I’ve always wondered about the existence of plinkng in this game.
SF4 was built around emphasis of link combos. A lot of characters have 1~2frame link combos as their BnBs.
You get rewarded for timing that 1~2f combo. Thats fine and fair.
So then theres plinking - an input technique that manipulates how the game handles button inputs, thus raising the chances of said link.
If you don’t want to drop links, you pretty much have to plink all your links. Theres really no reason to; by omitting plinking, your link sucess rate will be lower.
I don’t understand why this has to be a mechanic. 1~2f links are suppose to be hard. Plinking makes it (somewhat) easier. Game even allows plinking with start/select button lol.
Which forces players to adapt to plinking every link oppurtunity given. I personally find it annoying having to tap 2 buttons for 1 move using link heavy characters.
It seems like a rather weird design to me.
Seeing that its still in SF4 and even made it to SFxT, Capcom is fine with it.
Opinions?
Built-in as intended. It was designed to allow better input leniency for special moves and ultras, so that you don’t have to press buttons together on the EXACT same frame in order to do multiple button moves (such as EX moves, ultras, etc). But I’m sure it wasn’t difficult for QA to discover that it could be applied to normal move links as well.
This has existed since Capcom integrated 2x button commands in their titles.
Its not specifically Plinking as we know in SF4, where your 2nd button press is recognized by the game as the 1st button strength.
AFAIK SF4 is the only game that processes inputs like that (correct me if I’m wrong), its a very useful technique when attempting links.
As a result you have everyone taking advantage of that and Plinking all links.
I’m not saying its a bad thing or you shouldn’t, this is only natural if you want to suceed links.
However it seems like a rather unnecessary feature and a strange game design if this was indeed, intentional.
Why make the game heavy on 1-2frame link combos then add a ‘easy(er) mode’ that everyone will end up using?