“Some professional terms in fighting games, such as ‘neutral game’ and ‘mix-up,’ often emphasize not a single action, but a very broad and general concept. A player’s strength lies in their mastery and flexible application of these abilities.”

“For example, the concept of ‘neutral game’ is difficult to translate. It broadly refers to everything you do before attacking or defending against an opponent’s attack. Whether it's moving back and forth, controlling space, or feinting, it can all be considered part of the ‘neutral game.’”

“In other words, the purpose of the neutral game is to do everything possible to put yourself in a favorable situation and put your opponent in a relatively unfavorable one.”

“If you really can't understand it, you can roughly understand it as the ability to prepare for an attack, including awareness and operation, just like in a MOBA game where you frequently use small movements to bait out skills and lead enemies into terrain that is favorable to you.”

“So, although action games like *Rebirth Island* are also quite challenging, their learning curve is still relatively scientific. At most, it's a little difficult to get started, but once you get on the right track, you gradually adapt.”

“Fighting games are different. Their learning curve starts very low, the growth is very slow, and the ceiling is infinitely high. In the process, it's difficult to accurately assess how much stronger you've become. You might encounter a pro and be crushed to the point of doubting your life.”

“Compared to action games where you can become stronger by memorizing patterns, fighting games are not just about memorizing patterns or practicing reaction speed and performing special moves. They also require a lot of targeted practice, and sometimes even dissecting each action down to the frame through muscle memory.”

“If we compare them from a data perspective, many players can become proficient in games like *Rebirth Island* in thirty hours or so, become experts in a hundred hours, and adding more time is just for speedruns or one-shotting bosses.”

“But fighting games are different. A hundred hours is commonplace, a thousand hours may still be getting stomped, and three thousand hours, five thousand hours, there’s no limit.”

Yu Fei couldn't help but be speechless. “Five thousand hours…”

He did a simple calculation.

Assuming he played every day without fail, for an average of five hours a day, five thousand hours would take three years.

If he averaged one hour a day, it would take more than ten years.

Just thinking about it was frightening.

There's the "10,000-hour rule," but that's when discussing very complex, high-level professional fields.

Games are different. Even if you really squeezed out that much time, it would always be boring and lose its fun, after all, it doesn't have the depth of a professional field.

The key is that after playing many games for hundreds of hours, the improvement you can gain by practicing further is minimal.

Maybe his own ability has reached its limit, or maybe the game's mechanics don't support it anymore.

MOBA games and shooting games also have replayability, but even in shooting games, you can at least get lucky and land a shot or two on a pro.

In fighting games, you might not even be able to move when you encounter a true pro.

Bao Xu continued, "So, here is a very critical issue: fighting games must have a certain degree of inheritance."

"Those true pros who have played for thousands of hours in all fighting games do so because all fighting games actually have some commonalities. Existing experience can be applied to new games, and they can quickly get started after adapting."

"This group of people is the most loyal to fighting games, and also the most critical."

"If a fighting game conflicts with their existing experience, they will think that the game is not good and will not play it at all."

"Of course, from another perspective, this also saves us some time in the design process: knowing that certain traditions must be continued, we don't need to struggle with them anymore."

"For example, the basic combat system, special move inputs, and a series of operations, absolutely cannot be drastically changed."

Yu Fei nodded, realizing the error of his original idea more deeply.

For fighting game players, performing special moves has become muscle memory, a reflex. Being able to execute a super special move in a frantic state during battle is a skill that every fighting game player must master.

If the things they have worked so hard to practice are not present in *Ghost General 2* at all, then why would they come to play it?

Therefore, since *Ghost General 2* is a fighting game, it cannot be forcibly changed in terms of basic combat. It can only be slightly modified based on traditional classic fighting games, and any changes must be made with caution.

Character designs, actions, moves, etc. can all be changed, but the core must not be changed, and the operation method basically cannot be changed.

The reason why game types are strictly divided into action games, side-scrolling games, and fighting games is because each type of game has very clear limitations and cannot be mixed.

Yu Fei thought for a while and said, "So, *Ghost General 2* still has to continue the operation of fighting games. The joystick must be used for movement, jumping, and special move inputs, and cannot become the operation method of action games."

Bao Xu nodded, "Yes, that would fundamentally damage the fun of fighting games, and it could no longer be called a fighting game."

As he spoke, he casually picked up a game controller from Yu Fei's desk.

"A conventional game controller has four areas on the front: the left and right joysticks, the left function area (up, down, left, right), and the right function area (ABXY). But in fighting games, only two areas are actually used."

"The right thumb is placed on ABXY, and the right joystick is not used at all."

"The left thumb uses the D-pad or the left joystick, depending on personal preference, but no matter which one is used, the other is not used either."

"Specialized fighting game controllers on the market directly remove all unnecessary joysticks and add two more buttons to the ABXY area."

"The fighting game controller held in the hand has a floating D-pad for easy special move inputs, while the left side of the controller similar to a large arcade machine has a large joystick. The principle is the same, but the specific choice depends on personal preference."

"But regardless of the differences in form, they all have one thing in common: the player's hand can only focus on two areas, and the functions of these two areas are very fixed."

Bao Xu explained very meticulously, and Yu Fei quickly understood.

The pace of fighting games is too fast, so there is no time to do anything else.

In action games, players can let their left thumb leave the left joystick to press the D-pad to use items, or they can let their right thumb stop pressing the attack button or roll button to move the right joystick to adjust the viewing angle.

Although it will affect the original action, the loss of a few tenths of a second will not have any very fatal consequences, and it can be done in the middle of a battle.

But fighting games are different, because even a few tenths of a second of mistake can be caught by the opponent and cause huge losses, so players simply cannot spare a hand to press other buttons.

Of course, the layout of fighting game controllers even appeared earlier than the current console controllers, and much earlier.

So, the operation mode and controller style of fighting games are a self-contained state and are difficult to be fully compatible with the current mainstream controller usage.

You can use mainstream controllers to simulate the controller operation of fighting games, but you cannot design the gameplay of fighting games according to the layout of mainstream controllers.

Yu Fei suddenly realized a problem: "Doesn't that mean you can only walk back and forth on a plane? It actually becomes a two-dimensional being?"

The D-pad in fighting games is for forward and backward movement, as well as jumping and crouching.

In this way, there is no button responsible for moving to the left or right, that is, horizontally inside and outside the screen.

If it is in other 2D fighting games, this is of course not a big problem, but President Pei said that *Ghost General 2* is a pure 3D game, and the minions may come from all directions!

If you want to hit the minions on the side, how do you hit them?

Bao Xu said, "This problem has actually been solved by some fighting games. The method is to press the up button twice in a row, and the effect is to dash to the left, that is, to the inside of the screen."

"It will not only allow the character to avoid the opponent's attack, but also rotate and shift the entire screen horizontally."

"Similarly, pressing the down button twice in a row is to dash to the right, that is, to the outside of the screen, and the camera will also rotate accordingly."

"We can go a step further and continuously move horizontally by double-tapping and then holding, or complete the horizontal movement operation with a combination of buttons."

This operation method is still relatively scientific. In fighting games, single-tapping, double-tapping, and holding are different operations. For example, holding the right directional button is for moving, and double-tapping and then holding is for a quick dash.

Yu Fei nodded in understanding: "I see, so that means this operation itself can be completed, and there are existing design solutions."

"It's just that it is still under the operation system of fighting games, and it is two completely different systems compared with other games, especially action games."

"In this case, we can't make too many designs for the most basic combat system. The main thing is to continue the classic gameplay of fighting games, and we can only make some small details and fix some things."

"Well… after saying so much, there are some gains, and it can be considered that many absolutely infeasible directions have been ruled out."

"But this is just clearing mines, and there is still no clue on how to do it specifically."

Bao Xu smiled and explained, "Of course, this is equivalent to just laying a foundation. Designing a game is not a quick process, but requires repeatedly weighing the pros and cons and thinking about the details."

"It's like building a building. This is a complete project. If any place is not handled well, it may affect the entire project, and in serious cases, it may even have to be torn down and rebuilt."

"Now that the foundation has been laid, the next step is to gradually improve all the content."

"As for the specific method, it is actually very simple, that is, to start from President Pei's needs, analyze them bit by bit, first determine a prototype, and finally slowly fill in the details."

"I can't help you too much in this process. You must have plenty of independent thinking time."

Yu Fei thought for a while: "Speaking of which, I also have some ideas."

"However, the combat system is still very difficult. Even if we say that we should follow other games, the characters, skills, and actions must all use the settings of *Ghost General*, so we can't just copy them."

Bao Xu said, "This is very simple. Since you are not good at it, then find someone who is good at it."

"There are many fighting game competition champions in China. Why not spend some money to hire them as action directors?"

"President Pei asked you to be responsible for the design of this game, definitely not to let you work hard on these contents, after all, it requires thousands of hours of game experience."

"You should change your direction, explore the differences between yourself and others, find a breakthrough from President Pei's words, and gradually complete the design of the entire game."