2XKO is an upcoming free-to-play fighting game set in the world of League of Legends we are quite excited for, whether it's the gameplay, testing, giving feedback, controls, the supers or whatever the only thing about how cool Ekko is since he is in Arcane. Its Alpha Lab has ended weeks ago and I am so sad that it's over. There are endless possibilities 2XKO will have. I had to get a brand new DualSense controller because my other one just keeps on drifting on me despite rubbing isopropyl alcohol on the analog sticks. And now that I got a new controller, I have been enjoying the game every second of it. And I was able to play Visions of Mana well on my new controller.
If you know me, I have been a part of the FGC since the time when Naruto: Clash of Ninja comes out on the GameCube. I have never been a part of an offline tournament because it is a thinking thing when it comes to watching what my opponent is doing and I don't think I'll be ready to participate in one of them.
Now, League of Legends became a franchise to have multiple spinoffs, the card game genre, the strategy genre and the fast paced mobile release. Now it is getting a fighting game genre. I have enjoyed 2XKO's Alpha Lab. It had a lot of jankiness, like when I return to the character select screen after exiting the game, I can't go back to the main menu. That's why I had to do a workaround until it's fixed in the next playtest.
What bland thing I have seen in 2XKO is the lack of an effect when you finish a round by KOing the second character with a super. Most 2D fighting games have an exploding background when you KO a character with a super and it's common for them to have that. Maybe the effect can come in two depending on the super. Maybe the background explodes when you KO a character with a level one super. And the explosion increases its intensity when the character is KOed with a cinematic super.
Now, the game is bland without the effect that triggers when you KO a character with a super. That is one thing so far in this post. I have a lot to talk about in this post, so that said, here are the things I want and I don't want in 2XKO.
The next thing I want to see is an endless roster of characters. League of Legends has an endless roster of characters and they keep adding more of them endlessly. While the game has skins, 2XKO will be getting more characters during pre-launch development. But it's unknown if the game is gonna get more characters post-launch. If the game launches, we can find out. There is one thing we do know for sure. On future playtests, future characters will be locked and they would be unlocked by using currency or completing missions. For the stages, we can get more of them and they can be unlocked by default.
The next thing I want to see is different voices and effects on skins. You know that League of Legends handled having skins with different voices and effects. We know that 2XKO will have different skins, so they should also have different voices and effects.
The next thing I want to see that is admittedly something fans might want is new tag team mechanics. We know that there is already a tag feature that allows the point character to launch the opponent into the air so that the assist character can follow up to a point position to continue the combo in the air and there is already a fuse that grants the assist character to come in to perform their super during the point character's super. But what I want is new tag team mechanics.
First off, the Variable Cross feature. Since we entered the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, one of the fighting games that flopped was Street Fighter X Tekken. I loved playing Street Fighter X Tekken. This game has the Cross Assault feature that allows the player to use both characters at once for a limited time and the jingle plays during the time depending on the composition. That is the coolest thing the game had. However, the round ends when the point character dies on Street Fighter X Tekken and doesn't have assists, so let's think a little more in line with SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level.
Assist characters have their own super gauge and it is the first game to have that until Beta 2 where assist characters are no longer having their own gauge and now share the super gauge with the point character on Tag Mode and has the Variable Cross feature. Then 2XKO came along to have the super gauge on each character, which I believe that it is a perfect evaluation for something I'll tell you about later. The Variable Cross feature in 2XKO would burn all three bars of the assist character's super gauge and becomes unavailable when you're down to one character. It is performed with pressing down twice and the tag button.
To forward wanting a Variable Cross feature in 2XKO, I have a game mode to see implemented is a game mode where all four characters get into battle at once similar to Street Fighter X Tekken. Why I want this game mode to be implemented is because 2XKO has up to four players and each character in game is having their own super gauge. I believe that this game mode is gonna make matches wild and wacky. Some fuses would be disabled in this game mode. However, since 2XKO has air combos while Street Fighter X Tekken doesn't, this game mode would be done in the style of SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level.
Now let's move on to the next one, which is cinematic tag supers. Street Fighter X Tekken handled Cross Arts. They burn all three bars of the super gauge. But let's think a little more in line with Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2. It has tag supers per se, but I don't mean follow it in terms of gameplay because there are not that many unique tag supers in Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2. But 2XKO would have a lot of unique cinematic team supers depending on what characters you have on your team and they are executed by pressing down twice and two special buttons and the tag button simultaneously. They require all three bars of your super gauge for both characters. However, the feature is unavailable like the Variable Cross feature when you have one character left on your team.
Here's the fourth thing I like to see implemented to 2XKO. That is cinematic lv. 3 supers. We know that there are currently cinematic supers that burn two bars of your super gauge, but two bars doesn't fit with the cinematic flavor on supers. What would really make sense is that cinematic supers must burn all three bars. Think of Them's Fightin' Herds where level three supers are so cinematic and are similar to BlazBlue's Astral Heat.
The fifth and final thing I like to see is the dynamic BGM system. Them's Fightin' Herds is known for its dynamic music system to give battles a lot of flow. I loved hearing the dynamic goodness of the stage's BGM. It give matches a distinctive flow, so I like to see this implemented in 2XKO.
And finally, it's time to give you the sixth and final thing I want implemented. A new fuse that grants the point character to execute two different supers, but not the same super back to back. When Beta 2 of SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level was unveiled, it introduced the character's option to perform two different supers to make the combo longer. There is already a fuse that grants the assist character to perform two assists and the other that grants the point character to perform two different supers, so I think a new fuse like that is gonna work.
Now for the things I don't want to see in 2XKO. The first thing I don't want to see is picking the same stage that fights lag over and over on both offline and online. We know that 2XKO will have rollback netcode to alleviate lag. If you remember other fighting games, Bonne Wonderland is the only legal stage in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 because it fights lag on both offline and online while the Coliseum is the only stage that fights lag in Granblue Fantasy Versus. Even on Rising, the organizers made it clear that they had to pick the Coliseum only at EVO. But since rollback netcode is coming to 2XKO, it will definetely never be the case as rollback netcode is intended to predict the inputs instead of waiting for the signal to hit the server before your character performs an action no matter the stage.
The second thing I don't want to see is touch of death combos. These types of combos are annoying to watch. I watched videos that shows the touch of death combos. They are unbearable, yet entertaining to watch. I was shocked that they did a long combo with Ekko. Simply flabbergasted at that. We got bursts to prevent that, but the gauge fills up faster by taking damage.
The third thing I do not want implemented to 2XKO is microtransactions. Microtransactions are often featured in free-to-play games. We know that you need to pay with virtual currency to purchase the premium track of the Battle Pass when the game launches and unlock Champions and skins. Picture 2XKO having microtransactions. If there is a skin that I can own by paying real money in game, that is a prime example of microtransactions. This is something I DON'T want in 2XKO no matter the circumstances even though it's a free-to-play game. Dorkly has a video showing if every game had microtransactions. Go watch it on YouTube.
And lastly, the the fourth and final thing I don't want implemented is matching with opponents with a higher skill level than mine. Ranked matches are usually stressful when it comes to ranking up and ranking down. That's why I refrained from doing ranked matches. We know that the game will have more game modes, but one thing I don't want is to be matched with opponents with a higher skill level. I want matchmaking to be skill based so that we can be matched with opponents with the same skill for fairness.
And that's it. These are the things I want and don't want implemented in 2XKO. There is a lot of work Riot needs to put into the game. That means getting things polished and refined for launch in 2025. I hope we get some 2XKO news and another playtest soon. If that news involves revealing the next character, I'll be ready for that. But when are we gonna get into the next playtest? And who is the next Champion? We just have to wait to find the answers to our questions. I believe that the next character might be Jinx in anticipation of the impending second season of Arcane. I have a future post about how I have been enjoying Arcane so far, so you have to stay tuned for that.
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