Learning AF: Week 5- Blood on my Hands

 Welcome to Week 5 of Learning Anime Fighters (AF), this is an ongoing blog series about me learning Anime Fighters and also mucking around and getting the hang of leverless controls. This week I will be a bit different than most. Instead of multiple AF's this week most of our focus will be on our latest AF we picked up, Melty Blood: Type Lumina.

    The latest in the Melty Blood franchise, we picked it up late last week and this whole week we were mucking around and getting the hang of the game and it's diverse cast. We do squeeze in a bit of Granblue Versus (on our Leverless controller too) later in the week. Speak of, this blog is written in a chronological order because it makes more sense to me if I do it that way. Lets kick off a Week of Melty Blood (mostly)!

Monday

- Being a French Bread game I decided to go purely with my arcade stick this time. The game does have some more simple combos but as time went on, I realize this was the right idea.

- MB tutorial is pretty competent, not as many info dumps as say UNI2 and you are allowed to try some of the concepts. I like it and it gave me a good idea how the game works.

I love this image so much it is my current wallpaper.

- Started with the female heroine and cover model Arcueid. Pretty easy to pick up with only one 'hard' trial. I think she could be a easy character to main.

- The Count of Monte Cristo aka Dantes was also a very fun pick up. Lots of cool attacks and he has his own version of Geese's Raging Storm. He also has a blue/ white Michael Jackson color scheme and you know we are MJ stans over here so another potential main?

- Night 1 of Melty Blood? Yeah, I think I am going to have a good time with this game.

Tuesday

- Right now I am picking character to try based on their looks lol. Next up is Saber who I've read is a guest character (like Dantes). Her combo trials were one of the easier ones but I do like her combo routes and of course her backstory of her being a gender-swapped King Arthur is pretty cool.

- Miyako is a Close Quarters Combat/ Bajiquan expert which I like but I am not a fan of her stubby limbs and her combos lack 'sauce'. Her one super where she just stomps on ground lacked some serious oomph for a game with so much craziness. Definitely back of the list when it comes to possible mains.

- Red Arcueid on the other hand has all the sauce. Her 'Final Arc' aka her big super is amazing and (spoiler for Tsukihime; very lore accurate). Ironically, like her regular version, she only had one 'hard' combo and it involved a double charged H in the air and getting the hang of her 236 jump cancels.

- Melty Blood combos as a whole so far feel so much 'easier' compared to UNI2 with every character I picked up being able to get 100% of their trials done.

- Speaking of hard combos, I jumped back into UNI2.

- Did a quick run through Kaguya's trials again to keep me fresh with how she works esp if I aim to main (her). One trick I found out for myself is the trials she has were you need to wait slightly, you can do her charge (hold down D) to help with the precise timing and you get a bit of GRD for your trouble.

- Finished some more Lodreicka and Mika trials, not 100% but getting closer. Unlike Melty Blood, I feel there will be some characters I can not get 100% completion with in UNI2.

- As I say that, I did finally 100% Nanase's trials tho. Tiger kneeing her air 236 is definitely required for some of the harder combos but it was do-able. My biggest moment was realizing I was doing a charge C when I just need to do a regular C during one of her combos, that keep messing me up for sure.

Wednesday

- Kohaku animations are hilarious and I had to add a extra aerial B in trials 4-6 and 4-7 to get the combo timing down.

- This was a little trick I picked up in my KOF 13 combo trials when it came to completing some trials I always added a extra move or two when necessary.

- Since we did one maid, we might as well do the other. Hisui has a more trap centric playstyle which really does not appeal to me but damn is some of the stuff she does hilarious. Both maids seem to be playing a different game sometimes.

- So since we did both, we might as well do the duo. Melty Blood is unique that is has a tag mechanic but only for the 2 maids. Their combo trials was a mix of each others so it wasn't hard but I bet if someone could master them, it'll be fun to watch with all the set up/ mix ups possible.

Thursday

- Mash 4-4 with the jump cancel into the air dash C gave me some serious grief at first but eventually I got it down. Speaking of, all her cancels seems to blend well into her kit. I love how one of her super is 100% a homage to Captain America's Stars and Stripes hyper in Marvel.

- Also Mash is such a hilarious name for a fighting game character where 'mashing' is general discouraged unless you are playing Marvel and want to do more damage.

- Vlov is the premier zoner of the game it appears and again spoilers I love how he is lore accurate when he changes to his ice powers when he is in danger of losing. Took a minute to get the hang of his descending B after a aerial charged C which reminded me of Wagner in UNI.

- Mario and his 'puppets' had some unique combos, typically I do see myself as a puppet main so I do not think I'll use him but he did seem less complex then some puppet character like Enchantress in DNF Duel.

- I feel like Melty Blood maybe one of the few games where I actually use the dash macro, normally I do 6,6 to dash but it just do not come out as fast as I want. Ironic because I can 6,6 dash in UNI2 without an issue and its the macro in that game that doesn't work for me as much as I like.

- When I heard about the character Roa, I did not know lighting would be his shtick but here we are. A very strong character and he strangely feels like mixture of rush-down and zoning which is wild because you are normally one or the other.

- Aoko has some tricks that took some time to get used too, the only character with a triple jump air combo and the 236P,P charge P took some time to get the hang of but we made it work. I like her tho and I think she has potential as a main. Maybe because she feels like a UNI character lol.

- Powered Ciel or PCiel as she is known has some long animations, she hits like a truck through and has some beefy hit boxes. She feels a bit more slower than you average bear but I think that is by design.

- Kishima is a grappler through and through, his combo trials were a bit easier then most even tho it took me a couple tries to get the hang of his 22B cancel into standing A combos.

- With only 7 more characters combo trials to complete, I can saw MB has much easier trials than UNI2 and once I am done with all of them, I'll start doing story mode content and find a main.

Friday

- Took a break from gaming and caught up on some TV instead. Quick spoiler: bar a disaster I foresee a RAVE for X-Men '97 and Invincible by the end of their respective seasons.

Saturday

- I went to bed hella early Friday (at least for me) and got up super early on Saturday and decided to just finish out Melty Blood's combo trials. This is going to be a long one.

-  First we had to hop back into Granblue Rising and we decided to go top tier and try Nier (BARS)

- Nier is notoriously easy to use and also top tier in Rising but as a puppet character I really do not want to use her. Also most of her combo trials end with set-ups instead of actually knockdowns. Her last combo was hella fickle too and was not counting my close standing H into her Super Skybound Art. Definitely not a character I want to main and she'll probably be nerfed soon.

- On the other hand, Eustace seems more my spend, some unique combos including bomb set ups and punishing crouching opponent. I recall enjoying Eustace in the previous Granblue as well so I might muck around with him more.

- I like how Vira can combo into her install super (a install super is a super where you self buff your character at the cost of a meter for my non fighting heads). She seems very strong once you get her up and running as well and her combo routes are unique because of the install.

- I do know if I've mentioned this previously but Rising has a weird auto-blocking during its combo trials and it is a very weird design choice. No other game has this and makes no sense in a combo trial. The practice dummy will block every attack for a couple sequences after some failed combo attempts before they stop blocking and allow you to continue the trial.

- Back to Melty Blood.

- It is funny but I did not use Ciel after completing PCiel previously but I made up for it by using her first in this final batch of characters. As noted PCiel is a weighty character and regular Ciel is a speed demon in comparison.

- She has a lot of hold down button attacks (yay *sarcasm*) and her air throws lack a bit of oomph but I feel that is because she can do extra attacks/ supers after them. She feels very strong tho and I enjoyed using her.

- Main character Shiki feels like a well rounded character which makes sense since he is the hero. He also has extra skills that unlock once his main super connects which is cool. His air combo timing is a bit strange through due to the extra hits on his jumping B.

- Speaking of; I realize as a concept I do not enjoy multi-hitting moves off one button press. I really mess with my timings in combos.

- I like a joke character as much as the next guy but man is Neco-Arc super weird. Weird hitbox, weird moves and set ups and hella weird combos. She gives me Dr. B vibes from Tekken 3 (not the actually useable one in Tekken Tag Tournament 2) where she is there purely to troll over players if someone picks her.

- Going from a character I would never main to one I might, Akiha has some potential. She has a command grab with a 632146 motion (what is this KOF?!) and some of her cancels require to not fully charge an attack before doing the follow ups. Despite all this, she has caught my eye.

- Dark Apostle Noel or D.A Noel's 4-5 gave me a headache with its jump cancel into air dash timing but we got it. I did not mind some of her combo concepts but as a Lolita girl with a cute voice archetype I probably won't be main-ing her either. I really do not like that concept I have come to realize. I like my women grown *cough Spectre cough*

- Noel on other hand is a grown woman and I actually like using her. She has run cancels, a meaty overhead into a combo and easy air combos (unlike D.A Noel). When I first looked into MB mains, Noel was one of the character I was considering.

- Ushiwakamaru (another guest character from the Fate series same as Mash and Dantes) ironically feels like she belongs in a different game. She seems pretty complex and has some unique combos including a very stylish combo in 4-4.

- On that note, that is all combo trials done in Melty Blood: Type Lumina which is funny cause I am only 3/4 completed with UNI2 combos and I've been playing UNI2 for much longer. It really show how much harder the combos in UNI2 are.

- One thing I really enjoy is how every character has a counter super in this game with the Shield (D) after A+B+C activation.

- Potential mains for Melty Blood is pretty long tho; starting with Arcueid, Red Arcueid, Ciel, Akiha, Noel, Roa, Mash, Aoki and the Count. I'll probably make a decision by the next Learning AF.

Sunday

- Break Night

- I could not resist doing some extra training with Kaguya tho.

WHAT'S NEXT

Another week in the bag and more anime was played. The last Learning AF was talking about where we were going from here and I have decided that we will become French Bread enthusiast. This week of learning Melty Blood really got me excited much more than I have been with Granblue and of course competition in DNF Duel is just not viable. This means more focus on UNI2 and now Melty Blood however sadly the 2 games I can use my leverless controller MidNite with are not the games I will be competing in. Learning Leverless was always a plan but as I played more competitive games, I realize I need my best foot forward and using my stick is how I do that. I will still aim to muck around in Granblue Rising so MidNite won't be gathering too much dust.

However I am also thinking about getting back to other games and toning back a bit of the fighting game frenzy now I'm focused on which game I want to compete in. I recently purchased the first Remnant whilst it was on sale and of course I want to get back to Marvel's Midnight Suns too. We are nearing the end of a month and I've actually have not done a review be it a RANT, RAVE or a OKAY since Pony Island so I would like to focus on some non fighters for a couple nights.

Learning AF will continue tho, no doubt so look forward to our next entry as we kick off April in style.

AV

Learning AF: Week 4- Decisions, Decisions

 Welcome to another Learning AF blog! First let us do some house cleaning. This blog is an ongoing account of me picking up and learning Anime Fighters (hence AF). Our main focus is on Under-Night In-Birth Sys:Celes, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising and DNF Duel. However as of today, we are adding a final anime game, Melty Blood Type Lumina! I feel 4 games should be sufficient tho and I'll add my thoughts about learning Melty Blood in our next Learning AF blog. This blog is is also written in successional way so you can really see my learning process. With that out of the way, lets dive into Week 4 of Learning Anime Fighters

Monday

- Feeling I was neglecting Granblue Rising; I hoped back into it today.

- Since I got the deluxe edition with the season pass whilst it was on sale, I  already had 2B from Nier Automata already as well as the upcoming new characters, Vane and Beatrix respectively.

- 2B is actually has pretty complex (not surprisingly) set of moves and a quirk where her combos do not work inside a corner. Her combo routes are fun tho and I enjoy mucking around with her. I do question if I can her 720 super (where she self destructs) with MidNite/ my Leverless controller. The irony of the game with the simple inputs having a 720 super has no escaped me.

- Speaking of MidNite, I did not sit right with me that I had to switch back to my stick to do Grimnir's one trial so I was determined to complete all his trials with MidNite only. Eventually I pulled it off and it required a lot of trial and error. Also I noticed for the last section you can air dash forward not up forward and it'll still count, which actually helped a lot (even tho I can do it was the up forward motion too aka 9).

- Belial was last and his quirk was his moves can push enemies closer to him or further away. His combo trials were not hard but the irony is that I need a corner to keep folks close where I could not use the corner with 2B. Still none of the character screamed main material for me so I think I sticking with Zeta and Djeeta so far.

Tuesday

- Carmine was originally the hardest UNI2 character I tried (more on that later) and the fact he has specific timing and has UNI2's version of what they call 'negative edge' (a concept where you hold a button down and release it at specific times). Carmine also has a quirk which he leaves behind blood puddles which he can activate with other specials of his. Very cool. Once we understood that, his combos became much easier, he is not 100% done but I completed some of them.

- Merkava's trials are still complex to me through, despite trying them before. I was making some head room but my biggest issue is cancelling his 66B into 66C. I tried to look up videos and read forums to find help but I found nothing.

Wednesday

Leona custom colors FTW

- Made a Leona custom for Linne and attempted clean up some of her trials. I was able to complete her final trial which involves cancelling into her super and her 22A/B/C combos make more sense to me now. I do not see myself maining her but I do enjoy not being completed stumped by her like I was in Week 3.

- Nanase was another character that seem complex at first and her aerial mobility is very high, even more than Kaguya making certain combos harder. She seems to require a lot of tiger knees into aerial 236A to keep her combos going.

- I found the missing piece of why my combos kept failing with Nanase. I was doing aerial 236 hold A when I could have just done 236A in most cases. Her Combos became much more doable after realizing that. I also think I found the main culprit for my finger pain with Nanase having a lot of combos involving long presses.

- Finally completed all of Wagner's combos. As the person I had in mind as my main when I picked up UNI2 I actually happy I could at least finish her trials. I might still have as a back-up if Kaguya doesn't work out competitively.

- Merkava's 214 charged air fireballs which OTGs (Off The Ground) was another sticking point for me but I realize it can be buffered during his 66C attack, that made those combos much more doable instead of constantly trying to tigerknee them. 66B into 66C combo paths still elude me through. I might ask locally if anyone knows the trick to it.

Thursday

- Monk in DNF release day. I already posted some thoughts in my Monk blog but this one is more my thoughts when I first started using him.

- First, he hits like a TANK and he is built like one too. Damage gets nutty especially with his Gold Cube awakening (aka when his below 30% health) allowing more damage and sway/ duck cancels on hit and whiff and also after certain Magic moves. 6S, S after 6M for example.

- Kind of wish his movement options was not locked behind a motion and a button (aka 6S for Duck, 4S for Sway) mainly cause it requires some finger gymnastics to constantly do the high level stuff.

- Speaking of, holding 6 down helps a lot in harder combos, for example 6S, M, 6S, S. The 6S, S has a weird cancel window I had to get use to as well.

Friday

- Friday was a weird day, I was over-tired and did not sleep well. I still did some more Monk training (lol) and was finally able to complete his last combo trial which was surprisingly hard compared to his much easier 1-7 trials. All of them done with MidNite which I am trying to use exclusively for DNF Duel

- Almost done with Hyde and Linne's trials, the remaining ones are some of the hardest ones but I think overtime I should be able to complete them. Hyde's 66C into 236 moves still kill me and we will be re-visiting that problem very soon.

- Whilst I was grinding these trials out, in the background I was listening to Tsukihime lore to prepare myself for Melty Blood. The lore is WILD and I think I already have some characters I want to learn in mind.

Saturday

- Remember above when I said Carmine maybe the most complex character I've used. This was what I thought until I tried Byakuya. Not only is 66B into 236 rekka strings and double tapping after he does his web attacks. I can honestly say, he maybe the first character where I do not understand his quirk. Right now he is my biggest hurdle.

- Discouraged by failing to get Byakuya down, I switched to Mika, whom I heard is very easy to use. She has some quirks too like having to waiting after her mash A to do her charged C attack into her charged B+C attack. I also found out doing a charge C into a charge B+C manually wasn't working for me so I actually use a B+C macro to make it easier and it made a world of difference.

- Mika gives me heavy Gallon/ J. Talbain from Vampire/ Nightstalkers fame. The cancelling of her air attacks into another one into another one. As a former Gallon main (a long time ago), I found that very fun. She is also very funny as a character and I see why folks have latched onto her as UNI's unofficial mascot. Her character design really does not appeal to me which I have discussed in previous blogs. The young loud Lolita type really doesn't vibe with me.

Sunday

- Going forward Sunday is going to be a rest day for me, will probably won't do much on those days. Sunday is also dedicated to church, resting and spending time with my family. My Mondays are always busy too at work so I like getting a good nights rest before diving back into that.

WHAT'S NEXT:

So the crux of the matter and the reason for this week's title. I am purchasing Melty Blood Type Lumina and I intended on playing it, however this would mean I will playing at least 4 different games at once. Kind of crazy considering I used to play one, sometimes two fighting games at most during my whole fighting game career. So I think even tho I am playing all these games at once I need to make a decision which ones I should focus on competitively.

The no-duh is of course UNI2. Its the game I have been coming back to a lot, I have pretty much decided on a main and secondary and I intend on attending a tournament at the end of this month to play it. If you did not figure out I was going to go mainstream with this, I have clearly failed as a blog writer lol. I would love to go mainstream with DNF Duel too, especially with Monk being as fun as he is and of course Spectre is Spectre and I get to use MidNite but being realistic there is no real competitive market for DNF Duel.So of course I should then settle on Granblue Rising BUT whilst I enjoy playing it and I get to use MidNite, I have not latched onto it as much as my other AFs. I could start focusing more time on it and see if my attitude changes about it. However we might have a dark horse in the form of Melty Blood: Type Lumina. Seeing is I am a fan of how French Bread games play, Melty Blood (also by them) has similar style and shares some common traits (reverse beat originated in Melty Blood for example) so I might favor this game instead. Mind you this is just speculation because I have not actually played it but after this upcoming week, we might be ready to make said decision. However I'll need to divide up my time to fit all 4 games in PLUS get my break day and still play Marvel's Midnight Suns on the side which I started like I promise myself.

Also I did not follow up like I said with going online with my respective games but hopefully I can rectify it this week. A lot of the cool stuff I want in Granblue is locked behind the online component too and of course I want to get some player vs player exp before going to an actual tournament for UNI2.

On that note; this is week 4 of Learning AF.

AV

Mashing with Monk and Melty Blood

     What a week. Yesterday I was so tired for some reason I could not really get out of bed but today is another day and a different story. As I mentioned, this week has been non-stop since losing that one hour to the final boss Daylight Savings. This boss is so tough, no-one has defeated him and every year they always take an hour from us. Wait, maybe that's why I've been so tired on and off this week? We still got a lot to chat about so lets get to work.

    Even through he came out on Thursday, a lot of this week was focused on getting back into DNF Duel and playing around with the latest DLC character Monk.

    As his trailer and other media since has implied he is a straight up boxer with hands blessed by God. I was able to go through his skills and magic attacks, his basics and most of his combo trials pretty quickly. Being a boxer he has movement options 'Ducking' aka 6S and 'Sway' aka 4S which can be cancelled after neutral into a couple strong dashing attacks with a big portion of them being projectile invincible (cough DLC privileges perhaps cough). He also has a extremely blessed (hah) jumping S called 'Skywinder' which has a amazing hitbox and great for combo extensions too. I bet Monk mains will be abusing the heck out of this one cause it just gets the job done. He also has a very satisfying regular throw which really looks like it hurts. However it is magic attacks that where things get a bit hectic. First he has, an I hate to say it cause the term is so over-used in the FGC, a 'neutral skip' move in the form of M aka 'Big Bang Punch'. This lunging special covers the screen, is projectile invincible and he can chain at the end of certain moves for extra damage. The aerial version is just as amazing and this one is a overhead and can be cancelled into Ducking or Sway on hit. Basically this is Ralf's Diving Punch special in KOF (jumping 236C) which is one of my all time favorite moves lol but you can combo after it. Specifically, you can cancel it into Sway, 'Chopping Hammer' (4M if done normally, 5, M if done within Sway) and this move not only juggles for some crazy damage but you can also do it in neutral and its ARMORED. One of his missions actually encourages you to use it to armor through another attack lol. This move is going to give folks fits I already see it. His other neutral attack from Ducking, 'Demolition Punch' is also great in combo extensions, is projectile invincible and just has Big Dick Energy attached to it. Speaking of BDE, his Awakening Skill 'Execution of Justice: Holy Seat of Lemidios' has a nice build to it and the last blow hits hard. I must say I do enjoy Arc System works when they use the black and white filter for certain attacks like with Bang in Blazblue or Soriz in Granblue that showcase the impact of something.

    On top of all this, his Awakening Effect; One True Justice (aka the buff he gets at less then 30% health) first he gets a buff on the damage he does which is already crazy high and it also allows him to cancel moves into Sway or Ducking on hit or whiff and when I say it can get a bit crazy. Just mucking around I was able to cancel Demolition Punch into itself 3 times for some STUPID damage. Now do I think Mr. Monk (lol just the TV show) is a bit over-tuned? Hell yeah but man is it fun. I might even find out for myself since I actually plan on going online since this probably the best time to find matches in DNF Duel with the release of a new character.

    As anyone who frequents this blog knows, we are DNF Duel supporters here so any excuse to play this game again is welcomed by me but I might be playing it along with UNI2, GranBlue Rising and very soon, Melty Blood: Type Lumina.

    The last big piece of the Anime Fighters puzzle, Melty Blood aka French Bread's other fighter that is not Under Night In-Birth, has always peeked my interest but it was only recently that I decided to do more research and I made a decision since I am going all in for Anime Fighters (AF) I would get into Melty Blood too. The path to it is very wacky tho. First Arc System Works had their yearly publisher sale on Steam as I tempted to pick Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code cause it was cheap, however I was told this by my homie Cinn that this was not the current one so I held out. Seeing the latest version was $50, I decided to hold out and thankfully I did. The second time I was tempted was when I learned about a Playstation sale and the game was 50% off! I, of course wanted the Steam version but that one was not on sale and yes I would be playing it on a system I barely use anymore and do not have Playstation Plus so I would have pay extra if I wanted to go online. 50% off tho was tempting so I decided to even put it in my cart and waited for pay day. Then it happened.

    Yep, another Steam sale, this time the Spring one so I'll be buying this and a couple other games too (my poor wallet). So because of fate and me not getting paid till this weekend, I avoid a massive mistake and actually will get the latest Melty Blood for my preferred platform. Tying this all back to Monk ain't God good? I've also done some seriously Tsukihime research (aka the manga/ light novels Melty Blood is based on) and boy that was a trip but we will talk more about that when we dive deeper into Melty Blood itself.

    With that in mind, 'Learning Anime Fighters' will now have a 4th game but I do not know how long I can stick with all 4 games as 'main' games so I'll make a decision soon which ones to focus on.

AV

    

Learning 'AF': Week 3- Holding On

    So yes, we have changed the title of this blog series. Whilst Learning Leverless had a nice alliteration ring to it, I realized, realistically, it would be better to call this series learning Anime Fighters aka AF. I know in the fighting game community we typically refer to these games as just 'Anime' but that of course would be confused with the actual anime culture. Also a lot of this blog will be about learning and playing Under-Night In-Birth 2 and that is a game I only play with a arcade stick. I will keep using my leverless controller/ MidNite for other anime games like Granblue Rising and DNF Duel but right now the focus is on UNI2.

    Also the actually format is going to change slightly too, I've been writing this blog series like I write most of my blogs but I think something that would make it all more suitable would be a day by day play with my thoughts and extras at the end. On that note; lets kick off week 3!

Monday

- Returning to whom I thought was going to be my main, Wagner (more on that later) and Akatsuki (my main in BBTAG) and tried to complete their respective trials. Both are really hard for no reason. Akat in particular has some frame perfect combos which require a lot of execution for a guy folks like to call the 'simple' character.

- Another session with Akat and still not getting the results I want, I decided to try the other 'guest' character Eltnum (from Melty Blood) and she has some unique combos too with lots of extended button presses to get her modified gun attacks and some unique frame kills (where you purposely whiff a move to get better positioning), she also has a lot of combos into dash attacks which was what was giving me the most grief with Wagner.

Tuesday

- Back on Granblue Rising: After being stressed by UNI2 I decided to go completely simple and use Annila, a new character to Rising. Her trials where hella easy and I completed them all with MidNite. On top of that, the fact she is homage to Terry Bogard from KOF is hilarious.

BUSTER... SHEEP?

- After completing Annila I immediately want to do something difficult again (I am Soulsborne player of course I am a sadomachoist) so I decided to try Grimnir. Funny aside, I originally wanted to use Grimnir cause he kind of reminded me of Swift Master in DNF Duel whom I love using. Grimnir is a tough as people said. He's 'practical' combo which involved multiple air dashes and using his 'air traps' actually required me to bust out my stick to complete. So far, he is the only Granblue character who's trials feel actually hard.

- His last combo trials into his super had me in the dumps too and actually made me change my button config. I than subsequently realized the combo required me to do heavy, heavy into super and I was just doing one heavy lol. I was able to complete it much easier after realizing that.

Wednesday

- Switched back to UNI2. So I had a grand plan to go back and forward between UNI2 and Granblue during the week but as you'll soon see, all plans eventually go to crap LOL.

- Decided to give the newcomers a try starting with Tsurugi. Had a bit of issues with his skateboard move into his 236 strings but I soon realized you can cancel the skateboard attack into the string without waiting. Once I understood that I was able to complete all his trials. Good times.

- So confession time, when I saw all the fuss for the other brand new character Kaguya, I did not believe the hype. Big booby waifu character with guns seem rather obvious bait. I can not lie through, her gameplay look interesting through. As I started doing her trials I actually really enjoy her combo routes and felt bad for pre-judging her.

- Ironically, on the other hand, a character I had interest in, Linne seems overly complex and required a lot of execution to get going and I realized maybe she was not for me. Funny that.

Thursday

- So the plan to go back and forward, did not last long, I decided to continue in UNI2 cause I was having more fun with it so far.

- Tried Londreika, a lot of his combo routes got very same-y and he had some hard to execute timing on his 66b into 214b combos but his trials weren't super hard. He did have some 'cool; (hah) combos especially involving his 6b command move freezing folks which I enjoyed.

- Went and fully completed Kaguya's trials. The hardest parts of her trials was getting used to the timing needed after she does her grenade specials and flies back over her opponent as well as the correct time to do her jumping charge C to spike the opponent down. I noticed I had now completed all the combos trials for all 3 newcomers and it made me think if maybe their combos were a bit easier cause they are not legacy characters?

- Completed Waldstein's arcade story. UNI lore is surprisingly well written (not surprising cause its all based around a visual novel) and it really feels like this ends the a big chapter in the Under-Night In-Birth storyline. Also it was fun to actually use the character outside of training mode. Wald is in heavy consideration as a main, no doubt.

- So funny enough, Eltnum's strange combo routes, taught me how to delay my air combo strings so I can get the dashing C for her spike down, this immediately transferred into Wagner's combos and I was able to do a lot more of them especially the ones involving her dashing C. One of the big problems with all dashing attacks into 236 attacks kept popping up through and I would get a 623 instead of 236. It happens with a lot of trials I do and I low key wished the buffer windows wasn't so big after 66 where the last 6 lingers causing me to 623 over 236. Wagner's combo trials are close to be completed through.

- The same 623 over-riding 236 kept popping up during my Hyde's combo trials as well. I was able to complete a lot of them once I understood the exact way to get the delays in 214 rekka. Hyde seems fun but as a person who rarely plays protags I don't think I can main him.

Friday

- Back to GranBlue and I decided to complete Narmaya's trials but this time with leverless. Arguably the most technically character in GranBlue with multiple stance switches DURING the strings. I can honestly say to get her trials done, I used both my hands on the attack buttons and my thumb on the up button because she has a instant air move in the combo too. Eventually I got it done with MidNite and man I was happy. Narmaya definitely has a skill ceiling but man she is such a cool character and I would love to main her.

-  Going from overcomplex to something not was fun. I decided to bust out BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (BBTAG) and mucked around with UNI character like I've been wanting to do. I was blown away but how BBTAG simplified a lot of the complexities of UNI especially removing most command normals but they kept a lot of what made the character that character. Definitely a interesting non-sequitur.

-  I originally tried Orie's combos in week 2 but now I had a bit more understanding of certain systems I was able to complete a lot more of her trials. She is similar to Wagner in I have most of her trials done with the exception of some really hard ones.

Saturday

- My Saturday was incredibly busy and on top of that, daylight savings kicks in and we lost an hour. I decided to take a break because of that and another reason.

- Now to address the elephant in the room, a lot of combos with every character in UNI2 requires long button presses to pull off certain moves. Eltnum especially and even Kaguya's most important part of her combo requires a hard press on C. Doing combo trials repeatedly and over the course of many nights has actually slightly damaged my pointer finger and now I feel a bit of pain when I hard press on anything. Being I am not used to constantly doing this hard presses, I account it to over-usage and hopefully a break night or two will make it ache less. I thankfully caught it early so hopefully it won't a problem. I've also decided to start limiting my sessions in UNI2 so I won't be playing it all night and repeatedly put stress on it.

- Related to all this, I finally have decided on a main in UNI2 and to my surprise, it is Kaguya. She gives me Spectre vibes with her air mobility into attacks into her outstanding reach and just general rizz. I have designed multiple outfits for her in the color editor but one of the ones I enjoy a lot is this Iori from KOF themed one.

Sunday

- Break day, part 2. I did muck around with Carmine but nothing serious. I will probably work with him more tonight when we begin another week of Learning AF.

UP NEXT:

On that note, we have explored some more anime games last week but I think I am ready for a bit of a side project and also so I do not strain my finger too much. I think I am ready to start Marvel's Midnight Suns so we will be playing that, Thursday will be dedicated to DNF Duel with Monk dropping and he will definitely get a blog depending on how much I like him and a focus in next weeks Learning AF as well.

I think this is also the week where I stop talking about it and start doing it and actually go online with a couple of my games. I ain't about the online aspect of fighting games but because some of the achievements are now tied to it I really have no choice plus I do want to get some Player vs Player experience before I attend my first UNI2 tournament at the end of this month. I think this week is the week I stop procrastinating and do stuff, be that online sets, starting a game I've been wanting to play and to focus on getting better in all aspects.

AV

Learning Leverless: Week 2- Stick Shift

 Welcome to week 2 of Learning Leverless; an ongoing blog series discussing learning my leverless controller and also learning some anime fighting games like UNI2 and GranBlue Rising. I think going forward Monday might be the best day to upload since it technically is the beginning of the week.

Off the bat, first I want to talk about DNF Duel. Out of all the anime games I am playing this is the one I enjoy the most (thanks in big part to Spectre of course) but it is also the game that probably gets the least love. Thankfully we might see a injection of some interest with the introduction of the 4th DLC character Monk.

Since I do not play Dungeon aNd Fighter Online (aka the series that inspired DNF Duel) I can only go with the trailer to speculate about Monk but so far he looks like his from the same order as Crusader (another Holy themed character in the game) and looks like DNF Duel's boxer cause I saw no kicks in his trailer. This is kind of ironic of course because Street Fighter 6 just dropped Ed and his is their pure boxer as well but with psycho powers so that's funny. Design-wise he actually looks pretty cool, the older man vibe with gray in his hair and summoning the a big golden gauntlet for the finishing touch. My old small gripe with the design is we already had a male character with a cape-esque design in Brawler but its a small gripe and I definitely like his design much more than Battle Mage. Anyhow he drops on March 14th and I think I might give him a try. I might even jump online and get these pesky online achievements I need as well.

Related to this is how using leverless/ MidNite feels so comfortable for me in DNF Duel. One little shortcut I found that is blowing my mind is you can hold down buttons and it still registers the moves. For example, when I want crispy air dashes with Spectre I just need to hold down the jump button and it comes out as soon as she can do it. Even more amazing is you can even use your right hand which of course traditionally you use to hit 'attack' buttons to hit a 'movement' button. This was a revelation for a stick user and truly helped see the potential leverless has.

However despite all the victories I had with leverless in DNF Duel, I quickly realized as I played more and more Under-Night In-Birth 2, that stick might be where I'll plant my flag. In the first week playing UNI2 I realize just how much harder it is to pull off certain motions and esp some of the more complex juggles require almost King of Fighters execution and that is a game I would never consider playing on hitbox due to its complexity. Speaking of KOF, I thought the trials in KOF 13 was the pinnacle of hard trials but some of these UNI2 trials are on some next level that even stumps me.

I will not lie through, seeing how MidNite made instant air moves easier and certain other movements easier (like micro dashing, another key component of UNI2's combos) in DNF Duel, its a shame I could not translate it over to UNI2 but I think a big part is UNI2 special moves require full motions and not simple movements as I've noted before. This will however come back later and will be discussed again when we get to the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.

UNI2 with stick is where we are going now through and so far it has been a good relationship. As I mentioned the combo trials are tough but with a good stick they feel doable and after a couple days working at it I got my first 100% completed trial and it was for a character I least expected.

My first 100% combo trial was completed with Waldstein, UNI2 premier grappler. Waldstein also has a 360 command throw which is very hard to pull off on leverless so it even made more sense to switch to stick. I will not lie, it was a great feeling completing it and as I did, I actually grew kind of attached to to the big guy where I might even consider using him. I have played grapplers before (Clark in KOF, King in Tekken) so I can make it work and Waldstein's kit just screams fun.

After low-key joining the Waldstein army, I start experimenting with more characters but all of them had moments when the strict execution stopped me from getting 100% again at least, until I found Enkidu. Enkidu ironically is Waldstein's rival and the two are linked in the lore so that was a funny moment. Enkidu similar to Waldstein is a up-close and personal fighter with some rekkas style attacks. The term rekka is borrowed from games like SF, KOF and others but the I hope as a person following/ reading this blog I do not need to breakdown all fighting game terminology lol. Enkidu had some challenges the biggest one being a dashing attack at the end of a aerial combo which can ONLY be done when the person is outside of a corner. I quickly learned, that positioning is super important for some of the combo trials for Enkidu but it was done and I got my second 100% complete.

I once again played around with a couple more characters during my 3 day exploration of UNI2 and actually ignored all other games, I realized despite her visual appeal I do not think I can play Eltnum (and that she is actually a guest character from Melty Blood) and protagonist Hyde was cool but not my cup of tea (I seldom play a protagonist with the biggest exception being Virtua Fighter where I am all about Akira but that's a massive outlier case). This is all lead up to my most surprising moment through. A character I had no plan of using or was interested in surprised me the most.

Yes, edgy (pun intended) as hell antagonist Kuon. Brand new to UNI2 but not to the lore, Kuon actually has some of the coolest combos and set ups I've seen in the game. Sure he looks like what happened if Timothee Cahaleet and Darkstalkers' Jedah decided to fuse together but getting away from the fact he is ANIME as FUCCCK, he has a lot of tools which I was like I think I might have fun using him. Shocking cause as I said I originally had no plans of using him. Also just like how Waldstein taught me to do motion's during animations, Enkidu taught me the art of spacing out my combos, Kuon taught me the funniest one. Mashing is good.

One of my biggest annoyances with UNI2's combo structure is holding down attack buttons in a very tight frame specifically jumping heavy/ C. This attack increases the hit stun for the jumping attack but doing in then finishing a regular air combo became a big point of contention until I realized I can mash out certain attacks and it should still come out. For example: a big part of Kuon's bread and butters ask him to do a 2C (hold) cancel into jump C (hold) into a aerial A,B,5B,22A (I am using the number pad notations because that what UNI player use). The aerial B after the A was constant missing or not coming out until I started mashing the B and it finally started coming out more consistently. YAY. Figuring out mashing was the key to success I eventually completed all of Kuon's trials as well and spark my interest in using him. With the Kuon breakthrough, I decided I was due to go back to leverless and see if it would work with the other anime game I am interested in.

As I shared last week; thanks to my wifey, I was able to purchase Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising whilst it was still on sale. Not only was I able to purchase it I got the deluxe one with the DLC character pass so yeah 2Butts in the house lol.

As I mentioned above, one of the most important reasons why DNF Duel works so well with MidNite for me at least was the simple commands. Well Granblue also has simple commands and Grablue has gone in where there is even no penalty for using simple commands like it did in the previous game. So with that in mind I figured leverless would work better here and boy did it ever.

In one night, I got a much better feel for it and another thing I appreciate GBVR being a more grounded game and jumping is not as encouraged as say DNF Duel or UNI2. Heck I completed trials for Zeta (whom I hope to main), Djeeta who is dual-tagonist (not Gran tho lol) and Soriz's combo trials in one night.

I need this battle pass outfit, Not only its amazing we have a Spectre color scheme!

If anything the combos are so easy that I might not even discuss them as much as I do the UNI ones. The main thing is, I enjoyed GBVR enough that I went into the arcade mode and finished with MidNite, something I haven't even done in UNI2 with a stick. First I was surprised by the fact that you can change the difficulty of your opponents during the arcade ladder climb and the presentation was amazing. This is truly a beautiful game but that does surprise me because Arcs System Works are wizards when it comes to 2.5D animation. I think I will stick with MidNite/ leverless when it comes to GBVR and I think we are going to do fine so I am happy my leverless is not only being used for a dead (even tho it is my fave) game.

On that note, now I have 2 anime games I am playing with 3 come Monk's release. I am thinking of switching back and forward between them nightly (like a stream schedule but without streaming) mainly cause muscle memory and switching back and forward between controllers might be weird and we are jumping back into UNI2 tonight. Thinking of doing the arcade mode for it as well as some of the other side content before doing some more combo trials. I'll keep you guys updated with UPDATES which show up on the side of my blog as well as Learning Leverless every week. I am excited about fighting games again.

AV

PIT STOP: March(ing) On

 Well, after a packed February, you would think Rants & Raves (and Okays) would take a break but I have no intention to do so. If anything I have even more planned for this month.

I will not lie, I originally planned to pick up a new 'Triple A' game but since I have all these new fighting games to learn, I think that might be put on a backburner for a while. I have decided to go back to the triple A headspace because my last couple of indies were fun but I want a bit more substance.

Dredge was amazing and well deserving of the RAVE it got at the beginning of the month but Pony Island was just OKAY and I also played Doki Doki Literature Club + around the same time I was playing Pony Island and in hindsight, that game would be OKAY as well. As my second visual novel game (the first being Invincible: Presents Atom Eve) and my first real 'dating sim' I had fun with it despite its rather limited format. However the limitation of genre and just general lack of interactivity made me not want to jump back in when I complete one run of it.

For those not in the know, Doki Doki can actually get pretty dark and can be very triggering so keep that in mind but the game tells us this thankfully before starting it so you will know what you are getting yourself into. It also gets kind of fourth wall breaking which is funny because Pony Island also had some fourth wall breaks. However after a couple indie games in a row, I think I need a break.

Originally the plan was to finally get around to playing Marvel's Midnight Suns, a game I had an interest in but waned when I saw the reviews but still wanted to play because its a property (Midnight Suns/ Sons and me go wayyyy back) I like and after the game constantly going on sale I had the opportunity to pick it up for a decent price along with all the DLCs. I will still probably play it later this month.

However right now I am mostly pre-occupied with all the new fighting games I have committed myself too. Of course previous blogs have discussed my journey with Under-Night In-Birth 2 (UNI2) but now we can also add.

Yep, thanks to my incredible wifey, I was able to pick Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (GBVR) whilst it was still on sale to complete my full transition to anime FGC player. I'll save deeper thoughts and chat more about it in my new Learning Leverless blog (coming Tuesday) but so far I am enjoying myself and even better is GBVR is much more compatible with my leverless controller 'MidNite'. This is of course stark contrast to my experience with UNI2 and leverless because I have decided I am going to stick with my arcade stick to play that one. Again, this is a big spoiler for the next Learning Leverless blog so I'll keep it short and save the meat of it for that blog.

Of course, this being a Spectre sponsored blog, we also need to chat about Monk coming to DNF Duel on 14th of this month and from his trailer he actually looks like someone I want to try. Brawler definitely was fun and Battle Mage was kind of meh for me but Monk definitely looks like the type of person I can have fun with and he looks like he might be a boxer too which is interesting.

With that in mind, we also have other blog planned for this month other than the weekly updates of Learning Leverless, I have plans to do another LIST (these will be probably once a month) and of course anything else that catches my fancy will either by PIT STOPs. UPDATES is constantly updated too (imagine that lol) so keep an eye on that if you want to know what's going on.

AV