Judging from what I’ve heard from Japan and the new game mechanics, I feel that the playstyle of the game will remain interesting despite the big functional changes to how we approach each other.
The first and obvious thought process is that if delayed wakeup negates wakeup game than vortex characters will be lowered on the tier list, as their ambiguous offense will no longer be an issue, but I don’t completely agree. The trigger for delayed wakeup leaves the attacking player 11 frames to respond, depending on landing frames or the window to OS a high/low or left/right mixup on the ground still depends on the character.
For example, Makoto players could use backthrow>F.dash>n.j attack as their typical meaty setup, but if delayed wakeup is triggered, they can then follow up with a meaty heavy karakusa the moment they hit the ground, as iirc either HK.Karakusa or MK.Karakusa (command throw) has a 9 frame startup with a 2 frame active window, making it a perfectly meaty command throw.
Another is Dudleys natural options, fast overhead or crouching short, both hit high low and can be timed on normal or delayed wakeup as they are used on techable knockdowns, they can also be used for untechable knockdowns.
The one thing to note is that any setup used with a jump will be unable to be followed up with another jump as 11 frames is not long enough to commit to another jump, in many cases it will be a choice of going for a meaty attack, low attack, overhead or throw, these things are not as ambiguous as left/right but still have effective use. The thing is, throws and sweeps which are seemingly one hit combos for most characters will no longer yield such high damage output if followed with a successful setup afterwards, or at least they will not as often.
Now the more interesting and less negatively viewed change to the game will be red focus, which has been a recent topic among players in Japan and therefore here in the states. The ability to use red focus to turn seemingly any strong/fierce hit confirm into an ultra combo or high damage meterless combo has been buzzing in forums and videos in the past week or so. What we need to consider when processing this information is the value of this technology. Firstly, we are spending three meter to essentially “add” damage to a combo, by not using this meter for different or separate and perhaps more damage for you meter efficient combos, we are becoming more opportunistic, we are turning small combos into big combos at a high expense, perhaps even the expense of an ultra.
I predict this will take away the “no skill comeback” function of Ultras in future street fighter 4, because while we still get the use of the ultra at he same frequency, we spend a lot of meter to get the combo rather than work for it in footsies/wakeup game. The better player in most matches will either be the one who can use Ultras without a lot of meter so they can save their meter to do more damage over less connected hits to the opponent, or the one who simply generates more meter by applying safe/blocked offense.
This all leans in the direction of playing footsies and tacking on meter for every combo we connect with, because with a nerfed wakeup game players will have less opportunities to jump at the opponent safely and will require to play harder to make comebacks rather than connect with an ultra and even the life totals again. Even the ability to apply safe SRK’s has been removed to take away the ability to SRK-FADC and be relieved of footsies pressure.
These changes bring shoto characters as well as vortex characters down, and brings up the lame characters, the grapplers, and especially the footsies characters.
Practice for a more meter conservative future my fellow warriors, and learn how to spend it efficiently!
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