Over the past few weeks and even the past few months I’ve overheard a lot of discussion from a lot of players inside the community and outside the community from places like stream chats, forums and twitter about this particular subject and so I wanted to take this time to talk about some of that stuff from my perspective.
I think we can all agree that the game in Season 1 was a lot more footsie based and that is where a majority of the complaints stem from. People feel like all the characters now can just do whatever they want constantly mashing specials or flying around the screen essentially just eliminating the ground game. Another problem people have with the game is all the constant guess breaks and how it doesn’t properly reward reactions instead. What I think people don’t really understand is that the game switched developers hands and the ideals and design philosophy of DH will not be the same as IG. Things were going to change regardless especially with the addition of new characters to the franchise which gives them more wiggle room creativity wise.
So many players from Street Fighter backgrounds complain that the game needs to slow down or be more like this game or more like so and so game. To that I say what makes Killer Instinct so great for me is that it’s different than everything else; that’s what makes any fighting game special. Not every game will appeal to every player so you find what you like and play it. One of the biggest problems for a lot of fighting game players today is that they judge a game based on another games standards and fail to realize that you need to learn how to play KI and not try to apply Street Fighter or MK knowledge to a game that is completely different. Fighting game pros might not like KI but that’s fine, this is a new generation and new players are constantly on the rise. We see this a lot where a “KI only” player is amazing at it but then someone says he would get wrecked in any other game because hes so yolo and has not footsies or fundamentals…well I guess it’s a good thing then that I play KI and not those other games then huh
Trust me when I say there are quite a few things I don’t agree with about this current KI, but dissing players and calling the game yolo is not a great way to go about getting things changed. Come to the forums and voice your thoughts and concerns with meaningful posts or even hit up the developers on Twitter. Saying nothing and keeping your mouth shut in fear of backlash doesn’t accomplish anything especially if you are one of those people doesn’t like the direction the game is going; you have to catch that stuff early before it’s too late. I think it’s also important to note different people different play styles and just because I play Jago doesn’t mean I will play him the exact same way as you do. You can play solid with great normals and footsies while I may rely on wind kick and 1-chance breaks. Just respect the way I play and find a way to overcome what you’re struggling against.
Overall I just feel people need to get out of the habit of judging everything based on something that doesn’t exist anymore aka Season 1 or comparing today’s KI to street fighter level of footsies. Just accept the game for what it is and adapt or play a different fighting game.
CrazyLCD is absolutely correct. This isn’t true of just KI either, though. People need to learn to judge things based on their individual merits - not those of others. It is, when you really think about it, the only way to remain truly objective.
I agree with you completely. People should realize that KI is a completely different game and they should not apply any other fighting game for this game. Good thread LCD. I just hope that when we get the PC version up and running, maybe with more people, the outlook would be better.
This is a ridiculous claim. Unlike some fighting games, KI isn’t a button mash fest, if you don’t get your crap togeather or in gear you’re going to get wrecked. All characters vary in abilities and motion but the game is balanced in a way that if you just do whatever the effing hell you feel like, you’re gonna get beatin to a pulp. In KI there is a time and a place for everything.
While KI may seem all “YOLO” the end of the day you have to take into consideration what you’re doing because in all that chaos I can tell a top player is making his strategies and his combos all into consideration.
KI has a way better balance than most fighting games, because alot of the characters may have some tools but they don’t simply get away with it. It’s done in a way that keeps things going. If something does get out of hand though the character gets a fix but not in a way that will make them useless.
I agree with your bottom statment and what’s funny is: I played MKX as well as KI and while the gameplay is jsut a bit slower than I’d like it to be. If someone just spams the same move over and over I’ll just wreck them a new one. Granted in MKX there’s a TON of blocking. But like all other decent fighting games, KI requires you keep your stuff togeather or it’s face-meets-fist to face meets floor in minutes!
Though LCD I wouldn’t worry. If a game does get some occasional hate it’s kind of a sighn that KI is growing and people who make such claims are probably scared of it growing. I’m sure MKX and SF already get plenty of hate to.
It isn’t yolo. Have played some friends of my brother who go yolo without learning the full system. Basically they play Sabrewulf and try to win like that but my Sadira always beats them because they don’t block or know about cross ups.
Those people who want KI to slow down should probably play MvC or the new SF and then say something about the speed of KI. IT looks fast sometimes but it really isn’t when you get used to it.
I’ll have other things to write about this if I find time, but I’ll leave this here for the moment: my sporadic wind kicks aren’t YOLO. They’re deliberate, they’re used to dissuade aggression, and if you’re holding forward more than, say, ~40% of the time in neutral, then you deserve to get wrecked by one.
And to think CDjr wants forward-travelling specials to be more negative on block. If anything I want medium wind kick to be -2, just to close out the theoretical possibility of eating a DP just for enforcing the “don’t hold forward all the time” rule in neutral.
It might even prevent me from trying out SFV, tbh. I mean, look at those entitled babies, moving around freely like there’s no credible threat to their hurtboxes at midrange. It kinda makes me sick.
I cordially invite any outsiders that think this game is YOLO to have a go at my Hisako.
She eats YOLO for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
At any rate, I find it odd to call the game YOLO based on its pace, and I think @CrazyLCD is right in that people are too quick to judge something they know little to nothing about. The pace of a game is a lot like the pace of a song… you either like fast things, or you don’t. Calling something like Paganini or Dillinger Escape Plan “YOLO” based on its tempo would be foolish; there are complex arrangements at play, and your inability to recognize that is indicative of little else but your ability to comprehend complexity at high speeds.
Not much to disagree with here, although I admit I’m getting a little tired of these “people say…” posts.
I think people are wrongly attributing the decreased emphasis on footsies to IG. It was DH who dropped Spinal and Fulgore. It’s tough to have micro battles around spacing when the opponent is teleporting all over the place.
It’s also a misconception that if its not footsies it’s YOLO. Frankly, for me the whole discussion highlights the immaturity that is rampant in the FGC rather than anything about KI. No one can just like what they like. They have to try and run down the games they don’t play.
Which is part of a greater dialogue on elitism in consumer mindset. A la Console Wars, people assert that their choice to consume or enjoy one product over another somehow makes them greater than the person that chose to consume or enjoy the alternative product. Which is totally bizarre but ubiquitous.
I’m so tired of this discussion and these comparisons. Listen fighting games play different from one another. Play what you like and be done with it.
That said some of these arguments are extremely shallow. Guess breaking particular I find completely ridiculous. Are you going to tell me that SF4 and MKX do not have unsafe mixups? Or certain characters in those games don’t have unreactable oki? Guessing happens in fighting games that just the way it is, in a lot of cases it’s that luck or consistently making good reads (being in your opponents head) that make the game fun. At least in KI a guess break just resets you to neutral (save for some instinct cancel shenanigans) where as in other games tiers are literally determined because x character cannot be played viably due to having unsafe mixups that result in full combo punishes.
I will say in regards to being “YOLO”, if that were truly the case I don’t think we’d see consistent placing with so many top players.
LCD is preaching to the choir here. Not much else to say.
Those people complaining about KI seemingly don’t play the game, so they are decenters from the outside. Every scene has them. They do / will keep SOME people from playing the game, but LCD already said it, new players are always on the rise, so yeah.
This is just par for the course. It’s annoying, but inevitable.
I used to set console SF games (well any FG) to max speed setting.
Even though we’ll prove neutral game imbalances, it’s all about the Combo/Counter Breaker system.
Too many are afraid of the Yomi-game where 1 or 2 break oppourtunities make everyone’s heart beat intensely. They like the knowledge of perfect plays resulting in predictable outcomes…
They need to study Bruce Lee’s philosophy on fighting more
I do enjoy watching you play @CrazyLCD , please, promote this attitude as you continue.
I can’t add anything to the discussion that hasn’t already been said. I disagree with KI being a “YOLO” mentality game, and believe LCD’s comments are well said. It mostly stems from unfair comparisons to other games within the fighting genre and a general unwillingness to adapt to the tactics you need to learn in order to play this from any other game.
Yeah, this thread is basically summarized by the first post.
If you judge a game by the standards of another game, of course it’s going to seem inferior. If you’re scoring game based on how it compares to Street Fighter, for example, any game that isn’t Street Fighter is going to lose, because non-SF games are designed differently from SF games, even if they’re developed by the same company (look at the difference between Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom).
The key is to find what different games do differently from one another and determine their value based on those differences based on personal preference. Street Fighter is more defensive and footsy based, Killer Instinct is more offensive pressure and special based, Mortal Kombat is more ground bounce and throw based, Tekken is mostly strafe and chain combo based, etc.
There’s strategies both simple and complex depending on how far you delve into each of these games. Find something you like and stick with it, or step out of your comfort zone to try something new. Fidn the strengths of a concept and try to capitalize on them. Don’t chastise the elephant because it cannot climb trees as well as the monkey, praise it because it can carry heavy loads like no other beast of burden could bear!
