SaladPlateLover
Noob
I know there have been an ocean of criticism posts since launch, however I think most of them come from passion and this aspect of the game is important to me and I don't think anyone else has really noticed.
Why this is important to me is that ever since all the way back to Street Fighter 3, one of my favourite parts of learning a fighting game have been seeing how the EX moves change the properties of normal special moves. So much creativity is explored when designers put a twist on a signature move, present it differently through animation, and improve its function in different ways. It makes characters feel truly dynamic.
NRS games have been doing this extremely well for a while. Let's look at Goro from MKX for example, a game with many more special moves than MK1 because of the variation system.
Shokan Bolt - EX uses two hands instead of one for a bigger bolt.
Punch Walk - EX last hit animation changes for launcher.
Shokan Grab - EX changes animation of final throw.
Stomp - EX has no change in animation.
Chest Lunge - EX adds a dunk to the head with a little war cry animation.
Quake - EX adds rapid punches to the ground.
Shokan Stabs - EX adds a stomp to the head.
Fang Spin - EX adds animation on last hit for pop-up.
Low Fang - EX has no change in animation.
Flame Ball - EX adds additional 2 fireballs.
Ground Fire - EX has no change in animation.
Fire Breath - EX adds longers animation.
In total that's 9 special moves that feel pretty good when EXed.
Now let's look at MK1, starting with Rain because he's my main.
Water Beam - Noone has used EX on purpose ever. It doesn't turn into a mid, nor does the frame data change, and it loses the benefit of being able to charge (what?). What you get is 3% more damage and more knockback. Usually a move like this in a previous game would get a different animation.
Water Gate (portal) - Does not have an EX version.
Teleport - EX version is confluence beam which feels cheap to me because it's not a putting a twist on the teleport, it's a different move completely (one requires one portal while the other requires 2). Also confluence beam is not worth a bar for 6% damage that requires x2 set ups. The beam could have been it's own move, with the EX version launching much higher for combos.
Ancient Trap (whirlpool) - Does not have an EX version.
Geyser - No change in animation or frame data. All they did was add armour and damage. Feels like old NRS would make this feel a lot cooler by having Rain slam his staff down after the second hit for a third spout.
Upflow - This one is fine since it does visually change, and so does the properties by turning it into a launcher.
Rain God - Does not have an EX version.
Water Shield - No change in animation and rarely used as well.
Out of the entire character, Rain to me feels like he has just 1 actually well designed EX move with Upflow. Now let's look at Reiko as another example.
Retaliation - No change in animation. Just changes hit property to allow for combos.
Pale Rider - No change in animation and costs 2 bars.
Throwing Stars - No change in animation. They just copy and pasted two more projectiles which does not require an animator to do and just some simple programming.
Charging Pain - No change in animation. Just changes hit property to allow for combos.
Tactical Takedown - No change in animation. Just increases damage and gives armour.
In total Reiko has 0 moves where creativity actually went into making EX moves interesting.
There is a clear lack of resources that went into this game compared to previous titles. It's a shame because the base game systems are great, but are lacking a lot minor details that when added up make for something truly special. It seems to me that since covid and the controversy on crunch and PTSD that came up post MK11, that there were a lot of changes to production.
I just hope that in the future the quality goes back up to what it was, whether that be by putting out some serious updates to this game or in future games.
Why this is important to me is that ever since all the way back to Street Fighter 3, one of my favourite parts of learning a fighting game have been seeing how the EX moves change the properties of normal special moves. So much creativity is explored when designers put a twist on a signature move, present it differently through animation, and improve its function in different ways. It makes characters feel truly dynamic.
NRS games have been doing this extremely well for a while. Let's look at Goro from MKX for example, a game with many more special moves than MK1 because of the variation system.
Shokan Bolt - EX uses two hands instead of one for a bigger bolt.
Punch Walk - EX last hit animation changes for launcher.
Shokan Grab - EX changes animation of final throw.
Stomp - EX has no change in animation.
Chest Lunge - EX adds a dunk to the head with a little war cry animation.
Quake - EX adds rapid punches to the ground.
Shokan Stabs - EX adds a stomp to the head.
Fang Spin - EX adds animation on last hit for pop-up.
Low Fang - EX has no change in animation.
Flame Ball - EX adds additional 2 fireballs.
Ground Fire - EX has no change in animation.
Fire Breath - EX adds longers animation.
In total that's 9 special moves that feel pretty good when EXed.
Now let's look at MK1, starting with Rain because he's my main.
Water Beam - Noone has used EX on purpose ever. It doesn't turn into a mid, nor does the frame data change, and it loses the benefit of being able to charge (what?). What you get is 3% more damage and more knockback. Usually a move like this in a previous game would get a different animation.
Water Gate (portal) - Does not have an EX version.
Teleport - EX version is confluence beam which feels cheap to me because it's not a putting a twist on the teleport, it's a different move completely (one requires one portal while the other requires 2). Also confluence beam is not worth a bar for 6% damage that requires x2 set ups. The beam could have been it's own move, with the EX version launching much higher for combos.
Ancient Trap (whirlpool) - Does not have an EX version.
Geyser - No change in animation or frame data. All they did was add armour and damage. Feels like old NRS would make this feel a lot cooler by having Rain slam his staff down after the second hit for a third spout.
Upflow - This one is fine since it does visually change, and so does the properties by turning it into a launcher.
Rain God - Does not have an EX version.
Water Shield - No change in animation and rarely used as well.
Out of the entire character, Rain to me feels like he has just 1 actually well designed EX move with Upflow. Now let's look at Reiko as another example.
Retaliation - No change in animation. Just changes hit property to allow for combos.
Pale Rider - No change in animation and costs 2 bars.
Throwing Stars - No change in animation. They just copy and pasted two more projectiles which does not require an animator to do and just some simple programming.
Charging Pain - No change in animation. Just changes hit property to allow for combos.
Tactical Takedown - No change in animation. Just increases damage and gives armour.
In total Reiko has 0 moves where creativity actually went into making EX moves interesting.
There is a clear lack of resources that went into this game compared to previous titles. It's a shame because the base game systems are great, but are lacking a lot minor details that when added up make for something truly special. It seems to me that since covid and the controversy on crunch and PTSD that came up post MK11, that there were a lot of changes to production.
I just hope that in the future the quality goes back up to what it was, whether that be by putting out some serious updates to this game or in future games.
