Aris' (Ongoing) Rocky Relationship With Mortal Kombat 11 | Avoiding The Podcast

[Marinjuana]

Aris shares his thoughts on MK11 and why he isn't enjoying it. He was clearly super excited for the game and he makes great content so it's a bummer that he isn't digging it. His primary reason is that he feels that characters feel "kreate a character" with the kustom variation system and tourney legal variations. He says he felt like characters feel incomplete in the current system.

Thoughts? Does the variation system add more depth or does it feel limiting?

 

[Kroaken]

It could have, if they'd let it rock. But as is, it feels limiting.

 

[Koor]

Ive never liked the variation system as it feels limiting to the characters while also adding difficulty in balancing them. Often times you'll have one or two good things from a single variation but if ONLY you had this other ability locked behind another you'd have a complete character. You end up stuck having to pick your poison.

On the other hand when buffs/nerfs come into play theres the chance of overkilling and/or burying a variation. I'd rather have a full character from the door and they adjust things accordingly. Being locked out of my characters full movelist aint my cup of tea but i deal with it.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Aris never plays our games for longer than a month anyway. Plenty of people are enjoying the game. He and Maximilian will be playing something new by June.

 

[Syd Barrett Lives]

I didn't like the variations as they were done in MKX, I always felt I were missing out cool stuff whatever variation I choose. I'll always prefer a good complete and balanced character out of the gate.

The Kustom variation system it's a better idea on paper IMHO, it could lead to some really creative and cool stuff so leaving it out of ranked/tournaments (where it could really be taken to the next level by pro players) is a waste and very limiting on players. I'd love to see what variations pros create and how the meta develops, relegating it on single player and kasuals, where most people won't even use it, it's a really bad decision on NRS part.

It's like buying a really really cool car and only let your grandma drive it because you're scared you could crash.

 

[Eji1700]

The variations in MKX feel like they make a lot more sense. You can at least see what they were going for, either with a different style of play, or one crazy good move it's built around, or whatever. As far as such systems go, i think they did a pretty good job with it.

MK 11 feels like they changed their mind halfway through (which they clearly did) when they realized customs were going to be a nightmare (a correct assessment). Unfortunately that leves us with a bunch of VERY vanilla characters, as movesets don't make sense because they just don't feel refined.

I'm hoping we get an early patch where they make tourament variations part of the default created movesets, and at the same time sanity tweak them to make more sense, but I'm worried that it's too late for something so large.

Either way it's just crazy that sub zero doesn't have an ice clone or that they actually put block ball in its current form as part of one of noobs variations.

 

[NOMAS]

Aris might only be playing for short term but I do agree with the variation system. A majority of the cast has a variation that's flat out better than the other. Take Kano for instance. Rarely do I see any other Kano pick Dirtbag over Ripper, and if they do pick Dirtbag it's for Vege-Mighty. I'm sticking through with things regardless but I think they should've let customs rock.

 

[Jynks]

who gives a crap what this guy thinks... he never plays anything but tekken more than a few weeks usally for one day. He can be funny but his entire style is a "angry gamer" and that is how he makes money. Which is why he shits on gutturally everything.. including his viewers. He makes no effort to understand the mechanises, dosn't even know the name of the characters and has played a total of 3 times online.. so who the fuck cares. Just another opinion spewer that stirs for cash and mindless sheepeople eat it up as somethign worth listening to. Who is the more foolish, the fool, or the fool that follows.

 

[Quantus]

Reminder that Aris has been playing NRS games since MK9 and made 9th at Evo, before you 16ers start dismissing him because he doesn't like MK11.

That being said, I don't agree with him, and I think he just generally isn't interested in playing Fighting games right now. (Perhaps it would be more accurate to say he isn't interested in streaming himself netplaying fighting games)

 

[Jynks]

mk9 was nearly a decade ago. My kid was still in diapers then

 

[Quantus]

And that makes his opinion worth less than yours?

These threads always reek of gatekeeping insecurity.

 

[The Gabriel]

Aris never plays our games for longer than a month anyway. Plenty of people are enjoying the game. He and Maximilian will be playing something new by June.

This is completely false. Aris played Injustice 1 for a long time, and of course MK9.

 

[Zoidberg747]

Aris never plays our games for longer than a month anyway. Plenty of people are enjoying the game. He and Maximilian will be playing something new by June.

He made top 16 and top 9 in Injustice and MK9 respectively at EVO, so it is pretty funny to try and dismiss his opinion as someone who never plays very long.

Not to mention tons of people have been complaining about how characters feel incomplete, it is not some groundbreaking criticism.

 

[Samsara]

Aris never plays our games for longer than a month anyway. Plenty of people are enjoying the game. He and Maximilian will be playing something new by June.

Cant wait for Max to jump on the SamSho hype train acting like hes been playing it since he was 5 lol. He chases the AdSense checks and nothing else. Where the wind blows, he goes.

 

[GLoRToR]

He usually spews some nonsense and then starts another game.
Always the same way.

 

[Professor Oak]

The characters do feel totally incomplete, I also struggle to like this game. I play every NRS title for its lifespan. This game is asssssss and Im only playing it because I want to improve and win.

Its objectively unfinished.

 

[Professor Oak]

Do people understand that being good at fighting games directly makes your opinion hold more weight? You guys who my 2 year old could mash buttons on should honestly stfu.

 

[Gamer68]

Can't watch the video right now, but can someone explain to me what people mean by "unfinished characters"?

Aside from some bad tournament variations for some characters, nothing about them really feel incomplete to me.

 

[Professor Oak]

Can't watch the video right now, but can someone explain to me what people mean by "unfinished characters"?

Aside from some bad tournament variations for some characters, nothing about them really feel incomplete to me.

Basically thats the thing though, many characters are stuck with half ass tournament variations. Thats a big deal to me and other competitors who like MK.

Play as Kung Lao. Something is missing. Air Teleport is a fucking gear move. Anything but just regular hat toss is locked to the Z Hat variation, with air teleport, and its just the version where you can guide it slightly up or down. On top of this many strings leave you in a spot where spin whiffs ON HIT. Only logical follow up if youre playing the deemed “good” preset, Lotus Fist, is Orbiting hat. Which will also whiff on hit and block on certain strings. And its minus 7 on block. Lao, the two game strong pressure character, has no pressure. His best stagger is 3 highs that can be d2 crushing blow on reaction. Besides play lame and stupid passive, how do I play him? Footsies and neutral? His best mid is punishable and every option out of it ends his turn. Second best mid requires at minimum a bar to get more than 9 damage. One preset gives you three versions of one move, the other gives you Z Hat, which may need more exploring, air teleport which is aids bad in this game, and the fucking useless up or down hat. Im not saying he is definitely low tier or bad, because the game is BRAND NEW. However, I feel like my favorite character to play is a hollow version of himself from other iterations.

Same is true for other characters, Lao just happens to be my usual main. There are some who feel incomplete while also feeling very strong, Sub Zero for example. One preset literally has 2 specials. And guess what? Thats the good one.

What is there to explain? Since MKX we have began accepting watered down characters in favor of balance, thus revealing NRS isnt capable nor pressed to make a balanced game that is fun at the same time. It was never about playing a char the way YOU want, and always about well its hard to balance a character with too many moves, so split it up.

 

[TaserFace007]

There really is a noticeable difference in quality when trying out the preset variations as opposed to trying out the same characters after equipping your own custom abilities. Whomever it was that they had put together all the presets at the last minute while they were also busy doing a thousand other things to prepare for the release had clearly not played a majority of the characters. There's 25 characters in the roster and you'd be hard pressed to say that there are actually 25 viable choices for someone to make if they want to play competitively, let alone a full 50. Most characters have one good or decent load out and one crappy one, some have two subpar ones and maybe one or two have two good ones. If one of the goals of putting in the preset system was balance between characters, it was an absolute failure.

This really does become a much better game when you ignore the presets and put the characters together yourself. They have created an awesome game here and I truly do not believe it will be all that long before they reverse this silly decision and open up all the ranked and tournaments to custom variations.

 

[Marinjuana]

Can't watch the video right now, but can someone explain to me what people mean by "unfinished characters"?

Aside from some bad tournament variations for some characters, nothing about them really feel incomplete to me.

He used an example like, "Something about this string makes it feel like it's missing something, like there's supposed to be another ender... Oh, turns out there is another ender if I just equip this ability." He also talked about how variations in MKX had more identity.

I'll use an example, look at Tremor. That character didn't just have one or two extra moves in each variation, there was a ton of differences to his specials and he was much different even on a visual/audio level. Some variations were designed better then others but the significance of those differences in MKX was much greater than they are in MK11.

Regardless, I am enjoying the game.

 

[John Grizzly]

I love Aris.

He's right about the variations and if you don't see that, you're lying to yourself. Many of them were rushed and feel incomplete. I have full faith that by later this year the game will be in an even better place, but right now, variation-wise, it's a step back from MKX. Many of the variations have no direction. It's basically...."Ok, this character has 12 specials. Give 6 to this variation and the other 6 to the other variation."

Also, the fact that the ACTUAL TOURNAMENT VARIATIONS AREN'T EVEN IN THE BASE MODES OF THE GAME should tell you how rushed it was. I was playing the game for like 2 or 3 days before I realized you had to go into the kustomize menu and copy a preset. It's absurd.
I'm enjoying the game, but NRS would have been best served to release it over the Summer or maybe even Fall.

 

[CorneliusBrutus]

This really does become a much better game when you ignore the presets and put the characters together yourself. They have created an awesome game here and I truly do not believe it will be all that long before they reverse this silly decision and open up all the ranked and tournaments to custom variations.

Definitely agree. I was so excited when I heard how gear abilities from Injustice 2 were being modified to fit into the Variations system. You could actually customize your playstyle, without having to worry about gearscore and stats, or finding the right items. Honestly the scope/power of the selectable abilities seems to be so much lower than the gear abilities in I2, so I have trouble seeing any truly degenerate combinations that can arise from any player-made variations. I get that balance is such a tough thing to nail down and adding more variables only makes it harder, but they need to rip off the band-aid on this one and let the players bang on it to find any potential issues before big tournaments start, a live environment is the only place to get good feedback.

 

[Phantomancer]

Cant wait for Max to jump on the SamSho hype train acting like hes been playing it since he was 5 lol. He chases the AdSense checks and nothing else. Where the wind blows, he goes.

I don't see a problem with what he does. No offence, but you sound like you're trying to make him look worse than he actually is.

 

[CorneliusBrutus]

Not to mention how much mileage variations can get you competitively...the fact that two high-level players can play a given character in very different styles gives a lot for viewers and commentators to discuss and analyze.