my definition of execution is more about reactions and consistency. honestly, any combo is brain dead easy unless it requires 1 frame links or ridiculous inputs
ken, balrog, dhalsim, or whatever other example might have easier combos but its really hard to be consistent with their basic execution. like ken for example. theres almost no reason to play ken unless you use your karathrow, and one messed up karathrow leads to a huge punish. mess up one anti-air or fail one option select with dhalsim and you can get raped. mis-time a reversal headbutt while defending with balrog and you get owned (lose your charge, and likely get hit)
honestly, what are you going to mess up with sakura? she has the easiest anti-air game of any character (maybe zangief?) in terms of consistency. the only thing difficult about her execution are the 1frame links in her combos (which arent essential to your game)
Playing Sakura for me is basically a break from Viper. Having a character that can actually play the footsie game is a good change every now and then. Only thing I wish she had was a better back dash then I’d be 100% happy.
Tatsu loops are nowhere near “unnecessary” or “ridiculous”. It’s something you SHOULD get down because of the amount of damage you get for ZERO EX BAR(If ending in Sho). She has easy combos but they are not as effective for high level play.
To be good with Sakura takes better reactions and execution then it takes to be effective then Viper in my opinion.
What is this…I don’t even. Being effective would mean using combos that optimize damage. Which is why tatsu loops are a must learn.
Execution with shotos is only hard if you commit yourself to doing Ryu’s solar plex > cr.HP. Other then that nearly everything you need to do with the shotos is pretty easy.
An example is anti-air DPs.
Try using Sak’s sho as an anti-air compared to the shotos. You’ll be thankful for what they have.
If you fuck up your hit confirm Sho off of cr.MK you will die fast. cr.HP isn’t the monster you think it is when people space their jump ins correctly.
Actually, why the fuck would you jump at Sakura in neutral anyways? It’s practically begging to get anti-aired.
Fucking up with Sakura also makes you lose you’re momentum which, in my opinion, is crucial to her game. Once you lose it, it takes a lot of work to get back in.
tl;dr : Sakura is nowhere close to as easy as the majority of the cast to play in my opinion.
I don’t think her links are that easy. Like her BnB is 1f (st.hp xx tatsu > cr.hp xx ex tatsu) Her flashy combos are quite tough but not nessicary to win. Cr.mk xx HP DP FADC > St.hp is a pretty tough link, I can’t seem to get it even when I plink it right, just gotta get timing down
And if she makes one mistake, her momentum is gone and it’s gonna be tough for her to get it back.
If Sakura was easy to play you’d see her all the time online. Online isn’t good for much, but I actually think it’s an accurate barometer for ease-of-use character wise.
doing a dragon punch on reaction to a jumpin is a reaction, how is that not execution? antiair shoryu is the most basic form of execution
Yeah, maybe a character like balrog has “easier” links, but does it really matter when both characters have easy links anyway? 3frame (or higher) is my definition of easy. Sure, sakura has hard stuff if you count her flashy 1frame links, but balrog has stuff that is very hard too if you try his advanced stuff.
The difference with sakura is that her game doesn’t rely on her hard stuff, and all of her reaction-based execution is easy. Sakura’s hard stuff only adds damage to combos that already do a lot of damage. some other characters have hard execution for even basic things like anti-airing
also, just because a character has easy execution doesn’t mean that the character will be good, or popular
But hard to master her matchups if you ask me. I’m still trying to master her ground game and implementing focus attacks back into my game. (A long time ago I used to FA a friggin lot, and got punished pretty hard for it. So I took it out of my game cuz I never figured out how to use it correctly. Boy do I regret not learning how to use it back then.) I’m a pretty mediocre Sakura in my opinion (met a guy online who played Sak and has his BnB links down. That was fun to watch live.) because my footsies are meh at best and my execution can be really shoddy when I start losing my cool. And don’t even ask me to do a BnB. I can get it about 50% of the time in training, and online? 0%.
But I’m getting off topic. The reason I love Sak is because she was the first real player that I liked to play with. The first time I really got into a Street Fighter game was when I played the Alpha 3 port for the PSP (so sad I sold that now) and I picked her cuz she looked cute. I didn’t have a CLUE how good she was in that game, but she was fun to play and I just stuck with her. When I found out she was in SF4, it was a done deal. I like her playstyle. I like how despite her popularity in AE, a lot of people still underestimate her. But most of all, I like winning the uphill battle. There is nothing more satisfying when my hard work, cool thinking, and good execution actually get me to win. Winning with Sak is a lot more rewarding than winning with Ken for me. (Not insulting any Ken players, this is all my opinion.)
I picked her up for her bubbly personality, fight stance, cool moves, round win quotes and win pose.
I keep coming back to her because she is my best chance of winning against players better than I am.
I like her pokes honestly, I have no execution so I don’t expect to be doing BnB or anything past a simple combo. But being able to stand that little bit away and chip down somehow is pretty satisfying
For me it was difficult to play at first, easier after a year… lol. Every month I decide to try to add something that I’ve neglected from my Sakura game so I guess I am always behind the other Sakura players when it comes to knowledge of options and tricks.
I use to play Ken when SFIV 1st came out but when i fought 8 Kens in a row I knew it was time for a change.
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But to tell more the main two reason i fell in love where 1 generalvivi’s vids on youtube i came across then randomly and he made Sakura look so fun. Then I watched Sabr3 and how he reset Alex V (Ryu) like 16times, been a school girl lover since.