SoWL

Actually, her being a charge character makes sense, too: it's natural to think of the charge characters as defensive ones, and Anna is a very defensive character even outside of her charge inputs (even her LB is a parry, after all). She's an anti-werewolf weapon, she's supposed to protect, not attack random strangers. Oh, and she's a clockwork doll, so "wind up, unwind" motions works even better with her.

The conference also had a slide which pretty much confirms Alex as one of the first 6 post-release characters. If the leaks are to be believed, the rest are Ibuki, Juri, Urien, Balrog (Boxer) and Guile. EDIT: Oh yeah, we also got the release date: February 16th!

Yeah, the parallels have been drawn on the last page. It makes sense, really: Sonico's greatest strength is her popularity, which means that she has lots of strong friends to help her. Gotta love how Examu matches each character's personality with their fighting style.

Look, Sega, I'm glad that you finally listened to my pleas and remembered about KyoukaiSen's existence, but I can't really buy a game for a support character. Also, Asama is a weird assist choice in that she has good potential for becoming a proper playable character, unlike, say, Kimi, Toori or Horizon. But, well, I just have no idea what they're thinking now that they've made an assist playable. At least the dream of playable Neito still lives.

Oh come on, the "I dislike the Fate series, Nasu's writing and everything Nitro+ has ever released" part is hilarious. I have no idea what Sonico's LB does: it doesn't seem to affect any part of the HUD, and it didn't deal much damage, either, just applied that heart status effect on Saber. Maybe it's something like the opposite of Ruili's LB in that it limits the opponent's options in some way? And since this the players don't use all their options in the first place, you can't see the difference.

We also got an Ilia demo: Looks pretty underwhelming to me, though it might be useful as a "Get off me" button.

Quite a bit of stuff happened over the weekend, so let's get to it. 1. Apparently, Xseed is only going to publish the PS3 version through PSN. Ask Dreiko for the exact wording, as he's the one who asked about it and got the reply. And now don't regret pre-ordering the JP PS3 disc so much. 2. Japan got to play Sonico, as well, and even got a sample combo on the game's website. 3. The same event revealed first proper Ouka footage and even announced a new assist character, Hougyou Ilia from Tokyo Necro. You can check it in the stream's timeshift here, see the screenshots here (and here), or just watch the updated version of the trailer:

Note that I wrote it soon after the game's release, so some of the info might be outdated. Actually, Ethica's regular command grabs are very similar to Tamaki's: she has an invulnerable grab (41236ABC), a fast, strong grab (632146ABC), and the anti-air grab that you can combo into (623ABC, though it's not actually a grab and can be blocked). It's true that her lunging grab has no true invulnerability (though it is projectile-invulnerable), but its main use is as a combo tool; if you want the usual super-grab, you have 6321463214A+B. Also, I had no idea you guys had a chance to play as Sonico: she's not in the arcades yet, and Examu didn't have any streams that show her gameplay. I would really appreciate any info on her, as looking it up on Twitter is impossible right now: the tag is filled with retweets for the PS4 lottery.

Yeah, BBCT had a video tutorial CD. Meanwhile, Xrd has a link to the Japanese wiki right in the game, along with the tutorial and stuff. Well, in any case, I'm ready to do whatever I can to help people learn the game, just like I've been doing it so far.

Note that the trailer mirrors get deleted left and right, so it might not be available for too long. That said, yeah, I like her much more than Necalli or Rashid. The slow fireballs that can setup command grabs look damn dirty.

Since the game is being published by ASW, it should come as no surprise that the dubbing actors are mostly taken from BB. Still, that's one mighty fine cast - hell, they even got Hanazawa! http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/133/1133870/

The devs have revealed the console game modes: http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/10/05/91820.html They are: - Network (Ranked, Player, Friend match) - Story - Another Story - Versus - Training - Score Attack - Gallery - Option The points that catch my eye are the lack of Arcade and Challenge modes. Oh, and there is a short tease of Sonico and her theme in the new Althea demo video:

Yeah, just like every female character in all fighting games is there to please SJWs I like her focus on the chokes, though having another female grappler would make both her and Mika a bit less special. Though it seems like she also has a fireball, making her a bit more well-rounded, I assume?

We did have SF games with no Gief, you know.

I never really liked Zangief (and that's despite loving grapplers as a playstyle), but this time, he actually looks fun. Like, even his moves look fun, not just his accent. Not enough for me to pick him over Mika, but the way Capcom has updated all the veterans so far is just great.

So, how's that Jam theme? The fragment I've heard on BuruRaji sounds heavier than its predecessors, including Oriental Flower, and the Chinese motifs can barely be heard. I wonder if it's still true for the full version.

SF movie is not canon.

I can actually see why rolling might not be worth it against Anna: some of her Fodere variations last for a while, so the roll might not last long enough to go through it all. On the other hand, it might go through the rain oki... Which is where Anna is supposed to use her normals and flight to hit them out of it.

As I keep saying, no character is unviable in the game, but when the meta revolves around one-shot combos, the characters who don't have any will end up weaker. Note that the meta might have changed after the blast changes, but it's been a while since I watched any match videos. On another note, it seems that Sonico gets some help from her band members in her playable form. Guess my wish for a playable Axanael character came true, after all. Expect some dropkicks and tanuki shenanigans... If the devs don't consider it too much of a distraction from Sonico.

So, just like any other online lobby out there?

Pretty sure the launch roster is supposed to have 16 slots.

Another Bullet vs Azrael match at 3:30: It's mostly Azrael kicking ass, but you can also see the Snaphance-Flechette H2 in the corner and 2C CH combo starter.

There is no boss character, unfortunately (missed opportunity, really). I'm not even sure if there is a story mode: I mean, I know who it's written by, but not sure if it's implemented in the arcades already.

Al has been good even before the patch, and got mostly buffed since then. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about losing too many games with her.

That match in the video is simply embarrassing. Might as well give us a combo video with opponents like that. Cool that the game got its own Venom, I guess?