I have not played the prior or any games in the series and more a casual player hoping to find that game to invest time and effort to appreciate fighting game. I think this game nails it from its combat mechanics, offline content and online multiplayer specially the inclusion of rollback netcode. I really do like the vibe coming from the music, character designs and user interface although this is my preference. The training room is really impressive with the features, data and recording options as well as allowing matchmaking online which encourages practice during down times and not forced to wait and do nothing. The tutorial, character guides and combo trials are pretty good in getting good enough with the characters instead of always seeking external resources first. Beyond the feel and new combat mechanics, it has instant rematches, good online rooms, match replays and so on that make playing with others a smooth and pleasant experience that I am thoroughly amazed with.

While I am happy that this game has a good single player story mode with level progression to encourage playing more and indirectly teaching mechanics gradually, the story is really disappointing given its potential. The premise is good but the ending and conclusion does give a meaningful answer much less encouraging. A lot of padding and tedious backtracking not helped by the day/night system and useless ticket resource. As the story progressed it leaned more on level and stats instead of skill without more creative mechanics or scenarios to test players. It is still overall good, but I was hoping it would be more varied and challenging.

Since I am not an expert on fighting games, I will defer to others on the system balance and mechanical quality. Aside from being exhausted with another battle pass, the only thing that sours my mood is the expensive microtransactions specially the third costumes where this is already a full priced game. As of the time of writing in the first season, I feel the content update cycle is few and far between with only four characters that could potentially slow interest in the game unnecessarily. It remains to be seen if this game can retain players in the long run although I am happy the netcode and mechanics will hold beyond that.

Overall, a very strong recommendation and excited to get to the higher ranks.