Kim has completely lost her appeal to me. To LCD’s ‘fun factor’ point, she had no regular, cool, stylish bells and whistles on her. I hopped on the Eyedol train and it’s like holy smokes- an instinct that’s actually useful and worth activating, nifty effects on all his moves, oh look a strong character having a recapture! And then i flip back to kim and it’s like… underwhelming.
I think a dragon kick recapture would be amazing. Orchids low profile, combo opener slide is powerful and every ki player on earth knows it. Meanwhile Kim’s split kick is a full height hurtbox, and gets stuffed up close, and dragon kick knocks down. And yes im aware devs don’t like taking moves out of context, there are her dragon katas and the grab move, but kim just doesn’t have an impressive, inspired arsenal compare to everyone else.
Look at the new TJ, Maya, and Cinder and how many interesting tools they have. Look at the powerful and effective efficiencies of Jago amd Orchid. Tusk is very different from KI2. And then, there’s Kim. Her old moves plus one or two extra moves, and that’s it. Not as effective as jago and orchid, not as much reimagined as the the ones i mentioned above… just… here for the lore i guess.
And speaking of lore She Had One Job! Handle Gargos. I couldn’t help but think, on seeing the Eyedol vs Gargos cinematic on Eyedols trailer, that Kim got fired feels bad man
I’m not really appreciating the “I never see Kim online, so no one is using her, therefore she must be unpopular, therefore she needs to be changed” line. I ran into someone playing Kim on Friday (who destroyed me, btw), and there are lots of characters I don’t see online. It’s a 26 character roster. I see more Kim’s than Maya, TJ, Kan Ra. Do all of these characters need a rework?
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I agree. I just got the 200 matches achieve with Kim a few weeks ago and I have not touched her since. Over time I just got sick of her and felt like there was little more to learn even though I wasn’t that good with her. I think one thing that makes her a bit underwhelming is the fact that many of her tools feel kind of like they are ripped from other characters in the cast.
- Jago’s double roundhouse
- Wulf’s feral cancels
- Hisako’s counter
- TJ’s powerline
Now I know these where not just copied and pasted and it’s possible the team did not have any of these moves in mind when designing Kim, but she still doesn’t feel very unique to me. A similar case is how Mira has some stuff ripped from Maya and Omen but she still feels unique because of the blood mechanic. I think @CrazyLCD has the right idea making dragons a more essential part of Kim’s game-plan. Making Dragons more interesting would be a HUGE step in the right direction for making Kim far more fun than she is now. However, It seems like @developers are a bit hesitant to add major balance changes like they did in Season 2 to keep the meta more stable. If they where to make any big changes, I think many of us can agree that Kim could use some sort of rework, something to spice up her gameplay.
To be fair, Eyedol was completely unexpected and she doesn’t even know who Kan-ra is yet
The thing is, those characters have been around for a long time and did have a lot of popularity, either at launch or the end of S2 in Kan-Ra’s case. Kim has been unpopular since launch.
I mean, I’m sure people play her, but it’s incredibly rare for me.
Compared to Mira? Nah! cause Kim had a previous look back then and I think it fits her well. Mira just looks like another garden variety vampire. To me she has the worst design of the game.
Yeah, but Kim came out in a four pack with Tusk, Arbiter and Rash at the start of season 3, which means she has some other competition. I don’t know. I think we are stretching te point when it’s probably better to just focus on what we think could be changed.
Kim is my current character Im working to lvl 50… I find her OK but the only thing that stands out to me is SHE HAS NO REACH. You crouching kicks are just too short.
I also dont like her Ender animations. they seem very lackluster.
Kim is so fun to play but yes a lot of work- a lot of times her reach and Enders seem less than…
I don’t agree with the circling Shield aspect
What is lackluster is her retro costume closet. It’s easy to see elaboration was spent on arbiter tusk and eyed where lazy gimlet warmers were done for Orchid. Just lazy. And the lack of color match for the ‘bridal brawl’ set.
You can make the same argument with Jago, really. Or any character that is purely one playstyle like Sabrewulf.
Kim isn’t the flashiest or most visually appealing of the cast however I do believe she brings a much needed youth to the roster. Most of everyone in the game is older and more rugged than they used to be yet she brings a youthful energy to the cast that makes her stick out in her own way. So in that sense, at least as far as her character is concerned, she doesn’t feel lackluster to me. Mira feels the most underwhelming for me along with Hisako although most don’t agree with me on the latter choice.
She’s probably the most boring looking character in the game in my opinion.
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I kinda have to take streamers comments for a grain of salt on a stream. I didn’t see this statement by Rico, but i feel like there is a TON of stuff that gets said in the heat of the moment that is just to keep people entertained or to spark people.
For me, and my very young time in this game and in the FGC (i guess), i think it comes down to fun and winning for a character. Kim Wu, as she is now, feels like she only gets one of these jobs done, and that’s debatable to most players that either main/have mained/played her. So when you lose the fun in playing the character, and you’re not winning, you’re falling down a cliff to a pit called ‘character switch’ and only hanging onto it by fingernails…
I think of Kim Wu had a smidgen more reach (just some hitbox adjustments or some extra scooting power), or maybe if some of her stuff was a little faster, I think it could make a big difference for her gameplay wise.
And if her coat (and while we’re at it, Mira’s cape) changed with the color you chose, it would be a huge improvement visually.
I’ve been playing her a bit in Ranked, and she’s pretty dang fun to play, and her attitude has grown on me (if slightly facetiously). With a few tweaks she could be freakin’ wonderful.
Make her parry always cause hard knockdown vs hits and make it always work from anywhere on the screen if triggered. Let Kim Wu backdash cancel with her dragons. She’s plenty competant/interesting after that. Also a walk speed buff wouldn’t hurt either.
But she already got one…
Can you imagine Kim with Faster walk speed? LOL
Hey im just saying what better way to make a footsie character shine than walkspeed buffs. I can take it or leave it though tbh.
I know. Just poking fun. Lol but more walk speed would be nuts. She would be faster than Fulgore’s Full Pip Dashes 
Kim already has one of, if not, the best walk speeds in the game. She’s tied with Shago and Orchid. Dunno is Aria Blade Body is faster.
Yeah, I think Kim walks fast enough. Her range is so bad with many moves that I’d rather see range improvements. I don’t really understand why her trip being useless is good for balance. She has a godlike s.MP and I gather her s.HK is a decent poke. But her other normals are all basically “don’t use this ever” except her barely useable c.mk. Maybe I’m missing something (I frequently am).