Core Pack value proposition

[Mortis]

Up front: I'm not trying complain about a violation of gamer's "inalienable rights" as many seem to be currently, I just want to say I'm not sure about the value of the core pack to me personally.

I've been waffling about buying Fantasy Strike for years and I'm very glad it's now free to play so I could see that it actually is quite good. I'm sure the single player stuff is perfectly fine but it's not something I "19.99" want as it would just be something I do between real matches... currently it takes one loading screen's worth of time for a match to pop. (whether it stays connected is another story but this does seem to be getting better)

The Friend inviting thing is nice and at least three friends have installed the game as a result of me showing it off, but I'm not sure if any of them are going to stick with it or if they'd even be interested in "running sets." Maybe we'd run into each other in queue anyway??? I dunno, this feels like a potentially $0 value element of the pack to me.

I've read and re-read the descriptions of the pack but I don't see anything about gems or costumes. If core ownership gave you any one of the following I'd consider it a much better value:
- Some extra palettes... 1 per character??
- 1000 gems or something
- Earn like 1d10 gems per online match

Alternately if buying gems set your account so it was able to invite friends, I'd just happily buy some gems.

Anyway again, great game, having a lot of fun, very excited about it, just not really feeling the value in the freemium model as it stands.

[Sirlin]

The game was $30 before. We chose such a low price on purpose at that time. Fighting EX Layer was $40. Blade Strangers was $40. Omen of Sorrow was $60. Samurai Showdown was $60 and I'm still scandalized by that given that they don't even show frame data in training mode and don't have frame step there either, and is generally lacking in features compared to us.

Today, you can get all the stuff that was $30 for $20. The core pack has boss rush mode (which is really awesome actually, great 1p mode where you build up a deck of insane powerups against crazy boss powers), survival mode, arcade, local versus, and ability to challenge anyone to direct friend matches. So considering $30 seemed low for the game before, and this is $20 for all that same functionality, it seems pretty fine to us since from our perspective we just lowered the price already. If it doesn't work for you, ok. You might not care about 1p modes or local versus or friend matches. In that case you can just play for free online with all characters.

[Heikai]

You get everything you need for free. I agree that the core pack doesn't have anything of value, unless you like single player content in fighting games. I don't. The Fantasy+ thing might be useful though.

[Judox Studio]

"- Earn like 1d10 gems per online match"

It would be a good idea to keep players online!

I bought the core pack and it's frustrating not to unlock anything in cosmetics ...

[AngelofAnger]

Give a way to grind gems can help, maybe via ranking.

Make daily challege to give gems if you are core for me could be a thing.

i think that the grinding factor needs to be considered. No matter how long time could take. It keeps people online.

I know that. The game itself should suffice. Im talking about f2p strategies here.

[Keyrala]

The main feature of this game is being able to have a chance even if you never played a fighting game before, as you can learn the basics and actually defend yourself after 5 minutes of gameplay against a non professional fighter player.
When other games you need hours just to have chances against a casual (wich i don't mind but that's what most people refuses bothering with fighting games)

I kinda got many people to download this game, those people i described before, casul-casuals that struggles in fighting games against a weak AI. So they can get introduced to a very limited and simple fighting game, and hopefully convince them to see how good complex fighting games could be.

Problem here is that even buying the core is pointless unless you're a fan of single player fighting games or you have friends to play with, and when i used to play this there were only about 10 active players so the friend part for me is pointless wich literally killed the game for me as the only friend i used to play with kinda uninstalled after a few hours. And trying to bring new players to the game meant they all insta uninstalled after i realized my invite option was turned into an option to gift the game for them. So owning the core version of this game is not even worth to invite friends to play unless they buy it. But to buy a game like this if they'er into fighting games they will probably buy anything else with more mechanics...

This is for casuals but then casuals won't buy a game before trying it and they won't even care to try quickplay against randoms and they can't even single player and no reason to give a shot to friends because the game is kinda expensive just to be able to play with your friends. It's like all roads leads to "whatever let's just move on into the next game" kind of deal.

I mean just imagine,

"sup ♥♥♥♥♥, there is some fighting game you can learn in 5 minutes and we can actually have a normal fight instead of you dying in the corner miserably or having to learn a 40 hits combo just to make this fair and it just became f2p"

then i usually get

"oh cool i'll downoload it"

(Some mins later)

"WTF can't invite you because you didn't bought it if you want to test the game you have to play against randoms (if you ever get to find any match)"

"Ok, back to (insert normie game)"

[Sirlin]

So just factually, if you own the core pack, you really can invite any player to friend matches, whether they have the core pack or not. The only exception is that for the next two weeks or so, while we wait Nintendo's patch approval, players on Nintendo Switch can only participate in friend matches if BOTH players have the core pack. But that's temporary, and right this moment, if a Switch player isn't involved, you really can challenge anyone if just YOU have the core pack.

[Keyrala]

Originally posted by Sirlin:

So just factually, if you own the core pack, you really can invite any player to friend matches, whether they have the core pack or not. The only exception is that for the next two weeks or so, while we wait Nintendo's patch approval, players on Nintendo Switch can only participate in friend matches if BOTH players have the core pack. But that's temporary, and right this moment, if a Switch player isn't involved, you really can challenge anyone if just YOU have the core pack.

I tried to invite people from pc version on steam. I have the core thing but instead the "invite" i had the "gift" option. If you say core players can invite f2p guys, then this might be a bug or something?

[Sirlin]

You have the Steam version right? And you have the core pack. Right this moment, you can challenge any Steam or PS4 player regardless of if they have the core pack or not. For Switch players, we're waiting on a Nintendo patch to make that work. For the next two weeks, the Switch player also needs the core pack, but after that they won't.

You can also gift the core pack to anyone on Steam or on Switch, but you cannot gift it to a PS4 player because Sony does not allow it.

Here is what that dropdown menu looks like, which includes "challenge" and "gift the core pack": https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/236039517759340544/736730600878374952/unknown.png

If you're saying that "challenge" does not appear when you have the core pack (and the opponent isn't on Switch) then that is some new thing we have never heard of so we'd like more information. A screenshot maybe.

[Keyrala]

Originally posted by Sirlin:

You have the Steam version right? And you have the core pack. Right this moment, you can challenge any Steam or PS4 player regardless of if they have the core pack or not. For Switch players, we're waiting on a Nintendo patch to make that work. For the next two weeks, the Switch player also needs the core pack, but after that they won't.

You can also gift the core pack to anyone on Steam or on Switch, but you cannot gift it to a PS4 player because Sony does not allow it.

Here is what that dropdown menu looks like, which includes "challenge" and "gift the core pack": https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/236039517759340544/736730600878374952/unknown.png

If you're saying that "challenge" does not appear when you have the core pack (and the opponent isn't on Switch) then that is some new thing we have never heard of so we'd like more information. A screenshot maybe.

Ok there is your info, apparently the guy just downloaded the game and it was his first time getting into the game. We saw we can't invite and we didn't bothered until now you said we can actually invite them

Maybe it's some sort of bug with the first time opening the game, we just had some games some minutes ago so yes, maybe a bug related to first time opening the game. Or maybe we both had to restart after adding eachoter in the game, i see there is this issue in mulitple steam games that once you add someone to friendlist both players has to reset game in order to use multiplayer functions together.

[Sirlin]

Can you confirm it works right now though? Right now you really can challenge, right? You should be able to. There was a brief period where both players needed core pack though, yes I'm aware of that. Should not be the case currently.

[Keyrala]

I just played with him for a while, yes. When we tried before, it was about 2 days ago and i had no option to challenge.

[Sirlin]

Ok good, thanks.

[-Ramen-]

Originally posted by Keyrala:

The main feature of this game is being able to have a chance even if you never played a fighting game before, as you can learn the basics and actually defend yourself after 5 minutes of gameplay against a non professional fighter player.
When other games you need hours just to have chances against a casual (wich i don't mind but that's what most people refuses bothering with fighting games)

This is for casuals but then casuals won't buy a game before trying it and they won't even care to try quickplay against randoms and they can't even single player and no reason to give a shot to friends because the game is kinda expensive just to be able to play with your friends. It's like all roads leads to "whatever let's just move on into the next game" kind of deal.

I actually think that a casual will still lose hand over fist to an experienced player every time. This game does a great job of pulling people in, but I wouldn't assume that it is casual just because it is simple. This game is fundamental at its base, but I can see how some of the characters deviate a little from that, or bend the rules.

Walking in and out of whiff range (AND PUNISHING), or walking forward and hitting that neutral P, when you have command normals on both directions if you fudge your input. There is beauty in succinct play that I think even intermediate players can ignore/miss out on.

/blogpost

[Keyrala]

Originally posted by -Ramen-:

Originally posted by Keyrala:

The main feature of this game is being able to have a chance even if you never played a fighting game before, as you can learn the basics and actually defend yourself after 5 minutes of gameplay against a non professional fighter player.
When other games you need hours just to have chances against a casual (wich i don't mind but that's what most people refuses bothering with fighting games)

This is for casuals but then casuals won't buy a game before trying it and they won't even care to try quickplay against randoms and they can't even single player and no reason to give a shot to friends because the game is kinda expensive just to be able to play with your friends. It's like all roads leads to "whatever let's just move on into the next game" kind of deal.

I actually think that a casual will still lose hand over fist to an experienced player every time. This game does a great job of pulling people in, but I wouldn't assume that it is casual just because it is simple. This game is fundamental at its base, but I can see how some of the characters deviate a little from that, or bend the rules.

Walking in and out of whiff range (AND PUNISHING), or walking forward and hitting that neutral P, when you have command normals on both directions if you fudge your input. There is beauty in succinct play that I think even intermediate players can ignore/miss out on.

/blogpost

Of course knowledge is power, but it doesn't means they will get stuck in the corner crouching crying for mom like it happens with most people when they touch a fighting game for first time.

The 2 people i introduced to this game yesterday they liked how simple it was and they said they will practice. My experiences before in trying to introduce casuals into fighting games was like "♥♥♥♥ this ♥♥♥♥ i can't throw fireballs this game is ♥♥♥♥"

Before this the only successful time i could introduce a casual into a fighting game was killer instinct because the devs felt like adding a button mashing combo assist where you just button mash and do a 50 hits combo. The person was feeling really good and having fun until i told him it's time to learn the game and disable combo assist, then he got frustrated and uninstalled after 2 fights.

Let's not derail the topic tho, the only reason i mentioned this about being good for casuals is that i wasn't able to invite people even when i had the core thing, so i let them know that not being able to invite people to the game was a bad move because the main reason casuals gets into a fighting game is mostly because invited by a friend. But then the dev let me know we are actually able to invite. So i was stuck in some random bug or whatever because i can invite people now.