Friday, May 29, 2026

Joe's Monologues - 5/29/2026

Hello, everyone. Welcome to yet another Joe's Monologues. This will be the final Joe's Monologues before I leave. But the series will continue once I get back home, so without further ado, let's take a dive.

Escape from Ever After:

Right off the bat, I'm gonna talk about one of the games I am finally going through now that I have beaten Bug Fables. Escape from Ever After is just dang near perfect. The combat is fluid, similar as that of the first two Paper Mario games. The party of five in the game is absolutely gorgeous, but it's kind of feels more like Blue Dragon than Lost Odyssey, especially because Eva and Patches are surely the Kluke and Marumaro of Escape from Ever After. However, nothing has ever got a close as it did with the pigs angering Tinder by calling her a lizard, which already became my most favorite part. Good thing I recorded that part when I'm doing a Let's Play video.

I am suspending playing this game until either after I got some cushion for my gaming chair or after I get back home. I started playing it to fill out the party of five.

Evo 2026:

The biggest thrill ride of the summer is almost here as the registration numbers and the leaderboard have been finalized as signups have been closed.


Evo has posted a leaderboard of games. Here are the twelve games Evo Vegas will have this year like Evo Japan did. With twelve games, there are twelve champions to crown. You might be wondering why the top six games have to be light while the bottom six have to be dark. Well, here's one obvious thing. Since we have twelve games up there, the top six games will have their Top 8 in the Arena while the bottom six games will have their Top 8 at the main streaming area outside of the Arena.

Now, since Evo Vegas is taking place at the West Wing of the Las Vegas Convention Center to allow the Arena finals to go live on Saturday and Sunday, the pendulum swings in both days. Let's start with Saturday's Top 8 finals.

Saturday will see Top 8s for Virtua Fighter 5: R.E.V.O. World Stage, Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes, BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Guilty Gear Strive and Rivals of Aether II. But Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Guilty Gear Strive and Rivals of Aether II will be played in the Arena while Virtua Fighter 5, Under Night In-Birth II and BlazBlue: Central Fiction will be played outside of the Arena.

Sunday will see Top 8s for Vampire Savior, Invincible VS, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, 2XKO, Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6. But 2XKO, Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 will be played in the Arena while Vampire Savior, Invincible VS and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will be played outside of the Arena.

Saturday's Top 8s:

Games outside the Arena:
  • Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage
  • Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes
  • BlazBlue: Central Fiction
Games inside the Arena:
  • Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
  • Guilty Gear Strive
  • Rivals of Aether II
Sunday's Top 8s:

Games outside the Arena:
  • Vampire Savior
  • Invincible VS
  • Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Games inside the Arena:
  • 2XKO
  • Tekken 8
  • Street Fighter 6
Here is the placement and order of how the games' Top 8 is gonna be played. This is the info I can have when it comes to time limitations.

We're gonna cross out BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Vampire Savior and 2XKO because I don't think that we're gonna see announcements regarding these games after or before Top 8 and we won't see a BBTAG 2 announced there. 2XKO in particular is being played in the Arena, but I don't think that we're gonna get some sort of reveal before or after 2XKO Top 8 since Senna is guaranteed to come out before Evo opens its doors.

While it sucks that they won't announce something for 2XKO before or after Top 8, my prediction of revealing the rest of the Year 1 characters and updating the roadmap to reveal the rest at the Friday Showcase is still in play. However, we can expect something for Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Fatal Fury, Under Night In-Birth II, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Invincible VS and Marvel Tokon since they have announcements among these games up on their sleeve.

Invincible VS in particular would take Mortal Kombat 1's spot at Evo since they knew that they needed one M-rated fighting game up there, and Invincible VS is considered an M-rated Marvel vs. Capcom clone because of brutal 3v3 tag combat and supers that dismember opponents when their HP is at 0. After all, Marvel vs. Capcom has been a main debut at Evo in the earlier years and Invincible VS can answer that.

Summer Game Reveals:

The time when they reveal games in the summer is almost upon us. Publishers and developers have a lot of games in the works, ranging from AAA blockbusters to indies, starting with the State of Play, to Summer Game Fest, Xbox Games Showcase and the Nintendo Direct. A number of publishers and developers are getting themselves ready for the biggest showcase of the summer. With a showcase that hype, I do not doubt that it's gonna be enough to fill in the gap E3's death has made.

Indie devs are also gonna be a part of it. Maybe we can see a third Paper Mario-esque game. That would be fire. I love Paper Mario and has been a huge fan of the first two games of the franchise that are the most popular. My next post will have the things I want to see in the season of game reveals.

Future Plans:

And finally, I'm going to talk about my future plans, First off, as I have said before, I'm gonna be leaving on June 10th to go to my old stomping grounds because I got to attend at my aunt's birthday on June 13th at the place located at the street that is the very heart. This means I will not be doing any content until I get back home on the 17th of June. I am excited for this is not just because I'm celebrating my aunt's birthday. But better yet, it's doing nostalgic things, having a forest show and being on the lookout for people that resemble the quality of my old friends and that's something I want to do.

And to cap things off, I am planning to livestream both Sonic Racing Crossworlds and 2XKO together. However, I'm gonna have to wait until the wonky VS screen issue is fixed. The thing is, when the wonky VS screen happens, in game, the background from the VS screen remains to block the health bars and timer, there are shades of yellow on the assist character in the character select screen and you see the VS label at the main menu. Alternatively, if that happens, I can use the workaround; restarting the game.

I reported the issue on X constructively enough. I went on to say, "The VS screen background remains in game when the wonky VS screen happens to block the health bars and timer," instead of, "The background of the VS screen being in game is driving me nuts. Fix this glitch now." This is courtesy of the Skullheart Forums' constructive vs. opinionated threads. That's why we need to make constructive bug reports, not opinionated bug reports.

Conclusion:

Again, this will be my final post of the series before I leave. But rest assured. The series will return as soon as I get home to do more content.

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