I don’t agree. They don’t seem that fun to me- it’s like playing on autopilot without having to think much. I have more fun having to work around a weakness of some sort.
I think Athena without bugs is mid tier, with bugs upper mid. That bug really doesn’t make any char viable in tourney play- I’d rather see the chars with it except Iori get something new instead (which Athena , EX Yuri, and Heidern definitely did)
I think Kyo is not debatable, he’s definitely up there. Huge damage from high priority normals, dizzies really fucking fast, awesome normals, safe stuff (rekkas and RED kick), etc. He’s a beast. He needs decent execution and spacing though. But he’s top for sure.
Some disagree on Chizuru, but with her awesome normals, the slide, fast meter building, great DMs (especially the Mirror Dance), huge damage potential (c.C, f.A, Dance, mash = 70% of your life gone, or c.C, f.A, hcb + A, A, Seal DM in the corner = rape plus sealed powers), powerful zoning (while you build meter) with hcb + A, great invincible DP, Mirror Dance mixup on wakeup… I think she’s definitely top tier too.
As for that Tougeki tier list, maybe it’s the one posted in the '98 thread at the Strategy Zone? I’ll copypaste it from there:
As an aside, now that Overworld mentioned the wiki I ask again: does anyone know if the images will be fixed? I still want to do those hitboxes and upload them there 
If you tone down Iori, that’s going to SUCK.
I don’t care, just don’t tone down Iori.
I’ve played a jillion Iori players, I’ve used Iori a jillion times.
If you tone him down, you’ll just get his KOF99 version.
90% of the entire cast is playable and good, so just leave Iori as is.
This is one of the reasons why I HATED CVS: Capcom never accurately made Iori; He didn’t have his speed, mindgames, and full abilities.
And on a side note, I would argue that Kyo vs Iori is 6-4 in Kyo’s favor.
I could live with current Iori if he took Billy’s damage (which is 115% of normal) I think he takes like 97-98% damage in vanilla 98.
That would be enough of a nerf and would keep everything else intact.
Chinese top tier is Kyo, Iori, Chris, O.Chris, Daimon, Chizuru, no order and I agree with it.
Edit: The #1 nerf I would give Iori is take away the invincibility from his command grab. It already does not have invincibility though the entire startup, but I think it should have none.
I am sure that the tier list will change for 98’ UM, specially since goro and kyo have been toned down.
We need a PS2 release date.
They’ve got a release date for damn Nests Collection (SNK’s best) but still no word about KOF98UM.
Can anybody tell if Chris was toned down?
Cause if he wasn’t, my interest in this game is dead.
Jump CD all day while screaming weh! weh! weh! is 10 times worse than Storm in MvC2.
I’ve heard that it’s now easier to do hcb x2 DM motions, which makes me suspect that KOF98UM might have had it’s controls loosened up overall. Can anyone confirm this?
I was using O chris and he felt more like his 2k2 version.
Then that means hes faster but toned down…
You’re talking about the braindead players that try to use the top tiers in a braindead way…in high level play, the top tiers are not really braindead.
pretty much
wow…so no more chris madness…anyway
I really hope heavy D! gets better this time…it seems that his new super (well…the old shadow) has good potential. Can anyone confirm if Shadows power up dissapear if hes hit like in 98?
I think heavy D is quite underrated in 98…he has almost all the tools needed to be a top tier with the exception of a solid anti-air. Crouch C and far D are good but not as reversals.
His ground game is solid…has a nice sweep and really fast overhead that can be used off a crouch C(similar to Chris’s crouch C to delayed f+B, for anyone who knows this trick). His overhead even gives him frame advantage…
He has great lockdown with his jabs and normals, two good air to air moves (jump CD and jump C), a really good air to ground (jump C, two hits that is easy to combo off of) and a really good crossup (jump B). His qcb hcf+P is extremely easy to combo off his crouch B’s and can even be used to go through fireballs and other things, thanks to his invincibility…guy even has a way to avoid cd counters and that is by using qcb+P after a normal.
Does anyone know what they did with Chizuru? She is my favorite character.
Hey, uh…I need a little help with D in regular 98. I did a move where he jabs a few times really fast…how do you do it and what does it do?
d d+P I believe…it’s unblockable. Whether you hit with it or not, doing the move powers up his next special move that he does, unless he gets hit (in which case, the powerup is lost). I don’t really use this move unless I’m a full screen away from my opponent.
Shit!! Emil found the thread. Its over
So far the only thing we know is that her c.C has less priority now.
Heavy D!:
d, d + P is not unblockable; it does nothing to your opponent. It power-ups your next special, including itself (doing it a second time actually hits your opponent, but it’s only useful for style points, and it’s blockable), and then the effect disappears. It also wears off if you get hit.
IIRC in UM that move is now a DM, it lasts for some seconds and you can do as many powered-up specials as you want until it wears off (now it doesn’t matter if you get hit). I remember him doing an infinite after a SDM power up in one of the earlier UM vids.
The move that’s unblockable is his close dp+P, a delayed, Robert style command grab.