Soviet Bear

If D moves are now special cancellable without OD, I wonder if OD will get something (I doubt these are all the changes). Maybe D moves in OD are automatic Yukikaze :V I really like these changes personally.

Robo-Ky rules over a Junkyard Kingdom and plots a switch-a-roo with King Ky. Jam's latest restaurant was in the city that was destroyed in the arcade game and now she's broke again. Testament is upset because Justice might return. Baiken is upset because she hasn't found That Man yet. Anji is trying to learn some forbidden knowledge, but just ends up following Baiken. Bridget is trying to get the bounty on Ramlethal. Dizzy got unfrozen. Yay! Johnny is trying to be the hero of the people and the drunkard of the crew. Zappa is spazing out and attacking people. A.B.A. is bleeding somewhere. Justice never died. Kliff's memory never left us. Sorry, we're never getting Order Sol again.

Wasn't Crow introduced in #reload though? Although his only role there was to be all SOMETHING ABOUT AXL DUN DUN DUN.

Something I've started falling for repeatedly recently is Ragna using jB to trigger Yukikaze. Since it's not a projectile, he's frozen by it, but due to how the hurtbox on that move is, he'll avoid the entire slash if he was high enough.

I really hope they announce a definite date for the Western Release. Considering getting a PS4 by December so trying to figure out whether to pre-order the PS4 JP version too or not.

jD has two major downsides. One is the minimum height required (which can be tricky to judge mid-match) and the other is the recovery. Recovery frames start after you land, so while you're falling post-jD and after you land, the opponent can punish you. So while it does catch everything ever, it's also the riskiest Drive he has (save for 6D).

Like I said, I don't like CP Hakumen and had more fun playing CS and even CT Haku. I'm not pretending I'm being objective, it's just my personal preference. The aspects I enjoyed about him were changed about and I feel like the game is pushing me towards a specific playstyle rather than just giving me the option of multiple ones. I never really cared about his damage output. I guess I'm in the same basket as some Tager players who don't like the current version of Tager, even if he looks "good on paper". I'd probably agree with you that he's better balanced in CP, but he also feels more boring to me. They said they wanted to return some characters' individuality in CP2.0 that was lost, so I'm hoping whatever they do to Haku makes him feel similar to his old versions.

I prefer the old counter system and older Hakumen in general. Less damage and more emphasis on what makes him unique is what made him so interesting to play to me. But I'm also in the minority that prefers parries to combos, so how Hakumen evolved in CP caters a lot to players who were combo-focused beforehand. Older counters were high risk and high reward since they were unblockable and could be special cancelled from. Now they're generally high risk and low reward, save for 5D > Enma since that opens up a BnB combo for you. I mean, don't get me wrong, they were always "suboptimal", but they could have given him a "Press D to charge meter like Tsubaki" in CP and he'd play more or less the same as he does now.

I haven't had much issues with the netcode, but ever since 1.1, I've been having random room disconnects (as have other people I know). I only hope they fix that. And if they do make this a separate release, localization might as well make the effort to include the library this time around. Wishful thinking: Hakumen gets non-crappy counters back and they do something interesting with Mugen.

He's just pulling your scalpel, Elven.

My sodium levels are so high whenever that happens. Even versus people I know.

Wow, thanks for those. I'll try them out in training mode this week.

Yeah, I've always felt like air hitboxes were a game-wide problem, not specifically a Hakumen thing. I mean, just look at this crap. Nothing to quote offhand specifically, but I do get the feeling that Hakumen benefits from trades more than most characters. Like, some normals you wouldn't expect to reach the opponent's hurtbox do.

Playing with friends for so long that when I start playing random people online again, I keep completely overthinking everything.

Yeah, the Tsubaki instead of Hotaru was a misinput on my part. I generally try Hotaru in those cases. As for the 5,6k combo, I'm open to suggestions for alternative routes. My problem is that most combo routes go into the BnB one and I have a lot of execution problems with it. I try avoiding 6C/5C for approaches unless I'm certain about the opponent's habits, but in this case I think my opponent wasn't used to it yet so that's why I used it more than usual. For Zanshin > Enma, I misread what you meant and first thought you meant kishuu for some reason. Yeah, I need to upgrade my combos first to capitalize on that. I guess the general takeaway is that I'm going for safe inputs most of the time. Thanks for the comments. I'll see if I can get into training mode for a few hours this weekend and look into better punishes/combos.

GGs to people I played in arcade lobby tonight.

Countless amounts of players use arcade sticks, too. In the end it's just a matter of preference I guess.

I haven't had a chance to play versus better Bullet players, but here's some stuff I've noticed. Feel free to ignore anything that looks like it were just isolated mistakes: Punish Afterburner's recovery at least with a IAD j2C or, if you don't think you have enough time but are close enough, a 4C. Shippu also works (which I saw you used later actually); Don't push yourself into the corner. I saw you jump backwards a few times in a row while Bullet was far away enough not to be an immediate threat; If you're not doing anything during her OD startup animation, go ahead and punish it during its recovery. I'm not sure how long OD recovery is, but I'm pretty sure there's a window where you can get a hit in; I sometimes do this too because I like being fancy, but if a character has limited projectile options (like Bullet, Kagura or Ragna), you're better off using D on their projectiles for the extra magatama. Only if they're too far away, though. If they're close, slice it for the fuumajin. You might get them the first time if they run into you on autopilot, but when they're used to the fuumajin spawning, it'll just be a waste; (^Exceptions are dashing in like you did in the 10th match. Slice away there, too.) You can also punish projectiles on startup with Shippu. Your projectile will hit and their projectile will be sliced; I didn't see you use 6B almost at all. It's a great tool if you see that they crouch-blocked your 2A; (6th match) If you get 5C in, cancelling it into Renka will whiff if the opponent is too far away, but it's really rare for a Zantetsu to whiff in that case; If you're feeling ballsy, you can do a Yukikaze in the middle of their blockstring (although you'd need plenty MU exp to know which character has gaps where). You can even do this in the middle of a grounded combo, as long as it wasn't a counterhit combo; (9th match) I found that doing kishuu VS grounded projectiles is harder than you'd think, especially in netplay. I know I still only get 1 in 5 successful VS deadspikes and Bullet's projectile feels the same; (Also 9th match) Yeah, like you said, you didn't punish rolls enough. Find what works for you, there are a lot of options. Condition them to expect one move, then punish them by switching it up. 6B, 2A, Zan, tiger-knee'd Tsubaki, or even a charged Shippu or 6C if there's enough distance between you two; (Also 9th match) If you're nearing a time-out, you can buy more time by doing a raw OD, since it freezes the timer and Haku is a character with a strong comeback factor anyway. And since it's OD and not burst, you'll have it in the next round most likely; (Also 9th match, second round) If you have a decent health advantage and they're in their red health zone, don't rush it. People are under pressure in that situation and they make mistakes, so feel free to act as though you intend to time them out, and just watch for windows to finish them off; From what I've played Bullet, you can punish her raw drives with your own drive. Not sure how it works versus more skilled players; (End of 11th match) This is probably just a force of habit and/or playstyle, but if you can kill the player right away with a simpler input, I'd say go for that. Your 5C or Zan could have gone into a Shippu and ended it. I'm mostly saying this because when you're under pressure, it's easier to drop combos and if it was a match-winning combo, you'll end up even more frustrated for dropping it. Luckily it didn't happen in that particular match; (12th match, 1st round) Again, I'm sure this is more playstyle than anything, but if you fear your opponent might burst your combo, unless you're baiting the burst, you can cancel into Shippu for decent damage. If they miss the burst window, they'll eat it. 5C > Zan (1 hit) > Shippu is around 5600 I think (And at certain distances, Zan > Shippu lets you avoid getting hit by the burst because Haku does a step back); (12th match, start of 2nd round) I saw you were waiting for her recovery animation to do the 3C. Regardless that it whiffed, Afterburner only has a guardpoint VS projectiles, so slam her with whatever, or kishuu grab, don't wait. You only need to worry about that guard point when you're doing Shippu or Agito, and in the case of the former, only when you're too far away to reach her with your sword; This is a bit difficult to explain, but I saw you jump out of corners a few times when the opponent's back was against the wall. This really depends on the match-up, opponent and what's going on through your head at the moment, but when you give up an advantage like that, you're telling your opponent to punish you for that. I don't really know what to tell you in this case other than "keep them in the corner"; In general, I think you're strengths are being really consistent in combo execution and when you get an opportunity in, you do max damage. What I think the problem might be is that you use a limited number of tools to get those opportunities in, so the opponent has an easier time preventing them. You also seem to choke often and I get the impression you either had no idea what to do next, or you were to worried your opponent would make the right read. Try adding more possible approaches and moves to your arsenal. Your opponent will have a harder time guessing what you'll do and you'll be more confident with what you can do in any given situation. Even if it's just an extra 5A, it's still one extra punch. Hope you find something useful in this wall of text. I've noticed even last year at FFM Rumble that our playstyles are completely different, but hopefully you'll find something that you can use.

I meant in case the DS4 d-pad wasn't good enough for fighting games. I have no idea how it performs and I'd rather not have a third of my pad covered in stuff I won't use for fighting games (like the touch screen and analog sticks).

I ended up ordering a Fighting Commander Pro 4 since it works on both PS3 and PS4, just so I could switch between Xrd versions as needed. Might work as a temporary solution for you?

(Camrecord footage warning) OK, so this was one of my matches from January with my regular Ragna sparring partner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dLCuWX6Ko8 I've been playing since CT, but CP was the first BB I owned (no console before then). So this was like after... 4 months of active play as opposed to bi-weekly play pre-CP. Here are matches with the same Ragna from last night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GEtjy0_RRQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tByEHaOHhd0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEZHb6hV4kc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sI0Y4qmTfg I recorded these four since some stuff I do isn't present in every match. Please keep in mind that since this is someone I regularly play, a lot of decisions in the match are more VS the player rather than VS the character. Anyhow, all comments/criticism are welcome. Also, I still haven't learned the BnB :/

You pretty much summed up why Ky is one of my favorite GG characters.

It's a pretty screwed up situation from both sides. He's a public figure and ruler in relationship with a gear with a half-gear offspring. Given the War and general attitude towards gears, he'd be damned however he handled the situation. Not to mention he has a more rigid ethical compass than the Jellyfish pirates, who for example had no issue with Dizzy. Not really saying what he did was right or what Sin thinks of him isn't justified, but it was hardly a situation with a clear good and bad solution.

I'm fine with a weaker Haku if they make him interesting to play again. The damage he does in CP1 is bonkers, but it feels so boring to play him this time around. I'm half-tempted to just play some CT again.

I'll probably get flack for this, but I could never enjoy the first Killer Instinct on the SNES. It combined the worst parts of SF2 and MK (both games that I can actually enjoy). As for actual "this is actually really bad" fighters, does the Versus mode in the NES Captain America and the Avengers count? I've played a lot of bad ones, but it's really hard to choose the worst game of the bunch. Someone mentioned bootleg NES ports of competent fighters and that's pretty much the absolute bottom of the barrel for me.