So this is happening.
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There’s a pachinko machine that shows you Laura’s ass and boobs when you play it ?
Japan, what a magical land.
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Sometimes you don’t know you want something until you see it.
I see they’re following the game tradition of Ryu looking Hispanic despite being a Japanese man.
So, I was looking to buy a new, physical BBTAG copy, but people are asking more than a regular release. Is it just Brazil being Brazil, or are physical copies the deluxe edition?
I feel like none of this is accurate? She’s got standard medium + on block normals that are reinforced by a strong walkspeed and good throw, and most of her specials leave her at -2, which when you have an EX DP and a 3 frame is hardly the worst situation to be in. If you manage to score df.hk, that’s + without the pushback as well. EX Hadou is a decent pressure move too.
She just has plain good oki, I’m not sure what that’s about. HP Shoryu ender can get a dash into meaties, her EX Shunpu gets double dash into meaties, she has more ways than ever to go into HK Shunpu which is +2 on hit. MP Shoryu ender isn’t super strong but it covers regular tech okay.
I’ll give you the VT’s are lacking, but getting an activation that gets you either like 275 and 500 stun off of any c.mk xx fireball and leaves you mildly + on block, however few times you get to do it, isn’t too bad for a 2 bar VT. VT2 you do lose Shunpu regular, which sucks, but at least she’ll get good damage from light confirms from it.
What inconsistency? Max range s.mp won’t net you back fierce or c.mk, sure, but you’ll always be able to do s.lk xx shouken or EX shouken from max range. Her c.mp works differently on crouch than stand, but you still always get s.lk xx shouken after that too. Her three hit jab confirm works most of the time too, which is again dependent on range of the first crouching attack.
+1 doesn’t do much for her, but I feel like getting LK Shunpu on hit isn’t the most common scenario? Most people are going to go for HK Shunpu, whether it hits or not. More chip, same block scenario, better reward on hit. Seems an odd thing to tack on to why she’s “bad.”
Add to all of this she has tremendous jump-ins, a really good, fast dash, she can actually punish quite well thanks to EX shouken, and her AA is strong. I’m not saying she’s super top, but I have no idea why she’s not just like an above average character.
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Yeah, Sak is solid. Outside of her vtriggers, I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with her. She actually has a very similar gameplan to Karin but she gets less off midscreen conversions. She does have better walkspeed and health though.
Not sure what they could do with her vtriggers. Vtrigger 2 they could allow her to spend vgauge to make the tatsu’s/shoryu’s safe. That could be derpy, but I feel she needs some sort of derp with her triggers.
She’s definitely above Vega as far as power and conversion. She basically has a lot of what Vega wishes he had which is an EX DP, a super with invincibility and a fast normal that is cancelable into knockdown with range. Once she gets V Trigger 2 her s.LK lets her command the neutral into big damage in a way that Vega wishes he could. Her having the absolute best back walk in the game while still having an EX DP makes her defensive game pretty solid also. If you dont trap Sakura really tight not only are you dealing with back walk out into plus 3 frame c.LP, you’re also dealing with the fact that she could EX DP anywhere in there and her EX DP has range for a 4 frame start reversal (admittedly doesn’t cover the air as well as other ones, but good enough). So its effectively pretty hard to actually lock her down due to how much you have to think about.
I also agree that her oki and post hit pressure is pretty fine. The only thing I would say is underwhelming her lack of oki off of s.LK to LP DP, but that would be busted if she actually got oki off of that. Which is the whole point of her VT2 which turns her s.LK into a ridiculous damage/stun dump that will have the opponent basically in the corner if they get hit by it. Button into EX tatsu is also really underrated as that has one of the most ridiculous corner carries in the game. I think from round start hitting someone with button to EX tatsu puts them dead in the corner. You wont get a close meaty s.MP or anything afterwards, but hey they in the corner and you have the best back walk to shimmy them once they there.
Her jumps are threatening like you said which is why she doesn’t need a really good anti projectile option. One good walk forward into j.HK can seal the match, it’s just because of the way her neutral works (and the fact that her LK/MK cross is underwhelming) you obviously wont enforce that without getting a pretty good read, but the threat considering what she can do after she hits you with a jump in is pretty solid.
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With that said though, I do agree with what Frost is saying overall. In the grand scheme of things her tools dont have anything devastating. Her toolset and and triggers just generally fall around the “solid” area and she doesn’t have a way of getting in and opening you up that’s up there with the high tiers (some high flying move that can cross up or put them at advantage). Her situation is not quite as dire as Frost presents it, but there unfortunately probably isn’t a real other character that you could put in bottom 5 in replacement of her. Like Falke and Blanka probably have more matches they are worth using to counter pick in than Sak who’s just basically better at being Ryu than Ryu. Which nobody is going to give you a hooray for doing Ryu’s job better.
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To make it a lot simpler, she’s a straightforward honest character in a game that only rewards dishonesty.
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I would agree with that if Ryu did something, but I don’t think he does, which is why he’s actually bad. To me, she’s more like a variant of Ken. Ken has a better VT1 and a way to alter his jump arc, but I think she provides better range and a better zoom-across-the-screen move than he does. I’d put them about the same level.
Which is to say, better than Vega, Ryu, Alex, Ed, Nash, Gief, who I think don’t offer as much aside from Gief who at least still has some trickery. Falke and F.A.N.G. would probably be below them overall, but I agree with the point that they had good counterpick potential considering who’s considered strong now.
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There’s no fighter where the top tiers aren’t characters that do dishonest things or whore a big gamut of honest things that the other characters can’t do anything about, so that works.
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You’re right. However it’s not a matter of the Top Tiers having dishonesty to put them above everyone else. It’s that MOST characters have some dishonesty to allow them to hang with the cast.
True. You do need dishonesty.
Another night, another time to be complete garbage at this game
At least I’ll always be consistent at something in life
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I’ll go into if you’re genuinely curious, we’ll start with kit inconsistencies.
For oB options, Sak is limited. What should work, doesn’t. Pushback is too high, and her strongest +oB scenarios aren’t a threat due to this.
St.mp is +3, but the oB scenario leaves her too far to threaten a shimmy, but that’s expected, it has deeper routed issues to do with the post block scenario.
St.mp > cr.mp(3f trap) leaves Sakura too far to convert from the cr.mp. Even if Sakura dials this back and does st.mp > st.lp, the pushback is so high that she can’t even make her jabs connect.
This in effect, makes her oB options post st.mp non-existant. She can’t threaten a frame trap that converts into a full combo, she can’t do a simple jab combo. She is forced to shimmy forward after having this move blocked, but has no options to force respect to enable that plan.
To expand upon her throw issues, Sakura has no 3f guaranteed tick throw option. St.lp will not tick throw, only cr.lp will, but it’s +1, so it won’t work vs. 3fs. Sakura doesn’t have a legitimate throw game vs 3f characters, yet in V she is a fast paced, rushdown focused character. This is another big issue.
Touching on her neutral options, I want to mainly talk about her cr.mk. Cr.mk is one hit confirmable, but in it’s delayed cancel frames, her HP.DP won’t connect. This forces Sak to use MP.DP, which while having lower damage, also negates all possible oki. Her HP.DP can at least cover standard quickrise. This affects her ability to shift from neutral to rushdown incredibly. Think of how Cammy’s engine can start from a cr.mk confirm, Sakura can’t turn her engine on at all without bar for EX.Tatsu(which also doesn’t connect in the delayed cancel frames of cr.mk, but it’s -2 so it’s not a big problem except for forcing you to waste bar on block).
I should probably go further into oki, because it’s most likely her #1 problem at the moment. Midscreen, Sak has no meterless options that can cover backrise, at all. Her HP.DP does not allow her to chase down backrises. Sak is forced to use HK.Tatsu, but the restand is not a threatening scenario as all mid options will cause air resets due to backdashing, which forces her to jab - which forces her to give up oki due to jabs only giving MP.DP on hit. She can hard commit into b.hp to CC backdash attempts, but she is giving up her turn willingly this way and shutting down her engine before it starts, being either -1 or -2 depending on LK or EX Tatsu.
Combo inconsistencies still exist, b.hp can still whiff, cr.mk can still not connect from st.mp, her DPs can still drop out, her VT2 tatsus can have people drop out.
Throw oki is bad, her meaty options are st.hk and that’s it, in the corner due to the pushback changes, her true meaty st.mp no longer gives a combo on hit, which makes her corner game less threatening due to Sakura not wanting to throw, but score hits. But she can only score hits when she forces people to start trying to take their turn back to avoid the throw. This is a circle of options that work against each other.
I don’t need to explain much about her VTs, they’re bad. VT2 is a generic install, and doing DP for full damage gives up oki. The tatsu removes neutral options from her, in that she loses safe tatsus while it’s active. Tatsu has drop out issues. Her VT1 has potential but the combo routes it gives lead to no oki, forcing you to end in MP.DP after the VT fireball, so it’s bad.
+1 LK.Tatsu removes a layer of restand mixup potential, again she can’t threaten a throw vs. 3f characters, and she can’t press a mid.
These are just a couple of the things that make Sakura a weak character, but she’s riddled with problems that make you question why she was put into the game when both Cammy, Akuma and even Juri can do what Sakura does to a more effective degree, her design is objectively bad and needs a lot of retuning to work as it stands.
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There’s nothing wrong with being garbage as long as you’re having fun. This is a video game mang
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I disagree with a lot of the “You can never…” stuff, but that’s a damn solid counter-argument, I appreciate the write-up.
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It’s a competitive game. If I’m not working and training to get stronger, there’s no point in playing at all.
And if I stay garbage, I’m just wasting other players’ time.
it’s not a you can never scenario, but if I know the match-up and that these options aren’t real, and are all fake. What’s her gameplan to force me to make misakes, to open me up via frame traps, tick throws and shimmies?
She doesn’t have one. Her kit doesn’t enable that.
Press a button after Sak st.mp’s, she can rarely if ever capitalize from it without heavy commitment, and once you force that commitment, you can abuse her for it. Her commitment option is b.hp xx LK.Tatsu, she HAS to do a -2/-1 move her to make it safe, and you get your turn back for free. Once you force her into doing that, her close game is finished.
Until her gameplan agrees with her normal kit, I think she’s easy debate into bottom 5.
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I guess, well just make sure you use a character with a command grab for those “I’m getting outplayed” moments