Street Fighter X Tekken's gem system detailed

During Capcom's presentation of Street Fighter X Tekken at New York Comic Con 2011, producer Yoshinori Ono and community manager Seth Killian revealed the date of the game's release: March 6, 2012 in North America. They also talked about the game's gem system, which was first uncovered at the Tokyo Game Show 2011.

There will be five types of color-coded gem types that players can experiment with: attack (red), speed (green), defense (yellow), c. gauge (blue), and assist (purple). Before a fight begins, each player picks and equips up to five gems that have their own set of abilities, like a percentage increase in attack damage and auto guard. During a fight, players can only activate certain gem abilities by fulfilling battle conditions, like landing a number of special attacks or taking a certain amount of damage. When a gem is activated, the player's character will briefly flash the corresponding gem's color.

Players can also use multiple copies of the same gems; while the activation requirements increase, the bonuses also stack up. Gems that give support abilities, like the aforementioned auto guard, require one bar of the cross gauge per blocked attack. The gems aren't mandatory for a fight: Players can opt not to equip them at all. During a recent live stream panel from Capcom, the title's assistant producer Tomoaki Ayano said that he doesn't want anyone to jump through many hurdles to collect them in game.

For more information, check out GameSpot's coverage on the upcoming crossover fighting game.