Two Reasons Why MK11 Was Not a Proper Fighting Game

[Shoah Kahn]

There are two, major reasons why MK11 was not a proper fighting game -- "proper", as in, where the fighting gameplay of a game is not incidental to the other elements around it:

1. Automatically regenerating meters

- takes much of meter management out of players hands
- kills a large portion of meter management and usage strategy
- homogenises gameplay by removing any differentiation between meter gain
(*additionally, the generic OTG's / wake-ups tied to meter, limited the used of a fundamental meta of the genre)

2. Krushing Blow Prerequisites

- forces players to play in an arbitrarily, oftentimes silly manner that is decided upon by developers -- i.e., by locking KB's behind random prerequisites
- disallows players to use said supers in a way that suits their play style and strategy -- if you hadn't fulfilled the prerequisites, you were effectively nerfed
- differentiation between how characters attain their KB's, caused balance issues -- some received powerful ones for little work or deviation from normal play styles; while, others had to jump through nonsensical hoops to gain access to their comparatively weaker KB's
(*also, KB's could not readily be used in succession / in the same combo, as they were in the MK11 beta / as supers are generally, and logically usable in fighting games)

These, two elements of MK11, above all, rendered the game, at most, a gimped fighting game; in reality, a poor facsimile of the genre that, as such, could not hold peoples' interest much past FOMO. Thankfully, Boon listened to the non-casual sector, and MK1 looks like it might have addressed these and similar concerns...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbKphugvf0

[Jeremoople]

Good analysis. I enjoyed MK11, but I could see it getting stale and samey over time. I wouldn't say it's not a "proper" fighting game at all, but I haven't gone back to it since getting into Guilty Gear Strive and (to a lesser extent) Street Fighter 6.

[kyna]

isn't self-reifilling assist meter pretty much the same?

[Shoah Kahn]

Originally posted by Jeremoople:

I wouldn't say it's not a "proper" fighting game at all

I mean that in the context of the actual fighting taking a backseat / being incidental to other design imperatives -- in MK11's case, the caualisation of core fighting game mechanics, sub-systems, and "metas".

Originally posted by kyna:

isn't self-reifilling assist meter pretty much the same?

Not really...
- they're separate character call-ins, and do not affect the controlled character itself (other than the latter having to sometimes pause while the assist action takes place -- e.g., for Kano's eye-laser)
- the cool-down makes some sense when qualified as the time taken for an assist characters to get back into position for another attack and/or a kind of "Kameo stamina bar" (some assists abilities can actually be spammed twice or thrice)
- it's a separate mechanic and, as such, does not usurp or supplant any existing mechanic for the playable character (unlike the KB system and the MMO meters did in MK11)

Historically, I haven't been a fan of assists, because they have always felt gimmicky to me, as well as distracting from the core gameplay. MK1 looks to buck this trend, and only time will tell if the "Kameos" end up a boon or a bane ("Boon") for the series...

[Cheezie]

Meh MK11 was fine…MK1 sounds and looks so much better tho. I am a sucker for air combos tho…

[Shoah Kahn]

Originally posted by keihtg:

I really liked the separate meters because I was always afraid to use my breaker or defensive options in past games because I didn't want to lose my ability to extend combos. I do agree that the meters shouldn't fill-up automatically, however.

In MK1, to use a breaker, you need full super meter, as well as full Kameo meter (given the assist character breaks the combo that the main char. is stuck in).

I think it helped with the mind-games because there were lots of situations where you knew your opponent was fishing for the KB,

That is true... But, my point is that (i) it forced players into playing in unnatural ways (in order to gain access to set up for KB's), which defies the very notion of an competitive fighting game, and (ii) they were often tied to illogical prerequisites, like "land three attacks of a given kind" (see the first point), curbing players' natural gameplay strategies around those requirements.

That is to say, any fighting game that artificially forces playstyles, cannot be a pure fighting game. Characters' tools need to be given to players in a way that is free from constraints which are not purely for balance purposes. KB's seemed like brain farts coded into a fighting game, and I think that's primarily why they've been dropped for MK1.