Hopefully my fellow mods will let this fly :wgrin:
First Look write up/impressions:
Last weekend I visited the First Look event in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Among other things, Capcom’s booth featured 6 PS3 pods (with pads on a strange default button setting) with the latest build of SFxT (and no UMvC3, shame on you Capcom!!)
Let’s run things down, remember I’m still Dutch and this write-up was done fairly quickly so don’t expect a grammar/spelling winner here.
Graphics
Visually the game looks fine, the backgrounds are colorful and full of life, small touches entertaining to watch like Mech-Zangief holding on for dear life and tapping the glass on the space shuttle stage.
Animation is what you would expect not much to complain about.
On the flip side, some background character models look clearly unfinished.
Controls
Even though the PS3 pods at the event featured pads on some weird default button config, controlling the characters was a breeze, nothing wrong with the controls what so ever.
Cross Rush
The A, B, C, C combo, strangely (as said repeatedly before) the ability to cancel from cross rush into a special was gone in this build.
Therefore it felt somewhat limited, some creativity could be made after the tag for example:
Ryu; A B C C xx Ken; C xx Dragon Punch
But whenever you went into the Cross Rush you couldn’t cancel into anything, besides finishing it.
Reversals
Clearly in this game, whenever a move is done as a reversal it does a lot more damage.
Making the focus on punishing whiffed moves heavy.
Charge moves
Each character has one move the can charge up, i.e. Ryu’s Hadoken.
QCF and hold P, after the first red flash (level 1), if released, the hadoken is now an EX version thus 2 hits without costing meter, after a full charge the hadoken will auto-release and will now be a shinkuu hadoken complete with super animation and all.
Tagging
Tagging was strange, during the first few frames of the tag animation you are vulnerable, after those frames you seemingly have no hitbox and can’t be hit.
(I can confirm this personally because all moves just whiff through the opponent even though they were in range)
The partner running in however can be hit.
Tag Cancels
The ideal way to extend combo’s at the cost of 1/3 bar.
Dutch player Pr3Y was very creative with some Kazuya/Ken mixups
However unsafe use of this cancel can lead into an infamous “happy birthday” (MvC3)
Resulting in both characters being wide open.
Cross Arts
By far the most damaging tool in this build imho, sometimes resulting in 75%-80% damage.
The fact that you’re able to combo into these makes them very dangerous to say the least.
Being able to punish moves with (for example) a crouching forward into cross art is a gamechanger, I used it a lot and imho it’s too easy to score so much damage.
For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_5k-8qlQ4Y&feature=player_detailpage#t=86s
Cross Assault
The biggest flaw in this build, the cpu controls your tag partner (no more neutral positioned stick to switch).
It was more a factor of luck in hoping what your cpu partner would do that being able to combo into something useful.
(In 4 player tag matches this complain would be obsolete, but those weren’t in this build)
Pandora
By far the strangest mechanic of the whole build, which everyone agreed on.
7 seconds isn’t really enough to do anything.
I’ve seen only 3 Pandora finishes over the whole 2 days and those were against opponents who were already on very low health
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsE9FQtUGCo&feature=player_detailpage#t=126s
On a side note (sadly no footage), Pandora Zangief did 80-85% damage on Lili with his Fierce SPD.
Like I said so far Pandora doesn’t really seem useful, it’s an extreme gamble.
If that’s what it is intended to be, fine imo, no one wants another Lvl 3 X-Factor.
Overall
The game is flashy and fun to play.
At this stage it feels like the game heavily revolves around punishing whiffed/blocked moves, due to reversals getting a big damage bonus
The damage is pretty high, imo opinion certain setups like: simple tag combo xx Fierce xx Super or combo xx Cross Art are too damaging.
Don’t get me wrong I’m the last person who wants a low damage fest like SSF4AE.
It doesn’t feel super polished and complete, gameplay wise everything feels very easy to do
(I know Ono said that they weren’t going to make the next game as “deep” as SF4, but right now it feels a bit too easy to come back with massive damage punishes)
The game however is still in development without release date so I’ll cut some slack, right now it feels like SF4 with more juggles and somewhat glitchier.
Now for some character specifics, because some characters felt better than others.
I only listed the characters who I played a lot as or against.
Ryu
Pretty solid as always, zoning worked pretty good for him, since reversal DP’s did tons of damage.
Jumping Hurricane Kicks arced to insane heights only to come down on almost 45 degree angles with pretty good priority.
Ken
See Ryu, only with lots more combo potential.
Chun Li
Fought her a lot thanks to BakaNoobSama, she’s pretty good and her Spinning Bird Kick is a great tool for setting up tag cancels
Cammy
Another character repped repeatedly by BakaNoob, her Cannon Spike was an extremely good anti-air.
Her Super had invincibility on the whole Cannon Drill segment, ideal to punish ranged projectiles.
EX-Cannon strike was very tough to handle, making it a great pressure tool to be followed by mixups.
Zangief
At the start he seemed really good, due to his high damage on his SPD’s and 360+K.
His super being able to go half screen makes him scary.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbsUqb2SIfA&feature=player_detailpage#t=126s
However after some experience, he needs his damage (maybe not all lol) because he has some bad matchups against zoning characters.
Sagat
King of zoning in this game as well, reversal Tiger uppercuts did good damage similar to Ryu/Ken.
EX Tiger Knee causes wallbounce
Poison
I used her a lot, although fun I feel she needs some work.
Her Upward Kick (DP + K) didn’t work as a anti air, because she goes slightly forward before going up, resulting in ending up behind the jumping opponent and easily punished.
On hit this move does multiple hits, however half the time the opponent would drop out after the first hit for no apparent reason, making her suspect for punishes.
Her fireball was usefull for setups and/or zoning, it won’t win you fireball wars though because the move has some recovery.
Her 3K Backflip, has almost the same properties as SF4’s Claw 3p backflip
Rolento
He seemed Rolento like I remember him but somewhat slower.
I used him a lot.
His slide is a decent punish, but ofc unsafe on block.
Strangely enough a lot of character had problems punishing his Patriot Circle on block in this build.
His knife throw is now dragon punch + K and then P to throw the knife, he doesn’t jump as high in the earlier games thus cutting the knife trajectory short, hurting it as a zoning tool.
His Wall Jump (qcb+k) also doesn’t go as high as it used to, making it easier for the opponent to punish him after he jumped the edge of the screen.
His hopback into roll attack (3P then P), came out surprisingly fast, making it useful for random attacks and felt somewhat unnatural when compared to his other (slower) movements.
His quick jump (down-up fast) from the old games was nowhere to be found!
Imo he needs to be a bit faster, as he (currently) easily falls victim to pressure games
Kazuya
I picked him up on the start of day 2, he has A LOT of mixup potential and felt like a solid character.
His wavedash is insanely good.
His EX qcf +p (or level 1 charged version) had 3 hits of super armor on the first punch of the animation.
Steve
Played some matches against :034: using him, he seems to have a lot of potential with his dodges and counters.
He also had a “projectile” punch that goes about ¾ screen.
Maybe I forgot some small things, if so I’ll add them later.
If you guys have any question fire away and I’ll see what I can do.
