Post
by Cold Skin » Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:19 pm
I loved Ultimate Tenkaichi a lot too, even tough the story mode could have been even more complete.
What most people didn't like about this game was the numerous automated scenes, which they felt didn't enhance the experience but took away most of the gameplay, as a "just push one button to decide your fate cause you can't move" thing.
I personnally didn't feel that way, for the Janken games, well you just had to think in advance of what to do in case the situation turns out like this or like that (mostly thinking about your gauges and the level of risk you were willing to take).
As Kame Sennin once said "sheer luck is also a part of a battle you have to accept", and I thought those "you were lucky, enjoy it" or "you were unlucky, do what it takes to make it out" situations were well represented by those moments.
As for the energy blasts, lots of people were also unhappy with the fact that it was automated and you had to face it. But just like the series and manga, an ultimate attack is supposed to be a potentially big turn of event and not something you can side-step and say "ha ha!". This was well represented in the Budokai games where the 2D gameplay and speed of the beam made you pay if you were not ready to quickly dodge, speed-teleport or guard, and supreme attacks had that high-tension, panic "contest gauges". But in the Budokai Tenkaichi games, I feel like this feeling was lost, I wasn't scared at all when the opponent would throw a big beam at me, I was happy because it was a 100% guarantee to dodge by just pushing the joystick left or right and have the opponent at your mercy. That's not right, the opponent preparing a big beam should have you say "Oh crap, this might turn bad for me!" if you had not anticipated it. It's supposed to be some deadly threat that you feel unavoidable doom for a split second before having a "Maybe I can get out of its way if I do this NOW!" micro-thought.
Ultimate Tenkaichi did restore that feeling of something that should not be taken lightly and that you should keep on your mind and prepare for at each moment of the fight or pay the highest price, but one disappointing thing was when you had no Ki left and no possibility offered: just standing their waiting for the deadly attack to crush your health bar doesn't feel right, not any better than being able to simply dodge by pushing the stick to the left or right and slowly moving to the side without panic.
I do understand how players could feel prisonner of that 50% automated gameplay - which was likely done to multiply impressive sequences worthy of the original material -, so I do hope that this time they'll find a good balance between what should be a show and what should be gameplay, avoiding to make it too much like a show like in Ultimate Tenkaichi where you spend 50% of the fight watching, and avoiding to make it too much gameplay like the Budokai Tenkaichi where the opponent throwing a Kame Hame Ha isn't even a big moment at all but just a formality, and even a mistake on his part (except when it's a direct continuation of a combo, only moment where you can really fear you won't be able to avoid it).
Someone give this man a raise please....
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