The accessible fighting game Fantasy Strike recently exited Early Access on Steam, along with receiving a full launch on both PS4 and Nintendo Switch. We’ve already reviewed the game on the Switch, finding it to strike a nice balance between ease of play and strategic depth, making it perfect for all kinds of fighting game fans.
But even despite its accessibility, it can be hard to know where to start with Fantasy Strike. The game’s onboarding process is significant enough to allow new players to get accustomed to the basics, but we’ve put together a few extra tips that should help you succeed in the world of Fantasy Strike.
1. More Than Tutorials
As mentioned already, the onboarding process for Fantasy Strike is great, with an in-depth tutorial that should get you clued in enough on the basics. The tutorial, which activates when you start the game, goes through everything you’ll need to know, but if you really want to learn how to play each character, you shouldn’t stop there.
Aside from chucking each character into the practice mode to see what their movesets are, there are useful videos for each character that break down their movesets, bread and butter combos, strategies and more. Beyond that, certain movelists will straight up tell you which moves you should use and abuse. The game gives you all the resources you’ll need within the game to get better, so use them.
2. Know Your Role
It’s known that fighting game characters tend to fit certain archetypes, with zoners, rushdown and grapplers being the 3 most common, and all 3 are represented in Fantasy Strike. The game even makes what role they are known to the character, whereas other fighting games don’t, so it behooves you to use that knowledge effectively.
At a basic level,if you’re playing a zoning character, your strengths involve controlling space on the screen and generally keeping distance from your opponent. Rushdown characters excel in their opponent’s faces with fast combos and high damage, so learn those combos, while grapple characters have a brilliant throw game. While characters in those classes differ, you should use this knowledge to your advantage to win.
Fantasy Strike also has another class of character entirely, Wildcard, which have their own gimmicks to take into consideration. Degrey has plenty of mobility and unpredictability with the moves at his disposal, along with an assist character that can immobilise opponents for one second if it lands, making him dangerous in the right hands.
Meanwhile, fellow Wildcard character Lum is quite literally a bit of a gamble. One of his special moves allows him to pull out any random item, which could be a damaging firework, a bomb that’s dangerous for both players or buffs that either player can grab. His super also pulls multiple random items at once, making Lum a risky pick, but a satisfying one nonetheless.
3. Rule of 3
The ease of access in Fantasy Strike means it’s simpler than ever to learn how to play multiple characters efficiently in a fighting game, but naturally someone still might not have the time to dedicate learning an entire roster of characters inside and out. That said, you should take the time out to learn at least 3 characters.
The ranked matchmaking in Fantasy Strike consists of Team Battles, where players must score a win with each of their 3 characters, so pays to form and learn your teams intricacies. Beyond that, try to learn a character from each class, as then you’ll be prepared for the majority of scenarios and match-ups.
4. Yomi Is A Japanese Term Meaning “Knowing The Mind Of The Opponent”
One of the biggest features in Fantasy Strike that’ll cause the divide between the good players and those that are still learning is Yomi Counters. Instead of a traditional throw break, if players don’t press any buttons before being thrown, they’ll automatically counter the throw. It allows for some excellent mind games as you have to leave yourself vulnerable in order to pull it off.
Mastery of Yomi Counters will be the key to success in Fantasy Strike. When on the offensive, it’s on you to ensure that your opponent doesn’t see the throw coming, so mix-up your offense with strikes to keep your opponent guessing so you don’t get Yomi Countered. Defensively, you should also watch out for command grabs from characters like Rook, which can only be countered by jumping.
It’s worth noting as well that, when it comes to Yomi Counters, grapple characters have the strongest. While other characters deal 1 damage with Yomi Counters, grapplers deal 2. It’s an inherent risk to throw a grapplers as any other class, as your throw will only deal 1 damage compared to their 2 damage Yomi, so bear that in mind if you play as Midori or Rook.
5. Use Supers Liberally
Speaking of Yomi Counters, if you’ve nailed one you should notice that your super meter pretty much refills instantly, but your Super Meter will also automatically refill during gameplay. No need to worry about dealing or receiving damage to get your most powerful tools. As it’s a resource that’s theoretically infinite, you should use Supers whenever you see the opportunity.
In more traditional fighting games, you might only get to use one super per match, but the constantly refilling super meter means that on average, you’re likely to be able to use your super once a round, so you may as well make the most of it. There’ll probably be another one coming your way after all.
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