Twinworld Game Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘Fantasy Strike’

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – July 21, 2020 – Fantasy Strike, the fighting game from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix lead designer David Sirlin, is now free-to-play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux. Alongside this price change, an update enters the ring today that includes two new characters, additional cosmetic items and animations for the entire roster, and a new optional set of subscription features.

A first for free-to-play fighting games, Fantasy Strike now allows players to play ALL characters for free online immediately with no grind-to-unlock. This includes the two new characters, Sirus Quince and General Onimaru, who each add new mechanics to the game. Quince deploys illusions to confuse his opponents and can make these illusions “real” for a limited time by landing his super. Meanwhile, Onimaru uses deliberate, powerful sword strikes that can become unblockable in the right situations.

All Fantasy Strike players can play online in casual and ranked modes and watch the action in spectator mode. Practice mode, solo matches vs. AI opponents, and the daily challenges are also all available for free. Those looking for more can find it in the Core Pack, which provides access to local Versus mode, online matches against friends, Boss Rush mode, Survival mode, and an Arcade mode with beautifully-illustrated narrative sequences. Those looking for a lot more can buy the Collector’s Pack, featuring everything in the Core Pack plus a ton of cosmetics, an exclusive “Party Time” KO effect, and one year of the new Fantasy+ subscription.

Fantasy+ is a new optional subscription service that doubles XP gains, grants access to special Master Costumes for each character who reaches experience level 20, and introduces an extensive new Replay Theater feature. With this, players can rewatch their own matches, search for replays containing specific characters and skill levels, and view an endless stream of replays in the new Ranked TV and Friend TV channels. Players can also adjust the playback speed of replays, scrub through videos, and even frame step for deep analysis.

“We worked tirelessly to find a way to maintain the competitive integrity of Fantasy Strike that our existing players love while opening it up to an even broader audience,” said David Sirlin, game director, Fantasy Strike. “We believe this free-to-play update continues our mission of crafting a fighting game that removes the barrier to being a contender, while also providing excellent value for those who want additional features and to support our work.”

Fantasy Strike provides a friendly meeting ground for newcomers and veterans to learn and enjoy hardcore fighting games. Designed to teach and demystify, Fantasy Strike shows players its systems clearly with in-depth video tutorials and innovative frame advantage visual effects. These helpful features are married with other amenities like one-click friend challenges and spectating, built-on-the-fly tournaments, cross-platform play support between all systems, latency-combating GGPO technology, and more.

The free-to-play update featuring new characters and cosmetic items is now available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux. Previous owners across all systems automatically receive access to the Founder’s Pack, which includes everything in the Core Pack plus 60 costume color sets (over $100 value if bought separately). The Core Pack is priced at $19.99, while the Collector’s Pack is available for $99.99. A Fantasy+ subscription can be purchased in 1-month, 6-month, and 12-month increments in-game with gems (approximate value of $4.99, $24.99, and $39.99, respectively).

Source: PR Email

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – July 25, 2019 – Fantasy Strike, the new fighting game from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix lead designer David Sirlin, launches today for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 while punching its way out of Steam Early Access on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Fantasy Strike is both a deep tournament game for hardcore genre fans and an introduction to the genre for newcomers. Its design philosophy centers around making the often-opaque aspects of the genre clear and understandable and helping players get to the strategic, decision-making phase of competition as soon as possible.

Beginners benefit from in-depth video tutorials for all 10 characters. These five-minute videos, available via a slick interface in the Learn section of the Main Menu, are narrated by game director David Sirlin. Novices and experts alike all benefit from innovative frame advantage visual effects — never seen in any fighting game before. This imagery communicates with each hit who will recover first and by how much, teaching players which attacks are risky and even shows moves that can be safe depending on timing and spacing.

The online play system seeks to further innovate in the genre by allowing one-click challenges from the in-game friends menu, as well as one-click spectating of any friend. The Ranked Mode uses built-on-the-fly tournaments and a team battle system unlike that of other games; it’s specifically designed to create maximum variety in character matchups for the community. The network code itself uses the excellent GGPO technology combined with proprietary latency-hiding tech that results in extraordinarily smooth online play for a fighting game.

Fantasy Strike also ships with a variety of single-player modes, including a traditional Arcade Mode with beautifully-illustrated story sequences, four Survival Modes, Daily Challenges, and a substantial Boss Rush mode where players build a deck of powerups against increasingly powerful AI bosses.

“I think it’s exciting that Fantasy Strike delivers as much or even more depth than players are used to in this genre while only needing a fraction of the complexity to do it,” said David Sirlin, game director, Sirlin Games. “We look forward to welcoming new faces into the community now that the game is available on consoles and in full release on PC.”

Fantasy Strike is out now via the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, and Steam for $29.99 / €32.99 / £28.99 / $46.99 AUD and supports English, French, Spanish, Norwegian, and
Japanese language options.

Source: PR Email

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – June 27, 2019 – Fantasy Strike, the fighting game from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix lead designer David Sirlin, punches its way out of Steam Early Access and onto Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Mac, and Linux on July 25, 2019.

The secret to how Fantasy Strike works as both a deep tournament game for hardcore genre fans as well as an introduction to the genre for newcomers is that both ends of the spectrum benefit from the game’s extreme emphasis on strategy over difficult controls. Both types of players can enjoy its innovations in making fighting games more readable and understandable than ever before, which help everyone make the most informed strategy decisions they can.

These innovations include a unique feature never seen in any fighting game before: a visual display of “frame advantage.” These graphical effects communicate which player will recover first after every hit and in how much time. Fantasy Strike also goes the extra mile to get everyone thinking strategically by including, inside the game itself, in-depth tutorial videos for all ten characters narrated by game director David Sirlin.

Fantasy Strike offers: an Arcade Mode with illustrated narrative bookends, a Boss Rush Mode that allows players draft their own deck of powerups against progressively powerful opponents, and Ranked Mode with built-on-the-fly tournaments and 3-on-3 team battles designed to offer a variety of matchups while removing the concepts of counter-picks. It also includes four Survival modes, a once-per-day Daily Challenge Mode, and, of course, local and online Versus featuring best-in-class GGPO networking technology for a fast and responsive online experience.

“Online play is so important to fighting games that we’re trying to push the genre forward here,” said David Sirlin, game director, Fantasy Strike. “Part of that is on our technical implementation of networking which somehow allows me, in California, to play my friend in Tokyo and have it feel totally responsive and smooth. The other part is modernizing the genre conventions for user interface so it’s just a single click to challenge a friend online and a single click to watch any friend’s match. Come try it out with us on July 25.”

Fantasy Strike will be available for $29.99 USD / €32.99 / £28.99 / $46.99 AUD with support for English, French, Spanish, Norwegian, and Japanese language options at launch.

Source: PR Email

EMERYVILLE, CA – March 20th, 2018 – Fantasy Strike, the upcoming fighting game from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix lead designer David Sirlin, will come to Nintendo Switch this summer, simultaneously launching alongside the previously-announced PC and PlayStation 4 versions.

“Fantasy Strike is the perfect fighting game for Switch,” said Sirlin. “The Switch is a take-anywhere console, so fighting games would be great on it if not for how notoriously difficult they are to control. Usually, playing a fighting game on a JoyCon would be tough, but Fantasy Strike is designed specifically for that. Detach the JoyCons, give one to a friend, and you can play a deep, strategic fighting game anywhere.”

Currently in Steam Early Access, Fantasy Strike has been rapidly deploying new features, modes, and increasing production values. In their most recent patch, Sirlin Games added professional voice acting and facial animation for all 10 characters as well as a brand new Team Battle mode. In a Team Battle, players choose 3 characters each and play a variety of different matchups, which is great as a tournament format as well as for casual play.

Sirlin Games has also boosted its networking technology over the last few months, combining GGPO (the best-in-class networking tech that allows there to be no input delay) with its own networking tech that now allows for smooth connections even across continents.

Fantasy Strike entered Steam Early Access in September of 2017. The game is currently available for $19.99 USD in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Hungarian, Turkish, Japanese, with additional language support planned for the final release.

To learn more about Fantasy Strike, visit the game’s Steam page.

About Sirlin Games
David Sirlin, lead designer of Street Fighter HD Remix, author of Playing to Win and a former pro fighting game player, helms Sirlin Games, an independent video game developer based in Emeryville, California that specializes in competitive multiplayer games.

Source: PR Email