Because there need to be consequences for letting yourself get forced into a bad situation. You let Ken knock you down or walk up and throw you, and now you have to deal with having bad options. Should you try to escape another throw attempt with some reversal, or will he do jab dragon punch to beat your reversal, or will he block and punish your reversal? If you guess right you CAN get out, it’s just that none of your guesses are great options. And… that’s how it should be. Don’t let yourself get placed in a bad position.
The nerf to Ken’s knee bash is one of the changes I dislike the most in HDR. Here was this really interesting character who was almost like a shoto-grappler hybrid in some matchups, and I wanted to see that side of him get stronger, to more fully flesh out the differences between N Ken and Ryu. Instead the complete opposite happened. His most significant changes are ones that help him more in zoning and defense than in offense (reversal super, knockdown strong/fierce srk, invincible strong srk, bigger arc fierce srk), and while the changes to his hurricanes help him get in a bit better, his throw does less damage and has less range, so the payoff for getting in isn’t as high. He’s much more of a Ryu character now than N Ken was, and I think that’s a big shame. Not that there’s anything wrong with Ryu, just… we already have one. Imo ST tried to evolve Ken from a stupid clone into a real individual character more than any other SF2 game had done, and imo HDR decided to take a step back from that.
And that pretty much goes to the heart of my problems with Remix: I think many of the changes tended to make the cast less unique and less interesting. I guess NKI agrees, and I know dudes like jchensor and a few other guys I’ve talked with agree at least with respect to their ST characters.
For sure I’m much less interested in my old ST character, Zangief, not because I think he’s worse (he’s for sure better) but because I think his changes are extremely uninteresting. Ooh, if I guess right I can hop over a low normal into spd! Or, if I guess right I can pop someone’s limb with my new gigantic lariat! Or, if I guess right I can use my kick lariat’s almost-useless low invincibility to go through a low attack! Or, if I guess right I can use the slightly faster green hand to nullify an opponent’s projectile into spd! Like, why is it interesting to make a character better by making him guess-ier? Can I get some better air attacks so Blanka has to actually think before pressing the strong punch button? Can my footsies get a little more range or priority so they dont lose to 1/2 the cast? Ultimately, can I get a real way through my opponents’ walls? R Zangief could have been so cool and interesting, and yet now he’s more of a gambler’s character than ever, a role other characters already played and still play better.
I’ve dropped R Gief completely in favor of the R version of my other ST character, Honda, both because the difference between R Gief’s potential interestingness and what actually happened is too annoying for me to deal with and because even though imo Honda’s changes and non-changes are some of the more perplexing in the game, he’s just too good a character to not use.
Edit: I still think Remix is a really good game. It’s like, which is more preferable, a slightly more balanced cast, or a slightly more interesting cast? I like both, and I’m fine with playing both. I wish there was a way that one game could satisfy both, but I don’t think that’s how it worked out.