Capcpom Chrornicles ~ # 2 ~
If you followed this game it was near impossible to not be disappointed. It did suck at launch with a pre-release cycle that seemed to try its best to make it look lame, the whole gem system with “pay to win” gems, the Sony guest characters - and the still baffling choice to keep Pac-Man and Mega Man as PS3 / Vita exclusives – leaving the XBox with less overall content, and DLC characters 99% complete on disc that could be accessed by removing two lines of code. It was a total clusterfuck of a rushed game. Also their decision to focus on Games For Windows Live has made the STEAM version virtually unplayable without modding after GFWL shut down which is extra salt in the wound a decade later.
My shameful secret is I always loved this game, and still do.
Keep in mind this is for the Ver. 2013 update, which made much needed global changes such as the timer, throws being faster, overall speed, nerfing rolls and removing the option for some characters to hit confirm into a combo after a Cross Cancel / Alpha Counter (trust me, if you weren't there at launch this shit was nuts lmao). These small changes make the entire game feel so much tighter, which is a blessing for a system as good as this. No, I am not joking. I love how this game plays. This is what Street Fighter V tried to do with Crush Counters, but the way the game gives you freedom to chain attacks and Launch to get your next character in, getting a juggle that you can tag in your other character and get them in a move that locks them in place allowing you to get your first character back in, etc., is so much more creative than SF V's “now do the combo we designed your character to do in this specific scenario or else anything else it worthless” that drove the setplay for that game. This is a much better way to promote footsies and when you get it from your counter poke, it also promotes different ways to capitalize on the moment. You could just hit confirm into your super for the damage, but more often than not, that's the least helpful thing you can do. You can drive your opponent into the corner, get out of the corner yourself, provide a set up for a safe jump, chain into your launcher to get your counterpick in, there's so much to do and it's rarely the same answer twice of your opponent also knows how to play. Not only is it fun to really experiment with different characters for synergy in these situations, it fundamentally helps you understand the game better.
Personally it's the juggle state that really sells it for me. There are few things as fun as clipping your opponent's hurtbox with an anti air on the counter hit and getting a full combo punish. This is another way the game promotes footies in a genius way, jumps are not safe. It's very Street Fighter Alpha / Zero 2 that way. While both SF IV and V promote jumping in, this game promotes the opposite, and being that SF IV was the first time “taking a fighting game seriously” I suppose I can see why so many people were turned off as this game really hates you for trying to play it like SF IV.
Pandora and Gems are non-issues imo. No one uses Pandora because, well, it fucking sucks. Gems ended up not being the game breaking get out of jail free card that people feared, but they're still stupid. I don't think there's a SFxT player who would disagree with either of these. The music is also way more inconsistent than SF IV, which is quite the accomplishment because there is basically no cohesion with trying to make any of the character themes sound like they're in the same game, but the highs of this OST outweight the highs of SF IV as a whole for me. The Pitstop 109 stage themes' weird talk box and Happy Hardcore inspired 8bit arps in particular have stuck in my head for a decade. Models are also stand out when they are bad. Most of the Tekken cast look fine, but Heihachi and Kuma look way too cartoonish and of course Ogre is just green Seth and looks nothing like Ogre. I also wish they went with Tekken 4 or 6 Yoshimitsu, but that was never going to happen.
Aside from a few personal picks that would only please me this is one of the best “greatest hits” rosters in crossover game history. It's a great mix of Tekken staples with some new blood and the reintroduction of Hugo along with the playable introduction of Poison in Street Fighter proper was much appreciated. I wish there were more callbacks, but SF IV already had pretty much all the most popular characters people wanted so you can't complain that much. I do think Karin should have been Sakura's partner over Blanka to mirror Asuka and Lili's dynamic as Karin would have fit in perfectly with this game over SF V. The battle director also really wanted Jun Kazama from Tekken, that would have been a much appreciated deep cut, but I respect their decision to respect Tekken lore too. It sucks that so many of the Tekken character's movesets are so distinctly tied to them because I would have loved if we could have gotten some expy's or spiritual successors in the form of new characters in core Street Fighter games. You may be able to get away with it for someone like Hwoarang or Raven who had a lot made up for the game anyway, but for my guy Kazuya? Forget about it, there's no way you could even try to make EWGF on a character and not have people go “that's just an EWGF,” which is a shame because I genuinely think Kazuya in this game is one of the most fun movesets in a Street Fighter game.
No, Tekken x Street Fighter is not happening. Is it because of this game's failure? Yes, but I don't believe it's solely because of it. We knew that they were focusing on the start of Tekken 7 during this time and that was going to be the main focus until it was finished, but Tekken 7's shelf life was much longer than anyone at Bamco expected. Couple in characters like Eliza and Akuma were experiments for how traditional inputs, fireballs, etc., would work in the 3D space and Tekken fans kind of just decided they hated it as a whole. It's mostly this latter point that killed real interest in Tekken x Street Fighter I think: take an aspect of your game that people hated and make it the full game. Not worth the effort.
I have been playing this nearly a decade and didn't want to rate it until I felt I had enough to say about it here, and with COVID slowing down here and ranbatts coming back, it was the perfect time to put serious time into it again. I cannot blame anyone for never giving this the time of day, but with only the hardcore scene still playing it, there are some amazing things waiting for people who take the time.
Also I'm from the Bay Area, so take that as you will lol.
If you followed this game it was near impossible to not be disappointed. It did suck at launch with a pre-release cycle that seemed to try its best to make it look lame, the whole gem system with “pay to win” gems, the Sony guest characters - and the still baffling choice to keep Pac-Man and Mega Man as PS3 / Vita exclusives – leaving the XBox with less overall content, and DLC characters 99% complete on disc that could be accessed by removing two lines of code. It was a total clusterfuck of a rushed game. Also their decision to focus on Games For Windows Live has made the STEAM version virtually unplayable without modding after GFWL shut down which is extra salt in the wound a decade later.
My shameful secret is I always loved this game, and still do.
Keep in mind this is for the Ver. 2013 update, which made much needed global changes such as the timer, throws being faster, overall speed, nerfing rolls and removing the option for some characters to hit confirm into a combo after a Cross Cancel / Alpha Counter (trust me, if you weren't there at launch this shit was nuts lmao). These small changes make the entire game feel so much tighter, which is a blessing for a system as good as this. No, I am not joking. I love how this game plays. This is what Street Fighter V tried to do with Crush Counters, but the way the game gives you freedom to chain attacks and Launch to get your next character in, getting a juggle that you can tag in your other character and get them in a move that locks them in place allowing you to get your first character back in, etc., is so much more creative than SF V's “now do the combo we designed your character to do in this specific scenario or else anything else it worthless” that drove the setplay for that game. This is a much better way to promote footsies and when you get it from your counter poke, it also promotes different ways to capitalize on the moment. You could just hit confirm into your super for the damage, but more often than not, that's the least helpful thing you can do. You can drive your opponent into the corner, get out of the corner yourself, provide a set up for a safe jump, chain into your launcher to get your counterpick in, there's so much to do and it's rarely the same answer twice of your opponent also knows how to play. Not only is it fun to really experiment with different characters for synergy in these situations, it fundamentally helps you understand the game better.
Personally it's the juggle state that really sells it for me. There are few things as fun as clipping your opponent's hurtbox with an anti air on the counter hit and getting a full combo punish. This is another way the game promotes footies in a genius way, jumps are not safe. It's very Street Fighter Alpha / Zero 2 that way. While both SF IV and V promote jumping in, this game promotes the opposite, and being that SF IV was the first time “taking a fighting game seriously” I suppose I can see why so many people were turned off as this game really hates you for trying to play it like SF IV.
Pandora and Gems are non-issues imo. No one uses Pandora because, well, it fucking sucks. Gems ended up not being the game breaking get out of jail free card that people feared, but they're still stupid. I don't think there's a SFxT player who would disagree with either of these. The music is also way more inconsistent than SF IV, which is quite the accomplishment because there is basically no cohesion with trying to make any of the character themes sound like they're in the same game, but the highs of this OST outweight the highs of SF IV as a whole for me. The Pitstop 109 stage themes' weird talk box and Happy Hardcore inspired 8bit arps in particular have stuck in my head for a decade. Models are also stand out when they are bad. Most of the Tekken cast look fine, but Heihachi and Kuma look way too cartoonish and of course Ogre is just green Seth and looks nothing like Ogre. I also wish they went with Tekken 4 or 6 Yoshimitsu, but that was never going to happen.
Aside from a few personal picks that would only please me this is one of the best “greatest hits” rosters in crossover game history. It's a great mix of Tekken staples with some new blood and the reintroduction of Hugo along with the playable introduction of Poison in Street Fighter proper was much appreciated. I wish there were more callbacks, but SF IV already had pretty much all the most popular characters people wanted so you can't complain that much. I do think Karin should have been Sakura's partner over Blanka to mirror Asuka and Lili's dynamic as Karin would have fit in perfectly with this game over SF V. The battle director also really wanted Jun Kazama from Tekken, that would have been a much appreciated deep cut, but I respect their decision to respect Tekken lore too. It sucks that so many of the Tekken character's movesets are so distinctly tied to them because I would have loved if we could have gotten some expy's or spiritual successors in the form of new characters in core Street Fighter games. You may be able to get away with it for someone like Hwoarang or Raven who had a lot made up for the game anyway, but for my guy Kazuya? Forget about it, there's no way you could even try to make EWGF on a character and not have people go “that's just an EWGF,” which is a shame because I genuinely think Kazuya in this game is one of the most fun movesets in a Street Fighter game.
No, Tekken x Street Fighter is not happening. Is it because of this game's failure? Yes, but I don't believe it's solely because of it. We knew that they were focusing on the start of Tekken 7 during this time and that was going to be the main focus until it was finished, but Tekken 7's shelf life was much longer than anyone at Bamco expected. Couple in characters like Eliza and Akuma were experiments for how traditional inputs, fireballs, etc., would work in the 3D space and Tekken fans kind of just decided they hated it as a whole. It's mostly this latter point that killed real interest in Tekken x Street Fighter I think: take an aspect of your game that people hated and make it the full game. Not worth the effort.
I have been playing this nearly a decade and didn't want to rate it until I felt I had enough to say about it here, and with COVID slowing down here and ranbatts coming back, it was the perfect time to put serious time into it again. I cannot blame anyone for never giving this the time of day, but with only the hardcore scene still playing it, there are some amazing things waiting for people who take the time.
Also I'm from the Bay Area, so take that as you will lol.
Limp_Mantis
1 year ago