http://www.strevival.com/interviews/otochun
Special thanks to Philcito for conducting the interview and Toru for translation.
Thanks kuro!
HDR I guess?
Yes!!!
What i don’t like about this interview is that there were some responses from Otochun that could have used more elaboration but the interviewer just moved on…for instance, I would have liked some elaboration on:
Why not worth admiration?
Japanese love character specialist that stick with their character through thick and thin. Kusumundo has been playing with Honda from SF2 all the way till Super Turbo. They love that kind of dedication.
My IDOL!
Yes I understand this and in fact, I agree with it (it’s my kind of mentality as well). However, if someone is a master of many characters, I don’t see why that’s something not worth admiring.
The interview wasn’t conducted in a way that we could just follow up with a question asking to elaborate. If the player being interviewed doesn’t answer more, then chances are they don’t feel they have anything to elaborate on. This has to go through a translation process, being sent through email, waiting for a response, and then going through yet another translation process. To follow up on something for an elaboration means going through that entire process all over again. These aren’t conducted in person or over the phone or over chat.
If you noticed, he said he doesn’t respect someone who can’t win with their main and instead run to a high tier just because they’re high tier. So it might be his logic that mastering many (to a degree) just means if they can’t win the match up then they’ll pick someone who wins the match up for them. You can see how this goes hand in hand? It may be why he doesn’t admire it. It’s not something I admire, either.
As for HDR, YuuVega stated Boxer was “still bullshit”, and Otochun believes Dhalsim wasn’t weakened - which is true in most senses. He does have shorter range on noggies and doesn’t kill Guile for free, but the main issue is how boss-like his close normals are. As Dhalsim, you can just spam close crouching normals and most characters can’t do much about it unless they have pixel-perfect positioning. Which, sometimes, is not even possible since walking does not move you a single pixel towards each frame.
As I understand, mastering many characters demands dedication and can make it funnier to play, but when it comes down to tournament play, you are inevitably led to top-tier characters, since those have 1) more favorable match-ups and 2) the most favorable ones. For instance, the moment one picks Dhalsim, it’s already expected that a certain character is about to come out and counter him.
I think for many Japanese players, it’s a simple matter of sticking with your favored character through good matches and bad matches. I doubt very many players can say that they’ve mastered several characters to such a high degree as what we’re seeing in upper echelon levels of play. Even the very best players, who have been playing the game since it first came out, might only master 1-3 characters max, and this is such an extreme minute percentage compared to the whole community who play the game. I think he’s trying to relate the idea that it shows poor mental fortitude to run to one of your better characters in order to gain a favorable match for you. I believe Kusumondo shared a similar sentiment.
Personally, I subscribe to the play to win mentality. If you feel that you can play another character and get a win over your opponent, do it. Think of it as testing your opponent’s ability to win matchups they don’t know as well.
I find it honorable to stick to one character, the one that fits you. Not picking top tiers just to win, or counterpicking cause you have a disadvantaged match up. It is very impressive when one sticks with a character through thick and thin, even from game to game and wins. It is probably much more satisfying as well.
Awesome work guys- I know how long and laborious the process of doing that can be. Philcito and Toru, since you already have it, how about posting the Japanese version? I can help spread the word.
This seems an awesome idea. They probably have more active players than the rest of the world, so this could bring many more readers to the STR website. Several good things may come from this.
Great interview, I have to say and also thanks for including my question(the last one) and also thanks for marking it as silly,lol, but actually it was indeed silly.
its weak to use just 1 character, and japanese suck in general for only wanting to be good in 1 thing. i like to be as good as i can in multiple things, and be as good as i can with multiple characters, which i actually was back when i still played fighters daily (i basically used almost every character from every franchise i played at the highest level, from sf2ww to ssf2, ss2, ffs to rb2 and motw, lb1 and 2 etc).
whats really retarded about japan is that when somebody is good in basketbal and in judo, he actually has to choose 1 of those sports instead of just doing both if he likes both and excells at both.
Mr Dhalsim, I’ll have the original Japanese one up, soon.
Otochun already hates D3v, Mixah, and Sanford.
He doesn’t like people who use top tiers to win.
I don’t win.
Doesn’t apply to me.
I sent the Japanese version to STR, so hopefully that goes up soon 
When tournaments in Japan are 1 and out and might as well be character locked, when are you supposed to counterpick? The next tournament? Where you will be matched up against different characters anyway!