Collecting my thoughts on Avatar Fighters as an Amateur

So, I finally got to try out Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, and.. the results were predictable. I lost quite a few rounds. In the wake of this beta, the game has been stamped as unfriendly to newcomers to the genre in a way that I honestly find to be unfair. I personally believe that this game, when handled properly, can be very welcoming to players looking for a more casual experience. To illustrate what I mean, I'm going to divide this video into pro- and con-segments. 

First off, the game.. is fun. It's explosive, full of variety (which did not stop me from one-tricking Korra, but I digress) and, in my opinion anyway, pretty well-balanced. We live in an era of fighting games where low-level players can mostly disregard tier lists and viability discussions because no characters flat out break games anymore, and if they do, they can just get nerfed. Every character nowadays is at the very least playable and that holds true in Avatar Legends. At no point did I feel like I was winning or losing because of anything other than my or my opponent's skill level. 

Let's talk about skill level, though, because here's where I start disagreeing with what I've read online. Uhm.. this game is easy? Only in the big '26 could we have a discussion about execution barriers in a game with autocombos and no more demanding inputs than quartercircles. Of course, the flow system can enable some insane max damage combos that are prone to scare people when posted to Twitter without context, but, especially in a new fighting game, you're not going to run into people who can do this consistently. In the closed beta, online modes weren't crawling with the sweatiest gamers alive either, just regular players doing regular player things. I believe that anyone with a base-level understanding of pvp and fighting games can have a great time here, like I did. As an amateur myself (seriously I suck at these games) I don't really have anything to complain about on the gameplay front. 

I do have complaints outside of it, though. For one, I don't really like these text boxes. It's not enough to read about how flow and energy work in this game without a proper demonstration (YouTube videos don't count, put that stuff in the game) and I think a lot of the dumb difficulty discourse could have been avoided if the beta version already had a playable tutorial. At least the final game will have one. I personally hope that it straight up starts with a 2xKO-esque sequence that walks new players through everything when they first boot up the game. 

What annoys me more, though, are the inconsistencies in information and other issues coming from the developers. The beta struggled to get going at first because it was outright unavailable on steam for several hours and apparently the lobby system just didn't work on Playstation at all? In response, the devs promised a "special announcement" that some people on Twitter are still asking for. Speaking of the devs on Twitter, here's my biggest issue with this game's marketing: what does a casual player lured in by the appeal of the Avatar-Franchise actually have to look forward to? 

When the delay was announced, I was hoping the extra time would result in more trailers and information on the final few characters and the story mode. As it stands right now, they're just giving Zaheer the same treatment as Kyoshi and maybe we're getting more info on the singleplayer as well, 3 days before release. The only bits of info we got on the singleplayer story mode since they announced its existence are a 2-second clip of Aang asking Korra to pet her dog and some screenshots from the game's X-Box page.The marketing for this game has been strictly focused on a more competitive playerbase; people who are looking for a new fighting game to grind ranked in. Now, I don't think that's wrong per se, but I can't help but think of the current state of the Avatar-Franchise. Right now, Avatar is both extremely popular and in an incredibly difficult situation at the exact same time. A new season of the live action adaptation on Netflix, a new animated movie and potentially a new show soon would be amazing for any other IP, but Paramount and Netflix have somehow screwed up all of it. Netflix avatar sucks, the movie was leaked and apparently Seven Havens runs the same risk. They also cancelled an Avatar RPG, leaving Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game as the one refuge for people wishing to play through a new avatar story. A story we know way too little about because it hasn't been advertised at all. Given the game's general scope, it's probably nothing too crazy; maybe just regular arcade mode with a simple "timeline convergence" plot, but I don't know that and I think I should by now.

All in all, I think this game is more than worthwhile and I look forward to playing a lot more of it. For as long as a fighting game is new and popular, it will be very easy to get into and I don't think any casuals need to dread getting TOD'd in bronze lobbies. I just wish that I could also be hyped for more avatar content within the new fighting game, but I'll judge the singleplayer experience once it is actually available. Despite the small issues and at times lackluster communication, the game and its devs are worth supporting, especially with how cheap it is in most places. See you online^^