My question is: if Vega is apparently so good why is he so rarely used? I agree he is good but not to the extent people make him out to be.
I’d say he is the line between the high-tiers and everyone else.
I still don’t agree with ComboFiend that Ken is #1, I’d still pass that torch over to someone like Karin, Chun or Nash who can control better from range but still pressure. He’d be 4th/3rd if I had to make a list. Cannot put Ken past a Chun or Karin.
I find the whiff punish factor of Ken a lot scarier than the DP mindgame.
Vega is good but dies to pressure, not everybody can deal with that degree of stress for long periods of play.
Bottom of the high tier (A-Tier) is exactly where I would rank Vega. In a cast of 18 characters that would make him number 7 or 8. 6 at best. I personally don’t believe Vega is top 5. But for what Vega excels at I think he’s phenomenal and in spite of his flaws he is the character I have the most fun using. I need to be practicing my pocket Necalli but I get so caught up having a blast with Vega.
The white haired Vega with the black shirt/pants is too godlike
Not every good character gets used regularly. This is nothing new.
He’s not very beginner friendly with having 2 stances, no reversal and picky AA. He falls in line with the many characters of fighting game past that are solid but require you to actually invest in the character to get them to a real tournament viable point.
Flash Metroid has been doing well with him for a while though and finally got him to grand finals at Combo Breaker. He’s definitely a character specialist character due to his nuances, but his fundamentals are solid and something a top player can put together quickly.
I don’t think Vega has ever been a well liked character in SF. I remember back when he was announced I saw the reaction vids to his trailer and the consensus was “fuck vega”
I like him V but I still don’t really care about him
I’m trying to get to level 50 so I can get that! I’ve been grinding Casuals for what seems like forever. I am currently at level 40. Maybe if I go through June and just play basically every day for about 45 minutes I should be good. I could probably get there within the next month or so if I can manage to win consistently (lol…)
I want that color 15 in my life so bad. I also want color 9 but I gotta beat hard survival for that. 
I’m level 45 with Cammy
I should play another character
But I won’t
For now at least
That costume is too legit, probably my favorite in the game. I tried Hard with Vega but it was too much since he has no reversal. When I did it with Guile it was cake, just spammed FK all day
I’m only level 27 with Ken…
…I spend too much time in Training/Battle Lounges.
I remember the hordes of commenters saying how they always hated charge Vega, but will totally play him now that he is motion.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW I ASK.
Yea Vega not being beginner friendly was what I was alluding to. He does some things very well, but other characters can do those things almost, if not just as well as him for less effort.
I do wish more people would pick him up. One of the things that really kills fighting games for me is when a couple characters are overly represented. Playing Ultra against randoms really got old for me when a good 50% of my matches were Ryu/E.Ryu/Ken in a cast of 44 characters.
The same place all the Alex mains are.
I don’t know… where the Alex players hang out?
Characters loyalists are gonna only going to change characters for waifus like Juri/Ibuki or shotos like Evil Ryu/Akuma/Sagat.
Hell, I can probably count on my hand how many Balrog players will be in V and still have fingers left over
I always wanted to play Vega since I played super SFII on SNES and did an Izuna Drop on Blanka. However I couldn’t play charge characters on pad at a competitive level.
Vega becoming motion made me able to use my favorite character (outside of Ibuki)
I said lower end. Lower end right now doesn’t automatically equate to bad so people need to hop off me for a second.
The only thing I would really care about on those is the 3F normal (which is indeed a great 3F normal due to how easily it confirms into basically most of his offense) and his walkspeed which is the best in the game. Even though I think he’s lower end, those two things will keep him out of being a bad character.
On your other things.
Good Damage - I mean it’s fine, but because EX FBA whiffs on crouching he doesn’t always get max damage outside of punish situations and due to how slow some of his higher end normals are, he doesn’t always get his real beefy damage. It’s better than Vega’s USUAL damage suite, but I mostly equate it to average when it comes to SFV (beats being Rashid though).
Good Corner Carry - Uh…alright.
Can Zone with Normals - Initially yes, but his normals are nowhere near as good as they initially appear which is what I was getting at. They’re slow, they don’t have a lot of payoff and most of them are one giant hurtbox. His Walkspeed is what allows any part of his normal zoning to happen, that’s about it but he doesn’t really punish the opponent with it unless he’s completely loaded on resources.
Command Grab - Uh…okay. It’s decent, but it ends his momentum immediately and its range is really suspect outside of EX and he should really be using his meter on other things. It’s a tool to have, I wouldn’t want to lose it, but it’s not a huge benefit either.
Great VT - This is what always gets me. His VT is NOT great. It sure as hell isn’t as broken as half the thread stupidly believes. I’ll admit it was better than I initially gave it credit for, it’s a solid VT but it’s not GREAT or broken or anything of the sort. It really has three main uses. Confirm into Super off any normal, Corner Escape, Fireball punish (you really don’t AA with it unless you know it’ll close out a round and even then it’s finicky). I know the Super Confirm is what everyone goes gaga over so I’ll save it for last.
VT Corner Escape - At first being able to use it as a Corner Escape is a GODSEND since he gets wrecked in the corner otherwise. Just press a normal, have it touch the opponent, you’re out. Problem is, once opponents catch wise to that they’ll realize that V-Reversal blows that up for free.
VT Fireball Punish - The IA VT to punish fireballs is also finicky. Idk if it’s lol8frames or what, but there’s been far too many instances where no matter how much I lab it up in training mode to get the timing down perfectly…I end up coming out with a j.HK instead and then of course you die. Idk if I should blame the VT itself (it doesn’t feel like it has a legit height restriction), the Pre-Jump frames or Input Delay but it doesn’t work 100% consistently and the penalty is high compared to the reward.
VT Super Confirm - Yes, the people that think this breaks the VT, the fact that turns a lot of Vega’s normals into death. The theory is good in a vacuum, it would make him hard to deal with. There are a couple of issues with this though. One, Vega (at least in my belief) needs EX moves to really function. Without meter, nothing hit-confirms for him outside of the classic s.LK, c.LP xx LK Roll and c.MK, s.MP xx MK Roll in Clawless. He really isn’t threatening without the usage of EX Meter which allows people to just bully him. Second, when you’re saving VT for the CA you’re not using it for any of the above options or for a V-Reversal which means even less defensive options for a character who can’t really afford to not have any of them. But the main thing is…his ability to confirm into Super off of this is NOT EXCLUSIVE TO HIM. There are quite a few other characters who can get the same Normal xx VT, Super conversion as he can. Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Karin, FANG, Bison, Necalli, Laura, Cammy and Guile can all do it and some others can do it off of more specific setups. You can’t just VT in neutral for the Super either because you’re usually entirely vulnerable and most of the above characters have the upside of having Install VTs which means they don’t actually have to hit confirm. While Vega doesn’t technically need to either in the sense that he’s 100% safe (outside of putting himself in the corner) even on block, but you just lost everything while they get an install and likely maintain pressure.
Back to Overall VT - What makes his VT solid is simple versatility in having all those options but it’s nowhere near as great as people like to say since all three of said options are very flawed.
Easy Super Confirms - Again, that’s not really something exclusive to him. If anything a ton of characters have easy CA confirms and most of them don’t need the EX meter as much as Vega does.
Add to all of that, he has an exceedingly poor defense (only thing saving him from instant death is his gdlk st.LK). I’m not saying he’s terrible. Despite everything I mentioned, having that walkspeed and a 3F normal is enough to be at least solid class in this game. Having either of those would change a few character’s fortunes in this game. All I’m saying is, he’s nowhere near as good as people are led to believe which raises my respect for Flash a lot for being able to place as highly as he does.
Bro that’s a massive understatement. I’m willing to say that 80% of my matches were against Ryu/Ken/E.Ryu/Akuma/Oni. The remaining 15% were against Cody/Juri. The last 5% were other characters
I’m pretty confident at this point that Balrog is going to be a motion character, for the sheer fact that Capcom is completely fucking everything up with this game and that’s not what I want at all. The odds are against me.
The majority of online players do not have the intellect or patience to learn the nuances of the other characters. They are just looking to win matches with the least amount of knowledge and the shotos are good for that. Basic specials that cover offense and defense well, some buttons footsies and a standard play style that works against different player levels well. Especially with how complicated SFIV became to even play functionally, last thing people are going to do is further complicate things with a non shoto.