I understand why people underestimated this game and how his launch affected his reputation. But trust me, it's REALLY worth it now.
Acronyms: Light Punch = LP; Light Kick = LK;
Medium Punch = MP; Medium Kick = MK;
Heavy Punch = HP; Heavy Kick = HK
Launch:
I think is good to explain why this game didn't receive so much spotlight and didn't had much of a good reputation at launch.
First of all: it was an returning franchise, beloved by everyone, in a console that everyone hated at the time. I think everyone knows how terrible was the first apresentation of the Xbox One when it was revealed, let's just say that it didn't give a good first impression... and this certainly didn't helped the game.
Also this is, tecnically, the first Fighting Game to introduce the system that every single fighting game uses nowadays. That is to separate the game in packs/DLCs and single characters with a fixed price, to add more and more content without forcing the people to buy a new version of the game every time like older Fighting Games. Back then, this was a new thing that a lot of people didn't understand. A lot of people were thinking that all the packs were mandatory and they should pay a lot of money to have the complete game. Today, basically, every Fighting Game uses this system and people are more used to.
Lastly, besides those "external problems", the game didn't had much of the content that it have nowadays. It had a really small rooster for a Fighting Game. It's good to say that version we have now it's really different than the old ones and much better.
Modes:
Singleplayer:
Now that the game is finished, we have a lot of modes that players can try.
The Dojo is the Tutorial Mode, and it's a really good one - some of the basic Fighting Games mechanics and words, I learned in this game - it teachs not just the main mechanics of the game but the basic of the Fighting Games like Framedata, Hitboxes, Crossups, etc.
Story Mode that is pretty much more like and Arcade mode. You choose your character and have three different objectives that, when completed, you unlock a new Animation: Being three different Endings with Season 1 characters and three Cutscenes, that you unlock to see whenever you want when you complete the objectives, with Season 2 characters. You just fight against different enemies till you finished. With Season 2 characters, you can see some cutscenes in some of the fights.
Shadow Lords is a mode that, I think, is more an Story Mode than the "Story Mode" that the game have. You have to choose 3 characters, 1 being the character that gonna most of the Special Interactions. Have itens that you can use to improve, heal or revive your characters. You can exit whenever you wants. In this mode you can unlock two types of skins when you have the required itens. You have to fight a lot of enemies that you choose, some gonna have the Special Interactions, and stop the Corruption of the world till you can fight the Final Boss.
Online:
First of all, this game it's one of the Fighting Games with the best Netcode and Connection ever. It uses Rollback netcode and it's really smooth. It's considered the fighting game with the best online.
It have Casual matches were you choose your preferences like the Player's rank and enable Crossplay settings.
The Ranked matches, have a unique system of Requalify, if you think your actual rank is too hard you can Requalify to and lower rank. A frustrating thing is that, even though the Online's Connection is really good, the matchmaking can be really frustrating. You get put against a opponent really high in the rank for really often. I don't know if is a Matchmaking problem or lack of new players.
Mechanics:
The combo system of this game is really unique and really versatile, you can be Offensive while defending and Defensive while attacking. It's certainly the best part of the game.
Structure of the Combos:
All the basic combos have the Openers; Linkers; and the Enders. In this basic structure you can put some other things, the combo can be bigger with more Linkers and Shadow Moves, that are the moves that requires bars, or smaller with a Finisher more soon. About the Combo's Length, it depends on the attacks that you are you using, Light Moves are faster but does less damage and decrease the length while Heavy Moves are stronger, but slower and increase the length. And it doesn't end here, still have one major mind game in the combos, for the guy that is attacking and for the guy that is defending or taking the combo.
The combos also have Potential Damage, that is represented by White Health. The White Health represents how much damage the combo gonna do. Some attacks and Finishers gives more Potential Damage.
Also, there is types of Special Moves that have their own function. Some does more damage, others carry the oponent to the corner, etc. The Finishers also have these unique functions where we have: Damage Finishers; Battery, that gives more meter; Wall Splat; etc.
Breakers:
That, for me, is the best and most unique part of the mechanics and combo systems in the game and where a major part of the Mind Games are, to the attacker and the defender.
This game have three types of attacks: Lights, Mediums and Heavies. In a combo, the normal attacks, that have the name of "Autos" and "Manuals" , you can see the difference in how the attack is and his speed: Lights being the faster and Heavies being the slowest. With the Special Moves it's the number of hits: Light Special Moves have ONE hit; Medium ones have TWO and the Heavies hits three times.
With this in mind, the guy who is taking the combo have to react or predict what type of attack is that he is taking hitting the two buttons, together, of the type of the attack that are: LP and LK; MP and MK and HP and HK. If the Breaker is correct, the combo ends with no finisher damage and the characters go back to neutral, and if it's wrong he have to wait a cooldown to Break again. That is called the COMBO BREAKER.
But it could not be that easy, the attacker also have a Breaker: the COUNTER BREAKER, that is the Breaker FOR the Breaker. If the attacker predicts the Combo Breaker, doing a Heavy, slower, attack on purpose, he HAVE to hit especifically the MP and MK, together. If done right, the attacker gonna counter the Combo Breaker and the opponent gets into a cooldown, the attacker does an auto Shadow Move and the Limit/Lenght of the combo is restarted to do a LOT more damage. If you Counter wrong, you miss the Counter and stay vunerable being easy for the opponent to punish and do a combo.
The last, but not less important, we have the SHADOW COUNTER, were is outside the combos and is only for the defender that is receiving pressure. If you defend and also hit, especifically, MP and MK you do a Shadow Counter, that costs a Shadow Bar. Is a little bit hard to counter depending on the attacks. To counter sucessfully you have to defend the penultimate attack and then counter, if do right, you gonnar do an auto Shadow Move and start the combo. If done wrong you gonna stay vunelrable or receive the next attack if you don't time right.
Instinct:
The Instinct is a mode that you activate pressing HK and HP at the same time. The Instinct Mode's effects depends on the character. An interesting fact is that when you activate the Instinct, the screen freezes and the character "restart". So, for example: if the opponent jumps, you can activate the Instinct and do an Anti-Air attack or you can make more pressure. The Instinct Mode also restart the Limit of the Combo. It can have a lot of functions in match.
Characters:
I think this game is one of the most diverse and unique rooster in fighting games. You have a monk, monsters, demons, aliens, robots, ghosts, a golem, a dinosaur, a fire guy, a ice alien, a boxer, RASH from battletoads. They have really unique design and mechanics. All the old characters had a redesign, some better than others like Spinal, that was literally a skeleton with a sword and shield and they turned into something really cool. And have, of course, the guest characters: General Raam(Gears of War), Arbiter(Halo) and Rash(Battletoads).
Soundtrack/Sound Design:
Just... the best fighting game Soundtrack I have ever seen. The shouts, "C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER", the character themes, how the musics work with the game. It's just really amazing
Conclusion:
This is just one of the best and most complete Fighting Games ever made. I think the major flaws is on the big skill gap, is really dificult to react the attacks in the combo and try to break it. Also flaws on his launch, that had no content and had a incridibly small rooster. But, with the time, it had more and more content and we can't forget that this was probably the first fighting game to implement the DLC/Season system that we see in, basically, all fighting games nowadays. Except that Killer Instinct did better because it isn't full price. Nowadays the games are full price and you still have to buy the DLCs.
The rooster, now, is really amazing and diverse. Every character have some unique mechanic to be explored, even tough the combo system is the same to everyone.
The Combo System is really unique, I think i've have seen a system like this and it's so versatile. The Breakers are a really good mechanic to the players always stay focused and have at least something to do and not just sit and wait for the oponent to finish the combo or the pressure.
It's really sad that this game had a, kinda, bad reputation because of the Xbox One problems and, especially, the lack of content. But, NOW, I recommend to every Fighting Game fan, especially the ones with an Xbox, it is also on PC. It's a really good hidden gem that fighting games fans and Xbox users need to try. It's really cheap, especially for a Fighting Game Definitive Edition, it's included on Xbox Game Pass and have a Free Edition were you just have Jago, that you unlock completing the Dojo, and a Random Character from the Rotation.