DLC, Season Passes, and Mystery Characters(Slight Rant)

So, we got some DBFZ news today!

The game launches Jan. 26. Yay!

It'll have a Season Pass. Ehh...well, this does seem to be a thing now. I'm not particularly for or against the concept. I mean getting the season pass to get stuff at a discount, as opposed to buying piecemeal? I can deal. I mean DLC is a thing now, and it'll stay a thing-games are expensive, and they gotta make up for costs.

I mean Killer Instinct runs on an excellent DLC/Seasonal model right now. I'm not against the concept, I think it can done well, or done poorly. It's not the concept, it's how it's used.

This DBFZ SP includes some music, other bits...and 8 mystery DLC characters.

8 MYSTERY characters.

Okay guys, really, this is the part that's getting me.

Let me clear the air; I'm okay with guest mysteries. Like, cool. Geese being announced later for Tekken was actually pretty awesome and brought some hype. I kinda feel having a couple of guest characters attached to a SP is alright. (You can buy them separate too, which is okay.)

But this Entire Season's worth of mystery character BS has to stop.

You aren't hyping up anything guys. I ranted about this a couple times in the past but now I'm going full in because it keeps happening. If you don't know whose going to be in the game yet? Just don't announce the shit for sale until you know. Now it's not the price that's getting me. 8 characters for 35 dollars is like just over 4 bucks a character. Price isn't what's getting me. It's the fact they're fucking mysteries. 

Again, look at Killer Instinct.

What am I paying for here? Am I paying for my personal pick Roster of Playable 17, Broly, Roshi, Hercule, The Great Saiyaman, Gotenks, Zarbon and Gadgeteer Bulma?

Or am I paying for a bunch of rando clones? Am I paying for an Everyone's Goku Pack? Or new characters, of which many I don't really care much for or about yet because they haven't been a part of my life for 20+ years?

It's like if I go into a Wawa and order a sub and all of the little buttons on the computer where I build my sub are all blank and I have no idea if I'm getting that crisp Italian Classic Hoagie with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, oregano, provolone, and extra meat, or if I'm getting a cold meatball and swiss Shorti with Miracle Whip, tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, and strawberry jam? Or did I just order a fucking mayonnaise sandwich?

Do they think we want to walk into a store and order Mystery Meal 3 off the wall and pay 10 bucks for it? Or like five mystery meals for 35 bucks? That's what this feels like.

Just. Tell. Us. The. Goddamn. Characters. Unless it's 'special surprise guests', or 'Bonus Surprise Characters'(which I'd be okay with a couple of, like again, Tekken's two guests-actually, one guest-keep in mind Geese was announced very soon after the game's release).

Hell, release them like KOFXIV did. Once a week drop a character. That was hype!

Again. Season Passes? I'm fine with, even though I know others aren't fond of them. Character DLC? Fine with.

An entire freaking season of mystery characters I'm supposed to want to buy sight unseen? I could be spending that 35 bucks on something I KNOW I'm going to like, like that Wawa hoagie, a large coffee, and then go like get a sketch commission from a friend.

I suppose I have a few small exceptions where I'd do this, but it would have to be for a series where I'm positive I know *roughly* what I'd be getting. Like, if they put out a new Hokuto no Ken fighting game, and they said 'We have 4 DLC from the CLASSIC SERIES', then I'd probably grab it because I know I'd be getting characters I give a damn about(even if they maybe wouldn't all be favorites.)

But DBFZ and SFV just need to cut it with the mystery stuff every season. Take a page from KOFXIV and announce them over time. Or KI, where they have a few ready at the start of a season, and give you some more later. Cool. Can we get SOMETHING though rather than entire damn mystery roster?

(Okay, at least SFV gave up Akuma early.)

Just...really. Before you think about releasing an entire season's worth of hidden stuff before not telling us, would you risk 10 bucks for a mayonnaise and chocolate hoagie? If the answer is no, then just announce at least some of the damn characters ahead of time.

(This rant was brought to you with the knowledge that they may decide to drop all 8 characters on us this week. If they do that? Fantastic! Then SFV ought to follow suit. :P)

Pros, Winning, Variety, Underdogs and Viewers

I had no idea what I should have called this but I figured this works.

Okay, so today at SEAM we got to witness something we haven't seen for awhile; a non Echo Fox Grand Finals. I don't mean non BOTH, I mean non EF in general. Saint came in 5th, and JDCR 3rd, losing to Qudans finally(whom he had come back to beat last week.) Last week, Qudans had put JDCR in losers, but JDCR came back through, to reset the bracket and beat him.

This time Qudans was knocked to the Loser Finals by Noroma(JDCR having been hit by Qudans again), but Qudans managed to squeak out a 3-2 victory to JDCR, to go on to reset vs. Noroma(3-0 the first time, but 3-2 the second-it was close.) The top 8 was a lot of fun in general, and everyone enjoyed it.

And of course there was a lot of 'Man, FINALLY no EF Grand Finals!' And I do get it; we like to see a variety up there, of course. People who win too much end up sometimes with 'Patriots Syndrome'(nicknamed for the New England Patriots and how they win a lot, and people like to watch people unseat them.) I totally get the whole 'Rooting for the Underdog' thing-that's nothing new at all. Once you seat yourself somewhere as one of the best, you'll always have folks rooting for the underdog(see people rooting against Sonic Fox, and back in the day, there was a lot of 'Is someone ELSE going to beat Justin Wong in MvC2?' I mean it's actually fun competition, and in a way, it's a big circle; eventually when someone DOES upset the boat, if they keep doing it, people want to know who will beat them, and so forth. Like, ET was getting a lot of people rooting for him in KOFXIV because he was the underdog to Xiao Hai(and ET did win that, though as an aside I think his Benimaru carried more weight in that than his Daimon, but don't tell the fanbase that).

And hell, sometimes the underdog isn't even an underdog. People wanted to see Tokido unseat Punk at EVO-and Tokido's the veteran! But why? Well, Punk had a much bigger streak going.

But when I think about it-people talk about how they wished there was more variety in top competition...but that, IME, generally points to a game being not balanced particularly well. When there are stable winners, IMO(I don't even mean just Grand Finals, I mean like, top 8 stuff), the game is pretty solidly balanced. It means it rewards good play, practice, and dedication; and if these players have favorite characters they like(even a couple-in Tekken, it's rare that anyone sticks with just one these days, Qudans is actually an exception, being a Devil Jin loyalist through and through), and can stick with them? That's even better.

But, well, with this solid balance and the ability to basically be devoted to a couple of characters means that yeah-that can, from time to time, cut down variety that viewers see, be it on line or in tournament itself.

Now, this isn't always the case. Combo Breaker had a Echo Fox GF, and that was said this year to be one of the most fun Tekken GFs. It was JDCR vs. Saint, but people really enjoyed it. I mean it had a great quality of play-but so did others? I don't know if it was the crowd, the commentary, or just the matches, but that EF Grand Final seemed to have a much better general crowd reaction. (And EVO was pretty damn hype, too, I saw.)

But I think it's sort of a double-edged sword, in a way. Excellent balance and consistency means that you will be seeing very similar people in similar positions(barring upsets, which of course happen from time to time anywhere), playing their favored characters. So it's great for the game and, IMO, the competitors, but the viewers-in particularly casual ones-can be left a bit cold after seeing the same thing a lot.

Or, on the flipside, crazy-go-nuts balance and inconsistency means you never know who the hell you're going to see in top 16s or 8s, or who they'll be playing(since likely everyone will need a couple of characters to handle poor MUs.) It's definitely random for the viewers, and perhaps the casual viewers would like it more.

This isn't only fighting games, btw. ANYTHING competitive, people I think inherently, even the ones who like consistency and reward for heavy devotion and skill-like to see upsets. I think in some ways it makes people inspired(I mean, yes, Rocky lost in the first movie, but if he always lost, it would be kinda crappy), when the underdog wins, they can maybe work toward that win. Hell, I can't lie, seeing Qudans win made me want to take my Devil Jin out this week some(I've been on a bit of a hiatus-though not guide writing, I'm still doing plenty of that.)

In World of Warcraft, there's always, in cycles, some guilds who are always the top dog. Like, it depends on the era, of course, but for example, in Vanilla you had Nihilium and Death and Taxes(for two.) Ensidia came along later(more from the ashes of Nihilium) and did a lot of good; back in Wrath of the Lich King, Ensidia had like 20 World First kills. One that people remember though(well, in that generation) is probably, if you ask(barring the one 'kill' that got Ensidia banned but that's neither here nor there), was Stars, a guild from Taiwan that seemingly came out of nowhere, getting the World First kill on Yogg Saron's 'No Light in the Darkness'. (For a long story short, it was the hardest mode you could do the boss on.) They did it through clever use of mechanics(btw, that boss got another guild banned too), and people following I remember were quite jazzed to see another guild come up from nowhere and figure the boss out.

Likewise, back in Catalcysm, while I forget exactly, I recall it was mostly Paragon, Ensidia and Method getting most of the WF kills...until the biggie, Spine of Deathwing, stopped like all the guilds cold. Oh yeah, then a bunch of guilds got banned for once again cheating a loot lock system.

Then when you thought someone had it figured out, a Korean guild by the name of KIN Raiders came up and ended it(and got the WF Dragon Soul clear. I had already almost quit the game out of rage at this point. I had severe burnout. No, we weren't world competitive, but being a heavy raider is hard.) People were pretty jazzed about that, too. Now granted, these guilds were awesome, but they hadn't really captured a lot of WFs before now, so they were underdogs in that sense.(also, that dwarf warrior kiting tank was a fucking hero. You know him by the one who had the 10000 slimes following him the entire time.)

In the case of some of these players-Qudans is a very respected OG-was still considered an underdog and still a welcome new winner. Noroma was a fairly unknown guy worldwide(NOW he's known!) I think when people stir the competition pot a bit, there's some excitement since we get more good players.

Not that there's a lack of good players, I think. Not all can travel a lot, for example. Some are stuck in small arcades places.

Now, when a known vet-Tokido is a good example-might be on a bit of a 'just missing out' streak-seeing them get back in and kick ass for a load of games is generally welcome. Like, Tokido won EVO, and he's won a few others since then too, and I think if he won CapCup this year, people would be pretty chill. However-if he kept taking every tournament, or if every tournament ended up as Tokido vs. Punk? I imagine people might start rooting for others. (Hell, I saw some people getting worn on Punk vs. Du, and I don't think they even did a ton, but maybe patience wears thin.)

Where I stand? Look, I just like watching good play. I mean JDCR plays my boy, and he's a great player, so yeah, I root for him even when he wins a lot. But I was happy to see Qudans win(and Noroma earlier)-I think they're great players and they put the work in. (I'm neutral on Jack, but I do have a bad Devil Jin I like to take out to play and try to practice with for one of my subs.) I root a lot for Nobi because his aggressive style is one of my favorite Dragunovs to watch.

But while I don't play Akuma in SF, I find myself rooting a lot for Tokido; I just like him, I love his playstyle, I love how he can adapt, he's just a lot of fun. I don't necessarily have to main-or even sub-the character someone plays to root for them.

For the record: I understand the sentiment of seeing a character a lot. But there's a lot, and there's *placing* a lot. See...while Jack is widely played in tournament(sorta-I mean Saint, Noroma, Anakin-he also plays Paul-Joey Fury, and yeah, a few others scattered about), Drag really isn't played as much as people think. Nobi plays him, JDCR plays him, Kkokkoma plays him half the time(he plays Kazumi the other half.) Knee HAS played him but it's very rare these days.

The US has a couple, but they don't make too many tournaments at all(and Aris these days commentates more often than competes.) The EU has some scattered ones(but usually in conjunction with another.) But at the end, there isn't a ton. If I were to count the amount of them that show up in any given tournament, the number would probably be on par with a ton of other characters. But, when someone wins with someone a lot

Now, if you want to see what real character whoring looks like, go check out things like:

-2011 Tekken 6(Bobs, Steve, and Law everywhere)
-SF3 Third Strike(Yun, Chun, and Ken 24/7)
-UMvC3(ohai Vergil, Morrigan and Doom)

Yeah, people who are tired of this? I can completely understand. When any given top 16 is full of like multiple copies of certain characters *regardless of whose playing*, THAT can get boring.

I don't think there's really an answer. You can't balance a game on tournaments IMO(unless it's a Black Adam situation, or a Bob 2011 situation, etc-like, extremes), and I feel that similar players are going to show up fairly often if your game is balanced. It's a case, I think, of others putting even more work in(and people do! Look at Qudans' adjustment this week!), and, well, competition is competition. Sometimes regulars win. Sometimes they get upset. Nothing wrong with rooting for the underdog at all(I think we all do it sometimes!) but at the same time I wish there was less salt in the community about it sometimes, but that's generally the internet nowadays, I guess.

I dunno where I was going with this, more just giving some commentary since it's been awhile since I've updated. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the Tekken Globals and the Capcom Cup though! Will we see an upset...or will we see a regular?

Playing Other Games/Taking Small Breaks(and how they help)

Lately I've been mixing up my games a bit! While I have been getting some training regimens in(I haven't been able to play online so much-just a little), between T7, Rev2, VF and even starting to get my ground in UNIEL lately, I mostly have been focusing on some other things video game wise. Namely playing some MMO(FFXIV to be exact, though fairly casually), replaying Shadowrun Returns on Steam from time to time, and playing Final Fantasy Tactics again(PS1 version actually-I think War of the Lions is so much better but the slowdown finally got to me, please make a new version without that T_T). I've even been fiddling with Hearthstone again, though that game does bad things for my salt values. :P

I actually think this does us some good. Sometimes stepping away for awhile helps. I've talked to some competitors that feel you almost have to take some breaks now and then in fighting games. JDCR-the current world champion and easily one of the best of the world-has said in interviews he really doesn't play Tekken for hours on end, so it's not always pure hours put in(I think there is something here about training smarter, not necessarily harder.)

For me, there was a stint where I was writing up newbie guides between Rev2 and Tekken 7, working on the extensive(now 21 pages @.@) Dragunov guide for the long-form video, now working on a smaller version of said Dragunov guide for a short starter video, and so on(so I guess said stint is still sort of going on.) After all of that pounding away(and testing stuff, and double checking stuff, etc, etc), I started to feel a little bit like 'okay, time to indulge in some other games now.'

While I feel spending TOO much time away might not be a good idea(and I still pop in during the week for some lab time and/or a few matches), I think actually focusing on other games one likes is actually a solid idea to do. (Hell, I still need to get and play Sonic Mania!)

I think it ranges from person to person, but I feel that after stepping away from something, one can return with a clearer head and it actually helps! Sometimes we hit barriers in something(execution, some sort of matchups, whatever, a little bit of everything), and actually breaking off from the norm helps. For some people, grabbing a sub helps with this, but sometimes we reach walls on the games themselves, and going back to chill a little and come back refreshed, so to speak, helps a lot.

It helped us back in the old hard mode raiding days, I can say that-we'd sometimes insist on pounding away at a certain boss for hours and hours, days in a row, would help, but when we ended up deciding to try something else for awhile and coming back? We'd actually get the kill after what felt like a few tries. I think subconsciously we get in a sort of 'repetition mode' where we keep banging our head into a wall once in awhile with things.

So yeah. It's a short blog I guess; but I figured I'd let folks know if you're considering taking a little break from fighting games and playing them lighter for awhile before diving back in, it's not always a bad idea! You could come back with some flashes of inspiration, after all. 

Virtua Fighter discussion and resources

So yeah, I decided: in a small hope that we'll hear Sega announce something to do with Virtua Fighter 6 this year(or even like, 5 Final Showdown Supreme Evolution featuring Shenmue's Ryo as the new character, fuck, I'll take it), that maybe in an attempt to coerce some new players into trying it out, I'd assemble a blog of good online resources to get you started, and then drop a few of my own, personal tips(which won't be as good as the online resources, but I figure I should at least attempt to.)

First to clear up a myth of Virtua Fighter.

Myth: Virtua Fighter is SUPER HARD to get into.

Reality: Virtua Fighter, at a high level of play, has a lot of demanding knowledge, but is NOT hard to get into. Its raw execution level is surprisingly low compared to many other fighters like Tekken, Guilty Gear, Blazblue, or sometimes even Street Fighter, depending on the version.

Most of VF's difficulty comes after you've passed over the early and into the intermediate threshold and need to learn the matchups, since it is fairly important you learn matchups.

There are some tougher characters. Akira is one of the more demanding characters of the game, and Eileen is also more advanced there due to hit-checks. Vanessa is a stance based character whose stances work differently than most(rather than a typical one who often has a core stance and set of moves, and then stances that flow into one another, her movelist is literally split between two stances), and there are other characters with their nuances, but there are a slew of characters who are fairly simple to get into(Jeffry, Jean, Goh, Lau, and some others.)

I really don't know where the myth came from that the game is hard; It may have stuck from the old days, when, if I think it over, it may have been one of the more demanding games compared to what else was out at the time, and it never lost that stigma. Ring outs may add to it, but Soul Edge/Blade/Calibur had ring-outs and was fairly popular in its heyday(before they broke it. :P)

Another cool thing is that stuff just works in VF like it says it does. Circulars are always tracking. Half circulars always track to one side. Evading a move means it's evaded properly, failing an evade means it fails. There are a few combos that have some character nuances, of course(Taka-Arashi comes to mind), but the game's rules are pretty strict, so you really don't run into things like 'random crushing' or 'random low profiling'. You can never be thrown out of attacks(intended.)

Basic movement is easy to grasp. While in Tekken, as much as it's one of my top 3 franchises, even learning basic movement can be a bear for a new player(it's easier now), in VF, there are some advanced movement tricks, but you'll be fairly cozy right off the bat.

Finally, the VF4 Evolution has what is seen as one of the top 3 training modes/tutorial modes of all time in a fighting game(unfortunately, VF5 FS has more of a standard tutorial/dojo, but it's still pretty good and takes you through enough motions). While I'd suggest FS as the one to play(it's my personal favorite, though some name 4 Evo as the pinnacle which is understandable), I'd highly suggest getting ahold of Evo as well.

But yeah, it got the stigma, it stuck, and it's a reason I think it gets passed over.

I think another thing that got people to pass it over was that it's a fighting game light on flash and story. While it has some great character designs(I to this day think Goh, Brad and Jean are fantastic visual designs and Jacky 'Billy Idol' Bryant is a classic), great looking stages, and some really good looking moves that come from a wide variety of styles, some of which don't even get represented often(Mantis Kung-Fu rarely appears in fighting games, Jacky and Sarah's Jeet Kune Do is NOT a Bruce-Lee ripoff variant, and Brad Burns is, for my money, the best example of a Muay Thai character you will ever find in a fighting game) it lacks any sort of super/specials/meter, flash, and again, story. Also, the fact that weight classes exist sometimes throws people off; while these aren't new in games(Guilty Gear has them in a sense, Tekken has not weights but combo variants on characters of different sizes), weight plays into things a bit heavier; heavy characters have less damage done to them in combos than lighter(this does not mean lighter is worse; indeed, Lion is frightening in VF5FS.)

Story? Mattering in a fighting game?

Yeah, nowadays especially, but even back then a bit, story and flash DOES entice people to play, particularly more casual players(who can 'level up' to beginners who then level up to rookies, to intermediate players, etc), or just players who like a whole thing; I mean, there are a lot of players I know who play, say, Guilty Gear or Tekken competitively and also enjoy the story.

There was a long time where I felt it didn't matter, and even liked VF's light story touch. And hell, in ways, I still do. The gist is:

Tournament is held, turns out by an organization called Judgement 6, or J6, which is actually six heads of six different global megacorporations, all who have their hands in stuff like weapons manufacturing, terrorism, chemical weapons, human weapons, overall global domination, and so on. Despite it taking place in 'modern' times it's a kinda cyberpunkish story.

So everyone basically gets involved for varied reasons which can be boiled down to a couple to a few paragraphs each. It's really not much. You don't get fancy endings or cutscenes, you don't get story modes. And yeah, again, I feel that nowadays maybe this did trim off some of the potential playerbase. Here's hoping that maybe for the hypothetical VF6-if they go with this method-that people will be able to look past it, but if SFV is any indication, yeah, more 'light' players like this stuff.

“So, okay, I kinda want to try this Virtua Fighter game, where do I start?”

Well, for starters, you can grab VF5FS over on the PS3. It's not terribly expensive, currently around 25e for the complete edition, including custom packs. If you want the Supreme Training/Tutorial Mode(with the caveat that there are some mechanical differences between games) that VF4 EVO has to offer, you can get that for around 10e(or whatever equivalent currency you use, of course.) VF5 is where you'll find the most players.

A fantastic tutorial video right here: https://youtu.be/boM7T3BWewY While it's a good 2h 40m+ long, it has a crapload of info that will get you into the game. It is timestamped for easy watching, so you can come and go from it. Highly suggested.

Virtuafighter.com 's forums have a plethora of information as well, like:

-A 5 steps deal here: https://virtuafighter.com/threads/5-steps-to-learning-virtua-fighter.15813/

-A character list with some description, strengths and weaknesses: https://virtuafighter.com/threads/character-playstyles-how-to-pick-right-char-for-u.15847/

-And just for simplicity's sake, a link to the whole forum: https://virtuafighter.com/forums/

There are some recent posts, too, that one can utilize to find games and such.

For community matters, while it's slow moving, the VF Reddit is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/virtuafighter/ (and it's a good reddit too, for those a bit wary of the site.) As said, also see above with virtuafighter.com.

The Wiki is here for those who want some info on the more world-oriented stuff: http://virtuafighter.wikia.com/wiki/Virtua_Fighter_Wiki

Finally: I have my OWN little personal tips to folks who are looking to get into it! Note I'm like not an expert at the game, like most fighters I'm more an intermediate type, but...

-Pick who you like at the end of the day, BUT perhaps consider starting out with a slightly heavier character. Heavier characters are less vulnerable to certain combos, and it could well give you a little leeway at the start. This is, again, by no means a requirement-if El Blaze is a favorite of yours(one of the two Ultra Light characters), than by all means give him a whirl! But for the heavier types, Taka-Arashi is a super-heavyweight, and then you have heavies Wolf and Jeffry, followed by Jean, Jacky, and Akira, as 'heavy middleweights.' Out of all of these, Jean, Jeffry, and Jacky are all fairly forgiving to learn at first(Akira being probably the hardest in the game, but again, don't let this dissuade you if that's what you want. I should note Jacky is generally simple however has a couple of bits that can be difficult for newer players.

Middleweight characters are fairly numerous, including Goh, Brad, Lei Fei, Kage, and Lau.

-There are a small series of moves that you can learn with almost anyone to get you started. P, PP, P 6P, 2P, a couple of throws to mix up(forward, back, neutral), a low or two from your chosen character, a common string(character dependent) and a circular/couple of half circulars(one in each direction.) You can start learning the super-basics with this as you go through tutorials, experiment with the move lists, and so on. This list is only partially character specific(everyone has a jab, f, b, and n throws and so on), making it even simpler.

-At first, don't worry too super-hard about character specific combos or even weight specific(with an exception). Some of those nifty guides over on virtuafighter.com have them listed fairly simply in a 'Vs. Taka' and 'Vs. Anyone Except Taka' method. Again that's a great place to go, and you'll worry more about optimizing combos vs. lighter characters(who can take more damage) later on. Take it step by step, you won't be doing mad juggles at first anyway.

-TRY THE GAME AND HAVE FUN

Anyway let's hope we hear some more on Sega at some point. This game still has a community and a following; let's keep it going and maybe even get some new blood involved! 

That Blasted Salami, Dragunov Guide

There's an awesome new Tekken channel up, headed by a buddy of mine you can find here, with a lot of awesome contributers to it. It's meant to teach people Tekken, which is what we're looking to do; Tekken is thin on in-game stuff, so fans do a lot of the work. These are meant to basically take people from beginner to intermediate(hopefully!)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5GTc4yWm-yiBFTuV3MsGaQ

So I decided to finally link this here since it's been actively linked other places for now!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10lnsLTL_BlykTZERANW5M6zSgN5oCDqy3Bk5phj10Cg/edit

This is the full version(okay, about 95% done, I still have some formatting) of the written version of my Dragunov guide that is going to be converted to video form(with narration and everything), in these styles.

The next guide is likely going to be Steve when Jin is finished; after that we aren't sure about the exact order yet but Dragunov and Law are two strong possibilities. We'll have to see!

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the channel and pass it around! Also hope you enjoy the guide and I don't give too many of you bad habits. ;P

Hopefully I'll be back soon with more stuff!

(Btw: Minion starts pre-school this week. It's standard for parents to hang out there the first few days in the morning, but after the weekend I think he'll be ready to go it on his own, and then I'll have a more proper schedule to work with for keeping my writing straight! It'll be awesome for all of us since minion actually loved his time there so far too, so it's fun all around. XD) 

Uhh weird formatting

I have no idea why my last post was formatted so weird, but here's hoping it goes back to normal. :P

Revelator 2 balance discussion

With all of the chat about Revelator 2's balance having issues, I decided to do a quick writeup on my thoughts about it. Okay, maybe a medium size one.

I think they did some things right, and a couple of things wrong. I'll break it down into two sections.

Okay, so first off, what I feel they did RIGHT:

-You can basically be a character loyalist.

Yes, you need to work harder with, say, Potemkin, but as people like Shine and FAB show, it's possible. This is more than several fighters. If you like someone, you can play them. If you're a longtime player of X, you don't have to drop them. I can genuinely say Rev2 is a 'play who you want' game, IMHO.

-There is a lot of character variety in top 8s and top 16s.

While you do see some usuals, it's because of the player, not the characters, IMO. Sin shows up a lot because Kizzie is a strong player. Raven shows up a lot because Dogura, a strong player, mains him. Chipp shows up because of people like Samitto and Bears. But when you go back through some of the varied top 8's and top 16's, you see a fairly nice variety all told. You even see lower tier characters like Slayer and Potemkin showing up, and mid tiers like Kum, Jack-O and Jam. It's possible to stick with who you like, though some people choose to play high tiers(which will happen in any game, even balanced ones.) But if you hunt through some of the past top 8's and 16's-KSB, sai, CB, CEO-there is a pretty nice representation of characters there. Hell, the top 24 of CB literally had every character but Potemkin represented. ('So is he terrible?' Well Shine just won the last two TSBs, which tend to feature some of the strongest players on the East Coast. So no, I don't think he is terrible.)

-The game is, IMO, one of the mostly solidly balanced in the current crop of fighters. No one is OP, and no one is woefully underpowered.

Tying into the character loyalist section, as I mentioned, there aren't too many fighting games right now that reaches Rev2's balance. NRS games are heavily tier skewed, as is Smash. SFV, as mentioned, has some trouble with the bottom 6 or so(though dare I say the roster isn't god-awful.)

Yeah, people at the wrong end of 'da blenda' or one of Johnny's or Sin's combos might fight me on this, but I will stick by it. No one is busted. We don't have any Eddie tiers or Sign Elphelts in this bunch. Sure, yeah, maybe Chipp didn't need Exebeast, but generally speaking no one is off the hook. Likewise, even the bottom tiers, if you're good, are viable, even if some people have to work pretty hard to do it. It's, again, better than a lot of games out there. Right now I feel the only games that match Rev2 in balance are Tekken 7(and even then the lowest tier players tend to grab a pocket Jack or something), KI(which, to be fair, I don't really play more than casually, so I can't speak for it's strongest balance, but that I've seen, there is lots of variety, and I don't hear too many complaints right now), and, well, VF5FS which is sort of old and only gets played in side tournaments(and even VF has it's SS tier Akira.)

If someone comes up to me and says 'Can I play Potemkin?' I'll tell them that you need some damned good fundamentals, but yes you can, and I'll point them in the direction of FAB and Shine to check out. If someone asked me about playing, say, an SFV low tier, I'd say 'maybe you'll want to see some mid+'s if you plan on getting serious.'

Now, for the other half. What I feel they did WRONG:

-They took a step back from Rev 1.

Rev 1, IMO, was probably the tightest GG has been balanced(let's face it, AC/+R was not balanced, Sign was crazy, and the older games were like what. The oldest were 'balanced' in the way that everyone was busted. But Rev1 was quite solid. No, not perfect, but while the character loyalty thing was maintained, it felt like everything was a little more even-ish for the most part. Or maybe not even that; it might be that Rev2's balance is very similar to Rev1, it's just that they ended up making some characters more actively fun than others.

They felt like they had a better idea for some. Like, with Raven, they knew they wanted his Excitement to mean more, so they built him around it; he is, on paper, nerfed at level 1 excitement. He's roughly the same as he was in Rev1 at level 2, and he's buffed at level 3. (Raven mains contend where exactly he stands. Some feel he was better when he wasn't as dependent. I feel he's better now, as do some others, but I don't want to dismiss the others who feel he was better when he was less 'parabola' like.)

They wanted Millia to rely on her pin more, so they built around it(and there are people who feel she has more potential now but they haven't labbed her enough yet, and there are others who feel she was better before-again, contended.) They wanted Sin to have to rely more on his food meter, so they did it. But with other characters, it felt like they just gave flat tweaks to, and flat tweaks can feel boring(I'm reminded of MMORPG balance here; how technically buffing X and Y moves by 5/10% are buffs, but they're boring compared to the other class who got a couple of their moves tweaked to interact differently, even if it net maybe a 5% buff for them.) I think the characters they had good ideas for came out much more fun(IMO, as a Raven main, he's much more fun than Rev1), but the ones they didn't just sorta feel like more of the same, maybe with some slight buffs. (And some fans just seem polarized and can't decide how their character feels, which can be normal, but maybe it's not the best thing.)

This brings me to...

-They were too conservative with a lot of characters.

This is fairly connected to the first. Now I can't say why this is, but the lower and mid tiers, it felt like they just were a bit too light with them. Like they were almost afraid to give them too much. Now I understand that sometimes it's better to go too conservative than too crazy with design, or else you end up with Sign Elphelt.

Which...you know, could have been part of the issue. Sign's balance was pretty bad, and perhaps they wanted to avoid this? They also seem to handle some characters(Potemkin comes to mind) with kid gloves. Ram was hit a little too hard and not given much. Notice a pattern here-Pot had his broken time, and they went conservative. Jam was a bit crazy in the old days, conservative. Slayer was extremely good at one point, conservative. Chipp seems to be the only character who doesn't follow this(and I reckon they figure it's because he's flimsy.) Millia I think was the only character that got adjusted to be still balanced and more interesting, and even then some Millia fans seem a bit unhappy.

It's sometimes hard to say how far one should go, though. Perhaps they thought it better to ease into some of the mid-tiers(buffing first, then waiting a few months, adding more if necessary), which truth be told isn't a bad way of doing it(better than accidentally overbuffing), but perhaps it feels off for some people since some characters got 'cool stuff' right out of the gate.

This is why I feel the buffs feel 'uneven.' They simply had better ideas for some than others. But at the same time, should you wait until you have equal ideas for a whole cast? That could take several months. I don't think it's a bad idea to trickle changes in, but there's no doubt it probably leads it to feel a bit uneven. Hell, this may explain why it felt like they 'focused too much on the top tiers.' Maybe, as weird as it sounds, they simply had better ideas at the time for them.

Again, this doesn't change the fact that some characters still feel lackluster, and they probably could have afforded to drop a couple more buffs on the likes of Slayer, Potemkin and the like without breaking them.

--

Alright, so that breaks down my school of thought. Now, how can they fix this, to make it even better than Rev1?

IMO just look at the low and mid tiers and maybe tweak them some more. Maybe spice up their gameplay a bit with some different aspects. I understand changing playstyles can be risky(it can chase off previous fans), but maybe for some characters it's worth shaking things up a bit. I feel the top tiers are fine where they are, and if the lower and mid get some love, things may feel better for people. In fact, I sort of think some of the 'stronger mid tiers' can get away without big buffs and can do just fine with some gameplay tweaks to make them more interesting. But I definitely think the low and the lower mids could use some love.

(I tend to believe in 'buff low' instead of 'nerf high', though I think in some games with extremes-stuff like NRS games whose top tiers can get ridiculous, or the current BBCF with some of its ridiculous SS-tiers, you do need to nerf. I don't think Rev2 is that game.)

Perhaps take a look at a few of the more egregious moves(which, well, are going to vary depending on who you ask and what side of the bed they got up on this morning, so here I feel they should trust actual testers with low amounts of bias, which yeah, might be hard to find, or at least people who can keep their bias in check), and trim them if necessary. I don't think there are too many here.

Really that's about it. I feel the biggest issue is the unevenness of how people were given workovers. Fix that and I think Rev2 will feel even better than Rev 1.

...

Oh yeah, quit nerfing AA's. Like that's to ALL freaking 2D fighters right now. Really what's wrong with fighting games nowadays wanting to nerf AA's. Remember when jumping in used to be risky? :P

Guilty Gear: Revelator vs. Tekken 7, Roster Cuts. Who did it better?

So I do see debate often on Tekken 7's roster cuts. Same with Guilty Gear, but I see it more with Tekken 7. And I was really trying to figure out why. I mean it could boil down to different fanbase, but both fanbases oddly enough have their penchant for character loyalty. So I'm really not sure what it is, to be frank.

So I decided to take a critical look on how both games snipped rosters, and see if maybe one stood out as 'better'(since a lot of T7 people critical of their cuts cite GG as doing it 'right'...but I see an awful lot of similarities.

Okay so first off; we're leaving Tag 2 clones out. So not really discussing, say, Sebastian here. Miharu has been a long time clone, but she is a clone still. Likewise, while he's not a TOTAL clone, I'll leave Forest Law out, since he is clone-y enough that having a smaller roster, he and his dad together would have been really too same-y. The reason why I'm not using Tag 2 is because it is a non canon installment; a sort of 'best of', so I feel it's more fair to use the previous numbered installment.

What I'll be looking at are the rosters of each previous game; so +R for GG, and T6 console for Tekken. I'll also discuss how GG has added characters over time since Sign(T7 is still too new right now for console, but I'll touch on 7.0 vanilla too, comparing it to vanilla Sign pre-DLC.

So going from +R to the base Sign, the following cuts were made from its roster of 25:

ABA, Anji, Baiken, Bridget, Dizzy, Jam, Johnny, Justice, Kliff, HOS, Robo-Ky, Testament, Zappa(13)

Sign added Sin, Ramlethal, Elphelt, Leo and Bedman. 3 of these(Sin, Elph, Leo) were DLC, totaling 17.

Going from T6 to 7.0, the following cuts were made from its roster of 40:

Anna, Armor King, Baek, Bob, Bruce, Christie/Eddy*, Marduk, Ganryu, Julia, Lee, Lei, Mokujin**, Nina, Kuma/Panda***, Raven, Roger, Wang, Zafina. (See notes on Jin, Devil Jin, Jack and Yoshimitsu.)

7.0 added Claudio, Shaheen, Lucky Chloe and Katarina as new characters on release. As 'Time Release'(I suppose you could sort of slot this with Sign's added DLC), they added Gigas, Josie, and Kazumi(New), and Devil Jin, Jin, Jack and Yoshimitsu. After the time releases(these did not take long to implement the gang), 7.0's roster was totaling 27.


*they were two separate slots, but essentially clones.
**A mimic, though quintessential enough that I'll count him as Tekken has had a mimic since T3.
***Still swaps in those days, oddly enough they seemed to trade places with Eddy/Christie now but I'll get to that.


Now to be fair, both Sign and 7.0 received hefty criticism each. They really did hit things hard. Both games had some fairly edgy fans after these cuts and they did let social media know it. Both games did snip longtime folks, though Tekken 7.0 quickly added a few of the classics, like Jin, back in via time release.


Moving on, what I'll do is fast forward to Revelator 2 and FR, to give the complete rosters that we ended up on console with. Then I'll proceed to list some similarities of missing characters.

Revelator 2 now has as its current roster:

Axl, Bedman, Chipp, Elphelt, Faust, I-No, Ky, Leo, May, Millia, Potemkin, Ramlethal, Sin, Slayer, Sol, Venom, Zato, Dizzy, Jack-O, Jam, Johnny, Haehyun, Raven, Baiken and Answer(25 total, or as much as +R had.)

Still Missing: Anji, Bridget, Testament, HOS, Robo-Ky, Zappa, Kliff, Justice, ABA.

New Characters Introduced between +R and Rev2: 7. 9 if you want to count Raven and Sin, but they were in Overture so were not technically new to the series, just new to the fighting games.

(Some of these appear in story mode, or are mentioned, but are not playable.)

Tekken 7 on consoles roster now looks like:

Alisa, Asuka, Bob, Bryan, Devil Jin, Eddy, Eliza, Feng, Heihachi, Hwoarang, Jin, Kazuya, King, Kuma, Lars, Lee, Leo, Lili, Ling, Law, Miguel, Nina, Panda*, Paul, Dragunov, Steve, Yoshimitsu, Akuma, Claudio, Gigas, Jack, Josie, Katarina, Kazumi, Chloe, Master Raven, Shaheen. (Total: 38, or 2 less than T6.)

Still Missing: Anna, Armor King, Baek, Bruce**, Christie***, Marduk, Ganryu, Julia, Lei, Mokujin, Raven****, Roger, Wang, Zafina.

New Characters introduced between T6 and console T7: 10. You could knock this down to 9 if you factor in that Eliza actually debuted in Tekken Revolution.

*In the odd thing, sort of like how they had Eddy and Christie separate slots in 6, they made Kuma and Panda separate in 7. I kinda think Eddy/Christie could have been clone slots in 6 and the bears in 7, but that'll be discussed later.
** Sorta-kinda replaced by Josie but they are not clones. She has a couple of his moves.
***Using this due to what IMO could be clone status
****Replaced by Master Raven, an essential clone, though worth mentioning for those who liked Blade

Whew, a lot of ***'s there, but so be it.

Now, I do need to make one allowance for Tekken here, and that's the ever-hilarious famous shadow of Jun Kazama. Despite only being in a single canon game(T2), and the rest only non-canon games(Tag, etc), fans get really damn salty about bringing her back. So while she's not on the list, not mentioning this fact would be pretty dumb of me. So yeah, Jun is forever a mention here.

Alrighty! Now that we have the breakdown, let's look at it more technically.

Both games added almost a similar percentage of new characters. 7 to Guilty Gear(7 out of 25 is 28%, not counting the previously featured Raven and Sin), and 9-10 out of 38 to Tekken which factors out to between 23-26%(chopping off decimals, let's not get too crazy here ;P) technically giving GG the higher percentage of replaced characters.

Both games cut classic, iconic, and story-important characters, without a doubt. On the GG side, Testament had been fairly tied into the Gear story, and was pretty iconic anyway; Bridget is a long-time icon of the GG series as well to say the least. Over on the Tekken side, the cut characters had a bit less story importance, though Lei and Anna were tied into things somewhat. Both games had folks with their own stories.

Playstyle wise, unique was cut in both cases, though this is hard to compare since in GG, everyone is very unique, where in Tekken there is a bit more 'crossover', so I don't want to be unfair there and say GG sorta 'wins' this straight up; it's the nature of the games. But to pick out some of the more unique on the Tekken side, once again Lei, and also Marduk and Zafina were quite unique in their styles(Marduk was not like King in grappling.) Ganryu was fairly unique as well. Really both sides had unique(Tekken's Roger had a mishmash of moves, Christie was a clone), but again, hard to compare.

Both sides cut older and newer characters. Testament, Kliff and Justice(okay, granted, the latter two are kinda dead but hey, it's a fighting game, you can asspull if you want) were all around in the first game and then some. Anji came in soon after, and Bridget was around '02. Likewise Tekken cut several older; the only newer characters cut were Zafina(Marduk is T4 which IS fairly old now remember.)

So yeah. We now have the lineup. Both sides cut very similar amounts(in terms of percentage), types, and styles of characters. Both sides added similar amounts of new characters. Both sides have fans that are known loyalists. Yet Tekken gets more harshly criticized. Maybe because it's a bigger audience? Simply 'bigger audience=more voices?'

One thought I had was that Tekken's new characters didn't have the 'oomph' to some as the older new folks, and thus it made them miss older ones more, where with GG's new characters, they're much more overall well liked. (Twitch whining about Raven's oki aside. ;P) It also could be the story; perhaps GG's story, and how the new characters tie in, being a bit more well received helped? Can't say since I doubt the cut characters would have made a huge story difference either way in Tekken(I think in GG they would have had more impact, though Lei as the cop narrator in Tekken would have been excellent.)

I mean, I'm sympathetic. While I got lucky in Tekken(even 7.0 had my main and three of my main subs safe, and I got most of the rest of people I cared about in FR, save for two dabble characters, plus I am fairly keen on Shaheen and Claudio gameplay wise these days), in GG, I came in with Sol. Yeah, I had no Testament, no Anji, no HOS, no Bridget. But Sol at least WAS my main so I had that, I just really didn't have any subs I much cared about. (Raven took over my main slot.) And gods know I was out favorites in the past too; in SFIV, I had no Alex, no Urien, and none of the EX characters I liked either of course. I mean it's interesting since I don't recall characters like Lei, Anna or Marduk being particularly played by gaggles of people(though social media may seem like it.)

There are characters on both sides with the 'We may not play them a lot but we like them on the roster' sense. Lei, Anna over on the Tekken side, and folks like say Zappa and Bridget(the latter sort of a GG mascot) on the GG side. They don't have the highest played percentages, but people miss them. Each game dropped a couple of characters who were played more too. Testament was popular, HOS was popular. Others were more just average. I think on Tekken's side Jaycee/Julia and Armor King were the two most popular(More the latter than the former-Jules was more maybe top 1/3 to half, but AK was played a more IIRC last I checked). Actually, AK was one of THE most played online in Tag 2(King/Armor King was a very popular team among more casual players.) So there is that. I guess you can say AK fills the Testament slot in terms of popular, well played, didn't make it in spot(though Testament had a bit more story importance.)

One thought I had deals with the fact that social media amplifies voices(making it seem like there is a lot of complaints when there are few), and perhaps because Tekken is a bit bigger, there are a few more voices by proxy...but I could swear I see a bigger percentage complaining too.

I guess again, my confusion is simply why Tekken gets the flack more. I guess the only thing I can come up with is that the fans are more attached? Did that extra 3 years or so that Tekken's been out over GG  make that much difference? Was it the new characters after all? Is it just social media at work= I wish, after this extensive breakdown, I could tell you but I think this is something I'll have to leave open to the crowd to answer.

Oh yeah, the hiatus

Yeah, perhaps I should give a note on my hiatus. I realize I had been gone for awhile from the blog.

Basically, anyone following my Twitter knows I've been pretty busy from the spring until now. On top of that-or maybe due to it-I had been fighting through writer's block for almost everything(I did manage to write some Raven backstory fiction, but that's about it.

Then I've been playing my Rev2 and Tekken 7, basically my spare time was devoted to that, and also working on a real, proper Dragunov guide that is going to be turned soon into a video(!). So besides all of that, I really haven't had too much time to write my Shadowrun stuff or play other games, let alone blog.

Here's hoping I'm not gone as long again! I hope to be able to keep up with this thing semi-regularly.

Upcoming plans that I hope to be able to keep up with:

-GG vs. T7 roster discussion(AKA: How similarly they were both cut, but how differently crowds reacted)

-Tekken 7 review(spoiler: I like it a lot, not perfect but it's probably my fav gameplay wise of the series, PC version def. better though)

-Just more editorial style stuff

Also: This is the tutorial channel I work with, I mostly do PR style stuff but I will be supplying the Dragunov guide!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5GTc4yWm-yiBFTuV3MsGaQ

Anyhow, nice to be back and hopefully it stays that way XD;;;

Fighting games and story: How much does it matter, and why?

With many games coming out with more in depth stories(and some without), it's here I ask the question: how much does story truly matter?

So one way I can say story does matter; the casual audience. Casual players are types who play through a story mode or whatnot, before popping the game back on the shelf for an occasional weekend romp with friends. For them, not having a good story mode can be an unsell point(or at least a point where it makes them get the game at a discount.) That's a 'mode' that they're not having as much fun with.

And sometimes those of us who aren't casual appreciate the story too. As a writer, I can certainly appreciate a good story though I'll be honest, it's rare that a story actively makes a fighting game worse for me. I mean for an example, while i think MKX has good character writing, MK's storyline for me is a convoluted mess of retconned timey-wimey dimensional stuff. I really can't get into the big overall storyline, even IF it has good character writing. (You can of course have good plot/story and poor characterization, and vice versa.) But this isn't the big reason I'm not too into MKX; I simply am not big on how NRS games play. That's all. No hate, no salt, just not my style of gameplay.

I also adore Virtua Fighter, despite its very thin story. (I will say I get a lot of plot bunny ideas from some of the ambiguity of it; if I were to crank out more fan work that I do I could do something with it for sure.) Casual players, though, are both intimidated by VF's gameplay, AND don't have much of a story to follow, so I can see where the issue pops up.

On the flipside, there are competitive types who could care less about the story. There, not there, doesn't matter. All that matters is the game. They're not going to complain if it's cool, but they may not even notice. Hell, at worst, they may think that spending too much time on that takes away from the 'game' aspect and they may feel the game ends up suffering.

Fans who are heavily into fan works(art, writing, etc), vary. I myself have no real 'cutoff' point for story. For me it's how much I like the characters and what's there. I can come up with ideas on Virtua Fighter characters very easily(in fact, I remember reading a character write up that thought Jean Kujo could have been cybernetically enhanced because of his one outfit; someone was able to get this little bit in their head, and in turn passed it on to me when I read the piece. Now I imagine he's cybernetically enhanced; this would fit in with Virtua Fighter's whole megacorporate testing as well!) Sometimes there are well fleshed out stories that I can't really add onto. With everyone, it's different. Some people require fleshed out stories to inspire them. Some people only require this sometimes.(There are times where I need something 'heavier' to inspire me, even, so I guess I'm not even so cut and dry.)

I wanted to touch on fan works since they ARE a fairly important part of the FGC in a sense, between artist alleys at events and a load of fanart that can sometimes lure people into a game!

I would say there's no easy answer to this, besides the fact I think it helps from a casual side. I guess my POV is that no game is really hurt by story improvements(I sincerely doubt it takes away from the gameplay side). But given that it's rare that game companies hire real writers(I'm not kidding; I mean even for actual RPGs they rarely hire real writers, only some of the biggest companies do this), so imagine what a fighting game story can end up as. I think the fact some of them come out as well as they do is a miracle.

See, sometimes going with the 'Obvious core characters, small story side characters' can work; see KOF and Guilty Gear. This doesn't seem to work with Tekken's fanbase though. Now I know Tekken's base can be extremely nitpicky somewhat critical(hey I'm throwing shade at myself here too, put the keyboards down), but I think what may have happened is that they got used to having a certain level of story that thinned out somewhat for the side characters.

It DID, FWIW, happen to KOF too. After everyone got used to Iori, Kyo, and such being the focus, moving onto other characters threw fans for a loop, and it did take awhile for them to warm up to NESTS(and even then, it's often seen as a slightly weaker link in terms of KOF's 'Story Blocks.')

Tekken I feel had enough older games with a smaller cast to give them all more focus(even though Mishimas were at the forefront), so I think people got a little more used to seeing 'side characters' with more meat, particularly after 3 and 4. As the cast expanded, the side characters went out of focus more(as can happen.) I think if they had sort of been like that the entire time, it may have been easier for fans to accept, perhaps? I don't mind this, but I know others who were disappointed in the side stories lately.

I suppose though this is something with no easy answer, since different games seem to benefit from different methods and types of storytelling. Some seem to be better when paying more attention to the 'side' characters, others seem to be able to get away with giving them small, sometimes funny stories and moving on. Another option, of course, would be to keep the 'side character' method, but making their small stories more meaningful, perhaps. That could help things with some.

I will say in this day and age that yeah, I reckon story IS kinda important, given the very large casual audience. Just HOW important, and in what way, with what method of storytelling, is sort of up in the air. Personally I think Virtua Fighter works well with thinner story, though I wonder if it wouldn't pick up a few more casuals with better story. Meanwhile, I think people who play Guilty Gear like their more in-depth stories.

What does everyone here think? Is it important to you? A bonus? Depends on the game?

Compilation of 101 Info for Raven in GGXrd:R

I just wanted to compile a set of basic notes together for people looking to start out with Raven. This is more for the discord, but I decided to pop it here on the blog too! Mostly because I haven't updated for awhile...oops. Been under the weather again, this winter has been killer, and we had another round of family colds. Hopefully we're out of the woods!

I notice a few questions that pop up fairly often around the net(besides the Discord, around Twitter and Reddit too), and I felt just gathering up some of the starter notes in one place might help out folks a bit. Basically notes located in lots of areas of the net compiled into a little section.

This compilation assumes you have:

1. Basic fighting game knowledge

2. Basic GG knowledge(like, you're already fiddling with the game looking to get better) and

3. Preferably, but not necessarily, having a bit of knowledge of one character you're dabbling with and you're looking to get into Raven.

So if I use notation or terms like 'Blitz' or 'Oki', you know what I'm talking about somewhat. Basically it's just here to answer some basic starter Raven questions.

So for the common Q&A:


Q. What are Raven's good buttons?

A. More like what aren't Raven's good buttons! Raven has tons of good buttons. For a Quick List of some of his Really Awesome Buttons:

5K: A big boot to the face. 7f, fantastic basic anti-air and 'stay off of me' button. Can jump cancel if you land home for a combo. Probably your go-to anti-air(especially in Rev2, see below.) No proration, either.

5H: Not bad startup(long recovery and not too safe), but a fantastic anti-air with great range that hits at a good angle to catch certain things(it's got a slightly different angle from 5K), combos from the godly cl.S and into other things. Also good for RRC combos(not covered in this basic 101 compilation.)

cl.S: Plus on block, 8f, and its 2 hits making it dead easy to hit confirm. Can get an easy knockdown with a confirmed cl.S to 2D.

2K: A fairly safe low that is great for mix ups and to get the 2D knockdown after, has combo follow ups too.

f.S: A very useful check with long range. It can be low profiled so be aware but it's great.

5P: Another very useful check. Be careful since it has a bit of a high hitbox, but it's a worthy move.

4P: Super fast, can gatling to cl.S into his usual knockdown stuff(see below.) His fastest standing normal at 5f.

6P: While this will have a bit more limited use in Rev2 due to the fact it's losing it's jump cancel, it's got upper body invulnerability, has a great arc allowing it to be a solid AA, is used as combo filler in one of his more damaging punish combos, and on CH grants an S command grab. It can only be jc'd in Rev1. It's got some long recovery so don't spam it but practice the CH confirm into S grab. (If it hits normally on the GROUND, you can still gatling into cl.S. It loses it's AA gatlings however.)

j.S: 'The Paintbrush', a great down angled fast air attack.

j.K: A jumping kick that looks more like the strike from a bird talon, it's very useful to use for his glide. Delaying this can catch people pressing buttons during a glide in. It can also get around AA's with upper body invuln while gliding in.

2D: His knockdown that you will be using a LOT that gatlings from almost everything.

2H: While it's not safe, it has ginormous reach and a VERY low profile, AND combos with scratch. Fantastic move.

He actually has more good buttons than this. It would probably be easier to list his Not As Good buttons.


Q. What combos/basics should I start practicing?

A. Generally speaking you're looking to want to end with 2D for the knockdown so you can start 'the blender' up. (In Rev2 this is going to take a bit more, but I'll get into that.) Luckily, 2D combos from almost everything he has. Choice bits include:

2K-2D(2K is a 7f low that is only -1 on block)

cl.S-2D(cl.S is a 2 hit move that is, again, super easy to confirm because of the 2 hits, is +1 on block and has an 8f startup.)

cl.S-6P-cl.S-2D(a longer version, this makes an excellent punish and is probably Raven's standard BnB.)

2K-cl.S-2S-2D(Like the one above, it's a 'beefier' variant of the first 2K-2D.)

Just try to remember 2D links from almost everything he has, and that cl.S is a super easy hit confirm.


Q. What about other combos?

A. Glad you asked! For starters:


2H-Scratch(Knocks back a bit more than the 2D ender but important to know especially in Rev2. 2H is unsafe and bad on recovery but has MASSIVE range and low profiles a TON.) Don't be predictable but it is really good against people who try to approach Raven carelessly either from ground or air(due to it's low profile.)

In the corner, you can, if you're tight, get cl.S-6P-cl.S-6P-f.S-2D. This can, if you are off with the timing, push you back too far for the 2D to whiff, so practice it. If you feel shaky on it, stick to the above variant in the first example. You only sacrifice a bit of damage, and it's better to get the 2D.

On a crouching opponent: cl.S-6P-cl.S-6P-f.S-2H-Scratch. This is sort of the mother lode of punish combos as it does somewhere between 144 and 186 damage depending on excitement(base, on Sol, who has 1 Defense Modifier and 1 Guts.) It does push back a lot(so a needle might be handy afterward), but it's damage is fantastic.

For basic air combos, a few include:

j.S j.D-Super Easy couple of hits for ball oki.

j.S. j.P. j.S. jc(Jump Cancel) j.S j.D-BnB air combo. Not a good Oki setup but can throw a P.Needle afterward. Practice this as you'll use it fairly often.

j.S-Scratch(Rev2 Excitement Reset/gain, Easy)

j.S j.P j.S-Scratch(Rev2 Excitement Reset/gain, tighter timing but more dmg)

Rev2 Note: Ending with scratch means you get less oki, but it is worth keeping the meter high, so learn to feel out when it's best to do one or the other.


Q. Glide Blockstrings?

A. A basic array includes:

SH: Good damage
SPS: Easiest to confirm
SPH: blockstun/pushback
KSP: fairly standard
KSH: Can grab
KSD: Lands close


Q. What's this blender thing?

A. The basic rundown is: After knocking them down, throw the ball, and roll in for a glide mix-up(low or high, you know, how mix ups are.) That's the most pure form of it. As you get more and more practice you'll get to learn a whole lot more with this, but for starters, just toss the ball and roll in with a mix up of sorts(you can use one of the blockstrings listed above.)


Q. Glide Cancel?

A. While this is probably the most 'advanced' thing on this list, it does get asked a lot, so I'll include it. (it's not like insanely difficult, but I'd put it above 101.)

First a cute little infograph:

https://twitter.com/gg_keeponrockin/status/735846824834011137

For the rundown, when you jump with Raven and start gliding at the apex of the jump, you can cancel with a normal and drop directly to the ground in a sort of short glide. If he goes horizontal(look at the infograph there and you'll see what I mean), you were too late(you can sort of save face with a blockstring or something.) If you drop quickly, you can go into a mixup, or possibly a throw if you land close enough.


Q. How do I stance?

A. Keeping in mind it can be thrown(and in Rev2, it won't protect against UBs), for starters, try to stance vs. things you're more certain about. Knowing things can be YRC'd, etc, but there are some moves(I-No's note comes to mind for one example), Ky's projectile, etc, that are fairly visible and telegraphed. Also just use your gut. If someone is getting predictable, collect some excitement from them!

This is a good skill to practice for Rev2 when the gain is faster(and more important.) It's something you just need to feel out. Know it has a 5f startup.

Also remember you can cancel it into stab super, which is a big chunk of damage(bigger with excitement!) People getting predictable can be stanced and given the stabby into the Raven Boot.


Fast Collection of Other Notes:


-You cannot follow up his command grab without being at level 2 or level 3 excitement. You use 5K to follow it up at level 2(3-5 ticks), and 5H for level 3(6+ ticks.)

-An easy OS with Raven is wakeup 6H/Throw. 6H isn't the safest in the world but it's a useful OS to know and his OS's get asked about occasionally.

-Try to keep a bit of tension to be able to YRC stance.

-Needle is a useful harrying tool, useful to throw after a j.D combo ender. K Needle is air only but has a huge down-angle range across the screen.

-REV2 UPDATE: 2D-Scratch is going to be a thing sometimes now to keep your excitement stacks rolling. In either Rev1 or Rev2, you can do this on lightweight characters with no issue at any level of excitement.. However, on heavier characters it hits otg and can be teched. At higher excitement levels(3-5 ticks for middle, and 6+ for big bodies), it works like it does on lightweights and you get a knockdown. You give up easier oki with this midscreen, but it's very much worth keeping excitement(especially if you're at 6+ ticks), so keep this in mind instead of 2D-Orb sometimes. Keep track of your meter.

This is, again, just a compilation of 101 material. I did not include a lot of advanced techniques, empty jumps, left-right mix ups or anything like that. It's more, again, a 'What do I need to get started with the birdman.'

Hope it helps having the info compiled!

I WILL include a few useful links with more stuff in it though:

Koogy's Basic Raven Guide: https://youtu.be/ZEdVExuCqvk

Blaze's Raven Tutorial: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/144148629

Basic Raven Combos: https://youtu.be/qVAaSktOgxM

Unblockable set-ups: https://youtu.be/BXpr-bMHj4s

Dustloop Raven Page: 

http://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php/GGXRD-R/Raven

Good luck stabbing MF's in the name of S&M!

...ehm...

Early Thoughts and Semi-Breakdown of Raven in GGXrDR2

The beloved crazy birdman is looking awesome, IMO. Now he does have some changes, but I feel they are for the better as it makes him a lot more interesting in the end. So first I'll list the changes that we know of, and then I'll go into things, doing an early analysis  of stuff we can see so far. 

For a quick disclaimer for folks who don't follow my blog: I'm an intermediate type who has a lot of work to get to where I actually want to be, so I don't know the game and every character inside and out like some of the pros out there. I main Raven, sub Sol, and dabble around with Chipp and a couple of others, though I'm not particularly amazing with them. I plan on subbing Answer when Rev2 drops because he's awesome and one of the coolest desigs in ages. 

So if I miss something, by all means leave a comment since I'd be grateful and I'd correct it. So yeah, just so you know, this info isn't coming from like a pro analyst or anything. Also as the title says, this is early analysis. Which of course people do anyway, I'm just joining the crowd here. 

So for the basic change list that we know: 

6P can't be jump cancelled anymore. 

Ball hits change on excitement(Lv. 1=2 hits, Lv. 2=3 hits, Lv. 3=4 hits.) 

Kokosare/Give it to me HERE/Stance gives excitement very quickly now(raises faster in neutral stance as well.) 2-3 ticks per hit at a glance.  I can't see how much faster it goes up in neutral stance now, the initial tick takes about a second on the clock but I haven't been able to actively time it. It seems to be a bit faster. On the one downside, you can no longer stance unblockable moves. (side note: this was probably needed to help balance it.) 

Scratch startup changes on excitement. Unknown actual frames yet, but it gets faster at level 2 and faster yet at 3(at level 2 you are able to to 3x scratch loops, as reported by a tweet, on everyone except for heavies like Pot/Kum/Bedman.) This also enables new combo routes. 

His long glide may have a bit of a shorter reach but this is hard to tell without actually playing the game. We'll probably have more info on this soon. 

Scratch, Command Grab and Dash Super all give excitement now(1, 3, and 5 ticks respectively.)

Stab super drains excitement(It starts to tick down after the kick hits.)

Excitement starts to drain on its own after 10 seconds of not gaining a tick(any single tick will be fine to reset it.) After this time the bar starts to drain fairly quickly(it takes about 5-6 seconds, by stopwatch, for a full bar to drain.) Even a tick in neutral stance will reset it.

Excitement affects things otherwise as it did before(increasing attack level of the ball, increasing hits of the dash super, and increasing the combo capability of the command grab in addition to the bonus damage. 

I'll update with official patch notes when they decide to release them. 

Initial Short Thoughts:

Raven is overall stronger with work; however, as said, he needs to work harder for said strength. He's buffed at his high end, but you need to put more time in to see these buffs, and poor/lazy Ravens are not going to be as prevalent since at base level excitement he is mildly nerfed. Now, this is a given with any character in any game. More work=better results. But I'll get into why in this it'll feel even better to put the work in and how scary he can potentially get. His ability looks something like(keeping in mind there is no jc on 6P in general, that's the one 'flat nerf' he got):

0-2 ticks: 2 hit ball, normal scratch. Possibly a bit of a damage increase(3-6% if he gets 1-2 ticks.) Mild nerf, though by no means unbearable. Likely so mild he would not even change spot in the tier list(maybe he'd change one head-order ON his tier, at worst, IMO.) 

3-5 ticks: 3 hit ball, 1f faster scratch(opens up new combo routes), 9-15% damage increase. Probably even-ish to now, once you take the 6P and the faster scratch in mind probably cancelling each other out(IMO the fast scratch is great due to the routes it opens, like 2D-Scratch on middle AND lightweights.) However given the damage boost, I think he's slightly better than he is now once you add all of his abilities up and take away the 6P jump cancel. 

6+ ticks: 4 hit ball, 2f faster scratch, 18-30% damage increase. Buffed compared to now, clearly, IMO. 

Again, to get to his buffs, you need to work more, so you can think of this as a bit of a barrier. I like to say Raven is basically 'changed'. Harder work for more reward. It's up to you how you consider it(some people think harder work means a slight nerf regardless of more reward, others look at the reward. It's subjective I think.) 

The Longer Breakdown: 

6P:

I think 6P will still be a useful move for CH confirming into grab(it does still have it's upper body invuln), though it has lost a decent amount of it's AA utility without the jc. 

Biggest issue with 6P is that on a non CH, as an AA, it can be teched. Now, that isn't so much of a problem because he can just jc it and that is a big help. With no ability to really gatling from anything as an AA(on the ground, you're fine, it gatlings with cl.S and f.S), you're really relying on getting that CH now with it. For button-happy people that won't be an issue, for good reads it won't, but it is more dangerous now(it's going to mainly be used for his cl.S->6P->cl.S-6P combo now I feel.) 

So why did they do this? Well they nerfed four AA moves at least(Sin, Raven, Leo, and Sol, and I may actually be missing some), so it feels like they want less 'easy' AA. I think they went a bit far with Leo's in particular(it's barely an AA anymore), but I can see actually why they went this way with 6P, possibly. What I'm about to say is speculation on my end, but here goes:

With the addition of Excitement gain off of the S grab(which is actually very meaningful now, it's instant level 2, and he can RRC the grab for another grab, which will then grant level 3, which is very dangerous), I kinda think they figured 6P, as it was, would have been a catch-all AA. The move would have had, if they hadn't changed it:

-Great arc to catch a variety of moves

-ability to jc it to keep it safer on normal hit

-Ability to S grab on CH

-Upper body invulnerability

Basically with some small exceptions depending on angle(5K and 5HS would still be used, albeit I feel much  more sparingly and only vs. specific attacks), 6P would have just been the go-to unga AA, even with it's big recovery, since Raven would have little to lose with all of that. Mess it up and you can adjust it, get a CH and you start the excitement train rolling. It sort of feels that with other good AA nerfs they maybe want people to AA smarter. 

So Raven CAN still use 6P, but it carries more of a risk on normal hit, which means I feel they didn't want him just 6Ping people jumping at him for everything to fish for the free excitement grab(given how strong he is with it now), but use it more smartly(and yeah, I think it'll still have it's uses in his toolkit) Again, this is just all my speculation. They could have thrown darts at a board for all I know. :P

5K and 5HS will still be doing work as AA's though and be doing it more; these are fantastic AA's, they just cover different angles(5K that sort of 45 degree angle in front of him, 5HS a longer range, heavier hitting angle, both of which can be jc'd into combos. Neither prorate either, remember!) 

Ball Changes(Oki Blenders)

Raven was known for(and whined about a lot, let's face it) his 'blender oki', where he would get a knockdown, throw his 3 hit ball, and then fly on in for a mixup. People whined about this as if they were asked to give up their morning coffee or something(traditionally, oki characters tend to garner salt from people.) 

Now he still has his oki. In fact, at level 2 excitement(3-5 ticks), it's exactly how it is now. At level 3, it's actually better. (And you also have to remember gaining excitement gives him that 3% per tick damage buff, which he has now, but since people barely use excitement, you don't see it much.) 4 hit ball at level 3. 4 hits is big. Like, the 3 hit ball, at 10 ticks, does 26x3 damage(base, not account for defensive stuff, guts, etc.) Level 4 will be four full hits. As an opponent, do not get hit by this. (Not to mention it's attack level of 4 at max level. And the blockstun that thing is going to give.) 

The change here is that either way the Raven player is going to have to work harder. At low levels of excitement(0-2 ticks), he'll have to be much more adept at mixing up and the like because the ball won't be able to just hold them off free since it can be reversed. On the other hand, if they want the stronger ball, Raven players will have to work at keeping excitement. 

But given how strong excitement is in Rev2 now I think that'll be something to strive for. As said I think that 4 hit ball is going to be nasty(and I don't even want to think about potential command grab shenanigans. Well I do but yeah. XD) 

You can see the 4 hit ball grinding up this poor Faust here(sort of, he sort of traps him):

https://clips.twitch.tv/ProudBoxyPidgeonVoHiYo

Also there is likely, due to the hitstun of the 4 hit orb, going to be even more nasty shenanigans to pull off. Airdash oki command grab? Further use of command grab setups? Air throws? Scarier mixups with level 3 damage behind him? That level 4 orb on it's own is going to do around 26x4 damage(and judging by videos, bonus damage has not been lowered in doing some comparison labbing) if it doesn't get blocked. 

That being said, the lower level balls are useful for things like space control. The ball is actually useful for that NOW, to be fair, but it feels too few Ravens actually use it for that. Some do, which is cool, but I notice in matches people are making heavier use of it now, because it can be used to drop a still-somewhat dangerous object in the middle of the screen to force them to grind to a halt. As seen here, the Raven uses this to hold off Johnny so he can reset his stacks:

https://clips.twitch.tv/ProtectiveDreamyBisonEleGiggle

I've also seen it used to halt people behind it and sneak a command grab in. Again, the ball was always useful for this but there were so many Ravens that never utilized it for more than oki; giving it variable levels seemed to open up people's imaginations somewhat with it, which is a good thing. 

Excitement Changes(including discussion of the new Scratch since it links in):

Raven's excitement links heavily to his character now. As well it should. 

As mentioned above, higher Excitement makes him better. At no ticks, he's mildly nerfed from what he was before. At 3-5 ticks(Level 2), he's about where he is now(minus the no jc on the 6P), + the natural excitement damage boosts(which is 9-15% at that level.) 3 hit ball and so on. (I'm not certain but scratch may be a frame faster than it is now here, but I'd need frame data.) 

At 6-10 stacks, he's at a 18-30% damage boost, has a 4 hit ball, and a faster scratch. Basically, he's a death engine at this level. 

(Always note his dash super has increased hits on excitement, too!) 

Now there is a change to how excitement works; it's stronger, but less permanent, and must be managed. Excitement gains something like 2-3 ticks per hit, which is huge, in addition to going up aster just by going into neutral stance. 

One thing Excitement changes is the speed of Scratch. This might sound minor(a frame per level, it's the same speed base, and goes up a frame per level that we can tell, again, waiting for official notes but that's what the stuff is saying), but this opens up combo routes that weren't there before. In the current game, Raven is able to score a 2D->Scratch on lightweight characters(and the Scratch knocks down; can't tech it.) On middle+ it can be teched. However in Rev2, the speed up enables him to use this on middleweights at level 2, and seemingly heavyweights at level 3(of which there are only 3 characters anyway, Pot, Kum, and Bedman.) So already at level 2 this opens up new combos-against a standing middleweight, for example, he gets for a punish cl.S->6P->cl.S->6P->f.S-2D on open ground. At level 2, he will be able to add the scratch after the 2D for more damage and another tick of excitement(and if he's at five ticks this will push him into six, which is level 3 and starts the really oppressive oki.) This is great that it opens up more of the cast to use it on.

You can see an example of the level 2 2D->Scratch hitting Ky here while he's at level 2: 

https://clips.twitch.tv/ImpossibleArtsyMushroomOpieOP

You can also think of clever ways of how to use Tension to gain and maintain excitement. For example, usually Getreuer(Stab Super) drains excitement now after the kick hits(it doesn't dump it instantly but starts it ticking down, and it does tick down rather fast remember.) But if you RRC after the kick as shown here, you can continue your pressure:

https://clips.twitch.tv/ConsiderateMoldyCodTwitchRPG

So this will lead to some good decision making. Keeping Level 3 is pretty important I think(Level 2 can be gained rather easily, I notice people being a little more willing to let it reset, though if you're at 5 ticks it might be worth saving.) 

You can also, for example, command grab(+3 ticks), RRC, command grab again(+3 ticks), combo, and there you are, 6 ticks, 4 hit ball and they're going into oki for the cost of 50 tension(and getting level 3 for 50 tension, IMO, isn't a bad deal, even with a badly prorated combo.) 

I don't have any video of the scratch loops after a corner throw, though this is likely going to be difficult to pull off and probably used for styling or securing a kill. We'll have to see there. It sounds cool in any case. (These apparently do not work on Bedman, Kum, or Pot.) 

They weren't joking when they said excitement gains quickly, as shown here:

https://t.co/n9m3NEFe6K

And people forget how much more damage he does at high excitement. At level 3 it's 18-30% more. That's huge, and it turns Raven into a murder machine, ending rounds quickly if allowed to perform his savagery: 

https://clips.twitch.tv/LongGiftedMeerkatPeteZarollTie

People are going to have to get used to him doing more damage. Generally, very few people use his Excitement now(it just takes too long to go up and gives too little benefit), that having to land another hit confirm or two is something people find easier than boosting excitement for the damage boost. (Excitement is why Raven is likely designed with sorta meh damage at base level; it's because he can get such an enormous boost. If he had done even slightly above average at base level he would have been making Potemkin look at him side-eye fully boosted.) 

So what does all this mean? It puts a lot into the hands of the players-and both players, since opponents are now required to be situationally aware vs. Raven, and have decision making. Raven players will need to decide to maybe end combos in scratch instead of say dust(air combo), to maintain a tick or gain a tick. They need to decide if it's worth spending tension to stack it or maintain it. They need to keep a mental idea of how long they have before resetting, what to stance and so on. Of course all of this has to be done quickly in the flow of a match. Also Ravens not keeping an eye on their excitement may not realize they no longer have access to their better attacks and do things out of habit which can be dangerous. 

On the flip side, opponents not paying attention will find themselves trying to reverse or DP through a 2 hit ball only to get blended by a 3 or 4 hit ball, they won't remember his extra damage routes, they may not remember that certain moves will no longer beat out scratch because it's faster, and so on. Also I've seen opponents actually Burst in an attempt to hold him off from resetting his level 3 in particular, this will be a real decision to make(save Burst for a combo or use it to prevent him from staying in steamroller mode?) This in turn could lead to Ravens trying to intimidate them into using it, more mindgames and so on. 

I think stance and his attacks will be used in conjunction for ideal excitement maintenance. Maintaining it with offense only is going to be risky, but mixing in with smart stance use will allow it to kind of explode. Dash super gains more use now too, giving a fat five ticks; given you can combo into this fairly easily, it's not a bad use of 50 tension to gain five(especially if you're sitting at 1, as this pushes you into level 3!) I think his command grab is going to be particularly valuable, given the large amount it gives for no meter, but scratch is going to be a useful maintenance tool(especially given vs. most of the cast, once he hits 3 ticks, 2D-Scratch can be utilized. So 2K->2D->Scratch, or well anything that gatlings into 2D->Scratch, which is a lot.) 

Whew, this section was long, but it is a big part of his game now. 

The glide I cannot do too much judging on at the moment since I've only seen bits of it in action, I don't have any hard numbers on it, so I'd rather we actually get something here before really getting into it, since I can't really say if it even has a major effect on his game yet. Some videos show me business as usual, so if there IS a change, it may be minor. 

Overall Thoughts: 

On paper, making him more difficult is technically a nerf of sorts(6P was a nerf), but the fact they buffed his high end game is an improvement I feel. His power level basically runs a little differently. Good players will be able to play an even stronger Raven than they do now; even with the fact Excitement can decay(which had to happen, IMO, for them to make it better), he gains so many more benefits under it. More damage(which again, always there, just rarely utilized), more combo routes, more damaging combo routes, even better Oki than now(4 hit ball is going to make people weep far more than 3 hit, IMO), and simply a lot more creativity to his game. 

For example: Right now it's extremely rare for someone to be at high Excitement when stab super hits(it IS fun when it happens.) Thus rarely there is an opportunity for someone to, say, Stab super for 52 hits, RRC and continue pressure(I guess someone could Stab super for the single kick and continue pressure but I imagine there is much better use of meter at this point.) 

It makes things more dynamic for both sides too. The other side won't have to complain about KND-Ball-Mixup; since yes, this will be a part of his game, especially at 2+ levels of excitement, but there will be more decision making on the part of a Raven player(give up Oki to gain a tick? What level are you comfortable letting tick away to re-earn it? How far will you go to keep level 3?), as well as the opponent(are you willing to let him stay at level 2? Do you want to stop any gain, even if it puts yourself at risk since he's only mildly nerfed at 0 stacks remember. Use up a Burst to attempt to prevent Lv. 3?...Forget that he can stance the Burst and he is now maxed...? Oops...) His air scratch at level 3 is going to be a mere 10 frames. Need to remember that, too. Essentially both halves are going to remember a few abilities changes throughout the match and know when it happens. 

I do think that some people who were in it for the easy oki might move to another character(though given they seemed to make oki harder for the likes of Millia, as well, and took away things like easy AA's, I think they want more people to work hard, not less...not sure where they'll go!), but Raven mains will find things very fun, dynamic, and with a visceral sort of reward(just seeing him rip a life bar apart quickly makes me can't wait to play this new version and the new tech.)

Also, he might see some new players who felt a bit bored playing him before! With his new playstyle, he might appeal to people who wanted something more to sink their teeth into. 

Opponents may be a touch less salty, perhaps having a sort of grudging respect since letting him get to level 3 is partially on them getting outplayed, so the oki feels less 'free'(to be honest, I thought it was about getting outplayed before too, but people are funny like that.) 

I'd be curious to hear some thoughts from other GG players who have seen his stuff! Anything to add? Anything you can come up with tech wise? 

Til next time...