Tougeki has come and gone. I had a fun time in Tokyo and here are my ST-related thoughts:
Arcades:
The arcade scene may be declining in Japan but being there, you’d never know it. Arcades are still active at all times of the day and packed Sat. nights. The one downside is that they’re filled with smoke and that smell will stay on you all day afterward. All games are run in a head-to-head setup (there are single machine side-by-side control-panel setups but I almost never saw them played with more than 1 player).
Unlike the US, you have to choose to wait behind one side of the setup (which will be unfortunate if nobody can take that player down and you wait 30 min.) and rather than putting coins up, must keep a mental track of what the line is and where to fairly insert new players. As was the case here (before console casuals started 2/3 rules), every time you lose, you move to the back of the line. What’s slightly different about the process in Japan is when there is no obvious line: in Japan, you’re still supposed to stand up and move to the side to allow any onlookers to enter. I’m pretty the US ST team all followed US rules where you stay seated and just look around to see if anyone else wants to play.
Overall, I saw an equal number of AE and ST machines around, if not more AE (although there is no known AE scene). ST was always set to fixed Turbo 3 speed (previously tested to be equivalent to US T2). I don’t recall what speed AE was but it was always 3/5 rounds (to offset the standard game cost of 100 yen a play). T.Akiba’s list of locations is really accurate in Tokyo from what I’ve seen: [???P??V???
A sampling of Tokyo arcades we went to were:
-Hey (Akiba): 10 yen ST, 100 yen single-player ST, and 3 100 yen AE setups. Our main hangout due to the cheap play and close proximity to our hotel. Hirose Entertainment Yard is the apparent backronym for the arcade’s name. As NKI said, Hey seems to have every JP arcade fighter and shooter ever made on rotation, including limited releases like Dan-Ku-Ga.
-Mikado (Takadanobaba): 50 yen ST & 2 AE setups. Home for ST on Wed. nights. Supposedly a hotspot for 3S and Puyo Puyo 2 as well.
-Club Sega (Akiba): 2 100 yen AE setups. The only place I saw that used Sanwa sticks (SF2 anywhere else used Seimitsu sticks and Sanwa buttons) but also had awful, mushy buttons of unknown origin. The whole basement was filled with VF5FS setups.
-Club Sega (Shinjuku): 1 or 2 100 yen AE setups
-Try Amusement Tower (Akiba): 100 yen setups for CE, single-player SF1, and single-player Street Fighter The Movie. Just as surreal as it sounds.
-Royal (Nakano): 2 50 yen ST setups. The only place I noticed that used Seimitsu buttons (flatter than Sanwa, esp. the snap-ins used for Start). There are 3 real arcades in the Nakano Broadway mall; this one is on 2F. The 3F arcade had the only Chaos Breaker setup I saw during my time in Japan.
-Shibuya Kaikan: 2 50 yen AE setups
-Taito Station (Akiba): don’t remember if they had anything worthwhile but it’s prominent as you go along Akihabara’s Chuo Dori. Taito also owns Hey just across the street so all the good stuff is there instead.
There were some other “arcades” around but they were just filled with crane games and the like.
Hey:
Like I said, most of our days before Tougeki were spent practicing at Hey. Years before (circa 2006), there were 2 10 yen ST setups in a corner but shortly after, 1 was converted to KOF98 and that setup has remained to this day. 1P controls on ST are noticeably better than 2P’s. Because of the cheap 10 yen play (around 12 cents nowadays), there are people playing from when the arcade opens around 11am to closing time at midnight. Since there’s only 1 10 yen setup, lines start getting longer around the afternoon (or all day on weekends). Players frustrated with someone winning or waiting too long often went to the 100 yen AE setups (which were also packed by nighttime).
Overall, although the competition there seems to be middling, it’s still far better than what you’d encounter in the US, including on XBL HDR and GGPO. A disadvantage of the cheap price is that a lot of relatively newer players were on the machine trying to learn. They still had a lot to learn about spacing, pokes, and countering but even then, pretty much everyone’s combo and reversal ability was impeccable. I didn’t see any dictator player there that couldn’t pull off his character’s TOD. It wasn’t difficult to keep them at bay but if you gave them an opportunity, many nailed it. Team USA didn’t have problems with the majority of players. For the most part, I personally sandbagged matches (since I didn’t want any tactics leaked out, and also wanted to practice pokes more), going without or limiting wall dives and other moves, and was still able to perform fine. damdai and Rambo seemed to feel that always trying their best was a better use of the time and I respect them for that.
Some particular players we encountered at Hey included a Honda and grey (HP) dictator we encountered many days. The dic would always go for TODs and the Honda’s solution to everything was hands (which he did pretty well). It was obvious they were still learning the game though but it was impressive how they performed compared to an average US player.
There was also a really frenetic boxer player we encountered a few days after 11pm. He rarely used throws but rather rushed and used turn punch non-stop to create fluidity in his attacks, which was very fun to play against. There was a black (HK) Cammy player who performed really well one day. He always nailed his combos so not blocking a crossup got ugly. We also encountered a red (MP) Chun Li player who was doing really well and had strong command of her close normals for anti-air. NKI knew of him because they both used the same color (although NKI was the later adopter). We encountered Kikai Guile before we realized who he was and he had a huge streak going. We also played a Ryu player one afternoon who then started streaking with a deadly gold T.Hawk. This guy was a master of close poke, followed by a walk-in 360 (of course, he could perform all the other T.Hawk traps consistently). Players there were all having a hard time beating him
And speaking of players, since I’m sure someone will be dying to know, no, I never saw any female ST players there (besides Inro at Tougeki). So I guess that’s par for the course compared to the US scene and T.Akiba’s site poll.
Mikado:
The main reason Team USA headed to Mikado at first was because damdai knew Mattsun (also spelled Mattun) worked there. We had a nice wakeup call at first playing his n.Ken for a couple of nights. He absolutely wrecked us (and I wasn’t even sandbagging) with knee bash loops, flawless kara combos into super from various positions, and strong yomi (Sirlin’s adopted JP word for mindgames was actually useful here). Initially, it seemed like he knew how to counter wall dives as well. The other members of Team USA believe he may have been the most difficult player we met during our stay, even having faced plenty of other top JP players. Even outside of play, he was very cordial in victory and defeat. At the end of our stay, I felt I might have gotten a better hang of his pace although he would still certainly be a favorite in any tourney.
We also saw Pony and sure enough, he lived up to his reputation of SPDing from unlikely situations. Chances were good that he would break in through pokes and end the match.
Another player we met was Shoji, an exchange student who had gone to the UK to study and had just returned. I had already heard of him being referred to as the best ST player in the UK but that few had played him. He played awhile with a decent Ryu before living up to his reputation by switching to boxer with a special penchant for beating wall dives in various ways.
But the biggest reason for going to Mikado was that they have special 500 yen unlimited ST every Wed. night from 7pm-closing (where it seemed to close after midnight even). NKI informed us that the top Tokyo players always came out for these weeklies. We attended 2 of these sessions (run by Nakamura of Cammy fame) and they were both a blast with 8 setups allocated for the events. And just for reference, since freeplay isn’t an option in the JP version of ST, Mikado wired both Start and Coin to the 1P Start button. One time I forgot to keep pressing Start on the 1P side and the guy on the 2P side had to come press it for me much to my embarrassment.
In our first session (pre-SBO), there were top Kanto ST players everywhere. Shiki’s gold boxer was absolutely killing fools on his station. YuuVega was mercilessly comboing at will after smart setups. Noguchi was wall diving left and right. Nakamura was having his way against projectile characters. Hakase, Yoshimura, and KKY were there to represent Dhalsim. Muteki came out with flashy Guile combos and solid zoning. We initially confused a tall Hawk player named Shin for K. There was a good player who used both claw and dictator but he had some BO (the only time I noticed that from any ST player in Japan; thank goodness, since it was hard to breathe already with the smoke). Finally, a green Fei Long player was showing off Fei Long’s dominance in corner situations.
It was an excellent competitive environment and even though we didn’t stand out at that level of play, Team USA held our own. I didn’t feel or perform noticeably outmatched against most players. Personally, I had the most trouble with Shiki boxer and the Fei Long; I’ve played both characters during my stay there but those 2 had great rushdown and smartly took advantage against claw’s weaknesses.
In our 2nd session (post-SBO), there was Kurahashi alternating between various characters (Guile, boxer, Ryu). Mattsun and Pony got some matches in. There was a purple (LP) E.Honda player there wearing a salaryman suit probably in his mid-40s who had some killer ambiguous techniques and never let an oicho situation go by. There were quite a few solid Ryu players just like last time. I played a lot against a smart o.Sagat (not sure if it was Muneo but he only played o.Sagat, who appears rarely in Japan) and had a great time practicing that matchup. But even there, it was hard to tell whether players were trying to play to win or play for flashiness. The dic/claw player was clearly going for the win, along with a black (Start) dictator who would always tick throw given the opportunity, but others seemed to just show off their mastery of the moves. What was really impressive though was that there were character specialists for all 16 characters in the game at these Mikado weeklies.
Tougeki:
Our team name was Ramdamelon (personally, I think it’s lame but apparently, damdai had to come up with it immediately the day after the Nashville quals). The cab used for ST was the New Net City and it performed well. I understand that Blast City cabs were used in the past but there’s no issue adjusting to different cabs. The parts used were Seimitsu sticks and Sanwa buttons (only ST and 3S were run on Seimitsu sticks; everything else was on Sanwa sticks). I was expecting all-Sanwa but it seems I had looked at an old page on their website. I’m much more familiar with Sanwa’s hard plastic restrictors allowing crisp corners since that’s what pretty much all high-level US arcade sticks nowadays use. Going to Seimitsu’s soft plastic restrictors was an annoyance offset only by the fact that we were playing on Seimitsu sticks for nearly our entire time in Japan. The main difference between the sticks is that it’s not as easy to ride the corners, making it tougher for me to pull out supers. Not knowing that it would be on Seimitsu is of course my fault entirely.
On the day of, we had to arrive by 8am and ST started simultaneously with KOF02UM around 9:30am. Last chance qualifier entrants had to come even earlier. NKI (Chun Li), Justin Wong (o.Sagat), and Brian (Guile) entered that but Brian wasn’t sure of the exact time so he came too late and couldn’t participate. NKI and Justin were up against a team of 2 Kens and a Chun but lost to the final character. I heard from NKI that Komoda, Taira, and yaya were there and they supposedly won the last chance quals but we weren’t permitted to see the quals at all. However, it was great to know that all 16 qualifying teams were unique (each was composed of a different group of characters).
The first round of ST occurred 4 matchups at a time. We had known since we arrived at 8am that we were up against the team with double Hawks so we had to write down a team order for the match, although we didn’t realize that we had to select the 2nd and 3rd members in the order as well (instead of counter-picking) until just before the match started. Based off my results against JP Hawks previously encountered in Japan, we agreed that my chances would be the best. I didn’t want to go last because if a Hawk player went first and won against my teammates, it would give him too much familiarity with the controls. I didn’t mind going first but we eventually decided to have Rambo go first to hopefully lessen my burden. NKI did a great job serving as our translator and playing the JP version of RPS to determine which side we played on prior to playing each team (for the record, we won the initial game, got 2P side, and lost the 2nd game, stuck with 1P side). Ghaleon cleverly recorded our matches and you can see Team USA’s ST performance (as well as some of the rest of the trip) at: YouTube - JohnRamboPresents’s Channel
When I was up for my first match, I wasn’t really worried. Claw has a clear advantage against both Hawk and Dhalsim (as well as Guile and Zangief, none of which I had major issues with even against top JP players) and both were matches I was familiar with, including similar themes of playing a distance game. I felt that since I didn’t have too much trouble with other Hawk players encountered in Japan when I tried to win, then my chances weren’t bad. For those who found my strategy boring, I regret that, but there was too much risk trying to be flashy. I was worried about the controls affecting me and sure enough, I missed double flipkicks that I get 100% on my own stick as well as clean wall dive traps. I think the Hawk players also had a few control issues as well although I’ve read some comments from folks unfamiliar with the matchup who may have missed the fact that claw’s unique backflips timed correctly escape most of Hawk’s traps (including his infinite loop). Claw vs. Dhalsim is always a wall dive matchup (even for ARG) so I played it as I would have against Rambo and it worked out OK for that 1 match. I remember Yoshimura tried to tick throw often in the 1-2 matches I played him at Mikado so my flipkicks thankfully worked favorably when I needed them.
About 5-10 minutes later (waiting in a pen by the stage in the meantime), we were set to face the second team and approached them with the same order since we were pretty sure they wouldn’t put MAO up first. In my match against Futachan, he performed solidly. I was hoping to bait him into throwing a special with carefully spaced wall dives but he never fell for it and countered correctly. In retrospect, I probably should have focused more on pokes but ultimately, Futachan was the better player that match and clearly demonstrated that. He was also humble in victory going for the customary “good games” bow (which we returned in kind). His team, Best Partners (along with Ito and MAO), eventually won Tougeki (being the first team from Chubu to do so) so I can’t feel too disappointed. Props to Gian for accurately predicting them to win.
Many of Japan’s top teams went out early so overall, I felt Team USA tying for 5th place was respectable. The Graham brothers had indeed achieved the same ranking in 2007 AE (albeit with 1 more round in 2v2 format) but this was the first time a foreign team made it past the first round in pure ST (with attempts in 2003 and 2008) so it was great to make some history. I was satisfied with my 3-1 performance (tying the previous US SF2 win record Alex Wolfe set with CE dictator in 2007) and hopefully, future foreigners can take it even further. As for the other matches this year, it was a blast to watch the top 4 teams a few hours later sitting in the players section but it’s too bad most of the early matches were unwatchable since they were being played simultaneously or while we were preparing. Hopefully, they release full DVDs again this time instead of like last year’s sampling of matches in Arcadia magazine.
Character usage:
I played against all the new characters in Japan and some old characters (Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, T.Hawk, and Sagat). Just to re-emphasize what I’ve already stated here multiple times: there are no bans, hard or soft, for any character except Gouki. o.Sagat got some plays at Hey and Mikado and nobody minded. Quite a few used claw at Hey without issue and nobody hesitated playing Noguchi at Mikado. The only issue I ever saw was with the player using dictator and claw where some wouldn’t play his claw early on at Mikado; both damdai and Rambo told me they didn’t like playing him either because he used very boring single-minded tactics. On the other hand, Rambo did encounter one player using Gouki at Hey and the ST players hanging around did indeed refuse to play against him as he beat arcade mode by himself. So there you go; that’s the difference between a real ban and an imagined (or perhaps outdated) ban.
Version:
I asked a few JP players whether they preferred ST or HDR and all of them preferred ST. Some of them, like AFO, play HDR but their scene has no interest in that version when so many arcades exist with the singular version. In fact, a more pressing question for their scene is whether GGPO online is close to offline. Personally, I think that’s a silly question. GGPO helps prepare for tactics and maybe even allows you to be adjusted for relative timing (for reversals). But my charge timing was somehow completely off, not allowing me to wall dive as fluidly as I was used to on GGPO. And every time, I had to practice a little to re-adjust to the slower speed for my link combos. Having won more US GGPO ST tourneys than anyone else, I think it’s fair for me to state once again that online is good for practice but otherwise can’t substitute for actual offline results. In fact, I plan on play on GGPO less now (and only at T1), to speak nothing of HDR’s worse netcode lag.
As for HDR, there’s just no point to it in Japan unless it’s released in arcades and that will never happen. An entire JP apartment is about the size of an apt. bedroom in the US so home matches are pretty much infeasible and city venues are overly expensive. After experiencing Japan and knowing the 2 largest EC hotbeds (CT and MD/VA) have arcade ST available, on behalf of the other members of Team USA, I don’t think I want to settle for remixed HDR, classic HDR, or even console ST anymore (except at Evo, where HDR is the only option due to logistics). The US ST scene has already made the switch from US T3 (the old US standard) to US T2 (same as the JP standard) this past year so sticking with arcade ST would just be one more step towards an international standard. Some may not agree with our conclusions and that’s fine but given the state of the scene, this is the way I’ve been leaning in the past and this is what I’ll be supporting for the foreseeable future. I suppose I should be thankful there’s a small but consistent offline ST scene in my region too.
AI:
Most already know this but the JP AI in X is really easy if you know what you’re doing (compared to the US AI, which is somewhat more difficult). Getting a 1CC through dictator isn’t a problem at all for decent players. Gouki is still really tough though. Damdai actually discovered a really easy trick to beating Gouki by repeatedly abusing o.Hawk’s dives. Gouki’s AI seems to only counter those around 1/10 of the time and allows himself to get hit the vast majority of occasions.
