To be honest, you should try out Sol. He’s not grappler character (Pot is the only true grappler, as many has said), but his mix up DOES revolve around landing his command grab. He’s relatively fast, has some decent tools, and can get good damage on making people either scared to hit buttons or hit buttons and eat a counter-hit combo.
In regards to making FRCs a little more accessible, I’ve mentioned this many times before: add a small input buffer window to the FRC window. For example, Blazblue and Persona 4 Arena have an input buffer system that will read your input for 5 frames if you hold the button down for that long, essentially making something like a 1 frame link a 6 frame link. Considering most FRC windows are 2 frames, this essentially makes your input window for the FRC 7 frames, which is piss easy to land with even a little practice. This still means the FRC windows are 2 frames, thusly preventing hilarious Wii combos like Accent Core Wii version, but are easier to land and are still very important to gameplay. It’s a happy medium.
Slashbacks, however, should be removed. AKA and I had a discussion about it, and we essentially agree on the same reasons that Slashbacks are a bit too situational and are generally only done in guarenteed situations (i.e. something like SBing the last hit of Eddie’s EX drill). Not only that, but the reward for most characters (Potemkin gets the most out of SB comapred to everyone else) is very small due to not being able to act (or even block) for a few frames after a Slashback. Furthermore, Slashbacks were thrown into a game where the mechanics and moves were not made with it in mind. It took a long, LONG time for SBs to start making headway in the HIGHEST levels of play, and even then they’re so situational that they don’t really effect the gameplay that much (unless you’re Potemkin). That said, Xrd is their chance to make Slashback a more functional mechanic, but IMO it should just be 86’d.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Forcebreaks go either, since they’re pretty much EX attacks but for only certain moves (i.e. there isn’t an EX version of every special move), which causes a whole lot of problems in Accent Core. It’s difficult to justify Forcebreaks staying in the game when many characters were left with absolutely useless/lacking ones while some were ridiculously godlike (like Jam’s Forcebreak puffball). The problem is that you need to justify using 25% meter on a single special attack, so it better be pretty damn good (like most FRCs)… but unfortunately that just didn’t happen. Even in +R, Forcebreaks are more balanced but still pretty inherently imbalanced.
I agree with the FRC part. Slashbacks should stay as they are or be removed. Making a parry mechanics more useful is always dangerous for a 2D fighting game, and may end up ruining every other aspect. And forcebreaks are fine as a mechanic. Balance among the moves themselves does not equal something bad in the mechanic’s principle.
Really, you want to remove FBs? Why remove something that makes the game more dynamic? If anything, push for them to add FB versions of every move. In my opinion, adding more options (especially metered options) can’t really be a bad thing, especially since EX/FB moves necessarily only enhance what the character already does. If anything, I’d push for every move to have an FB version.
As far as an FRC buffer, I don’t know. Street Fighter 4 has tons of 2F links (including 1F links that are plinked) and you don’t often hear people complaining that SF4 execution is too difficult. It’s never bothered me that you have to spend a few hours practicing difficult execution in order to master a character. I feel like the real difficulty in GG comes from the speed of the game, the huge array of options, and the “sandbox” potential that most characters have in how freely they can adapt their gameplay. These are things we don’t want to change.
Why would anyone want FB versions of everything? There’s no point to that and the cast has moves that function great as is. I just want everyone to have useful force breaks. Not FB’s that fell to the wayside like Sol and Order-Sol’s. Don’t clutter the game with FBs. Keep that EX crap to KOF XIII and SF. We have a cast with strong moves. And I hate that when you have EX versions of everything, the normal versions suffer for it and you have to spend meter to do what was possible in a previous installment.
Last time I checked the forcebreaks in +R were fine and even the characters that don’t have useful ones, don’t really need them to shine. (PO,JO,MA etc.)
In case people are wondering how Arc achieved these graphics. They almost definitely used the same technique as in Paperman.
Essentially they used 3D models to animate the characters and then proceed to color in the characters each frame they need and flattened images when necessary. There is no crazy ass algorithm with shading or some shit they are using to get this look, at least to the extent that this game looks the way it looks. This is why its difficult to tell that the game isn’t 2D. Because in a way it sorta is 2D but not really. This is why this looks fully 2D while something like say Fire Emblem Awakening still clearly looked 3D during its cut scenes.
it’s not the same technique as paperman. Watch the paperman breakdown video and you’ll see that it’s not viable for a game like guilty gear just yet, on this generation’s consoles.
Personally I wouldn’t want FRC’s messed with at all. There is a certain satisfaction to well timed inputs/muscle memory inputs that is lost in buffers. Alot of fun and addiction comes from instinctual satisfaction (e.g CoD’s hit marker noises; hit effects in fg’s etc); your interaction with the game provides more satisfaction the tighter and more responsive it is. For FG relevance; this actually in turn hones your skills with practice and a certain synchronization with the game…I think people underestimate muscle memory and its benefits. Honestly, fine tuned muscle memory is more reliable than an easy buffer system. If FRC’s have a buffer window it will feel off and will not be as satisfying and rewarding as before.
The other reason is that FRC’s are hard as a product of their functionality, they are not hard for the sake of being hard. They provide very significant benefit and making them easier skewers their balance. Difficulty is also discipline, and a disciplined mentality is part of the correct mentality you must have when tackling a fighting game; there is no good reason for making FRC’s easier other than looking for a shortcut or to make up for a laziness in effort. Some things are easy, some things are hard; I believe GG is very well balanced between the two.
I know people are probably gonna disagree with me but I’m just putting this out there to highlight a different perspective anyway.
I wouldn’t necessarily mind seeing EX attacks for every special move since P4A did that pretty well, but then again everyone’s moveset in P4A is much smaller compared to GG. In any case, I’ve never been a big fan of Forcebreaks since I felt they were unnecessary and did not really add anything interesting to the game (did not help that some were way too strong, although they are more balanced in +R now). I would not miss them if they were removed. IMO it wouldn’t hurt the game.
Like I said before with Slashbacks, they don’t really add that much to the game. They would need to severely tweak it in Xrd to make it a more practical mechanic. Or they could just remove it. Regular blocking, instant blocking, Faultless Defense, and bursts are plenty of defensive options.
Links are a different beast, IMO, because the muscle memory is a bit different. It’s easier to hit a two frame link than a two frame FRC because you’re using rythym muscle memory for the link, rather than just hitting a 2 frame window from neutral or possibly in a combo (combo timing is different too as opposed to doing it in neutral due to hitstop). In any case, what does adding an input buffer to FRCs take away from the depth of the game? Nothing. FRCs remain just as important as ever; they’re just easier to do now.
I can see this game coming to consoles until the last monthes of 2014 at best
Realistically, i think that we wouldn’t see it until 2015, specially if they are aiming to add the whole cast of GGAC + new chars.
Does anyone think that Ky looks like he had his range decreased in that video? It looks like he’s not swinging his sword out as far, and he’s kind of keeping it close to himself.
