He has the same startup and has less recovery than ryu.
http://www.sirlin.net/articles/street-fighter-hd-remix-akuma.html
“Red fireball recovery made way worse so it can?t do inescapable lockdown”
“Blue fireball startup and recovery made closer to Ryu?s”
So both of them are definitely longer than Ryu’s, and trust me when I say that it makes quite a bit of difference.
^Closer there doesn’t mean longer than. Akuma had better startup and recovery before, so making it closer to Ryu’s means that it’s probably still a bit better. In fireball games today I held my own against both Ryu and Sagat.
Hmmmm, it seems to me that Akuma’s blue hadouken has longer startup too.
Anyone got any strats to beat Akuma in Arcade Mode? This guy is a beast.
I’d be curious to know what the numbers are, but I’m positive that it was much easier to stuff Akuma’s fireballs. I guess we’ll find out eventually if someone does frame data. Oh, and good games yesterday 
Akuma’s blue fireballs have the same startup as Ryu’s. Each version also recovers in 40 frames, whereas Ryu’s recover in 41 for LP, 42 for MP, and 43 for HP.
I been doing some testing with the Demon for the past hour or so. What I’ve found is that the opponent can pretty much always jump out unless they’re doing an attack. Akuma’s hitbox disappears during it, so it’s a great counter move. You can go through fucking everything. I tried ticking into the Demon, it doesn’t work. I tried it with s.LP, and got the demon to come out so fast the hit spark(blocked or hit, didn’t matter) was still there during the move! Even at that speed if the opponent just holds up they’ll jump out.
The best jump in combo I could find was j.HP > s.HP > HK hurricane kick > HP Shoryuken. It does about 70 or 80%, and if you hit them with just about anything afterwards they’ll be dizzied. The timing on the Hurricane kick seems to be fairly tight.
Also, am I the only one that hates the new Red fireball motion? I keep getting a button up red fireball in combos from time to time when I try to do a Hurricane kick. It’s annoying. I’ve just been holding punch down to compensate, it’s just bothersome.
I don’t know why it was thought that he might be low tier. He has so many tools for keep away, damage, and punishment that his low health really doesn’t seem like an obstacle. Against non-fireballers you can air fireball and fireball to keep them back. You can out pace many of the other fireballers in fireball wars. For fuck’s sake if someone DOES get in, you can just teleport away. Bottom tier my ass.
So I stand corrected. Good grief, that sucks, lol. In this case, this might turn out to be another bad match for Chun 
People going crazy with the air fireballs might help even it out for a long time though, heh. A lot of people going for air fireball without the meaty or the crossup, but that shit is really easy to punish for Chun.
so yeah, forget about that anti air use. You can just hold up when you land and easily escape because you can see the super freeze. Looks like you’re just going to have to punish or predict stuff. It’s not even that great against fireballs as, you have to be in range and it’s so slow I’m not certain you can react consistently and have it guaranteed 
That last bit is theory as I haven’t played anyone yet but I’m pretty certain that’s how it is.
can’t you do it early and get them during landing recovery? demon is invincible anyway.
I was playing around with Akuma VS Balrog in Training mode and I found some interesting things about the Raging Demon.
You can bait strong and fierce Balrog’s headbutts and then punish it with a Raging Demon easily even if he’s holding up to jump. I think it might be possible with the jab headbutt, but you have to be really close and have really good reaction and execution to do that.
You can also Raging Demon a full screen Balrog super on reaction, but that’s not realistically gonna happen.
I saw that in the training mode as well, but I think it’s a different story if the opponent is jumping in with an attack.
I haven’t noticed recovery at the end of the demon, but I’m not sure.
Another thing I’m not sure about is whether a reversal demon is even possible in this game. I’ve tried, I don’t know, dozens of times, and it’s never worked.
Also, I’m pretty sure the reason you have to input the demon slowly is ST’s retarded system of dropping inputs to get the speed up to speed. This isn’t like a qcf motion where it’s obvious to the game what you want and it’s gonna take more than a frame to do, it’s just a set of button presses and a direction that takes more than a frame to input, and if the game happens to drop any of those frames, you’re not getting a demon.
Last night against my boy narcissiscaesar (one of if not the best online guile) I got demon 3 times on his wakeup and it didn’t seem like there was any way out. =)
I’m LOVING akuma he is so damn good UD I take back what I said the cr mk, mk hurricane, into hp srk is nuts even the damage off his jab srk is nuts! oh and crossing up with air fb is too good as well not to mention a great way to mix in ticks occasionally.
Has anyone played around with TK Fireball? If you get the right spacing, it’s brutal. It certainly is hard to combo off of it, but in the very worst situation, if it connects or is blocked, you get in right next to your opponent. I’ve found the Jab fireball is the best for this - since it travels the slowest, you have the best chance of getting close to the ground first.
Also, I wanna play someone Ryu v Akuma and have a fireball war. The frame data says I’m wrong, but my eyes say I’m right. I’m not skilled enough to turn on the 2p controller in training mode and throw fireballs simultaneously.
Pretty sure Akuma can’t even combo into a standing fireball off of c.mk so I think his start-up is a bit slower. Maybe I’m wrong.
I’ll test it later.
Can you play akuma in arcade mode? If so how?
His start up is NOT slower, and you can combo off of c. mk. You can even do Ryu’s classic j. HK > c. MK > fireball, except Akuma’s does more damage and knocks down.
I’ve already done this, and we went even. I also went even with Sagat in a fireball war.
Tiger knee fireball is good, but honestly I like regular jumping jab fireball most of the time, especially on my opponent’s wakeup. The distance you have to jump from to avoid their wakeup special move differs by character obviously, but you can in fact avoid most special moves. Like with Ken, his strong dragon punch goes right through the fireball, but if you jump from right in front of him, his dragon punch will go under and behind you and you get a free combo when he lands. Others you just have to do like a safe jump air fireball, so that you’re on the ground and blocking just before the opponent wakes up, but the air fireball is still active so that the opponent has to block or reversal through it on wakeup. I’ve found this to be the case with Guile and Claw.
For a while I was following up air fireballs with guess hurricane kicks and guess throws, but that’s pretty dumb and unsafe. Now I usually just crouching forward xx fireball or throw. Crouching forward fireball does less damage, but it’s safe, and if it hits it knocks the opponent down and you get to do another meaty air fireball.
Your eyes are wrong.