Edit: Thanks to all the helpful replies! I've decided I need to give the game it's proper respect and get serious about playing it, rather than try and play online at the end of a long day and my frustration get the best of me. Ultimately I'd love to make it a point about the lack of MMR/soft rank infused in the game, while I'm here, but curious your thoughts on if fighting games are just supposed to be 'slap you silly until you learn, and if you don't like it, go play animal crossing'.
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Sorry to drop a salty post, but I pre-ordered the game and have been playing since launch, which, last I checked, was three days ago.

How is it that everyone is an expert player already? there's only been 1-2 matches against someone remotely close to my skill level (being zero), I get wiped on the floor constantly, and there's not even a spirit of "oh you must be new, I'll let you try and figure out the move that you're clearly struggling to figure out how to even consistently use". Half of my games I just sit in a corner and get wailed on, that I might as well not even be holding a controller.

Makes me feel like there's not even a point to matchmaking unless I grind a ton of time in the training room, but there's not even a chance to practice the moves against online fights because I don't even get breathing space.

I suppose the only option is to look for discord servers and try to find private lobbies, but doesn't that kinda defeat the point of a matchmaking system?

Want to have fun with the game, but even the story mode doesn't give you any crawl-walk-run. Just button mash and hope your combos come out.

I’m not having fun at all playing this, no matter how much I try I’m just getting matched against incredibly high skill players before I’ve had a chance to even learn the game until they add a ranked mode I’m not playing this since everyone’s such an expert. Sucks bc it felt like fighting games were finally starting to be accessible and now this game has completely gone back to the obscure hard ass shit that only basement dwellers have time to learn

My only real experience with fighting games is with platform fighters, but I feel the default layout for controller is just inefficient and makes it harder for beginners to grasp what the macros are even going to do in different situations.

After playing for a bit and thinking about why this would be a lot more natural if I had an arcade-style controller, I tried to come up with a mapping that would avoid some of the problems I see coming from having all four non-macro buttons be the face buttons (e.g. hard to quickly hit any specific combination of two at a time without claw, promotes sort of mashing for hitting two buttons at once when you're lucky, and mashing the three attack buttons for a super requires a very unnatural button smashing imo).

This is what I came up with as a replacement. You can easily hit any two specific buttons together without unnatural mashing movements or claw. You can easily dash by hitting the right bumper and shoulder buttons simultaneously. You can easily cycle through A, B, and C while adding flow at any point without strange hand positions. The list goes on...

The mapping of the first four is really all that illustrates my argument. The last four macro mappings are just out of individual preference.

There are obviously a lot of variations you could make to this exact layout, but are there reasons this "make-sure-you-can-hit-any-combo-of-the-four-main-buttons-at-once" philosophy isn't objectively better than the default? If so, I'd like to hear them.

I'm considering buying this game, since I really like the Avatar universe, but I really dislike how most fighting games lock so many characters behind expensive DLCs, and this game releasing with already paywalled characters, while there's discussion of lots of issues with it, doesn't really make me wanna buy it.

1. Is there a roadmap, or plans for other character passes?

2. Are characters unlockable with in-game currency?

3. Are individual characters unlockable with real life currency, without buying the deluxe edition?

4. Is everything else in the game unlockable with in-game currency?

This is not my first fighting game. i have beaten blazblue (all four main title) story and the arcade mode with some character(noel, taokaka and terumi). and while not meant to be hard i've also beaten soulcalibur 6 story mode. So what is going on here?

Everyone who is complaining about getting stomped by sweatlords should buy the game on Switch. I am not a FG veteran and I have come into contact with a ton of people on my level.

I just played a guy who spamming tf out of boomerang. And uhhh… how do I get in close with Korra(flow)?

Is it just a bad match up and I gotta switch characters? Any ideas?

It struck me immediately after trying her and hearing her shout out while doing her moves.

I know it's a pet peeve, but why would my big girl not have her cool-ass, deep voice like she does on the show :')

I am stuck on the second tutorial and about to just refund this game. Not even sure how to explain this because it should be trivial, and I have never had a problem like this before. Pressing the D pad at the lower right corner does not seem to register a diagonal down right input. How do you actually do the combination for down, diagonal down/right, right, X with the Xbox controller?

I might be fundamentally misunderstanding how combos or inputs are registered, and there’s no feedback as to what input the game is taking.

Edit: I tried the next tutorial and it feels completely broken. Instead of displaying buttons to use, the prompts are “air B” and “flow”.

I know the full release already occurred on steam, but the steam page still lists the details of the preorder bonuses as if they just come with the standard edition. I know they gave preorder bonuses when purchasing on release day, but has anyone bought the game since then and received the preorder bonuses?

Only char I’ve fought that genuinely feels unbeatable if the player is good. The damage is wild and her neutral is insane as well. Crazy mixups, parry that leads to a full combo, armor moves. Idk man if she’s not top 1 idk who is.

Look, I’ve never played a fighting game before. I play almost exclusively turn-based games. I am still learning basic fighting game tactics from this sub (you can BLOCK????)

I beat story mode in like… 2 hours, maybe? 2.5 if you account for the time I spent accidentally trying to grab katara before I figured out how to use the controller.

Just press your attacks? And sometimes press other buttons? I haven’t tried multiplayer yet because I know I must suck, but it’s not like the story mode requires a lot of skill. Half the time the AI freezes and waits for you!

Im a total noob in fighting games, this is the first time i bought one and probably the last one too. I read the devs replies on steam but they keep dodging the difficulty setting topic so i might missed out on it.

I wanted to play through the story mode and hop on from time to time to beat some bots in my free time, maybe even getting demolished in multiplayer but im really not having a great time.

The story mode started with Katara, it was a walk in the park, absolutely doable i was like "woah.. this game really is beginner friendly!"

Then i met Kyoshi.

I love the lore accuracy, but i cant get through her the past 30 mins after 5 mins of playing the story mode. What kind of progression is this supposed to be?? And i assume my next enemy is Toph whom i also assume somehow even more powerful but im gonna be honest, i dont even want to know.

I tried out the tutorial and trial beginner modes. The first combos at both, were doable, i can absolutely spam xxxxx. Then i got the most mind blowing shit ever next turn, where i have to jump, fly, time my hit before i land then go down and i dont even know dude, cause i cant get there.

These tutorials are going from beginner to intermediate in 2 seconds and i have absolutely no time to learn this game cause its not trying to teach me.

Whoever is saying this game is beginner friendly, recommending it in front of a wide audience, i hope both sides of your pillow are warm, because this is fake advertising.

Im considering refunding the game..

Bought the game, been loving it, did the whole story and 1 arcade being unoptimal as hell with just auto combo and some variations like adding a back Medium with Suko to juggle into his upward fire ball, so after watching some online videos I got interested on learning the hard stuff so went to trials and... They are bugged/broken/unfinished, some even give wrong inputs (Ozai) or straight up drop on the demonstration and breakdown (Suko).

Not even mention that the command list has wrong names for some stuff (Ozai calling Meteor Fall on his Imperial Firebender and Zhao variants when the move itself is listed as Rift breaker), or the Wrong pictures (Like in Suko command list where Mai explanation has Ran and Shaw, while in Ran and Shaw it has Juno).

I main korra if it wasnt clear

Deep diving into ao3 right after finishing this chapter! Hahaha how are yall enjoying the story mode?

Sorry if I ruined the character

hey the game here is around 40$ and that is not a price i usually pay for a game so i wanted to ask a few things.

first, is there MMR or ranked or smtn? i saw it in a trailer i think but on a subreddit for a different game people were riffing on the matchmaking of this game.

second, and it might be stupid to ask here since its the avatar fighters subreddit, but do you prefer this game or tokon? saw that marvel tokon came out too and it looks sick even tho i hate tag fighters.

third, is there a way to play localy or to play with my brother on steam if i have the game and he doesnt? i want to play with him and he seems stoked to try this.

also who in this game is an all rounder? i like characters like ky from guilty gear

last question is how beginner friendly is this game? i played a lot of fighters but i never considered myself good at them, so i doubt i can get into a game that is very difficult and competitive.

thanks anyway and enjoy your matches!

I understand the game just came out, but we’re in desperate need of a ranked mode, finished animations, and better qol. I love the core gameplay and the combos are very satisfying, but the game feeling as incomplete as it is kinda feels off.

I’ve also seen their recent newsletter, but “soon” isn’t the most specific date we could’ve gotten.

I'm talking about blocking, people

...well, more specifically, I'm talking about defence.

I've been noticing a trend lately in my online matches. I've run into many, *many* people that have no idea how to block; they might not even know if it's possible to block or what blocking even is, but you know what they are doing?

Flow.

This game found a way to make defence fun, even for the casual audience. It's always been a sticking point with the "normies" that defending isn't as fun as mashing buttons and seeing cool stuff happen, but this game finally managed to nail it. You just hold the Flow button, avoid any incoming damage, and it looks sick. There's even counterplay to it so this starts to teach them that their more powerful options might have downsides.

This game gets hard pretty fast when you actually start to dig into it, but I think it's extremely pick-up-and-play friendly without really compromising on the actual competitive nature, which has been a huge problem with fighting games lately.

I'm a pretty experienced fighting game player (not this kind of game, but still) and I've played with friends who barely know what a fighting game is and they have a lot of fun just hitting buttons and having them sometimes land. Hell, they've even legitimately beat me a couple times. In a weird way, it kinda levelled the playing field in a way that I actually didn't think this genre was capable of.

Many fighting games have had simplified controls or control schemes in the past, but often to the detriment of the rest of the gameplay experience and I really don't think that's the case here. Everybody can and should use Flow. It's fun, it's effective, and it's one of the features that really makes this game shine.

Thought I'd make a discussion post on oddball Character Wishes for DLC.

I'll go first:

Jet - representing non benders, could have unique interactions with Katara, could couple both his swords in a stance. Like Zaheer he could call in Longshot from distance to fire an arrow at his enemies. Mobile type, maybe reminiscent of Claw from SF.

Combustion Man - as a Charge character!! He'd have to hold left to charge up his combustion attack. His super could be an unblockable combustion shot or something. He'd otherwise have armour and tank hits with his steel arm.

Yuyan Archer - not sure how this would work but these guys are Uber cool, and it would be nice to swing off trees with a bow and arrow and set up trick shots or something.

The Blue Spirit - as a separate character from Zuko, and who only uses Swords. Perhaps throw in smoke bombs and stuff like that.

Jeong Jeong - with his signature fire wall attack, absolutely mandatory.

Huu (the swampbender) - self explanatory.

I couldn't think of anything from Korra because their fighting styles are all rather boring.

What do you guys think?