On the HD topic, I think it is a good system actually the best i'v played. Maybe they should tone down the amount of cancel you can do but I dont know how well that turn out, it could be bad for some characters. In the end I think it depends on your skill and experience in getting the opportunity to activate and not drop it; it needs time and dedication to actually learn and execute them that's one of the reason why newcomers feel disheartened when trying to pick up this game (that is the only bad thing I could think of).
I think HD as a system is well-implemented and fun. Honestly, I don't think it's that disheartening for newcomers, personally. A newcomer to 98 would be just as easily destroyed by a pro.
My only suggestion for improving the system would be cancel-scaling. So, right now, HD canceling costs only 10% of the bar. Which I think is fair. But if EX Kyo wants to do his [qcf+A (HD) qcf+C] loop, or Iori wants to do his [qcb+B (HD) qcb+C] loop, they're just repeating two quick moves over and over. It's easy to input, and they'll be able to do quite a few of them. So my suggestion is, when a character cancels the same move into the same move multiple times, it costs extra bar:
10% -> 12% -> 14% ... etc. And if they cancel into a different move, it would reset back to 10%.
This probably wouldn't have a big impact on most combos. In the above examples, Iori and Kyo would probably only be able to do 5 cancels as opposed to 6. But I still think this would be enough of a change to:
- Encourage more creativity in HD combos. Simple loops are easier to do and boring to watch. So why not penalize them slightly?
- Balance the cast a bit. Right now, characters who can't repeat basic loops (or can only do them in the corner) are at a big disadvantage when it comes to HD combos. This evens things up a bit.
Feel free to disagree though. This is just one man's idea.