Movesets Feel Lacking

I come from a background of quite enjoying some fighting games but almost universally hating their inputs. I very much enjoy Smash Bros and see it as a step in the right direction but the way the community clings to momentum exploits and unnecessary extra inputs as the godsends of competetive play has always infuriated me.

I was, therefore, immediately drawn to something claiming to use a similar input arrangement with even less focus on skilled inputs.

Upon trying the free weekend demo, however, I found the variety of moves a little disappointing. Here’s a comparison of my two mains to hopefully help you see what I mean:

spoiler="Jaina"
knee
low kick
spin kick
dive kick

(B)
arrow

©
suzaku punch
arrow re-angled

®
super
multi-arrow

(Z)
Grab[/spoiler]

spoiler="Kirby"
rapid jab
overhead back kick
spin kick
low kick
flip kick
spin
triple kick
back kick
drill kick

(B)
final cutter
inhale (to spit or swallow)
stone
hammer

(C stick)
lunge kick
strong overhead kick
ground spin

(Z)
Grab (to 4 different throws)

(situational)
dash (varies by game)
getup attack
super[/spoiler]

That’s 20 moves for Kirby and only 10 total for Jaina. Giving her the benefit of the doubt on similar attacks and ignoring the possibility of smash inputs, Kirby can still perform more moves than her without even usin a non-A button.

Jaina, due to her arrows taking up duplicate inputs, is probably one of the worst offenders but the whole cast has a remarkably shallow movepool to work with. Here’s what I would personally suggest for her:

[spoiler=“New Jaina (14 Unique Moves)”]
Ground:
->A knee: The jumping knee to the chest you see already.
VA (or just A) low kick: The quick, low foot jab already in place.
<-A spin kick: The foot out twirl she uses currently.

->B down arrow: Her standard flaming arrow, only angled 45 degrees downward.
VB (or just B) straight arrow: Her standard flaming arrow as we see it now.
<-B sky arrow: Her standard flaming arrow, angled 45 degrees upward as she currently does for her aerial C.

VC (or just C) suzaku punch: Like a self harming dragon punch, only with more phoenix theming. In place already.

Any R super: No need to change this.

Air:
->A swoop sweep: Inspired by her intro, an arcing swoop forwards and down (no damage potential there) leads into a short range sweep attack (bow or hand, IDK) that will down foes. Not the quickest way to get a hit in or the best coverage and really quite easily jumped over to punish. An extra movement option, though.
VA (or just A) dive kick: Essentially a stomp, having very little forward movement. Practically the same as it is currently, just with slightly increased drop speed.
<-A backflip kick: As it sounds, with very short range infront of the player during the early stages but mostly just an aerial that is, itself, anti-air. Good for juggling as it hits upwards but highly, highly situational.

->B down arrow: Her standard flaming arrow, only angled 45 degrees downward.
VB (or just B) straight arrow: Her standard flaming arrow as we see it now.
<-B sky arrow: Her standard flaming arrow, angled 45 degrees upward as she currently does for her aerial C.

VC (or just C) phoenix flame: Bursts into flames and slightly decreases fall speed. Will damage anyone who makes contact with her but won’t shield her from damage. Might also damage her if she doesn’t land or take a hit, IDK. Weak to projectiles and makes her landing more punishable due to the increased air time.

Any R multi-arrow: No need to change this.

(Z)
Grab[/spoiler]

I don’t mean to detract from your work and I do love the rest of what you’ve done with this game. I just wanted to share my 2 cents on what I think would improve it (or a sequel, I guess, as it might be a bit late to do this to every character).

I think that the limited move set is a very deliberate decision: each and every tool a FS character has is good and useful, so there’s intentionally no room for stuff that isn’t completely valuable.

That, and I don’t think too many folks who have played the game feel like Jaina doesn’t have enough tools. ; )

6 Likes

I like the idea of the upward arrow, but wouldn’t that get Fantasy Strike closer and closer to a traditional fighting game, defeating the entire purpose of a easy to pick up fighting game?

1 Like

What Fantasy Strike is trying to avoid is a street fighter situation, where characters have a ton of normals but many of them are just bad. For example, most characters use at most 2-3 of their aerials, one for air to ground, one for air to air, and sometimes a third for an instant overhead or some other kind of utility. This means they still have at least 3 aerials that you should basically never use.

In Fantasy Strike, most characters only have 1-2 aerials. However, that one move still fulfills the same role as the moves the Street Fighter characters have.

Similarly, for grounded footsies, most SF characters only use like 2-3 buttons. In Fantasy Strike, you still have about 2-3 normals you can use for footsies. It’s just that all the redundant ones are gone.

As for Smash, Smash needs a few more normals because Smash uses normals differently. For starters, in Smash, there are two totally different types of moves, damage / combo moves and kill moves. For Kirby, ftilt and fsmash have similar hitboxes, but fsmash is a kill move, so both are needed. There are also situations that can happen in Smash due to its movement options that can’t or very rarely happen in a traditional fighter, like needing to hit an opponent who is above you in the air.

5 Likes

Idk about other chars as i don’t main them, but for val her moveset isn’t lacking at all

Pretty much every move in her arsenal has a good use here or there and i don’t think any of it is bad.

The biggest offender is her jabs, and even then i think they are good