GGST – Kazunoko & Dogura on Open Beta 2

By Shinjin @shinjinbaiken

This is a translation of a blog post where the author summarized their interpretations of what Kazunoko and Dogura said on their streams about GGST after the 2^nd Open Beta. Text in square brackets are my own comments.

Ideally I would have liked to watch the stream archives as well before publishing, but I do not have enough time for that. There may be some context lost, but overall it might provide some interesting thoughts.

I did not proof read the text yet… I will remove this paragraph once I have…

Kazunoko

• He thinks that the previous beta was more fun.
• Jumps are more similar to normal FGs. He understands the reasoning behind making back dashing weaker.
• He thinks jumps are strong. It is probably because AAs are weak as they do not lead to high damage.
• He does not like it when the usability of options are worsened.
• He played so much GG that his thoughts on GGST are probably skewed.
• He might be influenced by other GG Players but the fact that the 2^nd beta was totally different from the 1^st beta makes him worried.
• In the 1^st beta, jumps were strong so you could easily get lose and mix up with attack or throw. But when he used Sol in this version, he thought he could not advance from the air at all. Nor could you get into throw range from the ground. It became very rigid.
• If one says that it is like SF5, it kind of is like SF5.
• It does not feel exhilarating mixing the opponent up.
• It depends on the character. Giovanna has specials that give hard KD that combos from grounded moves and are not guaranteed punishable on block so she can get into a mix up situation from grounded neutral.
• Even though jump options got weaker, there are characters that cannot get into an okizeme situation from grounded neutral. He would understand this if the characters that have specials that allow them to go for throw/attack mix ups would have had weaker jump options.
• Even though we have not played the game so much, and our understanding of the game is superficial, they are implementing many changes… which makes him somewhat worried.
• There are situations where hammerfall can be punished and cannot be punished. Did they examine this during development?
• Millia is totally different. Her combos do not work at times. He does not understand why combos stop working. Is there a reason why they do not want us to loop set play?
• He thinks that one cannot make Rev3 [in today’s context] and that is the reason for why they are changing it. He thinks that it is correct to make the game less like a GG game to be the correct decision.
• If they do not revitalize the game it will be impossible.
• For some reason he thinks that they want to make a GG that feels like a totally different game.
• The graphics are pretty and the music is good. Those feel like GG.
• He thinks that maybe non FG players, or people with little to no game experience, are the target audience. If that is the case the direction makes sense for him. But even so it feels a bit rushed.
• SF5 is well put together. If okizeme can be looped it favors heavy users, but if you get thrown it is over. You can go for okizeme but only once.
• He is worried about the possibility of them immediately balancing the game based on public uproar from the users. Are they going to take in all the opinions of the users? Will the users really think it is a fun game if they balance the game based on player feedback alone?
• Consider this: users did not understand something during user tests; but options the users thought were weak turned out to be ridiculously strong; meaning that the design process blundered by not correctly understanding FGs. Listening to player feedback is something that he appreciates. But if you focus on that too much this is what happens, or at least that is how he felt.
• Of course there will always be boring changes in game design. He does not think one can create the perfect game.
• He thinks that not being able to loop okizeme and set play feels new/fresh. He got demoralized after getting looped with okizeme in Gundam.
• If we know ways to increase new and fresh perspectives, FGs would be more new and fresh. If we knew that they would flourish.
• He once ran a beginner tournament for USF4. The attendance was good. He thinks that gathering people of similar skill levels into communities is a good idea. He think flourishing FGs depend on if one can gather players at similar skill levels, and if the game itself is fun.
• He thinks that it might be better without early access promotion. He thinks that it is a bad look to have some people be able to play the game in advance whereas others whom have pre-ordered do not have that chance. If only VTubers would have had access to events like that he would understand. It may look like a chance for everybody, but there is no chance for you to play it, or something like that. It might be better without this type of promotion. He feels that he might have understood the feelings of those that are angry at this sort of stuff.
• Herewafter he will not say that a new character is weak after having only played them a couple of hours. We may simply not have not figured out what is fun with them or what is their potential.  
• Without having grinded a FG significantly he does not feel like saying too much about games. People might think that since he is a pro-gamer he cannot talk trash about games, but he feels that he does not know enough to be certain.  He thinks that one cannot understand the true nature of FGs through user tests.
• He thinks that the only time when he can make tier charts is when he has won a tournament. His ego is bigger and he wants to make them then. He thinks that people that make tier charts are feeling themselves. Matchup charts are also like that. It is like they are confidently declaring that they are the number one at using their character. He does not deny that.
• People that make tier charts are basically saying that they can use all characters in the game. He would understand matchup charts for one’s main character that focuses on easier and more difficult matchups.
• And then some more points about tier charts and matchup charts and that it is stupid to create tier charts for beta tests….

Stream archive: https://youtu.be/FG-0-pknlG0?t=15955

After having translated Kazukono’s opinions on Gundam and tier charts, at this point, I started to get bored by translating all individual sentences… so for the Dogura-section below, I only translated parts of the content. I added […] for points I omitted.

Dogura

• Consider any previous knowledge that you had as memories of the past.
• He thinks that it is probably good to change the direction about jumping and air movement.
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• He thinks that the reason for why the game feels sluggish is because of the jumps.
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• Personally, he thinks that dash super jumps should retain their dash momentum, but that is his own personal preference.
• If new players say that “GG is fun!” he thinks that is fine. The problem is that the reaction of previous GG players are 50/50. Some people say that it is fun, and then there are some mixed responses. If one looks at it more objectively, negative opinions about the game are more common among those that played previous GGs. He, agreeing with the sentiment of previous GG player, thinks that the reasons for this should be addressed.
• Those that are expressing negative opinions about the game are mainly previous GG players.
• Changes like landing recovery and removal of dash momentum retention are two components that are new, and if they want to retain the GG feeling to the game, they should probably fix these parts. […]
• He played previous GGs so much that he has the spirit of GG inside of him.
• The worst possible outcome would be that neither ASW players nor new players will play the game, so they have to draw the line somewhere for which part of the audience they want to draw in.
• He is not convinced that he can look at the game objectively.
• He does not want to say that GG should be like this or like that.
• He thought that GG would die with ACPR. Then GG came back with Xrd and it just survived. Do you want to make the same mistake?
• He wants to tell people that “do not want GG to no longer be like GG” to keep playing the previous versions. ASW wants GG to continue as something new, and thus they have made a lot of changes. But I want them to avoid it not being fun. If it makes the game fun, they can decide to remove the GG feeling, and just keep the characters.
• There is no way that the satisfaction of previous GG players is connected to the development of a new game. New players being the most important is beyond doubt. Among those that are complaining, there are many higher level players. He thinks that if you have skills then just adjust them to the new game. There is no need to focus on the higher level players. You guys just use your experience and adapt, or are you just stupid? He definitely wants them to focus on new players.
• In SF the game system always changes. He considers himself very good at adapting to many different game systems, and he personally thinks there is nothing strange with changing game systems.  
• There are plenty of players that were really strong in SF4 but are barely known in SF5. If that is because they did not play SF5 or if they kept on playing SF4 because they liked it over SF5, he does not know. That is up to the individual. But as regards SF4 players that say that “SF5 is boring, it is a shitty game, play SF4 instead”, he honestly thinks they should just disappear. Are you still getting tagged by Forte’s EX Quesadilla Bombs? Are you still getting bopped by Elena’s Mallet Smash?
• He would like to hear the opinions of people that do not play games, but those opportunities rarely come about.
• He thinks that mid-level players stop playing when they suffer setbacks. When they cannot win as much as they would like to, or when their character is nerfed. He thinks that the reasons for why mid-level players and beginners stop playing are different. Beginners stop playing because the game is no longer fun. The hurdle in creating an enjoyable experience for new players is different from balance changes that make mid-level players consent.
• […]
• SF5 kept on adding new content so the amount of new players kept on increasing. It is easy to recommend to people, and the game itself is fun. Once you play it, it is easy to pick up.
• He is anxious about GG. If there had been no GG, he would not have had the life he has today – this is something that he feels very deeply. If he can give back to GG in some way, he would like to do that.
• But they should remove Zappa 🙂
• He will not lecture old-school GG players, but would like them to at least think about how they express their opinions. He understands their feelings. They are angry because they like GG. He understand when they say stuff like “What have you done to my GG!”, but would like them to reconsider how they express themselves-
• He understands when people say stuff like “I personally do not like that momentum disappears when you jump, nor that jump attacks result in landing recovery, so I would like these issues to be fixed”. But he would like people to stay saying stuff like “wtf these jumps lol, this is a game for kids, so so so dead game lol lol back to SF5 haha”… but the latter is common.
• There is no point to using excessively strong language to express your negative opinion, or bad language to banter and ridicule. Writing your precise reasons in the survey is the response of adults.
• He hates saying that something is fun when he does not think it is fun, so he definitely does not want to do that. He does not like saying nice things about things he dislikes. That is why he expresses what he thinks should be fixed while thinking about how he expresses those opinions.
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• Sorry danger time, but we do not need you. It is good that stun is gone, because stun = death.

Stream archive: https://www.mildom.com/playback/10623172/10623172-c2flbmd2lrn9bph9huig