My god that doesn’t even happen that often with guard break! That was rare as hell! Then on top of that everyone has the same Hd mechanic! Unlike marvel the comeback mechanic (if you want to call it that) doesn’t kill a whole team, let alone it’s not so easy to do! Games great! If its to hard just say that! I Would respect that even more!
I have to agree with him. I don’t particularly like Hyper Drive mode because it’s not universally useful for all characters, but it’s a good thing either way and integral in this very good game. I don’t want to out some of our top players, but everyone is subject to drop an HD combo here or there, some more than others.
Yeah, when watching EVO stream with friends that was hilarious when some player missed Shen Woo HD combo : “Come on, noob, how can you drop Shen HD ? SHEN of all people ??? Shame on you !”
Good times, ah ah ah…
OP, I say you’re in the minority when it comes to hating on HD/NeoMax in the game. I personally think it’s totally fine in the game and does in fact make things more interesting, mainly because it’s a decision of whether one wants to save meter or burn it to take the lead. Even if you get hit by a ToD combo, you do have 3 characters on your team and it only takes one to win sometimes cough Bala cough.
HD combos aren’t quite automatic. You need to know how to get max damage as HD simply lets you extend combos and use less meter to NeoMax, unlike X-Factor, which is a damage buff that can kill characters with the easiest ABC combos. Not to mention, you can only kill one character with HD until you somehow manage to get a full stock of HD and 4 bars of super again, though that is highly unlikely. X-Factor can kill a whole team in a matter of seconds.
Plus, in a lot of high-level matches, you usually see both players pull off a really nice HD combo to even the score once the dust is settled. Because of that, I really don’t see any reason to hate on it.
I can understand what you’re saying about choices on how to spend meter and how they can be influenced depending on who you’re playing as and what their strengths and weaknesses are. But I don’t really see any benefit to making EVERYTHING Super Cancelable because as you said, that would lead to some pretty dumb situations.
But while we’re on the topic of “balance” (the “other” kind of balance that is), if the game is so well balanced already (and by all accounts it seems to be) then HD/Max mode kind of throws that off because it’s not as beneficial for everyone across the board. So in a way, it actually UNBALANCES the game a bit. As a King player, I can tell you she definitely doesn’t benefit from using HD /Max combos as much as a lot of the other characters do.
I think it depends on who you ask. Marvel players seem to really like it because it’s akin to one of the cornerstones of that game, whereas some of the old school KoF players I’ve chatted up, depending, again, on who you ask, tend to feel a bit left out in the cold by the reliance on super long high damage combos. I’m more of a Third Strike/Guilty Gear player, and while GG has longer combos, the way the damage scaling works and the fact that there are Bursts make it a whole different ball game.
I know HD Combos aren’t free, but sometimes the reward is pretty outrageous considering what it is and what it takes to actually land one. Yes, you do have three characters in the game, but chances are it’s going to be your 2nd or 3rd character that gets hit by one. And when you’re down like the Karate player was down in the video on the last page, if what Saitsu said was true about him burning all his meter to catch up, then your opponent having an HD combo in the tank takes a bad situation and makes it worse for the player who’s behind, especially if they’re on their last character.
I thought I made it clear that if everything would be super cancelable it would lead to retarded shit. I meant that in a negative way…
I see HD combos as largely being optional. Drunk Mode Hwa with one HD is really scary. As is Goro with meter and one HD. Some characters benefit more from it than others but the execution has to be there or you’re fucked. Characters that don’t have amazingly good HD Combos make up for it in other ways in overall placement, how good they are without meter, EX moves giving them advantages they wouldn’t otherwise have, etc.
I was agreeing with you about it leading to dumb shit. But with that said, I can’t imagine why anyone at SNK would think making everything super cancelable would be a good idea in the first place.
Man, HD combos are hype as fuck! I love this shit.
Things I noticed in this thread.
Stop bringing up XF. XF being terrible doesn’t have anything to do with Hyper Drive combos.
The “hype” logic has invaded here? The novelty will wear off. It’ll wear off faster as soon people stop dropping them.
Easy clarification:
HyperDrive combos take skill.
XFactor combos don’t.
max mode was a lot better implementation. hd mode = scrubbified max mode. it’s a pretty lazy and obvious gimmick to add hype to a game that is overall pretty dry and safe (in terms of design decisions) compared to older KOFs imo (i still like the game but it’s maybe the worst ‘good’ KOF i think).
it kind of sucks how much it benefits rushdown vs zoning/poking characters, in a game where zoning has traditionally been a little weaker anyway.
I said like that 2 times, and I still don’t think he’s going to agree. 
Man, some of you need to lay off the sour foods.
HD mode is fucking awesome.
If I didn’t want HD mode I’d go play '98.
Im telling you they cant do them! LOL its that simple!
Bringing up XF to justify HD is a fallacy. It’s like saying “at least you weren’t killed” to a rape victim.
This isn’t a HD vs XF topic.
Another fallacy.
How about you discuss what’s actually being said instead of using a strawman?
What else do we have for a basis of comparison then?
On another note, I think I’ve seen other people in the KOF forums here complain about jumpins being too damaging and that they don’t want to do them IIRC?
It’s not like the game forces you to jump in…you can just not jump if you want.
Don’t compare. You can’t talk about HD in and of itself?
Something being worse doesn’t make the other thing okay.
Fuck, XF is the worst comparison you can make because HD is a Custom Combo mechanic and XF is a power/speed boost which aren’t close.
Things that would be better comparisons:
A2 CC
A3 V-ism
CvS2 A-Groove
3S Genei Jin
KoF 02 MAX mode
lol
- Jump, Hop CD
- Corner combo, HD Mode, Neo-Max
- Win
Next Round
Repeat!
KOF XIII in a nutshell.
Sure you can say, “Well, I’m not going to jump” or “I’m not going to use HD/Max combos” but in doing that, you’re cutting yourself off from a mechanic that’s in the game and is powerful in certain situations.There’s only so far you’ll be able to progress by crippling yourself that way. So in a way, you ARE forced to use them if you want to play the game to its fullest potential.
HD/Max combos turn the risk/reward game on its head like Ultras do, especially if you’re playing a character that’s weak at zoning. When your opponent gets one, it changes the way you have to play, essentially taking options away from you because should you get caught in the right mixup, all you can do is pray your opponent drops the combo. But if they don’t, well, kiss that character (and possibly the match) goodbye.
It’s not necessarily that jump ins are too damaging as they just are plain out too powerful. Mostly this is the Jump CDs being fast and having ridiculous hit boxes that will sometimes stuff a normal anti air clean. That leads to a counter hit, and that can, not always, lead to some high damage because I decided to challenge your jump in. Anyways that’s not the topic of discussion of this thread.
I love really long combos because they just appeal to me for some reason. That being said, I think HD detracts more than it adds to the game. HD being included resulted in an over all nerf, to the damage, that normal bnbs and normals do in this game. Which also kind of leads to an overall skewed risk/reward system throughout the game. Let’s say that I’m playing with two bars and 50% drive and my opponent has 4 bars and 100% drive. If this is a fresh round, and we’re both at 100% life he’ll probably start playing extremely aggressively. If he hops at me, sure I can anti-air ex super and take off a good 35% or so life, but he could kill me if he lands that hop. If I choose to use a normal anti-air, I could take of 8% life and reset the situation. A measly 8% isn’t that much considering, I could be dead if he lands the jump-in. If I land a combo with 2 bars and 1 drive, I’ll probably need to open him up a couple more times in order to kill him, meanwhile he still only needs one opening. The risk versus reward is heavily skewed towards the person with HD ready.
Do I think HD ruins the game? Not really. It certainly is a balancing factor for some characters, and it gives most characters the option to lead to high damage of any hit. I like how the HD system rewards smart meter management. Makes people look for other ways to get out of pressure other than just GCCD or GCAB. I also like the tension that HD adds when people are behind, and seeing if the person will be able to pull it off even underneath high pressure situations.
Anyways, that was a long winded post, I’m gonna go back to playing KOF 13.