Rather than seeing a significant change to Gouken’s combos or move properties, I’d prefer to see him being strengthened in what has always been his paradigm.
On the one hand it would be nice for Gouken to gain things other characters have, such as the ability to link his light attacks (and thus get special moves out of chains), or to be able to combo cr.mp to fireball, but I’d really rather he not just emulate other characters.
Regarding what has been said in this thread already: I of course fully support fixing issues such as tatsu dropping characters and any other glitches which Gouken has to deal with. But I am actually -not- in support of changing his specials in most of the ways that have been described. I can understand the desire to make tatsu more “usable,” make lp palm start up faster and be safer, have faster charging fireballs, or to make palm avoid fireballs more easily. I do not, however, agree that this is the best course of action to take with Gouken; I think there’s a better alternative which would be in line with and strengthen the basic premise of his character.
I think the primary change to Gouken should be very simple: increase his damage across the board.
Gouken has always been a high damage, high risk/high reward character. He has very little in the way of “training wheels” when it comes to landing his damage.
However, I don’t think he is rewarded quite enough for his efforts. He has some very strong BnB combos, but they are difficult to land. Now there are two possible approaches to improving the situation: either make it easier to land Gouken’s damage, or to increase the damage reward when he -does- land it. I’m personally in favor of the latter rather than the former, simply because it would strengthen Gouken’s character as a heavy damage dealer, rather than make him more similar to other characters.
As such, I would propose the following changes: The goal here is actually not to significantly increase his BnB combo damage, but to increase his damage in other areas.
Jabs: Far jab damage increased from 30 to 40. Crouching jab damage increased from 20 to 30.
Mediums: All medium attacks (standing, crouching, far, near, jumping, kicks or punches) except for close MP set to 80 damage unless they already exceed that number. Far standing MK increased to 85 damage.
Fierces: Far standing HK increased from 110 to 130.
Fireball damage increased to 65 and 130 on full charge.
Palm damages increased to 120, 140, 160 for L, M, and H respectively (ex remains 150 due to follow up potential).
Kongoshin damage increased to 180.
These changes would increase Gouken’s general damage, while leaving his large BnB combos basically untouched. I think this is the way to go for improving the character, rather than changing his other technical specs.
