What is your opinion of Season 3?

General Discussion
1

So, with Shadow Lords on its way and the final character having been revealed, it seems like Season 3 is ready to be wrapped up.

My opinion… it was rather disappointing. There were some good things, but I expected more. And some things I did not expect at all which just drove the season into the ground for me.

Good things:

  • Tusk returning.
    I LOVED Tusk in KI2, and other than Orchid, he was my main. I like playing as him, but he is just a tad slow for me in this game, and I have trouble adjusting to that. But even so, he is so much fun and he looks so good! Both his main and his alt!
  • Mira.
    Season 3 had ONE original character, and Iron Galaxy hit homerun with it! Mira is fantastic! I not only love vampires, but I also love blood magic, not to mention that the scythe is one of my favourite weapons! And she has a corkscrew kick which one of my other favourite characters of all time has, that being Cammy from Street Fighter! The only thing I would’ve wanted was for the vampire to be male, but I can look past that one little thing. Because Mira is just awesome!
  • Gargos returning.
    I didn’t like Gargos in KI2. I thought he was boring and cheap and not all that interesting. But whauw, Iron Galaxy sure made him really awesome, both in looks and gameplay! He looks like a menacing demon lord and his gameplay is super fun!
  • The upcoming Shadow Lords mode.
    This mode looks really interesting from what we’ve seen so far. There’s still a bit over a month before it releases, so can’t state my final opinion of it just yet, but it looks kinda fun.
  • The 4th Ender Animations.
    ALOT of people didn’t seem to like this, so many that IG even made an on/off switch for it, but I enjoy it immensely! It gives the game an extra cinematic feel, like an extra pay-off when being able to pull it off. It’s like a little fanfare when you are able to build the combo up to that point without having it be broken by the opponent.
  • The new stage lighting.
    It really makes the new KI have the old-school feel, however, it is not perfect. There are some flaws and the lighting sometimes looks really odd on some characters in certain stages, so there needs to be some fixes on it. But overall, I think it looks really cool.

Bad things:

  • Guest characters.
    I do not care for guest characters. In any game. At all. Some might be more enjoyable than others, but overall, I am admittedly somewhat of a purist when it comes to this subject. For as soon a guest character is put in the game, it opens up the possibility of MORE guest characters. And as fun and cool Rash is, because he got put in, it invited two other guests that I do not care for one bit. 3 guest characters, and all in one season, is just WAY too many! I do not care for it and it is one of the main disappointments to me in this season.
  • Only ONE original character.
    Mira… Mira is awesome! But she is also the only original character in this season, and it is just so goddamn disappointing! Season 2 was full of awesome new characters, some great ideas and concepts being put to life, and it really showed how great Iron Galaxy’s team is when it comes to creating something new! I had hoped for alot more of that in Season 3… The joke’s on me though.
  • Eyedol.
    I’m really no fan of Eyedol’s new appearance and the whole ugly, fat cave troll look. And though the split head sounds cool on paper, it was just not done very well in-game. His head looks WAY too big and overall just looks bad, imo. His retro looks somewhat decent, but he looked way cooler in KI1, alot more menacing and awesome, better stance posture and such. His gameplay looks alright though. The whole idea just kinda seems like it was ripped off from Cho’gall from the Warcraft franchise. At least he looked cool for a big, fat ogre. And the random stance gimmick has been seen before with Tira from Soul Calibur (who is a fave of mine), who also had to hit herself in the head to force herself to change stance. So that part is at least not all that bad.
    However, the main thing I don’t like about Eyedol is that Season 3 was SUPPOSED to be all about Gargos and his return! He was supposed to be the main menacing threat! And then season 4 could be about Kan-Ra summoning Eyedol to stop Gargos, and it would end in a climactic battle! But instead this just feels a bit forced and kinda undermines Eyedol’s roll overall.
  • Too many big characters.
    One of the things I thought was awesome about Aganos is that he was unique in his size. He is HUGE! But with Arbiter, RAAM, Gargos and Eyedol, and somewhat Tusk, he’s just not unique anymore. If the two guest characters weren’t there and had two more regular sized original characters instead, then it wouldn’t be that big (lololol puns) of a problem, but Season 3 is just full of big characters! I just think it’s too many.
  • Still no Ultimates.
    Ultra Combos are cool, but after having seen them for 3 years now, it would be nice to try and have some other way to finish off your opponent. Sure, we have Stage Ultras, but they are circumstancial and alot of them aren’t very well made… hinting to the really odd posing done by the winner characters. Ew. It has been explained to us that the reason Shadow Jago’s Ultimate worked, is because the stage it was supposed to work on (Shadow Tiger’s Lair) was made for it. But an idea could be to make the background dark, just like what was done with Shadow Jago’s “Ultimate” grab when done by a player character. So, it just seems like a bad excuse.
  • Not all characters got stages.
    But a guest character did. We already have ALOT of stages, so I can understand why they stopped making more, but I am really disappointed that someone like Mira didn’t get a stage, but Arbiter did! It kinda signals that IG thought a guest character was more important to the game than one of their own original creations. And that’s just freaking disappointing!

What are your opinions on Season 3?
What are your notable likes and dislikes?

And last, do you think there will be a Season 4?

2 Likes
2

I agree with a lot of your points, and I need to add my own opinion here too. Personally, Season 3 was a bit disappointing to me. The characters in the new season seemed either too OP and needed nerfing (Gargos definitely falls here) or out of place (Rash really has no reason to be here). The lack of new stages upset me, because it seemed almost lazy on the Dev’s part. Not only that, but there seemed to be a lack of creativity in the characters as well in my opinion. Gargos literally stole one of Glacius’ combo traits and Raam seems unfinished. I didn’t hate season 3, but I personally felt more hype throughout season 2 than 3.

3 Likes
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I thought this season was great. I love the guest characters and would like to see even more. I don’t really care for Shadow Lords mode so I personally would have preferred if at least Gargos, Mira and Eyedol had their own stages. Flipout is an interesting mechanic and helps keep things fresh. Overall, I’d rate the season a 8 out of 10. Season 2 would be a 9 and season 1 would be an 8.5.

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Excluding changes/bug fixes and game mechanics. I don’t like S3 except for SL. Everything else can take a hike.

5

I’m 100% agree with you. But not this…

I know you don’t like new Eyedol because they changed him… But new KI is reboot, it’s not 1994 anymore… if they confirm KI Season 4, then you will happy to see more new characters! :slight_smile:

1 Like
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I like

Guest Characters… Arbiter and Rash are the two best looking Characters this season animationwise - Raam on the other hand…

Gargos gameplay

Tusk gameplay and visuals

Some balance and mechanic changes were good

Stage Lightning

I dont like

Raam - he just feels so rushed

Too many big characters

No Joanna Dark

Mira gameplay and plan is just annoying to me

No predefined stage music option (with the missing stages this should be implemented)

I dont like flipout

Overall S3 is better than S2 gameplay wise but worse than S1

7

No, that’s not why I don’t like him. I don’t mind change, and if you have followed my posts on this forum, you would know that! Orchid is very changed from her original appearances, and I love it! Best look for her yet, imo.

No, I don’t like WHAT they changed him into. They could have made other changes that would be TONS better than what we got. What we got was a snivelling, drooling, ugly, fat cave troll. They could have done so many other things to him and kept him appearing like a menacing and awesome monster.

So no, it is not the fact they changed him that bothers me. It’s what they changed him into.

8

Characters have been varied and interesting. Don’t mind the guests but before we judge we best wait to try Eyedol andcShadow Lords first no?

Lack of stages still the big elephant in the room though for me Eyedol was the hypothetical cherry on the top to a good season. More stages and some lore would give it an extra point - shame about new mode delay.

9

Pre-Eyedol

4-10

Post-Eyedol

7-10

3 Likes
10

I actually quite liked this season.

I do feel Mira and Eyedol should have their own stage.
And I also feel there is a bit of an overload in big characters. I like them, I just think they devalue the characters that were special because of it (Aganos)

I liked the quest characters and have no problem with them at all, however I would personally rather have had more original characters (Love Hisako, Aganos and Mira). However I would like Joanna Dark playable and integrated in KI canon like some people here suggested. Also they really do believe they bring in new players so I see their value.

I think Shadowlords mode will really upgrade the game in general and make it a complete new beast, for me at least (love single player content). Also intrigued by the new multiplayer mode :grin: Love me some chaos!

Really like the lighting update, eventhough I do notice some bad spots in places (for example skin texture not right in certain lighting like Kim-Wu for instance and the wet skin effect missing on devils landing).

Shadow labs is great, but also largely forgotten in season 3, for it to be really effective for me I would need more than 2 character slots since I switch characters fairly often (cant be that hard to program right?) and have it integrated in single player modes, even if it is just a seperate ladder or tournament. Think of having a virtual tournament with shadows chosen from players from your friendlist, that would be awesome :sunglasses: There is so much potential here it would be a wast not to take advantage of this.

Also, and I hope the devs do this when they have breathing room after Eyedol and Shadowlords are released and are polishing the game, better training/dojo mode, its outdated since the new flipouts, etc and character specific training, differences between characters is big at the moment. For people that got in at season three and on pc these modes are lacking, I dont really know how to use flipout properly, and I am someone that really needs to practice new things. Also online training, we have solid people here who will do the training for you (diminishing the need for a revamped trainingmode) but they need to be able to do it. Give them a platform.

So in the end, very happy with the season 8,5
But could be a solid 9 or 9,5 (and best of the three seasons) if some of these requests are added.

Most wanted (personally): Mira stage :sunglasses:
Runner-up: Shadow powered tournaments :smirk:

Edit:
Huge improvement on the character select and stage select, felt like a more modern and cohesive game because of it. Only the ranked screen is lacking the new color scheme.

Also loved the novella’s, they should be ingame, as should the music be.

2 Likes
11

I like Season 3. I came late for party (PC player), so IDK how the hype was for previous seasons.

The way I see it, lack of stages for characters is compensated with their complexity and production value.

I don`t mind guests.

Rash is fine because I liked Battletoads (they are like TMNT but not homo, there, I said it.)

RAAM is out of place but he is the only full-time grappler of the game, so he is good for diversity. Altough I would prefer someone who wrestles more, but its fine.

Arbiter is only who could be kicked out, I dont care half cent for Halo.

Tusk and Gargos are my mains. Before KI arrived to PC, I told myself I will taste all three seasons, and I caught myself on playing mostly S3 characters, so IMO this season is pretty neat.

12

For me, the only things that I would change are making sure every KI character gets their own stage, and I would have probably limited the game to two guests. Rash is cool because like KI itself, he (and battletoads) has been on a hiatus for many many years, so he seemed fitting for that reason alone IMO. As for who I would keep between Arbiter and RAAM I would probably role with Arbiter since Halo seems like it is much more popular and is kind of like MS’s flagship exclusive. So RAAM would have been gone and I would have had Eagle take the spot he has.

2 Likes
13

I’m really enjoying season 3.

All the characters have been a big hit for me. I love the focus on lore and story. The novella was amazing and Shadowlords looks intense. If it is what they say it is, Shadowlords is gonna be the best fighting game story mode since Soul Calibur 2’s Edgemaster mode. The stage relighting makes everything look up to par, and the ability to select your theme was definitely needed. That being said…

The lack of stages kinda suck, but the 4 we got look great! While having a stage for every character was great, we already have more stages than most fighting games as it is.

The only thing I wish IG would do more would be offering more colors, accessories, and costumes for existing characters. I wanna see how IG would design the season 1 characters. We also should get some more holiday items. They were so excited to start giving out items for the big holidays and nothing really happened besides the starting Christmas items.

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8.0 so far for me. Shadow Lords can make it better though. We’ll have to wait and see.

15

For me, season 3 has been hit or miss.

What they’ve done right is great, Kim and Tusk while I don’t really like them are good characters with beautiful stages to bad they axed the rest of them… Arbiter is probably the most faithful a guest character could be and Rash is fun. Gargos looks derpy but he plays like a boss so I love that, RAAM is kinda… meh, out of place and I don’t care for him. Mira is awesome in theme but I hate her playstyle…

It just feels very 50/50 to me, the stuff I like I really like and the stuff I don’t like I REALLY don’t like. The entire season as a whole has fell flat for me, the hype died off after it launched. Eyedol is the only thing in the second half of the season to really excite me but then I realize he doesn’t even get a stage and it drags me back down.

16

A thousand times this. This to me is one of the only really disappointing things about this game since season 1. Its a no brainer, people love accessoiries/colors/costumes…

4 Likes
17

You know what, I don’t mind that not every character has a stage. 21 stages is a lot of stages and I appreciate that takes a lot of time.

I do however hate that we have 3 guest characters and only 1 original character. That being said Rash and Arbiter are now two of my favourite characters to play with. But yeah if you’d asked me guests or original I would always say original and especially not 3 guests.

I love the fact that we now have the entire original cast with loads of inventive redesigns but above all else I can’t wait for Shadow Lords mode. I’m a big fan of roguelikes and once this comes out I know I will be throwing hours of my life into this game.

So yeah Season 3 gets a big fan boy thumbs up from me :smiley:

1 Like
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Returning Characters: I appriciate on most of the design choices and i think they’ve done a wonderful job reimaging moves into the new mechanics they have for these characters. The visual design i also like for both the main and retro costumes, i feel like they eyencatching and show alot of personality for the returning characters Wonderful backstories that shows how mich they are doing to share some continuity and some flavors that yes its a reboot

Guest characters: Rash is awesome, from a battletoads fanboy persecptive, and as a fanboy i also have gripes in their choices for him, but meh, they still did a terrific job. With the other two, i dont have much of an attachment to but good for them. Playstyle, i like all of them, they put something amazing to the table to go along with their game backgrounds, topnotch translations.

Mira: She’s so lovable how can you hate the ideas she has. Family friction trope, visually superb animations, eye catching visual look thats still pretty conservative (regular outfit). A high risk high reward playstyle that shows how fast and furious she can be.

Shadow Lords and Vs: Its something new for KI so im indifferent, looks fun though

Stages: They ones we have are great, wish we had more, damn shame

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ME TOO Eyedol MADE ASCEND THE BAR IN MY CONSIDERS VERY VERY VERY HIGH
ILL GIVE A

5-10 FOR THE PRE EYEDOL ( because of too much nerf )

9-10 FOR THE POST EYEDOL:innocent: ( cause hes godlike)

1 Like
20

Same as the other seasons:

10/10

6 Likes