I played this all weekend. I’ll keep this as short as I can.
The mechanics:
ABC
D
A - Weak
B - Strong
C - Projectile or “Demon” button
D - Dash button
Does anyone here play IAMP? If so, you’ll understand a bit how it works. C buttons are all “demon” moves. Projectiles mostly, and they vary. However, when using the D button, you can dash through them, or “graze” them (iamp lingo). You have a bar above your super meter that’s for the projectiles moves and for dashing. Certain moves take off more of your bar than others. It regenerates over time (quite quickly imo), but when it depletes all the way, it becomes red and you can’t use any of your dashes or C button attacks when it’s red, and it replenishes pretty slowly.
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You can do push blocks by pressing B+C when blocking. This uses part of your bar, and if you’re in the Red, obviously you can’t pushblock.
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Throws are A+D. There’s two throws for each character, arcana style, one that you can combo off of and the other that grounds them and does more damage.
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When doing D button dashes, you can either do A/B or C. So during the Dash, you can only do one of two moves. You can dash and after the dash is over, you can do other stuff, but DURING the dash, it’s one of two moves.
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You have a double jump, but no air dash (without use of the D button)
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You can’t block normals in the air.
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You can cancel regular moves into the D button dash, but being able to do only two moves generally limits the amount you’re able to really accomplish by doing that.
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You can’t die from chip if your bar is blue. If it turns red, you can die from chip.
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The heart system is a bit weird. It starts at one, and I guess your c button moves get stronger as it levels up (levels up more when you lose a round, but still levels up anyways). With the heart system, you can use one heart and do an A+B+C burst, which reds out your bar, but gets you out of the combo you’re being hit by. I don’t know if you can bait and punish this burst yet. Your heart depletes by one each time you burst, too. You can also do A+B+C and activate (not sure if you have to be in max to do it or not). You can do your super AGAIN in the max mode for the rest of your super bar, even if it’s not full (normally needs to be full to do a super).
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Each character has a few specials, and EX versions of each. You have one meter. When it’s 100% full, you can do your super. You can use 1/3 of your meter and do an ex move.
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There’s a “simple mode” which is like Marvel series “easy mode” where instead of doing a DP motion, you can do 2B and get the DP, and JUST A+B for the super instead of like, 236236A+B. A couple people used it, but i think it’s mainly for mashers.
I’m prolly forgetting stuff, but whatever. I’ll give my impressions of the characters from a “playing against them/watching” standpoint:
Angel side:
Kuon (Main character of the good guys) - Very strong, very easy. He’s got solid combos, DP, good range, and is just overall really solid. He’s been winning the most so far. The Ryu of the game.
Asuma (Pilebunker) - He’s also really strong. He does higher damage than most of the other characters, but lacks in mobility and range a bit. His combos looked pretty cool and involved bouncing the opponent off the ground. His EX dash forward move is super quick and takes off a ton of health. Seems pretty safe, too. Not a very exciting character imo, but he’s pretty solid.
Yui (Gun girl)- She looked really fun to use. She had the most iamp-esque bullets, and she has some moves that are crazy fast and have crazy long range. Aside from Nina (who i used exclusively this weekend), Yui was the only other character I had an interest in.
Litch (Priest with book) - He looked cool, too. His stuff was more of an arc than straight forward. He had this one move where his bride comes and heals him as long as he’s sitting there. He seemed to not have as much long range stuff and wasn’t really as mobile as the other characters, but he looked fun.
Noah (Little boy with angel wings on his head) - The only character I never got to play against. Barely anyone used him. He uses rings, and seemed pretty fast, but I don’t really remember much about him.
Daemon side:
Reizei (Main bad guy) - The ken of the game. Generic type, sword and dps and stuff. Quicker than Kuon, but didn’t seem to dish out damage as well. Quick projectiles, tho.
Dusk (Buncha bones) - He reminds me of Fritz from Blitzkampf. He does a lot of single, high damage hits that have really good range. He has this one bone move where he sticks out his 6 bones all in diff directions, and if it hits, it shoots the opp up in the air and does a ton of damage. It does a decent amount of chip damage, too, and it’s really quick. He has another move that goes super long range and shoots the opponent to the other side of the screen.
Kureha (Snake girl) - She was really quick. Her projectiles are balls that moved around and followed the opp slowly, but stayed on the screen forever and stunned on hit for a long time. She had a teleport, too. Her combo involved doing a few hits into her dash into this twirly move a couple times into an ender than shoves the opp against the wall and lets her summon stuff.
Pekomaru (Dragon thing) - He’s absolutely crazy. His rushdown is amazing, he can throw this shadow thing on the ground, and then either summon something from it, or have himself come from it REALLY quickly, long range, and air UB. He can combo into his super pretty easily, and he’s just overall absolutely crazy to play against and to watch. People who like the crazy characters will LOVE this guy. He looks like he’s really fun to use.
Eve (Poison lookalike) - Divekicks all day. Her projectiles are weird, some stop early and disappear, and others go like, full screen really quickly. It’s hard to tell. She can also summon her little bride dude and he’ll come right behind you and grab you leaving you open to being combod for a bit. Her kick that’s a normal (and thus air ub) has super long range and it’s really annoying to deal with.
Dawn (Octopus arm man) - He’s the grappler of the game. I hated playing against him. He’s got long range normals that are strong, command grab, and one of his projectiles moves is this beam that goes full screen and does a ton of hits. He’s just annoying to play against, but I hate playing against grapplers in any game I play, so he’s no different.
I spent the entire weekend using only Nina, so here’s my breakdown of her. Yes, she’s the only one that gets a detailed breakdown. Sorry non-Nina lovers, lol.
Nina (Giant Scissor Loli):
General: I dunno if it’s just Nina or not, but I couldn’t jump cancel my A’s or B’s. It was hard to get used to at first, but I dealt with it. Unlike most of the other characters, however, she can’t do like, 5AAAAAA or 2AAAA, she can only do it once, it doesn’t chain into itself.
5A: Quick poke, longer range than most 5As. I used it the way I use other 5As, except without being able to rapidly do it over and over. It’s good for catching the opp in the air or comboing off of a bounce, tho.
2A: Quick low, see above.
6A: Long range, chains from 5A, and can chain into 6B.
5B: Short range. I didn’t use it much except when i did 5A 5B against an opp in the air.
6B: Long range poke that chains from 6A. You can do 236A 236A after it. Very useful in combos, i didn’t use it too much outside of combos.
2B: a long range Fiona 5C type move, but low. On normal hit it didn’t do much, but on CH, it bounces the opp and you get a free combo. Decent damage either way.
3B: long range low. Long recovery time, but anytime i tried using it, it just got jumped. I don’t think i hit with it once, and i’m not quite sure how to combo from it. 5C maybe? I’ll figure it out later i guess, lol.
5C: Three pillars of lightning shoot in front of Nina. VERY good move. You can combo a j.B from it, and probably more once people go more into depth with what you can do with her. I spammed this a lot.
2C: She shoots a little ball up. It stays there for a bit, but disappears if she gets hit. You can combo afterwards, and you can hold it for a bit, too. If it hit crouchers, it would be a lot better, but some characters were able to avoid it by just sitting there. Sad faces.
6C: Same as 5C, but further away.
j.A: A quick jumping poke. Pretty good, but not as much range as her other jumping moves.
j.B: huge arc sword swing. Giant crossup hitbox, combos into whatever you want on hit, 6A 6B 236A etc. I spammed this SOOO much. If it hits an opp in the air, it grounds them.
j.2B: She aims her scissors downward. Also has huge hitstun. Also very spammable.
j.C: Same as her 2C but in the air in front of her.
j.2C: Downward arrow shot. Very quick projectile. Very useful.
j.6C: Forward arrow shot. Also very quick and very useful.
Specials:
236A/B: Nina jumps forward and does a couple slashes. If you do 236A again afterwards, she does an ender that shoots the opponent into the wall. The first two hits are safe, but the ender is NOT safe on block. B version jumps a bit further but can’t be combod into from 6B. Ex version does it all automatically. You can EX the 2nd part also, but I don’t think it’s worth the bar.
623A/B: DP. Has NO forward hitbox. I found it pretty useless, and didn’t use it at all unless it was the EX version. She jumps really high up, tho. She can do it in the air, so i’m thinking its possible to combo into it, but i didn’t figure it out yet. EX one does a buncha damage if it hits, but as I said, no hitbox in front of her at all, only hits opponents if theyre already in the air.
214A/B: Pogo move. She bounces off the opponent (or ground if she whiffs). You can combo after it, and you can do it in the air too. I’m thinking you can also extend combos with it, but I didn’t really have time to figure it out. EX version does 3 hits and grounds the opponent. There’s more to this move than meets the eye I think, but I didn’t have enough time to mess with it because I was just trying not to lose. You can do it in the air.
236C: She calls out her bride and he shoots out a buncha arrows in an arc downwards. Pretty good, but startup time is really slow, so its kind of hard to set up. You can do it in the air.
623C: Lighting arcana 236E, pretty much. Caught a lotta people off guard. If I’m close enough, I can combo from it. You can do it in the air.
63214C: Power up. Nina’s scissors become electrified and the next hit does more damage and might give more hitstun. I didn’t mess with it too much, tho. Looks interesting tho.
Super - 2363214A+B - Nina jumps and slashes the opponent for a buncha hits, and does pretty much an auto-combo ending with a hit down. You can combo it from 236A. It jumps over lows, too, but it’s unsafe if it gets blocked.
Dash A/B - Scissor slash in whatever direction she’s dashing. Has huge hitstun, but it’s unsafe.
Dash C - Her bride comes out and does a kick straight down. On hit, you can combo from it. Even if you’re at the top of the screen, he’ll kick all the way down. A bit of startup time, but you should really only be using it way above the opponent.
Overall she’s a lot of fun. I had a blast playing with her.
There was also a loc test tourney. 23 people showed up.
First round I had to play Kyamei (top arcana player in kansai) aka guy-girl. Guy-girl uses Reizei. He beat me the first round, 2nd round, he/she spammed DPs a bit too much and i barely won. 3rd round, Guy-girl was way ahead in life, but i got a couple of clutch combos. At the very end, I did a 2B, which hit CH, and then did 2C and then j.B. Guy-girl had like, 20% life left, and i had like, 5% left, and I barely won from that combo! It was really close, and a buncha people started clapping afterwards. It was really cool. That’s my first win against Guy-girl in all the tournies I’ve played against him/her, so I was really happy.
Next round I played a guy who used simple mode with Asuma. He would sit there and if he thought you were gonna do something or if you were jumping in on him, he would do 2B aka DP. And he knew basic 4-5 hit combos that did like, 30% life. He won the first round with stupid stuff like that. I turtled a bit more and played more careful the 2nd round and won. 3rd round, I was way up in life, but he mashed his super out and hit me. I was still way winning in life. There were like, 10 seconds left, so I just ran away and ended up winning with a time out in the 3rd round. Not the way I really want to win, but a win > a loss.
I won my bracket. I was in bracket F. Bracket A and D got first round byes, and then B/C played and then I played the Bracket E winner.
Bracket E winner was a guy who used Dusk. He pushblocked a lot and punished with that quick long range move. However, if you blocked it, he did the DP esque move that does a ton of damage. So I just blocked it and punished it, and I made him scared of using it. I won the first round. Lost the 2nd, but won the 3rd.
Next, I played Kouya, who used Kuon. He had combos down, and just played solid. I didn’t do too bad, but he just beat me straight away, not much else to say.
I got 3rd place tho, which is really cool for my first Demon Bride tourney!
Kouya ended up playing against a Dusk player in the finals and pretty much obliterated him, and became the first Demon Bride champ! He’s a nice guy, so it’s cool. I didn’t mind losing to him. It was a blast overall. There was even a cute girl who entered the tourney and played a bit. Her and her friend were cheering me on, which was cool.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with the game. I don’t know how high level play is gonna look, but i really enjoyed it. Looking forward to playing more of it when it’s released for real!
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