it seems to only happen with f+mp kara demons. sHK ones still catch.
Honestly, I don’t think this was/is a bug; just another nerf from previous games.
The sHk one is way easier to pull off. A nerf on that one would have made more sense.
Gonna practice the overhead one anyway
So, I finally came back home and had a chance to try out 2013 for the first time. Naturally, I started off with Akuma x Yoshi. So…
-DP nerf sucks but it was needed.
-Teleport can still serve as an escape but characters expecting it WILL punish if they have good walk speed.
-Can still use the air fireball effectively. I had the AI jumping at me at fairly close range and I was able to recover in time to SRK. However, in some matchups you have to be more careful with it (Mishimas, etc…).
-cl. RH buff is solid, adds combo-ability.
-st.fp buff is solid, you can cancel into specials even if you’re pushed out of range.
The fireball nerf actually has a hidden buff. On a close-range jump from your opponent you will recover just in time to SRK. That means you’ll be hitting it as deep as possible, so for players like me that means less trading. I swear, I used to trade with the SRK even when I was timing it as deep as I thought. I tested this versus Kazuya on the hardest difficulty setting.
So yeah, I think what I’m going to do is have a smarter fireball game from here on. I’ve figured out the ranges of the air hado so I still think it will be a good tool for spacing myself to throw a ground hado. Only thing is I’m going to start “going in” more and using Akuma’s footsies. I’ve always had solid footsies but didn’t see much use in constantly getting knockdowns in this game. With the roll nerf I’m going to try my hand.
So, final verdict? The only nerf that was needed was the DP tag and MAYBE the teleport nerf. Akuma still has awful health and can practically die in one combo almost (I’ve seen setups taking 800+ dmg). Just because Capcom wants an offensive game doesn’t mean every character is made for it. You want Akuma to truly be more offensive? Make his demon flip faster. Want Guile to be less of a turtle? Give him a fucking dive kick.
Capcom is still stupid as fuck. They’re trying to force offense on a character with shit health and no ambiguous block strings.
I feel you man, lame Akumas 4life.
Some extra bits regarding the buffed far HP: you can now save yourself from a bad boost chain and do pretty weird combos like sHK, cMP xx LK Tatsu, sLK, sHK, sHP xx whatever. I haven’t experimented at all but I’d imagine you can get some pretty wacky Demon Flip shenanigans if they quickrise after that combo. It’s also a pretty high priority poke to use in footsies and won’t get you caught by raw launchers like sweep and cMK will.
I run Akuma with all defense gems, and I routinely try and hold 3 bars for as long as possible. That way, even if you get caught for big damage on Akuma, you can wake up with reversal Cross Assault, which gets him out and gives him quite a bit of health back. It’s a pretty decent offset to the nerfs and low health.
Jump back zanku nerf is annoying but not as harmful as I thought. I can still throw them with relative impunity. If anything, it’s easier to bait jumps from people who know about the extra recovery. I’m curious to hear more about the “hidden buff” to jump back zanku because I’m not sure I understand the description.
It’s like they want Akuma to have demon flip shenanigans as a core part of his offense, which is foolish. I mean, it’s not as foolish as it was in 4 since AA-ing is strangely difficult in this game but still pretty foolish.
I’ll try to explain the hidden buff again. Keep in mind that it doesn’t apply to you if your SRK timing is good.
So, when I AA I tend to trade sometimes. If you throw an air hado at close-range, depending on your opponent and the jump trajectory, you will recover just in time to SRK. That means you can mash SRK and Akuma won’t do it until the very last second, hence it will hit very deep. This worked for me against Kazuya, haven’t tried versus others. I imagine the fireball will still be good against characters with long jumps like Chun-Li, Bison, etc…
Anyway, I’ll try to get a video up if I can. This is the first time I’ve played SFxT in over 3 months so I’m a bit behind.
If I understand correctly, he can recover in time to srk but not block?
You can block, yes. What I’m basically saying is that you can mash SRK and it will hit on the first frame of the SRK (i.e. deep) since it will come out right when you recover from the fireball, at which point your opponent will be within a split-second of making contact with your hurtbox. It is very space-dependent and I’m going to conduct further tests later to make sure its legit.
Basically it allows you to mash SRK and not care about timing it, since it will only come out once the fireball recovery frames have ended. And by the time that happens your opponent will be within AA range.
Give me some more time to test, I want to make sure I’m really on to something. I’ll see if I can make a video.
Yeah, so, what I said before was a bit premature. I’ve tested Akuma enough now. You definitely cannot AA as well on the air fireball backwards as you could before. If they’re really close you’ll either get hit or be in blockstun (which isn’t as bad). I would advise anyone to throw it only to create space to throw either neutral air fireballs or ground fireballs.
Anyone who needs tips on this should watch Yukumura (snowfox435). A really good zoning Akuma that is just fundamental on every level. The nerf is stupid, just makes no sense. I would understand it only if he had some kind of consistent oki, but he doesn’t.
Still, I’m figuring out his footsies more and more. Sweep xx DF Palm is good for pressure but the roll nerf wasn’t as substantial as I thought. True Akuma can setup for the throw better than anyone but you have to commit to it beforehand.
I 100% disagree with people who claim that Akuma got better by virtue of the roll nerf. No, it didn’t add nearly as much. He does better damage and has better synergy, but as a solo character I think he was a bit better in vanilla.
clips from matches
Picked up Akuma to pair with Jin, I love this team
Nice. I use Akuma x Lars most of the time. I’ll also switch to Law x Akuma if I want a more powerful team.
Need to breath more life into these forums. 
Raging demon works great for catching rolls. Walk up to try and do a mixup, react to the roll, raging demon to catch them. Pretty easy and you can do it from quite a distance.
Character forums in general are dead, but this one actually seems more lively, some times it takes a week to get a reply on steve forums lol, still waiting on a reply on Bryan forums for about a month lol
Cr. Mk~far hk vs crouch blocking opponents into raging demon. The second hit of far hk whiffs on crouching characters. I’ve used it a few times and everyone tries to punish the cr. Mk far hk boost chain.
AI during cross assault never blocks. Raging demon or misogi could be a good way to stop that nonsense. Risky but could pay off.
My match against an A-rank player using Akuma would boil down to this:
“Akuma is ass, they said. It will be an easy match, they said.”
Maybe I was just too used to Zankuu-spamming Akumas. He’s the first Akuma I faced who didn’t even use it.
A jump back fireball Akuma is defintely not gonna prepare you for a solid Akuma. That Akuma played very solid. Great whiff punishing, good spacing, good AAs. I’m going to steal that anti switch cancel tech. You should jump less and not whiff moves with long recovery.
Yeah, seconded. To maximize Akuma’s potential you need to play him as an offensive-defensive hybrid. I think this was true even for 2012. Use the fireballs to gain good position for offensive pressure. I actually noticed better rewards once I started playing him this way. I mean, I was always footsie-oriented but fireballed a bit too much way back when.
I agree. Play really lame to frustrate your opponent and then go on the offense when the moment is right.
Cl.hk combined with akuma’s walkspeed can give you a 50/50 if you read a roll. I used to do this in vanilla but now since the opponent can’t reversal, it’s much better.
Ending combos with cl.hk groubd bounce give you a hard knockdown that give you so much time to set up. Can do stuff like store a charge, demon flip on the other side so the opponent rolls the other way, set up cross up air fireballs, or even a raw tag.