ElvenShadow

I guess I missed him. What was his name on his card?

There were 90 something players in the singles tournament for Xrd. That list is probably just the people who pre-registered online. I signed up on the day of at A-cho along with a lot of others, so that is probably why my name is not on that list.

Does anyone know if there is somewhere I can watch my matches from the Pre Arc Fest tourney? I know twitch keeps recordings of old broadcasts but I am not so familiar with Ustream. King of Heart, was Dogura even there? I don't recall seeing him.

Yea Faceguard is Isamu. I had to fight him my 2nd match after I beat DC and lost... I played him a lot the day before in Osaka. I managed to even win my first 3 games of casuals against him but over time he just got harder and harder to beat. His Venom is too sick.

Don't worry, mixups still work. The new system brings a lot of new mixup options with it as well. For example, I am able to do pogo - YRC right before it hits - command throw, and it works pretty well. Also, I can do 6HS - YRC right before it hits - whateverthefuckIwant Also for Axl chain stance, it is annoying but not that bad once you find a way to deal with it. For Faust, you can just super jump when you see him go into the stance if you are in neutural and then just air dash and throw a bomb bag. The chains can't reach you if you are at max jump height when you dash. Sometimes Axl can get out of the stance before the bag hits him but at least you aren't stuck being pinned by chains in the corner.

I think Zato is the best character in the game overall but yes, Ogawa has always just been an extremely good player.

Learned some new stuff. Seems like you can YRC out of stagger state. I'm pretty sure anyway but it might be restricted to a few frames later. Faust's 236236236HS full meter 8 item super doesn't seem to be able to be canceled into from normals.

Yea, from playing the game this seems accurate, though I haven't read frame data really so I honestly don't know for sure. You can still FD cancel dash momentum though BTW. The whole FD system feels pretty much the same as always.

Mario, no prob. BTW, “bullet-time” is just the term people having been using to describe the time slow during RCs.

Yea… so… just wait until you get to actually play the game. The “bullet time” feels natural now since I am already so used to it. It doesn’t feel like it ruins the flow to me now. YRCs overall are a great addition. I thought FRC was an awesome mechanic, and when I originally talked to Pachi about a new GG game before this game was actually even in development, I said I would want them in even though he said it might be necessary to remove them because of difficulty for newer players. But now… I honestly don’t really miss them much. FRCs for the purpose of combo extenders, when you get right down to it, just make optimal combos more difficult to pull off and add more hits. FRCs used for setups/mixups/neutral game were cool to have, but now you can pretty much use them in that way for almost ANY move in the game! It just adds such a new layer of options, strategies and possibilities. The ONLY real thing that is lost with YRCs replacing FRCs is certain block strings that involved FRCs. It is a fair enough trade-off IMO. I see having YRCs over FRCs as allowing for more strategic situations and making combos easier. In a sense, landing a hit is more complex now but getting damage off of that earned hit is easier. Strategy over execution. I think this is a good thing overall. And don’t bring up the “fighting games are not chess” argument because I’m not going to that extreme at all. The game still has difficult combos and it’s not like it’s brain dead easy to play just because FRCs are out and we get some bullet-time. It’s a fresh experience and it is fun to play. Anything that revives the scene like this game has can’t be bad. Going to random arcades and actually finding comp instead of having to go to specific ones and specific times is so refreshing! A competitive game is only worth playing if competition for it exists. Otherwise, have fun playing the same 2 people all day or being a training mode warrior. The small flaws that the game has I’m sure will be improved in the next version of the Xrd series. For a first time effort, SIGN is a solid offering and a lot of fun.

Allowing YRCs to be done in blockstun or hitstun as they currently are essentially is just taking regular red RCs out of the game completely and making everything cost 25% (with the exception of PRCs). As the current system stands, this wouldn’t go over well at all. Combos in general do a lot of damage in this game. Having to spend 50% meter in most of your combos (either for a super or a red RC) isn’t that bad. Meter builds pretty quickly in this game. Mario, yea Omaha crew was always solid. Hope to see you guys all play seriously again when Xrd drops on console.

a few things I should address Yes, for the most part, Faust has never been a character that has relied on FRCs very much. FRC pogo in XX was godlike (probably too godlike) but other than that, his useful FRCs have only been to make things safer (air teleport recovery, taunt pose after his scalpel super which happens on either block or hit, going my way from pogo, bomb bag FRC has always been mostly useless though). So yes, he is a character that does really well with the new system because his combos never really relied very much on FRCs being in the game. That is one of the main reasons WHY he is considered to be top-tier in this game. He is primarily based on Reload Faust, which out of the entire XX series, is hands down the worst verison of Faust. Very bare-bones and nothing overly abuseable compared to other iterations. But, the new system, allows him to make alot of things safer and just gives some crazy tricks and mixup options. Nemo pointed out before that long range characters benefit a lot from the new system and I agree. Regarding +R... having been in Japan and having played the game from day 1 loketest to the very end, I have to say that it felt, at least to me, that it had a fair run. At least the same as Slash got. I actually really liked Slash a lot. Chicago owned mostly everyone in that game. I was honestly a little upset when AC was announced so soon, but I really grew to like AC a lot as well. That is the game I spent the vast majority of my time with here in Japan and will always hold a really special place for me. +R was a breath of fresh air but it also has some glaring flaws. I am happy with Xrd (not just because my character is really good, because he was in +R too, and keep in mind that Faust was mid-tier in AC, but I proabably actually still like AC better overall) and I think that it is really going to revitalize the scene both here in Japan and abroad as well once it is released. The series just needed a real new iteration and I am really glad it got it. Is Xrd perfect? Nope! But.... I can HONESTLY say that I am having a ton of fun playing it and that I think it is completely a legit successor to the XX series. With that said though, yes, the rest of the world got shafted with +R being released slow as hell and then having Xrd being dangled in their faces. That is just the unfortunatle reality that has always been there, and ArcSystemWorks just kinda dropped the ball in regards to +R outside of Japan. At least Xrd should be out fairly soon. Until then, just enjoy +R as I did when it was fresh here amongst your own local communities and give the game it's fair share of time on your own turf. Destin, I would say the "bullet time" for RCs doesnt really feel that bad. I am so used to it now that it doesn't even phase me. Though I will say that having gotten so used to Xrd timing on everything made it REALLY hard to just pick up +R after not having played it for a couple of months when I did so last month for that Mikado tournament. Granted I only played like 10 matches of +R that whole day and probably could adjust back if I played longer, but basically what I am trying to say is that once you get used to Xrd it feels quite nice and comfortable. I think most of you will feel the same way. Most of the information from the interview doesn't come as much of a surprise to me. I am sure that they will tweak danger time to be less stupid in the next game in the Xrd series. For now, it isn't really that big of a deal honestly. Blitz shield has not proven to be overly abusable to me from my experiences playing or watching matches. I would say that compared to other new versions of classic fighting games, we got the long straw on this draw. Lots of Marvel 2 players don't like Marvel 3. Lots of SF2 and SF3 players don't like SF4. Lots of old Soul Calibur players don't like the newer ones, etc etc etc. I would say that the vast majority of veteran GG playres are really going to end up liking Xrd. The game is just fun! Once everyone's favorite character eventually is in, there won't really be much to complain about.

Yup, time for another season of quals! I'm in there.

How about no... Sounds broken as hell. Would u like Faust to do random item super for 25%!? I would feel dirty if I could... Despite various other reasons why that's just a bad idea

To answer some Ramlethal questions... Her swords when used from the placed orbs seem to act like projectiles for purposes of Blitz Shield. I also could be wrong about this but I tried to BS her glowing green move where she lunges forward at you and I think it also might act as a projectile in the sense that she does not get put in the counter state. This was against the computer in training mode and it was hard to tell if I actually did it right or not so take this with a grain of salt for now. Faust can crouch under her spinny sword super at the start of it but once it starts to move forward he can't seem to do so anymore.

Purchased the Xrd tracks from Japan Amazon. Rockin out to some turned up full version of Heavy Day and knockin back some beers. Gonna go to Platon tomorrow night and enter their tournament. I'll try to check some of that Ramlethal stuff if I have a chance.

Arc-fest officially announced on Xrd site. Pre arcfest tourney at Acho on 5/5. Also the official lyrics to the Xrd vocal tracks are posted. I think I'll buy the songs on ITunes. Let's all make a contract with clowns and have a high old time!

So... I'm sorta considering updating my blog again... maybe just as like a "checking in" brief summary of the last 3 years. Does anyone even care anymore? Would I be wasting my time? or should I do it?

Sorry everyone. I couldn't make it out to Platon tonight. Had too much non-GG related life stuff going on unfortunately. I will try to play during the week but probably won't have a chance since there is no weekday scene near where I live. I should be playing again next weekend though, so if your questions haven't been answered by then, I will try to find out that stuff next weekend.

I plan to go back to Game Platon tonight so I will try to test out those specific questions that were just posted. I can't answer them for sure off the top of my head.

blablabla Septhiroth / story stuff... anyway.... I played the new build today against Ramlethal a bit and also tried her out a little. I am pleased to announce that Faust can crouch-walk under her giant beam super. Execution-wise, she doesn't seem very difficult to use. It will just be a matter of time until people find really good setups for her. For those who were speculating about ublockables, I am almost certain that won't be an issue. I am pretty sure her sword orb attacks don't hit overhead. On top of that, her j.HS with the sword in hand also doesn't hit overhead despite being an air normal. Not sure about the non-sword equiped verison. Overall I think she seems like a solid character though. Her command throw range is really short. Her 214P projectile comes out quick and has a nice upward arc that controls space well. Her P and K normals can be linked into eachother like rekkas even on whiff and you can switch up the order for several different combinations between punches and kicks and different direction variations. Follow ups produce normals that are not available on their own. For example if I hit P twice in a row, I get a new normal on the second P press that is not a stand alone normal, One of the Japanese players recently posted a flow chart on twitter but I cant remember who off the top of my head. Anyway, I'm happy to answer any specific gameplay related questions about her.

Damn, I won't be able to go to the Sega tournament on the Xrd site this weekend. Busy during the day on Saturday. I'll probably just hit up Platon for casuals at night or they might have a tourney.

Lox lives near Osaka so I doubt he was there. I don't know much about Saba either Nakamura has been playing a good amount, at least I see him often. He didn't enter. There was a really good 12dan Millia there who was beating me in casuals. Used light blue color. Fino and HEVEN are pretty close in skill. Fino also has a pretty solid Bridget in PR Btw, was my match streamed? I wanna watch it.

The singles tournament was stacked with killers by the way. There was no easy brackets. Had I won my first match my next would have been vs HEVEN. Ogawa didn't enter for whatever reason but he showed up after to just hang out.

Yea I lost to Taka slayer. Feeling very salty since I did well vs him in casuals. Such is the ways of one match single elim. Gotta step it up next time. At least I went 4-0 with Koichi in casuals