You do know that's a standard effect that applies to practically every single attack thrown not only in that fight, but basically the whole game? Like, Raiden's blows having electricity is something that's just standard fair, it's not a real indication of anything, and if it was you'd actually be arguing against yourself here, why do i say that? Because you're acting like
Raiden didn't throw like a hundred electric effect punches and blows at Armstrong earlier and they did nothing, Armstrong literally went "eh". And Raiden also threw an electric punch directly at his face only for Armstrong to respond with "
You can't hurt me Jack".
If you're saying that Raiden's attacks being electrified signify him putting in effort, then you basically just agreed he was putting in the same amount of effort as to when his attacks did Jack shit, given both cases had them electrified.
He's still a human being that is bound to react when you punch them in a thinner part of their body where they also happen to breathe out of.
Actually not really the case, the nanomachines take care of that, that's literally the point (and the nano's don't really have a issue with a part being thin or not, see the Sam fight for example where we get a cross section and we're shown the nano's effect even under the skin and the
entire bodily mass all the way through, as in, if the nano's defend, the entire part of impact gets protected, even all the way down and through), it being a more vulnerable part isn't really a good argument as the nano's completely invalidate whatever weakness that part had, also mind you we're talking about the dude who who could talk while his heart was ripped out of his chest and destroyed or could almost immediately respond after getting impaled or wasnt even phased by getting a limbed sliced off. And mind you Armstrong responds saying Raiden is hurting him multiple points throughout the fight, even against like, face and chest blows. Literally to quote, "That one hurt!" Or "This is the greatest fight of my life!" Or
"Inaudible screaming and probably busting a vein due to getting kicked in the side do hard we can literally hear the crunching of metal if not a broken bone".
The most damage on his body that can be seen is the fact his shirt is slightly ripped. He's still overall mostly unphased.
And yet by the end of the fight Armstrong is balls to the walls pissed, roughed up, and actively states Raiden is harming him, physically mind you, without the sword. If anything that's indication of Raiden closing the gap even further, given a few minutes later Armstrong goes from being barely phased to yelling and screaming and exclaiming pain and being dealt massive damage with Raiden's bare fists.
Or, if they are able to actually dramatically increase their stats, they could do the heart rip raw without the need for Zandatsu.
No? Nanomachines literally prevent that? And that's a moot point, Raiden still went from being demonstrably weaker, to being able to hold his ground albeit barely to physically overpowering him and causing massive damage, all without RM, Muramasa, and so on, like I'm really not so sure what's hard to understand here, it literally happens plain as day. Just because he didn't go from being weaker to literally being so strong he could make like Dio and blow a hole through his chest with one punch blowing out his heart doesn't mean he didn't progress in strength.
And you'd think he'd have a similar shocked reaction to this new capability, in that case?
I mean, to be fair, the game literally ends five seconds later though? Maybe if he got the chance to react this would be a fair point.
...Shin kicks are pretty common technique in MMA and Kickboxing, with many variations on said technique. Jon Jones is pretty famous for his Oblique kick, which he even states is meant to keep his opponent at bay and keep them from getting closer or trying to kick him from a distance. In kickboxing as well its sometimes used for knocking their opponent to the ground as well.
I mean, ok but that doesn't really change the fact said kick still
hurt Armstrong, it may have been a skillful technique but it being skillful doesnt somehow make it able to hurt Armstrong, which it did.
Him kicking him in the stomach is also a skill thing. That isn't just a regular half assed kick, that's a spinning back kick.
And it hurt him, which is the point, previously, nothing Raiden could do was capable of really do much if anything, even other fancy kicks.
The throat punch? You forget to mention thats a counter attack. He redirect's Armstrong's punch, then jabs him immediately after.
And it HURT him. Also the fact he redirected a pissed off punch in the first place...
This is skill. It requires skill to excecute each of these techniques, especially in the way Raiden used them to counter and outfight Armstrong. From the clip you're referring to it's quite obvious Raiden is using various martial arts techniques (Even uses a Superman Punch and sweeps his leg at the end.)
Yes, Raiden is exceptionally skilled and one of the most skilled characters in his entire verse, even long before this game. But you fail to realize that being skilled doesnt mean somehow make you magically able to floor your opponent and hurt him badly, when minutes prior literally nothing you did phased him at all. Like you can be as skilled as you want, but if you cant harm the opponent, even the most skilled techniques ever will fail to actively inflict pain or damage beyond simply tripping up or anything. Also that's ignoring a lot of what Raiden did against Armstrong including the most damaging attacks are basic full powered punches or flip kicks.
Also I'd like to point out that Twellas is probably honestly right in regards to the "not always turning black" thing being just, hardware limitations or lazy devs, as if one pays attention, in the QTE's, when Raiden punches, black debris get launched off of Armstrong upon impact along with vast amounts of sparks (given we see tiny pieces of the nano's get blown away, plus sparks due to, well, two heavy metal things clashing at high speeds), plus we can hear heavy metal crunching in a few scenes, like where Raiden kicks him in the ribs so hard it makes him go 200% mad. (Also like, if Armstrong's nano's didnt defend him against Raiden's attack, he'd literally ******* die, as strong as he may be, without the defenses, he's still just a giga chad human, which while impressive, isn't exactly beyond tier 10-C/9-B who'd would explode into a paste if punched by even the weakest cyborg). Also if you frame by frame Raiden ends up smacking Armstrong in the blackened parts multiple times regardless so this is a bit of a moot point (such as in the jab scene, the neck chop and so on).
Not to mention if we really go this route then nothing would change because mind you,
the Muramusa doesn't instantly shred Armstrong when it hit places that aren't black so again, moot point with that, and Raiden's HF blade and physical strikes on flesh colored places still did jack shit prior yet afterward they did noticeable to massive damage. So either way you slice it, Raiden's attacks still went from doing nothing to doing lots without aid.