NA3: what went wrong?

For another view on NA3's place (or non-place) in competitive gaming, American Narutimate player Forte has this to say:

Breaking Down NA3

With the PS2 dead in the eyes of many developers, CC2 either had to stick with the Accel PS2 format, or make a move to either the PS3 or the PSP. In the end, it did both: Narutimate Storm was the spiritual successor of the game series on the PS3 and Narutimate Accel 3 made its way to the PSP. Everyone's hopes were up as new characters and gameplay were on their way. 4 player support? No more annoying assists? The possibility of online battles? It all looked promising.

What went wrong?

After some play testing among the community it was evident that this was a revamp of the existing system, and although it was fun, it was not geared to be played in a competitive manner. How so? In my opinion, here are the reasons why:

1. 4 player balancing removed the 2 player game

Let's face it, mechanics that were valid with two players become invalid when you can potentially have three characters surrounding your ass. Dashing out of chains makes it easier to get out of a situation where your opponent and his teammate are wailing on you with hits, but at the same time it makes the majority of chains and infinites worthless, upsetting a precarious state of balance that had previously been achieved with the knj/tech system. Getting interrupted by 2+ characters in performing moves is no longer a problem because jutsu have a more invulnerable startup. On the other hand, it screws the balance of jutsu in 2p play. With 4p, knj-ing 2+ characters takes a lot of chakra, and taking 3 people out in a 3 v 1 takes a long time had the old system stuck. CC2's solution? Increase damage output and make a system where chakra can serve as a trump card. The problem with that? Well, see below.

2. the awakening system partially invalidates the chakra system

Before, awakenings were activated on a set of conditions that were mostly fit towards the character's fighting style. It took a while to activate them through taunt (making the player revolve around a playstyle where you can get an opportunity to activate) or took some time to get through combo (making the player orient his or her playstyle at getting jutsu or combos that do the necessary damage.) Now, awakenings are triggered after taking or dishing out a set amount of damage, has no startup time and gives you free chakra (full!) at little to no cost (before, activating an awakening could cost you all your chakra or a good chunk of your own life.) The standardized activation system retards the diversity of fighting styles, making you play the same way for characters that aren't supposed to be played the same way. And what of this free chakra and chakra denial characters? It renders chakra denial next to useless with a few exceptions.

3. ridiculous imbalances

For one thing, POISON. The increased frequency where you could activate awakenings makes poison more of a problem. And some characters have heal status on top of that! Imagine fighting Oro/Kabuto. You unleash damage on Kabuto, activating his awakening where he gets heal AND poison for every time he touches you. Now Kabuto goes all aggressive, taking you down with perpetual poison, while healing himself. If you somehow manage to survive, you're back to zero. If you manage to inflict enough damage again, you're facing the possibility where Kabuto can reactivate his awakening and heal all the damage you caused him (while causing poison damage to you!) There's also 4 Tail Naruto. Jutsu damage on block exceeds ougi damage. (And remember, awakenings give you max chakra.) And for some characters...

4. jutsu spam for the win

As I said before, jutsu are invincible to shuriken on startup. Now shuriken were important in that they were a source of interrupting the opponent at whatever he was going to do, making post-knj a little safer (and inventing the whole post knj retaliation mindgame.) And now? Well, you don't have to worry about that, since you can pull out jutsu whenever you have the opportunity. That's because shuriken cancels aren't that useful in this game. Running out of chakra isn't that much of a deal, since awakening gives it to you for free. Some characters have really good jutsu that can be spammed over and over again post knj or whenever you want.

5. nitpicks
- they removed time out wins! Playing to a time out win was a huge part of a NA/NH player's endgame, and a significant part of a defensive playstyle. It also offered a win opportunity for characters with severe character disadvantages, given that NA/NH was a character based game. Now if you run out of time, the game considers it a draw. It oversimplifies the defensive game by taking out that opportunity.
- nothing is ever set in stone. Chains don't work on walls, some moves don't work all the time, everything feels like a huge black box that you can't definitively decipher and analyze.
- pressure on block doesn't matter anymore. Alpha counters and dashing out of chains removes that threat.

All in all, NA3 turned out to be a very different game. Although innovation worked to the NA/NH series' benefit in the past, this time it took a whole step backward. In creating a fun 4 player game, NA3 turned into a dismal 2 player competitive game (although still a fun game.) Only time will tell if CC2 decides to go back to the beaten path or go forward and continue to overhaul a system that frankly needs little to no tweaking at all.