Dive Kick is a harder than average game because it's all fundamentals. You have to really understand fighting games to win consistently in Dive Kick. In Marvel you can just Tatsu + Berserker Slash or Teleport + Beam assist to close the gap and have free offense, and then ABC your way to good damage.
But you say this stuff like it's common everday knowledge. Nearly every single person that I would show MvC3 to that didn't already know a thing or three about it didn't even know what an assist WAS, let alone how to use them properly and consistently. If you decide you want to learn that stuff then yeah, there's a path for you there. But comon telling someone to "dive then try to kick your opponent" is much easier for the average player than "use your beam assist to lock down your opponent so you can get some pressure in. Then once you get a hit confirm go into your basic combo", no matter how much or little they know about fighting games.
Which is why, as much as it pains me to say it, I think I do understand why they are trying to do away with assists. MvC3 was pretty damn accessible yes, but certain things about it are just hard for casual players to wrap their head around unless they really want to. And I think assists might actually be that main thing. I played a lot of MvC2 with my neighborhood friends, but it wasn't until I started getting deep into MvC3 that I even began to really wrap my head around them and how to use them properly.
There's just something about using another character to assist you, and the benefits that can bring especially with things like nullifying advancing guard and the like that many players might not even understand in the first place, that is just hard for a lot of people to wrap their head around. It's like a thing where they just can't understand that they are THAT important, and get put to the back burner or not used at all. And that creates a huge skill gap.
Now I'm not saying I AGREE with their removal of assist at all. I have to wait and see more about how the game operates. But I do see where they are coming from.
What makes MvC3 FEEL more difficult is that the skill ceiling is much higher than 90% of fighting games, and it's less random than most, so if someone is better than you it will be felt.
Marvel 3 had a very low skill floor, but a high skill ceiling. Anyone could pick up Wesker or Wolverine and do LMHS MMHS combos. This wasn't the case with any other Versus games. Of course, at the top level, that's when things get crazy. But guess what? Marvel Infinite scrubs are going to get fucked just as hard by top players. that's ALWAYS how it is.
Somehow they think making Marvel more accessible than 3 is the answer. I don't get it.
And all of this if very true. I dont mean MvC3 is hard in that the basics are hard to understand, but in that the game has developed to the point to where those basics are now nearly null and void. The skill level is so high now that asking a basic ABC combo player to keep up with a veteran is like asking Michael Moore to keep up with a marathon runner. It's just a lost cause.
That initial accessibility, while it lead to one of the most fun fighting games on the planet all things considered, really doesn't matter at all from an actual accessibility stand point any more. And that wasn't just the player's doing, the game with it's insane amount of variables was designed like that.
MvC3 was a really weird mixture of trying to be the most accessible fighting game on the planet and also trying to be the most inaccessible. I actually think it would have been far more successful to a wider audience if they would have had better tutorials/story mode/ect. Because the accessibility was there for new players, but the know-how or even a path for it, which is just as important, was not.