i’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no way to balance fighting games, which basically takes characters of different shapes and sizes (i.e. weight-classes), throws them all together and has them duke it out, unless you have something like parry in every game(focus is nowhere near as good). the very fact that 1player will have a faster jab than another player, or a bigger throw range, (based off of a designers decision) leads to stupid stuff: people winning because of their character and not because of their skill or “yomi”(i know people hate that term). predicting, execution, and to a lesser degree frame data(uniqueness) should be the only criteria that determines wins and losses; and this is where i think capcom goes bonkers with current sf.
modern sf is all about frame data, and less about skill, per se. yes, execution is crucial, but if a good player faces off against a moderately good player , and the latter chooses a high tier, while the former chooses low or mid, the high tier will most likely win. that shouldn’t happen, imo, but there’s no right or wrong answer beyond something just being 100% game breaking. so, if i say ‘reduce characterx’s throw range, and buff characterz’s backdash’, and it isn’t game breaking, then who can say if i’m right or wrong: it’s subjective.
anyway, at the end of the day, it’s about money–specifically, capcom’$ money. so i guess until pro-gaming(specifically, pro sf) blows up, and there is a large, diverse, spectator pool then capcom will continue to make whatever changes they wish. i mean, in traditional pro sports, the BASIC rules of the game rarely change, and the skill of each player is determined at random (nature, god, aliens,whatever, and steroids on occaision). fighting games are weird because the BASIC/ONLY rule of the game is to win (there are no fouls, no delay of game, no point deductions, no restrictions whatsoever), and the skill of each character and therefore the rules of the game are inextricably linked; and both can be changed at any time if the designer chooses to do so. like, no one nerfed michael jordan, but no one “designed” him either, so you see the problem. in theory, the nba could’ve made adjustments to the MANY rules of the game(like fouls,or basket height, or shotclock time, or handchecking, or lane width, etc…), but they couldn’t alter michael jordan or his abilities.
that’s why you have to bring back parrying, in some form (i’ve always said make them meter based), and universal overheads, because without them, the game is too strategically limited.