So when ARIA was revealed, she was teased as a “boss” character. She’s the “boss” of Ultratech sure, but as far as videogame bosses go she’s more of a regular character.
Now, with the Gargos teases it’s been hinted that his “boss” counterpart will be different, like how Boss Shago differs to the playable Shago.
I’ve actually thought about a boss ARIA before, not sure if I ever posted it though. Whoops.
So if we had an “arcade” mode, eight rounds with a boss at the end, ARIA could have her station form for the whole battle, with her Instinct mode summoning fanfare drones.
But I got thinking further, and what if all characters had stronger versions, think like EX or Unlimited characters from ArcSys games or Omega SF4. So, take a character and bend the rules a little. I’ve only thought about a few…
Jago: Double fireballs always, Instinct allows healing like S1 Jago?
Glacius: Can summon armour as a special/shadow move?
Sabrewulf: Scratches cause “bleed”?
Thunder: Recharging “Call of Earth” dash? Give him his thunder strike move back?
Fulgore: Manual reactor charging like S1?
Shago: Boss version’s instinct, drain opponent meter.
Spinal: Recharging skulls, Instinct grants full skulls?
Maya: Daggers always charged? Or gradually recharge? Give back S2 damage ender.
Mira: Biting could regen actual health, or drain an opponent’s health. Maybe shadow or instinct instead? One really long health bar to really make use of recoverable damage,
ARIA: Always in Station form, Instinct summons fanfare drones. Either regular health bars or one really long one, or three as usual.
Arbiter: Begins with shield, reloads Carbine between rounds and regains grenades and shield. Maybe gradual shield recharge too, though that might break the rules a little TOO much.
While I disagree, I also agree. Omega SF4 was amazing fun (and, turns out, provided me my favorite SF character to date, in terms of playstyle, in Omega Dan), if horrendously unbalanced and absolutely unfit for competitive play. Same goes for GG’s EX characters, if a little better balanced (maybe).
HOWEVER!!! Considering the epic levels of nonsense that KI characters are designed to get away with (because of the 2-way interactivity of the combo system), I don’t think such a thing would be welcome at all. I mean, if it weren’t for the breaker system this game would already be at Omega levels of absurd - which is, to me at least, a huge part of what makes this game so darned fun. It’s nonsense that wouldn’t be remotely acceptable in any other FG, but works not just well but FAIRLY within the context of KI’s mechanics.
TL;DR
This game is already Omega mode, kept fair by the fact that is KI and not SF or GG.
That said though, those ideas for what would essentially be ‘challenge fights’ would be pretty cool. Imagine having to fight ARIA with Instinct always active AND her standard 3 lifebars. Or that Arbiter, oh man. That’d make for some intense single-player fun. I guess they’d have to tie some incentive to it other than just the increased difficulty… like a high-score board or something. I don’t know, just blowin’ wind (err… electrons) at this point.
ARIA spruced up to be a proper boss in single player I’d be all game for. Those Mira and Arbiter ideas don’t sound too shabby either, I’ve entertained the thought of Mira being a sub-boss for a while given her damage capability and AI behavior.
A sort of special ‘match’ against a powerful character in survival movde (maybe after you go through the roster each time or maybe every 10 or so matches) would be interesting. :o. CPU only I’d be down for.
TJ Combo: Bring back tremor linker and kick autodoubles, as well as his ability to cancel his auto barrage into linkers/autodoubles (only if CPU-only)
Omen: Shadow form costs no meter, shadow orda shield/fireball now automatically goes to double orda shields/firing orda shields/homing shadow fireball/double shadow fireball for only one bar.
I think just giving boss characters more health isn’t a good way to do bosses, but I did think that instead of boss ARIA being in Station mode the whole fight, maybe you could fight her as normal but then when she goes down she could revive in Station mode with a renewed health gauge.
That way she only has an extra 1/3rd health compared to normal characters, but can do some mean ■■■■ with it.
I actually like the idea of a boss Aria. She’s hard enough to fight atm anyway but a single player boss version with possibly new intro etc as well as a couple of addition moves? Sounds like an interesting idea.
