zeth07

I just meant in terms of trying to give you advice on what to work on, at this point you either should already know or it would still be the same things I've said in the past. In terms of not panicking I always think that no matter how much health I have, there is a chance I can run it back, and I almost did it in a few of the rounds I played tonight. 1) Don't do a "Cali Burst" when it is the first round, just take that round loss cause it probably isn't worth it and you are still more susceptible to get burst baited at that point. 2) Don't give up even if the opponent has 90% health and you have 1%. You might land a hit and do a combo and then maybe you'll even land the next mix-up, THEN they might actually consider bursting themselves just to try and make sure they win that round. So you go from outright losing the round anyway, to losing the round but at least getting them to use their burst going into the next round, or even better somehow making the comeback and "stealing" the round. My two cents.

GGs Starlight and xntrikcat. I would say GGs DontExplain but that match wasn't really a match, lol.

GGs, you seem to be a little better at things since the last time I remember. I won't say anything else on that though due to previous conversations, lol.

One of the things I'm "worried" about IS the balance of the game. CT to Extend has been building upon the balance and has got to the point that it is pretty well done outside of a few stupid things for some characters . With all the system changes and character changes it is almost like starting back at square one with whatever balance there could be. By all means I'm excited because the game is going to truly be "new" and I have faith that they will do at least a somewhat decent job with the balance from the start, I just don't want it to turn into CT all over again and leave a bad impression on people when this is a chance to try and bring people back to the game with a fresh start. I'm hoping it turns out good and I can't wait to play it, I just hope there aren't some stupidly broken things that come up with all these changes.

Not in your comparison image is "Dark" Tsubaki's artwork where she actually has the red eyes now from Phantom's influence. You don't really need to change it, but people who don't know might comment about the different eye color. I personally think it is just Tsubaki in a different outfit. Not even going to bother speculating about story implications at this point for her.

Who knows but my point still stands. Like I said, it isn't just about playstyles. I'm sure people would rather see Kokonoe or Jubei who are more unique than trying to include another Yayoi character that looks more or less exactly like Tsubaki. Must not be her then by your guess. EDIT: Just to point out even further, she only has a ponytail with the hair piece, while Tsubaki has her "bangs" separated in 2 parts which is exactly like the girl shown in the video and her eyes are how they are now under Phantom's influence. Is it really so far fetched that it is just Tsubaki wearing less clothes in a piece of artwork?

How is it "obviously not her"? The only difference you can say is her outfit and that is hardly worth mentioning considering there is no context for that image. We don't need another "Tsubaki" in the game when there are more unique characters that can still be added and I'm not just talking about their possible playstyles.

I don't know how the Japanese PSN works, but if it releases simultaneously "worldwide" on the 24th (lets say the 24th in Japan), wouldn't it in fact be Tuesday the 23rd in the US which would match up with PSN updating on Tuesdays in the US? PSN usually updates in the afternoon/evening Eastern time, like around 6pm-7pm EST, which would make it 7am-8am JST on the 24th in Japan.

GGs Mirage and Biscuits.

http://wiki.standcrash.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Just to add to this, In the first part of the trailer with the mech, the coffin is either being placed INTO the mech or is coming OUT of the mech. Considering the second part of the trailer, it would seem like it is coming out of the mech. This could imply the next Murakumo boss was being restored or made within the mech, considering the Murakumo graveyard stage they are possibly using all "parts" of them to generate a "new" one. I guess it could be placed into the mech for the same reason, but I just hope the mech isn't something you have to fight. I'm hoping this is more of a stage setting, like the difference between Hazama's end game stage turning into Mu's stage. So initially the coffin will be in the mech>you fight Hazama>next Murakumo comes out of the coffin. Also there was something else you can notice on the mech. The other red colored symbols are the same symbols that are on Nu's chest in the Material Collection. The difference being on Nu it has "13"/十三 in the top middle section then the lower "wings" representative of the swords obviously. You can see the same symbol on Noel's chest but the swords part have the design of the swords more like you see in the emblems and hers has 12 obviously. Yet the symbols on the mech don't appear to be a number, so they must be something else. It most definitely isn't "14" so no Xi-14 for those expecting that. The middle symbol could be something in Japanese but the image is too blurry to make it out, while the top symbol is just something else entirely and does NOT appear on Nu or Noel. Thus the middle symbol could very well not be a number at all. My initial guess would be Saya, but then I realized it wouldn't really make sense for her to be in one of the coffins for any reason. I could however see the mech itself being related to Saya and the coffin is just being used for it or by it.

The timing isn't super precise at all. Put the input display on and watch what you are doing. You shouldn't be mashing it or anything like that. Right as you're finishing the second half circle into 7 press D, don't "wait" for it. It is very easy once you do it a few times. You could also try knocking them down with 2C, and as they tech run up to them then do it. That way you have some momentum with the input going into the forward to back part. It doesn't really change the input or anything, but maybe it will feel different to you and help you get the motion down at first. If you watch the input display and it seems like you did the motion right but still jumped too high, it means you didn't press D fast enough. If you get a bumper it means you pressed it too early or you messed up the initial input.

I don't remember what the context was with the November statement, but I hope that is when a new trailer comes out showing the "boss" characters along with whatever version of Mu and Nu/Lambda. Then have new location tests in November to test those characters and new changes, and then release the game in arcades in December. Then console release in March.

Not really "news", but a good interview from Gamasutra with Arc System Works programmer Tatsunori Ishikawa and CTO Hiroyuki Masuno. Talking about a lot of the gameplay concepts/designs that go into Arc System Works games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/179257/the_shifting_continuum_an_arc_.php?page=1

GGs Toan / Starlight and random Bang player. Thanks for doing the team battles, I still need a few more til 10 apparently. Then I need to win an elimination team battle without even playing, lol.

zeth07 BB, and maybe GG Questionable though.

Except that is exactly what it's purpose is. Considering what we already know about his story, it makes perfect sense that he is just making them younger for his troupe. For whatever reason they just decided to make Hakumen look like that... Tsubaki will probably have on the kimono outfit she has on during one of the flashback parts of the story, which is more or less the same scene where Jin's younger self comes from. Rachel will probably just look like Rachel, just even smaller. Bang will probably either look like this: OR

I think I played you fairly recently right? Nice to see you on here and that you're actually EC. C Inferno Divider will just go right through it as long as you are doing it on reaction to him doing it, just to clarify the timing it right part. If Bang doesn't guard point teleport off the hit Ragna will actually get a CH out of it. If the Bang does guard point teleport both moves will just whiff. BUT if you neutral tech and are immediately doing C Inferno Divider and not doing it on reaction to him actually doing the Astral, you will get hit by it if he guard point teleports. If he does not guard point teleport both hits of ID will get guard pointed but he isn't likely to not guard point teleport off that. Basically do not do C Inferno Divider before he even does it, aka don't mash DP on wakeup. This is actually the opposite for D Inferno Divider. If you do D Inferno Divider early and he guard point teleports it will whiff cause Ragna goes flying. If he does NOT guard point teleport you will get hit. Don't even bother doing D Inferno Divider against it though for obvious reasons. So to make your life easier, just do C Inferno Divider on reaction to actually seeing the move. Ragna is also the only Male character that can just crouch underneath a typical TK Astral. He would still get hit by it if the Bang did it while coming down in the air and at the lowest point though. Hazama can also crouch underneath TK Astral most of the time but he actually has a weird hit box to the point that at a certain distance and/or I guess a certain frame of his crouching animation can get hit by it.

Just between the new characters I expect Azrael > Bullet > Amane. Relative to the whole cast, Azrael and Bullet will probably settle into the middle ground and I expect Amane to be low but still nowhere near Carl/Arakune/Litchi/Taokaka low as I think his newness will overcome his "weirdness" that people might think. To put things into perspective, 5 days after Extend came out in Japan, Relius was the 4th "most popular" character on Ranked. Platinum was #5, Makoto was #11, and Valkenhayn was #15. For those previous DLC characters those numbers were roughly the same placements during CS1/CS2. Platinum was/is surprisingly popular to me at least, while Valkenhayn is surprisingly low. Then for a while and over the course of a few months Platinum stayed relatively popular becoming the 4th "most popular" but then going to 5th and to 7th last I looked (7/12/12). Relius ended up dropping all the way to 9th. Makoto stayed at 11th pretty much the whole time, while Valkenhayn only moved up to 14th (passing Rachel no less). My point here is that just because they are new characters won't necessarily mean they become popular or even more popular than most of the old "popular" characters. So expect to run into the usual suspects when you are playing this game. I would be greatly surprised if any of the new characters STAY in the Top 5 used characters. Not that any of this matters in the grand scheme of things, I do find stuff like this interesting though.

It was shown in one of the pics on Famitsu. http://www.famitsu.com/images/000/022/133/5069ffb108505.html

Someone say comebacks: Coincidentally against a Mu as well, lol.

I disagree. Lambda is a really good character, with plenty of tools that compliment her playstyle and allow her to do plenty and still be relatively safe outside of a poorly spaced sword that the opponent happened to get lucky and guessed right on. I don't see them combining Mu and Lambda's playstyles, they are entirely different and that is a good thing and they should keep it that way. I fully expect some form of BOTH Lambda/Nu and Mu's playstyle to return in BBCP. The game isn't even out yet in arcades, and it needs at least SOME boss character. My guess will be whatever version of Nu or next Murakumo will be the Sub-Boss kinda like Hakumen was and she'll probably have a damaged look to her and of course fight in the Murakumo graveyard. Mu will just be a "bonus" character like Evil Ryu is to SF although maybe those things on Noel's head are somehow related to "releasing" that power by her own control in terms of the story but who knows. I would say I expect Saya to be a playable boss, but it is probably too early in the plot to make her playable in my opinion. I really hope if they are "saving" characters for the console version that they DO NOT do them as DLC, just release the game later and have everyone included. One thing I'm worried about is if they will do another patch update along with any console exclusive characters. Meaning before we even get to play the game they'll release an updated version of the arcade version. Part of me would just want the new possible console exclusive characters and no update before we get to play it. But the other part of me thinks that after months of it being released in the arcade, if there are things that need to be balanced then I guess it would be ok (like Persona was). We'll see I guess, I can't wait. Hopefully you understand why that is about the counter assaults. Bang's does get the opponent off them which is good defensively but it does nothing for him offensively since he has to get in himself. While Lambda's if it actually knocked people away like Bang's, that would be GREATLY in her favor from even an offensive standpoint. So not only would she get the opponent off her, she would also gain the "advantage" due to her playstyle. And she doesn't have to take a risk that often when she has Spike Chaser and Sickle Storm. If properly spaced even her swords aren't much of a "risk", and besides her swords are basically a full screen mix-up / guessing game that if hit goes right back into the same thing. Then if she actually gets Spike Chaser and Sickle Storm out, she forces the opponent to block on oki and gets a free mixup. She does have low health and no real meterless reversal, but she's still pretty damn good.

I might join if I see no one on the net. I usually play way later though when I know nobody is on it. Also GGs to TD and MirageKnight last night. Yomi Gold Bursts were pretty amazing.