Ried

I'm more impressed with his commitment to not blocking at all against the Nine lol. Like, I legitimately think he only got a block out one single time in the entire match and it was for sure an accident. The dash DP RC cross-up j.B was cool though I guess. Still just wanna know if he can do IAD Inferno Crusader.

Shoto that he is, Jin has everything you need all laid out in an easily comprehensible manner. He's about as solid and well-rounded as it gets. In the same way that Street Fighter players might tell you to start with Ryu, beginning with Jin isn't a bad way to get familiar with BB, and fighting games in general. Ragna would be fine too though; Noel maaayybe not as much, but if you're really determined to learn, you can jump into things with any character you want. Actually liking the character tends to motivate you to stick to it and get better faster. The 'easy' character stigma isn't worth paying any mind. Nobody should feel any inherent sense of superiority for picking a more obtusely designed character. It's really hard to be a legitimately 'good' player of any character, but that's part of what makes fgs endlessly fun; even with the simplest characters, there's always room for improvement.

What does combo-centered actually mean? Not sure I understand. Combos are a staple of fighting games, but their role is always a supplemental one. They're never at the center. If it's just about time spent in training mode learning your BnBs, GG is going to force the highest minimum due to how much more character specific everything is compared to the other two. A whole lot less so in Xrd, but still the case. Executional difficulty, as well as general combo length also vary drastically between characters. BB ever since CP, also puts your combos on a stopwatch for better or worse, and the average execution demand is maybe a little lower than GG's too I suppose. Again character, not game dependent. All 3 have a/multiple low execution characters for people who are really bothered by that stuff. Also, can't you, at least against a lot of the cast, just roll after blocking DPs when they have meter in Persona to prevent that? Idk. The RPS levels are a bit higher in that game by design I guess, but minimizing it is still on the player.

Only science.

Is Nu really considered to be that far out in front now? I thought players have been saying she's just strong, not the god more recently. Dunno though, it's still not even out on console yet. As far as mechanics go; yeah, I wouldn't think throwing more junk into the pot is the answer to anything other than making the game less approachable, which has always been an issue for the genre at large.

What do words like fun and interesting entail for the people here? Those can mean anything really, and they're rarely ever elaborated on when used in this context. It'd be nice to sometimes see the 'whys' that lie behind the blanketing disappointment if anyone wanted to expound on them. Also did Makoto and Tsubaki not make the everyone cut in Extend? Cause that would sound about right. Makoto does look really hype in CPE though; still really curious about all of the applications for the new re-standing meterlessly combo-able space counter. Can't wait to test things out. D(2) special cancels weren't a change I was expecting, but a lot of new possibilities flow from it, so it's interesting I guess. A little sad 2D(1) tech time seems shorter, but whatever. New Asteroid Vision trajectory also looks nice. Always something I'm happy to see. Still kinda greedily wish they'd let her retain air-actions from it like back in CSExtend, but AV~B was super sad back then anyway. Maybe not every character is looking up as much as the squirrel, but personally I'm really excited for CPE, it's looking great to me, at least from way over here in the bleachers. It took a hard read, 100 meter, and OD with less than 10% life left to do not all that absurd damage, but I mean, yeah, I enjoyed Goro dunking Dora.

So, uhh, what exactly happened here anyway? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4gFFXDk4ws#t=2722 Cause how I'm interpreting it now is that Bang recovers way before Makoto from parry restand(basically the instant he touches the ground), mashes out 5B with the quickness, which gets guard-pointed by the last few frames of the catch animation, then, as soon as Makoto finally recovers, he does dash 2A to counter-hit the auto-guarded 5B, which is...a really weird exchange. I kept playing it back a bunch of times at normal speed and it kept looking like he was getting the block effect during his dash 2A as if it were lingering or something, but after looking at it again in super slo-mo(way to go new YT features), it just seems like the difference in recovery from parry is heavily skewed towards them? At least at that height, no idea how vertical the catch range is, maybe if you can get them from even higher it'd be less of a difference? I dunno. The way he dashed into it while he was stuck up there on the wall seemed like he was gonna get as good an advantage as he could from it, but that ended up being the result.

That parry change......I don't know. I don't like the input change, and I don't know what to think of the guard point stuff. If it's just guard-point on the follow-up, then whatever. If they turned it into a special guard-point attack, then it could actually be a strong tool for her, but I think I'd still be sad about them effectively removing something cool from her move-list. Just knee-jerk reactions without enough info atm though. Need to wait and see, but it's hard to quit thinking about it now. Lv2 Drives being special cancellable could be something or nothing, but I guess it's hypothetically interesting? Maybe? Yay? Not sure. The applications on hit would be what, j.D into air DP in the corner as an ender? Sounds bad honestly. She'd need another air special to even make any real use of a j.D special cancel. Could maybe see some hype stuff coming from 5D(2) into Comet Cannon in juggle situations, but it sounds sort of irrelevant in early ground-strings and not at all like an optimal route. 2D seems like it would have the most practical potential. 2D(2) into Comet Cannon or Shooting Star. Maybe AV B/C? But you can already just combo into 5B 6A 2D(3) and then follow-up with those things anyway. Would that open up anything new? It wouldn't be relevant for anything in OD either obviously if it's just Lv2. If it's on block too, that might be more useful? Harder to imagine how that'd work. Would 2D/5D(2) into 214A~C be a true block-string? Don't even know how much block-stun they have so I have no clue. Could it make 2D(2) a slightly less dumb preemptive anti-air option at that range outside of 6A? Lol. Still wouldn't be relevant to j.D at all. I really can't see what it would do for j.D period. /givemakotoairasteroidvision

Yeah, she did. Almost all of her old combos are gone because of that and the CT nerf. She did have godlike j.B loops too, but they were mostly just for style. Either way; gone now. RIP.

5B 5CC 5D(3), 66 2C 214A~C~236D, 5B 6A 2D(3), 236A~D, 5CC into either PF or air-combo DP ender still works at least. Off the usual confirm it's a little over 4 flat. With Particle Flare, it's just under 5. If you're confident in that 1-hit crouch or counter confirm(5B into 5D, no 5CC's), it becomes 4238, which is the highest I could get off meterless 5B before, and I'd be surprised if that changes in 1.1. It's no less though, so that's...nice. I guess. Mid-screen you could do something like 5B 6C 214A~C~236D, running 2D(2), 5B 6A 2D(3), 236A~D, 5CC into air-combo DP ender or PF, which ends up being about 3.9 or 4.7 respectively. Not sure if that's really optimal or not. Just what I'm playing around with atm. Another meh mid-screen double side-swap combo(i.e. not the greatest positioning) 5B 5CC 6BC 2D(2), 2D(3), 2C 214A~A, 6A 6BC 5D(3) That'll net you a measly 3.4-3.5. I 'think' you can choose your side with the right timing/spacing(and/or depending on the character), but if you're as dumb as me, you'll mix your inputs up and get 5A a lot instead. ...or, you can just do the old side-swap combo with less hits and no chance of j.D ender for similar'ish numbers and far more consistency. The whole 5B 5CC 2D(2), 2D(3), 6B 214A~C~236D route seems like it's only usable when your back's to the wall, but the damage ends up being comparable if you wanna go for that. As far as oki enders. I don't know what other people have come up with yet, but mid-screen I've been messing with 5B 6C 214A~C~236D, running 6A j.B j.D(3), 2D(3), 6BC 5D(3) for about 3.5. It's a bad combo. More just experimenting with interchangeable parts than anything worth using for real. And in the corner 5B 5C 6C 214A~C~236D, 5B 6A 2D(3), 236A~D, 6A 6BC 5D(3) works for 3.6-3.7. *shrug* I also really wanna screw around with 2-hit PF into 6B for some style combos next time I get on, if only because 90% of my old style combos don't work anymore...and efficiency is overrated. One stupidly impractical style combo that DOES still work though: The Squirrel World Tour! From mid-screen FC 2C 214B j.B 66A 8 j.D 66 5B 6A 2D(3) -OD- DP 214B~D tkDP 214A~D BBS(or just dash 5D if you don't have the meter but that's weaksauce) Take em corner to corner. There's another silly one I haven't really finished yet involving 2D(2) side-swap juggles x3 which still works, but I'll hold it until I can come up with a satisfying conclusion for it. Such a shame that all the amazing things you could do with j.B are gone now though. RIP fun.

So, umm...this patch. Am I wrong in thinking this is worse than what the patch notes suggested. Cause I really want to be wrong. So many things don't work anymore, and not just the stuff I was expecting not to work. I can't figure out how/if there's any way to make up for it either. I know it's super early and all, but the more I'm playing around with this, the less hope I have, lol. Anyone with a brighter outlook on things atm? Were there any stealth buffs or anything remotely positive? Because I really don't know. It's like, she had so very little, and they took it all away.

Hm. Trying to remember exactly since I quit messing with it a while ago once I saw the patch notes and got sad(+it was sort of unreasonable to land in a match), but the taunt combo I settled on was something like Parry > RC > CT > OD > "wanna touch my tail?" > 2B > DP > 214B~D > TK DP > 214A~D > 236D > 5D > 6C > PF(2) > fluffy tail finish 70-75% minimum health for OD time. Starting with 100 heat, it'd build just barely enough for the super ender. Could probably have refined it more. The 5D untech time wasn't enough to get in a good dash before the 6C, so I'd get that awkward situation where the 3rd hit of Particle Flare would end up whiffing, but it didn't really matter anyway. I think the OD fatal 5D Comet Cannon and mid-combo astral whiff stuff is cooler if it's just for max style points, but getting parried, then not being able to burst the taunt and still getting picked up with an OD combo afterwards is priceless.

There's no Victory with that Acorn. It's Limited Makoto's Defeat Acorn. 10% activation. 100% sadness.

It's okay CT. I'll mourn your nerfing, if no one else will. RIP to the totally practical and very essential Parry RC CT OD, unburstable taunt into 7k combos. Can't let a squirrel have too much fun now, can you. The j.B nerf sounds like a legitimately unfortunate one though, and I guess how useful the 6B thing will be is still unknown; could potentially open up some new and interesting routes, but why Makoto of all characters is getting more nerfs than buffs...lol.

Because Kokonoe is pink. Therefor pink must be the strongest color.