Why this game isn't doing well.
Okay so for starters, this game had an OK release. People are still playing this game on ps4 right now and overall I enjoy the game.
But with the recent downfall DLC released, I can say without a doubt that I know exactly why Absolvers matchmaking is trash for anything that isn't 1v1, and why the games multiplayer feels so cheap and awful for anyone who doesn't use armored moves.
1: The amount of falling.
This applies more to the downfall playlist.
For god's sake, somebody do something about the number of times you can fall down a pit or off map. I lost all 3 of my lives in downfall's "Fold" because the AI love to push you off ledges, or you fall off because you hit them and the move you used pushes you forward off the ledge, or the floor breaks and now low and behold there is an instant kill in front of your character. People do not like this. Why the devs thought this was a good design I have no fuckin' clue. It's cheap and it takes away from the experience a lot. In a game about fighting it feels more like a game about who can stay grounded for the longest amount of time. This isn't SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur is trash.
- How can we fix this?
Decrease the pushback of blocking moves. Plain and simple. There is no block punishment in this game so why is there an abhorrent amount of pushback for even the slightest punch?
- Make the penalty more forgiving.
I cannot even say the number of times I or someone else in my party has fallen off a cliff in this game. It's too much. Make the character spawn back up on land with missing HP, indicating they took damage for falling. You could even argue that that would be a good idea for soloing the fold only. If you are in multiplayer then sure, make the party member die and lose their gleam/ respawn back in the main world. Whatever.
- Side note: could we please make parties more fortified? If someone dies they are kicked from the party because they cannot be revived. If they are going to spawn in the same area as the team anyway, what is the point in this?!
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1.5: Make more rewards!
Gleam doesn't get you anything special as I see it right now (oooooh a corrupted gleam mask! too bad it looks like shit compared to other masks). So what is the point in having a high gleam level?
2: No practice bot setup
Practice mode should allow you to ... PRACTICE defense (I know, crazy right?). Wanna know why this game is such a jab fest? because half the moves you get at the beginning are slow. And when people wake up and realize that they are getting poked out of their long duration moves, they are going to adapt to that. Also, nobody knows how to dodge jabs and most people want to play as the windfall class (from what I have observed). The bot cannot be set up to practice against moves we have unlocked. Absolvers meta would be a lot different if we had the ability to practice against the "Spammy" fast moves. I'm sure the characters with the ability to armor through moves have a much easier time in the meta, but the dodge class suffers from this.
If the logic behind not having this feature is: "Well, you have to be defensive in order to unlock those moves in the first place, so before you get the move you know how it is countered." Then let me tell you that it is a very shallow argument at the core because people can easily go to the leaderboards, find a school, and use the school deck to unlock moves VERY quickly. So no, this is not true.
It would be easy to implement as well, just make the bot play a move from the list.
Overall this isnt even close to as many problems this game struggles with, but these are a good start.
But with the recent downfall DLC released, I can say without a doubt that I know exactly why Absolvers matchmaking is trash for anything that isn't 1v1, and why the games multiplayer feels so cheap and awful for anyone who doesn't use armored moves.
1: The amount of falling.
This applies more to the downfall playlist.
For god's sake, somebody do something about the number of times you can fall down a pit or off map. I lost all 3 of my lives in downfall's "Fold" because the AI love to push you off ledges, or you fall off because you hit them and the move you used pushes you forward off the ledge, or the floor breaks and now low and behold there is an instant kill in front of your character. People do not like this. Why the devs thought this was a good design I have no fuckin' clue. It's cheap and it takes away from the experience a lot. In a game about fighting it feels more like a game about who can stay grounded for the longest amount of time. This isn't SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur is trash.
- How can we fix this?
Decrease the pushback of blocking moves. Plain and simple. There is no block punishment in this game so why is there an abhorrent amount of pushback for even the slightest punch?
- Make the penalty more forgiving.
I cannot even say the number of times I or someone else in my party has fallen off a cliff in this game. It's too much. Make the character spawn back up on land with missing HP, indicating they took damage for falling. You could even argue that that would be a good idea for soloing the fold only. If you are in multiplayer then sure, make the party member die and lose their gleam/ respawn back in the main world. Whatever.
- Side note: could we please make parties more fortified? If someone dies they are kicked from the party because they cannot be revived. If they are going to spawn in the same area as the team anyway, what is the point in this?!
-
1.5: Make more rewards!
Gleam doesn't get you anything special as I see it right now (oooooh a corrupted gleam mask! too bad it looks like shit compared to other masks). So what is the point in having a high gleam level?
2: No practice bot setup
Practice mode should allow you to ... PRACTICE defense (I know, crazy right?). Wanna know why this game is such a jab fest? because half the moves you get at the beginning are slow. And when people wake up and realize that they are getting poked out of their long duration moves, they are going to adapt to that. Also, nobody knows how to dodge jabs and most people want to play as the windfall class (from what I have observed). The bot cannot be set up to practice against moves we have unlocked. Absolvers meta would be a lot different if we had the ability to practice against the "Spammy" fast moves. I'm sure the characters with the ability to armor through moves have a much easier time in the meta, but the dodge class suffers from this.
If the logic behind not having this feature is: "Well, you have to be defensive in order to unlock those moves in the first place, so before you get the move you know how it is countered." Then let me tell you that it is a very shallow argument at the core because people can easily go to the leaderboards, find a school, and use the school deck to unlock moves VERY quickly. So no, this is not true.
It would be easy to implement as well, just make the bot play a move from the list.
Overall this isnt even close to as many problems this game struggles with, but these are a good start.