I don’t recall seeing any focus being used in the recent gameplay videos, was there some in there or is it likely to be unique to the SFIV series do you think?
Most likely will not be in this game.
There was that one attack Chun did when powered up that she seemingly used to extend a combo, but it could have just been a Fierce punch.
I’m not sure which you mean, she did seem to spend her EX bar to double the output of supers but from the gameplay shown at capcom cup it seemed to be mostly either links or what looked like target combos that combofiend was using in to chun’s lightning legs. I can’t agree with the commentators suggestion that chun li didn’t seem to be a charge character.
Looked more like a V-trigger enhanced back fierce to me.
no focus attack please.
Like the parry, the focus attack is dead. You can enjoy it when you play SF4 whenever you please. But now is the time if the elemental/ex/ultra/instinct/v-trigger power up! Rise up!
Please no. Take that mechanic out and shoot it in the head and bury it in a shallow grave. Garbage.
I know it wasn’t a focus, but whatever that was, it did at least allow for a longer combo (one function of FA in SF4).
Like Dev said, it could just be a buffed fierce. Pretty cool that power-up mode likely changes properties on normals (look at Ryu’s punch combo for another example).
Why does this thread even exist?
Theres absolutely zero hints in any of whats been shown so far that FAs are in this game.
I’m with you there.
I don’t think it will return. Nothing in the trailer indicated that.
And purge its grave with fire and salt.
I realize I’m not adding anything important do this discussion, I just needed to say that. It’s just that I hate the mechanic and it’s my single biggest issue with SF4. =(
Why all the hate for focus attack? I think it’s an awesome mechanic. I don’t mind if it’s not in V, but I enjoyed the new level of meta it added to IV.
I hope it’s in SFV. I really like it. But it will probably be unique to SFIV, like how Parry is with SF3 third strike.
Because it gave a universal answer against pokes, especially mids (forward, strong) and heavies (fierce, roundhouse) which helped contribute to the over-reliance on lights (jab, short) in a game where you already got too much reward out of them. Focus provided for an easy, all-in-one defensive move that beat out pokes, not even parry did this due to the fact that, aside from requiring tight timing, you still needed to pick between either low or high.
If the focus attack was that overpowered than you’d think it would be the only poke being thrown out. You’d think the high level gameplay would just devolve into fishing with focus attacks. But it didn’t; people still throw out plenty of pokes. Simply fishing for focus attacks doesn’t work and is easily punishable. They implemented it well. It didn’t destroy the poke game, it added a new level of mind-games and thinking to it.
And as far as an over reliance on jabs and shorts go, that’s just the nature of how the combo system works, what with their fast startup and frame advantage and easier ability to chain and hit-confirm. And that’s not even entirely true. There’s plenty of frame traps and strings not involving jabs/shorts.
Here’s the thing, compare SFIV at high levels to 3S or ST at high levels. You’ll notice that IV involves alot more poking at close range with jabs and shorts. The older games on the other hand tend to have more use of crouching forward or crouching strong. Now I’m not saying that focus is the main cause of the problem, but it does exacerbate it.
Now look at the stage demo footage. It’s obvious that the dev team wants to remove the over-reliance on lights just by looking at how slow jabs are now in V. Adding in a mechanic like Focus would negatively affect the game, considering that both Mike and Peter were using low forward as their go to poke/confirm (as it should be for Ryu and Ken in any proper Street Fighter game).
Well I agree and am glad that it looks like jab/short are going to play less of a role in SFV. And I believe the focus attack would be overpowered in SFV so I’m fine with it not being there. The only other thing I hope for is that the overall fighting of the game switches to be more of a standing style fight rather than a crouch fest where the characters are attacking sitting next to each other up close. But that’s the nature of the beast with 2d fighters.
I’ll pass on Fa’s. Now Charge attack dash cancels…those need to come back.
Vega’s crouching fierce is a great poke. One of the best in SF4.
Honestly, how many times have you seen a Vega do crouching fierce as a poke against a grounded opponent?
…
well?
…
Exactly!
its called Focus Attack.
:-/
Focus attack nullifies like half your pokes. Half your normal usage. Half your buttons. You might as well tape down half your sanwa buttons.
add in the nutty huge hitstun on crouching jab and it leading to cr. jab cr. jab into ex izuna drop or whatever they want and no Vega wants to use that crouching fierce as a poke. Only as an anti-air do you see it used.
So…turtle turtle turtle cr. cr. ex izuna drop. rinse & repeat & nothing else.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…wake me when you’re done playing SF4.
But you see Adons tossing out far standing roundhouse as a footsie poke all the time right?
two hits on his far standing roundhouse my friend. Cant focus it. Therefore, EXTREMELY useful.
See the difference between having a mid or heavy button as an option and NOT having it?
I hope so.
Not to mention some characters really profited from FADCs like Akuma, E. Ryu, and Oni while others like Guile couldn’t do shit with a dash cancel.
Focus Attacks, like parries, need to die.