Quick Look: Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm

its amazing how deep the shared vocabulary for fighting games is, like the amount of terminology/references that go over my head is pretty intense.

doodMaxhype

Icon on desktop says "Softporn Adventure"?

*Looks at previous comments" Oh...

I`ve been looking forward to this game. I`m anticipating the console versions.

The music is pretty alright in an incredibly 1995 kind of way, but man is that TR-909 Crash Cymbal mixed loudly all throughout.

@jeff For very old Japanese games, most Japanese writing will break if your computer's non-unicode isn't set to Japanese. That's what was so useful about AppLocale, it would change the non-unicode for one specified program. Microsoft took that out of Windows after Vista, which I still have no idea why, but you can find the .msi for it and install it with compatibility mode.

Woo, more fighting game stuff with Jeff and Jason. This makes me want more Ranking of Fighters... a lot more Ranking of Fighters. I could watch Jeff and Jason mess around with fighting game options and get into technicalities for hours.

Man, the number of asses and panties and weird gelatinous breasts in this game makes me feel kinda gross, especially when paired with the disturbing amount of sheen on the character art.

The core gameplay doesn't look too objectionable, but given the fact that this thing is as janked up as it is and games like KoF98 and 2002 have been fairly recently given proper Steam releases, it doesn't seem to accomplish anything that's truly missing from fighting games right now.

Also I'm not sure I can agree that the backgrounds are pretty. It's all just static, mediocre art. Compare that to something like this:

28:25 -- That lady has a pretty strange idle animation...

@yummytreesap said:

But shirtless or skin tight shirted men with highly defined muscular bodies pushes all your right buttons, am I right? ;)

As you could see in the QL, it's lonely in Yata Town.

Looks rough. The stuff during crowd funding seemed more promising. The FGC integration seems really terrible and tacked on.

The resolution issue - wasn't this originally a 3DS game?

It's hard to be impressed by this game because even though its a small team and crowd funded it doesn't look as nice or have the amount of stuff something like Vanguard Princess has

yeah anime tiddies but this was made by one dude for free! Compared to Yatagarasu's static backgrounds and blocky sprites this looks high res, even if it's the same resolution.

this looks jaaaaaaaaaaaaaanky but also kind of charming and endearing because it's so rough

Yatagarasu: Escape Into Anime

I know these characters from Saltybet already, so this should go smoothly.

edit: KOKUJIN! Just pair him with that Jet guy and the universe'll be alright.

Fighting games remind me of MMO bosses in the way that new stuff is very heavily described by comparing it to older characters/bosses.

Yes! This has been in development for quite a while. Glad to see it finally come out.

edit--- oh. this... this didn't turn out so hot. man. i'm kinda bummed out now. :(

Wait. Am I crazy or did they change the announcer? Wasn't it a lady that said "Let them come. We will grind their bones to dust" before? Not a fan of the change.

And the commentators are a stupid gimmick. First thing I did was turn them off when I got the original game in 2013.

Also, Japanese shows up just fine for me. Like @wastrel said, just switch non-unicode language in Control Panel -> Region -> Administrative to "Japanese."

Some portions of this game seem kinda cool but on the whole this looks pretty shitty.

@yummytreesap: I too don't know where Jason was coming from saying how good the background art was, it didn't really stand out to me in any way, especially when you compare it to what you posted. Now that's gorgeous.

I don't know much about fighting games, but what is the appeal of this? The fighting looks pretty standard, the roster is small, the background and character art are mediocre, and the menus and presentation are atrocious. Why would you buy this when you could buy Skullgirls for the same price?

The background is not bad, it is static render. Some are better than others, the one at night with the temple does look pretty good. The art design also works, but is it just me or does the sprites look a little lacking.

Also what's with this anime opening being ok vs DMC remaster not ok?

@overbite: vanguard princess has nice sprites but I also would not say that it's anywhere near "good"

'Round here I have no problem with either art direction :) Honestly I think it could be far worse (or better I guess depending on how you look at it): Mai Says Hello.

As for the game itself: I like the vibe it's putting down during the actual fights. Definetely gave me a Fatal Fury feeling. True, that UI and those commentaries are terrible, but the fighting itself seemed pretty solid. Gonna have to keep an eye on this one. Thanks for the QL Giant Bomb crew!

So, the appeal is that it is a very different style of fighting game. Skullgirls is very much in the style of, say, Marvel vs. Capcom, where the combos are long and the action is crazy. Once you get good it becomes this match of making the opponent commit an error and then punishing them with combos that seemingly never end. This is not my kind of fighting game because not unlike what Jason said recently, the longer in a fighting game where I can do nothing the less fun I think it is. Not to mention that I don't find learning massive combos as being particularly fun either. I'm not proficient enough in fighting games to be able to think of decent combos on my own and going onto Youtube or Internet forums or whatever to be fed combos in a cryptic notation and then spending hours to be able to get their timing down is not how I want to be playing these games.

And so a game like this appeals to someone who liked a style of fighting game much more like that of a certain older era. The combos and links are shorter, there's usually not crazy amounts of juggling, they're not as systems-heavy, etc.

It's just, this one doesn't seem all that great.

A take on classic SNK-ish spritework (even if it is way less skilled) is something I can appreciate, especially since it seems like it plays alright as well, but man this thing is real rough around the other edges.

Still, good on em for making it. Doubt it'll take off in any real way within the fighting games scene, but there's always Mystery Game Tournaments i guess.

What is with sexualising most of the female characters in these fighting games? And the ones in your example look like kids. Are they made by virgins or something?

I tried out an earlier version of Yatagarasu about a year or so ago and couldn't get into it. The combat felt a lot stiffer than what I generally prefer in fighting games and the relatively small character roster meant I ended up not really liking any of the characters from what I played of them. That being said, the gameplay itself doesn't actually seem bad, though I don't think many people would list it as one of their favorite fighting games either.

As far as indie/doujin fighting games from Japan go, my personal favorite by far is a freeware one called Wonderful World. If you can get past the character designs and generally bad art (though attack animations tend to have a good bit of personality and style to them), then it's otherwise a remarkably well-made and fast-paced fighting game which feels similar to Guilty Gear in quite a few ways.

From the IndieGogo website: "Help three former SNK / King of Fighters developers complete their indie game passion project"

I would guess that is a large part of the appeal, given the reverence some people have for developers of by-gone classics. And maaaaaaan, are these characters some 90's-ass cheesy anime characters:

"(Azure's intent) is to combine Shinto rituals that are imbued with divine power and mathematics to bring his deceased mother back to life."

"Nene appears to be a red light district courtesan, but she is in fact a bodyguard and professional killer."

"After a radical party called Order of the Blue Flower rose to prominence..."

"Bahrain’s Long Winter was a training camp for assassins..."

To quote Lisa Simpson, "I know those words, but that sentence doesn't make any sense!"

This looks okay, but I rather not spend money on it.

I found an old hard drive that 4.3 on it so I gave it a go.

Answering my own question: Yep, they changed the announcer from a lady to a dude. BOOOO~

Also they seemed to have changed the way some moves hit, for the worse. And added some crappy CG effects where there were modest sprites before. (I only used Kou in both versions so he's my only point of reference.) I can't say I'm thrilled with these changes.

If any one cares, Rice Digital is still selling the half-assed "localized" version of 4.3. They only translated enough menus to be usable. The story text is entirely in Japanese, which I guess goes back to recapturing the whole 90's fighting game nostalgia. I think they get a free pas rather than any extra points for that one.

Tweet Combo Details?

But is it better than Battle Arena Toshinden 3?

This game looks a hot mess.