I broke my toy.
Been away from the game for a while; with some new tech in mind I sat down with it and realized the flaws run deeper than I imagined:
1.) The wonky hitstun is because you can cancel it with up/down, or holding G. This is really bad. Many attacks that I deemed minus (like 5A) become unsafe on hit. If they held 5G and got hit by it, they cancel the hitstun early and get a free punish–by accident!
2.) Due to the hitstun issue, effective movelists for each character are much smaller than previously judged. Some characters probably don’t even need Gained Skills anymore. Abusing highs/lows with good frames and many mids is now the order of the day. Pierre has probably the best movelist in the game thanks to the power of Transform.
3.) Throw loops aren’t unheard of, even if you’re not playing Bob. Many characters can attempt more throws after their first is escaped. Thankfully, attacks are throw-immune, so this isn’t a deal-breaker…
4.) …except FD also has port priority. This needs more testing, but AFAIK, if P1/P2 throw at the same time, P1 always wins. This seems to buffer in their favour too–I had an escape where P1 is minus, and P2 attacked and still got grabbed despite throw immunity. This really hurts, since P1 could gain various advantages in throw escape situations.
So yeah, kind of a bummer. FD has a lot of potential, but it may be irreparably wack.
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Long time no see, SRK. FD calls me like a siren, and once in a while I listen.
I was mistaken on the above-mentioned faults. Near as I can tell, up-close throws have some kind of unusual interaction which may be based on distance, or even character. Will need more testing.
“Block-cancel” hitstun does not totally ruin the experience. Move lists aren’t dramatically smaller; though some unsafe-on-hit moves persist, the general theme of losing your turn on hit is identical. The game has a couple dedicated animation frames to block, and one to “unblock.” This means that while you can make several attacks much more minus, your optimal jab punish has to be from -6 or more on hit–not common.
Delayable strings are really useful, to ensure that opponents don’t OS Hirari attempts through strings. Having such a thing from a 5A string is nice, since enemies are less likely to guard low, and doubly so if the string ends with a mid to preclude an OS dodge.
EDIT: There appears to be an odd combo of rules for throws. If two players throw in the neutral on the same frame, P1 wins. But if either player has their throw escaped and it ends neutral, and both players perfectly buffer another throw, the player who previously performed the escaped throw wins. This is what keeps Bob high tier; he can engage throw loops fairly easily, and when you escape Palo Special he is “fake +1.”
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