So last week. FighterZ Season 3 released and a few days after Kefla released. They allowed anyone who purchased the season pass to play the new DLC characters 1-2 days early.
Season 3 brought some much needed changes to the table. Some I haven't even checked out yet. I'll just note the main ones.
New assists for every character
Now every character in the game has 3 different assist to use. There functionality is universal across the board. Some are clearly better than others but boiling it down you'll find they all serve the same purpose.
A Assist - Main assist characters had at the start (So yeah Vegeta's is still the top tier in that regard)
B Assist - Alternate move somewhat being an interupt or help with guard breaks.
C Assist - Combo Extension
C Assists take a long time to recharge since they're also the most versatile.
Last Character on Team gets a buff and gains 1 Meter
So not just counting Sparking Benefits. You also gain another buff that applies to the last character remaining on the team. They now recieve a damage buff along with gaining one meter. This allows for a stronger comeback. Great more comeback mechanics. I only say this cause now what's being shown in videos is that thanks to this buff and especially LVL 3 Sparking you are capable of executing touch of death combos on characters.
EX Moves only take Half Meter instead 1 full bar
This means the heavy versions of special moves only taking half a bar can lead to better comboes and still have meter left for supers. The EX Moves have been tweaked to reflect the half meter use however.
Battle Dojo Mode
Probably my main highlight. The game finally has a proper tutorial. Not as great as say Blazblue CP, Skullgirls, or Under Night In-Birth EXE Late(st). But its there. Now I can say that this game isn't just throwing you to the wolves. There's still things that this game doesn't cover but I can let it slide for now.
Other things
Can cancel 5L into Dragon Rush.
Assist do not recharge during block strings until it ends.
Charging Ki can deflect weak ki blast (S)
Charging Ki can be cancelled into Super Dash
Mashing up-forward twice (9,9)can give an instant air dash. (Still iffy on this)
Character patches (OBVIOUSLY)
Kefla
She's more toned here than she is on the anime.
They put the loudmouth in. The descriptions I've been given is that this is Female Bardock. Female Vegito with Picollo's scattershot. Or the girl with the undodgeable LVL3.
There's truth to those descriptions. Might be a bit exaggerated. A lot of her normals are multi-hitting and can be jump or special cancelled. She's got plenty of rushdown.
This is a low.
My favority special of her's is Gigantic Breaker. Holding the button down has her rotate the blast before throwing it at her opponent.
Let's find out just how lucky you are.
Another note is her LVL 3 Super. This move hits everywhere. Whether you're jumping, dashing, or even vanish behind her. You're getting hit with this move. The perfect combo ender.
There are ways to punish it. Essentially if she throws this out raw trying to bait you. Another LVL 3 can generally beat it out if it's the 2nd in the cinematic animations to go. Or if you have a move that counters projectiles. (need some timing though)
Hits EVERYWHERE!
What's notable about this lvl3 is that not only it hits everywhere but it'll autocorrect so that the full animation of the move hits everytime. Unforntuately this move doesn't have a Destructive Finish....
Well Kefla's great. Just once again not a character I'm willing to play as. Feel like I'm not gonna utilize her tools at all. Not to mention as a character I don't like her.
Like all characters...There destiny is to be a cookie.
So the next character is ugh... Ultra Instinct Goku. Sigh...
So after dealing with The Imprisoned for the first time. That wasn't as bad as I originally thought it would be. But this was only the beginning of trouble. So now in order to see Zelda we need to power up the sword. That's only done by finding the 3 sacred flames. It's rather obvious where we need to search. There's not much to the world. Essentially we're to explore another section of each land. But first. We have to learn various songs and do trials.
Strum in motion to the Rainbow. Every time you screw up. Your progress is erased.
The Goddess's Harp thing was rather wonky. It's just to use the Wii Motion+ in a different way. Thankfully there's a sort of guide to all so you know not to strum the harp like a madman. Only thing I didn't really like here is that I have to return to a secret temple multiple times for a new song.
Anyway that's only one part of the main thing. The next trial is the SILENT REALM. Another new gimmick to this game. Essentially you have to traverse the same level you explored previously collecting 15 little mcguffins. The catch is you have none of your equipment. The other catch is that you must avoid the guardians from striking you down.
It's not as bad as some people make it out to be. It's really just a matter of making sure you plan your route properly and making note of where each thing is. Wii Motion Plus made this a bit miserable by desyncing my WiiMote at bad times. Considering you're on a psuedo time limit. You have roughly 30 seconds to find each one. Collecting one resets the timer. If you touch certain areas or run out of time the guardians wake up and attack you. If they strike you, you have to restart the trial. Once I finished a trial I got an item I needed to further explore the area I visited.
Faron Woods
After the trial of Faron Woods I got a water dragon's scale. As usual with most Zelda games this allows me to swim better. So now I deal with somewhat feasible swimming controls. Thankfully I don't have to swim for too long in this game. I'm led to Lake Floria where the Water Dragon resides...after she talks about her day to me she gives me the task of finding her some Sacred Water. It's back to the first dungeon I visited. Essentially rerunning the dungeon again but this time instead of Ghirahim stopping me a bunch of Staflos stop me. A group of 3 is rather intimidating. But using shield bash does stun them long enough for me to hit them.
Pour the sacred water into her basin like it's Bath Salt
Back to the lake, I hand...essentially poured the sacred water into her basin like it's a freakin bubble bath. The Water Dragon reveals to me the location of where I need to go for the Sacred Flame to power up my Sword.
Ancient Cistern
Stop hugging I don't want to stay with you guys and your stank breath.
Ah the water temple...which doesn't have a lot of water, Not like other Water Dungeons. There isn't too much to explain here. Just as usual I have to take the scenic route to get to where I need to be. I also get a whip. So now I can Indiana Jones or Insert Belmont name here through the dungeon. But honestly it's not as useful as it could be. I can whip things to activate switches. Whip things to swing past areas, and whip things to take items from enemies. But I can't damage them. Heck this thing really only causes enemies a mild inconvenience. As usual the boss needs to be defeated using this item. Even though it's not as useful as I thought. I ended up using the boss's own weapon(s) against it more than anything. So my sword powers up slightly and it's time to move on.
Despite what you may think the boss's own swords do more damage. IMO
Lanayru Desert
The trial here not as easy as the first but I did it on my first try anyway. We get another useful item. The Claw Shots. Which essentialy makes Link a discount Batman or Spiderman. Unlike the glorified Hookshot/LongShot of old, These also do no damage and you can only propel yourself to certain points on the map. But this does open up a lot of unexplored areas. This also opens up probably the coolest area of the game imo.
Lanayru Sandsea
This was actually cool.
So we have deserts that are just barren wastelands, deserts that are just nothing but sand, deserts with arabian and egypt themes. Then we have what I think is not used too often a difference between lush green land to desert. Thanks to the time shift stones I find out that this place used to be a vast ocean that dried up. Exploring a mine cart ride and ruined factories reveals that we're looking for an invisible ship of sorts. Not a ghost ship.
Say No to Tentacles
This invisible ship is the next dungeon. Essentially spend time getting things up and running again. But thankfully we get what's pretty much the last item in the inventory. The Bow and Arrow. Using this is a bit finnicky compared to older games. I have to actually aim this thing like I'm a sniper and shoot. To make it worse I'm aiming with the Wii Mote which my hand is not steady in the slightest. I'm so used to just target and firing. The end of this dungeon I end up dealing with a tentacle monster. NO NO TENTACLES PLEASE! I still question how the crew managed to get there ship up and running again since it pretty much sunk thanks to the monster. But whatever.
Eldin Volcano
This was the WORST one to grab during the trial. You either over-correct yourself or under shoot it. Either way this was maddening. Especially when you learn an easier way.
Sigh...Back here again. I actually should be happy. I get to see those Mogmas again. And there's a pretty chill bunch. The trial here was a lot harder due to the placement of some mcguffins needing precise motions. My reward here is some earrings that protect me from getting overheated in the volcano.
Fire Sanctuary
The Fire Sanctuary or the fire temple in a lot of cases I would call it the Earth Temple. You don't deal too much with fire here. In fact you're doing a lot of digging around. At first it's just simply using water to progress. Either dousing flames or making platforms in lava. Then you get to digging by rescuing Mogmas. The Mogmas are searching for treasure and got caught. Helping them out upgraded my Mogma Mitts so now I can burrow underground. Which has it's own set of short puzzles. There was one chest I couldn't find a way to get to. I guess it wasn't important cause I didn't see it marked in the guide either.
Skydive into Lava. Yep.
Well there's no boss here. I thought it would be an advanced sub-boss. Which the sub boss was 2 hands made of lava that were easily dealt with once you figured out the gimmick. Instead Ghirahim is back for round 2. He's the same as ever only he can't take my sword. He leaves being angry at me and from there I guess I should go see Zelda. I got the Master Sword now which doesn't exactly look like the Master Sword but it's good enough.
The Imprisoned Round 2
Oh great before I can even see Zelda. The Imprisoned wants to escape and rampage. Also in the time frame I was gone getting the Sacred Flames Groose has built for himself a railroad track and a cart to chuck bombs at enemies below. HOW DID HE DO THAT SO FAST?! WAS I GONE THAT LONG?!
Well Groose is a big help. But my Wii Motion Plus wasn't. I actually game over'd the first time. So probably what happened with the Imprisoned making it's way to the top he ate The old Sage. Whoops. I was actually frusted here cause between the Wii Motion Plus and how fast this guy was moving, This was causing me failure. It felt like I should carefully time when to use Groose cause the first time I didn't have Groose ready, the damn monstrosity climbed up the wall.
I missed one shot and got a game over X_X
Funny the 2nd time Fi actually pops out and gives me advice saying to forget attacking the Toes as I did in the first round and just go straight for the spike on the head. I'm apparently supposed to go for those toes only on neccessity? But it's so much harder to do the direct approach IMO. Oh well following Fi's advice loosely I make it.
Long Chat with Zelda
Oh god this is a part in itself to be honest. I'm dead tired at this point too. Zelda who's in the past pretty much gives a story recap and tons of exposition. She explains that she is the Goddess Hylia reincarnated to be human. And that the Goddess forsaw these events coming and prepared all of this to get rid of Demise, cause she was unable to do so in the past. She also tells us that Hylia couldn't use the Triforce despite creating it. Cause Demise and army was so powerful she seals him away then creates Skyloft...
...
...
...
WHAT?!
You have the Triforce...the thing that is able to essentially do whatever you want...but...didn't use it? Did I miss something important? Cause I'm wondering why go through the convoluted stuff and leave it to the future humans to do so? And considering what I know about Ocarina of Time. It feels like evil is created cause someone was a dick to them in the past and left them with suffering. (Ganondorf being forced to live in a desert with his people and nobody'd help him out!) I dunno...
I'm more angry at the fact that this was essentially pre-ordained. Yeah thank you for giving people a chance. But seriously you forced destiny onto the hands of kids. I would honestly like to hear Demise's side of the story. Heck he could've been misunderstood.
Anyway because of all this. Zelda can't come back. She has to keep praying for the defeat of Demise. Now Link's task (or really my task) is to defeat Demise once and for all. How? Don't know yet. But the answer's gotta be somewhere.
There's not much of the game to go. I've heard people complain about the next part saying that now the game is just padding things out for no reason. But whatever the end is in sight.
