At the time of writing (6/22/20,) the Trainer’s School series of guides on Pokken Tournament DX has surpassed ten articles- eleven if you include the Pokken Primer as a retroactive inclusion to the series. While everyone can find them in one place- my Medium page- I wanted somewhere that people could read them in order. This article will be updated whenever a new guide debuts.
Last updated 1/4/2021. All planned lessons and guides completed!
Beginner’s Series:
Lesson One: Pokken 101 Lesson Two: Phase Shifts and the Attack Triangle Lesson Three: Cancels and CADC Lesson Four: The Pokedex Lesson Five: Choosing…
Why they’re important, and when you should use them
The fifth Guilty Gear Strive Developer’s Backyard blog post went live on April 6th, the day that the early access build of the final game would have launched if not for development delays. The post detailed feedback the development team gathered both from the Open Beta Test’s in-game replay system and the survey conducted afterwards. Akira Katano explained the results of various polls, such as popular characters, opinions regarding balance, design intent, positive feedback about the rollback netcode, and features that will be added to the reworked lobby system. …
Fluff about what I’m playing now and what I’m excited for
Despite the global pandemic grinding traditional FGC operations to a halt, it’s probably never been a better time to get into fighting games. There’s lots of great new titles coming out over the course of the next year, and a lot of existing titles are getting updates, either with better online or new content. Online events are also becoming more prominent, encouraging new competition that we wouldn’t normally see in games that weren’t as popular when offline tournaments were commonplace. Even if the social, in-person aspect of fighting games…
What the major acquisition could mean for the tournament series, and other news
Sony Interactive Entertainment and Evo’s social media recently announced the return of Evo Online in August 2021, and that Sony had acquired the Evo brand in a joint partnership with newly formed esports organization RTS. Evo 2021 Online will be running across two weekends, August 6–8 and 13–15, and will feature four titles announced so far: Tekken 7, Street Fighter V, Mortal Kombat 11, and Guilty Gear Strive. This comes almost nine months after the initially planned Evo 2020 Online was cancelled and Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar…
It’s easier to learn fighting games now than it ever has been. But we can do better.
Stop me if this has ever happened to you before. You’re learning a new fighting game. Maybe you’ve already been playing for a while and you’re ready to hit the books, or maybe you’re completely fresh and you want to find a starting point. The in-game resources run the gamut from awful to excellent- maybe there’s absolutely no basic tutorial, or maybe it’s just missing some features like frame data. You pull up the Dustloop for your character, but it’s clearly a little…
Especially when it gets harder to play
Guilty Gear Strive has been delayed from its April 9th 2021 release date to June 11th, in the wake of feedback regarding the Open Beta Test’s iteration of online lobbies. The game itself is fun and the online play feels fantastic due to Arc System Works’ in-house rollback netcode. Furthermore, King of Fighters XV has finally been confirmed by SNK to feature an in-development rollback implementation. This means that both of 2021’s high-profile fighting game releases will have the fully functional online play that has been so highly demanded by players for nearly…
An olfactory preview as the game nears its April release
The Guilty Gear Strive Open Beta Test went live at varying times the past week of February 15th, 2021. Select FGC content creators received early beta codes that allowed them to begin playing on Tuesday the 16th; players who preordered the game digitally on PSN got access on Wednesday; and the beta was available for everyone else on PSN on Thursday. After some very unfortunate and frustrating downtime that same Thursday, the beta period was extended until Tuesday, February 23rd at 7am PST.
What playing multiple titles can teach you about your play
One of the first articles I wrote for my page last year (in fact, it debuted almost exactly a year ago! Boy, how time flies…) was about getting into fighting games and learning them one step at a time. In competitive games with implicit tools and overt mechanics that must be managed all at once, the beginner player can easily get overwhelmed trying to digest them. They must instead shift their priorities to processing these tools one at a time: first learn basic controls, then the easy and immediate systems…
Cataloguing new and upcoming information as we approach release
On January 24th, 2021, Arc System Works’ social media channels updated the Guilty Gear Strive website with new information about the online modes and debuted a six-minute-long trailer with a full breakdown of every game mode the title will launch with. Much of the information covered is not new, but we did get to look at some updates and changes to certain existing features- some blatant and some less obvious. (Still, you would be shocked about how many people didn’t know the game’s release date, or that the PC version was…
Some words of advice as we take steps to protect our community
In the summer of 2020, emboldened by the #MeToo movement, several dozens of victims and survivors shared their experiences with harassment, abuse, and assault within the fighting game community. The people accused ranged from players of all skill levels, to commentators, to tournament organizers and various other professionals who had operated in the FGC for years. This mass ousting of alleged abusers even resulted in the cancellation of Evo 2020’s online event, as the organization fell quiet while it restructured without its CEO. …
Nathan Dhami
Nathan “Lite the Iron Man” Dhami can be found on Twitter (@LiteTheIronMan,) on Twitch (twitch.tv/litetheironman,) and at your local.
