Super SFIV Arcade - Akuma Changes

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
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Indeed. Brace yourselves, gentlemen.

Part of me hopes we get the Viper treatment: absolutely nothing.

A bit of a bummer for those of us wanting a bit of stun, but a relief for those of us anticipating Capcom’s molestation to run rampant yet again.

So far though we have this from the Japanese wiki:

  • EX srk damage down

  • Air tatsu nerf

  • Walk speed decreased(?)

  • Faster U2 start-up

  • Better damage (+stun?) on hp shaku

EX srk damage down only figures if shaku damage is back up so I guess we need to spend meter to get equivalent or better damage (one bar instead of two). The tatsu nerf seems to be a direction Capcom are pushing for that isn’t specific to Akuma, so I guess we’ll just have to eat that one like Ryu players.

Walk speed? Fuck that. That messes with his feel which hooks into a lot of aspects, including setups and positioning timing. Not cool. Of all the reported nerfs, this one was somewhat speculative however so I’m hoping it either doesn’t pan out or was flat out false. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

One buff I’d like to see is fs.hk being useful again from FADC. It scales terribly but it looks cool as hell so I don’t see how restoring its old combo functionality from FADC (sans loop, obviously) is a huge bummer for opponents. The Japanese wiki for Super says it was changed in two ways which makes sense: 1.) Start-up is longer 2.) Active hitboxes have reduced reach. Perhaps by re-extending those hitboxes it’ll combo reliably again from FADC, which would be kinda cool.

Either way, hopefully we hear soon from the dev blog. I suspect all the character forums are on edge waiting for their respective fates also :smiley:

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Regarding Ryu changes:

Far standing medium special cancel is a fairly decent buff. It’s a different normal with a different hitbox. It also does 80 damage, unlike cr.MP/MK. Not a particularly good poke, but the special cancel ability makes it a proper option now at least.

Close medium kick is obviously a buff, but a negligable one. It’s a 3 frame medium, but players won’t break the habit of crouch jabbing for a hit confirm in -3 situations. As far as links go, they’ll still stick with cr.HP/MP. No-one ever uses the move and this isn’t going to change.

f HP damage is easily his worst nerf IMO. I expect it will be reduced to 100. Stupid change. What can I say? Capcom just hates good damage with every fiber of their being.

cr.MK losing active frames is going to bring it down to average-ville and will affect Ryu rather heavily. If it goes down to 4, it’s still better than Akuma’s; if it goes down to 3, that becomes debatable. Unnecessary nerf.

Close roundhouse link to SRK is a decent buff in itself; but it since can’t be linked into, all it is worth is being a slightly better option to set up SRK FADC Ultra from a jump-in. In light of the f HP nerf, it’s just a poor mans replacement.

Air tatsu means Ryu doesn’t have a legit corner escape, and his only choice would be to gradually push his way back out of the situation, or reverse it by landing something like a back throw or sweep then cross-over jump. I’m not sure I like the sound of the cross-up being more ambiguous. It’s impossible to react to already, so it sounds as if it would just be less effective at crossing behind {avoiding stuff}.

I can think of only one scenario for viable use of EX air tatsu in the context of it hitting; and it’s putting Akuma in the blender for having the audacity to set up the perfect AA Demon on him.

In all, he’s been nerfed and it’s quite significant. Can’t they understand that it’s alright for characters to have a few powerful options (hell, why not more?) instead of two dozen vaguely decent ones?

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I really don’t understand why they didn’t just change far standing jab’s frame advantage to +6 instead of +7 to remove the loop, far jab to sweep would have been a 1 frame link but I’m sure all Akuma players would have accepted that without any problem!

From the main SSFIV’s forum AE changes thread it’s mentioned that the next changes will be about Ken, Claw, Rufus, Fei Long, and Juri.

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why??? There are better normals! cs.mk is already special cancellable. did you ever see daigo comboing a srk fadc ultra from it??? cs.hk is slow as shit and fs.mp has ass range compared to c.mk.

Seriously, no one’s gonna use them to an extent where they can be considered strong tools.

this is a huge nerf…c.mk is ryu’s best footsie normal…what if the nerfed akuma’s sweep??? You probably never play Ryu (I do), but those active frames make a world of difference…akuma’s c.mk is nothing compared to it.
Just have a look at the ryu forums, they’re not happy.

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^ Yes, the active frames on Ryu’s cr. mk is just godlike. Thank god they are nerfing it. I’m guessing they’ll lower it to 3, maybeeee 2.

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I know. Its music to my ears. Such sweet forum poetry.

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:rofl:

Cammy didn’t handle her news too well either:

[media=youtube]oH1rOL5hB9s&fmt=18[/media]

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2 active frames is just harsh man lol, I think they’ll nerf it to 4 or 3 frames

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New Capcom is so clueless on how to make a good balanced game. Nerfing a character’s strengths only serves to make the game more boring. When nothing is notably good and everything is mediocre you are promoting defense and run away tactics. Nerfing Ryu c mk is silly. Ryu is an aggro type character in large part do to his strong footsies from the c mk. The answer to Ryu’s beastly normals isn’t to nerf them, but to give other characters viable normals as well.

Regardless I hope Akuma just gets buffs because as he is now the investment vs payback ratio is painfully low. Akuma needs to be allowed to stun again. Mixing your opponent up 5-7 times in a row with no stun is simply ridiculous.

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@Lollo
Ryu?s use cs.mk in combos because there is literally no pushback, its 3 frames, and its special cancelable. If you are saying you haven?t seen any Ryu?s use it (besides Daigo) then you aren?t playing good ryus (or at least people that actually main Ryu, also online Ryu?s don?t count because them fool suck a big boat load of shit)

Now they are giving cs.mk more damage output? Expect to see that allot more.

As for cr.mk, I just think it needs to be toned down some it?s far too good and has far too much priority. It gets spammed too much because it beats allot of/most notmals. Not to mention the fact that he can combo into fireball on a cr.mk hit confirm. Imagine if people couldn?t duck the second hit of our hk? It would be spammed way more than it already is. That?s why it was nerfed in super because it was too good.

Ryu?s cr.mk is just if you ask me.

@Shin
RE: Capcom, I agree, I believe they are taking the ass backwards approach to ?balancing? the game. The reason I am saying that Ryu’s nerfs are just is because that seems to be the trend for balancing. Maybe I?m just salty by how much they fucked Akuma in super. I want to see everyone ?good? get hit with that ugly ass nerf stick.

RE: Akuma, I couldn?t agree with you more! 4 mixups should be stun, shit id even say 3 mixups should be stun (x-up tatsu into sweep, x-up tatsu into sweep, jump in HP into CS.HP into fierce fireball FADC CS.HP Tatsu, Shoryu should stun). But he might be re broken if you can stun in 3 mixups.

Definitely shouldn?t be 6-7 like it is now.

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“Akuma is fine, and his stun is as it has to be”

I used to hear that.

Except Akuma players, everybody think Akuma doesn’t need any buffs…I bet Capcom too, that’s why I’m pretty sure we can be relieved if Akuma stay at least the same for arcade… -__-

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i’ve only seen it used after solar plexus actually. And since the damage nerf on solar p. the added damage to cs.mk doesn’t change shit. Anyways, GOOD ryus (yeah, even those that play online, don’t base your “online” statement on random ranked matches scrubs), or at least those I regularly play against, do c.hp after a solar p. and wonder why? It does 100 damage, and i’m sure that even in AE cs.mk won’t do 100 damage.

Don’t come and try to sell me this bullshit that “good ryus” use cs.mk in combos please. What combos??? That motherfucker can combo c.hp from a c.lp (easy, plinkable 2 framer) which DOES MORE DAMAGE, STANDS UP CROUCHERS ON HIT AND IS SPECIAL CANCELLABLE. Oh, I forgot, it’s a better frame trap. Now PLEASE tell me in which combos the “good ryus that don’t play online” that YOU are playing against use cs.mk. I’m really curious.

Now regarding the c.mk part:

Priority??? You know there is no such shit as that in SF? The startup (your “priority”) is the same as akuma’s. It just stays active a lot longer and has better range. When it comes to stuffing other normals on startup it’s exactly the same as akuma, minus the range. Active frames don’t have anything to do with that. It’ll still be “spammable”, if that’s what is worrying you.

Also how can you even THINK of comparing it to akuma’s fs.hk??? That roundhouse leads to 300+ damage meterless combos, did that ever cross your mind?? fs.hk isn’t really a footsie normal, c.mk is. They’re completely different, they should NOT be compared. If anything, you might compare ryu’s c.mk with a sweep, and even then, it wouldn’t be a good comparison.

C.mk has been ryu’s staple and most used normal since vanilla sf4, and believe me, it’s nerf doesn’t get payed by those few minor buffs.
Again, you don’t even play ryu, go have a look at the ryu forums and see if they’re so happy about the increased damage on cs.mk or if they’re more upset/angry at the c.mk nerf.

Sorry if i’m sounding rude, but hey, pretty everybody in this thread is telling you that you’re wrong…don’t come here and make assumptions on what ryus i play against.

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Damn lollo don?t rage over nothing dude! lol

I?m entitled to my opinion, at the end of the day, what ive posted is just that, my opinion. I don?t know about Italy and what your online matches may or may not be but where im at the large majority of them are terrible and the ryus I do play online, when I actually DO play online, are even worse.

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You didn’t express your opinion, you made an assumption: that i don’t play good ryus because good ryus use cs.mk in combos.

Both of those are totally wrong, that’s why i got a little angry.

Anyways, i’m not mad at you, but you should probably choose better words next time you wanna express your opinion without risking to make someone angry =)

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well you are entitled to your opinion too : P

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The differrence is i got proofs of what i’m saying, hehe! Just show me a vid of high level play where ryu uses cs.mk in a combo other than after f.hp. Even then it’s not the best choice but it’s an easier link than c.hp and some people use it.

Even if in AE it’ll do 90 damage (which i doubt, it’ll be max 80), c.hp will still be the combo piece of choice, both after c.lp and f.hp

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When I get home I’ll mess around with it, I dont want to stick my foot in my mouth by saying something works when it doesnt. I’ll try to dig something up for you, again im not saying you are wrong but I am saying that both arguments could easily be made. (I normaly would have stoped caring by now but since we are both OG Akumas and I actually care what my peers think I’ll look into it further).

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Well cs.mk has far less pushback than cr.hp which makes it far easier for fadc combos depending on hitboxes, ie forward.hp, cs.mk xx fireball, fadc, cr.hp xx hp shoryu.

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yeah but it’s after solar plexus…that’s like the only usefull way to combo into cs.mk. Also in that case the added damage from the cs.mk will be balanced by the damage nerf on the solar plexus strike.

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It has a 3f startup but nothing for damage. You’d better plink it out a cr. HP~MP~LP after a Plexus, three times the chance. That’s why no one used cl. mk even after Solar Plexus.

I once saw daigo using it but he could have used everything in the situation