As of right now, I believe that the punish game for rivals of aether 2 in relation to punishing missed AMSAH techs or moves that beat floorhug that aren’t grab feels deeply unsatisfying and very inconsistent. This is coming from the perspective of a mid Diamond ranked Forsburn, so I speak only from how i view upper mid level-ish gameplay.
This unsatisfying feeling comes from how when I execute a move that beats floorhugging like a spike or a move above the floorhug percent threshhold, the opponent gets knocked down on missed tech, and then despite going for a punish on said knocked down player, they attempt ANOTHER AMSAH tech and REMAIN knocked down again, effectively forcing me to go for a reaction tech chase more often than not whenever I hit an option that breaks floorhugging.
this comes from a player who believes that a player who broke their opponent’s floorhug and failed to execute amsah tech or missed a tech in general; shouldn’t be given the leaniency to attempt another amsah tech on knockdown, if they missed their chance to reduce the opponent’s punish then should have to eat what’s coming to them. It feels inconsistent to the philosophy of other existing mechanics like teching, where mis-timing a tech forces a tech lock out with a “if you missed it, then you missed it” kind of approach. I think the same philosophy should apply to Amsah techs.
I propose 3 changes:
I believe this would would make combos punishing a missed tech much more satisfying as it would remove that “flacid” feeling when continously hitting moves on a knocked down opponent only for them to stay knocked down forcing lesser reward for most of a round. Now if you missed a tech, and the attacker reacts quick enough, they can convert that into a much bigger and more satisfying reward since you’ll no longer cling on to the ground on knockdown.
Make Non Crouch Cancelled AMSAH tech attempts always bounce relative to their knockback
Make Crouch Cancelled AMSAH tech attempts always slide along the floor relative to their knockback
I believe these two changes would not only make moves like spikes and smash attacks more way more satisfying, but would also pose a much bigger risk for going for and missing an AMSAH tech at higher percents against other moves that could potentially open up the door for some interesting positions and reaction checks on both the attacking side and the defending side, that would feel consistent as there would be a sound cue and visual effects for clinging onto the ground due to crouch cancelling, mitigating that “flaccid” feeling and make the game more readable and satisfying. the other reason for crouch canceled amsah techs sliding while non cc amsah tech bouncing is also due to risk reward, as CC is way more commital by virtue of having to be crounching and idly crouching only to reap it’s benefits, making the extra survivabilty of sliding instead of bouncing much more intentional and satisfying to get.
I love AMSAH teching and think it’s an extremely cool mechanic, but ever since auto floorhug became standardized, I feel like AMSAH tech have become way too forgiving and frequent to hold the same weight and hype factor that it used to have, not to mention how it makes the punishing knockdown or beating floorhug feel way too skewed for something thing that I believe should an extremely risky but rewarding last ditch second chance at life.
this more of a side note, while my ideal world would’ve been to remove non crouch cancelled floorhugging while maintaining the ability amsah teching without having to crouch cancel with the changes I proposed in this post in mind; i’ve kinda accepted that floorhugging is here to stay, and while i’ve become more and more dissillusioned with the game since I feel like it diminishes choices and artificially limits the moves you can use without it being heavily tied to spacing and whiff punishing at the level I play at (which isnt very high I understand) I learned to love ther game in spite of that due to its overwhelming amount of design genius and overall fun gameplay in every other aspect outside of the unrewarding punishes in both neutral and advantage. this game being mainstage at evo is a testament that with some more tweaking and overhauls, it really could be the best platform fighter and set a new standard for this generation of platform fighter enthusiasts.
I speak as a former floorhug defender but my opinions about has shifted after playing games like combo devils, Smash HDR, and hell, even MELEE where flugging isnt as centralizing as it is in rivals 2.
i’d like to say, keep up the great work! And despite my views on flugging, I think this game really is making it big, and i’m excited to see where it goes in the future!