So… Now that Super’s been out for almost two months, what’s everyone’s (here on the Akuma boards) opinion on the changes made to Akuma now that everyone’s had time to get comfortable with them.
For the most part, I feel (personal opinion) that Akuma’s dropped a bit in the Tier ranking (he used to be A in vanilla?); even though he retains many of the same tools he had in SF4, the fact that most of his really damaging combos have been basically negated makes him less of a threat than he used to be. Akuma’s health hasn’t been upped, so why the need to reduce his damage output?
Now that most people have gotten used to the “new” characters and we’re seeing more shenanigans online than when the game came out, it’s getting increasingly difficult to play with Akuma who, as I’ve said above, is very reliant on getting in and dealing alot of damage when he does. Personally, I still have a lot of problems playing against Ryu, Ken, Gouken, Guile and Gief. These characters just have answers for most of Akuma’s offense and matches with them often degenerate into boring turtle fests that last forever.
He’s still a fun character to play with, but I feel that now, more than in regular SF4, Akuma’s a character that requires a lot of effort to play with successfuly (I.E.: win).
I consider it brave to use Akuma. I say this because I think that SSIV is quite unpredictable given the wake-up supers, easy cancels into supers, random AA trades, and so forth. Land on a random ultra by mistake? Oops, half your health gone. If anything playing him is good for practicing patience and reading your opponent. What I do is play Guile as well in order to shift from offense to defense.
Tier-wise? Well, a Feb. 2010 list from Eventhubs has him at #3 in Vanilla, one point below Ryu. I would assume that Balrog and Rufus have both crept above Akuma in rankings due to their buffs, so we can assume he is still top 5-7. Also, not sure how effective it is overall but his new super definitely gives him some options.
So far it seems like he’s still one of the best characters in the game (could even be the best, Rufus’s U2 really helped him in the tiers though), here’s what I think about the changes:
Nerfs:
Damage nerf: Isn’t that big of a deal, Akuma can still do damaging combos with or without meter, EX SRK gives you the old punisher combo damage with one bar, it does suck that his flashiest combos are either hard and situational to do now or noticeably less damaging (like fireball FADC far roundhouse or lp SRK FADC shaku).
Stun nerf: I think the thing that I miss most about Vanilla SF4 is the 200 stun sweep, you could have stunned tatsu sweepable characters very fast in Vanilla SF4 when you mixed them up, but you have to work harder to get stuns in SSFIV now, I feel like that was the biggest nerf to Akuma.
Demon flip throw nerf: Can’t honestly complain about it, this thing was too good when option selected in vanilla SF4, now you can still DF throw your opponent when you mix them up but have to take some risk in the process, DF palm can be option selected which is still good.
Roundhouse loop nerf: It was mostly used vs Sagat and he got lots of nerfs in SSFIV(damage, health and stun rate), it’s really not needed vs him now, roundhouse > standing jab > sweep or tatsu sweep is still doable and good enough vs characters with big hitboxes.
Positives:
Even though Akuma’s health wasn’t increased, the overall damage nerf to the characters and to their ultras makes him survive more, so it’s like he got additional health in an in-direct way.
Better pokes in cr. strong and forward
Akuma can take more risks now since it’s not that easy for characters like Ryu to get free ultras on trades anymore.
U2 is comboable and ain’t that bad, it might be usable in certain matchups, like vs Gief or Dudley so teleports would be safer vs them.
That’s all I can think of for now, will post later if I thought of anything else.
I’d say hes more or less the same. Just a little slower on startup for certain moves, making him feel overall ‘sluggish’ compared to SF4. Not a bad thing at all, and very easy to get used to.
I’m just happy I learned to play with him in SF4 where the risk was much greater because of the damage he took.
I’m a little salty about the stun reduction, I might be wrong but I think Ibuki has higher (non-burn full ex bar) stun combos which doesn’t make any sense but that’s about it. He is still the greatest and he’s the only reason I play this game.
The 200 stun sweep is probably the only thing I really miss. Also hp shaku really sucks now but i guess it did too much damage/stun for a non ex projectile
i personally like this akuma better… he wasn’t the only one who lost health or lost damage, and while he basically feels the same as he used to, shoryu nerfs or ultra setup nerfs have made him feel comparatively superior to his former self… but even despite any of these points, it feels great to poke with crMK with confidence now.
Overall, I think he is better than he was in vanilla. Since damage was nerfed across the board, he still feels very strong in comparison to other characters. Aside from finally having a real combo-able ultra and more defined pokes (crMK/crMP), he feels better if not the same.
Akuma still does more damage than the majority of the cast. His most basic punish does 290 and has the options to do a hell of a lot more. Without using a single bar he can punish for 321 and if he wants to burn the meter he can do anywhere from 400 upwards. Compared with most of the other characters who need to do a full combo into Ultra to even sniff the 400’s. I have been messing around with Adon recently and some of his best combos only get up to 450 after Ultra and 3 bars.
Akuma still has all of the tools he did in SF4 minus the loop.
He has tools but in my opinion theres too much work involved to win with him in some matchups against competent players by himself. The only person making him work right now is ShadyK, but he doesn’t do anything outside of SD so it’s hard to say how competent Akuma can be on even a regional major level.
He’s still top 3. Akuma is one of the few characters that can always pressure and basically can’t be pressured. It is alot of work however, he has no easy mode and you do lose to random stuff. He a high maintenance/high reward character.
I’ll take a character with a lot of tools that needs hard work to use those tools rather than a limited character that still needs hard work to overcome the character’s flaws. I mean a character like Viper takes insane work to get her to be good, but she is still good at a national level.
I have to agree with this sentiment, though I don’t think he’s top 3 anymore, unless wielded by someone who has nearly flawless execution and throws caution to the wind.
I’ll tell you what though, seeing your Akuma (and playing against him) last night was inspirational! The only other Akuma from these boards I played against was LoyalSol’s (who’s just as much of a beast) but yours was extremely fun to watch. That poor Gouken player…
I’ll see if I can get some of those matches up on my youtube page this week.
