For the first time, a fighting game has turned frame advantage into a visual effect

Fighting games have a reputation for being a largely impenetrable genre, packed with jargon, complex mechanics and challenging systems. While some developers of fighting games have made strides to explain how these systems work, at the end of the day, going up against other players is, for a huge swathe of people, an intimidating, crushing experience.

One of the things that sets players of fighting games apart is game knowledge, specifically, knowledge of frame advantage. Frame advantage determines who recovers first after a move hits or is blocked. Players who know the frame data, as it's called, of the moves in a fighting game have a distinct advantage over those who do not, as they will know whether it is "safe" for them to attempt to strike their opponent - or whether they can punish a blocked strike themselves.

The frame data - and whether you have frame advantage - has always been "locked" away from players as they're playing a fighting game. Sure, you can dip into training mode to see what's what, but it's never been displayed as a visual effect before - until now.

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