This update to Fantasy Strike is available on Steam right now.

The main things in this update are a lot of bug fixes to online play, Geiger now capable of facial animation, and some more polish for Argagarg's various Bubble Shield visual effects.

ONLINE FIXES

--Fixed a desync that occurred after Rook knocked down Lum with air C then stood right next to Lum as he got up.

--Fixed some overlays (i.e. Move List) being impossible to close when the opponent disconnects.

--Fixed a desync online that could occur when one player had the options menu open.

--Fixed visual effects flickering when Geiger does his Time Stop super, and also during some other super cinematics.

--Fixed some underlying tech that caused visual effects to sometimes flicker during online play.

--After online matches, the score screen no longer displays crazy values of XP that give you like 10 levels at a time. Also, XP values have been restored to their correct amounts (no longer include the buggy XP that was given out).

--If for some reason you don’t receive the server’s signal about how much XP you should get after a match, the score screen no longer forces you to wait a full 10 seconds before leaving. You now get the ready / change character / leave queue buttons right away, even then.

--When going from Arcade to QM, after the QM finishes it resumes Arcade correctly (it wasn't doing it when clicking "Ready" in Score screen).

--Fixed a bug that could match you with online opponents even AFTER you left the matchmaking queue(!).

MISC

--Fixed a bug that occasionally showed your character in a blocking pose even while secretly you were doing other moves, such as walking or attacking.

--Attacks that are classified as weak or medium now have slightly more pushback.

--If you lose a match in arcade mode, there is no longer a countdown timer when choosing whether to try again or not.

CHARACTERS

GRAVE

--About half of Grave’s hitboxes have been revised to our new system. You will probably not notice much about this. The point of it is that it fixes various small, edge case errors where occasionally moves whiff when they shouldn’t. It’s basically “cleaner” under the hood now, for half of his moves at least. The only intentional gameplay change here is his jump A, which now has a bit worse priority. (We don’t have a lot of anti-air attacks, so jumping attacks don’t need to be that high priority.)

--Fixed a bug introduced last patch where Grave standing in idle had incorrect pushboxes, causing Setsuki’s air C to sometimes push him rather than actually hit him.

--Revised Grave’s shading. Now smoother to avoid weird looking highlights that he had after his model was changed to have facial animation.

JAINA

--Skin shading slightly smoother.

SETSUKI

--Hold C throw has 12f more recovery if it whiffs.

--Hold B throw has 10f more recovery if it whiffs.

--Fixed (again) an issue that could sometimes cause Setsuki’s hold-B throw to face the wrong way.

ROOK

--Updated the animation for his ground super attempt to match the hitboxes. No functional change.

GEIGER

--He is now able to have facial animation. (The other 9 characters got this ability last patch, so now all characters are capable of facial animation.) This was a huge technical challenge and took a long time.

--Now has facial animations for main menu and character select.

DEGREY

--New animation for B->B punch. (Gameplay is the same, just a cosmetic change.)

--Adjusted the visual effects and hitboxes on forward+A elbow. This is just to make the hitboxes match the visuals better, and for the visual effect’s energy/dust to feel more polished. (It was a bit “wonky” before.)

--Fixed a technical error on DeGrey’s coat that caused a visible gap between the top and bottom half of his coat, just below his belt.

--Costume color 4’s shirt is dark red instead of bright red.

MIDORI

--Dragon Form now has voiceover.

--Fxied a bug that let Midori use his empowered throw (when he’s glowing, after he parries) at impossible times during his blockstun.

--The Dragon’s wings no longer vibrate crazily when he’s on the 2p side.

--Fixed a bug that caused the Dragon’s B torpedo move to travel a much shorter distance if done one frame before landing.

--Fixed a bug in practice mode that caused the character-specific setting for Midori’s empowered throw to do nothing. It now actually turns on the empowered throw state.

LUM

--Fixed a bug that made his (rare) mini-Rook item deal damage only on the first hit, rather than on each hit.

ARGAGARG

--Bubble shield’s small bubbles are now animated and orbit Argagarg. There's also a transition animation when the bubbles go between "useless small bubbles" and "large single Bubble Shield."

--New visual effects for when Bubble Shield pops (both from when you block an attack and when you pop it yourself with Air C -> C).

STAGES

--Dojo stage performance improved by about 8% fps.

