Gods Garden x 4Gamer Interview: AE First Impressions (2/2)

Update:  Made some revisions, most of which are insignificant, but here are a few bigger ones:
Itabashi:  He [Seth] still has the wall jump, right? [I had it as 'head stomps' before.]
Hiropon:  [Talking about EX Messiah] The damage in the rolling part in the beginning got nerfed, but the last somersault still does considerable damage. [I had the nerf the other way around.].
Mago:  But as a character he [Ken] lacks depth, so it’s difficult for him to reflect different players’ abilities and styles.

***

Article continued from here.

Somehow finished it.  The third page seemed to go on forever.  Quantity over quality for now.  I’ll be looking over it continuously to make any corrections/additions. Original here.

As always, bracketed notes on uncertain parts.

Thanks to kisaragi for some corrections.

What about high tier Fei and Cammy?  The other Super characters

KSK:  Let’s move on to the other console characters.  How about your character, Hiropon.  Seth.

Hiropon:  The most noticeable thing is the loss of his jumping fierce.  That was useful for keeping out the opponent, but since he can’t do that anymore it’s going to be tough against characters with a lot of horizontal momentum.

Mago:  That move was really a bit much (laughs).  I think it was not so much about him being good or not, but more about him just being boring to play against.  I think they just thought it would be silly to have that jumping fierce in the arcade.

Hiropon:  To be honest, I thought it was little boring using that jumping fierce myself, so I think it was inevitable that they got rid of it.

KSK:  So you plan to keep using Seth.  How do you envision his gameplay?

Hiropon:  Because he now needs to be more offensive, he might actually become more annoying.  He was annoying before because he ran away, but now he’s going to be rushing down from all different directions.

Mago: His rushdown was always good to begin with.  It’s just that he had no health, so it was hard to do so while aslo minding defense.

Hiropon: He’s been given more life and stun so I think it’ll be much better this time around.  Before he’d get stunned very often against Viper, Ryu, or Chun…  But I think the upper tier characters are still going to be a pain.  Regardless, I think he still has a chance.  Cynics want to place him pretty low, but I think he could be solid mid-tier.

Mago:  I personally think Seth is pretty weak now.

Itabashi:  He still has the wall jump, right?  That move really drives me crazy when I’m trying to chase him down (laughs).

Mago:  Ah, but he lost his jumping fierce, so I think you’ll be fine.

Itabashi:  But runaways are really annoying.

Nemo:  It makes you not want to play anymore.

KSK: Everyone thinks you’re annoying, Hiropon (laughs).

Hiropon: I’m really sorry  (laughs).

[Embedded footage of Seth Combo.  Hiropon says, "Seth has a lot of tricks, so I think he's fun."]

KSK: How about Cammy?  She was really good before.

Mago:  I think she’s as strong as ever.

Itabashi:  But isn’t she very different now that she can’t do Tiger Knee Cannon Strikes?

Mago:  She’s more of a brawler now.  That with a bit of a waiting game mixed in.  In the end I think it comes down to how you can break their defense with EX Cannon Strike.

Nemo:  Really?  But isn’t mixing up cross up LK and Cannon Strikes enough?

Mago:  Things seem to have changed because the second hit of roundhouse Spiral Arrow no longer hits.

Nemo:  Isn’t c.LP -> c.LP -> c.HK good enough?  It was on Sako’s Twitter.  Knockdown with sweep, then mix up with Cannon Strike or crossup LK.

Hiropon:  There’s a lot of chances to connect sweep, so it seems pretty strong.

Mago:  Anyway, she does have to make changes because of the height minimum on Cannon Strikes, but the EX version is still just as scary.  When rushing down, she has EX Cannon Strike as insurance, so that remains unchanged.  It’s just that it’s harder to build meter now, and I wonder how that’s going to effect her.

Nemo:  For sure.

KSK:  It seems she’s still a top contender.

Mago:  I think so.

Nemo:  Yeah definitely. Also, I get the feeling that Gen is pretty solid.  Seems fun.  You can connect his Up Kicks off of c.LK -> c.MK target combo, or do c.LK -> MK -> EX Hands -> sweep.  It seems he’s gotten a bit simpler with the addition of combos.

Itabashi:  You’re a real fanatic aren’t you (laughs)?  What with Gen and all that.  I don’t think I can ever learn all that.

Mago:  I heard Gouken also got pretty strong?

Nemo:  I think he did.  The command for his Parry move changed, so you don’t get Hurricane Kicks on accident.

Hiropon:  Plus EX Hurricane locks the opponent in now, so you can use it as an anti-air.  Then his LP Dash Punch no longer moves forward, and it connects off of crouching jab.  You can also do stuff like MP -> c.HP – > MP Dash Punch now.

Mago:  Wow, he can combo off of light moves [?] now.

Hiropon:  You can also cancel jumping MP into Air Hurricane, and if you do the roundhouse version, the last hit knocks them really far.  Maybe not full screen, but it’s annoying enough.

Mago:  Gouken’s back dash was really bad before.  But now everyone’s back dash is considered airborne at the end, so it’s hard to chase after them.

Itabashi:  Was it everyone? Dan runs backwards, though.

Mago:  That was already considered airborne before.

Itabashi:  Oh really?  I had no clue (laughs).

KSK:  And what about Dan?  He’s supposed to have gained some hit confirm combos.

Mago:  Enough about Dan.  He’s not supposed to be that kind of character.  Dan Hurricane, then mix up uppercut or throw… What the hell is that?  Kindevu’s Dan really screws me up.

(Everyone laughs)

KSK:  Well, that’s just the kind of character he is (laughs).  So he’s gotten buffed?

Hiropon:  Well, he was really weak before.  And although he’s improved, he just doesn’t have that finishing touch.  He’s a joke character anyway.

KSK:  And Sakura?

Mago: I haven’t played against her, but isn’t she pretty good?

Nemo:  I think so.  Her normals have improved, and she has simple set ups.  She seems solid.

Mago:  She had problems with runaway characters like Akuma before, but since he lost his air hurricane, she should be relatively better off.  All of the attrition [turtle?] characters got nerfed so I think she’s better now.

Hiropon:  Did they not change her Air Hurricane?

Nemo:  They didn’t touch that, so she should still be able to run away.  Same with Ken’s EX Air Hurricane, except that requires meter.

KSK:  Then we have Rose.  We’ll save Fei for later.  How is Rose?  Her go-to Ultra, Soul Satellite got nerfed.

Mago:  It’s pretty painful to have lost [some] invincibility.  And the start up also slower.

Nemo:  Yeah but you can use it for wake up set ups and for basic ground game, so it should be fine.

Mago:  No, because Rose always had bad defense, and she doesn’t have much fast moves.  Standing MP is 4 frames I guess.  But that’s about it.  You can’t really say that Soul Spiral or EX Soul Throw are really that powerful of moves.

Hiropon:  Can’t you still combo with Soul Satellite?  If so, I think she’ll still manage.  But I recently saw this guy get his Soul Satellite stuffed, and he made a really nasty face (laughs).  He was like, “HuuuhHh!?” (laughs).

[Embedded footage showing less invincibility on Soul Satellite.  Mago says, "Yun's Palm is really dangerous.  It chips a lot, too.]

KSK:  And lastly, Mago’s main, Fei Long.

Mago:  I think Fei Long is dangerous.  He might be the best.

KSK:  His roundhouse Chicken Wing and EX Rekkas have been modified…

Mago:  His normals haven’t changed much, but his standing [light?] punches have more advantage frames, and you can link into sweep.  That’s really dangerous.

Hiropon:  Can you link into it even after a few punches?

Mago:  You can connect it even after three punches, except if they’re crouching.

Itabashi:  Ken can do that now too, right?

Mago:  It’s more dangerous that Fei can do it.

Nemo:  But doesn’t Fei have bad match ups, too?  Weren’t charge characters tough?

Mago:  But they all got nerfed.  And even if it was hard before, it wasn’t like it was predetermined.  Honda got nerfed, Boxer and Dictator both got modified.  Umm… I think Chun Li might be the only one left?

[Embedded footage of Nemo (Yang) vs Hiropon (Seth) casuals]

[End of page 2]

Can’t lose to the new characters — on to the Vanilla characters

KSK:  OK, now for the original cast of SFIV.  Looks like Tokido’s going to be here soon.  First, how about Ryu and Ken?

Nemo:  Ken’s improved.  You can link c.MP -> c.MK.

Itabashi:  As I mentioned earlier, he can link sweep off of standing jab.  Then you can start doing your set ups.

Hiropon:  What kind of set ups?  Crossup hurricane?  Can he do that without meter?

Mago:  Yeah, he can without meter.  He relies heavily on wake up games, so he needs it.  But as a character he lacks depth, so it’s difficult for him to reflect different players’ abilities and styles.  If he was just a bit more…

Itabashi:  Isn’t his overall game strong?

Mago:  No way.  It’s the same as closing in.  All he has is getting in and mixing it up.

KSK:  So maybe if he substitutes sweep for EX Hurricane in order get in on the opponent.

Mago:  Sure that might work, but… I just don’t like Ken to begin with.

(Everyone laughs)

Itabashi:  I didn’t know we were talking about our likes and dislikes (laughs).

Mago:  Yeah I don’t like him.  Although there’s plenty of other characters I dislike more.

KSK:  How’s Ryu.

Hiropon:  Ryu’s bad match ups have gotten nerfed, so maybe he has a chance?

Mago:  Nah, he’s very average, probably weaker than before.  The light Dragon Punch that he needed on wake up got weaker mid-air, and he needs fierce Dragon Punch for anti-air [I don't know exactly what the Ryu changes are, so this part might not be accurate].

Itabashi:  And he lost his runaway Air Hurricane.

Mago:  Losing that is pretty huge.  Is that about it?

Hiropon:  C.MK got faster, and the active frames got 1 frame shorter.  Isn’t that big for Zangief?

Mago:  Even before that, he’s lost that match.  He has no chance against Zangief.

Itabashi:  SPD got more range, so he might be able to grab him from just outside of c.MK range.

Mago:  There’s that, and he can’t get out of the corner anymore with Air Hurricane.

KSK:  Really?  So Ryu’s basically done in the corner?

Mago:  In the corner.  He’ll just block and block and then eventually die.

KSK: (laughs)

[Embedded footage demonstrating SPD's extended range.  KSK says "What the hell..."]

Itabashi:  One thing I was wondering about.  Umehara [Daigo] said that it was over for projectile characters.  How so, exactly?

Mago:  It is over.  There’s way too many ways of getting around projectiles, and they can’t deal with it.  So if at least Sagat doesn’t have good fireballs, it’s over for them.

Itabashi:  Sagat and Guile?

Nemo:  Chun’s still good.

Itabashi:  But Chun has solid ground game.  So you mean if Yun rushes down on Ryu, he’ll have a hard time doing anything about it?

Mago:  Ryu has a small range of movement.  All he has is fireball and c.MK poke.  It’s hopeless.  He can’t Air Hurricane out of there, so he’s at more risk now turtling.  It’s going to be tough for Ryu.

KSK:  But Sagat is fine?

Mago:  I haven’t really touched Sagat, but he does more damage so he’ll be relatively high up.  Definitely in the highest tier bracket.

KSK:  And Guile?

Mago:  Guile is still capable of putting up a fight.  There was talk of the vulnerable hitbox on Sonic Boom sticking out more, but that isn’t the case [I think he's talking the hit boxes on Guile's body during Sonic Boom].

Nemo:  There are vulnerable hit boxes on his hands.  And it now counts as counterhit during recovery.  It’ll hurt to eat a jump in during recovery frames.

Mago:  He’s not going to eat jump ins.

Nemo:  Well he probably won’t eat any jump ins except [random/suicide?] jump ins.  Also, his air throw got 1 frame slower.  There’s also talk that the range might have been nerfed, too.

Mago:  That seems pretty huge.  His air throw was really good in SuperIV.  Not the start up frames and what not, but it was the range that was dangerous.  But even with those bits of changes, I think he’s still able to hold his ground.  It’s also really good that his Reverse Spinning Kick (back or forward HK) has low invulnerability.  Great for beating crouch techs.

Itabashi:  That’s how it was used back in the SFII days.  It’s a good move.

[Embedded footage of Tokido (Akuma) vs Itabashi (Zangief) casuals]

KSK:  OK and now Nemo’s original main, Chun Li.

Nemo:  I haven’t really touched her so I don’t know for sure, but I think she’s relatively better off because she herself hasn’t changed much.

Mago:  Her df.LK got nerfed, though.

Nemo:  I didn’t really use that move to begin with.

Itabashi:  Wasn’t it really good?

Nemo:  It was, but it wasn’t really that important in her arsenal.  Also I think recovery on c.HK has gotten bigger.  And her Focus Attack has been adjusted.  I think this is both a buff and a nerf.

Mago:  How so?

Nemo:  For example, against Ryu’s c.MK -> Fireball, if you tried to focus the fireball, Chun’s hitbox was so small it was actually a bit difficult to do.  But now it’s easier.

Mago:  Aha.  That is both a buff and a nerf.  But now you’re easier to hit in general.  It’s difficult to say if it’s better to have a large [focus] hit box or small [focus] hit box.  When I used Sagat, he had a big hit box, and it was actually convenient.  It’s easier to absorb an attack and dash out.

Nemo:  Exactly.  So it has both its advantages and disadvantages, but since her normals have always been so good, it doesn’t really make much of a difference.

KSK:  I heard a rumor that if you do EX Legs into Ultra 1 against Rose, it doesn’t lock her in properly.  Does this have a big effect?

Mago:  Really?

Nemo:  Yeah I heard about that.

[Embedded footage of Chun's Ultra losing the lock-in effect on Rose.  Itabashi says, "Ohh, interesting (laughs)."]

Nemo:  I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.  You can EX Spinning Bird after EX legs, so it’s not that big of a disadvantage, except maybe in dire situations.

Itabashi:  If it’s only against Rose, you can just avoid using it in that match up.

KSK:  Does Chun seem like she can get up there?

Nemo:  I think she can make upper tier.  Yun and Yang have a hard time against her.  They are at a disadvantage after dive kicks, and she can jab safely on block.  And of course her normals are solid all around.

Mago:  Chun Li was a pretty hard match up when I used Yang.  She was already pretty strong in SuperIV, but because she had low health, she had to go after her opponent, making her hard to use.

Nemo:  She was hard, but now she can lame it out more in AE.  And her arch-nemesis Blanka has gotten a lot weaker.

Mago:  Did Zangief have the advantage over her in SuperIV?

Itabashi:  It was tough for Zangief.  His LK hit box was nerfed, so it became less risky for her to throw out standing roundhouses.  And once she starts doing that, it’s hard for Zangief to do anything.

Mago:  In EVO2010, Ricky vs. Vangief, Ricky was spamming standing roundhouse all day.  I was wondering why Vangief didn’t punish with LK, but now I see why.

Itabashi:  Right.  Light kick got nerfed and c.LK got buffed.

Hiropon:  Speaking of which, Claw’s hop kick seemed to have gotten pretty nerfed.

Nemo:  And his Rolling Sobat got nerfed.

Hiropon: It used to be that if he hit with the tip [of hop kick], he would be in the advantage, but now he gets thrown and stuff.

Mago:  Huh?  He’s at that much of a disadvantage now?

Itabashi:  But if he gets regular thrown, that means it’s like -3 frames.

Mago:  We can test it.

[Embedded footage of Claw doing hop kick on Gief.  Hiropon: Double Lariat is guaranteed, so unless you're hitting with the very tip, it's -4 frames.]

KSK:  What about Dhalsim?  His damage output seems to have been nerfed.

Nemo:  Dhalsim is hurting too.  His damage has been reduced, and his hit boxes have changed.  It’s almost as if his jumping MP no longer has an active hit box.

Mago:  Really?  They changed that too?  I thought it was just Yang’s vulnerable boxes that were weird.

Nemo:  Nope, it’s Dhalsim.  I don’t think he’ll be using jumping MP as an anti-air anymore.

Hiropon:  I heard his all-important b.LK got slower.

Mago:  I heard that.  It went from like 3 to 4 frames.

Itabashi: That was a life line for him.  But he can LK slide, so he still technically has a 3 frame move.

Mago:  No no no no.

Nemo:  No no no no.

Hiropon:  No no no no.

Nemo:  Light slide is [suicide?] (laughs).

Mago:  It’s a free throw even on hit.  It’s no good.

Itabashi:  So I guess if you try to mash out with light slide, you just get taken for a ride (laughs).

Hiropon:  His super damage got really nerfed, from 350 to 300.

Mago:  Eh, that’s fine.  Yoga Inferno was already a really good move anyway.  In the end, he either wins his match ups or loses his match ups.  He’s a very bi-polar character.

Nemo:  I agree.  He’s essentially still the same.

KSK:  Is there anyone else to watch out for?

Mago:  Rufus is as strong as ever.  There were rumors that his EX Messiah got toned down, but I tried it out today, and I didn’t see any difference.

Hiropon:  Do you mean the last somersault part?  [Correction here->] The damage in the rolling part in the beginning got nerfed, but the last somersault still does considerable damage.

Mago:  Oh, maybe that’s it.  I think that’s fine.  It’s too much if that part doesn’t do damage.  But his Ultra 2 no longer locks in, so airborne opponents get knocked away now.  But to be honest, his Ultra 1 is so good anyway, you don’t really need to use Ultra 2.

KSK:  You could use it effectively against Akuma before, to suck him and his air fireball in.

Mago:  Ultra 1 is fine against Akuma.  There’s a lot of chances to land it.  I think Sagat is the only matchup where Ultra 2 is better.

Itabashi:  To get through all those fireballs.

[Embedded footage of Big Bang Typhoon knocking away an airborne Rufus.]

Hiropon:  How about Abel and El Fuerte?  Why don’t you tell as about Abel, KSK?

KSK:  Well his Ultra 2…

Mago:  Oh, he’s actually going to talk about Abel.

(everyone laughs)

KSK:  His Ultra 2 lost armor while moving forward, so you can’t use it to punish fireballs anymore.  And they decreased damage on both Tornado throw and Ultra 1.

Mago:  And his command roll recovers slower.

KSK:  Really?  So I guess you can’t be rolling around freely anymore.

Hiropon:  And the active hit box on his crouching fierce was decreased so you can’t use it as an anti-air.

KSK:  I’m done for (laughs).

Mago:  Abel’s most important tools–the frame advantage on f.MK and throw invincibility on Tornado throw–are still there, so he’ll be fine.

Itabashi:   I don’t think he’ll be that much different.

Mago:  El Fuerte got a lot weaker.  Propeller Tortilla is useless now.

KSK:  He lost invincibility on it, but his regular throw got a little better in exchange.

Hiropon:  Isn’t that a big deal?  I think it can be useful during defense.

Nemo:  No it doesn’t make a difference.  Then it becomes a game of mashing out a throw during defense then going after them, and I don’t care for that.

Itabashi:  That’s true (laughs).

Hiropon:  His Ultra 2 also got nerfed.  It went from 3 to 4 frames, and the range is now half of what it used to be.

Mago:  That ultra was just too good before.  3 to 4 frames is a big difference.  He used to be able to punish Boxer’s Dash Straight with it.  Nerfing it seems fair.

KSK:  I think Tokido is almost here.  In the meantime, let’s talk about the charge characters.  They’re supposed to have gotten weaker.  How so?

Mago:  Across the board.  You can’t use Blanka Balls anymore.

[Embedded footage demonstrating the blocked distance change on Blanka Balls]

Nemo:  I think Blanka is still good.  He can still be very annoying.

Mago:  You think he’s still good?

Hiropon:  Normals like his c.MK and c.HP have gotten buffed.  It’s just that there are more characters that can punish Blanka Balls than before.

Itabashi:  There were already a lot of characters who could punish it, so I don’t think it makes that much of a difference.  It’s not like Blanka players spammed it that much anyway.

Hiropon:  And I’m somewhat worried that EX Electricity got buffed to a 5 frame start up.

Nemo:  Oh is that so?  So no more cross ups?

Itabashi:  Does it have invincibility?

Hiropon:  I don’t think so, but the vulnerable hit boxes are pretty low.  If you’re not careful with c.LK links, you could eat Electricity.

KSK:  Blanka vs T. Hawk was really terrible in SuperIV, wasn’t it?  I heard T. Hawk couldn’t do anything because of Vertical Roll.

Hiropon:  I think that boring match up got a little better.  I don’t think Blankas were having much fun doing that either (laughs).  And if [___] lost randomly, [___] would bitch about it (laughs). [Not sure if T. Hawk or Blanka goes in those spaces. I think he's saying that Blankas would bitch when T. Hawk somehow got lucky and finally scored a knock down, turning the tables.]

Itabashi:  I see.  Zangief’s match up against Blanka was similar.  They’d just sit there and wait for me to jump so they could Vertical Roll.  It was painful (laughs).

KSK:  Hasn’t it gotten much harder for Blanka against Zangief this time around?

Itabashi:  I think it’ll come down to how their normals interact.

Nemo:  Boxer still seems good.  Very few changes.

Hiropon:  It’s hard to break down his defense.  He has great turtle game and does a lot of damage.

KSK:  What about Honda?

Itabashi:  I heard they nerfed damage on Headbutt.

KSK:  That move was such a noob killer.

Itabashi:  But there’s a lot of counters to that move.

Hiropon:  His grab Ultra is now a half circle motion, and it’s 2 frames.  They also adjusted his normals, like jumping MP, and damage on his far fierce got reduced to about 80.

Nemo:  80 is a pretty painful nerf.

Tokido:  Hello.  How is everyone?

KSK:  Ah, Tokido’s here.  Shall we talk about Akuma then?  Are you going to stick with Akuma again?

Tokido:  Yeah… I don’t plan on using anyone else.

Nemo:  Isn’t he pretty strong?

Mago:  Yes he is.  He hasn’t changed at all.

Tokido:  He hasn’t changed much, so yeah, he’s still very good.  I think his runaway Air Hurricane is the only real change.

Mago:  That seems like a big deal, but honestly he’s above average when it comes to brawling.  I think he’s better when he’s on the offensive.

KSK:  It doesn’t seem like his wake up setups have changed?

Tokido:  Nope, they haven’t.

Itabashi:  We were talking about how parts of everyone’s back dash is now airborne.

Tokido:  It doesn’t affect him.  Characters being airborne when they get hit during backdash means that you aren’t doing the setups right.  If you do them correctly, they should still work perfectly well.

KSK:  How is he against Yun and Yang?

Tokido:  At the moment I’m not having much trouble.  At the worst it seems 5:5.

Mago:  Any bad match ups?

Tokido:  Since he lost his Air Hurricane, the matchups where he could win by running away have gotten somewhat harder.  But even then, all you have to do is go back to playing the game normally.  I think he just has to fine-tune his game plan against Zangief, Guile, and Sakura.

KSK:  So his ranking hasn’t changed either.

Tokido:  Yeah, he’s still very strong.

Mago:  His Ultra 2 when canceled from Teleport seems to have a bigger hit box.  Doesn’t that seem important?  You can beat low moves like Cammy’s Super.

Tokido:  But I don’t think it’s good enough to give up Raging Demon for it.

Itabashi:  Does that only apply when you cancel from Teleport?  It doesn’t have a bigger hit box when you do it by itself?

Mago:  I think it only applies when you cancel it from Teleport.

[Embedded footage of Akuma cancelling Ultra 2 from Teleport.  Tokido says, "It's pretty cool, but does he have any other situation to use it?"]

KSK:  Which match up do you hate the most?

Tokido:  …Definitely C. Viper.  I’ve always hated her.  She has many ways to land her Ultra and completely turn the tables, Akuma’s setups aren’t as effective against her, and it’s hard to run away.

Mago:  She’s really strong.  She hasn’t changed at all, so she’s pretty dangerous now.

KSK:  No nerfs?

Nemo:  Nope.  As for buffs, maybe a bigger hitbox on Burning Dance [Ultra 2].

KSK:  Buff?  Damn, she’s really good then (laughs).

Mago:  But no one uses that Ultra anyway.  It’s her Ultra 1 that’s too powerful.  So much damage.

Hiropon:  It’s to the point where I don’t understand why they haven’t nerfed it.

Mago:  Is she popular overseas?  I heard Abel was popular.

Tokido:  She’s is in MvC3.

KSK:  Let’s see… I think Dictator is the only one left.

Itabashi:  There’s more push back on Double Knee Press.

Nemo:  It pushes back really far.  Crouching LK doesn’t reach anymore so it’s hard to lock down now.

Hiropon:  But I think some characters benefit and some characters suffer because of it.  For example it was scary to go in on Zangief before, but it might be OK now.  As for other characters…

Tokido:  I think he’s gotten weaker overall.  He really couldn’t do damage outside of Knee Press.

Itabashi:  I think Dictator is better off sticking close to the opponent.

Nemo:  Also, his [standing] roundhouse got nerfed to 80 damage.  It’s supposed to be the same as Honda’s fierce.

KSK:  And what about his Ultra 2 getting changed to a charge move?

Hiropon:  I think that’s not going to affect the top players.

Itabashi:  You think so?  In any case I always thought it was weird for him to have fireball commands for a move.

Tokido:  I think it depends on the player, but I think the command change makes a difference.

KSK:  So maybe Dictator is going to have a harder time in AE?

Hiropon:  I think as long as he finds a way to deal with characters with horizontal momentum, he’ll be OK.  I think it’s more of a relative nerf than actual ability nerf.

Mago:  I think it’s going to be tough for him.

[Embedded footage of Tokido (Akuma) vs Nemo (Yang) casuals]

So who will reign supreme in the long awaited AE?

KSK:  So, who is going to be top tier, ability-wise.

Mago:  Yun, Fei Long, Viper, Chun, and Boxer.

Nemo:  And Sagat, Adon, and Zangief.

Itabashi:  Zangief, too?

Nemo:  Definitely!  He has a lot of good match ups.

Itabashi:  No, I think he has more bad match ups.

Mago:  No no no (laughs).  You’re not giving him enough credit.  Zangief is pro.

Itabashi:  Is that so (laughs)?

Tokido:  And Akuma, and definitely Makoto.

KSK:  That’s 9 characters.  Isn’t that too much?   What about characters to keep an eye on?

Mago:  Umm, I personally only think about Fei as being the best [?].

Nemo:  For me, Makoto, Adon, Yun and Yang.  I think they’ll be very fun characters.

Hiropon:  They do seem fun.

Mago:  Adon is fun, especially if you get in [to him?].  Air Jaguar is really dangerous.

KSK:  Itabashi?

Itabashi:  If we ignore how good a character is for a moment, then I’d say Hakan seems fun.

Hiropon:  Makoto for me.

KSK:  There was talk that Makoto is unstable.  What do you think, Tokido?

Tokido:  Stable hmm… I think in the hands of a good player, a player that knows Third Strike Makoto, she’ll be pretty solid.  With Kara-Karakusa and the like.

Itabashi:  I’m also curious about Makoto.  I think she’ll be pretty scary in the hands of a good player.  They’ll bring out her explosiveness of Third Strike.

Mago:  There’s a lot more defensive/evasive maneuvers in SFIV, so I think it’s going to be harder to do her mixups.

Itabashi:  But once she gets a bit of Yomi, she’s dangerously explosive.

Mago:  Yeah, she can be dangerous.

[Embedded footage of Tokido (Akuma) vs Mago (Fei Long) casuals]

–This is a bit off topic, but what do you think about the iPhone function [app?] for AE stats?

Tokido:  I’m glad because I had an iPhone and I couldn’t use it until now.

KSK:  Tokido was borrowing other people’s phones for that.

Mago:  Nemo, too.

Nemo:  Yeah.

Itabashi:  I heard it doesn’t work on the Xperia.

–It appears it doesn’t work on Android phones.  It only works on iPhones using Softbank 3G.

Mago:  What does it look like?  Oh wow, that’s nice.  It’s easy to see.

Hiropon:  How is it different from viewing it on non-smart phones?

Itabashi:  Isn’t it easier to search arcades on the iPhones?  For example, you go to Ikebukuro and search arcades, and it shows who’s at which arcade.

KSK:  That must be nice for the arcades.  You can check which famous players are at your store.

Hiropon:  That, and it used to be that you missed running into people before, especially when you were coming from out of town.  Although it’s even sadder if people leave while you’re in transit (laughs).

KSK:  Do things seem pretty hype at the arcades?

Hiropon:  It’s so crowded that it’s hard to play.

Itabashi:  There’s going to be a lot of people right now.  Although there are also some places where no one goes.

Mago:  Maybe it’s because there aren’t that many places that have it, so everyone is gathering at those few arcades.  I think on the whole, there are less people playing.

–Is there a place that is especially crowded?

Itabashi:  Safari in Ikebukuro is really something.

Nemo:  Safari is hype.

Mago:  Yeah Safari.

Tokido:  It’s really something there.

Hiropon:  Then there’s Joybox in Sinjuku.  They’re also really hype about Tekken 6 there, so that’s cool.

–Any strong console players making their arcade debut?

Nemo:  I saw a console player at Safari recently.  I think that’s really cool that they’re coming out.

Hiropon:  And that person was from out of town.  It’s amazing that he came all the way to Ikeburo to play.

Mago:  There’s a lot of console players.  I see a lot of gamer tags I used to see online.  Although most of them are Viper players.  Goes to show how broken she is.

(Everyone laughs)

KSK:  Wow you really hate Viper (laughs).

With the exciting release of AE, the fighting stage is now moved back to the arcades.  We’ll be sure to see many more stellar matches in future Gods Garden tournaments, and we can surely count on seeing the names we saw today.  Also, it’s not difficult to imagine new star players emerging from the console scene.

Furthermore, 2011 is sure to turn up the heat for the fighting game scene, with the recent release of BBCSII, MvC3 in February, and TTT2 in the summer.  As we enter this new phase, we can be sure we won’t be disappointed by the ever-accelerating fighting game boom, as well as the ever spellbinding work of our star players.

Bonus

–Tokido, was that Akuma projection screen stunt at Socal Regionals planned beforehand?

Tokido:  Yeah it was planned.

–So you waited and pulled it out when you thought the time was right?

Tokido:  The next match up I had in line was someone I couldn’t and probably won’t use Raging Demon on, so I figured I had to do it then.  There’s going to be a T-shirt too, so look out for that.

–Wow, where can we get some?

Tokido:  Gods Garden is going to sell them, and my sponsor The Traveling Circus, which is also a clothing maker in the states, is also selling them.

–So that means you’re a pro now.

Tokido:  More or less.

–We hope to see you go for the gold with Akuma in future tournaments.

Tokido:  Thank you, thank you.

–Thank you for your time today.