I wasn't going to make a wishlist, but at this point I feel like there needs to be
something to offset the current trend of awful opinions here.
Things that are of most importance to the quality of the game:
DO keep the game fast. Don't regress to SC4 speeds. This primarily means two things:
- Keep defense active (movement/JG/GI/counterattacking rather than statue blocking)
- Prefer to keep moves on the safe side (viz., don't make pokes stab-punishable like in SC4).
DO keep movement both rewarding
and risky. That means high evasion with no step-guard.
DO keep the categorical differences between moves and, relative to SCV, accentuate them further. This means three things, mainly:
- 8WayRun attacks should be better from 8WayRun than from neutral (in SCV, a 10-frame penalty on 8WR moves done from neutral accomplishes this; while this implementation works, I'm more concerned with the principle.).
- Horizontals should be weaker than verticals but catch step.
- Verticals should be stronger than horizontals but not catch step.
Additionally, rethink the role of body (K) attacks. Currently, they're a dumping ground for moves that are almost entirely mechanically unrelated.
DO keep JG. The mechanic has absolutely proven itself to be a valuable addition.
DO keep meter and guard bursts. These mechanics add considerations to the game that lie between short-term tactical decisions (predicting the opponent's immediate action) and long-term strategical decisions (exploiting the opponent's general tendencies), a domain that was previously occupied solely by stage positioning.
DO NOT repeat the mistake of designing characters that function drastically "outside the box". For justification, one needn't look further than any of the following characters:
- SC4 Hilde (charge mechanic)
- SC4 Algol (projectile mechanic)
- SCV Viola (projectile/"two-fighter" mechanic)
- SCV ZWEI ("two-fighter" mechanic).
All of whom were disastrously imbalanced in their first iterations. Novelty and variety are both commendable goals, but balance has a significantly greater impact on the game's longevity.
DO rework the clash and trade mechanics. This is a rough edge in SCV that ought to be smoothed out with simple, consistent rules.
DO aim for good stage variety. Infinite stages and stage transitions were a nice step forward.
Minor things that should be improved or fixed:
DO NOT forget to add button select to the character select menu this time.
DO make armor-break optional or possibly remove the system. As it is, it does nothing for either the competitive or the casual demographics, and all of the good characters (Aeon) are practically naked already.
DO NOT add CaS-only styles like Devil Jin, because they just end up going to waste. As a full-fledged character, it would have been useable in both CaS and competitive play.
Things that I personally want, but which needn't be priorities:
Release a PC version. I positively loathe the notion of having to buy a PS4 or Xbone just to play one game that refuses to be released on a sensible platform.
As always, I might think of more things later to add.
