It’s been making waves. Yatagarasu is a fighting game that has been in development for at least six years with limited funding. It’s an indie game by three former King of Fighters developers and has been hidden in the deep niche in the Japanese indie world for some time. Driven by what seems to be passion, the devs have been pushing out updates for this game for quite some time. It can be purchased in its current state and the game is pretty good from what I’ve played. That’s all good and great, but the devs are now taking this game to the next step by relying on fans of fighting games to help fund their project to create a bigger and better one.
The game is very simple in its approach. There was nothing much in terms of fancy complicated mechanics. This means that your game will be all about your basic fundamentals and being able to read and react to the opponent without all the huge fluff and extensive combos seen in recent fighting games. For you fighting game fans, this means that getting your “footsies” down will be very important. For those that aren’t deep into fighting games, this is a good platform to start understanding basic mechanics in fighting games without getting overwhelmed.
The devs (remember: all three of them) have acquired funds via an IndieGoGo campaign and getting help by Nyu Media and the fighting game community to spread the word around. They wish to complete Yatagarasu and finish the product as Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm. Not only do they wish to refine the game even further, but some of what they plan to add seem pretty amazing. Based on how much they receive, Attack on Cataclysm will add:
- Two new characters at least.
- Dynamic Japanese commentary by SBO/Tougeki announcer Koori Masoi and renowned fighting game player Kokujin.
- English commentary from some of the reps of the fighting game community including James Chen, UltraDavid, and Maximilian.
- NESiCAxLive arcade support (Which doesn’t apply to us living outside of Japan, but hurray for potential arcade scene!)
As far as stretch goals go, they will add more characters and throw in GGPO support for online play.
However, as of this writing, they are falling slightly short of their goal ($57,000/$68,000) and with 7 days remaining, it’s crunch time for everyone involved. Thankfully even if they do fall short, it is a flexible campaign so the devs will get the money regardless and a product will come from it even if development takes longer. But forget about falling short, let’s try to get these guys the funds to create a great fighting game that we deserve!
The IndieGoGo page for Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm can be found here.
You can check out the trailer for the latest released version of Yatagarasu here:
And now that I wrote up something about Yatagarasu… I’m gonna go back to fixing/refining my fightstick. It has an ethernet port now!
Now I can game on the internet… right?
Details on internet joystick on another Gaming Shenanigans, which is when my parts arrive… whenever that is.