qwerty

There are indeed "YRC windows" on at least specials and supers. Part of the reason I get the feeling that there will be on-hit YRC's eventually.

I'll agree that P counter is better for anti-air, but in AC it was so much better for getting people off of you. It was basically a free dead angle.

ABA isn't a bad character at all, it's just that she has to work much harder to create the kinds of opportunities that other characters get without much effort. That, and any momentum she gains can be just as easily taken away from her with one knockdown. Eddie isn't low tier, and if you look at where I placed him relative to the rest of the cast he's roughly in the middle, where he belongs. Zappa is well-rounded, so I put him towards the well-rounded side of the chart. I think you may have misread the chart. Keep in mind that this is all relative: most of the weaker characters in +R probably would have been considered mid tier or higher in AC. @Dai: Is it just me, or do our lists look... pretty similar? A few characters shifted a position or two but that's it. It's pretty funny to see how most lists seem to place most of the characters in roughly the same spot, with the exception of a few outliers. Johnny and Justice in particular seem to generate polarizing opinions regarding their strength.

What you're talking about is why movement and spacing is so vitally important to playing this game; why block things at neutral when you can avoid them? When people are telling you to block, they're usually talking about situations where you have virtually no other options (ie: Zato pressure, mixups in general), not necessarily while at neutral. While you definitely don't want to get hit trying to approach your opponent, you also don't want to focus too much on one method of approach. I'll admit this is probably one of the harder aspects of learning how to play this game, but it's one that you can learn with practice and pertinent observation. Watching match videos and comparing them to your play goes a long way in helping figure this kind of stuff out. One of the reasons I like this game so much is because even if you took out NP, it's not that conductive to downbacking on the other side of the screen, anyways. You have so much more to worry about at neutral than the options downbacking defends against that it's not that appealing an option most of the time. This doesn't mean that you can't turtle/play lame, it's just that you have to be more aware to do so.

Guilty Gear's downback is walk forward, walk backward. When it comes to anti-air, most characters will have a 6P/2H that can beat deep-ish jump ins, but everyone has an airthrow that can be used in a variety of situations depending on the character's jump speed/height. It sounds to me like you should be playing Faust in Xrd, though you should give everyone a shot and see who you like best. If you start playing +R, there's a number of characters that can be played defensively.

Ky definitely has it good against Kliff. I think you may have been struggling because you just didn't know how to fight Kliff yet. Most Kliff players kind of rely on you not knowing how to beat certain tactics to get themselves in a situation where they can faceroll you. Once you learn how to punish his stuff at neutral, Kliff has to play much more cautiously. Regarding Ky's matchups overall, I think you're on to something there Ernest. It seems to me like Ky has mostly good/even matchups against mid tier and below, but has really bad matchups against most of the high tier characters. Faust, Justice and Dizzy seem to give Ky the most grief.

j.S has a pretty weird hitbox now. I'll never forget when I was in a Ky mirror, used 6P as anti-air against a jump-in j.S and both moves just whiffed.

What arcanas are people using for Kamui these days? I just started playing again and I'm using Time because it's what I'm most familiar with. I'd prefer another arcana that allows for Uruga loops, but I'm willing to try anything.

I got bored and made a tier list. I should preface it by saying that I don't think the gap between tiers is that significant in this game. The only character that really tips the scale is Zappa, but he's far from unbeatable. The silence on this subject from Japanese and international players alike is a good sign that people are satisfied with how the game's turned out. I just felt like stirring the pot a little

I'm pretty sure it doesn't JI, but you retain whatever jump option you had. Sent from my DG-Q10S using Tapatalk

I don't know where "Ain isn't a specialist" came from. I run in to Ain pretty frequently and I have only ever seen him play Ky in both +R and Xrd. Granted, I don't think he takes Xrd as seriously as +R. The one time I played him in Xrd I nearly won, whereas in +R I can barely keep up with him.

Don't put too much stock in the character usage chart you see in videos. That's taking data from every cabinet in the country, and I think it even specifically excludes character usage during Event Mode.

An extra second on seals would be unnecessary. Most of the time, you throw a Stunedge through a seal right after placing it, anyways. If you're trying to use seals as real estate on the other side of the screen, then yeah, they're not going to work well for you. But that's not really how they're supposed to be used. It's better to think of them as a way to cover a large area directly in front of you rather than as something to be used from a long distance. That kind of strategy wouldn't work well even if they did last longer, because the other player could just react to your fireball and avoid it entirely. You could YRC the fireball and punish his approach, but you can already do that without having a seal onscreen. Seal oki is already pretty nuts and doesn't need to be any better. There's a ton of ways to get airtight seal oki both midscreen and in the corner as is (throw -> seal, any re-stand combo, 2H -> seal loop, etc). I don't think Ky really needs anything. His representation in tournaments is certainly not representative of his strength as a character. The reason few people are playing Ky is not because he's particularly weak in any area, rather because other characters can do things just as well/better for less effort (Sol's damage, Faust's pokes, Zato's oki).

When you have a move active and the opponent holds 4 or 1, but your move hasn't connected yet. They'll be blocking but they won't be in blockstun, which means you can throw them. With the upcoin you can set up this kind of mixup in a lot of situations, namely as oki or when the opponent is trying to escape from the corner. With the right spacing you can bait a jump attempt out of the corner and airthrow it on reaction. Most people will try to avoid the upcoin by jumping under the peak of its arc, but they'll also start blocking as soon as they get the chance.

I don't have access to the game right now, but basically you're trying to jump cancel a dash after a throw (throw -> 669 -> air combo). KPSDE works on a lot of characters as does PPSDE. The FRC point on throw was added to help assist with this, but be careful as you can end up crossing up in the air. As for opting to go for mist vs other mixups, it's really character and player dependent. Some characters don't have a hard time dealing with "loopable" mist oki (Potemkin, Testament, Robo-Ky, etc.), so against them you're better off trying to catch them off guard some other way. You can bait a high-commitment move they'd do in anticipation of an unblockable Mist Finer, go for a fuzzy guard instead, upcoin proximity block mixup, etc. The factor of what the other player likes to do on defense is important as well, since some people will see that you timed your meaty late and try to FD jump, only to get hit by an airthrow/High Mist Finer anyways. Things like this you can recreate in training mode to give you an idea of what to look out for, but there's really no way to learn how to play oki besides setting these situations up in actual matches (ideally, against strong players who can play the wakeup game).

Sol and HOS become much easier to one hit if you can get gravity on your side. You may want to try confirming from 5K c.S 5H, 2P c.S 5H, etc. against them. I don't want to say that more hits is necessarily better, but if you can get 3-4 hits and the right spacing, it's pretty cake. I didn't see you post any combos with 66 IAD either; that makes it much easier to land Mid MF combos from farther distances (useful for calling people out with bare Mist Finers). Since corner enkasu are easy for you, I suggest you go straight in to midscreen enkasu from throws. Learning those will open up a lot of options for you at neutral. Also, I would suggest getting out of the mindset of enkasu oki being "loopable". You should never assume your opponent is just going to sit and take it, because anyone who knows their options on wakeup isn't going to. While there are ways to shut down a lot of options for some characters (Johnny is a prime example), even they can screw with you if they just faultless your meaty. That's when you realize you never practiced landing a combo from that distance, and you end up looking a bit foolish. Johnny will be in Xrd sooner or later.

This game is my ultimate guilty pleasure, lol. I saw it had Jacky and I had to try it. They gave him back my favorite move from vanilla VF5, 6P+G~2, though it's a hold now. Nothing quite like holding the other guy during a stun combo, then getting perfect positioning for any mixup you can possibly imagine lol. Also, nothing quite like fucking with people's reactions mid-stun combo. I'm partial to landing iaigeri early so they can't play the hold game, but obviously there will be situations where they can hold iaigeri. No problem, just G cancel early and land a Hi-Counter knee strike. Once they catch on to that, I just maximize damage and end in 3P+K P+G. Besides having an easy version of my favorite 3DF character, this game is pretty intriuging. In many ways it's remarkably modern, and yet in so many others it's stuck in 1996.

It's hard to say either has an advantage. I might just barely give it to Anji, though it really seems like it's become a harder matchup for him, as well. The essence of this matchup is simple: both players need to respect their tools at neutral. As Johnny, I need to feel like I'm staring down the barrel of a gun when you're at a half-screen's distance. As Anji, you need to fuck with my sense of timing so I can't counter-poke you. The purpose of this is twofold: you want to be able to get me to whiff something, but you also don't want me thinking about hitting you with an anti-air. Once you divert Johnny's focus from that, it opens up another avenue for you to get in. While Johnny does struggle against Fuujin, it's mainly because his counters to it are pretty strict in terms of timing. He actually has a lot of ways to beat Fuujin (2K, 2S, 2D, c.S OS, f.S OS, 6P, MMF, even coin if you do it from a certain distance), he just has to be bold enough to call it out (hence the respect thing I mentioned before). Also, you really don't want to over-commit against Johnny. Keep your anti-airs as simple as possible (5P will make short work of most Johnny jump-ins) and don't get too emboldened with GP's/counter-pokes in general. Once you get Johnny blocking, things become much easier for you. As long as you time meaty butterfly right, he has to respect it. You can really just go nuts on him when he's in the corner. That being said, Johnny's corner oki is not easy for you to deal with. You can attempt a reversal Fuujin, but all it takes is a well-timed meaty to shut it down. Or hell, he can just throw an upcoin, block, and see what you do.

From 3H? None that are meterless. I end up doing a lot of buttons -> stun dipper on Ramlethal for that reason.

It works on everyone except Ramlethal. I do that sometimes just to get corner knockdown, like you said.

Back in Japan as of today. If there's anything you guys want me to test, let me know.

Where are the arcades in Singapore? I mostly play GGXX and KOFXIII, but I'm willing to just hang out and meet people, too.

If it's during/around Golden Week, I'll probably be able to make it. You'd probably maximize JP attendance if it's during Golden Week, too.

Yokohama, or anywhere near it. Anywhere along that part of the Keikyu line will do.

Can't watch the videos atm, but from the sounds of things you're having the typical problems of HOS players who aren't familiar with fighting Johnny. This matchup just sucks for HOS. It did in AC, and it still does in +R. I've been playing HOS quite a bit lately, so I've been on both ends of this matchup. Johnny really does have it easy against you. It's one of the few matchups where Johnny can just press buttons and not care too much about whiffing. At the same time, if you space yourself well, you can shit all over any standing normals sans 6P. But now in +R, you have to worry about Mid Mist Finer, too. That's something you're going to have to deal with either by jumping over it or IB'ing and punishing. As for 2S, you're just going to have to make a good read and j.H over it or something. As HOS, the best advice I can give is to just work your way in without pressing buttons. Run -> FD brake, running jump -> DJ to bait anti-air, etc. are your best bets. If Johnny gives you a free in like 5H or 6H, just sweep him or jump over and punish accordingly. A lot of figuring this matchup out is just having a good sense of spacing and knowing what your options are at any given position. Also, if Johnny jumps in on you for whatever reason, just SJ and j.P him to death. Divine Blade isn't that fast and neither is Killer Joker, so start looking out for that range and react to it accordingly. That's basically your DP in this matchup, and if you want you can OS the first j.P with airthrow if you don't mind getting the Gunblaze/j.S/6P mixup instead of easy damage. That's the saving grace of this matchup: once you have Johnny blocking, he's back to being Johnny. Good ol', no defensive options havin' ass Johnny. If you're being as ambiguous as possible and your meaty timings are on point, there's not much Johnny can do besides block or try to push you out with FD.