Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game

I don't care if its not finished, game is sick as hell (and $30)

I hope the era of fighting games with endless juggling will end someday

Disclaimer: this is my first time getting into a fighting game since Melee, and my first time enjoying an arcade fighter. The emphasis on movement abilities is really great, and they did a fantastic job with the character designs. But this is one of the most buggy full releases I've ever played. If you try to skip through the pre-trial demos then the game will get locked in a black screen state where you can't do anything. Sometimes if you reset a trial or free training the game will just freeze. At one point my dash button (which counts as a 2 button press) just stopped being able to trigger EX special moves in trials, while in free training it worked perfectly fine. On top of all that, the story mode is super bland. IMO story mode would have been a perfect place for new players to get a grip on the fundamentals of the game, but they just kinda throw you into it. I'm fine with the story mode having no difficulty setting, but it doesn't feel like it's teaching anything about the game, and more just throwing you into sequential bot lobbies with a loosely written story. The most polished part of this game is the raw multiplayer versus mode. I have won a single match out of like 60 matches but it was fun to see what is possible in this game with more practice. The actual gameplay of Avatar Legends is peak, although I do wish there was some sort of input buffer to help beginners like myself with combo consistency. The mechanics are super well done. Unfortunately everything outside of the combat in versus mode feels unrefined / unfinished. If they released this in Early Access I'd be leaving a positive review, and will happily change this to a positive review if they focus more on bugfixes and UX stuff

Let me first say that this game is not for the faint of heart. If you are not familiar with fighting games, you are going to struggle. This game is extremley unforgiving. Matches are extremely quick, you will take a bunch of damage from combos. You will also need to spend a lot of time grinding in the training room to figure out combos, blockstrings, and flow movement. While I have a bit of time on Dragon Ball FIghterz and for some reason BBTAG, I am not very good at fighting games, and this is a game that takes a lot of time and patience to even stand a chance against half decent players. And I ADORE it. Every combo feels so unique. Every character plays like they had their source material in mind, which makes me very happy because I am a huge Avatar fan. I'm so glad the devs went the route of keeping the game simple enough you don't get overwhelmed, but still complex enough the game feels challenging in a good way. Yes there are some problems, some characters aren't finished, and some promised features are not out yet, but you can blame Paramount for that because they are insistent on screwing over the series. Even with all the problems, the devs made it work, and I rarley ever think about them. Please beleive in this game and support it however you can, it is a once in a lifetime game. Nothing comes close to the dopamine rush this game brings, best new release in years.

They added ranked and you can continue to run sets infinitely after just for no points instead this is the greatest fighting game ever

I feel bad for the devs because the core gameplay is amazing, but I can't support an unfinished game being sold as a finished one. I'll probably re-buy it when there is basic stuff added like a difficulty system or a ranked mode (and when they finish certain characters). If this was released in early access I would've understood, but it's sold as a finished game when it clearly isn't. Not the devs' fault.

Despite being released in an unfinished state, this is the most fun I've had with a fighting game made in the last 6 years or so. Highly recommend if you liked Central Fiction, Melty Blood, pre-Strive Guilty Gear, and/or Melee.