Well, if you are okay facing the computer for 3 rounds, then technically there is offline.
Long time lurker, first time posting.
I’ve been playing the Storm Series since the first iteration of the game came out and the series definitely has some depth to it. Albeit, each one has had at least one char in the broken tier category. Not to say that this was by accident, cause the Devs have admitted that they were trying to keep a select certain characters a cut above the rest to coincide with the Anime Series.
There have been lots of claims towards throwing that previous philosophy to the wind for the sake of better game balance. They are wanting to create a more competitive scene.
I’m excited for the next game, I hope they accomplish what they set out to do.
There actually isn’t much depth to the Storm series: it’s always been ‘mash-to-combo’ and ‘combo-into-UJ/TUJ-ASAP.’ That said, this addition to the series SEEMS to be an attempt to actually balance the game, but only time will truly tell.
Naw man you got it twisted. The game has lots of depth to it. It’s one of those easy to play, hard to master type of situations. Yeah I get how the combo system is different (and way more simplified) from the traditional side scroll fighter, but the 3-dimensional concepts combined with the multitude of combat features brings a lot to the game. Resource management is a critical part of the higher level play, but that can be said about any fighting game. It is just way more apparent in this game. Keeping track of all the resource pools and how they are constantly in a state of depletion and replenish is a chore in itself.
As far as balance goes…I wouldn’t get your hopes up. They went and expanded the roster even more, there is no way they were able to balance the 10,000,000 plus team combinations
Look, I am one of the bigger advocates of this series in my area because we actually have a couple people that would qualify has high level players here and I’ve seen what is possible with the game and support it, and even I think this is bullshit. What gives a game depth is how many options you have to attack your opponent and defend yourself, and in that regard the game isn’t very complex. You have a standard melee attack, a projectile, a throw, and a modifier. Depending on game mode you also have assists. There are no such things as high attacks, low attacks, cross ups, command throws, proximity unblockables, it’s boiled down to the absolute most basic bare minimum rock paper scissors. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s not a whole lot of depth to it.
Additionally, moves don’t have properties like true high, low invincible, projectile invincible (chakra dash is projectile invincible, but no attacks have this property), so on and so forth. All of the designs of a fighting game that add depth are not present in this game. It is intentionally simple, intentionally shallow, intentionally easy. And while there IS a high level of play, I wouldn’t say that high level is very hard to get to. It mostly comes down to knowing how to get damage with a character, what the best assists are, and making reads. Nothing in the game is executionally difficult, the stupid fast movement options combined with a camera that doesn’t show range on attacks with the substitution mechanic means the neutral and footsies basically don’t exist outside of shuriken/chakra dash, and it’s not like you have to know a huge expansive move list or a ton of move properties/frame data to be competitive because the game either doesn’t have it or it’s so minimally important to the game it doesn’t matter.
What it really comes down to is the Storm series is the baby version of Marvel. It’s about baiting situations and having good assist calls, making big reads instead of small wins like counter hits or whiff punishing, and maximizing damage output. I still feel like the game has its place because there’s enough going on that it is actually fun to play at a higher level and it’s definitely fun to watch, but complex, deep, hard to master it is not.
That is pretty cool that you guys have a local scene they are a bit hard to find. As I stated in my previous post, I completely agree with you that it is not your traditional fighter. The game does not side scroll so you are not gonna have the lows, highs (including all the extras that come with that), and cross ups you’d find in those. Command throws, while possible, are just not present. I was probably wrong to say “lots of depth”, to what degree you took my “lots of” could be subjective to each individual. For that matter “depth” can be subjectively interpreted.
I disagree with your view on what gives a game depth. By your logic SSBM has shallow depth, which by all means is your opinion to have. But without starting up a completely different topic I’ll say this about the Storm series.
Normals, ranged normals, and modifiers do have properties (I.E. weapon priority, projectile invinciblity, etc…). The footsies does resemble that of the MVC series more, where you are either getting completely lamed out or rushed down, poking is minimally present. The dash system makes frame rate data important for interrupting block strings as you can not block indefinitely. Frame rates also come into play when punishing meaty modifiers. Team/Character Match-up knowledge is essential in the truly competitive scenes, its just that those scenes are so far underground and few in numbers you probably won’t need that data to dominate the more present/popular casual groups.
If this game is a baby Marvel, it would be because it is the bastard love child of Marvel and Smash bros.