(Jul. 02, 2021 4:12 PM)Kirbyroth Wrote: [ -> ]So looking back on Beyblade it sucks as a game and this is for 3 reasons. Let’s break the game down. The first issue is the horrible balance. There’ll be like 4 or 5 beyblades that just dominate over the rest and this imbalance is something that isn’t found in good games. The second issue is the lack of player interaction. After spending all of 5 minutes making a combo and finding a way to launch there isn’t much the player can do, it’s so easy that someone who has played for all of 1 week can beat someone who has been playing for one year (basically it becomes money over skill). Finally power creep. While some may not see this as a problem, players who can’t spend much have little to no chance of winning when compared to players who can. This also creates more divide between who can win and makes it essentially a game of who can spend more. Now while it has it’s flaws it can be easily fixed. The only things I would recommend is having less beys in favor of balance, and having more stages that allow for players to modify it. Overall while I like it it needs some work.
Let's break down these points the same way you have, mmkay?
Point 1: Horrible Balance
In any collectable game there will be a few select strategies that work better than others. It's true for Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, the Pokemon TCG, Top Plate... If it's based around playing a game with collectable
anything there are going to be things that are stronger than other things. Beyblade still has a lot more alternative strategies compared to most of these, things you don't see often but totally could be run and win (e.g. that guy who came up with Dead Hades Blitz Atomic as a counter to Tempest Wheel Xtend+), as opposed to other games which can often have fewer possible strategies you can aim for with any decent chance to win. Beyblade also rarely has to ban parts for balance reasons outside of limited style formats (compared to Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, which may have to update banlists every few months with new set releases). Trust me, if you think this is horribly balanced then literally every other collectable game is nightmare fuel for you. No, this isn't really bad at all compared to both other options and the sheer volume of parts that can still be run in Burst Standard with a fair shot of winning.
Point 2: Lack of Interaction
I feel like you're missing a whole lot of the interaction aspect here. You have to try and figure out what your opponent may be using so you can strategize. It's not a direct face-to-face interaction, but it's still an interaction nonetheless. You have to consider what launch style to use for any given battle and react to your opponent's launch. Seeing the outcome of a battle will draw out a reaction as well, and give an opportunity to interact with your opponent in a sportsmanlike way (congratulating them on their win, saying "good game", e.t.c.). Customizing and testing are both high interaction activities, figuring out what works and what doesn't. even when you're not interacting you're either resting up or sitting on the edge of your seat watching an ongoing fight and letting it interact with you instead. In short, there is never a time you shouldn't be interacting with the game in some manner unless you're simply not thinking about or playing the game at all.
Points 2½ and 3: Money and Power Creep
Let me ask you this: Which is more interesting, tinkering with 3 parts or 10? You said 10, didn't you? Come on, I know you said 10. The more options you have the more there is to think about and do, and the more unique interactions form between these pieces, so objectively more pieces makes the game that much deeper... as long as these new pieces are relevant, interesting, or fun. If a release is none of these people won't care about it or want to buy it, and nobody really gets anything out of its existence. The issue is there's only so much space for interesting and fun gimmicks before everything grows too boring for those trying to win, since interesting and fun parts are usually not very good. Eventually there will be no option but to make stronger parts to keep the game from becoming dull and stagnant, which will inevitably kick out weaker options as a result. If nothing was ever outmoded or outclassed then eventually it doesn't matter if you get new parts or not, sales drop off, and the game dies young without really reaching fruition. The game must release stronger parts to stay alive, making power creep necessary.
Oh yeah, and while I'm at it, trying to balance any collectable game, especially one based heavily on real world physics, is basically impossible. There will
always, without exception, be something stronger than other things. There is simply no way to create a perfectly balanced game, but that's not a flaw either. With Beyblade it allows for circular balance, a sort of Rock Paper Scissors or Pokemon-like game where A beats B beats C beats A, and maybe D is roughly fair against A, B, and C. Even if A still edges out B and C in the winrate that may simply make C more popular to fight it and might bring forth more of B to fight C. It becomes a dynamic, subtly shifting game every single time, where no two tournaments are exactly the same and A, B, and C are all still good.
The money aspect is moreso a personal issue. Saving wisely is a part of life, as is figuring out what things are worth the price. Sometimes this simply comes in waiting to see the results of a part before diving in to buy it, sometimes this means prioritizing which parts are more important right now. Even then you have to consider that you're not the only audience they're reaching out for, and that as long as you consider what you're getting well enough you should easily be able to keep up. Beyblade tends to have parts stick around for quite a while before being outclassed years down the line, and occasionally older parts can make a return (I've heard that there may be a resurgence of Bearing combos coming our way).
tl;dr
Beyblade is way more balanced than most other collectable games out there, and as of now and in most of Beyblade's history there are essentially no unbeatable or ridiculously unfair combos. You've neglected to mention most of the ways which you interact and engage and dumbed it down to the absolute minimum requirements, making that point rather moot. Power creep is necessary to keep things fresh and interesting to prevent the game from becoming "solved" or "stale", and the powerful parts are releasing at a fair rate that most people should be able to keep up, ignoring the fact that it's all meant to sell as much as possible and many others don't have the same financial limitations you do. I understand your points, but really don't believe you've represented the game well at all and have missed almost about as much as you can.