Killer Instinct Shall Conquer Fighting Games - KI Revival Movement (official thread)

  • Hey there!

As a few users on this forum already know I am a big fan of KI and have mad respect for the dedication and heart and soul that has been put into this game to make it an amazing product, which it is. I come from the SF scene, and with SFV not being technically challenging enough for me, I want to play another game as well. There are a lot of other dissatisfied SF-players which I hope will try out this game eventually.

Now, even though KI is for sure one of the best fighting games out there (with one of the greatest netcodes ever made), it is not very famous.

Why?
In my opinion (NOTE: in my opinion), because of these things:

Accessability
The game being only on XboxOne and Win10 is an issue. It would have been great if it was made available for Win7 as well but I just can’t see that happening in the future so I honestly don’t know what we can do about this. Also since PC gamers mainly use Steam as a gaming platform it is hard to make them notice the product because it is not advertised there. Make it available on Steam?

Comprehensibility
If you compare KI to one of the bigger games like Street Fighter, I find that there is a clear issue with viewers being unable to understand what is going on. Not only because there are so many mechanics in the game, but because the graphics style is “diffuse” if you get my meaning. The graphics are gorgeous, but I believe something has to be done in order to make the game look clearer somehow. Maybe there shouldn’t be that many particles? Maybe some kind of cellshading should be used for the characters to prevent them from blending in with the background? Maybe the lighting needs adjustment? I am not sure, but I am sure of the fact that almost everybody get the overwhelming sense of “What the hell is going on!?” when they watch and play the game in the beginning. You kind of have to take the time and play the game yourself for a while before you can appreciate it fully, which is a problem.

Also, the Timer Lockout icon is too misleading. For several weeks I actually thought the clock was an L, and if I went for a light combo breaker, I would be like… “BUT I PRESSED LIGHT!” and I got really annoyed. This icon is such a waste when it comes to newcomers - so many are going to be confused about what they are doing wrong because of this. If I were a dev I’d adjust the icon as soon as possible, and maybe have the announcer say something else like “Mistimed!” or something.

Hypeness
Now I know a lot of people disagree with me but I feel that the game somewhat lacks that “great sense of satisfaction.” I have thought about this and what I think would be good is if the sound effects for shadow moves was changed into something heavier with more oomph, because to me they feel too hollow and cautious. They do take half of your shadow meter after all so I think they should really radiate stronk power. However I know that the sounds must be good for the combo breaking aspect as well, so there needs to remain a balance between this.

Also maybe there should be a little cool “DING!” sound effect when a player dies or something? Both in round 1 and round 2. It might make it feel better when you finish off your opponent and will make it clearer to newcomers when the health is totally depleted.


Now, my contribution to trying to make this game as big as it deserves to be is that I will try as hard as I can to make my SF-companions to realize the godliness of KI.

To do this I will stream KI 4-5 hours two times a week (planning Tuesdays and Thursdays around 21:00 - 01:00 CET). I mainly do SFV, so I’m planning to stream that as well a few hours before the KI streams to try and endorse it beforehand. Mondays and Fridays will be SFV only, and Wednesday is my day off

I’m calling my KI streams “Killer Instinct Revival” and divide them up into parts - 1 to 26 - every part corresponding to a character. I’m learning every single character, trying to stay in Killer League with every one of them. Since I’m new to the game I’m still struggling in Gold though so that goal is a bit iffy for the time being.

Pt 4/26 (Thunder) is coming up tonight, starting around 20:00-ish CET!

You are all very welcome to step in and teach me stuffs. :slight_smile:

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I’m 35 minutes away from being able to distribute another like on this forum - even still, I could only like this once despite my wishing I could like it 50 times - so I’ll just stop in and say THANK YOU! :thumbsup:

I for one am really happy that you enjoy the game so much, and have decided to share the fun you’re having with the public at large.

Looking forward to playing with you in the near future!

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Thank you back darl. :slight_smile:

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Hey Ixion! You win! Just thought you should know.

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Also had this issue. Until i played the dojo. Which should be the obvious 1st step for new players.

I’m surprised players still get confused with the timing lockout - while it does understandably look like an “L” and should be fixed, it looks nothing like the strength lockouts IMO, because the strength lockouts have big colorful letters with the slash-like or paint-like font, whereas the timinglockout is very small and if it were a font, not very special looking. Furthermore, it’s in a circle, whereas the strenth lockouts are not. For me, it’s always been pretty obvious. I guess many newer players just aren’t used to it, either because they haven’t trained properly (or long enough) as well as how fast they can appear and disappear on the screen (they could also be distracted just by trying to play the game). Oh well, as long as it gets fixed. :wink:

We can’t really see it from their perspective though - you guys and myself have been playing for a while and know what to look for.

I can see where the “L” shape might be confusing to a new player in clutch moments. Changing the icon to read 10:00 - 11:00 would clear it right up. :smiley:

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To be honest, I’m surprised the devs haven’t already; they were talking about doing exactly this MONTHS ago. What’s up with that @developers?

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They had to feed RAAM so he could gain 160lbs before he was released.

Dude eats a LOT. It’s a full time job.

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Part 6/26 is starting tonight! Gonna be Sadira… Skipping Shago because of obvious reasons. Kappa

Starting around 21:00. :slight_smile:

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I understand what you’re trying to achieve. I won’t talk on the subject of graphics, but I@ll certainly have a discussion on the game’s sound with you.

I understand what you mean about the shadow moves having no additional sounds to distinguish them from normal moves. HOwever, the hits sounds that are used are also used in the rest of the game. Change those and, theoretically at least, you’ll ■■■■■ up the hits for the rest of the game. NOt to say that this couldn’t be considered (after all level 4 enders have a slight alteration to the hits as well generated in-game I believe), but I believe that even if you wanted this to happen it’d be difficult if not impossible.

Also, having a “cool ding” sound (as I believed you described it) when a player dies, as I’m picturing it, wouldn’t fit the serious(ish) tone of the game. There was enough trouble with this back in Season 2 when the KV meter/HUD Volume slider etc were introduced, with people complaining that it sounded like your were hitting a xylophone. Though Something a little flashier and keeping in line with KI’s asthetic could be useful and be placed as an optional toggle. I’m not sure on this one really as I don’t think it’s needed, but that could just be me.

Thanks for taking the time to share your opinions though, it’s interesting to hear what others believe could be done to grow the game/community.

Hmm. I don’t understand why it would be that hard to adjust the shadow hits? You could have original sound as a base, just make it feel a bit heavier and hurtful. As long as it’s not intrusive for the combo breaking I don’t see a problem. I would just like their sounds to feel as badass as the moves look. :slight_smile:

As for the “ding” sound on kills, that was just a first thought. I’m sure you could make another kind of darker nice sound that would increase the oomph on kill… you’d probably have to make it subtle though!

I get what you mean in regards to the hits of the shadow moves, a sound that’s more chunky would work extremely well but if it never happens, I won’t complain.

What if instead of a sound effect, how about a very slight screen freeze on the hit that kills? It might be bad as it could mess up ultra combo timings but something for in between rounds would be nice.

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It’s just that all you people have played the game with it’s current “feel” since day 1 so you don’t really care in the same way. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Chunkier sound effects on shadow moves would be great to raise the hype feels imo!

Yes a screen freeze would probably be sweet. :slight_smile:

The thing is, shadow moves happen so quickly in some cases that having extra hit sound modifications wouldn’t really make much difference especially for things like thunder’s qcb+2k for example where all the hits rattle off like a machine gun in rapid succession. For moves like Tusk’s QCB+2p, however, I can see what you mean to an extent.

I just think you could try playing the game with no music, no sight (blindfold yourself) and see what you think then. It might not change your perspective on things but it might make you realise that they still sound good as they are.

They sound good yes, but imo it’s too hollow for the hype-factor.

I will agree to disagree here. :wink:

I totally get what you mean though. There was another fighting game I used to play a lot before Killer Instinct called Yatagarasu. Great game and everything, nice blend of SF3S and KoF, but one of the problems I had with that game was that the hit sounds on the moves sounded super hollow. Same thing with the parries in that game, they didn’t feel as good to land because it didn’t sound as good as it possibly could.

I’m all for beefier sounds, but on some things it does sound pretty good, like how @SightlessKombat mentioned on Thunder’s Shadow Ankle Slicer how the sounds are super close to each other gives it a nice visceral sound. I think the current sound effects work wonders for rapid fire shadow moves like Sabrewulf’s Shadow Leaping Slash or Glacius’ Shadow Cold Shoulder.

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Agreed. On moves like Thunder’s Shadow Ankle Slicer and Shadow Fireballs it works because of the machinegun effects…

But moves like Shadow Triplax, Shadow Puddle Punch, among many others need more beefiness and chunkiness to get to that “Uuuuurgggghhh Kreygasm” level.

I get that most of it sounds better with the music turned off but… Hey, Mick Gordon’s stuff isn’t meant to be turned off. :wink: One can lower it I guess… But shadow hits still feel too hollow.

I liked your post . if ypu want to play some times vs a average glacius .Add me. Edrick296

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I don’t have the music turned off all the time (and yes, I know this isn’t Mick Gordon’s music, but still I played the game like this against the CPU):
General Raam early gameplay practice from me