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Monday, November 7, 2016

Thoughts of Tekken 7!

So the time had finally came and went that I got to play some Tekken 7!

I got to play it for about two days, for a total of about fifteen or sixteen matches. My performance was good enough for the situation-sadly, the place only had pads in the testing area and were more like just those general stations you might see in a store or something. I'm pretty terrible on a pad these days(not to mention they make my hand hurt, something a stick doesn't do even after a long time on one), but I managed to at least function well enough to win more than lose. 

I only played Dragunov(wait, I played Claudio for a single game, but it was vs. a brand new player, and I didn't want to go on a roflstomp mode. Yeah, Claudio's pretty awesome but at least I have no idea how to use him besides db+3, b+1, hopkick, d+2,2 and WR2. I don't know his combos), but that was enough for me; I wanted to get a good feel for what Dragunov would be like in the game. And even in ver. B(yeah, THAT version), he felt freaking fantastic. 

The game overall felt smooth and fun; I had no issues with the controls beyond me sucking at playing pad, but the actual game felt very nice. Movement felt nicer, the game looked crisp(it was the PS4 version as well and I was looking at it right close), sure, the Super PC version may/will probably end up looking better but I can assure people that this is going to look just fine. 

I got one picture but it's terrible and blurry but I'll post it anyway:



Proof! 

Now, again, ver. B was the Crazy Buff Akuma version, and yes, I fought many of him. He is very jarring to fight the first few times, as my brain wanted to default to Street Fighter with him...and IMHO, the times I did the best vs. him(I had just over a 50% win rate vs. these Akumas, no, none were Poongko level of course but a couple were actually pretty damn good), were the times that I sort of managed, for lack of a better term, to force him to play Tekken. I DO feel that the jump-in game feels a bit off in Tekken; I would prefer he worked a little more on Tekken's rules(though keeping the fireballs and meter, so long as the meter is more throttled like it is in later versions.) The fireballs and meter I think are kinda okay, but the jumping I'm not sure feels great. Maybe we'll get used to it. (Hell, I'd take a guaranteed anti-air move given to each character.) Games in the high teens may not be enough to tell. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt...

...Especially since the rest of the game really is SO fun! I really do think that this game is going to bring back that old feel when Tekken was in it's bigger days. I was watching brand new players come up to play several games and just having fun with it, having no idea about the game yet they were enjoying all of the effects, the colorful characters, and so on. This bodes well for a time not unlike the time of Tekken 3. 

Again going back to my main; Dragunov just felt so natural in my hands. 7.0 Dragunov felt awesome, but this version felt even better. New properties added to some moves(and we don't even have the best ones added yet, those come in a later version), his new outfit looks amazing in person, his Rage Art is the coolest and most satisfying one to hit, IMO, and his Rage Drive is great fun to play with. As was with 7.0, some combos are easier to land(as is with many characters), but optimization still takes chops, which IMO is a good balance. 

I really like how Rage Drives work-while I was more experimenting with it since I couldn't theorycraft too much in the way of combos, but it's going to be a lot of fun to utilize I think in a live game. Rage Arts I feel are either best for those YOLO comeback moments(though I feel RD's will be able to be better optimized for damage on stages with walls and floors.) I kinda think that RAs don't scale enough in combos at the moment(in fact, I'd argue that on an open stage one can squeeze more out from an open-ground combo ending with an RA than using an RD since the RA still does a good 15% or so in a combo), but on stages with breaks I think the RD is going to shine. For an example, Dragunov can do one of his fat combos on the temple stage, end with the spike, break the floor, more combo, more wall, and probably damn near kill them since the spike enders tend to be nasty. 

I do think that the damage should be kept a little in check; in ver. D in the videos it may still be a little high overall(I mean, in general), and while Tekken's always been a game of 'Risk losing 50-60% if you mess up', I sort of think 'Risk losing 75-90% in a 1v1 game with no red life or tag outs' is a little too much, and mostly it's the RDs that are the culprits. Still, I think they are taking this feedback in mind and will work with things. The game still has a couple of months to balance, I reckon! I also admit that still, the new cast leaves me a little uninspired compared to past offerings, but I do like Shaheen's design and Claudio's playstyle a lot(I actually like some of Claudio's alt outfits better than his primary.) I do like his SNK boss shout-out, though. (And as a side note, Shaheen seems more rounded than he did in 7.0, with gameplay adjustments that make him less one-note, so good job listening to feedback there.)

Really all in all I see this as being 'The New Tekken 3', in a sense. It's more balanced, it's bigger, it's more in depth, but it also has those great new things to attract the new and more casual audience, or it has the potential to. If they keep going with that cool story mode idea(making sure lots of characters get their share of time), have extra stuff to appeal to that audience, and also making sure there are things like a great training mode, I'm totally seeing it.

C'mon, early 2017. You're almost here!

(PS: This was less in-depth mechanically and more an overall 'how it felt' post, which I know is a little different from my usual posts chucking out frame data left and right, but I felt it more proper for this one.) 


Thursday, November 3, 2016

SFV Wishlist

Whew, hopefully I'll be back more often for awhile from my RL little mini-hiatus. 

On a side note, I'll be at DigiExpo here in Helsinki this weekend(probably after four on Friday for about three hours, but most of the day Saturday and a fair bit Sunday) playing some Tekken 7 on PS4! I'm very much looking forward to it. I don't think I'll be able to enter the tournament as I'm not going to be able to be on the premises for the entire time on Saturday; but we'll see. I'd like to try even if it'll be my first anything in like fifteen years! 

Okay so this blog is going to have a non-Tekken bent for the rest of it!

I'll go over what my overall wishlist for Season 2 of SFV is.

Disclaimer: It's no lie that SFV has disappointed me as a product somewhat. I think it's a good figthing game wrapped up in a lot of missteps, and I feel they really need to regain some goodwill with the audience in Season 2. I'm not big on the story mode(weird, disjointed, nonsensical, screws up potential good storylines for comedy, and that's just the tip of the iceberg), Survival mode was a pain, the DLC is starting to creep into DOA prices, and yeah. So this wishlist will be more than characters. 

Also: I'm more casual when it comes to SF these days. Thing is I just don't have a ton of time as many here know; between Tekken, Guilty Gear(hell, I need to squeeze a lot more time out for Guilty Gear as it is!) and other games that I like I simply don't have time to devote to too many fighting games as more than casual; anything beyond these two-like King of Fighters-are like just to sorta be like party games for me and stuff to branch myself out more with. So I don't have a massive horse in the race, but being a fighting game fan I DO like to see well tuned and well put together games. 

I also want to touch on how it's apparently moved less than 100k copies since it's last report. It's come in under it's 2m target. While the CPT has been a success and it's doing great in terms of the competitive game, it really, really hurt itself with its launch. I sort of feel their intent to launch with the more 'Killer Instinct-ish' type of model(perhaps?) wasn't a bad idea, but they went around it wrong. It sort of feels...chaotic or something, like they aren't exactly sure what direction they wanted to go. 

In any case, here are some things I'd like to see!

Game Wishlists:

-At this point I'm going to say 'I don't mind that the story has comedy, as characters like Zangief and Mika are made for it, but could we maybe try to get some stuff on some rails somewhere?' I can't even get into specifics so much weirdness and wtf happened with it. Just...get it on some rails maybe. I don't expect fighting game stories to be miracles(in fact, I tend to expect retcons and weirdness all the way down with most of them the longer they go on), but...this one was really weak, IMO. Rashid was probably one of the crowning achievements as he actually balanced funny with serious fairly well. 

-More modes. Better tutorial. Make sure you give casual players something. 

-A balance pass. I agree with a tweet I saw of Ultradavid; rather than do a lot of nerfing, give some small nerfs to the tip-top, but do more to bring the bottom up. I've mentioned a few times I'm a fan of this sort of balance; it makes everyone feel more awesome than bringing the top down. Granted this only works when the top isn't too inflated over the bottom(in which case, you need to bring the top down more-as I mentioned in my tier thread the top shouldn't be TOO crazy)-and to give SFV credit, it IS pretty good there; the top 3-commonly seen as Ryu/Chun/Insert Nash, Necalli or Ken here last I checked, are not head and shoulders above the rest, they just have a load of favorable matchups. But it's still noticeable that the top 8's and 16's have a lot of similar characters in them. 

-Some sort of cohesive marketing idea. Keep to a decent DLC schedule. Maybe sell the base game for a little less. Maybe cut down the prices of some of the DLC(some of it is getting a little high, IMO. No, I'm not anti DLC-but I do feel it's getting a little out of hand.) Maybe have a concrete way to market this thing to the masses. 

Character Wishlist:

I'm going to pick a few. And...since they actually have updated artwork of Arika characters? I'm going to add them to the list too. I mean, if they're going to tease me with them, I'm going to hope for them!

Doctrine Dark: D. Dark is one of my all-time favorite SF characters. I mean crazy military guy and all. I was one of those EX fans back in the day, and it would be REALLY grand if they add this guy to the mix. It would be awesome to see how they build on his old moveset and tweak him. He's probably my top pick for entering. (If he's in, this SF will literally have like every favorite of mine.)

Skullomania: Yes, another EX character. Why not? This guy's amazing. So over the top and goofy. He's like part Sentai part dude in pajamas. He'd be a ton of fun I think  in SFV's system too! He's a well-liked character who I think would be quite appreciated coming in. He'd get along with Rashid too.

Cody: I always loved Cody and man, I'd love to get our badass prison dude back up in here. They should totally make his V-Trigger something where he breaks his shackles and goes off, too. He'd fit into SFV well I think and be a welcome overall addition. Dude is popular as hell too, so he'd be one of those guys I think would go over real well!

Sodom: Sodom is a big dork and he TOTALLY needs to be in another Street Fighter game. Oh please let him be in another Street Fighter game. I remember when Sodom was rumored at one point I got all happy, but then it never came to be and I had a sad. I think he'd slot in pretty easily and be some comic relief(since they seem to be going that route anyway with SFV so might as well pick a legitimately goofy character.) 

Rose: Rose remains my favorite SF gal, and I think she'd be in a game with Bison since she's still sort of trying to go after him(or would still be at this point.) With SFV's thin amount of zoners, she'd fit in very nicely, and again, I'm biased toward her anyway. Plus her and Guy are pretty adorable. She'd be pretty cool in this system I think! 

Necro: While I personally might wait a season, I DO like Necro and feel he'd add some fun to the cast. He's not a Sim clone despite being stretchy(I think this patch would end up doubling the amount of actual zoners in the game), but I feel they could build him as being a bit more aggressive while still reachy and with his lightning fun. 


All of this being said, I would have Guy and Poison slated for backup; however, given I want two EX characters in this bunch, I think maybe Season 3 would be awesome to bring in Guy, Poison, Hugo and maybe Haggar to complete the Final Fight gang. (I'd probably put in Blanka and Sakura as the SF picks for S3; If S2 ended up with eight picks, we could put in Blanka and Sakura here.) 

Feels about right to me anyway! Guess we'll find out what they think. 

So yeah, just wanted to give a blurb here. I want to like this game more, and again think it's a good game, but damn, as a product the thing needs help. Here's hoping they see what they need to do and fix it up. I'd like to see more fighting games doing better, not less!