For me, KOF seems more “average joe oriented” than SF on a global scale mainly due to the extended subsystems. Let’s say we have ST where most situations the only real escapes are reversals (easier said than done.) So when an opponent gets stuck in the corner by O.THawk, Chun Li, or Dictator, it’s difficult for most players especially beginners to get out. Similar in 3s with checkmate situations and the demand of the player to be able to perfectly parry everything (easier said than done.)
With KOF in this aspect, it’s very easy (even for beginning players) to just roll, guard cancel roll, or guard cancel blowback. Although bad rolls or bad guard cancel blowbacks could be baited and punished, there are generally more and easier ways of getting out of sticky situations than in previous SF games. The execution demanded from doing revesals in Super Turbo, Alpha Counters in Alpha 2, or Red Parries in Third Strike is much more difficult than confirming a blocked attack and simply pressing C + D.
Lawler, you could argue that KOF is generally a faster game and I respect that and believe that too (except for ST.) So one needs “good reactions” to be able to punish situations and what not. But, the executions needed to answer to those “fast situations” are really simple. If anything, it’s a bit easier to deal with pressure, especially sloppy offense, by just hanging back and simply react to things that require a few button inputs. Let’s say an opponent just keeps on doing sloppy hops, just use something like st.A to anti-air it. It’s not like the player has think about buffering a dragon punch or charging for a flask kick, the player sees a hop and presses a button. Same thing for bad jumps, do cl.C or cr.C on reaction rather than needing to buffer a super or dragon punch. Heavy normals are generally much better in KOF games than they are in SF games that give a lot of leeway and ease to anti-air with without overly relying on special attacks. There’s a reason why they call the “Mexican Uppercut” the “Mexican Uppercut.” It’s a simple anti-air that is a fan favorite of Hispanic players that started on KOF first and still use that simple means of anti-air although it’s not as good in SF(IV) unless they’re playing Boxer or Guile.
So while KOF may demand marginally more in reaction than SF, the execution required to go in hand with those reactions are actually easier. Then there are other factors that go into account such as being able to react to certain hops or bad tick throw mix-ups (and needing to react with alternate guarding) and comparing that to Street Fighter footsies and being able to react to bad crouching normals and being able to confirm a whiff and counter-poking and confirming into something. I wouldn’t say SF footsies are harder than reacting to hops, mix-ups, or certain attack strings or vice versa. But rather, each aspect to both games are really, really comparable and more similar than one may think.
In regards of having more time to think about one’s options during a match, I’d say the amount of timing of holding back and questioning each other’s intents are pretty similar. In 02um or 98umFE, I see tournament players willing to neutral hop, hop backwards, roll backwards, walk backwards, dash backwards and maintaining position before really going all in and balls to the walls. Especially in match ups such as Nameless vs. Nameless or what not I see a lot of testing of approaches before all the “quick reactionary” stuff “has to happen.” I do agree though in games such as SFIV that players have huge amounts of time to actually think about things and cool off. In return, older SF like ST doesn’t necessarily give the player that luxury and the games end as fast or even faster than in KOF (unless it’s a really silly Guile mirror match or something.)
So overall, while I may think that KOF is a tad bit easier to learn than SF, both actually have similar learning curves anyways and it’s almost negligible. I don’t mean to “argue for the sake of arguing” but rather clarify on certain statements and am willing to have friendly debates to clear things up.
Also it’s pretty obvious, I like attention to detail~