12 has good runaway. He has low-damage options (even w/ meter, for the most part), but he’s a lot harder to predict than someone like Sean. Sean has barely any combos too, though, outside of super. Most of his specials can be punished most of the time, including if he already hit you with them. They’re slow and easy to parry for the most part, as well. You can basically block low and tech, and that nullifies a lot of his main strategy. 12 has the hit-confirmable cr.lk, X axe punch thingie XX SAI. His air game is pretty good against certain characters if you can master his air-dashing–that and being able to change back and forth from playing close-ranged to far-ranged with him at will is hard to do but can REALLY disorient other players. He can also link SAI in at least 2 ways. I’d say the main proof most ppl think 12 is better than Sean is due to the Japanese match videos. I don’t recall the last time I saw a Japanese Sean player beat RX or a JP Chun, if EVER 
That shortcut exists in 3S. If I’m crouching, I can Shoryu without standing at all. Just move from down to down-forwards, down, down-forwards then punch. And I know I’m not mashing on forwards accidentally, because I have a square restrictor in my stick and I can activate Shoryu just by wiggling the stick against the bottom edge into the corner a couple of times.
This is not the same thing:
- in SF4, you just have to do (from neutral or not) df, neutral, df + P, two inputs (+P) for a motion which is supposed to have 3
- in 3s, you have to do df, d, df + P, so 3 inputs. Also, you have to begin from down or forward to make this work. In fact, game probably just see the first df as a regular forward and the next inputs just complete a regular srk (f, d, df), it’s not a shortcut IMO.
Parry is not just there to punish poor mixups and create versatile mixups. It’s also a calculated risk tool. Like a business man who makes calculated risks on businesses to invest in. The better the business man the better his investments. The better the 3s player the better he can make a calculated prediction on where the opponents next attack is going to come from. and he will know the timing on when to parry.
perfectly stated! Bravo!
kuroda > donald trump
Oh my bad, I misunderstood the SF4 shortcut, that is absurd. Though aren’t they technically the same amount of inputs? The return to neutral becomes an action even if it’s neutral, so 3 inputs must still be registered for the shortcut Shoryu to come out.
Either way, it’s silly. Apparently there’s something wrong with requiring the player to be dextrous enough to execute something as simple as f, d, df + p.