Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Tekken 7: Frame data for new players, part 3

On punishment


You're still new to Tekken, but you kind of understand frame data a bit. Then you hear some folks mention that certain moves are 'unsafe' or 'launch punishable'. What's that all about then?

You already know that when you block someone's move, you get to do stuff before them. Well, for some blocked moves that amount of time is so large that you can hit the opponent with a guaranteed move of your own before they can recover and block.

This is called punishing, and moves that can be punished are called unsafe.

Unsafe moves usually have great rewards when they hit, so if you can't punish such moves properly the risk-reward is very much in your opponent's favor.

Because this write-up turned out kinda super long again, here's the TLDR for folks who aren't about that:

If you block big dangerous moves (such as launchers), make sure you try to hit the opponent with a pretty fast move afterward and remember if it worked or not. 
If something worked, try to hit it every time you block that move. Don't let folks get away with unsafe shit.

Anyway learning to punish well in Tekken takes time, and it's something you pretty much will be improving on forever. But don't let that put you off, you can just start with the common stuff and add more things as needed. Even the best players in the world don't always punish perfectly, so it's not expected that you would.

----
Punishing a move properly is essentially a three step process:
1. Recognizing the move you just blocked
2. Knowing what your character's best punish is for it
3. Executing that punish

---
Recognizing the move you just blocked is pretty tough. Tekken has a lot of characters and each of them has a gigantic movelist. Your best bet is to focus on the essentials, the punishable tools each character uses the most. On top of that, many characters share certain basic design choices. Most hopkicks look similar and most of them are around -13 on block. Most power lows stagger on block, giving you time to do your strongest punish.

You don't need to know the specifics in these situations, just "Oh, that looks like a hopkick, guess it's time for the 13 frame punish".

Also it just comes with experience. I recommend getting into a habit of looking up the details of a certain move right after it gave you trouble in a match, one move at a time. It's manageable and gives you the feeling of looking for a productive answer to a recent problem, which is nice.

---
Knowing what your character's best punish is for a move is also kinda tough. In essence you have to know your punish for every punishable move in game-- wait, don't run away in terror yet! There are ways to structure this and pare it down to the essentials.

The best and most reliable way to determine a punish for a move is to just go into practice mode, record the dummy to do the move and then block after, and then -you- block the move and try your punishes.

Since this takes time, sometimes it can be faster to just look at frame data to see how negative a move is.


You have to be careful though. Some moves can be less punishable at longer ranges, or spacing can make the move you have at that speed simply not reach. Leo's d/f+2 above is a good example of both. Up close it is -13, so you have time to hit her for free with any of your moves that are 13 frames or faster. At longer ranges it is only -12 and most 12 frame moves just don't reach that far, so it becomes safe in this way.

By contrast, her d/b+4 is -31 and she's locked into this huge stagger when you block it. 31 frames is enough for you to do basically any move you have and it will connect before she can block. Since it is a low, you'd be crouching when you block it so throw out the most powerful launcher you can do from crouching.

In any case if you want to know what punishers you have, going through the whole movelist and trying all the things would be an insane work burden. Luckily Tekken has some universal structure applied to its frame data, so it's advised to learn that and then take note of any applicable exceptions.

So, remember this:
When you block a move that is 0 to -9 frames on block, most characters can't do anything so that move is safe. You still have advantage of course, so use it to pressure them.
When you block a move that is -10, most characters get a jab punish for small but relevant damage and good advantage after, so moves of this caliber or worse are unsafe.
When it's -12 or -13, characters start to get punishes for significant damage and/or knockdown.
At -14, characters get mini-launches or strong hits into knockdown.
At -15 or more, most characters get a launch into a full combo so these moves are called launch punishable.

So, how do you find your character's punishes for those numbers? Either you spend a lot of time in training mode to try all the things, or you ask more experienced players of your character. Either in person or online. Communities like Tekkenzaibatsu, tekken reddit or the tekken players on neogaf or wherever can help you. There's also various FGC discords or twitter or youtube. Look around. Find folks to connect with. Doing everything on your own is inefficient and kinda awful.

---
So lastly, executing your punish properly is just practice. Hop to it! Tekken has a pretty generous input buffer so anyone can learn to get the proper timing down with some practice. And if you mess up, don't worry. Everyone messes up at some point. Play it safe if you're not sure if you can do it, getting a weak punish but ending at advantage is sooooooo much better than failing at the perfect punish and eating a bunch of damage yourself.

---
Well, that ends this three part series on frame data (and punishing). Congratulations and thank you for sticking with it for this long if you've managed to get this far. I hope you learned something, even if just a little bit.

But in the end these are all just words and the main thing is always to play more. Play and have fun.

Also feel free to contact me for some matches or if you'd like to see more words about a specific Tekken subject or you have trouble with something.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Eliza frame data

Top player Kane posted a document with early frame data findings for Eliza:

Eliza frame data.

Early and still in progress obviously.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Tekken 7: Frame data for new players, part 2

So you're still new to Tekken, but you know that time in a fighting game is measured in 'frames'. So then you hear the veterans talk about stuff being 'plus seven' or things being 'launch punishable' or 'unsafe' or whatnot, and you want to know what that noise is about. Alternatively, you just keep getting hit by stuff, it's like all your opponent's moves are faster than yours or something. What's going on?

Well, this here is another thing you don't need to learn if you don't want to. You can figure it out yourself by playing or in training mode just fine. This bit is harder than the last one so it's fine to duck out if your eyes start glazing over.

If you're like that, here's a TLDR guideline to consider and you can be happily on your way:

If you just got hit by something, don't just mindlessly attack again. 

Think about what to do. You can block, sidestep or backdash and choose the right time to go on the offense again.

Anyway if you're the sort of person who likes to look things up instead of doing everything by themselves, this might be useful to you. Right now I'll talk about frame advantage and disadvantage and then I'll finally go over punishment in part 3.

-----
So to explain what folks mean when something is 'plus seven' or 'minus twenty-three'..

Firstly, when you hit someone with a move in Tekken, aside from doing damage you usually end up at advantage. When your move is blocked you don't do damage and you usually end up at disadvantage.

"well what's the advantage then" you ask? The advantage is time.

When you hit someone, you can usually move before them. 

When one of your moves is blocked, they can usually move before you.

Cool. How much earlier/later? Time is expressed in frames, so a certain amount of frames then.

This d/f+2 apparently leaves you -7 when it is blocked and +4 when it hits

So if that specific punch is blocked, they can move 7 frames before you. If you hit with it instead, you can move 4 frames before them. I use 'move' here, but it's really 'do anything'.

----
"I can move 4/60th of a second before them? Who cares? What is that even good for? "

Well, the move that hits earlier beats the one that comes out later. So starting earlier means your stuff is going to connect first and win.

d/f+3 is a faster move than d/f+2, faster by two frames

Imagine you just hit a guy with the d/f+2 mentioned above. You are now at advantage, and you can do stuff 4 frames before your opponent. So you do d/f+2 again and your opponent actually does a faster move, d/f+3. You're still going to win and hit him. Because you can start 4 frames earlier, and 17-4 is less than 15. And the move that hits the earliest wins.

If your frame advantage is large enough, it can even get to the point where scary slower moves like your launchers would come out earlier than (and thus beat) -any- move the opponent can do. This is an incredibly dangerous situation for them. If they attack in this situation, they will very probably lose. So are forced to respect your options.

Being able to do stuff before your opponent is very useful.  

Being at advantage is good and you can press on and try to put the hurt on your opponent. Being at disadvantage is kinda bad, and you should be mindful of how you proceed.

----
Anyway the actual numbers are very hard to gauge by eye, so that's why it's useful that you can look stuff up on frame data pages like RBNorway.

Wait, d/f+3 gives me disadvantage on hit? Maybe I should be careful about what to do afterward.

Yeah, maybe you should. Not every move that hits gives you advantage. Not every move that is blocked leaves you at disadvantage. Some things are extremely disadvantageous and using them carelessly can lose you a game. So check the details on your moves and/or your opponent's.

Or just figure it out by playing, that's fine too. Don't worry about it. Having fun playing and improving is the most important.


---
In part 3, the related but different subject of punishment.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Tekken 7: Frame data for new players

So you're a new player and you've picked up Tekken 7. You just started and the veterans start tossing all these weird numbers around, talking about frame data and linking to sites like RBNorway or Inatekken.

You take a look and are confronted by this shit:
"wtf this is like an accountancy PhD"

Sooo.. Do you need to learn all that by heart?

No. NO! Seriously, don't.

However, some of it can be useful to learn as needed.
----
Soon after you start playing you're going to run into a situation where you are wondering how fast a certain move is. For example...  Well, fast moves beat slow moves, right? Because they hit earlier. If you start at the same time. 

What's your fastest move? What's your fastest mid-hitting move? How fast is u/f+3, this spinning kick thing you like to use a lot? Those are useful things to know.

----
Frame data can be a tool to help you with this. Time in fighting games is measured in 'frames' and there are 60 frames in a second. So 'how fast' is that move you just did? Well, it can be expressed in a certain number of frames.

Start up frames are a measure of the time from the start of a move until it hits.

That jab there has 10 start up frames. It takes 10 frames for this jab to hit, so 10/60th of a second.
As a new player, all you should care about is that this is a more useful and precise way to talk about speed than nonspecific stuff like 'pretty fast i guess'.

"This move is 10 frames which means it is faster than some other move which is 15 frames. If you start both at the same time, the 10 frame one will connect first."

---
That is all. It's not too hard to understand, right? Time is best expressed in numbers, and frame data is those numbers for a fighting game.

Still, you don't need to learn frame data if you don't want to. You can figure out which moves are fast or slow by just playing, by trial and error. Or you can look at the actual numbers from time to time, as needed. Either way, you'll be okay.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Some more Eliza footage

Playstation Underground did a preview of Tekken 7, and some more Eliza footage was shown.


Not too much new stuff, but here are some observations:
-d+4(?) staggers on block
-d+3 is very evasive in this build, it crushed Paul's shredders (6:52)
-Her f,d,d/f+1 light DP traded with a low wakeup kick (5:24). I'm starting to doubt whether this version of it is invincible.
-Her d+1 crouch jab is cancellable, which seems great. Though d+1 into light DP did not combo, alas.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Eliza overview

Tekken 7's Eliza was demonstrated during Tekken Talk, from which we can extract a preliminary movelist and some combos and stuff. I can't be sure of all the inputs yet, so some guesses will be tagged with a question mark.

But first, some general remarks on Eliza.
-Just like Akuma, Eliza has a super meter. It's made up of two bars. She can spend two bars to use her super, or spend one bar to use powerful EX moves. She gains meter when hitting the opponent (also if they block), when she takes damage, or when she's sleeping.
-By holding down for a while or automatically after certain moves, Eliza can sleep. She gains meter while sleeping but is completely vulnerable. Cancelling sleep is quick.
-Like Akuma, Eliza has special moves performed with traditional motions like quarter circle forward or back. Some of her normal moves can be cancelled into these special moves, bypassing the recovery frames.
-Eliza can jump. Landing a jumping attack can get you a full combo.
-Eliza's backdash is terrible. It covers an extremely short distance.
-Eliza has a Rage Art, but no Rage Drive.

---------
Eliza preliminary command list:

b+3+4 - h(?) - Rage Art

Special moves:
qcf+1 - a stationary ground fireball
qcf+2 - a moving ground fireball
qcf+1+2 - EX fireball, costs 1 bar, looks like Geese Howard's Double Reppuuken
f,d,d/f+1 - light uppercut. You can combo after it. We don't know if it's invincible or not.
f,d,d/f+2 - heavy uppercut, three hits. No combos afterward. We don't know if it's invincible or not.
qcb+1 - light claw slash. It Screws, very useful for combos.
qcb+2 - heavy claw slash. Combo ender?
qcb+1+2 - EX claw slash, two hits, breaks the wall.
jumping qcb+3 - shallow divekick
jumping qcb+4 - steep divekick
jumping qcb+3+4 - EX divekick, two hits, second hit Screws.
qcfx2+1+2 - Super
 
1,2,4 - h,h,h - the first hit is cancellable, the last hit Screws.
1,2,3 - h,h,m - the last hit launches(?)
2,2 - h,h - cancellable
4 - h - Homing, Screw, instant screws on CH.
f+4 - Moon Glide Stance. A forward moving stance with several follow-ups.
f,d,d/f+3+4 - EX Moon Glide. Costs 1 bar. You can cancel any fireball into this move, but otherwise it is the same as normal Moon Glide.
MGS 1,2,1+2 - h(?),h,m - good combo ender.
MGS 2 - m - big mid punch, huge pushback, on hit Eliza goes to Sleep.
MGS 3,4 - First hit Homing, second hit Screw.
MGS 4 - l - a low slide.
f+1+2 - m - Power crush, Homing, wallbreak.
f,f+4,2 - h(?), m - First hit launches, second hit bounds only if the first hit connects, cancellable. Great range, TJ(?).
f,f,f+1 - h(?) - Screw.
f,f,f+3 -  m - running slash kick.
d/f+1,2,4(?) - Like 1,2,4 but starts with a mid.
d/f+2,3 - m,m - NC, launches.
d+3 - l - cancellable. Good range, TC(?). Can start a combo by cancelling into f,d,d/f+1, but it was very inconsistent in the demonstration.
d+4(?) - l - a sweep, launches on CH.
b+3(?) - Slow Homing move, TJ(?).
b+4 - m - cancellable knee.
b+2,3 - h,m
?? - a backswing blow that knocks down
?? - the second hit of d/f+2,3 used alone
?? - a hip check that knocks down
?? - advancing mid kick, strong advantage on CH(?), cancellable(?)
WS 1 - m - cancellable
WS 2 - m - knocks down
WS 3 - launches.
jumping 1
jumping 2 - combo starter
jumping 4 - combo starter
(when down, face up) 1+2 - "Endless Sleep"
2+3+4 - Taunt?
3,1,4,1,2,2,4,2,1,2 - 10-hit combo
1+3, 2+4 - throws
d/f+1+2 - command throw

-------------
Eliza sample combos:
jumping 4, 1, f,d,d/f+2
WS 3, 1,2,4 s! d+3 qcb+2
WS1 f,d,d/f+1 b+2,3 2,2 qcb+1 s! f +4~2
f,f+4,2 qcf+1 f,d,d/f+3+4~3,4 s! jumping 2 RA
jumping 2, b+4 Super f,f,f+1 s! jumping qcb+4, 1 f+4~1,2,1+2

----
Early analysis:
Without knowing how punishable her specials and normals are and if she can get a consistent combo off her low, it's hard to tell how dangerous Eliza will be. In most things she resembles Akuma, so dangerous but unsafe 50/50s, presumably great punishment especially with meter, a hopefully invincible DP, huge damage output and an unusual movement option in jumping that is pretty hard for people to adjust to.

Eliza lacks a few of Akuma's strong tools. She doesn't have an air fireball or an air homing move, she doesn't have his demon flip so of course no demon flip into throw either. She doesn't have FADC, though EX Moon Glide can substitute for Hadouken FADC at least. Her fireball seems slower. Her weak backdash means she will have a hard time with defensive movement.

On the plus side it looks like she can combo off her light DP without meter, which seems incredibly powerful. Her divekick seems better than Akuma's. Moon Glide is a fast offensive movement option. She seems to have some longer ranged moves compared to Akuma as well.

On the whole, I can't wait to play around with her in training mode. I'm so hyped!

ONE MORE MONTH

Monday, May 1, 2017

Tekken Talk tonight!

https://twitter.com/TEKKEN/status/858395627306307585

Tonight at 3 PM PDT/24:00 CEST there will be another episode of Tekken Talk on twitch.tv/tekken , showing some of the recently announced game modes and Eliza.

I'm really excited to see some Eliza gameplay footage. I'll probably do another write up of her moves after this episode is uploaded to youtube, so I can go through it at 1/4 speed. I hope they can scroll through her command list as well.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Things missing from Tekken 7


Bandai Namco recently released a trailer for Tekken 7 showing the included game modes. With that in mind I thought it would be worth mentioning some good things that earlier games have done, but that don't seem to be making it into T7.

Region Lobbies

Games like Persona and Blazblue have regional lobbies, where up to 32 people can enter a room and walk around with their avatar and chat, or line up for one of the battle stations and play other people.

It's a lovely mode that gathers up people from a region, making it convenient and quick to find decent matches even if there aren't many people online at a given time. It's a feature that has been around for years, and Bandai Namco themselves even had a (clunky and inconvenient and thus underused) version of it in Tekken Tag 2 (World Arena) and Soul Calibur 5 (Global Colosseo). But a mode like this seems to be absent from T7.

A dedicated Tutorial Mode

Don't think I need to explain this much, most modern fighting games have finally realized a nice tutorial is integral to easing new players into the game. Games like Skullgirls, Killer Instinct or Guilty Gear have great tutorials, and Blazblue CF even includes a glossary of fighting game terms. Tekken is often considered quite difficult to get into, so where is T7's tutorial? Some bits are probably integrated into the story mode, but is that really enough?

Combo challenges/Mission mode

Many people love these things, and they can give beginners a place to start learning combos and/or give experts (or trophy hunters) an interesting challenge.  Most modern games include these in some form, but T7 doesn't seem to have them.

An RPG-like mode

For making time fly by, nothing beats a mode with stats and skills and grinding and all kinds of weird restrictions and modifiers on fights. Persona has Golden Arena, Blazblue has Abyss mode, Soul Calibur has Weapon Master. I love modes like these and spend an inordinate amount of time on them, especially if there are interesting toolsets to discover and play around with like Boss mode/Unlimited characters. T7 doesn't seem to have anything like this, though Treasure Battle might offer some of the same features and fun.

Another thing we haven't seen anything of is match replays. Now I presume T7 will have some way to make replays, if not through the game itself then through things like the PS4 share button. But ideally it ought to have some detailed features included for replays.

All this may sound like I'm griping, but I'm actually really hyped for T7. It seems to have quite a lot of content, so that's good. But some of the above features will be dearly missed if they're not included, and that would be disappointing for a game we've had to wait so long for.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Gundam Versus PS4 coming to EU and US!


After it's been a long-running joke that the Gundam Versus series would never be localized, the newest PS4 one is finally coming to the west! It looks so good, i'll have to get it to show my support.

Tekken 7 game modes trailer


Bandai Namco put out a game mode trailer for Tekken 7 today (only in Japanese so far). It looks great, the game seems packed with content.

- Story mode: A main Mishima Saga, and then Character Episodes for all the side characters. It includes special fights, like Heihachi against a whole bunch of Jacks like in the Tekken 5 intro. For beginners, you can turn on an assist that gives you easy inputs for moves and lets you do decent combos by mashing one button.
- Online mode: Ranked match and Player match as expected, also a new Tournament mode that runs a double elimination bracket and has rewards like in-game currency.
- Offline mode: Arcade, Versus and Practice. Also the new Treasure Battle mode where you fight the CPU for customization items and in-game currency. It has special battles, like against a Devil Kazumi and Turbo battle.
- Customize mode: Looks much like TTT2's customization, but with more items available. If it's like the arcade version (likely), you can also use more colours per equipped item and there's new metallic colours and such. You can also customize your player card and even your lifebar.
- Gallery mode: Movies and illustrations from all previous Tekkens, including the pachislot ones and such.
- Exclusive to the PS4 version is Jukebox mode, it lets you replace the music on a stage with music form any earlier Tekken game. You can even have a different song start once someone is on winning point.
- Also exclusive to PS4 is VR mode. It's not mentioned here, but earlier statements have described it as doing the character customization up close in VR with an extra option to look at all their animations in slo-mo. Sounds like a neat extra.


Tekken 7 will also have three DLC packs, the first of which will include an extra game mode and a costume set. At this point it's unknown what that game mode will be, but personally i would guess something like Tekken Force or Tekken Ball or a similar well-defined side mode.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Tekken tidbits: Dealing with Lili's flip

Lili's df3+4 flip is very powerful. It has good range, lowcrushes and launches on hit. On block she ends up in back-turned at distance 0-1 and, depending on spacing, at anything from minor advantage to minor disadvantage.

Here are her common options after it, followed by my suggestions for what to do after you block a flip:
- d1: The most common option. Fast, highcrushes, can catch people trying to step. Also picks up the combo on hit. If i recall correctly, d4 also picks up the combo in T7 so it will serve the same function.
- ~db: The safe option. Depending on spacing there may not be much you can do. ~db ~WS2 is dangerous and can launch you for trying to push buttons after blocking a flip.
- 1 or 1,2: Fast highs with good range. Can also pick up the combo on hit.
- d3+4: long range unsafe low. Is homing in T7.
- 1+2 or 2: fast safe mid launcher/CH launcher. Try not to get hit by this.
So in general, in back-turned she has dangerous safe mids, weak lows and not the best tracking.

So good options do do after blocking a flip are, in my opinion:
-backdash: It avoids many options including the single most common one and you can do a strong punish. d3+4 will chase you down but you won't die from it.
-block: Her BT mixup is weak because her lows are not threatening. Block the BT move, you'll have advantage and then you can swing at her.
-hopkick (or orbital): It destroys the most common option and will force them to rethink what they're doing because of the damage. If you have a strong hopkick it will even chase down the ~db option and make them really sad. This will lose to 1 or 1,2 though.

You can also sidestep, it beats quite a few options. Down jab will interrupt quite a few options as well. Don't do jabs after blocking a flip, they lose to almost everything. If you must swing at it, do a fast mid or hopkick or down jab.

Hope it helps.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

On tierlists, an argument made in jest

Following an earlier discussion, I felt I should properly elucidate my earlier position on tier lists. By playing Devil's Advocate lol.

I don't think it's entirely water-tight to be honest. Made some logic jumps so I actually changed my mind on it (see post script) but I think I have a pretty decent argument here. Refute me, dear readers, find the faults. All in good fun, of course.

---
A tier list, in fighting games, is a ordered list of most or all the characters in a certain game, ordered by character strength. By character strength, we mean the ability for a certain character to win. So a tier list is a certain person's opinion on which characters in a fighting game have overall the best chances to win.

Now:

1. People choose their own character in a fighting game for a variety of reasons, all of which are equally valid.
1a. Some people primarily choose their character because of their ability to win.
1b. Other considerations may still factor into the decision, one can choose a character that has the ability to win AND looks appealing to you for example.
1c. Conversely, some people primarily choose their character for reasons other than them being able to win. Aesthetic considerations, such as the fighter's looks or personality may be most important to these people. Or perhaps they don't care much about winning, or have a poor understanding of what makes a character powerful.

2. People as in (1c) evaluate characters primarily on attributes irrelevant to winning.
2a. As such, their tier lists will less objectively list characters ordered by the ability to win.
2b. As such, their tier lists are of lesser value to a discussion about character strength.

3. (Non-matchup) Tier lists normally include the author's own character.

If the author's own character is not in the top group of their tier list, it stands to reason to then ask "Why did you pick a character you think is weak? Why don't you play these characters that you say are stronger?"

In my opinion, the reasons for a situation such as this are:
- When evaluating characters, the author does not primarily care about their ability to win. In this case, their tier list is of low value.
- The author cares primarily about a character's ability to win, but he picked a weaker character anyway. That's dumb. Tier lists from dumb people are of low value.
- The author is duplicitous. While they care primarily about a character's ability to win and they secretly believe their character to give them the best chance of winning, their tier list does not bear this out.* A dishonest tier list is also of low value.

*This is commonly known as 'down-playing'. The reasons for this may include a need to make themselves out to be a better player for supposedly doing so well with a weaker character, or a fear of their character getting nerfed in a patch if they admit their strength.


Conclusion
The position of the author's own character in a tier list can give the reader information about the validity of the tier list as a whole. If their own character is low on the list, in my opinion that list is rarely worth paying attention to.

Recommendation
Downplaying is a plague that makes tier lists virtually useless. Be honest about your character instead.



Post Script
Honestly, my current position could more fairly be stated as 
1. Tournament players care about winning
2. As such, their character choice is strongly influenced by that character's chance to win
3. If by their own admission in their own tier list someone is playing a weak character, they may be downplaying or just an idiot
4. Downplaying reduces the value of a tier list, because it is then an ordered list in the incorrect order. How can you know any of it is right?
5. Being an idiot also reduces the value of your tier list. Idiots might be right sometimes but you can't depend on it, you know =P
Conclusion: If someone's character is low on their tier list, approach said list with caution and a pinch of salt.

This I actually stand by, no problem.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Tekken 7 pre-release events in Europe

Bandai Namco has decided to finally do some Tekken 7 events in Europe. So far, sadly nothing has been announced for the Netherlands (or Germany).

See below for all the info. It looks like the UK is getting multiple tournaments culminating in a sort of pre-release championship, while the France + 1 Belgium events are 'previews'. Unsure what that means. I hope they'll do one in the Netherlands too, maybe Dutch Comic Con would be a good place for it? But i'll probably try to attend the one in Belgium in any case. Gent isn't that far and perhaps they'll have some kind of competition format anyway.



Friday, February 10, 2017

EU TekkenGAF stream


Got together with the NeoGAF guys and played a bunch of Tekken.

EU Tekkengaf stream.

Surprised at how well i did with Raven. A lot better than even with Alisa and Lili. Perhaps i should focus on that character and make everyone else secondary.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

New SFV character: Kolin


As everybody predicted, Street Fighter V's new character is the Russian ice lady from story mode. Her toolset looks pretty interested so I'll definitely at least try her out. So far I've not found a character in SF5 that really agrees with me, perhaps this time it will work out.

From the trailer, she has:

- Her v-reversal is a roll that goes through the opponent. Follows up with a throw, not sure if canned or a normal one.
- lp mp hp looks like a target combo, much like Ibuki's.
- EX punchy special is special cancellable or something. One time she goes into EX snowballs, and another she does this backtwirl special and then jump cancels it? This all seems pretty unusual. The EX version of the twirl into dash goes through fireballs too. Definitely some moves to investigate thoroughly, they seem complicated.
- She seems to have some fun counters. I think it's her v-skill, if hit with something while it comes out it goes into canned throw animations.
- She has an air special move that makes her double jump.
- She has some kind of ice projectile that comes from above, mostly seems strong for okizeme.

Pretty hard to determine her gameplan from this information. She obviously has some mobility tools to help her get around zoning. When inside, she presumably does the whole frametrap/throw game because.. that's how SF5 is. On defense and while playing footsies, she adds counters to the usual proceedings to discourage folks from throwing things out. Might be able to juke out of things with her mobility tools too.

Pretty unusual toolset. Interested to see how it works out.

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11/2 Edit: Capcom uploaded her movelist.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Core-A Gaming: Why Buffs are better than Nerfs


Great video from Core-A Gaming, and one I very much agree with.

I think the essence of playing a fighting game is to find cool/strong stuff for the character you like, and then try to get away with imposing it on your opponent. Whenever a character gets buffed they're adding more fun things to do, especially if it's actual new moves and such. Conversely, whenever someone gets nerfed it's almost like they're taking away actual content. The adjustment period you will need to take is a poor substitute, because being forced to practice using lesser tools is just not all that enjoyable.

I think the best approach is taken in games that give every character extremely strong tools, but then make sure there are powerful generic defensive options on top of that.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Tekken 7 Eliza trailer analysis

So after Eliza was announced as a preorder bonus character for Tekken 7 on monday, yesterday we got her trailer at the EVO games announcement stream.



I'm really excited for her inclusion, so here's some analysis on how her moves changed from TR/are now. Of course this is all speculation from a limited source, so don't sue me when i get something wrong.

Firstly, her moveset looks very different overall. Much like Akuma, Eliza gets a 2D game style jump and a super meter. And most of her returning moves seem to be revamped. In the trailer I see:

00:27 df2,3 1,2,4 s! qcf2
-df2 used to be a safe 15f counterhit launcher, this looks to be a two hit normal hit launcher? Good buff if so, especially if the df2 still works on its own as well. Recovery on the 3 looks long, probably punishable.
-Second part kinda looks like df1,2,4 which would be weird since df1 didn't have followups. Going with 1,2,4 for now. The 4 screws, no big surprise there.
-Her qcf2 fireball is A LOT faster than before. You used to be able to go into moon glide after it and get a combo, but it looks like now you need meter to do it. Probably the price to pay for the fireball being actually usable.

00:32 She gets a stationary fireball too, probably qcf1?
00:34 A new Sleep mode, but on the ground this time? The old Sleep would give you a followup to glide 1,2 and s-l-o-w-l-y regenerate your health.
00:37 f+1+2 is a homing power crush that wallsplats. Looks faster than the old one, which was a very slow homing move that knocked away very far on normal hit, launched on counterhit and was punishable on block. It had some highcrush properties on the later frames.
Followup with b1,2,4 which is her standard wall ender.

00:45 Jump-in 4, 1, cancel into new rising claw special
-Like Akuma, she can get combos off jump-ins.
-1 is cancellable by special moves, like Akuma. Strong buff for her 10 frame punisher, it used to be only a weak 1,2.
-The rising claw looks like a dragon punch, probably f,d,df2? Three hits, no idea if it's invincible or not.

00:48 Jump-in 2, a new knee, cancel into a one hit rising claw, pickup with d3, cancel into a new claw slash special move that screws, glide 2
-She totally crushes a mid with that jump-in.
-New knee looks like uf4 but isn't, it's not as high off the ground. Hope it doesn't replace her generic df4 because that would be missed. It cancels into what's probably f,d,df1.
-Getting a pickup after is pretty sick. With d3 being special cancellable it means her low game, which was incredible poor before, is now probably pretty dangerous.
-The claw slash smells like a qcb1. It screws! Neat!

00:52 It's her 1 throw with a new takedown animation.

00:56 A shallow angle divekick with 3! It knocks down. Maybe only on counterhit? Seems like a strong tool.
00:58 A low out of glide, that's great. Glide 4 probably. It knocks down as well.
00:59 EX divekick from the ground, what?! Looks like an automatic followup kick that screws, then a new hip check move to end the combo.

01:01 uf4,2 cancel into qcf1, cancel into EX glide, new spinkicks out of glide that screw, dash EX fireball
-uf4,2 looks the same. It still bounds. Cancels into specials (or just fireball?) now rather than being a canned followup.
-Suddenly EX glide. f3+4 for the command perhaps? Normal glide is f4. This seems to be how you followup fireball now, only with meter.
-New spinkicks out of glide. Glide 3,4 perhaps? Is a homing move, looks like a high.
-EX fireball is Geese's double reppuuken. Sick.

01:11 ws1 cancel into EX claw slash, wall break, steep angle divekick with 4, new 3,1 string that screws, dash, new knee move cancel into divekick with 3.
-So she has two divekicks, a shallow and a steep one.
-New 3,1 string is good. Standing 3 was useless before.

01:18 It's her old invincible move, b3. Now just a lowcrushing long ranged homing move it looks like.

01:19 Giant reppuuken, dash, another new screw move, divekick, new 222 string
-This looks like her super. It's a lot like her old slow unblockable qcf1+2 fireball in that it launched up like that. Doubt it's unblockable though.
-Another screw move. Okay. I'll take it.
-Divekick comes out of a forward jump here it looks like? So not just a grounded special that backjumps for you, as could be concluded from earlier instances.

01:32 It's her Rage Art. Comes out of a flying knee, looks like she has good range on it.

In all, tons of changes on Eliza. She's basically an entirely new (and probably stronger) character and i can't wait to try her out.