LIST: My Top 5 Video Game Characters (Fighting Games)

 I saw this post on X/ Twitter and I was going to respond but I do not really use Twitter like that anymore so I decided to make it more my own thing and even add some context to my picks. So with that out of the way, here is My Top 5 Video Game Characters (Fighting Games).

5. Hazama (BlazBlue Series)

Coming in at number 5. First a confession. I do not play the BlazBlue series. I've always had a interest in them but at the time when it was super popular I was focusing more on KOF and Tekken. However despite not playing the games I always liked everything about Hazama. From the first time I saw him fly around the screen on green snake coils to his bali-song knives (in Australia we call them butterfly knives btw), everything about him just screamed cool. It does not help he also dresses like Michael Jackson and their is a million Smooth Criminal memes out there that celebrate the fact. Now with me in my anime fighting game stage of my life I am actually playing BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (BB's latest installment) and I finally get to main him and he is challenging but fun to use.

4. King (Tekken Series)

Speaking of Tekken before; my eternal main character is King. Ever since Tekken 5 specifically, I have been a big King fan. I mean I love wrestling, I love luchas I love the fact he takes care of orphans and I love swinging people around and around and into things. Oh and I really like kneeing folks in the face too, shining wizard style. Now no matter the Tekken, I could probably pick up King and have a good time using him. You might noticed I used a older render of King above. Whilst I do not mind his Tekken 7 default with the cape and all, I am not a fan of his look in Tekken 8. It just looks way too busy. When I think King I think this classic image even tho I won't lie his NJPW Okada cosplay was pretty awesome and on point too.

3. Spectre (DNF Duel)

Okay, here me out. I know this is probably the honeymoon phase and King has been my homie since Tekken 5 but there is just something about Spectre that just ticks all my boxes for a fighting game character. She looks amazing, hits like a truck, wields a long katana, short katana and a wire expertly and just oozes charisma (or as the kids say... rizz). Oh and she casually speaks in Korean as well and I love me some Korean culture. I was interested in DNF Duel but the moment the Spectre trailer dropped I knew that she was the one for me and to be rewarded in terms of gameplay (she ticks my technical/ execution boxes too) and overall appeal, it is a perfect marriage. I have not bonded with a female character since my number 1.

2. Claudio (Tekken 7)

Coming in at number 2 and to no one's surprise who actually know me is Claudio from Tekken 7. Again folks will be like, King was your homie since Tekken 5, how can a guy who only technically been in one Tekken game rank much higher than King and to justify that to myself I realized that during Tekken 5 all the way to 7, if I ever played King I would always have other characters on the side. I enjoyed using King but I would always play other characters too to keep my interest in the game, especially competitively. However post season 2 and for the rest of Tekken 7's very long extend lifespan, I only really liked using Claudio in Tekken 7. The fact the roster kept growing and new cool characters like Leroy, Lidia or the classic characters like Julia came back and I still only wanted to use Mr. Serafino is a testament to him and he earns this spot because of that. Also nothing beats hitting someone point blank with a running 2 superman punch. It never gets old to me.

1. Leona (KOF series)

Ahh, if I ever had a first video game love it would be Leona Heidern from the King of Fighters series. Ever since KOF '96 and her introduction, Leona has always been my favorite fighting game character maybe even my favorite video game character of all time. Remember what I said above about Spectre ticking all my boxes? Leona did that back in 96. The style, the fact she is a bad ass, her signature blue hair and the fact she requires some real technical skill to get good with her. She truly is the landmark and it helps me understand why I always gravitate towards bad ass femme fatales over the cutesy girls. If a KOF has Leona, I am main her and there is never a doubt in my mind if I am going to have a amazing time playing her.

Well that's the first LIST. A new type of blog/ content coming to RANTS & RAVES. As promised in my previous blog, I hope to expand the content I put on her so look forward to more LISTs as time goes on.

AV

First Year Anniversary: RANTS & RAVES Resurrection

 I do not know what really trigger it but I do recall it was something I noticed on twitter and also on Facebook. I got really annoyed that every other post on my 'feed' was a advertisement or a re-tweet or just anything but the actually 'feed' I signed up for. On top of that, I was very annoyed that writing longer tweets was pay-walled (and still is) without having to use twitlonger or some other third party website. I got really annoyed and I said to myself I had to go back to basics.

Hence why I resurrect this old blog of mine, Rants & Raves. I've been slowly adding new coats of paint to it, tried to post on it consistently and most importantly, enjoyed talking about stuff I liked again without restrictions. As social media has got more involved in our 'business' I really wished it would NOT. Here at Rants & Raves, for a full year I've been able to share my unfiltered thoughts about anything and everything and whilst the numbers viewing this blog ain't amazing, that is not the intention of it. Honestly I do not want to go 'viral', this is more of a live journal of my thoughts that I am willing to share and if you are interested in it than welcome.

During year one, I posted what might be the signature blog of this resurrected format. My super long but super necessary (for me of course) RAVE about 'Risk of Rain 2'. I could not quantify how much I enjoyed it in a tweets, I had to really show love for it and I still look back on it as one of my favorite blogs I've written recently. The only one that came close to that RAVE was my one for 'Darkest Dungeon' which I really enjoyed talking about too.

During year one, I was able to quantify why I would not be playing Tekken 8 in a rare RANT and why it has zero appeal to me, playing wise. I might be able to watch it and cheer on my friends who are playing it but no I will not play it seriously or go competitive with it. I am a bit lazy now because anytime anyone asks why the guy who plays Tekken no longer plays Tekken I just point them to this blog lol.

During year one, I realized the RANT or RAVE format is good but what about the in-betweens. The games I enjoyed but I do not love and out the desire to talk about 'Ghost Song' I created OKAY, the media that is between good and bad. Heck, during year one, I realized I need a format for when a game is just a Rave and not a RAVE (capital letters) so I could talk about 'Remnant 2' and how I love it but at the same how frustrating it could get. In hind sight, I would still give it a Rave and I barely play it even with the DLC out but I did enjoy it when I was playing it non-stop.

The Gaming Station.

We have had other blogs, smaller updates, broke the mold and did a RAVE about Kpop and Dreamcatcher, provided updates on the games I was enjoying and so much more. The main point of this rather self indulgent post is to let y'all know Rants & Raves is not going anywhere in 2024. If anything, we are expanding.

I am thinking of adding more media like videos to it, I am adding new categories that we have discussed before (PITSTOPs and others), the Updates on the side bar are my tweets without having to tweet. I want to keep sharing what I like and dislike (which is pretty rare I must admit but hey Tekken 8) about all times I find interesting and if you are along for the ride. Enjoy.

AV2024

PIT STOP: I'm in Love: DNF Duel DLC Spectre Overview

 

    Spectre may be favorite girl character in a fighting game since Zafina in Tekken 6 and I do not even main her anymore so my last favorite female character I actually like using is probably KOF '96 Leona. Normally I do not favor female characters in fighting games, the last one that got close was probably Master Raven in Tekken 7 but I passed my love for her onto someone else *wink*. However Spectre has aesthetics for days, wields BIG swords, flies around on a wire like a superhero which she uses in other inventive ways as well. On top of that she is a technical character that requires good execution and just hits like a truck. In a game where I find myself flip flopping whom I wanted to consider a 'main', Spectre has the bean counter tipped in her favor and the cherry on the top, is the fact she yells "disappear/ vanish" in Korean as she does her Awakening. Of course I still love me some Swift Master but co-main? Maybe.

Now she might have already ticked all my boxes before I started using her but now I owned the DLC and gotten used to her playing style and combo structure and I loving her even more. This will be a quick breakdown and she'll of course get the combo trial breakdown treatment like the previous DNF Duel characters I liked.

    One of the things I'll really enjoy about Spectre is her mobility options, one of her signature moves is not an attack but a movement option called 'booze' (you'll soon see all her moves have some reference to drinking lol). This gives her infinite movement options in the air that even Swift Master would be jealous of. The closest video game equal I would say would be Spider-man but Spectre has attacks after dedicating to the forward movement (so up forward, forward or down forward) and the booze wire does not have a hit box like Spidey's web trail did. A lot and when I saw a lot I mean  A LOT of her actions are even jump cancellable or dash cancellable too keeping with her always moving philosophy.

    Some things so far I've noticed through is she is a execution heavy character and you need to be on point to not accidentally do unwanted wall jumps and drop combos because of missed inputs. Her timings are also unique due the nature of her multi-hitting special moves. Also one of her best combo extenders 'Shaker Blast' or 6M can be very fickle and cause unwanted side swaps especially near corners. When primed though, she can does a truck load of damage (breaking my old combo damage limit with almost 820 dmg) and in her Awakening state: Licence, her ability to constantly cancel specials into specials and her spectacular Last Order (just M when Awakened, M after priming with an initial M in normal state). Her projectile requires her to do a small hop back and no DP reversal either which maybe an issue in this aggressive game but we shall see if that really effects me.

    

    She also has some amazing color palates but the one I am riding with is this all white number which I affectionately call 'Umma' which means 'Mother' in Korean but also plays off the fact she looks like Emma Frost from the X-Men. I mean c'mon!!

So yep... this is where we are and we are sticking it out with DNF Duel. I'll probably drop a much smaller overview for the other 2 DLC characters Brawler and Battle Mage but right now its Spectre's world and I'm just living in it.

AV

PIT STOP

 

As we draw closer to the one year anniversary of the Resurrection of Rants & Raves. I decided to do a quick pit stop before continuing down the road.

First; this type of format used to be called 'UPDATE' but Updates are now on the side bar of the blog. These are what I used to use twitter/ x for but since we are not twitter as much anymore I feel its better to incorporate it into the blog. These are also dated and will be regularly updated. Now what was previously 'UPDATE' becomes PIT STOP and PIT STOP are much more detailed updates. Think of it like this Update < Pit Stop < Blog aka RANTS/ RAVES. This system will help keep the weekly content more often in the form of Updates and Pit Stops and it saves the RANTS or RAVES for when I feel something deserves it.

Starting with DNF Duel. I am still pretty enamored with it but I seriously doubt me going to tournaments for it or even playing online competitively like I used to with other fighting games. I honestly think my time as a competitive fighting gamer is in my past and I am okay with it especially with the current crop of new fighting games really do not appeal to me. I have spoken about Tekken 8 before but I am also very meh about Mortal Kombat 1 and SF 6 looks fun enough but I do not see myself wanting to compete in it. Right now I am just enjoy learning combos, doing trials and just muck around in it. I will also revisit once I purchase the Character Pass but I will not be doing that till the end of the month.

Next up is Dredge. As a game I had on my radar for a long time I was excited to finally dig in and play it. Dredge is a fishing sim/ narrative mystery with heavy Lovecraftian influences. Now I am not a fisher but the premise alone attracted me and I've been playing it and enjoying it but I must say, compared to Inscryption, the last indie game that caught my eye this one feels more like a slow burn. I am taking my time with it too compared to Inscryption where I played it non-stop for days on end. I think I will eventually get caught in its net but so far, I have not gone completely in with it.

It is far too soon to really put down my thoughts of the other 2 new games I've picked up, those being Narita Boy (a 2D side strolling hack n slash with a nice synth-pop soundtrack) and Dead Island 2 (self explanatory this one) but both are fun so far as well.

Well that is our first Pit Stop. Look forward to more 'updates', Pit Stops and Rants & Raves as well as the big anniversary blog where I'll go into depth my plans for this blog.

AV

Double Down on Duel: DNF Duel Combo Trials Tips

 

First things first. Happy New Year!! Welcome to 2024. It has almost been a full year since I've started actively blogging again and it has given me a lot of fulfillment so we are probably sticking around. I am planning a longer more introspective blog as we get closer to the full one year anniversary so stay tuned for that. 

So as previously mentioned, we are exploring DNF Duel right now and so far it looks like it might be my new fighting game. As previously mentioned my aim is to main Hitman and Swift Master but there are some other characters whom have caught my eye.

I have mostly been mucking around in the combo trials with some random stops in story mode and arcade mode when I want to test out the combos I have learned. I might eventually even go online with it and hopefully get some matches if anything just so I can get the online achievements out of the way. I have really moved away from online fighting games for fulfillment but its part of the game so I might as well do it. I have also heard DNF does have rollback net-code and its pretty good so if that is the case at least it won't be a pain to play especially if I aim to play a technical character like Swift Master.

So what is this? Well its me chatting about what I've had the most experience and fun with so far, the combo trials. I have also noticed there is not much information/ help with doing these trials so here is my 2 cents. Similar to my KOF 'Helping Hand' series (man that is a throwback right there) the main point of this is to help folks with these very hard (mostly) trials.

I have completed most of the trials (bar the 3 DLC characters but we will get there soon enough) with the exception of 2 for the Lost Warrior and 3 of the Enchantress (who I believe has the hardest combos in the game).

I will be giving tips for 4 of the characters I enjoy using the most. We will be using the Number notations and the standard buttons so 2 is down, 5 is neutral and so on and A,B,S,M buttons as per Dustloop's Forums/ Website.

Hitman: Hitman's combos are extremely straight forward. If a person is aiming for the achievement to complete a character's trials I would highly recommend his ones cause they are very easy to complete for most skill levels. A couple combos require a bit of linking but nothing too crazy. If anything I feel they underplay what Hitman is capable of combo wise. The important thing is when it comes to trials 7-8 is to do his Awakening skill (aka their cinematic super move) as the opponent begins falling from the last attack, do not delay it too long.

Swift Master: On the opposite side of the spectrum to Hitman is Swifty. Swift Master (SM) requires really good execution and a lot of his harder combos require holding down his Special button for a couple seconds to pull off his 'Storm Strike' which causes a wall bounce. Mastering Storm Strike means getting used to holding the S as soon as the last S in a combo connects and releasing at the exact moment. In the case of 2B into Storm Strike, I've noticed the best time to do it is just as the opponent is about to touch the floor, hit the 2B wait a second then release. Even through I want to master SM, this has taken some time for me to get down as well so keep at it. Also an important tip for the final combo trial is you can start holding the S after SW does the 4M, 4M OTG and make sure you release it late so the opponent hits the wall right in front of him (not above) and hit the Awakening skill immediately. If the opponent bounces off the wall, you are too late.

Vanguard: Its funny cause I want to use Swift Master whom is top tier and according to most tier lists, Vanguard is the bottom tier but I'll be damned if he is not fun to use. Since this is not pick Vanguard and struggle to win guide, we will just focus on his combo trials. First, most important is learning the timing on his Jumping S which OTGs but has a very small window. A lot of his best combos require this so focus on doing your attack (in most case it just a regular B) as soon as the spear touches the ground. This is super important cause any later will cause it to whiff. Another trick I discovered is if you are having trouble with 5M into 2M in the middle of combos to not do the full 2 hits of 5M and cancel it after the first hit. This make it easier and I've noticed even gives you more time for your running jumping A OTGs. Lastly for combos 7 and 8, notice they have different timing for when you hit his Awakening skill. In Combo 7 its before the second hit and with Combo 8 you can delay till after the 2 hit wall bounces.

Our last subject is another funny one. I have no intention of using Dragon Knight but I found her trials very interesting and definitely something worthwhile talking about. When I first started playing, her trials were very daunting and her summoning dragon mechanic took awhile to get used to. Her are some tips which I discovered on my own because as I said before, there is not much help out there. The first one I believe most people will have trouble with is # 6. With this one I recommend delaying the 'Summon Astra to Dragon Force' (A + Magic) slightly after the 4S hits. Then immediately doing the B, hold S and with her hold S you don't need to time it, it'll automatically comes out once its fully charged, this will give the wall bounce into the Dragon fire and than this is important, delaying the next 2S to launch them back into another Dragon fire. Now # 7 for the longest time I believed it was and still feels glitched because no matter what I did 'Summon Astra to Dragon Breath' never worked like it looks like in the demo. Instead I found a way around it by doing an extra attack and doing it in the corner. This is how I got it to work; first I added a extra 4S after the B,2S and then I do (M + B) at the end of 4S with a delay like before. This gives enough time for Astra the Dragon to actually do his Dragon Breath attack and than you time the last 4S as a OTG and immediately do 4M before the hit stun decay kicks in. This has been the only way I've gotten it consistently. Also time the Awakening as the opponent is falling out of 4M like most Awakening and not immediately or it'll whiff. Her last combo in comparison to #7 is actually not even hard and just requires a micro-dash at the end to get the 2B to hit and to time 6M with the impact of the 4S. Compared to #7 it is a much easier.

Well those are the 4 main characters we will cover for the tips. I might revisit this, especially if I learn the Enchantress trials because that is another character I see no tips for and her trials are especially challenging, even for me. Also I'll eventually get the DLC and you know I'll have to do one for Spectre since I hope to use her too.

AV