SoWL

Speaking of Desperado Chaos, there is this hilarious exploit that I found on Youtube to beat him on extremely low levels. Most of the stuff is in the video description, so check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUmiiqUfniw Now, if only I could find the required accessories... Honestly, it's much harder to search for stuff now, with Labyrinth not giving you any materials or even equipment. For the first time in Dissidia, I feel that I don't have enough money to buy stuff I want. Maybe because I had my last bonus day last Thursday, right when I got the game. Aaand I've learned all of Prishe's attacks. It seems that I will max her before Tifa, whose damage is still way too low for some reason (and I can't fix that with equipment for the reasons I've listed above). I like that it's not hard to choose my favorite set of skills for her, I was afraid that she'll turn out to be another Vaan in that aspect. Here are my short opinions on her moves: Banish, Holy - Prishe doesn't need any projectiles, as she has other means of closing the distance or shutting down some big HP attack on its startup. And even if she would've needed them, these are below mediocre and have nothing interesting about them. They obviously don't link to her other moves, too. Combo - a cookie-cutter skill, supposedly generates a lot of EX-Force. I'm more of an Assist person with Prishe, so my build simply doesn't have enough space for this move. But if you like your regen and three-part combos, give it a try. Howling Fist - my favorite ground skill, it goes through projectiles, deals great damage, and makes Prishe travel a great distance. Its animation is also both cute AND badass, so you have nothing to lose if you spam it. Linking it to Backhand Blow all day, every day. Dragon Kick - while it doesn't give you any skillchains, it's good enough even without them. Its damage is better than average and its range is pretty good even without charging, so it's good to throw out and surprise your opponent here and there. I didn't try charging it, but it seems to increase both damage and range. Shoulder Tackle - a move with a built-in dodge, obviously good for punishing short-ranged stuff. The hardest part is not forgetting that you have it and using it instead of a regular dodge whenever possible. Backhand Blow - I'm not going to repeat myself, so I'll just say that I still consider it her best aerial skill. Still having troubles with spamming it too much. Spinning Attack - use it if your opponent is higher than you. Duh. Nothing too special about this skill, but it gets its job done. It also has lots of skillchains, so you have a lot of space for customization here. Raging Fists - an aerial version of Combo, basically. It may deal a bit more damage, so I'm still thinking about leaving it in my final build. Also, it has no references to Hokuto no Ken, which makes me sad. One-Inch Punch - this one's pretty weird: if you charge it, it breaks guard and deals tons of damage, but that doesn't improve its range or AoE. I'm tinkering with charging it after linking to it from other attacks, but that will probably turn out as some kind of a mindgame. Asuran Fists - not going to repeat myself here, either. Remember its range, and you will smash faces. Nullifying Dropkick - because of its predictability and long startup, you should use this to punish mages for doing things outside of your reach (makes sense if you keep in mind the "Nullifying" part). Long range and high priority allow you to charge through anything those petty mages throw at you. I wouldn't count on it in a more close-ranged fight, though. Aurora Uppercut - an ordinary aerial HP attack which is fast enough to link from Assist Chase. This is the main reason I've chosen an Assist route on Prishe. I'm not sure if it's a better anti-air option than Spinning Attack, but you can have both, so who cares? Banishga - I just got this one, so I still don't have enough experience with it. Its range seems deceptively short, and it deals some minor Brave damage, too. It may also have the best downward tracking of all her aerial moves. About her EX-Burst: I'm having lots of trouble pulling it off, but I've just learned that all you have to do is press the buttons clockwise after the first one (for example, O - X - [] - ^ - O). Gonna try that out later.

So, Jill basically gets a FRKZ? Cool. But her damage is so low that I can't help but wait for her other shenanigans to be revealed. And Shuma is still in the (literal) God tier.

It's not guard stun, it actually breaks through guard, like HP attacks. The only way to counter it is to dodge in time (or be an AI player). That is, of course, if Prishe player knows the range of its homing and doesn't spam it like a trigger-happy monkey (which happens a bit too often with me).

Gave Prishe some more attention today. Holy hell, some of her moves are simply unfair. Backhand Blow deals ridiculous damage, has good homing, comes out almost instantly AND breaks guard. And you can do all that twice in a row. Asuran Fists is fast enough for an HP attack, deals tons of Brave damage and homes farther than you expect it. Her skillchains are not as useful as I expected them to be (they're basically just bonus damage, without any effects), but they do help narrowing down her Unlimited Customization Works. I also noticed that equipment is pretty weird this time. I didn't spend much gil last time because I got all the equipment I needed from the story modes and the Coliseum, but I don't want to spend too much time searching for it right now, so I bought some weapons for Prishe. Suddenly, she breaks everyone like a twig in a single combo, even though the weapon she wields is made for level 1 chars. As I see it, the equipment is now divided into some kind of "level tiers", and the quality of the items differs greatly even when they belong to the same tier. Maybe that is the reason my Tifa deals no damage to the enemy of the same level 30 as her now.

I, for one, have great respect for people who are good at playing Carl-like characters. The playstyle appeals to me, but I simply don't have enough skill to make it work. Even the fact that I tend to lose to them often doesn't change that. By the way, JoJo is probably the least difficult game in that aspect. The amount of effort you have to put in the game to use, say, Devo, is not even close to Carl's.

Well, a pet handler character is pretty much an obligatory character type for any fighting game now. Some people just think that 1v1 is not fair enough. The video is simply impossible to watch as it is right now. I hope they will upload it in better quality soon.

It may sound surprising, but they actually buffed him, even though he already was one of the strongest characters. His new HP attacks, Falling Symphony, has decent start-up and cooldown, so you can safely spam it if the enemy happens to be directly below you. Holy Star got buffed, too, as Kuja can now move around while doing it (which means that he can move during any of his moves now). I think the star itself moves around, too, but I'm not sure about the exact way it does.

Actually, I have just unlocked Gilgamesh and Prishe (which was much easier than I thought). It's pretty hard to level them (Labyrinth mode gives way less EXP than usual), so it may be too early to give my proper opinion on them. For now, I can say that Prishe is the most newbie-friendly brawler of the three, at least after you spent hours on customizing her. I'm thinking about playing other Story modes for now, as they all work differently now. Even if I had my characters on level 1, you don't have to play them all on 100% now, so it will take much less time than before.

So, I'm already on chapter 8 of the first story mode, and I have no way to play with my army of 100 lvl characters without any equipment, so here are my short opinions on the new chars. Lightning is certainly built to be a beginner-friendly character: she simply does everything. Most of her HP attacks are pretty easy to dodge, though, so her true potential will probably be revealed only when I unlock her Brave-HP links. It's also fun to block the enemy Watera, block the next Watera that Lightning makes and watch her run away from two balls of hurt. Kain is the most mobile character so far, even more mobile than Kuja or Zidane. It takes some practice to understand where exactly you want your enemy to be, but if you do things right, you may get a nice set-up for tons of bonus Brave damage on your HP attacks. Though I find it frustrating that it's really difficult to dodge his Jump, but the enemy does that without any effort. Tifa is probably my favorite newcomer so far. Her feints can actually punish enemy blocks AND dodges, and sometimes get rid of her main downside: very, very short range. Her Blizzard projectiles are also ridiculously good, especially Blizzara, which ground slams. Not a character that you can pick and go smash faces right away, but she will become a force to be afraid of if you're dedicated. Just like my good old man Jecht. I didn't expect great things of Vaan, but his arsenal makes him fun to both play and customize. It's really hard to find a move that you don't like, and it may take forever to finally decide on your favorite build for him. Too bad that the same thing can't be said about his HP attacks. Eruption and Tornado are probably his best HP attacks, but even they are too predictable for my tastes. I like to think of him as the new Squall: more fun, but less useful. Laguna plays like a really, really weird mage. His range is impressive, his Brave game is strong, but his aerial moves deal surprisingly small amounts of damage (while the rest of the mages have identical ground and aerial moves). Even his awesome-looking rockets have poor aim and deal laughable damage. Just stay on the ground, wait for the enemy to come closer, and pray to Cosmos that the fight doesn't take place in Planet's Core. Finally, Yuna takes quite a long time to learn abilities for some reason (to the point that I've already mastered most of the moves I do have). Her summons basically allow her to play the fighter role on a safe range of a mage, so the enemy may not have enough time to punish you. I kinda wish that her style was more interesting, and not just another Onion Knight-like all-rounder. Even her EX mode simply boosts her existing moves without giving her any interesting properties. Still, some of her moves have all kinds of awesome in them, especially her Valefor HP attack. It's so, so good, I feel warm and fuzzy every time I land it. Oh, and I also like the fact that she can equip guns.

I didn't say that. I just meant that a steamroller does not require a corpse.

But Jotaro actually survived a steamroller.

All the accomplishments in Prologus are about playing Arcade mode with every character. You get an achievement for every 5 battles you manage to fight with each character (including Normal Mode). The awards you get are all Chocobo Cologne, which are basically Rare Candies (can be traded for 1 level for any character). There is also an achievement for playing Story Mode, and I guess that the award that you get for it will be traded for Aeris assist.

Behold, the mighty HAKUOWLO! I'm kinda baffled that he's basically three separate characters stuck together, but that does allow for more fanservice in the game.

Remember that the main purpose of Dissidia is fanservice. If you can't make stuff the character with references to the top, you better leave it for later. Aeris is pretty much perfect as an assist character, since she's not supposed to fight on equal terms with such ridiculous badasses like Garland or Firion. As an assist character, she does what she does best - supports, and you don't even have to come up with some ridiculous attacks for her. Oh, and she does have a HP attack that's not based on her Limits: Holy.

Yeah, I mean, who knows what color her skin is?

Oh, look, it's Homura! And she doesn't even look like Jin! I probably should've followed your Pixiv account closer, it seems much better than your earlier works. I certainly need someone to draw a Sayaka-Hakumen crossover. CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE should cling together.

I like how Onion Knight card is his ninja form. And how they didn't spend a buck on the illustrations.

Psst, guess which one of the two bared her chest in her original game. The official website is updated with some videos of Yuna, Prishe and Gilgamesh. And the latter is hilarious, not to mention pretty strong-looking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lZpyAQnTuk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UND3ADsmASg

I actually like Tifa more than Prishe right now. Probably because she beat the crap outta me in Prologus with her feints, and I love messing with my opponent's head. Of course, I like all the brawlers in the game, but Prishe looks like an inferior Jecht, maybe with a slightly better range on her HP attacks.

Tons of gameplay vids, including every new character and arena (and even Aerith!): Bartz vs Gil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtREswisyNE Prishe vs CoD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyiQCbUZCLI Laguna vs Ultimecia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEIjWwFu7zo Yuna vs Jecht: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1A8m4EH2Ys Firion vs Emperor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP1o0nPPU9g Kain vs Golbez: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVfCFX0Ha_E Vaan vs Gabranth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8GplDeMr5Q Lightning vs Garland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMPeOylqk58 Zidane vs Kuja: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHRTe3PnG3M Tifa vs Sephiroth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iP9Lkz1z6E

And he gets yet another role of a swordsman wielding an impossible number of sword. Only this time he has even more swords than Masamune. Why do I like that so much? And I don't see any reason to not expect Dissidia 3. They just said that it's going to be different, and mentioned Kingdom Hearts as an example. If anything, they may just change the story.

I'm sure there will be some kind of preview series, unless they want to flood us with info as soon as we see the demo in September. At the very least, I expect more character reveals, maybe some story info (is there still no script of the text from the trailer?).

Was listening to the Initial D OST when I saw the .gif. I need a fresh pair of pants.

Wait, that's Hazama? Why did I think that it's Zenia?

People are calling all the Arcana Hearts cast lolis even though most of them are 17 years old. Age is irrelevant in these matters.