- Joined
- Jan 7, 2016
Regardless of your feelings on SF4 (I do kinda like it) - it would be pretty crazy to say that none of SF4's success was driven by SF3S's success. Capcom had a lot of goodwill and positive energy going into SF4 because of how good SF3 was (which had the energy of SF2).
SF3 is an absolutely amazing game and fostered a strong community of hardcore players, but it was by no means a particularly large community and commercially it was a failure. SF4's greand success had almost nothing to do with SF3 and was more likely because they pandered to nostalgia with SF2, if anything.
Reminder that I'm talking about sales and attention here, not quality. SF3 is the best in the series by a mile in quality, in my opinion, but commercially it led to the series going dormant for 10 years.
MVC3 wasn't a full dumpster fire, but I don't think you'll find anyone who prefers it over MVC2. I don't think any MVC2 veterans appreciated the "simple" control scheme or the patently unfun comeback mechanic. The full dumpster fire would have to wait until MVC:I came out.
... Where are you getting these ideas? Tons of people prefer it over MvC2. Both games are out of style now and MvC3 has a very strong playerbase and is still beloved by many (not that MvC2 isn't). In fact, many of the best players in MvC3 were people who never gelled that much with MvC2, with the only really big player who excelled at both and stayed with both for a long time being Justin Wong.
It sold well, it was a massive tournament game and it's still actively played, though obviously less so after the debacle that was MvCI soured everyone's taste for it. You're kidding yourself by saying nobody prefers it over MvC2. That's just blatantly untrue no matter which way you slice it.
SF4 and SF5 had some new characters - but there was a much larger emphasis placed on the existing roster than previous games. SF3 has the "most new characters" and considering the much smaller roster size it's clear that was a (successful) focus.
SF3 (though it's life) introduced 16 new characters - on a roster of 20.
SF4 (though it's life) introduced 11 new characters - on a roster of 44.
SF5 (still going) introduced 14 new characters - on a roster of 45?.
Regardless of roster size, I was talking specifically about new characters. My memory failed me, though, SF3 indeed brought the most new blood so far (and that was their main focus too).