I’ve been frustrated about this issue for a while now.
When I go to locals and majors I usually spend some time talking about what players want out of fighting games with other attendees. Mind you, I’m only speaking on the FGC(which makes me even more angry) because there’s a whole different set of standards for the average gamer.
Typically people say they want a game with original/interesting characters, great gameplay, great soundtrack, graphics, and games that are 2d or 3d on a 2d plane. A lot of folks in the fgc claim they don’t care about graphics but they’re the first to bomb XIV for how it looks. A lot of folks in the FGC completely skipped out on playing XIII when on paper it has everything people are looking for. The game was fairly balanced, sported some of the best sprites ever seen period (argue with me) a huge cast. And the PC re-release had a great netcode. Many XIII tournaments suffered from no one showing up and lower numbers all the time why?
Games like SFIV SFV and MKX continue to do well regardless of the many complaints. It seems to me like most of the FGC blatantly lies when it comes down to what they want in a game because we get these games all the time and no one plays them, yet we’re back time and time again for games like KI, MKX, and SF where graphics and standard mechanics are familiar. Even GGXRD as beautiful as it is gets pretty low entries at tournaments.
My questions to you guys at the end of the day are:
1.What do you want in a fighting game and which games came the closest to giving you that?
2.Do you only play “they hype” (What your friends play, what draws the most people, gaphics)?
3.If your answer to question 1 has a game that has already been released do you play this game actively and enter tournaments (support the game)
4. Be honest… how much do graphics and hype matter to you? (I don’t mean fgc hype, I’m talking hypebeast hype)
Let’s not exaggerate things. The PC netcode was workable, good if you were really close, but there was really no excuse for it not to be. With anything besides a perfect connection things could get messy.
No version of XIII has great netcode. Stop that.
XIII’s roster is not that big. Maybe in comparison to ASW games, but when XIII was alive it was up against SF4 that had just as big of a roster, UMvC3 with a bigger roster, SFxT with a bigger roster, Tekken 6/TTT2 with a bigger roster, it was average at the time.
Graphics is want attracts me. Gameplay is what keeps me.
First things first.
Kof13 is beautiful as fuck. Easily one of the best fighting games in terms of looks and sound. It’s just incredible. But the reason it wasn’t super loved were for 2 reasons. Poor netcode, and the gameplay engine itself strayed too far from the kof formula, adding mechanics that in retrospect were pretty questionable. HS combos is a big one.
That out of the way, graphics and presentation mean a ton to me, but it doesn’t make up for a game I’m not that into. But a great game with poor presentation just isn’t as fun as it should be, maybe because in ways presentation is tied to the enjoyment factor. The responsiveness, the clarity of attacks and fluidity of animation add to the feel of the game that makes it fun. It’s also about atmosphere. Getting immersed into the fight, the stages, character, the sounds and the world. Yes fighting games are on a 2D plane but that doesn’t mean they can’t suck you in as well as say super metroid. All this said, gameplay and the METAGAME are what matters most, but graphics to me are still a major factor to my enjoyment. There are many fighting games with amazing meta games, but only the ones with the right characters, art, music, visuals AND METAGAME will be the ones I fall in love with enough to make me want to get high level
Some games that have done this for me are:
Garou: MOTW
Last blade 2
VSAV
Guilty gear XXAC
Presentation to me is very important. Note that good presentation =/= high technology, as a lot of people tend to confuse these; I’ll take something like KOF XIII over MKX any day, or even KOF XIV with its slightly outdated 3D graphics over SFV or IV which disgust me. Games like the Real Bouts, Samurai Shodown, older KOFs, etc have attracted me greatly due to how good their presentation is, the personality they imprint in their character’s movesets, their amazing stages and music, etc.
But of course how it plays is the most important thing, and generally I like games with strong fundamentals, good normals, high damage, good throws, character and strategy variety. Super Turbo, Real Bout 1 and 2, Fighter’s History Dynamite, KOF '98 and 2k2 UM are some of my favorites for these reasons. I also really like Accent Core even though it doesn’t fully comply with my usual tastes, mostly because the characters are so interesting and often feel like entire systems by themselves.
I have a really hard time getting interested in games with poor normals or watered down characters, or the current trend of dumbing down major parts of the game for no reason whatsoever, which is why I don’t care about modern Capcom at all, and if I don’t care about its presentation I have less incentive to play too (again modern Capcom, also MK, KI and most airdashers, although I can mostly ignore the visuals in the latter since I often enjoy how they play).
I don’t care at all about popularity. If I don’t like a game I won’t play it no matter how much hype and competition it gets, I’ll stick to something I really like even if it doesn’t get that much play. My playtime is limited, so I only stick with what I really really enjoy and don’t understand people who will play something they don’t like that much just because it has more competition. I hope KOF XIV gets big though so I can play something I enjoy and have lots of comp for it too, which didn’t happen for XIII since the netcode was so bad.