Thanks to everyone in our community who participated in last year’s closed beta tests. One of the team’s goals was to better understand how players interacted with the game’s mechanics and overall pacing, including tempo, character switches, and overall gameplay flow.
The team received a great amount of feedback that directed several gameplay improvements. We’re excited to share what those major changes are and will be reflected for fans to enjoy at upcoming events starting at AWT Finals.
The following are the list of changes.
Note: The button labels in this article are for the PS5 version.
【Tag Button （L2）】
・Enabled during pre-battle, direct call during match, on Assist Attack hit and during the pause before Assist withdraw.
→Since this button is dedicated to member change functions, it does not do anything when pressed during Assemble Smash for follow-up attacks.
・Direct tag out functions the same as the previous Quick Tag (QT) button: as soon as character enters screen.
→However, if a different assist is called or if the point character takes damage during entry, that assist will withdraw without doing anything, only going through the member change animation.
・Sped up the Member Change animation from 30 frames to 20 frames to increase the overall tempo.
【Assemble Button （✕）】
・Removed all functions related to member change and reassigned to Tag Button. As an exception, Super Assemble (X during Super Skill) is the only time when member change happens as a result of pressing X.
Players felt that it was hard to distinguish between Assist and member change and that unintended member changes occurred due to it being assigned to the same button as Assist.
We originally intended to minimize the required number of buttons, but we have concluded that minimizing unintended inputs was more important.
In addition to L, M, H, Unique, Assemble, we added the Tag button for a total of 6 buttons.
Since the Tag button is dedicated to member change, member changes will no longer occur unless the player presses the Tag button with the clear intent of executing member change.
To improve game tempo, we have changed the animation from 30 frames to 20 frames, allowing for a smoother transition to the next character.
On trigger, screen freeze will occur as with Assemble Rush, but will cut out frames of the entry portion of the animation.
In addition, the assist character will now appear from behind the main character when using Cancel Assist and is also sped up accordingly with the screen freeze time adjustment.
The above applies when the main character is in the air (cancel air attack with ↓+X to trigger Vertical Assist).
We decided to implement this change because one of the most requested changes during the CBT was the ability to call an assist via cancelling an attack.
In addition, we reduced the entry animation, and the screen freeze time has also been reduced from 20 to 10 frames.
During CBT, it was noted that the screen freeze during Assemble Rush (Assist called by cancelling) and the screen freeze when calling one type of Assist looked the same.
The above changes are meant to resolve this issue and as a result, the game should grant players more freedom and combo variety.
Some players during CBT voiced the opinion that Assemble Rush was not needed at all, but we still believe that this mechanic is a necessary feature.
In this project, we want to make sure that the player understands the exact timing to which their assist characters will execute the attack after pressing a button.
If players were able to call an Assist whenever they wanted, it would become unclear when they should press the button. It will also lead to missed execution due to slight differences in button press timing.
Therefore, Assemble Rush exists as an easier way to utilize the Assist mechanic.
Based on the added cancel trigger of Shooter, Vertical and Assault Assists, Assault Rush now triggers only when the directional lever is in neutral position.
In this case, the character that enters the screen is prioritized the same way as Assemble Smash: in the order of availability.
The commands are listed below.
Neutral ＋× Assemble Assist (Shooter).
→＋× Assemble Assist (Shooter).
↓＋× Assemble Assist (Vertical).
←＋× Assemble Assist （Assault）.
Neutral ＋× Assemble Rush （prioritizes entry in order of standby character number 2＞3＞4）
→＋× Assemble Assist (Shooter).
↓＋× Assemble Assist (Vertical).
←＋× Assemble Assist （Assault）.
With the addition of a dedicated Tag button, players can now trigger consecutive assists with neutral + X input.
Assist characters will enter the screen in the order of their slot placement (2→3→4). This change allows for a smoother execution experience when calling assists consecutively.
This is in response to players wanting to use ground Assists while in the air.
We observed instances where an aerial Assist would trigger even though the Assist was called just before jumping. This change improves upon the accuracy of inputs as well as strategic freedom.
Aerial Assists trigger when the main character is positioned higher than a normal jump height (slightly higher than normal jump, double jump height or high jump height).
Aerial Assists mainly consist of attacks that are directed toward the ground.
As a basic rule of this game, the Assist character attacks once the character appears fully onscreen.
We do not necessarily reject the idea of attacking from offscreen, but as a basic policy, we want characters to appear fully onscreen before attacking.
However, we do understand Assist characters attacking from offscreen as a result of the main character moving after the Assist was called.
Thus in general, players cannot trigger ground Assists from a high altitude.
However, if the mechanic becomes pointless, players will stop using it, hence the above change.
Aerial Assist movement ranges greatly, so this change should give players more strategic freedom.
Including Assist attacks, this also applies to member changes triggered after executing an overhead attack.
Although technically, players can pre-emptively evade unblockable setups using Assemble Counter or Crossover, the previous changes made unblockable setups too easy, hence this change.
This is a nerf to Link Attacks.
When Standing L whiffs, the Link Attack L no longer triggers.
This eliminates instances where a character tracks the opponent character when crossed up.
Players during CBT commented that Link Attacks unintentionally triggers, so we made changes to improve input accuracy.
Link Attack finishes now trigger only when directional input is neutral or forward.
This will eliminate cases where Link Attacks trigger when crouch-attacking, for example.
Link Attack performs a series of multiple normal moves. As this would often be used against a blocking opponent, it resulted in matches sometimes feeling long. We have changed how the normal move part of Link Attack functions to increase the tempo of the offensive and defensive turns throughout a match. We have adjusted it so that L, M, and H normal moves can only be included in a Link Attack up to 4 times. This makes strings such as L > L > M > H or Standing M > Crouching M > Standing H > Crouching H possible. Each character's Unique attacks are not affected by this change.
Pressure strings could be extended due to how each normal move could continue into a Link Attack route to combo into a Skill. To address this, we have adjusted this so that Link Attack routes that combo into Skills will only trigger when pressing the same attack button. It is limited to the following routes: L > L > L (Link Attack finisher) > L ~ H Skill > Super Skill or Ultimate Skill M > M (Link Attack finisher) > L ~ H Skill > Super Skill or Ultimate Skill H > H (Link Attack finisher) > L ~ H Skill > Super Skill or Ultimate Skill
During CBT, Super Skills triggered Wall Breaks that resulted in stage transition. However, this animation was long and affected the overall tempo of the game.
We want to minimize timeframes where the game does not accept any inputs or where the players are just watching the screen, hence this change.
During CBT, both sides went back to neutral after wall break. Players felt dissatisfied that the situation returned to neutral despite the player who triggered the break having taken the advantage.
Furthermore, if the receiver turns things around and triggers another wall break, it ruins the tempo of the game.
In line with the previous removal of Super Skill Wall Beaks, this change also aims to improve game tempo.
With this buff to Wall Breaks, the match flow should feel better and Wall Break frequency mitigated.
After wall break, the receiving end will now be in untechable knockdown state. The initiator of the wall break now has a +25 frame advantage, instead of the previous 0 frame.
During CBT, combos reached their limit at odd timings, preventing players to complete a full combo and leading to an unsatisfying experience.
Since air combos see frequent usage, this change allows players to enjoy combos better.
Damage output and minimum proration values have been adjusted accordingly.
This is a bonus that influences the minimum proration when multiple skills are used.
Simply put, the more variety of attacks used in a combo, the higher the damage output.
This change makes it easier to perform a jump cancel while a button is tapped repeatedly.
During CBT, attack buttons took priority, making it difficult to perform jump cancels.
This is another change to address input accuracy.
Homing jump was triggered when an attack button was pressed after a crouching H during a combo, but it also now triggers from a Jump input.
The character will move to the opponent’s position smoothly when going for a combo.
If opting to perform a normal jump instead, you can input Jump while holding down the H button.
The above changes will give players more strategic options around dealing and healing damage.