Can we possibly get a way to change the speed of replays? They are cool looking fast but not easily comprehenable. I just wish it was a little slower, so I could see what was actually going on, while still looking cool. But a slider while watching a replay to slow it down and speed it up at will would be super cool!
I quite liked comboing into grabs, and unless this applies to command grabs, cowboy should still be able to. Though, I'm a ninja main and I just got a command grab combo ender, so I really shouldn't be complaining. But grabs were fun the way they were, Imo. Perhaps air grabs can still grab falling opponents? That would make sense, wouldn't it?
Whiff cancel for sure was too spammable. It made everything super safe most of the time. I understand the nerfs, it's gonna be tricky to get used to them though lol. Theoretically this should make the game more chess like. And seeing as that's vaguely the intention of the game, yeah, makes sense. But I would worry that this cuts into a really captivating meter management mechanic, perhaps an option to adjust the cost of stuff like instant cancels and whiff cancels and stuff could be added? Increase the costs to decentralize cancels. Lower the cost, to have more cancels, because they're epic and stylish and cool and whatnot.
I was hoping burst's "animation" would be sped up. To me it feels like it's stuck in that pose where it's invincible for weirdly long. I feel this is for the sake of launching the opponent on hit, but not giving the burster too much oki after that launch. Perhaps on whiff it could end quicker?
Ninja's DP nerfs are sad but given the new stuff I think it's reasonable. It's still good at what it's best at, being the "this goober's gonna do a thing, I'm almost certain of it" attack. But obviously it being locked behind a stance, might make it less convenient. I think this is good, if only due to the fact that it'll encourage more variety in these sort of situations. If you didn't prepare for the shenanigans, it should be a bit tricker.
And a new stance is good fun! Ninja is my character of choice, cause my friend was playing cowboy. And I'm glad, Ninja's setup shenanigans and stances are my jam.
I wasn't aware that bomb was so strong, I liked a throwable bomb though. And I liked the bomb sitting there until you exploded it. It was a fun setup tool. Especially when combined with caltrops, nunchucks, chasing people through the air, and etc. Perhaps a version of original bomb that does more damage, or does no damage but lots of hitstun as a setup trap could be added as a level 2 super? Or something along those lines. I think this'd be (relatively) cool. And given that you are chosing between this, a good movement tool, and the very GOATed caltrops, it should be, relatively balanced? At least conceptually. Don't take my word for it though, I'm just an aspiring game designer for a reason lmao.
Glad to see the horizontal slash nerf. That move was kinda goofy, in a not fun way. The buffs are, a little concerning. But I'm biased because my friend plays cowboy.
Besides that I still think that cowboy is tonally inconsistent. Cowboys aren't known for teleporting or swinging giant swords. I like the character, good fun, I certainly get the idea. But "Cowboy" I'd argue isn't the most apt name. If we are going funny anime fighter gun men with sword, which I am assuming is the actual archetype this is based off of, I think "Gunslinger" would be more appropriate a name. A nitpick yes but if you ask me it'd make more sense. Vague enough to be a good name for generic gun sword anime man, but close enough to what western gunslingers are known for, so cowboy themed moves like the lasso wouldn't be too out of place. A good compromise, if you ask me.
I'm very hyped that such substantial updates are coming so soon after launch. I'd have joined the discord to give these thoughts earlier today before the update dropped, but I do not own a personal phone yet. So I made a itch account. I like this game, my PS4 is my gaming medium of choice. My laptop is really weak and old, and I'm not able to wire it up conveniently. So a fighting game in this game is particularly convenient. And really cool :). It's been good fun so far, I can't wait to see what happens going forward.
After playing a fair bit I have more notes:
The lack of horizontal height gained from Ninja's DP as of now, I feel, is honestly a bit cruel. It barely goes off the ground at all! I honestly don't mind the height being nerfed, traditional anti airs aren't quite a thing in this game. And the lower the height gained, technically the more safe the move becomes. But this very much limits situations where you could bounce someone into the air, and then go into DP and hit with the latter half. Which was a good non jump way to get into the air and start my beloved double jump air combos. It's especially good in that regard after cancels, where you cannot always jump right after. Something in between pre patch and post patch would be nice. Or, perhaps, DP could get a stance-esque shenanigan. Where after the first hitbox comes out on the ground, where you'd normally just be able to cancel, you could also chose how high the DP goes. Like how you'd select the light, medium, or hard version of a DP in street fighter by your choice of buttons. This'd be cool! Maybe it'd give the move a bit too much versatility, but we've already lost the invincibility. Really, if you could chose between the height of pre patch, and the height of post patch, it'd just be for the sake of comboing with one, where you couldn't with the other, or going higher into the air or staying closer to the ground for combos. If anything, the option for a higher DP would more often be a liability.
Cowboy can still kinda just spam stuff like lighting strike for free high damage combos. Even with DI it's honestly kinda dumb, he can still rep like 8+ before he has to do something else, usually teleport, at which point he can often just, do another set. Cowboy is supposed to be the easy to pick up character, but honestly where other characters like Ninja are forced to really use all their options, or be ready to adapt to situations where some of their options won't hit, and their disadvantage stake is so much more exploitable (though this was made much better by the new teleport, praise Jesus for that one, finally made my cowboy friend have a taste of his own medicine lmao) cowboy just gets to hit the funny button(s) and has a million ways to escape tricky situations for free. The latter was a much bigger issue last patch because Ninja had no burst option equivalent to missile mode or teleport so I wouldn't get caught up with that. But when it comes to the former even with the new knockback bonus to moves that are repped, it doesn't change Cowboy's honestly kinda lame combos.
I played him once and totally swamped my friend, cowboy can be played really cool and do really cool combos, but you don't have to do that at all. Which isn't very fair compared to the other two where you need planning, you need to do setup, you need to use most if not all of the stuff in your kit, and etc. Cowboy has potential to be incredibly cool but his current role as the easy baby mode character is honestly kind of sabotaging that. Because the only time I've seen people use anything outside of the same single digit set of moves that chain into themselves over and over again is when I picked up the character for the first time to obliterate my friend, while going for style over substance. After which my friend actually started incorporating more of cowboy's kit occasionally. But after punishing him for going for that sorta stuff because it's not as good as spamming his spammable moves, he quit doing that. That's totally limited my friend's ability to get creative with combos, and is progressively making him worse at the game and not better. That's not my or his fault. The character is just in a totally malfunctional state right now.
If you ask me, as an aspiring game designer, I'd rather see this character's potential realized then keep them stuck in a role it doesn't fit in well. Either that, or cowboy can be made relatively more forgiving, while nerfing his nonsense in a way that doesn't kill his cool moves that are good atm, but instead encourages and even forces when necessary more thoughtful and diverse play. So that way he's at least fair and comparable to the other two characters, in terms of how the brain power to damage/funny combo number go up scale. Honestly stuff like his swipes can stay spamable, those are equivalent to the punches and kicks of the other characters and you can chain those a fair bit. And they are quite forgiving, but honestly they aren't as offensive as some of his other "why is this the way it is?!" spammable moves. Like lighting strike. And the swipes do look quite cool in the replay. Those, honestly, could maybe just stay the way they are. But his long range super disjointed special moves and whatnot can just be chained, and for way longer than other character's actual moves that are supposed to he chained. Or even his moves, which are supposed to be chained. Lighting strike needs a bit more recovery time, and a lot more knockback. I'd personally make it the mid/long range combo ender. But unless stuff like this is changed, the grand canyon sized divide between cowboy's mindless chaining and the other two character's fun strategical decision making will continue to grow.
And it's already bad enough as is. To have a chance of getting a half health combo with Ninja, you gotta spend resources, have great spacing in the ground and air usually using double jumps very strategically and skillfully, and chose your attacks in your string wisely. To get a half health combo or more with cowboy? Hit an attack on the ground, teleport wherever you need to be, hit the buttons you wanna hit over and over until you need to teleport again or whatever, until your opponent inevitably bursts or DI's into the air. If the former, so long as you weren't hit which is likely if the enemy isn't wise, (which is likely given the average range of cowboy's sword attacks) your disjoints and instant burst movement should get you in perfect position to punish. If the latter you gotta use and eventually run out of air actions, at which point your combo might be over. But even so by the end of the air combo you'll still have netted a fair bit of damage, even outside of the previous half of the combo on the ground. That's a huge discrepancy.
And because of just how much easier it is to do lame combos, nobody really combos with cowboy the way he's clearly intended to do combos. My friend says his kit feels bloated, I theorize this is because he feels half of it doesn't need to be there for cowboy to play the way most people play him now. I can even tell that he's starting to have less fun. Especially now that Ninja actually has a teleport and a new evasion move. Despite all the damage buffs, and Ninja's substantial nerfs, my friend is losing worse than ever, and when he does get a hit? He's not encouraged to be methodical or thoughtful like I'm forced to be, he's just hitting the buttons, and going through the motions. The character's just not in a healthy state. He needs a slight rework, because in many aspects he needs some minor buffs, but he also needs the chain combo spam crippled. My friend's a loyalist, I don't know how long I'll be able to convince him to play the game when the one character he's interested in on a conceptual and aesthetic level (and to a massive degree in both regards) is in the state cowboy currently is. And it's quite sad, because he was the one to introduce me to the game in the first place!