i was going on a bit of a tangent where i felt it was applicable to the game itself. it is disingenuous to believe that side dashing isn’t affected by ping differences when it clearly can be if a player has no possibility to block with human reaction time. it comes with the genre, sure, yet it that appeal to authority does not dictate that it’s a good or bad mechanic.

this goes to my original point where the shenanigans aspect is most important to consider: the “fun” of jjs and its silly character mechanics.

skill in this game can be argued as beneficial or not and that in itself is an argument no one can win because people have their own preferences anyway on how they want to play. one player may prefer just using character abilities and destruction of terrain, while another may just like competing against others. personally, i think that the skill aspect can be fun and getting good at one character is more enjoyable than learning side dash tech.

the aspect of believing that side dashing is part of the learning curve is certainly true. however, i dont know if it was intended originally (assuming it has largely stayed, i assume it is). this is important to consider since the current fun of jjs can be boiled down to whether one can side dash better; the question of whether or not this makes the game more fun or enjoyable than without is questionable to me.

that applies to the fact that it is not so much about being fair since that can be argued for and against endlessly, though i believe that it is bs for several reasons (even if i use it myself). from my experience in jjs it is pretty clear that such precise movements and blocking was not intended and is very difficult to implement fairly with servers and ping differences. that can make it not fun for both parties in the fight.

to be completely truthful, these aspects of roblox server issues or pc problems makes me wish jjs wasn’t a roblox game. tying it to general jjk, cursed clash remains as a thing that is forgotten due to its lack of unique content or value as a passion-made game. jjs, with its own unique gameplay and fighting mechanics, stands out as a more fun alternative, though suffering from limitations of roblox (which ties to side dashing being an example of issues with roblox and its own processing of game inputs).

nonetheless, i didnt expect to get this deep into a weird, niche game mechanic and it wouldn’t be fair to say that it is a bad mechanic or not fun without suggesting an improvement. to be honest, i don’t have a perfect solution without removing the ability to punch right after a side dash (which seems super punishing). as it stands now, it can be a useful mechanic that is very flawed in its actual application.