| mZuzek said: I do think this kind of stuff is lame, but my problem isn't so much the simplicity in which these specials can be activated, it's their very existence. It's just dumb to have a meter charge up during the battle and then when it's done you can just press any button and activate a stupid special move that, if it lands, triggers a 15-second long cutscene of your character being badass and the other character doing nothing except getting destroyed, while both players are just waiting for the match to return. It's not exciting to watch your character kick ass in a fighting game, it's exciting to kick ass yourself by being a good player and performing a great combo or read. Maybe I'm spoiled as I'm a Smash player and Smash doesn't have these things (well it does have Final Smashes, but those aren't in competitive play and won't be as long as they're related to the Smash Ball), but I really feel like most fighting games today are just focused on getting that one special charged to trigger a dumb sequence that takes 50% of your opponent's health, and that's just stupid. Actually, I don't think I even mind the special bars, my problem is with how they're executed. Say, I wouldn't have a problem if you charge up a special that makes your character stronger for a certain amount of time, while still keeping the gameplay going - the problem is the halt in gameplay for long cutscenes, that's just boring. |
I believe that you're spoiled because Smash doesn't have it. It also doesn't not share most mechanics of other fighting games. Specially specials, that are terribly implemented (it's ridiculous that a game must have part of its gameplay forbidden on championships). Landing those "super duper" specials takes skill and has its risks, that's why they are important.
Let's use KOF XIV as an example and see how a pretty good player would act. You can have up to 5 bars (depending on the round). A Neo Max special uses 3 entire bars for a roughly 40% damage. A regular super uses 1 bar for around 15% while a beefed up super uses 2 for 20 to 25%. If, like you said, you just input the combination and do one of these, most likely you won't hit your target. Specially with Neo Max, they are easy to block or dodge and you would just throw away several bars.
What a good player does is using cancels. If you skillfuly and quick input a sequence after another attack hits, you can cancel the animation (while keeping the damage performed) and land a secons strike as part of a combo. In KOF, you can use command normals to assemble combos with regular attacks. Regular special attacks can be canceled in supers and super can be cancelled in a Neo Max. That way, you can remove the risk of the supers by only using them when you're sure to hit. You define skill as doing combos (which is actually ridiculously easy in a lot of games, like SF), but the real skill is on doing combos with these high level moves and deal a big damage at once.
Other games use other mechanics. MK X, per instance, uses 3 bars where 3 do a X-ray, 2 allow to break a combo and 1 can be used to increase the damage of a single move. So it's a balance between risk and reward, using the X-ray will leave you in a situation where you can't escape a big combo (you need 2 bars). Sometimes it's better to just use 1 bar to soup up a move instead of risking losing everything in a X-ray.
If you play against someone minimally capable on one of these games with that mentality of simple combos and trying to use specials to do the work, you probably won't do well.
As for the "cutscenes", the minimum I expect when I'm able to (with KOF's Terry) hit a flying kick, cancel it in a command normal, hit a high punch, cancel it on a Power Wave, cancel it on a Buster Wolf and finally turn it all on a freaking Neo Max after inputing almost 20 buttons with perfect timing is to see my character beat the crap of the other guy while taking off 75% of its health.
