- Fantasy Strike Patch Notes: July 2025 - 25 July 2025
This patch is live now on all platforms. Developer Notes: Fantasy Strike has always been free-to-play in a wide variety of ways: online casual play, online ranked play, offline practice mode, vs. CPU mode, and with ALL characters permanently unlocked from the start, including the two new characters we added after launch. Friend Match was always available for free as well, provided one of the two players involved was an owner of the Fantasy Strike Core Pack. Starting today, we’re lifting this restriction; the free-to-play version of Fantasy Strike will allow you to play not just online as part of the casual and ranked queues, but in Direct Challenges (Friend Matches), as well. We appreciate all of the support we’ve gotten for Fantasy Strike over the years. If you’d like to keep supporting the game (and us!), please consider still picking up the Core or Collector’s Packs; they still come…
- Steam Fighting Games Fest! - 15 July 2024
The Steam Fighting Games Fest is online! We're celebrating with a whopping 70% off the Core and Collector's Packs for Fantasy Strike! Now's the best time to dust off the old arcade stick and grab all of those fighting games you've been eyeing over the years. Be sure to support all of your favorite indie developers during the sale by gifting your favorites to your friends!
- Steam Autumn Sale and Black Friday Week - 21 November 2023
Sirlin Games is a part of the Steam Autumn Sale! Save on the Fantasy Strike Core/Collector’s Pack, mainstays Yomi and Puzzle Strike, as well as the digital early access edition of Yomi 2 that we’re currently hard at work developing! We're also doing a tabletop sale for our physical games! You can check out all the details at our blog post, here.
- Steam Autumn Sale 2021 - 24 November 2021
It’s time again for the Steam Autumn Sale! From November 24th until December 1st at 10am PST you can save 34% on the Core and Collector’s Packs for Fantasy Strike. More details on what you get over the Free-to-play version: The Core Pack gives you access to several game modes: Arcade mode, Versus mode for local play (including standard and team battle), Survival modes (including 4 sub-modes), and the over-the-top Boss Rush mode where you assemble a deck of powerups against increasingly crazy CPU characters. The Core Pack also lets you send direct challenges to friends in both standard and team battle modes. The Collector’s Pack gives you all of the above PLUS 13,500 gems, one year of Fantasy+ membership, the High Roller costume for Lum the Gambling Panda, and the exclusive "Party Time" KO effect. Also, don’t forget to check out our other games, Yomi and Puzzle Strike; they’re 50% off du…
- Sirlin Games on the Steam Halloween Sale 2021 - 28 October 2021
Spooky times are here again! From October 28th - November 1st you can save 34% on the Core and Collector's Packs for Fantasy Strike, our colorful, modern, free-to-play fighting game. More details on what you get over the Free-to-play version: The Core Pack gives you access to several game modes: Arcade mode, Versus mode for local play (including standard and team battle), Survival modes (including 4 sub-modes), and the over-the-top Boss Rush mode where you assemble a deck of powerups against increasingly crazy CPU characters. The Core Pack also lets you send direct challenges to friends in both standard and team battle modes. The Collector’s Pack gives you all of the above PLUS 13,500 gems, one year of Fantasy+ membership, the High Roller costume for Lum the Gambling Panda, and the exclusive "Party Time" KO effect. Also, don’t forget to check out our other games, Yomi and Puzzle Strike;…
- Gamepad hotfix - 27 September 2021
This is just a small hotfix to gamepad issues that started last week.
- Fantasy Strike Update: July 2021. New graphics and more! - 6 July 2021
This is a pretty big update on technical and aesthetic levels. Aesthetically, we’ve changed the 3D shaders as well as the actual 3D models for several characters to improve their graphics. We’ve also added new costumes for Grave, Jaina, and Setsuki to the in-game store. We’ve updated our game engine to a version of Unity that’s three years newer than the version we were using and this allowed us to fix some long-standing technical issues with Xbox controllers as well as with fightsticks on Linux. We also added a new feature on Steam that allows you to assign which controller is player1 and which is player2 (especially important on Steam because of how we allow the keyboard to be both player1 and player2). Finally, there are some long-requested balance changes in this patch too. NEW GRAPHICS --Graphics upgrade for many characters and costumes. Enjoy a new look for Grave, Setsuki, Rook, a…
- Steam Summer Sale 2021 - 24 June 2021
Let’s get the summer started off right with another Steam sale! From June 24th until July 8th at 10am PST you can save 34% on the Core and Collector’s Packs for Fantasy Strike. More details on what you get over the Free-to-play version: The Core Pack gives you access to several game modes: Arcade mode, Versus mode for local play (including standard and team battle), Survival modes (including 4 sub-modes), and the over-the-top Boss Rush mode where you assemble a deck of powerups against increasingly crazy CPU characters. The Core Pack also lets you send direct challenges to friends in both standard and team battle modes. The Collector’s Pack gives you all of the above PLUS 13,500 gems, one year of Fantasy+ membership, the High Roller costume for Lum the Gambling Panda, and the exclusive "Party Time" KO effect. Also, don’t forget to check out our other games, Yomi and Puzzle Strike; they’…
- Sirlin Games on the Steam Winter Sale 2020 - 23 December 2020
Happy Holidays everyone! It’s time for another Steam sale. From December 22nd until January 5th at 10am PST you can save 34% on the Core and Collector’s Packs for Fantasy Strike. More details on what you get over the Free-to-play version: The Core Pack gives you access to several game modes: Arcade mode, Versus mode for local play (including standard and team battle), Survival modes (including 4 sub-modes), and the over-the-top Boss Rush mode where you assemble a deck of powerups against increasingly crazy CPU characters. The Core Pack also lets you send direct challenges to friends in both standard and team battle modes. The Collector’s Pack gives you all of the above PLUS 13,500 gems, one year of Fantasy+ membership, the High Roller costume for Lum the Gambling Panda, and the exclusive "Party Time" KO effect. Also, don’t forget to check out our other games, Yomi and Puzzle Strike; the…
- Fantasy Strike Update: November 2020 - 26 November 2020
This month there are lots of bug fixes, some balance changes for Quince, and the new ability to see how many gems (virtual currency) your account has on OTHER platforms than your current one. (By the way, gems don’t travel across platforms, as per Sony’s requirements, but the items you buy with gems DO travel across platforms with your account.) PlayStation 5 The game now works on PlayStation 5! It is as cross-platform and as cross-buy as we could possibly make it by Sony's rules. (See the FAQ here: http://www.fantasystrike.com/crossplay) QUINCE --Quince's Dodge the Question (ground C) is no longer invulnerable during its first 2 frames. This allows you to pressure him when you get a knockdown and he can’t get away so easily. --Quince air B no longer can cancel to air C mirror on hit/block. Reverting this buff from an earlier patch, he doesn’t need it. (He can still do air C mirror afte…
- Sirlin Games on the Steam Autumn Sale - 25 November 2020
The holidays are almost here, so it’s time for the Steam Autumn Sale! From November 25th until December 1st you can save 34% on not just the Core and Collector's Packs for Fantasy Strike, but also all quantities of Gems in the shop! More details on what you get over the Free-to-play version: The Core Pack gives you access to several game modes: Arcade mode, Versus mode for local play (including standard and team battle), Survival modes (including 4 sub-modes), and the over-the-top Boss Rush mode where you assemble a deck of powerups against increasingly crazy CPU characters. The Core Pack also lets you send direct challenges to friends in both standard and team battle modes. The Collector’s Pack gives you all of the above PLUS 13,500 gems, one year of Fantasy+ membership, the High Roller costume for Lum the Gambling Panda, and the exclusive "Party Time" KO effect. Also, don’t forget to…
- Nominate Fantasy Strike for the Steam Awards' Labor of Love Award! - 25 November 2020
Hello everyone and happy holidays from Sirlin Games! Be sure to check us out on the Steam Autumn Sale, but also please join our dedicated community in nominating Fantasy Strike for the Steam Game Awards' "Labor of Love" award. We've been working hard on Fantasy Strike for many years now though Early Access, our Steam/PS4/Switch launch, and now again through our free-to-play transition back in July. We're still working on making Fantasy Strike the best fighting game it can be, and we hope you're having as much fun playing the game as we're having making it. Please go support all of your favorite games this holiday season! Enjoy the sale and we'll see you on the servers!
- Sirlin Games on the Steam Halloween Sale - 29 October 2020
Spooky times are here again! From October 29th - November 2nd you can save 34% on the Core and Collector's Packs for Fantasy Strike, our colorful, modern, free-to-play fighting game. More details on what you get oveere the Free-to-play version: The Core Pack gives you access to several game modes: Arcade mode, Versus mode for local play (including standard and team battle), Survival modes (including 4 sub-modes), and the over-the-top Boss Rush mode where you assemble a deck of powerups against increasingly crazy CPU characters. The Core Pack also lets you send direct challenges to friends in both standard and team battle modes. The Collector’s Pack gives you all of the above PLUS 13,500 gems, one year of Fantasy+ membership, the High Roller costume for Lum the Gambling Panda, and the exclusive "Party Time" KO effect. Also, don’t forget to check out our other games, Yomi and Puzzle Strik…
- Fantasy Strike Update: October 2020 - 15 October 2020
his patch is live now on all platforms. NEW FEATURES: Dummy Recording You can now record and playback actions of the dummy character in practice mode. The default controls are pressing in left thumbstick button to record, and the right thumbstick to playback. (You can change these controls on the button config screen.) While using this feature, handy on-screen icons show you whether you’re about to record, are actually recording, or in playback mode. Gifting Items You can now gift items bought with gems to other players. This includes cosmetics such as costumes, alternate intro animations, etc, as well as Fantasy+ membership. The checkout screen for these things includes a new option to send as gift. When you choose that, you can pick anyone on your friends list to send it to, and you can also search for players who are not on your friends list to gift to. When you receive a gift, you g…
- Fantasy Strike Update: September 2020 - 10 September 2020
There’s a lot of fixes and changes in this patch. The main technical improvements involve fixes to crashes, disconnects, and blackscreens, especially after ranked matches. There are some new options for the practice mode dummy to automatically do actions after getting up from a knockdown, blocking, or getting hit. And there are a lot of balance changes, especially buffs for Rook, Onimaru, and Quince. Quince also has a long list of visuals cleaned up. New Features --Dummy actions. You can now set the practice mode dummy to press any button after it leaves blockstun or gets up from a knockdown, rather than just a throw or its fastest attack. Also, there is a new option to have it press a button of your choice after it leaves hitstun as well. -- (Already in the previous patch for PS4) Added a new feature to button config to “unset” a button by holding either left or right for a couple seco…
- Fantasy Strike: Late August 2020 Update - 26 August 2020
This is a small update with fixes to several technical issues. The update only affects the Steam and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. (The next patch will include these fixes in the Nintendo Switch version as well.) -- To play the game online on PS4, you no longer need a PlayStation+ subscription (Sony no longer requires us to require it.) -- Fixed a crash that could happen from being in practice mode, then playing a ranked game, then the crash could happen as the game would try to return you to practice mode afterwards. -- Fixed a case where the server would sometimes fail to check your ping correctly, which could then result in you getting matched with people with bad pings. This was more likely to happen to players who played for more than 1 hour in a session, but was possible to happen before that too. -- Fixed a case where you could be in the queue for online matches according t…
- Fantasy Strike -- Server Update August March 2020 - 14 August 2020
We’ve updated the Fantasy Strike matchmaking servers with several fixes. These fixes are in effect right now and do not require players to download a patch (because they are all server-side fixes). Here’s what’s fixed: --The server’s performance has been optimized, meaning it can handle more players without getting overloaded. --Fixed several problems with the matchmaking algorithm that only arose with our new much higher number of players in the queue. It’s correct that if the server can’t find an opponent of similar skill level for you in casual play or player of the same league in ranked play that it will then expand its search. The problem is that, ironically, when a lot of players are in the queue it was much more likely to “expand the search” for no good reason. Now you will (on average) find much closer skill matches than you did since our free-to-play launch. --When getting in t…
- Fantasy Strike Update: August 2020 - 10 August 2020
(While we know these are the Steam forums, we include notes on changes to all platforms, for the sake of completeness. Especially because fixes to online disconnects and crashes on PS4 and Switch improve crossplatform play on Steam.) MAIN FIXES -- Having the core pack now lets you challenge any player on any platform to a friend match, even a free player. Free players on Switch can now be challenged by anyone on any platform who has the core pack. This brings Switch in line with how the other platforms already worked. -- Fixed a crash that happened right at the end of games, after you had played X number of games previously. This crash could be temporarily warded off by deleting your save file, but is now fully fixed. -- Fixed both a frequent source of disconnects AND crashes right as a game ends, which was especially disruptive to ranked matches (because you have to get through best 3…
- Fantasy Strike is Free-to-Play and Has New Characters - 21 July 2020
Fantasy Strike is now free to play. The term “free to play” has a wide range of meanings and we’re excited to tell you that we’re not talking about “one character is free, please buy the rest for $5 each.” No, we mean all characters are free. All Characters Free Specifically, you can play all characters in online casual play, online ranked play, offline practice mode, and offline “single match” mode against AI…completely free. Also we are also adding two new characters: Chancellor Quince and General Onimaru. Everyone gets these characters for free, too. To learn more about the gameplay of these new characters, check out their character spotlight videos, narrated by our game director, David Sirlin: Quince Spotlight Video Onimaru Spotlight Video This is something we wanted to do all along. We know that it’s a huge benefit to the playerbase, not just in that they can play for free, but als…
- Sirlin Games on the Steam Winter Sale - 19 December 2019
Give the gift of fighting games to your loved ones this holiday season! From December 19th - January 2nd you can save 34% on the Steam version of Fantasy Strike, our colorful, modern take on the fighting game genre. Easy to learn but difficult to master, Fantasy Strike is a great starting point for not just newcomers to the genre, but also veterans looking for something new that emphasizes strategy and great decision-making. Also, don’t forget to check out our other games, Yomi and Puzzle Strike; they’re 50% off during the sale, too. These are the digital versions of our strategically deep tabletop games that directly inspired Fantasy Strike, taking place in the same universe and featuring the same cast of characters. Already own all of these games on Steam and you’ve already gifted them all to your friends? Check out David Sirlin’s Patreon page, where about twice a month we’re giving o…
