I made this post for those who care for a long read about my thoughts on Ibuki and what they should do to improve her. It is very very long. It will be broken up into two sections.
The first section are my comments on Ibuki as a character and why she deserves to be changed. The second section explains the changes that I feel should be made which is also broken into 3 sections.
Please excuse my composition mistakes.
The Ideal Ibuki
This current Ibuki (2013) is far from how the character was designed to be and I feel like the development team behind Ibuki hasn’t put enough thought into her. There is a lot of evidence to suggest this such as:
- Many of her moves are useless or are significantly flawed. Many characters usually do have moves such as these but are balanced by other properties. Ibuki completely isn’t because she has way too many moves that she needs to function properly that don’t. Furthermore she doesn’t have an alternative because all the alternatives are useless or flawed. Just to mention a few examples:
a. Tsujigoe is very slow to startup, has many frames of landing lag and doesn’t have any real options besides Kunai which is unsafe on block and non comboable on hit. There is rarely a reason to ever use this move besides wanting to be punished. They could have easily made this move viable by having no lag frames upon landing if you did not throw a Kunai and by making Kunai combo upon hit.
b. All the versions of Raida are so similar to each other that there is hardly a reason to use any but 1 version. Furthermore EX Raida is beyond useless, essentially being an 8 frame low attack that does 140 damage with 1 bar, and being almost -30 on block. Why raida is massively negative on block for the properties of the move makes no sense. Even lp shoryuken (From Ryu or Ken) is less negative on block than lp raida (which is the least negative on block out of all the Raida).
c. EX neckbreaker has no use besides being faster than Neckbreaker and doing slightly more damage. With Sazan and EX Neckbreaker not being able to go through most projectiles, and her having no alternate ways around them, she has severe problems against projectile characters.
d. Hammer Kick being one of the slowest and most obvious overheads in the game is also very punishable on block. The fact that they made Xiaoyu’s overhead so good, which looks very similar to Hammer Kick, but then they made Hammer Kick this terrible still amazes me. For those who don’t know, Xiaoyu’s overhead has a faster startup, is +3 on block and ground bounces for significantly way more damaging combos while requiring low execution (At least 500 damage for 1 bar). Hammer Kick being airborne on frame 3 doesn’t make this move that great that it deserves to be this much worse. After the patch Xiaoyu’s overhead is still good although it is -2 on block which is fair, while Hammer Kick is still just as bad as it was previously.
e. lk Hien being an even slower and more punishable overhead than hammer kick also does not even connect on characters who are crouching directly in front of you.
f. TC5 doing only 114 and having no options other than that makes it not worth using ever.
g. Tsumuji being very weak, while making you punishable and right next to your opponent on block makes this move practically useless and unfitting. This particularly makes no sense because there are characters like Hwoarang who is not only way better than Ibuki in pretty much every possible way but has a similar technique that is +1 on block (Dynamite Heel which does more damage and can be tag canceled for 400+ damage with one meter)! Even Lili and Asuka who both have reversals and are undeniably much better characters have a similar move to tsumuji that is less than -3 on block.
h. None of her moves causes wall bounce when many look like they could or should.
I. EX kazegiri followup doesn’t work on characters unless you hit them from max close range while they are standing with TC4. If they are crouching you are forced to do a heavily scaled high execution combo to still do less damage. You can’t even hit them with TC4 and go straight into EX kazegiri if they are crouching even though TC4 forces standing. EX kazegiri is practically unusable in its current form due to its ridiculous requirements and the heavy execution combos that follow.
J. NJ HP which looks almost exactly like Xiaoyu’s nj HP does not have a crossup hitbox when Xiaoyu’s does (2013). Every character that I am aware of that has a similar move (Asuka, Xiaoyu) has been given a crossup hitbox.
k. The second attack of Yoroitoshi is beyond useless. Its startup is extremely slow and is -40 on hit and -77 on block. Furthermore Ibuki cannot tag out safely after this move hits which is something she really needs.
- She has many weaknesses, and such few strengths. Her lack of projectile invincible moves or ways to deal with projectiles is both completely unfair and unjustified. It’s as if the developers completely forgot to address this problem.
My Intention
So realizing this, I thought I should write this explaining what changes should be made to Ibuki to make her a fun, playable and competitive character that better fits her image, while not being a “cheap” character.
First I would like to talk about the type of character Ibuki has been designed to be. In Third Strike she was a fast and mobile character, with great normals. In SSF4 she became slower yet she had tricky mixups and high damaging combos, while requiring very high execution.
In SFXT she lost her strong mixups, and her speed and damage output are now average. She still has high execution combos but they are not worth using at the moment. She currently has the worst defense options in a game where two hits will kill her. Now, where rolls are no longer a free escape option does this problem become significantly devastating. Her cross cancel (or Alpha counter) sometimes does not hit properly not allowing her to tag safely, and she has problems tagging out safely in general. Unlike Ibuki in previous games she no longer has ways to deal with projectiles. For all this she has nothing to make up for it, and that’s where the problem lies.
Ibuki should be a difficult character to use due to having heavy execution and having to be very strong with the basics to use her well. When mastered, this character should really shine as a very strong character offensively. Her footsies and normals should be well above average as is her speed to get in and out quickly. Opening up opponents who are turtling with her mixups shouldn’t be weak either, but her mixups aren’t her forte unlike characters such as Akuma and Lili.
Without having her kunai vortex she shouldn’t have to rely on mixups to win. Playing solid basics should be what she does best. Her trade off for having such an excellent offense is her high execution as well as having extremely poor defensive options as she has no move with invincibility. She has no reversal, like a DP, or evasive move with invincibility like Vega’s backflip or Dhalsim’s teleport. However just like Vega makes up for his lack of reversal options with superior walk speed and unique punishing abilities, do I feel that Ibuki should as well. By having poor defense options she should have strong punishing options to keep her from being pinned down when the opponent does something unsafe, and she should have superior walking speed to compliment both her offense and defense.
I have been suggesting in the past to do as few changes as possible to keep her current metagame but to make her competitive. However I believe it would be best to give her a more thorough change so that more of her move set becomes useful by giving her both buffs and nerfs. Ibuki should not be a 1 dimensional character that can abuse moves like st jab, or Tsumuji while staying in the opponent’s face, nor should she have such strong low options such as cr mk x TC 8 combos making all of her other combos obsolete.
So I propose this list of changes so that the proposed buffs will make her more like she was designed. A fast character who is strong offensively but weak defensively, who requires a lot of time and skill to use properly.