Hello, Duelists!
We hope you've all been doing well! We've got a new status update post for you today, this time focusing heavily on what's new in the upcoming 0.8.0 update! So let's not waste any time and get right into it, starting with undoubtedly the biggest piece of news...
The Tidal Assassin, Yosei Kanji
Just earlier today, we officially revealed Duels of Fortune's 19th playable fighter: Yosei Kanji, a trained assassin with a mastery of the katana, and the estranged elder sister of Shoto. Wielding her blade, her powerful "Suijin" Aspect, and her two different stances, Yosei will be making some serious waves in the arena!
Yosei has the unique privilege of being able to switch her stance, effectively giving her two different movesets in one! Each stance has its own strengths and weaknesses, but there is also some special interplay between the two, encouraging you to constantly switch it up! Yosei always starts the battle in Iaido style, a defensive stance in which she wields precise, long-ranged attacks, but has limited damage output and offensive capabilities. She can keep the opponent away, and can maybe put on the pressure if needed, but has trouble capitalizing on it. By using her Down Special, however, you can switch to Tsunami style, where Yosei's offense really shines! Tsunami style lets you go wild, crushing the opponent's defenses and comboing to your heart's content, dealing some serious damage in the process! You even gain access to a strong projectile which travels along the ground, letting you control the opponent's position more easily.
So what's the catch? All your command normals and Special Moves in Tsunami style drain your HP. All the water she uses with her Aspect has to come from somewhere, and it turns out that a part of it is the water in her own body. You'll have to be very careful with how you use this stance so as not to damage yourself more than you're damaging the opponent... OR you can gather some helpful Koi Spirits to prevent that self-damage in the first place! You'll gain a Koi Spirit if you hit the opponent with the VERY tip of your Focus Slash attack in Iaido style, and they'll activate automatically when you use a self-damaging move in Tsunami style, immediately giving back the HP you lost. These Koi Spirits have some other uses too (one of which may or may not involve a giant dragon), but we'll wait until Yosei's official Character Showcase to talk more about that! This section's already pretty long as is!
Regardless, we hope you look forward to playing as Yosei when she crashes in this July! We'll announce an exact release date once we're more confident we can provide one.
There's more to look forward to in the Yosei update as well, including a new mechanic that's been requested by the community for some time...
Projectile Clashing
For as long as Duels of Fortune has existed, opposing projectiles have always simply passed through each other... until now! In the 0.8.0 update, projectiles will now collide with each other in various ways, depending on the priority value of the two projectiles. In general, projectiles of the same priority will clash, destroying each other, while projectiles with higher priority will beat the lower ones clean! There's other factors involved, such as the fact that projectiles that hit multiple times will always win in clash scenarios, but this is the basic idea!
This has opened up a lot of interesting new strategies for certain characters, letting them counter projectiles in ways they couldn't before! Callowman, for instance, has the rock from his Crouching Heavy, which now beats pretty much any projectile that doesn't come from a Super Move! And Johnson's Down Super, in which he throws his buddy Shaz, has the highest projectile priority in the game! It even beats out other Supers, giving him a surefire way to stop a projectile-happy opponent!
There's still some kinks to iron out with this system, but we still have plenty of time to do so before the update's release, so don't worry!
New Costumes!
With us, a new update almost always means new costumes, and this one is no exception! With the summer season rolling in, some of our fighters have been finding their own ways to beat the heat!
Beachwear Clyde and Shark Prank Black Heart will be rolling in for the 0.8.0 update, and a third summer-themed costume is on the way too! We'll announce it over on our Twitter/X account when it's ready, so make sure to follow us over there to see what we're cooking!
The summer costumes aren't the only ones, either! With this update introducing a new member of the Kanji family, it's only right that Shoto gets a costume for the occasion!
Thunder God Shoto is quite the striking sight, but given his so-called "Raijin" Aspect, it's certainly a look that lives up to the name!
So What's Next?
The grind doesn't stop after the Yosei update releases in July, as we'll be setting our sights straight onto the next fighter! Who will that be? Well, how about we do you four better and show you our plans for the next FIVE fighters!
While our favourite gunslinger Lance was already very likely to be the next fighter after Yosei, his victory in the popularity poll as the "Most Anticipated Upcoming Fighter" cemented his spot. Being one of the oldest known characters planned for the Duels of Fortune roster, first revealed all the way back in 2018 (before even now-foundational characters like Annie and Sylvan!), it's about time we finally brought him into the game proper!
After that, we'll be working on a secret mystery fighter, followed by our third guest character! We're very excited for both of these, and we hope you guys will be excited to see them when they're ready! And finally, for the furthest-out of the bunch, it'll be the duo fighter Miko Starfinder, then yet another mystery fighter! To be honest, we're still deciding between a couple candidates for that last slot, so even we don't know exactly what to expect yet! But whoever it is, we'll of course make sure they're a worthwhile addition to the cast!
We're not ready to give release windows for any of these upcoming characters just yet (we've been bitten by that before!), but we're at least hoping to have Lance and the fighter after him both done by the end of the year!
In any case, that's all from us for now! We hope this status update has given you plenty to look forward to, for the next update and beyond! See you all next time!
- Ben and Kaleb