? Zangief’s Punch Lariat will whiff crouched characters from 2nd hit onward.
? Gief’s grabs didn’t get nerfed, but his non-grabbing skills did (like Banishing Flat, Lariat).
? Changed something about Zangief’s jump, not in a good way, to encourage less jumping.
Not sure why tbh.
Full Translation (thanks as always Azrael)
Finally, tell us about the adjustments for Zangief.
Okada:
I believe that Zangief was recognized as one of the stronger characters in the last game, and we developers also felt the same. He was especially strong on wakeup pressure. One of his best tools for that was the Lariat. We spoke about this on a previous blog, but we have nerfed the Lariat a little bit. Generally speaking, we made it so that from the second hit, if the opponent is crouch blocking it will whiff. So its no longer the get out of jail free card up close that it used to be.
Sano:
Also, in IV since the Banishing Flat (Green Glove) was fairly functional, he felt more like a heavy-hitting character than a grappler. So we’ve kept the power of his throws but tuned down his attacks, so this is more like the real Zangief. I feel like the Gief everyone wanted is finally here.
Okada:
Also, in IV, Gief’s jumps were good enough for him to be called “Flying Zangief”, so we’ve looked at the functionality there. But, everything else you can still use as-is, and for many of you using his Short Jump, etc, we haven’t changed that at all. Gief’s basic concept is a strong ground-based fighter, so I believe we’ve gotten closer to that image now.
It sounds like his opportunities to win against characters has decreased.
Okada:
Yes. I feel that Gief is a lot closer to his original image now, but in general if you look at it a certain way, he’s the character we had to adjust to hold back the most. But that’s not to say that he’s weaker - his new ultra, the Siberian Blizzard is pretty interesting. Its an air-to-air throw that won’t grab grounded opponents, but if you input the command skillfully in the air, you can counter jumpers of course, air-bound moves like the Shoryuken, or even use it against people trying to run away. Like an elevated Hurricane Kick. So like in IV when Ryu would run away from Gief with an air Hurricane, if you use this move well you can snatch him out of the air with ultra. A 720 motion in the air is hard, but if you get it down it has a nice wide range of uses.
Also, just because: Gief vs Hawk [media=youtube]JykqtsG9Gdc[/media]
**
Zangief:**
“Life has gone down, Lariat is much easier to punish. Normals do less damage. Banishing Flat (Green Glove) does less damage. Ultra does less damage. Ultra 2 has some uses. He’s still a dominating character however. His Lariat is still scary and his match ups probably won’t change much, if at all. He won’t kill you in a few hits now.” ** From Arcadiagamers podcast**