Some of you may know that I’ve been on a sort of hiatus lately from Killer Instinct and the community and I’ve been holding out my thoughts on everything for a while waiting for the right time to share what’s been on my mind. With this survey coming out of nowhere I think now is that time.
Prefacing this post I want to make things extremely clear for the developers and others that may read this post going in that some of things I mention may sound harsh but are said with all the best intentions; myself being one of the original and biggest supporters of this game since day one, I want nothing but good things for this game and its community but alas I am only one person and don’t speak for anyone but myself. The developers including Keits are constantly telling people to come to the forums and post their feedback, so that is what I’m doing. This post talks about pretty much everything so grab some popcorn, sit back, relax and enjoy the read.
THE COMMUNITY
While this first topic doesn’t necessarily correlate with the survey I do feel like it’s something I must discuss and give my thoughts on as it has personally affected me greatly.
Everyone is aware I’m sure of the drastic change in direction the community has taken recently, ultimately resulting in one of the game developers going into hiding per say. Being someone who belonged to the community before the game even launched I have to say that I would agree about this community somewhat going downhill or even becoming toxic. This community use to be one the nicest communities around always helping others learn the game, sharing strategies and so on; however now I feel it has become a game of thrones. Players now always constantly putting each other down, never showing respect for various skill levels, having an opinion on every little thing. Watching the 8Bitbeatdown chats turn into a whos top 5 and your character is OP and my character sucks every week got very tiring and we even saw the event organizer 8bitZombie show his disgust a while back for this. The man gave his heart and soul each and every week for you guys to put on a great show and players can’t even show the respect back by sitting back and enjoying the show. Not everyone is like this but you know that saying that it only takes 1 person to ruin it for everybody.
Like I mentioned up above in the preface, this is one of the big reasons I have taken a step back from the game lately because I use to stream this game each and every day and that as you know is putting myself out there on the internet. People constantly coming into my stream chats, other players stream chats and even tournament stream chats always talking about me behind my back, saying I suck etc instead of just letting me be myself. While I understand it’s the internet and haters will always be a thing and I should just ignore them, some of these negative comments also come from other notable players within the community who set a bad example for others and make me look bad for no reason. That really takes a toll on a person especially when it happens on a daily basis. I will return soon…very soon actually. I would never abandon you guys but sometimes breaks are needed.
SEASON 3
Overall I would say that Season 3 would have to be my least favorite version of the game to date. Iron Galaxy worked very hard to deliver a semi bug free and polished game at the end of season 2 which is where I believe the game was at its best. Needless to say it still wasn’t without its flaws (cough Kan-Ra cough) however it was the most balanced version of the game which is what I believe the community cares most about which is that the game is fun but no one or two characters feel they are not fun and can’t win. Season3 came along and added so many fancy new system mechanics which I don’t think the game needed at all. They could of literally just made Combo Breakers cause a flip out and gotten rid of Instinct canceling off CBs and the game would of been perfect.
This season of KI launched with an enormous amount of bugs some of which are still in the game while older reported ones still have not been fixed…like this one for example
Things like this are unacceptable to me because it doesn’t allow me to play my character at their full potential, instead I’m constantly having to strategically play around these bugs some of which have cost me in previous offline tournaments.
GAME BALANCE & CHARACTER DESIGN
One of the biggest turnoffs of season 3 for me personally is the inconsistent design direction. The developers will say something is intended one minute and then say it wasn’t the next. A prime example being Maya’s shadow leap kick how they always wanted dagger toss after Shadow Leap kick but now they don’t. Another being how they made Orchid’s air throw breakable just because they added Gargos into the game. Why did you take away such and such move away from this character but give the exact same move to so and so character? Why did you normalize everyone else’ damage but leave this characters damage alone when he has some of the most and best tools in the game?
(Just one example but there are many others)
Iron Galaxy always does a great job coming up with innovative ways to add life into characters and make them seem cool especially with guest characters some of which aren’t traditionally fighting game characters; however as a result in my opinion this has left the game not feeling very cohesive. The season 3 cast of characters and even some ones from Season 2 feel like they are from completely different games. When I’m Kim Wu playing against and Arbiter or Aria I feel like we are both playing different games and aren’t playing the same one, hes just doing his own thing and I’m just doing my own thing completely ignoring the matchup.
Isn’t Killer Instinct suppose to be about combos? Why are there so many 1-chance break vortex characters now even some that do more damage long term than the characters who don’t have those tools? This was the biggest complaint about Season1 which was the 1-chance into shadow ender and now the game is back to that just in another form.
Kim Wu is probably the most fun character I have ever played in Killer Instinct but at the same time I also think she is the most poorly designed character; her only saving grace being her big damage. Why does a grounded footsies heavy character who relies on controlling space have to give up all her space and put herself into the corner every time she wants to whiff punish with Dragon Kick or do damage ender; that’s like asking Zangief to land full screen after every SPD. No matter what people think otherwise I AM NOT asking for them to remove a character weaknesses, I simply want them to make sense. Kim Wu has some of the worst matchups in the game and very few winning ones. Why is there any incentive to play her over the better characters in the game? To my knowledge she is one the least played characters, I never see her on Twitch streams, or in online/offline tournaments…why is that? I bring this up not get my character buffed but I use her as an example because IG has said their main focus is to make sure characters and the game are first and foremost fun, but I feel this hurts game balance greatly. No player wants to feel like their character sucks, they simply want to go online and play some matches without feeling like they need to blow their brains out and throw their Xbox/PC out the window.
CONTENT
Many a time have I made my position on the lack of content in Killer Instinct very clear; in short I am very unhappy. Season 3 feels like the casual season in terms of content meaning they are just adding things to keep the casual player which is fine, a lot of casual players are there and will enjoy this content but don’t neglect the other side. A player such as myself has no interest in using Shadows, or has any intention of going through Shadow Lords. Giving competitive players a better training mode (which is still good, has become outdated and needs additional options) also an Online Training Mode or a revamped Dojo which Adam Isgreen assured to me was going to be re-done in the interview I did with him back in January but was not. Making sure your players have the tools to learn and compete in the game in the best ways should be of the highest priorities. The core gameplay is what should matter most.
One of the most shocking and disappointing lacks of content I’ve been very vocal about is costumes. I use the word shocking because you would think that Microsoft and IG would want to capitalize on the potential earnings they would make selling costumes as DLC. People in this day and age go crazy for costumes especially in free to play games where selling cosmetics is the only way the company/game makes money; we see how popular these things can be in other fighting games like MKX and SFV. Quite honestly I actually just got done buying all of Ibuki’s costumes in the shop. People keep complaining about the lack of stages being added into the game which is obviously due to lack of budget, profits from selling costumes could compensate for that. What about the tournament implications as well? Making a special holiday costume or exclusive DLC skin whos profits all go towards pot bonuses for tournaments? The possibilities are endless. And while we’re on the subject…for the love of god please fix the retros!!! Orchid’s retro looks like it’s from and 8bit Sega game and it’s embarrassing.
GUEST CHARACTERS
I have always been a supporter of adding guest characters into the game but all the ones they have added so far are less than appealing to me; of course this just being my opinion I’m sure there are many players out there that do enjoy them. With that being said though I feel as though the guest characters kind of outshines the original and returning cast of characters. I wish the same kind of love and care that was put into Arbiter’s design had been put into Kim Wu’s. A character that has magical dragons can’t do a dragon punch? Kappa
In all seriousness though I’ve always said this is that the purposes of guest characters is to help grow the game and build an audience and I don’t think RAAM or Rash is going to do that. RAAM is possibly the worst possible choice they could of landed on when determining a guest character. You aren’t going to grow the game by bringing in a Halo or Gears player who will play the game for 15 minutes and go back to play Halo or Gears. Your best luck is to bring in already established fighting game players from within the FGC in other games. Hence why I have suggested bringing in Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Putting aside all bias on whether you like the character or not, he is still one of the most popular and iconic characters of all time and to think he wouldn’t bring over a few NRS players to try out the game is foolish. The pipe has already been laid in terms of relationships so making that happen is not far from reality. With all my bias in mind though Joanna Dark is also a good choice 
CONCLUSION
Thank you all for taking the time to read this. I always try and refrain to posting my thoughts on the forums because people always end up reprimanding me for them in the worst ways possible. Don’t ask your players to come and give you feedback if you’re just going to spit it back in their face. Read it and move on.
Like I said I want Killer Instinct to be the best it can possible be and if saying what I truly feel is what it takes to get it to that point then so be it. I love this game to death and love the FGC in general. While I won’t be at EVO this year I want to truly wish everyone luck who will be competing this year as I’ll be watching with great interest.
Quick thank you to all of the developers at MS and IG and even DH for making the game and being so innate with the community as you are. We are lucky to have such developers who care so deeply for the game and its community as they do and I think we sometimes take that for granted. Good luck getting a Capcom or NRS developer to message you on Twitter about frame data or feedback suggestion.
The game will continue to grow no matter what and I will continue to support the game. I say these things because I care. If I didn’t care I’d keep my mouth shut and not play the game nor would I spend my time writing these forum posts. There needs to be a fine line between crapping on the game and actually providing feedback. If everyone just sits in a circle holding hands singing Kumbaya, then the devs will think their game is perfect and nothing will ever change.
What went wrong?