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ivanchu77

Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel

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its sequel was a part of a three-game bundle, and the only reason she was playable in Nitro Royale is because no one else could be.

That game is more like spinoff though, since Hanachirasu has a complete story. Though I can agree that it's indeed not that popular.

Also I guess Ein, Mora and Saya have retained some of their moves from the previous game, judging from the screenshots.

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Also I guess Ein, Mora and Saya have retained some of their moves from the previous game, judging from the screenshots.

That makes sense, since their characters still lend themselves to the same playstyles (jack-of-all-trades rushdown, melee heavy-hitter, long-ranged zoner).

 

Just remembered that I had this picture saved up from long ago, go ahead and compare it to what we got in the end.

post-10612-0-57603000-1418917540_thumb.j

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Both Kikokugai and Saya are short and translated, read them and thank me later. Phantom is translated, too, but it was so long ago and its format is so stupid, you're probably better off watching the anime (the 2009 one, not the one before that).

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Ruili can't even fight lol. Maybe she'll be riding on Taoluo's head again. Should have used Xiaoyan if they had to stick to female characters.

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Both Kikokugai and Saya are short and translated, read them and thank me later. Phantom is translated, too, but it was so long ago and its format is so stupid, you're probably better off watching the anime (the 2009 one, not the one before that).

Light novel format? Who's publishing them?

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Ruili can't even fight lol. Maybe she'll be riding on Taoluo's head again.

There are screenshots right there, you know.

 

 

Light novel format? Who's publishing them?

Not light novel, visual novel. A PC game, basically. They're being published by JAST USA, not sure if they're up on Steam.

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JAST is supposed to be bringing over Kikokugai in a double pack with Django, but I wouldn't hold your breath. They have like 2 employees, a shoestring budget and are well known for taking an eternity to release anything at all. Sadly, they gained exclusive rights to distribute Nitro+ games in the US, so the much more punctual MangaGamer can't pick any of them up. You can get the fan translation of Kikokugai now, but they had to haphazardly convert it into Saya no Uta's engine due to the original having major formatting issues with English text.

 

They won't be on Steam because Valve doesn't allow porn. There is an all-ages version of Kikokugai now, but JAST will be using the 18+ one.

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Just remembered that I had this picture saved up from long ago, go ahead and compare it to what we got in the end.

Yeah, I saw that one long time ago when I was searching for new info on that planned renewal for their anniversary.

 

JAST is supposed to be bringing over Kikokugai in a double pack with Django, but I wouldn't hold your breath. They have like 2 employees, a shoestring budget and are well known for taking an eternity to release anything at all. You can get the fan translation of the former game now, but they had to haphazardly convert it into Saya no Uta's engine due to the original having major formatting issues with English text.

 

They won't be on Steam because Valve doesn't allow porn. There is an all-ages version of Kikokugai now, but JAST will be using the 18+ one.

1) The plans about double pack have been canceled quite long time ago, also Kikokugai is already translated (like Hanachirasu).

2) They've decided to bring their latest game to Steam so who knows, maybe they'll release new version of Kikokugai here too.

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That "Blasters" should be spelled with a Z :v:

 

Another minor detail that I noticed on the screenshots is that Natsumi already has a different in-game portrait. Also, as obvious as it might be, different stages have different lightings, affecting the sprites. Back in Nitro Royale, we could only dream of that.

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Yeah, and it's been mentioned twice on the last page :v:

 

The stream is up, the relevant part will start in about 40 minutes. I'm already recording it, so you can expect a Youtube mirror.

 

EDIT: This game is ridiculous, I love it so much. Here's the new stuff from the stream so far:

 

 - Loketest on 28th-29th (next week!)
 - No Muramasa/Sonico/Saber yet
 - New playable: Al Azif (Demonbane)
 - New supports: Henri (Angelos Armas), Sakura (Axanael), Carol (Guilty Crown: Lost Christmas)

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That's what I get for taking so long to find a program to cut two hours of footage I got :v: Well, at least that's not all of it, so I'll keep looking. For now, here's more info on the system:

Banishing Guard
Your usual shield mechanic, allows you to punish moves more easily, builds some meter, blocks chip damage. Performed by pressing D button and can be held, costing no gauge in the current version.

Escape Action
An invulnerable roll that can also be performed in mid-air. You can cancel into either version from other moves, similar to UNIEL's Assault. It doesn't cost any gauge, even when you cancel into it.

Variable Rush
For 2 stocks of Power gauge, you can perform a special starter move. Afterwards, you can press any button in any order you wish for a powerful auto-combo.

Infinite Blast
Once per round, you can perform a Blast. It blows the enemy away and gives you a buff that recovers both health and Power gauge for a while. Performing it in neutral gives you the longest buff, recovering around 10% health and 1 stock of the Power gauge. You can also use it while in hit stun or block stun for the usual combo breaker, though the buff becomes very short. Alternatively, you can use it to cancel your own move: in that case, the buff has medium duration.

Partner Blitz
Surprise, you can call Assist characters to attack for you! It's performed by pressing A+D or B+D. You can cancel into an Assist, which costs you no gauge. Also, you cannot interrupt them in any way, only dodge their attack.

Short titbits that can be seen in the footage:
- Both ground and aerial throws are present
- You can escape throws
- You can block in mid-air (at least some attacks)
- Mid-air recoveries are, of course, present
- Ground ukemi is present
- The Power gauge (and the Blast icon) resets between rounds
- All Assist characters start each round at max cooldown
- The cooldowns are different between all Assists; they are not affected by any actions the players take
- No awesome protag-summoning supers... yet?

And some random trivia: this time, the BGM is now made of remixes rather than being lifted directly from the other games. It has this Arcana Heart-ish feel about them, which makes some tracks difficult to recognize. Some of them match the tracks from Nitro Royale, some don't.
Ein - Showdown (OST)
Mora - White Night (OP)
Ruili - Sworddancer I (OST)
Al - Kishin Houkou! Demonbane (OP)
Saya - Song of Saya (OST)

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Simply because Examu is developing it, I am going to keep an open mind, and it looks alright for the most part . . . EXCEPT those assist calls seems really jarring due to the constant screen freeze and focusing, if they weren't so frequent this would be a non-issue but when you're calling assists left and right it seems like it would be quite annoying.

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This indeed looks like Aquapazza 2. Shame about assists freezing the match, but it seems like something that could still be altered before release based on feedback.

Saya's stage is too bright and cheery. Those could easily be blobs of strawberry jam. Nitro+ VNs are characterized by a grittier, darker aesthetic than AquaPlus's that I don't think is being represented well enough here.

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Now I'm going to upload the videos simply out of principle :v: At least I'm now ready for the loketest, I guess.

Some general thoughts on the game:
- It's looking crazy, much more crazy than anything Examu has done before, and I love it. On the other hand, it's nowhere near MvC's levels of craziness, so I don't feel overwhelmed watching it.
- That last point might actually be thanks to the Assist freeze, so I don't mind it that much. With Assists as strong as these, it's kind of a necessary evil, or else people would never react to the likes of Sakura or Miyuki.
- All the free actions you can take reinforce the idea that the game is very early in development: if something turns out to be a problem in the loketest, they can easily fix it (including that Assist freeze).
- That Double Necronomicon combo is going to get a lot of attention: even though Another Blood's cooldown is very long, Al can easily wait it out with her Cthugha-Ithaqua projectiles. Spending meter to cancel into Assists seems like the most obvious solution here, but it's not the only one.
- The weakest point of the game for me is the stages. They're lifeless, made with mediocre CG, and don't really evoke any emotions you had while playing their respective games. If Nitro Royale did anything well, it was filling the stages with lots of NPCs that tickled your nostalgia bone and made the fights feel a bit more alive (it also helped that NPCs were drawn better than the actual fighters). Sure, I guess that with so many Assists on both sides, having characters that don't affect the fight on top of that would make a visual mess, but the stages were good even without the NPCs. Case in point: Saya's stage, which impressed (traumatized?) me so much, I just had to learn more about the game and the company that made it. I guess Fuminori's room is just too small for the new gameplay.
- I wish I had people to play this with locally.

Thoughts on the characters:
- Ein got the short end of the stick, since she was represented by the weakest player, but she has the potential to be more than your usual speedster. All the moves where she fills the screen with bullets remind me of Aigis, except that she has infinite ammo and opponents can dodge the bullets even in mid-air. Moreover, that parry can single-handedly make her very dangerous in the hands of a skillful player. She can do a lot, but figuring out when to stay out and when to get in will be crucial.
- Mora was my second favorite character in Nitro Royale, and she's looking mighty good here. Leave it to Koichi to make any character he plays seem OP. She's a simple character who can deal lots of damage without even trying, but since her reach is short, you have to spend some extra effort getting in. That midair hammer drop move is going to help her a lot.
- Ruili basically feels like a more complicated Mora to me. Their goal is generally the same, except that Ruili has slightly better mobility at the cost of longer, more complex combos. I assume her pressure is better, but I didn't see anything that actually opens people up. We don't know all the properties of short hop yet, so maybe she has to rely on that?
- Al, to no one's surprise, is the Ryu of the game. She was more technical last time, with many different projectiles and some traps, but it just makes sense to leave that role to someone more fitting (like, say, Saya). To tell the truth, neither her fireballs nor her DP feel that threatening to me, but her running speed is a bit ridiculous, and her normals feel very good. And hey, she didn't win this day 0 tournament for nothing.
- Saya is even more beautiful than last time, and I don't only mean her sprites and animation (her forward dash is soo cuuute!). There are so many ways to use her moves, I just can't wait to see what the best players are going to make out of her. Most importantly, she's a zoner with no moving projectiles, which is one of my favorite playstyles. Unless Muramasa impresses me as much as her game does, I might main this little blob.

And some more thoughts on the Assists, along with the description of what they do just in case.
- Spica: shoots some projectiles before her in a half-circle, then quickly flies forward. Not a fan of hers, as she doesn't cover much space in neutral, doesn't last long enough to mount any pressure and it's difficult to combo off of her. At least her cooldown is short, I believe?
- Natsumi: rolls on her segway forwards, then comes back from the other side after a while. Seems like a good pressure tool, especially since her active frames start as soon as she appears, though you have to keep the opponent busy on your own until she comes back.
- Dragon: a huuuuge laser that covers lots of space right above the ground. She can do a lot of work all by herself, but you have to control the ground really well, as her start-up is long enough for the opponent to fall down and easily dodge it. Or you can use her in a combo, I guess.
- Kaigen: a quick slash that crumples the opponent on hit. Though she doesn't go that far and her start-up is on the longer side, she still feels worth considering for characters like Mora or Ruili, especially since they can capitalize on that crumple especially well.
- Another Blood: summons a blood dragon from the ground that launches the enemy to the skies. One of the longest cooldowns so far, but that's a reasonable price for this much damage. On the other hand, she doesn't offer much beyond that: her start-up is fast, sure, but you can't use her in neutral, you get no oki, and the dragon goes away too fast to be used as a pressure tool. Then again, it makes sense for her to be all about the damage.
- Franco: throws a bottle, and then shoots her gun, blowing the opponent away; if the bottle hits, the shots are guaranteed to connect. Her main thing is the fact that the bottle toss is very fast, and that she gives you lots of breathing room. Sounds good if you think you need an extra defensive option.
- Miyuki: appears behind the opponent and hits them with a baseball bat in your direction. An anti-zoning Assist for when you just can't get in. She's fast, but that doesn't mean much with the freeze, so she can only punish someone when they feel too safe on the opposite side of the screen. And if you care, she doesn't cross them up.
- Henri: fires an air-to-ground barrage from her machinegun. She basically does everything: spacing, combos, pressure, you name it. Even her cooldown is very short. I guess the thing that should stop you from picking her all the time is that there are Assists that can do every separate thing she does better, but there's a reason Koichi picked her for his team.
- Sakura: if she is hit, she quickly rushes forward with a powerful counter-attack. As far as counter-attacks go, she's quite good: lasts for a while, deals great damage, can go almost full screen in an instant. Still, she's a counter-attack, so she's reactive by definition.
- Carol: After a long start-up animation and some more time after that, a swarm of locusts flies across the screen. It might take an eternity to come out, but that doesn't make it any easier to avoid. The best way to do so would probably be mid-air blocking, but that gives your opponent an opportunity to easily cross-under you. The inevitability makes her really scary.

 

EDIT: For anyone who cares, the videos are now up on my channel.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVyPvLn8SrUpsoL1RfGwVOVBD9a-P4tGB

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Pardon the double-post, but I've put together an imgur album covering all of Saya's moves that were used in the vids:

http://imgur.com/a/nuPYf

For the record, she can't run, only dash (though it's more like a short skip).

 

Also, some more general system findings:

- There doesn't seem to be any increased landing recovery after a short hop.
- There is an Alpha Counter-like mechanic that lets you spend 1 bar to perform an invincible attack from the blocking state.

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What's interesting is that Saya still can recover her HP while using some of the moves.

Do you mean something other than her level 2? Because I just rewatched her matches while paying close attention to her life bar, and I'm not seeing it. A few times it did feel like her life bar moved in the other direction, but since she wasn't doing anything at the moment, I assume it's just the video quality playing tricks on me. Also, don't forget that using Blast gives you temporary health regeneration.

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