Here’s a very short list of possible changes for the game, based on current information.
- System: Add “off-balance” state to increase interactivity and clarity in the up-close game.
- Ryu: Add “Denjin Feint” move to solve a situational problem Ryu has without touching the rest of his matchups.
- Cammy: Buff hooligan slide to deal white damage on block and reduce the size of hits hurtbox, as a very minor change for situational utility.
System
Added mechanic: “Off-balance” state. The intent is to provide additional blockstring options for an attacker to combat a defender who is attempting reversals or teching throws while crouching.
The way it works: Any time a crouching defender performs a throw input or a special move and the attack does not come out due to blockstun, the defender is now “off-balance” for a short time. During this state, a “?” symbol will appear on their character, blue for throw techs and red for special moves that were done too early to reach the reversal window.
The effect of being “off-balance”: Attacks against a defender in this state cause between zero and two frames of additional blockstun, and while the state lasts, the defender’s expanded reversal window is gone and throws cannot be performed or teched while crouching.
Goal: Increase the clarity of the up-close game, so that the attacker is no longer the only player providing information to the opponent during blockstrings.
Input shortcuts and large reversal windows are clearly going to stay, and they have some useful effects for players who have a hard time performing the motions. Rather than penalizing the player for using these tools for their intended purpose, this change is intended to reduce their unintended side effects. The defender will have less ability to hide their decisions, and the attacker will have opportunities to act on that information to call out the opponent’s defensive habits.
Aim to provide a systemic foundation for increasing the general fun factor and interactivity in block strings, and help slow characters in particular who have trouble maintaining the threat of a throw. If nothing else, the increased blockstun provides more opportunity for the attacker to build a stock of white health on the opponent.
Ryu
Added move: Denjin Feint. Only available during V-trigger. Ryu acts like he is charging a denjin hadoken, and the buttons can be held up to the normal maximum duration of a hadoken charge.
How it works: When the buttons are released or the maximum charge duration is reached, the electricity dissipates with no additional effect, and Ryu is free to act. The minimum charge duration is no shorter than the recovery of a regular denjin fireball.
Goal: Give Ryu more options in very specific situations without damaging his otherwise well-crafted moment-to-moment gameplay and balance.
I’ve seen many compliments given to how interesting this version of Ryu is, despite his simplicity compared to more modern characters in the roster, so I wouldn’t want to touch that too much. However, in certain matchups against opponents who can afford to sit on meter, his V-trigger can lose a lot of its utility when charging the fireball will easily invite a reaction punish, and there’s no way to bait out those options from the opponent.
Assuming it’s not an option to rework the moves that cause that situation, a feinted charging animation prevents the opponent from completely shutting down a large chunk of his v-trigger gameplay. Due to the minimum charge duration, it wouldn’t really have any use as a fake uncharged fireball, so the impact on his regular v-trigger gameplay against unmetered opponents would be small.
Cammy
Buffed move: Razor’s Edge Slicer. The attack causes a decent chunk of white damage on block, and starting from the time Cammy touches the floor until the time the attack hits, her hurtbox is vertically small, along the lines of Coward Crouch.
Goal: Give Cammy another toy to play with, for a small boost to her fun factor with minimal impact on her actual effectiveness.
With this, a hooligan with precise spacing, such as against a turtling opponent or when used as a read against backwards techrolls on wakeup, can present a more significant threat of the slide next to the throw and the divekick. Universal answers to all three options will be more difficult to find thanks to the reduced hurtbox on the slide, and attacks that beat the slide, like throws and low attacks, would be vulnerable to the divekick.
In addition, if the opponent decides to crouch-block against hooligan and allows Cammy to slide, now Cammy is point blank with an opportunity to capitalize on a decent amount of white health on her next mixup.
This change is intended to be situational with a very minor effect, as Cammy generally has very few holes in her moveset that can’t be adjusted with numbers. The main complaint is that she feels too plain, and this isn’t much, but it’s a first step.