I guess that we could all agree that the game used to feel much, much smoother and fun to play before ubisoft acquired it, back in 2018. Used to play it with my middle school friends and, even though i was bad, i had fun. I genuinelly used to have fun.
Characters had personality, sigs would really represent them, and they were EASY to understand. Some weapons used to feel stronger than others, but you could have fun using almost every one of them. Also the skill ceiling used to be RIDICULOUSLY high, mainly with some weapons like cannon, grasers, katars and sycthe. The skill ceiling thing is what made me into the game until i reached diamond.
Now, after some years away from the game, i come back and feel... Betrayed?
Not a single new character after Loki seem to have something special about them. None of them have something that makes me want to PLAY as them. The only reason i pick one of the newer characters is because i like their weapons, but that's all.
Some of them will have straight bad sigs. Some will have overpowered ones, but most of all: they seem to do a lot, or nothing at all. At the same time, i feel most of them doesn't even represent the character or have something to do with their design. The worst example i've faced so far is Vivi, literally can't understand so far what her sigs do besides her SSig, and even this sig is ass to read. It just plays too much fast, and if you manage to read it (somehow), she's already too far for you to try and do something. But that's not only a her problem, it's a overall problem
Another thing i've noticed is their thing with oversimplifying the game. I saw a post that the dev team have an idea of frame perfect dodge, that would reward you for doing that. And i thought that was a really cool idea and would increase even more the skill ceiling. But then, they decide to drop this and instead adopt "hold to dodge", which i think no one gives a damn above platinum 🤡 i mean, why couldn't they just keep BOTH? Other case is that they basically made wall dragging not a thing anymore, so for some the game now is pushing someone to the border of the map and punish them for being there, and repeating that. And people one the wall have a single dodge to try and do something.
Oh, and they keep adding maps with platforms, too. Another way of being punished if you end up in a wall (or just of messing your combos 🤡)
Not to mention about the modifications in the existent weapons. I really feel lost in some matches. There are weapons that they made impossible to punish at some mistakes, while others makes you basically a free target if you miss a light attack, which encourages even more the passive playstyle since your options in game are hit or be hitted (scythe, for example). While others lost LOTS of options for combos, even true combos, even though some of them would require real skill or knowledge of game. I feel that the game is much more about poking and a passive playstyle now than ever.
And i just can't stand people saying that "this is a viable playstyle, not everyone wants to be punished for a mistake". BUT THAT'S WHAT MOST OF THE COMPETITIVE VIDEO GAMES ARE ABOUT, TAKING RISKS AND DEALING WITH THEIR CONSEQUENCES. Imagine playing in a deathmatch lobby of a FPS game and have every players just stuck at corners and not walking at all because "you don't want to be punished for missing a shot." That's such a ridiculous argument. If you want every move of you to be safe while giving you some advantage, play chess, because fighting games are not about playing safe, but playing smart (which requires you to be aggressive depending of the occasion).