USF4 Akuma match up thread

If I’m not mistaken, SF core mechanic doesn’t give a throw opportunity if you whiff a jump in attack.
You always have the possibility to tech. The only drawback of whiffed air attack is not being able to block for 4 frames.

I thought you were safe from throws off a jump if you didn’t do any attack but I could be wrong. I’ll give it a shot and see what happens.

http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Super_Street_Fighter_IV_AE/Game_Systems#Land_Frames_.2F_Trip_Guard

Any strategies for Gouken? Now that his ex tatsu has been buffed I don’t know what to do on wakeup. His ex counter will destroy all normals and crossups and if I try and palm him it loses to tatsu.

I can’t really zone him either once he has meter, he can just ex flip me.

Work on your palm timings. EX tatsu is a 5f special meaning it can be safe-jumped. Ideally you want to be opting for palm so you can smash any counter attempts. If you don’t have the timing confidence, use a palm early to force a bait and on land delay tech. This way if he EX tatsus or counters you can either punish (whiffed tatsu) or armour break his counter and then begin working towards conditioning him to block. Once this is achieved, you can then opt for cross tatsus, flip grabs, empty jumps into lows, etc.

It sounds to me like you’re yet to get a decent read on your Gouken opponent. The fact that he is performing EX tatsu on wake-up suggests there’s definitely room for exploitation that you’re letting go. You want to play this guy in an extended set so you can tinker with a mix of approaches.

Keep in mind that on knockdown pressure isn’t your only option. Depending on the player, it can often be effective to leave them alone with a bit of wiggle room to see what whacky crap they try. You’d be surprised at how many people are hell-bent on hanging themselves.

How do you beat ken and vega?

Vega used to drive me nuts until I started playing more aggressive against him. Just be patient and zone carefully until you get a knockdown then go at him hard on wake-up. Crossup tatsu, sweep then hk dfk seems to work very well unless they dwu. If you jump at him after knockdown always buffer super/ultra to catch them if they back flip. Punish his wall dives with cr.hp. don’t try and out poke him, you’ll lose but you can try to focus some of his attacks but his throw has great range. If he’s got no meter you can be more aggressive and if he loses the claw you get a decent advantage, he can still win poking wars but not as easy. Be very careful with fireballs if he’s got u2, u1 can punish air balls and ground balls but i’ve rarely been punished by u1 for ground balls. I used to sit back and play defensively, constantly trying to counter him and I always lost. Once I realized how bad his wake-up game is things turned around. His only real option is ex flip kick and that can be beaten pretty easy.

The ken match seems to really depend on what style they play and what ultra they have. If they are very aggressive with step kick you can try to st.hp him to counter the kick. You can try to focus it but you need to let it go or dash asap. If they have ultra 1 I just zone and punish all day, easy match. If u2 I’ll zone until he’s got meter and that’s pretty much the end of my fireball game. Much like ryu, I feel this match is heavily dependant on having the life lead. I find it much easier when they need to come at you. If you’re caught in his knockdown crossup game you can try and dash under him, mixup normal and dwu and of course teleport. Don’t bother trying to punish his sweep with your sweep unless he’s real close. Ken’s Cr.mk xx fireball is not a true block string. The crossup tatsu, sweep, hk dfk seems to work well on him, i’ve only been punished if they dwu. This seems to work well on a lot of the cast as well.

I know a lot of people like u2 for this match but I’ve been having success with u1 on his crossups. If you get knocked down and he’s j.mk over you, input the ultra but do it backwards or you’ll go the wrong way.

Guys, I’m having trouble with Blanka . Anyone have any tips for fighting him?

I found this interesting (Topanga A League, Day one):

MCZ|Tokido (Akuma) beat Kazunoko (Yun) 3-0.

Firstly, that’s Kazunoko - one of Japan’s best players. Secondly, Yun. Geezus. I really want to see this match but I haven’t found any footage yet. Keep an eye out for it, as I expect its going to be a fantastic watch and we may potentially see some new tech from Tokido who traditionally gets steamrolled by competent Yuns.

You could give this a try:

Gam you and me both. The Yun match up is miserable as hell and to see Tokido take 3 straight against the best Yun in world is nuts. Who knows maybe the yun matchup will shift like the Cammy match up did in a AE2012.

Against Decapre I’m gona stick with this for now :
F.throw, dash, st.lp, HK DF palm (meaty safe jump done ala cool) (whiff if done frame perfect but, I’m used to it)
Try it yourself as see if you can get the timing correct 8 out of 10 like me.
Can cross up sometime if she reversal Psycho Sting, sometimes only.
The timing is not the same for a meaty grab, need to kill 2/3 frames it seems, but I won’t bother.

There’s no ambiguousness (if you don’t count the rare cross up ones) but it’s my goto move to get in anyway. Tired to eat Stings left and right… So it’s safe, can be OSes, and makes your F.throw less useless.

Against DWU, no idea, wait and meaty pressure as always.

Don’t OS HP DP though ! Against Decapre you’ll lose 300 HP if she Ex Psycho Sting. Your Dp 2nd and 3rd hit will whiff…
Credits goes to Capcom pro team…

Don’t know how many of you know this but figure it might help someone.

Rolento’s U2 really pisses me off. Similar to seth’s ultra, you can’t throw fireballs, wiff any normals, jump-in attacks, etc.; however, empty jumps and crossups are totally safe. I’ve been having a lot of luck baiting it with empty jumps and crossups, just make sure you don’t press anything until you’re above or behind him.

Another thing I’ve noticed is his wake-up game isn’t very good. Once you get a knockdown you can apply pretty heavy pressure. I’m on the fence about which ultra to use as both have uses. I’ve been working on raw standing u2 using jab + up(very slight delay), up + kkk and you can catch his roll back jumping overhead with it and get full damage since there’s no teleport. You could probably catch his pogo hop with this as well if he does it far enough away. If you do the input right you can buffer the up into your jabs without leaving the ground. Whatever you do, don’t try and punish pogo hop with u1, i’ve tried and it loses even from point blank range. It might work if you delay it till his stick is no longer on the ground but if you do it while he’s still on top of the stick it won’t work.

I just ditched the pc version for the xbox version cause of lag and small player base and I’ve been encountering a lot of scrubby Rolento’s so I’m getting better at the matchup. I still think it’s bs that he can combo into u2 off an ex overhea . Hope this helps.

Balrog:

Aside from the df palm os u2, you can punish TAPs and jumps by buffering raw u2 after the fireball. If tries to TAP or ex through it, you got him, same goes for jump when distance is right.

Akuma U2 punishes vs Balrog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZuQhvwVRhY

You can do the same thing with Ultra 1

@4:41

Just buffer the jabs after the fireball. But U2 is definitely better in the matchup

@mrtom82‌ that jump over punish was sick. I’ll have to double check the range of this U2 hitbox.
Though still a bit risky imho, when you can combo into it from so many safer ways. A wasted U2 is a bad new for the rest of the round.

Fei Long- so aside from st.HP owning chicken wing, u2 kills it.

Akuma U2- Fei Long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oju0Z7l6kDg

It seems you can AA Cody with U2

Fun Chun-Li combos. She must be crouching for these to work.

s.hpxx fireball, c.hk (works midscreen)
CH c.mp, s.hpxx fireball, c.hk (works midscreen)
Corner only* CH c.mp, s.hpxx fireball, c.mpxx fireball fadc, c.hpxx tatsu, dp
Corner only* CH s.hpxx fireball, s.hk, c.mkxx tatsu, dp

Rufus bonus round
hpxx fireball, c.mpx3, sweep