Their power in-game has been "somewhat severely overstated," said Killian. He admits they "unfortunately" always showed them off when the meter was full.
They were designed to "try and overcome some of the struggles" that newbies suffer initially, but there's "no way choosing those gems" will make anyone a better player; truly skilled are "always going to win".
"The thing that's been going around a lot is a slide from a New York Comic-Con presentation that said the gap between good players and bad players can be overcome with these gems," explained Capcom's Seth Killian, who's dreaming of Street Fighter V. "That's, to say the least, a massive overstatement."
"The objective with some of the assist gems, that do things like auto blocking and auto throw teching: it's active the whole round, but it requires meter to use, still. So for the first few seconds of the game or until you build the meter it's not going to do anything at all." They aren't some 'god mode' stand-in for total newbies to use.
"The idea with assist gems is - despite Ono-san's statement that this is going to close the gap between new players and good players - it's more in a friendly way, where if you've got a friend that doesn't know anything about fighting games, they can help themselves along by seeing how blocking works or improving their understanding," he continued.
"If you've got your whole game going but you've never really figured out how throws work or how to get out of them, this is something that might help you out." They should have done a better job of showing how it all works naturally.
"But in general the power of the gems has been somewhat severely overstated. The only time we showed it was unfortunately with the meter always full, so it looked quite strong. Someone with auto block and infinite meter would be tough to beat. I concede that one. But it really doesn't work that well if you've not got infinite meter."
"The idea was to try and overcome some of the struggles new players have initially. There's no way choosing those gems is going to somehow actually make you a better player. So if you're going all out for blood, the better player is always going to win, no matter what gem combination there might be," added Killian.
"Once people see it in action, it's not a major concern in that regard." Skill will forever triumph in the series. "A good player will always beat a weaker player, and the gems aren't going to change that mechanic in any way shape or form." Check out the full interview between Seth Killian and Eurogamer. Street Fighter x Tekken is due March, 2012.
