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Report Skullgirls Encore to receive Japanese arcade loctest from November 28-30!

So how do these loctests work? How do we know they're doing good?
 
For those wonderong why there's so few videos and pictures from this: you're never allowed to use cameras at these tests.
 
- We have made a new challenger animation, you can drop in whenever.
- We tried hard to get them to allow cameras at this, because we would LIKE video! I dunno our lobbying was unsuccessful or what.
 
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Cellsai said:
For those wonderong why there's so few videos and pictures from this: you're never allowed to use cameras at these tests.
Oh okay, so the people who filmed it are cheeky kunts?

Mike_Z said:
- We have made a new challenger animation, you can drop in whenever.
- We tried hard to get them to allow cameras at this, because we would LIKE video! I dunno our lobbying was unsuccessful or what.
What is the phrase and is there an actual voice line or is it only text?
 
oh yeah i remember watching a stream where you guys were animating the effect of the challenger drop in. Here's me hoping that Tomar's manly chest hair will make this line sound HYPE as heck. delicious hype.
 
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Mike_Z said:
"FIGHT FOR THE SPOTLIGHT", no voice line...yet.
That's pretty cool.

Arcade mode challenging when

like in 3SOE where you can choose to either have a menu for rematching or do it traditionally where the loser has to press start to play again
 
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Japan is very stingy with these loctests...

Also is the animation and sound clip going to only be for the arcade version or will we console people get these later on? (I like new aesthetic stuff)
 
I personally have low to no knowledge about arcades,popularity of a game to get played there,and how Skullgirls Is taken by Japanese players (though I know that there are a group of Asian players who play the game).

But I'm pretty proud and glad for Skullgirls and LabZero to have made It thus far.That's some nice stuff right there.

Good job everyone Involved for all the hard work!
 
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Just back from a short stint at the loctest. I am exceedingly tired, so you're only getting a brief writeup and pictures will wait till tomorrow.

General:
The loctest is a single versus setup, meaning two Viewlix arcade cabs back to back. A single credit is 100yen.
The game systems and character move lists are all displayed on the cab so new players can get a quick run down before they play.
It's held on the main fighting game floor of Hey!, right inside the main staircase, so it's hard to miss if you're on the floor.
Hey! also has a couple of screens linked up right at the entrance to the building showing some of the games being played. Skullgirls was on one of these screens, so even people just entering the building or passing by the entrance can see SG being played.
There's a small area set aside for people to line up and play. There's also feedback forms set aside for anyone that wants them and a suggestion box to put them in.

I got there pretty late so there wasn't many people around. I can't gauge how popular it was during the day. I'll ask around.

Game setup:
The entire game is in English.
It's 100yen to play. By default you'll go into Arcade Mode as seen in the console versions. You play a series of random characters, however, as per usual loctest rules the game will auto game over after you've won a certain amount of games in arcade. I think it may have been 5 games.
If another player puts in a credit, "Fight for the Spotlight!" appears on both screens and you're immediately taken to the character select.
On the character select, the original player is locked to their character and assist. The new player chooses their team and their selections are visible on the opponents screen as they make them. No blind pick here.
The game itself is set to best of three rounds regardless if you're on teams or singles. This acts identically to the console version: if you're singles, it's downs. If you're teams it resets health and meter.

New assets:
The only actual new things I spotted were the "Fight for the Spotlight" thing, "Insert Coins / Press Start" above the life bars and a Continue? screen that says "Encore?" with a picture of the Skull Heart.

Issues:
The loading screens were pretty decently long. Maybe I'm just spoiled by running on a pretty decent laptop but they were pretty noticeable.
Large teams or anything involving Big Band causes very noticeable slow down. If someone calls BB as an assist it immediately starts chugging. 1v1 Big Band matches caused slowdown. I even got slowdown by calling Cerecopter while j.hking with Valentine. It's not game breaking bad, but it is very clearly slowing down.

Random side note:
I bumped into one of the clean-up artists who has been cleaning up since Peacock. She just arrived in Japan a couple of weeks ago and spent her eight hour layover in Russia cleaning up Beowulf frames. Be nice to Nicole, Lab Zero!

(Okay, maybe not so brief)
 
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The game doesn't make everything pixelated when there's a lot of stuff happening? Weird.
 
Shout outs to @Kura_kei on twitter
https://twitter.com/kura_kei/status/538670476306812928

B3m979ICUAE1A9-.jpg:large
 
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Big Band is too big.
 
This reminds me of how in arcade GGXX, Sol's grand viper would cause slow down not present in the console versions. It would also make mashing out the move for maximum hits much easier too.

erkicman said:
So according to Cat Drugs (Hey! That's a name I haven't heard in a while!) they game may have had a tendency to overheat and slow down badly. But maybe it had to do with Big Band?
Big Band's voice is just too HOT for arcades.
 
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B-but muh assists...
 
Yeah, I don't think I've even seen a fighting arcade cabinet with more than 6 buttons (minus start). So, I'm sure people are used to it.
 
Maaaaan, i wanted this to go off without a hitch but there's so many things wrong here. Slowdown, english, 6 button cab...

Man i hope that the japanese can look past this stuff and see the game for what it is... So many hopes rest on this getting a decent arcade following in japan.
 
What arcade cabs have 8 buttons though? I don't think it's unexpected for 6 buttons, they can't just add more buttons just for SG.

Slowdown will probably be a major turnoff though...
 
Hopefully arcade goers know how old Taito X2 is and can look past the slowdowm.
 
EA575 said:
Hopefully arcade goers know how old Taito X2 is and can look past the slowdowm.
Sega save us with the ringedge:0
 
But there are peeps playing it yeah? T-they're liking it right? R-right Mike?

Also does the game have all the characters that have been released since now or just the usual 9-gals roster?
 
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Yup the cabinets look good. all we have to do is upgrade the tech in the machines just a tad... you know add some more ram should be good after that.
 
Dime_x said:
Maaaaan, i wanted this to go off without a hitch but there's so many things wrong here. [snip] 6 button cab...
What?
I'm honestly surprised people are surprised. Get used to playing it the real way! I do. :^)

The slowdown will get fixed, finding stuff like that is the POINT of the loketests. It's testing the port, the opposite of what loketests normally are. :^P
English was apparently by request. I guess English is cool in Japan? Heh.

And yes, this build has everyone currently available in the Real Game, including Eliza.
 
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Wait, people really play SG with macro buttons ON STICKS?!? o_O' I'd never thought there would be any advantage to be had from doing this. Anyways, I've always played the real way on stick, so it looks cool for me.
 
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It's easier to press one button than try to find two diagonal buttons in the middle of a match?
 
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But who actually tries to find buttons? Just treat it like a move, I dunno, like drill claw or lightning attack. I'm just saying that on stick people should learn default, for situations like this, not every cab will work like a mad catz stick (which is essentially a pad that's why it has extra buttons).

I even teach the people who play in arcade we have in the university not to use the PPP/KKK for ultra, since when they go to tournies, other cabs etc, they won't find these or the people they'll borrow sticks won't have 8 buttons etc. Better to be prepared for any situation than get very used to something that might get you killed in a match.

Also I mean no offense to people who use them, I was just honestly surprised. I'm sorry if that's how it sounded.
 
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Mwisk said:
But who actually tries to find buttons? Just treat it like a move, I dunno, like drill claw or lightning attack. I'm just saying that on stick people should learn default, for situations like this, not every cab will work like a mad catz stick (which is essentially a psd that's why it has extra buttons).

I even teach the people who play in arcade we have in the university not to use the PPP/KKK for ultra, since when they go to tournies, other cabs etc, they won't find these or the people they'll borrow sticks won't have 8 buttons etc. Better to be prepared for any situation than get very used to something that might get you killed in a match.

Also I mean no offense to people who use them, I was just honestly surprised. I'm sorry if that's how it sounded.

Lol... You really don't know the power of assist macros?

Let's just say that "high level sg" is an 8 button game on stick.

If you ain't using macros you ain't doing it right.
 
Standard JAMMA is actually just 4 buttons. 6 buttons requires a special harness to enable it.
 
Dime_x said:
Let's just say that "high level sg" is an 8 button game on stick.
If you ain't using macros you ain't doing it right.
That's not true at all, nor are you qualified to make such a statement. Keep it on topic.
 
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Mike_Z said:
The slowdown will get fixed, finding stuff like that is the POINT of the loketests. It's testing the port, the opposite of what loketests normally are. :^P
English was apparently by request. I guess English is cool in Japan? Heh.

"finding stuff like that is the POINT of the loketests" - this. SO much this.

Stupid question here...

How much control does LabZero have over fixing bugs and flaws in the arcade port? Is it like the PC Port where you're free to shoot down bugs and submit new versions with the simple press of a "submit" button? Except this time you submit updates via the NESICA network? Or is all this stuff outsourced to the company making the port at this point? (Who is this Japanese partner anyway? M2? Marvelous AQL? I'm really not clear. Forgive me.)
 
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I'm back from the loctest! (and from the dead apparently)
I'm not much on Skullheart lately, but I'd like to give my report and pics and videos, hopefully someone likes it!

I went to Hey! Arcade and stayed there from 3~5 and from 7~8:30. There was one arcade running SG and a line to play, like Cellsai said, and three screens showing the game: One in the arcade's entrance on Akiba's Chuo street (which is like Akiba's main street), one next to the line and one on the emergence exit behind the line. When I went in the early afternoon there seemed to be a lot of interest in the game! The line was somewhat long, and I think there were around 6~8 people who were playing frequently, going back to the line after playing. Most players I saw seemed to be already seasoned players. But there were a lot of interest in the screens; two guys were watching it at the entrance, 2~3 in the stairs behind the line and around 4 in the screen next to the line. Some of them stayed there watching for the whole time I was there!
There was less interest later at night, with only 3 people circling in the line. I didn't stay much but it seemed like throughout the day there were a lot of different people coming and going rather than it being always the same people.

As for a personal report.... This was my first real arcade experience and it was really really fun. I managed to have fun even tho I'm just a casual bad player! I'm a tad upset I got shy and didn't try talking to anyone >>;;
I did feel the slowdown and it was a little bit distracting. For me it seemed to occur on the Final Atrium stage with a really j.hp happy Filia.
I also thought it was kinda weird that the arcade was in English, but I don't think this is going to be an issue since you have limited options in arcades anyway. Story mode should be in Japanese if it's in, but the rest is just flavour text
*edit* Also apparently japanese really love the Synergy shirt because I saw two wearing it today. It made me giggle when they were standing next to each other ♡

Anyway! Have some pictures! I tried not to take pics that showed people's face too much because people don't like that, but I kinda failed, so huh sorry everyone but Mike wanted pics
http://f.cl.ly/items/1x1Q3I213G423e2j2G1a/IMG_5711.jpg
http://f.cl.ly/items/1r1z1u2o1S3z0p3I2f1M/IMG_5714.jpg Arcade entrance
http://f.cl.ly/items/3B290M3C0S2U43163M0V/IMG_5718.jpg Our bby cute arcade
http://f.cl.ly/items/0G3i3d2B2W1M0O2N190Q/IMG_5719.jpg Pic of the line
http://f.cl.ly/items/1n0s0z182C421o0E4042/IMG_5720.jpg The TV on the emergency stairs
http://f.cl.ly/items/0U252g1c101L360K370m/IMG_5729.jpg
http://f.cl.ly/items/0Y201G3u2W0U3B0i462A/IMG_5735.jpg More arcade goodness

Videos! (done!) [sorry they're bad and some kinda short, I didn't want to get in the way]
 
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