Capcom Gamers Day Round-Up: Street Fighter X Tekken Shows Grit

Image via Complex Original

Capcom Gamers Day Round-Up: Street Fighter X Tekken Shows Grit

We might be knee deep in the 2011 holiday gaming season, but Capcom already has 2012 on the brain. Last week they showed off their upcoming wares at their latest Gamers Day media event.

No new titles were announced but we did get to dig deep into the likes of Dragon’s Dogma and Asura’s Wrath. And that included some hands-on time on top of the thorough presentations by guests from Japan.

While this day-long event only featured six games, Capcom certainly made them count, which is more than you can say about some other game publishers’ media events.

Dragon's Dogma

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

March 27, 2012

It might be too much to expect Dragon's Dogma to be Japan's answer to The Elder Scrolls series, but I wouldn't be surprised if this RPG's world is at least half the size of Skyrim, which wouldn't be a bad thing. This JRPG already has a lot going for it, most notably by being one of the most detailed open world RPGs I've ever seen. Capcom's Monster Hunter didn't grab American audiences as much as Japanese gamers, but Dragon’s Dogma looks to be a more promising effort. The impressive art direction and monster designs will resonate with Western RPG gamers, as well as its familiar well-paced gameplay.

Indeed, not only do the battles look like they flow well, but they appear to be very involving beyond just straightforward attacking and spell casting. Capcom showcased a sequence against a fittingly large, laser-firing Golem in a demo that illustrated how to utilize the most of your environment; like finding and using a conveniently-placed mounted arrow gun. Not all the enemies will be as large as the Golem, but for those who are, you can look forward to some engaging Shadow of the Colossus-like mounting which obviously adds another welcome dimension to the combat.

This demo also included an introduction of the character creation mode, which appears to keep up with the kind of depth we’ve seen in RPGs of late. I give extra credit to games like Dragon’s Dogma that even allow you to pick your character’s stance and posture. Then there’s your main character’s motivation itself, who is seeking the dragon who stole his heart. No, this isn’t a romantic tale (I think); a dragon literally ripped the heart out of the hero. Yet by some miracle, this heartless warrior lives on as an “enlightened one” and whose destiny is now tied to that dragon.

Street Fighter X Tekken

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, PlayStation Vita

March 6, 2012

Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

November 15, 2011

Playstation Vita

February 22, 2012

While nothing new was introduced for this arguably overdue Street Fighter Vs. Tekken matchup, far be it for us to refuse additional hands-on time with this game. It features a lot of the technology and gameplay from the critically acclaimed Street Fighter IV including EX Attacks and Super Combos but it also has fighting mechanics that’ll be familiar to Tekken fans such as the 4-button combo system.

Visually, this spin-off has a slightly grittier look than Street Fighter IV, which at least complements the intensity of these matches, not to mention Kazuya’s perpetually angry visage. This has also been an opportunity for Capcom to bring back characters who weren’t playable in Street Fighter IV, namely Hugo and Poison.

In regards to Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, clearly I have narrow conceived notions about Japanese game character aesthetics, because I thought that Rocket Raccoon was actually a character from some obscure Capcom game. Nope, he's actually a Marvel Comics character from the 1970’s.

He knows his way around a Gatling Gun, but he also has more animalistic skills like burrowing underground and keeping himself float by spinning his tail. Helping Arthur represent the Ghosts ‘N Goblins series is Firebrand goblin.

His agility and claw attacks could potentially make him a mini Wolverine, a Wolverine that also spits fireballs out of his mouth. Riding the wave of his return to Dead Rising in Off The Record, Frank West is one of the most unsurprising additions to the roster. He certainly has had a ton of experience fighting and he certainly comes equipped with everything from a camera flash to a shopping cart special attack.

Then there’s Ghost Rider, who is one of the new characters I’m looking forward to play more of, especially after being on the receiving end of his chain attack multiply times (not a combo, but an actualm metal chain).

Asura's Wrath

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

February 21, 2012

For this very angry game, we got more hands-on time with the E3 demo though Capcom has since fine tuned this prolonged boss fight of an episode. The most noticeable tweak was in adding more cutscenes to shed even more light in Asura’s backstory.

And yes(!) we finally found out the reason why Asura’s.....er....wrathing! Well, we all express ourselves differently when our wives are murdered, our daughters are kidnapped and we’re framed for murder. Not since Dragon Ball Z have we ever seen an entertainment property featuring so much pent up aggression.  

Love it or be ambivalent about it, Asura’s Wrath’s gameplay embraces quick time events, as evidenced by the sheer number of QTEs we already seen in these few demos. This is all okay in our book because the game appears to have a lot of room to feature other forms of gameplay such as on-rails shooting, traditional third person brawling and even chase sequences.

Seeing more than just boss-centric chapters this time allowed us to fight against other enemy types, which mostly appear to be amped up versions of familiar zoo animals.

The thing that gets us the most excited about Asura’s Wrath are the sheer moments of Looney Tunes...lunacy: a planet sized demi-god trying to smudge Asura with a nation-sized index finger or a sword that stabs our hero as it bores through a planet. Those are just two of the many TV-style episodes that make up the overall flow of the game.

Speaking of flow, it’s quite remarkable that the game can switch between gameplay styles, camera angles, and segue into cutscenes without any loading interruptions. This was especially poignant during a battle when Asura was holding his own against a small army all the while duking it out without arms! The zoo animals take a break and make room for enemies that can be described as Buddhist mechs.

Asura starts off in the standard third person view with quick attacks and kicks that toss foes in the air, and when he’s ready to deal the finishing blow to the mid-boss, it is with a seamless transition to a QTE headbutt.

Resident Evil: Revelations

Nintendo 3DS

February 7, 2012

Capcom have already gotten their feet wet on the 3DS with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, and now Revelations is the developer/publisher's opportunity for a completely new and original story. With this level of experience, its of little surprise that the series’ second foray on the 3D handheld is looking like a worthwhile successor to the same familiar gameplay of Resident Evil 4 and 5.

This latest presentation focused less on the core gameplay and story specifics, and more on  features.  We got an in-depth demo of the Genesis Bioscanner and its practical functions, one of which is spotting invisible Hunters with cloaking capabilities. This scanning device would only be useful if the game allowed you to switch to your weapons quickly, and this is certainly the case in Revelations.

We were also introduced to two new characters, Keith Lumley and Quint Cetcham, two tech savvy operatives who are helping out Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. In the demo, Keith and Quint were actually in a snowy outdoor environment, indicating that the cruise ship won’t be the only setting of Revelations.

I made the mistake of not asking the Capcom representatives, but I left the Gamers Day wondering if Keith and Quint’s questionable voice acting was meant to be a placeholder or if it was all intentional.

Whatever the case, I’m optimistic about the overall narrative as Capcom has outsourced the story to anime screenwriter Dai Sato, whose credits include Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex to name a few of his credits. Moreover, he is a self-confessed Resident Evil otaku.

Revelations will also feature an enhanced score attack set up called Raid Mode. This two-player MP mode--playable via wi-fi or Internet--takes areas from the story and focuses more on killing as many enemies as possible. In fact, the enemies feature both levels and health bars this time around. But the same goes for your character as you can level up, not to mention opportunities to collect loot.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows

March 20, 2012

Of all the games at this Gamers Day, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City would be my pick of the event, slightly edging out Asura's Wrath. This might be the first Resident Evil co-developed by a Western studio--SOCOM’s Slant Six Games--but from what we’ve seen so far, it has a lot going for it to make it worthy of the Resident Evil name.

Going back to Raccoon City in the midst of the original outbreak potentially opens up a sizable can of retconning worms. Yet if you’re going to revisit this now-infamous town, you’d might as well tell it from a less explored perspective, namely from the very organization that caused the outbreak in the first place, The Umbrella Corporation.

As members of the company’s security service, you’re tasked with destroying all the evidence linking Umbrella to this outbreak. Aesthetically all the squad members (three male, three female) look visually inspired by the more familiar Umbrella operative HUNK.

With all the dark gear, gas masks, and menacing goggles, it was easy to picture Operation Raccoon City as Killzone in the third person, which actually got me more excited about this game.

Optimistically, bringing the squad-based experience of Slant Six Games seems like a good fit for a franchise that has been fine-tuning its multiplayer experience since 2003’s Resident Evil Outbreak. The off-center character positioning that series creator Shinji Mikami introduced in Resident Evil 4 is here, and as well as cover system.

Based on the presentation and our own hands-on time with the demo, we find it hard to believe that Operation Raccoon City won’t have some moments of suspense and horror-inspired tension and surprises.

My heart rate jumped a couple times when opening doors with the infected waiting on the other side, and the demo showed of frantic backpedalling as the squad was taking on one of the large bosses of the game.