The Fighting Game Diaries: It’s (not) worth dwelling on

There’s one thing that amazes me about people in high level sports. Well, lots of things about them amaze me. For the purposes of this post however, the thing I’d like to highlight is selective amnesia. That is, the ability to forget about mistakes made (however recent or distant) and just get on with the situation before them.

No. Enough of that.
Most of this post is going to be mopey, so I put in stuff of me doing well to remind myself that, you know, I can play and do cool stuff.

This is a gun.

I’m a dweller. I tend hang on to things. Often things I have messed up. It’s been in my life for a long time. This isn’t great for competitive games. Inevitably, mistakes will be made when playing matches. These can be input mistakes, strategic or tactical mistakes or simply absent-minded errors. They are going happen. They happen to or are made by the most skilful players. Sometimes they have limited consequences, sometimes they result in dropping $150,000 dollars. They can be rough. Luckily my mistakes don’t have those consequences though.

Sajam’s videos are the best. And yeah, everyone on every level messes up.

However, you must keep playing after the mistake. You need to somehow push past it, not let it bother you and keep on trucking. I honestly wish I knew how people do that. It’s something I wish I could do. I’ve been trying recently. I used to do it a lot when I invaded when doing Souls PVP. It got to the point I could and would drag up invasions from a year, two years before and wonder what if I just dodged instead of going in?

You can imagine how this vibes with fighting games. There are more matches. There are more chances to make mistakes. That’s more mistakes to hang on to. A whole bunch of them. From input mistakes to mistakes handling meter to mistakes in the neutral to mistakes guessing on strike/throw. Hell, I can still remember the first time I had a chance to go up to floor 10, vs an Ino player. I had the perfect chance to win with Kenjyu – I fumbled it. The I hung onto it, lost the second match and by the third match my headspace was shot to bits. All because I clung onto a mistake.

Full set against a Faust player in the Park. Challenging but fun match up.

Sorry Faust. Had to be done.

Lately though, I’ve been trying to rectify this. Well, gradually rectify this. Because while it’s a little better, there are still lapses and relapses. The thing that got me to have a serious think about it was of all things, a set in the Park. The Park shouldn’t be an issue. No ranking points at stake, just fun matches. 4 matches against a Johnny player. Finished 2 – 2. But I made so many errors in those last 2 matches that, well, afterwards I just stood there in the Park for 20 minutes. Just stood there ruminating, stuck in my own feelings, wondering why I messed up. Afterwards I tried to fight someone else, but my head wasn’t there, and they were also way better than me. Ended 0 – 5 and then I dragged myself off to sleep.

Slayer match in the Park.

I didn’t think it would wall stick so soon. Still, looks cool.

I just started playing more and more matches. Obviously, I still had to think about things – how to fix the little things, what to keep doing, what to stop doing – but I tried to spend less time feeling sorry and more time just playing. It was working. It’s not like I suddenly turned into Mocchi or something, but more time playing the game and less time moping led to more having fun.

Then the relapse. After a few fun days, I went to the Park and did two first to ten’s. They didn’t go great. One against a Nago and one against a Johnny player. Sandwiched between was two small sets against a Ramlethal and a Slayer – won those 2 – 0 each so that wasn’t bad. The Nago set finished 1 – 10 and the Johnny set finished 0 – 10. The Nago set got to me because, well, 1 – 10 is never great but there were 4 or 5 matches that went down to the wire. I could have flipped them. But in the end could of’s count for nothing. But I hung onto them. Then came the Johnny set. The first 5 matches, again, were close run. And again, I clung onto that instead of what was in front of me and stopped playing well. I made the same mistakes over and over and over. Then I got inside my head, stayed up way too late and had a sad bus trip to work.

For the record, I ain’t mad at the people I’m playing. It’s me I’m cranky with. Not their fault I’m messing up. You take any chance you get to capitalise on a mistake. I’m just frustrated that I keep making them. My opponents are just taking advantage of it.

Two matches from a Park set. I did take it 5 – 1 over all, but there was a bunch of close finishes.

My favourite stage to Wallbreak on. The rag dolling makes me giggle. Even when it’s happening to me.

I love Baiken’s sassy walk.

Now I’ve written this out (it does help), I can’t help but wonder why I’m doing this. The lingering, not the game playing. When I’m not being my own worst enemy the game is fun. Super fun. Some of the most fun I’ve had ever. And in the grand scheme of things, what do these mistakes mean? Does missing a meaty timing mean I’m utterly worthless? Will wrongly inputting a super cost me all my friends? Am I going to die because I messed up on an opponent’s mix up? Answers are (extremely) not likely to a flat no. I shouldn’t be stressing about this stuff. I mean, I want to get better and that does require some self-reflection but there’s no point in driving my self-esteem through the floor. If I do find that happening, I should just put the game down and do something else. Anything else. Some funks can’t be shaken in the moment. All it means I’ve had a bad session in Gear. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. There’s no need to carry that everywhere. And sometimes an opponent is just better than me – no shame in that. Just roll with it and try to learn.

That being said, it does take time to change thought patterns and behaviour. I could still find myself dwelling on the bad stuff. I’ll just have to remember to call myself out when I do it, recognise when it’s coming on and work on minimizing its impact, (hopefully) getting to the point it won’t bother me. I mean, it might still be there, but it won’t bother me.

And I’m guessing I’m more likely to make progress when I’m feeling happy about the game rather than being mopey about the game. Those mistakes? Let’s call them learning opportunities. More I learn the better I can be. And celebrate the fun stuff I do. I’m not the best Baiken ever (nor will I ever be) but I still do cool stuff, and it’s worth thinking those things too.

A set in the Park against someone with a VIP card. These were all the matches from the set. Pretty happy with it. Pretty, pretty happy.

Such a cool super

Notes and Asides:

While writing this, Sajam made another video on this subject. It’s worth a watch.

I think I’m going to start saying Aw dangit.

The Redemption Run – The Nagakiba and The Wakizashi get their moment in the Sun

Sometimes when playing a Souls game, you find yourself feeling like you owe certain weapons and armour a run. Either they were being used and were (unfairly) dumped for another, or they were picked up without the necessary stats and they felt like they would be fun to use. This is a story about the former. Two weapons and one suit of armour. The Wakizashi and the Nagakiba for the weapons, accompanied by the Land of the Reeds armour set. All three of them were owed a run at assisting an Elden Lord.

When playing with a Katana, at least one boss has to be killed in this manner. It’s a legal requirement.

Essentially, this was a repeat of my first run. My first Elden Ring play through started and finished with the Uchigatana (I’ll always appreciate the sword) and midway through it was paired with the Wakizashi. Paired Katana’s have a unique move set. Despite being a dagger, the Wakizashi can be paired with a Katana and have that same move set. The perks of being a Japanese (well, Land of Reed’s) weapon. After a bit of moping and mumbling about the difficulty about the end of the game (in retrospect: utterly overblown) the Wakizashi was shipped out in favour of other Katana’s. The Nagakiba was one of those Katana’s. This run saw them combining forces. I owed it to them.

Because when I said mid-way through the first run the Wakizashi was replaced, what I really mean is that the Wakizashi was dumped with 95% of the run done. It gave sterling service throughout the play through, and then I decided it wasn’t enough to beat the final bosses. The Serpent Bone Blade stepped into to fight Radagon and the Elden Beast. The Wakizashi came back but was dumped again for the Malenia fight. I told myself I needed some extra to finish the fight. But, on two separate occasions get within one hit of killing Malenia with the Uchigatana and the Wakizashi. It was not the weapons fault – those failures where on me. So, I wanted the Wakizashi to be in my characters hand when all those foes fell. I wanted to give it the wins it deserved – the wins I took from it.

The best Radagon fight I’ve had.

And the weapon that stepped in for the Malenia fight? The Nagakiba (although I would be lying if I didn’t acknowledge the extra range and damage helped). The reasons for this weapon taking centre stage are because I have constantly promised to do a run with it, always bailing on it. I didn’t even fully upgrade it for Malenia – it got stuck on +24. I said I would make a character and use it – the best I managed was it playing second fiddle to the Cross Naginata (along with the Wakizashi funnily enough). I’ve never given the weapon a chance to be a character’s main weapon. So, with the Wakizashi in the offhand, the Nagakiba had a shot at being the main weapon. Together, they carried a run. In all honesty, this run happened about a year or two ago, I just never got around to writing about it. But, with the Elden Ring DLC soon to be with us, I figured it would be a good idea to dust off some of the Elden Ring posts that never made it to this blog and get myself back in a groove.

My Summon for the run was the Ancestral Follower. Mainly because their bow and it’s arrows reminded me of Japanese archers. Thye gave great service througout the play through.

On the armour front, the Land of the Reed’s set is a set I have always started with, and then dumped. It almost made it to the end of my run with Ooi, my first proper Samurai character but towards the end she switched to the White Reeds set. That meant I had never seen the Land of the Reed’s set in any ending cutscene. And I would have liked to. It’s one of my favourite sets aesthetically. It’s one of my favourite Samurai armours in any game. So, I decided to ride with it from start to finish. Another Samurai character was born, named Sendai.

Poke!

Of all the Katanas in Elden Ring, the Nagakiba is probably the best, what I would call “pure Katana”. By which I mean a Katana that doesn’t have magic powers – it’s purely a sword. One that doesn’t blast off moon beams or sheds waves of demonic blade as it slashes. It has the longest range of all the Katanas (this might change post-DLC). It’s classed as a Katana for game purposes but it’s an Odachi. In everything but name. The R1’s are regular Katana R1’s – just hitting harder and farther, which is nice. The R2’s are super cool though. Most other Katana’s have enhanced slice attacks for the R2. The Nagakiba has thrust attacks. The charged thrust is wonderful. Lots of damage, and lots of posture damage. And given the length of the weapon, it might as well be a spear when it’s thrusting. The other Katana’s can only thrust when using running attacks, specific ash of wars or being one handed. The Nagakiba has no such restrictions and it’s all the better for it. I am always in favour of a weapon having a handy means of dealing different kinds of damage.

Japanese steel alone can crack open a dragons skull. Truly wondrous

The Ash of War I chose was Unsheathe. I remember using on my first run, not being impressed with it then moving onto other Ashes of War. Then I watched some speed runs and some challenge runs. Turns out I underestimated Unsheathe. I didn’t realise how much damage it was capable of inflicting. I was unaware of how much posture damage it did. I was aware of how cool it looked though. Nice to have it for a full run this time. The damage does confuse me though. Like, there are weapons in Elden Ring that have cosmic vortex beams and create mini volcanoes when they strike the ground. But unsheathing a Japanese (well, Land of Reeds) Blade somehow does more damage (unless it got patched). A curiosity, but a welcome one for the play through.

This was a fun playthrough. Gameplay wise, the paired Katana move set is a lot of fun to use. A nice mixture of slashes and thrusts. Visually, it’s a little and large combo. The Wakizashi is one of the shortest weapons in the game, and the Nagakiba is one of the longest. Watching them come together to wreck gods and men alike was worth waiting for. It was nice to finally see the Wakizashi have a hand in toppling Radagon and the Elden Beast, and the Nagakiba have its moment in the sun. There is also the bonus of it looking semi-realistic with a dagger in the off hand and a sword in the main hand.

The death of a God

At long last, an Elden Lord sat atop the throne, aiding Fia with the trusty Nagakiba and Wakizashi by her side.

She earned it.

It’s going to be fun doing this all over again.

Also a legal requirement with a katana. Edgy posing. Jokes aside, this should give some sense of how long the Nagakiba is.

Notes and Asides:

You might notice there is no Malenia footage here. Well, that’s because lazy old me never got around to it. Finished the play through, and moved onto to other stuff. I’ve got a bunch of character’s that need to fight her. And Mogh too. I have three character’s with Mohg dead, so I’m good for the DLC. For 5 other characters though (including Sendai) I’ve got some work to do. I should get around to Mohg soon and I’ll probably run the DLC first before heading back Malenia’s way.

One Strike: 10 fights, 1 life

In a fighting game defined by one hit kills, playing it through in the One Life mode seems to be fitting. One by one, the whole roster (nine characters and a mirror match) is fought, with only one life to make it through all of them. One mistake, and the challenge starts anew. Or taking a break to think things over. I had already completed the easy and medium difficulties, so I wanted to complete the challenge on hard mode to have a full set. I have done it before, on the Switch a few years ago, but I wanted to get it done on PS4 too. It took a little while. It’s funny – a few hours of trying – maybe 2 or 3 – only for the successful run to take about 1 minute 20 seconds.

My warrior of choice was (still is, when I play for fun) Soujirou, my favourite character in One Strike. A monk who wields an Nodachi, he fights in the mid-range. His one attack is an Iaido swipe, and it has two parts to it. Sword is removed from sheathe, and then sword is swung. The swing covers a fair distance. Not the farthest in the game, but pretty far. It does require some timing though – it can be sniped on start-up and if it has been well spaced Soujirou will struggle to recover in time. Soujirou can back dash, but he cannot dash forwards.

Almost every other character has either a forward dash or a dash attack. Soujirou must walk forwards slowly, carefully gauging space and either block punishing, sniping other characters as their attacks start up or catching them after spacing out their attack. A spacing mistake, a slip up with attack timing or missing an opponent dashing in often means death. After making mistakes, and getting back up, eventually Soujirou fought through 10 warriors of exceptional strength and emerged as the strongest. This is the story of those fights.

Brief aside. There is a downside to the One Life mode. Because fights can end in a hurry it can be hard to see how a match up can play out. With that in mind, below this paragraph I will post my arcade run on hard difficulty. Because arcade mode has a first to 5 wins for each opponent, that means a bigger sample size, which means more chances to see how a match up plays out and what tactics work best over a longer set. It’s also worth noting that aside from the final fight, opponents show up in a random order, so there is a lot of just dealing with what’s in front of you rather than planning for a specific order.

Longer sets gives the match up space to breathe. And space for come backs too.

Oni

Oni fights in a similar style to Soujiro. His movement options are walking and a back dash, with no forward dash. But unlike Soujirou, Oni’s dash is an unblockable attack. It’s exactly like his regular attack, just unblockable and a little more start up. He uses a Kanabo, which has exceptional range. More range than Soujirou’s Nodachi.

The best way I found to navigate this was to bait out a swing, spaced just right. Too close, and Soujirou’s head would no longer be on his shoulders. Too far, and Oni would be free to reset and go again. Just right however, Soujirou could walk forward and unload an attack before Oni could do anything.

And with that, Oni slumped to the ground, mortally wounded.

Kenji

Kenji is one of the most mobile characters in One Strike. A quick forward and back dash is complemented with a katana strike that lunges forward. All of this requires good spacing and awareness to be dealt with. Kenji is incredibly adept at dashing in and out, baiting a swing and then lunging forward with his katana to deliver a mortal blow. Particularly to characters like Soujirou, who has a long recovery on his attack.

One pixel away from this fight going South

The tactic I found success with was to pick and choose spots, and snipe Kenji as he charges in. It does need good timing and predictions though. But have those, and Kenji will hit the deck. Another option is to be patient, and block and punish. That might be the safer option, but it does invite pressure. But with Soujirou, I found the pre-emptive method to be best. Because Soujirou isn’t the quickest, getting a quick kill ahead of time felt better than dealing with a quicker enemy up close.

Daiyu

Arguably the hardest fight in the game. She has no movement – she can only walk backwards and forwards. Seems simple, until the realisation hits that her dashes are replaced with twin sword swings, with massive range. Like, almost a 1/3 of the screen range. Forward dash takes a step forward; and back dash takes a step back. The regular attack is short range and was never too much bother. The dash attacks however are something else. That’s were the danger comes from.

Spacing had to be incredibly precise. If she did the back dash, Soujirou could be in trouble. If she did the forward dash though, with the correct distance Soujirou can unload his sword swipe just before her first swing connects. It has to be precise though, one or two pixels out and it’s all over. Other characters can bait out the first swing and either dash in or block punish. But with Soujirou not having a forward dash, getting in is tricky. I found it easier (just about) to catch the forward dash attack while it started up.

Catching it early, always good.

It’s a fight I was most glad to push past.

Soujirou – Mirror Match

This an incredibly fun mirror. We both cannot forward dash, so it’s a pure footsies fight. A battle to gauge space and catch the opponent either starting up their attack or locked in recovery. It is the glorious Chanbara ideal – two swordsmen with sheathed blades, both aiming for that singular swipe that will bring victory.

Fundamentals

Nodachi’s at high noon. There isn’t much better.

Bailong

We go from no mobility to all the mobility. Bailong fights with a Guandao. His back dash covers a fair distance, while also being an attack. His regular attack is a leaping strike, covering almost half the screen. His block lasts longer than most characters, so he can hold that and back dash for a cheeky kill.

But, for as far as his attack goes, it does require getting close to an opponent. For the entirety of his leap, he isn’t invincible. Hit him at any point and he’ll go down. Soujirou steadies himself, see’s Bailong leap forward and rips a sword swipe loose.

Catch that leap

Bailong slumps to the ground. Needs good timing though, otherwise it’ll be Soujirou who is dropped.   

Hinode

Another incredibly mobile character. But one I don’t struggle with. She attacks with a lunging motion, wielding two Sai’s. But unlike Bailong, it has so much start up that sniping it isn’t a problem. 9 times out of 10, Soujirou can hang back while she skitters and skates around, his sword ready and when she launches forward, lets it rip. More often than not, it is a bloody end for the Ninja.

Just sit and wait.

Tomoe

Like Kenji, Tomoe has a forward dash and a back dash. Unlike Kenji, her Katana swing does not launch her forward. But it does hit twice, and that second swing has deceptive range. That attack can lock down blocking opponents, and because blocks can’t be held forever, the second swing can come down and cut through an opponent.

Like a lot of these fights, I found success with trying to predict the movement and use Soujirou’s range to win. A risky option is to block the first attack and try to fit an attack in before the second swing comes down. It’s a small window though.

If she blocked there I’d be in a trouble. Thankfully caught her dashing

I had most success with catching her before she got close though. It’s better folks with sharp objects are kept at arm’s length.

Hangoku

Another incredibly tricky opponent. A zoner carrying a Kusarigama. She can both forward and back dash. Her attack has two parts – the first whirls the chain around, the second launches it forward. It covers about 2/3’s of the screen. Her block also counts as a quick slash attack. When she’s spinning the chain, she can cancel it into either a forward dash or a back dash. She can spin the chain indefinitely, choosing when to let it go. However, the recovery for this is so long that if one can get in, and is aware of danger of the slash attack, she can be picked off easily.

The trick is not to block when the chain swings. Because it can be held indefinitely and blocks cannot, all Hangaku has to do is wait for the block to drop and then attack. However, if one blocks as the chain launches forward, Hangoku cannot do a lot but hope the attacker is not in range.

I had to be patient. Soujirou had to block only when the chain launched forward. Walking her down, and blocking when necessary, his Nodachi eliminated the risk of the close-range attack. She couldn’t recover in time, and she fell to the ground. It’s a tough but rewarding fight.

Honestly, not much she can do after its blocked

Dragon

Dragon is the only character with a projectile. He can throw Shuriken’s. And go invisible. Which all sounds a little terrifying for a guy that cannot close down space quickly. However, it’s not a lost cause. Shuriken’s can be blocked. And those Shuriken’s have a startup. It is possible to catch Dragon mid throwing motion. I never figured out how to figure out how to figure out the invisible puzzle – I just made an educated guess where he was and swung. It worked out more often than not.

No invisibilty this time around. But, the start up on the Shuriken toss can be seen.

A single swipe of a sword slicing through a smoke bomb cloud to cut down a ninja. Ridiculously anime.

Lotus

Wielding two fans, Lotus has her forward dash being an advancing attack. Her regular attack is a close-range swipe. In all honesty, this is a bit like the Sai fight. And one of those fights I wish I could fight a human opponent because she’s never a problem. I mean, I have lost fights to her but on the whole, it’s incredibly simple. Soujirou sits there, sword unsheathed and just waits and waits and waits. The dash comes, and it gets sniped. It’s a pretty simple fight. I would like to see how a human opponent would try to bait out a whiff and punish with the dash attack.

And with that, we get the end screen. It’s one of my favourites. By defeating all 10 opponents, Soujirou now rules Japan. Good for him.

Wait on the dash, conquer Japan. All in a days work

Honestly, I love this game. It’s simple, but you can still have fun interactions with simple mechanics. And fights like Twin Swords and Hangaku have a few subtleties. This post was written from the point of view of Soujirou. But for any other character, these fights would play out differently. Characters with less range than Soujirou, and more mobility (and vice versa) must find other ways to defeat certain opponents. These are fun puzzles to solve.  

Health Bars not included – playing One Strike

Grass drifts in the wind. Two figures stand still. No wasted movement. A sudden flash of silver. A streak of crimson. One figure fall. One stands. You are either watching an old Samurai film, or you are playing a video game like One Strike. Or you have gotten yourself in an incredibly dangerous situation. But let’s hope it’s one of the other two.

I’ve been playing two similar games – One Strike and Sclash. I’ll probably talk about Sclash another time because I have more experience with One Strike. I played One Strike a while ago on the Switch, and I recently bought it again on PS4. These two games are fighting games, except they have done away with health bars. Single hits kill.

Bait out the swing, and punish.

Like most fighting games, you can move left and right. There is a dash button, but certain characters only have a back dash, and certain characters have dashes with inbuilt attacks. There is a block button, but it can only be held for a set amount of time. There is a button for attacking, but no combos. Different characters have different weapons and attacks. As an example, one character has a double slash with a katana, and one character has a leaping attack with a spear. There are different archetypes too – some characters want to rush down; some have attacks with wide arcs, and some can zone. In a game with single hit kills. That’s neat. That’s fun. Particularly the Ninja who can turn invisible and throw shuriken’s. Although, cutting him down while he is invisible is one of the most satisfying things to do in a fighting game. There is also no jumping, so there is no anti-airing here.

Don’t need to see you. Soujirou is my favourite character. Paritally for the big sword, paritally for the cool hat.

Because this is a game with single hit kills, there is no Okizeme here. Oki is normally a massive part of fighting games. For both parties. The person who scored a knock down can decide whether to meaty, bait out a reversal or if they play a set up character, what traps to lay down. The person who has been knocked down has to decide whether to risk the reversal, play defensively or somehow beat the meaty. None of that here. A character is only knocked down when they are dead. There is just spacing and footsies. A premium placed on spacing and footsies.

Footies and spacing is suddenly different when one hit equals death. In the vast majority of fighting games, you can afford a few spacing mistakes. Damage will be taken (sometimes a lot) but your character will be able to get back up and fight on. In a game like One Strike, that one mistake can be fatal. It leads to a lot of considered movement, a lot of well-timed blocking, and the risky game of baiting an opponents attack for a whiff punish. That last one is particularly fun. Both parties knowing full well that either persons mistake means the other will die. It’s suddenly a little more high stakes than regular footies and whiff punishing.

Against slower opponents dashing in works well. Kenji has a forward lunging attack, which is good for this. Time it right though, other wise Kenji’s insides will be on the outside.

What it does mean though you don’t have the longer strategy of a regular fighting game. Everything is dedicated to getting the killing blow. There’s no Oki to plan for, no aerial game to engage in, no throw game to navigate – just the platonic ideal of footsies. That is until the Ninja with the Shuriken’s snipes you from half a screen away. Or the character with the Kusarigama hits you from ¾ of the screen away. Then it’s a trickier endeavour. Also, if I have learned anything about fighting games, it is the games that have the “purest” versions of footsies will also have the most degenerate ways of getting past it and breaking it. That’s beautiful in its own way.

In some cases, mashing does work. And yes, that dude’s attack see’s him leap halfway across the screen. However, it can be sniped or blocked and countered. Tomoe, who I’m controlling, has a double slash for her attack. Good for catching folks hanging around and locking down someone blocking.

However, what is lacking in long term strategy is made up for by the tension of the limited interactions. When one mistake leads to death, even the simple act of stepping forwards and backwards can have huge ramifications – like whether or not your head remains on your shoulders.

There are probably some people reading this, or looking at the video’s and thinking, wait a minute, isn’t this 2D Bushido Blade? Well, yeah. There have been and are a whole bunch of games that aim to replicate and are similar to Bushido Blade. Almost all of them are samurai themed, like Bushido Blade. Like I alluded to in the introduction (admittedly cheesy, but I don’t get to have that much fun with an introduction that often), samurai sword fights lend themselves very well to the single hit fighting game. There are numerous examples in artwork (both period and later), film (Chanbara has a whole lot of this) and other video games.

Super fun video. Does a good job of explaining Chanbara, using Sekiro as the example

The developers for One Strike are working on another title, aptly called Two Strikes. In that it takes two blows to kill as opposed to one. It’s in early access right now, but it looks good. More games like this will be good. The one hit fighting game has its own joys. Lots of tension too. But a lot of joy. Being the last warrior standing after a tense stare off, it’s a wonderful feeling.

Quick draw

Notes and Asides

I tried to write this post more from the point of view of how playing a fighting game with single hit deaths feels, rather than a straight up description of the game. But I feel like a should give a brief description as there are some fun modes. Straight up though, there is only local multiplayer and fighting the AI. Admittedly, that’s a bit of a bummer. There is no real story mode. But there is an arcade mode, an only life mode, a team mode and a tournament mode. Each can be played on easy, medium or hard.

Arcade mode has the player pick a character and fight every other character, with each match consisting of 5 rounds. First to win the 5 goes on. Only Life is the same thing, but it’s first to one. Which sounds scary, but it is easier than arcade mode. You die quicker and have to restart, but there’s a lot less matches to win. Team mode is super cool It’s Bushido Blade meet’s King of Fighters. You pick 3 characters (point, middle and anchor) and fight 10 other teams (if it’s the AI). It’s fun trying to figure out your best character and where to place them, and which character can bail you out (if need be). Tournament mode is pretty simple. There’s a premade bracket, and after 3 first to ones, a winner is decided. There is also an accolades screen that shows you which characters have completed which modes. It’s nice to see what’s been accomplished. And who with.

Easy difficulty is well, easy. The AI won’t do too much, so it’s a neat way to get grounded with the game. Because even simple AI can score a single hit kill, so there is still an element of risk. Medium difficulty will see the AI make more use of back dashing and feints. It’s enough of a step up in difficulty. More challenge but not insurmountable. Hard difficulty sees’ the AI use every tool it has. Back dashing, faints, blocking, trying to bait out attacks – now is the time to put your skills to the test.  

Lastly, damn does the music go hard. This game has a way more banging soundtrack than I ever would have expected. Honestly, some of the best chip tune I’ve heard.

Admiring the Stages of 3rd Stike (with Gouki)

Since I started watching people play the pixel art Street Fighter games, and dabbling in them myself, I have grown incredibly fond of them. A lot of the love has gone to 3^rd Strike, but since playing through the Alpha 2 arcade mode and messing around in Alpha 3’s practice mode, I now seek out these games and if YouTube drops me a random recommendation of a tournament stream, I’m down to watch it. High level 3^rd Strike is an absolute joy (even under the scourge of Chun and Yun) and while it is my favourite, the Alpha games are similarly fun to watch. The characters, the animations, the game play – it’s all so good. Lately though, I’ve found myself falling in love with the stages in these games.

The pixel art in the pre-2.5D era Street Fighters is something to be admired. It’s downright beautiful. And there are so many little details to notice. For this post, I am going to be focusing on the 3^rd Strike stages because it’s my favourite Street Fighter games, the verticality of the stages and that I can practice on 3^rd Strike. That last point is important, owing to playing these games on the 30^th Anniversary Edition. All these games (the Alpha series and Street Fighter 3 series) have wonderful stages, and I would like to do other posts in the future focusing on those.

If you go into the various modes on the 30th Anniversary Edition, you get different screens. On Arcade Mode and Verus Mode, you get all of this:

All the games

On the Practice Mode screen, you get this:

Not all of the games

Having to go into Versus Mode to look at the stages is frustrating. In large part because in the 30^th Anniversary Edition, versus mode does not have the option of a one-off fight against the AI. It’s for two players. I either have to hook up a second controller, or let the timer run out on the character select screen. Not a world ender, but enough of annoyance that it’s a bother. On any other fighting game I have play/am playing, I can go to versus and fight the AI in one fight. It would be nice here. Arcade mode is more of a bother because the input reading AI won’t give me a moment to myself to look at the stages. Plus, arcade mode has pre-selected stages – there is no guarantee I can get the stage I want to look at. Not the most critical complaint, but it does bug me.

Now that the moaning is out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. To fully admire the pixel art stages of 3^rd Strike, a few things are needed. Certain characters must be picked, and then certain supers. For this purpose, I roll with Gouki (read: Akuma) and his Tatsu super. Other characters who work for artistic admiration are Ryu using the Shinshoryuken, and Hugo wielding his Gigas Breaker. Akuma’s Tatsu super does send him skyrocketing though and has him hanging in the air for quite a while. As cool as this super looks though, in the game it’s not that great. While it does the most damage of Gouki’s supers, it’s incredibly hard to combo into. Gouki’s Fireball super is the much superior choice. But for stage admiration, the Tatsu super reigns supreme.

Up, up and away

What can be seen on the screen is wonderful enough. However, input two quarter circle forwards and kick, suddenly whole new parts of stages can be seen. And they are glorious. So much more exceptional pixel art to be seen. Some folks worked incredibly hard to craft it, and there is a good chance it could go unnoticed for 30, 40, 50 + matches. In my experience the Alpha series doesn’t have this verticality in its stages (characters just go off screen) – still has wondrous pixel art, it’s just that there is more of it in 3^rd Strike. Two examples are Dudley’s stage and Remy’s stage. Dudley’s stage is a lovingly rendered street in London. Going vertical reveals all the tall building’s stretching skywards, just as lovingly rendered. Remy’s stage already has night club full of moving parts but up top there’s a glorious moon that might never be seen.

Dudley’s stage gound level

Upper level

Remy’s stage ground level

Upper level

Ryu’s stage ground level

Upper level

3^rd Strike also has a lot of little moving parts that are incredibly fun to spot. Chun Li’s stage is a brilliant example. There is a little sparrow that hops across the central table. To the left there is a table that can be broken – no extra damage but it does look like a neat Jackie Chan fight scene when it does give way. And to the right there is a bamboo pole with a red sheet atop it. If there is enough corner pressure first the sheet will rip in two, then the bamboo will break.

Table breaking

Red cloth and bamboo breaking in sequence

Little sparrow on the table. Also, the utensils move whenever a character hits the ground

There are a few other stages with little details like that. Gouki’s Hollow – already a favourite – has an owl on a branch that will blink intermittently. Makoto’s Dojo – the stage I go and practice on most of the time – has a persimmon tree that when someone gets knocked down near it, drops fruit. And there is a basket of swept up leaves that jostles similarly. Ibuki’s stage – incredibly chill with the music and the evening sky – has a dragonfly skimming around and when someone gets knocked down near the trees, snakes tumble down and slither off screen. It’s all so wonderful.

I wish there was a mode where I could strip away all the UI, the characters and just admire the stages as is. Honestly, they are some of the most wonderful examples of pixel art that exist, and they do deserve to be acknowledged. They are one the reasons I love to watch and play the games.

Notes and Asides:

A website that is a massive help with looking at the stages is the Fighter’s Generation. It’s an incredible website. Basically, a comprehensive reference of fighting games. Tons of character art and animation, descriptions and reviews of fighting games and a whole load of stage art. It’s a wonderful place to be. Here’s the link to the 3^rd Strike Stages, all animated.

Speaking of 3^rd Strike supers, one of the negative things I will say about the game is that there a whole bunch of cool supers that will never be used, simply because other supers are way better. Or some supers look cool but aren’t that good in practice. Taking Yun as an example, his other two supers are pretty cool combos. But you’d never use them over Gen Ei Jin – it’s simply too good. There are a few characters like that – Ken, Chun Li, Urien, Gouki (as mentioned above) all have cool supers, but one reigns above all others. Doesn’t hurt the game overall, but it’s still a shame some cool supers just never get seen.

Damn he’s good

One last thing. When talking about supers earlier and going vertical, I mentioned Hugo and Gigas Breaker. I find that super incredibly hard to do – it’s two full circle inputs. I have to mash it out and I often miss it. And that’s just in practice. This is a great opportunity to talk about Hayao, the legendary Hugo player from 3^rd Strike. He just hits Gigas Breaker after Gigas Breaker, often instantly after a parry or just casually fitting it into a gap. It’s truly magnificent to see.

Hayao wearing a cool T-shirt. And styling against Deshiken, the god of Ken.

Hayao at EVO Japan this year. Still got it.

Thinking about the similarities between Fighting Games and Dark Souls (and Bloodborne) PVP

With all the fighting game posts on this blog lately, and the fighting games I have been playing, I’ve been thinking more and more about them. Most of my video game thoughts are about fighting games right about now. And because it’s a PVP genre (mainly), I’ve also been thinking about one of my favourite PVP experiences. That would be the PVP from the Souls series (and Bloodborne). It has been a while since I’ve dabbled in Souls PVP, but it’s not stopped me from thinking about the similarities between it and fighting games. Since I have not (and have no intention) of playing Elden Ring PVP, I’ll be keeping this strictly to Souls PVP (and Bloodborne).

Playing Strive

PVP in Souls games has two forms. Duels and Invasions. The obvious comparison to fighting games is duels. Invasions don’t really have any analogue in fighting games (as far as I know). For those who don’t know what an Invasion is – in Souls games (Dark Souls 1 through 3, also Bloodborne and Elden Ring) one player can enter into another players world with the intent on killing them. It’s a lot of fun. It’s also a constant source of surprise. An invader only knows they are entering another person’s world. They don’t know how many people are in that world – could be 1, could be 4, could also be other invaders. Where they will spawn in – there is an area you will spawn in, but the exact spot isn’t known. It’s also not known whether it will be a clean spawn. Sometimes the opponent(s) are right there, other times they need to be found.

Playing Third Strike

There is no knowledge of what weapons are being used in the other worlds. Could be melee focused, could be magic focused – could be a mix. In my experience a 3-person party with 2 melee and 1 magic user was the worst. Constantly being harassed up close while someone pelts me with magic was always a fun time. Because an invasion takes place during game play, enemy NPC’s get involved. An invader will have to know what enemies are left, and what enemies can be used to help with the invasion. Location of fog gates needs to be known – just in case a host makes a break for it. And lastly (I think – forgot how much goes into invading) the level needs to be known. Hiding places, verticality (for both plunge attacks and being plunge attacked), topography, choke points, falls that can be made and falls that end in death – it all comes into it. Even something as chaotic as a Marvel Vs Capcom 3 can’t really be compared with an invasion. An invaded world, with 4 players facing off against 2 invaders, with people constantly coming and going is a wholly unique experience. It’s worth experiencing at least once.

Half the battle was staying alive. Nevermind getting in hits. But hang around long enough and you have enough chances to make something happen. Also, invasions could go on for ages, way longer than a fighting game match. Hell, some invasions could be longer than fighting game sets.

Duels on the other hand, are much simpler. At least on a base level. 2 people engaging in one-on-one combat. Both combatants have a health bar, a means to do damage, and the ultimate goal is to be the last person standing. There are meters and resources to manage and there are combo’s (simpler than fighting games but still there). That sounds like a fighting game. No throws though. But there is parrying, and guard breaks. So, there are means to open up defence play styles. There are also counter hits as well. There is blocking too, but simpler than fighting game blocking – blocking would universally block every hit. No high low mixups here.

There are some differences though. Just like invasions, you have no idea who you are fighting beforehand. As an example, when I’m playing Strive I can see the character the other person has picked. If they have picked Asuka, I’m fighting a Zoner. If it’s Giovanna, I’m fighting Rush Down. If Potemkin, grappler strats. No idea in Souls if I’m going to fight a zoner, or melee or a mix between the two. You have to be ready for anything and adjusting on the fly.

My opponent here has both a melee option and a ranged option. Fun to navigate. Also, for the first few seconds of this clip, I spend sometime constantly checking behind me. That’s because some people would present as being alone, initate a fight and then have a friend jump out and knife you. Always worth taking a gander first before getting stuck in.

The other big difference is stats. Because Souls games are RPG’s, characters can be assigned stats and those stats can vary wildly between person to person. Some folks prefer balanced stats, some folks would heavily favour certain stats. It was not uncommon for mages to skimp on health in order to maximize the amount of mana they had and the amount of damage they could do. As obnoxious as most zoners are in fighting games, you would be hard pressed to find a zoner that could kill you with a single projectile. It happened in Souls PVP. Probably still happens in Elden Ring PVP. It leads to a fair few gimmicks which in all honesty, wouldn’t see the light of day in a fighting game. So, sometimes PVP would be a clown show. It’s just something you dealt with. Because these games are RPG’s first and foremost, some weapons and spells were so good they would do catastrophic damage to enemies and bosses, and that would spill over to PVP. Getting caught by an Ultra Greatsword does a number on a health bar.

This person was playing as a pyromancer. Since pyromancy in Dark Souls III scaled off both intelligence and faith, cuts in levels sometimes had to be made. Still, killing with a single rolling attack is… that’s shouldn’t happen.

However, when a duel occurred between two opponents with pretty much equal stats, and equal strength weapons it was wonderful. This will be bold claim, I’m aware of what I’m about to say – it was one of the, if not the purest expression of footsies, spacing and neutral I’ve ever seen. Attacks are incredibly simple – R1 does lights, R2 does heavies. In Dark Souls 3 and beyond, L2 would do weapon arts and skills but even those where pretty simple compared to fighting games (well, to an extent). Because you don’t have combos to the extent that fighting games have combos, you’d get a lot more off pokes and stray hits. And because on average those hits would do far more damage than fighting game hits (about 4 or 5 hits for a kill), you really wanted to keep out of damage as much as possible. Thus, a premium would be placed on spacing and footsies. It led to some wonderfully tense fights, with no means of crossing the space between other than walking and dodging in and out, trying to get the exact spacing right.

I did have a lot of fun with Dark Souls III. So much fun.

Now, as with all fighting games, it’s time to destroy the mythical image of perfect spacing and footsies. Like most fighting games, Souls PVP had more than enough ways to skip the neutral. User of the Onikiri and Obadachi, a twin sword from Dark Souls III had a weapon art that was a jumping lunge. The lunge itself counted as a hit at close enough range. You’d be doing your usual walking around, sizing each other up and then bam, anime jump to the face. One of the weapon arts for a few weapons was Stomp. The player would stomp forward with almost unlimited hyper armour and either launches the opponent 17 foot in the air or flying 17 foot across the ground. We are (un)lucky that Souls doesn’t have juggle mechanics.

Anime jump go. And my opponent was using the Crow Quills, with their own lunging neutral skip.

Dark Souls the first could be patient fights with spacing and neutral. But it was mostly a back stab fest. It was fun to have duels, but the most optimal way of damage was to sprint at an opponent, circle strafe them and back stab. And if someone didn’t know the escape tech chain back stabs happened. Assuming they weren’t already dead from a purposedly specc’ed out riposting weapon. Dark Souls III was murder for that. Chaos infused dagger hitting for 2,000 damage with Hornet Ring for extra riposte damage.

This fight features the Stomp into Launch. Hitting someone in the middle of a stomp was like trying to stop a Dragon Punch by hitting it. Just leave it alone and deal with the whiff afterwards. Just like a Dragon Punch, super safisfying to hit.

Which finally, brings us to Bloodborne. Bloodborne’s PVP was akin to Dark Souls (all versions) but a lot quicker. It was a lot of fun. However, Bloodborne had something that no other From game had – it had the Blood Gem system. Basically, you could farm items called Blood Gems in the game proper or the Chalice Dungeons (an optional mode with randomly generated dungeons) and put them into a weapon. Each melee weapon had 3 gem slots. The deeper you went into the dungeons, the higher level the gems. Three gems that add 27% more damage, paired with a good stat spread and updated weapon was a whole lot of damage. Hard to complain about Strive damage when one hit devours 75% to 90% of a health bar. Sometimes a one shot even. Worst part was you would have no idea about what blood gems someone had prior to fighting them. To combat that, some folks would set up their own fight clubs with blood gem limits. It made for more interesting fights. Much more interesting fights.

This was an honour duel. However, both players could have jumped me if they want to. Either way, it’s a fun experience.

Bloodborne had fun combos. Much more like fighting game combo’s than Souls. Still, not as input heavy as fighting game combo’s, but still cool. Because Bloodborne has trick weapons – weapons that can change into different forms – weapons have transformation attacks. A light into transform into another light is something that would work with most weapons. With some experimentation, longer combos could be executed.

Like this.

Also, Bloodborne has guns. I almost forgot to mention that. The way you parry in Bloodborne is by timing a gun shot to interrupt an enemy attack before it lands. That opens the enemy up for a visceral attack. They can deal catastrophic damage. It’s one of the most rewarding things in a game. Can’t be done when two handing a weapon though. In PVP though, it could lead to a lot of firing a gun just in the hope of getting a parry. Think of it as light fire ball. Activated by a single button press. That staggers on hit. Accompanied by a funky netcode. Fun stuff. Also speaking of viscerals. Items exist to boost their damage. Those items could be stacked 3 times. Nothing like a stray parry and watching your entire health bar fade to nothing.

This was me vs the AI, but this could happen in PVP. Happily enjoying the neutral, then trying to go in and bang, health bar’s gone. Was even worse if you go burrito’ed – getting parried, getting hit by an R1 (light attack – R1 was the button that iniated a visceral after a parry) and then visceralled. You never had a chance.

So, yeah. Dark Souls and Bloodborne PVP is just like a fighting game. They both build up the mythical ideals of footsies and neutral and then set about demolishing all of it. It’s beautiful to watch. And to take part in. Fighting in these games is super fun. All the (loveable) bullshit gives it an extra kick. Neutral is fun. But so is going in and swinging.

Notes and Asides

One thing I didn’t touch on was healing. Unlike fighting games, Souls does have healing with the estus flasks. Just like with Bloodborne, folks would set up fight clubs with rules upon healing. In the dedicated Dueling Arena healing was either incredibly limited or removed altogether. Because having healing on deck does change how you play. It also leads to heal punishing. It was a fun fight within a fight. There would normally be agreements though about if people would heal or not. In the case of fight clubs in Souls, you would normally heal after a win, before the next fight. In Bloodborne, you had 20 heals so people would limit that in fight clubs, just to make fights not last forever.

I will admit all of the fights I have posted here that I particpated in occured during invasions. There is a specific area for Duels, but I preffered invasions. An invasion could have duels, but Duel’s could never have invasions.

All of the footage I have here was from Dark Souls III. By far my favourite Souls game, and the one I did the most PVP in. For some folks, Dark Souls II was the high water mark for PVP. But I’m a long way from digging Dark Souls II on any level. If you would wish to watch Dark Souls II PVP, I’d suggest looking up Oroboro – tons of good stuff on his channel. From every From game’s PVP.

Compared to the base game, it’s a bit more flashy. This is one of my favourite Dark Souls videos. Jellyelite made some excellent PVP videos. Always had good music.

When I mentioned weapon arts and to an extent. The Dark Souls III DLC brought with it some new weapons, and some new weapon arts. They became, very anime like. The Ringed Knight weapons had some absurd combo’s.

Another thing, because of the levelling, PVP would take place at different levels. There was a meta level (about 120, I think) but different parts of the game could be interacted with at certain levels. On a base level, think of it as early game zones lower level, and gradually increasing as the game goes on. But at meta level, certain places would be fight club and invasion hot spots. In Dark Souls III for example, the area just after Pontiff, and the Crucifixtion Woods were big PVP spots.

I Dig Akuma (aka Gouki)

Akuma is on his way to Street Fighter 6. Earlier this year we got the teaser trailer, and at Evo Japan we got the full character trailer, with a release date. 22/02/24. It got me excited. So much so I’m probably going to return to Street Fighter 6 to give the game another try. I bounced off the game, in large part because I could not find a character I wanted to be. But now that Akuma is coming, I got a guy I want to play as. For a few reasons.

He’s so damn cool

This is an obvious reason, but I still want to talk about it. In appearance, he’s cool. In game play, he’s cool. He also tends to get cool voice acting. Sure, a lot of it is grunts, but when he does speak you feel it. He gets that cool deep Japanese voice that always sounds badass. Game play wise, Akuma tends to get everything. It’s normally compensated with having lower health and a less robust stun bar than everyone else. Because Akuma can do fireballs, but also fireballs from the air. He can also do fireball supers from the air. He gets a dive kick. He gets numerous grapples. Because the aerial fireballs, he gets combo routes other characters don’t get. In older games (well, in 3^rd Strike at least), in exchange for giving up Ex moves, Akuma gets extra supers. One being the raging demon, which is one of the coolest supers in any fighting game. And he gets an awesome ground pound into explosion. Both cost two bars of meter, but they are worth it.

Going back to his appearance, he’s looks like a martial arts demon incarnate. That’s pretty cool. Across all the games. Even in Street Fighter 5. The lion’s mane, it looks a little better every time I look at it.

Winning in 3^rd Strike

This is probably the main reason I love Akuma like I do. Akuma remains the only character I fought with in 3^rd Strike and achieved something. I only won 3 matches, but the fact I won at anything in 3^rd Strike makes me happy. 3^rd Strike is my favourite Street Fighter to watch. I’m lucky there is a Japanese arcade (Game Newton) that every Wednesday has a 3^rd Strike tournament, so I get to watch 3^rd Strike a fair bit. Unfortunately, the only way I can play online is the 30^th Anniversary Edition and that’s… let’s just say the quality of the netcode eventually overcame my urge to play the game.

Not the best at it, not even good at it. Still, felt really great to win a match in 3rd Strike.

In that time however, despite losing with everyone else I tried I managed to beat a Dudley player, and an opponent who played Yun and Ken. The Dudley match sticks with me the most. Mainly because I managed to finish the first round with a super, and the second round because I just played incredibly safe and proper. Which is weird for an Akuma because it’s normally all offense. But I simply blocked when I had to, to the best of my ability punished when I could and managed to pull out a win.

Might be heavy tatsu even. I’ll take it.

Although watching it back the winning blow was with a Tatsu. I’m not sure doing a Tatsu out of the corner is the best or safest thing I could have done. But a win’s a win. I’m taking that. I know that in the context of fighting games, winning one or three games isn’t much but those were the only matches that I won in old Street Fighter games. And those wins felt super good. I guess if I had Fightcade or something I could push on but as it stands, Akuma being the only character that brought me (a modicum) of success in my favourite Street Fighter game has stuck with me and given me a lot of appreciation for him.

Whiff punishing is nice.

Hopefully now that he is in Street Fighter 6, I can have a little more success. And have fun while doing it.  

Throwing out fire balls.

The Only Character I can (sort of) use in Old Street Fighters

This is an extension of the previous point. In 3^rd Strike, and the other games in the 30^th Anniversary collection I do try and execute moves, combos and all that good stuff. I’m bad at those things in those games. Incredibly so. It doesn’t help that of all the games in the collection, only 4 of them have practice modes (two being two different versions of Street Fighter II). There’s not a lot of room to practice. And practicing against the AI in arcade mode isn’t great because input reading is a thing. Mistakes aren’t tolerated and it’s hard to set up situations when the AI just doesn’t care about set ups.

Feels good to do

In amongst all of this, the only character I can do anything with is Akuma. In 3^rd Strike, while faffing around in practice mode I managed to figure out tatsu goes into shoryuken goes in fireball super. I don’t know if it’s optimal, I don’t know how good it is, I just know I felt super happy on discovering it. I’ve since completed Alpha 2 with a couple of characters, but it wasn’t great from a game play perspective. And by that I mean in terms of my game play. Simply a whole of lot of pressing buttons and launching raw supers. With Akuma though, well, there is a lot of that but there are also combos happening which sometimes have special cancels.

Perhaps the finish was a little overkill.

I’ve also managed to do somethings with Dudley in practice (nothing major but still more than I could do before) but Akuma remains that character across all of my Street Fighter experiences that has seen me actually look like I can play the games (in some capacity). For that, I’m very much grateful to him.

More than a villain

Most fighting game bad buys, such as the M Bisons and Mishima’s of the world are mostly (sometimes well executed, others less so) generic villains who want either dominate the world, kill the world or a combination of the above. Akuma isn’t a good guy by almost any measure. He has killed and will probably kill people again. However, he isn’t a straight up villain. His character has some depth. He is more than capable of being a garden variety villain seeking world domination. He certainly has the power and strength to do so – in his 3^rd Strike ending he’s training in the ocean depths and punches a ship to the surface.

Apparently Gill can’t anti air jumping heavy kick. Yay. Akuma’s ending kicks in around 1.50.

But Akuma has no desire or want to usher in world domination. His only urge, his only need is to be the best fighter he can be. Even with all his power, and the ability to crush most opponents he’s still going to sit in a cave, practicing his techniques until a worthy opponent shows up. Because he will only fight opponents that either match his power or surpass it. He has no want to engage in easy fights. He sticks steadfast to this principle. Scarily so. An equal fight is one of honour, and Akuma believes that those who lose such fights are better to be dead than live with dishonour. But again, he’s not like an M Bison who will murder indiscriminately. It doesn’t make his actions right, but it gives him and the code he lives by a little more depth. In fact, Akuma has often beaten Bison to a bloody pulp. Bison augments his power with the Psycho Force, an outside influence. Akuma views this as dishonourable and doesn’t hesitate to inform Bison of this. Via the means of an absolute shit kicking. Akuma might be evil in his own way, but he has standards.

The source of Akuma’s power is the Satsui no Hado. It is considered an evil and malevolent force, a forbidden source of power. It’s essentially the urge to win and be the strongest fighter taken to its extremes – if killing will make you stronger, so be it. But again, it’s got a little more depth to it. Akuma is fully in control of this power. He adopts it because he believes it is the best way to gain the strength to be the best fighter he can be. Ryu believes that Fist of Nothingness is the best way. Essentially, the opposite of the Satsui no Hado.

For Akuma, it’s an ideological difference. It’s the best way to become stronger. That’s the only concern. Given his code and his mental control won’t let him kill indiscriminately, he’s not some rampaging monster. And contrasted with Bison, this isn’t an outside power, but something cultivated within a martial artist. Akuma has tried to get Ryu to submit to the Satsui no Hado. Normally when someone tries to pull another person to the dark side, it’s to have them aid them in a dastardly scheme. Akuma just wants Ryu to reach his peak strength for the sake of a better fight. It’s not great, but there is something refreshingly pure about what Akuma wants.  

Nothing fancy. Just needed to fill a gap here.

Aside from the murder, Akuma is a little inspirational. His focus and dedication to his efforts is something to be admired. That single minded pursuit of a goal, it’s something I wish I had. Just without the murdering people.

Notes and Asides

Street Fighter 4 did entertain what would happen if Akuma lost control of the Satsui no Hado and it consumed him. He would become Oni, a malevolent being who wants to destroy and kill everything and everyone. Visually, Oni is very cool. Character and story wise, a little generic, when compared to Akuma.

It should also be noted that Akuma is not without friends. In Elena’s Street Fighter 4 Ending, she is seen taking a selfie with him. Honestly its adorable. The worlds angriest martial artist does have a soft side.

31 seconds in. Akuma has a friend.

I don’t know which game it was, but there was a concept of Akuma fighting while protecting a baby at the same time. I don’t know how far along the concept was, but again, it’s another view of Akuma’s character showing that he is more than just angry martial arts man.

The Fighting Game Diaries: (Not) expressing myself

For the last post in the Fighting Game Diaries series, I uploaded a combo to YouTube. It was a tether combo for Baiken. I didn’t think much about it or except much of it. I needed something for the post, made something for the post and put it online. I enjoyed crafting the combo. I enjoyed that process a whole lot. Creating things is fun, and this was a combo I created from scratch. But at the end of the day, it was serving a purpose. Well, I thought it was.

Now, to give that above statement some context. Guilty Gear Strive was released in 2021. It has seen millions of players put countless hours into playing it. At some point, there is a good chance a Baiken player has done the combo I did. Almost certainly. However, I didn’t look up any guides for tether combos. I went to the lab and cooked this up. So, in that sense it is a combo I created. But, the law of averages does dictate someone somewhere has done it already. Just putting that out there.

It got just over a thousand views on YouTube. In the grand context of YouTube videos, this is pretty much a nothing burger. In terms of my videos though, it’s a lot. I posted it, and it pretty quickly got to five hundred views. It was pretty surreal. Even more so when somebody comments it’s a good combo and there are going to steal it. For someone who constantly downplays my Strive game play, that’s nice to hear.

The combo in question. In terms of notion its CS –> 2HS -> 236K -> 5K -> 6k -> 236K -> CS -> 6H -> 236236S. If you cannot read notion, that is close slash -> crouching heavy slash -> tatami -> standing kick -> forward kick -> tatami -> close slash -> heavy slash -> super.

Honestly, I haven’t been playing Strive to fight people recently. I’ve been going into training mode and trying out tether stuff. I’ve been spending a lot of time throwing a training dummy to the ground and seeing what attacks connect and how. It’s been a lot of fun. In large part because it has been me and me alone doing this. Help is good. Help is nice. But there is something about making your own stuff that feels incredible. Even if they have (most likely) been done by someone else at some point. Figuring out and making stuff by yourself is great. Creativity rules.

Baiken combos are so cool. To do and to watch. Well, other Baiken’s. Mine are pretty good I guess. Maybe. Possibly. I have fun doing them, so that’s cool.

I do want to talk about the process I went through making this combo. I started with a base I knew and understood. Close slash into crouching heavy slash into tatami is a base for a lot of Baiken wants to do. Those three moves do a lot of work together. To start with I was following that up with close slash and heavy slash. However, that would either result in the tether snapping before I wanted it to or leave the only follow up being heavy kabari and the second part of heavy kabari wasn’t the most consistent at hitting. Or at all. I ended up culling that part of the combo, kept the first part and moved onto standing kick.

Standing kick worked. Brilliantly so. Tether stayed intact, opponent bounced up, I had way more options. Standing kick happens to go straight into forward kick. After forward kick, the opponent flies away but bounces back, thanks to the tether. After some more messing around, another tatami could be fitted into the combo, which brought about another launch, with the tether remaining intact. I then went back to close slash and forward heavy to round the combo out. After that the tether finally snapped. But if I was quick enough, forward heavy could be cancelled into super. Pretty tight cancel though, there is a chance if the cancel isn’t quick enough the floor bounce from forward heavy knocks the opponent too far away. If there’s no meter heavy kabari made for a nice ender.

I had myself a combo. I had made myself a combo. I went to practice mode, figured out what linked into what and after lots of practice, I had myself a combo. Yay.

Getting by without the meter. Would need a more reliable set up that opponent forgets close slash exists. Happens occasionally though. Does suffice for playing around in training mode though.

Guilty Gear Strive, for pretty much the entirety of its existence has been called out for its lack of complexity, in comparison to other Guilty Gear games (rightly or wrongly – y’all can debate that elsewhere). It’s not got much creativity; every character has designated combo routes and other statements like that are bandied around. Despite all of that, “inventing” that combo (and other combos) has honestly been the most creative I have ever been in a video game and had its fair share of complexity. In many ways, it has reminded me of my favourite hobby of all. Writing. Particularly writing poetry.

Cut it short to get out the super. I do love Baiken’s overdrives.

I start off with a line or an idea. That leads to a first draft, mostly a rough draft. In incredibly rare cases a poem comes out fully formed. That’s an oddity. A pleasant oddity, but an oddity still. This combo (and almost all of these combos) started from a draft. I had the tether then the CS -> 2HS -> 236K start up. That’s the first draft. After that different things were added, different things were attempted. Some of these things stayed in, somewhere left by the wayside or repurposed later on. Poems often go through the same creative process. The initial draft gets worked on. Some lines are good, and they are honed. Some lines or concepts just don’t fit. They can be either spun off into poems themselves, or simply left on the cutting room floor. Not everything written is worth holding onto. And eventually, after enough drafting, enough writing a poem comes together. And after enough labbing, enough practicing a combo comes together. I’ve found both to be (pretty much) parallel processes, and both of them fill me with joy.

Figuring out what move connects to what move -such a fun process.

It’s hard to quantify how much creativity is a boon to me. Been so much fun expressing myself in these combos in an emotional sense, and it’s been so much fun in a mechanical sense, just seeing what moves and attacks combo and how they do that. And it all started from me needing something to fill a gap on a blog.

Probably should go and finish off some poems now actually. Got a whole bunch that are there or there abouts. If only fighting game combos weren’t so much fun to do.

In an ideal world, the kabari follow up would be the wall stick/and or wall break. Or kabari wall stick and wild assault wall break. Still neat though.

Notes and Asides

While practicing all of these combos, I think I have finally understood why some people play fighting games sorely for figuring out how all the combos’ work. Combo specialists who don’t even bother fighting other people, just seeing how creative they can be. I never really understood it before but now I do. This stuff is fun.

Not a responsible use of meter. A fun use of meter though.

The one thing that won’t come across in (most of) these combos is taking account of the match situation. I like ending on supers because they look cool but sometimes in match super isn’t available. Or you’re trying to take into consideration the health of the wall. It does help (a lot) to practice for those situations, but for a lot of these I was just having fun.

After all of that, meterless.

Dredge Or how I learned to stop worrying and love fishing

Me and my friend were on the lookout for a new game to play together. We weren’t in a hurry, so our visit to the PSN store was less about buying and more about browsing. Video game window shopping. We headed to the deal’s sections. There’s good stuff in the deals section. It’s also cheap. We set about scrolling, and after a few scrolls my friend gets incredibly excited. There is a picture of a boat. She loves boats. She goes sailing. It’s not often she’s seen a video game with a boat. We go right ahead and set sail.

We’ve bought Dredge. I knew a little about Dredge. It was a game about fishing, and it had a Lovecraftian bent. Aside from that, I was in the dark. After playing Dredge, I wish I’d gone sailing earlier. Both of us love Dredge, for so many reasons. Of all of our shared video game experiences, I think it’s our number one. We’ve had some good ones, but Dredge felt special to play with her.

For the uninitiated, Dredge sees the player character, a down of his luck fisherman, fresh off some at the moment not specified trauma. He takes a job at a local village, taking his boat out to sea and bringing in hauls of fish. A fish monger pays him for his fish, and some of that money goes back into the village as the fisherman upgrades his boat in order to sail further and catch bigger fish. Although some of these fish, and some of the people that live here are …well, they seemed to be touched by something that seems beyond our ken. 

It’s a world full of surprises

Our boats all grown up

The boat the fisherman starts with. It gives the best effort it can. It’s good for hauling a few mackerel but for larger fish and for longer voyages, it’s a little lacking. But after bringing in a few hauls of fish, we have money. When out fishing, piles of salvage can be found floating in the water (metal, wood etc etc). This can be brought on board. Combining the money and the salvage lets the player make the boat bigger. A bigger hull (also stronger) for carrying more fish. More space for better fishing rods. More powerful engines.

On the right is the boats hull, and on the left is the storage locker. On the hull, there are slots for rods, engines, nets and lights. Initially these slots were not great in number. After lots of upgrades, they are. The other slots are for holding fish and other items and sometimes people. If the boat is damaged, slots can be knocked out of use – an engine can malfunction, or things can go overboard.

Upgrading the boat was one of our favourite parts of the game. We even set aside certain trips for salvage only. We were palpably excited when we were one or two lumber piles away from a bigger hull.

Seeing the boat go from a single rickety motor, a single rod and a cramped hull to a boat with three different rods, a massive rotor that carried us across the oceans and a hull that can withstand a nightmarish Orca plowing straight into us.

It was wonderful to see. We’d come a long way.

We in Innsmouth now

What a normal reglar chap

While I knew about the Lovecraftian elements of Dredge beforehand, I was not expecting everything to feel so viscerally Lovecraftian. The moment my eyes fell upon the Fishing Village that marks the start of the game, I instantly recalled reading the Shadow over Innsmouth. That gloomy little fishing hamlet brought waves of memories flooding back. And as we sailed further afield, there was even more to discover. Ancient Temples dedicated to arcane beliefs, even more fishing hamlets with just enough off about them and all manner of under sea inhabitants bestowed with cosmic horror.

A forgotten ancient temple, complete with forgotten arcane religion. And the Fishing Hamlet. If one has read Lovecraft, it has a vibe. An unmistakeable vibe.

Everything Lovecraftian is here. Well, everything bar the racism. Which is nice.  

Your one ugly looking motherfisher

Speaking of the undersea inhabitants of Dredge. For the most part they are regular fish. I should mention there are also crustaceans and cephalopods. All of them, as far as I can tell are real life species. Every one of them wonderfully illustrated. I was taken by them I would spend some my free time looking up the various species of fish on Wikipedia. And the depths they live at. And the places they live. I also spent some of my free time looking up fishing villages and fishing boats. Dredge had quite the effect.

Many of these animals have their base form, and another form called an Aberration. There critters have been touched by some cosmic nether space. They have left normality behind. Some have over developed jaw bones, with the teeth to match. Some have more eyes than seem necessary. In some cases, the same applies to heads. Others have extra appendages. Proportions have been irreparably altered. And some of these animals… well, some of the fish aren’t really fish anymore. They are astral beings, wandering the oceans, fully infected by cosmic horror.

Worth a lot of money to fish mongers though. So, that’s good. Plus, every time we caught one my friend would feign vomiting, disgust and indignation. Sometimes all at the same time. Made me laugh.

There are also things in Dredge that cannot be caught. Whales and other things, which are lovely to see swimming around. But then there are things like colossal angler fish with phantom ships as lures, massive rays with strange faces (sailing at nighttime has its downsides), killer whales with not quite normal mouths and a giant tentacled monstrosity that renders part of a tropical ocean all but uncrossable.

There’s that orca from earlier in the post.

It’s a wonderful game with wonderful animals. Cosmic horror gives a lot of scope for creativity with animal designs. Particularly aquatic animals. Some of them already look pretty alien. Ramping that stuff up, I can dig that.

Books and books and books oh my

Everything living hauled aboard is chronicled in rather large tome. Every fish, and if they have them, their aberrations is noted down in the book. Every entry has artwork of the animals, a brief blurb about them, where it resides, what time of the day it’s active and what type of rod it needs to catch it. In terms of game play, it’s very helpful. All of that information in one place is a godsend. In terms of pleasure, it’s lovely. I’m fond of books in video games, immensely so. And this is one of those great video game books. It’s simply a fun to book to browse, reflect on the journey undertaken with all the various fish found across the world of Dredge, and to just enjoy and admire the depth and breadth of the variety of aquatic life that dwells in Dredge.

Just some azming artwork and descriptions.

And how ugly they can be. Some of these fish are in dire need of help. By which I mean being sold to a fish monger.

Some sidequests have you read book entries. I just love the artwork for the old books.

Unintentional Comedy

There are various side quests in Dredge. Some of these quests involve ferrying folks from one place to another. One of these folks is a Castaway. Well, he was a Castaway. Me and my friend picked him up, set sail in a homeward direction and then we planned to rest over night before sending the Castaway onwards. But then we did a spot of fishing. We caught a shark. We initially celebrated (sharks do bring a good amount of money, and we wanted money) then we realised we didn’t have the space to fit both the shark and the castaway. Money is nice though. As we were trying to fit both the shark and the castaway, and debating how do it, night had fallen and some giant Lovecraftian fish decided to fuck our boat in particular. The Castaway went overboard. Me and my friend looked at each other, and merely commented that we could now fit the shark.

That Castaway is with god now. Or he swam to another island. Whichever makes you happier.

Sometimes the sea is just beautiful

The Fighting Game Diaries: (Not) Throwing it away

I’ve managed to get around to playing Strive regularly again. As in every day. I’ve either been playing matches in the Park or hitting up training mode. I’ve been having a lot of fun. It’s been nice seeing Baiken again. Time away has let some rust set it and I’ve been working through that. Still am. My inputs never were the cleanest, so anytime I spend time away it takes some time to get back. But, time away also brings perspective. I got to question stuff I relied on, try things I didn’t before and generally trying to improve multiple facets of my play.

Normally my matches against Jack – O players are, well, not great. Nice change here. Plus, some actual throws. Only like 2 of them, but for me, it’s a big step. And has led to more throws in sets after this. It’s been a good change to my game plan.

I’ve been throwing. I somehow made it as far as I did (roughly 1,700 wins and making it up to floor 10) without throwing people. Its perplexing now I think about it. Throws are such a fundamental part of fighting games, on offence and defence. They allow for mix ups, side switches, deterring someone from holding down back the whole time, setting up oki. Almost everything. So, I figure that I should be throwing people. So, I’ve been trying to throw more. Although any amount of throwing would be more than I was doing previously.

I did have burst if worst came to worst but throwing like that got me out of the corner, saved a burst and let me take the match. Normally I would have either been stuck in the corner, be down a burst or in the worst case scenario, both. Throws are neat.

It turns out throwing rules. It turns out missing out on all that stuff I mentioned above has been a little annoying. There are probably a lot more matches I would have and could have won simply by throwing people. They are also nice because they break up the monotony of constant strikes. It also adds to the opponent’s mental stack. That sometimes can lead to throw loops. I should know. Throws are pretty great.

My anti-airing has been a little better too. Not perfect, but better. And that’s nice.

Why did I not start throwing from the beginning? Why did I not add in throws sooner? I think it’s because I have a habit of trying to simplify things as much as possible. The less things I have to think about doing the better. I can focus on doing less things well. At least I thought that. The most egregious example of this previously was the first Nioh. A game of many weapons, many stances, more weapon skills and a whole lot of combos. I worked all of that down to one weapon, one stance and one combo. I used it to finish the whole game. By contrast, when I played Nioh 2 I used a lot of weapons, switched stances a lot more and experimented with a lot more skills. It made the experience a lot more fun. Turns out throws make playing Strive more fun. And in trying to simplify the game, I made it harder for myself. Without throws, sometimes I had no means to break someone blocking. I’m going to keep on throwing.

More games need offensively orientated Tatami mats.

With Baiken, throws have a neat side effect. Baiken attaches a tether to a thrown opponent. That means opponents will bounce back to Baiken when hit. That alters the effects of certain moves and opens up new combo routes. It’s fun. It’s a lot of fun to play around with in the lab. Running through what works and what doesn’t work is a fun, creative process. I’ve been trying a lot of stuff I’ve never really bothered with before. I have some combos down, but I do need a way to set those up. That is something I can practice, and practicing is fun. Those set ups will come with time and effort. Writing all this out just makes me wonder just how I made it so far with Baiken. Genuinely no idea. There is a perverse and stupid sense of pride in what I have done. But let’s leave that at the door and get better with Baiken.

I do need more consistency with using Wild Assault for wall breaks. I’m so used to using 6H that I’m having to train myself to not do it – meter allowing. And if that means burning half my burst on first rounds when it’s not really needed, I can do that. Just to get used to it. In the Park though. In the Tower this would have been a 6H break.

There is a bit of a life lesson here too. Sometimes something can be relied upon, and that something can take a person pretty far (constant striking). But for some reason or another, it stops being as effective as it once was. But in the moment that’s not visible, so it keeps being relied upon, regardless of result. It’s comforting, it’s something known. But with time and a fresh gaze, then it can be changed or adapted (adding throws). It’s not a bad thing, and while it might make for some short-term discomfort, or sometimes medium to long term discomfort (learning new things is hard), in the long run it will be for the best (throws and strikes make for a much harder to defend play style).

Still needs a good, consistent set up but it feels pretty good. I’m happy with this.

Speaking of labbing and practicing, there are a few reasons for heading into the lab. Sometimes something needs solving. A particular attack, a particular set of attacks. Is it a high or low block? Does it have a counter? Does it have an opening? Sometimes a combo needs practicing. Sequences have to optimised. Inputs need to be made precise and clean. There is something nice about finding a combo and running it over and over and over again until it hits right. There’s something pleasant and comforting about the repetition. And when it hits over and over and over again without drops or mistakes, it’s a wonderful thing.

Silly… but incredibly fun

And sometimes you just want to mess around and have fun. Because the training mode has full meter from the get-go, and it replenishes pretty quickly there is the option to just cash it all out in the name of nonsense. Stuff that will never happen in an actual match (well, unless someone’s incredibly stingy with their meter and has their heart set on doing something silly – god bless you). Sometimes it’s inflicting a stupid amount of damage – just stacking positive bonus and seeing how high the number goes. This can be double stacked with a cranked risc gauge.

That positive bonus kicking in will never happen in a match. Makes for some funny damage though.

These days I’m mostly labbing things with Baiken, but every once in a while it’s good to mess around and have fun. Because fighting games are fun.

That’s all folks

Notes and Asides:

I had another choice for the header image:

This is what followed the throw. I went with the throw actually happening. It was a close run thing.