By Scott Boyce ’22, Staff Writer

Are you looking for another fighting game to binge and play with your friends when you’ve got some time to kill? Look no further than a new hit in the fighting game genre: MELTY BLOOD TYPE LUMINA

Aren’t fighting games hard? Won’t they kill my hands from just trying to do inputs?

Not this one! If you’re worried about killing your hands, you don’t need to worry since characters are streamlined to have the most basic inputs. At most, you’re doing: quarter circle forwards and backward, Shoryuken and doing down-down inputs.

This is a fighting game that’s accessible to all kinds of newcomers while still giving veterans of the genre something to definitely bite on. This is a four-button anime-fighter that has a variety of characters that are both varied and streamlined all the same.

Buttons go from A-D pertaining to light, medium, heavy, and shield. 

Through its ease of access and simplicity, there’s little to confuse newcomers to the genre with, they just have to get to grips with how it feels to push the buttons. Although in some cases you won’t really need to dive too deep into remembering each button.

How you might ask? Well for the newcomers there’s the auto-combo system which allows you to mash any of the buttons (aside from D) to get a full combo out! So even if you have no knowledge of fighting games whatsoever, you can still feel like you’re doing some big damage.

The shield mechanics in the game are there for both players, new and grizzled alike. Just press a button and parry an attack, after parrying you can push another button or set of buttons to counter-attack and possibly lead to big damage! 

For newcomers, this can help them get their foot in the door, whereas with veterans this can be used to really call someone out and lead into some interesting decision making once you get accustomed to the mechanics and how it functions.

For veterans, there’s still a deep and intricate bundle of system mechanics with things like the Moon Drive system. The moon drive system allows you to move more, use for invincibility frames, opening up combo routes, and for attaining armor on specific moon drive moves.

There’s a lot of mechanics and systems and things overall! What can I do to learn all of this even if I DO get the game?

There’s the entire tutorial and mission mode which not only tells you EVERYTHING you need to know but also combos for your characters as a whole. 

Through these two, anyone jumping in can learn an effective amount of information and even generalist fighting game ideologies. Even a wide-eyed newcomer can become an engaged player in a matter of weeks through absorbing all that the game has to offer.

Well, what about online? A fighting game has to thrive online right?

Type Lumina has a rollback netcode but it’s still recommended that you have a wired connection and don’t skip the intros when a fight starts. Having netcode etiquette is important to enjoying the harder experience, meant for people who are really willing to grind it out and get good.

The game overall, feels great to play, has a lot to it, and is an open game for all skill levels.

It’s available on PC, the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and the Xbox One for $50. 

Have any games you’re looking forward to getting covered?
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