I really want to be excited about Eagle’s release tomorrow. And I’m sure he’ll be a complex and deep character with a ton of fun to be had. However, I’m not really hype for the release, and that’s actually new to me for this game’s entire lifespan.
I can’t claim to understand the intricacies behind advertising, recording game footage, etc. I’m just here to talk about why this patch’s upcoming release isn’t exciting me, and how I think this could’ve been handled better. This is all mainly focused on Eagle; the patch itself is something I’m indifferent to, because I love the changes, but they don’t really affect my characters directly.
When it comes to simply putting new Eagle related content in front of us, I think that was fine. We got a teaser, a trailer, colors, accessories, and a few gameplay videos. It was enough to make clear to me that the devs were trying to make sure we wouldn’t forget Eagle’s upcoming release. My only real complaint was that I think we waited too long between the initial teaser and the actual trailer. After the long wait and a hype tournament (Combo Breaker) only getting a teaser that tells us nothing outside of appearance and music was a real letdown. Granted, I was positive Eagle was going to be in the game, so the surprise of that part of the reveal wasn’t there for me. If there was just a small bit of gameplay there, along the lines of RAAM’s trailer, I think I would’ve been a lot happier to see it.
My biggest problem with this Eagle “hype train” was the quality of gameplay content shown to us. Eagle’s trailer was a lot more plot and story heavy than pretty much any other character’s trailer up to this point besides maybe Riptor (didn’t like her trailer either, though I know many people love it). The amount of actual gameplay in that trailer basically involves one combo, two enders, a bird grabbing arrows and a few arrow shots. I know that trailers are meant for the casual audience who doesn’t keep up with forums and such, but even keeping that in mind that trailer really didn’t show people what is “KI” about Eagle. The short gameplay matches on youtube aren’t much better at all. An AI match really doesn’t display the character’s game plan, potential or even most of the move selection. And suddenly, a few days later, he’s coming out, and I feel like I know next to nothing about what to do with him.
When you have a new character in appearance, lore, and moveset, you have to try harder to convince people to be interested in him. It’s a lot easier to advertise the original cast, because nostalgia will take care of a lot of that hype for you. And it’s also easer to advertise remix characters, because it’s more likely people who liked the original will be interested in the remix. So I expected some really deep and meaty stuff to help us understand and get excited for this character. Stuff like:
-Early access/secrets (Kilgore)
-Gameplay demonstration/tutorial stream (Most characters)
-Matches from knowledgeable players (Season 3 pre-launch streams, Shin Hisako)
And I am sad to see that we got none of those 3. Seriously? It’s just so hard for me to get excited for a character when I don’t even know what he’s supposed to be or what he’s capable of. I hope you guys take this feedback to heart, and make me ache in anticipation leading up to a characters release, wishing I could have it immediately.
Thanks for reading.
