Very true. Yea, I’d like to start a new match-up thread someday but changes always seem to be around the corner. Not long after doing Super/AE, they pulled a fast one on me and pushed out the 2012 edition forcing new changes. It’s really hard to keep up to date on that when you rely on a mostly text compendium. With video, you can just swap old matches for new ones and make small cliff notes instead.
Maybe in the meantime I can go through your play list – how do I find you?
On a side note, I’m looking forward to Ultra even if it means nerfs to Fei. Canonically, he was never meant to be one of the top contenders in the SF world anyway. I am looking forward to some damage buffs or other ghost-buffs, but I think straight nerfs would be just fine as long as they don’t go overboard. He just needs to be rounded at the end of the day. If they get rid of his 7/3s and 6/4s and make everything 5/5 for him, I’d be happy.
On second look I don’t have as much in there is I thought I did. Mostly Sagat video’s. I’ll try and put some together though from my history.
Looking at the changes to the Red focus I’m not really sure what to think of it now. My initial feeling is that Red focus is bad for Fei Long as far as his offence is concerned.
I mostly agree with that. I guess it does help against Guile whose Fireball > Normal pattern is a real annoyance, but other than that, I’m drawing a blank on how it would help his game. I wouldn’t call it a full-on nerf though, since it is an expensive move to pull out at the cost of 2 bars, plus you can still Rekka-all-day when the opponent has anything less than that. Seems more like a way to universally ease some pressure when used right-- probably more helpful for less defensive characters like Abel/Makoto/Hakan/Rose, etc. Smart way to beef up the lower tiers I think. If used wrong, we’ll see a lot of people throwing this out at random to catch Rekkas and pokes and be exhausted of meter. Not a bad thing for Fei as long as we’re careful not to be caught by it.
It seems that aside from costing 2 bars, the time to charge it to level 2 is longer and will fill your Ultra meter considerably more. I think that makes it somewhat a balanced addition. They also removed the unblockable property.
I think what I’m more intrigued by is the choice of 2 Ultras. Ayano just confirmed you can pick both for a damage reduction. Not everyone will use it (let’s face it, Ken’s U2 is just bad for most situations), but there will be key matchups where that’s huge. Gief comes to mind – now you can’t be near him due to U1 and you can be reckless with Flame Kicks/CW/Backdash since he has U2. That’s a pretty big restriction for what’s inherently a keep-away kind of match. Overall, it’s going to screw with the match-ups for Fei and make things a lot tougher vs. the lower tiers. I hope the damage reduction is somewhat severe; in the neighborhood of 30-40% reduction sounds about right since this is mainly a buff to Ultras that add utility more than Ultras that are meant to do damage.
Yeah all hits has long as you hold it. It basically renders frame traps useless and any type of 2 in 1 - cr.lp xx rekka for example. Luckily for Fei at the very least he can break glass with CW which is better than nothing, a character like Guile, how often will he be sitting on a down charge? Not often, he doesn’t have a very good way of breaking focus now. I think even though they say it’s a defensive mechanic it will be used as an offensive one.
With the double Ultra it’s 66% for full Ultra. Check out the front page discussion for a chart Giley made. My thoughts are a bit mixed at the moment. I’m trying to weight up two things
How often do I land U1 anyway, I’d have to say not a lot, not full damage.
Is the threat of U2 always being there a good deterrent to catch a break?
At first I thought - Ultra 1 full damage but now I’m thinking about Akuma for example. I can crumple for U1 or catch a Air FB, or I can ease myself under pressure. For a character that doesn’t get a lot of mileage from Ultra’s anyway I’m thinking maybe the double option isn’t actually a bad thing.
Also you think Giefs bad, I’m thinking about someone like Hakan oiled up with 2 Ultra’s and a red focus. Does it get anymore insane than that? lol
Man I’ve finally been able to play this game again! Good to see some of the old heads still in here! If ya want to get some games in add me! Trying to get back in the swing of things. XBL: higg1n5
Looks like April is the month that the new game comes out in Japanese arcades. We’ll probably get it on consoles late May.
I’m guessing a full change list will be available by March at the latest. Exciting times!
… In other news, does anyone know of a good square gate stick that doesn’t have any glaring issues out there?
My old TE just isn’t cutting it anymore. I’ve been struggling with a PCB issue related to the HK button crapping out and forcing me to unplug/replug the controller to get it working again. On occasion the joystick gets stuck in one direction also. I figure it’s been about 4-5 years now, so maybe it’s time for a change. I can’t believe I played in tournaments with this.
Funnily enough my wife just bought me silent buttons and a silent stick for my TE, must be trying to tell me something!
The stick is a bit of a bitch to wire up though, I’m not sure what goes where so if any of you guys have experience let me know, right now it’s lying there open , I might give it another bash. If I was you nosone just pick up an SFxT TE stick or alternate game version, i’m pretty sure they are the same as the SF TE but I saw them going for less than $100.
Basically I had a silent stick (silent switches) but instead of it connecting straight to the 5 pin socket (the white one) it comes with an adapter, 2 cables for each direction for a total of 8 cables, the only thing is it doesn’t tell you which cable is which direction, or which order they go onto the switches.
Basically I plugged the stick in, put the game on then kept pulling them in out until I got the up direction then worked clockwise from there. Seemed to work!
Bit of a mixed bag on the silent stick and buttons so far, they don’t feel as clickity click responsive but then that’s the whole point of them, they have this sort of dull muffled feel but I’ll get used to it.
My god… look at the subtle lines, the tasteful thickness of it…
Let me know when you get it and how you like it. I’m guessing since it’s Sanwa parts, they’ll feel similar to the TE. Hopefully there’s no PCB issue. The dual-mod coming standard is definitely a plus in my book.
I’ve already tried it and it feels like a TE. But it’s really heavy in comparaison. I don’t know about where you live but in Europe it’s a well known brand and it’s practically what’s best.
Sounds great then – thanks for the recommendation. It looks smaller than a TE so I’m surprised that it’s heavier, but I suppose that’s not a big issue. As long as it performs well and doesn’t have any widespread issues, I’ll probably be grabbing one of these.
Double Ultra: I think it’s pointless with a 33% damage reduction. U1 doesn’t punish much on its own due to being so slow and short-range. On top of this, if you take a 33% damage reduction? 495 goes down to 327. The extra damage after a CW juggle will probably be laughable then too. Let’s just use cl.HP xx EX Flame Kick instead then --you still get a 5-frame safe-jump off of that and it does 300 damage for one bar. Sticking to U1 or U2 separately will yield far better damage results.
In any case, having U1 under Fei’s belt doesn’t cause people to play differently. It’s having U2 that changes things. If you’re looking to really change things, you should be picking only U2 and not Double since Double makes Fei less scary in general.
Red Focus: At first, it’ll seem like Red Focus is being abused and is difficult to deal with. But then after a week, you’ll realize that you can spot the Red flash that comes up when the opponent uses it. In that case, you’ll stop at Rekka x1, giving the same effect as if the opponent just charged up a normal Focus. Considering that, you’re probably better off since the opponent just burned two meters to do the same thing they could have done with no meter. At the cost of two bars and without the guarantee of a crumple-hit, it’s an expensive and not-so-tricky move to pull.
If we have our way as Fei players, Rekkas will be similar (or the same) and will be nearly impossible to sniff out due to being 7/9/10 frames of start-up. That said, no one will be charging a Red Focus from mid-screen to catch a lucky break. Doing so just helps Fei.
Where I do see Red Focus helping though, is on wake-up, rush-down, and against footsies:
Ken’s cross-up Tatsu to SRK can now be absorbed completely for a punish
Guy’s running overhead kick can be absorbed for a full punish, as well as his Target combo block strings following a jump-in.
Gen’s ambiguous Cross-up, Jab, Hands can now be defended by doing Red-Focus > Dash cancel before his Hands come out (or get hit by a couple slaps)
Fish for Bison’s LK scissors in a blockstring (if he misses the link, but hits the cancel, you can absorb the cr.LK xx LK Scissors all in one go)
Fish through Cody’s blockstrings, especially if he tries to end with LP Criminal Upper
Focus absorb through ALL of Dhalsim’s pokes for Ultra Meter and dash-cancel when there’s a hole. This might force him to come close to do an armor-breaking move or throw. You can also absorb a full Ultra to avoid being pushed back from the corner (though the gray-life affect of this is probably a bad thing)
Akuma’s Demon flip kick can now be absorbed safely for a backdash. This isn’t really possible with regular focus since he can recover before you release to either block or SRK through whatever choice you make after. With the threat of a continuous-hold, you will probably be able to backdash as he attempts a throw or decides to block. Considering his Palm and Ultra are Akuma’s only armor-breakers, you’re pretty much in the clear for the most-part.
I think those are the big ones worth thinking about right now, but they’re significant.
The only thing with the red focus is that your opponents still have to commit to those play’s unfolding. Most of the situations can be reversed and result in simply burning 2 meters on something you “thought” might happen. The block string and jump in one’s in particular you face the prospect of burning 2 meters on a tick throw or command grab set up , which lets face it pretty much happens now even without the RF mechanic.
I’m thinking that this other “big change” may be some sort of guard crush or change to the throw tech system because the way I see the game unfolding now is that people are actually going to do LESS in an already defensive orientated game. Red focus as I imagine it just seems to promote more baiting and less attacking.
The double Ultra will cause an imbalance I think, it’s clearly going to be very useful for some characters - Adon/Akuma and not for others - Ryu/Bison but I guess it could be argued the Ultra system has alway’s tilted match ups, as a Sagat player also I’ve always agree’d with that.
Personally I would have like to have seen perhaps the introduction of lesser damage 2 or 3 bar Super combo’s as Supers often have much better frame data properties than their bigger brother Ultra which is more of a sledge hammer than a fine tool.