Is this confirmed?
Edit: Also…something I just thought of, would shadows be able to be integrated in the first place…having their pre-saved fight-style clash with added buffs seems like a real posibility…
General Summary:
After a few days with Shadow Lords mode (SLM), my initial impression is mixed. I see where it’s going and appreciate it, but maybe for me personally, I find it long and repetitive for little payoff (so far, as this is a beta period).
I think SLM throws too much at you in an eager fashion: crafting, buying packs, equipping artifacts, using consumables, running missions, etc. It was overwhelming and confusing at first since there’s little direction, but once I poked around and understood what everything was, it made sense.
Things that I like:
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SLM’s overall UI is clean and appealing.
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The character art shown before battles are slick. All the characters look incredible with the detail and polish put on them. Might wanna think of using this format and character art for the main game.
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Mimic Hisako makes her look even more creepy and unnerving.
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The man who voices Kan-Ra is amazing! Going into the Emporium is my favorite thing just so I can hear all the things Kan-Ra says (“Need that wrapped up?!” The low, dark laugh at the end of some of his quips are perfect. Reminescient of the late Vincent Price at the end of Thriller).
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The little gambles that pop up after a mission. Those are fun even if I get damage, more mimics to fight, etc.
Suggestions:
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The menus for Guardians, Barracks, War Room, Emporium, Archives should be available no matter what area you are in. That is for example, if I am in the Archives, I should be able to go to the War Room without having to back out to the Hub and then to the War Room.
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“Select Loadout” screen should have the team portraits right there without having to press A to switch to a new screen, choose, then go back to the first screen.
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On the “Select Loadout” screen, if I am equipping a Guardian and they need Astral Energy, you can be brought to the “Guardians” page which is great to do what you need to do, but when you exit, you are brought back to the Hub. It should send you back to the “Select Loadout” screen you were on so you don’t have to maneuver back War Room, wait for it to load, go back to the mission you wanted, equip.
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Daily Rewards should have a popup when you complete the requirement confirming completion and reward(s) issued. Right now you have to actually access it then the Hub module updates. If implemented, have a toggle to keep it silent if players prefer.
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War Room should have a visual indicator at the bottom indicating use the D pad or left analog stick to bounce around the globe to check missions. Yeah, it “should” be naturally intuitive as it is but…
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For those who may not like SLM or just don’t wanna grind to get any locked content, offer an unlock all option for real money. MK X’s Krypt was unlockable for $20 which was fantastic.
Possible bugs:
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Sometimes SLM just freezes up for no reason, but does not crash unless you force quit.
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Latency/sluggishness is seen randomly switching into different menus or before a match.
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Random hard crashes that seemingly wipe out the current SLM session and forces you to start over.
Conclusion:
While I’m not overly wild about SLM, like I said, I see the intent of it and the potential. I’ll of course check it out once it launches as I need to remind myself this is beta and not the GA release. If I have anymore feedback, I’ll post it.
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Every MS/IG person I talked to at EVO about it said that shadows AI integration into Shadow Lords was their intention. They just needed to try and get it to work right.
Intentions don’t always equal finished results, obviously, but I came away with a very distinct impression that they really wanted to use shadows AI’s for SL at some hopefully-not-too-far point in the future.
3 Likes
Good to hear, lets hope they work it out, and not just for SL mode, but also Survival etc…
Why are you guys asking for Shadows in Survival when Shadow Survival already exists?
What if I don’t want to fight Shadows AI for whatever reason?
I know this is going to sound harsh, but I’m almost sure that even the devs realize that Killer Instinct’s AI tends to suck a lot.
But that’s genuinely not their fault; fighting game AI is hard to do, because it either reads your every move or just sits there and lets you pummel it. Boss!Gargos understands the advantages he has, like parrying and being able to summon two minions at once and is scary good at breaking and not falling for counterbreaks, but doesn’t realize he can use the explosion in instinct to stop getting sweeped. AI is by no means an exact science.
Compare this to Shadows AI, which, while sometimes flawed, does a pretty damn good job of giving you the experience of fighting that player, down to what they break, how they use their meter, whether or not they teabag, taunt, and/or double ultra you, etc.
If you like the AI more than Shadows, that’s cool, but I think Shadow Lords as a whole would become both a little easier as well as a little more difficult, since your opponents can actually make mistakes but also know how to stop someone who’s spamming the same move over and over.
3 Likes
Just picture how cool it would be. To be playing shadow lords missions and surprise your shadow is my opponent. Or if my opponent was maximillian food. Although I can foresee one problem. How would the game determine where to put your shadows as far as difficulty setting. I can beat SL on normal but don’t want to try the higher settings bc I’m fairly certain ill just be obliterated. So where would max show up? In normal, challenging, or godlike?
My Glacius Shadow with LVL 5 buffs would basically be unbeatable. I don’t want to put that curse on ANYONE.
Then your glacious shadow would appear in the godlike difficulty, so we may never meet unless I make it up to killer teir in ranked league, then I might try godlike.
I’m going to put my feedback here once I get another run through on SL. But I’ll say that I got overconfident and went into Challenging. Mistakes were made. 
If they implement shadow AI, I can see a choice of shadow AI level just as we can choose
The level of multiplayer search of qualifier to killer.
That way it fits into our personal customization of the story mode
When you’re feeling froggy, you can choose godlike shadow tier for your threat level of shadow AI
Shadow Lords is really fun! Though they made a mistake of letting me have both Jago AND Riptor on my team for my first try. Gargos didn’t stand a chance! 
So the next thing I do is try having Gargos as my team captain. And… nothing seems different. Im still fighting the mimics trying to stop Gargos from invading, despite the fact that he is the Player Character. I’m hoping that this is something that will change in the actual release, cause it sounds like it could be fun to try and take over Earth as Gargos and/or Eyedol(who I haven’t seen at all in Shadow Lords yet)
All in all, I’m certainly having the most fun I have ever had in a fighting game campaign! I can’t wait to see what stuff gets added at release and beyond!
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Did you finish your run with Gargos?
You know, I never thought of it before, but they really should figure out a way to use your ranked status to categorize shadow AI.
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Please no.
Why? Wouldn’t it be good to have some kind of measure of the difficulty of the AI that’s somewhat in line with how we already size up human opponents?
Because everything in ranked is unreliable if you ask me.
Doesn’t quite work out like that I’m afraid. A lot of really good players don’t really put much time or stock into building up their shadows, and because of how they’re likely to dominate the opponent a lot of the time, even those who do save their matches have shadows with significant gaps in their game. My Hisako shadow has generally poor defense IMO, because most players I fight never really put me in defensive situations. I think I actually have pretty good defense, but because my shadow doesn’t see me utilize it a lot, it doesn’t replicate that, and instead just gets hit by crap that it has no business getting hit by.
Great shadows come by carefully tending and curating them - not necessarily by steamrolling everyone you come across.
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I guess I’ve had a different experience. Aside from Killer rank where it can vary from “fresh out of Gold tier” to “how the h*ll did my character even die that fast?” I typically see fairly similar broad standards & play styles from bronzes, silvers, and golds respectively.
I have not. 