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.

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.

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.

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.

Nobi vs Tokido in T7FR

Rematch of Nobi and Tokido in Tekken 7 Fated Retribution. I suspect Nobi's taking it easy again, to make it more interesting to watch.

On a related note, I am so happy T7 finally has a release window on console. It's going to be hard waiting for "early 2017" though.

Injustice 2 sure looks like Injustice

I'm not sure why I expected any better. Same kind of janky animations, same overly long stage transitions, and of course Supergirl's face looks like shit.

Content-wise I think we can probably expect more of the same NRS stuff too. Lots of blockstrings dealing very high chip damage or leaving you at advantage, incredibly strong vortexes everywhere, huge strength differences between characters, patches every two weeks that completely change how half the cast is played, DLC characters that are so top tier they dominate the first few tournaments they're allowed at but get nerfed once everyone has bought them.

And now you get to enjoy all that -and- loot crates!


From what I saw at the ESL season 3 finals, I don't like how NRS games look when they're played at high level. Those games probably just aren't for me.

Playing Haehyun in Guilty Gear

Haehyun is available now in the EU. Sadly not free as previously reported, it's 7 euro to purchase her. Fairly steep for a character and I can look forward to another 7 euro for Dizzy later on I guess. Oh well.

Quite like how she (It's a girl piloting a robot looking like an old man, so not 'he' ^.^ ) plays. She's a link based character so I was afraid that was going to be too hard, but it's fine so far. More or less. Of course she has some high level techniques that are actually really hard, but that's the same for a large part of the cast.

Watch me get mauled by a fellow NeoGAF member: