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I don't care for the crushing blows

MrWarMachine

Jacqui/D'Vorah 2020
krushing blows are the "small x-rays", right? they said every char has 5 or 6 i think. i dont know if they can use only ONE of them all once per match or every of them once - but that would seem od.

what was the name of those <30% moves again?
Fatal Blows.

Personally, based on the 3-5 second duration those moves seemed to take up, I'm not too worried. I'd rather watch those than some asshole teabagging in a corner lol
 

Marinjuana

Up rock incoming, ETA 5 minutes
Fatal Blows.

Personally, based on the 3-5 second duration those moves seemed to take up, I'm not too worried. I'd rather watch those than some asshole teabagging in a corner lol
I'm pretty sure you still get to do your fatality so you get the fatal blow, then the teabag, then the fatality. At least one of those will kill you
 

MrWarMachine

Jacqui/D'Vorah 2020
I'm pretty sure you still get to do your fatality so you get the fatal blow, then the teabag, then the fatality. At least one of those will kill you
I really like SonicFox as a player and a dude, and maybe teabagging existed in the FGC long before he started doing it, but I will forever hate that fucker for bringing that shit in lol I swear people didn't do it like that until he started doing it.
 

Zaccel

Noob
I like Krushing Blows. For those familiar with Soul Calibur VI's "lethal hit" mechanic, these are very similar--they reward players who maximize niche situations to their advantage, and serve as a "tutorial" for guiding what moves to frame gameplay around.

Fatal Blow seems fine. X-Rays got repetitive so I'm glad they moved to Krushes, and it's a bit like whatever DoA's "supers" were like. The timer is appropriate given the story, and it ensures people might actually see them for a change.
 
Why would I need to remember every brutality option when they only have a cosmetic effect on gameplay? Even then I knew most back when I played the game a lot because the things you’d have to do for a lot of them were super telegraphed.

As for these, you’ll learn them after fighting each character a few times(even faster if you do what you should in every fighter, lab the cast for a few minutes each to feel them out). Their attacks aren’t going to magically be new or different after week one, when you’re used to it all.

I’ll tell you exactly how this will go. You’re going to be shaken by them for the first week. After you’ve fought most of the cast a bunch of times you’re going to notice you only ever really see two or three at the most KBs being used often from each character outside of extremely uncommon situational moments or heavily telegraphed set ups. Those two or three KBs are gonna plant themselves in your mind like every other major option that character has and you’ll know to look out for it from them on and it won’t catch you “randomly” anymore.

It’s kinda like Tekken, each character has about a hundred strings but you only really need to know your opponent character’s best 10, and after fighting a character a few times those strings become aggressively clear. You might get caught by some crazy shit every now and then but eventually that’ll work it’s way into the thing you naturally worry about as well.
I have another scenario. I'm playing a decent game winning against someone and my life is at 60 percent. They do a krushing blow with a random string that leads into a fatal blow combo that kills me.

I turn the game off.

Frankly isnt the predictability even worse? The game literally encourages you to use the same moves over and over again because you gain chances to krush kombo.

I'm just voicing these concerns now because i lost a lot of faith in nrs balance patches. There were problems that lingered for months and years with I2 because people just said that you should git gud and it really discouraged growth.
 

Zaccel

Noob
I have another scenario. I'm playing a decent game winning against someone and my life is at 60 percent. They do a krushing blow with a random string that leads into a fatal blow combo that kills me...

Frankly isnt the predictability even worse? The game literally encourages you to use the same moves over and over again because you gain chances to krush kombo.
If you're getting hit by a "random" KB you're not paying enough attention.

Secondly, predictability is easily punished. Hence why it'll hardly be "random" strings getting people to throw a KB out.
 
If you're getting hit by a "random" KB you're not paying enough attention.

Secondly, predictability is easily punished. Hence why it'll hardly be "random" strings getting people to throw a KB out.
Subzero gets a krush for landing 3 slides. Guess what subzero is going to end every combo in? In older games slide is used to side switch or catch very specific strings. It discourages more strategic positional gameplay.

If you think you're gonna remember all the kbs for 25 characters and all 3 variations + customs then you're kidding yourself.
 

kevkopdx

Noob
If you're getting hit by a "random" KB you're not paying enough attention.

Secondly, predictability is easily punished. Hence why it'll hardly be "random" strings getting people to throw a KB out.
But aren’t these gonna force you to play a certain way for fear of getting hit, if I know a crushing blow can happen if I don’t block the last overhead of a string for instance? That seems ridiculous.. I don’t want to be forced to not jump over sonya’s projectile for fear of a 30% damage. This type of defensive conditioning seems annoying to me. I say this never having played a game with this type of mechanic and I know it’s an early build, still...
 
If you're getting hit by a "random" KB you're not paying enough attention.

Secondly, predictability is easily punished. Hence why it'll hardly be "random" strings getting people to throw a KB out.

In addition, 16bit said that some krushes are tied to characters mixups. During the Grr exhibition he mentioned how his command grab option after a string led to a crush if your opponent blocked low and was expecting a low special. Why am i punished twice as hard for guessing wrong on a 50/50? That's absurd.
 

Zaccel

Noob
Why am i punished twice as hard for guessing wrong on a 50/50? That's absurd.
Because it can only happen once a match, and having damage skewed to one side of the 50/50 makes the decision weighted. It's a lot scarier than a standard mixup, but it's got more information to work with than a coin flip.
 
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kevkopdx

Noob
In addition, 16bit said that some krushes are tied to characters mixups. During the Grr exhibition he mentioned how his command grab option after a string led to a crush if your opponent blocked low and was expecting a low special. Why am i punished twice as hard for guessing wrong on a 50/50? That's absurd.
I said previously that Geras has that as a 50/50, you can block the entire string but the last overhead, if it hits, is 35% damage. Ridiculous, unless the recovery for guessing right is a full combo punish. Yet to be seen what the ramifications are for whiffing, blocking or guessing right.
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
Keep in mind, you'll have access to the same krush kounter mechanic as well. Do unto others as they do unto you. It's possible your character may have a specific crush counter that could make it risky for your opponent to go for or try and set up their krush kounter.
 

Zaccel

Noob
Im still waiting for a legit complaint about these...
One could draw on SCVI's Lethal Hits. LHs are not made equal; certain requirements are either onerous, attached to weak moves, or grant poor reward for the effort of using them. A character's movelist can be greatly affected by how functional and effective a suite of LH options is.

In other words, a valid concern would be that KBs could introduce the problems of "bad" brutalities in MKX, but on a mechanic that has actual gameplay importance. That's definitely a reasonable consideration, and one NRS will hopefully be mindful of.
 
I don't mind the cinematics of them, since it lasts all of one second. Heck, since it seems that several of them act as combo extenders, that brief pause is actually pretty useful as a signal that you should prepare to do some followup juggling.

My only concern is that they may inject too much randomness into the combat, since some Krushing Blows straight up double your damage and satisfying some of their requirements may be fairly unpredictable.
 

PurpleMenace

Douchebag
I really hope they just tone down the damage on some of these crushing blows. While Baraka's F4(?) does around 15% on krush from the gameplay footage, Sonya getting 35% off of a meter burn low leg grab is kind of insane, even at a rate of only once per match.

That being said, is there any notation or explanation in the move lists as to when a krushing blow will occur (or load, depending on if you have the 'hold to trigger' option on), akin to the brutality requirements listings in MKX? I didn't see anything like that, myself - although, it might be hidden in one of the character customization menus.
 

Crimea

Noob
I'm really excited about krushing blows. It looks like they are really important for your combos and damage. And it forces you to use your whole moveset during a match
 

leoj89

Noob
I'll play the game regardless but at this moment I am very much Not a fan of this mechanic. This and the split meter are the two things driving me up the wall atm.

Hopefully NRS can streamline the process of these things a little better before release.
 

Shark Tank

I don't actually play these games
Have no idea what to think about this.

If the requirements are arbitrary as fuck and random then it's kinda unga. If the requirements are specifically balanced with the overall characters game plan than it can be good.

Full-screen spears and counter hits openings are things I kinda like, I guess in a string based game it's one way to make counter hits actually work.

The dot stuff just seems like extra damage in most practical applications. Same with do x special move after 10 combo hits. Pretty one dimensional "more damage" stuff.

Extra damage on guessing wrong on a throw direction are pretty MENTALLY CHALLENGED and like have no nuance or gameplan attached to them. If anything it's punishing good play for zero reasons.

So I'm split. It depends on how well thought out the requirements are and if they actually open up strategies mid-match.
 
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MrWarMachine

Jacqui/D'Vorah 2020
Extra damage on guessing wrong on a throw direction are pretty MENTALLY CHALLENGED and like have no nuance or gameplan attached to them. If anything it's punishing good play for zero reasons.
Not necessarily, I mean in a real fight if you guess wrong on which direction to Bob and Weave you get KTFO, so it makes a logical kind of sense.