Game Design: Why Beast Boy is unlikely to be in Injustice (AKA Programming!)

In my post yesterday I mentioned that Beast Boy is unlikely due to him being difficult to program.  Today I'm going to follow up on that.  But to do that, I need to bring up something else.

Sephiroth in Dissidia.

In Dissidia, each character has two modes.  Default and "Ex" mode.  In Exmode, the costume usually involves something dramatic from the series (for example, Terra turns into an Esper and Onion Knight accesses his end game jobs), a simple recoloring and villians take the forms of themselves at the end of the game.

Except for Sephiroth.  This is his end form.

It's known as "Safer Sephiroth" (It's a most likely mistranslation of "Seraphim")

Why was this form not put into the game?

Because to do so would require an ENTIRELY different model. While the game does has space for it, to load a new model.  Each other model was a simple reskin with altered hit boxes.  Those can be done in that flash of light. But Sephiroth's final model in FF7 was so different, it would require a new model to load, and that could not be done without the game freezing.  As it is, his Ex attack does make the game pause so they can switch sides on the "set."

So, what does that have to do with Beastboy?


Unlike Vixen who adapts the traits, Beast Boy actively changes his appearance.  To do so would require an actively different model each time.  An Elephant is different from a Cheetah which is different from a gorilla which is different from a dolphin which is different from a hawk. The game would pause to load the new one up, and that time used would be a large problem in a fighting game that requires such quick instincts.

Admittedly, a PS3 and an Xbox 360 has more power than a PSP.  But creating each model and keeping them ready to load would not only add time to the system, but also take up too much space.  and processing power.  It's for a similar reason why Johnny Storm was taken out of "Marvel vs Capcom 3"  He would take up too much space and time when he was programmed.

Would Beast Boy be great? Yes! Is he possible! Totally!  Would it be problematic to program?  Oh most definitely. 

I'm not going to count him out of the game just yet.  As I stated before, he would be a draw and he has a unique skillset.  But he's going to be problematic in a purely technical standpoint (as is entirely possible)  Another with similar abilities should take his place.