I'm surprised nobody's made a thread about this yet. It just came out on steam.
Blade Symphony's a "tactical swordfighting" game by the same people who made the Dystopia mod for HL2. There's a few different modes but primarily it's a game about dueling. Two dudes enter, one dude dies. Unlike traditional fighting games there's only one attack button that's modified by factors like your stance and movement. Not at all like mount and blade and such, combat's very flashy and mobile with a lot of different fancy and not-so-fancy moves.
It's also got a brick wall learning curve. There's four characters and five weapons. Each character has his own moveset and fighting style, and the different weapons have their own properties as well. While using different weapons doesn't change a character's moveset, they radically alter the way he's played, so there's a ton of different ways to play and quite a few viable ones. There's four different stances, Air, Fast, Balanced, and Heavy, and you can switch between them to combo, going from Heavy 1 to Fast 2 and 3 then jumping in the air and resetting for an Air 1 for example. It's a lot of work to mix up combos instead of staying in one stance, but it can be worth it to throw people off.
Judgment is a mix of samurai and western knight, specializing in big, slow attacks. He's the slowest character in the game but a skilled player can exploit openings for devastating effect; a judgment with a katana can potentially one-shot you under the right circumstances. He also has a few surprisingly fast attacks like his Fast 3 and Heavy 3, fitting into his playstyle of punishing mistakes.
Phalanx is a fucking bitch a fencer-style character with a couple good playstyles but they're mostly overshadowed by his rapier skills. He's pretty much made for the rapier and his fast combo will annoy the shit out of you as you're learning the game. Long range, very fast, high damage, and very spammable. Like any spam tactic in any fighting game, learning to beat fastspam phalanx is a rite of passage.
Pure uses Wushu styled combat, long combos, and I don't really know much about her. She has the flashiest moves and they look cool but that doesn't really translate into combat power. She's not used very often but I've seen some good ones before. Probably the hardest character to get into.
Ryoku is a breakdancer and the most mobile character, bouncing around the arena and hitting you with feather duster attacks that add up because you just can't hit him. Then while you're disoriented he drags his scimitar across you for a ridiculous multihit bonus that kills you dead. He also has a very nasty fastspam but it's fallen out of favor compared to Phalanx's. Neither fastspam styles will last five seconds against skilled players.
All of the characters are viable at all levels of play from what I've seen, and if there's a meta I haven't seen it, which is very nice. All the weapons are viable as well*, but probably not on every character.
The Longsword (as in medieval longsword, not dungeons and dragons longsword) is the basic weapon. Pretty much average in every respect, probably the highest baseline damage of any weapon but it doesn't reach the crazy peaks of some of the other weapons. A good weapon for beginners, viable on every character. It also has a block ability on right click that's pretty unbreakable and makes longsword the best weapon for beating fastspammers if you know the openings in their combo.
The Katana is very honobru weeaboo weapon. Does less damage overall but has powerful parries. Parrying is when your weapons collide mid-swing. Whoever has the higher stance (Self explanatory, but air beats heavy and fast beats air) wins the parry and gets to finish his move while the opponent's move is interrupted and has a longer recovery time. If you win a parry with katana and hit the opponent with your swing it does double damage. If Judgment parries you with a charged heavy attack you're dead. Instead of blocking it has a feint, allowing you to cancel attacks and fake the enemy out, setting them up for a parry when they go to punish you. Very few people actually use the feint though.
The scimitar* sucks. It has low damage but it does increasing damage with each multihit (that is, multiple damage points in one swing, which happens when your weapon stays in the enemy's hitbox) which can lead to some intense damage spikes. Its block is identical to the longsword's and it's mostly a longsword but not as good.
The rapier is phalanx's favorite weapon and aside from a few niche strategies he's the only one who uses it. It does bonus damage on thrusting attacks with more damage the straighter the thrust. It also has a pseudoblock that can create openings but breaks against multihits. When you parry with the rapier instead of interrupting their attack it turns the player 45 degrees to the side. Due to phalanx's fastspam and the very complicated block/parry mechanics, the rapier has the lowest skill floor and the highest skill ceiling. It's easy to dunk noobs with fastspam but really mastering the rapier is the hardest thing in the game.
The Jian is for comboing. Each hit with a Jian increases your attack speed allowing you to combo faster than other weapons. Instead of blocking it has an interrupt move that can cancel an attack and leave the opponent open for a full second. Mostly pure and ryoku use the Jian for its combo but a few Judgments use it as well; the intercept can leave you open for a brutal counterattack.
There's a ton of different weapons, though the stats are all identical, available for unlock with the game's currency. There's no free-to-play mechanics involved, you can only earn stuff through gameplay. The game's also integrated with steam workshop and there's already a sizable collection of player made weapons and masks.
Anybody play? What character and weapon do you use?
Personally I've been playing katana phalanx. It's a change of pace from the fastspam rapiers that often surprises people, and since nobody uses feints it's double surprising. I've gotten a couple kills on Diamond and Master tier players with it by exploiting the feint mechanics. Phalanx's parries are very strong because of the rapier synergy. Feinting and parrying with a heavy side attack will do half a player's health, and he has a bunch of hilarious air-cancels available with the feint. Jump+Airfeint+Air is basically a doublejump that always catches people by surprise, or you can airfeint and Q to teleport grab. Tons of fun.
Come join the Cut Dude Fighstravaganza and Cut Dudes.
Oh my god this thread's a mess.
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Topic: Blade Symphony - Cut Dude Fight Game on Steam (Read 2626 times)