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.
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| 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
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