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

This is a big update because it has a NEW CHARACTER, a new stage, new button-macros for throw and super, faster walk speeds, and even more performance improvements. There are also several bug fixes and balance changes.

NEW CHARACTER: ARGAGARG

Argagarg is a water shaman and pacifist wise-fish. In gameplay, he’s a zoner and keep-away character. We won’t be able to create a video about him for quite a while, so we figured you’re rather be able to play him now than wait for that. Here are some tips about him:

Normal Attacks

--His back+A is a long-range anti-air attack. It has kind of low priority, but it’s still a good tool. If it counterhits a jumper, he can even combo to his long-ranged f+A punch.

--Neutral A is a,fast anti-air attack with a good hitbox. It can cancel to specials on hit or block.

--His forward+A is a long ranged punch. It can cancel to specials on hit or block.

--Jump A is a long range diagonal attack. On hit or block, you can cancel it to air C.

Special Attacks

--The B button spits a blue fish (made of water) that does no damage, but on hit will stun long enough that usually he can hit with forward+A.

--Hold the B button down to get a poison fish. This will travel through all enemy projectiles and not get destroyed (!) and it’s unblockable(!). It deals no immediate damage, but it poisons 2 of the opponent’s hit points. After a few seconds, they will lose 1 of those hit points, then after a few more, they will lose the other. You CAN stack this to poison 4 or 6 hit points, etc. If the opponent hits Argagarg while they are poisoned, they become cured of poison.

--C rushing river pushes the opponent away. During the river, you can press C again to summon an orange fish that hits for 1 damage. You can hold back / neutral / forward + C to get three different versions of that fish. You CAN do this move even if you’re doing another move, or in blockstun!

--Jump B is a pretty fast diagonally downward drill attack.

--Jump C is a bubble that lets Argagarg float forward or back. During the bubble, press C again to pop it for an attack.

Super Attacks

--Ground super is Bubble Shield. When the shield is on him, if you block a strike, the bubble automatically pops and can hit. Also, if the bubble is on you then doing jump C -> C will pop the air bubble with a faster, better hitbox.

--Air super is Giant Fish. Summons a huge fish that flies at the opponent and keeps them away, great for using when they are already poisoned.

Argagarg is one of the most difficult characters to play, not because he is physically hard to control, but because the power of his keepaway increases massively if you are good enough to actually keep them away until poison damage has a chance to tick. In other words “half” keeping them away isn’t half as good as fully keeping them away, it’s much worse than that.

Enjoy! He is our last new character for the foreseeable future. More new characters are entirely gated on our ability to pay for more development, so please help grow the community and then we’ll be happy to make more characters after launch.

NEW STAGE: FOX’S DEN

Deep in the forest, the Fox’s Den is a hidden ninja dojo where Setsuki trains. The school even has a semi-invisibility field, making it harder to find.

PERFORMANCE

--The performance during gameplay any time the camera moves away from the default side view has been massively improved. For example, when the camera moves during a yomi counter or a super. This used to drop framerate by about 50%(!), but will now drop framerate by very little, if any.

--Performance during menus (including character select) has been significantly improved (finally!).

--Reduced memory usage of all sounds in the game.

--Added new video option for turning fullscreen antialiasing on. Leaving it off is fine, as it's only a minor visual improvement (that costs like 10-12fps possibly), but if you have a great computer then try it.

GENERAL GAMEPLAY

--All walk speeds have been increased a lot (25%).

--There are new macros of jump+A as well as A+B for throw, and B+C for super. Also, the slop factor on these has been reduced so you don't get them accidentally as much as the old A+B command. This means that using default controls on a PS4 controller, for example, lets you use the left two face buttons for throw and the right two face buttons for super (you can still use the trigger buttons for throw and super if you want). Also, on a joystick, it means that your top row of buttons can be A, B, C and A+B = throw ; B+C = super.

CHARACTERS

JAINA

--Fixed Jaina's ground super not triggering its cinematic when it hits the opponent in the very last frame of its final hit. (oops!)

VALERIE

--Last month we had to remove her hair’s ability to animate, for technical reasons. This month, her hair now moves and bounces again. This movement now looks better than before, does not glitch out on lower graphics settings, and no longer clips through her body. The part where it no longer clips through her body is the kind of thing that is one line in patch notes for you, but the end of a months-long struggle for us.

SETSUKI

--C -> C has 3f more landing recovery.

--Holding C causes the throw attempt to lock in a few frames earlier, so that you can’t hold C then way late into the move still be able to air super.

--Blockstun reduced on the first hit of B and hold B. (If she does the throw option, now Lum can block the first hit and hit back with neutral A.)

--The window to choose between hold B (throw) and B (kick) is 6f shorter than before. So you can’t enter the throw command then change to the kick at the last moment.

GEIGER

--Jump A has slightly worse priority at the tip of the foot.

--Delayed Time Spiral (hold B) has 4f more recovery, and travels faster once it starts moving. This is not for the sake of nerfing or buffing the move, but rather to interact reasonably with his new faster walk speed.

MIDORI

--Midori A,A flurry attack is safer, so that it’s not unsafe on hit against Rook most of the time.

--Fixed a bug with air B kick that would cause Midori to hover just above the ground for one second if the move was done late in a jump, just before landing.

LUM

--Ground super now returns to gameplay cam almost instantly instead of over a period of 20 frames, so that it no longer allows the opponent to do moves off-camera.

--Fixed a bug that appeared last month in Lum’s super that caused the startup to be vulnerable one frame too early. It’s now back to being vulnerable starting on the same frame that it can hit, rather than one frame before that. (In fighting game slang, it’s back to being a “bad reversal” rather than “not a reversal”.)

--Fixed a bug when the opponent did an attack that touched one of Lum’s dice and also Lum himself. Before, such a hit would hit Lum, but deal 0 damage to him. Now, it deals damage as expected.

MISC

--In arcade mode, the ladder screen between fights has new sounds.

--When you’re in arcade mode, then play an online game and return to arcade mode, you now return with the same costume color you had before.

--Fixed a bug that randomly changed the music levels over the course of a session.

--Fixed a bug on the score screen after online matches that made the top of the screen black.

--Fixed a bug during the first frame of all super flashes. When an opponent’s super flash begins, if you input a move during the first 8 frames, you should be forced to do that move as gameplay resumes. This was true for frames 2 - 8 of the flash but was accidentally not true for frame 1.

--Added flag icons to the language settings dropdown menu, so it’s easier to tell the languages apart.

--Created a workaround for the very annoying bug in the Unity game engine that triggers when you’re in fullscreen mode, then alt-tab to another program, then return to our game. Before, this would secretly, silently set the game to your monitor’s native resolution, which could be massively too high to get good framerate. Now, you will return to the game at the same resolution that you left it.

