I got GGXRD:R on that last flash sale... and man, the KoF flavor still lingers in my mouth while playing, lol.
I love KoF's satisfying damage and varied combo routes for characters. I love the heavy emphasis of meter use, meter gain, and the HUGE damage that makes any hit, light, heavy, jump in, etc, all seem dangerous.
Not to mention how lacking the sound design is in some ways. I love the rhythm of KoF combos; I love how characters say different lines when they use specials after a 3 or 4 hit combo. I love the final sound effects of Ranbus and beams and single-hit mighty REAL MENS PUNCHES. There's so much punctuation to stuff in KoF. New GG fails at this compared to old GG, and maybe even compared to BB, and it's depressing. Especially when the visual impact scream "ANIMEEE OVER-DONNNEEE!" and the sound screams "fire the current mixer, or put him back on low-tier western cartoons!"
Graphically, GG is strong, of course, but it's not without fault. Much like XIV's huge cast bringing discrepancy between quality in characters, the same happens in GG. Early "DESTROY!" cinematics seem lifeless in comparison to the more well-planned ones, some cinematic Supers seem wasted on supers you're not gonna use / see much, BURST supers have no discernable visual difference other than some text on screen, and I have yet to adjust to the anti-hype that is putting hit enemies into slow-motion to continue combos. (I also suck at Roman Cancel-style systems in general, I guess, lol.) I mean... landing DUST is visually exciting, at least?
I just don't know where the full fun is in GGXRDR until you get deep into it's stuff. I don't want to make bad habits out of what will eventually be useless, but at the same time, the stuff that feels useful feels very basic (gattling chain-> special), and the stuff that uses meter doesn't feel all that much stronger, and it feels really inconsistent for difficulty VS damage payoff.
Still really got to get into the game, but I'm more and more glad these 2 games have different flows. I really wouldn't want KoF to feel just like GG, but at the same time, I like how GG makes so many characters feel fairly different from other fighters. I definitely don't have a Dizzy replacement in KoF, but I have yet to find any current characters in XRD:R that move like I want them to, compared to Zarina and current Leona.