Zeo
Well-Known Member
Well, I finally did it, the videos I posted in the media section were the catalyst to what you see before you, a topic of discussion and hopefully, activity and matchmaking.
Name of the game is Hinokakera: Chaotic Eclipse, a 2010 revision of a game that originally came out over a decade ago, and one that features netplay! (The primary reason you see this topic here before you now.) The game has always been obscure due to it being a japanese PC fighter and coming out in an age where SF4 had put fighters on the map and it was lost in the flood. But nonetheless it's a fighter worth playing and a blast at that. And maybe, after reading this topic, it'll gather a few players to reignite the dead flame that is it's playerbase.
Now, let's get started.
Full Game Guide and Character Movelists by Nekich/Encogen: http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=233843
Features
- 4 Button layout (Light, Medium, Heavy, Special)
- 2.5D Fighting plane.
- 13 Diverse and unique characters.
- 2 System modes 'Assault" and "Technical" (functioning like CVS "Grooves") that drastically change the playstyles of each character as well as varying abilities across each mode.
- 2 separate power meters for super/ex attacks and for the respective system modes.
- Netplay functionality.
- Low PC spec requirements (I've played this on a very old laptop).
- Low filesize requirements.
- Overdrive mode which can only be used once per match to regenerate meter, cancel special moves into eachother and unlock each character's ultimate attack!
- Functions from 2D and 3D games alike such as Sidestep, ground and air teching, guard canceling, guard break, just guard and more!
Point here is to generate interest in this gem of a fighter and if enough people get interested maybe I'll make a skype group devoted to this game and we can have a real circle of players going. Don't graze over this game, it's plenty fun, deep and you won't regret giving it a try.
Coming Soon: System Features in depth.
Name of the game is Hinokakera: Chaotic Eclipse, a 2010 revision of a game that originally came out over a decade ago, and one that features netplay! (The primary reason you see this topic here before you now.) The game has always been obscure due to it being a japanese PC fighter and coming out in an age where SF4 had put fighters on the map and it was lost in the flood. But nonetheless it's a fighter worth playing and a blast at that. And maybe, after reading this topic, it'll gather a few players to reignite the dead flame that is it's playerbase.
Now, let's get started.
Full Game Guide and Character Movelists by Nekich/Encogen: http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=233843
Features
- 4 Button layout (Light, Medium, Heavy, Special)
- 2.5D Fighting plane.
- 13 Diverse and unique characters.
- 2 System modes 'Assault" and "Technical" (functioning like CVS "Grooves") that drastically change the playstyles of each character as well as varying abilities across each mode.
- 2 separate power meters for super/ex attacks and for the respective system modes.
- Netplay functionality.
- Low PC spec requirements (I've played this on a very old laptop).
- Low filesize requirements.
- Overdrive mode which can only be used once per match to regenerate meter, cancel special moves into eachother and unlock each character's ultimate attack!
- Functions from 2D and 3D games alike such as Sidestep, ground and air teching, guard canceling, guard break, just guard and more!
Characters
- Weapon of Choice: Dark Energy Blade / Fighting Style: Balanced.
- Main character. Good range, well balanced, good tracking, whiff punishing, deceptive safety, easy to use and big damage. Great starting character.
Personal evaluation: Can't really go wrong with him. He has a nasty command grab in technical mode and overall he's easy to get into and does insane damage. His sidestep is kinda bad but all around a good choice to adjust to the game. He needs meter to become really scary however and he doesn't have very good answers to zoners that can stay outside his attack range.
- Weapon of Choice: Summoned Swords / Fighting Style: Space Control, Keepout
- Moderate ease of use, good overall damage output, decent normals, AMAZING space control, keepout and oki.
Personal evaluation: He's the best character in the game. He controls nearly the entire screen, is mostly safe and in Technical mode he can cancel the few openings in his space control to become safe. S tier Assault, SSS Tier Technical. If you use him, screw you.
- Weapon of Choice: Claws/Light Energy / Fighting Style: Balanced, moderate emphasis on aggression/trapping when necessary.
- Presumed moderate difficulty, good close game and average zoning with burst traps and psycho crushers. Good dash which crushes most highs.
Personal evaluation: Never dug into her, she's not too amazing but she's a good character up close and one you need to be aware of from a distance as she can capitalize on mistakes with her mid to long range burst bombs and chargable psycho crushers. In technical mode she gets a cage attack that if not blocked, traps the opponent for a few seconds. She's not amazing imo, but should not be underestimated.
- Weapon of Choice: Zweihander / Fighting Style: Close Range, Strike/Throw mixup.
- Difficult to use, very slow, high damage, command grabs for ground and airborne opponents. Deceptive special that hits low. Technical mode grants increased movespeed and super armor for a short time.
Personal evaluation: I think he sucks, worst most speed in the game, his normals bloooow and his damage isn't superior enough to justify using him over other characters. His range on some of his specials is nice but overall he's not getting in vs good zoners and getting outplayed by faster chars even with his counter special. Silvis and Celestis being his hellmode matchups. If this game had tiers, I'd put him at the bottom. Might doesn't necessarily make right.
- Weapon of Choice: Martial Arts / Fighting Style: Rushdown/Mixup based.
- Fastest character in the game, easy to get into, harder to master. Fistfighter only so no real ranged attacks. Excels in mixups from teleports, good tech traps and oki game. Reasonable damage.
Personal evaluation: The character I see most DOA players flocking to when first picking up the game. She's the fastest and can mix up the world with her overheads, teleports and overall speed with teleports making the range game easier on her vs other characters. The teleports however are not very safe and cannot be used liberally. All in all she's rushdown and mixup but if your agression isn't focused and intelligent she's getting outranged and outzoned. IE, scrubs will be exposed.
- Weapon of Choice: Short Sword, Fire Enchantments / Fighting Style: Agressive.
2 Fire modes (Fire Swd and Fire Aura), short range supplemented by her varying specials, EX specials and supers in both modes. Lots of priority and damage that piles up fast. One of the few characters with an airdash and air backdash to close distance as well as pressuring. Moderate difficulty.
Personal evaluation: My 2nd character. She can enter 1 fire mode at a time for a set duration and do it without using meter or use a meter to enter both modes at once. She's got lots of priority with her fire sword uppercuts and fire waves making fire sword the primary offensive mode, fire aura has superior 2 meter supers and is required for her big damage.
Great character that can hang with the best of them at close range and close distance without too much difficulty. However, she needs fire augmentations to really get going. Technical mode grants the ability to increase the duration of her fire modes. All in all she's a problem and one you don't want getting in.
- Weapon of Choice: Dual Handguns, Shotgun, Grenades / Fighting Style: Keepout.
Long range based fighter, mediocre normals, requires reloading when ammunition has ran out, infinite use of grenades that explode even if he's hit, also great for oki. Difficult to use and handle.
Personal evaluation: An irritating character, but a beatable one. He can get up to 25% off of easy gunshots into an EX shotgun blast for only 1 meter. However, he only has 5 shots on each gun and once he runs out of bullet he must reload one gun at a time unless he spares the meter to reload both. If he runs out of bullets you are going to have a seriously hard time.
His normals are nothing special and he has no legit gap closers or methods of opening you up outside of grenades which leave him extremely vulnerable. Always keep him reloaded and use grenades to cover yourself. Technical mode reloads 1 shotgun ammo. Extremely annoying but not unbeatable. Let him waste his bullets and rush him down.
- Weapon of Choice: Elemental Gems, Magic / Fighting Style: Space Control, Zoning.
Elemental Gem controlling mage, zoning/space control based character. Mediocre normals and CQC but exceptional space control with elemental gems that detonate on command. Extremely difficult to use. Technical mode gives her a retreating teleport further increasing difficulty to approach.
- Personal Evaluation: A character I've never touched or seen in action nor have I cared to use. However she posses a lot of potential to be scary. 3 different gem types, 2 for damage, 1 for trapping, all of which can be detonated on command and slowly seek her opponent while on the field. She also has a counter special for stopping oncoming attacks as well as an unblockable grab super further bolstering her defense making it difficult to approach her. Her close offense game to compensate, well... isn't very good.
No one has ever used her so her potential at this point is unknown, but in the right hands she's a potential nightmare.
- Weapon of Choice: Fire Spear / Fighting Style: Aggressive.
Has no ground dash/run but instead flies forward into the air. Can double airdash. Primarily close range fighter, good air space control. Safe. Possesses few special attacks.
Personal Evaluation: In the scheme of things, she's not very good. She has the least special attacks out of anyone in the cast and the few she has aren't great. A straight thrust, a stab flurry, an air spear throw to control space and an uppercut that can only be done while she's airborne (because the best anti air is an anti air while you're IN the air, right guys?)
Her normals have decent pushback for safety and her flight gives her easy overheads but she can be air grabbed at any point while she's airborne and she can't block while flying making shutting her approaches down fairly easy. In short, she feels like more of an annoyance than a threat. Her supers are dangerous however, so be wary when she has meter. Tech mode gives her a little invincibility before a burst for a good get off me tool, but it doesn't amount to much and it whiffs easily.
- Weapon of Choice: Magic, Summons / Fighting Style: Keepout, Extreme Space Control.
Incredible Zoning ability and space control, great oki game, safety all around. Bad CQC supplemented by an unrivaled range game. Easy to use and manage.
Personal Evaluation: If Silvis was SSS tier, this guy is a VERY close SS tier. He has some of the best space control you've ever seen with instant lightning (623A/B/C) he can place in front of him or at mid screen, it's completely safe and spammable and the A version cannot be sidestepped. He also has a summon special that goes above him throwing a javeling down, in front of him comboing into his lightning easily netting over 2k damage and one that tracks the opponent and appears behind them regardless of their placement on screen.
To make matters worse he has a multi hitting jump C to make approaching him ridiculously hard and a safe 6C that pushes the opponent halfway across the screen on contact. Fire missles that you can use to track your opponent by holding the button at the cost of safety. And if you feel like sitting still and blocking he has an incredibly fast full screen command throw that appears below your character's feet no matter where they are on screen and the only option is to jump, move or step, and if he feels like burning a meter, he can increase the damage with it's followup. Assault mode gives him a lightning strike from his palm that goes half screen and Technical mode gives him a seal that tracks the opponent and shoots a blockable lightning strike a few seconds later making for some troublesome oki if he even feels like going in.
Oh and the icing on the cake, he has 3 teleports with little to no recovery, one sends him towards you, one does nothing and the other sends him a fair distance away and can be spammed quickly until he's a full screen away. He has no real close game to speak of but he has everything he needs to keep you from ever getting in. He's broken, if you use him, screw you.
- Weapon(s) of Choice: Daggers, Great Sword, Dual SMGs / Fighting Style: Balanced.
3 Separate fighting styles (Daggers, Great Sword, Dual SMGs) all with different normals, specials and supers. Can be switched using a meter. High damage potential. Varying range from CQC to mid screen. Overall speed and safety is moderate to high depending on the fighting style. Combo potential dependent on execution and style switching mid combos and on the fly. Very difficult to use.
Personal Evaluation: My 3rd character. She can rush down, mix up and oki fantastically in Dagger mode, control space vs close range based characters in GS mode and can mixup the world in SMG mode with her command teleports and gun kata cancels. However her range is questionable in the first mode, movement is pitiful and super armor is sorely lacking in the second mode and ammunition is limited and does not reload in the third. Every mode has varying uses and the player must be savvy to switch modes on the fly depending on the situation.
All in all she is a character that rewards reads and mostly execution. There are characters however that can hang with her and require half the execution she does. Technical mode gives her a token that reduces damage scaling when switching styles mid combo. She's a fun character, but weather or not she's worth the work is up to you.
- Weapon of Choice: Claws/Light Energy / Fighting Style: Rushdown.
Pure rushdown, anti air, overheads aplenty, quick forward dash that does under many standing attacks. Possesses unique "Heat" gauge that increases during battle and effects certain normals and specials as well as unlocking EX attacks depending on it's level (Red > Orange > Yellow > White (Full). No real range game to speak of but covers space quickly through ground and air psycho crushers and EX versions grant invincibility. High damage output. Moderately difficult to use.
Personal Evaluation: If you want rushdown without all the nonsense, this is your character. Certain attacks build up the heat gauge and if you hit 100 and the bar goes white, she turns into a completely different character. Her speed increases, her normal throw can now be comboed off of, her normals and certain EXs are boosted and her primary 2 meter super takes nearly half health on hit. Your primary goal should be to lock down your opponent and get to 100% Heat as fast as possible to dispose of your opponent quickly.
She has nothing but close quarters combat but her psycho crushers close distance quickly and the EX versions will charge through any attempt at zoning making getting in for her fairly easy. Simply put if she has meter or in white heat mode, you have serious problems. Simply put, she's solid.
- Weapon of Choice: Katana/Unknown Energy / Fighting Style: Balanced, emphasis on mixups, whiff punishing and unpredictability.
Solid CQC and effective mid range game with limited space control. Exceptional whiff punishing and great damage off of single strikes with overall above average damage output. Decent oki game. Stance based (2 Sword stances), great sidestep, moderately unsafe, cannot block in either stance. Loads of super armor on EX stance attacks. Needs meter to shine. Moderately difficult to use.
Personal Evaluation: As my main, I have more Kakeru knowledge than I do with any other character. This character is fast, has great range, an answer to zoners with his incredible range 236B which can be used to transfer him into Hiku stance (214B). A command grab for those who like to block and massive super armor on on his Hiku stance EX attacks and invincibility on his Katsugu stance (sword stance 2) EX attack for those that try to capitalize on his in-stance vulnerability.
He's very unsafe with some of his stance attacks on guard and cannot run in Hiku stance but can mix up with his solid mid-low game and capitalizes greatly on assault brake canceling to increase the damage of his already strong ground BnB game. Technical mode's addition of 4 dash normals (2 that his low) that can be canceled into any special attack (such as Kakeru's 236C which hits low) or super attack.
Assault mode grants him a full screen sword slash that hits the opponent regardless of their position on the screen and causing a knockdown, further increasing his ability to fight zoners and range based opponents. Technical mode grants him a counter which counters any close range attack and negates any projectile.
To be blunt, he's a character that rewards solid play and will get you killed if played predictably or sloppy. An overall strong character with enough tools to get him through just about any matchup.
Point here is to generate interest in this gem of a fighter and if enough people get interested maybe I'll make a skype group devoted to this game and we can have a real circle of players going. Don't graze over this game, it's plenty fun, deep and you won't regret giving it a try.
Coming Soon: System Features in depth.
