Is there any benefit at all to playing her? keep in mind I’ve been playing arcade mode in Supercade only
I can’t remember the dude’s name, but there’s a really REALLY good Sakura player… She’s got a few things going for her, like her really ambiguous high/low game. She can safe-jump a short, where if they block low, it hits, if they reversal, you block, and if they block high, the crouch short hits so soon afterwards, it’s nearly impossible to block it… Check out the a-cho matches for her play.
e.g.
[media=youtube]P3xaupQGDKw[/media]
The guy does it in the first 40 seconds of the video, but the Ryu player successfully blocks it.
There’s another example on GameAcho’s page, but the videos are usually over an hour each - and I’m not going to sift through each video. lol.
But that dude in particular is a good Sakura player. Sakura as a whole is a mid-tier character. At one point, she was in the top tier though.
Here’s a link to a full A3 playlist.
[media=youtube]3uFS1IChXQ4[/media]
And here’s more Sakura. Start at 19:45
Why was she considered top tier
V-Sakura is top tier in SFA3. Damaging VCs available in anti-air, anti-poke or even long-range anti-fireball and guard crush variations that allow her to rebuild her V-ISM meter as the combo ends. She has strong pokes with her far standing HK and B+HP. The B+HP is an anti-air at certain ranges, has a really dominant hit box and does good guard damage, making her footsie game even more potent. Sakura also has a loop which allows to combo her HP DP for a knock-down into a really-hard-to-block cross-up. Once the cross-up connects, she can combo back into the HP DP.
[media=youtube]TpG3hSzgoqw[/media]
Dude… Those crossups.
Why’d you even ask this? Go on ggpo and play someone with a Japanese flag. You will see, oh yes, you will see.