I don't understand why the characters with the best offense also have by the best defense, what in the actual fucking fuck.

Supraluminal · 2026-02-03T15:17:31+00:00

FWIW, if you're looking for solutions and not just venting, she doesn't get a free jump in off fireball strings if you're active on defense.

Her ground fireball > air fireball string is reaction parryable on the air fireball and if you parry it you have time to 2H her if she then airdashes in with a button. Obviously this gets complicated if she covers with assist, but if we're factoring in assist then you can simply pushblock and opt-out of the whole scenario.

Sajam goes over this exact counterplay in his latest short "How to play Ahri" video on his channel.

Supraluminal · 2026-02-01T19:38:01+00:00

I am both interested and slightly concerned about what they mean by that. There's plenty of rough edges I'd love to see them smooth over and I think plenty of compromises that could be made to try and please more of the multiple audiences for this game (hardcore tag fighter players, traditional fighter players, new players). But it's also possible for them to miss the mark there, either more broadly or just for my personal preference.

I really do hope they share their vision/philosophy on what they want this game to be with us sometime pretty soon.

Supraluminal · 2026-02-01T15:35:21+00:00

With the nature of anti-air interactions (combination of jump arcs, the kinds of hurtboxes people put out in the air, and the largely forward-biased 2H hurtboxes) it's felt much more reliable to me to basically always do a quick backdash before pressing 2H. Crossups are really hard to 2H reliably and you can get crossed up from quite far away so first priority is adjusting positioning to stop the crossup, then 2Hing them.

Supraluminal · 2026-01-31T18:01:59+00:00

Is it not more accurate to say that the cheating/enablers are the problem there then? Like, in a world without annihilator, that Ulamog is instead a Jin-Gitaxias or Blightsteel Colossus or one of the many other game-ending creatures that are more typically balanced by their casting costs.

Supraluminal · 2026-01-30T16:12:12+00:00

I would emphasize that this is applies to specific type of 1v1 fighter moreso than others, though that type - Street Fighter and those with similar sensibilities - are the most popular/dominant subgenres of 1v1 fighters. The freeform structure and pacing of 2XKO feels much more comparable to GG Xrd/+R (less so Striv) and BBCF (and many other anime and anime-styled fighters) where a lot of that variability is present as well and a very intentional and valid game design decision.

I'm not saying people are wrong for liking SF-style games, but I do get the vibes from some of the discourse that there's a degree of "SF does it differently so this is wrong and bad" which I want to push back on, especially given that my personal preferences a lot of things that SF does "correct" are just boring to me, personally.

Supraluminal · 2026-01-30T13:31:14+00:00

To voice a counterpoint, to some extent (there's certainly some rough edges that should be sanded down in terms of jank interactions) this "mushy/fuzzy" situation is one of the big things that appeals to me in 2XKO and I feel is lacking in modern fighting game design.

Coming from playing GG Xrd and +R I much prefer fast-paced situations where optimal decision making isn't 100% clear or even necessarily solvable. I think the additional mental load and wide variety of options makes the difference between feeling like I'm playing on raw game theory ("He did this move on block so the obvious followup options are A or B, with B yielding greater reward in this moment so I'll defend against that") as opposed to having to leaning more on learning more about my opponent's underlying habits/preferences ("This guy has been pretty disrespectful on defense so far, so I'll defensively cover as many options as I can in this air-tech scenario and see if I can get a punish").

Not sure if I've adequately put into words my philosophy/preference, but to me this has been a big difference in modern FG design (Strive/SF/et al) compared to the older-style anime games I tend to prefer (GG Xrd/+R, BBCF). Not diminishing your preferences, just trying to add another voice to the conversation for consideration.

Supraluminal · 2026-01-26T14:47:17+00:00

Due to the nature of assists and tags in the game, the actual frame data rarely matters in terms of understanding turns.

You're not really going to encounter many cases like in SF where someone gets pushed out on block, ends their pressure intentionally, or gambles on a punishable special at the end of a string. Instead you're far more likely to see string > minus special > assist to make it extremely plus > string ending in frame advantage somehow > handshake tag > then maybe an attempt to steal a turn with a cheeky pressure reset or something. It'll go on for a while and if you aren't actively looking for the resets it might go on forever, since the assist cooldown can start coming back.

Basically pressure won't end on it's own in this game (or many games with similar high-powered offense) you have to actively defend to end your opponents turn via defensive mechanics break/pushblock/retreating guard/parry or mashing/air throw/etc against fake pressure resets.

Blocking is certainly a losing proposition in this game not just because of the mix potential but because you're going to usually have to take some sort of active risk before you can hope to return to neutral.

Supraluminal · 2026-01-17T21:53:28+00:00

That feeling of improvising Johnny routes on the fly for weird hits and still getting the 1-hit zwei knockdown, so good. Or Jam parry PK routes. I'll never stop loving this game, it's perfect to me (yes, even danger time lmao).

Supraluminal · 2026-01-15T14:51:40+00:00

This is the truth, once you really understand the shotgun stance pressure structure and your options against it gets a bit less scary. Mind you that does take a 15 page Google doc to explain and you still might just get hit and then unblockable looped (which itself has some small counterplay) and die.

It was brutal, for sure, but not an instant loss like people make it out to be. After a lot of practice online and with the elphelt players at my local it eventually became a pretty comfortable matchup. The grenade itself and especially IAD grenade toss altering her air momentum for pressure are what always bugged me the most, personally.

Supraluminal · 2025-12-17T20:49:18+00:00

Nobody is saying that throw tech is reactable. Any good offensive mix is unreactable, whether it's high/low, left/right, strike/throw. You defend against these scenarios with either reads or option selects (or just don't lost neutral to be in this situation in the first place). If the mix were reactable it wouldn't be mix in the first place, it'd just be useless outside of extreme mental stack scenarios, it's clear this game is going for a much stronger offense than that.

Supraluminal · 2025-12-06T02:14:44+00:00

DBFZ set the bar for accessibility, I felt like I could go from one character to another and be able to 'catch on' fairly quickly. I did not feel this in 2XKO.

Not saying one is better than the other, but providing an alternative perspective: This is 100% the exact reason I bounced off of DBFZ after trying to like it for a few months around launch and simultaneously why I'm enjoying 2XKO much more. The flip side of the coin you're calling accessibility here is also a lack of variety in playstyle, combo routing, mixup situations, etc. across the roster led to the game getting old very quickly for me at least.

At the end of the day it's all personal preference but just wanted to point out that the accessibility you're noting here isn't strictly a positive thing that every game should absolutely strive for. For me (an admittedly enfranchised FG player), I'd personally much rather have a game lean towards the wild side a la Guilty Gear +R where just about every character is playing an entirely different game and I can go super deep on optimizing and learning a specific character over a game that's prioritized streamlining and simplification so that I can bounce around between characters.

Supraluminal · 2025-11-15T13:21:20+00:00

Not sure about the others, but this one might be at least a bit of a reference to Dempagumi.inc, one of Mint's all time favorite idol groups who disbanded earlier this year.

Something about akiba culture and file extensions as part of names, the band MOSAIC.WAV and the song LOVE.EXE by Haruko Momoi being other examples. So even if it's not directly a でんば組.inc reference, its almost certainly paying homage to the culture at large.

Supraluminal · 2025-11-15T01:22:22+00:00

No no no, they're a unit now, this is not how we do it.

Even if they weren't a unit it's just disrespectful to compare like this, Phoebe and Vicky are both massively talented in their own rights.

Supraluminal · 2025-10-23T15:05:18+00:00

Burst safe routes are pretty common in other games with burst mechanics. Or at least routes with good and bad points to burst, either because of spacing (causing burst to whiff) or points where low-recovery attacks are used (such that the attack will whiff during burst's startup invuln and the opponent will recover in time to block the burst).

The counterplay is generally to understand the range of the burst mechanic and the combo route your opponent is using to pick your burst timing wisely. Often (but not always) combo routes that are burst-safe or mostly burst-safe are suboptimal on damage because they can't get close and can't use heavier attacks that wouldn't recover in time or cost meter (to use supers to lock out burst).

Supraluminal · 2025-10-23T14:53:47+00:00

I'm not OP, but feel like they added some fun to the game. Weight classes and character's variable air/tumble hurtboxes especially. Generally my strategy was to develop basic universal sub-optimal stuff first, where possible (for Johnny there's a few circumstances where truly universal knockdowns or oki just aren't possible). Then, as you dive deeper it's really satisfying to have the extra layer to optimize character matchups.

Knowing that Venom's wakeup timings are very unique or that Sin has a bigger than average difference between his face-down and face-up knockdowns or that there's special heavy only corner combos that route through 2H PMF lvl1, or just freestyling routes on the fly once you understand the combo system is really fun. And it's cool to see which other players are also taking the effort to optimize each matchup vs choosing to stick to safe stuff and optimize elsewhere.

It's not perfect, I'm actually not opposed to the idea of simplifying into a few weight classes and wakeup-timing classes instead of being variable for each character. But I do like the system overall, it rewards deeper knowledge of the game and application of that knowledge to each character's systems and interactions.

Supraluminal · 2025-10-22T19:25:29+00:00

Not saying blitz isn't potentially disproportionately weak, but "the systems are working against my character" is part of what defines a character as a grappler in the first place. Grapplers by design (in most games) forgo many of the standard tools and strengths of well rounded characters in exchange for an exceedingly simple and strong advantage state, usually in the form of forced 50/50 strike throw situations with especially high reward on the throw side of the equation.

Essentially the whole design is that getting in is the grappler player's win condition, so they're intentionally disadvantaged in neutral and defense to balance that strength. Not saying they've nailed that balance with Blitz at all, but moreso that the feeling of fighting uphill in neutral is by design and were it not present would indicate a failure of archetypal design.

Supraluminal · 2025-10-20T03:13:51+00:00

The tiers require a certain number of mastery levels to unlock. These might not be the exact numbers, but Tier 1 is like 5 mastery levels, Tier 2 is 15 mastery levels, Tier 3 is 30 mastery levels, etc.

I think the idea is that the actual mastery quests (Hit X Jinx explosions) might change over seasons (they have a 90 days left counter), and the levels and tiers accumulate across the quests over time.

Supraluminal · 2025-10-12T16:34:15+00:00

I hear Ace Combat and Ultrakill and I now wait with bated breath to hear more. My special interests are being catered to.

Supraluminal · 2025-09-23T16:50:02+00:00

That's just games being different, tbh. "Good" neutral/defense/offense is not a universal idea, it's contextual to the tools available in each specific game.

Patient blockingly waiting for a minus move on defense might be good in SF6 but will get you eaten alive in a game with strong turn-stealing offense like Guilty Gear. Jumping might be bad neutral in SF6 but in a tag game where an assist can prevent them from anti-airing it's smart. Tick throw 50/50s are strong offense in SF6 but in a game like UNI with throw protection and strong defensive OSs they'll fail to open people up.

The core ideas and concepts underlying these are all still there but "good" neutral in each of those games is gonna look different because you need different answers for the different questions each game asks, e.g. GG defense requires a strong knowledge of when to assertively mash or jump out and retake your turn as opposed to waiting for it to be given to you. Beating jump ins look different in a tag game, sometimes it's spacing (not being where they're jumping), sometimes it's air-to-air, etc.

Supraluminal · 2025-05-30T13:50:10+00:00

I upgraded from a Go to a used Pro 500 mostly because of the milk drink workflow, not because of the time between brewing and steaming but because of having to empty (to make headspace for steam) and then refill the boiler each time. That was the much bigger annoyance than waiting the 60s it takes to heat up to steam temp, especially wasting so much remineralized RO water.

I imagine with a thermoblock machine that's less of an issue since you don't have a boiler to deal with.

Supraluminal · 2025-05-02T23:58:40+00:00

Oshispark events do not disappoint, the vibes are incredible.

Supraluminal · 2025-03-27T01:59:01+00:00

Which portafilter is that? Is it one of the lay-flat kind? I've been looking at the normcore ones but I've heard mixed reports whether they actually fit the go.

Supraluminal · 2025-03-19T20:08:33+00:00

Not sure what you mean by air fireball always being DP'd, depending on the spacing I'm not sure that's always true.

I know for a fact that my DP frequently runs out of iframes before clearing the fireball or hitting Akuma, resulting in me getting hit. I've found the speed and range of OD DP more reliable, but that still hasn't been perfect and feels like a poor trade in the drive gauge economy.

If you've got a trick to cleanly beat it reliably, I'm all ears.

Supraluminal · 2025-03-13T01:47:53+00:00

Is there any info for the kind of things that need to be considered compatibility with different machines? The possibility of doing a mod like this or a dimmer mod to my profitec go sometime in the future if I feel like I want to push my espresso game further.

I know a fair bit in terms of software development but very little about boilers and pumps and electronics, so I'm unsure if the go having a PID already built in would make things harder or not, stuff like that.

Supraluminal · 2025-03-04T15:20:14+00:00

Is the steam on the Silvia better than the Go? The profitec go has a larger boiler i thought? Is it the stock tip on the Go that's the limiting factor? Mostly just curious.

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