23:27
David O
I love Capcom as they are such good company but over the years and course of their game releases; I've lost faith and passion for their games as their common way is to suck money out of gamers and their fanbase.
Now this isn't going to be a rant about Capcom but more of a rant about their design process for creating fighting games and I'll talk about Marvel vs Capcom 3.
I rented Marvel vs Capcom 3 and choose not to buy it because I know I would be disappointed and I predicted it.
I remember playing Marvel Super Heroes as my first 2D Sprite vs game, it was such as amazing game and one particular thing I love so much about that game was the amazing fast pace action fighting on screen! I played it on PS1 so the cheapness and broken system did not occurred to me as I played against my cousins.
Marvel vs Capcom 1 was my next game on the Dreamcast and this game was my favourite Vs game ever, it was so balanced in terms of gameplay and design wise. I did try other vs games such as Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, X-Men vs Street Fighter, and SNK vs Capcom. MVC is an amazing game, you had the fast paced action, and balanced use of Assist Attack. Yes obviously the game's mechanic is still broken if you play against pro players because they would exploit the game by figuring out the ins and out.
I tried Marvel vs Capcom 2 on Dreamcast, I never spent much time on the game because I ripped it, I just finished some few story and that was it. I was just disappointed by the Unlimited Assist Attack included in the game and the use of Type of Attack your Partner would you when Assisting. I bought the game again on PSN and it was the worst decision I've ever made in my life! The game was completely broken as I was unaware; how people could use Magneto and Iron Man infinite attacks, the use of flying in the air and attacking advantage of players and the worst of all Cable & Sentinel!
Marvel vs Capcom 3 was annonced, I was impressed by what I had seen but faired for the same cheapness to carry over from MVC2 to MVC 3. I went ot Capcom Unity to suggest ideas to make the game good and not suck. I even suggested idea that I think Capcom actually considered and use which was the Preset Team
http://www.capcom-unity.com/marvelvscapcom/go/thread/view/102977/25088101/A_somewhat_good_idea...?pg=1
Basically instead of selecting the same teams you'd always pick, you can just make a Preset Team consisting of your favourite and most used characters. On the select team, you just pick the Preset Teams without using an effort to pick the characters. I guess this idea got evolved and was added to the Player Card system in Marvel vs Capcom 3.
Here are a few ideas I'd been pitching about to Capcom:
http://www.capcom-unity.com/marvelvscapcom/go/thread/view/102977/23221657/important_features_that_should_not_be_overviewed?pg=1
Anyway moving on: basically my concern for the game was:
*Add a Kick button in player hosted match- so I can kick off players who come into my room. Imagine 2 players at beginner level and they would love to spar with each other and some lvl 10 player comes in, showing off and beating them 6-0. Is that fair? no it's annoying, this is where the Kick button comes in place
*1 player vs 1 player- eliminating the use of Assist Attack. I can understand that the Assist attacks is there so make the game more crazy and extra fun though it can be too much for people who would like to show off their combo skills.
Anyway I finally got this game. I love the presentation of this game so much and because of the Presentation I just want to keep going back to playing this game. The presentation consist of:
*Great voice acting for all characters and the Announcers male+female are so ear catching!
*Visual design- the comic style is brilliant for the game, it's almost like a Comic brought to like into a video game, from Character Select to quip messages on screen.
* When characters switch, they call out a nickname of their partner; this was absent in MVC2 and they did a big job on this. It's fun to hear Akuma call Ryu out "boy", Deadpool call out Captain America "Cap" and don't you just love it when your favourite character calls out another characters name?
All presentation praise aside, the real critic and complain is the design method!
First of all the use of Player Point is completely unneeded and is a waste of space and time. It does nothing rather to rank up points, if you could use the Player Points to unlock or buy something then it would be worth collecting, the fact that you can't do anything to it makes it a waste of time.
All characters once again are all broken! The first week release of the game everyone complained about Phoenix being overpowered, when I got the game just last week I downloaded the update though I didn't know what changed. All I know is that Phoenix is not overpowered but SO WEAK! If you perform 3 combos+Areial Team Attack she would die in a flash! Sentienel is so overpowered and does serious damages to your healthbar with WEAK ATTACKS!
Some attackers still have the midget problem from MVC2, meaning characters like Viewtiful Joe cannot be attacked while standing but you must perform low attacks each time and with Amaterasu. Some characters have attacks that can be linked with other cheap attacks to form a combination of attacks you just can't escape from.
Arthur is back in the game and his character design made me had enough of Capcom! He is so slow, his attacks are so slow and he can't even run! I can understand the need to use many IP characters but designing them wrongly is just a waste of space! Next we have overpowered Dante! Dante is the most requested and obvious to add to MVC3, Seth said it himself that the Japanese devs always spent 40% on Dante and constantly improving him. Everyone loves him, though Dante has the most movesets over all characters, not only does he have the most movelist, they are easy to pull off, some are cheap and they are all overpowered!
How come I can charge Dante's cyber gun, the longer I hold/charge it the more it becomes powerful and releases more shots? Though I can charge Zero's gun and the longer I hold the charge attack the same result still occurs when I fire it! It doesn't make sense! All love went towards Dante.
Now the online function which is a pain to use! Almost 60% you get a Failed Connection in Ranked matches, seriously what is the deal? yet MVC2 had better resulting netcode. On contrary to my wishlist to include boot option, Capcom did not even add any Host Ownership control options. Once you host a game it is hosted and you can't do anything else other than to participate and fight or don't. The disappointing feature to MVC3 online is that when you await for your turn, you cannot see the fight but must wait until your turn arrives. Who would want to wait for 4 more players to fight until your turn while you sit there viewing Player Cards?
And the worst design to this game are the character selection! Seriously this is one of my beef with fighting games!
Am I paying for a new game or an expansion pack? When you introduce a fighting game you shouldn't recycle the same characters from previous games; you are to introduce new characters, features and maps! Why did Capcom bring back Akuma, Ryu, Zero, Magneto, Storm Wolverine, Hulk, Spiderman, Iron Man etc. I am so BAFFLED by this! I can understand that Marvel owns the right to this game too and they make decisions to include characters they want in the game. I know Marvel vouched for Spiderman, Iron Man, Wolverine, Thor and Captain America because those are their mascot of Marvel.
But what pisses me off is by adding same characters from MVC2 and Tatsunoko vs Marvel. Seriously MVC3 is nothing but MVC2 with upgraded graphics and added extras. I am still playing the same game as MVC2!
Everyone complained about Capcom dubbing down the game to appeal to wider audience with their easy control scheme. I wasn't focused about this option and after playing this game...I love this decision! The Easy Control makes playing the fighting game easy and you wouldn't get stressed by failing to pull off moves you wanted to pull off. The Aerial Team Attack is the big feature of this game and it's absolutely amazing, I love it so much though the ability to counter the team aerial attack depends on luck because you have to predict the directional button the player would push. Another good design feature to the game is the Advance Guarding, basically what this does is that while blocking and you are being rushed by a player; you will push away the player with force and also not damaging your health too much. It works like Bayonetta's Parry system and Street Fighter 3 parry system, you will notice the homage to those parry system when you perform Advance guarder to a Hyper Combo attack:)
And this feature here that I believe Capcom fuels and feed their fanboy was the by putting Sentinel back in the game! WHY DID THEY DO THIS? From doing this I could tell that Capcom does not support players to fight fare but to fight and play cheap. Talking about the boss battle which is Galatus. Fighting him is ok...but trying to defeat him is a pain in the ass! Half the time his health bar would be 1% remaining yet I'm punching/kicking and using special moves on him while he charges up for the ultimate destruction attack, yet HE just won't die! I don't get this game...even the boss battle is broken.
Another broken newly added feature is the X Factor: X Factor allows the player to go into a Rage mode allowing them to recovering health damages and deal 2x damage attacks! This feature was clever and in reference to Street Fighter 4's Ultra mode. However this feature is broken because it allows the player to freely transform into X Factor anything with ALL 3 CHARACTERS!
I believe that this X Factor should only be used in last resort defence, like if you have 1 character left you can use this for a comeback and a probability to win, the A.I does this and this is how I know that the X-Factor was designed that way. Players online can just take advantage of this X Factor and use it for offence instead of last second defence! It just makes the player desperate to win and get rid of you in 10sec rather than fight and use it for last defensive option.
There are many broken features in the game such as the high priority Throw. What ever button you press, you can never overcome players Throwing you! This is ridiculously broken because you can't do anything and the only way to stop from being carried is to predict and press the same directional throw combination. Other broken features are recovery stance, like if your character gets knocked out by a powerful combo, even if you button bash your character would not get up! Some characters can follow up attack patterns when you are knocked down leading to move combo:/ If you watch the promotional videos of MVC3 with the first Gameplay video releases Gameplay 1 to 5, you can see how the professional testers play the game. You could clearly see how Dante constantly attacks without the player getting out off.
Watch the video and see how Dante performs 20 hit combo without Assist Attack! This proves how broken the game is and over powered Dante is!
Everytime you finish a Story mode for a character you constantly get bombard with "A new character is unlocked, A new Art is unlocked, A new ending is available, A new profile is unlocked" etc. Must this happen all the time? I can understand its an homage to Classic Unlocking Notification Message screen but the way it was done in this game is a step back!
And believe me I am not a n00b at this game, when fighting I mostly perform the Aerial Team attacks because I love that particular feature in the game and use Advanced Guarding when possible. I don't use Assist Attack for cheap playing and aiding. I just want a game with 1v1 with no assist attacks.
I know this may seem like I'm complaining because if I look at it this way: Capcom are a Japanese company who make Japanese fighting games. Japanese Fighting games resolve around complex combo moves and combo string pulled off doing battle. Though you mustn't use that as an excuse, you just can't make the combat for Hardplayers and Japanese players and slap on a Easy control so anyone can pick the game up. It still eliminates the purpose of playing a balance game by the ridiculous cheap, overpowered and broken characters and disfigured combat system.
All these broken features are not new to Capcom and they can be seen in Street Fighter 4!
I believe that if gamers stop buying Capcom games, Capcom would change their ways of making games! Everyone are still being sucked for their money so Capcom would still to the same money ripping method!
(coming up next, I'll post a link to my design document of balancing a fighting game, and will talk about the mediocre designing of Killzone 3)
Posted in: Thoughts/Opinions
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