Genki Break!

Now that I've had the chance to play against some experienced players in the game, I feel a bit more comfortable rating this. I like it! This is being written while the game is in early access and I might come back and change this later, but as of now, I have some things I really like and some things I really don't. Pros- *First off, it's an indie 3D fighting game. Which, like. Competently made 3D fighting games on their own are rare, -indie- 3D fighting games are basically unicorns. In that light, Genki Break is damn near unchallenged. *Frame data. The game has really well thought out frame data that is roughly standardized across the cast and built in a way that feels really, really good if you're an old school 3D player that likes your lows + on hit and low damage (or knockdown and way, way riskier). As someone that loves stuff like Dreamcast/PS2 era fighting games the most (SC2, Plasma Sword) to merely have a game with this style of frame data (and have it be accessible in training mode, along with hitboxes) is an actual dream come true. This is the best thing GB has right now. *Easy to pick up. Generally, the smaller move lists here are devoid of the chaff that I think is a turn off to 2D players when they play stuff like Tekken/etc. Most everything has a point and it's not at the cost of losing out on the fun of knowledge checks, mostly thanks to the system being built more around your stamina gauge. *The stamina gauge! It's the core mechanic of the game: wildly flail in neutral and you'll run out of stamina, and if you get knocked down without stamina, you auto-lose the round. Some full disclosure: I played the game jam version of this game first and it was way too easy to run out of stamina after just attacking a few times. Since then, they have re-tuned the stamina gauge in a way where it feels almost perfect: you feel like you still need to play carefully, generally, but you don't feel instantly kneecapped for being speculative with your pokes in neutral, either. *Rollback netcode. Even in early access the rollback netcode feels VERY good. I had some DCs occur during my first real set but after about 1 1/2 hours I'd say about 90% of the matches were buttery smooth and fun. *EXCELLENT training mode. Like, really, everything you need is there, and considering that this is a from-the-ground-up sort of engine, this is genuinely impressive that they got this. Might as well mention that the game has combo trials too that teach you really practical things as well. You can juggle into grabs in this and use those as combo filler and it, like, works in a way that makes sense. Cons- *I, personally, hate the movement in this game. You can dash->guard->dash for a pseudo wave dash in any direction. I'm sure that sounds fun and funny but it kind of undermines everything about the obviously deliberate spacing and neutral in the game, and it also just kind of looks ugly when the game's camera struggles to keep up with it. It takes a game that really should be about mid-range jockeying for positioning (like many of its inspirations, in fact) and turns it into a race of who can get the other person to the corner as instantly as possible to pressure with +OB jabs (in a game with no parry and a sidestep that can't avoid anything) *The sidestep, mentioned above, is basically worthless. I actually don't think I've ever seen -anything- go off axis in this game. The issue, I don't think, has anything to do with the sidestep itself, but rather with the fact that I think attacks are just instantly locking on to the opponent. This combined with the dash situation gives the game a really confused feeling where you -think- it's this slow deliberate 3D fighter, but it has far more in common with aggressive 2D anime games since lateral movement just... can't be utilized, generally. *Ground stalling allows you to recover damn near your entire stamina gauge at the cost of maybe taking a low damage hit or two OTG. Often times, those low-damage hits also leave the person that guessed correctly on oki -minus-, so the opponent can eat the OTG hit, get up, and mash jab, the strongest thing in the game. I don't think this works that great for this system right now since there are some real feast or famine character design choices with how chasing roll works. You can also stay on the ground forever after all rolls, including backroll, unlike many other old school fighting games where backrolling forces you to get up. This just feels... bad, but I don't think it's the worst problem in the game right now (but I imagine new players would barf at this the first time they realize what's happening.) *Jabs are in a weird place. They are usually +OB for most of the cast, which is fine, but EVERYTHING in this game is like omega plus on counter hit, so the risk/reward almost exclusively favors wailing on jab as much as possible since it is both your main form of pressure, is safer on whiff than most things, and also confirms into a launcher if it hits. I think the counterhit reward is probably better utilized on specific, slower moves and not on the literal fastest move every character has. Of all my problems with this version of the game right now, I think this is the thing that will probably most likely change. And that's about it. I should note that another man's trash is another's treasure, etc, and I have a feeling some of the things I don't like are going to be -extremely- somebody's jam. I highly recommend trying this game out because it is in a league of its own and indie developers as creative and daring as this one deserve the eyeballs, even if I disagree with where the game is and may or may not be heading right now.