The whole entire trip was more than we could ask for. Yes there were speed bumps, yes we couldn't stream the top 4/8 like we had hope, and yes we wanted to have more exhibitions matches but all we sought out to display how amazing the game is and we accomplished it. Throughout the weekend we noticed loads of people interested in the game including some pretty well known FG top players such as Juicebox, RF, LI Joe, PoongKo and so forth. I cannot even fathom where the scene we'll be 6-12 months down the line and I think with the console release, along with all the rebalances, will really make this an instant classic along with '98 and '02.
The console version was amazing, it far exceeded even my best expectations with the balances. Thinking back, I didn't know what to expect, I knew that we were privately invited to test the game on Thursday to see if it was fit for a tourney--at the time, all I could think about is that I hope Saiki and Billy weren't broken. It never even occurred to me that the entire cast was rebalanced.
I apologize for not posting more videos. The first day I thought I was not allowed to record anything and by the second day it was open to the public so there was no way to really test anything as everyone was playing on versus. It was probably for the best since Atlus has kindly asked us to remove any video uploaded and allow it to be "reviewed" first which of course I have now done.
They side tourney was LONG, it spanned a cool 12+ hours and we even had to take the grand finals up to the hotel room. All 4 of us staff were pretty beat and we didn't get our first meal until after the grand finals haha (I really wanted to play more console but I couldn't really leave the area either).
I've told some of the guys already, I'm done with v1.1 for now--console is leaps and bounds ahead of v1.1 that it just doesn't feel right investing anymore time on it. The next 12 weeks is going to be "fun" waiting for it to come out =(
Make no mistake, this isn't a negative post but in fact quite the opposite, it's really a compliment on how well made the console version and I know I'm not alone on this.
I want to thank Atlus again and again for putting on a great show. I cannot imagine a better company in handling the US publishing of XIII.
El Rosa, it's good seeing you again after 2 years as well, I cannot wait till you move up to SD hopefully in 6 months, we'll be definitely playing each other a lot as I have a lot to learn from you!
Salim, I still cannot believe you remembered who I used when I went to visit you in 2001 lol. It was good seeing you again as well and I hope we can play more in the future!
I'm actually off to eat dinner with No.17 before he leaves so I'm going to cut this short. Evo was off the hook and we're all going to see you guys next year, no excuses!