Melty Blood had a free weekend on Steam a while ago, during which I thought I'd give it a try. I'm not generally a fan of traditional fighting games, but it won't hurt to try one every once in a while. Truthfully, I am well aware of the fact that fighting game enthusiasts, like is the case for many PvP games, spend a lot of time perfecting their craft. Unlike for the many games that I play that can be completed, I am quite certain I can not give an adequate overview of the nuances of Melty Blood, how it differs from other fighting games, or how well it's made in comparison. Though I did play it for almost 8 hours straight, which is longer than like 90% of the games I write about, that is not enough. So, this will be more of a brief overview, and my thoughts on fighting games in general, instead of a useful review of Melty Blood.
I can at least mention that Melty Blood: Type Lumina is a newer iteration of the original Melty Blood fighting game, and they feature characters from the Tsukihime visual novel (and some from the Fate series). As far as I can tell, the source material is of no detriment to the quality of the game. The gameplay feels pretty solid, the art is great, and it wasn't too hard to pick up even for a mechanically-challenged player like me.
Being bad at fighting games is the same reason I'm not a fan of them, and it's not technically unique to fighting games. It's not that I can't play action games at all, but I'm slow at anything that's not a binary reaction, and I can not for the life of me input button combinations in the heat of battle. Not for a lack of practice, mind you. I have played probably hundreds of hours of action games total that require these skills to some degree, and it's consistently something I fail at. I've just accepted it at this point. Of course, this is what traditional fighting games are all about. Split-second reactions, instantly choosing the correct counter-move to some action the opponent did, and often inputting a pre-learned sequence of keypresses at very precise timings to perform some move or combo. I can handle something like Brawlhalla, which is a Smash-like, but all of these things I call traditional fighting games, where the characters are 2D sprites that take up most of the screen, have correct body proportions, and can only double jump or do a single air dash, have featured some input system that requires either pressing multiple buttons at a time, or doing a motion with the joystick, which of course corresponds to a tight chain of button presses. Honestly, Melty Blood is actually light on these features, but still features the quarter-circle and whatever a 623 or 421 is called, and I can't do those.
This massive arsenal of moves, and expectance to know frame timings and stay up to date on which combos can be done in which situations is just too much for me, especially given that even if I learn them, I still can't execute them in a real fight. And nothing frustrates me more than knowing what I am supposed to do, but failing to do it. I can execute the keypresses in my head, but not with my hands.
I'm rambling, and there's no good conclusion to this. I can't in good faith blame fighting games for my own incompetence. I had previously held a belief that the button combinations are needlessly complicated, and that may still be the case, especially in other fighting games with half-circles and whatnot that's more than 4 keys. However, I tried playing for a while, having created macro keys for both quarter circles and the other combiation I mentioned, and I still failed to do them in battle. Of course, reducing the input complexity would also reduce the depth of the game, and I can see what that is undesired.
Regardless of all that, I think fighting games should still strive to be more accessible and easier to play, perhaps shifting complexity to other areas of gameplay. Backing this up is that even the most popular fighting games are quite niche in comparison to most other PvP games. Even most of the worst players still playing are significantly good at the game, and so going to a matchmade game will guarantee getting your ass kicked for hours on end until you either improve or quit the game. I'm afraid most people quit, myself included, and can you fault them? Few other game genres test the mental resolve of new players like this.
So, yeah, I don't know. Melty Blood was kind of fun. Wouldn't play it again though. Art is very cool. The girls are cute. Neco-Arc is life. I will instantly quit the next game that asks me to input a quarter circle.
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