Gief can shrug off a punish or three. Akuma gets wrecked from one. For Akuma a serious punish seriously asks you to alter your game-plan mid match.
That’s not to say other characters laugh at a punish, but for Akuma when you take your licks you definitely wince, and for the person who delivers a solid punish on Akuma a lot of the time you find things in your favour.
The argument about Akuma having to play a lot smarter due to these nerfs while true also doesn’t factor in the, er, fact that Akuma already has to play smartly due to his health and stun handicap as it is. It takes a lot of concentration to keep Akuma’s head above water and taking your licks is very costly for him. He has very little room for error and these nerfs raise that bar even higher due to his reduced ability to open opponents up for damage and setups.
Its pretty clear that Capcom want to bring him into line with respect to how he stacks up against many characters due to his setups, but I feel they are really pushing it with these changes. When you cut back his ability to mount offense and apply setups I fear that Akuma’s style is just plain going to become lamer and more stand offish. He has evolved into a setup-heavy character and this is the hallmark of how he applies offense. Reducing these attack options stands to invoke a little more risk and exposure to retain momentum, which any Akuma player worth is salt is reluctant to engage in. I’m confident that new setups and options will emerge with these nerfs in mind, just on paper (so far) the impact to his setplays and appeal as a character is quite large.
Akuma will remain strong, but his appeal and overall style is going to take a hit. That’s the main beef Akuma players have combined with the fact that as each iteration of this game has been released, Akuma has always been the focus of negative changes. Nobody likes their character gimped, especially when a lot of the cast is receiving some sweet buffs. Even so, Akuma players weren’t asking for nor expecting buffs - the general consensus was that he seemed pretty well balanced in AE and he certainly wasn’t dominating, not by a long shot.
I’m actually curious as to whether people honestly feel Akuma is deserving of more nerfs. Is he really regarded as over powered? Is he dominating opponents with ease? Akuma players here for example are very rare - he just doesn’t have any major appeal. Given some of the negative commentary concerning Akuma on SRK these past few days one would assume he’s an over-picked and dominating character. Frankly, I just don’t see that both from a casual and tournament perspective.
I’m sure we’d all agree Akuma is certainly no Fei or Yun, but is he in any way edging even close to that level of ridiculousness?
For the record, I’m actually in agreement with the nerfs he’s received from vanilla to Super to AE. They were fair and struck me as well thought out. Most importantly, they didn’t impact his function and setplays as a character. These new changes stand to alter that however combined with having a (perceived, at least so far) measured effect on performance and unique attributes.
His new nerfs make for an interesting grab-bag of changes, but all three together? They strike me as pretty harsh. I feel the same way about Yang also and that’s a character that beats me senseless. I expected him to be heavily revised along with Yun, but Yang’s changes also strike me as pretty severe and kinda have me hoping Capcom ease back somewhat. Granted Capcom are still testing, but its not exactly difficult to see why those of us impacted by nerfs are outspoken about them, especially when 2012 is supposed to be the series’ swan-song.