How do you feel about unlocking characters in multiplayer games

Big Boss · February 12, 2016, 05:41:56 PM

Now I know it's no big deal, but I dislike it when I bring a game over somebody else's house to play, and we're stuck using the default characters. This isn't really a huge deal, but some of the games we played didn't have a big roster and we'd have to spend hours unlocking all the characters just to use in our play session.

I know unlocking characters isn't really that big of a problem, I just wish... I dunno, they were all available for multiplayer, but you still had to unlock them for single player use, or something.

Verbatim · February 12, 2016, 05:48:40 PM

I agree.

As fun and thrilling as it can be to unlock new characters (as it was in Melee), it's honestly kind of a waste of time, for the reasons you mentioned. Sometimes I just wanna play as my favorite character right away, and I don't feel obliged to do this silly task or jump through a hoop just to play as him--and this becomes mildly irritating for the competitive player.

Street Fighter IV, as ridiculous as it got with all its updates and re-releases, did it right after vanilla. In vanilla, you had, like, ten characters to unlock, and it was tedious as fuck, because the game isn't really meant to be a casual funfest--it's a competitive game by nature, so all the characters should be available from the start.

Fortunately, from Super Street Fighter IV onwards, all the characters were available at startup.

Big Boss · February 12, 2016, 05:51:57 PM

Quote from: Verbatim on February 12, 2016, 05:48:40 PM

I agree.

As fun and thrilling as it can be to unlock new characters (as it was in Melee), it's honestly kind of a waste of time, for the reasons you mentioned. Sometimes I just wanna play as my favorite character right away, and I don't feel obliged to do this silly task or jump through a hoop just to play as him--and this becomes mildly irritating for the competitive player.

Street Fighter IV, as ridiculous as it got with all its updates and re-releases, did it right after vanilla. In vanilla, you had, like, ten characters to unlock, and it was tedious as fuck, because the game isn't really meant to be a casual funfest--it's a competitive game by nature, so all the characters should be available from the start.

Fortunately, from Super Street Fighter IV onwards, all the characters were available at startup.

Wow you actually agree? I actually thought you would have told me to stop feeling entitled or something and how I should shut up and earn the characters

But yeah, if you wanna play competetively you shouldn't really have to go through the (usually) boring single player stuff to get the characters

Winy · February 12, 2016, 06:27:26 PM

Nah, I don't like that sort of thing. Progressive buildup can be sensible in games, but the context needs to be right. Fighting games really aren't one of them. I remember when I use to obsessively play SSBB, some of the requirements for character unlocks were just tedious. Like, you needed to play 500 matches to get a certain character, so I'd just go into a match on Final Destination, set it to one life, jump off the edge, and repeat it over and over until I had who I wanted. That's just a stupid game mechanic.

I guess the point is, it varies heavily based on what's being unlocked, and in what sort of game.

Verbatim · February 12, 2016, 06:33:39 PM

Quote from: Connor on February 12, 2016, 06:27:26 PM

Nah, I don't like that sort of thing. Progressive buildup can be sensible in games, but the context needs to be right. Fighting games really aren't one of them. I remember when I use to obsessively play SSBB, some of the requirements for character unlocks were just tedious. Like, you needed to play 500 matches to get a certain character, so I'd just go into a match on Final Destination, set it to one life, jump off the edge, and repeat it over and over until I had who I wanted. That's just a stupid game mechanic.

I guess the point is, it varies heavily based on what's being unlocked, and in what sort of game.

Well, at least in Brawl, all you really had to do was play the story mode, where you'd unlock characters as you meet them.

But yeah.

Winy · February 12, 2016, 06:48:37 PM

Quote from: Verbatim

Well, at least in Brawl, all you really had to do was play the story mode, where you'd unlock characters as you meet them.

But yeah.

That's true, but some of them weren't in the story mode, right? My memory is really fuzzy, but I don't remember Jigglypuff in the story. I think there were others, too.

Verbatim · February 12, 2016, 06:57:38 PM

Quote from: Connor on February 12, 2016, 06:48:37 PM

That's true, but some of them weren't in the story mode, right? My memory is really fuzzy, but I don't remember Jigglypuff in the story. I think there were others, too.

Wolf, Toon Link, and Jigglypuff weren't available until after you had already beaten it. In NG+, there were three secret doors that led to them--but without a guide, you weren't gonna find them.

Dopameme · February 12, 2016, 07:02:11 PM

this was one of the many reasons why evolve flopped so hard. you started out with just the 4 default hunters in each class, the goliath as your only monster, and the only way to differentiate between that was to grind hours into the multiplayer and complete super specific challenges. to me that sort of thing takes a lot of enjoyment away from the game and it shifts the players' focus to completing challenges instead of having fun.

Winy · February 12, 2016, 07:15:11 PM

Quote from: Verbatim on February 12, 2016, 06:57:38 PM

Quote from: Connor on February 12, 2016, 06:48:37 PM
That's true, but some of them weren't in the story mode, right? My memory is really fuzzy, but I don't remember Jigglypuff in the story. I think there were others, too.
Wolf, Toon Link, and Jigglypuff weren't available until after you had already beaten it. In NG+, there were three secret doors that led to them--but without a guide, you weren't gonna find them.

I actually never beat the Subspace Emissary, "The Great Maze" or whatever it was called was incredibly boring to me so I just never completed the story mode. I get lost in video games very easy, so I lost motivation to complete the game.

Jono · February 12, 2016, 07:23:04 PM

I want to unlock characters by progressing through the game instead of them being locked behind a paywall, same goes with weapons and other things depending on the game.

Zonda · February 13, 2016, 01:51:29 AM

It's ok in vanilla SSB where you only needed like 30 minutes to unlock them all, but yeah, I kind of agree. One of my friends was hosting a Melee Tournament, and he almost didn't unlock Final Destination before the Tourney started.

R o c k e t · February 13, 2016, 02:01:44 AM

Melee was ok to me because the event matches were fun. Only issue was there was no way to know how to unlock any characters in-game, I had to look them up.

However since I'm doing smash competitively I don't want to bother unlocking characters since I need to know matchups.

R o c k e t · February 13, 2016, 02:02:10 AM

Quote from: ❤Midna👌👌😂😂 on February 13, 2016, 01:51:29 AM

One of my friends was hosting a Melee Tournament, and he almost didn't unlock Final Destination before the Tourney started.

oh shit

Zonda · February 13, 2016, 02:03:34 AM

Quote from: Rocketman287 on February 13, 2016, 02:02:10 AM

oh shit

ye fam

big sponge · February 13, 2016, 02:10:42 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on February 12, 2016, 06:57:38 PM

Quote from: Connor on February 12, 2016, 06:48:37 PM
That's true, but some of them weren't in the story mode, right? My memory is really fuzzy, but I don't remember Jigglypuff in the story. I think there were others, too.
Wolf, Toon Link, and Jigglypuff weren't available until after you had already beaten it. In NG+, there were three secret doors that led to them--but without a guide, you weren't gonna find them.

The Jigglypuff and Toon Links doors could be found pretty easily. The Wolf one was the only one that was a little bit tricky as you had to go back through a door you had just come through to reach it.