Fighting Games Friday: The Duality of Arc System Works
There’s a notable difference between the level of support Arc System Works can give one of their own games compared to what they’re allowed to provide for those funded and released by other publishers. This has, in fairness, been clear for years. But never was this put on display in such close proximity than this week, when new downloadable content for Guilty Gear Strive and DNF Duel was revealed and showcased during the ARC World Tour 2022 finals.
Bedman? was revealed to be the penultimate character in the second season of the Arc System Works-developed and published Guilty Gear Strive. That’s “Bedman?” with the question mark because this is only a portion of the character known as Bedman from the Guilty Gear Xrd games. The “man” portion may have died in Xrd’s story, but the bed remains. Bedman’s sister Delilah, previously referred to as an unknown figure in Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator before being formally introduced in Strive’s -Another Story- mode, has become its new host. The bed was ordered to act independently by Bedman during his final moments, and bonded with Delilah after it took actions to stop and protect her after she lost control.
The trailer is alone enough to show how the character will be similar to Bedman from the Xrd titles in being a very complex character to play. Even the most erudite Guilty Gear player can pick up the controller or arcade stick, observe a move list, and be wildly confused as to how to approach anything while using the character in Training Mode. They may not be quite as difficult to play this time around thanks to Strive being easier to learn overall, but the official website gives them two out of five stars on the “Ease of Use” scale for good reason.
Bedman? will arrive in Strive on April 6th, alongside the “Fairy’s Forest Factory” stage. The final character of the second season teased is almost certainly Asuka R. Kreutz, the enigma previously known as “That Man” throughout the Guilty Gear franchise’s history. Kreutz was incorrectly labeled as GG’s biggest villain, who turned out to be Happy Chaos, but it’s still a big deal that a character who’s remained an enigma for so long will finally be playable. A third season of downloadable content was also announced, to little surprise with Strive’s continued popularity, meaning this is a good time to start guessing which characters will return. I’m taking the coward’s way out by not participating, but I’m hoping they throw some bones in the form of brand-new never-before-seen characters.
The first DLC character for DNF Duel, Spectre, was further shown in action, and a roadmap was provided showing precisely what content the season pass will provide. Spectre will arrive this summer, alongside a new Awakening system and another gameplay-related system not currently being elaborated on. The second character will arrive this fall, while the third and a new stage will arrive in the winter. Two more characters will finish off the first season in 2024. Their identities should be revealed around two months before they arrive.
The release timing is the biggest surprise here. It is unheard of for a fighting game released in the last decade to receive its first batch of new content one year after the initial game released. DNF Duel first launched for PlayStation platforms and PC in June 2022, but Spectre and the new play options will be the first significant content (as in, outside occasional balance fixes and upgrades) it will receive since then. The lack of immediate post-launch support from publisher Nexon is the likely culprit for the game losing steam among fighting game audiences after mere months. It’s why the game won’t be among the main titles to be played at Evo 2023 despite being less than a year old, one that even Melty Blood: Type Lumina will be a part of.
(Type Lumina’s presence is also due to Melty Blood finally getting the respect it always deserved among the fighting game community after years of only thriving in the niche-upon-niche “poverty” segment.)
But don’t count DNF Duel out just yet. The Switch release is unlikely to do much, but the game’s ease of use compared to even other recent fighting games that have been made more approachable could give it a second wind once DLC starts regularly releasing. Yet, it’s clear that Nexon should have been paying closer attention to what it takes to maintain successful support for a game over several years. At least the title received rollback netplay from the start, unlike Granblue Fantasy: Versus.
This all illustrates the difference between the support Arc System Works has been able to provide with Strive, a game they developed and published, compared to one they merely developed (alongside Eighting) like DNF Duel. Had the developer been in more control of the latter and not beheld to Nexon’s approval and continued funding, this would have been a different story. But I reiterate that it’s not too late for DNF Duel to bounce back, so Nexon has hopefully learned good lessons here.
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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
