Oh, I’m not. Still rocking the demon and learning to improve my game. Just not at my old job where I could be on the boards more often than not…and just needing to shift my focus until I get some things back on track… 
I’m having a serious problem with E. Hondas as of late. It seems every time I try to zone, I eat a headbutt. Am I supposed to let him slowly advance, until the point where I can SRK him after a fireball jump? Or am I supposed to move back and continue throwing them until he makes a mistake.
I’m not great at Akuma vs Honda but keep your eye on his charge. If he has to block one fireball, he needs to let go of his charge or else block another one. Either way, you get to throw another fireball depending on spacing. Pretty much, that’s how you know you have the momentum. If Honda is in and you can’t throw a fireball safely, you need to put an end to his momentum by crossing him up or knocking him down.
If he walks forward (or paces back and forth), he can’t headbutt or buttslam, so make use of the opportunity to space or pressure him.
It just seems ridiculously hard to actually get some damage dealt to Honda. You chip him all day, then one random attack lands and you’re back fighting from a disadvantage.
Big tip for Honda is to Focus the dropping part of his Butt Splash. That stuff is -2 on block to be safe from punishment and is often used to set up his Ochio Throw.
Focusing that with a crumple into a combo can take away from him a good deal of damage he’d otherwise be getting. I’ve barely played any Honda’s, so other than that I have no other tips for the match. Does anyone here have any know-how on dealing with/punishing his rapid hand slap? Seems tougher to get through than Chun Li’s normal Lightning Legs.
Sorry to hold up the thread guys I didnt want to clutter up your section so didnt start a new one)… I’m a Ryy player, but this may or may not interest you…
I’ve started a new tournament style of training in the Ryu section, only to realise that we need all the characters to be represented. To those who are dedicated on imporoving and helping others to do so, please have a quick look at the thread here : http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthre…=200770&page=2
That link isn’t working. :lame:
what besides super/ultra punishes blanka balls
teleport
jab and crouching strong, but i wouldn’t really rely on them. just block/ultra.
if you are full screen bait ex ball with lp fb and hp srk. really easy to do on reaction
New to Akuma - some questions
Hi Guys,
I figure this is the correct place to post this despite it having a variety of questions. Anywho.
I’m a Gouken player trying my hand at some new characters in the quest for a solid alt. or potentially a new main due to many of Gouken’s inherent limitations. My current candidate is Gouken’s scrappy little brother, Akuma. I figure I might as well keep it in the family. There is a wealth of information on this forum and I am still processing a large chunk of it - specifically match-up gems. I do have some questions that I haven’t been able to source direct answers or information for:
1.) Stamina. This is a potential deal-breaker for me. Akuma is weak as hell. Naturally, the key response here is basically “do not screw up” as a means to manage this down-side to an otherwise extremely versatile character. Are there any other tips or practical suggestions I should keep in mind? FA absorbs also strike me as particularly risky if you cannot heal which makes me curious as to how often you guys factor the risk/reward aspect of FA absorbs into your game. Teleporting out seems to be a good option if I take a beating so as to minimise any follow-up into a potential dizzy state, though I’ve found doing so against Bison nets him a s.rh for free making me reconsider against him in particular. Are we expected to weigh heavily on risk/reward with Akuma? He strikes me as a versatile character due to his tools suggesting he works with many playstyles, though I am curious as to what the general consensus is in terms of how he is perhaps best used. His stamina suggests a reactive/conservative approach. His effective combos suggests he does well at getting stuck in. Am I right I assuming he is best played as a balance of the two? Would you agree that Akuma works well with patience? I am also finding Akuma requires a very precise level of execution to be used effectively, otherwise I’m simply not going to be able to capitalise when I can.
2.) Controlling space. Akuma seems to be well equipped to control space and zone somewhat effectively against many characters due to his good fireball recovery and of course his air fireball options. I’m curious as to what our options are for distanced jump-ins. By this I am referring to a jump-in that is beyond the range of an SRK but would perhaps be caught by a s.rh by Ryu (if I were using Ryu) for example. Akuma’s s.rh has anti-air properties though I’m curious as to how viable this is from a practicality stand-point as it strikes me as difficult to accurately place as an anti-air. Sometimes I’m finding people can advance on me for free from the air (Honda is a good example) because I don’t have an ideal far reaching anti-air normal or special. I’ve managed to sneak in a dash > SRK a couple of times, though this is risky. I can also only reset my spacing so much with backwards teleports before I run out of screen real estate. Ideally I’d like to maintain my position which kinda rules out a back jump > air fireball. My other option has been allowing them to land and poking with a s.rh > c.mk > fireball to push them back to where they came from. This has varied success however. Does teleport factor into your zoning techniques? Are we fast enough on our feet to simply walk forward and quickly SRK to close that medium jump-in distance? On his walking speed, I’m loving how fast he can zip around on the ground. I swear this guy tap-dances when he’s not breaking faces and murdering the unworthy.
3.) Light and middle punch air fireballs. These strike me as particularly useful a a means to lock an opponent down at medium to close ranges so I can follow-up with an array of attacks such as overheads and charging up a focus attack while they are forced to block. Are there any cross-up options here? i.e. can I drop a mp air fireball and then teleport behind them to mess around with them akin to Dhalsim? Air fireball > focus and front facing mix-ups (overheads, c.lk hitconfirms) seem to be good options but are there others?
4.) Teleport. I’m curious if there is anything more to the teleport that I am perhaps missing. The punch variant I gather travels slightly further, kick not as far. Is this correct? Are there any differences between the two I should know? I found (as mentioned above) that Bison/dictator gets a s.rh for free when I teleport making it often a poor choice though are there other characters who exhibit a comparable punish against Akuma if we teleport? Bison maybe a unique case due to his speed and s.rh range, but I figure perhaps this will apply to Chun Li and Vega/claw also.
5.) Dashing. Akuma’s dash seems stilted and very short and with the exception of the brief dash invulnerability afforded to all characters, I’m thinking perhaps his excellent walking speed is a better option to manoeuvre over short distances. Am I correct here? I’m perhaps accustomed to Gouken’s fantastic dash which covers solid ground and is actually quite fast - at least compared to how slowly he lumbers around normally. Akuma’s strikes me as a bit, well, shit compared to what I’ve been accustomed to enjoying.
6.) Air to air combat. I’ve found Akuma’s j.fp to be his best air-to-air attack bar none so far. Is this correct? I’m snuffing the vast majority of aerial attacks by countering with this beastly normal due to its great range. Immediate j.mk also seems to work well which I find comparable to snapping out a j.rh in Super Turbo. j.rh for Akuma in IV strikes me as piss-poor for air-to-air attacks and is perhaps reserved for when descending on opponents. At least, this is what I’m finding.
7.) Match-ups. This will be brief as its simply something I still need to familiarise myself with, though I am curious off the bat as to who Akuma’s best and more importantly WORST match-ups are against. I’m finding Blanka to be a gigantic pain in the ass as I can’t punish horizontal balls like I can with Gouken. I understand after a delay I can Ultra the bastard and jab spams can work to a degree combined with a flinch SRK. I assume that’s it really. Can we teleport through him to mess with his charge? I also have a buddy who is a Satan-like rushdown Bison who is essentially impossible to zone. I figure good Bisons are a handful also unless there’s something I am missing. I also had a hard time against an extremely skilled Dhalsim over the weekend though I read recently that j.fp can be punished with an Ultra. Tasty. Any others? Rufus was a handful, though I found success against him provided I kept grounded which has been my approach with other characters also.
8.) Why Akuma? My last question. Perhaps the dumbest, but I’ll ask anyway. Why do you feel Akuma is the better choice over his obvious alternative Ryu and to a lesser extent, Ken? We have a stamina problem we need to consciously nurture, a lacking FADC > Ultra option (more valuable for Ryu than it is for Ken) and a poor dizzy rating that nets us birdies regularly if we’re not careful. On the flipside, we have a wealth of tools complimented with the insane options via the demon flip, great EX moves, an extremely nimble (if not THE most nimble) walking speed, a teleport for when things get unsavoury and the somewhat useful ability to focus crumple > Ultra. I’m curious if there are other positives to Akuma that I am yet to consider.
If you’ve made it this far through my verbose rambling, thanks. Again, I will continue to read this sub-forum for information, though I figured I’d fire off my most specific questions to make sure my assumptions and understanding of the character insofar is on track. Akuma has a very unique style that I hope I am grasping correctly and I’d be curious to hear what experienced Akuma players have to say in response to the questions I have. There’s tonne of information for me to trawl through here which I guess is the result of deciding to look into other characters so long after the game has come out. I’ve fielded similar questions on the Gouken forum for a few months now, so I guess the shoe is now squarely on the other foot.
Also - I’m in Australia. If any Australia-based players on the PSN are happy to whip me into shape and show me a few ins and outs I’d really appreciate it. PSN handle = Gamogo.
holy FUCK tl:dr
if you cut this down to about 1/4th the size i would be glad to help you
1) Yes, the low stamina is a pain in the ass that means trades can suck (especially when they retardely hand out Ultra’s to some of the bastards out there) and you can lose a tonne of life and even die over something stupid like an un anticipated empty jump Ultra. Ken EX DP reversals make dents the size of the combo’s you’re dishing out on them etc.
You also have matchups where you have to grind it out maticulously the whole way and screwing up or leaving your defenses open once can see them obliterate a big lead; even killing you if it’s relatively tight.
That said, it’s actually a lot more manageable than what Seth has to put up with. The low resistance balances out the character and Akuma wouldn’t be as good as he is if he didn’t make up for the lacking life. You get good punishing combos and a set of zoning tools almost as good as Seth’s, that allow you to turn the stage into a minefield of traps for the opponent to navigate in order to chase you down.
3 hit Shoryuken means you can confirm that the opponent has blocked and use an FADC to keep yourself safe. You can therefore attempt Shoryuken reversals a bit more freely and only have to burn that meter when you need to get out of jail. There are a few other tricks across his game to help make life without life that little bit easier.
The Teleport also saves you the stress of defending wakeup games and mixups leading to some of the opponents biggest damage that tougher characters have to deal with countless times over. The opponent can punish you once and it hurts, but they shouldn’t be able to ride any momentum against Akuma and you should also be able to avoid most attempts at chip KO’s.
FA’s are indeed risky for one with fragile vitality, but these are still very useful in building up an Ultra meter more early in the round. Akuma’s focus attack is one of the better ones and is a great way to set up his Ultra or his nasty combos to punish your opponents pokes. It’s a necessary risk, try to use a health amount of focus attempts and baits in your game to build meter and crack their footsies. There’s such a thing as too much, but plentiful is beneficial for him, I believe.
Akuma can play very safe, but if you only stick to the safest game you are going to lose all the same. You need to be able to intimidate and pressure the opponent, which the more impulsive rushdown styles are going to get done for you. Fearsome Akuma’s are able to overwhelm their opponent before they get going, rattling their head to give a further advantage in the rest of the match. Fireball turtling against an opponent who needs just 3 solid hits opposed to eating almost 20 fireballs is accomplished by only the most consistent of players. Try to use the safe game to minimise your risk and perhaps score a knockdown before moving in for aggressive pressure and mixups.
Against the more advanced competition, it’s necessary to be unfliching under pressure and be confident in exactly what to do in each situation while keeping your offensive game water-tight from gaps your opponent can exploit. Experienced and developed Akuma players become comfortable with this and enjoy a powerful, deep and intriguing character while forgetting all about the health issue.
Average and lesser players, plus those picking him up for the first time will find him a lot of fun to play, but have the problem of those ‘deer in the headlights’ moments that make him difficult to excel with.
Just keep at it and persevere and you can get there to a point where you can make the character one of the deadliest weapons in the game.
2) Akuma has a back screen control that few can compete with, and some excellent footsie ability with his movement speed and good ranged pokes and focus killing tricks etc.
One of the biggest issues for developing Akuma’s is being able to cope and hold strong against the dreaded un-permitted jump into 1/2 or 1/3 screen distance when they haven’t been cut out of the air by a pre-emptive fireball. In one split second the opponent has a lot of options opened up and Akuma’s next move isn’t immediately obvious.
So in your case it’s mainly about AA options for now. I used to feel out the roundhouse as an AA when I was getting to grips with the character; it has effective priority on that first hit, although the recovery after the second hit whiffs puts you straight on the backfoot from their reset. There’s no known way to connect both hits on an airborne opponent, so this is something I’ve abandonned once I’ve become more comfortable with the character.
Try to trust in HP SRK, but if it’s clear that it’s going to whiff then I suggest cr.MK is perhaps his best AA in that situation. cr.HK has better range but it lags a lot more, looses trades when they’re closer in and doesn’t feel particularly safe against trip guard DP’s/Ultra’s. I use all 3 but cr.MK has been a welcomed addition to my AA game more recently. I’m also often comfortable enough with some jump-in ranges to just stick out a fireball for them to drop on in front of me, rather than thinking too hard about what to use.
If you practice with cr.MK you can use it to beat almost any jump-in unless it’s landing right near your head. The hitbox there ducks very low and it has a good range where they’ll land straight onto it, with rapid recovery for relative safety if you miss-time it. You can cr.MK into a fireball for the most basic and safe punish or you can use a combo from an LK Tatsu from it. The fireball is easier to get started with and safely chips when you expect them to try trip guarding.
Throw cr.MK as they become roughly level with your head or a touch above that. Don’t worry too much about the timing as is isn’t as risky as it sounds since the moment it starts up it shrinks you to about knee height and this is the perfect timing for them to land on it and not compromise on safety. You can throw cr.MK earlier if you prefer; in that instance it’s likely to make their jump attack whiif and leave you recovered with them landed in front of you.
Folks here like to preach the use of a cr.MK Kara’d into an Ultra so they drop into that, though I wouldn’t think it’d be comfortably picked up as an early tactic.
3) LP and MP air fireballs have considerably better recovery than HP for sure, though the frame advantage you get from them is really quite moderate. If you space them accordingly, to give the fireball time to travel while you’re recovering, you can get enough time to jail them with a ground fireball for a double chip or combo. You can also take a step or two forward to pressure with a low or overhead as a small time mix-up.
Nothing too lavish, I don’t believe there’s enough time for a safe jump, although if you have your opponent nervous you can space it to set up a Demon Flip for an offensive wave. These can always be reversed but the opponents aren’t always ready to do that. When it comes to Teleports, I’m pretty sure they’re far too long to have any safety in pressuring with off the advantage. Teleports have a time of around 50 frames to recover.
Some trickyness can be set up with air fireballs. Many knockdowns lack the recovery advantage and the certainty of no quick rising for them to work out but after landing an Ultra the recovery is right to throw a Tiger Knee jab air fireball that lets you hop over the opponent and cross them up craftily with some frame advantage to work with. I believe this can be done with the knockdowns from a sweep or Demon Flip Palm, but the recovery on these means the air fireball puts you at disadvantage on block.
You can use a similar cross up trick after landing a neutral throw against the corner. You therefore recover right next to them on this and can use an LP fireball to lock them and go for a meaty jump cross-up on the other side to pincer them. Timed right, it can be very difficult to block or escape.
4) You have a punch and kick teleport that have varying recoveries and distances. Kick is favoured as it covers a half screen (usually far enough to serve its purpose) in 49 frames with just the last 9 frames being vulnerable, providing earlier recovery/mobility for the next move. Punch goes further at nearer full screen in 57 frames, again with 9 vulnerable frames.
What’s likely giving you your problem is that you’re always using the kick teleport through your opponent, which goes that distance but leaves you about 2 character spaces closer to them than you would have been if you’d have teleported in the other direction. In this case, there are a fair number of characters who can land a hit to catch you on this if they telegraph it and have prepped timing through experience with it.
The answer is just to mix it up more with the teleports you are using. Going through them with a kick version while you’re cornered is embarassingly obvious and there are tools to catch it, though the danger is not always great. If they’re not sure on which direction you’re going to move in and how far you’ll move, it’s near impossible for almost any character to catch you out for sure… and that’s just considering the players who’re giving it a bloody good try.
5) Well his dash isn’t one of the best, but it isn’t in line with the worst either. It’s pretty standard and does what it’s supposed to do quite well. The best mobility for Akuma is in his usual steps.
6) Air to air is one thing Akuma is shit at. It’s all right while you can react before the opponent, but when you’re against sharper air to air players, pretty much nothing he has wins against some of the air to air moves out there (air throws vs. Akuma ain’t even funny). Demon Flips automaticly lose to everything in A2A and that hurts if you get caught by those that lead into follow-ups.
7) You’ll want to concentrate on grasping all unfamiliar matchups and accepting that most of the time you have to grind down all your opponents no matter what their tier place is. Akuma’s lacking in easy walk-over matches; when you have a low vitality character with an Ultra that’s difficult to land, you’re opponent will always have a decent chance.
While Akuma’s footsies are particularly deadly against most types, they aren’t immune to being shut down sometimes. I lose quite badly to Bison in the footsie battle myself. Those standing MK and HK pokes don’t lead to much but they have blinding speed and recovery for the range they have, and the aggressive types with the scissors and EX scissors stopping me trying focuses or something more gutsy to win that range.
Ultra on Blanka Ball must be ‘reversal’ to punish. The block stun on the Blanka Ball isn’t long so this can be tricky (online especially) if you lack confidence with it.
Usually when a character has an advantage over Akuma in a matchup, a retreat and some competent fireball zoning can drag it about even. Make the most of Akuma’s ability to punish opponent’s moves with research and practice to be ready to punish whatever you can and try not to let things slip. This can be an important factor between winning and losing.
8) EX Demon Flip over fireballs from full screen, dude. Only Gouken, Seth and arguably Sakura have anything like that and Akuma IMO is the most rounded and solid of these guys. Teleport is the only true ‘get out of jail free’ card on reversal and perhaps the best defensive tool across the cast.
He’s the only character in the game that can bring his Ultra out of his normals and these together with his shopping list of wakeup strats and shenanigans makes him one of the most interesting and well balanced characters to use.
The sky’s the limit, but you’ll have earned each step you take upwards.
Excellent. Thanks very much for the response DevilKnight - you’ve covered all the stuff I was most curious about!
That crouching middle kick as a potential anti-air option is really interesting. I had no idea it reduced his hit-box to something so tiny. Gouken’s c.lk is very similar which actually goes even lower. You’re not wrong about it feeling and or looking odd as an anti-air though. I guess I just have to train myself to actually use it.
I never considered tiger-knee air fireballs until you mentioned them which will make a nice addition to my approach. Frankly, because I’m so new to this character I keep forgetting how many options Akuma actually has in many battles. I will go entire matches without once throwing an air fireball for example and then remember at the end “oh shit, I can hurl air fireballs!” because I’ve mained Gouken for so long. Demon flip (particularly EX flip) comes somewhat naturally for me as its a staple of Gouken’s game and is a great equalizer and a lot of its use carries across. I’m guilty of attempting air parries on reaction with Akuma though. I’m loving how his dive kick from the demon flip has a hit-stun spanning decades which essentially guarantees a follow-up combo too. That mess is glorious.
I changed my Blanka approach last night to an all out aggression-fest and landed myself a couple of perfects against an opponent who was giving me grief previously which was nice. No reversal demons yet but I’m sure their time will come.
I also need to train myself to use s.rh a lot more. I see a lot of people using it in matches even as a poke/keep-away tool and I just haven’t yet burned it into my memory as an option despite how useful it is.
Again, thanks very much for the info. Hopefully others can gain from it also. I applied a bunch of this to some local games last night with a buddy which helped me get a much better feel for Akuma’s movement and speed which until then felt very foreign and kinda ‘off’ for me. I’m slowly gaining some familiarity with him so I guess now its just a case of sticking at him and learning my matchups. Cheers!
i believe the recovery times for all akuma’s air and ground fireballs are the same, unless you’re talking about EX/red fireball versions…
http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2008/nov/13/akuma-gouki-frame-data-street-fighter-4/
I too started SFIV maining Gouken and switched to Akuma. The reason I did, without going into the whole “console characters suck” thing, is that Gouken is really underdeveloped. While being one of the best console chars, he lacks what is necessary to do well in high level play.
His normals suck. There’s only one link and it’s useless. His bnb cannot be hit confirmed and is easily punished if guessed wrong. While it deals considerable damage, you’ll hardly find the opening necessary to land it. Demon flipping mix-ups can only get you so far and the back-throw reset thing is really predictable. Also, his AA sux. Countering jump-ins is a mix-up game against you. Guess correct and you get a little damage off. Guess wrong and you eat a free combo.
Honestly, I felt the only chance to win with him is abusing the overall lack of match up experience against him. Once you face people who know how to deal with him, he really falls behind.
Anyway, I’d also like to get an opinion…do you fell Akuma’s flip is slower than Gouken’s? I seem to have a much harder time punishing fireballs from full screen…