>Jul
- Aug 2008 Feedback
Reviewer
for IGN. . . Skill-deprived?
Whats up F.Yagami. I've been
a fan of your site for a very long time and been watching it grow over
the years. TFG has been on my favorites list for as long as I can remember.
Don't know if you remember
playing me online but I was thoroughly impressed with the way you handed
my ass to me on a silver plate in soul calibur IV. I can't beleive you're
that damn good at the game already...your Mitsurugi is BEEASTLY!!!!! You
guard impacted the shit out of me and those strings were bloody deadly.
I thought I was good at soul calibur because I can beat all my "button
masher" friends easliy. Like you said in your review, button mashing doesn't really work in this game.
I liked how you called out IGN on their review because I also read IGN's review and that last part
grabbed my attention in a negative way. I'll even quote him on it.....
"My last problem with Soulcalibur
IV is a significant one, but one that can be briefly stated. Sometimes,
button mashing can get people a long way in this game. Moves are just way
too easy to pull off and timing is often irrelevant as certain characters
can string moves together as smoothly as water (take Maxi, for example).
I suppose this makes the overall experience accessible to beginners, but
it can be discouraging for hardcore fighting game fans. This isn't always
the case, of course, but when some of the most powerful moves can be executed
just by pushing two face buttons at the same time, there's going to be
plenty of mashing going down." -Ryan Clements, IGN
Timing irrelevant? I think
I'm going to be sick. ;p
Duh, unskilled people mash
in every fighting game, but that doesn't mean it works against good players...
What a fool! Two of my friends I would consider "Maxi mashers" and
I always wipe them out with my Siegfried or Nightmare... Yes I consider
myself a good player. unlike them I actually know some combos and ring
out strategies. What's the gaming world coming to? I can't believe a game
reviewer for IGN would be so skill-deprived to think that mashing works
in a game like Soul Calibur IV. It pisses me off to think how many people
read that IGN review and think that Soul Cailbur is button masher friendly.
I'd like to see them try against my Siegfried or Nightmare. Thank heavens
for sites like yours man, you tell em' like it is.
Thanks again Frank for the
awesome site updates as usual and I look forward to getting better at
Soul Calibur IV so I can be a better challenge against you and other top
players.
I sent you a friend request, I want revenge for what you did to my Siegfried!!!
Peace,
-R3negade
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Frank
replies: Man, what a great read... It was refreshing to say the least.
Yes, that's exactly the part of the review I was referring to. It's
quite narrow minded to make accusations like that about a "new" fighting
game, especially when they've only been playing it for a week at the
most. I honestly believe they pushed out that review a day or
two after SCIV came out... Maybe that's why they think button mashing
works... 
Idiots I tell you.
Button mashers might do fairly well against other human players
when a new fighting game first comes out... But in no way does that
mean it's going to work in the long run; and it sure as hell shouldn't
work against "good" players; thus, it's not an issue or a problem, even
though Ryan Clements seems to think so. He's obviously not
a good player, but I would think a "well paid" mainstream game reviewer
would realize that the game "just came out;" and button mashers will be
destroyed
once hardcore players got a little practice in.
He talks about Maxi's move strings like they're hard to deal with... 
We'll, if you go through practice mode with Maxi, and get somewhat used
to his basic moves and stances, they're suddenly not so foreign anymore.
Maxi becomes a dangerous opponent when a skilled player uses creative mix
up and combos, not when someone just mashes random buttons.
<---- Ryan gets a big rolleyes smiley from me. Basically, if you want
to get good at any fighting game; the more characters you learn, the better
at the game you will be. You don't need to memorize everyone's moves, but
if you're familiar with what each character can do, then you won't be as
surprised when you get hit with certain moves; and ultimately will properly
be able to block or parry.
I wonder how many people out there might still think "Soul Calibur IV is
button masher friendly," and I hereby open a friendly invitation
to any "button masher" who thinks they can get 1 round
on
me in Soul Calibur IV (with a 4 bar connection or high). Send your requests if you're out there...
PS3
Username = FYagami. Button mash or spam, and get 1 round on me, and
you win automatically.
I have to get 3 rounds to win of course.  That
shit doesn't work.
Thanks for the compliments on my new and improved Mitsurugi... He's still
"in training". And we'll definitely game again soon,
you're Siegfried aint bad from what I remember... I just happen to be a
halfway decent Siegfried player myself... Which, of course, helps at fighting
against him.  Take care, and
practice up!
~TFG
Webmaster
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Site Kicks ass!!!
Bro!
Love your site freaking awesome,
also I added your banner/link to our blog
keep up the great work bro!
PEACE!
Mike " Maikeru Rocks! " Melendez
(Founder)
Jump Punch Kick Entertainment (Co-Founder)
The
Dreamcast Battle Network
-Everett, Massachusetts
USA
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Frank
replies: Thank you for the praise on the site... Glad you've been enjoying
it. Also thanks for adding a link to TFG on your cool Dreamcast page! I'd
love to attend a Dreamcast themed fighting game tournament, as I still
play my Dreamcast quite frequently for MvC2... Ahh, I still love my Dreamcast.
How many people do you usually get for your tournaments?
~TFG
Webmaster
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Megaman... X... Volnut... EXE?
Hello, Frankie. For years,
as a Megaman fan, I knew about the inaccuracy of the "Megaman"
profile on your site, but I chose not to say anything. I thought you might
fix it on your own. With the recent news of Megaman Volnutt's inclusion
in "Tatsunoko vs. Capcom",
I felt like I had to say something. I find it strange that you gave different
versions of the exact same character seperate profiles (Ryu and Evil Ryu,
Ken and Violent Ken, Jin and Devil Jin, etc.), yet you have artwork of
4 different versions of Megaman that are in fact not the same character
in Megaman's profile.
The profile information about
Megaman on your site only applys for the Megaman you've seen in Marvel
vs. Capcom (1 and 2). He is the original one and is only referred to as
"Megaman". Megaman fans refer to his game series as the "Classic" series.
The Megaman with the red jewel-like
ornament on his helmet is "Megaman X" from the "X" series. He is the only
Megaman that wasn't featured in a fighting game, so I found it a little
odd that you had artwork of him on your site, much less on the original
Megaman's profile. You also have a single sprite of him on the first
"Megaman
Animations" page. There are 2 other artworks of him (technically, it's
a "clone" of X) as seen in the "Zero" series, where Zero is the main character.
If you're not sure which pictures I'm talking about, their urls end with "megaman-verycool.gif" and
"megamanzerox.jpg" respectively.
The Megaman without a helmet
is Megaman Volnutt from the "Legends" series. He is usually seen in artwork
with his spiky brown hair. He is rarely seen wearing a helmet. As previously
mentioned, he was recently revealed to be in "Tatsunoko vs. Capcom" and
2 other characters from his series (Tron Bonne and Servbot) were playable
in "Marvel vs. Capcom 2". As you may already know, he was also in "Namco
X Capcom".
The only other Megaman I didn't
mention is the one with yellow shoulder pads and looks like he's wearing
a body suit. He isn't a robot at all (he is actually a computer program.)
His name is Megaman.EXE from the "Battle Network" series and he was a hidden
character in the PS2 game "Onimusha Blade Warriors".
In case you were confused
about all these different versions of Megaman, I hope I was able to clear
things up.
-ElementGodX
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Frank
replies: Hi Sean, thanks for the run-down on Megaman. I'm honestly
not a "big" Megaman fan, so honestly; I probably couldn't look at
a picture and tell you which version of Megaman it was. 
I did however know that there are a handful of different versions
of Megaman, and for his profile; I thought it would be best to feature
ALL of his "incarnations" under the sole Megaman profile. The reason
I added different versions of characters (like Ryu and Evil Ryu), is that
they appear as "playable" characters in different games. As you know, up
until now there has only been one version of "Megaman" in a fighting game...
So it's self explanatory why I didn't add a Megaman X profile, for example.
I also
wanted to make it easy for my visitors to find pictures & animations
of ALL of forms of Megaman... Why discriminate?
Like I did for Jack's profile
(from Tekken), as Jack, Jack-2, Jack-5, and Jack-6
are all on a single profile. I figure if people are looking for artwork/pictures
of a fighting game character, they should get what they're looking for
all in one place... Some of the Megaman X and Megaman Legends
artworks
are quite cool; so I couldn't help but add them under Megaman's profile.
I'm sure for a die-hard Megaman fan, it might be borderline "painful" to
see all the different Mega Mans' on one page... So I understand where you're
coming from. I'll probably keep the layout for the Megaman page the same,
but I will continue to work on the "general" info for Megaman; and make
sure people know there are many different versions of Megaman.
Thanks
for the mail!
~TFG Webmaster
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One
of the last vestiges . . .
Dear F. Yagami,
Let me start out by saying
I'm a big fan of your site. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that
you're the only really reliable website left when it comes to Fighting
Game news and coverage. Seriously, what happened to all the good
Fighting Game websites out there? What happened to Higher Voltage
and Mad Man's Cafe? I really think you're the only one who's
keeping up with everything that is Fighting Games and for that I thank
you!
I espically appreciated the
fact that you came back after all those leachers kept direct linking to
you pictures and kept sucking your bandwith. You didn't give up,
you overcame and persevered.
Out of all of the new Fighting
Games that are coming out (Street Fighter IV, Soul Calibur IV, King of
Fighters XII, etc.), which one are you most excited for and why?
For me, it has to be King
of Fighters XII but maybe that's because I haven't really heard any news
on them. Street Fighter IV is probably next yet I question their
direction to make it feel more like Street Fighter II than anything else,
especially with the production of SSF II Turbo HD Remix.
Is there a Fighting Game out
there that you don't really feel excited for or just feel like you'll blow
it off until later? Does such a thing exsist for you? You seem
so hyped about every game that comes out.
Soul Calibur IV, just from
what I've seen, is the game that I can't but feel less and less excited
for as more news comes out. All of the other, mainly female characters,
that have been revealed so far look great but the other ones, the Star
Wars characters, is what's gotten me feeling not so good about this game.
Darth Vader, his apprentice, and Yoda in Soul Calibur? I'm sorry
I thought this wasn't Soul Calibur IV not Soul Calibur cross Star Wars.
I'm probably in the minority here, and I probably should reserve judgment
until I get my hands on it, but it just doesn't feel right to me.
In the past you use to number
all of the feedback entries but then you stopped. I know this was
because you decide to post later feedback and come back later to the earlier
feedback that you didn't do for those months but you have caught up now,
right? Why did you stop?
I know this website is your
pride and joy but I was wondering if you would like feedback on what's
wrong with the website or do you prefer to just work on the site by yourself?
Take for instance the Character
page for Yashiro; the normal way to get there, via the character page,
links to his profile alright but if you go to Chris's character profile
and click on the link for Yashiro it leads to a dead link. I guess
the question I'm trying to ask is would you like people to e-mail you problems
like these or do you prefer us not to?
I see you have Arcana Heart
up for a game profile. That's really cool; it's really good to hear
your opinion about that game. This leads me to wonder if you'll add
similiar games to your website as well like Melty Blood, Big Bang Beat,
or Akatsuki Blitzkamf? Are these games worthing of being on your
website or do you think it's in the same league as all those Naruto and
Dragon Ball Z fighters?
Oh, btw, I also read that
you might relent in the future and actually put game profiles for those
games! Please don't do that! No matter how many people say
you should I think you should just stick to your guns and reiterate you
stance on why you'll never put those games on there!
Well, thanks for taking your
time in reading this e-mail. You are a great person and I can't thank
you enough for creating such a great website for the Fighting Game fans.
Truly, one of the last vestiges of dedicated Fighting Game website.
Sincerely,
-LJ Talon
|
Frank
replies: Thanks for the compliments on the site! I have also seen the
death of many good fighting game sites, but like you said, TFG outlasted
them all... And you'll be happy to know it isn't going anywhere for a long
long time. Now, to answer your questions:
1.
I'm
honestly most excited about Tekken 6 hitting home on PS3... I can't wait.
I'm also stoked about the home version of SF IV and KOF XII, but both of
those games are simply too far ahead in the future to really get
excited about them.
2.
The fighting game that I'm least excited about is, of course, Mortal
Kombat VS DC Universe... The animation and gameplay look rather stiff
so far. Hoestly, if they don't do something drastic, I think it's going
to "bomb" with the true fighting game fans. A bomb in a not good
kind of way, that is. 
3.
Yes,
I stopped numbering the feedback simply because sometimes I went back and
answered older mails, which would obviously mess up the numerical order...
I decided that numbering the emails wasn't worth the extra time and work
anymore, so I stopped.
4.
I appreciate and welcome any critiques / corrections on the site, and I
absolutely would like to hear about any errors or broken links that you
might find, that way I can fix them immediately! And yes, I always did
prefer working on the site alone; but there are a handful of generous people
who send me content, so I don't feel as alone as I used to!
5.
Personally,
I'm not a fan of the games you mentioned... But it's possible I'll add
them. But don't worry, there's still no chance of Naruto or Dragonball
games popping up on TFG.
~TFG
Webmaster
|
What
is your thing against FPS's?
First off I'm going to say
I am an artist who gains much inspiration in my comics and designs from
the variety of characters in games you review on your site such as Soul
Calibur and Guilty Gear... my two favorites. (Of course I like Tekken and
Samurai Shodown as well, but back to my point..) What you have here on
this site is a blessing to all fans, seriously. Oh, and I bought Soulcalibur
IV the day it came out, now all my friends want to mooch off of my 360...heh heh. Your review of it was spot-on...I agreed with all your pros and cons...yes,
I wish it would return to the style of the second game, but I loved Soul
Calibur IV's quality nonetheless. But I must ask... what is your thing
against FPS's? I've been a hardcore Halo 3 player for a while now, but
I like my fighting games, action adventure, RPG's, and FPS's all the same.
What gives, Mr. Yagami? =O
-Matthew V.
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Frank
replies: Ahh good question, I have mixed feelings about
FPS's... The
first FPS I ever played was Wolfenstien 3D, and the second was Doom.
I played my first online FPS when the original Quake came out, which
was undoubtedly my favorite game to be playing at the time. I played
that game online, non-stop; for
over 3 or 4 years straight, I believe.
Several years later, I felt that FPS's were becoming more monotonous and
repetitive with each one; and the thrill of the FPS and online FPS "died"
for me. My love for FPS's were brought back with Goldeneye 007 for
the N64, it was a blast playing it with my friends at that time. After
Goldeneye,
I don't believe I touched another FPS for a very long time. I was of course
still occupied by fighting games; and even started playing online fighting
games, using
Kaillera, for quite a while... Which took the place
of the thrill I got from playing online FPS's.
These days; in the next-gen, I have found some appreciation, and
almost love, for certain FPS's. There are actually three that I
have enjoyed in the last 3-5 years. Resistance: Fall of Man, Call
of Duty 4, and Warhawk (which I'd call more of a third/first person
shooter)... Each of which I have put quite a few hours into. I must
say I've spent many late nights having good old online multi-player fun
with Warhawk and COD4, and I'm not a bad shot either. Even
though these games are great, they still don't measure up to the level
of fun that I had with the original quakte... Quad rockets were the original
pwnage.
At the end of the day, no, I'm not a "big" FPS fan. "Pointing, shooting,
pointing, shooting, running, shooting" simply gets boring for me after
a while. I like to "space out" my FPS experiences, as you can see... That
way, when the "next gen" of FPS's come out; I should be blown away. Makes
sense right? And in case you were wondering, no, I'm not a fan of
the Halo series. I actually despise Halo for it's mainstream,
and in my opinion, undeserved popularity. Halo 3 was on my
damn drink cup from Taco Bell I believe...
it really made me sick. 
~TFG
Webmaster
|
So, Amnesia huh?
It's not like Capcom actually
uses characters that look so starkly similar in appearance in the same
franchise without there being some sort of relation first.
Amnesia is a pretty good cover
if you ask me.
-Master Melzas
|
Frank
replies: Interesting observation!!! I totally missed that one... Yeah,
Abel and the long lost Joe do look alike, pretty much having the
same haircut... Does Abel's Amnesia have anything to do with Joe? Is his
middle name Joe? It's definitely
up for speculation now that you brought it up.
~TFG
Webmaster
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Tiffany
Figure . . .
Dear buddy
first of all my heartiest
appreciation for such a website ur running keepin it uptodate thts really
awesome highly appreciate tht please let me know i have seen ur collection
of figures, 1 figure got my attraction very much its tiffany figure in
red and black dress from where did u get it i have searched it on ebay
and google but didnt find anything like tht pls let me know from where
did u buy it.
best regards,
-Daniel
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Frank
replies: I picked up that Tiffany figure from a local anime convention.
Those "gashepons" come in a box, and usually you don't know which figure
you'll end up with. Good luck finding them online, I don't think you'll
have much luck...
~TFG
Webmaster
|
Akuma
fan art...
Just thought I'd show you
a drawing of Akuma I did not too long ago.
-Brandon H.
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Frank
replies: Cool fan art... I like Akuma's baggy pants! Hehe.
~TFG
Webmaster
|
He
kept Force-Bombing her . . .
I've been through story mode
with almost every male character (My girlfriend's working on beating story
mode with the females), and I can say without a doubt that Starkiller is
the most OBSCENELY difficult character to beat.. It took my girlfriend
almost 45 minutes just to beat the son-of-a-bitch, cause he kept Force-Bombing
her. There is only one real way to beat him; make sure he doesn't
get up, or trap his ass in a corner and wail on him until he flatlines..
For this, I used Kilik, since he has both the range, speed, and power moves
to make sure the force-users stay down.
I am going to be unlocking
him (Starkiller) tomorrow, so if you've not played as him yet, I will let
you know how he plays.
By the way, to unlock
Starkiller,
beat Arcade Mode with Darth Vader.
-J
|
Frank
replies: I dont usually make dirty jokes... but... Force-bombing her? That just sounds dirty... Ha ha. 
Yeah, that bastard is pretty tough at first, but once you get used to his
moves; believe it or not, he's not "all that"... In my experience
at least. I hate to brag, but I did beat Mr. Apprentice the first time
I fought against him in arcade mode, with my Mitsurugi. I did however spend
quite a while in practice mode before I ventured out to arcade mode, and
let me tell you, it helped. And just to brag some more (sorry), I've yet
to meet anyone online who could beat me with the Apprentice. For
some reason, I hate him so much; I refuse to lose to him. 
~TFG
Webmaster
|
Next-gen
system shopping . . .
I'm going next-gen system
shopping next month.Thing is I love fighting games and I don't want to
make the mistake of buying over 200 dollar worth of something that may
not offer any fight plessure at all.
What systems do you have?What
do you recommend?I want a PS3 and Wii but I don't know which one to buy
first,since I only have money for one now.Don't even say anything about
Xbox360,my brother has it and it sucks!I mean sure the system has some
good games like Dead or Alive 4 and Virtua Fighter 5 Online,but I just
HATE the 360 controller.If there was a PS2 like controller for the 360
than maybe I change my mind but as of now my brother doesn't like to share
it so I must get a system of my own.I want PS3 because I have PS2 and I
want to play the new SoulCalibur(I'm sure we all do)but I'm on a tight
biget and I feel like I won't be ale to get it or I can get it but it'll
be the only game I'll have for a while,and It might get boring.I want a
Wii because it has Super Smash Bros and I like it but I'm not that crazy
for it you know.I also have a lil sister who might like it and enjoy playing
it with me because she can't seem to understand some the games I play on
ps2.She also like Soul Calibur 3,so thats a plus for PS3.I just can't seem
to decide,I'm gonna get them both eventully but it's one that I need now
for the summer.
Please help,I've always used
your site as a resource for all my fighting game needs,I want to hear your
opinion.
Thanks for your time,
-THE GREAT TEKKEN LORD
|
Frank
replies: As far as the "newer" stuff goes... I have PS3, PS2, PSP,
Dreamcast, and DS... My girlfriend also has a Wii so I have access to that
as well (and it kicks ass). I never liked the original Xbox or 360, like
you said, the controller is horrible; and there really aren't any
games on the 360 that I want to play that the PS3 doesn't already have.
So I'll be a Sony fanboy and say go for the PS3!!!
I got it at the launch and honestly I've been very happy with it since...
It's only been getting better and better since it came out. Also be sure
to get the backwards compatible 80 gig PS3 so you can play PS2 games on
it as well; it really makes them look better!
As far as fighting games goes, PS3 owns the 360... Don't forget
about all the awesome PS2 / PS1 fighters that you can play on your PS3!
Not to mention the PSP exclusives!!! Playstation 3 FTW... (for the win).
~TFG
Webmaster
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God,
legend, or beast?
Hey Mister Yagami,
I just wanna say, I've been
a long time fan of the fighting genre scene, and this is the MECCA of all
fighting games known to man...'Cept for Brawl, but hey, you said it yourself
it's not a fighting game, and that I believe somewhat, considering if you
were to make a character page for Pikachu, I would see a very grave future
for the TFG...a VEEEERRYYY GRAVE future. XD
Anyway, I was just wanting
to get your opinion on a little sumtin'. Since you are quite the fighting
game enthusiast, and Tekken player extraordinaire (Name's Mr. E. Mann if
you ever see me in Arcade mode on the PS2 home version...by the way, is
that even real? O-o) I wanted to get your opinion of EVO, which is just
about the biggest fighting game tournament ever assembled.
Have you ever been there,
and if you have how well have you done? Also, what's your thoughts on some
of the more professional players, like Justin Wong?
And while I'm on that subject...
IS THERE NO FIGHTING GAME
HE'S GOOD AT?!?!?
I mean, I saw Moment #37 back
in 2004, but that only happened because he was facing Umehara, and you
do NOT win against him in SF:III. But aside from that, he's a veteran of...lessee
here:
-MvC2 (Not to mention he had
the comeback of the year in the EVO World Finals)
-Guilty Gear
-SF:III
-SFII Turbo
-Tekken (Although, I dunno
how good he is at that.)
-SF Alpha
-Vampire Savior
And get this...PUZZLE FIGHTER.
I kid you not, good man!
Well, now that that's over
with, I wanna know you're opinion on this man. Is he man, god, legend...or
beast? If you've never heard of him (Which I doubt you have :p) then just
know that all these games he plays in...he wins 99.9% of the time he plays.
With that said, may the future
of TFG live on!
-Rory C.
