I see little wrong with Instinct Mode so far. It’s there to use for both players and it doesn’t come off as uber powerful like XF or useless like Pandora. It doesn’t need you to sacrifice something anymore than a fireball requires you to sacrifice something. It’s just another tool.
Meter use seems fine to me as well.
Fireballs aren’t nearly as powerful, though. Come on.
Most every other powerup system requires you to sacrifice something to use. The standard Install-type super draws from meter you could use for something else. Baroque needs you to sacrifice recoverable health. Overdrive (which I feel is Instinct’s closest analogue) requires that you temporarily forfeit a Burst, your most powerful defensive tool. There’s little downside to activating Instinct, especially for the more powerful ones like Jago’s and Thunder’s.
You only get two functions with meter: Shadow Moves and Shadow Counters. Of the two, the former is overwhelmingly better than the latter in significantly more instances, reducing real choice. And then you get so much meter for doing everything anyway that you’re rarely in a situation where you’re really hurting for meter but don’t have it yet.
Also, AA is this game is both consistent and strong…
The sacrifice for you getting instinct meter is you losing health and being able to combo break (as those are the only two ways to get it) and having to combo break means you have to get hit and then successfully break. So no, it’s not just a “free” tool for one to use like X-Factor. Sacrifice is health, fair trade.
That’s not a sacrifice; that’s a starting condition. Sacrifice implies a choice between one option or another. You can’t choose to not receive Instinct in exchange for losing less health.
It’s just a tool, plenty of tools don’t require a “sacrifice”. The sacrifices things lije overdrive require is only meant as a balancing mechanism, and we have yet to see any evidence instinct is unbalanced.
It’s best analogue is Ultra combos in sf4 as they both have similar conditions.
Also, the fact that breakers give instinct is significant, much in the same way Thata focusing damage is in SF4, except that there is always risk attached.
And as we all know, Ultra is a brilliant example of sound mechanic design. 
From what I’ve seen, Instinct gives some rather huge advantages. Jago gets health from doing nothing, Thunder gets invincible movement out the wazoo, Sabrewulf’s practically is X-Factor. Not to mention cancelling into it resets KV, and you get the same activation time. Which doesn’t make much sense considering the inherent risk in activating it raw is so much greater than a confirm. I mean, Instinct’s not X-Factor dumb, but even something as simple as disabling combo breakers while it’s active would give it some sort of cost.
stupid internet double posting
To make that argument you first need to establish why it needs a “sacrifice”.
It’s already regulated to once per game unless you been successful with breaks (meaning either you or your opponent took risks).
Also, BBCP overdrive has no sacrifice, no more than a normal burst would.
You are simply given the choice between a powerful offensive tool or a powerful defensive tool.
At MAX, it can be used twice (from “regular” play)
First, Jago has to be “attacking” in order to regain health. Thunder’s movement is not totally invincible. Sabrewulf doesn’t get faster IIRC (that would immensely unfair as he’s already the fastest in the game), only damage boost and more chip damage. I think you need to actually play the game in order to see how powerful these tools are. Yes, each person’s Instinct mode is scary, but not as overbearing as you are making out to be (and it doesn’t last that long at all). Also, remember that these tools are basically to get you into the same combos that you are STILL able to break. It makes the other user more aggressive (and DH stated that as such), but the defending user still has a chance, and that’s IF they get hit.
…Which is the very definition of a sacrifice. You have to choose between one or the other. You can’t have both.
I look at the list of on-paper benefits and see that everyone except Glacius gets an extremely powerful toolset. But we’ll see.
But you aren’t giving up anything.
It’s a resource, same as super meter. By your logic doing a cMK is a sacrifice because you can’t also do a cHP. While true, I don’t think itsupports the point you are trying to make.
Instinct is in many ways a comeback mechanic, but given how KI works and that the stock carries from round to round, it’s much more muted in that regard.
Unrelated, but I still think glacius has one of the better instinct modes. If not the best.
Come on. You know that’s a silly comparison. With Burst/OD, you give up your ability to prevent yourself from dying in order to kill your opponent more easily. Don’t tell me that it’s even remotely a similar magnitude of choice to using one normal over the other. Using an MK doesn’t prevent you from using an HP for most of a round.
Glacius’s Instinct has both the normal time limit as well as a limited number of uses. Why have both?
It doesn’t have a limited number of uses, it just has a recovery time. That “uses” thing is just spooky not articulating well.
If it was pure super armor it would be broken.
Also, it’s exactly the same, just on a different scale. It’s just “you can do one thing, or another thing”. Even with bursts often times not using them is more powerful than using them.
The point is that with Burst/OD/Gold Burst, powerup supers, Baroque, and the like, you have a resource that can be used for more than one tool, and using one tool not only requires that resource cost, but also prevents use of other tools for some amount of time. Instinct meter can only be used for Instinct, and there’s no downside to using it.
The main thing Glacius’ armor does is buff his close game. He’s normally weak once people get in, but with armor you force them to do multi hitting moves or throw you to penetrate you. Which also makes your AA’s stronger since all of your AA’s will now have armor and I think so far only Sadira has a 2 hit aerial maneuver.
So if every character had 2 instinct modes that would be better?
I’m sorry, I reject the premise of your argument.
Umm, where are you getting that from exactly?