Copanele's collection of trophies and experiences

[Copanele]

16 minutes ago, Slava said:

Finally, a game Knuckles was designed for 😁. We need him as a guest character in the next Mortal Kombat. Or better put Shadow there and give him a fatality where he rapidly increases the concentration of lead in opponents' brains.

Shadow would absolutely rock the world of fighting games with this combo:

[FreshFromThaDeli]

Lol at the MK11 recommendation for Sonic the Fighters. 🤣🤣

[Shrooba]

Man, reading your thoughts on Sonic the Fighters was like a fever dream! 🤣 That quality of the first image somehow pulls me back to Newgrounds 2000's-esque Sonic stuff...
I vaguely remember playing it as a kid on the PS2 as part of the Sonic Gems Collection, so somehow the power of nostalgia keeps me from forgetting the janky camera... Although perhaps this is just a curse with Sonic games in general, since even the first major boss in 2022's Frontiers-- despite the great music-- suffers a REALLY janky camera too. There's one attack where you can get knocked to the edge of the arena, but the camera focuses on Sonic instead of the boss, and you can get knocked back again, akin to versing some kid in an online fighter who spams that one inescapable move like this clip (putting it in a spoiler tag so the thumbnail doesn't take up too much room... I'm also praying, therefore, that the forum update has fixed the 'spoiler tags not opening' thing... 🙃)
 

Spoiler

 

Not gonna lie, stuff like that is funny as hell, but I feel sorry for the poor guy who got locked in it! 🤣 But I digress!
I've actually tried to see if Sonic the Fighters was in my region on the PS3 store, but it appeared to be unavailable last I checked... Eh, maybe it's for the best?

Edited September 3, 2023 by Shrooba

[Copanele]

22 hours ago, Shrooba said:

Man, reading your thoughts on Sonic the Fighters was like a fever dream! 🤣 That quality of the first image somehow pulls me back to Newgrounds 2000's-esque Sonic stuff...
I vaguely remember playing it as a kid on the PS2 as part of the Sonic Gems Collection, so somehow the power of nostalgia keeps me from forgetting the janky camera... Although perhaps this is just a curse with Sonic games in general, since even the first major boss in 2022's Frontiers-- despite the great music-- suffers a REALLY janky camera too. There's one attack where you can get knocked to the edge of the arena, but the camera focuses on Sonic instead of the boss, and you can get knocked back again, akin to versing some kid in an online fighter who spams that one inescapable move like this clip (putting it in a spoiler tag so the thumbnail doesn't take up too much room... I'm also praying, therefore, that the forum update has fixed the 'spoiler tags not opening' thing... 🙃)
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Not gonna lie, stuff like that is funny as hell, but I feel sorry for the poor guy who got locked in it! 🤣 But I digress!
I've actually tried to see if Sonic the Fighters was in my region on the PS3 store, but it appeared to be unavailable last I checked... Eh, maybe it's for the best?

Oh man, those "forbidden techniques " that allow you to grab spam an enemy will never stop being funny 😂

As for the availability...I found the game on my NA account. Not sure if it's available anywhere else. You really need a special kind of permit to play Sonic THE Fighters

[Copanele]

 No.242 - Street Fighter 6

Platinum Name - A Quest For Strength Fulfilled 

Hardest Trophy - Dominating Like a Ninja  - win 10 tournament matches

Difficulty - 4/10

 

Well hotdamn, Capcom has nailed it finally. 
Street Fighter 6 is a masterpiece. That's it, that's the review.

 

Ok serious business now 😂lately Capcom blew it out of the park with the quality of its games. Like a phoenix rising from its own poopashes, they came back from their 2016 era and released bangers after bangers. And for me, they culminated with one of their main franchises - Street Fighter 6, the latest iteration from one of the most popular fighting game series of all time.

 

For me (and for many) Street Fighter 5 was an utter disappointment. They slowly redeemed themselves with each season, finally having an actually enjoyable game by the end of season 5, but honestly the beginnings were mad rough. No story mode, potato internet connectivity, lame ass characters that were downgraded from 4 and the new characters were as interesting as a slice of white bread slightly toasted on one side (looking at you Necalli). 

However, the devs promised we will be blown away by the next iteration and boy were they right. Street Fighter 6 is the complete opposite of 5 at launch - a full blown actual Story Mode, tons of modes where you can easily lose your time in, peak perfect connection, character specific ranks (you won't have to worry for losing your online rank if you decide to switch characters), fantastic new characters that have a good backstory and even better gameplay...the graphics...oh the beautiful RE Engine graphics that make you cry tears of joy when you see those beautiful BEAUTIFUL characters. Yeah, Street Fighter 6 has been a massive success from the very launch and it's all warranted.

The series has really come a long way, huh...

 

Contrary to all the other Street Fighter games, the first thing 6 asks of you is to create your own character. And I don't mean some chibi avatar or a pixel monstrosity Guilty Gear Strive style. No, I mean a full blown avatar like you'd do in Elden Ring, except with way more options than ever. Want to create the most badass looking character ever? Go ahead. Want to do a bootleg Kyo Kusanagi from KoF, or even Kiryu Kazuma from Yakuza? Game lets you do that. Want to be the best pirate the seas have ever seen? Yeah you can have your One Piece fantasy happen in this game too.

 

Somebody once told me you can even create Shrek

 

Once you finish with your work of art, you will have to pick from 3 main modes:

WORLD TOUR - STREET FIGHTER 6 THE GTA EDITION

 

As if they were inspired by the Divines themselves, Capcom decided to stop it with the textbook tutorials and story modes and straight out recreate the main city where all the punching and kicking takes place - Metro City. You can now fully explore the city that was first introduced in Final Fight and referenced nonstop in Street Fighter. Here, your character is a fledgling student under the wing of master Luke (the dude from the cover, new "main" character of the series, last name is not Skywalker). You will slowly learn the ropes of fighting, how to use your moves, controls and also what is the new evil in town, now that M Bison (SF5) AND Gill (SF3) are gone.

 

I. Loved. World Tour. It is by far the best way Capcom said a Street Fighter story, in both a fun and interactive way. The best part is that your avatar is not limited to one fighting style. In this mode you will meet every single character from the game, starting with Luke and ending with the classic powerhouses like Ryu, Ken and Chun Li. Not all characters are in Metro City, you can easily travel to other locations where the masters reside via plane tickets (a resource that you will find everywhere in the game actually). You will have to train under them, use their moves and deepen your relationship with them if you want to learn the more powerful attacks like supers and critical arts.

You can even give them gifts to increase their social relationship and learn more about them and their past. It was actually hilarious to see the British Agent/former Shadaloo doll Cammy melt when you bring her a cat chain, or Juri being all crazy happy when you hit her with a million dollars check. Heck, I think anyone would be happy...except Ryu who doesn't understand money.

 

The beauty comes when you mix and match the various moves that you learn: you can pick Chun Li's style where you have her quick normal attacks, then you can equip Dhalsim's Yoga Fire and spit his fireballs, do Ryu's tatsus where you spin around kicking everything and finally you can even do Zangief's piledriver where you jump to the skies with your enemy and slam him into the ground. All of this, in one character. Your character.

Add in various customizable items (clothes, hats, masks, weird cat ears) and various passive buffs,  and you actually go into a true RPG mode here  

 

Another thing in this game is the way you level up. Once you get through the short Luke tutorial, you legit have to "hit the streets". You will go out and between various missions, you can actually fight various standby characters that are willing to throw down. 3/4 of Metro City is willing to fight you, so you won't be lacking sparring partners by any means.

You will have some "special" encounters with buffed up enemies for which you will have to prepare accordingly, so this "punching and kicking" actually has a degree of complexity to it. 

Add in some nice references to older games (good luck with Sheng Long) and you'll have the time of your life.

 

After you've had your fill of World Tour, it's time to get serious and enter...

 

THE BATTLE HUB - THE PLACE WHERE EVERYONE SHARES THE SAME BRAINCELL

 

The Battle Hub is a huge arcade arena where most events and fights take place. You've seen this the most in Arcsystem games (Guilty Gear, Dragon Ball FighterZ), except here you take your avatar and walk around challenging real people and participating in Capcom events.

This is probably the most hilarious part of the game, where you can see what kind of stupid avatars people came up with. You can even fight other people's avatars, testing your own bullshit build vs their bullshit build.

But, if you want for classic fights, the best way is to pick up one of the characters and duke it out on the various arcades laying around.

It really can get mad wild in these lobbies (screenshot provided by the video of Majin Obama)

 

This is also where the most notorious trophy of the game takes place, but we will come to that later. For now, let's cover the last and probably the most fighting-game ish part of the game:

 

FIGHTING GROUND - THE TEXTBOOK FIGHTING GAME MENU

 

If you really don't care about the story of World Tour or the headaches of Battle Hub, then Fighting Ground is for you. This is your classic fighting game menu - Arcade, Versus mode, Training, Tutorial, Trials, Online matches (ranked and player), lobby matches. All the stuff you know from the other games, Capcom has provided here. 

Here is probably where you'll get acquainted with the roster, including some new faces. 

The old guard has suffered some beautiful upgrades (DeeJay, Ryu and Cammy look better than ever), but for me, the newcomers were an absolute welcoming surprise:

Luke - The new face in town, he was first introduced in Street Fighter 5 and he looked like a complete buffoon. Here he's more human like and has an actually balanced moveset. Perfect for newcomers!

Jamie - Luke's rival, he is using the drunken style and it's probably the most expressive and flamboyant character out there. He's definitely more likeable than Luke and he has some wild combos. Also he gets Super Saiyan mode when he drinks enough from his sippy cup.

Shoutouts to @MissShake for having the most hilarious Jamie boy I encountered so far 😂the dance moves were funny as hell.

 

Kimberly - The resident ninja, following in the footsteps of Guy and Zeku. She's a "pop star" ninja, listening to music and attacking with spraying cans while doing the classic Bushinryu attacks. She has one of the best designs in the game and her alternate costume is absolutely amazing.

 

Lily - The follower of T. Hawk, she fights with 2...boomerang...hammers...anyway she can control the power of the wind and have roughly the same attacks as T.Hawk from the previous games. I have to admit, this is the only character that I do not like, her attacks are boring and predictable and she herself is kinda annoying. Buut I can see why people would pick her.

 

Manon - A French ballerina/Judo champion, Manon is the embodiment of classy and deadly. She is mainly a grappler but her moves are always done with grace and finesse, incorporating ballerina moves every time she slams a fool into the ground. Also she has a mechanic where she gets Judo medals each time she command grabs you.

She's not the easiest character to use, but man it's a sight to watch her...

 

Marisa - the counterpart of Manon and my favorite character in the game. Where Manon has the grace of a swan, Marisa has the grace of a bulldozer with explosives. She is a roided up Italian jeweller who is practicing Pankration (a Greek fighting style. odd I know). Her whole deal is that all of her hits deal a metric fuckton of damage and she can hyper armor through most of the attacks. Why use long complicated combos when you can just punch your way through? (a tactic perfect for me, a lab hater)

Downside - easy to predict.

Also she has a thing for Zangief 😂

 

JP - The villain of the game, left to fill the place of M Bison. If I were to say anything about JP, is that he is "playing a different game here".

As in, he's absolutely broken. He is the character that plays Guilty Gear in a Street Fighter game.

He's the old man with a cane and a fuckton of projectiles. He can teleport. He has close and mid-range attacks that can combo into more ranged attacks. He can stress the fuck out of you. Fighting a JP is a nuisance, fighting a GOOD JP is a nightmare. 

Also he has the best drip in the game. Definitely my favorite SF villain.

 

(not yet out) AKI - she will replace the garbage that was FANG in SF5. From the trailers, AKI is a nutbag who uses poison and snake like movements to grapple and debuff her enemies. Not a character that I will try out 😂

 

THE NOT-SO GOOD PARTS OF STREET FIGHTER 6

I kept praising this game, but no game is perfect. SF6 has its share of problems...however, most of the issues are weirdly enough trophy related, or minor complaints that actually don't hinder the gameplay at all.

 

My first personal gripe is the Modern Controls. In order to attract newcomers, fighting games add a control layout where you can pull mad combos by mashing buttons. 

Now, thankfully, Capcom implemented an actual fun Modern mode, where you can't pull super damaging unreactable moves out of your butt (looking at you, KoF15 autocombos). And honestly, a newcomer who just mashes the same buttons will get the hardest beatdown of their life online, as soon as the opponent figures out what he is doing.

HOWEVER...when someone who knows the game uses Modern...I feel he will have a slight advantage over the ones who go Classic 😂This, of course, is a personal gripe which varies from player to player. It didn't really hinder my enjoyment of the game.

 

What DID however...is the Tournament Mode. There's 2 trophies in this game : participate in 5 tournaments and win 10 matches in any tournament, you can do that over multiple tournaments. Sounds simple enough, right?

Well...Tournaments are only server based EVENTS, which means Capcom decides when to launch this type of game mode. Think of these Tournaments as the Invasions from MK10 or...limited events from other online games. You can't play them whenever you want.

Tournaments can also be rank limited (only iron players, only bronze players etc) and they are in limited number, you have a maximum of 64 players that can sign up per rank. The sign ups open 1 hour before the actual tournament and you have to actually pay attention to their site to sign up on time, else you'll lose your spot. It's a pretty stressful deal.

What makes it more stressful is the fact that the connection is dog shit in these tournaments. Since a large amount of people sign up, the servers more often than not crash and burn, which causes disconnections and as a result -> tournament loss. It's really frustrating to have to wake up at 6 AM to sign up for the 7AM tournament, just to be hit with the Connection Error message after the tournament start.

Also...the smurfs. For those who do not know, a smurf is a high ranked player that poses as a low ranked player in order to get cheap wins. I will admit, I am kind of a smurf myself, purposefully downplaying my Ryu in order to get in a lower rank and get the wins required for the plat.

However...I suck ass with Ryu 😂 and I only needed the trophy wins. When you match up with a "low ranked" guy who already has the plat and just loves to delete your life bar in 2 combos, you know you have some fish on your hands. Not fun.

Bottom line - Tournaments reminded me of the stress I had with exams in University. You never knew whether you will pass, you will fail or if your teacher will die and be replaced by an asshole who gives you an exam twice as hard. It did happen to me.

(also thoughts and prayers to @FreshFromThaDeli, the partner in suffering here)

 

Another silly complaint that I have - Capcom has a collaboration with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Which means that the turtles theme blasts in the Battle Hub on repeat over and over again. It will drive you crazy 😅

 

Finally - about the "elite true fighting game players". That part of the community that will scoff at you and say "meh I beat everyone with one button and with my grandma in hospital. Scrubs". You will notice these absolute tools everywhere, trying to downplay the newcomers and protect "the true fighting game elite", "the grassroots", "the samurai way" and other buzzwords that only make sense in their hairless heads. Do not mind these buffoons. Do not listen to them, do not pay them any attention, do not validate their only accomplishment in life (which is beating newcomers in a game of a series they've been playing for 20+years). Enjoy your game, set those fools with weak bloodline and weaker eating habits on mute and exchange information with others that actually appreciate the games and care for a good time.

 

Conclusion - I can't recommend Street Fighter 6 enough, both to newcomers and the veterans of the series. So far, it's the absolute best fighting game you could play out there, mainly because of the huge variety of info and PERFECT online connection. I still can't believe Capcom has created such a game and I can only bow down to them.

For me, I do believe it's already the fighting game of the year, given how much fun I had with it despite the awful Tournament mode.

Finally I can forget about Street Fighter 5  

 

THE GOOD:

• A new standard in fighting game genre
• Every single character in this game is viable
• The World Tour is an amazing way to experience the story of Street Fighter
• The customizable avatar is a challenger to actual RPG games
• Seriously, I wonder what you CAN'T do in this game, fighting game wise?

THE BAD:

• ...tournaments. That's what you can't do in this fighting game.
• TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES TURTLES IN A HALF SHELL TANANA!
• THE "ELITE"

Recommendation ... uh... let's wait and see how MK1 and Tekken 8 are. Right now, I can't think of a game that I could offer as an alternative to this one, because it's that good in my opinion 😂 I can offer THIS GAME as an alternative instead.

[DrBloodmoney]

40 minutes ago, Copanele said:

THE BATTLE HUB - THE PLACE WHERE EVERYONE SHARES THE SAME BRAINCELL

 

 

 

Goddammit Copa, you keep drawing me in, making Fighting games sound really good...

...and I sit, reading, wistfully recalling when I lived in a place with those things... what are they called... oh yeah... "friends"...

...and casually glancing over at the pile of dust with a fight stick underneath it somewhere...

 

...and then I have to slap myself, and go "No! Bad brain! Remember how shit you are at these!?!? What are you thinking?!?"

 

Still though...

...if I was ever to try and recapture the massive amount of fun I had with SFIV....

...this does sound like it could be the one...

 

 

... If they somehow made my expensive-as-fuck fight-stick work with the PS5...

...and maybe add Sakura into this one...

 

...Goddammit.

...maybe...

Edited September 7, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

 

 

Still though...

...if I was ever to try and recapture the massive amount of fun I had with SFIV....

...this does sound like it could be the one...

 

 

... If they somehow made my expensive-as-fuck fight-stick work with the PS5...

...and maybe add Sakura into this one...

 

...Goddammit.

...maybe...

What if I told you that you CAN play this one with the actual DualNonsense5 ? 😌 and it DOES feel better compared to the old games, you don't need the sub-atomic timings that you could accomplish with a flick of a stick only!

As for Sakura...she WILL be added...eventually. Not sure WHEN, as soon as they are done with the "they're definitely supposed to be in the main roster but heck let's add them as DLC" characters. 

Maybe next season?  

 

P.S. Unlike the madness that was SF4 and SF5, this one is actually doable! If you can spin tetris blocks to infinity and beyond at pinpoint precision, I bet you can feet slap people online with Juri as well 😂

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Copanele said:

What if I told you that you CAN play this one with the actual DualNonsense5 ? 😌 and it DOES feel better compared to the old games, you don't need the sub-atomic timings that you could accomplish with a flick of a stick only!

As for Sakura...she WILL be added...eventually. Not sure WHEN, as soon as they are done with the "they're definitely supposed to be in the main roster but heck let's add them as DLC" characters. 

Maybe next season?  

 

P.S. Unlike the madness that was SF4 and SF5, this one is actually doable! If you can spin tetris blocks to infinity and beyond at pinpoint precision, I bet you can feet slap people online with Juri as well 😂

 

In all seriousness, it's funny you mention Tetris, because actually, not having an "I can dip into this one for an hour every time I can't decide what to play" kind of game is feeling weird to me, and while I usually go for a Tetris or a Lumines or a Puyo Puyo kinda deal to fill that gap - and that's done the trick for years now...

...a fighting game could probably serve that purpose too....

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

In all seriousness, it's funny you mention Tetris, because actually, not having an "I can dip into this one for an hour every time I can't decide what to play" kind of game is feeling weird to me, and while I usually go for a Tetris or a Lumines or a Puyo Puyo kinda deal to fill that gap - and that's done the trick for years now...

...a fighting game could probably serve that purpose too....

Absolutely! Having no mood for hardcore playtime? Eh you can throw down a couple of matches online, first to 5 with some guy from Kenya.

Or, play for 10 minutes in World Tour and give Ryu some cat ears. Why? Because you enjoy chaos. 

No need to worry about ranks, or grinds, or "if I play this one extra match I will ruin my playthrough x". Just enter, throw a hadoken, exit. Eventually, laugh at another stupid ass cosplay in Battle Hub

At least that's how I see these games right now 😂 way more chill to play them, now that the online is FINALLY stable

[mangio_tanto]

Congrats for the SF6 plat 🥳

Working hard to get it too. There are no words how much I love SF6 (even if tournaments are still not properly working) and didn't feel that since SF2. 

 

I was glad World Tour was not the same like in Alpha series. Not because I didn't like it, but I expected something different this time.

I was shocked too when I finally saw the "real" Sheng Long 🤣 but I hoped Damnd/Thrasher was playable too, I can see him well with Birdie's style. Season 2 maybe?

The last one of that substory was Fou-Lu from Breath of Fire 4, and shares same set with Bosch (including that unblockable annoying super move)

I really laughed in first tournament when 6/8 of opponents were members of Andore Family (the junior, the uncle, the father, the moustache one etc.)

 

Me too was disappointed with SF5, I wait for last update before buying it and graphics wasn't that different from SF4. V Skill weren't that bad but characters are not balanced...I mean they killed Zangief, it is one of my mains and it is nearly unplayable there.

Luckily it's not like that in SF6, in my opinion.

 

About Turtles' theme, I loved more the lounge jazz tune... from the smartphone you can choose your music and make a personal playlist, but unfortunately only with themes you unlocked.

I have only 3 versions of Bison's theme because of World Tour's rewards, I know some other tracks you gain them with battle pass but I refuse to buy it.

 

Good luck with other games 

 

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, mangio_tanto said:

Congrats for the SF6 plat 🥳

Working hard to get it too. There are no words how much I love SF6 (even if tournaments are still not properly working) and didn't feel that since SF2. 

 

I was glad World Tour was not the same like in Alpha series. Not because I didn't like it, but I expected something different this time.

I was shocked too when I finally saw the "real" Sheng Long 🤣 but I hoped Damnd/Thrasher was playable too, I can see him well with Birdie's style. Season 2 maybe?

The last one of that substory was Fou-Lu from Breath of Fire 4, and shares same set with Bosch (including that unblockable annoying super move)

I really laughed in first tournament when 6/8 of opponents were members of Andore Family (the junior, the uncle, the father, the moustache one etc.)

 

I don't think I finished that substory...should get back to Sheng Long XD there's another even harder fighter after that? DAMN!

Also the Andore Family cracked me up. Kept asking myself how many of those goobers are left 😂 finding them was a real problem.

1 minute ago, mangio_tanto said:

 

Me too was disappointed with SF5, I wait for last update before buying it and graphics wasn't that different from SF4. V Skill weren't that bad but characters are not balanced...I mean they killed Zangief, it is one of my mains and it is nearly unplayable there.

Luckily it's not like that in SF6, in my opinion.

YES TO ZANGIEF THANK YOU!
In SF5 he was a legit punching bag, his green pimp smack was removed, his grabs had pathetic range, picking gief meant a world of hurt.

In SF6...I got to Gold 3 with him by sheer mistake. His SPDs are mad good, probably too good. And he's fun to play as!

I saw Snake Eyez playing him...damn, Zangief is a true monster in this game

1 minute ago, mangio_tanto said:

About Turtles' theme, I loved more the lounge jazz tune... from the smartphone you can choose your music and make a personal playlist, but unfortunately only with themes you unlocked.

I have only 3 versions of Bison's theme because of World Tour's rewards, I know some other tracks you gain them with battle pass but I refuse to buy it.

Hah if only I knew that before...I will admit, the smartphone menu kinda defeated me. I am bad with phones in general so it really ain't a surprise that I can't use the ingame phone

1 minute ago, mangio_tanto said:

Good luck with other games 

 

Many thanks  

[MissShake]

4 hours ago, Copanele said:

Shoutouts to @MissShake for having the most hilarious Jamie boy I encountered so far 😂the dance moves were funny as hell.

 

What are you talking about? I am the most SERIOUS Jamie player to ever have existed! proceeds to drunkenly dance and hum Jamie's theme

 

Anyway, congrats for this one! Maybe I'll pull myself away from Baldur's Gate 3 long enough to get this trophy list done... In like a year or so LOL

[Copanele]

No.243 - Vambrace: Cold Soul

 

Platinum Name - Queen of Icenaire 

Hardest Trophy - Magnificent Collection collect all costumes in the game

Difficulty - 3/10

 

From time to time, I like to take a break from all the fast paced action and actually play something chill and relaxing. The few times I manage to do that is when I either play a strategy game, a sim game (see Grand Ages Medieval) or a turn based game like Vambrace Cold Soul. While I played this genre of games extensively back during my PC days, I've abandoned them after I've picked up the PS3. Therefore, having to "plan my attacks" really felt good for once.

 

Vambrace Cold Soul is a 2D turn based game, similar to Darkest Dungeon, where you control Evelia Lyric, an adventurer who, following her late father's journal, stumbled upon the frigid city of Icenaire. This city is more of a prison, surrounded by an ice wall. Only the underground portion of the city is inhabited, the surface being overrun by various wraiths and ghosts. Your target is to assemble a troop of mercenaries, do some ghostbusting activities and find out why this city has been overrun by the spirits. Eventually, clear up the whole ice age situation.

 

She is also the only one who could enter this city in a long, LONG while

 

The game and characters are hand-drawn, which actually sets the mood pretty well. Vambrace is quite a looker of a game, reminding me of Darkest Dungeon, another similar style game. All the characters have detailed armor and the background setting is also pretty unique.

 

Another interesting aspect of the game is represented by the story and characters. Lyric ain't alone in the underground and she has to deal with a variety of character - regular soldiers, cat people , shadow elves and regular elves. Each class has their own culture and story to tell. 
What tones down the gravity of the situation however...are the design of the main female characters. Not that I complain 😂

Mhm yeah whatever you say, mysterious sexy lady.

 

As mentioned, the game is turn based, set in procedurally generated dungeons. You assemble your team first by hiring companions and then you go adventuring on the cold surface of Icenaire. The companions range from tanks (dragoon, celestine), to mid-range all-purpose characters (fencer, scoundrel) and finally long range characters(blood mage, arcaster, fusilier etc). The strategy required in this game is bare minimum, the only way you could lose is if you severely mismatch your team and simply spam random abilities. You have your textbook combat encounters, your "chance of a goodie/impending doom and debuff" moments, meeting various merchants or simply finding a treasure room. The game looks intimidating at first, with its different gauges and crafting system, but all you have to do is simply go from point A to point B, collect anything that is not nailed to the ground, sell the junk to merchant and buy all the potions and the equipment that you can carry...and that's it.

 

Honestly, the difficulty of the game is a bit disappointing.. There's no reason to aim for combat maps, because it will simply slow you down without posing any real challenge and the rewards are too insignificant, compared to treasure rooms or merchant rooms. As mentioned, crafting is really intricate...and ultimately worthless, since you can simply buy the best equipment from the merchants directly. You do have various gauges (health bar and vigor bar that instantly kill your teammate if any of them depletes), but good luck actually dying in this game, unless you can't plan to save your life and think that the nimble and weak archer should sit in the front lines.

The actual gameplay devolved into me just speedrunning through the dungeons so I can see what else happens in the story.

 

The Dragoon should always be ready to defend the ranged damsels

 

 

Vambrace is an interesting game on paper, that kinda gets boring once you actually play it. I do recommend only buying it at a discount and only if you want to have a relaxing time with a good story. Otherwise, I guess Darkest Dungeon is the better choice. I need to play that one myself too.

 

THE GOOD:

• The artstyle
• The story
• The design of the characters

THE BAD:

• The combat itself is boring and unrewarding
• Some companions are straight out useless compared to the other overpowered versions

Recommendation - Darkest Dungeon (perhaps)  I need to play it too one day.

[Copanele]

I swear I am gonna stop, this is the last game for today, promise!

 

💯No. 66 - Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future

 

Hardest Trophy - Practice makes Perfect - complete 55 challenges

Difficulty - 4/10

 

Since I was full into Street Fighter 6 a while ago, I thought "heck, if the online is still up, why not do 3rd Strike as well?" . Boy am I glad I did it.

If Street Fighter 6 is the perfect game for your eyes and mind, Street Fighter 3 is the one that hits you in the soul 😂

 

Honestly I can't tell you why, but I think this is my favorite Street Fighter game. Which is VERY weird. I haven't played it in Arcades. I haven't caught the fabled Evo Moment 37 until wayyy later. I didn't even know what everyone's deal is. I played SF4 three times more than this game across its multiple iterations. But somehow this game felt so good to play. I had a bootleg copy on an emulator and just played on...and on...and on..learning Akuma, learning Ryu, enjoying the groovy music and the sprites...only Arcade, no online, just grinded the game with no purpose. Because it was mad good.

I really missed the flawless sprite animations

Now returning to it... damn it's still great. The trophy list added a new side to the challenge. I didn't know SF3 had a trial mode and damn, those combos were super fun (thank god they don't ask you to do ALL combos, they're insane). The Arcade requirements, while chill, still reminds you that at its core this game is a coin muncher, the AI will have random "SNK Boss Syndrome" moments and kick your ass from any position. Gill is still a piece of shit with his RESSURECTION bullcrap even on easy difficulty.

Online is surprisingly functional for a PS3 title too, demanding very little - just 5 rank matches won in a row, a tournament match (many thanks @Honor_Handfor the help) and some replay data and that's it.

 

And the music...oh the music. Beautiful! Somehow it works!

 

I will have to give this game the highest rank and put it in the "Games that make me love this hobby" rank. Street Fighter 3rd strike is a mood, a vibe, not really an actual "game". I'll always enjoy playing it no matter the year.

 

THE GOOD:

• The whole vibe of the game
• The whole artwork and sprites
• The zany cast
• The soundtrack

THE BAD:

• It's stuck between the PS3 version and the shitty online version in "30th anniversary" edition

RECOMMENDATION - Street Fighter 6  there, now I can properly recommend SF6 as an alternative 😂

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

💯No. 67 - Girl Fight

Hardest Trophy - Neuro Killer - win 3 matches in a row - it's hard to find someone that wants to play this

Difficulty - 1 neuron/10

 

GIRL FIGHT! IS ABOUT GIRLS! THAT FIGHT!

Damn I should win a Nobel prize for literature just for that sentence alone!

Those who stumble on this page might wonder - what is Girl Fight? Surely it can't be JUST about girls that fight. Well dear reader - indeed it is. This is a 3D fighting game where you pick various girls in year 202-something something and make them fight. If anything, props to the honesty. 

 

This game draws heavy inspiration from another series focus on girls (and boys) , Dead or Alive. However, while DoA is sublime in its approach of the fairer sex and pleases your eyes with various physics and jiggles in a rather "cultured" taste so to speak....Girl Fight goes straight out "AYO DID ANYONE ORDER TITS AROUND HERE?" . You simply enter the game, pick the most summary dressed damzel that's not in distress and go to town with punches and kicks.

 

X marks the spot. Heh. Get it? 

 

Now, you may wonder, how do these girls fight? Well, JUST LIKE IN DOA, you have 4 main buttons - a punch, a kick, a grab and a block button. Unlike DoA however, there's no deep mechanic with counters then juggles or anything. It's just mashing the buttons and look at the girls doing fighty stuff.

A rather "unique" mechanic are the Psi powers - basically magic attacks that can turn the tide of a match (aka one shot the opponent). You fill a Psi meter by attacking or defending and when you have enough Psi, you can unleash one of the 2 selected skills on the unfortunate lady that faces you. 

 

As roster, you have a lot of ladies to choose from. 8 in total, which is a lot of girls. The names are (don't laugh): Chaos, Chrome, Daisy, Ghost, Shogun, Viper, Warchild and...Wrench.

WRENCH! One less R and we would have had an actually accurate character.

My favorite was Ghost...I think that's her name...the katana chick with a blindfold, just because she had the only costume that didn't make me immediately groan and go "yeah maybe there's something to salvage ". 

There wasn't anything to save there.

The mademoiselles. You match their names!

 

In terms of trophies - game is braindead. Win x matches with punches, y with kicks, 10.000 punches in total (WHAT?), block x attacks-- don't think, just mash. One surprisingly fun trophy was the 3 Ranked wins in a row that I did with @Yuber6969- the game cracked us up with how stupid it is. 

Also, I have to mention the music. The music is like the one they put in clubs from the 2000s, where usually heroes like Blade kill vampires or some shit. I don't know, I felt old when I was listening to that music 😂

 

So would I recommend this game? Only if you vaccinated yourself. Unless you have some dumb target to play as many fighting games as you can until your hand can't take it anymore, I'd say spend your money elsewhere. Or just flush them down the toilet, that would be way more helpful to the society. 

 

THE GOOD:

• With a friend, this shit is hilarious. Hilariously bad, still hilarious

THE BAD:

• This game has the subtlety of a cow with firework cannons.
• It has the "we have Dead or Alive at home, honey" syndrome
• It costs money

 

Recommendation - Dead or Alive 5  Let's cut to the chase - want sexy ass women in an actually competent fighting game? Play Dead or Alive 5, any iteration. 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[YaManSmevz]

On 9/8/2023 at 6:25 AM, Copanele said:

As roster, you have a lot of ladies to choose from. 8 in total, which is a lot of girls. The names are (don't laugh): Chaos, Chrome, Daisy, Ghost, Shogun, Viper, Warchild and...Wrench.

 

ALRIGHT GUYS MAKE SURE TO TIP YOUR WAITRESSES AND PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER AND MAKE SOME NOISE COMIN OUT TO THE STAGE IT'S SHOOOGUUUNNNN

 

Like you say, at least it's a game that knows exactly what it is!

[Hellv1n]

Enjoyed reading through these posts and looking at your PSN Profile!  Great tastes, we enjoy similar games, hahaha!

[Copanele]

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

ALRIGHT GUYS MAKE SURE TO TIP YOUR WAITRESSES AND PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER AND MAKE SOME NOISE COMIN OUT TO THE STAGE IT'S SHOOOGUUUNNNN

 

Like you say, at least it's a game that knows exactly what it is!

I played many games before, but never did I have a character called Warchild lmao.

Of course, she is the military beret girl with the military bikini, army approved 😂

6 minutes ago, Hellv1n said:

Enjoyed reading through these posts and looking at your PSN Profile!  Great tastes, we enjoy similar games, hahaha!

Thanks for stopping by  Checked your profile too, we sure have some similar games there (Nice Souls/Yakuza collection 😆 )

Checking that, it reminds me, I really need to fire up Wo Long one day..

[Hellv1n]

44 minutes ago, Copanele said:

I played many games before, but never did I have a character called Warchild lmao.

Of course, she is the military beret girl with the military bikini, army approved 😂

Thanks for stopping by  Checked your profile too, we sure have some similar games there (Nice Souls/Yakuza collection 😆 )

Checking that, it reminds me, I really need to fire up Wo Long one day..

Lol, thanks!  Damn good series they are, binged them pretty non stop.  You'd definitely appreciate Wo Long, it's not as in depth or long as Nioh but that ain't a bad thing and the deflecting mechanic is very rewarding and fun.

Truly impressed with all the fighting game plats and 100s, no easy feat.  Especially some of those online grinds.

[Copanele]

2 hours ago, Hellv1n said:

Truly impressed with all the fighting game plats and 100s, no easy feat.  Especially some of those online grinds.

Thanks thanks! Some of them were a massive pain (Battle Fantasia) and one of them was inhuman in terms of grind (Mortal Kombat 9) but yeah I like playing them, trying to get as many as I can  

I've missed some of them unfortunately, due to servers closing.

[mangio_tanto]

On 9/7/2023 at 11:37 AM, Copanele said:

I don't think I finished that substory...should get back to Sheng Long XD there's another even harder fighter after that? DAMN!

Also the Andore Family cracked me up. Kept asking myself how many of those goobers are left 😂 finding them was a real problem.

If you managed to reach Sheng Long I think there are 2 or 3 characters left before finishing this substory. At this point, you can do it!
Also, if you need exp you can win some tournaments that give a lot of it (and sometimes some cool accessories)
 

On 9/7/2023 at 11:37 AM, Copanele said:

YES TO ZANGIEF THANK YOU!

In SF5 he was a legit punching bag, his green pimp smack was removed, his grabs had pathetic range, picking gief meant a world of hurt.

In SF6...I got to Gold 3 with him by sheer mistake. His SPDs are mad good, probably too good. And he's fun to play as!

I saw Snake Eyez playing him...damn, Zangief is a true monster in this game

It was painful even reaching Ultra Silver with SF5 Gief, especially because of range. I had to give up and switch to Ryu to achieve Gold rank.
I saw that match the day later and it was legendary. He had no fear of his projectiles or traps, just going forward and hitting him the best he could.
Any Zangief winning vs JP is definitely a double victory.
SF6 Gief is stronger, but still needs a lot of patience to slowly approach the enemy, and when it happens...feels so good winning with 3 SPD.

[FreshFromThaDeli]

Great posts. Thoroughly enjoyed reading them all.

[Copanele]

💯No. 68 - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: HD Version

 

Hardest Trophy - Never Saw It Coming - Perfect N'Doul in Bonus stage

Difficulty - 3/10

Testosterone - 10/10

 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the most bizarre (lol) mangas ever created. Born from the crazy mind of Hirohiko Araki, it follows the adventures of the Joestar family, a group of super buffed super chaotic-good characters that have all sorts of crazy powers and most of the time they fight their archnemesis Dio, a flamboyant vampire. It's an equally amazing and trippy manga, which involves stone masks, aztec gods of fitness, machine guns, trips throughout the desert, roadrollers and time stopping. The world of Jojo is one of the most plant induced trips ever when it comes to Japan, even by Japan standards.

 

It is obviously that a manga of this caliber will have several adaptations made after it. And for JoJo, in a time long past, way before stuff like Dragon Ball FighterZ, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm and...ugh....Jump Force 🤢 ...Capcom decided to handle the adaptation into a fighting game. They picked the 3rd part, Stardust Crusaders, and simply created one of the most iconic and personalized fighting game that people never heard of 😅

 

The most iconic standoff in anime history : Jotaro vs Dio

 

Originally named Heritage for the Future, this game follows the adventures of Jotaro Joestar, you average 1.95m Japanese highschool student who wants to defeat his family's arch-nemesis DIO. The game graced the PS3 and was just as quickly delisted, way before I even managed to grab a hold of the console (the rights for this IP are just as messy as the manga itself). I have played this game religiously on an emulator on PC, but I've always wanted to have this 100% on my profile but I never managed to find someone to have claimed this game.

Thanks to a certain someone which I won't name (a thousand blesses upon you), I managed to finally snag this game. And what do you know - it's just as good as I remember!

 

What hits you from the first go is the "manga" aspect of the game. It looks like it was straight out ripped from the pages of the manga itself - the character, the poses, everything is faithfully reproduced in a way that only the old Capcom could do. There's an immense respect towards the source material and you can feel it through every pixel of this game.

One of the most unique character select screens ever - a manga select screen

 

In terms of gameplay, you have 3 attack buttons (light, medium, heavy) and a Stand button. While the 3 buttons are pretty self-explanatory, the Stand button is actually the main core of the game and the main core of JoJo itself. In this universe, Stands are corporeal manifestations of the user's will (you can imagine them as overpowered ghosts or Personas ). Each character has an unique Stand with its unique ability. The reason why this manga sold this well is because of the zany powers that come into play - unlike most shonen, in JoJo you don't win by having the most Power Level, but by having the most creativity. While Jotaro's Stand, Star Platinum, punches super mega hard and can stop time for a few seconds, other Stands have some weird ass abilities - water control, magic (summon cars from nowhere), kidnap people into their own dreams and even capture souls via Poker matches.

 

When you put that into gameplay - well, it gets crazy. You can create some stupid combos by managing to paralyze a character via eardrum explosion then splash them with a shower of Emeralds, or stop time and punch someone to death. Or shoot metallic missiles from your boobs. Or summon some pipes, shoot a bullet through them and one shot the enemy if he blocks wrong.

This game is utter madness and I love it for that  

 

The legendary Za Warudo combo - stop time, spam knives, drop a roadroller and then resume time

 

In terms of difficulty - this game is nuts. Even on the lowest difficulty level, the AI is absolutely batshit insane, and this is because of how unbalanced the game is. Some characters are plain useless (Iggy the dog) but some are unbelievably busted (Hol Horse the cowboy and Pet Shop the ice spamming falcon). This game reminds me of the old Dalkstalker games - there's no training wheels involved, just pain and time stopping. 

 

Unfortunately, since this game is delisted, you can't get it through regular means. But...if you have a friend who grabbed a copy of it and is willing to share OR if you have a functional PC with a functional operating system...try to get a hold of this game. But ONLY if you are a JoJo fan. It's one of the crazier gems out there and it will be a guaranteed blast.

 

THE GOOD:

• One of the most faithful JoJo adaptations out there
• The style of this game is amazing
• It actually follows the entire adventure of the Stardust Crusaders through Egypt
• ZA WARUDO

THE BAD:

• It's delisted
• The game is really unbalanced

RECOMMENDATION 1 - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R/Eyes of Heaven / - if you are a JoJo fan, these games cover the events from Part 1 until the start of Part 8 + some twists in Eyes of Heaven. They're really good games, although not as "artistic" as Heritage for the Future

RECOMMENDATION 2 - Fist of the North Star  - now this one is for all of you old-timers who love obscure as fuck games XD This is a fighting game with the characters from FotNS and it has the same level of respect towards the source material. However...it's on PS2 (or PC wink wink) and it's a broken as fuck game. Still, can't recommend it enough.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[zizimonster]

On 9/8/2023 at 8:25 PM, Copanele said:

 

 

 

Hmm...

 

[Copanele]

3 minutes ago, zizimonster said:

Hmm...

 

Unfortunately no....that's STILL DoA5 (or KoF if you play as Mai Shiranui/Shermie)

This one is more like