Fighting Games Friday: Anime Force la Frenzy (+Soulcalibur)
There haven’t been many slow weeks for fighting game news this year, but last week offered a nice break. It gave me the opportunity to do something a little different than usual, a post about how an old Sailor Moon S game has become popular in the anime fighting game tournament scene in the last few months. Of course, I should have known that publishers were simply waiting to drop all the news this week in return, especially since Anime Expo is currently happening. Buckle up.
Bandai Namco has been steadily confirming the cast of Soulcalibur VI since its announcement in December last year, and the newest addition is another returning character: Talim. Talim was one of the most popular characters to miss Soulcalibur V, and her fans were sent into a frenzy when they realized she would be absent. They were vocal enough that the developers undoubtedly heard them. SCVI is a reimagining of the original Soulcalibur, but Zasalamel’s inclusion showed how they aren’t limiting themselves to cast members from that game. Talim actually debuted in Soulcalibur II, before Zasalamel, so she fits right in.
Talim’s move set will have the same modifications as others thanks to this game’s new features, but many of her basic techniques look the same. We should get a better look at her changes soon, though we might have to wait until Evo arrives in a month. Soulcalibur VI will arrive on October 19th for PlayStation 4, XB1, and PC.
Bandai Namco also announced more characters for Jump Force, a Shonen Jump crossover game announced at E3 that involves characters from several manga franchises fighting in the real world. The newest playable characters announced are Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, and Sosuke Aizen, all of which originate from Bleach. Both Ichigo and Rukia’s forms are taken from the latter half of the series, while Bandai Namco went through hilariously painstaking effort to hide who Aizen really is — even though it’s hardly a secret even to fans who haven’t seen or read Bleach.
The characters look a little odd in the more realistic art style, but it’s apparent the character modelers are doing their best to try and preserve their anime-style looks within the game’s realistic sheen. The Hong Kong stage was also announced, which will be one of several real-world locations in the game. Bandai Namco announcing three characters at once shows how large this game’s cast will be, perhaps more robust than the character count in predecessor J-Stars Victory VS. The game will release for PS4, XB1, and PC sometime next year.
SNK has been slowly but surely revealing the small cast for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy since it was announced in January this year, a successor to SNK Gals Fighters with the fanservice cranked up past 11. Notably, all the characters have been taken from The King of Fighters XIV, Shermie aside, and have been given new fanservice outfits, regardless of whether they’re out of character for them. The newest character is Mui Mui, who debuted in pachislot series Dragon Gal and was previously included in KOFXIV. She’ll come with a dress and a very fanservicey panda outfit for her alternate threads.
With Mui Mui’s announcement, only one character remains to be confirmed, and word suggests it could be Terry Bogard in drag. Having a man in drag as a playable character wouldn’t be odd, since SNK Gals Fighters did the same to Iori as “Miss X,” but it’s stranger here considering SNK already has Alice, a female Terry in terms of design. Hopefully SNK has some fun with him if he’s the final character. The game will release for PS4 and Switch on September 7th.
The final game I’m featuring here is Kill la Kill the Game: IF, a title actually announced by Arc System Works in a hilarious and disappointing manner a few weeks ago. They teased the announcement of a Studio Trigger property, the anime studio responsible for this series and others. While some thought it might be for a Darling in the Franxx video game, since it was announced during the airing of a recent episode, they knew the Kill la Kill series would be a perfect fit for the developer. Sure, the tease was for a Kill la Kill game after all, but the same audience excited for the potential was disappointed at how ASW is only publishing it, not developing it. Ah, what could have been.
The arena fighting game is being handled by APlus Games, who recently handled Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time for Bandai Namco, which didn’t have the best reception. This explains why there’s concern over how this game could turn out. But like the LWA adaptation, there’s no denying how the KLK game’s a looker, even if it’s not on par with ASW’s best efforts like the Guilty Gear Xrd series and Dragon Ball FighterZ.
I’m a little concerned about the animation, and though they still have time to polish it, the performance was also an issue in the LWA game that was unfixed for the final game. Kill la Kill fans and others interested will simply have to hope for the best, as discouraging as that sounds. ASW’s name being attached to this project will automatically raise expectations, something I hope drives APlus to do better.
Kill la Kill the Game: IF will release sometime next year for PS4 and Steam worldwide. Keep in mind ASW has a western publishing house now, which started releasing games at retail with Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle.
Lastly, Skullgirls 2nd Encore is coming to Nintendo Switch sometime soon, in both physical and digital forms. Indie games are doing well on the system, so this is a welcome “Well, why not?” port
If anyone hoped fighting game releases would slow down for a little bit, your hopes have already been dashed. The silver lining is how these games are progressively getting easier to play, as developers realize working adults don’t have time to take hours to even learn the basics of fighting games, let alone how to play them. Good luck finding time for these and every other game you want to play.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
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Talim was intoduced in soul calibur 2. She was also in soul calibur 3 but in 3 they change her moveset a little.
Ah, my bad. I can’t believe I forgot that. Thanks!