TAI-X

I may be overthinking this, but they probably saw Koko's strength as added "value" for the money, and decided that it wouldn't raise a significant backlash from the Japanese community for as long as her overpowered version stayed console-only. Let's remember that CP is still technically Japan-only for the moment, stuff that isn't in arcades really isn't relevant to the JPN competitive scene, and ArcSys is still apathetic towards non-Japanese markets that have no arcades anymore. Kokonoe's initial overpowered release was tailored for casual netplayers and people more interested in BB's story and characters than the game itself. It seems likely that she'll receive massive nerfs for her arcade debut, once they've finished making most of their CP money from the console audience. Normally we would have heard about BBCPII by now, but Team Blue has been preoccupied with their contractual obligation P4U2.

My theory is that Kokonoe was deliberately made overpowered so people would be more likely to buy her. She's the only CP console character who you're forced to pay for, even if you cleared story mode and preordered the game.

Some people are seizing the opportunity to call for a Valkenhayn ban, lol.

The main problem is that the English dubbing talent pool is still really small. It feels like an echo chamber compared to what we get from Japanese talent. I'm sick of seeing Monica Rial, Johnny Yong Bosch, Vic Mignogna, and Greg Ayres' names show up like clockwork on practically every anime under the sun that gets dubbed. Anyway, it doesn't affect me because I stopped listening to dubs years ago and have no intention of going back.

I thought Arc had mostly separate teams working on the BB, GG and P4U series. You're probably right though.

First shots have been fired in the Kokonoe ban controversy. Don't misunderstand and think that she's suddenly banned everywhere, but other event organizers will be much more likely to consider banning her after this. http://shoryuken.com/2014/01/21/kokonoe-banned-from-blazblue-chronophantasma-competition-at-rebel-up-community-effort-orlandos-alex-jebailey-and-levelup-series-alex-valle-asking-for-community-feedback/ As for me, I am no longer going to main her, as I do not play banned characters and I can agree with most of the arguments for her ban. I wonder why Arc is taking so long to add the CP console characters to the arcade version. They will most likely undergo a major rebalancing when that happens, since arcades are where all the real competitive play happens in Japan.

If this gets a sequel, Sega should add more of their own characters and call it Fighters Megamix 2. I hope Akira's boss status won't exclude him from being playable. It's not his first appearance in a 2D fighter - that would be the Genesis version of Virtua Fighter 2 - but I'm very interested in seeing how his moveset will translate to this type of game.

If Sin doesn't make it in as a playable character, it seems like a given that Ky will have a Sin costume. They may want to keep their options open though.

I liked it better when it was called Great Swordsman. In 1984.

Should have put quotes around "hardcore." These days it really means anything that isn't smartphone garbage like social Facebook games and candy clicking/bird poop flinging simulators, sadly enough. Sure, Aquapazza is a niche game, but it wasn't meant to be such a complete and utter failure here either. That's why Atlus USA released it at budget price. In the PS2 era, that would have pulled a decent audience of curious people. Not anymore. It's true, and denying it doesn't do us any good. All you can do is help people that have already decided they want to get into ASW fighters. Anyone can jump into SFIV or MvC3 and start feeling powerful almost right away after they get the commands down. Knowing your character's frame links and how to FADC isn't as important to one's success as being able to FRC or jump install. The games feature powerful comeback mechanics that take little effort to use effectively, can be used in every match with no risk, and give scrubby players a lot more room to cheese out occasional lucky victories that keep them gratified (ESPECIALLY true for X-Factor). The gap between skilled and unskilled players certainly still exists, but it's not nearly so wide as in AC or CP. Arc's characters also tend to have much more intricate movesets, with more difficult commands and elaborate subsystems that easily confuse and frustrate people, which is why so many end up sticking with Ky and Ragna.

It's going to fade away no matter what they do. The JPN fighting game renaissance that SFIV started is rapidly burning out due to consumer fatigue, Capcom's diminished presence in the genre, and hyped-up major flops like SFxT and SCV. (Note that this doesn't include Western fighters like Injustice and Killer Instinct, which are mostly serving a different market.) The mid-2000s US anime and manga boom ended years ago, and most of the kiddies who were drawn in by Naruto/Bleach/Death Note have since lost interest and moved on. Both of these factors mean that "anime fighters" are an incredibly tough sell here nowadays - just ask Atlus USA about how well Aquapazza has done for them. Anime isn't cool anymore and there's a huge stigma of weeabooism attached to it, especially among the CoD brodude types that buy hardcore games in the largest numbers. The steep learning curves and obtuse mechanics of these games easily turn most people off. If the US releases of BBCP and GGXrd both fail to make back their investment (and this seems likely), I'm gonna say that it would be better for ASW to cut their losses and pull out of the West. If they continue to include international online lobbies like they did in BBCP to make it easy for people to find each other, they've adequately served their overseas playerbase. You know that the fans would translate story mode scripts if it came down to it. You mean that isn't what it's already like for ASW fighters in the US? Also, I haven't yet had a single problem finding US online opponents for BBCP. The US lobbies are far more populated than Aquapazza's, and that game actually has a US release. By their very nature as 1 vs. 1 games, fighters don't need a huge community to thrive, unlike first-person shooters that need large numbers of players for a single match.

As long as I can go on importing ASW's games like I did with BBCP, I will not give a shit if they decide to dissolve Arc USA and give up on Western markets entirely. So far they've done nothing to prove that they're worth the office space and salary, after being allowed many second chances and false promises. Why should they deserve our support?

Looks pretty boring, to be honest. I don't like that every stage is a wide open field. I'd rather play VOOT or one of the official Touhou fighters.

I'm just going to remind you all that us 360 players have had +R in North America for quite a while now.

Regulation A was a valiant attempt at balancing MI2 and bringing the series to arcades, but the game was still pretty broken. They had to cancel their plans for Regulation A2 and a PS3/360 MI3.

I'm pretty sure the netcode was already patched prior to the US release, and it wasn't much of an improvement.

Leopaldon, Gig and Judgment say hi.

Not really, he's a high risk, high reward glass cannon that takes skill to use effectively. Landing his drive specials to build the meter he needs to deal serious damage isn't easy, and you don't have much room for error with his low health. I wouldn't recommend him to beginners.

Did this actually get released on PS3? Flew under my radar.

Someone's probably said it already, but Ky REALLY looks like Millia with his hair down. While it seems like the full initial roster has been revealed, I have a strong feeling we'll see That Man as the boss character (perhaps non-playable).

I think this released way too late. It should have been on the original Xbox or an early 360 title, back when Rare still had a good amount of creative vitality and wasn't trapped in the casual Kinect ghetto. It's too bad that MS had so much trouble acquiring the IP.

So now you're going to tell me that SNKP's recruitment offer that specifically mentioned new 3D KOF and SamSho games for PS3/360 was really only about a trio of pachislots. Right.

New pachishits doesn't mean they aren't still working on new fighters. They're most likely meant to tie into and boost the popularity of the new KOF and SamSho, just like Vastedge. Come on, SNKP USA made a statement in English about it, directed at American players.

BBCSE didn't have PS3/Vita cross-play. It's beyond Arc's resources and getting it right would suck too much time and money away from the actual game, especially with how different the PS4 hardware is from the PS3. It might end up being patched in months later like with Dragon's Crown, but I doubt it.

This is very unlikely.