No! It must be a huge imbalance! Not a small
imbalance like Blanka’s fucking crouching hotbox >_>
UM, can I ask. What is the Blanka crouching hotbox imbalance??
damn whats with these akuma elitists ganging up on me?
i asked a simple question and got a bullshit answer.
It has something to do with level distance i think. I know for a fact that gouken has the same problems, with some combos working in one corner, but not in the other. I don’t think it’s a huge imbalance though. But it’s nice for some corner shenanigans i guess.
@ ninja, no so much an imbalance than it is an annoyance. It’s irritating to go for a combo out of muscle memory and half way through it gets dropped because Blanka was crouching
Concerning the corner shenanigans, it depends on many things: distance before using df? what character is in the corner? is the character crouching? how far is he from the corner? what strength df? when did you hit kick? all these things factor into whether or not it’s a cross up or regular hit, and whether or not you end up on the other side
i chose Ryu as the dummy and tried all variations of the demon flip dive kick and also at different times. the distance i used was right up against him.
sorry to dwell on this topic for so long. im guessing that’s “just the way it is”. which sucks imo but ill deal with it.
if my opponent is in the right corner, ill just make a mental note not to demon flip dive kick so i can keep him in the corner.
So you are saying you wont EVER want to cross up your opponent in the corner? Its Akuma we are talking about, cross ups everywhere in the stage are equally important as regular hits to set up your vortex or just do some significant damage. Plus its not like you can pressure them like Guile or Bison can so think about it 
To be honest, the mentality that crossing up with your opponent in the corner is a horrible thing might work in your favor. If your opponent thinks you won’t do it, he most likely won’t block it
Taking a look at Trag’s combo thread the hit confirm combos after a crossup MK are c.lp, c.hp> (blah… blah…) and c.lp, c.mp> (blah… blah…). Are these the optimum universal hit confirms after the crossup MK that I need to man up and learn?
Just asking because my scrubby crossup Mk>c.lpx3> (whatever) combo doesn’t fully connect on some characters and I’m missing a proper crossup combo in my game ATM.
Well the 3 cr.lp into lk.tatsu is used as a hit confirm. With the cross up, if it hits you should automatically go for a cr.mp or st.hp into lk.tatsu etc. By adding more light hits before the damaging part of the BnB, you lose out on damage. Train yourself to realize what you are throwing out there is hitting so that you don’t get scaled so badly. Also, 3 cr.lp pushes your opponent farther from you, which is why the lk.tatsu may be whiffing
Yeah I go for more damaging basic low hit combos when I can. Just wanted to know a better all round hit confirm option than c.lpx3 and if it’s worth getting down the c.lp>c.mp and/or c.lp>st.hp for this purpose.
If you get someone in the corner you want to keep them in the corner because their options are limited. If you cross up and fail to get a hit then you put yourself in the corner and lose any offense you have. There are much better options that still screw up your foe and maintain your control over the corner.
Akuma actually has a rather good corner game because of hit walking speed. Footsies my friend Footsies.
Probably nobody knows me, but I’m a Dudley main. I know Akuma takes really good care of character that puts Dudley’s offensive game down such as Guile. I know that Akuma takes a lot of hard work but I think it’s time I start taking a step further into deicating my time to learning Akuma. I know Akuma’s vortex and have used them, I know his mixups, and his combos; BnB. But I lose a lot of matches and it’s because of my defense.
Where do I start to really USE Akuma? What are my main footsie tools? What are my defensive options besides blocking, teching, and teleporting out of corners and bad situations? I know there are beginner threads of Akuma, but tbh just reading them doesn’t help all the time. Some points on how to start with Akuma would be great. (I’m still reading the beginners thread, and other stickied ones.)
P.S. - My thread got locked. Don’t mean to clog up the the Akuma boards so whatever.
cr.MK, cr.MP and I personally use st.HP alot. It’s got great range and counter hits very often (though I don’t think even with a counter hit you can combo anything off of it) and it’s a great AA
- Don’t get predictable with teleports or you will be punished… hard
- cr.HP is Akuma’s best all round normal AA, and can even stuff cross ups (it’s hit box is redonkulous)
- If you have meter to burn, you can risk a random SRK to stop the pressure. If it gets blocked just FADC away.
For footsies: cr. mk is your main poke, it sets up cr. mk > hado strings and can also link into the Tatsu BnB’s. You want to use cr. mp as a counter tool and link into BnB as well, and his sweep should be used to punish anything that can’t be punished with a BnB. I usually perform a careful teleport out of corners, in fact I’ve come to rely on it so much that I feel weird when I use other characters! As James said, you can SRK FADC back-dash if you have meter to spare.
Generally what Akuma’s do is something like this: fireball to get your opponent in position for a DF Palm. Get the untechable knockdown after the Palm. On wake-up, MK Dive Kick into either cr. jab > tick throw or combo. Another option is to do an HK Tatsu on wake-up and then sweep after the hit. Obviously I’ve made it sound really simple when its not, but that’s kind of the bare-bones idea 
You want to use cr. FP as an AA where you cannot FP SRK, and use st. HK from beyond sweep distance to setup a combo or just apply pressure (it can be more abused on certain characters where the 2nd hit cannot be avoided). Pretty much he’s all about the knockdown. Hope that helps, I’m learning him myself.
Thanks, guys. I’ll be using Akuma in training to see some setups with dive palm and stuff. I know it’s not simple but I’m going try to get used to using him like I did with Ken even though they’re different, and use these tactics.
Akuma’s sweep is godlike. Use and abuse. It’s relatively safe on block and if it hits, you get a crazy good knockdown to mix them up. Always try to put pressure with cross up tatsu’s, demon flips, and the likes when you get a knockdown. Don’t settle for measly fireball chip damage! And if they start to use focus attacks to absorb and crumple your sweep, I suggest start using it a bit less. And when you see them charge up a focus attack, just jump at them with a jump attack and mash a hp shoryuken.
Cross up tatsu’s are really good against just about anyone (except stupid peeps like Blanka and such). I suggest doing them a lotttttttttttttt especially if you’re playing against noobs.
And once they start blocking it, just do a jumping roundhouse to hit them in the front and go to like cr. lp x 2 (or 3) xx lk tatsu to sweep (if you can) or hp srk. Always go for that sweep after the tatsu. Try to remember the list it works on. Well, remember who it doesn’t work on.
Anti-air with cr. hp mainly. Hp srk is good also, but it can be risky in situations. It has somewhat short range and if it whiffs, you are gonna get butt raped. Far standing hp is good as a far anti-air.
In general, you don’t wanna use too many air fireballs against a character who also has a projectile. Stick with ground fireballs in those match ups. And for people who don’t have projectiles, use a lot of air fireballs. Again, that is very general advice and you will learn what fireballs are good against specific characters in specific circumstances. Jump forward and EX fireball is a very good move as well against nearly all characters.
I say this info is good enough for now. Just remember to abuse that cr. hk and then go on a rapefest any time you get a knockdown. And anti-air with cr. hp. Once you get these basics down, we’ll give you more info. Oh, and do try to record and post vids so we can see your progress. 
Oh, and I suggest
-Not using demon flip throw too much. Try to stay away from using that for now. It’s pretty risky and you can eat a lot of damage, especially if you’re playing against reversal-happy scrubs. :\
-Not using demon flip palm against characters with a Shoryuken. Palm is very good and safe against everyone else, especially Balrog.
-Not using demon flip dive kick against characters who do NOT have a Shoryuken. It’s not completely useless against them, but you will have much more success with like cross up tatsu’s and such. I say use this dive kick against characters with Shoryukens for the most part. Aim for the top of their head.
-And just to reiterate, use cross up tatsu to sweep a lot!!! It is super fun imo and is extremely frustrating for your opponent. Mix it up with jumping roundhouse accordingly.
I was managing to pull off the tatsu > sweep last night in training mode, but I can’t exactly pin-point the timing. How do some of you mentally time it? What visual cues do you look for?
I wouldn’t mind knowing this as well. When practising it on Balrog after a while I can get it 90% on him but in a match I’m still not confident enough to go for it and give up the guaranteed damage for the knockdown. Also when I then tried to Tatsu>Sweep Chun and then Guile I could rarely get it on them, is the timing different for different characters or am I imagining things?
My anxiety over not going for it in match has to do with another shortcoming, my lack of knowledge on Akumas safe jumps. I know how to apply a sketchy version of the vortex but I often find myself just winging it After watching Loltmas option select tutorial and taking some notes I need to know Akumas safe jump setups, how to time them and which knockdowns grant this opportunity? Is it possible to safe jump any and every untechable knockdown? (on characters who can be safe jumped of course) what about other knockdowns?
It all seems a bit overwhelming at the moment, if someone could provide a starting point, some safe jump examples that I can take into the training room and try to get down I’d appreciate it a lot.
my god, just spend like literally an hour in training mode doing it. you will get it.