Fighting Games Friday: Cackle of Cagliostro
There’s plenty to say about the recent character additions to Granblue Fantasy: Versus. Yes, they’re pretty and well animated, to little surprise for an Arc System Works-developed game. But they’ve also been memetic. Belial came with several fun animations when he was made available for players to use last month, including a semi-taunt that made him invulnerable despite not looking invulnerable (by mistake, as it turns out). The same can be said of the newest character, mentioned in the title: Cagliostro.
A mere read of Cagliostro’s bio was enough to confirm how the development team would have too much fun animating her. It explains how in seeking to achieve immortality, she discovered a way to swap out her body at will. She’s strong and competent, but also a massive narcissist who never fails to create a very cute version of her body. It’s an interesting counterpart to her usual sadistic self, particularly on display when her Super Skybound Art turns the opponent into a golden statue. She shows the same smug face during other attacks, because the developers knew fans would love it. You wouldn’t believe the number of Twitter posts showing her smugness off, or the fanart.
Cagliostro released this past Tuesday as part of the second Season Pass, though she’s also available as part of a solo bundle for $6.99.
Yuel will be the third character coming this season, because there was no way an anime fighting game wouldn’t get a fox girl as a downloadable character. They’re noticeably using her Water outfit, to split the difference between anyone who’s, let’s say, master of their domain and players too horny for their own good. Her normal outfit would be too much for the latter types, being essentially a bathing suit with boots that expose her feet — absolutely high-level fetish fuel. But her Event outfit is too reserved (the sideboob aside) for a game that’s slightly leaned into fanservice. She’ll release sometime in late December.
Meanwhile, Meruem and Hiei from Hunter x Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho, respectively, will release for Jump Force on October 27th for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions, and in early 2021 for Switch. Both characters were previously announced as part of the second season, and will follow My Hero Academia’s Shoto Todoroki. There’s notably been a five-month gap between character releases, and it’s tough not to think the Covid-19 pandemic was responsible for that. The last two characters will come from Bleach and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure; if you haven’t been guessing their identities over the last several months, it’s not too late to join the game. We’ll see if this game gets a third season afterward, or if they move on to a new title with the introduction of next-generation consoles. At this point, Demon Slayer will have to get in somehow.
Speaking of next-gen consoles: It didn’t appear that Guilty Gear Strive would receive a free next-gen upgrade for the PlayStation 5 version for PS4 owners when Arc System Works detailed their release plans for the game. Fortunately, the option will be available, like most other games that aren’t called “Control” (at least, until they remembered to reverse it) or “Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition.”
There is a little bad news here: The game will only have cross-platform play between the PS4 and PS5 versions, and not the PC version. It’s good for these games to have as large an online community to play with as they can, when there’s fear the community could whittle eventually like the Guilty Gear Xrd one has. It’s nice that they’re adding rollback netplay to Strive, but they couldn’t leap entirely into the present. Maybe this can eventually be patched in.
Following the first look at Rain last week, NetherRealm Studios released a gameplay trailer for guest character John Rambo in Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate. He’s the most interesting character of the new faces announced not only from a popularity standpoint given his status as a 1980s action hero, but also because the developers had to get creative with his move set. This will be his first and perhaps last time in a Mortal Kombat game, so they wanted to get the most out of him here. He looks fun to use, and will come with an array of outfits from the movies — though perhaps not every outfit.
It’s a little surprising to see Rambo’s trailer released before Mileena’s, but perhaps NetherRealm and Ed Boon want to keep her very vocal fans in suspense for another week. It could even be Boon’s way of getting back at them after the dozens upon dozens of requests he received for the character on social media. If they’ve waited all this time, another six days should be easy.
The last bunch of Fighting Games Friday posts have shown how updates are starting to come frequently again. It’s a sign not only of the ever-continuing fighting game news cycle, but also that developers worldwide have adjusted their development and news schedules around Covid-19. Expect more soon, in terms of news and posts like this.
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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
