Digital Watches

Well, if you have ABA close enough to losing Moroha, do (Whatever)-2D-Rensen PKS~H activate and throw the IK as soon as possible, I think it's guaranteed. If you are in IK mode already, it can tag landing recovery on a few things, including burst.

I am 100% interested and not at all sure I'll have the money and time off.

Yo, japanese players use 2P-Kyokusa for a reason: It's the only combo that will come out of 2P at max or near-max range, and it's an insanely good positioning tool. Either they don't tech and you get a followup combo, or they're in your optimal range (Above and about 5 character-widths in front of you) and just teched... Which means they probably dropped the soap. For most characters, being in the air where Axl can tap them is fairly similar to being in Oki. You control the situation, and they have to work to not die. If you don't have the range to do 6H, rensen FRC, or f.S, and you have the meter to FB, it's almost always a good option. That's not to say Mo is wrong here: If you can, confirm into more damage. 2P-f.S-rensen will connect against most crouching opponents if you're fairly close, and most standing opponents if you're really close. But a max range f.S won't combo to rensen, and f.S won't connect once you're hitting them at about 3/4 of 2P's range. Mo's advice for anti-airs is good, use it. Except don't use 5K as an anti-air, and do use 5P. 5K is good for frame traps where they're trying to jump, but 2S and 2K cover all the situations 5K does way more effectively if they're already up there. The easiest visual-confirm for rensen FRC is the distance it travels. There's a certain length that it'll go before you can FRC it, and it's only a 2F window, so it'll look relatively the same each time. The actual distance is basically just about the tip of your 2D range, so you can use that to get a sense of the spacing.

c.S is a swing upward, f.S is a swing outward. They have similar-looking startup, but by the full extension they're pretty clearly different.

I recommend learning to do the 5H-6H, 2S link in place of run up 6K, since it will help your damage when you're in the corner a lot, and midscreen a little bit. Then just practice getting similar combos from a bunch of confirms. Can you confirm benten FRC into e.g. 5P-6K-air combo? Can you confirm Kokuugeki FRC? Can you confirm a counterhit 5H into similar? I can name some specific combos I use, but what's more important is learning your confirms and what you do to get your simple air BnB. Then you can start optimizing.

I also wrote a post titled "How to play Axl Low" which is targeted at +R. As for some universal combos, K-2D-Rensen (FRC), IAD delay j.H, 2S-623H-623H is stable across most characters. 2S is also jump-cancellable into e.g. j.HD-63214S. I'd also practice the variation c.S-5H-Rensen (FRC) run up 5H-6H, 2S-j.HD-Kokuugeki. It's a good way to practice the 5H-6H, 2S link, which is a way to start optimizing your damage. Also, learn your combo off of crossup kokuugeki FRC. It's way harder than in AC, but a very strong tool. I use crossup 63214S (FRC) Airbackdash ~delay j.H, 2S-j.HD-63214S, but you can also go for 623H-623H to get knockdown on most characters.

I'm curious about what the frames are on block. It seems pretty safe from what I've seen, but then again punishing DPs is something people get better at over a game's lifetime.

I was starting to write some stuff and then I remembered I wrote a thing a while ago in another thread that might help: As for picking a character, all I can say is pick someone you like and remember that every character in every good game is hard at a competitive level.

Is it just me, or does 6P seem way better now? I'm seeing it beat a lot of things I think it wouldn't have before.

Hmm, I'm staying for a week but still don't have a hotel yet. Even if we can't get a group rate, it would be good to coordinate and get a lot of people who are going to be in the same hotel, or at least hotels near each other.

Now that the game's out, let's post videos in their own thread. I'll pretty this top post up and arrange videos by matchup once we have a bunch. For now, post links to videos!

Yeah, more untech is good. I wonder how viable something like 5P-6K-TKB is at mid-range? Also, still wondering about how fast the stance-transition is. Will CH 5P-(Stance-H) > whatever work, or is it going to be more like 5P-Rensen (RC) > Whatever?

-Rashousen looks really weak now, doesn't hit as high up and seems like it takes longer to start up, or maybe just has a less ambiguous-looking animation. Either way, it's back to severe gimmick-status. -5P not pulling back is a huge nerf as well (Does it still chain into 6K? If not, combos from it are probably going to be rare). I'm betting the answer is "Don't bother using 5P most of the time". Get a little more confident in tagging them with 6K or 2S, or just wait 'til they're closer and go for a DP. -It looks like a lot of JP Axls are trying to confirm into kokuugeki still (And dropping stuff because it doesn't exist), so I think we'll start seeing more damage once they're used to #R style combos again. I wish I had the game in front of me so I could do some science about stance-cancels and TKB combos. -SO SALTY the stance-attacks have hurtboxes. Though I guess they might be pretty broke if that weren't the case, but give us something here, arcsys. -It's annoying that we don't have 623P anymore, as that was basically the only solution to "You're stuck in an animation and a bomb's going off," and now your options are like... JC and faultless if you're in a JCable part of the combo, or RC... maybe super? -Venom matchup looks pretty bad, though that's no surprise. Thanks a ton for finding so much footage! Your name don't lie, Sir RocksALot

Yeah, I'm actually liking a lot of the implications universal RC seems to have. In particular, I'm wondering if there's anything that *isn't* a confirm from RC. For example, we've seen lots of sparrow x n combos so far, but can you do sparrow (RC) run up BLoop? Is it more damage? Also very good to know that 2P-6H is still a chain, since that's a +R change.

That's what it seems like, though his close game got better too honestly. You've still got rashousen feint, it's just a PRC or whatever, which is fair. DP looks like it recovers super quick. I've seen it get punished on IB but not on normal guard. Also we got gimmicks like 6H YRC throw. Axl doesn't seem as strong compared to other characters as in +R, but he's definitely got some tools. Stance seems kind of clumsy in some matchups, but I agree that it makes him look like a lot more of a zoning-oriented character.

Yo so real talk You can RC Rashousen in some manner. Thank you Arcsys, skepticism gone.

Yeah, I'm glad we got it cleared up that people importing games is why they get no traction in the US. I'm sure the whole of the Japanese gaming industry makes these decisions unilaterally, having seen so few successes penetrating the US market. If only US fans would stop finding a way to get games they cared about playing without waiting on stupid things like region locking, then maybe Japanese game companies, as a whole, would get the message that there's a market here for the insanely niche genre of "video games made in Japan", a small island nation most Americans may have never heard of. Also, the question really shouldn't be "Why hasn't Arc gotten the patch done?", it should be "Why are games that we're downloading on the internet region-locked?"

Linux port plzkthx.

I think it was colony, and not yet (it happened at weeklies and I haven't tested it yet.)

Bug in PSN version: crash when Bridget got killed by Sol by trading with Sol's 2H while Bridget is in the air and Sol is in dragon install.

Even slowing the game down for both players would mean you could more easily BS (or reversal or throw or whatever) some option on reaction. YRC something to check what they're doing, react appropriately. If that's true, offense in this game is going to be difficult when the opponent has meter. That's not a bad thing, but it's interesting.

Is there lots of footage and info to correspond with that? (*Crosses fingers*)

Meh. The metagame implications of BS are the same if it's confirmable at all. The relevant facts here, as I understand them, are: -25% meter cost -0F startup counterattack -Gets you an unscaled combo -Calls out ~15F worth of potential active frames (That's a huge window. The implication is that you don't have to call out a specific attack, just the fact that an attack will happen at all). As system mechanics go, I assume that's going to be pretty game-changing. Making it harder to confirm just means you'll see lower-level players screw up what they're supposed to do more, which in my mind is a completely uninteresting feature of the mechanic. What I want to know is what choices does it create for players, and what choices does it remove? I fear that the latter category will be kind of huge, especially if you can do it on wakeup.

Basically now we know why Baiken's not in the game.

God people are going to hate this character. Huge DP into artillery-mode stance all day? Also, I haven't heard anything about Blitz Shield so far that makes me like the mechanic. Hopefully that'll change, but it sounds kinda like a very dumbed-down parry mechanic.