Stylish Mode

[zankoku]

Hi, I felt like researching Stylish Mode for the hell of it and ended up writing a big document on the thing. So far it's at 18/28 characters done, but I've been really lazy and procrastinating on updating it for the past month so here it is as is.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MAErSeectrrKrmE7Fq308xnY8tnEnRNcSM_gLrLlDrI/edit?usp=sharing

I predict a lot of stuff will be obsoleted once the May patch hits, which is also part of the reason I'm releasing it now.

Questions and comments are welcome, and specific character requests might make me motivated to eventually finish this thing.

For those of you not interested in browsing pages upon pages of character-specific information, here's the important system stuff:

Stylish Mode is BBCP’s “beginner mode” of play, replacing the usual A/B/C/D system with L/N/H/S. There are a number of important changes from choosing Stylish over Technical.

1. There are no special motions. That’s right, none. All moves are limited to 5, 6, 2, 3, and 4.
   
2. All Distortion Drives are performed with direction + LN. Most characters’ Distortion Drives consist of 5LN and 6LN, with a few characters having a 2LN. 4LN is universally Astral Heat.
   
3. You cannot Rapid Cancel, Crush Trigger, or Counter Assault. Throws, Bursts, and Overdrives are still available with their original button inputs.
   
4. You can only Barrier Block. Whenever you block an attack, it automatically activates Barrier Blocking. This certainly does make blocking a simpler matter (in dealing with things such as Crush Trigger or conditional air-unblockables), but also very quickly risks putting you into Danger status, as well as denying you various punish possibilities as a result of barrier blocking things that didn’t need it.
   
5. You will auto-guard if you are not holding a direction. Whenever an attack would connect with you, as long as you aren’t holding any directions (including down), Stylish mode will block the attack for you. Among other things this means that you can be immune to crossups if you really felt like it.
   
6. You cannot conveniently standing instant block. Since Stylish will auto-guard, and it tends to start guarding a little bit before an attack would actually connect, you can’t really instant block in the conventional sense. You can still force instant blocking by holding a non-backward direction until just before an attack would hit, but otherwise you’re stuck normal (barrier) blocking. Instant blocking multi-hit attacks involves mashing 6 to, presumably, force Stylish off of the automatic 4 input. You can also hold 2 and hit 1 to crouching instant block as usual, since holding 2 will disengage autoguard.
   
7. Every character has a number of preset sequences that may or may not end in different ways depending on the detected situation, position, and meter. These sequences begin when you connect with an L or N attack (and occasionally H attacks) and will continue with each press of the L, N, or H buttons (at this point which button you press changes nothing for the duration of the sequence). However, pressing S will go into the special assigned to that button+direction instead. This, supers, and jump cancels are the only ways to break from Stylish’s sequenced strings.
   

[Airk]

Thanks for this! I have an acquaintance or two who like to mess around in this mode, so knowing how it has changed from CS is nice.

[Loli Bacon]

autoguarding sounds ridiculous. You'd only have to react to CTs and throws at that point. I wonder if there isn't a character that is better in stylish? (Looking at you, Makoto)

[Justice7541]

But will it be tourney legal?

[Dark Ranger88]

autoguarding sounds ridiculous. You'd only have to react to CTs and throws at that point. I wonder if there isn't a character that is better in stylish? (Looking at you, Makoto)

Why would Makoto be better in stylish? I could see Tager; easy input 360 and 720.

[Kurushii]

autoguarding sounds ridiculous. You'd only have to react to CTs and throws at that point. I wonder if there isn't a character that is better in stylish? (Looking at you, Makoto)

Overall the majority of the Stylish versions are much weaker than their CSE versions. S-Tager losing Gadget Finger made him much weaker. S-Mu losing her dp and having her combo routes changed to weaker routes made her a waste imo. S-Litchi is still half decent but overall they aren't what they use to be in strengths even with the system changes.

But will it be tourney legal?

That's up to individual TO's. In Japan it's legal for play but you will rarely see one, outside of S-Bullet and S-Tager. You are still better off learning the game correctly than playing Stylish Mode.

Why would Makoto be better in stylish? I could see Tager; easy input 360 and 720.

I use to play around with SU-Makoto for fun in CSE lobbies. Her options were actually decent in Stylish. You don't really gain anything from playing her in Stylish from my memory.

[zankoku]

The biggest nerfs I think are overall lack of defensive options. Being unable to counter-assault, having to do weird things to Instant Block, etc. mean you'll do more blocking than you might like, which is compounded with forced Barrier essentially putting you on a clock anyway. Also, auto-guarding is not as strong as it might sound - you can block left/right mixups, sure, but only if the attacks hit mid or high, since you won't auto-guard lows and crouching disengages auto-guard.

Mixups are also tricky due to all of the forced automatic stuff.

Combo damage isn't so bad, imo.

[Ctrlaltwtf]

But will it be tourney legal?

My opinion is that even if it is weaker, or is considered tourney legal, you are still playing a different game than I am when you pick Stylish mode and for that reason I don't feel like fighting you if you use it.

[Speakeasy]

I still hope that people don't use it online.

[Stellarcircle5]

Stylish Kagura for Evo winner 2014.

[ReynTime180]

Stylish mode just makes me sad. And especially with this thread, if you're going to spend this much time learning a mode you might as well learn the full game. Cause from my experience, stylish players are not willing to invest as much time, if any, to be decent at the game. And that's just not worth my time. If you come into my room and play stylish (seriously) ill body you by exploiting its weaknesses and then kick you