason why I don't play the game that much nowadays. I really can't stand the command interpreter in this game at all, as it remembers inputs for way too long. This might have to do with the fact that it's a PC doujin game, so the developers probably intended for the game to be played with a gamepad or keyboard.
The other crappy part of EFZ is its training mode. The training mode in EFZ doesn't even have a UI: it's controlled by the F# keys on the keyboard. I'm used to amazing training modes like the ones used in the console ports of GGXX Slash and Accent Core, so it's distressing to me to see a training mode that doesn't even have a dummy record function.
If a new EFZ came out, or even if the game got remade on a next-gen console with good training mode and better command interpreter, I would definitely be hype to play it. I would like for it to have good netplay though, because the current netplay for EFZ is total garbage.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
ComiPo! English Tutorial
This is a manga creation software that was shown in one of the earlier OVZ episodes, and apparently it's now being brought over to America! I don't really have any interest in getting this, but Asakawa english narration is always welcome <3
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Summer begins
So summer has started, and so far the most noteworthy thing that's happened is that I've gotten accepted into my Masters program at Cal Poly Pomona. I'm pretty excited about this as the school is pretty close to home and a lot of my friends go there as well.
However... dealing with this school has been nothing but a pain so far, as there's been all sorts of complications. In my acceptance letter I was asked to contact the department advisor so I could get an idea of what classes to take my 1st quarter, and the letter only provided me with his e-mail address. So I e-mailed him, and didn't get a response. I looked up his contact info on the department website and got his office # so I would periodically try to call him. 3 weeks later, I finally get ahold of him by phone so I set up the appointment. It turns out that the reason he didn't respond to my e-mail is because for whatever reason, it got sent to his spam box. I also found out that I wasn't even allowed to register for classes before meeting with an advisor so this effectively delayed my registration for 3 weeks. There's also other stuff like not getting a straight answer from anyone about registration fees and their deadlines, and having a time conflict with the classes that the advisor suggested that I take. So it's been a huge headache.
I've been playing the fan translation of Persona 2 Innocent Sin on PS1 recently and I'm pleasantly surprised with how good the game is. It also has the most badass main character in an SMT game, helped by Takehito Koyasu providing his voice. I thought the battle system was really clunky at first, but in retrospect it really fits well with the game because of how big team order and fusion spells are. I also initially thought that I wouldn't like the game as much as P3/P4 because of the lack of social links, but it turned out to be just as engaging. In true SMT fashion the game is also quite difficult, and in some ways more of a grind than P3/P4 because of the lack of persona fusion. In P2 new personas are obtained by collecting tarot cards from demon negotiation, and you have to level them up the traditional way so you can't have your Lvl10 social link do the work for you. I guess my only complaint with the game would be the lack of a minimap, as some of the dungeons are pretty confusing. I don't think the hardware at the game was capable of supporting it, though.
I suppose I should talk about a tournament I went to about a month ago called Revelations. I was only able to go for 1 day because it ended up falling on the weekend right before my finals. I really wanted to join the AH3 tournament but it was scheduled to be on Friday so I couldn't work that out. I ended up going on Saturday only with Jeff, Brett, and tenkai. This was probably one of the best tournaments that I've been to solely because there was so much space for casuals. The venue, which was actually a restaurant near LAX, was also really big so I didn't feel cramped like I normally do at tournaments.
Anyway, by Saturday AH3 was already at top8, so the only tournament I could join was the GG side tournament. I didn't get to play any AH3 casuals because I couldn't find anyone with a spare PS3 pad, so that made me kind of sad. I got to play a bunch of GG casuals, and I did pretty well in the tournament too: got 3rd, only losing to Latif twice. I was also surprised that I was able to beat Purrin, since I generally never do well against him. Latif's Eddie really threw me off, as I'm not used to his style of Eddie play. I'm generally used to a more conservative and safe style, but he had a balls to the wall approach that I don't see very often. He would also literally do panic bursts whenever his momentum was thrown off which I wasn't expecting. Anywho, I had to play Latif twice, as he sent me to losers and also eliminated me in losers finals(3/5), so we played a total of 5 matches. Each of them basically played out the same, going down to the 3rd round, but I could never clutch it out to win the match. Japanese player Satoshi, who is known for playing Potemkin in Guilty Gear and Makoto in Blazblue was also in attendance, but sadly I wasn't able to play him in GG. We were on total opposite sides of the bracket. He ended up playing a bunch of characters in this tourney: Pot, Faust, Venom and Slayer. I had heard that his main is actually Faust now, and it seemed like he mainly went with that character unless someone requested he pick Pot. Anyway, it was a good tournament, and probably the best I've ever placed in my GG career. Too bad it had to happen after the game's prime!
However... dealing with this school has been nothing but a pain so far, as there's been all sorts of complications. In my acceptance letter I was asked to contact the department advisor so I could get an idea of what classes to take my 1st quarter, and the letter only provided me with his e-mail address. So I e-mailed him, and didn't get a response. I looked up his contact info on the department website and got his office # so I would periodically try to call him. 3 weeks later, I finally get ahold of him by phone so I set up the appointment. It turns out that the reason he didn't respond to my e-mail is because for whatever reason, it got sent to his spam box. I also found out that I wasn't even allowed to register for classes before meeting with an advisor so this effectively delayed my registration for 3 weeks. There's also other stuff like not getting a straight answer from anyone about registration fees and their deadlines, and having a time conflict with the classes that the advisor suggested that I take. So it's been a huge headache.
I've been playing the fan translation of Persona 2 Innocent Sin on PS1 recently and I'm pleasantly surprised with how good the game is. It also has the most badass main character in an SMT game, helped by Takehito Koyasu providing his voice. I thought the battle system was really clunky at first, but in retrospect it really fits well with the game because of how big team order and fusion spells are. I also initially thought that I wouldn't like the game as much as P3/P4 because of the lack of social links, but it turned out to be just as engaging. In true SMT fashion the game is also quite difficult, and in some ways more of a grind than P3/P4 because of the lack of persona fusion. In P2 new personas are obtained by collecting tarot cards from demon negotiation, and you have to level them up the traditional way so you can't have your Lvl10 social link do the work for you. I guess my only complaint with the game would be the lack of a minimap, as some of the dungeons are pretty confusing. I don't think the hardware at the game was capable of supporting it, though.
I suppose I should talk about a tournament I went to about a month ago called Revelations. I was only able to go for 1 day because it ended up falling on the weekend right before my finals. I really wanted to join the AH3 tournament but it was scheduled to be on Friday so I couldn't work that out. I ended up going on Saturday only with Jeff, Brett, and tenkai. This was probably one of the best tournaments that I've been to solely because there was so much space for casuals. The venue, which was actually a restaurant near LAX, was also really big so I didn't feel cramped like I normally do at tournaments.
Anyway, by Saturday AH3 was already at top8, so the only tournament I could join was the GG side tournament. I didn't get to play any AH3 casuals because I couldn't find anyone with a spare PS3 pad, so that made me kind of sad. I got to play a bunch of GG casuals, and I did pretty well in the tournament too: got 3rd, only losing to Latif twice. I was also surprised that I was able to beat Purrin, since I generally never do well against him. Latif's Eddie really threw me off, as I'm not used to his style of Eddie play. I'm generally used to a more conservative and safe style, but he had a balls to the wall approach that I don't see very often. He would also literally do panic bursts whenever his momentum was thrown off which I wasn't expecting. Anywho, I had to play Latif twice, as he sent me to losers and also eliminated me in losers finals(3/5), so we played a total of 5 matches. Each of them basically played out the same, going down to the 3rd round, but I could never clutch it out to win the match. Japanese player Satoshi, who is known for playing Potemkin in Guilty Gear and Makoto in Blazblue was also in attendance, but sadly I wasn't able to play him in GG. We were on total opposite sides of the bracket. He ended up playing a bunch of characters in this tourney: Pot, Faust, Venom and Slayer. I had heard that his main is actually Faust now, and it seemed like he mainly went with that character unless someone requested he pick Pot. Anyway, it was a good tournament, and probably the best I've ever placed in my GG career. Too bad it had to happen after the game's prime!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Catching up
Recently I've been interested in Arcana Heart 3, a fighting game made by Examu that was ported to PS3 and XBox 360 by Arc System Works. Previously I had 0 interest in the game other than Parace, the boss character to the second game, but 3 is a different story because it actually got a good port. In the case of the first game, the PS2 port was actually ok but the game itself was just awful so I didn't really care about it. Arcana Heart 2 was actually very good but the PS2 port was complete garbage, suffering from slowdown and not even being the most up-to-date version(most recent ver of AH2 was 2.6 while PS2 port was something else). AH3 gets a next gen port that is pretty much arcade perfect, and it even has online play.
Now, even though I mention AH3 getting a good port, it doesn't actually affect me because I don't have any next gen systems! However, someone went and ripped the arcade version of AH3 onto PC, allowing cheapskates like me to play it. So I've been trying to learn the game, using the PC rip's training mode, which actually shows hitboxes. Unfortunately I can't play my 2 favorite characters in the game, Parace(who is a boss) and Mildred(who is an arcana), so I have to settle for 3rd best with Scharlachrot. After learning some of the intricacies of the game, I have to say it's pretty fascinating. I used to think Arcana Heart was really boring from watching random videos, but now that I kind of understand what's going on it's much better. Sadly I haven't gotten the chance to play against people in this game that much though. There are several elements in the game that remind me of GG, and I really like the variety that the characters + arcana combinations give.
In GG related news, recently there have been a lot of compilation vids of the best moments in Guilty Gear on nico. There is a user on nico who is basically compiling the best moments from Mikado GG vids, and also compiling the best casual matches from the Mikado stream. There's also a few other compilation vids that people have made from Gamechariot and other arcades. I've been thinking of making a big GG compilation video from all of the games for a while now, so those videos inspired me a bit in actually getting up and making my video. Anyway, I ended up making two of them. You can read a longer explanation at Norematch.
Best moments in Guilty Gear
Best moments in Guilty Gear - Volume 2
The world of Melty has been pretty interesting recently. Current Code was surprisingly short lived, as 1.05 has come out, bringing with it new balance changes, new system additions, and a new character in the form of Powerd Ciel. I'm pretty surprised CC was updated so quickly, since I felt that the game was positively received by the community. The tier list for CC was:
新宿勢の一部でランクを作成したので貼りにきました。
各自Ｓ～Ｃの４段階にに分けてランクを作ってもらい、Ｓ４点、Ａ３点、Ｂ２点、Ｃ１点で加算したのが以下の結果になりました。参考までに。
参加者
キリヤ、ジン、SAT、新屋、じゃむ、かんな、丸やん、芳乃
Ｓ：赤主(32)、シオン(31)
Ａ：さつき(26)、秋葉(25)、ワラキア(25)、シエル(24)、志貴(24)
Ｂ＋：琥珀(20)、リーズ(20)、七夜(20)、キシマ(20)、ヒスコハ(19)、式(19)
Ｂ：都古(18)、アルク(17)、青子(17)、翡翠(16)、ネロ(16)
Ｂ－：Ｖ(15)、白レン(15)、ワルク(14)、ロア(14)
Ｃ：レン(12)、メカ(11)、制服(9)
点数以外の段階分けは適当に書きました。
Ｂが分かれてるのは、ＡやＣに変えるほどの差はないけど、多すぎて見づらいからです。
Basically this was made by 8 top players, where they were asked to rank the characters from S(4 pts) to C(1 pt). Points were then totaled and a list was made from them. The players that participated are Kiriya, Jin, SAT, Niiya, Jamu, Kanna, Maruyan, and Yoshino.
S VAkiha(32) Sion(31)
A Satsuki(26) Akiha(25) Wara(25) Ciel(24) Shiki Tohno(24)
B+ Kohaku(20) Ries(20) Nanaya(20) Kouma(20) Maids(19) Ryougi(19)
B Miyako(18) Arc(17) Aoko(17) Hisui(16) Nero(16)
B- VSion(15) White Len(15) Warc(14) Roa(14)
C Len(12) Mech Hisui(11) Seifuku Akiha(9)
One thing I found pretty interesting was that Kiriya only really had to ask 8 players. The previous "top player survey" tier lists made for earlier games always had 20 players because of disagreement about character placement, but it seems that in CC everybody pretty much agreed on all the rankings. I think the main point of disagreement I saw on the BBS was Ryougi's placement, as some people rank her really high.
Anywho, CC 1.05 is out, and it's going to get updated again soon! 1.07 is set to be released sometime during the summer, and it will have yet another new character in the form of Archetype Earth, who was a silly boss character introduced in the PS2 port of MBAA. I don't know how the Japanese community is reacting to 1.05, but it seems like many people in the American community don't like the changes. 1.05 brought about some pretty drastic changes, bringing back OTG relaunches from the doujin game days of MB, and allowing every character to do followup combos off of raw airthrows. In addition, the new character Powerd Ciel seems really strong in a Melty context, as the Crescent version has amazing normals, an air special that gives a hard knockdown, a ridiculous DP, and a projectile that she can throw out after knockdowns that is massive +f on hit and block. She seems almost like a GG character brought into the Melty system.
I think I'm one of the few players in the American scene that actually likes the new changes in 1.05. Melty's game being too air based and the obnoxious jumping were always my biggest gripes with the game, and I've always felt that the game didn't reward players enough for getting off neutral airthrows, so I love that 1.05 makes airthrows stronger as it takes care of both of these problems. Another somewhat minor change is that all walkspeeds are much faster, which I like as well because it makes the ground game more important. I'm pretty indifferent towards the OTG relaunches; they were extremely broken in the earlier versions of Melty, but AA has gravity and hitstun decay so it should help balance out the craziness. So far, nothing broken has been discovered with OTGs so I think it'll turn out ok.
I find it pretty sad nowadays how out of touch I am with popular music. I just follow amateur singers on nico now haha. A lot of the singers I follow have actually gone and released albums recently: Wotamin, MARiA and Choucho got solo album releases under doujin circles, Yamai got two albums out on her major label, and MARiA ended up doing the opening theme for the Freezing anime.
I've also discovered the magic of timeshifting on nico, so now I can watch all those lives that get put on at horrible hours in my timezone(lol 5am). For the nico singers, it's pretty interesting to hear them perform during the namahousous without the help of mixing and post-production. [TEST] from the nico band [Mint] recently did an all acoustic live with Choucho and Sariya-jin that I enjoyed a lot, so I ended up restreaming it so that I could archive it(since nico only archives stuff for a week). It's kind of like a Macross Frontier appreciation themed performance.
http://www.justin.tv/psyblade/b/285367944
OVZ(Otaku-Verse Zero) is this Youtube show I've been following for a while. It has Yuu Asakawa in it speaking English, which is pretty awesome in itself. The show got off to a rough start but it's pretty good now in its 2nd season. This is easily my favorite episode so far, since it details a live show that Yuu Asakawa produced for herself sometime in January. It's pretty surreal to hear Megurine Luka's original voice actress singing some of her signature songs.
Now, even though I mention AH3 getting a good port, it doesn't actually affect me because I don't have any next gen systems! However, someone went and ripped the arcade version of AH3 onto PC, allowing cheapskates like me to play it. So I've been trying to learn the game, using the PC rip's training mode, which actually shows hitboxes. Unfortunately I can't play my 2 favorite characters in the game, Parace(who is a boss) and Mildred(who is an arcana), so I have to settle for 3rd best with Scharlachrot. After learning some of the intricacies of the game, I have to say it's pretty fascinating. I used to think Arcana Heart was really boring from watching random videos, but now that I kind of understand what's going on it's much better. Sadly I haven't gotten the chance to play against people in this game that much though. There are several elements in the game that remind me of GG, and I really like the variety that the characters + arcana combinations give.
In GG related news, recently there have been a lot of compilation vids of the best moments in Guilty Gear on nico. There is a user on nico who is basically compiling the best moments from Mikado GG vids, and also compiling the best casual matches from the Mikado stream. There's also a few other compilation vids that people have made from Gamechariot and other arcades. I've been thinking of making a big GG compilation video from all of the games for a while now, so those videos inspired me a bit in actually getting up and making my video. Anyway, I ended up making two of them. You can read a longer explanation at Norematch.
Best moments in Guilty Gear
Best moments in Guilty Gear - Volume 2
The world of Melty has been pretty interesting recently. Current Code was surprisingly short lived, as 1.05 has come out, bringing with it new balance changes, new system additions, and a new character in the form of Powerd Ciel. I'm pretty surprised CC was updated so quickly, since I felt that the game was positively received by the community. The tier list for CC was:
新宿勢の一部でランクを作成したので貼りにきました。
各自Ｓ～Ｃの４段階にに分けてランクを作ってもらい、Ｓ４点、Ａ３点、Ｂ２点、Ｃ１点で加算したのが以下の結果になりました。参考までに。
参加者
キリヤ、ジン、SAT、新屋、じゃむ、かんな、丸やん、芳乃
Ｓ：赤主(32)、シオン(31)
Ａ：さつき(26)、秋葉(25)、ワラキア(25)、シエル(24)、志貴(24)
Ｂ＋：琥珀(20)、リーズ(20)、七夜(20)、キシマ(20)、ヒスコハ(19)、式(19)
Ｂ：都古(18)、アルク(17)、青子(17)、翡翠(16)、ネロ(16)
Ｂ－：Ｖ(15)、白レン(15)、ワルク(14)、ロア(14)
Ｃ：レン(12)、メカ(11)、制服(9)
点数以外の段階分けは適当に書きました。
Ｂが分かれてるのは、ＡやＣに変えるほどの差はないけど、多すぎて見づらいからです。
Basically this was made by 8 top players, where they were asked to rank the characters from S(4 pts) to C(1 pt). Points were then totaled and a list was made from them. The players that participated are Kiriya, Jin, SAT, Niiya, Jamu, Kanna, Maruyan, and Yoshino.
S VAkiha(32) Sion(31)
A Satsuki(26) Akiha(25) Wara(25) Ciel(24) Shiki Tohno(24)
B+ Kohaku(20) Ries(20) Nanaya(20) Kouma(20) Maids(19) Ryougi(19)
B Miyako(18) Arc(17) Aoko(17) Hisui(16) Nero(16)
B- VSion(15) White Len(15) Warc(14) Roa(14)
C Len(12) Mech Hisui(11) Seifuku Akiha(9)
One thing I found pretty interesting was that Kiriya only really had to ask 8 players. The previous "top player survey" tier lists made for earlier games always had 20 players because of disagreement about character placement, but it seems that in CC everybody pretty much agreed on all the rankings. I think the main point of disagreement I saw on the BBS was Ryougi's placement, as some people rank her really high.
Anywho, CC 1.05 is out, and it's going to get updated again soon! 1.07 is set to be released sometime during the summer, and it will have yet another new character in the form of Archetype Earth, who was a silly boss character introduced in the PS2 port of MBAA. I don't know how the Japanese community is reacting to 1.05, but it seems like many people in the American community don't like the changes. 1.05 brought about some pretty drastic changes, bringing back OTG relaunches from the doujin game days of MB, and allowing every character to do followup combos off of raw airthrows. In addition, the new character Powerd Ciel seems really strong in a Melty context, as the Crescent version has amazing normals, an air special that gives a hard knockdown, a ridiculous DP, and a projectile that she can throw out after knockdowns that is massive +f on hit and block. She seems almost like a GG character brought into the Melty system.
I think I'm one of the few players in the American scene that actually likes the new changes in 1.05. Melty's game being too air based and the obnoxious jumping were always my biggest gripes with the game, and I've always felt that the game didn't reward players enough for getting off neutral airthrows, so I love that 1.05 makes airthrows stronger as it takes care of both of these problems. Another somewhat minor change is that all walkspeeds are much faster, which I like as well because it makes the ground game more important. I'm pretty indifferent towards the OTG relaunches; they were extremely broken in the earlier versions of Melty, but AA has gravity and hitstun decay so it should help balance out the craziness. So far, nothing broken has been discovered with OTGs so I think it'll turn out ok.
I find it pretty sad nowadays how out of touch I am with popular music. I just follow amateur singers on nico now haha. A lot of the singers I follow have actually gone and released albums recently: Wotamin, MARiA and Choucho got solo album releases under doujin circles, Yamai got two albums out on her major label, and MARiA ended up doing the opening theme for the Freezing anime.
I've also discovered the magic of timeshifting on nico, so now I can watch all those lives that get put on at horrible hours in my timezone(lol 5am). For the nico singers, it's pretty interesting to hear them perform during the namahousous without the help of mixing and post-production. [TEST] from the nico band [Mint] recently did an all acoustic live with Choucho and Sariya-jin that I enjoyed a lot, so I ended up restreaming it so that I could archive it(since nico only archives stuff for a week). It's kind of like a Macross Frontier appreciation themed performance.
http://www.justin.tv/psyblade/b/285367944
OVZ(Otaku-Verse Zero) is this Youtube show I've been following for a while. It has Yuu Asakawa in it speaking English, which is pretty awesome in itself. The show got off to a rough start but it's pretty good now in its 2nd season. This is easily my favorite episode so far, since it details a live show that Yuu Asakawa produced for herself sometime in January. It's pretty surreal to hear Megurine Luka's original voice actress singing some of her signature songs.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Ao Oni again
So a lot has happened in the world of Ao Oni since the last time I posted. Ao Oni is now at version 6.22, so the game is completely different again, with a new mansion layout, new puzzles, and new ending. It requires RPG Maker XP RTP, and to set your non-unicode language setting to Japanese. In addition, the 6.xx series of the game lets you name the main character.
Most importantly, there is an official English and Italian version of the game, which shows just how popular Ao Oni has gotten. I think the creator of the game owes Gami and Fuhiki a lot, as I doubt this game would have gotten anywhere near as popular without their legendary jikkyou play.
I've actually played through 6.22 already, and I think it's pretty good. Compared to the earlier versions of the game, the difficulty level of 6.xx is relatively easier and the mansion is a bit smaller as well. There are some cool new things added in 6.xx, but there's also some things that I wish were preserved from older versions, especially 5.xx.
Something I mentioned earlier was the new option in version 6 to name the main character. There are actually some cool easter eggs with this. Everytime you beat the game Hiroshi tells you a different name to input that can change the game in some way. One particular name is SOUTHPARK which leads to this...
I've also found a really funny English Let's Play of Ao Oni 6.22 by MikeNnemonic on Youtube. Unfortunately he's not actually playing the game for the first time in the videos, but he brings a very unique interpretation to the game that I think is worth watching through haha.
Finally, since the game has gotten so big, someone has gotten around to archiving all of the previous versions of the game. Pretty nostalgic, if you want to go back and play the version that Borzoi Project did or want to see how different(and ghetto) ver 1.0 is compared to what we have now.
Most importantly, there is an official English and Italian version of the game, which shows just how popular Ao Oni has gotten. I think the creator of the game owes Gami and Fuhiki a lot, as I doubt this game would have gotten anywhere near as popular without their legendary jikkyou play.
I've actually played through 6.22 already, and I think it's pretty good. Compared to the earlier versions of the game, the difficulty level of 6.xx is relatively easier and the mansion is a bit smaller as well. There are some cool new things added in 6.xx, but there's also some things that I wish were preserved from older versions, especially 5.xx.
Something I mentioned earlier was the new option in version 6 to name the main character. There are actually some cool easter eggs with this. Everytime you beat the game Hiroshi tells you a different name to input that can change the game in some way. One particular name is SOUTHPARK which leads to this...
I've also found a really funny English Let's Play of Ao Oni 6.22 by MikeNnemonic on Youtube. Unfortunately he's not actually playing the game for the first time in the videos, but he brings a very unique interpretation to the game that I think is worth watching through haha.
Finally, since the game has gotten so big, someone has gotten around to archiving all of the previous versions of the game. Pretty nostalgic, if you want to go back and play the version that Borzoi Project did or want to see how different(and ghetto) ver 1.0 is compared to what we have now.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Ao Oni
Another hilarious jikkyou play on nico, this time it's a poverty horror game made in RPGMaker called Ao Oni, or blue demon. The premise of the game is pretty similar to Clock Tower: you and your friends get lost in a big mansion and you have to solve some puzzles and find the way out, all the while getting stalked by a monster.
The guys doing the commentary on their playthrough are がみ(Gami) and ふひきー(Fuhiki), who are part of a group called Borzoi Project. They do a lot of jikkyous, but this is undeniably their most popular one by a large margin. They also have a fairly popular jikkyou of another RPGMaker game called Doraemon Nobita no Biohazard, which as its name suggests, is a crossover of Doraemon and Resident Evil.
The demon in this game is a big blue man who kind of looks like Obama if he was part of Blue Man Group. Sounds silly, but the game is surprisingly scary and the Ao Oni has quite a bit of personality. Gami and Fuhiki's reactions are priceless and their screams of terror transcend linguistic boundaries.
It's also been mirrored on Youtube
Playlist
FadedLily on Youtube is also doing an English translation of the Borzoi Project jikkyou, but so far he's only gotten the first 3 parts up.
FadedLily
Ao Oni has actually gone through several revisions. The version of the game that Gami and Fuhiki are playing is 2.xx, while the newest version of the game right now is 5.2. Every version of the game is extremely different from the others, too: different characters die, the endings change, and even the layout and size of the mansion changes. I remember in Ao Oni v1.0, three characters actually survive in the end, and there's a really scary segment where the main character look down a well and sees the Ao Oni frantically climbing up the rope with all its teeth out.
Ao Oni has apparently gotten so popular among English speakers that there's now a full English version of the game! It's for version 5.2, and requires RPGMaker to run properly.
The guys doing the commentary on their playthrough are がみ(Gami) and ふひきー(Fuhiki), who are part of a group called Borzoi Project. They do a lot of jikkyous, but this is undeniably their most popular one by a large margin. They also have a fairly popular jikkyou of another RPGMaker game called Doraemon Nobita no Biohazard, which as its name suggests, is a crossover of Doraemon and Resident Evil.
The demon in this game is a big blue man who kind of looks like Obama if he was part of Blue Man Group. Sounds silly, but the game is surprisingly scary and the Ao Oni has quite a bit of personality. Gami and Fuhiki's reactions are priceless and their screams of terror transcend linguistic boundaries.
It's also been mirrored on Youtube
Playlist
FadedLily on Youtube is also doing an English translation of the Borzoi Project jikkyou, but so far he's only gotten the first 3 parts up.
FadedLily
Ao Oni has actually gone through several revisions. The version of the game that Gami and Fuhiki are playing is 2.xx, while the newest version of the game right now is 5.2. Every version of the game is extremely different from the others, too: different characters die, the endings change, and even the layout and size of the mansion changes. I remember in Ao Oni v1.0, three characters actually survive in the end, and there's a really scary segment where the main character look down a well and sees the Ao Oni frantically climbing up the rope with all its teeth out.
Ao Oni has apparently gotten so popular among English speakers that there's now a full English version of the game! It's for version 5.2, and requires RPGMaker to run properly.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Midori no Akuma
This is one of the funniest video series I have ever seen on Nico. They started in the end of 2008, but many English speakers discovered these videos in the middle of 2010.
To begin, it's a jikkyou play, which is kind of like the "Let's Play" series of videos that you see all the time on Youtube, where people commentate while playing through games. Two Japanese dudes commentate themselves playing through Super Mario 64. Except that they are playing the roles of 2 samurai from the Bakumatsu period, 坂本龍馬(Sakamoto Ryoma) and 西郷隆盛(Saigo Takamori). They speak in an odd dialect of 19th century Japanese, and talk of Mario-samurai's quest to defeat the Midori no Akuma(aka green demon).
Basically they invent a game within Super Mario 64 where throughout certain levels, they activate a 1UP mushroom and attempt to clear the level by gathering all 8 red coins and the star, while being chased down by the "green demon". Except that I remember the 1up mushrooms would actually run away from Mario when I played, so maybe this is something exclusive to the Japanese version of the game. In any case, it's quite a spectacle and it's amazing what that little 1up mushroom is really capable of.
Introduction and playthrough of Bob-omb Battlefield
Cool, Cool Mountain
Whomp's Fortress
Shifting Sand Land
Someone also uploaded them on Youtube as well
Playlist
To begin, it's a jikkyou play, which is kind of like the "Let's Play" series of videos that you see all the time on Youtube, where people commentate while playing through games. Two Japanese dudes commentate themselves playing through Super Mario 64. Except that they are playing the roles of 2 samurai from the Bakumatsu period, 坂本龍馬(Sakamoto Ryoma) and 西郷隆盛(Saigo Takamori). They speak in an odd dialect of 19th century Japanese, and talk of Mario-samurai's quest to defeat the Midori no Akuma(aka green demon).
Basically they invent a game within Super Mario 64 where throughout certain levels, they activate a 1UP mushroom and attempt to clear the level by gathering all 8 red coins and the star, while being chased down by the "green demon". Except that I remember the 1up mushrooms would actually run away from Mario when I played, so maybe this is something exclusive to the Japanese version of the game. In any case, it's quite a spectacle and it's amazing what that little 1up mushroom is really capable of.
Introduction and playthrough of Bob-omb Battlefield
Cool, Cool Mountain
Whomp's Fortress
Shifting Sand Land
Someone also uploaded them on Youtube as well
Playlist
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