[Ash Crimson]

Hey there! I've been lurking on these forums for a while now and you guys seem like an active, friendly community so I figured I'd stake my name here.
I'm a massive RPG fan and I know my Dew Prisim from my Final Fantasy if that comparision instills faith in you.
I'm sure some of you have recognised but I am also a fan of the King of Fighter series, well every game in the series bar XII and XIII is looking like a return to form thank god.
Ash Crimson (who also shares my first name) is one of the most interesting additions to the series and I was immediately taken by his style, persona and his mysterious agenda at the time (The Ash saga is now over and I discovered his agenda T_T sad times.) and yes, he is a guy

Anyway let's end this topic with some not-so-personal info about myself

Real name: Ash Faraday, yeah a slight coincidence there.
Age: That would be telling, but I'm in my twenties.
Location: United Kingdom
Console: Playstation 3
Currently playing: I have a few games on the go actually. Blur, Just Cause 2, Battlefield 2: Bad Company and Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Favorite Game series: Ace Attorney, all of them!
Favorite Anime: Bite me, it's Naruto, I absolutely love the games too. I own every single PS2 Narutimate game and Ultimate Ninja Storm on PS3 (Storm 2 looks great!) But that's it, outside of watching and reading the Naruto Manga, the only other I've read is Orphen which was fantastic, however my shop stopped getting the manga which is a shame because it's some of the funniest stuff I've read.

Well that's about all I'm willing to give away, for now. I hope to make some aquaintances out of your lovely selves.

Oh and this is my introduction topic... /described

This post has been edited by Ash Crimson: 20 July 2010 - 11:28 AM

[Albireo]

Oh snap, another one. Welcome and post a lot, and all that stuff. I implore you to stick around.

[Metonymy]

Welcome to the boards. Glad to have another KoF fan here.

But what did you think of the last entry in the series? And 2D fighters in general.

[Nocinderella]

Welcome Ash, you should stay, I appreciate your friendly presence and you've piqued my interest in the King of Fighter series. Not Naruto though, sorry, although I liked the first few episodes that I saw.

I would tell you to post around, but you've been doing that, so awesome.

[Ash Crimson]

Thanks for the warm reception! Let's see what we have here...

But what did you think of the last entry in the series? And 2D fighters in general.
The last entry of the series was the BEST, at being one of the worst games I've played in a long time! Yes, the sprites were completly redone in glorious and some lush animations to boot, however that simply wasn't enough, reducing the wonderful cast they've created and sending many of the characters move lists back in time did not help things at all. They also made some questionable gameplay decisions and finally, most criminally, the left the game COMPLETELY devoid of a story, the plot had reached its climax, it was Ash's turn to take out Kyo and steal his flames like he had done with Chiziru's mirror and Iori's purple flames, but nope, nothing... /rage!

Just because the game was a 're-birth', that was no excuse to cut such a large amount content! Thus, many fans did boycott the game, and that one can rot in depths of hell for all eternity! *burns it with green flames*

Ahem, 2D fighters in general are the way forward, well they are for me at least, I play alot of Super Street Fighter IV, and I'm a pretty good Ibuki player. tbh I play pretty much every fighting game and dedicate a decent amount of time in them all to be somewhat decent, but 2-D fighters are my vice, I dunno, it must be an old school thing.

Welcome Ash, you should stay, I appreciate your friendly presence and you've piqued my interest in the King of Fighter series. Not Naruto though, sorry, although I liked the first few episodes that I saw.


Ahh thank you Senorita /bow.
King of Fighters is one gam that stands out from the crowd for me. For starters I'd argue that it has the most attractive male and females of any figter, nay game, out there, the cast are so diverse, and you can really get intimate with them as their profiles are quite detailed. From fashion designers to popstars, KoF has people from all walks of life. The developers also strive for balance in the game , soemthing that is very difficult to do in a fighting game, especially one with so many different fighting styles, yet they are pretty balanced. (Even though XII was horrid, I'll give it credit for balance, and that's only because they reduced character movelists anyway so the fights were dull...ahem)
Anyway check it out, I think one KoFs appeals is that you don't even have to master it to enjoy it, just play through the game and check out the character stories and unique move sets. I'll warn you though, the final bosses in these games are frustratingly cheap, it seems to be a tradition that SNK follow through, to this day I still struggle with them, but fortunatly after they beat the crap out of you can just use the option to reduce their life gauge and return the favour with your 3-man team, which help, although I feel cheap for using it. T_T

Oh dear, looks like I got carried away! You guys started it!

[Metonymy]

What about Blazblue? THAT is the question.

[Ash Crimson]

Ahh Blaz Blue I was going to mention that but it completely slipped my mind! "Why you ask, it's made such a positive impact on the 2D beat 'em up genre!?" Indeed it has but...

...Nnggh!!

Look, I haven't played it okay, before I am crucified allow me to explain.

Whilst Indeed I am aware of the spiritual successor of Guilty Gear, I wasn't immedietly sold by it. When a game doens't generate that first impression I let it settle, and another reason I wasn't into it from the get go was also because I'm not a fan of guilty gear either (the music drove me nuts) but I admit it had a great cast of characters, Blazblue looks like it's following the trend but with a stronger emphasis on plot. (I noticed the plot chains system the story mode has)
The gameplay appears to keep the awesome chain combo system of Guilty Gear, but there was something about the character movement in GG that didn't quite gel with me I always felt there was lag going on with the inputs you see even though the majority of the series was offline.
Finally, I've put it off further because they're re-releasing the game with additional content right? I thought I'd wait for that as I prefer to have the full package if possible, still I had every intention to give it a go, perhaps you can sell me on its finer points?

[Metonymy]

Ash Crimson, on 21 July 2010 - 09:07 AM, said:

Ahh Blaz Blue I was going to mention that but it completely slipped my mind! "Why you ask, it's made such a positive impact on the 2D beat 'em up genre!?" Indeed it has but...

...Nnggh!!

Look, I haven't played it okay, before I am crucified allow me to explain.

Whilst Indeed I am aware of the spiritual successor of Guilty Gear, I wasn't immedietly sold by it. When a game doens't generate that first impression I let it settle, and another reason I wasn't into it from the get go was also because I'm not a fan of guilty gear either (the music drove me nuts) but I admit it had a great cast of characters, Blazblue looks like it's following the trend but with a stronger emphasis on plot. (I noticed the plot chains system the story mode has)
The gameplay appears to keep the awesome chain combo system of Guilty Gear, but there was something about the character movement in GG that didn't quite gel with me I always felt there was lag going on with the inputs you see even though the majority of the series was offline.
Finally, I've put it off further because they're re-releasing the game with additional content right? I thought I'd wait for that as I prefer to have the full package if possible, still I had every intention to give it a go, perhaps you can sell me on its finer points?

Its actually the sequel thats coming out.

[Ash Crimson]

Ahh I see, so then I will definitely hold out for that. If I become interested in the universe I'll get the first one cheap =)

[Athrun]

Hey Ash. It's always nice to see people with such a diverse and yet specific taste in games join. You remind me of an old friend, coincidentally also from the UK, and who also coincidentally went by the name Kyo Kusanagi. Not just for your appreciation of KOF, but the overall impression you gave me. Btw, props for knowing Threads of Fate. =p

I'm also a big King of Fighters fan. My favorites being KOF '96 and '97 because that's where the biggest transition in gameplay started happening imo, and it started getting more fun and interesting. In 94 and 95 each fight pretty much ended after 4 - 5 hits, and you could barely even do a 3 hit combo without much effort, while in 96 and 97 the damage was reduced a lot and it was more combo friendly. The Orochi saga was also my favorite, so that's one reason I like those games the best. (I even have the KOF RPG for PS1.) And I got a lot of new favorite characters in 96. Kyo was already a favorite from 95 after he was able to hold his DM, but a lot of characters were revamped in 96 and became a lot better and more fun to play and quickly became new favorites, such as Athena, Benimaru, Robert, Ralph and Leona. (Well Leona was completely new, but replaced Heidern)

KOF XII was a big disappointment to me. It felt like it went back in time to KOF 94-95 where each character only had a few moves, and they're once again hard to chain together in combos. The increased game speed doesn't exactly make things better. And I didn't like how they took out so many characters. I tried playing it for a bit with Leona, but I feel like a beginner all of a sudden. Very hard to get into.
It's fine for games like Street Fighter to stick to the basics with a small movelist for each character because Street Fighter never really evolved or progressed much at all, so it doesn't feel like such a big step back with SF VI as it does for KOF XII.

I mostly play Street Fighter 4 today, and I'm also a big fan of Tekken, because once you really get into it, I felt it had the most depth to it than any other fighting game I've played.


Nice to see you have a PS3. Maybe we could play some SF4 matches some time, or KOF12, even though I'm really bad at the latter. lol
I play as Chun-Li in Street Fighter btw. I need to get an arcade stick though, because some combos are a bit difficult with a controler.

[Ash Crimson]

Ahh wow, nice to see someone who knows their KoF!
Yeah I like Kyo too, I use him in my main team, SNK love him to death so his tweaks are always treated with respect, unlike with Capcom and Ryu who boardline admit that he is OP without a care in the world lol, well at least they're honest about it!

Yeah I've said alot about my fighting agme experience but not much about RPGS, but I'm a big fan of most the old school stuff like Grandia, Suikoden, Wild ARMS, Chrono Trigger, (we got it on DS int eh UK yay!), Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy IV. Most of the new RPGS I'm not really feeling, the only one that's made a real impression on me is Enchanted ARMS, that game is absolutley hilarious and has such a colourful cast of characters, Karin kicks major ass!

Ahh I see you like Tekken too, yeah it has some insane depth, although alot of online players resort to bending down way to much, much like turtling on Street Fighter, perhaps not as frequently but it happens, it's such an unattractive way of fighting, I know if it works then you should use it, but silly looking things like that need to be punished me, like Dead or Alive, people who duck can get low countered or even low grabbed, another really good, and fast paced 3D fighter. Virtua Fighter is good, but wow, it's very VERY technical and mastery of frame data is almost a bloody requisite to succeed online with that game.

Yeah I'll PM my PSN: ID to you at some point when I next play SFIV, we'll get some games going. As for KOF XII I got rid of it, that game is too embarrasing to have in my collection, when I want to complete the collection I'll pick it cheap, REAL cheap! Right now I'm still enjoying KoF XI

[Athrun]

Those RPG series you mentioned are nice. Especially Suikoden and Chrono Trigger. Suikoden 2 being and CT being two of my favorite RPG's. But have you tried Shadow Hearts 1 and 2? I strongly recommend those two if you haven't. And by new RPG's do you mean for PS3/X360 or even those for PS2?
For PS3, I really liked Valkyria Chronicles though. Has a nice story and characters. And the battles depend on strategy and could be beaten in different ways.

As for crouching in fighting games, it's pretty effective in Street Fighter, but I don't think it's that bad in Tekken? Because you're basically open to 1/3 of all attacks. That being Mid attacks. In Street fighter, crouching guards from pretty much any ground attacks (except for overhead hits, but they usually tend to be slower and you need to be close to perform most of them), while in Tekken you can get severely punished by Mid hitting attacks when you're crouching. Many juggle launchers are Mid attacks. I find that standing up tends to be safer most of the time because low attacks tend to be a bit slower in general and you can see them coming faster than most mid attacks. Especially if you're prepared to cancel a throw, standing up is good. But of course crouching during the right time is highly effective as well to avoid high attacks or throws. But turtling by crouching probably won't last long.
There's a low parry in Tekken that's pretty useful if you anticipate a low attack coming. You press down/forward the moment the attack connects, and it will parry the attack. But it's usually better to block.
Dead Or Alive was also fun, but one thing I didn't like was that it's counter system could be done while you're in the middle of being hit by a combo. And it not only stops the combo, but does insane amounts of damage too. Like up to 25%. I think once you get hit by a combo, it should be allowed to finish, unless you use up some temporary gauge.

[Ash Crimson]

Ahh Shadow Hearts, I've played and finished both 1 and 2, really good games! I have the 3rd, got about half way through but never finished it, I thought it was good, but they completley changed the cast, they're not bad, but not as memorable.
Oohh Valkyria Chronicles does look good, I may have to pick it up, I read a review on it about an element that's somewhat off-putting but I think I can over look it. The review mentioned something about the computer having an unfair advantage and constantly attacking whilst you're trying to make efficient use of your turn, I'm not sure if that's just the player being rubbish or a flaw but I'm sure you can over come this.

Yeah Tekken is nowhere near as bad as SF when comes to crouching, I use Jin Kazama, and trying to get mid hits with him at close range are a real pain, so maybe it was players who were aware taking advantage of this, he did get that AWESOME machine-gun punch in Tekken 6 which starts mid range and comes out fairly fast.
Yeah the counter damage on DOA is sick, but that's the main part of it. Combos can be interuppted and it can indeed be frustrating, but once you learn which hits stun and then juggle them after a stun hit you're laughing! But yeah mix-ups are a massive part of DoA, so as I'm sure you're aware mind games rule the day, still with DoA 6 rumoured and the main man (Itakagaki or whatever) out of the picture who knows that changes they'll make to the series.

[Athrun]

Ah, yeah I've played Shadow Hearts 3 as well. I made it to the last save point, then I didn't touch the game for like 2 years for some reason. But I dusted off my old game and finished it a few months ago. It's not a great game no, but not really horrible either. So I don't recommend the game to people, but it might be worth playing if you're already a SH fan.
What's that unfair advantage the computer supposedly has in Valkyria Chronicles though? Assuming it's something different than the computer attacking while it's your turn, because that works both ways. Your units will also open fire against any nearby enemies moving in close. Some units are specifically good at it, namely Shocktroopers, and they're really good for defending your base.

http://www.gametrail...hronicles/43161

I think this video review might give you a better idea of what it's like.
The game comes with the option of having Japanese dialogue though, and I'd suggest using that because the English script made up some own sentences here and there. Some that don't make much sense and you'll notice even if you don't speak Japanese.
Valkyria is a really good game. A must for a PS3 owning rpg fan imo.

And yeah, most of Jin's combos start with high hits, but even if they're blocked they tend to cause stagger that lasts long enough for a follow up attack, so if someone sees it coming they'll probably try to duck the first hits and low poke you before the mid hit comes out. Though that chain is very hard to notice. At least for me, so if I duck on it it's just because I guessed it was coming. Maybe if you try to do some chains that start with mid as well, your opponent will be more weary of crouching?
When close, Jin has some good mid kicks I think that stuns the opponent. From a bit of a distance, ducking against him is a bad idea, but if it's done up close, I assume it's to low poke him out of a combo. Low poke is the fastest interrupter in the game.
Speaking of low poke interrupters, they don't work in Street Fighter against throws. Throws are ridiculously OP in SF4. They have priority over everything. It does about ten times as much damage as a low poke, yet is still faster, which doesn't make much sense. It's the only fighting game I know of where throws are so ridiculously good. You can't even duck them, and trying to cancel them is a lot herder than in most fighting games I'm used to. And it doesn't make things better that Street Fighters wakeup game is really primitive. They seem too afraid to change things in the game, which is one reason I respect SNK a lot more for at least trying new things with KOF.

[Ash Crimson]

Speaking of low poke interrupters, they don't work in Street Fighter against throws. Throws are ridiculously OP in SF4. They have priority over everything. It does about ten times as much damage as a low poke, yet is still faster, which doesn't make much sense. It's the only fighting game I know of where throws are so ridiculously good. You can't even duck them, and trying to cancel them is a lot herder than in most fighting games I'm used to. And it doesn't make things better that Street Fighters wakeup game is really primitive. They seem too afraid to change things in the game, which is one reason I respect SNK a lot more for at least trying new things with KOF.

Hahaha this is sooooo true! Ibuki has like no wake up game, her Shoryuken with kick can be interuppted upon wake up so it's not very reliable and obviously it will be blocked or predicted by a half decent player, so all she has is backdash really, her BD isn't that bad actually and I think alot of character have a good amount of invincibility frames on their BD's aswell.

As for Tekken, that croucing punch, nrrgh, yeah I figured it had like the least frames, maybe I'd accept it more if every characters didn't look the same, I mean, they are still using such dated aniamtions from Tekken, like crouching punch, tackle, running slides that I can think of from the top of my head and every character shares th same sort of animations for these, it's like yeah sort of petty, but these things bug me.

Also you've sold me on Valkyria Chronicles, I'll make it my next game purchase, it's been a while since I've touched a SRPG and that video highlighted some interesting mechanics, I wonder why I haven't even watched a video of this game before I always said it looked lush.