Facial Animations

We've added new facial animations to all characters except Grave and Jaina, who got lots of facial animation in last month's patch. This is most visible when they perform supers and yomi counters.

CHARACTERS

GRAVE

--Grave's charged fireball shows "KD~20" for hitstun, rather than just "KD", because it changes hit type throughout the move. (It knocks down during the first frame, then changes to grounded-push with 20 frames of hitstun.)

JAINA

--Removed a stray hitbox during her knee that was way at the top of the screen.

--Air C flame arrow has 6f landing recovery (rather than 2f like before) so that Rook has a better chance to Earthquake her.

--Fixed an animation glitch with air C that caused jaina to flicker briefly to a wrong position if she did the move while jumping back or forward (rather than straight up). This fix doesn’t affect gameplay, and just makes the air C animation look more correct at the end.

--After hitting with her ground super, the very end of her animation no longer instantly pops from her crouching to standing.

ROOK

--All his air moves are now upgraded to our new hitbox system. Also, his ground f+A kick was only halfway updated last time, and is now fully implemented in the new system too.

--The “earthquake” voice line during air C is said earlier in the move now so the timing makes more sense.

--Air C has slightly more recovery. In reviewing past builds, it seems to have been accidentally 2f shorter than we intended.

--Rook now has special sounds when he’s knocked down, which sound more rock-like.

--ALL of Rook's animations have been updated with new technical settings in our backend. They all look the same, generally, but this process fixed various small compression errors, cases of animations not perfectly lining up with each other, and cases where he slightly floated or wobbled here and there. These are mostly not things you'd consciously notice, but he might feel more "solid" overall now.

VALERIE

--Graphics for the B, B, f+B “yellow” attack now show the yellow paint trail lasting longer, to better convey how the hitbox works.

--Paint trail for neutral A is now aligned a bit better with the brush.

--Ground C rainbow now has less pushback, so that it works like it did a few months ago. Now (like back then), making Rook block B,B,C usually leaves you inside his throw range.

--All of Valerie’s moves are now upgraded to the our new hitboxes system. (Developer’s note: this takes an incredibly long time, we hope you enjoy the intangibly more solid feel it all has, or maybe you won’t notice). Some attacks are slightly stronger or weaker, but not for balance reason, just for the sake of hitboxes making more sense overall. For example:

--air C no longer crosses up and hits later rather than before the paintbrush really touches you.

--B,B, neutral+B (or A, then neutral+B) no longer has a hitbox way behind her for no reason. Also, the hitbox of her actual attack in front of her extends farther forward, to where it looks like it would be.

--The attack boxes for B,B now extend farther than before to better match the graphics (this is the most significant change gameplay-wise).

--The first hit of Jump A is not longer as good as a crossup.

--The second hit of ground A,A hits how it used to, but in addition to that, is capable of hitting a bit higher up so you could conceivably use it as anti-air if you managed to time the second hit correctly.

SETSUKI

--The first hit of her B teleport dash now has new visual effects that tell you it’s a hit at all, and it is now vulnerable during the 7f during which that first hit is active, rather than totally invulnerable. (The periods where she’s invisible before and after the first hit are still totally invulnerable.) This move being a completely invulnerable hit has been a little too noob-crushing and is often pretty hard to counter at the expert level either with some characters, so this gives it some counter-play. It is still very good, and a bit more readable what’s happening.

--The recovery of her hold-B throw whiff no longer slides around for no reason.

--Setsuki’s pushboxes are wider during idle, walks, blocks so that at point blank, Grave’s B and f+A do not miss her by hitting past her.

GEIGER

--Better-looking animation for neutral A punch (no gameplay change).

--During the Time Stop super, Geiger no longer becomes vulnerable 2f before the cinematic ends. (He's still vulnerable during the short recovery after it ends.)

DEGREY

--The ghost no longer destroys Argagarg’s air super fish or Geiger’s air super gear (because it looked stupid).

--The very end of his win pose no longer has a camera-wobble.

--The frame data display for DeGrey's counter-hit bA (ground punch) in practice mode now says "KD" instead of "+4c" in the case where it counter-hits because on counter-hit, the move really does knock down.

--When you highlight DeGrey on the arcade or casual online character select screen, the lower left corner of the screen no longer shows part of the ghost’s dress for no reason.

--Fixed up the animation for neutral A punch so that it doesn’t slide, float, or wobble.

MIDORI

--The very end of the Dragon’s win pose no longer has a camera-wobble.

--In practice mode, fixed a bug that caused Dragon Form to instantly end when you went into it.

--Temporary fix to Dragon’s C grab pushboxes so that the move doesn’t whiff vs idle Geiger. These hitboxes will all be replaced for real later.

--New Dragon voice over for "Dragonbuster!" and "Talon Swoop!". More intense.

ARGAGARG

--Back+A punch, startup reduced 7f -> 5f so he has a better chance of hitting Setsuki’s divekicks.

--The very end of his win pose no longer has a camera-wobble.

--Goldfish (C then C) now has a sound effect.

--Polished numerous reaction animations for Argagarg specifically. That is, when Argagarg reacts to getting hit by various cinematic moves, such as supers, yomi counters, and throws, he now looks and moves better.

STAGES

--Fixed an issue on the left side of the Fox’s Den stage where some moves (such as the Dragon’s air C or ground C toward the left) that move the camera would show a large black object blocking part of the scene.

--Added environmental sounds to Tavern, Fox’s Den, and Wall of Truth stages.

MISC

--When you get a counterhit (hit the opponent out of the startup of their move), the hit sparks are now different looking and reddish, so you can better tell that the counterhit happened. This video shows two normal hits (yellow sparks), followed by two counterhits (bigger, orange sparks):