So MBAA(the console version, at least) has been out for almost a year now, and I thought I'd post my thoughts on it. However, most of what I think about the game is a comparison of the game to MBAC, so this will also sort of be a retrospective of my experience with the series in general.
Anyway, I believe my first exposure to Melty Blood was in either 2006 or 2007. At this time, the latest version was MBAC Ver.A, but there was no console version yet so the only way for us non-Japanese people to play the game was to play an outdated version of it, Melty Blood ReACT Final Tuned. I stumbled upon the game when trying to google search a method to play Guilty Gear XX #Reload online, and I remember finding a random forum where someone said that #Reload had no netplay(on PC, at least), but there was a similar game called Melty Blood that did have netplay.
So I played it, and had a lot of fun learning the game at first. At one point I was actually considered a top player during MBAC's time, but I think this had nothing to do with me actually being good; it was more like the scene was just very weak. Nowadays the scene is much stronger and I can't quite keep up anymore. Anyway, after about a year and a half of playing the game, I got really bored of playing my character Akiha, so I started playing a lot more secondary characters, but it didn't matter and I just got really bored of the game. I had a lot of fun with the game in the beginning, but it was like the better I got at the game and the more I learned, the less I enjoyed it. Besides the game actually being pretty boring, the reasons which can be read in the previous post, MBAC had a number of problems which I will list here:
1. The biggest problem of the game was the extremely shallow neutral game. There was basically no footsies, as being in the air was much more advantageous than being on the ground. Chicken blocking was extremely strong, and there was very little blockstun off an air block. Most characters had ridiculous j.a's, as they were active for a very long time(Len's j.a had 12 active frames), so the spacing game for the most part was reduced to everybody just flying around mashing j.a.
2. The screen was too small. Because of this, there was basically no midrange game: it was only you and your opponent up close, or flying around mashing buttons. It also didn't help that most characters could traverse the entire screen very quickly with a single superjump. Naturally, zoning was almost nonexistant too.
3. Mashing. Mashing a was extremely strong in MBAC because a's were the fastest attacks, had good active frames, and unlike other fighting games starting a combo from multiple jabs didn't significantly decrease the amount of damage done. In some cases it actually increased it. Hitting a multiple times was very strong in neutral because of active frames, was strong in pressure because of how easy it was to create frame traps by simply delaying the a's, and was strong on defense because of how fast a's were and because full combo damage could be done from a multiple jab starter.
4. Clash frames. These were a weird mechanic where if a clash happened, then both characters could immediately regain all their chain options. The problem with clash frames is that they were everywhere: most characers had clash frames on their b and c attacks. In addition, clash frames mostly occured during the startup of moves. This basically encouraged mashing buttons on defense even more. MBAC is the only fighting game I've seen where the defender can actually get away with trying to attack at frame disadvantage because of clash frames saving them.
5. The strength of blocking. Retaining its doujin roots, MBAC did not have chip death in it. In addition, there was no guard bar like in many other fighting games, or a negative penalty system. Also, the way reverse beat worked in the game was that the more someone rebeat, the less damage their next combo would do. Basically there was no penalty for guarding all day, and the attacker was actually penalized because of how central reverse beat was to the game. I should also mention that mixup in MBAC was very weak, as overheads were mostly very slow and throws did very little damage.
6. Shielding. Admittedly MBAC's parry mechanic was much better than 3rd Strike's, but it had a number of problems. Shielding was too strong because it had very little recovery and it actually froze the attacker in place for a certain amount of time. This basically meant that in MBAC there was no such thing as "true" safe jumps: a safe jump would be safe to everything the defender did on wakeup except for a reversal shield. In addition, there was a built-in option select on airthrows: since throws were input with a+d, a whiffed airthrow would result in a shield. This basically disrupted the entire basic fighting game offensive triangle. Throwing is supposed to beat blocking and lose to attacking, but a whiffed airthrow results in shield which beats attacking.
7. Boring combos(and characters). It might have been intentional, but MBAC was a very low execution game. Most characters' combos were simply hitconfirm multiple jabs into a sweep, then a launcher, and then j.bc j.bc airthrow. There were of course more difficult and flashy combos that could be done, but for the most part, they either a)didn't do significantly more damage or b)did less damage.
The last problem is a really subjective one, so it's not numbered:
-Heat. I really hate the way heat was managed in MB. Letting people have a way to regenerate their health in fighting games is usually a bad idea. However, there are some games where I think life regeneration was handled very well, like IaMP for example. In MBAC regenerating life is a very easy thing to do as heat activation can be done anytime someone has 100 meter or more. I think heat activation is obnoxious and way too strong in MBAC because a)it has invincible startup and b)it's unblockable. I would be totally fine with it if activation was invincible OR unblockable, but not both. A defender spazzing on heat while getting pressured is also pretty strong because heats can't be baited like bursts in Guilty Gear where you just stop attacking and block: you have to actually get out of the way and then move in and attack.
Wow this post turned out way too long, so I'll continue in the next post, where I'll talk about how MBAA fixed (most!) of these problems.
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