This response post is pretty sad to read. I was really hopeful about the delay because I thought they would see the response from the beta to adjust their design and makes fixes, but their responses to these concerns just seem so out of touch to the impressions of the beta. The idea that gatlings are gone and replaced with a stricter system makes no sense and is one of the most wholly unappealing parts of the design.
"Mr. Ishiwatari: One important concept in this game is placing greater importance on choosing your moves based on the current situation."
Damage proration already served its purpose by reducing the damage of combos started from light moves. So instead of getting a big damage combo or a smaller damaged combo, it's all or nothing. The gatling system also allowed some freeform, improvisational conversions in neutral situations which I always felt was fun. Sometimes you get a stray hit and can convert that into something more in an unexpected moment, that was really fun. but with the restrictions on combos (especially in the air) that's gone too.
I also thought this was pretty funny: "Mr. Katano: Also, we are planning to further increase the level of freedom with combos compared to previous entries in the series. While this may seem contradictory to the reduced length of combos and the restrictions on gatlings, I believe we can make this happen through a combination of other mechanics. "
The answer about UI also came off as just nonsense.
"We've made it so that the Burst icon moves as the health bar drains in order to minimize the amount of eye movement required to check each gauge."
What? The gauge is literally moving across the screen. It takes more effort to track it now. When it's in one place you always know where it is and there is no barrier to viewing what resources you have access to.
"We've intentionally made the R.I.S.C. gauge less visible to reduce the number of gauges that first-time players try to be aware of."
LMAO. Ah yes, RISC is supposedly way more important now, so we made it almost imperceptible so new players wouldn't get scared. So they want to reduce the amount of eye movement to make the screen easier to read, throw up huge ass text you let you know when you hit a counter, but intentionally make an important gauge extremely small and hard to see. What is going on?
Sticking with that awful lobby system is just the cherry on top. After having played the beta and now read these responses I think it's safe to say that I strongly dislike the direction this game is going. What a shame.
