Hiya!
Well, how was your weekend? Mine was pretty hectic as my Friday, Saturday and Sunday was packed with a lot of stuff to watch. Not only did I have to contend with WWE‘s Backlash, which I fully intend to review later at the time of this writing, I had a total of 6 Top 8s to go watch during EVO Japan! Yes, I had a very tiring 3 days of watching TV. Oh, I also had to find time to celebrate Mother’s Day with my family! There were simply no breaks for the weary!
Seriously though, it was immensely fun to have a lot of stuff to do this past weekend but, after all of that, I still had to find something to write about for this blog! So, rather than talk about going to a restaurant with my family for Mother’s Day because that would be boring, let me go talk about and give a rating for all of the Top 8s that happened during EVO Japan!
I do have to give a caveat as, since I don’t understand Japanese, I only watched the English stream over at EVO Events. So, despite EVO Japan having other tournaments going on, namely the team tournaments for Street Fighter III: Third Strike and Virtual Fighter 5 REVO, I didn’t watch them.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
This is unofficially City of the Wolves big debut in the tournament scene the game isn’t even included in EVO Japan’s website. That kind of makes sense as the game is pretty new but I do feel the need to talk about it as it does carry some weight as the top players will qualify for the SNK World Championships and the Esports World Cup. So, even though this is basically a side tournament, there are big implications when it comes to the results.
I have a big issue with the tournament as it had an overabundance of Hokutomaru. I apologize but I just hate the little bugger! He’s super annoying to fight as he has super good keepaway with his projectile and his ridiculous air mobility thanks to his double jump. So, it’s no wonder as to why half of the Top 6 players picked Hokutomaru! Thankfully, Nemo added a lot more flavor to the Top 8 with his refreshing Billy Kane. Ultimately, the Finals came down to SNK game expert Xiao Hai using Hotaru in a winner’s side rematch against Fenritti‘s Kain. Xiao Hai practically dominated the match, leading to an okay finals game.
The City of the Wolves Finals was just okay. It does highlight a potential balance issue as the entire tournament and was filled with too many Hokutomaru and Hotaru players. This did instantly make me root for the players who used other characters but all my cheering was for naught. Still, I do like how the players showed a lot of high-level tech for a relatively new game. Hopefully, SNK can work on tweaking the balance a little bit to make other characters come off as more viable in a tournament setting.
Rating: 6 Hokutomarus out of 10
The other SNK game at EVO Japan but one that’s officially listed on the site. I may not play King of Fighters XV at all but I still love watching the pros play it! One thing I always like about King of Fighters tournaments is how you will always see someone with a weird character. Oh, you’ll see the top tiers like Isla and Benimaru often, sure! On the other hand, you’ll also see oddball choices like Sylvie, Hinako and Whip! This makes matches all feel very unique and different. I have to give kudos to Lacid‘s Ash Crimson because seeing him do those juggle combos when he activates his San-Culotte install Super is always a highlight.
However, I do have to mention how a King of Fighters tournament can also be tiring because of the game itself. As you have to beat 3 characters each time, matches can drag on for quite a while. So, while character variety is always a joy, having to see these same characters for a lengthy duration can also feel like a slog, especially if the competitors trade character wins, which happens quite often at high level.
Like with the earlier Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves finals, was a repeat of the Winner’s Finals, this time with the reigning EVO Japan King of Fighters XV Champion, ET, facing off against Mok, who ET put in Losers. Mok did put a valiant fight but ET’s Clark and Isla were just too dominant in the end. Still, seeing a very dominant Clark sneaking in Frankensteiner command throws is always fun in my eyes as I can’t really get that move to connect! ET is now a repeat EVO Japan champion for King of Fighters XV.
Rating: 7 out of 10 Clark grapples
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
Although I do consider myself a card-carrying member of the fighting game community, that doesn’t mean I play all fighting games. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is one of them. I tried playing it but I just didn’t gel with the game. So, as I am essentially forcing myself to watch this Top 8, I’m hoping this will ignite some kind of passion in me to try out Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising again and perhaps learn what makes this fun in the eyes of those who are still playing it.
Things started out well for me as I was getting into the first couple of matches… then things began to feel slow. Matches, especially by the Loser’s Quarterfinals, I can’t really explain it but it probably because I’m not all that familiar with Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising’s mechanics. I appreciate Jiyuna and Virum trying to explain the game to Sherryjenix who’s not familiar with the game. It’s almost like they were attempting to tell me what’s happening. It was all for naught, though. By the Loser’s Finals, I just mentally checked out. If you’re a fan of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, I’m sorry. I tried. I really tried.
Rating: 3 out of 10 really looooong matches
I tried my hand at Guilty Gear Strive when it first came out and I just couldn’t gel with the game. It was fun but I hit my skill ceiling for it very early. I understood most of the mechanics but I just couldn’t fully grasp on how to use them effectively. Even with that, I do enjoy some high-level Guilty Gear Stive gameplay and EVO Japan had that in spades! This was the direct opposite of the sluggishness I felt while watching Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising! Matches seemed to go at a very blistering pace and lifebars were getting demolished! I mean, 3 sequences could lead to the end of a round! Despite how fast things were moving, I could still understand what was happening… for the most part, anyways!
There were some thrilling matches here. That Loser’s Quarterfinals with Leffen‘s Happy Chaos and Tyurara‘s Sin Kiske was epic, with Tyurara making a comeback to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat was amazing. Speaking of Happy Chaos, I did not like how many of them there were here in Top 8! I mean, half of them were this specific character! Thankfully, because of how fast the games were, most of them were dispatched before I could really start to complain. Even with the overabundance of Happy Chaos, there was enough variety in how they played so I didn’t mind too much.
In the end, I’m glad Daru won for one specific reason: he uses I-No. She’s a totally unique character and really difficult to use based on my time with Guilty Gear Strive. So, seeing a character like her make it to the top felt satisfying, especially as it was done is such a dominating fashion! I don’t think Daru lost a match throughout Top 8 because of how solid his I-No is!
This was a really exciting tournament. I may not play Guilty Gear Strive anymore but I am glad to see it still have a healthy life. I do wish there was more character variety overall but, seeing as the most unique character won it all, that just makes it all the more delicious.
Rating: 8 out of 10 Happy Chaoses
At the start of 2025, I noted down a couple of my dreams for the year: to get myself a PlayStation 5 and to start playing Tekken 8. Well, both haven’t happened as of yet… but they will soon as I’m planning to gift myself a PlayStation 5 for my birthday… or Christmas. I’m not sure on when as it’ll depend on my savings. So, while I still haven’t started playing Tekken 8 yet, I can still watch some good ass Tekken at EVO Japan!
One thing off the bat I have to mention for the Tekken 8 Top 8 is the general character variety. Even when they switched to their secondary character, it was always someone different. This made every match feel refreshing. Also, despite Tekken 8 matches having to win 3 rounds to win a match, things went blazingly fast! I also find it amazing how these top players can break out of almost every single throw! How the heck do you train for that?
If I were going to complain about something, it would be how dominating the South Koreans are in Tekken 8 as 6 out of the Top 8 were from that country. There may be a lot of character variety but not much country variety! So, it was no surprise someone from South Korea, namely Knee, won the entire thing. Knee’s Bryan Fury wasn’t exactly unstoppable as there were some close calls, which did keep things exciting. Overall, this was a really good tournament as each match was different from one another.
Rating: 8 out of 10 character variety
I generally love most fighting games but my first love would always be the Street Fighter series. It’s the first fighting game I ever played and it’s the first one I got respectable at. Even though I’ve been playing Street Fighter games, I know I’ll never be on the level as any of the Top 8 competitors at EVO Japan because these matches were hype! Like with the Tekken 8 tournament, the Street Fighter 6 Top 8 had one country fill in most of the slots. Well, since this is EVO Japan, it does make sense why there were so many Japanese who made it through. Still, I hoped for more diversity just to keep things a little fresher.
Despite it being filled with so many Japanese, it was MenaRD from the Dominican Republic who came off as unstoppable. His reaction times and combo timing allowed him to pretty much coast through the Winner’s side of Top 8. That’s not to say his matches weren’t exciting as they still were as everyone was in top form and the matches can get really close and intense. It’s just that MenaDR was in his toppest top form this week.
I also have to give kudos to Justin Wong‘s commentary. His transition to competitor to commentator has been good but it looks like he kicked things up a notch at EVO Japan. He just sounded really natural and it’s like he’s been doing this for years. His excellent voiceovers complimented each match and just added to how good the games were.
My only real problem with it was with Grand Finals as it was essentially a rethread of Winner’s Finals. Instead of MenaRD trying to use Zangief at the start, he went straight to Blanka as that’s who he used to boot Ryukichi‘s Ken to Losers. MenaRD did struggle a bit but it already looked like he knew RyuKichi still didn’t have an answer for his Blanka. So, by the end, MenaRD won and became a two-time EVO Japan Champion for Street Fighter 6.
Rating: 8 of 10 dominant MenaRDs
Overall, EVO Japan was fun but it really didn’t have a lot of drama. While there were a few come-from-behind victories, there wasn’t anything like someone from Losers resetting the bracket. I know the players who stuck it out in Winners don’t want that but, as a viewer, I do want to see that comeback. We can’t have everything that we want, though. So, I will say I was more than satisfied with what I got.
Byee!
3rd World Geeks 