The number of shotos in the game doesn’t even matter that much.
In October 2016, when there were only two shotos in a 22 character roster, those two shotos held a combined 27% usage. Less than one-tenth of the roster accounted for more than one-quarter of the roster usage.
In December 2016, the game brought its roster to 23 by adding a third shoto, Akuma. The three shotos posted a 35% usage. While this usage would drop over time, these characters consistently stayed at the top of the usage charts, only suffering bumps in the months when a new character was released.
In November 2018, even though the roster now held 34 characters, the top three set of Ryu, Ken, and Akuma posted a combined usage of 26%. Again, less than a tenth of the roster accounted for more than a quarter of the roster usage.
So it isn’t a matter of there being a lot of shotos in the game. Indeed, the whole reason there are so many shotos in the game is most likely because shotos are so popular.
Well said. He’s mid tier good. The neutral control tools are an upgrade but they aren’t controlling enough to not get him killed by other characters pressing hp+hk
If he had a real trigger he’d shoot up to top 10 material
In usage terms, Sakura’s a non-factor anyway. Sakura has the usage of an average character, sometimes going up and sometimes going down, but in general posting a firm middle-of-the-pack percentage.
Sagat is still new enough to be questionable. He seems to be settling into upper average, but he could continue to drop into middle-of-the-pack territory.
It is really Ryu, Ken, and Akuma that stand out so far from everyone else. There hasn’t been enough time yet to judge Kage. He might firmly expand the gang-of-three into a gang-of-four, he might drop to Sagat status of upper level average, or he might drop to middle-of-the-pack.
Complaining about people using too many shotos is like complaining about people using too many Saiyans in DBFZ or too many ninjas in Mortal Kombat or DOA. Those games are based on IPs that have branded themselves on those characters. Those kind of brand archetype characters tend to be rather straightforward to pick up also even if they have advanced shit. I don’t think Scorpion touched close to top tier for more than the beginning of MKX, but he most likely was all over online regularly regardless. Especially before the netcode upgrade as his special move set was easy to abuse lag with.
If they make a TMNT Fighters 2 people are gonna complain that there’s too many turtle users online.
SFII WW launched with 25% of the roster as shotos. Setting up a long precedence of people coming into the next game with prior shoto experience. The deck has been stacked toward them since the begining.
A lot of people don’t really want to spend time learning too many new things when they could be playing.
I mean, I don’t particularly love them either, but there are always a lot of people playing shotos in SF because there’s always a lot of shotos in SF. It isn’t like basic karate man is a particularly fun archetype.
The only ranked set I played last night my Falke 2 0d GM Akuma so I still have no problems with Akuma. Ibuki’s nerfs probably make her Akuma matchup a little tougher, but she still also was one of the better characters vs him.
There’s only one GM Akuma that’s nutty enough to throw off my Falke, but I’m ready to have some stuff vs him if I find him again. Now that I’m going to be using her v skill buff it’s kinda over for Akumas really. They’re gonna have to throw red fireballs basically.
Yeah all of his neutral crash stuff is aerial based and Falke blows up all of his aerial neutral crash. His dash is ok at best and Falke does a good job dealing with dashes any way.
Dunno lately I’m in a slump. It’s kinda of like when I had to stop playing Cammy.
Sakura and Kage are fun, but I can’t figure out why I’m falling off them. Think it may be their short shit buttons, cause outside of shit grappler matchups I still like Boxer.
I still have characters I haven’t played yet. Think guile, Cody, and birdie would be next.
