Shadowar's Success and more potential original content.

By Charitsune, in Universal Fighting System

Though many folks would love to see character cards from some the greatest games out there I'd love to see more fresh content from UFS. Though I'm new to the game I've preferred the games characters over popular licensed ones. Don't get me wrong I still love the licenses considering I'm working on a Soiree deck but I want to see some more sets like Shadowar. Speaking of ShadoWar, I wanted to get some of the veterans opinion on the set and how they liked UFS' first shot at individual IP and should they continue the good work?

SCIV has better chase stuff i think and people around here are buying more of that than SW... but in general I LIKE SW about as much as I like SCIV (intellectual propety-ly speaking).

vermillian said:

SCIV has better chase stuff i think and people around here are buying more of that than SW... but in general I LIKE SW about as much as I like SCIV (intellectual propety-ly speaking).

Which honestly doesn't say a lot considering you've never really shown a lot of love to the licensed IP. ;p

You saying that what i was saying doesn't say a lot doesnt' really say a lot either... what was the point of that post? (though in hindsight... what ws the point of MY post?).

Oh right.

I like the feel and environment and general background and costume designs of SW as much as I like SCIVs. Yes I know, none of you know what I feel about SCIV. I like it more than Tekken and SNK (SS is just a bit above KoF... maybe a bit more than Tekken.. maybe tied.. IDK). Darkstalkers is my number two. Number one is and always will be SF. Oh and PA. If the sets were legal and any good anymore and if they weren't just battle packs (crosses fingers).

So in ranked order of that certain je ne sais pas of liscences

SF > PA > DS > SCIV/III - SW > Tekken - SS > KoF

... Is that saying enough Homme?

For some reason, I feel that with Shadowar's success, we might be seeing less and less liceases stuff... which makes me sad since block 4 is coming next year and that will remove most of the Street fighter guys.... remake?!?!?! =D

ShadoWar is exactly what I said it would be when it was first announced. Not that I'm taking credit for it, lol. I just said it would have necessary cards/answers that would be make it so you felt you had to get it, regardless of how you felt about the character's look/story.

My friends and I got into UFS for the licenses, specifically SF and SC as those were the only 2 back in the day (other than a one-time only PA battle box). I've always wanted the game to stay pure, but knew it wouldn't. I will say that SW is not AS bad as I thought it would be, but it's still very bland and I couldn't care less about any of these characters. Was it successful? Financially it couldn't really fail; it didn't cost anything in licensing fees.

Long story short if I wanted to play a fantasy-type card game, I'd play Magic (which I have no intention of doing). Give me Ken, Ivy, Iori, Morrigan, Hwaorang, and Rera and I'll be just fine. :)

I'm not a big fan either. Not interested in the characters at all, and would've liked to see some of the tech included in the set in different properties instead but more cards per set is probably more expensive not just from a production standpoint but also in terms of costs to the property owner. So many cooler characters exist in the other properties, I'm just not interested in generic viking or whatever else. In any case I bought some, but am not a fan and unless they start including the must have staple cards for top tier decks in future Shadowar sets, I won't buy any, or will probably resort to buying specific cards online instead.

Soul calibur is still the only licence I know and, despite now owning SC3, the huge changes between SC2 (which I loved) and SC3 (which could've been better) put me off that quite a bit. Thefact that lizardman totally changed between the 2 games totally destroyed him for me and may well have been part of what made me give up UFS (lizardman was my favourite SC2 character too).

as such, licences meant little to me, as I knew that the one licence I really wanted would never make it.

That said, shadowar is just a generic fighting game in terms of it's characters and story and that really doesn't do it for me.

If I wanted a generic fighting game story I'd get the streetfighter manga or read up on tekken online (atleast tekken has tiger heads, misnamed dragons and aliens whose storyline is inconsistant). this rubbish seems pointless to me.

there is a story behind shadowar? where can i get my hands on this?

also

i think the shadowar set is terrible... its just so dark T_T... bring on the sunlight plox

OhSteven said:

there is a story behind shadowar? where can i get my hands on this?

also

i think the shadowar set is terrible... its just so dark T_T... bring on the sunlight plox

Main website, there's a couple of articles on it and the character biographies.

Honestly, ShadoWar, in terms of storyline and content, has done nothing but underwhelm me so far. Not that the other licenses have much there, too, but at least there's an entertaining product other than UFS that they're tied to.

Shadowar is so unappealing at the moment. It looks like it belongs in the Magic gaming era and not the UFS scene. Except Zi Mei, shes ok in my book!

Well, in terms of story I also find it a "little" lacking but I enjoyed seeing FFG's own content. I think they could use individual content after so many other licenses for a break. I personally feel that it'd be cool to receive stuff like this atleast yearly.

I think it looks good... looks better than Tekken 6 stuff (from onlin pics i've seen) or SF really... (as far as 'feel' and 'consistency' and texture and taste, and "je ne sais pas")

I thought ShadoWar was decent, although I only picked it up because I was compelled to by some of the other people in my area who play. I guess it just seems random to throw in characters we've never heard of, in a game that owes a lot of its success to the strength of the IP's involved. But that's me! I in no way mean to bash those who loved ShadoWar.

I think Shadowar kind of goes against what UFS stands for. It doesnt answer the question "who would beat who in a cross video game match up?" To be fair, the Penny Arcade set, the founding set, didnt answer that either. However, the majority of players have never had access to that set anyway.

Personally I would like to see more licenses, preferably Guilty Gear, before I see anymore original content.

Ninjazanus said:

I think Shadowar kind of goes against what UFS stands for. It doesnt answer the question "who would beat who in a cross video game match up?" To be fair, the Penny Arcade set, the founding set, didnt answer that either. However, the majority of players have never had access to that set anyway.

Personally I would like to see more licenses, preferably Guilty Gear, before I see anymore original content.

You got a point there, I constantly forget about the original theme of UFS as a mix-up of various fighting games. I was just looking at the difficulty of obtaining licenses from other franchises and the pains they bring with them. I want to see more than JUST the latest version of Ryu or Terry Bogard, of course we haven't had that problem too often but perhaps we could get characters from martial arts based anime as well. In the end though, I still stand by the thought that UFS deserves some IP though it could be a little more better than shadowar.

Ninjazanus said:

Personally I would like to see more licenses, preferably Guilty Gear , before I see anymore original content.

Emphasis mine. Word, yo.

TBH, i'm not sure just how much of a success ShadoWar has been. I can only give my opinion, and account from what i've seen at a couple play-groups i've had the chance to play with...

Personally, i like ShadoWar. I like the concept, and i like the characters. I think the main problem/challenge that ShadoWar faces is that nobody CARES about the characters themselves. Written bios are a good first step, as are the 2 short-stories. I think FFG needs to look at getting this game out there in as many various forms as possible: Comic Books and novelizations are the next step, imo. Perhaps even Video Games.

The basic premise is still there in ShadoWar, it's just done with characters no one has ever heard of before, and so has no attachment to them...unless, say, you're a hardcore Wuxia fan (like me) and recognize Zi Mei as being the Bride with White Hair, and Lu Chen as being White Eye Brow. I'm still waiting for them to remake Hattori Hanzo, although in retrospect, SNK already has done that...Big Viking Dude (or, Ragnar as he's called in-game) is Beowulf...and so on, and so on...

There are some cards from ShadoWar that i'm starting to see being played more frequently: Always in Motion, Pommel Smash, Zi Mei's Wheel Kick, The Execution Rites, Fury of the Ancients (okay, i guess by now we all gather that Zi Mei's support is ridiculous!), Calming the Mind, Master's Challenge (Felicia players did backflips when they saw this card...i know, i was there), to name a few...

I am looking forward to seeing more content from ShadoWar, and seeing how FFG tries to connect us better and actually care about the characters that are within this fantastic world.

ShadoWar has always been a love or hate thing.

Some like it because it is very original.

Many hate it because it is a property which in turn becomes a set, which in turn takes a set away from the video game licenses we all love. For example, right now we only have SoulCaliber, ShadoWar, and Tekken. The majority of players would rather see a Street Fighter set or SNK set instead of ShadoWar. They know and love their Street Fighter/SNK characters. These ShadoWar dudes just popped up.


The problem with ShadoWar is that the characters aren't very interesting at all. You do have the bios, but nothing else. How does a regular audience get to know ShadoWar? They can't just do an online promotion of something nobody is interested in - it'd be a waste.

0 ppl knew of ShadoWar before it came out.
Millions know about Street Fighter, SoulCaliber, Tekken, SNK, and Darkstalkers.

maybe im one of the few that "doesnt care".

I am an avid capcom fan. I have never been a SNK fan. SW is neutral to me. I look at the text and artwork on a card and to me thats more important than the backstory (at least for cards that i am unfamiliar with their history).

I guess i am saying i favor SF over everyone else, SNK on the bottom, and others wether its SCIV, SW, whatever in a mid tier for me, lol.

I do agree that some folks aren't too happy to take sides with a character they've barely known but I found the bios somewhat entertaining but the keyword is "somewhat". It's not often you'd get to play a fighting game these days without playing characters that's been around since you were in diapers. Thus, why I like collecting the SW series. I hate the fact that there really wasn't any Ranged attacks in here though. I can only love the Hadou or Power Wave for so long. I'd like to have seen some more content from this set but with UFS' appearant death, I guess that's a hopeless wetdream.

sounds like a great game , i'm tempted .