3rd location test!

[FightingGames4ever]

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1214225_1124.html

[fallot]

Roque test in February 2008 have been well received, the Street Fighter IV. その追加ロケテストの開催が決定した。 Roque added that the decision to hold the tests. 追加ロケテストは、2008年3月20日（金）～3月23日（日）の4日間、大阪なんばの”ハイテクランド セガ アビオン”にて実施される。 Additional tests are Roque, March 20, 2008 (Friday) and March 23 (Sunday) for four days, Osaka Namba "HAITEKURANDOSEGA ABION" will be conducted at. また、今回は、ユーザー登録やランキング閲覧が可能になるIDカードを（おひとり様1枚限定） 販売。 Also, this time, and registered users will be able to view rankings ID card (like one of a limited one) sales. 腕に覚えのあるプレイヤーは、IDカードを使ってロケテストに参加してみよう。 I remember a player's arm, using the ID card Roque participated in the test twice.

Anyone care to do better than Google :(

[kenjiharima]

They must be testing the new graphics.

Maybe El is playable.

[Azrael]

I will be there.

[Reno]

I will also be there!

[Nokato]

From what I've heard El Fuerte will be available in the Osaka beta test.

[azis]

Michael Jackson says: I'll be there...

[kenjiharima]

Michal Jackson says: I'll be there...

FUCK?!! Who The guy from Battle Arena Toshinden3? Ten Count? :rofl::arazz:

[Are_you_okay?!]

From what I've heard El Fuerte will be available in the Osaka beta test.

About time for some footage if true, I want to see if he's speedy. I couldn't imagine a tiny luchador being heavy class but hey, Capcom Japan have done blunders before.

Have they explained just how the graphics will be improved? I hope it looks a bit smoother, some of the character models seemed jagged and grainy to me.

[Nokato]

About time for some footage if true, I want to see if he's speedy. I couldn't imagine a tiny luchador being heavy class but hey, Capcom Japan have done blunders before.

Have they explained just how the graphics will be improved? I hope it looks a bit smoother, some of the character models seemed jagged and grainy to me.

There are recent pics up on NEOGAF that show "some" improvements. its mainly hue saturation but it makes the rendering simpler and much clearer. It makes the models look slightly better. Although the only face to me that's gotten better is C-Viper. Ryu doesn't have crackfiend eyes anymore but he still looks like Steve Buscemi.

[Are_you_okay?!]

There are recent pics up on NEOGAF that show "some" improvements. its mainly hue saturation but it makes the rendering simpler and much clearer. It makes the models look slightly better. Although the only face to me that's gotten better is C-Viper. Ryu doesn't have crackfiend eyes anymore but he still looks like Steve Buscemi.


Lmfao, Steve Buscemi. Yeah the cracked out "I need my fix!" eyes freaked me out when he did his win quote. Smoother models should improve it a lot for me, the rougher textures before bothered me.

Anything else coming out of this Loctest other than improved graphics and a possible El Fuerte appearence? I was hoping for multi-supers and some more stages for eye candy purposes.

[Nokato]

Lmfao, Steve Buscemi. Yeah the cracked out "I need my fix!" eyes freaked me out when he did his win quote. Smoother models should improve it a lot for me, the rougher textures before bothered me.

Anything else coming out of this Loctest other than improved graphics and a possible El Fuerte appearence? I was hoping for multi-supers and some more stages for eye candy purposes.

I think they're going to test how the Ranking ID cards work also. Not much else has been revealed. The only possible things that could be shown are:

-Playable versions of M.Bison (JP) or Sagat
-Possibly 1 new stage (El Fuerte)
-Depending on whether the Dash Cancelling debacle was true-it might return in this build.
-The requirements for Ultras actually being confirmed and permanent.
-Revisions of existing characters in the current build.


Currently everyone has 1 Super and 1 Ultra. It would be nice to have more than 1 super but I think Ono wants the feel of ST to still be prevalent and I also think that its to eliminate potential issues with supers being juggled into Ultras. Seth already noted that currently C-Viper can combo into her Ultra. I'm not sure if this is something Ono would want since this would guarantee that just about any character that can combo their Ultra would have 100% combos unless there is some SERIOUS scaling of Ultras when comboed which could be possible.


Edit: When I say M.Bison(JP), that means "boxer". Forgot myself for a second, rofl.

[AdverseSolutions]

参ります！

[Are_you_okay?!]

I figured out the M.Bison Nokato lol, took me a couple of minute but I got it!

Sounds pretty good if they do any of that Nokato, get a lot of questions I have out of the way. My only problem with the one super thing is some were hard as shit to do as a casual gamer (Which seems a selling point for them), hell I still can't do guile's super flash kick, but I have yet to get any amount of time on a stick to relearn everything.

I'm interested in how they will make El Fuerte stand out as a grappler. We have the big, overwhelming grappler in 'Gief. And Abel is the rekka grappler with other options available to him.

Right now I believe he'll work as an SNK grappler, with half circle throws and speed on his side. But that's just an educated guess on my part, I'd still rather have Alex than El Fuerte, but his inclusion seems to be getting slimmer.

[Nokato]

I figured out the M.Bison Nokato lol, took me a couple of minute but I got it!

Sounds pretty good if they do any of that Nokato, get a lot of questions I have out of the way. My only problem with the one super thing is some were hard as shit to do as a casual gamer (Which seems a selling point for them), hell I still can't do guile's super flash kick, but I have yet to get any amount of time on a stick to relearn everything.

I'm interested in how they will make El Fuerte stand out as a grappler. We have the big, overwhelming grappler in 'Gief. And Abel is the rekka grappler with other options available to him.

Right now I believe he'll work as an SNK grappler, with half circle throws and speed on his side. But that's just an educated guess on my part, I'd still rather have Alex than El Fuerte, but his inclusion seems to be getting slimmer.

About "flash kick supers", just hold Down Back 2sec, the go from there to hcb to Up-Back and hit kick. Its alot easier than trying to do the super the way it says in manuals.

[Are_you_okay?!]

About "flash kick supers", just hold Down Back 2sec, the go from there to hcb to Up-Back and hit kick. Its alot easier than trying to do the super the way it says in manuals.

I'll give it a try later, Ive been on a fighting hiatus until I get a proper stick, the like 30 seconds I played on one last time I was doing walking 360's and doing better than I ever was. Really was an eye opener, don't understand why some people are still pad warriors, personal preference I suppose.

Anyways I look forward to some shots from this, some SRK people need to get out there and play, tired of seeing shitty gamers jump on the machines.

[Akutabi Gamma]

Currently everyone has 1 Super and 1 Ultra. It would be nice to have more than 1 super but I think Ono wants the feel of ST to still be prevalent and I also think that its to eliminate potential issues with supers being juggled into Ultras. Seth already noted that currently C-Viper can combo into her Ultra. I'm not sure if this is something Ono would want since this would guarantee that just about any character that can combo their Ultra would have 100% combos unless there is some SERIOUS scaling of Ultras when comboed which could be possible.

Dude seriously Ult.=SDM ver. of Supers, and I believe that not comboing into them would seem kinda stupid, but I do believe that if you can, then I do hope you don't get A LOT of damage scaling (think Dictator's J. HK-->Cr. MP, MP, MK-->Lvl. 3 Super from SFEX games; combo does 50% while stand alone Lvl. 3 does 75%, if anything maybe a small damage boost of 5%)
Still I do hope that if Boxer and Sagat are playable, they won't be in Abel and Viper's area; that's 2 new characters less :/

[AlphaDragoon02]

Lmfao, Steve Buscemi. Yeah the cracked out "I need my fix!" eyes freaked me out when he did his win quote.

It's not even just the eyes for me, it's the whole bony cryptkeeper face he's got in some of the pictures. Dude looks like he's 85 and on his deathbed. :rofl:

[Gutter Trash]

improve E.Honda!!!
cant wait for El Fuerte vids. Hopes that Boxer and Sagat are playable for this test

[Kajiki]

Sorry, but for those of us who can't read Japanese well and don't have kanji fonts installed...

Where is this 3rd loc test? Osaka?

[Kunai]

Sorry, but for those of us who can't read Japanese well and don't have kanji fonts installed...

Where is this 3rd loc test? Osaka?

Osaka, High Tech Land, Sega Avion Arcade. Loctest is from Thursday to Sunday.

[The_Shakunetsu]

Wow the ID cards have been shown. I hope to see new videos with new returning characters plus el fuerte moves

[DavDz]

Hope Sagat and Balrog are playable for this test, so more videos of them can be shown.



Michael Jackson says: I'll be there...

FUCK?!! Who The guy from Battle Arena Toshinden3? Ten Count? :rofl::arazz:

Who's bad?

[Kajiki]

Osaka, High Tech Land, Sega Avion Arcade. Loctest is from Thursday to Sunday.

Awesome, thanks. Maybe i'll be there with my brother. We're gonna be in japan from the 20th to the 29th. We're gonna be in tokyo but maybe it'll be worth heading out to osaka for a little day trip to play SFIV. =D

[True Grave]

Bison possibly coming back? Hope so.

[Akutabi Gamma]

Bison possibly coming back? Hope so.

Do you mean Dictator?

[Reno]

OK. I'm gonna be there on Thursday morning. I wanna pick up an IC-Card because you can use them for the real game when it rolls out in the summer, and I got some time in the early afternoon to check out the game. Other than that I'll be there on Saturday afternoon and maybe Sunday.

[rook]

Do you mean Dictator?I think they mean boxer... after all those 2 chars (along with Sagat) are already in as bosses.

[Azrael]

It looks like Saturday will have the biggest congregation of SRK'ers, myself included.

Although, what time does it open tomorrow? I could spend the night here in Osaka...

[toeblur]

improve E.Honda!!!
cant wait for El Fuerte vids. Hopes that Boxer and Sagat are playable for this test

Seconded, especially on Lucha (El Fuerte), and even a little on the E.honda improvement part. :D

Also add in: 'Good' quality vids of 'Gat and Boxer this time too! I'm sure many of the SRK faithful will be there with cameras in tow. :)

[Reno]

It looks like Saturday will have the biggest congregation of SRK'ers, myself included.

Although, what time does it open tomorrow? I could spend the night here in Osaka...

arcade opens at 9:30 but I have no idea when the test starts. Maybe it's safe to say around 12pm is when normal people will start rolling in.

[Azrael]

:rofl: ...Normal people...I don't think we qualify for that.

I've got stuff to do tomorrow, but I'm sorely tempted to ride a morning train to be there at 9:30. I would, but the missus would physically kill me I think. I guess I'll just wait until Saturday then.

[Obot64.com]

Lets get two srk'ers on the game at the same time so we can test some fundamental shit out.

Oh yea, and footage. :-)

[capcom2d.com]

Anyone online have anything to say about the Location Tests yet?

[Jimmy Bones]

I cant wait to see the footage, i wanna see some El fuerte demo.

[Kunai]

I was at the loketest today with Reno. No El Fuerte at all, nor playable Sagat or Balrog, no new backgrounds. All that's new is the IC cards. There were just 4 linked cabinets today and no separate cabinets to play the cpu.

Reno and I agree that Zangief is a beast. A lot of people were owning today with him... it's much more difficult to escape his SPDs. You may say it doesn't cause much damage like before, but it's easier to grab from ticks and especially whiffs. His EX piledriver is especially useful. It takes off the same amount of damage as a regular SPD, but what's special about EX SPD is that you can take one hit and then grab... even a multi-hit move like Ken's flaming shoryu and Blanka's electricity. It's not like a Saving Attack at all. The man is insane now.

There was also a tricky Dhalsim player today, since his teleport is so much faster. His Ultra fireball is slow as hell, but you can teleport quick or walk up to the player, then do mind games to the opponent.

Yes you can still cancel saving attacks with forward or backward dashes.

Yes, Ultras still take off 60 to 70 percent damage, but you know what? A good player isn't going to let you land them. A good player can pressure you but yet protect himself from eating ultras, and you are pretty much wide friggin open when you miss. Of course, people who play sloppy (dash up to you while you're knocked down) will eat an Ultra no problem. For most characters, you have to treat it like a Shin-Shoryuken. You have to play smarter.

With that being said, I actually think Ultras could work in this game, even if it takes so much damage. I still think it could be handled better, but yeah it may work. However, I'm sure someone will have an abusable Ultra and that opinion may change, so take that opinion with a grain of salt. Especially if great players figure out how to exploit them, which would make the rich even richer.

I saw Chun-Li cross-up someone by jumping over and behind them, then seemingly turning around mid-air and hitting them with medium kick. I couldn't believe it, and I will try to see if this is really true.

I had played all characters at least once except Dhalsim and Zangief. The most interesting characters for me were Viper, Blanka and Abel. I have been playing Crimson Viper a lot, who is a quick character that can't anti-air well. One cool thing I did... I hit someone with a full-powered Saving Attack. While they were stunned, I hit my ultra. Needless to say, it was mega damage.

The IC cards... I have only seen Ryu (tons of them) and Ken. Reno claims to have seen a Zangief IC card. The cards contain a comment (like VF or Tekken), your total games played and your wins... along with winning percentage. You can also form your own guilds. Unfortunately, you can only play as one character on your card.

Do not ask me to try out anything during this loketest because I don't have regular internet access. I did the best I could to try things I heard about the game from previous loketests.

My overall impression: I admit to being skeptical about this game when I heard it was going to be in 3D. The game still has some issues to iron out (a tad slow and clunky, some unsightly clipping with 3D models and interaction with clothes/objects especially if you get hit upwards in Guile's stage... you'll go through the wing of the plane. Also, Chun-Li's losing pose has her hands going right through the front of her skirt... something that can easily be cleaned up). However, graphically it is impressive and it is really fun to play. I think it was worth coming here on Day 1 to take the game for a test drive.

Thanks to Reno for helping me find this place and hanging out with me. We formed our own guild, and I have no idea what special things you get for having a guild.

EDIT: Other things I forgot to add...

Taunting does not build your meter at all, nor does it take away any revenge meter or super meter from the opponent. I was able to cancel my taunt by hitting buttons. I started to taunt many turtles at the loketest today.

I grabbed Ken out of his shoryureppa. Blocked the first four hits, then threw him. Might be helpful to know if someone tries to kill you with block damage.

Chun-Li's Ultra can go through regular fireballs, and travels half the screen. Moral of the story, don't throw fireballs at Chun-Li when she has revenge meter stocked.

After 7 consecutive vs. wins at the loketest, you get booted off. It will say "net" where it usually says 1p or 2p sometimes. It means you are playing someone in your LAN. Sometimes, if the 4 cabinets end their games within each other, it will take the two winners and pit them against each other.

[The Epidemic]

^nice...

[Nokato]

Jill Sandwich.



Thanks for the feedback on SFIV and the current build. Seems like my predictions about Zangief were right. Sad there were no new updates in terms of characters, or bgs but its good to hear from people who know how to play SF what the game is like.

[Shinkuu Tatsumaki]

Hey Kunai, I remember reaading about Ultras not being comboable.... How will Ryu or other characters with projectile ultras land their Ultra? Or did they change it?

[Nokato]

The only one I know of being able to combo an Ultra is C-Viper. IMO, I'm sure that some of them will be comboed but possibly with heavy-damage scaling--although Kunai's post reflects that the damage is still the same so far.

[KrsJin]

Thanks for all the info Kunai, good stuff. Yeah, is a shame we don't get to see footage of new stages or El Fuerte yet :/

[YellowS4]

Still hoping they dont' nerf Gief.

Need a communists red guild!

I want to be able to edit clothing or something with the cards =\ Capcom, do it!

[crazydiamond]

Also how did the updated graphics look in motion?

[chunbelievable]

Good read, thanks :)

I am curious like Crazy Diamond, were the grpahics updated to the screens on the SF Japan website? How'd they look in motion?

[Reno]

:rofl: ...Normal people...I don't think we qualify for that.

I've got stuff to do tomorrow, but I'm sorely tempted to ride a morning train to be there at 9:30. I would, but the missus would physically kill me I think. I guess I'll just wait until Saturday then.

If you can make it out on Friday night, try to make it! Kunai is gonna be there and I'll probably drop by after work. We got another friend coming to play too so it should be jokes. We'll probably play for a bit and then go and have drinks or whatnot.

Obot64.com: Problem is that Kunai and I were together the whole time (no homoe :lol) during the loketest, but that doesn't mean we got to automatically play each other. Because the game uses a lan matchmaking system to pair up opponents, even if we take 1P and 2P side, the game might pair us off against the other 1P/2P players instead of each other. In some ways it's cool because you're kind of constantly playing human opponents but the downside is that you can't choose the person you want to play.

[Kunai]

Graphically, it is wonderful. Some of the best background stages I've seen in a fighter, very busy. Especially Chun-Li's stage. The people do quite a few different things and there's a lot of attention to detail. I thought guys like Ryu and Ken looked weird when I first saw the early screenshots, but now the looks really fit the characters.

The best part of the game is when you do ultras, and the opponent is next to you. Sometimes his eyes will bug out like a cartoon character, like "Oh shi....". What's funny is that sometimes you'll actually MISS your ultra, which is even more comical. Just because you see the opponent's expression change like that, doesn't mean it'll hit... it adds to the suspense. Dhalsim is especially funny when this happens.

I'm going to play the crap out of Viper today. After watching Seth Killian's slideshow explanation, I'm really hoping I can make the most of the info he gave and try it out tonight. I am used to jump canceling via SFIII, so I'll try to see what normals and specials can be jump canceled. I'm also going to try and see if I can create any combos with her... I'm not an elite player that is innovative with my gameplay but I'm not bad either.

[Hydro-kinesis]

Graphically, it is wonderful. Some of the best background stages I've seen in a fighter, very busy. Especially Chun-Li's stage. The people do quite a few different things and there's a lot of attention to detail. I thought guys like Ryu and Ken looked weird when I first saw the early screenshots, but now the looks really fit the characters.

The best part of the game is when you do ultras, and the opponent is next to you. Sometimes his eyes will bug out like a cartoon character, like "Oh shi....". What's funny is that sometimes you'll actually MISS your ultra, which is even more comical. Just because you see the opponent's expression change like that, doesn't mean it'll hit... it adds to the suspense. Dhalsim is especially funny when this happens.

I'm going to play the crap out of Viper today. After watching Seth Killian's slideshow explanation, I'm really hoping I can make the most of the info he gave and try it out tonight. I am used to jump canceling via SFIII, so I'll try to see what normals and specials can be jump canceled. I'm also going to try and see if I can create any combos with her... I'm not an elite player that is innovative with my gameplay but I'm not bad either.

Awesome ultra trivia Kunai bro, Let us know how the Viper trials go. :wgrin:

How did Abel play for you? I've heard lots of comparisons to Fei long, but I was hoping for more of an experienced opinion on him... any thoughts? cheers!

[Azrael]

Played SFIV today. Enjoyed it. Will write more about it later.

[Drunken_Master]

For everyone that played today, did it have the updated graphics?

[AdverseSolutions]

Hi Srk

I was with Reno, Kunai and Az today at the Osaka loctest. I had planned to wear locs to the loctest but failed to find any in time. Anyways.

First things first, Gief rapes in this game. Twirl the stick all day, somethin's gettin grabbed! Green hand has outstanding reach. Basically just like Gunter reported.

One of the best E. Honda ST players was beasting Honda out today too, and I thought Honda was really dominant, but really it's just the player. Honda has a really tough match against Gief because Gief gets free SPD after butt slam.

Shotos were really mid-tier the whole time. Lack of a short jump makes matches against them bearable.

People were saying Dhalsim was super crazy but I didn't see it so much. What was super crazy was Kunai's C. Viper, the best one there, which was crossing up fools left and right and bearing a resemblance to a certain magnetic jew. Her only problem is that her ultra sucks big time and is hardly useful since it can't effectively anti-air almost anything.

Reno and I were testing out Abel. I really like his play style. Good mixups, good throw, very good ultra. He's a solid character, and even though I flinched at first from picking him in the loctest due to not wanting to lose a ton of money I was soon winning faster with him than I had been with Guile.

Which brings me to Guile. Wow, boring character. I got one brief three game run with him but that was it. SBs/FKs all day. Almost nothing else to his gameplay. Yeah you can risk getting in close but so far I haven't seen the benefit. There may be something interesting with comboing his saving strike but so far I don't really know.

Cancelling saving strike looks like it could be really useful. I'll let Kunai get into the details on that.

Overall I had way more fun with the game than I thought I would. I'm officially hyped. If the new characters are as dope as C. Viper and Abel are then I think Capcom may have a strong game on their hands. Whether they support it or not is another story. And whether they listen to any of the concerns voiced at the play test I think is very unlikely.

[World Warrior]

And whether they listen to any of the concerns voiced at the play test I think is very unlikely.

What gives you this impression?

[YellowS4]

Adversescrubiness.

:D

[The_Trigger]

Excellent work, gentlemen. I've been staying away from posting in these threads until we had some decent, serious, hands-on gameplay. Glad Gief is a beast, and that Abel is turning out to be pretty sick. The year of the grappler? Hope so. Keep us filled in.

Quick question(s) about Guile: Were his EX's just multi-hit specials, or did they get any kind of interesting properties? And did his SB have as much delay on it as it looks in the videos?

[gilley]

Airthrows....who's got them? I think I saw chun li airthrowing in one video, but do characters like Guile/Gief have them?

Cole said he's going to get to play it this weekend and would test this stuff out....and kara canceling too :)

[MAGUS1234]

damn I Havn't been this hype since I was a kid!

[Hydro-kinesis]

Hi Srk... (Followed by mackin' post)


Great post bro, thanks for the info, especially the Abel stuff. . . choice as.

Did we get an answer on updated graphics yet? :wonder:

[Battosai]

I was at the loketest today with Reno. No El Fuerte at all, nor playable Sagat or Balrog, no new backgrounds. All that's new is the IC cards. There were just 4 linked cabinets today and no separate cabinets to play the cpu.

Reno and I agree that Zangief is a beast. A lot of people were owning today with him... it's much more difficult to escape his SPDs. You may say it doesn't cause much damage like before, but it's easier to grab from ticks and especially whiffs. His EX piledriver is especially useful. It takes off the same amount of damage as a regular SPD, but what's special about EX SPD is that you can take one hit and then grab... even a multi-hit move like Ken's flaming shoryu and Blanka's electricity. It's not like a Saving Attack at all. The man is insane now.

There was also a tricky Dhalsim player today, since his teleport is so much faster. His Ultra fireball is slow as hell, but you can teleport quick or walk up to the player, then do mind games to the opponent.

Yes you can still cancel saving attacks with forward or backward dashes.

Yes, Ultras still take off 60 to 70 percent damage, but you know what? A good player isn't going to let you land them. A good player can pressure you but yet protect himself from eating ultras, and you are pretty much wide friggin open when you miss. Of course, people who play sloppy (dash up to you while you're knocked down) will eat an Ultra no problem. For most characters, you have to treat it like a Shin-Shoryuken. You have to play smarter.

With that being said, I actually think Ultras could work in this game, even if it takes so much damage. I still think it could be handled better, but yeah it may work. However, I'm sure someone will have an abusable Ultra and that opinion may change, so take that opinion with a grain of salt. Especially if great players figure out how to exploit them, which would make the rich even richer.

I saw Chun-Li cross-up someone by jumping over and behind them, then seemingly turning around mid-air and hitting them with medium kick. I couldn't believe it, and I will try to see if this is really true.

I had played all characters at least once except Dhalsim and Zangief. The most interesting characters for me were Viper, Blanka and Abel. I have been playing Crimson Viper a lot, who is a quick character that can't anti-air well. One cool thing I did... I hit someone with a full-powered Saving Attack. While they were stunned, I hit my ultra. Needless to say, it was mega damage.

The IC cards... I have only seen Ryu (tons of them) and Ken. Reno claims to have seen a Zangief IC card. The cards contain a comment (like VF or Tekken), your total games played and your wins... along with winning percentage. You can also form your own guilds. Unfortunately, you can only play as one character on your card.

Do not ask me to try out anything during this loketest because I don't have regular internet access. I did the best I could to try things I heard about the game from previous loketests.

My overall impression: I admit to being skeptical about this game when I heard it was going to be in 3D. The game still has some issues to iron out (a tad slow and clunky, some unsightly clipping with 3D models and interaction with clothes/objects especially if you get hit upwards in Guile's stage... you'll go through the wing of the plane. Also, Chun-Li's losing pose has her hands going right through the front of her skirt... something that can easily be cleaned up). However, graphically it is impressive and it is really fun to play. I think it was worth coming here on Day 1 to take the game for a test drive.

Thanks to Reno for helping me find this place and hanging out with me. We formed our own guild, and I have no idea what special things you get for having a guild.

EDIT: Other things I forgot to add...

Taunting does not build your meter at all, nor does it take away any revenge meter or super meter from the opponent. I was able to cancel my taunt by hitting buttons. I started to taunt many turtles at the loketest today.

I grabbed Ken out of his shoryureppa. Blocked the first four hits, then threw him. Might be helpful to know if someone tries to kill you with block damage.

Chun-Li's Ultra can go through regular fireballs, and travels half the screen. Moral of the story, don't throw fireballs at Chun-Li when she has revenge meter stocked.

After 7 consecutive vs. wins at the loketest, you get booted off. It will say "net" where it usually says 1p or 2p sometimes. It means you are playing someone in your LAN. Sometimes, if the 4 cabinets end their games within each other, it will take the two winners and pit them against each other.


Can someone test out This combo with Guile:
Jump fierce, Stand Fierce, Flash Kick

[Jinrai]

That combo was already in one of the older videos. It was blocked, but it clearly would have comboed.

[AdverseSolutions]

What gives you this impression?

They want the game out by June right? And they're still designing/implementing new characters. I doubt they'll have time to make any significant adjustments. For instance I think every character should have two supers. Guile for instance could totally use some sort of sonic boom super.

Adversescrubiness.

:D

::nades towards your red dot:: Ralph nader son, all day.

Excellent work, gentlemen. I've been staying away from posting in these threads until we had some decent, serious, hands-on gameplay. Glad Gief is a beast, and that Abel is turning out to be pretty sick. The year of the grappler? Hope so. Keep us filled in.

Quick question(s) about Guile: Were his EX's just multi-hit specials, or did they get any kind of interesting properties? And did his SB have as much delay on it as it looks in the videos?

Yeah grapplers are really strong so far. Can't remember if Guile's EX FK was multi-hit...if it isn't, it might have some special property. EX SB hits twice and is really fast (maybe varies depending on the punch buttons pressed?). When you say delay on the SB do you mean his recovery time? Or the speed of the projectile? Jab SB is pretty slow. Not slow enough to set up unblockables or anything though. BTW, jump short still crosses up. It even went through Blanka electricity twice, but I think this might have been a fluke because I got shocked a couple times after that. Low MP has good reach and since RH FK has such long forward range, you may be able to punish pokes/whiffs with low MP->RH FK. There was a really good Guile player there who did that a couple times.

Airthrows....who's got them? I think I saw chun li airthrowing in one video, but do characters like Guile/Gief have them?

Cole said he's going to get to play it this weekend and would test this stuff out....and kara canceling too :)

Didn't see anyone use one...I'll test it with Guile.

Great post bro, thanks for the info, especially the Abel stuff. . . choice as.

Did we get an answer on updated graphics yet? :wonder:

Not sure if the graphics have been updated. I think Ryu's face is the 'new one'? Not sure what to compare it to. He still looks ridiculous. Ken in particular looks really boxy and dumb. Eyebrows are too big. Capcom loves em I guess, see ST HD.

[The_Trigger]

I should've clarified. I meant startup and recovery. Looks like it takes a long time for it to come out. At least the EX Boom is faster.

Thanks for the feedback.

[AdverseSolutions]

Damn, just watched Seth Killian's Abel intro. Gotta try c. fierce into anti-air grab, and also canceling low low roundhouse into wheel kick.

[crazydiamond]

Where are these vids being at?

[Dragonfave723]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32151.html

[Azrael]

Network Cards

They're 500 yen (about $5) per one. Everyone seemed to be getting the Ryu card, but I lucked out and got myself a Ken card (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/LordAzrael/Az/Picture001.jpg). You can only register ONE character per card. Once you insert the card into the game, you select your character, and then the game warns you that once you pick this character for this card, it can't be changed. Not really fully realizing this, I picked Chun-Li. When you start up a new game, you put your card into the slot, and then it will go to the character you registered with and ask you if its okay to use this card. If you say yes, then off you go to battle with your character.

The card records your wins and total battles, as well as Battle Points. I have no idea what the Battle Points do at this point. Using our cell phones, we could register our cards at the SF4 website. There, you create a player profile with your name and a comment. While I was standing in line, I entered in my player name and comment, and by the time I got to play again, my card displayed the info I'd put in on the website. If you check your profile online, it shows you a record of your wins and losses - who you played against, what character they used, and when you played them. It also shows your Battle Points, and there's some kind of currency called Zeni - again, I have no idea what this does, and I actually have 0 zen at the moment. It looks like you can register more than one card/character per player profile. I'm going to try and buy a new card tomorrow and register a different character, see what happens.

Graphics

Graphically, the game is beautiful. Just, beautiful. Still do not do it justice. HD videos on your computer do not do it justice. Seriously, it just looks good. When Guile throws a sonic boom, if you look inside of it you can see the actual background being warped and distorted inside of it. The characters are very fluid and polished. All the random pics of characters making goofy faces that pop up online...you honestly don't notice it during gameplay. It just works well as the characters react accordingly to what's going on in the fight. The character will actually make an "oh shit!" face as their opponent is going for a super/ultra. I think my first time playing, I got hit by Ryu's super fireball, and Kunai told me that I had the exact same "oh shit!" look on my face that Ken did. :rofl: Also, just notice the pure joy on Zangief's face when he drives a opponent into the ground with his SPD.

Sound

Difficult, if not impossible, to hear what the music is like so far, but from what I can tell, the music starts to speed up/get more intense as time runs out/a character runs low on life.

Gameplay

As others have said before me, it does feel kind of clunky and sluggish at times. I'm sure this can be ironed out by the final build, and ultimately it didn't stop me from enjoying the game.

As for how the game feels, that really depends on which character you use. A Dhalsim/Gief match might feel ST-ish, but Ryu, Ken, and Chun are closer to their 3S versions than ST. EX moves, Saving attacks, and ultras are enough to keep the game from feeling like re-hash. With no parries, the fireball has made a comeback as a great zoning tool. Groundwork is important, as are pokes, and normals.

I think everyone is still trying to really get a feel for Saving Attacks. Using them up close is very risky, because your opponent can do two jabs/shorts and knock you out of it and possibly do worse. The most effective uses I've seen for them so far have been as anti-air, and anti-poke. Someone tried to do a saving attack against me at mid-range and I immediately hit him with an ultra. One thing I have yet to see is someone counter a saving attack with a saving attack. I may try this tomorrow.

EX moves are really useful depending on the character/situation. Chun-Li's SBK is almost pointless, but EX SBK is actually decent. EX fireballs are great for zoning and what not. And Gief's EX SPD = all sorts of broken nonsense. I think EX moves use up super meter, and speaking about meter...the super gauge seemed to fill up REALLY slowly. Like, you could go a whole match and never see it full once. That, plus with EX moves depleting it, super moves were pretty rare. You get access to the ultra faster than you do super moves. Also, super meter does not carry over between rounds. Although, I did see people doing special xx super cancels, especially Ryu FB xx Super FB.

Ultras.....oh, ultras. Again, I'm not sure, but I think there's some sort of damage scaling. Sometimes they didn't do that much damage, sometime...it was just pure rape. This is just a guess at the moment, but I think the bigger the gap in the players lifebar = the more damaging the ultra will be. There were a few times when a character got hit by an ultra, and all you could really do is laugh at the damage. I had a couple of comeback wins thanks to the ultra. I got hit by a few ultras, and more than being pissed about it, it always felt like "man, I shouldn't have walked into that!" Those of us who were there sort of agreed that if you're being rocked, you might as well go for the ultra and hope it hits, although a missed/blocked ultra can also spell your doom. I think ultras do need some tweaking...but I didn't feel that they were gamebreaking at this point either.

Characters

Ryu

Ryu seems decent in this game. When I got there there were a heavy influx of Ryu players, so I avoided picking him. He seems solid for the same reason he's been good in other games - just good fundamentals. Again, with no parry or other funky systems the fireball is back as a zoning tool. I saw one player combo F.FP -> EX SRK for pretty good damage. However he does lack mixup options as well as good ways to get in against certain characters (nothing will ever be as good as the hop kick from the Alpha series I'm afraid).

Ken

Has his normals from 3S, especially the in-close kicks. If you try to jump over Ken's FB at a certain distance, he can actually tag you with the FP SRK. At the moment, he seems to be a higher risk/reward version of Ryu. Although normal HK kicks blocked or even connected leave him plenty vulnerable. You almost have to EX it.

Chun-Li

Plays like a weird hybrid between her 3S and CvS2 version. Its interesting playing as her without parries, or hit confirm c.mk -> SAII. She will really rely on her normals and a good distance game. Has decent mix-up with the flip kicks. FK version will go over fireballs from a certain distance. Her fireball is good against Guile SB's, and is nice for zoning characters who don't have a FB, but loses to shoto fireballs. As was mentioned before, her ultra goes through fireballs. I hit her ultra today on a fireball-happy Ken player, and a Gief who was in mid-poke, among other scenarios. SBK is nearly useless but EX SBK is allright. S.MP is still a nice poke, and S.RK is almost as good as it was in CvS1. I think she can be good, but she needs to be played with finesse and a good ground game. She also needs good anti-air.

Guile

Not too many Guile players, and the few there were didn't seem to do that well. He seems almost un-prepared for the fight. His normals don't seem nearly as good as they have been in other games.

Zangief

Holy shit. Beast. As was said, it is soooooooo easy for Gief to grab people now. If he can grab you, he will. Damage seems to have been toned down, and that's a good thing because he WILL SPD you at least twice a match if not more.

Dhalsim

There were one or two really good Dhalsim players who were racking up wins. The usual tactics - pokes and ranging. His teleport is really, really fast now. I saw one Dhalsim player coming down from a jump, and Zangief was just waiting to saving attack him. This would have lead to massive damage. It looked like the Sim player was just screwed, but he teleported out of it really fast and avoided the problem.

Blanka

Blanka seems okay. Lightening spam seems to beat normals but lose to specials/ex moves and supers. I shoryureppa'ed a Blanka while he was doing lighting.

Honda

Headbutt is really good. EX Headbutt is really good. Honda was getting wins, but the player using him was good so its hard to say.

C.Viper

She seems like a big threat. Kunai got a 7-game win streak with her. She has really good mix-up options with that air kick, and the dash punch goes under fireballs. The opening move of her ultra doesn't seem to hit for shit though. She once started it against a Gief who was going for a grab on her...and Gief managed to block it.

Abel

Looks like a fun character. The best way I can describe him is a weird hybrid between Fei Long, A3's Karin, and Gief. Actually, maybe think A3 Karin but with more emphasis on the command throws and a much less solid air game. He's got mixup options with his rekka-like move and the arch kick has some anti-air/anti-poke qualities. At the moment his jumping game sucks though.

Going back now...more if I can find anything.

[TS]

Good post!

It's funny that everyone who sees SF4 in person (even the earlier builds) says it looks like the new hotness graphically, but everyone on the internet has no clue, if not the exact opposite idea.

[YellowS4]

Oh fuck, points and zeni. If it isn't arcade customization, it'll be online haha.

Someone mind filling me in on how much meter an EX move does, 1/5 full bar, etc?

[A_Rival]

It's mainly because of the awesomely crisp LED monitors... also, the screenshots don't really convey the texture detail, which look even more awesome with the character movement. It's like you get one or other(detail or animation) with pics and vids; seeing them both in unison is really eye-opening(pun intended).

[Hydro-kinesis]

...great post...

Shit Az bro, that's what I'm talkin' about. Props to you and the other brothers shedding a little light on the game from an experienced players point of view. Keep that shit coming.

I wonder, were there any Capcom reps there? If so, bug 'em for El fuerte info if you can... :wgrin: Aparently he's meant to be playable at one of the location tests this weekend. Hmmmmm...

[Kataklysmic]

EX moves, Saving attacks, and ultras are enough to keep the game from feeling like re-hash. With no parries, the fireball has made a comeback as a great zoning tool. Groundwork is important, as are pokes, and normals.

Rightfully so!

3Sers better read this 1000 times.

and there's some kind of currency called Zeni - again, I have no idea what this does, and I actually have 0 zen at the moment.

They're still using Zenny? You had to collect that in old arcade games like Forgotten Worlds to score points and stuff. I never thought SF would have any use for it.

[KrsJin]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32151.html

The music and style of these vids are owning me lol.

[DarkNecrid]

I think the people who are complaining about ultras need to realize that just about any truly balanced or a game that takes balance to be #1, always gives player's good options even when they are losing, which is what Ultras do. Guilty Gear gives both players (who, while unique in their own ways....) a set of universal defensive options to give a player getting dominated the ability to shift the match, which would otherwise prevent them from getting raped by an infinite, etc etc. It's not something inherently bad, it prevents the game from becoming completely about only X out of Y characters in the game, and doesn't just become counterpick characters, since it lets a weaker character still have a chance, which isn't a bad thing.

[Dredhead117]

Good post!

It's funny that everyone who sees SF4 in person (even the earlier builds) says it looks like the new hotness graphically, but everyone on the internet has no clue, if not the exact opposite idea.

This is what I was hoping for, good news about how the game looks live in motion.

Great to also have some more light shed on exactly how the ultras work. Glad they dont always blow up your opponent like in the Ken vs Gief vid.

[Kataklysmic]

I think the people who are complaining about ultras need to realize that just about any truly balanced or a game that takes balance to be #1, always gives player's good options even when they are losing, which is what Ultras do. Guilty Gear gives both players (who, while unique in their own ways....) a set of universal defensive options to give a player getting dominated the ability to shift the match, which would otherwise prevent them from getting raped by an infinite, etc etc. It's not something inherently bad, it prevents the game from becoming completely about only X out of Y characters in the game, and doesn't just become counterpick characters, since it lets a weaker character still have a chance, which isn't a bad thing.

Indeed. *repped*

[Helter Skelter]

there's some kind of currency called Zeni - again, I have no idea what this does, and I actually have 0 zen at the moment.

I really hope it's costume customization.

[inkblot]

I really hope it's costume customization.

Don't count on it. Very early on Ono said they were not taking the VF or Tekken route of customization, saying he didn't want to see Ryu wearing a funny pink hat or something to that effect.

[inkblot]

Rightfully so!

They're still using Zenny? You had to collect that in old arcade games like Forgotten Worlds to score points and stuff. I never thought SF would have any use for it.

Wow, nice catch. I remember that game. You used zenny to power up your character and buy new weapons.

...

...

:wonder:

[COUM]

I think the people who are complaining about ultras need to realize that just about any truly balanced or a game that takes balance to be #1, always gives player's good options even when they are losing, which is what Ultras do. Guilty Gear gives both players (who, while unique in their own ways....) a set of universal defensive options to give a player getting dominated the ability to shift the match, which would otherwise prevent them from getting raped by an infinite, etc etc. It's not something inherently bad, it prevents the game from becoming completely about only X out of Y characters in the game, and doesn't just become counterpick characters, since it lets a weaker character still have a chance, which isn't a bad thing.

Hahahaha how is a 70% damage move with invincible startup remotely comparable to stuff like FD, DAAs and IB? Those would actually make sense as moves that used the Revenge meter. Ultras don't.

[Azrael]

Day 2

I successfully bought another network card, and registered Ken with it. So now under my player profile, I have both Chun-Li and Ken. There are player points as well as battle points. The player points go towards your whole profile, while the battle points are character specific. Your W/L ratio is also character specific.

Today there was more shoto domination. One guy was really good with Ken - he got 3 7-win streaks in a row (the machine kicks you off if you win 7 straight). Ken seemed to have all of his good combos from 3S. The player looked like a pro 3S player who was loving that there were no parries. Towards the end of my stay a lot of other good players came who could step to this guy.

One guy in particular was REALLY good with Dhalsim/Blanka, and especially saving attack usage. There is charge cancelling in this game - with Blanka, he was hitting SA, Forward Dash Cancel, C.MK xx Ball. AdverseSolutions asked him how he did it, and he said it was the same as with 3S. Hold the charge, do the Saving Attack, dash forward, then go back to the DB charge. Addy and I wondered if this would be of any use with Guile. I played against this guy when he was using Guile, but I was using Chun and I pretty much stuffed most if not all of his saving attack attempts.

Random character stuffs - EX Blanka ball actually WILL go through a fireball. Chun's EX SBK is REALLY useful, and her lightning legs are awesome in this game. Ryu can cancel a moderately-deep anti-air SRK into a super fireball and have all of the SFB hit, unlike in 3S where the opponent kind of flew out of it.

Dhalsim teleports are wicked tricky, and it makes him really hard to catch. Again, this guy was really good with the SA and just slapping people around left and right with it.

I think Chun is pretty good. I managed a 6-game win streak and bunch of 3-4 game win streaks, and seemingly inspired a bunch of other guys to start using her. She's got a great ground game and nice mix-up. Although there's a lot of risk/reward to her moves...as it should be. Right now, I'd say the game is fairly balanced - whichever player has the better skill wins. Although, I should note that the Japanese guys who played Gief today apparently didn't know the "twirl your way to victory" strat.

Saving Attacks - I'm still trying to figure them out. One thing I did find out - if your character takes a hit while in the SA motion, they WILL lose damage - however, they'll get the damage back if they don't get hit again within a fixed amount of time. If the opponent manages to land a hit on them though within that timeframe, then they lose the ability to get that bit of vitality back.

While the SA "wind-up" animation takes one good hit, it seems like the actual strike itself is vulnerable, as I saw a lot of people getting hit out of them. Also, you can dash-cancel before the strike comes out. One Abel was using this as a sort of ghetto-parry to dash his way through pokes in order to get in.

Also, you can cancel the animation of a special move into a SA. I saw quite a few Ryu players hit J.FK, C.MK, FP SRK xx SA. The SA kept Ryu on the ground, so players were using it to get better positioning after a SRK. I didn't play as Ken much today, but one thing I wondered about is if you could try a wakeup SRK, cancel into SA, and then cancel that into a back dash for safety? Also, this is just my guess, but I'd say that you can only cancel ground-based special moves into the SA (so, no HK xx SA).

Ultras...hmm. I got hit by one comeback ultra today that kind of pissed me off, but other than that I didn't see a whole lot of abuse. There were a lot of good players today, and in a Chun vs Shoto match, they were smart enough not to throw any stupid fireballs that I could ultra through. In one strange scenario though, I had no life left and my opponent, a Ryu player, threw a EX wake-up fireball at me. Ultra was my only option for survival, so I did it...but Ryu was able to block before I got there, and I lost the match. I saw Abel's ultra get stuffed by a c.mk. Also, Abel tried to ultra against Ryu who was just finishing a blocked grounded HK (literally, both Ryu's feet were in the air as the animation started) and Ryu was able to recover and block. I found I had the most success in a match when I actually thought about how to carefully finish my opponent off, and not by being reckless and throwing out an ultra and praying that it hit. There weren't too many if any miraculous ultra comebacks. One Dhalsim player uses his as sort of a trap, by throwing it and teleporting around the opponent (although I never saw him successfully land it).

The more I play the game, the less it feels like ST. Especially when you factor in EX moves and saving attacks. I'd say its closer to 3S without parry but even that's not quite right. Those of you worrying about re-hash - don't.

[EveryFlowerFlow]

More good stuff from Az. Thx for being our eyes over there.

[Helter Skelter]

The more I play the game, the less it feels like ST. Especially when you factor in EX moves and saving attacks. I'd say its closer to 3S without parry but even that's not quite right. Those of you worrying about re-hash - don't.

Thanks for all the infromation it is much appreciated.

[AdverseSolutions]

We also tested Guile and yes he has the air throw.

Charge partitioning in the game is big news IMO. Dunno if it's just in dash cancels from saving strikes or in general...will try to find out tomorrow.

[Shinkuu Tatsumaki]

How does the jumping feel? I wasn't so sure how the fast jumping would fit in with the game's pace.

Also how do the dashes feel? I read that it doesn't cover much distance and isn't much better than just walking.

[DarkNecrid]

Hahahaha how is a 70% damage move with invincible startup remotely comparable to stuff like FD, DAAs and IB? Those would actually make sense as moves that used the Revenge meter. Ultras don't.

I didn't say they were the same, they obviously serve a different (but similar) purpose, in shifting the match. A big reason they are different is because they are offensive, it's kind of like Kevin Rian in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Once he gets P Power, he has a super that is the strongest anti-air in the game, so your opponent isn't going to want to jump too much, thus staying on the ground, a place where Kevin is very strong at, but instead of just filling a meter, you need to get hit here.

Forcing your opponent to be careful is probably the ultimate defensive move.

[COUM]

Most of GG's defensive techniques don't shift the match in your favor, they simply give you some breathing room so you can attempt to turn the match in your favor yourself. You still have to work for it, unlike with Ultras. That is a sensible way to implement giving the losing player a helping hand. Forcing the winning player to have to radically change up their tactics and play more defensively because they were winning is not. How is this anything but ridiculous? If I've been playing a successful fireball zoning game and gotten my opponent down to 10% life, and he now has an Ultra which can blow through my fireballs, I suddenly have to start getting up close, presenting him with an opportunity to do huge damage, simply because I was winning? Supers forcing the opponent to change their tactics only make sense when you actually have to work to get them.

This clearly won't be game-breaking, but much like with parrying, the measures you have to take in order to neutralize the threat are stupid.

[Kunai]

I played some more just now... let me share what I have seen today.

Saving Attack Cancels: It's crazy what you can do to cancel attacks to Saving Attacks to dash, but there are some instances where you shouldn't use them because it wastes meter.

Effective uses:

-- Use when a move or special move is blocked, advance backward. Great for blocked shoryukens to dash back and reset.

-- Use after a Saving Attack stun. Normally, when you use a saving attack and are successful, you will be unable to move for 1 second while the guy crumples to the ground. Doing another saving attack and cancel to dash will allow you to not only allow you to cancel the animation reset, but you will dash towards the crumpling body and can combo afterwards. I saw a guy use Guile, and he did the Saving Attack. When the opponent got hit, he somehow canceled to another S.Attack and cancel to dash, then did crouching strong punch to flash kick. I shit you not, he did this several times and I have no idea how he did it. I have also seen Ken's low forward canceled to S.Attack, and the aformentioned Ryu's Shoryuken.

Questionable uses:

-- Using S.Attack after a blocked attack, then cancel to dash: Makes no sense because if anyone sees this, all you have to do is hit them out of their dash with crouching jabs or shorts.

-- Using S.Attack to cancel a special move that knocks the opponent down, then cancel to dash to move forward. This also asks for trouble sometimes because of opponents who tech land after knockdown. It's better to save that meter.

Keep in mind that there may be uses for S.Attack cancels with some characters that I don't know about. Also, I'm not sure if S.Attack cancels with normal or special moves is move-specific, or even character-specific. I couldn't do much with C.Viper, cancelling anything to S.Attack to dash. I am a bit unskilled with stuff like that, unfortunately.

One person described it to me in Japanese... in order to cancel, you do the move, then you press and hold the two mid buttons during the move, then after you hold it for a very short time you let go and then you dash. He said he wasn't good at it but he did do it several times during his matches.

Explanation of Saving Attack Stun: I'm still figuring this out, but there are 3 degrees of the Saving Attack. 1st is when you hold down both medium buttons and let go immediately. It will hit but it won't stun. 2nd degree, if you hold it for about 1 second then let go, the opponent will get stunned. 3rd degree, if you hold the buttons down for the full length, you will see the ink blotches like you do in the SFIV intro and it will either stun the opponent or knock them across the screen. After you stun them, your character won't be able to move for a bit but you can sorta juggle them off the ground. However, most of the time you will be separated from the opponent a good deal after the hit, so you have to hit the opponent with a long-reaching attack.

FYI: When you cancel a normal or special move to S.Attack correctly, you will flash.


Other things of note:

Zangief can combo a Saving Attack stun into SPD. Really easy for him. I already mentioned how insane the SPD is for him. Has huge range, but if you see banishing fist, crouching shorts will keep him from SPDing you afterwards.

C. Viper's ultra will not hit opponents if they aren't touching the ground except for a few instances... Ryu's Hurricane Kick and Blanka's Ball. It may be possible to hit Honda's torpedo, but not sure. It will not hit Blanka's command hop.

I met a lot of nice people, both foreigners and Japanese natives during the loke test. I met one guy who I hear was a great tournament ST player and uses only Honda. I also met a great Ryu player who spoke English and studied in Seattle for 3 years... and quite a few other guys who were solid in gameplay. I also met Azarel and Adverse along with Reno (I have met him before). I'm known as the guy who's ranked No.2 on the online charts not because he is good... but he plays so much. I only have a 40% winning rate with Viper.

I still have problems with Dhalsim and Zangief, but I have gotten a lot more aggressive with C.Viper thanks to the move breakdown by Seth K. at Capcom. I learned how to use her seismic mines more effectively and I have developed quite a few nasty high/low games to go along with that. I am starting to make people crap their pants by keeping them grounded or faking it and anti-airing them with her fierce lightning spark. She's great against Shotos IMO.

I still cannot link a C. Viper lightning attack (either jab or strong punch) to super. I'm not sure if they changed this in this beta version?

Rep plz

[YellowS4]

So they're canceling a crumple SA with a dash canceled SA? I guess it's a matter of meter management and how good you are with landing SAs lol.

A nice SPD will stop the SA nonsense!

[The_Trigger]

Once again, thanks for the info. More info means more hype, and less people bitching. Let us know if you find any game-breaking shenanigans.

[arstal]

Very nice information. Question- how much revenge meter do you get in a round? Is it still based on getting hit? Wondering because I really want to see tradeoff between all these cancels and the ultra. How often do people get full revenge meter at the end of rounds?

Basically I'm asking how that meter charges in detail.

That said, I'm feeling that this will be the game that brings me back. It seems to have what I liked about 3s, but not what I disliked.

[Jinrai]

Based on the videos that have been released, the Revenge meter is proportional to how much damage you've taken. If you never use the Focus Attack, you will always have your meter turn red exactly at 50% life and it will only be completely full when you've lost. It also looks to me like the amount of Revenge meter you have directly controls how much damage you do and/or how much you take. The difference in damage by getting hit by an Ultra with empty Revenge and with nearly full Revenge is dramatic: 70% vs 30%.

The only way to have access to an Ultra without having taken 50% damage is to soak up some hits with Focus Attacks and not take anymore damage until your life heals back.

[Obot64.com]

Thanks for all the wonderful contributions :-)

[arstal]

It sounds like a bit of a rage gauge idea, which I like. I really have a very good feeling about this game, but I'm trying not to hype myself too much- whenever I do I end up disappointed.

[COUM]

How much meter does the Saving Attack use? Does it use Super or Revenge meter?

[Battosai]

Man I hope they improve on Guiles normals...and becomes one of the top tier characters again like he was in SF2CE

[Jinrai]

At is stands, COUM, Focus Attacks are free unless you cancel into them. If you do, your character will flash yellow and drain as much Super Meter as an EX would.

A lot of your questions can be answered by watching the videos that are already out there.

[COUM]

Uhh... so is DP canceled into SA canceled into backdash safe? Cause that could be really, really stupid on wakeup.

[Shungokustasu]

Especially when you factor in EX moves and saving attacks. I'd say its closer to 3S without parry but even that's not quite right. Those of you worrying about re-hash - don't.

I needed to hear that. I may take a trip to Japan this summer to get a headstart on the Americans. Thank You, for the great post.

[gilley]

Day 2
One guy in particular was REALLY good with Dhalsim/Blanka, and especially saving attack usage. There is charge cancelling in this game - with Blanka, he was hitting SA, Forward Dash Cancel, C.MK xx Ball. AdverseSolutions asked him how he did it, and he said it was the same as with 3S. Hold the charge, do the Saving Attack, dash forward, then go back to the DB charge. Addy and I wondered if this would be of any use with Guile. I played against this guy when he was using Guile, but I was using Chun and I pretty much stuffed most if not all of his saving attack attempts.


wowowow, I had hoped they'd put charge partitioning in the game. I can only imagine this is going to make the old charge characters more interesting. I could see vega being extremely broken with charge partitioning if they put him in.

I'm gonna love playing guile w/ charge partitioning though.

[arstal]

Uhh... so is DP canceled into SA canceled into backdash safe? Cause that could be really, really stupid on wakeup.

My guess it that would be either very safe- except for long range stuff. Depends how much lag there is on backdashes. It would cost one or two chunks of revenge meter though, so may not be doable too much. Unsure if that would be a cost-effective use of the meter outside of end of match situations.

Are dash-cancels fully invincible? I can see dash-cancelling Dhal's limbs into a combo if that's the case.

[COUM]

It would cost one or two chunks of revenge meter though, so may not be doable too much.

Currently it only takes a chunk of Super meter...

[MiLky]

I just popped in to say thanks for the reports from you guys, can't wait to play this myself.

I hope some video's pop up soon, it sounds like there was some good players on the machines this time.

[Reno]

fyi the Honda player that all of us met on Friday and Saturday is Kusumondo. Very nice guy!

[Kunai]

To answer your question, Revenge meter is almost proportional to your lifebar. The closer to KO you are, the higher the meter. Needless to say, if you use an Ultra, you won't have it for the remainder of the round. I don't think it's possible to build up two Ultras in one round. Also, nothing will use up revenge meter besides using an Ultra.

As for the comment about Blanka doing charge back - SA - dash - charge again, it would explain part of the Guile SA Stun - cancel to another SA - cancel to dash - crouching MP to flash kick. The SA stun cancel seemed to happen so fast, I didn't think it would be possible to dash and then combo to flash kick, since you would lose your charge. I still don't know how he canceled to another SA after SA stun, though. This might be the same guy you were talking about Az.

Last day of the loke... I'll probably be here from opening bell to 7PM, so I can catch the late train back to my city. Bottom-line is that this game is really fun and I think the hardcore will enjoy it. It's not Super Turbo, but knowing how to play ST will help your game tremendously. SA alone makes the game a new animal. I had really low expectations for SFIV before I saw it in person, and now I can honestly say that all expectations were way fufilled... to the point that it had overflowed several times. This game is good, and you kids better start practicing your ST.

[Hatred Edge]

But I suck at ST.....

[Kataklysmic]

Ah, so the game lets you keep the charge for the duration of a SA cancel? That's brilliant.

Has anyone tried negative edging yet, or seen if it could work after SA cancels?

Oh yeah, and can EXes still be dash cancelled?

[arstal]

Thanks for the input. One more theoretical question. Do you think there will end up being a clear "best way" to use regular super meter in the game, or is it still way too early to tell?

[SaBrE]

wow. thanks for the input guys. im excited to play!!!

[Hotcarl6]

im exicted to play but a little bummed super turbo players will shine . I'm a 3rd strike guy.

[Shungokustasu]

im exicted to play but a little bummed super turbo players will shine . I'm a 3rd strike guy.

Don't worry man. Just stop tapping forward. :)

[Shinkuu Tatsumaki]

This game is good, and you kids better start practicing your ST.

I don't think the inputs for special moves require you to be very precise though do they?

[Akutabi Gamma]

Gameplay vids anyone? How about some Fuerte stuff plz?

[Reno]

Fuerte isn't in this loketest right now, it's just to test the ic card and networks

[Azrael]

I didn't see any cameras or video equipment there on Friday or Saturday, and that's a real shame because on Saturday there were a lot of skilled players there. I was having fun just watching guys play, so I'm sure a video would have done a lot to help the hype.

I don't know their real names, but going by their network names...the guy who cleaned up house with a 3S-esque Ken was "Takahashi@wanwan", there was a really good Ryu player, "Mosugu", and another player "Nekohashi" that used a number of characters, but I remember him playing as Ryu and Chun the most (his Ryu kind of annoyed me...lots of fireball spam, and if he could he'd chip you to death with super fireball + ultra fireball in a row). Then there was the charge cancelling guy...I don't think he had a network card unfortunately. I saw him using Blanka and Sim a lot - he actually perfected me in a round with Sim. :sad: I beat him when he was using Guile though.

I wonder, were there any Capcom reps there? If so, bug 'em for El fuerte info if you can... :wgrin: Aparently he's meant to be playable at one of the location tests this weekend. Hmmmmm...
It looked like there were quite a few Capcom peeps there. I REALLY wanted to go talk their ears off but I also didn't want to bother them. One rep was actually a really cute girl though, and I wanted to bother her very much. :razzy: Sonic spin dash.

How does the jumping feel? I wasn't so sure how the fast jumping would fit in with the game's pace.
On Friday I tried to jump over Ryu's ultra fireball from full-screen...and for some reason, I didn't jump and ended up eating the fireball. On Saturday, the same scenario happened, and spooked by what happened on Friday, I just decided to block it. I used mostly used Chun on Saturday, and she's a bit of a jumpy character and I didn't feel too many problems. The game does feel a bit clunky at times...but I'm sure this is something that can be ironed out by the final build. Even if it wasn't, I'm sure we'd get used to it and it wouldn't really ruin the game or anything like that.

Also how do the dashes feel? I read that it doesn't cover much distance and isn't much better than just walking.
Hmm, possibly. I do remember them being really short.

[I]-- Using S.Attack after a blocked attack, then cancel to dash: Makes no sense because if anyone sees this, all you have to do is hit them out of their dash with crouching jabs or shorts.
In my last game yesterday, I had problems dealing with a jumping Zangief (Chun's lack of anti-air). After I'd left, I thought about doing a SA and taking the splash hit, then doing a back dash to get the hell out of there. I didn't get a chance to try this, but perhaps someone can today?

Also, I'm not sure if S.Attack cancels with normal or special moves is move-specific, or even character-specific. I couldn't do much with C.Viper, cancelling anything to S.Attack to dash. I am a bit unskilled with stuff like that, unfortunately.
My guess is that you can only do it to moves that keep you grounded, or during the grounded portion of the move. Sort of like SRK cancels in CvS2 A-Groove.

I still don't know how he canceled to another SA after SA stun, though. This might be the same guy you were talking about Az.

Last day of the loke... I'll probably be here from opening bell to 7PM, so I can catch the late train back to my city. Bottom-line is that this game is really fun and I think the hardcore will enjoy it. It's not Super Turbo, but knowing how to play ST will help your game tremendously. SA alone makes the game a new animal. I had really low expectations for SFIV before I saw it in person, and now I can honestly say that all expectations were way fufilled... to the point that it had overflowed several times. This game is good, and you kids better start practicing your ST.
Sounds like the same guy. I'd love to play against him again, I'm certain you could learn a lot from him.

Man, I wish I could go back today. I'd love to see your C.Viper in action again, not many people were using her yesterday.

fyi the Honda player that all of us met on Friday and Saturday is Kusumondo. Very nice guy!
Yeah, he was really cool. Does he live in Osaka?

im exicted to play but a little bummed super turbo players will shine . I'm a 3rd strike guy.
As I said before, one of the best players there yesterday was a Ken player who seemed to be a 3S vet. Chun without C.MK hit confirm SAII forces you to explore all her other tools and really put your normals to good use. What Kunai said about ST players probably having an advantage, and I agree, is that the game goes back to a lot of what made SF really fun in the first place - positioning, mind games, traps, et al. You have to think how to get in on your opponent, and then once you're there you have to think what to do next that won't get you killed. Doing nothing can result in you being backed into a position that works against you; doing the wrong thing ends up costing you damage/the match, and doing the right thing takes off damage from your opponent and possibly swings the tide of the match in your favor.

[Azrael]

Oh yeah, a note about Ultras...

Kinda early on Saturday, I was using Chun in a match against a fireball-happy Ryu. He'd been zoning me out pretty good with fireballs, and as I'd eaten quite a few of them, he was beating me by quite a bit. So when I got my revenge meter, I made him pay for his next fireball with Chun's ultra. Ironically, I ended up losing that round anyway, but then beat him in the next round without using an ultra at all.

I think, at that moment, I showed everyone there to NOT fireball at Chun when she's got revenge meter. I don't think I hit another ultra while I was there. And its not that Ryu and Ken players stopped fireballing at me...they just didn't throw one if they knew I was sitting on DB charge. I looked for oppotunities to blow through a fireball with the ultra...but they never gave me one. Early on, I tried just throwing out the ultra randomly and hoping it hit...but more often than not it didn't, and it cost me the match.

It seems like the ultras have just enough start-up so that in order to connect, they either have to blow through a move, or catch someone in the middle of something they can't recover from. And in the high-level matches...players just weren't throwing out things that could randomly be ultra'd. You had to actually create a situation for the ultra to hit. The Takahashi Ken player was really good at this. He hit quite a few ultras, but it was always in situation where a normal super would have finished off the opponent anyway.

Also, another thing that makes this game very not ST are EX moves. I was watching Mosugu's Ryu against Takahashi's Ken. They would get into a fireball fight, and then the question would be "who is going to throw the ex fireball first?" Whoever threw the ex fireball first usually got the hit, and it let them start to close the distance if they so chose to. There was one point where they were both in each other's faces, and they both happened to throw an ex fireball - the two ex fireballs cancelled each other out. The crowd reacted a little bit to that, as everyone could sense that it was two great players who were thinking on the same page at that exact same moment.

[Vic Viper]

I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but I'm wondering if link combos like Ryu's c.Strong - c.Forward are still there?

[Dredhead117]

Hm...from what its sounding like, its handling something like 3S with a toned down dash, and no parry. At least from the basics, disregarding the whole revenge/ultra/super system.

[Duck Strong]

im exicted to play but a little bummed super turbo players will shine . I'm a 3rd strike guy.

Then it's time you actually learned how to play sf. You'll enjoy it alot more, believe me.

[Kataklysmic]

Then it's time you actually learned how to play sf. You'll enjoy it alot more, believe me.

God DAMN! :rofl:

+ rep!

[Captain0wnzor]

Hey all, I went down to Osaka to meet up with some SRKers lke Reno and Kunai and get in some hot hot SF4 action. My thoughts:

SF4 in general:
- Graphics look awesome
- Backgrounds are freaking insanely awesome
- Saving Attacks:
- seem a bit slow to start / come out.
- uses no super/revenge meter
- you can dash cancel it early on, but I had trouble dash cancelling it after charging the attack for a bit
- Ultra Combos
- Revenge meter has two stocks
- If you have 1 stock of revenge meter you can use a revenge super regardless of your remaining health (although, keep in mind you'll have to have lower health for your revenge meter to fill up)
- Difficult to combo into. I saw a Ryu do something simple like c.forward -> fireball cancel -> ultra and his opponet blocked the ultra
- On the same note both Gief and C. Viper can combo into their ultra off of a saving attack crumple
- If you have a full 2 stocks your ultra combo will do INSANE damage
- If you only have inbetween 1 and 2 stocks your ultra won't do super insane damage

Zangief:
I played good old Gief for most of my games. My thoughts:
- Gief is a BEAST
- Punch lariet GREAT anti-air. INSANE anti-air.
- SPD has insane range
- Can interrupt Abel's advancing combo with a SPD / super / ultra.
- After a SPD you can do banishing fist to get within SPD range again by the time the person wakes up. More than once I hit SPD -> banishing fist to close the gap -> SPD again once they stood up.
- EX SPD is great if you're blocking a bunch of shorts/jabs close in. Kunai mentioned the EX version gets some kind of one hit super armor like the EX Bear Crusher.
- EX Bear Crusher goes FAR. Either I get hit out of it or it throws the opponet, I've never seen Gief stop running. I even hit Reno with this after he jumped away on sight, thinking I'd stop. Gief looks hillarious when he runs.
- Gief's super doesn't do much damage at all. It seems like a better use of his super meter would be using his EX moves to close the range / add super armor to his throws than saving up for his super.
- Gief is shaping up to be a beast. With punch lariet as great anti-air (and great all around move as well) and his SPD with great range and able to punish whiffs on the ground with ease, Gief is gonna be good to go!

[COUM]

Oh yeah, a note about Ultras...

Welp, that's pretty much exactly how I thought they would turn out. Not grievously offensive, still dumb. Thanks for all the great info, btw.

[Aquashark]

I don't know their real names, but going by their network names...the guy who cleaned up house with a 3S-esque Ken was "Takahashi@wanwan", there was a really good Ryu player, "Mosugu", and another player "Nekohashi" that used a number of charactersNekohashi @ YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nekohashi&search_type=)

Takahashi plays Vampire Savior afaik.

[Kunai]

Nekohashi probably plays Felicia, judging from his name. lol

I found out how to get out of the movement delay after you stun your opponent after Saving Attack. Right when it hits, double-tap forward or backward to cancel your delay and you can finish with a combo of choice. However, I couldn't do Viper's usual close FP to FP lightning fist. Don't know why. I usually use that combo close-up to knock down opponents.

The aforementioned does present a glaring problem... especially when more people learn how to cancel a SA stun attack delay... you can do an Ultra right afterwards. This IMO can be a gamebreaker, especially since it's hard to avoid a SA when you are knocked down. If Capcom does in fact read this forum, I hope they do something so that you cannot use an ultra after SA cancel after stun, or totally nerf the damage. This is the only major problem I saw with the gameplay.

I forgot to mention that if you and your opponent experience a draw game in the final round, both of you lose. Boooooo

Revenge meter half-way full will only damage the opponent for 35-40 percent damage. Using the Revenge meter will take it all away. If you use up your revenge meter, you can still gain it back by blocking attacks. It will rise slowly, but realistically, using two half-powered Ultras is almost unlikely. I haven't seen anyone gain and use 2 ultras in one game.

The fourth and final day, I finally saw some other C.Viper players. It was nice to see, since I was the only one who played her consistently the first 3 days. There's some nasty annoying poke methods you can do with her, which makes me happy because it's hard to win with her sometimes.

I was very glad to see SRKers the past week, along with some of the best SF players in Osaka. It was an honor, and I hope to make it to the next loketest.

[AdverseSolutions]

Nekohashi probably plays Felicia, judging from his name. lol

I found out how to get out of the movement delay after you stun your opponent after Saving Attack. Right when it hits, double-tap forward or backward to cancel your delay and you can finish with a combo of choice. However, I couldn't do Viper's usual close FP to FP lightning fist. Don't know why. I usually use that combo close-up to knock down opponents.

The aforementioned does present a glaring problem... especially when more people learn how to cancel a SA stun attack delay... you can do an Ultra right afterwards. This IMO can be a gamebreaker, especially since it's hard to avoid a SA when you are knocked down. If Capcom does in fact read this forum, I hope they do something so that you cannot use an ultra after SA cancel after stun, or totally nerf the damage. This is the only major problem I saw with the gameplay.

I forgot to mention that if you and your opponent experience a draw game in the final round, both of you lose. Boooooo

Revenge meter half-way full will only damage the opponent for 35-40 percent damage. Using the Revenge meter will take it all away. If you use up your revenge meter, you can still gain it back by blocking attacks. It will rise slowly, but realistically, using two half-powered Ultras is almost unlikely. I haven't seen anyone gain and use 2 ultras in one game.

The fourth and final day, I finally saw some other C.Viper players. It was nice to see, since I was the only one who played her consistently the first 3 days. There's some nasty annoying poke methods you can do with her, which makes me happy because it's hard to win with her sometimes.

I was very glad to see SRKers the past week, along with some of the best SF players in Osaka. It was an honor, and I hope to make it to the next loketest.

Thanks for coming out Kunai, it was cool to meet you. Sorry I missed today. I woke up at 4p.m after a long night. :looney: Now onto the KOF 12 loke test...

[YellowS4]

Do you guys think SAs should use at least some meter? Did you guys see any advanced or even mid-level juggling/air juggles?

[COUM]

The aforementioned does present a glaring problem... especially when more people learn how to cancel a SA stun attack delay... you can do an Ultra right afterwards. This IMO can be a gamebreaker, especially since it's hard to avoid a SA when you are knocked down.

Only the max charge SA is unblockable, right? Is it realistically possible to do that on wakeup against an opponent that quick rises?

[Reno]

COUM: No, you can realistically only do it if they don't tech. If they tech rise then you can eat a lot as punishment.

BTW, I just checked the mobile site for the IC-Cards

Kunai is #2 in the individual rankings for the whole country lol. SRK's Team "Let's Go America!" is #2 in team rankings!

[AdverseSolutions]

Do you guys think SAs should use at least some meter? Did you guys see any advanced or even mid-level juggling/air juggles?

Hmm, not sure yet. It remains to be seen how abusable they are. But that's certainly one way to deal with them. As for juggling, only thing that comes to mind is Chun's step kick in the air, and Able's c.fierce into anti-air grab. I noticed a lot of times when someone got hit out of the air the character would enter what looked like a jugglable state. But it's definitely not A3 style or anything.


BTW, I just checked the mobile site for the IC-Cards

Kunai is #2 in the individual rankings for the whole country lol. SRK's Team "Let's Go America!" is #2 in team rankings!

looooll

fucking serial rapist. Who's number 1?

[SaBrE]

iirc, viper can juggle with another qcf+fierce if she anti air's with qcf+fierce

before the loketests and AOU, i remember in interviews that SA and dash cancelling took away from the revenge meter. like a quick SA would take one stck, and a stun SA would take 3. and dash cancelling would take 1.

so all that has been drastically changed?

[Kunai]

iirc, viper can juggle with another qcf+fierce if she anti air's with qcf+fierce

before the loketests and AOU, i remember in interviews that SA and dash cancelling took away from the revenge meter. like a quick SA would take one stck, and a stun SA would take 3. and dash cancelling would take 1.

so all that has been drastically changed?

Yes... it is now nearly proportional to your life meter. It will fill all the way when you are on your last sliver of lifebar. If you use it once, you can regain meter by blocking. You can't gain meter by blocking until after you have used your Ultra for the first time in a match.

IMO, I think they should just only allow you one Ultra a round, and the meter shuts off once it has been used the first time. I love the concept of dash canceling... it really gives the game a new feel and a few more aggressive options. I didn't see too many people juggle, but I'm sure it's there.

And I didn't get a chance to try juggling qcb+FP with another... maybe next betatest...

[zerog]

Just curious, but did you guys see any of the top players over there playing? Like tokido, ohnuki, daigo or any of those guys?

[SaBrE]

they atleast saw nekohashi, who is a top ST ryu player.

kunai: interesting, to say the elast

[shinblanka]

Airthrows....who's got them? I think I saw chun li airthrowing in one video, but do characters like Guile/Gief have them?

Cole said he's going to get to play it this weekend and would test this stuff out....and kara canceling too :)

Call me when you find out from cole sir.:wink:

[Captain Ryu]

Yes... it is now nearly proportional to your life meter. It will fill all the way when you are on your last sliver of lifebar. If you use it once, you can regain meter by blocking. You can't gain meter by blocking until after you have used your Ultra for the first time in a match.

IMO, I think they should just only allow you one Ultra a round, and the meter shuts off once it has been used the first time. I love the concept of dash canceling... it really gives the game a new feel and a few more aggressive options. I didn't see too many people juggle, but I'm sure it's there.

And I didn't get a chance to try juggling qcb+FP with another... maybe next betatest...


I don't think it's too bad if someone is able to play D long enough to build up another full revenge stock with a small amount of health. Rewarding a player for doing well under the pressure is a pretty good idea imo. Especially if he misses the ultra and still manages to live.


Edit

Is it possible to combo off ryu's f+mp and f+hp from ST? Also does cr lk link into any other normals like in cvs and alpha? I always liked his cps1 style links that he had in those games.

[YellowS4]

Hmm, not sure yet. It remains to be seen how abusable they are. But that's certainly one way to deal with them. As for juggling, only thing that comes to mind is Chun's step kick in the air, and Able's c.fierce into anti-air grab. I noticed a lot of times when someone got hit out of the air the character would enter what looked like a jugglable state. But it's definitely not A3 style or anything.


I was kinda hoping that they'd implement some meter usage when it comes to SAs.

That's what I noticed in the vids, someone would do an air recovery and I wouldn't see a follow up. I wouldn't mind a ST kind of juggle system or even something close to A3. I guess it doesn't help that when you do air recover, you fall down quite fast?

Nader.

[Fulaani]

this thread is great.

[Valen]

Really good thread, thank you guys for all in-depth info.

[Reno]

Just curious, but did you guys see any of the top players over there playing? Like tokido, ohnuki, daigo or any of those guys?

personally, I saw nekohashi, K Guile, Kusumondo and Teruchika (3s) there.

Oh, and the final loketest standings.... Kunai is #1! Officially the #1 player in SF4! Top Tier! LOL Somehow I magically jumped from 23rd to 15th too. Word!

[Kunai]

Is it possible to combo off ryu's f+mp and f+hp from ST? Also does cr lk link into any other normals like in cvs and alpha? I always liked his cps1 style links that he had in those games.

I didn't see anyone do it successfully, and I didn't play Ryu that much. I didn't even see anyone use f+hp at all. However, Ryu can rushdown really well and tick/poke you to death. He was easily one of the most popular characters. Ken was not getting as much play.

A little note to add: You can do a Saving Attack Cancel after throwing a fireball so you can move with your fireball and cause some chaos. Many Ryu and Guile players took advantage of it after knocking down the opponent.

I hope Jason Cole will be able to find out more about this game than I was able to. I understand SF but I am not skilled.

Nekohashi is cool... his English is pretty good. He's the one who went to Seattle for 3 years. I believe he even visits srk from time to time. Really nice guy.

I'm only ranked #1 because I played so much... :looney:

[Hydro-kinesis]

GOGO KUNAI #1!!! VIPERRRR! Great to hear so much info about the game bros, thanks a bunch! :wgrin: Your postings have increased my anticipation tenfold.

I wonder if a 'compiled info' thread could be made to harbor all the info gleened so far...? This is 'the' thread to read in the forum ATM, might as well switch up the thread title and make it the 'loketest info' thread IMO.


choice as.

[Azrael]

I saw at least one person combo F.FP into EX SRK with Ryu. Did pretty good damage.

Just to elaborate on how good Gief is...if he goes into grab animation, and his opponent is in range and on the ground, they are getting grabbed. End of story. There were a couple of times I was in mid-attack animation, and Gief went into his grab animation and the next thing I know I was getting slammed on the ground. One of the times I was trying to do the overhead flip, and I think Chun *just* hadn't left the ground yet, and Gief grabbed her. The other thing about this is that Gief's grab range seems to be a lot bigger than it has been in previous games.

The Japanese people I played against didn't really catch onto this on Saturday, but if you are a Gief player, its in your benefit to just keep constant 360's going anytime Gief is on the ground and somewhat close to the opponent, and if he can grab, he will. Also, I saw that match between Reno and CaptainOwnzor where Gief did the EX grab, Reno actually jumped away, and Gief just chased him down and SPD'd him anyway. :rofl:

Since I primarily played with Chun, I can offer specifics with her. S.MP is as great a poke as it has ever been. I stuffed quite a few fireballs/jumps with it. You can chain the fireball off of it for a nice block string. I'm not sure if it combos. S.MK is also great for closing distance, and it puts Chun in a nice position where she can mix-up the opponent. Her jabs/shorts come out really fast and seem to have decent priority. Jump D+FK will cause problems to anyone who doesn't have a decent anti-air (I traded hits with Ken/Ryu SRK's sometimes with this). C.RH is also just as good as its ever been. S.RH is a decent poke with good range, but it hits high which might allow a lot of things to pass under it - you're better off with S.MP.

Her flip kicks are good for mix-up, but if you are obvious with them she can get hit out of it pretty easily, especially by a SRK. They will go through fireballs, but you have to have the right timing, and use the appropriate strength based on your distance from the opponent. EX flip kicks are pretty fast. As I said before, the SBK is more or less useless but the EX SBK is one of her best tools - some anti-air properties, and if the opponent is trying to poke/pressure up close it sucks them in and sends them flying away. Lightning legs are also great, and her most damaging combo at the moment is to just jump in and lightning leg.

At the moment her biggest weakness is the lack of a good anti-air. Other Chun players got around this by beating the opponent in the sky - jumping MK or air throw. I saw one player use the straight-up RH kick in close, but I never got it to come out so I wonder if it can only be done up close?

I was 12th in the rankings but I dropped down to 13th. :sad: I think I could have gotten top ten at least if I'd gotten to play more.

[ThePunisherXBL]

Great info on Chun. Thanks a lot.

Knowing Capcom I was afraid they'd fuck her up because she was tops in 3s.

[Reno]

Az join the guild! I'll PM you the name and pass. Join so Team SRK is #1! lol

[CptMunta]

Yeah guys,

Cheers for all the info. To know that you are all having so much fun with the game eases my worries a bit :) Cool to know we have guys on the inside.

It a real shame a about poor old Guile. Hopefully they jazz him up a bit more, make his normals more powerful or give his flash kick a bit more range or something.

[gozulin]

Good thread, good info. I'd like to hear more about the graphics and backgrounds because even the HD videos available do not do them justice according to people who play the game.

[The Mullah]

thanks for in info guys, good to hear nothings too broken and its good fun to play.

[Azrael]

I'd like to hear more about the graphics and backgrounds because even the HD videos available do not do them justice according to people who play the game.
They really don't. I mean, I've been watching the vids and what not, but I remember taking my first look at the game in-person and thinking "Wow, this game is gorgeous!" I think this was the version with the cleaned up graphics, and it really did look like moving paintings. If there are background characters, they have a pretty wide range of movement. I was focused on the background characters in Chun's stage at one point - they seem to follow along with the fight and react to big hits. The old guy struck the Confucian "hand on chin" pose which I got a laugh out of.

The stages themselves seem to curve a little bit, even though your characters stay on the 2D plane. If you've ever played Killer Instinct you probably know what I'm talking about, although the curving is much less pronounced. I noticed it especially on Blanka's stage.

I kind of like the dynamic camera angles for ultras, although yeah, Ryu's is a bit too long at the moment. As mentioned before, the characters faces change as an ultra is performed. I saw one match where Abel blocked a HK kick from Ryu, and the Abel player started the ultra. The camera kind of zooms in on Abel as he rares back and yells, and opposite from him you can see Ryu, with both his feet still in the air as he's about to land from the HK, and he gets this great "Oh fuck!" look on his face. (As I mentioned before, the Ryu player was able to block this ultra attempt) There are some funny faces and wagging tongues, but in the context - two characters beating the snot out of each other - it makes perfect sense and doesn't feel out of place at all. Rather, I felt that it was a nice touch.

Also, C.Viper looks damn sexy in the final frame of her match win-pose animation.

[Captain Ryu]

You can actually see how good the game looks in the beginning of this vid.


http://www.gametrailers.com/player/31126.html

You can make out a lot of the detail especially on the closeup of Ryu.

[margalis]

Thumbs up to a not retarded SF4 thread.

[blufang]

Wow, thanks so much for the in depth info...it sounds like it's going to be one hell of a game when it's finally released. I'm so relieved to hear that the graphics are so spectacular...this will insure casual gamers to at least try it out. The gameplay sounds so fun too, and I'm happy to hear it is not ST 3d...but a fresh new experience. I'm more excited about this game now than ever, I can't wait to get my hands on it!

[Azrael]

Oh yeah, one more thing I forgot - there seems to be some degree of character-specific win quotes. I think, after beating a Zangief, Chun said something to the effect of "Even the great Russian champion takes a loss" or something like that. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the win quotes.

And the cell phone website for SF4 is offline. :sad: There's a warning that our personal info might be deleted before the final build is released. :sad:

[Kunai]

Hey guys from the Osaka loke... let me know if this is a good overall summary of the Saving Attack... I posted this in another gaming forum. I AM EDITING THIS AS I GET MORE INPUT OR REMEMBER CERTAIN THINGS. This is good information... I hope you will read it in full and understand why this move makes SFIV that much more dynamic as a fighter.

Saving Attack

Of course, it's an attack that is done by initially pressing and holding both medium attack buttons. The damage amount and the opponent's condition depends on how long you hold these buttons.

While you are in the middle of this attack, you can take one hit if you have it charged for at least 1/3rd of a second. When this happens, your bar will show a grayed out portion of life. Basically, this is the amount of life you would have lost, had you taken the hit without doing SA. After that, the grayed out portion slowly recovers. If you wait long enough, you can fully recover the grayed-out section of the bar. If you are hit cleanly before the grayed portion of life fills back up, you lose the grayed portion for good, along with additional damage from the hit you just took. The meter fills up slowly, so SA is something you shouldn't abuse too often. Imagine if you did SA to eat Ryu's fireballs, you eat 5 of them, then he hits you before you recover your life back. Not smart. Don't think it will be like a parry in 3S.

Once again, you can take at least one hit only during the later stages of a Saving Attack. If the opponent hits at the Level 1 stage of the SA, or if the opponent hits you multiple times during Levels 2 and 3 of the SA, you will be knocked out of your Saving Attack.

There are 3 degrees of the Saving Attack, and the level used depends on how long you hold the medium attack buttons.

Level 1: Letting go of the medium attack buttons almost immediately
A normal hit (like low forward). Does not have armor, so you can get hit out of SA during this stage. Possible to use this at the end of a combo?

Level 2: Letting go of the medium attack buttons about a half-a-second later
Stuns when opponent is hit, has the ability to take one hit, and is NOT unblockable. You cannot end a combo using this because it takes too long to charge.

Level 3: Letting the SA charge all the way (takes about a second or 1-1/2 seconds)
Stuns when opponent is hit, has the ability to take one... possibly two hits, is unblockable. You cannot end a combo using this because it takes too long to charge.

Thanks to Afrocole for explaining the Saving Attack levels.

-- If you let go of the two buttons almost immediately, you will hit the opponent regularly. No stun or knockdown. I don't believe you can combo after that.

-- If you hold it for about .75 - 1 second, you will perform a stun. If it hits, the opponent crumples and falls down. You are able to hit them afterwards, but you have about .75 seconds recovery from the SA completion. There IS a way to cancel this recovery, more later.

-- If you let it charge all the way, supposedly the hit becomes unblockable. You either stun the opponent or knock them down completely.
As I said before, this part is a bit unclear because it's hard to test during the heat of battle. All I know is that a Lvl 3 SA will show an Okami-like ink swirl, like in the SFIV Ken/Ryu cinema.

Canceling the Saving Attack:
If you dash in the middle of your SA by double tapping forward or backward on the joystick (you have to STILL be holding the two buttons), you will cancel the SA all together. There is no Super Meter penalty for this.

Canceling a move to a Saving Attack:
I have seen some people cancel special moves like Guile's Sonic Boom, fireballs for most characters, Ken's low foward kick, Ryu's Shoryuken. Right when your move hits, press and hold the two middle attack buttons to start a SA. This will use up 1/3 of your Super Meter, like an EX move would. You will flash if you have done it correctly. Most people use this to cancel a move and gain mobility. For instance, you can throw a fireball, perform a SA immediately, cancel SA into dash and you can follow your fireball. Another move is to hit with Ryu's Shoryuken, cancel to SA, can