Spent a large part of the weekend playing demo and training mode (and Marvel 3 at one point, for some reason... Wolverine/Nova/Vergil is kind of funny and I don't actually need to learn combos).
Some oberservations:
Twintelle
I too am inclined to think she's the best in the game (that we've gotten to play with). Her special ability is so nice that, while I haven't set it up in a real match yet, you can dash into an opponent's face and charge and then stop whatever they attempt to do to you (you go in, see what they react to your dash in with, then dodge and punish).
Her air mobility is really nice too since you essentially get a sequence like jump-air dash-fall-full charge -air dash, so you can fall and then randomize the direction you go in twice, assuming you don't full air charge after the first jump.
But yeah, lot of success this weekend with her and Mechanica (that armor is indeed useful since people can't have elementals 100% of the time... but then, I never see people set up charges whenever I get knocked down, which is pretty essential if you're playing a character that actually needs to charge).
Cancelling dash with guard
Incredibly practical. Whenever someone got super stocked, I began to move around using this option (dashing while holding the guard input down) and it was reliable enough to make punches/throws whiff and then block the inevitable super cancel. I actually got to a point where I blocked someone's super while having a super and life lead on my end and they just stopped moving and gave up >_>
In the last 2 sessions I played, I think I only got hit by like two or three supers in 1v1, but mostly because I tried to challenge someone's super cancel with my own (still really not sure what factors into whether or not you win in a super mash war... for now, I just assume speed > durability).
(so, essentially... it's kind of a blowup if you can't do this consistently with motion controls lol)
Hoops
Don't really like the mode lol
I initially thought I could stun people and hold them in place, but then I realized that you only get knockdowns from air hits with elementals and what ends up happening is that everyone is always in the air and I get penalized for tagging people.
But then, I think you kinda have to switch your gameplay up in this mode and punish landing recovery, which I admittedly wasn't doing since I'd already conditioned myself to punish bad air dashes.
Skill shot
Kinda blah too. I think the optimal strat was to line yourself up with the most targets and get a combo that lead into hitting someone on the other side. Most people seem to not realize that you can't actually camp at the far side and expect to hit any targets in the middle.
Defensive game?
Having played enough, I don't necessarily buy this now. I was playing so well after a point that I began punishing people for just moving in the wrong direction lol
In particular, there was a Spring Man in my room in one session whose soul I owned and, during our last game against each other in 1v1, he began to turtle up and just dash around in an attempt to get me to whiff something... but it didn't matter because I read his movement hard enough to just hit or throw him out of the recovery of wherever it was that he was moving.
Due to how recovery works, you can blow people up if all they like to do is just mash the dash or jump button, so randomizing your movement into recovery is gonna be pretty important in the game, I think.
Also, if all you do is walk around, your susceptible to dash-in throw (unless you have really really good reactions... people will say that all you have to do is just punch if you see the dash in or the point blank throw, but it's not like people can anti-air jump-ins 100% of the time :v). You kinda have to throw something out at some point to keep someone out of the space in which you can't react to things. Like, you can back dash, I guess, which is a pretty safe option, but the corner is miserable in this game just like it is in any other fighter lol
You can definitely pressure people that don't like to punch first in this game as long as your yomi is good enough.
Online connection
Seems... okay-ish? I'm not high level enough to really discern what's going on in this area, but it became suspect at one point after I would get in on a defensive Twintelle player and my throw would actually go through their character model. So it's either lag or neutral jump has some invincibility frames I'm not too sure about at this point because I haven't played enough.
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All in all, it was pretty fun. I'll probably be mashing ranked a lot when the game comes out and I'm hoping the game takes off enough to have weekly locals in my area >_>
You can't really discern whether or not someone is on traditional or motion controls because of how the joycons work unless you're actually watching them play IRL (well, you sort of can: see if they ever punch and curve in different directions late into the punch animations, but we're not at a point where we can conclude that this isn't possible on traditional controls since someone actually found out how to wide throw using traditional lol). If you hold the joycons together, you actually get access to traditional controls.
Some oberservations:
Twintelle
I too am inclined to think she's the best in the game (that we've gotten to play with). Her special ability is so nice that, while I haven't set it up in a real match yet, you can dash into an opponent's face and charge and then stop whatever they attempt to do to you (you go in, see what they react to your dash in with, then dodge and punish).
Her air mobility is really nice too since you essentially get a sequence like jump-air dash-fall-full charge -air dash, so you can fall and then randomize the direction you go in twice, assuming you don't full air charge after the first jump.
But yeah, lot of success this weekend with her and Mechanica (that armor is indeed useful since people can't have elementals 100% of the time... but then, I never see people set up charges whenever I get knocked down, which is pretty essential if you're playing a character that actually needs to charge).
Cancelling dash with guard
Incredibly practical. Whenever someone got super stocked, I began to move around using this option (dashing while holding the guard input down) and it was reliable enough to make punches/throws whiff and then block the inevitable super cancel. I actually got to a point where I blocked someone's super while having a super and life lead on my end and they just stopped moving and gave up >_>
In the last 2 sessions I played, I think I only got hit by like two or three supers in 1v1, but mostly because I tried to challenge someone's super cancel with my own (still really not sure what factors into whether or not you win in a super mash war... for now, I just assume speed > durability).
(so, essentially... it's kind of a blowup if you can't do this consistently with motion controls lol)
Hoops
Don't really like the mode lol
I initially thought I could stun people and hold them in place, but then I realized that you only get knockdowns from air hits with elementals and what ends up happening is that everyone is always in the air and I get penalized for tagging people.
But then, I think you kinda have to switch your gameplay up in this mode and punish landing recovery, which I admittedly wasn't doing since I'd already conditioned myself to punish bad air dashes.
Skill shot
Kinda blah too. I think the optimal strat was to line yourself up with the most targets and get a combo that lead into hitting someone on the other side. Most people seem to not realize that you can't actually camp at the far side and expect to hit any targets in the middle.
Defensive game?
Having played enough, I don't necessarily buy this now. I was playing so well after a point that I began punishing people for just moving in the wrong direction lol
In particular, there was a Spring Man in my room in one session whose soul I owned and, during our last game against each other in 1v1, he began to turtle up and just dash around in an attempt to get me to whiff something... but it didn't matter because I read his movement hard enough to just hit or throw him out of the recovery of wherever it was that he was moving.
Due to how recovery works, you can blow people up if all they like to do is just mash the dash or jump button, so randomizing your movement into recovery is gonna be pretty important in the game, I think.
Also, if all you do is walk around, your susceptible to dash-in throw (unless you have really really good reactions... people will say that all you have to do is just punch if you see the dash in or the point blank throw, but it's not like people can anti-air jump-ins 100% of the time :v). You kinda have to throw something out at some point to keep someone out of the space in which you can't react to things. Like, you can back dash, I guess, which is a pretty safe option, but the corner is miserable in this game just like it is in any other fighter lol
You can definitely pressure people that don't like to punch first in this game as long as your yomi is good enough.
Online connection
Seems... okay-ish? I'm not high level enough to really discern what's going on in this area, but it became suspect at one point after I would get in on a defensive Twintelle player and my throw would actually go through their character model. So it's either lag or neutral jump has some invincibility frames I'm not too sure about at this point because I haven't played enough.
=======
All in all, it was pretty fun. I'll probably be mashing ranked a lot when the game comes out and I'm hoping the game takes off enough to have weekly locals in my area >_>
You can't really discern whether or not someone is on traditional or motion controls because of how the joycons work unless you're actually watching them play IRL (well, you sort of can: see if they ever punch and curve in different directions late into the punch animations, but we're not at a point where we can conclude that this isn't possible on traditional controls since someone actually found out how to wide throw using traditional lol). If you hold the joycons together, you actually get access to traditional controls.
