I remember when Adam Isgreen made a thread in late-S3 asking which characters we’d want to return in a theoretical sequel if we could only pick 12. They definitely were not planning on bringing everyone back right away.
They also did that survey we didn’t see much materialize from besides Eagle, and they radically transformed a few characters in the short comic series. I’m sure they’ve got plenty of ideas to bring the series forward, it’s just a matter of time before they happen.
I agree 
. After not seeing Kim or Tusk nearly 1.5 years after the reboot, I started to lose interest as they were my original mains. I started playing a character, Aria, who I loved gameplay wise but I knew I was was waiting for the original cast of characters. By the time they finally came out, I was sort of ready to move on especially with their new looks. New characters is nice but if you’re not guaranteed a budget for another season why waste time on new characters first?!
Still hoping for the best with a new release. No season 4 please! Bad memories of not being able to access contents, like modes and dlc characters, for months in a row after each monthly character release and patch. I am all in for a properly developed game even if the current game is a gem.
I’m curious to know what the consensus would be if the next iteration of KI was not an official next iteration of KI but more of an “Ultimate” KI similar to UMVC3.
It’d be more or less the same game but with added characters, stages, ultimates, updated graphics for the Scarlett, etc. To be honest, as much as I would love a brand new second KI, I still think the current one is a pretty ■■■■ good game in itself. Plus I would really miss the guest characters that are included in this one. It took a while for me to get used to them but I would miss Arbiter, Rash, and General RAAM if they weren’t in the next installment.
A lot of people feel this way, but I don’t know. MvCi was crucified for bringing back so many characters from MvC3 using recycled assets and ALSO crucified for NOT bringing back the characters they didn’t bring back…
Personally, if they are going to make a new game I don’t want it to just be this game with new graphics.
I mean. Even if they change up how they play, there’s no reason to not reuse character models and animations at least. I mean, just look at Smash Ultimate
Time, money, manpower, though not necessarily in that order 
Because not everyone is a series veteran, and even those who are might be more drawn to newer characters (I’m an OG KI fan, but both my mains are brand new). If you’re just going to go with the exact same roster from past games, then you may as well do a reboot or a remaster. New games are a chance to do new things, including with the roster.
Don’t think you have to worry about that - there’s no appetite for a S4 on either the dev or consumer side. As a player, I think this KI is pretty much at the character limit before collapsing under the weight of its own roster. One of the interesting byproducts of this mini-revival was in seeing how new players react to the buckets of absolute ■■■■■■■ that the game has. In short, the answer is “not good”. Trying to learn the game while dealing with Shadow Jago’s teleport bs (or Eagle’s vortex or a Gargos gang beating) is frustrating and not fun, and a Season 4 would just exacerbate that dynamic further. A new game is a chance to reset that learning curve, and perhaps pull back on some of the more egregious shenanigans of the cast. That’s really important for bringing in new folks, and long time players can appreciate some of it as well.
You’re newish here, so that means you missed the Great Omen Blowup of 2015 (or thereabouts). People raised holy hell about the fact that a completely visually/gameplay distinct bonus character they were not expecting borrowed assets from S1 characters. People moaned about it incessantly on chat and in the forums 
i think fighting against a lethal kan-ra is the worst as a new player. no doubt shago and eagle are nasty, but facing our resident mummy in the hands of a real ■■■■■■■■■■■■ can be soul crushing lol, he can have his soup i dont want any and thats cuz i have MU knowledge haha
Nah, Shago is definitely worse than Kan-Ra. Losing because you’re getting hit by stuff is frustrating - losing because you literally can’t see what the opponent character is doing is utterly infuriating. Shago can be anywhere on the screen in a fraction of a second, and if you’ve never seen him his movements are anything but intuitive (why is his slide now behind me? 
).
Kan may lock you down with scarabs and command grab you, but you can at least see that stuff. Characters disappearing all over the screen and getting free cross-up DP’s is just really crappy, especially if you’re just starting out.
This is definitely an issue that I think people don’t consider enough. If KI season 1 had launched with a 28 character roster I don’t know if I would have stuck with the game. Forgetting the dirty offense that basically every character has, learning the animations for every characters auto doubles and linkers is a huge commitment. I’m still much better at recognizing and breaking S1 characters than any others and S3 characters (ahem hisako cough cough) have more difficult animations as well. When the game first launched I really didn’t think the game could support more than 12-16 characters because of the intense differentiation between the characters and the need to really be able to see their animations. I think you can make a reasonable case that the game currently has too many characters.
I know no one wants to hear this. We just want to see more and more added to the game but I honestly think if the game launched with the roster it has now I would have quit in a week.
Dude. I’m far from new here. I’ve been around dense Season 2. I was around for that. And I always thought the fuss was ridiculous. I could hardly even notice it with Omen.
Besides. There’s a difference between using assets from one character to make a new one, and using assets from one game to bring back every playable character.
Shadow Lords Gargos would like to have a word with you.
i dont know man, might have a case of agree to disagree, maybe not. but one things for sure, neither fighter will let you play. one wont let you see your death and it can be quick, the other lets you see your death by a thousand cuts, but can also be quick lol
Yeah I wonder how KI will deal with identifying the strength of doubles if there’s a sequel. Because I agree with Andy, if the sequel has 27 characters at launch and the doubles look as they do now, there’s no way people will be able to memorize all of that info and actually apply it in a fight early on AND actually manage to enjoy themselves.
I know some won’t care to learn and they’ll just guess break to their hearts content, but if that’s the case, and so many have to do that early on, then that tells me the system might need some type of upgrade.
For one thing, I’d drop the idea of using doubles similarity to other doubles as a balancing tool, where some autos look really similar and it’s exceptionally hard for players to figure out if you’re using a light or a medium.
Secondly, I think I might make the speeds at which doubles come out slightly more pronounced. Make lights slightly faster, make heavies slightly slower.
Lastly, I might also vary up the animations more, so we’re looking at the characters doubles appearing more like Sabrewulf’s perhaps where you can see rather exceedingly unique motions.
This might lead to more breakers, but who knows, maybe it leads to more counter breakers as well?
Maybe this isn’t the way to go about it, but if they’re not starting with a lower number, like six, and then releasing only a character a time (or two at the most) then it might be worth it to see if there’s a way to structure things that allows players to read, process and react to 20+ different character’s and their three strengths of doubles each.
I think pronounced and uniform across the cast is a good idea.
I think having unique motions is one of the reasons the S1 cast is relatively easier to break. But it’s hard to have unique motions for both punches and kicks at three levels for 28 characters. No one wants to hear this either but we don’t need different autodoubles for punches and kicks either. When there’s six characters and you want to reward game knowledge and experience then making people try to learn 36 animations seems okay. But with a cast of 25 that’s 150 animations you need to recognize. I know a lot of people towards the end of season 2 started recommending breaking based on your character’s hitstun animation which was distinct between attack strengths, but for me this was too subtle and I couldn’t really pick up on it. They might also make this a more readable cue.
Personally, I would like to see a bigger push towards breaking and counter breaking. I would prefer to see breaking be more uniform and manuals to be less prevalent in the game. I’m sure lots will disagree but I think it’s a valid way to modify the existing system.
Personally I think medium and heavy ADs should be sped up by a few frames. Making ADs slightly more challenging to discern apart in time while still keeping all of them reactable seems like the way to go to me. Light ADs are already like 19 frames IIRC, so you can’t speed them up much before they become unreactable or borderline.
Something subtle they could do as well that would be nice but wouldn’t alter timings, etc. would be to slightly alter the pitch of the sound effects that accompany the ADs, and make those pitches uniform for the whole cast.
Apologies. As far as I knew you became a member/poster relatively recently. As to your other point, I won’t speak to the technical/resource details of asset reuse across titles because I don’t know the hardware or the process specifications. think the difference is relatively unimportant for the folks who dislike asset reuse however. The same kind of people who complained about Omen also raised hell about MVCI’s liberal plucking of characters, animations, and movesets from UMVC3.
Whether you even want an “everyone is here” style cast or not is ultimately a judgment call though, one that I know you and I come down on different sides of. I would personally rather devs put that time and effort into building/polishing new things, and think that KI is somewhat ill-suited to such an effort anyway on account of the aforementioned character peculiarities and associated learning curve.
i just want a legit rooftop stage, who the ■■■■ do i gotta trip ultra to make that ■■■■ happen lol. im a man of simple desires
I do not disagree… But in this case, the announcer needs more variety of breaker calls… Say it differently time to time… Hearing the announcer say combo or counter breaker the same way over and over gets kinda old tbh.
I just think there is a qualitative difference between lockdown play (where pressure is seemingly endless and finding your “turn” is difficult) and unreactable mix-up play (where you are repeatedly hit by things that you could not see coming). To be sure, the latter certainly exists and is a staple of FG’s (the classic grappler is essentially this archetype), but the way in which Shago moves and is able to just control the screen from any distance is extremely unique for such a character. You can play defense in neutral against Zangeif or Hisako, keeping them away and resolving neutral repeatedly in your favor. Shago is basically “Eff Neutral the Character™”. Kan-Ra has to at least semi-work his way in to get that endless pressure - Shadow Jago just gets in and resolves neutral whenever and wherever he feels like it, forcing you to deal with lightning fast cross-ups basically at a whim. I genuinely think he is bad for the game as a whole.
I think the chance of a new KI launching with a “full” roster is pretty nonexistent to be honest. The current model for FG’s is smaller launch rosters and continual (paid) updates and I think that model is uniquely well-suited to the genre. I figure a new KI would launch with ~10 characters or so, with 14 as an absolute maximum. No reason to sink the time/expense into a larger roster at start when players have largely proven willing to support the continual update approach.
On breaker timings and mechanics, I largely feel like I wouldn’t adjust it too much, particularly on the AD side. Lights as barely-reactable-if-you’re-looking-for-them is a good lower limit, and I think heavies are already plenty slow enough - people aren’t timing locking out on those suckers. The wiggle room to me would be in the linkers, maybe making the trade-offs between more and less reactable linkers more pronounced among more of the cast. There’s some room there for innovation, though how much of it is up to anyone’s guess. Other than that I wouldn’t change too much about the breaker system.