152 insights into my soul

TV commentary:

Degrassi- New season of Degrassi, through the first three eps so far. ( spoiler cut )

Video game blather- Hey, I finally, finally unlocked all the kustom kombat modifiers in MKX. I mean, it took a few months, but I finally drew all the different modifiers in the hourly living towers. So now I not longer have to check those every so often hoping to get a modifier I don't have yet.

I also finally reached the 2000 battles in Tekken to unlock all the customization options. So I actually spent a whole lot of time building outfits for all the characters. I guess all that I have left to do for now is I guess reach 20 dan with all the characters so the Beastly Horn accessory is maxed out. I have the season pass for the game, and its sounds like they'll be adding new modes and characters over the next year, so its good there'll still be stuff to do in the game.

I know people have been clamoring for older characters who didn't make the cut in this game, like Anna, Bruce, Kunimitsu or the Changs. But specifically Lei Wulong. I mean, Anna was always a slightly tweaked Nina, Bruce and Bryan shared a lot of commonality, and Kuni was similar to Raven (though I guess now, Master Raven). But Lei was always a really unique character, looking like Jackie Chan and having all the different stances. I assume he'll be back at some point.

But apparently Tekken is getting two new guest characters. Definitely curious as to who those would be.

TV commentary:

GLOW- Heh, I'm slow. ( spoiler cut )

Oh, I also didn't realize one of Carmen's brothers was played by Carlito from WWE. He always cracked me up because his catch phrase was, "I spit in the face of people who don't want to be cool!":



Which is weird, because who the hell doesn't want to be cool? Also, still trying to figure out if Miguel from Tekken 7 is doing a Carlito impression.

Tekken blather- So in my quest to unlock all of Lili's stuff I've ranked her way beyond the previous characters. As I said before, I played them to 100 wins in order to unlock their second title. So, most of them are 16th Dan, Vanquishers. But I pressed on with Lili to get her Lil Devil outfit components. But by the time I got that, I was a few Dan ahead, so I figured I might as well use her to get to the last rank. So I'm up to 31st Dan, Ryujin, which is five away from the top rank, Tekken God Prime.

Although it doesn't look like I get a trophy for that, the only thing it really gets me is seeing Tekken God Prime listed on the upper right hand corner of the screen as highest rank achieved. And since its offline mode, its not like anyone will see it. But hey, attempting it does get me closer to the 2000 matches needed to unlock everything. Which the way things are going, I might actually get everything unlocked before then. Its still chance, so you never know, but ~800 chances to unlock maybe a couple dozen things at most, I like those odds.

Anyways, in my search to see how many ranks they are, google results got me messages from the various message boards where people are all, "I'm rank X, is that good?" Ugh, who asks that?! I mean, you can easily google the ranks to know where you stand. I know why they're asking it, they're looking for validation, for people to be all, "Oh wow, that's good!" But its dumb, because 1) It makes you look like a douche, because you're trying to be all, "Oh, this is my rank? That's good? Cool, I didn't even know I was so great!" 2) You're possibly setting up for embarrassment because again, such people are looking for the answer to be, "Yes, that's good!" but if you don't know whether your rank is good or not, chances are it effin isn't.

Like no, Brawler is not a good freaking rank, its only 10th Dan, out of 36. Just don't. Also, people who are all, "Well, I'm stuck at rank X, looks like button mashing has gotten me as far as I can go!" If that's how you play, you have no business playing a fighting game! Get the eff out of here, scrub!

It pisses me off, because people will practice getting good at a shooter, or any other game. But some people act like, "Oh, I don't need to learn moves, I'll just mash buttons!" Its like, what do you have against the genre that you won't even try to play properly?! Today's fighting games are intricately designed works of art and you're shitting on the developers if you don't play it right.

Tekken blather- So I reached at least 100 fights with Heihachi, Kazuya, Jin, Lee, Lars, Bryan Fury, Dragunov, Katarina, and Nina Williams. 9 down, another 11 to go to reach 2000 matches. Some people were wondering why they let you unlock everything at 2000 matches, like isn't that unfair for people who slogged through treasure battle? But honestly, I think if you played that many matches of treasure battle, you'll have unlocked most of what you want before then.

I mean, right now, I think I've bought all the main customization stuff I want, plus all the stuff in the gallery. Everything left that I want is now the stuff you randomly win from treasure chests. I would hope after another 1100 fights I would get most if not all of those too. And if I don't, its nice to know there's an end in sight by reaching 2000.

Like it seems like after story mode, the main modes to play are treasure and online. Arcade is pointless since there's no individual arcade endings, so if you're going play against the computer, might as well do it in a mode where you'll get prizes.

Anyways, like I said, given the large movesets of all these characters, I feel like freaking Taskmaster whenever I pick up a new character. Like I'm forgetting moves and tactics I learned about character X when I move to character Y. I mean, some characters have similarities. And most characters have combos that are functionally the same even though they look different. Like there will be similar button sequences.

Still, each character has idiosyncrasies to know. Like what moves are good to whip out when you're feeling the pressure, which ones have priority, which ones are dangerous and can be punished. I like to know the best moves a character can pull off that start with holding the directional pad back. That was I know what's available to retort after I've turtled up.

Like I was having trouble with Lars until I learned those particular kinds of moves and knew how they hit and what their distance was. Heh, he had this cool move I'd seen the computer pull off where he knees someone, and then auto grabs them by the throat, holds them up and snaps their neck. And I saw it was a simple B+4, where the auto grab would happen on counter hit.

Playing Lili right now, as she has customizations I want to unlock. Which going by that, that list also includes Leo, Asuka, Alisa, and Eliza. But there are others I will eventually want to try for their moves and fighting style like Shaheen and Kazumi. I keep needing to check the latter out in practice mode to see if she plays like the rest of the Mishima family, as she does seem to have a few similar moves.

So I got Tekken 7 a couple weeks ago, and have been playing that a bunch. I've always favored Tekken as it filled a nice niche between Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter. 3D and highly technical like VF, but not as slow seeming.

I like the addition of Rage Arts, super moves you can pull off when your health is low. It is a bit of a double edged sword though, especially against the CPU. Because that also means if you don't put the opponent down quickly enough when they're in rage mode, they'll pull one off and turn the tides. Particularly if you're both low, a rage art automatically takes off at least an eighth of your health bar. So if you're under that its an auto-kill.

I mean, they are blockable, but that entails memorizing everyone's rage art to know where it hits in the beginning. Well, and reacting fast enough to block it when you see it start up. There's also rage drives, which aren't auto-damage dealers, but I'm sure in the hands of an expert are more lucrative because you can combo from them. But, alas, I am not that good- like if I'm in rage mode, that means I'm about to die, so I'm going to go for the automatic damage to take them out before they take me out if they're also low, or to get some breathing room. Actually, I guess if you're both down low, you want to do the rage art, but if you're opponent is still healthy, a rage drive will give you breathing room and put you in better position.

Another thing I like is treasure battle. Its been a long time since I played the previous Tekken installment on the PS3, or even Soul Calibur, but I want to say customizations are WAY more affordable than they used to be. I mean, the unique stuff to each character is still somewhat pricey (1 million - 1.5 million gold each) or only won through a treasure chest, but everything seems easier to buy than they used to. And even 1m isn't that much. A base fight is already 25k, not counting the money you get from a treasure chest which can range anywhere from 1k to 500k. And your winnings only go up as you get on a streak. So you can easily get 1 million from just 10 fights if you're lucky.

And apparently everything unlocks once you do 2000 battles. Which one might wonder, why spend money at all in that case? 2000 battles is still a freaking lot. And you'll earn lots of money in the mean time, so why not drop money to get your customizations early so you'll get to enjoy them while doing all those matches? But more on that later.

I beat story mode, including the epilogue fight with Shin Akuma. I may not be the best player, but at least I was able to beat him. Though I still need to beat him in treasure battle to get a trophy. And the dude is cheesy AF. But he's the only one I don't have a trophy for beating of the special characters. In addition to the story mode, there's individual character "story" modes.

Which are just one freaking match with a less than 2 minute cutscene for beating. Heh, and I thought the individual story modes for SFV where sparse and lacking! Heh, the game describes it as fights to give further insight into individual characters, but that's BS, because some of those cut scenes are ridiculous and non-sensical.

Its also funny because some characters get more respect than others. I mean, the Mishimas and family, and by extension Nina and some of the other characters associated with the G Corporation, Tekken Force, or Mishima Zaibatsu are treated seriously. But Paul and Law, who have been staples from the beginning, have been basically reduced to assclowns. Like Paul's story is he's lamenting he'll have another match with Kuma in the tournament yet again. But there's a last minute change! He'll finally get to fight someone serious! Only the new challenger is... Panda. And heh, even if he wins, his ending is the crowd booing him and tossing stuff at him for beating up a lady Panda.

Which brings me to the characters. Since I've totally completed all the story stuff, I've had a taste of all the characters, but I've only really played with a handful. Which is one of the more overwhelming parts of this game. There's 38 characters, each with a unique moveset, and a large one at that, way bigger than what you have to deal with in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. So its hard to learn everyone.

But here's my takes on the one I've played so far:

Katarina Alves- Easily my favorite of the new characters. And what a babe! HOTT! As a Savate fighter from Brazil, she seems a little redundant since we have a kick heavy character in Hwoarang (and previously, Baek). But, she's more straight forward. The thing I dislike about Hwoarang is he has so many different stances, with changes built into his combos that he feels out of control. Like I just want to do a combo without all of a sudden being in a different stance where all the moves have changed.

Of course, her weakness is that she's easily punishable since her moves are predictable. Hwoarang's advantage is because of all those stance changes he's tricky to read. But like I said, the opponent might not know what I'm going to do, but neither do I because I changed stances when I didn't want to, and its hard enough memorizing moves without having to memorize which moves are available in which stance.

So against a skilled opponent, she's in for trouble. But its not as big a deal against the AI, which I exclusively play as. The other thing I like about her is she has some great customizations. I've made at least 4 distinct ones, because I was lucky enough to lock her good stuff- the Ranger top and skirt, shirtless, summer dress, and no-summer dress, i.e. the skimpy bikini. Its just unfortunate that she doesn't have her belly tat in the last one. But I did include the under-eye paint in Brazilian flag colors to all versions, because its cute.

So look 1 is the shirtless one paired with the Ranger skirt, accessorized with her bazooka, 2 is the summer dress, which I've colored into a nice black number with blue edges. Look 3 is the Ranger top with armored pants topped off with a beret, also with the bazooka. And the final look is the no-summer dress one, in red, with the diva short hair cut in pink. As I said, they all have the Brazil under eye paint, but I can't remember who has beastly horns or angel wings or the hippie band or rainbow hair or the katana.

Which I feel kinda lazy and uninspired that so many of my customizations include the katana and/or the shotgun over the back. Also, I guess that's the one disappointing thing about treasure battle, that you can't use the items.

Lee Chaolan- My favorite all time character in the series. The boy exudes style. Which speaks to me because I don't just want to kick ass, I wanna look good doing so. He's cool and flashy, and again against a skilled player I would prolly eat it. But against the AI I can spam the laser edge kicks to good effect.

He's another one I like because he has a lot of good customization options. Look 1 is his normal outfit, only with the jacket in gold instead of blue, with the venetian mask, colored similarly, and the golden aura. Look 2 is shirtless with leather pants, the beastly horns, angel wings, and one of the many, many sunglass options this game has, accessorized with the stun baton. Looks 3 and 4 are similar. I went with bulletproof vest, armored pants, sunglasses, and a beret for 3 and the vest paired with cargo pants and a cap for 4. Again, I can't remember which outfits I gave which, but they're either carrying the shotgun, assault rifle, plasma rifle, or katana.

And this entry is long enough, and I've been working on it for the past couple hours, so I'll continue my character takes in a later post.

So I heard Namco put on a movie for their new Tekken X Street Fighter game. It differs from Capcom's SF x Tekken game in that the Namco one uses the Tekken fighting system and the Capcom one uses the SF fighting system. Topless Robot has it posted on their site, and it totally annoys me that they refer to Tekken as "button mashing shit".

People who think that obviously haven't played the game enough because I think its more technical than SF. I mean, yeah, one character (two actually, but they're just using the same style) is a button masher, but there's a lot of technique in the Tekken series. The various combos and reversals and multi-throws. And it has special moves just like SF, so I don't see how anyone could think Tekken is just a button masher.

In terms of hand to hand fighters (so I'm excluding Soul Calibur since its a weapons fighter), Virtua Fighter is the most technical series, followed by Tekken, then Street Fighter, then stuff like Dead or Alive and Mortal Kombat. I mean, to me Tekken is the middle ground between VF and SF, it has aspects of both. Tekken characters have way more moves than an SF character, but the pace of the game is faster than in VF. I'm fine with people hating on the system, because its not perfect, but it being a "button masher" is not one of its problems.