Vega General Thread: The Masked Narcissist Enters The Tournament

I take it back. It looks like clawless LP to me. He doesn’t lean forward at all like he does with MP, and his crouch is the same as when he does the low claw strikes. Been watching this in slow mo, going to do an analysis here in a sec.

If he really isn’t a charge character anymore, it will be a bit weird. But like others said, probably some kind of hybrid like Bison.

Right but the issue is thinking that “I have this upward hitting special move, so I’m just going to try that for my anti-air”. And sometimes it works, but other times it whiffs or gets stuffed or trades. Not all players want to think what the multiple AA options are for every character. Cuz as I’m sure you know, there are different options depending on spacing and situation. Sometimes Abel’s wheel kick was good, sometimes falling sky was good. Other times you had to sit and take it because Abel gets owned by OS. And still even other times EX change of direction or armor canceling to tornado throw were more dependable for AA.

Typically if a character has good normals or offensive tools, they’re going to have bad or non-existent defensive tools. And that’s perfectly fine by me. It only makes sense. The big drawback though is when people are going to play Charlie or Vega and try using their tools for reversals, thinking that it could or should work. This is partly dependent on how the move looks that can lead people thinking like that. V-reversals are probably going to be a big part of the meta game for these characters, so we’re not stuck in DP happy, backdash happy SF4 land again.

What relation does Vega have to Akuma? To the point where Akuma HAS to be in because Vega is?

Vega having stances means very its very unlikely we see Gen.

As a person who mained Vega in SF4 with Gen as a sub, I must thank Capcom for specifically appealing to me.

Watching the Vega reveal trailer at .25 speed 1080p60 - Vega reveal analysis:

The very first attack we see at :15 is a deep j.HP, pretty much identical in appearance to SF4.

The first combo is j.HP into st.HP. If you notice, the push back is not a lot, so it looks like Vega gets to capitalize off the first hit/input of st.HP. I suppose it depends on how st.HP functions, if it’s like SF4 and hits twice, or if it’s like CvS2 Hibiki and you decide when the 2nd hit comes out. st.HP is then canceled into sheathing the claw, which then appears to hit looking like a cl.LP from Bison in SF4. That then combos into a st.HK, into another spinning fist attack with much longer range than the initial sheathing attack. It almost looks like a rekka, so I wonder if these are rekka inputs in some form or another. The interesting thing is that sheathing the claw takes no time at all, and can be used in offensive pressure. Vega, my boy, slick and dangerous all at once.

The second combo up at :18

We see 2 cr.LP in a row that give the appearance of hitting low. This could be purely cosmetic, or possible that the opponent has to block low. Either way, this is a standard BNB combo from ST and SF4 that leads into cr.MP. Notice how on the cr.LP we don’t see him lean forward, but in cr.MP we do. The range on cr.MP looks much better and creates a lot of safe space.

The third combo up at :19

Here we go again with the Bison cl.LP. This is a clawless combo, and looks like his standing MP since in this game there is no proximity. Combos into st.HK and long range spinning fist. This is the same combo we saw after the jumping HP, st.HP and we didn’t get to see the start up of the clawless st.MP, so I can’t tell if it was the sheathing move or not. Perhaps the sheathing move is a rekka special, and this is the rekka combo if you hit with it? Or, these are all normal attacks that simply link together?

The fourth combo up at :21

st.HP as we saw earlier, except instead of canceling the first hit into something else, we see the second hit come out. Again, like the first time, the first hit does not knock back a whole lot. On the other hand, the second hit actually knocks down, meaning no combos after.

The fifth combo up at :22

This is a clawless combo. FBA goes really high to the wall, similar to SFxT, and launches off in a high arc above the opponent. After the first hit, we see clawless crouching LP canceled into light RCF. Notice how RCF is using kicks to finish off, I wonder if the input is now kicks instead? Or does he simply use a kick in place of the claw when he does RCF?

V.Reversal up at :26

V.Reversal is another evasion move in his arsenal. On impact during a block, Vega back slashes to gain distance. Note, Necalli is back to neutral while Vega is still finishing recovery, but the distance looks to be good enough that he should be able to block or further evade any new offensive maneuvers, such as his v.skill should the opponent press forward. It does not appear as if he recovers fast enough to counter hit.

EX Izuna Drop up at :27

Clawless, Vega can Izuna Drop for some meter. He grabs the opponent, goes to the wall, jumps off really high and slams the opponent into the ground. Shit looks like it hurts.

V.Skill up at :29

Vega dodges an attack and does a long range spinning slash attack. It looks exactly the same as the combo finishers we saw earlier in combo 1 and combo 3. Perhaps a st.HK can be combo or canceled into his v.skill?

EX Rolling Crystal Flash at :30

Yet again clawless. Vega takes A LOT of time to start up and hits really deep into the opponent for 5 hits, with the final hit with what appears to be an over head kick, similar to the light version used in combo 5. If the start up is that long, and is an EX move and has to hit deep to connect, then I wonder if it has invincible frames on start up. Otherwise, this move is worthless. Perhaps this has reversal potential against meaty or close proximity pressure? RCF seems to be only shown in a clawless state.

The sixth combo up at :32

Starting off with the BNB cr.MK from every SF game having Vega ever, combos into cr.LK, and then into another CvS2 Hibiki inspired slash attack. Except the slash moves him back as he knocks his opponent far away, and then with a lot of speed and range lunges forward to hit his now airborne opponent. I’m thinking these slashing attacks replace RCF when he has the claw should Vega still be a charge character.

The seventh combo up at :34

Clawless EX FBA, hits twice. cr.LP, cancels into EX FBA again, slashes in the air, then juggles into diagonal v.trigger!

The eighth combo up at :40

Clawed EX FBA, hits twice like clawless but knocks the opponent into the air. Combos into horizontal v.trigger.


The rest of the video shows his v.trigger being used. At first, it looks like you choose the version you want to use, but I think they’re showing an interesting range of angles that looks more like it homes in on the opponent based on their angle. The video finishes off with what is essentially his CA, a mix of Bloody High Claw and Splendid Claw. It looks really cool, and like it would hurt a lot! I feel bad for anyone getting caught in that.

– Thoughts –

So, it looks like Vega hits like a truck. Almost all his attacks have a ton of hit stun to them allowing for a bunch of combo potential. Even his lights seem to hit hard, and he seems to be able to combo lights into heavies or heavies into lights. This opens up a lot of potential for his close and far proximity game, something he hasn’t really had in the past.

Notice, he doesn’t cancel into specials unless it’s off light attacks. Only cancels we saw were cr.LP and cr.LK. Looks like because of the higher damage normal attacks do, and lower scaling, that Vega is going to be mostly a button character like in the old CvS2 days. I’m OK with this.

RCF is not showcased with the claw, ever. If Vega remains a charge character, it looks like RCF will be his B, F + P attack when he is clawless. As noted earlier, it looks like EX RCF has a lot of start up, but what utility does that have unless it has invincible frames on start up? I’m thinking this is a reversal of some sorts, otherwise, everyone will see it coming a mile away. It also has to hit close, so again, with all that start up and requiring point blank distance, with no invincibility, would completely neuter this move. I can’t fathom they would do that, so there has to be some invincible frames there somewhere to compensate.

His new long range slashing attacks are shown only with the claw. I wonder if perhaps that is his B, F + P move when he has the claw on? This is very obviously a special attack because it has EX versions.

His sheathing skill - is it an attack? If so, I wonder if it’s a rekka string. Every time we’ve seen that particular move it’s been in a combo starting off with the close hit that looks like Bison’s cl.LP that rekkas into st.HK and then that last backspin strike. If that is the case, this may be the QCF or QCB input we’d get with him. It could also be possible that you can combo into st.HK with moves that have enough hit stun and then combo from that into those spinning strike attacks. If so, st.HK is going to be a BNB long range poke.

Or, that spinning strike attack that is finishing those clawless combos is his v.skill, which means v.skill works as a combo finisher as well as a dodge.

I want to know more about the st.HP utility, if it’s a 2 press combo ala CvS2 Hibiki or if it’s a double hitting attack. If double hitting, then the combo st.HP first hit canceled into claw sheath rekka string makes sense. Or it could be close HP, first hit cancels into claw sheath, linked into st.HK linked into v.skill.

V.trigger looks like it’s going to fulfill the air fireball game. Ibuki’s Kunai, Akuma’s air FB, Rolento’s jumping knives… stuff like that. Which makes me wonder if Vega is the new Ibuki. I can easily see v.trigger vortex setups such as Ibuki’s Kunai mixup on knock down. I’m really not sure how I feel about this, because I absolutely hated that type of game play in SF4. Ibuki Kunai mix up is pretty infuriating, and I don’t want Vega to turn into that. On the other hand, he is going to destroy fireball games like they were nothing. The second he has v.trigger, is the second every character can no longer throw a fireball. QCF + KKK would be a great input for this tool, and allow for a lot of mobile options and fast reaction reads from it.

There is A LOT of new stuff shown, and a lot of old stuff not shown. Everything shown is all new material, even the very few old things we saw have new utility to them such as linking into a lighter attack. Vega players should be excited! Things we have not seen yet are st.LP, st.MP, st.LK, st.MK, cr.HP, Back Slash, Scarlett Terror, Sky High Claw, Rose Thorn, mask throw, claw throw, any jump attack other than j.HP, and cross ups.

Hope this was insightful in any way. As a Vega main, I’m hyped as fuck to play him.

That thing that you say is a ‘rekka combo’ is almost certainly a target combo.

It might be, but then there is the issue of the first attack in that particular string is his sheathing attack when he goes clawless, then combos into st.HK and finishes with what looks like his v.skill attack. So maybe the inputs are more like sheath input, HK, MP + MK. It might require timing, or perhaps it’s a target combo using those inputs. Usually target combos are chained single button presses. Who knows.

I notice they have not shown back flips and the kick version became his v.reversal. I wonder if PPP is going to be sheath input, or if it will be a QCF or something else.

The “sheath special” is Vega’s V-Skill. The attack (which looks a lot like his Focus Attack) afterwards is optional. Imagine it’s:

j.HP / s.HP xx V-Skill, 2-hit target combo xx V-Skill.

You can probably link after the dodge, not having to use the follow-up. Think of Makoto’s Hayate cancels. Or C. Viper’s Thunder Knuckle cancels.

Matador Turn doesn’t sheathe the claw though, that’s an entirely different attack. Matador Turn is his dodge, which is his v.skill. They both look similar, but MT has a larger spin radius during the animation.

If you compare when he hides the claw during the fist combo, you’ll see it’s much different than how he ends the combo, which is as far as I can see, identical to MT. Try watching it in 1/4 or 1/2 speed. Easier to spot the differences.

The 2-hit target combo you see looks like a standard st.HK, which hits twice. I don’t think that move alone is a target combo. it looks like j.HP, s.HP xx sheathe, st.HK xx v.skill. Also notice the hit stun on each attack looks pretty significant.

I think it might be intentional that they don’t show him cancelling the cr.mp into anything…

He’s a Street Fighter 3 design in Street Fighter 2.

Ah, I see. The stance change is more of a pirouette than the V-Skill, Matador Turn. They also spin in different directions.

So stance change for Vega will always have an animation even if it’s being canceled into. Unlike Gen in SFIV. Perhaps it’s also the same input, PPP/KKK, explaining why Back Slash had to be repurposed as Vega’s V-Reversal.

The 2-hit target combo looks like s.MP -> s.HK. In fact, Omega Vega had a cl.LK -> cl.HK target combo where he used his inside leg for the cl.HK like we see here. But then they changed the second hit of that target combo in USFIV 1.04 to Cosmic Heel.

Yeah, I’m currently writing the Omega Vega manual, lol. If you care to help out, let me know. I’m aware of most of the changes, and I like them a lot.

As for st.MP, I actually think that’s the actual stance change and not the actual button press. If you check out combo 3 you can see they cut out the start up of that attack so we can’t see if he’s going from claw to no claw. However, in combo 1, we clearly see he goes from claw to no claw in that same attack. It’s actually not a target combo, that hit is exactly when he changes from claw to no claw. So that close punch, then kick, is not actually a target combo, but his special sheathe attack canceling out of st.HP then combos into st.HK. Is it a normal attack? Possibly, but based on what we have in front of us I’m inclined to say that particular spin around attack is actually a special move that changes his fighting style.

This is the only time we see the change from claw to no claw. It’s the only animation we’ve seen. We haven’t seen anything else so far changing states between them, only video cuts of him in claw state or no claw state prior to the combos starting.

Insightful of you to note the PPP/KKK swap. If that’s the case, we may have our own “lariat” attack so to speak, that switches fighting styles mid combo or as a counter hit. If this is the case, looks like the combo goes thus: j.HP, st.HP xx KKK, st.HK xx v.skill. Definitely not a target combo. It also means st.HK can be used for long range combos. You can do something similar in Omega on specific characters, j.HP, cl.HP, st.HK xx FADC. You can probably throw Psycho Stare in between cl.HP and st.HK for a bonehead reason or something, lol. I haven’t tried that yet, so no idea.

Yeah, sorry about that. I was so sleepy, couldn’t even see straight after writing that huge post.

Yeah, its his off hand. Seems I missed that one. Fixing it.

You really are the Vega player I have seen with most different ideas about the char. It’s like all the Vegas love one char, and you, another. Basing this on several things I’ve seen so far, not this one instance. But I’ll speak about this instance for now, as mentioning others will cause unnnecessary debates.

They would never turn him into a command char. They know Vega has the most char loyalist population of any char and no Vega mainer will like that change. We have seen it in the SF4 Vega forum and here too. You have been the only Vega player I’ve seen that has been wishing for him to be command char since SF4 era. Maybe there are also other people, but it is clear that is not the mentality of the huge majority of the fanbase.

Doing a fba with q.c+k seems completely unrealistic to me. Like I said before, he will be a charge based char but wwill have certain commands, like Bison. Whoever said he is no longer a charge char, most probably saw his command grab and said “this can’t be charge move, so Vega is no longer a charge char!” lol

Hello fellow Vega players, here’s a video I made with comments on the trailer


https://youtube.com/watch?v=TNUrkkurGo8
(An error regarding the Barcelona combos, I wrote: Barcelona, cr LP, Barcelona; but it appears it’s cr MP (confirmed by other posters in this thread)

Anyway Vega looks very good so far, still need to see a strong poke though!

I hope stance change is just an action, not an attack. That would allow us more freedom for using it as a tactic and in combos. Plus, I would hope Vega gets a target combo.

There’s still so much we haven’t seen about Vega’s normals. S.LP, s.MP, s.HP, s.LK, s.MK, s.HK (outside of that combo), c.HP, c.LK. And we’ve only seen one jumping normal. I hope that 2-hit slash doesn’t become Vega’s s.HP period. Maybe that 2-hit slash is a unique attack, B+HP? Also, will Piece of Mercury and Cosmic Heel return?

And I’d like to see Vega’s Crush Counter. M. Bison’s Crush Counter was his slide and it popped them up. Will Vega get the same?

I’m pretty sure that is indeed his standart HP. Much like its SF4 version it is two hits, you can cancel after the first hit. It is the coolest looking move in the game right now, for me. But I don’t understand why it does knock down. Maybe you can cancel after the first hit with his his other normals and not only his Matador Turn and Capcom wants it to have this double use? Cancel after first hit if you want to combo, leave it if you want a knock down.

I REALLY WANT A GAMEPLAY VIDEO!

So what do you guys think of his model visually?

Alt2 is the outfit I use most in SF4. So I’m in love with that outfit.
But his face? It seems less beautiful to be honest. Something wrong with the eyebrows and the lips.
And I always preferred his brown hair.

Yeah, I was scared about this “no close normals” change and how this would affect Vega. I like that cl.HP is back, but if it means we are losing out on far s.HP, that sucks. They could even it out by having far s.HP be the s.HP and have the double slash be B+HP. Although I guess I’ll be fine if s.MK stays the same. I need some range. But at least we’ll never accidentally get useless cl.LK again!