AWWWW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. FINALLY. We did it guys :’] We freakin did it.
Honestly feel that this is just going to bring more negative attention to a game that doesn’t need anymore.
Lol wut? How would this add negative attention? Have you seen the video? Or all of what we’ve worked on in this thread? This was all to show effective usage of Pandora in SFxT, to show it’s not useless and instead it’s a central mechanic of the game everyone should consider. Of course there will be naysayers, haters and people who act like it doesn’t matter, but what matters is getting this video out to more of the FGC so that they can see, what they think is up to them. It’s all I ever wanted really, to allow more people to see this so that those who either care or will be impressed will like it. So nah man, this is only for the best =]
It’s a comeback mechanic that’s being made useful. Honestly, I’d rather they just take it out in v.2013.
So you are saying the people complaining that pandora is a worthless mechanic will now turn to whining about a comeback mechanic?
Or are you referring to the players who are indifferent and now will become more negative towards the game because of this comeback mechanic?
I remember back, early this year, one of the good things we were saying about this game is that, despite all the problems, you couldn’t count on a comeback mechanic to win.
Besides, the last thing we need is for Pandora to start affecting the meta-game where people who are winning have to start watching themselves just because their opponent suddenly got a new option that would allow them to win the match. I mean, some of the stuff in the video was doing over 50%, if I were faced with the risk of getting hit by something like that, then fuck it, I’m gonna run away and turtle for the rest of the match.
I wouldn’t worry about that stuff too much. A lot of those set-ups in video were pretty tough to replicate in a real match and often times you need the stars to align in order for that opportunity to present itself. Pandora will still be a “thinking man’s” mechanic and not some braindead “push this button to win” mechanic. Of course against low skilled players pandora set-ups will work quite well but more often than not, higher skilled players won’t give you the chance to activate pandora because of their ability to optimize their damage and kill you outright before you reach critical levels.
It’s still worrying though.
Hah, putting it bluntly. And to be fair, I admit that yeah it’s a comeback mechanic being made useful, but like Songi said it’s the thinking man’s comeback mechanic, not this ‘win the match for me’ button. I’d rather see the day where every player utilizes or considers Pandora in a match, than see yet another person call it ‘useless’ again. At that point they can call it whatever they want. And honestly? If you’ve been playing SFxT you’ll know that wake-up/anti-air cross art (the team super) as well as cross assault are both viable comeback mechanics and have been for a while and those two have been used WAY more often than Pandora. Changing the meta-game may just happen, cause after seeing that no one can deny that it’s a legit option 
Also dude you say ‘real match’ as if the majority of the video wasn’t Pandora wins, haha. But you’re right the set-ups at the end (the training mode tech) are 1 in a million, but they can happen.
So you’re fine with the meta-game possibly devolving to “beat opponent down and then turtle when they have the option to use Pandora”? Are you fine with having the threat of what’s basically a “Dark Phoenix” option in every matchup?
And come to think of it, Hbk 00 brought a fantastic point the other day; he was playing against someone, who had Pandora’d before, and he was doing a combo to them but immediately decided to stop. And after resetting them, he did a combo again to kill. I asked why, and he said because he knew they’d be in Pandora health, and the knowledge of that meant he should prevent them from getting it by finishing the combo and then hit them with a combo guaranteed to kill. Think about it; the threat of Pandora means you NEED to maximise your damage, think smart about your oki set-ups and have gimmicky resets up the ass. Most skilled players will kill you with a 40-50% combo, not even giving you the chance to hit 25% of your health. See, THAT’s gonna be the new meta-game, realizing that Pandora is an option and not only recognizing where to use it but understanding that if you don’t finish them off it can be used on you. If anything it’s gonna make the game more exciting I think =]
And another thing; anyone who’s payed attention to this thread will know that alot of this stuff is possible (i.e. the really damaging Pandora stuff) ONLY with gems. For example without Pandora Extend gem, and both power gems, that Jin combo I did at the end wouldn’t even happen since Jin’s super just kills him normally. So any of those gem haters or purists can hold dat really So really what will tend to happen is people will pop Pandora stupidly and die, or use it effectively, at the right time and actually lay down the hurt. The consideration of gems might make people begin to actually THINK about gem properties, where they would be useful to activate and against what characters you feel they’d need it. At the 25th anniversary tourneys, gems were allowed and some did use them, to a decent extent, but I feel that’s not enough to show more people what’s up. If you actually go to the gem custom screen you’d be surprised to see the amount of gems that are useful for different situations and attributes. The ignorant may cry ‘autoblock gem’ or whatever, but that got nerfed ages ago so it takes 1 full stock of meter when it blocks for you and even when you block normally. Alot of people have taken gems for granted (like Pandora) and though it’s perfectly fine not to use them if you prefer/don’t need them, I think it’s at least something to think about.
Check this comment out, this comment is GOLD:
‘This is trash, sure Pandora has it’s uses and it’s way underused but half the uses here are dumb.Half the time either the opponent forgets to block after pandora is activated or do something other than run away. Other times the video cuts out before Pandora ends and the fight would’ve been lost. Then there’s the combo’s which leave the player with no time left on pandora and don’t kill. What’s worse, it makes no acknowledgement of anti-pandora tech, like not being dumb when pandora is available’
I actually creased :’]
Nice! Keep those funny front page comments coming!
But that’s the problem, the meta-game is shifting thanks to the presence of a comeback mechanic. It’s the exact thing we feared would happen when Pandora was revealed last year.
But it’s a comeback mechanic where people, for the most part, have to work and coordinate with… somewhat along the lines of Xfactor, except it’s not always accessible.
The ultra’s in SF4 are all readily accessible when people are at 50% HP minimum or they over-focus attacks.
The pandora setups here require the right character on point and anchor to complete it. It’s not something you might get in every round. If you have the wrong character out, which can happen a lot, there’s no comeback whatsoever. There’s that extra bit of strategy in planning stuff for this game. A game with possibly over complicated amounts of things to take into consideration during every match besides knockdown setups into more setups.
And thus why I think a lot of the game’s loyalists to stick to this game for the extra niche tidbits. I get some of the concern for it being too good but it really isn’t. It’s only too good if the players were smarter in general with it and can show it off in a good manner. The most general and dumbed down way of people using pandora is wake up activation and super against whiff moves. This doesn’t happen much because it’s too 50/50 and not guaranteed like catching someone off guard A LOT in SF4.
Other things to consider:
There’s still a meter requirement, too. The super punishes pretty much require two bars on top of already needing your character to be at 25% health, and the opponent to have less than full health in most cases, plus knowing exactly how much time you need (unless you do it way early in a match, which is a horrible waste of resources on such a gamble).
Also, in any round that isn’t the final round, you return with 0 meter. That’s pretty huge in a game where meter is so important.
I do hope people use it more personally, but its going to take some serious thinking for it to be used properly. Punishing chip damage attempts and bullying are probably the easiest ways to use it, and they already require a hell of a lot of thought and setup (and for anything requiring the extend gem you’re already sacrificing one characters’s gem load out before pandora even happens!).
I don’t mind pandora being viable. It’s still a thinking man’s comeback mechanic, and even then it’s a huge gamble, too - unlike say, ultras, where you don’t die for using them. :-p
Now if Capcom listens to all the whiners that haven’t even tried to make the mechanic viable? Then it’ll be trouble - also why I think what it can do now needed to be highlighted.
Cross Assault >> super is already a much more accessible and viable comeback mechanic as-is, and has no requirements other than full meter.
Pandora is nowhere near the levels of cripple my team’s usage to have op bird bitch as my crutch. And while there is some viable applications for pandora, its very unlikely people are just gonna start popping it and hope for a miracle.
Check out this comment: “
[LEFT]I appreciate the effort of this vid. But I still think pandora isn’t worth using. It’s far to situational.” Damn, so patronizing. I could even cry :p[/LEFT]
[LEFT]But you know that’s what’s funny, it’s what I keep saying. This was the assumption for so long, it’s ‘useless’. Useless, defined as ‘[/LEFT]
Not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome.’. Useless, only because no one could be bothered to even sit down and actually think about how to use it (till we all did of course). And that’s why I find it HILARIOUS that some people are sweating, crying lightning even now that they’ve seen what Pandora could do. So now the so called ‘useless’ mechanic is the next braindead comeback mechanic panic button ‘I pressed it so I win now right’? Pfft. Hilarious, especially considering the amount of effort and dedication that went into developing all of this tech and striving to put this video together.
Let me tell you something, do you know how many times I’ve used Pandora? Over 100 times. How many times have I won? Only 2 times. Both of which are in the video. Even more skilled players find it hard to manage to kill anyone because you have to be so smart about when to use it. But the fact is, were it not for people like myself, Roknin, Hbk 00, Holynido, SimSim (etc, I know there’s loads of you Pandora monsters) who actively used Pandora in matches to blow up stupidity then this wouldn’t even be an argument. So Pandora becoming broken or whatever? Funny how times have changed. You can wax lyrical about how broken or meta game changing it is but how about any of these haters actually go to the lab themselves, sit down and develop their tech and see not only how complicated it is but how next to impossible it is to kill anyone in a match with it. This video isn’t a video demonstrating the next braindead comeback mechanic it’s a video detailing the effort and logic that all of these good players have applied to the ‘useless’ mechanic in the ‘dead’ game that no one likes in order to make the best of a seemingly hopeless situation. Let the haters talk, the critics be skeptical, but never let it be said that Pandora is just gonna be another X-factor or whatever.
TL-DR: half of these idiots saying this shit have not A. watched the video B. read this thread and/or C. watched the tech videos. And they hardly play SFxT, so what the hell do they know?