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The very pretty fighting game Fantasy Strike from Sirlin Games just got a great update, enabling cross-platform online play between Linux/macOS/Windows and the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 consoles.

Apply to all online modes including Casual and Ranked, find a match should be a lot easier now. You can also challenge or spectate others from your in-game friends list, which also works across all platforms too as you can add people from any platform based on tags.

Excellent, this is how more games with multiplayer should do it. Often there's no real technical reason why it shouldn't happen and it's great that console makers have finally woken up to this. It adds value!

I love the characters in this game, the stretchy arms of Argagarg (try saying that three times quickly…) are quite amusing to fight with. This update that enables cross-play also fixes a bunch of bugs, you can see the patch notes here.

One thing I do wish Fantasy Strike had was a built-in tournament mode, I always find those end up pulling me in when I can run and join community tournaments, always good fun.

You can find the Linux version of Fantasy Strike on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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6 comments

legluondunet Dec 12, 2019
The first real fighting game that supports natively Linux! I own this game and it deserves to be present on all Linux Gamers hard disk.


Last edited by legluondunet on 12 December 2019 at 3:30 pm UTC
orochi_kyo Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: legluondunetThe first real fighting game that supports natively Linux! I own this game and it deserves to be present on all Linux Gamers hard disk.

No thanks, this game is a fraud. I remember pretty well, how Sirlin was talking about how "complicated" inputs were taken people away from fighting games and a vocal minority, most Smash players I guess or people who cant input DPs, were practically screaming their support to this whole idea about mechanical skills being overrated and people should enjoy fighting games with easy inputs and everything should be about "making decisions in the right moment without caring about inputs"

But these anti-mechanical skills people, as lazy as they are, never put their money where their mouth is, and this game and many other games with simplified inputs are struggling to even have some few players online, while other games like BB Crosstag Battle needs a lot of fan service characters to stay alive.

Meanwhile "complicated" Fighting games stay on the spot with a healthy player base, except for Smash which since is a Nintendo thing, it doesn't even need to be good, even their own creators don't care about the competitive scene of the game introducing heavy RNG characters to the roster. It's Nintendo and they can sell crap wrapped in foil and it will still sell millions.

I prefer my "complicated" fighting games on Proton, which so far all of them have worked almost flawlessly.
BTW, Skullgirls was the first fighting game with Native support, much before this game even exists. Also, SKG is a much better fighting game.


Last edited by orochi_kyo on 12 December 2019 at 4:43 pm UTC
BrazilianGamer Dec 12, 2019
That's great news
iiari Dec 12, 2019
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Hummmm, will look into this one for sure...
LungDrago Dec 13, 2019
Quoting: orochi_kyo
Quoting: legluondunetThe first real fighting game that supports natively Linux! I own this game and it deserves to be present on all Linux Gamers hard disk.

No thanks, this game is a fraud. I remember pretty well, how Sirlin was talking about how "complicated" inputs were taken people away from fighting games and a vocal minority, most Smash players I guess or people who cant input DPs, were practically screaming their support to this whole idea about mechanical skills being overrated and people should enjoy fighting games with easy inputs and everything should be about "making decisions in the right moment without caring about inputs"

But these anti-mechanical skills people, as lazy as they are, never put their money where their mouth is, and this game and many other games with simplified inputs are struggling to even have some few players online, while other games like BB Crosstag Battle needs a lot of fan service characters to stay alive.

Meanwhile "complicated" Fighting games stay on the spot with a healthy player base, except for Smash which since is a Nintendo thing, it doesn't even need to be good, even their own creators don't care about the competitive scene of the game introducing heavy RNG characters to the roster. It's Nintendo and they can sell crap wrapped in foil and it will still sell millions.

I prefer my "complicated" fighting games on Proton, which so far all of them have worked almost flawlessly.
BTW, Skullgirls was the first fighting game with Native support, much before this game even exists. Also, SKG is a much better fighting game.

I think Sirlin with Fantasy Strike nearly nailed it. He came very close to gold, he was just 3 buttons too few - I would add a duck button and maybe one more normal and special button. The game would be near perfect then.
Even though it's difficult to grasp for fighting game master gurus like yourself, us "anti-mechanical skills people" (read, people who can't afford to train one combo for months on and on) do enjoy FGs a lot, it's just that most games in this genre have a high skill barrier, one that cannot be overcome by simply being good. It requires time investment and not everybody has that kind of time. And it's sad.
Because FGs are truly amazing when played well and against the right kind of opponent. On Twitch, fighting game tournaments are my most viewed channels, because the tourney fights are simply put -amazing-. But buying and playing the game gets you a completely different experience and it's even a negative one for lots of people. There's a lot of factors involved, but it always boils down to investment.
I've played SF4, SSF4 and USF4 quite a bit. I used to play against a friend often who could be described as a fighting game maniac - really, it's the only game he realistically played. Needless to say, I got thrashed 95% of the time we played versus each other. His advice to me in order to improve was to get a fighting stick, because in his opinion it was ridiculous that I play SF on a keyboard. He couldn't understand that from my point of view, buying a dedicated controller for a grand total of one game was not a good investment in my opinion. And I couldn't understand why are the controls for the game so arcane.

Fantasy Strike plays on a keyboard very well. The game gets much better when you don't have to worry about getting EX Hadoken instead of EX Senkugoshoha. Finally, what's happening in the game is congruent with what's happening in your head, making for a significantly less frustrating experience. But Fantasy Strike... seems to lack a bit of depth. It's a good game, but does leave a feeling of being a bare bones fighting game. Damage is perhaps too simple. There's perhaps too few moves, especially considering the roster is also kind of small. There are no dashes either and no EX moves. As a SF player, I miss the crouch button the most. Any game where I can't hold down back leaves an empty feeling inside. As such, I admit I play FS very sporadically.


Last edited by LungDrago on 13 December 2019 at 11:58 am UTC
Mezron Dec 15, 2019
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This is one of the few non-DRMFREE games that I chose to support. It has a strong local scene in NYC which is great for me. Work excellently with Steam Remote Play to play with my people.
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