During this morning’s 2021 Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable, Arika has announced an updated version of its ongoing fight gaming, Fighting EX Layer: -Another Dash-, for the Nintendo Switch. Arika did express interest in bringing the game to the Switch during the 2020 Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. This version of Fighting EX Layer will arrive on the Switch later this year.
According to the developer, Fighting Ex Layer Dash is a separate title from its Fighting EX Layer title; it is not an update to the existing game. This updated version replaces the dashes and the Gougi system with new systems such as EX-Dash, EX-Illusion, and EX-Arrow. They’re also making adjustments to the characters and their movesets. I’m not sure if removing the Gougi system is a smart move, as this is one of the selling points of Fighting EX Layer.
As for the updated systems, seeing how Fighting EX Layer doesn’t support cross-play, I don’t see this as a problem. But if cross-play ever does make it to the game, that’s going to be a completely different story.
The game will use delay-based backstep interrupt netcode, which is an odd decision. This sort of netcode is not desirable for several reasons; if there is a noticeable input lag, the characters’ position will be adjusted, and pauses will happen while the is waiting for the inputs to arrive. As you can imagine, this can cause numerous issues while fighting against an opponent. If you’d like to read up on the pitfalls of Thankfully, Arika has mentioned that they have plans to replace this with the rollback netcode that they’ve implemented for the PC and PS4 versions of Fighting EX Layer.
Arika will release more information on this title on April 1st, 2021.
