Fighting EX Layer just implemented Rollback Netcode. Crossplay coming. Why is nobody playing this game?

[MajulaDream]

Fun, competent fighting game. Nice cast of characters, including Skullomania AND Terry Bogard. Fun stages and soundtrack. Plus the game has just added an update that brings ROLLBACK for online and crossplay is reportable being tested... on paper you would think such a game would be flooded with players online... but... seems like nobody knows about this game.. what gives?

 

[Kalentan]

For me the art style just isn't very appealing.

 

[entremet]

Flooded? Lol. I liked the SFEX games. But it's a very niche game without the SF cast. I will pick it up in time.

The music in the SFEX games was amazing. Does this game have remixes or new tracks?

 

[antennastoheaven]

Let's be the change we want to see in the world.

Honestly, I'd love for it to appear on Game Pass. or be a free game for Plus/Gold

 

[CommandThrower]

Fun, competent fighting game. Nice cast of characters, including Skullomania AND Terry Bogard. Fun stages and soundtrack. Plus the game has just added an update that brings ROLLBACK for online and crossplay is reportable being tested... on paper you would think such a game would be flooded with players online... but... seems like nobody knows about this game.. what gives?

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I like Fighting EX Layer, but it's a very niche game in a niche genre. That, and people thought that the Gougi system was just like Street Fighter x Tekken's gem system, and that turned a lot of fighting game fans away. In reality, the Gougi system is closer to the Capcom vs SNK 2 groove system.


The addition of rollback netcode and crossplay will help it, though.

 

[Seafoam Gaming]

No physical version, no buy for the MSRP. the differing versions with more characters isn't fun either. I really do want to try it though, even though i usually think Arika's horrid at balancing their games (All their Doctor Mario games say hi)

 

[Rickenslacker]

Came out on PC way late, without a discount that compensates for that lateness, and without rollback. It had no reason to have a population. It's cool that they're adding this stuff after the fact, and I want to hop in, but it's an uphill battle now and might be too little too late.

 

[akilshohen]

I bought it Day 1 at $60.... I can't STAND that fighting games in single player are starting to gravitate to 3 rounds out of 5 instead of two out of 3. Matches are taking too long for me.

 

[Piccoro]

The music in the SFEX games was amazing. Does this game have remixes or new tracks?

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It has a new soundtrack but you can also toggle to the SFEX soundtrack in Options.

 

[RealTravisty]

It certainly is interesting. The FGC wails loudly for rollback netcode and cross play, but when options like this and Power Rangers come up they're just like "Nah."

 

[ThatCrazyGuy]

honestly, I think this game is just meh. I bought it at launch. It's alright. Never really had fun with it. Don't like the engine and the game systems really.

Rollback for a game you don't really like doesn't mean much, hehe.

Good for the fans that love it though. Props to the developer.

 

[rawhide]

I like and respect the game but it's not hard to figure out why people don't play it:

--dated animations
--extremely basic package with nothing to earn & unlock and next to no single-player content
--the one big mechanical hook (gougi) was poorly-presented and they've never been able to shake the negative comparison to gems
--a tiny player base, which makes it next to impossible to find matches on most days

...and this is now, after several updates, it was an even harder pill to swallow at launch when it didn't even have a vs.CPU option.

Once any game gets branded dead or a flop, it's extremely difficult to bounce back, and as a player, there are a ton of other games vying for that same attention.

 

[dgamemaster]

Most fighting games outside of the big mainstays don't sell that well overall. I'm not surprised not a lot of people are talking about it.

Rollback netcode and crossplay is great, but when most people complain or talk about adding these, they want it for the franchises that they actually care about (IE Street Fighter, Tekken, Smash, etc.) A game doesn't sell alone based on having rollback/crossplay. A game sells by having interesting characters and decent foundational game mechanics. While this game might be technically outstanding, its roster of characters (mostly obscure) and Gougi system probably didn't attract players at launch, thus killing its momentum and preventing it from potentially picking up.

Still, while rollback/crossplay will certainly help the player base, I would be shocked if it ever manages to get big mainstay numbers of a player base.

 

[Inno2d]

Almost picked it up during Steam summer sale. If it had rollback then I probably would.
Now I'll just wait for the next sale.

 

[Hyun Sai]

They did it all wrong with the timing. Big promotion weeks ago, and they do the rollback patch while it's full price.

Aside from that, netcode won't help if people are just not interested in the game/characters/gameplay.

Just think about it, the most popular "traditional" fighter on Steam is Tekken 7.

 

[GamerJM]

Is the game actually....good? I thought like as a fighting game it wasn't considered to be great. Having rollback is great at least.

 

[rawhide]

No physical version, no buy for the MSRP. the differing versions with more characters isn't fun either. I really do want to try it though, even though i usually think Arika's horrid at balancing their games (All their Doctor Mario games say hi)

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There was a physical version in Japan, and they did away with the different-tiered versions a long time ago--if you buy the game now, it comes with all the characters and gougi, including the four EX characters they added after launch. (Terry is and always will be paid DLC.)

 

[CloakBass]

It's too expensive for what it is.

 

[Hayama Akito]

It's too expensive for what it is.

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I'm really into fighting games and the FGC of my country and this is sadly the general consensus.

Also there's something about it that feels like a Beta game, an experimental "look what we made on UE4 in a very amateurish way" or Early Access type of product which has chased away several players. On the other half Arika has always been transparent on that, saying that the game was born almost as a very humble idea (it was indeed an April Fools joke at first) and they didn't have the staff or money to do something big at launch so...

The game it's fun and all but it was made for real hardcore FG players who had nostalgia more for Fighting Layer than SFEX to be honest, a game that doesn't even had a console release even to this day. It's that niche.

 

[rawhide]

The game it's fun and all but it was made for real hardcore FG players who had nostalgia more for Fighting Layer than SFEX to be honest, a game that doesn't even had a console release even to this day. It's that niche.

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If they were specifically aiming this at Fighting Layer fans they wouldn't have stuff the roster exclusively with EX characters. Even now, they haven't so much as hinted at any of the FL cast, and the revision they've been running in beta is explicitly EX-ish.

 

[Nano-Nandy]

Game's great, still play it this days; but offline mostly.

 

[LiftGammaGain]

Bought it today. Was on sale for 7 usd on Hong Kong PSN. Standard version. I've been meaning to buy it for a while, really liked what ive seen from the game before. Im gonna throw a few more coins and get Terry Bogart on board as well.

 

[XaviConcept]

People have not been playing Fighting Layer since the original arcade game, its tradition at this point

 

[joffocakes]

I picked it up recently and had fun going through the combo trials but when I tried to get an online match I was waiting over 20 minutes so I gave up. I'll give it another try now that the updated netcode may have inspired more interest.

 

[Valkerion]

Same as others, it launched entirely too expensive for what was on offer and I wrote it off instantly despite having a lot of promise. It only got better with patches and I tried the arcade version and thought it was interesting. Then I went home and saw it was still 4,800 yen and was like...

nah.

Can't justify the price for such a niche game with such a small player base. fabled roll back or not. If the roll back test goes well it would be in there best interest to drop the base price overall again and tell people about the update. Or a steep sale. Also I can't tell which version of this ARIKA is supporting anymore. I'd assume the console version has the most players but it sounded like the PC version is getting some additional skin/costume feature or something and the PS4 one isn't?

 

[Dark Ninja]

Gran Blue and Guilty Gear can't even keep player bases. Fighting EX Layer never had a chance.

 

[jett]

Never liked the EX games and this looks like the same kind of jank.

I'm not buying a game just because of what kind of netcode it has.

 

[Karsha]

Did they ever add the cinematic 3 bar supers that they promised ?

 

[Brazil]

Terry is in there? Huh

 

[Deleted member 64609]

I bought it to support Arika and because Skullomania is the people's champ, but I don't have the time to dedicate to labbing anymore

 

[Imperfected]

I mean I wish them all the best but I've never actually liked their games.

I do still have to want to play the game before it will matter to me how good the netcode is.

 

[Arukado]

I don't like the Gougi system, among other things.

If i wanted to play an EX game, i'd rather play SF EX.

 

[GreatOldOne]

Since I heard they added rollback to it and I saw it was on sale on the Hong Kong PSN store, I actually did buy it and I'm trying to learn it now.

 

[RagingAvatar]

Does this game have a good tutorial yet?
I seem to recall it having one when I first started the game but now can't find it and I couldn't remember I thing..

 

[joffocakes]

I'd never played the Street Fighter EX games so my knowledge was limited to people meme-ing their fanaticism for Skullomania but now that I've played EX Layer I love Darun Mister and Vulcano Rosso is fabulous.

 

[Noisepurge]

competent fighting game.

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Yes, but when the others are amazing fighting games, don't have time for "competent" :P

 

[rawhide]

Also I can't tell which version of this ARIKA is supporting anymore. I'd assume the console version has the most players but it sounded like the PC version is getting some additional skin/costume feature or something and the PS4 one isn't?

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They haven't been clear on this but when they say "skin support" I think they mean something akin to official mod support, ie something that's not really viable on consoles.

The beta version they've been using to test the netcode on PC is basically a full-on revision, and they've said they want to release that version more officially but they don't really have the budget for it.

Did they ever add the cinematic 3 bar supers that they promised ?

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People certainly asked for them but I don't think they ever promised them in a real way.

That said, Terry does have a 3-bar super.

Terry is in there? Huh

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Yes, as paid DLC, about eighteen months ago.

 

[Deleted member 442]

Does this game have a good tutorial yet?
I seem to recall it having one when I first started the game but now can't find it and I couldn't remember I thing..

Click to shrink...

Dash up crouching short, medium, roundhouse

Sometimes make it look like you're dashing up, then stop, then dash up and do crouching short, medium roundhouse

Sometimes do crouching short then throw

Sometimes just do crouching short then block if it looks like your opponent is blocking and you don't want to get punished for the blocked sweep or missed throw

Sometimes dash up and jump then either do a cross up medium or don't, and then follow up with crouching short medium roundhouse

Sometimes just dash up and block if you really want to play the big brain game

 

[spman2099]

It certainly is interesting. The FGC wails loudly for rollback netcode and cross play, but when options like this and Power Rangers come up they're just like "Nah."

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People want rollback netcode in the games they already like to play. Of course it isn't enough on its own to convince people to buy new games (especially when those games look pretty rough).

 

[Virtua Sanus]

I was about to buy it in a recent sale and absolutely would have if they implemented the new online before that point.

I am currently casually invested in like six other fighting games to some degree. Adding another, one that I specifically will only be playing with one other friend seems like overkill to me. I do want to support Arika though, and I will come next sale.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Thanks for reminding me I have it. I bought it when it was $10.00 on PSN. I'll check it out later on this week.

 

[Rubblatus]

I forgot this game existed before it even launched. No one talks about it. No one I know plays it. I don't even think I've seen a single advertisement for this game. The only thing I heard about this game before this thread was when it was originally revealed as an untitled fighting game on April Fool's.

And now that I've been reminded of it, I just don't have the time to squeeze it in between the fighting games I'm already both invested in and neglecting right now.

 

[Soupbones]

Fantastic game, but needs lobbies.

 

[theosmeo]

Really wish I either played it back when wednesday night fights was still going on or bought it on sale a month ago when it was 10 bucks. I just dont have the money to drop 40 on a game ive never played but it looks very nice and ive always wanted to try it since launch

also mmmmmmusic https://youtu.be/PgKJTnuTHAo

 

[Deleted member 11985]

They did it all wrong with the timing. Big promotion weeks ago, and they do the rollback patch while it's full price.

Aside from that, netcode won't help if people are just not interested in the game/characters/gameplay.

Just think about it, the most popular "traditional" fighter on Steam is Tekken 7.

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This is it for me. It just seems a bit weird to buy a game immediately after a huge sale ends. That was terrible timing on their part.

 

[Deleted member 5604]

Honestly, the whole hook/reason for the game existing according to the devs (Gougi) just doesn't work for me. I love the fighting otherwise and will play offline against my brother using the same exact Gougi deck, but I couldn't be bothered to deal with that seriously online.

 

[EddyLovesTunaRolls]

Honestly, the whole hook/reason for the game existing according to the devs (Gougi) just doesn't work for me. I love the fighting otherwise and will play offline against my brother using the same exact Gougi deck, but I couldn't be bothered to deal with that seriously online.

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Some of them are fun but some others completely piss me off and ruin the game. Like the super armor one or the combo escape one.

I'm not saying a character shouldn't have a super armor special or everyone shouldn't be able to escape combos if they spend some meter. But it happening automatically sucks.

 

[Pellaidh]

It's a super niche game with zero advertising in a genre where people barely even play big blockbuster releases. And while rollback netcode is cool, it alone isn't going to get you players. Not when there's plenty of other alternatives that have had rollback for years now.

The rollback update also had zero advertising from what I've seen, and the game's not even on sale on Steam to get people interested in it. Compare this to the recent update for Fantasy Strike: it had a marketing push, already has cross-play implemented in addition to really good rollback netcode, and the update made it free to play. Even all of that combined only gets you a peak of about 370 concurrent players on Steam. There just aren't that many people that care about playing niche traditional fighting games online. And of those that do, the hardcore FGC playerbase doesn't really care about online play all that much, while the casual playerbase doesn't even know this game exists.

 

[Ouroboros]

Is this the game with the P4 protagonist randomly in it?

 

[VariantX]

Didn't help that the rollback patch wasn't announced during the roundtable. Everyone was watching then and the announcement came some time afterward. Lot of people ran out and bought games after rollback was added, though those games were admittedly cheaper than FEXL