Japanese ST Player Report Up

[nohoho]

I've finished my Japanese SSF2T player report. Go check it out!
http://curryallergy.blogspot.com/
(Links on the left sidebar.)

Even if you can't read Japanese, so long as you have the fonts on your computer (free for all modern operating systems, btw) you could maybe match up players with the on-screen names on the X-Mania gaiden/VII dvds?

Part 5 includes some ancient history that I hope people find interesting. There's a big gap in my notes stretching from 1995 through 1999. If I get more information I may someday add Namek Cammy, MontecarlRou Honda, Kurohyou ("Black Panther") Claw (<- another elite female player), better information about Rikiya Zangief, etc.

Part of the problem is that, in the early days, tournament coverage went by players' real names as opposed to nick names. And since I don't know who's who (nor would I want to post real names) it gets tricky...


Just for fun, here's a draft of the copy for Taira Dictator. More or less a translation of a 2ch post, this was just too over-the-top:

Staking his claim on the crusty SF2 scene,
the standard bearer of a new generation,
a ray of hope beaming towards the future,
this can be only Taira Dictator.

Even though he started playing very recently, Taira progressed with unbelievable speed, catching up to Emperor YuuVega himself. Was he born with some kind of great talent? Is it the fruit of unflagging determination? A combination of the two? His play style is incredibly polished and flexible: while he's got a shade less destructive power than Yuu, in exchange, he demonstrates a lot more stability. Has he transfigured Dictator, a "gambling character," into a dependable winner? From now on, we won't take our eyes off this bright new star.

[Graham]

hehe its interesting to see their view of chars, which matches my brothers and my own view of bison.

Actually ive been messing around with st bison and watching some stuff and created a dependable style but its hard to master. would take more practice on bison.

[NKI]

Great stuff nohoho! If I could rep you again, I would.

[felineki]

Awesome feature nohoho. Lots of interesting info there, great work.

Found the reference to Gotoh playing VH interesting. Does it still get much play in Japan? Around here VS seems to get all the play for the series.

ASCII Dhalsim... :rofl:

[fatboy]

Snip....
Wow! That was very cool! It is very cool to see a player summary like that. It reminds of of the old shinakuma.com for the US players. I can't say for sure (casue I had nothing to do with it), but you must have spend some time on that. Thanks! :tup:

Great stuff nohoho! If I could rep you again, I would.

Agreed!:wgrin:

[~TeN~]

Nice Job!

[nohoho]

Thanks bruddahs. Random plug: some of the information came from now-defunct web pages via the "wayback machine." Quite an amazing service they've got:
http://www.archive.org/index.php

felineki:
There were two big VH events (that I know of) in 2006: Nagoya Space Shuttle in February and Tokyo Sega West in August. Gotoh Aulbath got 4th at the former. Dude plays VS, too. On a related meta note: Gotoh Ryu lost to SIN (VS player: QB) ... Honda (!) last week at a-cho. Madness.

Re: something ANaqvi wrote "in the house" a month ago:
I would have to add a dictator player named RYU to the list. Him and YuuVega actually got in a set which ended in a tie. RYU has an insane dictator as well...

My sense of the field of dictator players goes like this:

S-class: Yuu, Taira
A-class: MoreVega, Kimomaru
B-class: ryu, Onucho, Shikkusu, Leynos

Señor ryu is a terrific dic player, no doubt, and he totally dominates EVERYONE in his own stomping grounds (somewhere to the northwest of tokyo, I think.) But he's less consistent in tokyo events and, especially, nationals: except for a couple of wins vs. fellow dictator players (watabiki in 2001, onucho in 2003) he's never made it past the first round at x-mania.

[geadom]

I respect you opinions a lot, Nohoho.. so..

Can you give 'your' sense of field for all players/characters, like NKI did? Your report is MAD good, but i would like to hear your own opinions..

THX in advance :D

[nohoho]

Don't forget that NKI clocked in a lot of time actually playing with quite a few of these cats. Whereas I've let my fingers do the walking? I think you have to go to More and watch Tamashima (and co) wreck people in casuals like NKI to have a proper sense.

Briefly, though, my picks:
as a bookie: Otochun, Muteki, D
Best of the best.

as a movie hound: Mattsun, Taira, Pony, Mayakon, Aniken, etc.
Always entertaining.

as a Blanka player: Komoda
WWKD?

[nohoho]

Here are some RUMORED teams for this year's SBO. The first one is pretty solid -- Aniken announced it on his blog -- take the rest with a grain of salt.

Aniken (ST Ken) & ShootingD (ST Ryu)
Tsuji (ST Box) & YuuVega (ST Dic)
Otochun (ST Chun) & Komoda (ST Blanka)
Taira (ST Dic) & Shiro (ST Ryu)
Tamashima (ST Box) & Kikai (CE Guile)
Noguchi (ST Fei or Claw) & Hakase (ST Sim)
Kurahashi (CE Guile) & Nuki (ST Chun)
Kusumondo (ST Honda) & Danjiri Dhalsim (ST Sim)
Tasaka (S Cammy) & Inro (S Chun)
Muteki (CE Guile) & Shiki (ST Boxer)
Gian (ST Sim) & Tokido (CE Dictator)
yaya (CE Sagat) & Daigo (ST Ryu)

Random notes:
Tasaka and Inro have teamed up with O.Cammy and O.Chun in the past.

Muteki has supposedly been working on his CE Guile.

I guess the rules prohibit identical characters? They should make an exception for Toutanki and K....

[Hol Horse]

Kurahashi (CE Guile)
Muteki (CE Guile)
yaya (CE Sagat)

I smell old-school rape


I guess the rules prohibit identical characters? They should make an exception for Toutanki and K....

well, maybe Super Hawk and Super+Start (Old) Hawk are considered different characters? The logo at the bottom is slightly different...

[stream3]

just want to say your blog is sweet. player bios are great, as well as the win-totals. Keep it up.

[felineki]

I can't get over how awesome The 48 Killing Arts of Yoga is. It's got everything... gameplay tips, info on key players in the early SF2 scene, and plenty of humor.

[epsilon_]

gian & tokido @_@

kuharashi and nuki also @_@

[Footsy Bebop]

just for fun, if japan had to send a three man team out, who do you think would be japan's top 3 for ST?
From what I've seen I say Otochun, Gian, Daigo. maybe Tsuji or Tamashima too just cuz Boxer is too strong in ST.

[geadom]

Otochun, Tsuji, Gian << Too dope.
Aniken and Kurahashi also may be in. :d

[r3ko]

Any 3 or these players would do. Otochun, Gian, Komodo, Arg and Yuu vega

[Shin Touyokouzan]

Wow man, That was pure ownage. Thanks dude

[nohoho]

felineki - Have you tried the Yoga Fure! Fure!? I assumed that YSB was just BS'ing there but... heh... so goofy.


In other news -- here's a recent tourney result. Dara isn't running a Grand Master Challenge series this year but they are having some events at UFO to get the Kansai crew warmed up for SBO.

Nagase Cup 3 - March 25, 2007

38 Entrants

1st: Shikkusu (CE Dictator)
2nd: Danjiri Dhalsim (ST)
3rd: ABC (CE Ryu)
4th: Kachu (ST Claw) & Love-Love Atsushi (O.ST Ken)

Some highlights:
postman (ST Box) beat ShootingD (ST Ryu)
Gian (ST Sim) beat postman
ABC beat Gian
Kashiwa (Classic Guile) beat Otochun (ST)
Love-Love beat Kusumondo (ST Honda)
Doshirouto (CE Guile) beat Gunze (ST Gief)
Danjiri beat Tsuji (ST Box)

Kimomaru (ST Dic) beat Kurenai no Buta (CE Guile) (SBO Fist champ, heh)
Nan (ST Ken) (VS Bulleta player, maybe) beat Mori (CE Sagat)

Notes:
ABC & Shikkusu <-- SBO teammates, maybe. Gak.

[psychochronic]

felineki - Have you tried the Yoga Fure! Fure!? I assumed that YSB was just BS'ing there but... heh... so goofy.


In other news -- here's a recent tourney result. Dara isn't running a Grand Master Challenge series this year but they are having some events at UFO to get the Kansai crew warmed up for SBO.

Nagase Cup 3 - March 28, 2007

38 Entrants

1st: Shikkusu (CE Dictator)
2nd: Danjiri Dhalsim (ST)
3rd: ABC (CE Ryu)
4th: Kachu (ST Claw) & Love-Love Atsushi (O.ST Ken)

Some highlights:
postman (ST Box) beat ShootingD (ST Ryu)
Gian (ST Sim) beat postman
ABC beat Gian
Kashiwa (Classic Guile) beat Otochun (ST)
Love-Love beat Kusumondo (ST Honda)
Doshirouto (CE Guile) beat Gunze (ST Gief)
Danjiri beat Tsuji (ST Box)

Kimomaru (ST Dic) beat Kurenai no Buta (CE Guile) (SBO Fist champ, heh)
Nan (ST Ken) (VS Bulleta player, maybe) beat Mori (CE Sagat)

Notes:
ABC & Shikkusu <-- SBO teammates, maybe. Gak.

This is pretty good stuff! Are there any videos of this? Good stuff on the Japanese ST Player Report! You thinking of making a player report of players outside of Japan? :tup:

[nohoho]

Yeah movies should be forthcoming. They had a team battle later and Aniken got ten wins in a row (incl. vs. tsuji and kimomaru) with O.Ken.

Here's an updated list of SBO teams supposedly from the latest issue of Tougeki Spirits: (this is second hand, I don't have the mag myself)

Aniken (ST Ken) & ShootingD (ST Ryu)
Tsuji (ST Box) & YuuVega (ST Dic)
Taira (ST Dic) & Shiro (ST Ryu)
KKY (ST Sim) & Kikai (CE Guile)
Noguchi (ST Claw) & Hakase (ST Sim)
Kurahashi (ST Ryu) & Nuki (ST Chun)
Kusumondo (ST Honda) & Danjiri (ST Sim)
Tasaka (ST Cammy) & Inro (S Chun)
Muteki (CE Guile) & Chamu (ST Chun)
Gian (ST Sim) & Tokido (ST Claw)
yaya (ST Sagat) & Kawa (ST Guile)
Yoshimura (ST Sim) & Umechin (ST Ryu)
Toutanki (O.ST Hawk) & K (ST Fei)
Maoh (C Guile) & Pyonkichi (CE Ryu)
ABC (CE Ryu) & Six (CE Dic)
Gotoh (ST Ryu) & Mi (O.ST Ken)

[psychochronic]

That's good stuff, Well, if you are gonna make an international section of player reports, I'll be more than happy to help out! :tup:

[nohoho]

Yeah I hesitated at first 'cause I was envisioning flame wars but an international player report is a great idea. I'm thinking if you could find a representative / team captain (or two: one to drop knowledge on old school, one for modern scene?) and hit them up with an interview/questionnaire that might be a good approach? We would need a local liason or some other third party to translate. Tianyuan (Fist of the North Star God) said he might be able to liaise with chinese and hk players. It'd be a big project. Probably warrants a new thread for brainstorming? What other countries are sending SBO HSF teams?

Made a blog post re: those nagase movies.

btw - SBO is going to allow character switching this year (I think.) So Tokido telling Arcadia writers that he's using Claw doesn't mean much. heh

[psychochronic]

^^
I'll see what I can do.

[nohoho]

I posted the video for the 48 Killing Arts of Yoga:
http://curryallergy.blogspot.com/

Elsewhere...
ABC (CE Ryu) and Six (CE Dictator) won the SBO qualifiers @ Nagase UFO, besting some of the top Kansai players. Those two are already looking like one of the teams to beat.

PS whoa psycho that new av is dope

[SweetJohnnyV]

That 48 KAOY video is awesome! Thanks a lot nohoho:tup:

[Sanjuro_The_Ronin]

Hey nohoho, do you know if the yoga vanish and the yoga reset only works on SF2 Classic or can it work on CE or HF?

[psychochronic]

Elsewhere...
ABC (CE Ryu) and Six (CE Dictator) won the SBO qualifiers @ Nagase UFO, besting some of the top Kansai players. Those two are already looking like one of the teams to beat.

PS whoa psycho that new av is dope

Is/will there be footage of SBO5 qualifiers within the upcoming weeks? This Nagase UFO qualifier looks good. Who else played in that qualifier?
My avatar is the kang! :lovin:

EDIT: I'm making the assumption that Nagase UFO took place on the 8th. Is that place the same name as Play Spot UFO/Long Shoal UFO? Any idea who won the Play City Calotte on the 14th?

[nohoho]

Sanjuro - I think those are classic only but I'm not 100% sure.

psycho -
No vids this time it seems.
Finals were:
1st ABC + Six
2nd Otochun + Komoda
Team name: Beauty and the Beast
3rd D + Aniken
4th Kachu (DJ?Claw?) and Kuni (Gief?DJ? don't know)
5th Tasaka (Cammy) and Inro (O.Chun)
These two got first in their block beating Kusumondo/DanjiriDhal and Macky7/Gunze along the way. Not bad.

There are some pics. Aniken and D looking mighty serious. (2nd pic, sitting down on the left)
http://streetfighter.jugem.jp/?eid=89

[wakeupsweep]

Man, good work on the report, it's nice to have players to look up to, but damn... what's wrong with guile's art? :wasted:

[zass]

This is a great list of the Japanese players!

There's a couple that I didn't see on your list

Claw:

MORE Vega. This is the best Claw player I've ever seen, period. I used to think that Claw vs Boxer was an unwinnable fight for Claw. I fought him 20 games in a row and didn't win a round. He also decimates Dictator players.

Chun Li:

Akishima. I saw you mentioned he retired?? Please say it ain't so. My sempai :sad:

Blanka:

I don't know his name, but he's a very very famous and good Blanka player in Tokyo (I met him around 1999). He had a very detailed Japanese web page on Blanka. He has (or had) long shaggy hair.. kind of looked like Blanka :)

T Hawk:

I've forgotten his name, but I'm sure Japanese players will know who I'm talking about. He was staple of the Shibuya Kaikan arcade, along with Yoshimi and Tencho. Student at Todai. We'd play Hawk vs Hawk for hours.. always a fun match!

Ken:

Yoshimi. How in the hell can Yoshimi be missing from this list! I remember explaining to the American delegation how brutal new ken was before SBO1. No one believed me! And then Yoshimi/Akishima/KKY made it to 2nd place. Yoshimi went from a random Ken that one day told me "Mou dame. Kattenai. ZETTAI kattemasen" (after I'd beaten him about 10 games in a row with Boxer) to someone I considered lucky to win a round from. I also consider him a great friend :)

Dictator:

Makoto. A clothes designer and another staple of Shibuya Kaikan. A great Dictator player, who played tirelessly with Yoshimi and Tencho. I must have played at least a thousand games of Dictator vs Boxer with him.

Julien Beasley

[nohoho]

wakeupsweep - It's a photoshop (not by me) of a still from an anime called Akagi.

zass - Thank you for a great post. So cool to have a scoop like this.


MORE Vega. [more bal? sky high claw?]

Akishima.

Yoshimi.

I'm pretty sure these three weren't active in 06. People on 2ch love(/hate) Tamashima so they keep his name in circulation even when he's not playing but other folks don't get discussed that much.


Blanka:

I don't know his name, but he's a very very famous and good Blanka player in Tokyo (I met him around 1999). He had a very detailed Japanese web page on Blanka. He has (or had) long shaggy hair.. kind of looked like Blanka :)

Kind of crazy that you mention this, because a Blanka strategy guide with Harahi's web page as a base is a future project for my blog. Moreso than Komoda vids that Harahi page was my inspiration for trying to put together a serious Blanka game.

T Hawk:

I've forgotten his name, but I'm sure Japanese players will know who I'm talking about. He was staple of the Shibuya Kaikan arcade, along with Yoshimi and Tencho. Student at Todai. We'd play Hawk vs Hawk for hours.. always a fun match!

Inomata? He might have been the third O.Hawk (w/ Toutanki and K) but couldn't make it to X-Mania 7 because of a schedule conflict.

"Mou dame. Kattenai. ZETTAI kattemasen"

MIT produced the dirtiest boxer players in the world!

[zass]

Kind of crazy that you mention this, because a Blanka strategy guide with Harahi's web page as a base is a future project for my blog. Moreso than Komoda vids that Harahi page was my inspiration for trying to put together a serious Blanka game.


Yes! Harahi, that's him!! A really nice guy with a perfect knowledge of Blanka. So quiet, so unassuming, and yet he rips through people like wet toilet paper. That's so great that you know who he is! This sounds silly, but it makes me really happy to meet another person who knows about him!! I really feel that he is an unsung hero of Japan. Boxer vs Blanka is one of the easiest fights for Boxer to win, but Harahi wins it!
Now that I think about it, I think I always called him Hirahi. I guess he was such a nice guy that he never corrected me.


MORE Vega. [more bal? sky high claw?]


More Balrog, yes. A very quiet guy, and despised (in the Shibuya Kaikan crowd). But an amazing Claw player. I don't know the nickname Sky High Claw. He was called More Balrog.



Inomata? He might have been the third O.Hawk (w/ Toutanki and K) but couldn't make it to X-Mania 7 because of a schedule conflict.


This player (that I'm thinking of) played new Hawk. It's very possible he's not active anymore.

Thank you for the post. I can't tell you how many memories this is bringing back. I feel this fire in my belly.. I have this absolutely burning desire to play ST now. I wish there was a place I could play it. In Seattle, arcades are dead!

[Ouroborus]

More Balrog, yes. A very quiet guy, and despised (in the Shibuya Kaikan crowd). But an amazing Claw player. I don't know the nickname Sky High Claw. He was called More Balrog.




whys he despised??

[zass]

whys he despised??

Well, when I lived in Japan, playing Claw or O. Sagat was considered "weak". I guess it's pretty close to being considered "cheap" in the US.

Time out
Way back in the mesozoic era (1994), there were big debates on a.g.sf2 about "cheapness". After many many arguments, it was agreed that nothing is cheap, and no character is cheap, except for Akuma (for reasons outside the scope of this post). I agreed with this philosophy, and happily repeated tick threw opponents over and over again over the years.
Time in

When I moved to Japan, I found to my suprise that no one played O Sagat! There was a couple of new Sagats, but no old ones. Also, no Claws! None except one who was really good at MORE arcade.

For my first year or two in Japan, I didn't really speak to Japanese players or know them very well. I played some A3, some A2, a bit of ST, but most of my time was spent playing Everquest :). Finally, after several years, I found a little arcaded called Shibuya Kaikan, safe from the ravages of Kurahashi and More Balrog, and I started playing there regularly. I know this sounds like a scrubbish thing to say, but at this arcade I could win 5 or 6 games in a row without too much work, unlike MORE where every single round had to be won from blood, sweat, and tears. Anyways, I started to recognize the players there, and they me. The first one to talk to me was a ken player called Yoshimi, who kept trying this incredibly annoying trap based on jumping jab.

After a few weeks, I knew most of the regulars by name, and I started talking to them. I also noticed that if I played Boxer, Hawk, Chun Li, or Ryu, people would play against me a lot. However, when I played Claw, I didn't get a lot of competition. Usually I'd win and then people would play on another machine (there were 2-3 head to head machines). So I'd win the game with Claw, and then move to another machine.

I finally asked Yoshimi what was going on. When I mentioned the name "Claw", he got this grimace on his face. He explained that Claw was an easy character to play, and not fun to play against. I thought this was a little wierd, because I don't think that ken's jumping jab, low short x 2, and then either DP or knee bash trick is very fun either. And I actually thought that Claw required skill. After all, I won a tournament at Game in Namiki with him.

Time out
To this day, this is the achievement I am the most proud of in SF. Not B2, or B3, or Sunnyvale Golfland tourneys, or any of the money matches or road trips or anything that I did in the US, but winning the weekly ST tournament at this arcade called Game in Namiki. I'm sure no one has heard of it, but this was the arcade where I met Tamashima, and he worked with me on my Boxer. It's the arcade where Akishima showed the US delegation how to do walk up, low forward, super with Chun li. This arcade had weekly ST tournaments, and I usually finished smack dab in the middle of the pack. But I won it once!!
Time in

Anyways, I felt that Claw required skill. Especially when I saw More Balrog dominate matches that I had thought were impossible (Claw vs Dictator, Claw vs Boxer). But I was also a stranger in a strange land, and I didn't want to disrupt the "wa" with my play. I was happy that I had found an environment with dedicated ST players, players that knew me, talked to me, and discussed strategy with me (Unlike MORE arcade where I was a quiet observer). I did not want to jeopardize this just to win more games with Claw. So I quietly retired my Claw and focused on Boxer, and, with the help and encouragement of the most amazing Chun player (Akishima) I had ever seen, Chun Li.

I never saw anyone play Claw except for MORE Balrog at MORE. Whenever he did well at tournaments, I would hear a kind of "meh" reaction from other players. "After all, he's playing Claw". I didn't really hear the same from O. Sagat, but there was only one O. Sagat player, a friend of Daigo's. Maybe it was because he played with Daigo, or because he was a regular at a different arcade, but I never heard the same *explicit* derision towards O. Sagat that I heard towards Claw. But in general, there were no more than one Claw or O Sagat players at X-Mania, the major ST tournament.

Looking back, I have to say that this play environment was much more enjoyable than the US play environment. When I played in the US, there was invariably a Boxer, Dictator, or O. Sagat dominating the machine. I actually learned Boxer because I felt I had no other choice. Most of my ST play was focused on these matchups.

In Japan, the lack of O. Sagat was a very nice experience (for me). I felt like I could play Hawk and be "only" an underdog, instead of having no chance at all. I felt like I could experiment with new characters from time to time. Getting raped by Kurahashi's guile was more of an educational experience like "Oh, I can't use my stand fierce here because I get hit by this move", as opposed to the US where it felt like "Yep, had to block a low tiger again. Now that's an expected loss of 10% life before I can get a blocked rush". I came to appreciate this "lower powered" environment. I felt like I got to explore the game space of all the middle tier and lower tier matchups. I liked it, beacause I got to appreciate how interesting and fun these matchups were, and I could pick a character without thinking about the O. Sagat factor.

O. Sagat was my bugbear, but I can see how Claw would be for others. I don't know why people didn't have this reaction with Boxer. When I asked Yoshimi about it, he said that it took skill to win with Boxer, a lot more skill than O. Sagat and Claw. Personally, I didn't mind.. it gave me a character I could win with when I was sick of learning with Chun :).

Sorry for the long winded answer! I guess it turned into more an old man's diatribe. I can see myself in a nursing home, in my rocking chair, mumbling about ST and Game in Namiki tournaments from 1999 :rofl:

I realize that was a very long winded answer, sorry! I

[Professor Jones]

zass : very interesting posts !

I don't know if cheap is the right word, but some match ups are more or less in the favor of a character, which means that one of the players will have to "work" harder that the other in order to win.

The way I define cheap is : easy to do/use and very effective. Claw's wall dive tricks definitely correspond to that definition.

However there's one thing that bugs me : AFAIK ST is the only fighting game that has had (and apparently, still has) soft bans on "cheap" characters (claw and o sagat) in Japan. In all the other fighting games the best characters and techniques are normally used, no matter how cheap they are. Maybe it's because ST players are more old school, and new school players don't care about playing cheap characters...

[Footsy Bebop]

zass where do you play now? are you still in tokyo?

[nohoho]

zass - Thank you for dropping more knowledge! Fascinating stuff.

I'm convinced that if O.Sagat were more popular in Japan players like Aniken, Mattsun, Muteki, Mayakon, Toutanki* would have all quit (or gravitated to Boxer, Dhalsim, Claw) and we -- meaning the international ST community -- would be worse off.

[* oh, btw he went by a different nickname back in 99. Tatanhontokanantoka... I forget. Could this be who you meant in the earlier post?]

About a year ago NKI made a post on Takiba's bbs urging Muteki and co. to come to the EVO. Muteki said he can't travel to tourneys much (even to go to Osaka) but why the fuck would he want to take that long flight just to play Guile vs. O.Sagat all day? Stay home and chill with Chamu, Muteki! Maybe someday we'll figure out that O.Sagat is bullshit...

Could you post a little more Namiki scoop? Did you get a chance to play against Tanaka O.Ryu, Takiba Dhalsim, Bonus Blanka (how did he compare to Harahi?), Ken-O/Gian (how much has his Dhalsim matured since way back then?), Hamaki Honda, etc.?

Did you play claw vs. Harahi or Bonus Blanka at all? How did this go? Any tips for a Blanka player? (heh, I lost this match at the finals of a local tourney last weekend)

You don't have any video from those days, do you?

...there was only one O. Sagat player, a friend of Daigo's. Maybe it was because he played with Daigo, or because he was a regular at a different arcade, but I never heard the same *explicit* derision towards O. Sagat that I heard towards Claw.

Probably Kashiwagi? He and Daigo used to be Vampire Hunter rivals. More recently that guy had the dignity to switch to Ryu.

[zass]

zass where do you play now? are you still in tokyo?

You know, I just found this forum again after something like 7 years of inactivity. I have this burning desire to play ST now. I now live in Seattle, and as far as I know, there is no place to play. It seems that the arcade is a dead thing, only alive in Japan.

I wish so much that I could play ST.

[Sanjuro_The_Ronin]

Well in August if your willing to make the trip to Vegas, CigarBob built a B2B cabinet for all the ST fans, like himself. There is more info on this page.
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=128042

[zass]

zass - Thank you for dropping more knowledge! Fascinating stuff.


Thanks for listening. I didn't realize anyone actually played ST anymore. I would have posted long ago if I thought this game was still played at all in the US.


Could you post a little more Namiki scoop? Did you get a chance to play against Tanaka O.Ryu, Takiba Dhalsim, Bonus Blanka (how did he compare to Harahi?), Ken-O/Gian (how much has his Dhalsim matured since way back then?), Hamaki Honda, etc.?


Tanaka Ryu: Oh my god, you know about Tanaka's old ryu! This is just awesome, I didn't think anyone else actually knew him.

Tanaka played all the time at Namiki. I actually made fun of him a little bit, because he used jump roundhouse so much. We called him "Dai jump kick ryu" (jump RH ryu). He never used the DP, just jump RH.

I actually liked playing Tanaka, because he was a great person to play against. I would pick O. Ryu or O. Hawk, and it felt like super again. I never talked to him but I liked playing against him, since his style was very safe. The worst thing that would happen to you playing against Tanaka was that you'd just eat a jump RH :). I don't think I ever said a word to Tanaka, he probably has no idea who I am, but I was always glad to have him as an opponent.


Tanaka won one of the namiki weekly tournaments once when I was there. I have to say I was a little suprised, because he's not top tier (normally Tama-chan [Tamashima's nickname], Akishima, or someone like that would win). On the other hand, if this hairy uncouth barbarian can win it, Tanaka certain can.

There was another player at Namiki that maybe you'll know. We called him SenretsuChun. I don't know his real name, but I'm sure you can guess what he did. Jump forward, lightning kick. That's it! That's all he EVER did. He was easy to beat, but every so often he'd kill someone that thought he might try something else. So the game would go something like this.

SenretsuChun: Jump forward
Player: (Thinks: hmm, he's done lightning kicks the past 499 times in this situation. Maybe he's going to try to throw?). Tries counter throw
SenretsuChun: Lighning kick
Player: GODDAMMIT. AGAIN!!!

I would always get a chuckle whenever that guy won a game. Obviously he's not one of the top tier players.

Ken-O/Gian: Yes, of course I know Ken-O. He's a great guy. I think I may have talked to him all of five times, but he's a really nice guy. Before I left Japan we had a large street fighter "nomikai" for me where a ton of Tokyo area ST players came to drink and say goodbye. I felt very touched. Anyways, Ken-O, whom I had played for years and never really talked to, started talking to me, and suggested we go out together. He also said hi when I came back to Japan in 2004 to visit.

That said, Ken's dhalsim is top notch. According to Kuni, Ken-O won the all-japan CE tournament with his dhalsim. I wouldn't be suprised. I beat almost every dhalsim I ever met with Claw or Chun, but not Ken-O's dhalsim. I would be suprised if it took more than the fingers on one hand to count the number of games I ever took from him

Takiba Dhalsim: Are you talking about T. Akiba? He usually played new Ken. If not, I don't know who that Takiba is. There was KKY, Ken-O, and another regular at Shibuya Kaikan, he had a beard (pretty unique in Japan), and was a professional pachinko guide writer.

Bonus Blanka: Don't know who that is. I did play once against Komoda, and he was very good, but in my (humble gaijin) opinion, Harahi is the best. Harahi was simply inspiring. Harahi disappeared sometime around 2000, and I never saw him again. Does he still play? Do you have a link to his Blanka web page?

Hamaki Honda: Again, I don't know. There were honda players at Namiki, and Makoto (see above post) would pull out honda every so often. I personally always hated honda as a character. He just seemed like he brutalizes anyone without a FB (except Boxer), and dies to anyone with one. Bob Painter showed us all the power of Honda at the first Vegas ST tournament by winning the whole thing with the sumo (Great quote from that tournament: "I can't believe I lost to fucking BOB PAINTER" -- Mike Watson). But I never liked Honda, and perhaps my dislike of the character prevented me from really noticing good players. I did learn some very fun (for me) and very annoying (for him) anti honda tricks with Boxer and Chun.


Did you play claw vs. Harahi or Bonus Blanka at all? How did this go? Any tips for a Blanka player? (heh, I lost this match at the finals of a local tourney last weekend)


Are you living in Tokyo now? I did play against Harahi a lot.. Kuni knew him, but as I said, he disappeared around 2000. What I would suggest is (cue A Team music): If you have a Blanka problem, if no one else can help you, and if you can find him, maybe you can get Harahi's help. :lovin: I played Harahi quite a few times with Boxer. I can win it, but I'd have to play _perfectly_. You screw up once and you're dead. What I can do ist list some of the things I remember him doing (this is like 8 years ago).

* hop past you, cr forward, cr forward, ball, which dizzies.
* short ball into either bite or electricity.
* repeated crossovers with jump forward. Really annoying on boxer because he leans so far back, he's easy to cross up that way.
* very very precise with his combos. Jump fierce, low forw, stand strong, ball every time, never missed it.
* good use of straight jump fierce as anti air.
* his own version of the new ken "mix up". Jump forward as you are getting up, then low forward. Then either bite, or low foward + ball combo. Repeat.

As for Claw, yes I did play him against Harahi. I think he pretty much raped me straight up and down.


You don't have any video from those days, do you?


I wish...

Thanks for letting me ramble :sweat:

Julien

[BoggleMinds]

Thanks for letting me ramble :sweat:

Julien

:lovin: Your posts are wonderful! :lovin:

[Ouroborus]

its sad to hear that characters are frowned upon because they are too "easy" to use.

one important thing i learned from mvc2 was if its in the game and it isnt game breaking, its legit. no honor code BS, anything goes. back then, cable used to be the ultimate easy mode character. nowadays, you cant even pay some people to use him.

[ThisGuileKillYa]

Yeah, zass, I could read your ramblings all day. Don't appologize because they're too long, appologize because they're too short! Any other cool tactics some of these guys were notable for(with ANY character!) I'd love to hear, and I don't think anyone in here would disagree! :)

[SweetJohnnyV]

Agreed. These stories from the land of the rising sun have been a blast to read!

[Raisin]

Ditto, hope you're not getting tired of hearing this, zass, but it bears repeating that your stuff is awesome. Thanks so much for sharing it. :tup:

[nohoho]

zass -

Here are some videos from X-Mania I (August 2000) featuring some of the Namiki crew -- getting worked by Inro -- that you might enjoy:

http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=134237

Takiba=T.Akiba. I don't know when he switched from Ken to Dhalsim. Lately he mostly uses Blanka. Trying to fill the gap that Harahi left?

Tanaka Ryu: Oh my god, you know about Tanaka's old ryu! This is just awesome, I didn't think anyone else actually knew him.
I think it's remarkable how Good-foot Tanaka (current game name: Ashitana) plays such a staid old character in such a funky way.

Bonus Blanka: Don't know who that is. I did play once against Komoda, and he was very good, but in my (humble gaijin) opinion, Harahi is the best. Harahi was simply inspiring. Harahi disappeared sometime around 2000, and I never saw him again. Does he still play? Do you have a link to his Blanka web page?
Nah, he quit arcade ST. Too bad... Harahi-Komoda seems like it could have been one of the great East-West rivalries a la Tama-Tsuji, Pony-Gunze, Mattsun-Aniken, etc.

http://www.harahi.net/

Dude did take up AE on X-Box:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y223/nohoho/harahiAE072405.jpg

* repeated crossovers with jump forward. Really annoying on boxer because he leans so far back, he's easy to cross up that way.
I'm sure Harahi made this look easy, but Boxer is much skinnier than he looks! Getting a cross up opportunity but sailing past him and getting grabbed is one of the worst moments for a Blanka player. Right behind looking at the life bars and seeing that you're at a big health deficit to Honda. heh

I wish so much that I could play ST.
I think Chris F. (yep) might still play in Vancouver sometimes. Not sure. Dunno how far that is for you.

[sir_arthur]

awesome posts zass, keep em comming, i wish i could go to Japan and play some ST, btw did you play in any X-Mania?

[stream3]

zass, your posts are awesome! Nice to hear the perspectice of someone who actually fought against all these Japanese players ...

Akishima or otochun?

[BoggleMinds]

Akishima or otochun?

Akishima was the red Chun-Li player who beat Otochun's Chun in the SBO 2003 final.

[nomrah]

Thanks for listening. I didn't realize anyone actually played ST anymore. I would have posted long ago if I thought this game was still played at all in the US.



zass, first off, awesome posts. Secondly, you chose the right time to come back, ST is definitely enjoying a nice resurgance as of late, what with all the remakes and such.

[zass]

awesome posts zass, keep em comming, i wish i could go to Japan and play some ST, btw did you play in any X-Mania?

I've answered your question in a new thread here, since I don't want to hijack nohoho's anymore :)

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?p=3852928#post3852928

[psychochronic]

Any vids on that Club Sega tourney that happened last weekend?

[mrdhalsim]

That's an interesting project, to compile the names and bios of the best players... but I imagine it would be very difficult to do, at least to any accurrate length because there are so many pockets of such strong players all over the place.

XSPR

[Sage]

Congrats Fred for making the Capcom-unity homepage.

[nohoho]

I've got some semi-exclusive content to post thanks to you dude.

[mrdhalsim]

Not sure where the other thread is where I wrote about "other Japanese players" I've come across in Japan, and these forums can get unwieldy so I'll just post this here.

I just got word that we'll have some famous visitors to our local area at Shirone CHANCE arcade in Niigata prefecture:

"KOMODA-BLANKA, PONY-ZANGIEF, M-tsun-KEN, KKY-DHALSIM and so on."

I wonder if this is some kind of a tour? I was very disappointed to also find out that our local Blanka master Shinryu probably won't be there, which really sucks. Anyway the guys listed above will be here tomorrow night and on Saturday for the next tournament, I'll try to catch them both nights.

David Boudreau
XSPR on xbox live

[mrdhalsim]

here's an updated list for this weekend (format: player@character):

KOMODA@BLANKA
M-tsun@KEN
PONY@ZANGIEF
Tsunoppi@GUILE
KKY@DHALSIM
ni~a^@HONDA
OJII@RYU
Yoshio@GUILE

The following might also come:
GIAN@DHALSIM
Nagata-Syogatsu@SUPER HONDA
JENETY@Chun-Li

[mrdhalsim]

http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/432574/

[SweetJohnnyV]

Cool pictures! The event looked like it was fun. And that Alien table is dope!

[BoggleMinds]

http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/432574/

Nice!

Sorry...I can't remember if this is Niia^, a Honda player, or Ojii, a Ryu player....

That dude definitely looks like Niia.

[nohoho]

Thanks for the Chance tourney report, mrdhalsim! Man, I want to travel the country wrecking people with Blanka. Too bad so many local folks already have my number.....

[mrdhalsim]

I finally have a real chance to reply here- I've been very busy this week having moved down to Tokyo area and starting a new gig. I did make time to get to Mikado on Wed and saw a bunch of the players, in addition to others. They had a 500 yen for some hours of freeplay deal until 9pm or so, and I met Taira- a very social and friendly character who invited me along to the restaurant the players went to afterwards, also Gian was there. I had trouble winning any games against most players, including against Dictator- but not Taira's (or anyone else's) T.Hawk... ever since Suzuki's Hawk, I had a few shutdowns going... that was about it. Very nice to get formal introductions and hang out.

Last night, Friday, I went again and played Muteki. On Wed I don't think I had any wins, but I blame that on the prolonged sleep deprivation I've been putting myself through this week, that's my excuse. :) Anyways last night I went about 50/50 or so with him but a lot of other players wanted to play him too, so less than 7 or 8 games total. I plan to only improve that ratio in the near future, and of course it's saying a lot cause he's one of if not the best Guile but it's still Guile vs. Dhalsim. Oh, one interesting tidbit, re a guile vs ryu match-up, I said I thought the balance was great esp considering how different the character designs are, but that I think ryu is slightly better, esp once his super meter is charged and that I like ryu's design better than Dhalsim in most matchups... anyway I got some disagreement there, that guile was better (if either) but I've yet to be convinced, interesting to see how.

Nohoho, do you want some of those pictures from the tabblo I put together for your blog and the player profiles? I noticed some don't have pics with their profiles so feel free to get them directly from the site and put them up- if any problems just let me know.

David

[zass]

You live in Tokyo now David? Awesome! I want to come to Tokyo in 2008 to visit and for Hanami. If I do, we gotta do the tour of the arcades :)

[mrdhalsim]

Definitely, Zass! Just let me know when you'll be here. By then I may be back up in Niigata but could still plan a trip down to Tokyo when you come here (now I'm on contract for Nov. with a Tokyo company, but trying to work from Niigata if possible).

Had a great weekend. Went to Mikado and nearby Las Vegas arcades in Shinjuku on Friday night/Saturday (though Mikado doesn't seem to have much going on on Saturdays though) with some other foreigners here. Then on Sunday, charcoalbuddy and I went to the Las Vegas arcade in Ikebukuro for a tournament, with the block-round robin system (the best way to do a tournament, IMO) and I got 3rd. results should appear here (I think this is the site for that arcade) soon- scroll all the way to bottom and it will be the last link, or link for "07 11 18" :
http://vegashyperst2.srv7.biz/0200taikai00.html

The last few times playing Muteki, I haven't been doing too well... gotta get more wins.

David Boudreau
XSPR /mrdhalsim

[nohoho]

Yeah I just saw that here (http://bbs.t-akiba.net/sf2/bbs.cgi?tree=c12326).
Good job, man! :rock:

[nohoho]

Did you beat Kashiwagi on your way to 3rd? Fuckin' A!
http://vegashyperst2.srv7.biz/0201taikai13.html

[mrdhalsim]

Thank you! Yes, I did manage it somehow. I'm very happy with my performance that day.

I finished my contract here yesterday, and will leave Tokyo next Monday dec. 3rd so maybe tonight, and Friday night will be my last chances at the top competition for a while at least. It was much more crowded last night at Mikado than usual, and hard to get games with Muteki. I only had a few wins, maybe three or four but he won a lot more. It really can come down to just making sure you are able to block his jump in attack, for reasons mentioned above. He and Mtsun rarely miss those opportunities for max damage. Dhalsim is so not about big damage at once combos outside of his super so it takes a lot of work, STRAIGHT THROUGH to the very end you must REMAIN CONCENTRATING and focused because even when it's down to 5 pixels each and you both know it's gonna be close, it will still often take dhalsim 2, 3 hits realistically to get the win. dhalsim has the most options though, that's what I like about him, and that makes him one of the top characters but it takes perserverence and concentration.

there was a big Mikado tournament last saturday- I was eliminated quick by jennety chun li in first round (teamed up with charcoalbuddy, his ryu took out their honda player, lots of good honda players I've been seeing btw) but all the top guys were there (except Muteki I think). I heard Gian won it but I didn't see any of his matches, I had to leave a little early to get food (breakfast). I saw kky get eliminated by noguchi's team (his fei long and another fei player), and even kurahashi who played ryu. my last warm up game before the tournament, I actually won against kurahashi which was cool but with single elim and my guile-dhalsim-only competency, that was about all I could hope for that day. :)

David Boudreau
XSPR