Characters and animations.

[Slymind]

Animation is a topic that usually raise some eyebrows when mentioned in a NRS game discussion, however, the purpose of this topic is simple: i would like to hear which characters do you think are well animated and which one you feel are lacking in that department across MKX and Injustice 2, since those are the games represent NRS in the current gen. I'm curious to see if there is some sort of consensus concerning the topic.

I does not have to be all of the characters, just the one of the top of you head:

If i could throw a personal mini animation tier list from the top of my head it would be:

High: Bo Rai Cho, Kano, Mileena, Cheetah, Turtles, Raiden, Grodd, Swamp Thing, Brainiac, Quan Chi, Triborg.

Low: Firestorm, Wonder Woman, Cassie Cage, Ermac, Cyborg, Johnny Cage, Catwoman.

Mid: Everyone not mentioned above. These are the ones i consider pretty decent, but not as fluid as the ones i sent to high.

 

[myri]

Atom is possibly the worst animated character in a fighting game ever. Every single one of his animations looks stilted and unnatural. Look at his f3, his d3, his f212, they are abominations to the eyes.

Other characters with god awful animation: Flash, Firestorm, Atrocitus, Bane, Blue Beetle, Captain Cold, Catwoman, Darkseid, Deadshot, Green Lantern, Hellboy, Erron Black, Kitana, Sonya, probably more too but these are the worst ones.

I actually think Kung Lao in MKX was really well animated. His strikes like b321 and 21 felt really powerful because of they way they animate and he actually moves his weight in a mostly believable way.

Other characters with really solid animation: Cheetah, Grodd, Dr. Fate, Joker, Sub-Zero, Alien, D'Vorah, Jason, Kano, Leatherface, Mileena, Quan Chi, Reptile, Triborg.

Here's the thing with this, a badly animated character feels weak and no one wants to play a character that feels weak in a fighting game. You are beating up your opponent, not swatting at flies like Atom does in his 112 string, get your shit together.

 

[Braindead]

MK9 Subzero is S+ tier simply because of his bitch slap.

 

[Swindle]

I don’t agree about Catwoman’s animations being bad. Black Canary’s animations are an example of very stiff, stilted and strange animations that have no flow.

 

[Slymind]

Atom is possibly the worst animated character in a fighting game ever. Every single one of his animations looks stilted and unnatural. Look at his f3, his d3, his f212, they are abominations to the eyes.

Other characters with god awful animation: Flash, Firestorm, Atrocitus, Bane, Blue Beetle, Captain Cold, Catwoman, Darkseid, Deadshot, Green Lantern, Hellboy, Erron Black, Kitana, Sonya, probably more too but these are the worst ones.

I actually think Kung Lao in MKX was really well animated. His strikes like b321 and 21 felt really powerful because of they way they animate and he actually moves his weight in a mostly believable way.

Other characters with really solid animation: Cheetah, Grodd, Dr. Fate, Joker, Sub-Zero, Alien, D'Vorah, Jason, Kano, Leatherface, Mileena, Quan Chi, Reptile, Triborg.

Here's the thing with this, a badly animated character feels weak and no one wants to play a character that feels weak in a fighting game. You are beating up your opponent, not swatting at flies like Atom does in his 112 string, get your shit together.

The bolded i actually think are pretty passable, not excelent, but not in the same tier as the rest you listed

Kung Lao is very good in MKX as well, however Jason i dislike, his grabs are fine but his advancing normals look wierd to me.

I don’t agree about Catwoman’s animations being bad. Black Canary’s animations are an example of very stiff, stilted and strange animations that have no flow.

Forgot about her, she is very much lacking as well and it's even more glaring, given she is supposed to be a graceful martial artist.

 

[myri]

The bolded i actually think are pretty passable, not excellent, but not in the same tier as the rest you listed

Kung Lao is very good in MKX as well, however Jason I dislike, his grabs are fine but his advancing normals look weird to me.

Fair enough. Just a few explanations for those bold ones.

Darkseid never moves his arms the way he should, they spend the entire game glued to his back, even when he jumps, it looks so stupid.

Bane and Green Lantern are okay I suppose, Bane's standing 1 looks like he's swatting at flies just like Atom's. Lantern's b1 is... I dunno even know what that animation is. How it stayed in past IGAU is a mystery.

Strikes can't just be the arm or leg that is doing the attack, it has to be a whole body motion, that's how you put power behind your strikes, by using your entire body. I could actually list a tonne of moves from MKX and Injustice 2 that are just straight up lazy animation. NRS has this habit of only animating the part of a characters body that is associated with the move in question or just giving the slightest notion of movement. Atom's gun special is the easiest example to point out. Look at the way he only moves his leading arm to pull out the gun from his belt and shoot, the rest of his body remains in basically the same position as his idle animation, theres no weight to the motion, no reaction to the shot being fired or anything. I suppose you could argue that the actual lack of a reaction to the shot is that it's an energy blast as opposed to an actual bullet but the points remains that characters in this game do only the bare minimum to convey their moves intent and they do a pretty shit job of it.

NRS need to lift their game honestly and not just animation wise but also with the sound design and the hit reactions on characters in their games. If an opponent blocks something powerful like a big leg that's plus I should see my opponent stagger backwards as they block. If I hit my opponent with a big launcher the hitsound should be loud and meaty, conveying the power of the strike, not these little taps on a wooden desk that Injustice 2 has given us. NRS games are serviceable, but their presentation leaves A LOT to be desired. When you are competing with titles like Tekken and Street Fighter this is what keeps your games looking like a free to play high school project instead of a triple A release from a big studio. Sounds harsh but it's the truth, they have the budget, so either they lack the skill or they just don't care and are lazy.

Just my opinions.

 

[Jhonnykiller45]

...
NRS need to lift their game honestly and not just animation wise but also with the sound design and the hit reactions on characters in their games. If an opponent blocks something powerful like a big leg that's plus I should see my opponent stagger backwards as they block. If I hit my opponent with a big launcher the hitsound should be loud and meaty, conveying the power of the strike, not these little taps on a wooden desk that Injustice 2 has given us. ...

MKX has awesome sound design though. I don't know what happened with the Injustice 2 but I think MKX did a good job at that, I mean MK9 and IGAU weren't bad either

 

[Rathalos]

Ignoring the fact a lot of animations are poorly animated with no sense of gravity, and are just awkward and stiff.
A lot of attacks are just so weird looking, like the animator is straight trolling and purposely making just nonsense to see if he can get away with it.

NRS has a huge hill to climb when it comes to their animations, and I hope they can do better for MK11, as it's one of the few aspects of their games that still hold them back, as they have greatly improved in many other areas.

 

[Slymind]

Fair enough. Just a few explanations for those bold ones.

text

Concerning the aspect of feeling poweful and feeling the impact of the moves, i feel MKX did a much better job at that, Injustice imo was partially held back for being legacy, while MKX was a complete revamp, also, i might be completely wrong on this, but i think that NRS has to outsource stuff during development due to time restraint, that might partially explain some discrepancies.

@edit
People sharing insight concerning animations is no problem, however, i ask to stick to the main purpose of the topic which is to talk directly about the characters.

 

[The_Tile]

I actually really like Firestorm's animations. Maybe it's a preference thing but they just have a flow to them that not many other characters have

 

[GrandMasterson]

The only problem with NRS's animation is that it's inconsistent. Some animations look fantastic but others look like they were done by an intern on a lunch break. The facial animation in I2 is incredible. It feels like there's some animators at NRS who really understand their craft and then there's some who have no business animating anything, ever.

 

[Marinjuana]

The only problem with NRS's animation is that it's inconsistent. Some animations look fantastic but others look like they were done by an intern on a lunch break. The facial animation in I2 is incredible. It feels like there's some animators at NRS who really understand their craft and then there's some who have no business animating anything, ever.

Their out of fight animation is really good outside of the occasional wonky mokap movement, the problem really is the in fight animations. They definitely could improve but I think there is something to be said about NRS making 2D fighters with 3D animations. They have to make it work visually on that flat plane while having some unrealistic animations (juggles, some special moves) in a game that has a realistic art style. They also tend to have faster moves then a game like Tekken, which makes animations more erratic.

Regardless of any of the caveats I hope to see big improvement with it in the future.

 

[Cursa]

I think Bane's is some of the better examples when you compare to other characters. His S1 is the only poor example of a normal that comes to my head, while his F2D and S3 actually look like proper punches and kicks. The only other ones I might count as below average are his F3 and JD3.

The only ones which I actually notice are S3's like Starfire's. Literally just cringe.

 

[sranc]

Ferra Torr was a work of art in every way.

 

[MisguidedAngel]

Overall MKX had better animations than i2 which is strange. Nothin in i2 moves as well as Kano or Triborg etc (and Darkseid and Cold and Enchantress are just an afront to animation in general)

Here’s hoping their next game buffs up their animation game. Hey, they listened and buffed their face game so there’s hope.