Red focus seems interesting. You can’t just throw it out there, either since you still have to watch out for armor breakers, and you have to spend meter to use it. You could use it to absorb Ultras, but then that’s a lot of life to recover.
did they confirm how they removed the unblockables? is it just variable wakeup timings as was suggested before?
both ultras is supposed to be a buff to offense, red focus a buff to defense they said. seems pretty silly since they should be weakening defensive mechanics really.
RIP USF4, sleep well sweet bed shitter.
Well, on a second thought about Ultras, I realize the damage in it gets really nerfed if you opt to go with both. It might actually not be that bad/unfair/unbalanced, etc.
Combofiend only said: “as far as we know unblockables are gone, but bring your best setups to the loctests to see if they still work”, which strikes me as “if unblockables don’t work, cool, if they do, variable wakeup is coming”.
Both ultras as a buff to offense isn’t going…to buff offense. Especially when the damage will be reduced. There’s still a lot of characters that don’t have very useful first or second ultras. The game’s engine needs to be completely reworked if they really want to buff offense. Ibuki’s or Dudley’s offense isn’t going to suddenly go through the roof with both ultras available. Neither is Akuma’s.
I thought I heard red parry actually builds a bit of meter. Not sure if it costs meter though knowing this game, that wouldn’t surprise me either.
Yup red focus builds much more meter than regular focus.
Even with the reduced damage, certain characters having access to both ultras at the same time is going to change some things up.
For example: Makoto just got a little more scary. (She can now threaten close and shut down fireballs when she has ultra)
Red Focus = Glad I switch to Rog from Bipson.
Why?
Like honestly why would they buff offense even more?
Have you actually watched SF4 lately?
It’s not like we see timeouts all the time and there’s not many slow matchups except for Rufus vs. Gief and Dhalsim vs. Ryu/Ken.
Actually the pressure we see from vortex characters makes games pretty fucking short.
Yeah the game is not ST in terms of damage but personally I consider this a good thing, since we can see people showing off their skills a couple of seconds longer.
bait it the red focus with scissors, then go right into psycho. I think it adds a new layer to bison’s corner pressure, and possibility to really open up Guile.
I wonder how lots of characters deal with Gief after the “upgrade”.
I’m pretty skeptical about all these changes but who knows maybe it turns out fine.
>Plays Juri
>Multi ultras confirmed
>Feng Shui Engine and Kaisen Dankairaku whenever the fuck I want
Also look at how much damage red focus causes. I know its all gray because it was absorbed, but ryu super definitely doesnt do that much raw from what i can remember
The same way we’ve always dealt with Gief, Pinky: stay the fuck away.
Hm… seems viable. Will wait on giving up on Bipson for now. Well, giving up after the update. I’ve already given up on him for this version 
^^ Ryu’s super does a crap ton of damage.
Anyways, I’m going into this believing that they will be adjusting a lot of ultras to make it work with this double ultra thing. Whether it’s just damage or even frames. For example, Chun’s u2 already does shit damage and I can’t imagine how much shittier it can get if she decides she wants to use both ultras. Another example, Guile’s u1 doesn’t get used at all because it sucks. I mean, if you are to tell me that these two will be the exceptions who doesn’t use both ultras then I will say that’s just lazy development. They never NEEDED to give everyone two ultras anyway if they just took the time to adjust the chars who had shitty ultras in vanilla.
Capcom’s logic was “Oh this char has a crappy ultra 1? Fine, we’ll just create ultra 2.” How about this time Capcom put some thought into char development so we don’t have useless/shitty moves and characters who can’t benefit from a core mechanic of the game.
Not sure about the exact multiplier, but focus damage is always higher than the actual damage of whatever you’re absorbing.
Also to whoever asked earlier, you clearly didnt watch enough spongebob as a child.
The renvenge gauge is set to “W” for “Wombo”
I havent been seriously into AE in a few months. Anything outside of info related to Juri is a little fuzzy.
This game is a defensive one by nature. It just has a bunch of derpy offensive characters and setup machines. It’s a very different thing than a genuinely aggressive game. Opening people up once you’re on someone’s face is, in this game, very hard. Getting in on someone’s face? Just press derpy free get in button. Or wait until they throw even one fireball, then punish it on reaction from near fullscreen. After that, you park yourself there and hope the opponent hangs himself, or try to jump in on him to get the setup train rolling.
It’s not damage. It’s the flow of gameplay, and just what the game feels like to play.
Now, contrast with, say, KOF13. Getting in on someone is actually pretty hard. Nowhere near impossible, but you have to do work for it. When you get in, though, the opponent is shitting himself because even basic options are scary. Hops are evil and relentless. Lows lead into combos. Try to block, you’ll get thrown. Reversal DP? Better hope he didn’t low short you, because you have to stand to DP and to tech. You can’t just Focus while OSing a throw tech and backdash out of it. And because the game has no stupid shit like a focus attack, people actually throw out a lot more pokes. It’s amazing how many uncancelable roundhouses can be seen thrown around in KOF.
The basic strength of options gives the game a whole different feel. You want to poke, you want to go in. You want to deny space, you can do it without getting bullshitted out of your measly fireball damage. It says something than in as balls out aggressive a game as KOF13, I feel more at ease as a zoner than I do in defensive AE.
EDIT: Different thread, different words. Same core point, perhaps communicated better.
LOVING THE CHANGES
Red Focus - huge risk/reward at play here. Can’t wait to see some wicked “Evo Moments” that this mechanic will make possible.
Double Ultras - totally fine w/ this since there is a damage decrease. More options = better imo.
Like I said in the balance change thread, I love that Capcom is making big changes to the game and really shaking things up. This should really help make the game feel new and alive. I can’t wait to play it!
offense sucks in SF4 outside knockdown -> ambiguous jump in setup or being able to alter your jump arc. if you’ve spent any kind of significant time with any pre-SF4 SF game it should be obvious why:
slow walk speed
focus attack
invincible backdash
invincible reversals that can be FADC’d into safety (in a game where offense often takes place at ~jab range)
crouch tech (some characters can actually get some fairly good damage off crouch teching and catching the offensive player)
small hitboxes
these combine to make a game where ground based offensive pressure or oki is not nearly as attractive as it has been in previous games.
we’ve batted around some core mechanic change ideas the last couple months, but there’s been an argument that “the game has been okay so far, it doesn’t need core changes.” now Capcom actually is changing core mechanics, and I can’t imagine why they would be making defense better. not that it’s guaranteed that it will actually function the way Capcom expects it to. if they’re going to change core mechanics I would much rather see walk speed increases or the removal of crouch tech than what they’re showing. they’re not addressing the real problems that SF4 has.