First off, massive shout out to whoever runs the @sgmobile twitter over at Hidden Variable. They were super friendly and helped me through some issues I was having getting the beta code up and running. Someone please give them a pat on the back.
Secondly, this is entirely opinion. I'm just volunteering my experience for dev purposes and I'm under no illusions my opinions on the subject are objective and I'm probably wrong about some stuff u-u
I'm going to try to organize this long ramble into sections so it's hopefully more readable. I've skimmed other people's feedback, and I know I'm probably going to be echoing them in some regards, but I just want to get my thoughts down.
Performance!
Game runs beautifully on my iPad Air 2. Not a single hitch, and surprisingly doesn't consume much battery. Not sure what black magic you used here. I have encountered a few crashes (especially against an Inkling peacock during her item drop super, when the last item spawns or is removed it seems to crash a lot!) but nothing too bad.
UI!
One of the first things I noticed was the user interface. It's nice and simple while still remaining in keeping with skullgirls' aesthetic. Most menus feel good, and I especially love that I can throw punches on the character overview screen. The relic screen in particular is weird, though. Why each relic on the 'store page' takes up the entire screen I have no idea. It makes navigating it pretty difficult, especially when you have to scroll down several relics to get to the (curiously buried) daily and break relic.
Characters!
I was a little skeptical of type advantages at first, but they are really fun, especially when I have to tag around to keep the advantage.
Each character 'archetype' feels really really similar in how I'm supposed to play them though, which I think other people have said. Characters feel like they differ from each other in really small ways.
I'm not sure what the point of not being able to equip a special on multiple characters is. (I can't get duplicates of them, right?) I end up moving specials a lot when I want to use a character. It feels like busywork rather than a real game mechanic.
Fightin'!
Controls feel really good in some regards and less good in others. Notably, blocking seems iffy especially if I'm not focusing on making contact with both fingers simultaneously (and instead pressing one finger then the other a few frames later). I cannot throw reliably to save my life ;n; . I really appreciate how simple the controls are, it feels good to pick up and play casually.
Really quickly into my playtime, though, I felt like I wasn't making any significant decisions when it came to fighting. The entire game started to feel like a small flowchart I would run through. Effectively, I would knock down the opponent, block the nearly-guaranteed wakeup super or special, and counterattack, knocking them down again. Rinse and repeat.
I'm not entirely convinced this is a problem of the AI being too predictable (although that IS a problem), rather, simply the number of options I have for attacking. The dash-forward-and-attack seems like a huge liability, so I found myself blocking more often than not, waiting for the opponent to close the distance so I could punish that.
I've found a couple really cool things you can do with tagging in regards to combos, which was really fun, but I felt like when it came to the individual character I'd mastered their combo opportunities really quickly. I started to feel I wasn't making decisions or executing combos of my own design, rather, I was going through the motions.
Similarly to the character's combos, a lot of the special moves (and most blockbusters) feel really... direct. A lot of the specials felt like tap-button-to-deal-damage rather than a move I'd have to integrate into how I was playing. Most blockbusters felt the same way. The status effects each deals weren't really significant enough to differentiate them.
Pretty much every super I ran into was invincible through the entire animation, making it impossible to punish. This felt really weird. I'm still trying to counter-attack character's supers out of habit and getting beat up for it.
I think I can boil down what I feel into the following: without a different means of movement or advance upon my enemy, I don't feel like I have a good means of offence. Instead, I'm looking for sure-fire openings and capitalizing upon them with the same combo every time. Without a vertical component to the game, hitboxes matter a LOT less, so moves start to feel samey.
Advancement!
Dang do I love leveling my characters up, though. The skill tree is neat and I love the feeling that I'm making them better over time. It scratches a certain rpg-progression itch really well.
I love the daily relic and the 'take a break' relic. I really really love them. It keeps me wanting to come back for more and check on the game, and keeps me excited. RNG has been a harsh mistress but I haven't given up hope yet.
Energy!
On the other end of the engagement mechanics spectrum... Hooo boy. The energy system was at best totally inconsequential and at worst annoying. Sometimes I would play for several hours (Hey, it was my day off, don't judge) without ever running into it because of level ups (or I assume that's what is refilling the energy. It's very unclear.). If a character DID run out of energy, I'd simply switch over to versus for the last bit of exp to level them up to get it back.
But then when I did run into energy limits, it was on the high-energy cost nodes with character restrictions and it basically locked me out from playing that node when I wanted to.
I've read in this thread that the purpose of the energy mechanic was to force me to switch up my team, but it didn't feel like the energy mechanic was ever doing that. Instead, the energy mechanic seemed only to limit what nodes I could tackle at any given time, but not who I could do it with. It seemed bizarre and didn't seem to have a purpose.
I really don't like energy systems in games (I far prefer positive rewards for coming back) but I honestly think the game would be better if the energy system was reworked, even slightly, to be more 'consistent', whether that means a global energy system or a different per-character system.
Nitpicks!
For some reason the UI doesn't show the icons of the characters in the enemy team until the match starts. This time during the intro animations is exactly the time I'd like to be figuring out type advantages, especially because often I don't know the fight's participants going in (due to them being ? marks).
When I finish a fight, the game suddenly snaps me back to idle in the blink of an eye, even in the middle of some blockbusters. It makes that final hit feel like it's not having a big impact and is a jarring transition.
Miscellaneous things I love!
I love valentine's forward dash attack. It is such a cool re-purposing of that animation into a new context. The new context (her sliding forward) makes it feel totally new and fresh and is a great way to use an animation for a new purpose.
I just love the character skin names. They're good.
I really like attacking and then dashing back. There's not much reason to do it, but it is really cool feeling.
Actually, I just like the speed of forward dashing and backward dashing a lot. It feels snappy and works well with the controls. (Except for that awkward attack on the end of forward dash that usually gets me hurt.)
The bottom line!
The game is fun. I like it, and I'm glad you are doing it. I just wish it had more depth -- a higher skill ceiling without a higher skill floor. I think you folks are great and I'm glad it seems you are listening to feedback.
That's all for now. I'm sure I'll think of some more stuff later. Sorry if I got anything wrong ;;-;;
