No I agree. The game is really fun when people aren’t tier whoring. I think Fei can compete great with MOST of the cast. He just hits that glass ceiling like everyone else near the top. Personally (in my opinion) I believe these are what makes the game less enjoyable:
Sagat does too much damage and takes too little when he already has such an overpowering gameplan. Amazing zoning, safe tiger knee, focus is irrelevant vs him in a matchup where it could have been very useful (make tiger upper focus break and the match would be much more manageable. Sagat is just not fun to fight. It’s like playing gradius except you’re anchored to the floor and every time you get close the boss takes half your life.
Ryu just gets too much easy damage and his zoning is pretty much better than everyone except Sagats. If ryu did less damage and didn’t get trade ultra he’d be a lot more easy to deal with. But once again easy ultra setups and great zoning make for easy wins.
Rufus is easy if you can keep him out but he’s got like 900 ways to land ultra and when he gets in, especially vs characters with no reversal, Rufus is unstoppable. Plus j.HK is like the brain dead easy way to land ultra in just about any match. There’s no reason not to do it. Hmmm I’m seeing a trend here… utilizing your ultra makes you good in this game.
Balrog his jabs make running an in close game with him basically impossible. But he also has good mid range pokes and can close the distance with EXs that have armor without much worry. Just an annoying character that’s hard too approach and gets ultra off pretty much everything.
Zangeif Lariat makes fighting him in close pretty much impossible and creates dumb 50/50’s on wake up that are in his favor. EX greenhand is like the herp derp solution to getting in and even though he can’t really guarantee his ultra, it’s still easy to land and makes 60% of your life bar irrelevant in most matches.
What do all these characters have in common? Ridiculous comeback potential on top of already strong games. Why is it that characters who already have strong game plans also can utilize their ultra to it’s fullest. That doesn’t make sense to me. If anything the weaker characters should have more access to ultra, if not just everyone.
I agree with samurai, characters with very usable ultras are the ones who rape in the game. That along with the concept of already having a high pressure game, and high HP. The perfect example and opposite is seth and akuma, they both have good pressure games, but lack they an awesome ultra, or health. However when you have a douchebag (like Rufus) who can just mash on target combos into ultra, you have top tier bullshit goin on.
What i really suggest, is for characters like ryu, sagat, and rufus, they should nerf their ultras to do seth or sakura ultra damage. But then again if they did that not NEAR as many people will play um eh? But hey, im just sayin. I have no issues with rog, though cuz he almost fits that exact criteria, with an ultra juggle that rivals fei, just with easier setups.
Well, I guess we can all keep praying that they tweaked Ultra1 to actually WORK in matches and be useful.
If he got a practical ultra, I actually think he would shoot up the ranks a lot, because he’s actually not that bad of a character (even though you do have to work hard).
i dont see why everyone is so concerned about Fei’s ultra. Of all the buffs/fixes, the Ultra was close to the last thing on my to do list with Fei. Even if they gave Fei a linkable ultra I, he’d still be mediocre at best
This is sadly true, cammy and sakura hav linkable ultra’s but they are still far from top material. Fei would need a lot more then a improved ultra to move past being just a decent character.
Good post. I’d add Blanka to the list, personally, and take Rufus off. His bullshit is standard across the board and honestly, he’s not so bad once you get around the ultra setups. I just try not to let him start dive kicking by CWing the hell out of the way and keeping him at a range. Blanka just infuriates me though because the punish on his horizontal ball is incredibly strict and Fei really has no way to hurt Blanka because his hitbox is so fucked. I hate fighting him almost as much as Sagat and Gief.
Only reason I hate fighting Rufus is if I hit ultra while he’s trying to go for a cr.HP. First hit connects, second hit whiffs. Boy, wouldn’t it be great if Fei had… A COUNTER ULTRA?!
haha yeah I was tempted to put Blanka in there too as I hate that matchup myself… it feels completely random whether I’m gonna be able to punish and win or fail and die to blanka shananigans. He might not be that good but he’s certainly gay as hell lol. Maybe a bad fight for Fei.
im the other way around. I enjoy at least dying swiftly from Sagat and Gief. Blanka is a slow and annoying process, i sometime dont even bother playing the match and just stand there so they can kill me quicker.
once again im not a fei long player but its really unfair that Bison’s ultra sucks you in but Fei ultra juggles. If he had a useful ultra he would definitely shoot up that ranks as stated above.
^ I honestly don’t think he would be “bad” at all if he had a usable ultra. He probably wouldn’t be Sagat/Ryu/Akuma good, but I think he would easily jump out of the bottom tier. I think he’s a fairly decent character. If he could DP FADC Ultra, AA Ultra, Ultra through FBs, etc, he’d be a beast!
i honestly don’t think that fei is that bad. i’ve literally just got out of playing a set with a good fei long. he got pissed because i was turtling him to death, so he decided to switch to ryu after 5 or so defeats, but nevertheless, a very good fei long. i was impressed with fei’s pressure game, mix ups and footsies. i’d put him in the same boat as guile. he’s got some really good normals, yet his lack of a decent ultra will always limit him in terms of tier list. the guys with the best ultras are all at the top of the pile, there’s no argument about it.
let us all just hope that because they have nerfed the majority of the top tier characters, we will now find that even without a good ultra, we can compete against the majority of characters. of course there are going to be some bad matches, but i think the problem with sf4 is that some characters didn’t have enough bad matches, where some had far too many. i’m guessing that they’ve designed one of the new characters to be a complete and utter bitch for sagat to deal with. that same character may not necessarily be “top tier”, thus giving super street fighter 4 even more balance than it’s predecessor.
I just hate that Fei’s Ultra has no scare factor. The person your against has no need to change his game plan if you have meter. Maybe Ultra 2 might change this.
I feel like the opponent never has to think of Fei having Ultra in stock, as its practically useless. (Guile is similar I suppose) Even when Vega gets meter, Fireball characters stop throwing long range fireballs.
I dunno… Im fairly close to throwing Fei in the bin tho.
Good post by Samurai. I’m doing quite well against Sagats and Giefs actually. I think most Giefs are easy to figure out.
But I a having an absolute horrible time against Blanka and Vega. Chasing them around the ****ing screen like a loon losing to gimmicky shit. Getting a bit better vs Balrog, but man is he BORING.
the reason i say Fei is still going to be bad is because his overall game plan itself probably hasnt changed meaning Fei’s only damaging combos come from one range (in your face). That itself is fine in all but Fei’s only get in move, CW isnt reliable in its current state so unless your a player that can pull off consistent 1 Frame links and have that much meter to burn, everything will be the same old low damage pokes that dont link. Even if i look past all that, the damage Fei does for all that work isnt all that rewarding. Yeah a better Ultra will help but in reality wont change much of Fei’s major drawbacks.
Nah, Ken is way more versatile and reliable with his offense. He has a way to link to a ultra and his defense is pretty solid, he is basically a nerfed ryu in a sense. Fei just “decent” where ken I think could be considered"good"or above average.
Ken has Anti Air EX Shoryu/Ultra, and EX tatsu… and a fireball (although sucky) Those 4 things right there make Ken better than Fei Long. I didnt mention Kara moves or the mix up he gets off of his neutral throw. If played correctly Ken is a serious problem that hits like a TRUCK where Fei Long still hits like a bitch even while using EX moves. Dont get me wrong i really like Fei Long, and i wish he could cancel cr. strong or cr. forward into rekka, but until something like that happens hes not going anywhere as far as character rankings. Also would be nice if the first punch of his ultra sucked the opponent in instead of pushing them back… Smart way to fix the problem imo…