Darkside937

Hakumen's backdash has 0 frames of invincibility for two very good reasons: 1. Mainly, because he has Hotaru, which is (currently) a safe DP. If he could backdash cancel into it, he would have a nearly 100% safe reversal option for a mere 25% meter, which would be pretty busted since the only reason a mostly safe DP like Hotaru isn't already broken is because it has prejump/dash startup. 2. To a lesser extent, he has Zanshin, which is already a solid option for dealing with meaties. I can understand why they wouldn't want to give him both counters and backdash as that would be too many good options (or really more than what he needs). I don't think this would be feasible unless they made some major changes to Hotaru (make it punishable). Although to be honest, I'd be fine if they just changed Hakumen's dash canceled specials so they could only be performed on forward hops, since that would circumvent the "true reversal Hotaru" scenario and canceled Hotaru/Tsubaki is rarely useful anyways (the only situation I can think of is maybe backdash Hotaru as anti-air). Edit: and really, I just want him to have high damage and useful counters. Those are the two traits that define him as a character IMO.

Sadly I don't think it can. The brake has a "skidding" recovery animation at the end, and I believe the opponent recovers before you do since the hitstun from a blocked chain is shorter. Not sure though, needs testing. Edit: Thanks for the definition. I knew that feature existed, but didn't know that's what it was termed. Also reactionary DPs seem to be the problem. A follow up is slow enough to DP on reaction, while the B version is unsafe anyways. If I throw out a chain and it gets blocked, I usually consider that effort a wash and do nothing. It would be nice if they allowed you to choose when to draw in on the chain be blocked instead of the window for pressing 6 being tiny and predictable; I think if you could vary the draw in timing it would be harder to predict, if only slightly.

What is "throw protection?" Also, I'd be very careful doing anything after a blocked chain. The A follow up might be plus on block, but there's usually a large enough gap between it and the blocked chain to eat a free DP to the face. Unless I'm overlooking/misunderstanding something? Edit: and yeah, moves with plus on block tend to be rarer in anime games since you have so many options for each move (special/super cancel, Gatling, jump cancel, etc), compared to something more traditional like SF, where usually the only thing you can when a move gets blocked is special/super cancel it.

Thank you very much for the chart, Tari!

Oooooohhh, I see. Actually, that's a good question. Maybe it was a system change made after CT? If someone really wanted to test they could boot up CT and try to counter a fully charged Shippu, but I'm not that curious, lol.

It worked like this: Clap was fully unblockable in CT. If Carl landed a hit with basically anything, he would call Nirvana to his position and combo into an air purple throw while having her simultaneously perform the clap. If you didn't tech, the throw would land and you would get ground bounced directly below him, where he could purple throw again, and the clap would still hit you. If you DID tech, the clap would meaty unblockable you after the throw break animation, and Carl could jump up and purple throw again. Hakumen could escape this by breaking the throw, countering on the first possible frame to nullify the clap's hitbox, and air backdashing away (although still at a disadvantage since Carl could chase you via airdash and keep pressuring with mashed j.As). The only other characters that could escape this were Rachel (break the grab and 4D to safety), Ragna (break and 1 frame ID), and maybe one or two others I'm forgetting. If you were not one of these characters and got put in the trap, the round was over. It was burst safe and inescapable save for the above exceptions if the Carl executed it correctly.

Were you questioning the wording or what they meant by it? If the latter, it's because even though Hakumen was indeed a solid character in CT, he got smeared by the top three (Nu, Rachel, Arakune. Rachel to a lesser extent [6-4], but Nu was terribad [7-3] and Arakune was [8-2, but IMO 8.5-1.5 or 9-1]). He had even or almost even matchups with everyone else, but his stronger tools/aspects (6A, 6B, Zanshin, huge damage from pretty much anything, etc) were not enough to keep him from getting beat the fuck up when facing the top tier. "Zanshin after throwbreak" is probably referring to how he could escape Carl's pseudo-infinite by teching the purple throw and immediately J.D'ing. This made him one of only a handful of characters that could truly escape it, resulting in him having one of the better matchups against Carl in the game. Overall, that's a pretty accurate summary. And yeah, LOL at the Dark Ages bit.

Wow, that was a superfast response, lol. I just noticed I had already taken it down in my notes, but you had already replied by the time I was done deleting the post Thanks regardless though.

Thanks so much for the hitbox links! Fucking smart as shit, I wish every matchup thread did this. I'll comment more after I've read the thread; this matchup has been giving me major problems.

^CS2 Hakumen was pretty trash. You know how Hakumen's shortcomings are a trade off for doing huge damage? Okay, now picture that huge damage being below average in addition to some of his best tools from CS1 being nerfed or removed. You basically had to spend meter and play risky only to still get 1k less than higher tier characters on average. IMO CS2 was his worst version, even worse than CT. Edit: Almost forget the worst part: his meter gain was crippled. The 180 frame cool down and further auto gain nerf meant you had to be SUPER conservative with meter. The amount of mistakes you were allowed was extremely limited since you had to conserve as much as you could to invest in combos/mixups, and in CS2 his expendable meter was so limited it was difficult at times for his character design to function properly.

I've been experimenting with Super/IK punishes too. Some I've seen in videos or figured out in training mode: - SFB (Super Flash Buffered) IK beats Yu's Ziodyne super - IK beats Mitsuru's kick followup super if you block the sword swipes, then SFB the kick - Brutal Impact A punishes Yosuke's IK if you input it slightly after the flash - Brutal Impact A (or maybe IK? Can't remember) punishes Akihiko's IK if you input it right as the globe becomes stationary I plan on testing more when I have time. Also, I've seen the training slowdown bug too, once when I was practicing 2C loops in the corner. It was barely noticeable at first, but got worse with each attempt at the combo. I was using a lot of OMBs and 2Cs if it matters. Perhaps if one of the graphical effects occurs with enough frequency, it induces the lag?

^I can suggest something What are some good things for Labrys to use at neutral? I tend to iad j.B or chain to go in the offensive, but j.B gets blown up by head att inv moves and chain is pretty telegraphed. Is it just hit confirming pokes into knockdown > oki, CH fishing, footsies, or what? I realize each of those have uses, I guess I'm just having trouble understanding what I'm supposed to in general situations since her playstyle is so unique to me.

The combo thread definitely needs an overhaul. There are a lot of "filler" combos that have superior variants, sometimes posted right under them. We need to weed those out in favor of optimal ones. There are also a few minor errors and omissions (e.g., ###A instead of ###B, neglecting to mention when Tsurugi should be delayed or when the sword should hit in the combo, etc).

I finally picked up my copy of this and have been playing around with Labrys. She's fun :D Getting a late start sucks, but I'm beginning to wrap my head around the system mechanics and her moveset. Now I'm deciding on combos to use and have a few quick questions. If a few people could give input, I'd greatly appreciate it: - At each axe level, what's generally the best benefit to aim for with combos? So far it seems like the criteria are Axe level increase, damage, oki possible afterwards, meter gained/spent, reset potential, and going for the kill. Are there more I'm overlooking? Right now I'm thinking... Lv1-3: Axe gauge > oki > meter spent/gained > damage > reset potential Lv4: Axe gauge/oki > meter spent/gained > damage > reset potential Lv5: If health is in KO range, then kill with BeastC/BeastD/BI combos > oki > damage > meter spent Basically, once you land a starter, what should be your general priority? - What are her other oki/mixup options besides Tsurugi (I've seen the thread for those on MM)? - I hear she has some nasty resets, are there any particularly worth noting?

If you're talking about fuzzy guard stuff, then yeah. I was going for coverage of his pressure concepts, and thusly didn't really go into stuff like fuzzies since they're mixups, which I feel are another topic (although related). But regarding my disappointment in regards to BB, I digress. I think I've shared enough about why I feel that way, and don't want to be "that guy," so I'll stop here. I hope everyone looking forward to BBCP enjoys it, but unless the game ends up being drastically different from what I expect it to, I will be investing my time into other games.

Pillow fighter = slang for a fighting game where the overall strength of the cast and mechanics are relatively low, thus bearing likeness to a pillow fight since everything feels so wimpy.

I already quit BB months ago. BBCP's trailer reignited my interest, but after seeing the loketest's tentative changes like Zantetsu's damage being lowered, that interest evaporated. It's not just that Zantetsu got nerfed; that's part if the larger problem, being that every iteration of the game has seen downgrades in median character strength. I prefer fighters that are balanced because the roster feels equally strong, not equally weak. Lower average damage isn't the complaint itself--it's merely a symptom. I made a more in-depth post on this a few pages back, but to summarize: Every time something strong gets discovered, Arc nerfs the absolute shit out of it, which to me makes the game more and more boring and leading to the current state of the game being a pillow fighter. I don't want BB to become Marvel (as it has the opposite problem if being too far in the other direction of the spectrum and IMO is a terrible game anyways for reasons I won't bother getting into here), but just look at the system mechanics Arc has deemed "too strong": - Certain moves being used twice in a combo - Gold bursts - Instant Block - Proration across the board That's not even mentioning directly Hakumen related stuff since I already did in my other post or countless setups/mixups/tactics for other characters. By severely limiting strong tools and options, it chips away at player freedom and creativity, making the cast and game feel homogenized and lame. Arc has taken this to the extreme, where there are so few options worth using anymore, that the variation between different players' playstyles is much smaller than in other, more interesting fighters. In addition, this makes battles seem much less tense overall as the stakes and hype levels are so much lower, and spectating becomes a snoozefest. For me, playing the game has too. It's disappointing since the solution is so simple. Instead of balancing the game through nerfs, why not balance it through buffs? GGAC is a fantastic example of how much fun a fighter can be when everyone in the roster has several strong tools available to them without anyone being overly powerful. Why not go that route, instead of steamrolling everything into a flat landscape of blandness?

Pretty much now that you point it out, although that was completely unintentional, lol. I was aiming more for something like Hazama has, but tweaked a bit. And thanks! Yeah, I can see how some Haku-mains might feel that way in regards to the aesthetics. In CS2, the way they turned Hakumen, THE power character of Blazblue, into a non-power character was one of the main reasons I played that iteration for such a small time in comparison to other BBs. I really miss the slow, heavy-hitting defensive monster he was in CT... But I'll stop now before I just repeat what I've already said about that, lol. I'm glad you enjoyed the analysis! I've been asked to write guides for different games before including Hakumen in BB, but it takes me FOREEEEEEVER to write any tutorial-type stuff since I try to be so thorough--that one post took me several hours and a good bit of re-writing, and even that I was kinda flying (hence the typos). Unfortunately, that also means such guides have a tendency to come out a tad convoluted at parts, so I'm happy I was able to get the concepts of his pressure across without it sounding too garbled, haha. I've recently been wanting to do more of this kind of stuff, so maybe I'll get around to doing some other Haku write-ups sooner instead later.

I finally have time to explain this a little more in-depth. Fucking work :blue: First, I'd like to clarify some things: I don't think it's VITALLY ESSENTIAL that Hakumen gets a command grab, I just think it would be nice. Yes, I think it would strengthen his pressure game (that's the point). No, I don't think it would be overpowered. Don't get me wrong; I'm not dreaming about giving him some super ridiculous OP move--we're not in a GameFAQs wishlist thread. However, if implemented properly, I think it would be a smart buff that would help flesh out his offense a bit better. The following is a basic explanation of how Hakumen's pressure works. This is intended to cover pressure with the ultimate intent of going for damage. All of this is for CSE and previous iterations of BB and does NOT take the BBCP loketest changes into consideration. Also, new Hakumen players might want to check this too, as looking back on it, it kinda turned into a mini-tutorial That's also why this ended up being a huge wall of text, so sorry about that, lol. First, let's examine how other characters apply pressure in general. Hakumen doesn't have true blockstrings like they do, instead having "pseudo-blockstrings." For other characters, putting your opponent in a blockstring means using a chain of gatlings and at some point going for mix up in order to ultimately damage your opponent. If pushed too far away or the opponent blocks the mixup successfully, blockstrings can usually be extended for a short time via things like RC/wind/dash-cancelled moves/etc. Eventually, this situation will either end in one of two ways: 1. The opponent succumbs to the aggressor and gets hit 2. The opponent successfully plays defense and blocks their way out, evades, reversals, or through some other means gets out of the defensive situation they're in Hakumen's pressure doesn't exactly work the same way. The basic concepts of playing offense are similar (apply pressure and mix up with the goal of landing a hit/combo to damage the opponent), but how he performs his works differently. This is because there are some fundamental differences between his design and most other characters. These include but are not limited to: he has hops instead of a run, he has no true gatlings (instead having late gatlings. Technically he has a handful like being able to gatling into drives, but that's irrelevant for directly applying pressure), his specials can be cancelled into each other, etc... So here's the rundown of a basic example. Obviously personal playstyle and your opponent's are huge factors in how to ultimately land a hit, so keep in mind that this is very generalized: 1. Get in close (obviously) 2. Throw out a "pseudo-blockstring" consisting of 2As/2Bs/whatever 3. Assuming you didn't land a hit, you'll get pushed out after just a few of the aforementioned pressure applying normals. You need to get back in to continue your pressure if you want to keep it going. Here, you have a few options. 3a. Hop (costs nothing) - This is a great choice and probably one of the better ones to use. It's free, it puts you airborne for many frames making you throw invincible, it puts you right back in their face, and it can be cancelled into Hotaru or Tsubaki (very important, but I'll come back to this in a moment). 3b. 6A (costs nothing) - Not as good as it used to be for pressure since it's even on normal block and it's still slow as molasses, but still useful if you need a meterless way to get closer with attack frames. You can frame trap with it, which is nice, but it doesn't get you as close as a hop and you'll be pushed back out a good bit when they block it. 6A can also be cancelled into from some normals like 2A or 5A, and while sometimes useful, it's not airtight, so it's best used somewhat sparingly. 3c. Kishuu (costs 1 star) - Gets you back in at the lightspeed, blows past anything that isn't foot attribute or a throw, can be cancelled into from pretty much anything, can go into Enma for frame trapping or to punish the opponent for feeling frisky (say, if Ragna throws a out a 5B once you're pushed back). Good stuff all around, but with the obvious downside of costing meter. You can't just Kishuu every time you need back in close, although it is an excellent option in many situations. 3d. Gurren. Useful for frame traps and gives you advantage, but if you're going to spend a star getting back in, just use Kishuu as it's superior in that aspect. 3e. Something else (Renka, Zantetsu, whatever. Costs 2+ stars) - Do not use these solely as pressure tools. They can obviously be used to go for a high or low during pressure as mixup tools, but they are simply too expensive to be used for the sole purpose of getting back in, which they're poor at anyways since the pushback from your opponent blocking either will nearly negate distance gained. Renka is good for frame trapping, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about here since frame traps in themselves aren't pressure; they're setups that can be utilized during pressure. But anyways... 4. At some point in time during any of the above, you go for damage by either mixing up with 2B, Renka, Tsubaki, Throw, TRM, or Zantetsu (lol), or by setting up a frame trap. You can also 6B, but that move isn't really for direct mixup as it's more of a conditioning tool designed to annoy your opponent into blocking high while chipping away their primers and health so you can sneak in a low and get real damage. So, your most common general use options to keep Haku's lackluster pressure going are going to be hop, 6A, and kishuu. Looking at the information above, hop looks strong. In fact, it is the best of the three without question. This is because of dash-cancelled specials (remember how I said I'd come back to these?). Without dash-cancelled specials, hops would be completely terrible, no different than holding up a gigantic sign with "I'm going to make myself vulnerable to everything except throws for a while, feel free to punch me right in my stupid fucking face" written on it. However, opponents respect the shit out of hops (as I'm sure most of you are aware). This is because when Hakumen has two stars, he has access to one of most feared, most salt-inducing, and arguably best specials in the game: Hotaru. You want to mash me out of my hop? Go right ahead, but just know that this might be the time I decide to dash-cancel into Hotaru and blow your face off, Fatal Countering you and advancing you much further to the corner, picking up a beefy combo if you're already there. OR, you can keep blocking, giving me enough frame advantage to keep applying pressure. OR, you could try to block and punish Hotaru, but that's not in your best interest most of the time since I can just jump-barrier cancel to block, throw out a j.D, or cancel into Tsubaki to frame trap. The choice is yours: do you feel lucky, punk? WELL, DO YOU!? Then there's Tsubaki. This is obviously for mixup, but has some neat perks when used in pressure in that it's also safe on block, blows up whiffed throws, and allows you to continue pressure. It's basically a mixup option that doesn't end your pressure if it doesn't work. Let's review with an example: Get close > 2A/2B > 2A/2B > hop to get back in, using DC Hotaru if they aren't respecting hops > 2A/2B... With mixup somewhere in there. Now that we've covered the basic gist of how Hakumen applies pressure, we can keep that in consideration while moving on to the topic at hand: why I would like to see Haku given a command throw (again, I don't think it's absolutely necessary, just that it would be a nice addition without being OP). Okay, so here's the big thing about Hakumen's pressure, or really just his offense in general: it costs meter. At some point of playing offense with Hakumen, you're going to spend meter, whether that's by using Kishuu to get in, performing Tsubaki as an overhead during mixup, hitconfirming that 2B into Renka to begin your combo, etc, etc. With zero stars, his pressure is worthless. Know why? Because even if you only use meterless options to pressure, say, by doing 2A > 6A > 2A > 2A > hop... or whatever, it doesn't mean dick because (with a handful of exceptions, like landing forward throw in the corner) when you do land a hit, your conversion options are precisely jack shit. Guess what you get off a 5C, Hakumen's best starter, when you don't have meter? NOTHING. Guess what you get off a commonly landed starter like 2A or 2B with no stars? NOTHING, aside from maybe doing a couple of late gatling into one or two more 2As or 2Bs. Hakumen is garbage without meter, and for good reason: his character is designed that way. Everyone knows how menacing he can be when he has 8 stars, but to balance that out, he's purposefully lackluster when he's at 0 or 1; if he was good when he didn't have stars too, he'd be broken. Hakumen should ideally wait until he has a least a few stars to start pressure, since you'll need some for mixup or frame traps or at the very least for getting damage once you hit them. Personally I wait until I have at least 2 or 3, with the ideal opportunity being at 4 or 5 (starting with anything more than that is just a bonus). If you haven't started pressure and have no stars, you should wait a bit/zone/play neutral/whatever until you get some. If you're amidst applying pressure and run out of stars, it's time to either end your offense attempt as it was unsuccessful or start stalling/bullshitting to get meter. If you BEGIN applying pressure while having no stars, you're betting that by the time you land a hit, you'll have enough built up to do something, which is a BIG gamble and rarely worth doing ever IMO. That's why Hakumen's pressure is non-existant when he has no stars. Yes, you can do 2A/2B strings, BUT you don't have Hotaru to keep them from hitting your out of your hops. You don't have Tsubaki or lolZantetsu for highs, so your only overhead is little more than a non-threatening nuisance. You don't have Kishuu to stay in or breeze through mash attempts. And most importantly, any hits you land yield almost no reward at all. With no tangible reason to do so, why are you bothering to apply pressure? Sure, you can throw out a couple of jabs or something to stall and build a little meter, but if you need that, you're much better off zoning for a bit and annoying them with j.C/4C/whatever. Now that we have established proper pressure with Hakumen requires meter, I can explain how I envision a command grab factoring into this. The thing about pressure in any fighting game is that it doesn't last forever, no matter how top tier Mr. S+ is (if it does, you should probably stop playing Power Rangers SNES, MUGEN, or whatever terribad game it is you're inflicting upon yourself). Fighting game developers know this, which is why fundamental features such as pushback exist as well as certain system mechanics like barrier block. If you can't mix them up and they just block, eventually you'll be too far away for your pressure to continue. What makes this different for Hakumen is how quickly this happens for him vs. the rest of the cast. While other character have decently long pressure strings with the option to burn 50% to keep it going, Haku has to have meter just to perform it. They can afford for their pressure to be applied somewhat more leisurely--Hakumen can't. When he's pressuring, more often than not he only gets one, maybe two shots max at landing that hit. You have to make shit happen when you're in there, because if you don't, you either won't have enough stars to make continuing pressure worthwhile, or you'll have to go for a suboptimal combo assuming you hit them. They blocked Ragna's 6B? Who cares, his pressure is Not Over Yet (heh). They blocked your Tsubaki? You just burned 37.5% meter, initiated a short cooldown where you gain meter at a vastly reduced rate, and reduced the amount of stars you have to spend on whatever combo you might get from your pressure attempt by three. The point of all that being, Hakumen could benefit from a tool designed to help open them up during that short window he's allowed to when pressuring. The reason why throws/TRM tactics are so prevalent amongst Hakumen players is a result of his high/low mixup being fairly mediocre, and command grab would help make his pressure game slightly more threatening than "downback/barrier until you see him hop while waiting the short time it takes for him to spend his meter as that renders him harmless." The I could see such a move being implemented is as follows: - Slightly less range than forward throw - Does no/little damage - P1 85% - 10 frame startup - Invincible to throws frame 6-10 - Staggers - Costs two stars - Animation: Hakumen extends one arm with palm facing upwards, grabbing the opponent by the "shirt-collar" of their sprite, then closing his fist and retracting his arm to deliver a brutal headbutt to their face. Other possibilities include keeping the initial half of the animation the same, but instead kneeing their gut or striking swiftly downward with his elbow for the actual attack portion after drawing them in. The concept is essentially to give him a tool that makes his pressure more fearful by granting him one more tool to crack their defense, making it easier to land a hit in the small timeframe he has the opportunity to, a timeframe that's much smaller in comparison to other characters, at the cost of 25% meter and the following combo doing less damage via proration.

"No star pressure"? I respect everyone here on the Haku forums, especially my fellow members of the old guard, but seriously: are you kidding? The act of giving him a command grab would not be overpowered in itself; the move itself would have to be given overpowered properties (e.g., does 4k damage, invincible startup, Tager 360 range, or something similarly broken). So long as they don't do that, it would be a very plausible option instead of mucking with his high/low game by altering Tsubaki or whatever, since his pressure game in inherently poor by design. I don't have time at the moment, but I'll break it down and explain why next time I post.

^And Zantetsu. Any idea how fast Agito's startup is? Mite B cool if it's fast enough to persuade people from punishing Hotaru if you could frame trap them by canceling into Agito. Know what I'd really like to see? Give Haku a command grab to help supplement his mediocre pressure and mixup. Not a purely damaging one, but maybe something like Hazama's that opens them up to other things. The way Haku's offense is designed (no true gatlings, pressure revolves around hops), he's probably always going to have subpar high/low mixup and giving him this would be a good alternative to trying to fix it. Make it a grab-n-headbutt that causes the new forward throw's stagger; give forward throw its wallbounce back. Costs two magatama.

Ewww.

I agree that he was very incomplete in CT, and compared to newer iterations CT Haku seems lacking. However, while his weaknesses were glaring, his strengths were beastly when compared to other iterations of the character. I don't think it's his best version (high tier wise that'd be CSE and what I'd consider "ideally balanced" would be CS1), but even back during CT's lifespan, I always said people didn't give him enough credit and that he was IMO undertiered. He definitely had major issues with the top 3 since he had nothing to handle zoners, but I felt everyone else was mostly 5-5, with a handful of 4.5-5.5s and 5.5-4.5s. I mean, shit, 6A was Head att inv on frame three. AND it was fast as fuck--so fast, you could 6A their jump-in, and if they double-jumped to bait it, just 6A again since it's already recovered. AND it was +2. AND it started a solid combo on CH, basically CH 6A > 5C > whatever. AND it gatling'd into 6B. I think it may have even been special cancelable. Compare that to AAs of other Hakumen versions: CS1 and CS2 Haku just had 5A and counters, and CSE has the "old 6A" back, but in a much, much worse form--painfully slow, even on block, forward slide makes it somewhat awkward to use, meh combo followups... Pft, I wish it was grand finals :P It was half-way or so through the tourney. I ended up getting 4th, LK put me in losers early on, but I almost fought my way back out. Was doing good and might have had a shoot at winning (since the grand finals were between two Carls, a matchup I knew very well at the time) until a Nu player took me out.

CT was best since tiers aside, everyone felt like they had something really strong. A good example is Hakumen: - Counters led to great damage/were scary - BIG damage from pretty much anything once you had meter; Hakumen hit like a truck. I remember a tense match in CT at FR13, I was sitting on 8 stars and someone in the audience was shouting, "Don't let him touch you! PLEASE don't let him fucking touch you!" Well, I touched him. The subsequent combo pretty much melted his face off. Shit was awesome. - Instant block > counter was usable in many more situations - Haku was practically an impenetrable wall, since 6A was probably even better as AA than actual DPs and 6B blew up lows. Combine that with the above and you had a defensive monster - Meter auto gain was fast as fuck with ZERO cooldown - CH 6C into 5C = big hurt - 3C > stuff - Zantetsu didn't suck (as much). Even the old style for rendering the special graphical effects on his sword swings helped make it harder to see Consider he had all those strengths AS A LOW TIER CHARACTER. Hakumen was "worse" in CT than any other BB, yet I felt that was by far his most fun version. Even if you picked a "crappy" character, you still felt buff as fuck since everyone had stupid shit; it followed the philosophy of GGAC, but was obviously worse balanced overall. However, CT made up for its imbalance with hype. I can recall the most hype moment I've ever experienced in the entire time I've been playing FGs, and it was again in CT at FR13: I had made it decently far into the bracket when I was matched with an Arakune, at which point I figured my run was over since that matchup was terribad: 7-3 IIRC, but IMO more like 8-2. I managed better than I imagined I would and we made it to the deciding round of the set. It started poorly, with him whittling me down to ~5% while he still had ~90%. He went for a super ambiguous crossup dive and I thought I was fucked, but then I decided to try a 5D as a last resort, and to my surprise, it worked. The hypeness was what happened next: I had somewhat downloaded his bursting habits and had a feeling he was going to panic burst, so I went for 5D > 6C > Shippu. It ended up being a good read, and his burst when off as I cancelled the 6C into Shippu... So I was able to fully charge it. Due to the Danger penalty bursting carried in CT, it drained his ENTIRE lifebar. My personal most hype shit ever, and sadly nothing in CS1 onward has ever come close. They should have kept the craziness of CT by slightly nerfing the top 3 and buffing everyone else IMO. Instead, with each iteration it feels as though they're giving the entire cast a Valium, with some characters getting a stronger dose.

@Isuna: Zantetsu is awful because it's slow, obvious, much less safer than Tsubaki, and my personal hatred for it is because it has broken proration since CS1. In CT, it was at least sometimes useful for combos, but after that it has just been worthless. I've experimented with it in the lab more times than I can count, and it is ALWAYS one of the least efficient options in damage and meter. I even played around with (whiff first hit) > second hit stuff, even making the first hit whiff mid combo, but still found it to be just as bad. It is utterly worthless all around. And yeah, I miss CT. Still think it was the best BB, balance issues notwithstanding.