Only interesting things to me atm about Falke is Jump Strong having really good range (longer than any of her ground normals outside of Toward Fierce), super is 4-frame startup (not many 4-frame hitting supers exist in SFV), and Low Fierce priority. I take back what I said about Down+Toward Roundhouse, there really isn’t a huge threat without an overhead available in her toolset… and her VT2 Down+VT is so telegraphed if anyone intends it for the 50/50 mixup (it’s good as a low/throw crush at least).
The rest seems blandish. Her light conversions seem meh (requires V-Skill cancels most of the time) and shared the same issue with inconsistency that Ed did but is much worse since she doesn’t have piano Hands like Ed does for safety measures? I was looking for her to have really high stun “output” (maybe she does long term, but it’s looking situational atm). Otherwise, she looks to favor a style philosophy of having good buttons… but the burst damage aspect doesn’t seem to be there.
Not sure what to say other than that his overall toolset is similarly bland, while lacking unga comebacks and having lackluster screen control (outside of fireballs, but there are a couple characters with tools designed around basic fireballs and the risk is very high for Ryu long-term) normals in general outside of St.Forward (which is still only okayish at best). In terms of MU stuff and consistency, I could see Falke handling the pace of matchups better overall… and if I’m thinking about the Ryu V-Trigger resets right, they felt generally linear. There is something wrong with Ryu’s gameplan if he even has trouble handling against Gief.
- Basic mix up for Falke seems to be to land DEEP heavy jump ins. Main reason why she doesn’t have a standing overhead or command grab. If you land a deep j.HP or j.HK (j.HP preferably since its easier to hit it very late) the opponent has to take your df+HK low. If they try and tech during this it’ll frame trap and counter hit their throw attempt and give you a fat combo on counter hit into s.MP, s.MK, KK. If you know they’re going to get shook and sit to block and v reversal the df+HK you pretty much get a free throw because they can’t V Reversal on a jump in without getting thrown and if they dont tech they’re getting thrown.
If they are low on V Reversals or choose not to V Reversal after the df+HK you can then do s.MP to fish for counter hit if they try to mash out. If you figure they aren’t going to mash then you can get micro walk throw in. This is also at the point where you can start using your light attacks. All light attacks except s.LK are 4 frame start up and they all have solid range for lights. On top of that they are ALL plus 2 on block. So yup, you get a plus 2 on block low light that chains into c.LP (and it has solid range for a c.LK). She has decent forward walk on top of all of this while also being able to scoot in a 5 frame s.LK that is plus 3 on block.
This is then where the dive kicks play in. Dive kicks set up the jump buttons. Once you dive kick on someone you can start to set up a deep heavy and mix it in with j.MK which should be a bit harder to stand button AA. If you land a deep heavy off the dive you got your mix up there again. Mixing up between her huge normals jumping forward and altering your trajectory with dive before coming down will likely set up solid mix ups where the opponent will be afraid that not getting an AA will lead to damage and corner carry. If you get them to whiff an anti air then that works too.
She basically has what Ed wants as far as safety measures IMO. Her light conversion is easily one of the better ones in the game. As I mentioned in the post above all of her lights are either plus 2 or plus 3 on block and 3 of the 4 are 4 frame start up. Her c.LK is a plus 2 on block low with solid range and chains into c.LP which chains into standing fireball/shotgun from the max range of c.LP.
The hit box on her c.LK isn’t bad at all and can be mixed with her c.LP which has a slight disjoint forward at the lower part of the box. This will make her light pressure like a long ranged version of Sim’s where she can just pester you with lots of plus on block lights that can convert into combos while also doubling as a preemptive defensive measure. She has decent forward walk speed so she can use this to force pressure as well.
Basically she’s the only zoner character that can walk up to you with plus lows to force you to check your toes all the time. You may not get hit by an overhead too often from her but you will have to crouch all day versus her once she gets in. With those plus buttons being lights that means she can easily throw punish V Reversals on reaction with them. So dont bother with V Revesals as she’s coming in with lights or you’ll burn them out. c.LK and s.LP do the best job at throwing V Reversals.
She wont be unga top tier or anything like that, but I definitely think that she has near Guile/Menat/Abigail level neutral game at the minimum and we’ve seen how much they smack around the other characters with shorter buttons over time.
I think, obviously, people are going to gravitate toward VT1 because it’s two bars and has basic damaging loops and it’s more of a neutral game enhancer, but I think aside from its very obvious flaw I can see merit in VT2. It punches up her light confirms pretty decently, and it makes her landing big damage of single pokes a thing, however brief that might be, which is always a good scenario for her given the strength of some her normals.
For now, definitely VT1, but VT2 might be good in the matchups where you don’t need the juice from the air fireball or damage loops to keep control of the match.
what is with the bad animations this season? i’ve noticed all 3 new characters seem to lack impact on hit, making their combos look the same whether it’s on hit or block. Sakura and Falke have some lazy ass air attack animations too. i really hope Capcom is planning on fixing up the animations because the quality downgrade is too noticeable.
She has some pretty good buttons, especially her c.mp and standing hp. Jumping hp is good but most likely have some fucked up properties with a combination of extended hurtboxes/hitboxes that doesn’t extend all the way to the whole staff and short active frames.
F+hp has the same flaws as Vegas f+hp.
Other than that, I really like her normals.
My biggest gripe is that max reach clk, clp doesn’t combo into anything consistently except CA. Cane uppercut whiffs, vtrigger whiffs and you can’t get a shotgun charge in time from a cross up mk unless you charge before crossing up. I wish she could at least combo into ex spring kick off her lights.
I can’t think of any reason to pick VT2 over VT1. Everything about VT2 is unsafe. It’s too early to tell but I don’t think her VTs are a big of a threat as other characters.
I’m somewhat disappointed that her air shotgun doesn’t have different speeds or trajectories with different buttons.
Is her ex cane uppercut fully invincible? I got stuffed during its startup against cpu ken.
I find it kind of redundant to give her an air throw seeing she has so many anti air options. I guess one more couldn’t hurt.
Ultimately, the game engine works against her and I don’t see her rising above B tier.
Falke doesn’t seems that bad to me, not top tier material already, but she could be annoying in right hands. Her st.mp is very short, but better don’t underestimate that button especially as a meaty. Whoever loves to zone would find hell tossing shit at her thanks to her low profile shot. Jumping on Falke it’s like doing the same thing in Ed, useless if she knows how to use her tools. Cr.hp doesn’t seems that active, so mistiming that AA can be lethal. The damage/stun values are good, personally I didn’t felt scared of her buttons at mid-range, instead her jumping attacks need some work against thanks to her staff. As a Zeku player I need to go full Young form vs her 'cuz she doesn’t give a fuck about my Old slash kicks. However once I’m in, she’s fucked. I think she’s in line with the rest of the s3 DLC cast, good character, but nothing OP or full tournament viable option. With the top tiers in this season I’m confused with the mediocrity of the latest characters compared to the previous ones. The rebalance in S4 will be a bloodbath.
