A lot of discussion has gone on about thing between the two games, some wrong some correct. So to try to clear things up such as “In A2 you can just AC all day and win!” or “A3 sucks cause you just gonna get hit with a infinite then lose” I made this thread. If you have a question or something you heard which you think is true/not true ask here. I can answer many A2 things and all A3 players are free to answer anything for that. I’ll keep this updated.
No A2 is better than A3 or vice versa discussion, take that somewhere else.
Is it just me or is Karin’s parry special qcb+p or k, require a quicker and fluid motion than most qcb specials? I’ve noticed that I have to do the command faster than I would for most specials. I can’t get it out consistently unless I do the motion fast.
Umm, well… I think a common misconception about SFA3 is that the infinites are guaranteed/easy after the first hit and make a character good.
They aren’t guaranteed. They can be escaped by some air specials/supers/activations during the tech-trap setup.
Not all of them are easy. Especially not for player 2 where jumping toward the corner will cause a crossup.
They don’t automatically make a character good. Four of the top five characters don’t even have infinites (Akuma, Sakura, Dhalsim, and Zangief don’t have them).
In fact, most V-ism characters do the same amount of damage with their customs and have basically the same setups. What makes a character good or not in SFA3 isn’t their customs but rather it’s all their tools that make them good or not. Example, Birdie has every kind of custom you can think of and does lots of damage off them and even has an infinite, and he is bottom tier even lower than most A-ism and X-ism characters because his combos don’t compensate for his weaknesses (as with all characters).
Another misconception might be that V-ism totally dominates. If you don’t like custom combos then chances are you won’t like SFA3, because V-ism really is the best choice for the majority of the cast. Be that as it may, there are characters that can compete even at top level play outside of V-ism. Dhalsim, X-Sakura, A-Gen, and A-Guy just to name a few for example.
Also random trivia that might be a misconception: in SFA3 you don’t have to time an airtech perfectly. You can hold the buttons for the airtech on the last hit of a combo and the game will automatically airtech on the first frame you’re able to airtech. Example, with a 5-hit juggle, if you start holding back and three punches after the 5th hit you’ll airtech as soon as you’re able to.
The only characters fairly dependent on infinites for damage are Claw and maybe Sagat on that list. Other than that, the top are top for a lot of other reasons.
-Sodom mainly because of his great keep out ability and huge VC range/damage output
-Claw because of his ground game and unrivaled ability to sit on a lead/run away
-Karin, again, because of her ground game, pressure ability and dozens of VC setups (her infinite is notoriously difficult to keep going on the P2 side anyway – same with Sodom’s).
Having an infinite is a huge boon, but unless you’ve got set-ups that are difficult to avoid like Cody/Ryu’s corner guard crushes and Karin’s OTG/tick throw set-ups, they’re harder to land than it seems. Birdie’s got an easy infinite for example, but he’s still pretty low on the list. Chun’ also has easy infinites; they’re just hard to set-up since she has no ground-based mid-screen.
Most people think alpha counters are free get out of jail card is a pretty good misconception. Acs can be dp or AC’D BACK in alot of cases and everyone can set up a super if your opponent acs. Best part is the way you do it makes it so the ac/super/dp ONLY comes out if they ac, otherwise nothing happens.
Another one is regarding ccs, usually the person who cc’d first is wrong as Gunter put it. It’s the same as A3 in the fact you can counter cc, just a bit harder. Now you can. which by no means is easy, counter cc a valle cc or blowout cc. I’ve done this many times but the timing seems crazy for it, I’m guessing 1 frame reversal activation after your opponent. In comparison to a counter cc while blocking which seems so damn easy, but is only like 2 frames to do or some shit. I’m just throwing numbers but yeah. You can also dp ccs which is hard
Rose isn’t really as godly as most think, just really damn good. Crouching mp only goes so far and SI is a good tool, but you can’t just randomly activate it. Chun is better overall and a bigger pain in the ass.
i’d like to play Alpha3 (since it’s more popular and has more characters :shake:)… and i can get over V-ISM, starting a match with full meter, two button throws, air recovery, guard crush and all the system particularities… except for hitboxes!
why are the hitboxes so awkard in Alpha3 coupled with the Counter Hit system?
i play ST, A2, Third Strike, SF4, Jojo, Vampire Savior etc. all the time with almost 0 (zero) trouble adjusting from one game to another… i also had no trouble learning most of them concurently.
but all the times i tried to play Alpha3… the game doesn’t feel right not even for one second and everything goes out the window. the attacks just don’t correspond visually to what’s going on… i always get counter hit or X/Y/Z attack looks like it hits, but it doesn’t… some attacks from both players plain wiff through one another… all sorts of weirdness i’m yet to encounter in another fighting game
