Soulstice Review

Capcom and Platinumgames seem to be the center of attention on the fast-paced hack and slash 3D action games nowadays.  Since Kratos took it easy on the deicide to be a dad, Bayonetta and Dante are the faces of the genre without much competition.  If there’s a big fast-paced hack and slash adventure going on, it’s likely from those two companies, as also seen with Nier: Automata and DmC: Devil May Cry.  They’re good at that, but sometimes I got to thinking that I wouldn’t mind someone else trying their hand at that style of gameplay for once instead of all the games taking cues from Dark Souls that keep coming up.  Darksiders sure wasn’t doing it for me.

Now in 2022 Reply Games Studios has taken that crack at it with Soulstice, a fast-paced hack and slash 3D action game adventure that doesn’t even try to hide its inspirations.

This review is based on the PC version and was given to me for free.

Steps on How to Get Gud at Fighting Games

In fighting games there are fundamental rules that carry over into each other.  Things like light attacks being quick and weak, heavy attacks being slow and strong, super meters being used for super attacks and overhead attacks hitting crouched opponents.

Thinking within these fundamentals is the right way to quickly latch onto the different fighting games there are in tandem with the kind of things that go without saying, like reading your opponent and reacting accordingly, but there are many techniques that go beyond the basic rules of the game and can elevate a player from being simply “good” to being “gud.”  These are the methods utilized both in and out of the games that give a player that extra push into mastering fighting games as a genre and earning the respect and admiration of their peers.  With this post, I hope I can lead players into that push so that we can all enjoy playing fighting games at the highest levels of play.  These are my tips and tricks on how to get gud at fighting games.

The King of Fighters 15 Review

When a new fighting game comes out, and especially a King of Fighters game, it’s inevitable that comparisons will be drawn to The King of Fighters 13.  I used to give the title of “Best Fighting Game of All Time” to a tie between KOF 11 and 13, but after years of thinking I’ve tipped the scales onto 13’s side, even if it’s not as good without 11 and 2003 to establish its story.  No fighting game since it came out has come close to its presentation, music, story and flowing, perfected gameplay.  Not Guilty Gear Xrd, not Street Fighter 5 and not The King of Fighters 14.

The King of Fighters 15, however, comes close.

I would post the game’s opening here, but there isn’t one for some reason.  The closest thing is a short animated music video from the guy who directed those crappy Fatal Fury anime specials in the 90s.  It's pretty good.

NeogeoNow's King of Fighters: The Story So Far: Comments and Additions

In preparation for The King of Fighters XV, Youtube user NeogeoNow collaborated with SNK to create a trilogy of videos recapping the story of the games in the mainline KOF series, presumably to give possible newer players some background and older players a refresher.

The videos get the job done and the guy has played KOF even longer than I have so he knows what he’s talking about.  That said, it’s clear that he was trying to be concise.  Obviously he wasn’t going to go through every little plot thread, but even focusing on the important stuff he really sped through the story of those 10 games.  As a result, I think there are points in the videos in which casual viewers not in the know might do a double take and/or there is some context that’s skipped over I feel is necessary to understand the story better.  I also have a little criticism about the videos and some insights of my own, including a few parts in which I don’t want to claim the guy with decades of KOF experience working with the company itself is wrong, but it seems at odds with the official material.

I will go over NeogeoNow’s plot recap of each game from his videos in order.  I won’t be going over every little thing, because they’re largely fine and the majority of my reaction is nodding my head saying “yep.”  It’s not exactly bad enough to clown on.  There are other videos for that.

When I reach a particular part in which I have something to say, the quotation will be highlighted in bold followed by my comment.  Occasionally, such as for the first one, I will comment on certain parts wholesale instead of on a single line.  I hope this will at least partially act as a little supplementary piece to his videos for more comprehension into the KOF story because I too love it and want people to enjoy it.