… Eye Rolls …
Not surprised, some hardcore FG fans would be turned off by KI, if you look at other fighting games compared to KI…KI is a beast of its own. Still, I’m glad that a big japanese player like Tokido is at least giving it a shot, gives me a lot of hope for KI’s future. 
1 Like
Tokido seems very open minded compared to Mago. Though it sounds as if Tokido is just getting started. He’s either keeping his combos short out of the fear of getting combo broken, or using lights more than other strengths.
Yeah, Tokido is known for being strong in multiple games. sf4, Kof13, doa5, sfxt- he’s willing to give anything a try. Pretty cool.
Not everyone is like that though.
cant blame mago for his opinions, KI is a different game. if he says its “too western” then thats just his problem lol. who cares what he think anyway? its awesome tokido is looking at the game, hes one of my fav SF players besides xian, infiltration, and of course the usual suspects: gootecks and mike ross. sucks those 2 guys wont give KI a try either
@BoJima404 thanks for the translation dude! Brilliant work.
Tokido picking up the game will be enough for a generous few more to pick it up when the PC version drops. He’s got amazing skill and he’ll adapt soon enough. That is if he’s still excited about the game after he plays more (I’d love to see him up against the rest of the world at KI, everyone having had a huge head start).
Mago can have his negativity, He’s put in a lot of time and work into SF and maybe he doesn’t want to pick up a game that rewards you kinda differently. I do hope he plays some more and changes his mind to at least say that its not as bad as he first thought.
I think Momochi, though, might not like the game for the same reasons Mago doesn’t like it. He may like the look of it, but that’s about it.
I know not of these Japanese individuals - but I must beat them while they are still in their KI infancy, so I can say that I beat Tokido, Mago, and that other dude… 
Correct, actually he explains how he likes medium linkers/ADs and these get broken all the time.
Mago went off the first impression it seems, the visuals and the disappointing feeling when getting combos broken.
We should totally Translate @Infilament’s KI Guide, and give it to them. Infil’s guide is geared more for SF4 players, but imagine the work translating it all.
1 Like
Tokido is one of the all-time greatest fighting game geniuses to ever play. If you look at his record across multiple fighting games since around 2000, it is unparalleled by anyone, including famous names like Daigo or Justin Wong. It doesn’t seem to matter the style of game, either (SF, KOF, anime, Marvel, Tekken, whatever). He dominates at everything.
“That other guy” is Momochi, who won the biggest SF4 tournament in history (EVO 2015), as well as Capcom Cup in 2014 (a tournament he had to spend a year qualifying for and had only the world’s best players in it). He has cemented himself as one of the top 5 SF4 players throughout the history of that game.
Mago is pretty good too.
Anyway, in addition to being fantastic players in multiple games, they run the most popular fighting game talk show/stream in Japan. Outside of Daigo saying he is going to become a full time KI player, what these guys say about the game is the most important thing for growing the scene in Japan.
3 Likes
Growing the game is one thing. Ki fans continuing to love the game might be another. Let’s not lose sight of that. It be nice if these guys jumped aboard, but I don’t think it’s necessary and changes should not be made to comfort them. We can make our own heroes and top players. Do our own thing.
Shocker, Japanese elitist don’t like a Western fighting game. Even one as beautiful as KI.
My own personal take: communication. Tokido was trying to educate and sway the others into trying KI out. Not so much Japanese language (that would help promotion too of course) but more the fighting game language. If more players like a Tokido who speak their ‘SF’ language, engage like this then there is a possibility some of their pros might pick it up from season 3.
As for Mago, taste for visuals was one topic, but a lot was said about how difficult and unsatisfying the back and forth (quick momentum changes) were. Kudos to Tokido for trying to show the charm and beauty of the KI breaker system and gameplay in general.
Very interesting to see an outside perspective. I don’t really look into our own pro scene, much less the Japanese SF pro scene, but it’s interesting to hear talk about the game from their top brass. I think I saw a distinct Good, Neutral, and Distaste stance going right to left. 
Reminds me of a quote from some Metallica documentary. “Too punk for the metal clubs, and too metal for the punk clubs…”
It seems like KI has a similar situation. Some say it’s too weaboo for the West, others say it’s too West-aboo for the East. Hopefully, though, KI is in a similar situation to old Metallica, where its popularity problems belay the incoming explosion of popularity.
Hopefully unlike Metallica though, KI stays good.
No clue who that is but I’m glad to see more people picking up the game, especially from other parts of the world.
Some context on the players could be helpful: whilst it has been discussed that Tokido is a multiple game specialist, from what I know and can see in a quick web search is that Momochi has played Street Fighter 4, Street Fighter X Tekken and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike professionally, and Mago has only played SFIV professionally. As such the different levels of appreciation make a bit more sense, particularly Mago as he is heavily personally invested in Street Fighter (well they all are, but not quite as fully).
1 Like
Thanks for the great translation @BoJima404
I’m happy that they were even talking about KI over in Japan. As Infil said, that show is one of the better ways to get our game some exposure in that market, so it’s cool that it was a topic of conversation.
It’s also not unexpected that Mago wouldn’t necessarily like KI’s style. It IS different, and that means that not everyone is going to find it as enjoyable as we do. If you come down unequivocally on the line of “I hit you in neutral, it is therefore my turn until you can reset back to neutral”, then no, KI is not and probably never will be the game for you. KI’s unique flair and mechanics won’t do it for everyone. I’m glad that Tokido seems to be enjoying it, and hopefully his enthusiasm can help bring others around as well.
All of them are multi-game specialists, although Tokido has played by far the most games at a high level.
Mago was on an SBO team (the Super Bowl of Japanese tournaments) for CvS2 back in 2002 or 2003 that made it to the finals (I think his team won but I don’t remember 100%). And yes, Momochi also won SBO for 3rd Strike, and won SFxT events when he attended American tournaments. All of them have played Marvel to some extent, though Tokido actually has at least one tournament win in America (during Vanilla days), which was really impressive.
2 Likes
I hope to see him at Tourneys soon! I will challenge him. One day.
1 Like
Fair play, thanks for the info dude, interesting to know :).
Props to you for taking the time to type that up. Was a good read
2 Likes