Fighting Games Friday: A Fantasy Calibur Frenzy

I’ve been getting a lot of use out of the Fighting Games Friday columns thanks to the sheer amount of fighting game news these days. Several recent games are receiving updates thanks to developers and publishers playing the long game for their business models, while there are several upcoming games.

But the amount of them is large enough that I was bound to forget about at least one of them, and that happens to be Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. This is the home version of the game released simply as Dissidia Final Fantasy in arcades, and while it retained the format of including characters from several Final Fantasy games, it featured big changes compared to the PSP installments. This title was developed by Team Ninja, and featured 3-on-3 battles instead of 1-on-1 fights. The game didn’t receive the best critical reception, but Square Enix is nonetheless releasing more characters as DLC, as promised through the Season Pass. Most of the characters being released didn’t appear in the PSP games.

The first DLC character was Final Fantasy XII antagonist Vayne Solidor, who came with a combat style new to the Dissidia series. He relies on a variety of weapons and magic attacks for his combos, and can use the “Writ of Conquest” technique to give nearby allies a skill boost. Vayne is the second FFXII character to appear in this game, following Vaan, since Judge Gabranth didn’t make it into this installment.

The second character added was a bigger shock: Locke Cole from Final Fantasy VI. Some fans (like me) figured Celes would be the next character to represent FFVI, since she takes over as the protagonist for a portion of that game. That is, until you realize she doesn’t fit any of the clues for future DLC characters provided at the beginning of the year. Locke is a quick-moving fighter who primarily uses two knives with stylish designs, though can use other weapons for special techniques. Locke didn’t have that diverse of a fighting style in FFVI, given that many of his techniques involved thievery, so they got creative with his move set.

The DLC characters for Dissidia NT are coming at a slow pace, so it feels like they won’t finish until the end of the year. And here people thought the Dragon Ball FighterZ had a stretched-out DLC schedule.

Soulcalibur VI is perhaps the biggest upcoming fighting game, and Bandai Namco continues to steadily reveal more characters. The newest is Yoshimitsu, who’s appeared in every SoulCalibur game outside Soul Edge/Blade and is the ancestor of Tekken’s iteration. He’s the lone survivor of the Manji clan, which was destroyed in a vicious attack by a powerful warlord, but he maintains his title as one of the best swordsmen around. He joins this game with yet another new design, though he’s retained many familiar techniques from both franchises. But like all the other returning characters revealed thus far, he’ll have new techniques and combo possibilities thanks to this game’s new mechanics.

Bandai Namco is slowly but surely getting through the remaining cast of characters for SCVI, and hopefully more favorites like Hwang Song-geong and Seong Mi-na are shown before the release this fall. No, those aren’t just my favorites.

Love Heart is the newest character confirmed for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, SNK’s newest fighting game that features an all-female cast. Love Heart is yet another character making her way over from The King of Fighters XIV, though she originated from pachinko series Sky Love. Her scantily-clad pirate outfit made her perfect for this fanservice-driven game, though she’s also has an even more scantily-clad police outfit (above) and a cowboy outfit that also gives her a blue fake (?) moustache for other options.

Love Heart’s inclusion is further proof that a significant portion of this cast will be right out of KOFXIV. It’s understandable, since reusing the models it will cut down significantly on development costs and allow for them to divert resources to other projects simultaneously. But I would have liked to see several female characters from SNK’s more obscure titles. Regardless, hopefully the game turns out well.

SNK Heroines will release in early September worldwide for PS4 and Switch. Unlike western territories, Japan will also receive this game at retail.

This seems like a lot of news, but it’s only a prelude to the blowout that awaits at E3 this year. Not to mention the audience will soon be busy dissecting Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle, which releases in Japan a mere six days from day before arriving on June 5th and June 22nd in America and Europe, respectively. Both Merged Zamasu and Blue Vegito will also arrive for Dragon Ball FighterZ next week, and we should receive a date for Arika’s Fighting EX Layer soon. It’s a fun and busy time to be a fighting game fan, is what I’m saying.