Prohibitive Difficulty is a term that gets thrown around fighting games a lot, and especially now with so many new games being released and new tactics being discovered. The term is used to describe when a tactic or combo is so difficult it cannot be done consistently or is considered unviable in competitive play. One of the most recent examples is El Feurte’s “Run, Stop, Fierce” combo that was discovered during the arcade release of SF4, and which was originally thought to be an infinite. Even while discussion was going on over whether or not it was an infinite, people were already dismissing its game breaking potential as an infinite by labeling it “prohibitively difficult.”
After all the years of fighters coming out and being played for decades, does anyone still believe that any technique/combo possible in a game is prohibitively difficult?
After seeing thousands of matches with incredible unfly/refly combo’s, A-Groove Bison Combo’s and half life Genei Jin?s, I don’t believe such a thing exists. If a tactic is good enough to give a player a strong advantage in a game, players will master that technique to the point that it becomes second nature, no matter how initially unrealistic or dexterously taxing it is.
I want to clarify. I am not talking about theory fighter. 100% parrying is prohibitively difficult in 3rd Strike because it involves flawlessly predicting an opponents actions, even though the potential is there. I am talking about tactics that rely solely on the execution of the player.
So do you believe that something can be prohibitively difficult in a game, and if you do, what examples have you seen that exist today? Is there any tactic that could be overpowering, but is simply too difficult to be considered viable? I would like to hear any instances of things once thought to hard to reasonable that are now common place for any game you can think of.
Edit: I was quickly proven wrong by this post.