They went back to 2v2 because they wanted more teamwork and disliked characters being only used as an assist. Also they are trying to make the game more straight forward for casual audiences.
Giant characters go against this thought process, it will make the game more confusing to newcomers and viewers. Every time a giant character is selected the commentary will have to explain how this one particular character functions completely differently than the majority of the game.
It may not sound that big of a deal but when the game functions one way 99% of the time but has this tiny situational variant 1% of the time its unnecessary and ultimately counter intuitive to the games growth and access.
I donât get whatâs so complicated about it. Itâs a character so large that it takes up 2 character slotsâŚitâs nowhere near as complex as some outliers in other competitive games. Take ChoâGal in Heroes of the Storm, for example. Much more to them than a giant character in a fighting game, yet that doesnât stop them from seeing the spotlight in streamed events. Hell, if anything different designs like that excite spectators.
As for the team aspect of the game, there are plenty of creative ways to incorporate that even with a solo character. They can tag between stances or forms or whatever. Just because they missed the mark in another game doesnât mean they should never revisit the idea again.
^And with that ESPN spotlight that this game has on it, interesting competitive play will translate to more casual appeal. I just canât see the devs using this game as a proving grounds to make giant characters work when there is so much at stake for them.
Wait, why does this game have an ESPN spotlight on it? Also, going off topic here, but I need to say it because I think itâs hilarious: did anyone see that ESPN tweeted the other day âGo see the new Star Warsâ? Lol that channel has become a complete fucking joke
Not true. Capcom said they wanted to remove assists because a character chosen for a move they do offscreen does not emulate proper teamwork. Thatâs a core design change they made to simplify the game and avoid major balance issues. One or two characters behaving differently is a very separate issue that is easily manageable even if they somehow royally fucked it up.
In addition, having a character with a mode/stance change using the tag mechanic would essentially remove the difference between a solo character and a normal team. You start the match in one form, and now can freely tag between your two forms. When at 50% health, you can activate your Infinity Stone. It would be exactly the same as any pairing, going by the mechanics weâve seen so far. The only obvious difference would be that with a giant character your âteamâ will always be the same so you give up some variety, but itâs not like adding this design is going to break the game. I see why people are adverse to the idea considering how it went with TVC, but this game has been in development for a long time so we shouldnât expect or want everything to be played safe with this roster. Iâd rather have Capcom try something crazy with one or two characters and fail ( see Phoenix Wright) than have them go MK-style and make everyone from the same mold (not that MK is bad, but a Marvel vs game should aim to be much more adventurous).
Iâm in favor of giant characters. Theyâre more harmless âfluffâ than anything and useful to draw consumer eyes so the game sells even better, and sequels/other fighting games get greenlit. Characters like Fing Fang Foom, Dr Wily in giant robot suit, etc etc, add visual variety to advertising and factually, would add variety and a change of pace to story mode battles. I want the game to have this because SFV got beat into the dirt (sales-wise) for not having content in the same vein as this (as well as other things). Though Marvelâs a different animal, it can only help.
Personally iâd just make giants accessible as story mode bosses, in âoffline play onlyâ (local VS) and maybe, if ppl really do wanna goof off online with a friend, make them playable in âinvitation onlyâ online lobbies with no public slots, and give the lobby host an option to turn them on or off, to give people as many options as possible to avoid them online if they want.
But there are ppl who do express that they like giants; as many as that donât. Factually, the worst you could argue it down to is a 50/50 split without hard numbers.
Anything that doesnât negatively affect core gameplay, and doesnât personally ruin the game for me, and will get a % more people to buy the game; as far as iâm concerned, add it in. Same with stuff like Shadow Lords, Heroes and Heralds, etc. If you donât like that part, donât play it. I didnât play heroes & heralds because I thought it was stupid tbh, but I can admit that it didnât hurt me for it to be in the game, and other people did like it.
Itâs very true actually and youâre wrong. Theyâve repeatedly said that they wanted to focus more on team work this time, which is why the said they removed assists and made it 2v2 again.
And half the fun of team fighters is of course, teaming up your favorite characters and again, Giant characters take the fun out of that.
In any case, Giant characters were poorly received and are obviously not making a return, so this is a non issue.
Capcomâs goal with this whole âteamworkâ idea is to make each individual member of a team feel more important by limiting the number of options they have offscreen. Removing assists did that, but just removing assists and keeping it 3v3 will mean one character is likely to never see play until one or both the others are dead. That, and it makes crafting teams more complicated.
This was a decision made to simplify the game overall so that it was more accessible and emphasized using all members of your team equally to win a game. I still donât get how that means âthere will be no outliersâ, but I guess since we have such little information on where this game is going people are just taking what weâve seen/heard as literally as possible. I just wish we could get something soon so our speculation can finally have some direction.
I think itâs going to be like every big fighting game release Capcom has put out since 4. People get hype, then they see how dumbed down the game is, pro players talk shit about the game and say the previous game was better, everyone on SRK/EventScrubs/GameFaqs/R Street Fighter/and Kappa will dickride whatever the pro players say, pro players continue to play it because of the money involved, everyone else will play it because itâs the new big fighting game and people at locals are playing it, and then everyone will hope that the balance patch or next iteration will be different and fix all of the issues.
I bet a million bucks that this is what will happen.
It will come out and MVC2 players wonât like it because itâs still not Marvel 2.
MVC3 players wonât like it because it doesnât play like Marvel 3 and then theyâll whine about how great and âhonestâ Marvel 3 was and what a betrayal Infinite is to them.
What I am looking forward to when it comes to Infinite are the mods people are going to make. And the YT videos of black dudes getting hype on day 1 and then making vlogs about how much the game sucks.
Except they saidit in several interviews and not just the Capcom guys, the Marvel devs working on the game have said as much.
And outlier wouldnât mean some one that plays solo, weâll probably get unique choices like MODOK or Shuma-Gorath in past games, just not characters that fight solo, since that didnât go over well the last time they did such a thing.
Giants as a concept arenât bad, but if youâre trying to make one thatâs competitively viable (particularly in Marvel/VS), you need to design around a few things:
-You canât tag out, which in this game translates to worse combo options
-Your hurtboxes and hitboxes will be fucking massive
For a giant, you can easily overcome the lack of tag combos by making its actual moves stronger or adding special hit properties like wall/ground bounces. The hitbox thing is where giants become too hard for most people to balance. If you leave the hitboxes as is, you have a character that will eat instant overheads constantly, struggle vs pokes/zoning, and be subject to âgiant-onlyâ combos that Sentinel is very familiar with by now. TvC tried giving limited super armor, but there were so many ways around it that it wasnât a factor. You canât give full armor/autoguard because then you canât be comboed and the game becomes boring, which is why most of these final bosses in games are just cheesed out instead of traditionally fought. Then comes the issue of throws; how can you justify a weaker character tossing a giant around, without making them immune to throws and by extension really broken?
A much easier style could be âsoloâ characters, like a Ratio 4 in CvS2. Your raw health and damage are higher, but you play a pretty standard neutral. Since the game lacks assists, this might be feasible. R4 was never banned because it just wasnât optimal, so no one really cared. Shin Akuma would make a really good solo for Capcom, as an example.
Because, the usual team composition usually boils down to â2 characters + 1 assistâ. This was especially true with MvC2 with teams like MSP, Santhrax and Matrix.
I get that, but Iâm just wondering will switching to 2v2 prevent that sort of thing? Or will we end up in a similar situation as before, e.g. a lot of people pick Strange because Strange ends up having moves that work extremely well as assistsâŚ
Of course thatâll happen. The thing is though, this time, Strange canât always just be in the back as an assist as using him like one will mean having to tag him in and actually put him in front.