FerrellJ

I can't speak to whether or not the cross-platform netplay is inferior to same-platform but there are a number of events that cause the PS3 version to drop frames heavily. Luckily most seem to be cinematics.

Has anyone encountered a glitch in training mode where the game forces you to tech in the direction you have set for the AI? I'll be testing out a recorded setup and try to air tech in various directions and sometimes it simply won't let me. Maybe I'm just losing my mind but I swear this has happened multiple times.

That's the menu- on the JP version at least, there are three options on that screen. You are using the PS4 version? Maybe only the PS3 version has the scaling option... On an unrelated note- has anyone seen interesting uses for Ignis' C (dummy) grenade? I figure it's maybe intended as a mixup tool leading to her command grab but I'm having a hard time coming up with a setup for it that can't just be done with the normal grenades as well.

System Options > 2nd option lets you change the display size along with the positions of the health bars and meters but that should have been set at 100 (Full) by default. What other settings are available for your TV? I only have the PS3 version of the game at the moment but it scales fine as far as I can tell.

Playing across the country is a no-go for me. Game was unplayable at that range with lag of maybe half a second (which is actually worse than I remember in AP). I've played against the same person in AH3 and UNIEL and it felt pretty good, all things considered. Of course, it may have just been a bad connection last night, we'll see.

Not sure if it applied to the trophies as well but I remember the Xseed reps at SCR saying that Examu / Marvelous was handling the translation, not them.

You mean for Sonico's attacks? It didn't before you mentioned it...

I doubt it. It's not something they'd have any reason to keep quiet about and I don't see anything about it anywhere. You might try asking them on twitter but consider that bringing a build to SCR is a short drive across town. Bringing one to CEOtaku is a long flight across the country. And being a build with the aforementioned restrictions, it's not something they can just send over without handlers either. It might be worth asking about just to find out if they plan to have it at any other events though. I wish I'd thought to ask them while I was at SCR...

I'm pretty sure that is actually just a qcf, not a half-circle like the wiki says. At least I think that's what I saw in the command list and what I experienced when first trying her out- I kept doing 2ABC>qcf out of habit. I tried to use it a few times but it was very hard to get within range without getting the DP spike grab instead. I also tried using it on opponent's wakeup and never saw their attacks just go right through its startup like so often happened with Tamaki. Whatever invulnerability that move has, it's no doubt much shorter or less abusable than Tamaki's. There were a number of characters we weren't allowed to use in this build due to various issues (from the sound of things, some were due to licensing deals while others were due to incomplete assets). Unless the Xseed reps were given the wrong list though, Sonico wasn't one of them- Anna and Ouka were the only playable characters we couldn't pick (assist Sonico, IIRC was off limits however). There were a slew of assist characters that weren't allowed as well. It was a bit of a minefield when you got to the assist screen so I just found a couple I knew were allowed and stuck to them all weekend. As far as Sonico goes though, I didn't play her myself but from what I could gather, the cats make up most of her normals. They follow her around at a slight delay and attack when she calls them. They trail her movements a bit but I'm not sure if their attack range is based on Sonico's position or their position at the time of the attack. The overhead cat is forward+heavy and there are some that hit low obviously. I'm pretty sure I saw one cat that rests quite far from Sonico on the opponent's side of the stage as well. Her specials seem to throw the various band members into the mix like I mentioned previously. I don't know what the inputs were but one is an overhead that drops from the sky, another rockets in from the opposite side of the stage (behind the opponent), I think the drummer jumps in from behind Sonico and drums the opponent repeatedly with a multi-hitting move. She also has a command grab super, IIRC where one of the cats lunges out and grabs the opponent. I did see what I believe was her Lethal Blaze a number of times but I never noticed what it does- she literally goes into a photo shoot and a big heart explodes on the screen. It might just be outright damage but the art assets kind of give it the look of a healing move. Not sure if that makes sense... Whenever I saw it, the cinematic was already in progress so I didn't catch where the health bars were beforehand. Overall she looks like a pretty silly character. I'm not sure how it will be once people learn all her gimmicks but she seemed very hard to fight without matchup knowledge.

Got a chance to play quite a bit of the demo build at SCR this weekend. It is orders of magnitude more satisfying to play than the videos make it appear, IMO. I really only put time into Ignis and Ethica. Ignis really appeals to me because, from what I've seen of how she's played in arcades, her combos are generally pretty short with most of her gameplay revolving around utilizing grenades and traps for resets. Good for someone like me who has a difficult time remembering / executing long combos. That said, utilizing all those tools in conjunction with the universal system mechanics the game gives you isn't something I was able to do over the course of my time playing her. She'll definitely require some time in the lab on release. With some thoughtful assists and trap placement, I can see her being pretty terrifying in the right hands. Ethica was a little more straightforward. While I guess she's technically the grappler of the game, she doesn't feel like what I would consider to be a traditional grappler- her command grabs don't have a lot of range nor do they seem to start very quickly like Zangief's and I didn't notice any invulnerability on her grabs as with Tamaki in AP. I had quite a bit of success using the roll cancels out of block strings to get in and land grabs but I have a feeling opponents should be able to just mash A to stuff that tactic. Even her super grab (qcf A+B) has long startup and doesn't have much (if any) in the way of invulnerability as it launches at the opponent so, as effective as it was during casuals, I think it will take a lot more work to use once people are used to the game. Two characters I played against that absolutely confused the hell out of me are Saya and Sonico. The way you go about fighting them seems to be drastically different than all the other characters. Everyone has some stuff I'm not familiar with but with these two, I often had no idea what was happening. Sonico has a standing overhead in the form of the orange cat that jumps off the ground (just like the others) and slashes you (just like the others). There is also ceiling nee-san that anyone who has fought Maori in AH3 will recognize but in addition, there is now also wall nee-san... If you are backed into a corner or full screen, this girl literally comes out of nowhere. Overall, I obviously had a lot of fun with it. I wish I had tried some more characters but I'm rather slow to pick up on things so it's probably best I just stuck with a couple. A few other final thoughts while I'm thinking about them: -The assist selection on the console version is a little weird. When the screen first loads up, it shows character portraits for both assists you had selected previously. However, once you choose your first assist, the cursor automatically jumps to the cell below your selection rather than to the character you had previously selected in your second slot. This led to picking the wrong assist on more than one occasion. It's not a big deal but it's something that was probably almost a non-issue on the arcade release since I think it defaults to the player's pre-assigned selections. -UI is identical to Aquapazza. Everything I saw from the main menu, character and color selection (each character has 20 colors) to the command lists and rematch screen are the same. Speaking of command lists, apparently Examu are handling the translations in-house. This already led to some pretty amusing move names and I'm sure Xseed will have a lot of fun editing the story text. Something that may not be as amusing is the netcode- hopefully they've improved upon what was used in AP. Netcode is never something that will make me not buy a game but with how much variety there is to the characters, good netcode will go a long way towards letting people get the experience they need at matchups to be competitive.

I think the sample combos are fine for beginners. Challenge mode combos, in my experience, are usually somewhat impractical or much harder than they need to be (which I guess is kind of the point of the "challenge"). They're fun to tackle but I don't know if I'd say they really help beginners get any better at the game. Now, something like Xrd's missions would be nice. That was an actual in depth tutorial on the game's systems that really teaches you how to use them effectively.

If you're talking about Chel, the fireball is a single cooldown whether it's fast, slow, ground or air. If I remember correctly though, the cooldown is pretty much instantly negated if the fireball makes contact with the opponent. I guess they're trying to encourage players to do avoid projectiles rather than just tutle against them (while also giving the Chel player a tool to counter that by making them fast or slow). I know Dauntless can just super right through it, for example.

After playing it a bit last night, I'd be curious to see how the game feels is they also allowed specials to be input traditionally. For some reason, I find it much easier to associate a motion to a move rather than a button I periodically use. Well the timing aspect of the execution barrier is still there- you still need to link certain moves to combo. They just removed the input motions which aren't particularly satisfying by themselves but apparently stop a lot of people from getting into fighting games. I haven't gotten a chance to play any matches online yet but so far the only problem I have is that it doesn't seem like you have much time to confirm any combos that aren't punishes or don't start from a jump in.

Those are generally just called DP's or dragon punches, which is just the common term for the Shoryuken.

You're simply selecting which one you want reinforced. It will buff that super with some extra damage and/or additional properties not otherwise present (refer to my post above for examples). You still always have access to the other super.

There are. Selecting Chadha's 720 super unlocks a 2-bar version if you input an 1800°. Kotaro's kunai super will inflict its status effect even on blocking opponents. Azure's fireball super gets a few additional projectiles. There are a few others. Hardly.

I can bring a PS3 with AH3LM, DFC, and UNIB. I also have a NUC that can run MB but if there is a side tourney for Yatagarasu, I would want that to have priority for the NUC so depending on when (or even if) there is a Yata tourney, that setup may or may not be available for MB. I have two monitors to go with those two setups. Also have an LGP for capture/stream if needed. Edit: Plans changed- I will not be able to attend this year. Provided there is actually room for an additional setup, the 2ms difference seems like an insignificant price to pay. I'm really curious to see what kind of space they allocate for BYOC setups this year- I haven't heard them talk about it at all and with the number of different consoles being utilized this year, I'm worried that they may have decided to forego that area altogether.

Woah there. I'm pretty sure at least one of those is a female. Still though, it is a little disappointing for the title to exclude male characters. That said, Nitro+ girls aren't all your stereotypical waifus either so it may not be a big deal.

Can't help with the sound issue but are you pressing start to select the character? If you just press a face button, it will assign the color associated with that button but if you press start, it will bring up the color selection option.

I just discovered this last night by accident and thought it was a pretty nice feature. Does UNIEL have this and I just didn't notice? The games seem to share an almost identical UI.

Best case scenario for amiami is that you'll get the package at the beginning of the next week- they will likely email you for payment processing at some ungodly hour so you probably won't be able to confirm until after they've closed for the day. That means the package won't ship out until the next day at the earliest and because Asian releases are on Thursdays, you'll be waiting until after the weekend to get your shipment. Compound that with the fact that their shipping method requires you to be physically present to sign for the package so if you aren't there when they try to deliver, you'll have to add at least another day onto that. I've ordered from amiami three times and I've regretted it every time- the extra hassle and wait isn't worth saving a few bucks over play-asia's prices, IMO.

The visuals are effective. They aren't amazing on their own and it doesn't seem like anything the PS3 couldn't handle outside of resolution. The fact that the characters are models instead of sprites never really becomes apparent in gameplay outside of dust jumps and super cinematics. As far as feel? I've only put a small amount of time into previous GG titles but it feels more like those than it does any other fighter I guess. I'm stuck using pad until next week so special inputs all feel kind of wonky though.

I believe the XBox Games with Gold thing allows you to keep the games even if you don't keep the membership (on the 360 anyway) so yeah, I can see them not allowing you to download those from the free trial. On the other hand, all PS+ "free" games get locked out when your membership ends.

Early access is just getting people to pay to beta test your game. This is getting people to pay to advertise your game to themselves. Sony is also pulling something like this with Driveclub PS+. In any case, I had a few hundred yen left over in my JP account and I don't have anything else to spend it on so I'll sucker in and give it a shot. I know they said that the demo they brought to Evo hadn't been optimized to run on the PS4 yet so maybe that's why they don't just run the version they've been bringing to the trade shows... Yeah, I didn't notice any issues with that demo when I played it but I'm trying to be not so cynical here.

I had kind of figured that the Xrd demo would be a bit more substantial considering it is effectively a paid trial (not to mention, a time-limited trial)... This would be pretty lackluster even for a free, unlimited demo. Like most disappointing things in gaming these days though, I suppose this will start becoming the norm.