Two balancing philosophies

The inspiration for this post comes from the GGXX Slash vs Accent Core debate, and to a lesser extent, the MBAC vs MBAA one. For those that don't know, about a year ago the Maryland GG scene decided to stop playing GGXX Accent Core, which was the most recent version. Instead, they used the GG Generations mode available in Accent Core Plus, which allows you to play the old #Reload and Slash versions of characters. Their reasons for doing so were that AC was not fun and very broken, while the previous two versions, especially Slash, were much more balanced. This sparked a bit of a debate on the Dustloop and SRK forums, getting people from outside Maryland involved too. Naturally this leads into the discussion of whether GGXX Slash or Accent Core is more balanced, and the different design philosophies that went into those games.

Slash was a pretty big departure from the older games, as a lot of the brokenness was either removed or toned down. The basic idea was that almost every character got nerfed, as nobody could reliably do 50%+ life combos. The harder characters in the game were also really bad, while the easier characters were extremely good. Accent Core on the other hand, is a very high damage game, and pretty much every character has something very broken about them.

So this leads into the 2 different balancing philosophies. The Slash method of balancing is to basically nerf every character, keep the game as modest as possible, and take out as much as of the silliness as possible. The Accent Core way of balancing is to make every character really strong and broken, and have tons of silly stuff. There's probably another name for these two balancing philosophies, but it's the name that I like to use, and it's also special since these two philosophies were used in two consecutive versions of the GG series. These balancing methods are also reflected in Melty Blood Act Cadenza and Actress Again, with MBAC being like Slash and MBAA being like Accent Core.

Personally, I prefer the Accent Core way of balancing, as even if it leads to games being less balanced it makes them more fun and last longer. A perfect example of this is what happened to the GG and MB scenes when Slash and MB Act Cadenza were the most recent versions. While Slash was definitely a much better game than #Reload, it became stale in the US scene very quickly, and many people around the world stopped playing GG during this time. For MBAC, the US scene stagnated a year after its release. There's still a bit of debate over what caused this, the most popular opinions being that netplay destroyed the scene and the game being on PC made it too big of a hassle to run tournaments. However, I believe the reason was just that MBAC was a bad and very boring game, and it just took about a year for most people to get tired of it.

There are actually still a couple of people in the US that prefer MBAC to MBAA, and for some reason many people in Europe still play MBAC as well. The main reason I hear for this is that MBAC is more balanced and they prefer the much lower execution requirements of that game. I actually agree that MBAC is more balanced than MBAA, as the gaps in tiers are smaller and almost every character is viable. However, the game is just really boring after a while. I remember how sad I was during 2007, the year that Tougeki was getting streamed. When watching the Tougeki 2007 MBAC stream and the DVDs later on, it became readily apparent during the top4 live segments that the audience was just not hype at all. Arturo Sanchez was actually at this event and he recounted that the audience for MBAC was really silent and they basically had to be pushed by the Tougeki announcer to cheer during the games.

As for whether GG Slash or Accent Core is more balanced, I believe Accent Core is more balanced(and more fun!) for a number of reasons. The gaps in the tiers in Slash were pretty big, as the bottom tier in Slash was reaaaaaaally bad. Slash Dizzy, Robo, and Order Sol were pretty much considered unplayable. In AC the gaps in the tiers are small, as pretty much every character is viable. However, one very noticeable difference is that the top tier in Accent Core can all do very silly things, like multiple high-damage unblockable setups or 70%+ life combos from one hit or counterhit, while the top tier in Slash can't do anything like that. Some people would probably say that Slash is more balanced purely based on that, but I think it's important to make a distinction between silliness and balance. While the top tier in Slash didn't have anything silly, they were still overwhelmingly stronger than the rest of the cast in that game. The top tier in Accent Core has tons of silly stuff, but most of the cast does too so it balances out. And indeed, the best testament to the balance of AC is last year's Tougeki results, as a bottom tier team of Satou Johnny, Mugen Bridget, and Chonari Zappa made it to finals. Although they didn't win, it went down to the final players of both teams with Chonari Zappa vs N-O Venom.

This silliness that I talked about is also very much absent in MBAC, but very much present in MBAA. And not surprisingly, MBAA is a much more fun game(in my opinion, at least), evidenced by how much louder the crowds are in both US and Japanese tournament videos.

In the end, while balance is definitely a very important thing in fighting games, the most important thing is still for the game to be fun, and if balance has to be sacrificed for it, then so be it.