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After we speculated about it coming, Fantasy Strike the fighting game from Sirlin Games is now officially available for Linux.

It's currently in Early Access, with a full release scheduled for "Q1 of 2019", they've also confirmed that online play is compatible with Windows and Mac.

The developer was kind enough to send over Steam keys for review. It does need a fix, as it seems to incorrectly get your screen resolution and ends up giving a screen width and height of 1—which breaks it of course. To fix it, you can add this as a launch option in Steam (right click on it, go to properties, hit set launch options and put this in):

-screen-height 1080 -screen-width 1920

Adjusting for your resolution of course. Or you can edit the "prefs" config file in "/home/user/.config/unity3d/Sirlin Games/Fantasy Strike"

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From the press release:

Fantasy Strike is a fighting game that has re-imagined the genre with its emphasis on elegance in gameplay as well as in user interface. The gameplay streamlines fighting games to their essence, making their depth more apparent and accessible. As a piece of software, Fantasy Strike aims to excel at features where others have struggled: a single click to challenge a friend, a single click to watch a friend play, best-in-class netcode (GGPO), fast loading times, and more.

The development team is led by Super Street Fighter 2: HD Remix lead developer and former fighting game pro David Sirlin. “For years I’ve been frustrated by the sorry state of usability in most fighting game software. You can’t even use the mouse in the PC version of Street Fighter 5—in 2018—and good luck challenging a friend,” Sirlin said.

After playing through some of the tutorial section, I'm actually pretty impressed. Lovely colourful visuals and accessible controls with some seriously cool moves available!

I did have a few issues with the tutorial, especially with the combo when you need to jump, hit twice quickly and then do a special. Took forever to get the timing correct. They also need to make the blocking section clearer, as the prompt at the top doesn't tell you to attack after which confused me for a bit. Only minor stuff though, it's actually a pretty great fighting game from the time I've spent in it so far.

The Steam Controller worked perfectly, without any adjustments needed. When in-game simply hold two buttons like A/X on the main menu and it will come up asking you to set the buttons. It only seems to have PlayStation icons for gamepads, so it's a wee bit confusing, something I hope they address in a later update.

I've let them know about the resolution issue, they're looking into it. Find it on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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11 comments

Snowdrake Sep 6, 2018
Just bought two fighting game last week... sounds like I'll buy another one too :)
Linas Sep 6, 2018
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Just bought two fighting game last week...
Which ones?
Snowdrake Sep 7, 2018
Which ones?
Under Night in-birth ExeLate [ST] and Blade Strangers.
Shugyousha Sep 7, 2018
Definitely interested! There is only one officially supported fighting game on Linux (Skullgirls) and another one is very welcome.

I bought Under Night in-birth ExeLate[ST] as well. It works well through proton but supporting a native effort is worth it. Plus the game looks nice (and maybe I can get my non-fighting game friends to play it with me since they don't need to train for 100+ hours to be able to play it).
Kohrias Sep 7, 2018
Insta-buy for me. Really good to see another FG on GNU/Linux.
Linas Sep 7, 2018
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Under Night in-birth ExeLate [ST] and Blade Strangers.
Man, got me excited there for a moment. But those are not Linux games. :(
orochi_kyo Sep 7, 2018
Definitely interested! There is only one officially supported fighting game on Linux (Skullgirls) and another one is very welcome.

I bought Under Night in-birth ExeLate[ST] as well. It works well through proton but supporting a native effort is worth it. Plus the game looks nice (and maybe I can get my non-fighting game friends to play it with me since they don't need to train for 100+ hours to be able to play it).

It one friend of yours need 100+ hours to "play" a fighting game, well, with all respect with people with mental disabilities, you have retarded friends. If you are truly a fighting gamer stop spreading this bu115h1t about fighting games being so "hard".

The logic behind this game is flawed, I would like to use a mouse on SF V, Guilty Gear or Blazblue as much as I want to use a fighting game stick on Starcraft or use a racing wheel for playing Insurgency. People who doesnt want to effort will be scrubs on everything they play, and scrubs most of times doesnt buy games or doesnt even attend gaming events so this game is destined to disappear with all the other fighting games with simplified inputs, including Blade Strangers, Crosstag and Rising Thunder amongs others.

If Dragonball FighterZ is a success is not because its simplified style, its because every game with Goku and friends sell like a hot bread. But the game barely beat SF V with 100 players
over the formerly at EVO, being SF V a 3 year old game. And SF V makes 6000 registers the first year, DBFZ just did 2600.

Inb4 to those comments with the "I never played a fg because I dont have time to practice inputs, that is why the genre is dying" just go to any major fighting game event and try to run a Fantasy Strike or if there is one support it. If you are right, Fantasy Strike should be beating games like Guilty Gear or Uninst in entrance players, if you are right FS will be beating SF V shortly saving the genre.

Im just glad that I can play Koihime Enbu, Melty, KOF and others on Proton, so I dont have to be supporting any fighting game just because "its out" on Linux.
Snowdrake Sep 7, 2018
I bought Under Night in-birth ExeLate[ST] as well. It works well through proton
The actual game is working like a charm, except in game video that doesn't work at all :/ (like every game that needs window media player to support video playback).
I hope valve will improve steamplay on that matter.
Tchey Sep 7, 2018
I really can't bear the controls and the "simplification". I love the characters, the vibrant graphisms and animations, but it doesn't play well, at least, to my taste.

I'm no expert at all, and my favorite is/was Mortal Kombat 3 on Sega Genesis / Megadrive, so it's somehow "old"...

I played MK9 when i was still dual booting, and i finished the campaign and play some arcades, but then i went to full Linux and said goodbye to these games all together.

Skull Girls was nice but too hard for my level.

Maybe one day i'll find another fighting games that fits my taste, but it's not going to Fantasy Strike, it seems.
Odin Sep 7, 2018
looks fun but looking at the characters and what they can do it looks like quite complicated fighting.
i need to try it out to know if it's for me since some fighting games has to advanced combos so i end up having aching and sore thumbs and a broken controller when it "cheats".
Naib Sep 11, 2018
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This game crashes with steam controller plugged in
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