Fighting Games Friday: The Fighters of 2020

The year 2019 was a good one for watching fighting game tournaments and for existing titles receiving downloadable content, but underwhelming for new releases in the genre. The lone new additions were Mortal Kombat 11, Dead or Alive 6, Samurai Shodown, and the Marvel vs. Capcom-style Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid. This was good in a way, because there are already too many current titles to follow with so many of them receiving post-release updates. It wasn’t good for anyone who likes to wander from one fighting game to the next, impractical as that is for learning how to actually play them.

This year will be better for new fighting game releases. Three titles are definitively planned for release, and a fourth one is possible if old information is still correct.

Granblue Fantasy: Versus | PlayStation 4 | February 7th in Japan (and likely in the west)

Just as the name implies, Granblue Fantasy: Versus is a fighting game adaptation of the Granblue Fantasy mobile game, developed by Arc System Works. It will feature eleven initial playable characters from the series, including popular faces like Gran, Katalina, Lancelot and Percival fighting one-on-one battles, with a cel-shaded style reminiscent of other Arc titles like the Guilty Gear Xrd series and Dragon Ball FighterZ. The game will also have an RPG mode where one or more characters can fight in a side-scrolling quest, which looks reminiscent of (though not identical to) Dragon’s Crown.

Five more will come as part of the first Season Pass (with one being unlockable in the game), with another five coming in a second season. Cygames plans to treat this like the mobile game, but we’ll see if that’s a working strategy when applied to a fighting game. (It probably will be.)

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[Cl-r] | PlayStation 4, Switch | February 20th (21st in Europe)

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[Cl-r] (don’t ask me how to pronounce that) will be the next big update for the Under Night In-Birth series, a series developer French-Bread started in 2012. It’s remarkable how they’ve kept this going for far longer than Capcom has for any Street Fighter game or Arc System Works for the Guilty Gear and Blazblue titles, but it’s more acceptable when it’s coming from a developer smaller than any of those two companies. All 20 characters will return from predecessor Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] with balance and move set adjustments, and new character Londrekia will be added.

UNICLR (the abbreviation; I’m not typing that whole title again), will release as a standalone title or a downloadable upgrade to predecessor UNIST in late February.

Guilty Gear -Strive- | PlayStation 4 (and probably other platforms) | Fall 2020

We’re nearing the end of this console generation while another one is approaching, so it’s time for a brand-new Guilty Gear title. (Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- released around the same time.) Guilty Gear -Strive- is following gameplay ideals series director, composer, and character designer Daisuke Ishiwatari laid out well before the game’s reveal, in a desire to welcome more newcomers to the game. This was shown through the playable version available at the recent ArcREVO Finals in November, which displayed easier combos, though doesn’t go as far as including mandatory auto-combos like other Arc titles. There was serious concern from the fanbase, but those who played it claimed the game still inherits the gameplay fundamentals and style that make Guilty Gear games fun to play.

Arc System Works is still in the midst of revealing characters for -Strive-, and every character formally revealed is a returning face. They include Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, May, Axl-Low, Chipp Zanuff, Potemkin, and Faust. A new character was shown in the first trailer, but still hasn’t been formally revealed. It’s unlikely that he’ll be the only new character.

Promotion for the game has been on a short hiatus, but it will resume in a little over two weeks. The game isn’t releasing until the end of the year, so they have plenty more to show.

The King of Fighters XV (…maybe?) | TBA | Perhaps 2020

SNK formally announced The King of Fighters XV at Evo 2019, but didn’t confirm anything besides that. Minor details were mentioned at an IPO press conference in Seoul, South Korea in December 2018, where they confirmed a 2020 release and the use of Unreal Engine 4. This means the game should look better than The King of Fighters XIV, though may not be on par with Samurai Shodown thanks to the former being a 3-on-3 fighter instead of 1-on-1. Whether it’s still a 2020 release is unknown, but SNK we’ll undoubtedly see the game soon.

In addition to the new releases, currently-supported fighting games will continue to receive DLC. Street Fighter V will get the Champion Edition upgrade on February 14th, which will include every character released thus far and most of the stages and outfits. New character Fahkumram will arrive in Tekken 7 this spring. Soulcalibur VI’s second season has more characters coming, including Samurai Shodown guest character Haohmaru. Speaking of Samurai Shodown, its second season will continue, and the Switch port is due for release in western territories sometime this quarter. There are still characters coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the next character for which should be announced soon. Lastly, the Joker and Spawn will release in Mortal Kombat 11 on January 28th and March 17th, respectively.

Other fighting games could receive another season that we currently don’t know of yet, like Dragon Ball FighterZ and maybe Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle. If they do, it shouldn’t take long for us to find out.

This year marks a continuation of the same story regarding fighting game releases: So many titles are planned for release and are being supported simultaneously that no one sane could possibly keep up with all of them. I just hope all the new ones have good online play, which they desperately need.