Wow. What a thread!
I agree with many of the points by SonicDolphin, Frodo, Infil, bigbadandy, galacticgeek, and of course Storm179, and even shellshocked520 (on MKX’s availability for those that favor that type of game :D).
ON THE VIDEO -
Paul, thanks for your dedication to KI. Very happy you stream and commentate and it’s unfortunate that the game has some things that you don’t like. Love the opinions and sorry you’re not having as much fun with KI these days. But if that’s how you feel, I understand. We’re all passionate about KI. And that’s a good thing! And all opinions should be voiced!
While I love the dialog you started (like KI content in general), I do hope your influence w/newcomers doesn’t get people so pessimistic about playing the game that they lose sight of why KI is so fun! That kind of bothers me, and is the main reason I finally signed up for these new forums. I feel I need to put my 2 cents in to balance out the opinions of others who want to jump on the “this mechanic is dumb”, “this needs changing”, and “this game bores me” (insert chapelle’s prince skit - http://e.lvme.me/qbwtsht.jpg) bandwagon. KI’s my baby too. Anyone I speak to knows that I love the game and that I encourage folk to try the game out!
Ok. Here goes.
If anyone is turned away from the game because of a “too strong character” (Kan-Ra, TJ, Sabrewulf, Sadira, and Glacius), then maybe they simply don’t like the challenges. I think street fighter mentions “Here comes a new challenger” emphasis on the word challenger. If they’re truly getting blowed up, it may be that these are the same people who haven’t gone through dojo, haven’t learned to shadow counter, haven’t learned to block (overhead in particular), haven’t learned the matchups, and are likely to get turned off to any game where they get bodied, including KI. (maybe they’ll find success with guess-breaking lol jk) Joking aside, of the few folk that I’ve spoke with that actually had xbox one’s and said they hadn’t been able to get into the new KI yet, all of them hadn’t taken the time go through the best dojo mode of any fighter and actually learn the game and increase their chances of success with more “challenging” opponents like the ones mentioned. Is this a problem with the characters and game mechanics/design or the player?
Is making unsafe moves safe OK in street fighter? … but not in KI? Both games require you to use your resources to do this, so making the unsafe safe is not free and can’t be spammed. I think it’s a great tool to win if I’m on offense and if I’m fighting against it, I just have to pay attention to meter and my opponents playstyle.
Is feral cancel so “stupid” and not helpful that you don’t use it to gain advantage and take our your opponents? I don’t think his instinct was designed to help him with his weaker matchups, but rather give him an additional tool to help his comeback factor in general (like most instinct modes). I can certainly see how it may not help with zoners, but then again, this makes him even more scary (for zoners to deal with) when he does get in and helps him close rounds more quickly.
All characters should have some weakness(es). Aganos has to avoid getting crossed up all day and fight to maintain optimal footsie position and manage chunks all day. Spinal (although it’s easier in s2 vs s1) has to initially get those skulls to be viable. Maybe Wulf’s is dealing with zoners period.
Were Orchid’s mixups not the most blockable from the original s1 cast? If I recall, only her partially charged up rekka was safe. But everything was shadow counterable b/c she’s all multi-hit. Her grenade helps but it’s still unsafe for her to toss it out. It’s not free, sticky (Cinder), and can be avoided with effort of course. (I think I had to defend aka voice my opinion on why Orchids grenade was necessary but still not incredibly threatening way at the start of s2.)
IMO, The combo system, with it’s 2way interaction, is great the way it currently is. It allows for the best comebacks, most frustrating, intense, incredible, overjoying, feel good matches that any fighting game can provide. And, for those that say street fighter is better at this and that, and it has this better mechanic, it’s still there to play. (I still enjoy it myself every once in a while! 
)
Also, IMO, Kan-Ra is a fun fresh challenge that clearly some folk are not up for. (From what I understand, the SF4 community isn’t so keen on Rolento as well.) He is part of why s2 KI is amazing. Unique and diverse characters. Real variance in how you approach MUs even within the match itself.
No, I don’t think Wulf needs a projectile. Yes, playing Glacius can be a bit of an obstacle course. Same with Kan-Ra. However, I embrace the fact that certain characters give you an opportunity to slow down or take a break from your typical gameplan and use all of your available tools. Now to be fair this is coming from an Aganos player. And, while I’m not incredible by any means, I’ve gotten better at fighting games period by playing as Aganos (with his inherent strengths AND weaknesses) as this character really makes you think to use the best tool for the situation.
Does a game need to have 5-5s for all characters to be balanced or is mostly 5-5s with a few 4-6s and 6-4s ok? IMO, I don’t see a problem with characters having a few challenging MUs. Remember, due to the mind games of KI’s mechanics, it may not matter that a MU may be 6-4/4-6 MU, or even 5-5. This is the best part of KI, all characters can win.
All characters including Aganos, wreck once they’re “in their zone”. It’s your job as a fighting game player to play “your game” and not “their game”. It’s a great job to do!
I’d love to watch more of your stream, but I guess I’m like the opposite of those folk you commented on in your vid. I actually prefer to see your gameplay vs your talking, and usually leave when you’re talking and not playing.
People (certainly not just Paul, but fighting game folk/streamers in general) complaining about guess breaks and saying this or that was “stupid” or “yolo” seem to be a bit too entitled. Yes, said streamer may have great skill, but other players CAN make a read, have a hunch, or simply get lucky and guess correctly - and it shouldn’t be the end of the world. I personally get annoyed at people who complain when any move that catches them off-guard is successfully used against them. For example, you’ll hear them go, “wakeup-DP… who does that?!?” while getting punched in the face lol or they’ll yell “guess breaker!” when the opponent breaks for whatever reason. Yes, they could be guess breaking, but do people really think that their opponent guess breaks EVERY time their opponent didn’t see the first frames of an animation? That’s pretty bold, even if their opponent was guess breaking indeed. They’re basically saying a) their opponents are not capable of reading them, b) that they can’t make a guess based on earlier play, or c) that taking a risk (guess) is bad and stupid and scrubby play. I wonder if these complainers feel annoyed at themselves when they have a hunch and was right on it.
I’d hate to see you, Paul, leave, mainly b/c you’re a consistent streamer and streaming is great for KI. So I do hope you find the game more fun as we wait for s3. I was a little confused with you saying you don’t like Ranked due to the lack of high level challengers, but then didn’t go play with the other 25 high level players at SCR, but I can definitely understand your point of being really competitive, wanting to win, and just not being in the right mind for it at that time.
Quick side note - I will say, after you posted this YouTube video, I still checked out one of your streams although I disagree with some of your points. However, I happened to have caught you extending your current dislike of the game. So I switched it up and checked out Gutters stream and was glad I did. He uses the heck out of shadow counter and watching him play was an excellent reminder to up my shadow counter game. So in a way, thanks for putting me on to his stream… ha! Let’s take a moment of silence in honor of the forgotten Shadow Counter … outside of punishing a shadow move, it’s like it’s the forgotten tech buried underground in a far far away place lol.
PLAYERS WHO MAY HAVE LEFT -
Grimmz - don’t know, possibly community drama, now that h1z1 has paid him, he might come back
Acid - don’t know, but came back
Hitbox Tyrant - don’t know, but came back
JWong - prolly waiting for the game to grow, meanwhile making good money with other games
Filthie Rich - maybe his job, don’t know, competed at EVO
PR Balrog - don’t know, did he retire from competitive play?
Others - maybe? they’ll come back
myself - neverrrr!
Consensus - I don’t think they left cuz the game was not fun, but for various other reasons, including the fact that maybe they MKX dropped or they were trying to get their last SF4 run in b4 SF5, or maybe they just didn’t give the game and new characters a chance. Sucks for them! I’m sure they’ll be back at some point, once they’ve played it and seen how much fun KI s2 is. I’m gonna take a guess break lol and say I’m sure they’ll be back. (hopefully I’ll have more than a 1/3 chance of being right! lol) If not, maybe the KI community needs new blood, new top players that actually embrace what KI is about.
FINAL WORDS, TLDR -
Honestly, KI is not that game for people to play infinites, dial a combo, or get my ironically “unbreakable” combo in before you get yours in. I don’t expect KI to get those crowd of people on board. And that’s OK. But for those who can step away from guaranteed damage, and who aren’t afraid of 2-way interaction and the thrill of high risk/high reward, this game is incredibly fun and balanced in the sense that all characters are really strong in the right hands. For all of it’s uphill battling, (original KI purist, s1 KI purist, XboxOne exclusive, new seasons model for a fighting game, the game continually updating/changing, not KI enough, not SF enough), we’re blessed with a season3 and crossplay/crossbuy will be awesome and hopefully it’s playerbase/tourney should grow starting in March!
CALL TO ACTION -
No game is perfect, and I don’t expect KI to be everyone’s cup of tea. But for those of you who do have hope in KI and are actually enjoying the game, please please voice your opinion so people can see that there are plenty that do enjoy the game even with its pros and cons. It’d be a shame for the KI community to start falling apart because a few folk can’t get SF out of their blood or don’t like a philosophy philosophy on balance. And others come into the game with this mindset.
Got dangit. KI. The only game I write and will continue to write essays for as an middle-aged adult. smh. Hopefully some of what I said made sense. If not, sorry. I’m pretty tired. Rebuttal rant over. I’m out.