Nearing the end of Tekken 7's lifespan, I made two firm decision. The first was to not play Tekken 8 competitively. I made a RANT post about this so if you want more of that story, you can read about it there. The other big decision I made was to try something different. A new fighting game genre which I always looked at and wanted to try but never had given a honest try. It was time to go ANIME.
Regular followers of this blog will notice the last couple months me constantly talking about anime fighting games like Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, Under-Night In-Birth, Granblue Versus and very frequently, DNF Duel. As I've explored each one I've got more into taking the genre more seriously. Sadly the one I want to play the most is the one with the least player base (that being DNF Duel) but thankfully both Granblue and Under-Night (or as most folks refer it to as UNI) have a decent player base and both have tournaments being run around them so if I wanted some serious competition outside of playing the CPU I would have some. Granblue online is good too and UNI's is...well let say its not good but I doubt I'll be playing either online much anyway since I barely played the fighting games I was good at online.
I know I'll have some friends willing to play it with me in my inner circle too which is nice and I fully intended to integrate myself into the local scene which I have as well so all in all, if I take to anime like I take to all fighting games I've previously played I think I'll be alright. However I did not want to spread myself too thin so I decided to just pick one to spend the most time with and focus on 'getting gud'. It came down either Granblue Versus Rising or Under-Night In-Birth: Sys:Celes and we went with...
There is a couple reasons why I decided to go UNI2 as opposed to GBVR (got to get used to this abbreviations). Playing the UNI characters in BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle I realized some of them were pretty cool and I enjoyed learning just how different, with concepts like Reverse Beat (a system that involves hitting buttons in reverse strength aka instead of light punch into heavy punch, you can do heavy punch into light which normally is not a thing) and some of the character designs were very unique as well. I did some more research and I learned UNI is a very technical fighter with a lot of nuances which appeal to me as well.
It did not help I recently paid for the original GranBlue Versus before they announced a full price expansion and to get the game as well as its upcoming DLC characters would cost $75!! Sure this can mitigated with the Free version but the free version has a limited roster that is determined by the developers. UNI games on the other hand I've never brought, UNI2 is only $50 and you get the season pass/ DLC included with it as long as you purchase it before March 1st. In the end, I decided on UNI2 for Steam even despite the horrible online connectivity for matches (which the developers are constantly working on and updating which is a good sign) cause as I stated before, I do not need online to enjoy a game.
UNI2 player base also seems a bit more 'dedicated'. I noticed over time the GBVR players left the game pretty quickly, sure it might have been COVID or the lack of good online infrastructure (which I heard Rising did fix) but it does not change that UNI players have supported their game through thick and thin and made sure they even got a sequel. As of late, I find myself cheering for the indie developers and the developers of Under-Night In-Birth, French Bread are as indie as they can get.
However I wanted to challenge myself in another way, not only did I want to learn anime games competitively, I wanted to take another leap too. I always said if I wanted to get serious again about fighters I would go lever-less and well... soon that will come true.
Introducing the Flatbox based on the Snackbox Micro I purchased from AliExpress. I do not have it yet but it should be arriving soon and I can not wait to try it. This is my first time going lever-less and I have a feeling it will not be easy at first but I am willing to give it a honest try. I have never felt using a stick has held me back since I grew up in the arcades of Sydney so I was used to using it as my preferred way of playing fighting games but times have changed and I've noticed lever-less controllers getting cheaper and providing more advantages to players. I will probably use this blog to chart my progress with it and my feelings on the one I brought and hopefully if I take to it, I hope to customize to fit my aesthetic even more (through all black is a statement too).
So because I am deciding to learn UNI2 and a new controller I've decided to pair them up so I intend to do both at the same time so I can build my muscle memory and not pick up any bad habits. This will of course mean I can not practice for a upcoming local tournament 'Cincy Clash 6' but I intend to just play casuals at that event to get my feet wet and to try out my new toy in a competitive environment.
All in all, two brave new journeys, both will be chronicled here. Stay tuned!
AV
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