Heyo everyone, Tomoaki Ayano here.

So now that the PS Vita version of SFXTK is finally out, how many of you have tried it?

I’ve been playing Burst Kumite mode and customizing my colors and Gems while on the go, and then when I’m home I usually transfer that data to my PS3 and start playing using my arcade stick.

The Gems are a super important aspect of controlling the fight, so being able to customize them while on the go and then sharing that data with the PS3 is really useful!

For this week’s blog, since we’ve gotten a ton of questions recently, I figured I’d answer some of the most frequently asked questions from the fans!

Q: I’d love for the ver. 2013 update to change the camera to be very simple during normal throws too.

A: We don’t have plans for something like that in the ver. 2013 update at the moment, but if we get a high number of requests in the future we’ll look into it!

Q: This is a totally serious question, but… Would it be possible to add in a special utility Gem that enables parrying? For real, I’d buy the game immediately if you put it in lol, or if you could put in a Gem that allowed double-jumping (at the cost of meter)!

Okay, the double-jump Gem was just a joke, but I think having some cool Gems that bring out real individual playing styles would be great. That’s what the Gem system is about, isn’t it? It’s about flashy gameplay and making yourself unique! How about a Gem that increases throw range, or Gems that negate block damage… Okay, I’m getting carried away now lol

But seriously, I want a Parry Gem ! Out of all the fighting games I’ve played, parrying was the best thing I ever experienced. It felt soooo good to parry anything!

A: I personally love the parry system, but if we add something like that to SFXTK, the game would turn into something totally different. Parrying calls for extremely high skill and finesse to use, and on top of that it’d just be really hard to cram such a game-changing system into the game as is. To be honest, whenever I feel like I want to just parry something and feel good about reading everything my opponent throws at me, I just fire up 3rd Strike OE and go to town!

Q： Do something about Dhalsim! That crazy rising HP Switch Cancel tech is way too strong!

A: Yeah, it is strong, which is why we’re adjusting the damage from 100 to 80! During the Autumn Fighting Festival, Tokido, MOV and Akitaya were all playing Dhalsim, and seeing his overhead switch cancel into combo was seriously too good.

Q: After a long wait, I was thinking about playing the Vita version of SFXTK once ver. 2013 comes out… but if I do, I want some cool carrying case for my Vita! Isn’t there some special edition set for the Vita and SFXTK? I’d love to see one! If there’s a SSF4 update, don’t tamper with the system. Just add some characters with some slight balance tweaks. If you want to mess with the system, then it’s just better to make a completely new game! The Focus Attack system is just too good, and it totally makes SSF4 for me. Looking forward to what’s in the pipeline!

A: Thanks, definitely give the Vita version a spin! I wrote about the special carrying case for SFXTK in my October 12 blog, the one modeled after Ryu and Heihachi’s fight clothes.

Q: So there really aren’t any new characters? I know balancing a game is really important, but there really isn’t anything compelling for casual gamers if there are no new characters. I’m pretty sure a lot of gamers bought the game because they saw that Elena and Poison were shown. I wanna see Haggar in this game next! The Mayor needs his spotlight!

A: We won’t be adding new characters in ver. 2013, even though I would love to use Haggar. Sodom is running around the Mad Gear Hideout while everything in the Final Fight world went to dust, sadly. Sorry!

Q: Finally, a full-fledged update! I really hope you have some big things in store for this upcoming update. Definitely try to do something more than the SSF4 AE or 2012 updates, which were just a lot of small balance tweaks. Make us feel like it’s a totally different game!

A: We have made a lot more changes for SFxTK ver. 2013 than we did for SSF4 AE ver. 2012 , so look forward to the release!

Q: I totally agree with making throws stronger in general, but wouldn’t doing that also make the SF side characters stronger? Chun-Li and Rufus are already highly capable characters, with their weak points being that their throw games were pretty bad. If you make throws in general stronger, than that’d make them even better! Please make sure you think about that before releasing the update.

A: While throws are going to receive buffs, that’s just really one aspect of all the changes that are being made. You can’t win on throws alone, and there are a lot of other areas we’ve tweaked, so don’t worry!

Q: Right now this game is all about light punch/kick into Boost Combo/Launcher… which is way too easy and takes off too much life. So how about just making it so that people can make use of each character’s own combos instead of relying on Boost Combos?

A: Cody’s standing LK is being changed from a 3 frame start up to a 5 frame, and the rest of the light attacks that are the start of Boost Combos are all getting a good look at. Once ver. 2013 hits, players will definitely have to start using combos that are optimal in a given situation if they want to win!

That’s it for this week! Peace!