Just something ive noted in the last year or so. Ive started paying more attention to the trend of individually launched characters or seasons of characters in fighting games. Not just KI but other fighting games.
It feels like a lot of times characters are launching strong. Im looking at examples like Maya and Eyedol in KI, Urien (kinda) in SF, Superman in Injustice (beta), Bayonetta in Smash, the bird girl in KOF, ETC. And i started wondering if thats not exactly a bad thing to do or to experience.
I have no experience as a game developer, but if you’re doing these games with the intentions to patch/update? I cant really think its a bad call to make characters on the stronger side versus weaker.
As a player though, its 50/50 to me sometimes. Eyedol was a pain after his launch. D-day when he got nerfed was like Christmas to me. Id imagine it was similar to other character mains in KI, as well as for other character mains in different games with strong characters.
On the opposite side though? I remember there was a thought that ‘its sometimes better to buff others rather than nerf the one.’ Kinda makes sense, definitely would make more interesting stuff. But my other thought was launching a weak character and going back to buff them is the slightly least desirable as a player. And i look at examples like F.A.N.G in SF and RAAM in KI. They’re not the absolute weakest, but they work hard to win. I feel like peoples like gifts (buffs) more than they’d like things being taken (nerfs)
What are your thoughts?