I should have won game 5. But then the diagonal input bug decided to screw me over TWICE IN A ROW WHEN I WAS TRYING TO FINISH WITH A CROSS ART!!! >:(:arazz::annoy::lame:
Just look at my inputs at 2:55 and 3:02 at game 5. You’ll see exactly what I mean. 
GGs nonetheless. Still got a long way to go. These games really showed how impatient I get sometimes. 
Match 1
One of the many things I like about your Akuma playstyle is the fact that you throw fireballs at places where I wouldn’t even think twice about throwing them. At the same time, I think it’s crazy :eek:! It got you killed in the second round especially as Ken jumped over your fireball and killed you for it.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t have seen that EX Tatsu coming in the 3rd round if I was in your shoes. Then again, you did use the same opener for both rounds 1 & 2 so that led to you eating the EX Tatsu to the face. So mixing up your round openers is something to take from these sets of matches.
At the end, you could have gone for a ‘Hail-Mary’ SRK between Heihachi’s blockstrings at the end instead of guessing. But this is more a minor thing if anything as you did go for them in the later matches.
Match 2
You got revenge on him for jumping over your fireball in the first match. From there you controlled it well by using your fireballs to counter Ken’s Step kick pressure as well as punishing his DP > Switch which I think really got into his head a little bit allowing you to take the match.
The ‘hail-mary’ SRK was well saved from the last game.
1:11 was kind of funny, did he just raw launch your overhead?
Match 3
Was a good performance by both players. However, you edged this one out because you punished his mistakes/openings harder than he punished yours + he was a little raw launcher happy. This led to impatience which is understandable.
Around 0:48 not sure how punishable step-kick > switch is but it doesn’t look like a safe tag. Well at least from here that is.
Around 2:43, there must be some post demon set-ups vs Ken after a successful Demon. Might have to go and test that stuff out.
Match 4
You handled Ken well at the start of the first round however Will’s Hei really conditioned you in the first round to fear his low attacks. This just led from one combo to the next into death if I’m honest.
Although I think I did see you try to alpha counter his cross-up tatsu I think? I can’t really comment on that one because it could be due to lag or just not timing it properly.
The second round was better although you dropped your DP > switch juggle, it all worked out properly there especially with the risky SRK at the end to throw him off a little bit. Gee FlyingVe was right sometimes, you just gotta do something way out of left field.
In the final round, I have to mention the raw tag punish of Demon Flip > Sweep. You could have used EX Demon Flip > Palm to get a better combo or Misogi to waste time and get a free mix-up afterwards (although the latter is better suited to just killing purposes only.)
Momentum was yours up until the cross assault Will did which allowed him to make his comeback. Countering whilst on the recieving end of a Cross Assault is risky business, if it works it works, if it doesn’t then OUCH!
Match 5
I don’t really have much to critique with the first round but the second round especially at the end could have been yours. :hp: SRK to blow through those strings would have sealed the deal right there.
@LordWilliam1234 yeah I could see that was the killer in that round. You could have killed Akuma and taken it, although I will admit you did recover a little bit when OZ activated Cross Assault and you jumped his Demon attempt so there is some praise to be mentioned there.
Sorry if this all comes across as ‘rushed’ or anything like that. It’s pretty late over here. Gonna get a nice long Christmas sleep after I post this up :D.
It was a wee bit laggy. Step kick is -1 on block so it’s near impossible to punish it. Yea i should find something after raging demons. Tried to alpha counter jump in but he came in with tatsu and got punished for it. Using ex demon flip palm has been iffy to me lately. It tracks the 1st character while theyre running back so I usually end up behind the 2nd character as he comes in. I should find something that works consistently. I should really stop trying to counter stuff in cross assault. I threw that match away cause of that.
I believe he mentioned that he was going for a throw there. I just saw a gap and figured he was going for a crouching :mp: or some other crouching normal so I just went for raw launcher.
At point blank I don’t think it’s a safe tag, since it’s -2 on block. If you space it right you can make it + on block though, which is what I try to do. Though at the range I did there I’m pretty sure I could have been punished hard, even if it wasn’t a happy birthday. Either way I think it’s pretty hard to react to if you aren’t expecting it.
Yeah, I’m still really upset about that. It’s not the first time it’s happened either; it happens a bunch of times in my matches. I think in some of the games you can see me whiffing standing :hp: with Ken randomly; that’s me trying to throw a fireball but my diagonal input being dropped. It just really really bothers me that it happened twice in a row in critical moments in the match, both times when I could have taken that match. Then the game is like, “Oh, you want to win? Nah, let’s drop your diagonal input and screw you over.” My current avatar is a good representation on how I feel about this. >:(
The main problem I have with it though is the fact that I know it isn’t an executional error and I know that it isn’t a problem with my controller. I have AE on PC and I have never dropped a :qcf: motion in my entirety of playing that game, even when I was first starting out on the 3DS version (without using the touch screen shortcuts). I have two different Xbox controllers, both of which work perfectly in AE, no dropped inputs/moves. In this game though, no matter what controller I use the issue comes up. I have hope that the 1.06 update will fix this though, since this issue doesn’t seem to be the same diagonal input bug that the 360 version had…it seems to be an issue with horizontal and vertical inputs having priority over diagonals, which I believe was fixed in one of the earlier patches on the console versions. I really hope the PC gets updated soon…
Anyways, enough of my ranting. GGs to OZleon; he’s a great player. I’ve got a lot to learn to get on his level. Starting with learning how to deal with zoning better. 
Ken’s Step Kick is -2 at point blank range, but if spaced well you can make it + on block, which is what I try to do. Plus, Ken recovers really fast, so I think I can cancel my run really early (haven’t tested it yet, my matches with you are the first time I’ve tried step kick xx switch).
And yeah, it was a wee bit laggy for me as well…a tad jittery at worst, anyway. I don’t feel it really affected my play though. Any error I made was all on me rather than lag (except for the diagonal input bug screwing me over twice game 5 but I’ve ranted on that enough already ).
Really old clip but wanted to test uploading again with something small.
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Duuuuude, would be great if you could re-up your Akuma x Yoshi matches. I used those for ideas and strategies. Also, a general question: if Akuma’s zoning game is so good, how come I only see OZ Leon playing him that way? Has he just discovered some hidden secret or are people just too impatient to play a bit lame? I’m not too keen and rushing in with mindless demon flips, for example, because I fear getting caught in some max damage combo in the blink of an eye.
I don’t know, seems weird to me.
I think it’s because akuma has so many tools that people feel like they have to use them all. I like to keep it simple most of the time.
Ok guys I need some small critiquing on my gameplay. The footage is old but hey, this is probably a good representation of what I play like now because I haven’t been playing this game as much as I would like to. Ignoring my pointless excuses aside, please rip these matches apart. Especially the ones where I get completely dominated.
Matches where I get owned are @ 3:36, 14:10 and 15:40.
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Mix up your strings with standing attacks. If you get predictable, Songi will blow you up with raw launcher a lot so tame him with standing attacks or bait his raw launchers. You missed a few AA opportunities when you shouldn’t vs Xia since she’s very floaty. Also you let Songi raw tag out without a punish.
Since Xia was giving you the most trouble, I’ll write up some Xia tips for akuma.
Don’t press buttons when Xia is pressuring you or else you’ll eat her overhead. Just block low and react high. It’s pretty easy to react to her overhead. You shouldn’t really jump at Xia so much b/c you can eat a 400+ combo easily. The occasional tatsu cross up and very late air fireball can throw them off. Don’t be afraid to teleport to escape pressure every now and then. Xia and Lili have a hard time punishing it.
With fireballs vs Xia, just blast her with fireballs until she gets a bar. She’s pretty limited to getting around fireballs with no meter. When she gets meter don’t chuck out predictable fireballs since ex dive kick will catch you. She can’t react punish with it. It’s also -1 on block so raging demon her if you want.
In footsies vs Xia, you can smake her around with far mp xx fireball and far hp sparingly to stop her overhead nonsense. once you’ve tamed her there, you can use you usual shoto pokes as long as you don’t get predictable.
UPDATED THE SFXT TO SF4 CHANGELOG
Link to page: 天"Mere Changes Cannot Harm Me!"天: The SF4 to SFXT Akuma Changelog
Not sure about adding the system changes yet. Maybe I should do so once the patch drops so that I could analyse what the system does to benefit Akuma.
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Need Akuma advice. I think I play a solid shoto game but need ideas on how to capitalize after a knockdown. Do I dive kick more? What about the palm? It feels like my opponent always knows when to roll and then I lose ground off the knockdown I got. I’m afraid to pressure a roll sometimes because of eating a wake-up SRK (glad this is going to change in 2013). Anyway, looking for insight…
EDIT: I tend to play really safe with Akuma because of his low health. In one match against Saitsu he literally got ONE reset on me and I lost all health, lol.
Use all of your options. I tend to demon flip dive kick or cross up tatsu first to condition my opponents. Then I get to go nuts with command divekick, palm, empty palm low/throw, late divekick, palm cross up low, demon flip grab, and raging demon. You can use cl.hk combined with akuma’s fast walkspeed to switch sides when your opponent rolls and confirm off of cl.hk into launcher. You can mess up your opponents inputs too by doing this. Cl.hk is also a good way for a safe switch cancel since it hits twice on block and hit.
Also you missed a few punishes in those matches. Like all of Nina’s geyser cannons and splinters are all -6 on block so you can do jab into something.
I just recently picked up akuma in response to the akuma changes and I was wondering if anyone was having a problem landing his overhead kara demon.
Everytime I do the overhead kara demon opponent seems to be able to jump out of it, but at certain further ranges they arn’t… has anyone experienced this?
Dash up demon and st.hk kara demon seem to work, dash up demon I’ve had the opponent jump out of sometimes too.
Edit: Found out the f+mp kara demon is character specific… it works 100% on julia, doesnt work on ryu or akuma
So the above information about the f+mp kara demon was incorrect. the f+mp kara demon does not work if the opponent is downbacking. the block animation does something weird and it will allow the opponent to jump. it’s impossible to land the f+mp kara demon on an opponent that is blocking. I’m very sad =(
We
ll thnkfully for us there’s plenty of other ways to land raging demon. Still it would be nice if that worked or if the super gem worked with raging demon.
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Might be good vs rolls in 2013 since command grabs work on rolls too. :eek:
That’s awesome, OZ. I’m gonna add you to Steam next time I log on, I saw your post (I seem to have a bad connection, played versus someone in EU and it lagged hard). Now, since you guys will be playing the patch before me I am relying on you to answer a few questions, given that 2013 releases tomorrow.
Thanks!!
Hp srk is still the combo ender for damage. In combos ending in tatsu, mk does more thanks how they changed the way it juggled, and hk tatsu is for corner carry.
You can definitely feel some recovery on jump back fireball. Pretty hard to AA now after it. If you opponent reads it you’re eating a jump in combo. Don’t do jump back fireball too close outside of a knockdown.
Far.hk will whiff if you aren’t close enough. That means we still can’t throw it out like in some MUs in sf4, but we still get our kara demon from it.
Far.hp is good vs MUs where cr.mk loses like vs Xiaoyu. It has more recovery than cr.mk so it’s not the new cr.mk but it’s still pretty good.
Edit:
Cl.hk pushes the oppnent kinda far away and takes away quite a bit of juggle points but we can cancel the 2nd hit of it into stuff like red fireball or CADC it. Also cl.hk is a good meaty attack just I thought it would be. If you backdash vs it, you can do a 230ish combo. Can also cancel the 2nd hit into lk tatsu if your opponent isn’t blocking, and you get plenty of time to hit confirm it. You can do raw tags if you land a ground bounce hk or combo into raw launcher. You can also the 2nd hit of cl.hk into super making it easier to combo into super now.
Counter hit overhead does a groundbounce but atm I can’t combo after it unless I’m in the corner. Can’t do much since it takes away quite a bit of juggle points too.
Far hk seems to have less recover sonce combos involving it feel easier.
ozleon and I discussed about the akuma 2013 changes are here is what I got from it:
dmg optimized combos might be posted… i think oz may have figured them out by now.
Played around with v.2013 today and I have to say its not bad. The Akuma changes should help him out a bit.
I swear that counter hit :f: + :mp: still caused a ground bounce if spaced correctly in vanilla even the spinning state was present in there. (Wow I feel kind of old when I say the word ‘vanilla’ )
We can still tag out safely using dp > switch but it will cost 2 bars by doing EX SRK.
Cl St.:hk: ground bounce doesn’t work in chain combos against aerial opponents. So no :lk: Tatsu > Misogi which kind of sucks but then again, It sounded too good to be true anyways.
Far St.:hk: now links into cr.:hp: as well.
As for far st.:hk: hitting crouchers, I have some ideas for block-strings you can use to tag out with it safely (relatively) against crouchers.
cl st.:mp: > far st.:mp: > far st.:hk: > tag
cr.:lk: > cr.:lp: > st.:lp: > far st.:lp: > far st.:hk: > tag
The hitbox for Misogi is slightly bigger to make up for the fact that cl st.:hk: bounds further away.
This isn’t even taking into account the system changes especially rolls.
Forward throw set-ups should be much more deadlier for offensive purposes. I say this because now if they roll forwards, they eat a free throw to the face probably going to be forward throw again or just demon that works. Take this either way, as this could be potential troll material if people aren’t really aware of the system changes.
I love my demon flip set-ups on wake-up and now I hope they’ll be a little bit more…well…less guess oriented I suppose?
The above stuff said will definitely be going in the change-log thread.