Hmm… I have no problem with Cody. And I think Ryu still have more advantage in this fight.
** Btw, you guys was saying that HP zone knuckle go through fb? Really? Gotta test this out again.
What I found so far though:
Ex Zone knuckle and ex slide go through FB. But they have to be done on anticipation when Ryu fb at mid range and is punishable on block. It takes meter also.
Moves that involve button charging always sucks and have never been successful so far. A player can never play properly with those button held, due to missing buttons and restricted hand movement.
It surely will affect his agility and thus couldn’t footsie or defend himself properly. If you see Cody not being overly active, play really fast and mix up the fb, footsie and jump in (normal/crossup). Remember he can’t do 2 zone knuckle in a roll also due to charging. Use more quick 2 in 1 fireball (not at maximum range of mk) to pressure. He won’t be able to FA fwd dash your mk if it is quickly cancelled. If you walk fwd, do a c.mp and c.mk and be prepared to cancel with a dp. If he fa your attack, cancel it into a lp dp (in case he dash backward). All Cody’s command move are very unsafe on block and you wanna take advantage of that also.
In short, Cody seems having to play mainly with anticipation in this matchup. Just be unpredictable, play really fast while being cautious and ryu should be successful.
Just tested again, yeah you guys were right. The normal zone knuckle do go through FB and it can be done on reaction of seeing a fireball though. And, it is possible to do 3 zone knuckle in a row by holding all 3 punch buttons and releasing them one by one.
But still, the timing is really tight for cody if you use fierce fb. I think it still a hard game for cody… Just fireball less predictably, mix up and play a quick game.
Ryu’s 2 hit dp seems to be having different property than SFIV ken and akuma. It knocks down on 1st hit. Meaning, you can never land a dp and yet not knock down.
So far, have never encountered 2nd hit of dp misses when the 1st hit land. 2nd hit seems confirm when 1st hit connect.
There’s no stopping ryu from using strong dp for anti-air and reversal and it still have 130 damage. I would think that hp dp would now be reserved for punish and combo though. It have 150 damage. With damaged reduced across the board, 130 is really good damage. Sagat’s t.uppercut is only 100, although scar uppercut is 180. If you have super meter, you could always use a hp dp for 150 damage. If it trade, then super the hell outta the opponent. This tactic just got easier than SFIV as you don’t have to switch mindset and timing in the heat of fight to pull it off. Just switch button. Yeah, you can’t trade into ultra anymore but I don’t really care since I don’t use it intentionally in my game. Is always accidental trade, then I would ultra on reaction. The game have too much to concentrate on when attempting an srk than to focus on one trick in the game. I would lose if I start looking out to land one trick as I would have less reaction for other stuff and become rigid. There are many factor to consider when doing an srk, and I don’t particularly like the idea of trade due to preference of style. I only goes for trade in certain situation, such as when I’m finding it hard to open up an opponent, when the opponent is near defeat or when I am in risk of a defeat. Else, I like to keep my vitality. Why should I trade vitality when I can get yours for free? Anyway, this r side topic and each player’s personal preference.
But it might affect other player, although I suspect this is minimum since ultra damage are scale down across all charc now.
If anything, ryu is just stronger now in his srk as long as players adapt. I love the 2 hit srk. Punishing the hell outta balrog dashes and abel change of direction. Now they can no longer abuse those armor/non armor mix up into ultra… LOL~
If the new 2-hit fierce DP still has 4 frames on invincibility I’ll still use it for AA and punishes but mp in combos for the better scaling (I like to cr.short jab DP FADC Ultra alot).
I’m not sure if it still have 4 frame invincibility, but what is certain is that it does trade if ur opponent hits deep now, and there’s no way around it. Fierce dp gives 100 damage on trade, meaning no advantage to ryu if opponent use fierce move. A late strong dp would AA cleanly though.
Yeah, its been confirmed that EX Legs for chun still scales as one hit, same for honda’s hands…so no fears there. You are right though, if they went by blind number of “hits” it would ruin a few characters in the game…
Stanzza, thanks for the input. The key thing about Cody is that his moves are somewhat safe. Ruffian kick done at the right distance is unpunishable by Ryu (cr.mp or srk won’t reach, cr.mk is too slow). Even unsafe Ruffian kick has very small window of punishment. Zonk knuckles are only punishable he if do it at footsie range, and only then with cr.mk xx tatsu (again other normals doesn’t have the reach or is too slow). HP srk will only hit the 2nd hit on blocked zonk knuckle and if we estimated it incorrectly, whiffs entirely. If he does zonk knuckle at the right distance, it is unpunishable. Criminal upper is only punishable if he does it point blank meaty. EX criminal upper has a lot of invincibility frames and on block, only punishable by a sweep (cr.mk whiffs), or ex tatsu because it sucks him in.
In essence, a lot of his moves are safe if he knows the distance. If you misjudge the “safeness” of the move and attempts for a big punish, you might whiff and get punished in return.
Zonk knuckles goes through fireballs easily on reaction without training or practice. Its as easy as letting go of a button Typically a Cody needs only lp and mp to do poke and hit confirm. Cr.mp is cancelable into all his special moves, so he can easily cr.lp>cr.lp>cr.mp>mp criminal upper/hk ruffian kick. All the time while holding the HP button for zonk.
His Focus Attack is also very fast. It’s almost instantaneous going into lvl 2 FA (it beats my cr.mkxxfireball and cr.mkxxtatsu a few times). His back.mp is a very good antiair vs Ryu. It’s very fast and has high priority. His lk ruffian kick hits low, has a good range and is fast. So it’s no longer easy for Ryu to just walk around to find the right distance. We’ll need to walk/crouch quite a bit, sort of like when baiting blanka’s slide
He is not unbeatable yes. Cody lacks good wakeup options. His close up game sucks. All his moves except ex.zonk and ex.criminal upper (which both have a lot of full invincibility) can be stuffed with a simple cr.mk. Even zonk knuckle startup is stuffed by a cr.mk because it doesn’t have lower body invincibility. Cody’s jump sucks. He will get srk 9/10 times when trying to jump in. Because many of his moves are safe (eg. zonk knuckles always knocks you away to a safe distance on block), Ultra2 can;t punish many of them. I also don’t find Cody player jumping a lot, so Ultra1 is still the better one to use.
PS: Cody is also weak vs m.bison and other fast and non-shoto characters But that is for another forum.
Finally got my copy of ssf4. As other people have said in this thread, mp srk is the new go-to anti air. practicing mp srk fadc ultra now lol. However one new thing I notice is that mp srk is considerably worse than hp dp when it comes to autocorrect anti-crossup dp. Has anyone else experienced this? I’ve tried with hp dp and I can get the autocorrect, but it trades almost everytime. I have not been able to get it with the mp dp once. Can anyone get the autocorrect dp to work on the mp dp? If not I’m gonna hate blocking gief crossup splashes from now on…
Typically a Cody needs only lp and mp to do poke and hit confirm. Cr.mp is cancelable into all his special moves, so he can easily cr.lp>cr.lp>cr.mp>mp criminal upper/hk ruffian kick. All the time while holding the HP button for zonk.
But that is for another forum.