I think the crossover will be from Tekken to VF.
I agree. The writing is on the wall re: everything you said. So many legacy players I know from the T7 days have all complained about how different the game has become. And a lot of them are SFIV 09ers who switched to Tekken when SFV came out. Now T8 is out and they are gonna switch games again. Honestly I support it, I’m glad we have choices!
On the other hand, of the 2D games I'd argue that MK/NRS has the most in common with 3D games, just being more string based and block button based.
I honestly agree, I began my MK1 journey after playing a lot of VF5, so using a block button mid dash to reset my input reader to neutral came very easy. I was dash blocking a lot!
I wish strings in MK were more like actual strings, however. Calling them strings is kind of a misnomer although it is what the MK Kommunity has agreed to call them. A true string could be cut short at any button.
edit: just to clarify this, nothing is really being strung together in MK, you input the raging demon command and the whole thing comes out all at once
What MK has is strings that function more like elaborate command normals or raging demons.
it’s cool in that it makes offense extremely commital, like I have to dial the whole string and special and then wait to see if it connected. But there is not any more decision making process involved. It can seem shallow. I liked how the “strings” functioned in the 2D era MK games more, like the gattling/magic series of UMK3/Trilogy.
But an MK made more like virtua fighter with very fast, concise offense and combos and frequent RPS would be amazing! In theory haha