Hi guys - big fighting game fan…who is a total noob - anyhow spent 2 and a half hours today with the new xbox and thought I’d let you know my impressions of the new KI.
The build I played only had 4 of the characters available to play with their respective backgrounds: Sabrewulf, Jago, Thunder and Glacius.
You’ve already seen the graphics are nice enough and that sound design is top notch but coming in to this I was worried about the feel of the game. I was a huge KI fan back in the day and this is my main reason for getting the console.
It’s slick - super slick - incredibly responsive - the new D pad is the best I’ve used - not even sure I’ll bother with a fightstick - all the characters feel completely different from each other. There was a ton of people at the event interested in KI (Dead rising was the other game that was seeing the most interest out of the launch games they had available to play). The combo system works brilliantly with the combo breaker/counter breaker interplay being excellent at keeping the whole thing feeling very intense (vs. Marvel where sometimes you are just stuck waiting in case someone messes up their combo). I loved how when a round ends you can still move your characters around - meaning if you get in on a zoning champ it doesn’t reset you to near max range ala Injustice.
All moves look and feel amazing - very solid - thunders moves feel like they have so much impact it’s epic. I wasn’t blown away by the ultra combos - I think standard combo’s with shadow moves felt more impactful. At one stage we were playing winner stays on and it was brilliant the feel of it going back to days of old in the arcades =)
Anyhow, just thought I’d share - and hopefully reassure anyone else who is a KI fan, you won’t be disappointed. Yes only 8 champs released but they all feel very unique (not just reskins with slightly different frame data as is seen in some games). One of the main things I think is great is their pricing model - yes I’ll just buy the version that unlocks everything but there will be a ton of people who will be trying fighting games again who haven’t played them for a long time and there will also be a load of people who are playing this as their first experience of a fighting game. The system has the beauty of being able to do cool stuff for noob button mashers but the nuances for mastery that I think it’s going to work great at expanding the amount of people playing fighting games, which can only be a good thing. Yes you will initially play 20 matches vs jago till you get enough wins to stop playing people just trying out the game and start being matched up against others and yes till the next chapter is released next year there is a very limited number of characters and yes you’ll have no single player…but most importantly the game is good, VERY good.
Look forward to seeing other KI fans online - It’s awesome and I can’t wait for the next 2 weeks to pass. =)
UKTyrant