Combos are not the only things that require precise execution.
(<-- likes playing the hard combo chars in mvc2)
in my experience mvc2 chun-li was probably the hardest. getting any sort of decent damage required tight, height-specific linking juggles & air-to-grounds. It definitely seems much easier getting decent to good damage with mvc2 dhalsim. anakaris not so much hard execution needed (but more than average for some of his stuff) but you needed to play perfectly safe more than probably any other character in mvc2 (but dhalsim and chun don’t have the most amazing health to begin with either).
I actually considered Chun for my main, but i’ll stick with practicing dhalsim execution.
Tekken - Nina or Xiaoyu
SF - SF4 Viper or 3S Urien
VF - VF5 Vanessa (I still havent finished her trial mode 
)
MK - MK9 Stryker
MVC2 - Dhalsim (How the hell does anybody play with him in that game?)
I agree with Rachel from Blazblue! Also venom from guilty gear.
Ah, people mentioning urien makes me happy. Never thought I was good at execution but I can do all of the useful (and most of the flashy non-useful) unblockable and charge buffering / partitioning setups… I actually think that in 3s some of yuns stuff is a lot harder than uriens.
I dont think anyone from Virtua Fighter 5 is execution heavy (except maybe some Akira Combos, but they are alternative combos which is 3 damage weaker and 10x more easier and 100% success rate). Virtua Fighter 5 have added more liency in commands and combos in general.
Perhaps because she has two stances may catch you off guard, but she has a simple playstyle, and is very flexible as in having a good option anytime anywhere vs anyone. Two Stances which cover up each other weakness, while still having some good “just do it” moves and easy time comboing.
Are there any moves in 2D fighters that require just frame inputs ala Bryan Fury’s TJU or Akira’s Knee?
I’d say Eddie from GG. You’re literally controlling two characters at once, one via negative edging, each with their own completely unique movesets. There’s also the lesser issue of positioning the two characters being slightly disorienting at first, as little Eddie’s walk speed is different from Zato’s.
I hear Akira from VF is also very difficult, but I don’t play VF so I can’t say.
For execution heavy games I’m going with Hokuto no Ken. Dem basketball combos.
TJU is a more akin to a link, I think you mean like SC JFs where its just an arbitrary timing. I’m sure there IS a mainstream one, but the only one that comes to mind is that doujin game EFZ. There’s some timing based releases like the boxer chick in Arcana Heart or Makoto in BB.
Xiaoyu is not executional, nobody in Tekken is really executional except a hand-ful of characters, most executional required characters in Tekken are
Kazuya, Heihachi, Devil Jin, Bryan Fury, I’d say Paul Phoenix too, he has some really advanced stuff, like Magic 4 into Jab, Qcf+1 or qcf+3+4 into jab is really hard.
Hell just BDCing already takes some execution
mastering FRC For some GG characters in general and mishama’s EGWF in tekken is quit annoying …
anyway… you can overcome execution by time…until you do it automatically by muscle memory.
Paul? I dunno about that, but mishimas are an obvious choice. I’d add to the list Steve and Julia, but the real cake winner in nina possessing the lovely SS cancel inputs which look something like :u:1:b:~:u::d::df:4 and a B&B which is more or less ~2f 4 or soTKs in a row in a game that only allows you to buffer 1 input
Steve and Julia don’t have anything executional really, Steve has just stances that you have to hold b~ for and then transition, maybe hard at beginning but it’s no difficulty that you will drop combo’s of it, and Julia doesn’t really have hard stuff, f,f+1 or f,f,f+1 post-bound is also really easy.
He also has the duck cancels which feature heavily into his game and instant peek-a-boo cancels which are a pain in the ass… Julia has 1 frame links out of df1 and the JF 14f punishes as well as the spacing specific War Drums among other HC moves.
Doesn’t the motion and input have to be on the same frame for it to work? (1f b, 1f neutral, 1f f + button)
I consider just frames to be like Pauls DM which has 4 odd frames to press the button with no particular indication when to do it. TJU is a 1 frame link in my mind. Taunt is +16 1+3+4~f 1 frame, n 1 frame b+2 14f startup. Taunt must be perfectly cancelled so that’s also a 1 frame link. Or JF. or whatever. That’s actually closer to the idea of a JF in my mind so mayhaps youz onta somtin’
You fucking retards. Steve is not hard. Neither is paul, his demoman comes out easily as long as you wont mash it out. As for bryan yeah TJU is hard, other than that theres nothing.
Honestly. I’d say Mishimas deserve to be mentioned. The basic idea how to play with them is so simple. But when it comes to actually executing it. It’s like f’in impossible. Shit like punishing -13 with kaz EWGF is ridiculously hard and only the very best kaz players can do it even somewhat consistently, and even something as simple as being able to use their movement to the absolute max is stupidly hard.
Why is it that people say steve is easy and koreans say he’s way up there. I feel someone doesn’t know whats up and I’m gonna go with the best in the world. Things might change if you buy me a 3DS 
He’s not like Eddie/Venom + whoever else mentioned but still…
Also Mishamas are hard, but notably they’re not the only ones who have things like that. Leis 12 frame punish is ok, but he also has a 40-odd dmg one which is also a just frame. As does Julia at -14. AK can also WD cancel[as can hwo and baek but its fairly useless] and JDCR features it heavily in his gameplay as can bob. Ninas is arguably harder than the mishamas since you can’t shortcut it.
cyclops has a 1 frame block cancel to continue an air combo in mvc2