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So with Beowulf nearing completion I kinda wanted ask people's opinions on how he will play for people new to fighting games. This is because from what I've seen I think Beowulf will be a perfect character to get people into fighting games.
One of the biggest things that keeps newcomers from getting into fighting games is the amount of skill and practice that it takes to get to the level were the interesting Strategy and decisions come into play. Skullgirls has always been good in this regard, doing things like simplifying inputs and adding a large amount of strategy to even just selecting your team with custom assists and variable team sizes, but Beowulf takes this even further. Beo is packed full of interesting choices that are both easy to understand and easy to execute, without sacrificing difficulty in deciding which choice to make.
Chair vs. No-Chair
Weapons in fighting games are often either just a basic upgrade that you always want (Cap's shield), a gimmick that is essentially pointless (Cody's knife), or a completely esoteric mechanic that new players will feel they don't understand or don't control (Vega's claw & mask). Beowulf's chair however is relatively easy to understand, easy to control, and a real trade off. With only one exception (s.HK) the chair effects all Hard normals and only Hard normals. The chair is easy to drop and retrieve, qcf P to drop, KK to pick up. And the chair has easy to understand ups and downs, generally chair is more defensive, with a reduction to chip and a projectile to protect yourself with, contrastingly no-chair is generally offensive with giant crouching heavies and easy ways into grab mode.
Grab mode
Grab mode is amazing for beginners and even teaches some fighting game basics in just the way it works. Grabs are easy to do and even easier with Beo with chairless s.HP and j.HP. Then once you are in a grab you have a bunch of really interesting options with no skill wall in the way of making them. Want to build meter for a super? Headbutt! Want to deal damage instead? Knee! Then there's the finishers, all the finisher commands are simple, just a direction and a button, and there not all extremely different either they all just fall on a spectrum of damage vs. advantage. These mechanics also teach a player that damage isn't everything and that some times it's good to trade some damage for some meter or advantage.
Button Strength on Specials
This one is really basic. Newer players often have trouble with varied strength on special moves. It's hard to even see that there's a difference between L, M, and H hairball let alone pick which to use, with Beo however all of his specials vary in function rather than strength when using different buttons, this is so so much easier for new plays to get a hang of.
EASY mix ups
Mix ups are and essential part of fighting games and often learning what moves to use for them is often overwhelming for new players who instead chose to just mash normals. Beowulf has incredibly easy options to mix up however, you don't have to short hop or instant air dash to get quick highs you can just dash and hit a button it's awesome! Add to this the fact that s.LK hits low and bam! you've got a high low mix up just dashing at your opponent and hitting LK either right before you land or right after. And then there's the even more amazing stuff. Beowulf had a built in throw mix up with Wulf Blitzer and Wulf Shoot. Think about this for a second, new players can just get strait into mix up mind games almost immediately!
Room for Improvement
But despite all this Beowulf is still a highly complex character with otg's, huge combo potential and a hard to manage hype mechanic. And while these things might be a bit discouraging to player's trying to pick up Beowulf with out much fighting game experience, I still think that it's a net benefit because it means that there is a lot of room for a new player to grow and become stronger as Beowulf as they go on.
So that's my ramble, sorry if it's all obvious or wrong or whatever, but I've been rolling this stuff over in my head every time Betawulf get's updated and I really want to get other people's opinion on the matter.
Edit: Mixed up knee and headbutt, is now fixed.
One of the biggest things that keeps newcomers from getting into fighting games is the amount of skill and practice that it takes to get to the level were the interesting Strategy and decisions come into play. Skullgirls has always been good in this regard, doing things like simplifying inputs and adding a large amount of strategy to even just selecting your team with custom assists and variable team sizes, but Beowulf takes this even further. Beo is packed full of interesting choices that are both easy to understand and easy to execute, without sacrificing difficulty in deciding which choice to make.
Chair vs. No-Chair
Weapons in fighting games are often either just a basic upgrade that you always want (Cap's shield), a gimmick that is essentially pointless (Cody's knife), or a completely esoteric mechanic that new players will feel they don't understand or don't control (Vega's claw & mask). Beowulf's chair however is relatively easy to understand, easy to control, and a real trade off. With only one exception (s.HK) the chair effects all Hard normals and only Hard normals. The chair is easy to drop and retrieve, qcf P to drop, KK to pick up. And the chair has easy to understand ups and downs, generally chair is more defensive, with a reduction to chip and a projectile to protect yourself with, contrastingly no-chair is generally offensive with giant crouching heavies and easy ways into grab mode.
Grab mode
Grab mode is amazing for beginners and even teaches some fighting game basics in just the way it works. Grabs are easy to do and even easier with Beo with chairless s.HP and j.HP. Then once you are in a grab you have a bunch of really interesting options with no skill wall in the way of making them. Want to build meter for a super? Headbutt! Want to deal damage instead? Knee! Then there's the finishers, all the finisher commands are simple, just a direction and a button, and there not all extremely different either they all just fall on a spectrum of damage vs. advantage. These mechanics also teach a player that damage isn't everything and that some times it's good to trade some damage for some meter or advantage.
Button Strength on Specials
This one is really basic. Newer players often have trouble with varied strength on special moves. It's hard to even see that there's a difference between L, M, and H hairball let alone pick which to use, with Beo however all of his specials vary in function rather than strength when using different buttons, this is so so much easier for new plays to get a hang of.
EASY mix ups
Mix ups are and essential part of fighting games and often learning what moves to use for them is often overwhelming for new players who instead chose to just mash normals. Beowulf has incredibly easy options to mix up however, you don't have to short hop or instant air dash to get quick highs you can just dash and hit a button it's awesome! Add to this the fact that s.LK hits low and bam! you've got a high low mix up just dashing at your opponent and hitting LK either right before you land or right after. And then there's the even more amazing stuff. Beowulf had a built in throw mix up with Wulf Blitzer and Wulf Shoot. Think about this for a second, new players can just get strait into mix up mind games almost immediately!
Room for Improvement
But despite all this Beowulf is still a highly complex character with otg's, huge combo potential and a hard to manage hype mechanic. And while these things might be a bit discouraging to player's trying to pick up Beowulf with out much fighting game experience, I still think that it's a net benefit because it means that there is a lot of room for a new player to grow and become stronger as Beowulf as they go on.
So that's my ramble, sorry if it's all obvious or wrong or whatever, but I've been rolling this stuff over in my head every time Betawulf get's updated and I really want to get other people's opinion on the matter.
Edit: Mixed up knee and headbutt, is now fixed.
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