He has only 50 more health than Ryu/Ken (“average” in most games), probably around 80ish in game when taking GUTS scaling into account (still much less than the usual extra 100-200 that grapplers usually have in other games), so I don’t think you can use that as a huge factor when taking his gimped reversals into account. I’m not saying Gief has no options against Chun/Cammy/Karin/Vega, I’m just saying you’re an idiot if you believe they don’t clearly shit on him in the neutral. VS is okay, he can use it to absorb a hit or two, but there is a bit of recovery on it and the animation is super obvious, so you can do something like st.HP wait a sec st.HP with Chun, and you either hit him out of recovery or he flexes and Chun is either safe from the hit due to distance, or she gets hit for like 60 damage and he’s still in the exact same position he was in before, IMO not reliable way of fighting through long range normals that aren’t Dhalsim tier in speed. st.LK is a good counterpoke I admit, but again it’s shitty damage and it honestly doesn’t have much range to actually hit them from outside of close range unless they have an extended hurtbox. c.LP is the same thing as st.LK (except it is better in terms of range) but still same shitty damage and no one’s gonna just sit and hit crouch jab all day in the neutral. s.MK is a good button for sure, but go into training mode or play the matchup when it releases, and you’ll see that it loses to all of their good buttons unless you stuff them out of startup/recovery (which is hard cus it’s pretty slow.) s.HP is again, a great button and can actually shit on their long range standing normals, and unlike the other buttons mentioned actually does damage; however, it is pretty much the most whiff punishable normal in the entire game, so you better be damn sure it’s gonna make contact or else you’re almost guaranteed going to get punished for throwing it out. f.MK is probably his best all around normal, it has a good hitbox and does decent damage, along with going over some lows during specific frames (this has to be emphasized, sweeps murder this button and crouch forwards can beat it if the f.MK isn’t timed perfectly) and setting up SPD or not mixups at certain spacings. f.HP is another button that actually gives him a chance in these matchups, (moreso than the ones you listed IMO) it does nice damage, can be linked out of granted you are close enough, good hitbox, causes knockdown against airborne, decently fast frame count, and moves him forward a bit, but still gets shit on by lows (which these characters all have great lows, and can combo out of them into good damage and/or knockdown).
Right, but I think when you use all of those buttons in tandem with his other options you’ll start to see more things open up. I think that’s how they’ve designed SFV. No button is going to feel gdlk on its own, but when they are all used together in the right context you will get something that feels more complete and can address a lot of situations.
^ I hope that’s the case. Like FP said, in a vacuum his tools look really good but they seemed lacking in practice. I’m going to reserve judgement until we start utilizing V-Skill better. From the footage I’ve seen, nobody really seems to get how to use if effectively yet. And it could be his saving grace (though I personally don’t think that will be the case)
I think his V-Trigger (when not holding it) is punishable on block, or at the very least quite negative.
I noticed u can’t really do anything after sucking them in, cause everything they do will beat your options.
It is a gimmick that got me a lot of wins simply because people aren’t used to it yet. it is useful for sucking them in at range, since they get sucked in later, you have less recovery frames and thus are pretty safe (although still maybe negative.) Doing something like st.HP VTC insta release is super punishable tho.
That’s the thing tho, it’s just a gimmick. It’s not gonna work in the long run.
Another problem with his VT is that it’s only effective when it’s already active, and that’s when people usually start to lame you out till your V-bar is depleted.
Also needing a lvl3 VT, or CA to follow up a lvl1 VT makes it quite limiting as well.
I just wanted to say that I agree that using health to balance out a lack of tools is dumb and has always been one of the things that’s bothered me about…well most fighting games. At least, so far, SFV doesn’t have any Zangief specific combos that badly break the character performing the combos damage ceiling thus invalidating even the extra health. grumble grumble Blazblue Tager specific combos
I really don’t think Zangief has trouble AA-ing, cr.HP seems to beat everything if u timed it right, and EX AIR SPD is quite effective as well.
I do agree with EX SPD becoming faster tho, it seems quite useless atm.
You can’t die from white health so I assume no. Just like you can’t kill the opponent with a V Reversal even though it takes off like 10 percent white health.
st.short into short running bear grab is insane. There’s only like a single frame for an opponent to react. Shh don’t tell anybody or it might get nerfed
. No love for zangief.