mixedmethods

Some things I tested tonight in online training (we used Narukami because lol no one has fought a Narukami): -- Evasive Action/Roll is identical (or as close to identical as can be spied) to Narukami's in distance, making it one of the better ones -- IAD goes further than Narukami's, closer to Shabrys length; IAD backdash fairly compact but useful for IAD AC set-ups -- Really good jump arc, cleanly beats out Narukami's (!) -- GUYS. HE HAS DASH ACCELERATION. It's actually pretty major and makes his air game ridiculous, as you can dash > jump > own half the screen with j.B. Dash speed is identical to Narukami's until the acceleration kicks in. -- I forgot to write down damage numbers but all versions of Thunder Reign are Fatal Recovery; Fire Breath and Awakening super are still fine. Thunder A is confirmed 2000 damage raw. -- There appears to be some invuln on Thunder but wasn't able to test fully -- To avoid throw problems, back throw an opponent (4CD versus 5/6CD). They'll land in front of Ken or, if in the corner/near the corner, in the corner. Can follow into a combo with Koromaru commands at a minimum. Basically, just reverse your throw input if you don't want to side swap. -- Also, Rise j.B is Fatal Recovery, in case you wanted to know

9:02 PM, you're a hero. I can start rounding out the Wiki now! His supers are pretty fast, yeah. I suspect it's to balance the DP, lack of a 5f 2A or 5A for mashing out of pressure (though 6f is really nice), and no standalone persona normals, dash cancels, jump cancels, etc. We don't have the same ground options other characters do. Though Thunder Reign A is Fatal Recovery, so block/whiff and die.

I replayed part of a Risky course I cleared on default difficulty and I didn't notice a difference in AI smarts when I set the game to "SAFETY/Easy" in options. But Ken's Risky course may be an oddball -- it's nothing but Shadow types until the end. The AI feels like a mixture of stupid and random: sometimes they'd actually go into Shadow Rampage/Fury/Berserk and attempt a ToD and other times they'd burn 50 meter on a pointless super (kind of like Score Attack Yosuke in P4A spending meter on Sukukaja). Shadow Labrys (Ariadne) more or less invites you to persona break her regularly. I'll set the game to Hell and see if I notice a change. The opponents don't seem to be random, but order definitely is. ETA: Safety vs. Risky difficulty didn't seem to make a difference. Shadow Aigis is an idiot, even on Risky/Risky -- blows all her ammo, doesn't hit confirm before burning meter on supers, overheats, fires repeat Pandoras full screen at angles that don't even force you to block ... oh, and she loves Radical Cannon. (Facepalm.) After spending all her ammo, she cycled between Pandora and Gatling, even after Gatling did nothing multiple times. The AI in general doesn't like to block and welcomes persona breaks. Some AI opponents don't finish AoAs, either. All of them, save Aigis and occasionally Kanji, used their auto-combo with minor variations. At 50 meter, they'd do a random super, usually the least helpful one. (Aigis didn't her auto-combo, just went straight for 5D/Mode Change/Gatling, and Kanji would switch between auto-combo and YOLO grabs. Pretty much everyone would toss out 5C if not in range for 5A, giving you a free card.) You can use Continues if you draw a bad MU or are fighting with a new character for completion's sake, and it's possible Safety vs. Risky in the difficulty settings makes some minor changes to the AI, but if there are changes, they're not game-breaking. Shadow Labrys (Ariadne) loves Brutal Impact and doesn't punish Ken's DP -- that's a constant; Shadow Teddie and Shadow Kanji give you easy fatals, etc. Max level AI actually ran into a super (botched an input, got super, thought I'd be punished -- nope, the AI decided to run face first into the lightening). So take that for what it's worth. Score Attack Risky courses are a totally different story and more similar to P4A score attack. Junpei starts out one run away from Victory Cry and with damage buffs, the AI will bait and punish, etc.

Unlocking boss characters: complete the character's Arcade route on Risky. That's it. Continues are allowed. P4A characters seem to be their Score Attack models; new characters are just as bad.

FYI: completing Arcade on Risky unlocks "boss"/unlimited characters. Ken's boss form: Koromaru has no hurtbox (INFINITE DOGE...); damage up (looks like a solid .5 multiplier -- 5C or 2C did 1100); Mediarama B heals Ken for 2k, can't confirm A or SB versions but we Score Attack Liz now. Also, Thunder Reign A confirmed Fatal Recovery. Need to check B and SB.

I can't leave P4A. Not when kupo agrees to using THE BOX (and only THE BOX) for a round or gets IK happy. That was just ... too much fun. (Now I need to send off P4A by attempting the IK punish for wake-up BOX > Bufudyne....)

Nah, I'm not done with P4A. Not until I can defeat you with my awful Aigis.

I'd like to go back to vanilla P4A -- I don't want to miss playing kupo, heavy, et al.

I'm glad to be wrong because now I know I'm missing optimal routes and/or the obvious.

For those also playing Ultimax: is it me or does Aigis seem easier vs. P4A? Auto-combo into Megido is a nice perk, but I mean more generally -- I'm newish to FGs so my execution is fairly weak, and with a character like Aigis, that's made the journey ... more unpleasant, but for some reason everything is flowing much more smoothly. Can't tell if it's the extended Orgia, the double boost, or what, but I'm not struggling as much. And the two-frame faster start-up on 5C is really nice.

AnneIFrank chatted about this once -- long story short, she's a less linear character this time at the cost of less damage (which was a given for everyone). You have a reason to go into and stay in Orgia, more chances to play vs. block while Orgia regenerates, and -- praise Jesus -- a useful 2C. If you master her past the flowchart-type basics, she can become a flying unblockable. I think part of the popularity of the auto-pilot mix-up in P4A was the need to conserve Orgia due to the cost per boost/backdash/Megido, and the flowchart worked as a good base, since it gave you your hit-confirm into the double Megido combo and let you deactivate safely. (Until you met people who knew how to block the chart....) I knew Orgia lasted longer this time but it's hard to explain how much longer -- it just feels very different. You have more mix-up options and chances to be creative due to the double boost and changes to gauge consumption. 5B > 5C still works for activating and deactivating on a blocking opponent but you can also activate at range and use the extended Orgia time, double boost, air evasive action, and tri-jumps to close in rather than the old 5AA > 22B > j.C route. And I'm not sure I'd say she's weaker, unless damage is your only concern. You have more opportunities for combos since you won't lose all of your Orgia on mix-up > double Megido. So damage per combo is down, but Aigis herself still nets crazy good damage for 25 meter, anywhere on screen.

Going back to Narukami: I agree it's a bad MU, but unless you have Koromaru doing anything, Ziodyne won't hurt him. The hitbox for Ziodyne doesn't touch Koromaru when he's in his idle animation.

I'll try to transcribe Ken's challenges ASAP, but some notes: - need to fully test his roll, but so far, distance-wise, his looks like one of the better ones - C and D AoA finishes can cause Shabrys-type problems with the game prioritising Koromaru (or I suck) - 5B > 5C > Charge Thrust A > Gigantic Impact challenge requires you to hit 5B and 5C simultaneously in order to gatling into Charge Thrust (can't remember challenge number right now, sorry -- 12ish?) - j.B is as ridiculously good as was noted; can be done deep to combo into 2A (one of the challenges) for some possible pressure/mix-up

Yeah, I should have gone further than "apparently." All we know is that story mode has "movie" and "movieeng," which is ... what it is. We'll all find out in just a bit.

Apparently, the story mode has English vids and possibly text (someone did rip the scripts...).

Thanks for the confirm, Agito -- gives us something to work with for his "Strengths & Weaknesses" data.

12.6 GB. If you're low on memory or impatient, it's not a pleasant download.

I changed his health to reflect the stated 8500 vs. 9500 at Evo discrepancy. Since my calculations from Evo just got blown up, I'm going to refrain from listing a number as an absolute until we have confirmation ... I find it strange that his health dropped that much, as I don't get the logic behind that kind of rebalance, but such is life while waiting to unlock the game. :|

I noticed when I went to edit! Many thanks. Anyone is welcome to steal/edit/rewrite/re-paraphrase move descriptions from that post for the Wiki; I relied on stream footage, YouTube videos, and our testers to describe the moves. Those descriptions will likely be refined as soon as I can get my hands on the game... just a few more hours. Has that health been confirmed? I calculated his health during Evo sets multiple times, because I really wanted to lock down that number. It'd be disappointing to hear it dropped that much. ETA: PM'd you regarding the Skype group. Don't forget to have fun this weekend, though! I'm sure we can self-moderate ... luckily, Ken's sub-forum is pretty quiet.

I won't get it until 11PM, since I'm EST. So I've been passing time with SMT IV and I'm going to hit the gym. Anyone is free to start a hype room as we all wait for our magic hour. I'll probably blitz Story Mode first, though -- I want it out of the way before I check out my new air roll, Titano sequences, and then devote myself to Ken tech. :D Tomorrow night might work for playing casuals? Gives everyone a chance to spend some time in training with new mains/subs before we start facing off and yelling NWTFAYD.

I double checked the OP, since I remember going through everyone's notes to collect that info ... sweep is indeed a hop-cancel, and Ken has a few jump cancels, but with one exception, his jump-cancels are on hit only -- 5A is the only normal that jump-cancelable on block. It doesn't surprise me that he lacks dash cancels, since a lot of DC and BDCs seem to be on persona moves (Mitsuru's 5C, Narukami's 5C, etc.) and Ken doesn't use his persona for standalone attacks the way more conventional characters do. I'll update the OP with this new info, though. (And to clean up a few typos. Oops.) Until his wiki page is complete, I plan to keep updating, just so everyone knows -- I want to make sure we all have at least one source of condensed info. Honestly, I suspected that Narukami was going to be a PITA for Ken, but I feel like an idiot for not anticipating that Ziodyne would off Koromaru. Granted, Koromaru can be 2/5D'd out of danger even while Ken blocks. Of course, since Koro's not Asterius, we can't use him to occupy half the screen and get free meter. Seems like Ken is more about sustaining really nasty pressure than mix-up, which, if my guess is right, means locking Narukami down and not letting him breathe. (Obligatory "is Narukami a good MU for ANYONE" joke. I'm accustomed to suffering in that MU if I can't lock him down.)

Okay, I knew I was missing something. Cough. Um. As an Aigis main, I have almost no use for an actual AoA, just the AoA starter in combos or to go airborne to avoid certain moves.

Yeah, though I think -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that that's more to prevent long combo paths into and out of the AoA itself. That and you can shorten the AoA by hitting C for an automatic fatal even if you don't go for all 18 hits.

FYI, I'm running late. Actually have plans. Should be there by 9:30-ish, though.

That was what I assumed until I was corrected.