Darkside937

Overdrive sounds similar in premise to X-factor. You and your opponent each get a once (maybe twice?) a match boost that last for a limited time, with that duration lasting longer the closer you are to losing. Let me say first off that I'm NOT a fan of MvC3's X-factor. With all the advantages it gives you (damage boost, minimum prorated damage increased, negates chip damage, speed boost, health regen, and cancelling whatever you're currently doing INCLUDING BLOCKSTUN, POTENTIALLY MAKING EVERY MOVE IN THE GAME UNSAFE, which is pants-on-head retarded) it's just way, way too broken. When "knowing when it's best to use such-and-such system mechanic" becomes the predominate determining factor in deciding the outcome of a match, your game's meta is fucked, and I think I can safely say we've all seen tourney matches in that game where the clearly more skilled player loses because his opponent happened to pop X-factor at a good time before proceeding to steamroll the entire other team. That's not to say that I think the concept is a bad idea, just that in MvC3's case it was poorly implemented as it's too overpowered. I've said before that if they were to remove some, maybe three or four, of the benefits X-factor grants you, it would be a very solid mechanic. This seems to be the route ArcSys is going with Overdrive. It's still a once a match boost that gets better when you're closer to being defeated, but instead of transforming you into some SSSS-tier god, it merely makes you much better instead of broken. The we'll-see-how-it-plays-out twist is the character specificity of the buffs. What OD does for each character as of the first loketest is known, but the exact extent has yet to be revealed as they're somewhat vague. For example: "Carl: Synchro High Speed - Nirvana is strengthened." "Strengthened" to what extent? We don't know the hard data, which is why my opinion of "the jury's out" regarding OD still stands. One thing that does worry me is if the character specific enhancements will be well-balanced amongst each other; honestly, some of them are looking kinda shit right now (Makoto/Rachel/Valk) while a few look stupid good (Hakumen/Hazama/Arakune). tl;dr: I'm neutral on Overdrive as we really don't know enough to see how they'll play out in a match or what they'll even do exactly, but I certainly hope ArcSys exercises EXTREME caution when balancing it. Comboing off of Tsubaki slides was pretty shitty since it was so unstable for three reasons: 1. Character specificity of hitboxes while groundsliding (mainly the vertical height of their downed sprite directly affecting how easy it is to combo iad J2C) 2. Character specificity of "push" distance. Not sure if this is well known, as I don't think I've seen it documented on DL, but different characters' sprites are moved different distances after attacks/actions that push or knock them away. Ever notice how Tager is pushed farther away then everyone else when you 6D him, or how he slides further during a groundslide? That's what I'm referring to. Not sure how to exemplify this in CSE, but you can test this in CS1 by doing 6D > Lv3 6C launch > step > 5C > Enma > ... On some characters like Tager and a few others, you can't do 5C as they're "pushed" too far away by the initial 6D and instead have to do Step straight into Enma. It's different from having different hitboxes, and there are a handful of other situations where it applies (such as Tsubaki groundslides), but it's definitely there. IIRC, Tager, Ragna, Noel, and Jin tend to get "pushed" farther away, while certain chars like Valk/maybe Rachel aren't "pushed" as far. 3. Some combos ONLY work on normal hit, since CH makes them slide too far to connect iad J2C. There are a handful of crappy meter-inefficient alternatives (CH Tsubaki > Kishuu > Kishuu > Enma > ...), but whether you're iad'ing or Kishuu'ing, they're both neigh impossible to hitconfirm by verifying if it was Normal or CH since you have to do the next input nearly instantly. This is just stupid for the same reasons Hotaru's blowback distance in CS2/CSE was stupid: that shit is less stable than Chernobyl just before the meltdown. As for combo'ing off Tsubaki in CT: wait, people didn't know you could do that? My BnB when landing Tsubaki midscreen in CT was Tsubaki > 2B > Gurren > 6C. If you don't even have a single star, you can do Tsubaki > 2C > J2C (currently J2A). The positioning afterwards was mediocre and the damage wasn't so hot, but if you wanted at least SOME damage... You could also get some pretty nice stuff with it in the corner, as mAc pointed out. Honestly, I don't see why they just give us CS1 Tsubaki back entirely. It costs 37.5% meter, that's a fuckton considering it's our only useful overhead. Either that, or fix Zantetsu being a total waste of a move.

Thanks! I like to analyze fighting game mechanics at an in-depth level (What was the developer's thought process behind this mechanic? How does it work on paper vs. realistically? Etc), but I rarely share my thoughts on them with people outside the local scene. It's nice to hear someone likes my opinions on them. It would be really cool if they implemented the guard bar from Guilty Gear, but remixed it in typical "BB mechanics borrowed from GG" fashion: add a "type 1" meter. However, instead of breaking their guard outright once it's maxed, it puts the opponent in "Danger" mode for a short amount of time (between 5 and 10 seconds), after which their guard gauge resets to zero. This would instill the best benefit of type 3, as the onus would still be placed on the attacker to properly mix up the defender, but it wouldn't be straight up copy+pasting GG's guard bar system, as I feel that's a mechanic unique to GG, and should stay that way. In addition, this would be a "still advanced, but slightly easier to comprehend" mechanic in comparison to the way guard bar works, which seems to be a key objective for ArcSys regarding BB's design when compared to Guilty Gear anyways. If they wanted to make something really unique, they could integrate the Libra into this, with adjustments of course. Make it possible for certain moves (Bugs for example) to add nothing to the Libra, and overhaul how much moves influence the libra period. Slow, crappy (read: Tager's) normals that have a "low chance" of being blocked (as in "used in strings or other situations where blocking is typically a good thing for your opponent to do, like on their wakeup"), should move the Libra MUCH more than they did in CT, while moves that have a "high chance" of being blocked (again, see the aforementioned) or things that are above average as pressuring tools should have less influence on the libra. Also, borrow another page from GG's book by causing the libra to reset to neutral more quickly, just as guard bar does once the defender is no longer under pressure, and much more quickly if they transition to being on the offensive.

To explain this, I'm going to offer my thoughts on guard gauges in general. In games I've played with guard gauges present (and for the purpose of this explanation, BBCP), there are a few types: 1. Gauge type. Meter increases slowly via blockstrings; when maxed, guard is broken and the attacker gets a free combo. 2. Primer type. Characters have a specified number of primers; certain attacks remove them. When all primers are depleted, guard is broken and the attacker gets a free combo. 3. Bar type. Meter increases slowly via blockstrings; when maxed, guard isn't broken--however damage is increased depending on how high the meter has been raised. 4. Crush type (please correct me if my understanding of this is wrong, it very well may be ). Certain attacks can be followed up for 25% meter with a special attack that breaks guard upon connecting, giving the attacker a free combo. The issue with 1 is that it rewards the attacker for pressuring their opponent, but not necessarily skillfully. Mindless or sometimes even inescapable pressure shouldn't result in a free combo (CvS2 Shoshosho, BBCT Rachel/Arakune bugs). Number 2 is problematic as the ability to break someone's guard lies more in the hands of the developers than the player, as how successful someone is at breaking their opponent's guard is highly dependent on how good their character's primer breaking moves are. It's a heavy-handed approach by developers, as if they're saying, "We want _____ character to be inherently good at breaking guard, so we will strictly define this by making sure their moves capable of doing so are well suited for it (e.g., Lambda)." Shouldn't that be determined by the skill of the player? If someone were to come up with a tight, tricky blockstring that utilized none of their primer breaking moves, shouldn't they be rewarded for that, instead of being told, "Well, that awesome blockstrings you created didn't use move X, so instead it's not going to affect their guard whatsoever and they can literally block it all day." My issue with Guard crush is how it seems like it will take this to an even greater extreme: "If you want to break your opponent's guard, you have to use this specific move followed by this specific move. If either of those are sucky for your character, that's too bad." I'm totally fine with them wanting to make certain characters better or worse at breaking guard as that helps define their design overall, but as I said before, this appears to be an extremely heavy-handed approach, where a character is explicitly defined as either good or bad at it via how good or bad the relevant moves are, with player skill taking a backseat to the developers' hard coding. The system looks very "all or nothing." IMO, the ideal type is number 3, the Guilty Gear type. It rewards an attacker who applies solid pressure by increasing the damage his next hit or combo will do, and even though each character has moves that are obviously better suited for increasing the bar, the attacker is not FORCED to use those moves--you can get someone's guard bar flashing by solely using 5Ps if you're able to make that a viable strategy. However, it doesn't suffer the flaw of type 1: instead of giving you a freebie for mashing buttons while they're blocking, it is still your responsibility as the attacker to mix them up or otherwise land a hit to take advantage of that increased damage. In other words, your pressure can't be mindless, and every move your character has is as useful for increasing their guard bar as you can make it. If they want to make them deal 0 damage, I'd be fine with that, so long as they fixed their abysmal proration. If it's not even possible to come somewhat close to the amount of damage you'll incur by guessing wrong, what's the point of even using them? Their risk/reward is just broken at this point, and nerfing them YET AGAIN by making them blockable on projectile counters is going to really hurt Hakumen in certain situations (vs. Carl [especially during Nirvana sandwich], vs. Relius, Daisharin, Jin's icesword run-ins, Silpheed pumpkins, etc). Honestly, at this point, if they're just going to further nerf counters since it's obvious they have such a hate-on for them, I'd prefer if they just removed them completely and changed his drive into something actually useful. I'd be disappointed since counters are one of the reasons I was initially drawn to Hakumen, but shit, the fact that they haven't removed them in spite of how worthless they are makes them borderline fanservice moves anway. On the newly observed changes (thanks Isuna!): - Step Agito can cross-up? I guess it's not a dive kick after all. Maybe it's an axe-kick like (Street Fighter) Makoto's? - 6B has been cancellable into drives since CS1, along with most other A and B normals. Not sure what they mean here. - Son of Tsubakicopter is cool, but Tsubaki > 2B doesn't work? Wat - Throw > 5C possible: fucking excellence. Happy with this. - Kishuu losing projectile inv: just great (sarcasm). Although, with Murakumos possibly cut from the game, this might not be so bad... I'll miss kishuu'ing through bursts though, since it was practically directly injecting sodium into your opponent's bloodstream (though not nearly as much as countering their burst did. Really wish they'd bring that back :sad: ). - Hotaru blowback distance halved: Very excite. Of course, it will depend on what combo followups are possible. - J2A knocks opponent upwards: Weird change, not sure what they have in mind for this. - 2A > 5B combos even on standing opponent: It would be really nice if 5B's startup was reduced. - Agito gives oki even when high up: Cool, but then again, oki isn't nearly as important in BB as it is elsewhere. If it's able to cover (like how slight-delay 6A against downed opponents in the corner forces them to neutral tech) or assist in covering (for example, either move in the renka/gurren OS oki) multiple wakeup options, it will be awesome. If not: Meh. - Akumetsu's motion possibly being changed: If this goes back to a 720... - Everything else: WOO, ALL ABOARD THE NERFTRAIN! Next stop: Pillowtown, home of "No fun allowed." Please relinquish your strongest tools at the door, we'll be replacing them with what's in the box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ErCZ3Xn_n0&feature=player_detailpage#t=79s

CT really was the most fun BB. Sure, it was the worst balanced, and it did have some problems (defensive burst having autoguard was a huge one off the top of my head), but the game in general felt far less... neutered. I even thought the Libra had potential (make it return to neutral faster and change how moves increased it, for example making Arakune's bugs having zero impact on the libra). I don't like how crush trigger sounds on paper, but I'll have to see it in action. First loketests don't mean shit, but three instances of a first loketest indicating the entire cast was heading to nerftown followed by an iteration of the game confirming it definitely does. With the first loketest of the fourth revision looking that way, brushing it off would be naive. Just look at the things Hakumen has had "adjusted" in the past few iterations: - Proration on counters nerfed repeatedly to the point of being near useless, due to their ridiculously terrible risk/reward (guess right and get 2k, guess wrong and eat a 5k CH combo) - Counter properties nerfed (opponent's positioning made worse or the counters were made uncomboable) - Green bursts during air combos can no longer be j.D'd. Not that it matters, since you can't combo after j.D anymore. - Meter autogain slowed over and over - Primers reduced to 5 from 6 - Hotaru having its damage, P1, comboability, and primer breaking properties nerfed. - 4C implemented, then disadvantage on block increased, in spite of the move already being subpar - Frame advantage on normals increased, then nerfed - 2A having one extra frame of startup (BIG change) - 6B comboability nerfed, ground bounce on CH removed - AA 6A nerfed by transforming it into a sloooooow pressure tool with advantage. Now has head attribute inv. again... but without the frame advantage, and it's still slow as hell. - j2C startup nerfed - Mugen combo damage nerfed, now has meter cooldown - SEVERAL (literally almost all) of Haku's moves have had some aspect of their proration nerfed, along with the rest of the entire cast, lowering average damage across the game. Don't get me wrong; I'm not whining about nerfs because OMG I PLAY HAKZMAN I WANT HIM TO BE DA TOPEST TEIR EVER. I'm whining about nerfs because I'M SICK OF SEEING FUCKING NERFS. Would it fucking kill ArcSys to actually buff the entire cast of Blazblue for a change? How about everyone in the roster keeps the GOOD things they have, while the garbage stuff gets enhanced? Sorry for the ragepost, I usually don't comment on such issues. It's just that seeing the new trailer almost rejuvenated my interest in BB by itself, while the actual reports coming in from the loketest are basically telling me, "Nope, it's still the same pillow fighter you and everyone else quit since the constant downgrading of anything fun made playing it so boring." I will be keeping an eye on the loketests and would love to be proven wrong, but I'm not expecting much as this has happened three times before, and I'm quite frankly disappointed to see such strong indicators that history will repeat itself.

The more I hear, the more I'm losing interest in BBCP. If they go the "nerf everything remotely good while giving one or two minor buffs to compensate" route yet again, I won't be wasting my time on this game. GG is balanced as the entire cast has at least a few very strong tools, leaving no one truly disadvantaged. BB does the opposite by making sure all characters suck equally via beating everyone over the head with nerfs, like it's transcended regular pillow fighter status to full-length hug pillow fighter status. Guess which one is more fun.

I know it's the first loketest, but last time I saw Hakumen's preliminary changes and thought, "Man, ArcSys is fucking up," it was CS2. We know how that turned out. Until the 2nd loke at least, I am worried. Making counters blockable in certain situations? Giving 6D startup? Removing pushblock effect on J2A? Hotaru leaving Haku in higher position might be worst of all--if it loses frame advantage I could see it severely mucking with his pressure game in addition to being less safe. Admittedly, it's not all bad: Ground bouncing 6B, stagger from throw, and Tsubaki losing that retarded sliding property it should've never received in the first place are nice, but they don't outweigh the massive overhauling effects of stuff like the J2A change. Agito sounds like a divekick to me, might be useful when TK'd/DC'd. The jury is still out regarding Overdrive. I'll be watching the loketests closely of course, but judging from what's been discovered so far, I'm afraid of ArcSys proving yet again that they have no idea what they're doing when it comes to correctly balancing Hakumen. Waiting on the inevitable meter auto-gain and counter proration nerfs.

I don't even consider the loss of f.S > 5H a nerf, just the result of 5H's startup being slower (the actual nerf). A.B.A. still has several good options from f.S, mainly 2H(2 hit) > iad, etc or 6H(1 hit) > Rekkas, etc. You could even go straight into Rekkas from f.S. The only thing that might be harder is hit-confirming off f.S since you can't chain into 5H for plenty of time to confirm and +1 frame advantage, but since you can still do that by chaining into 2H(1 hit) to confirm or letting it go into (2 hit) for +2 on block, vacuum, and access to an FRC, who cares?

Wow, instant dizzy FB? I missed that, sounds crazy. And yeah, I recognized old man Pot, lol. Hey!

- I feel the same way about Testament. FB skull is amazing, but I don't see much use for EXEs now outside of another oki option (maybe S EXE when they're too far to run in > web?). It seems like they're worthless for pressure now; I saw a TE attempt some typical strings with them, but their startup delay was so huge the opponent just hit him out of it, cancelling the beast. The threat of his rushdown seems greatly lessened. I'm guessing they want him to be a pure zoner/trap character, but where is his damage? - Justice almost looks like a joke character at the moment. IAD Install has way too harsh penalties that make it not worth using. - Kliff looks... I don't know, lol. Can't really figure out what they're aiming for. - FWIW, I asked an English-speaking JP in the chat what his opinion of the changes were. He said he's personally excited about Bridget gaining "high attack power" since he plays him, but then he followed that by saying Johnny is the strongest character right now. His rough English made the latter somewhat ambiguous if it was his personal opinion or the general consensus amongst JP players.

Stream back up. It's on the attract screen.

Thanks for the translation coolest! Edit: I'm really excited for ABA as she's looking pretty mean. A few comments after reading her changes and watching the stream: - ABA is back at three bloodpacks - I can confirm for the current loctest that she can still double key off the command grab version. With the changes to the amount of recovery and knockdown frames for the two versions of the move, I'm predicting it's going to be so she won't be able to double key off strike version, but can still do it from command grab version.

If they're starting at 10am JST, it should be up in 30 minutes from now. So hype. EDIT: Stream up. It's sitting on the attract screen.

^Truth. Number one reason ArcSys is my favorite FG company: they give a damn. Big thanks to all the translators, as always. You guys rock. If I spot one of you guys at a major, I'm buying you a beer (or whichever beverage you prefer). Coolest, can you please do ABA next? No one has said anything about her aside from Googrish Translate.

Thanks for the response! I wonder if non-FB reversal slide can go under meaty bazooka? I'll test it later. And yeah, I've been getting airthrown a lot. For AA he's also been doing nj.P. The trickiest part for me is getting into and staying in Moroha. It's tough to create space if he's able to get in and start slide/5k pressure since they beat her slide and eat up her normal normals (heh). Once in Moroha, he plays runaway with low air missiles as they're tough to get around and waste Moroha gauge, and since he can build meter so easily, randomly timed DAAs are basically free knockdowns. I'm sure a lot of this is lack of experience as I'm new to ABA (and have been relearning GG from the ground up to break old bad habits), but fighting him is proving quite challenging.

There wasn't a thread on this matchup, so I figured I'd make one. I'm in the process of learning ABA, and the local Robo has been kicking my ass. Information on the matchup seems scarce on DL (even his matchup thread against ABA is almost barren), and good match vids are hard to come by (I've only found one match between Dogura vs. Fumo in a 23v23). I'm having trouble getting into Moroha, anti-airing his hammers, keeping him in the corner, and dealing with his pressure/mixup in general (bazooka oki, 5k, well spaced slide, command grab, dust, and fire 5P). Any advice or strats are welcome.

*comes out of hiding* *goes back into hiding*

I might hop on once in a while just to mess around, but probably not often. I really want to get on GGAC once the rerelease comes out, but there's no time frame on that at the moment and it depends on if my local scene picks it back up. We have a ton of old school GG players so it's possible, but our scene has a bad habit of being fickle and dropping games in favor of the new flavor of the month, do I don't know. And yeah we had some great matches man. Dem level 4 yomi Haku mirrors

I'm done with Blazblue. I had planned on quitting a year or so back, but several people (some of whom post in this thread) convinced me to stay active in it. I don't know if I can do that this time. The game's fan base has been dwindling more and more with each release, and it's just going to get split even further as more FGs come out (Skullgirls, P4A, etc). We're definitely not bringing in new people locally, despite the insane amount of effort I've put into trying to expand the scene here in Alabama--I did everything I could short of buying the game for people. When CT came out, EVERYONE here played BB. Now it's just me and a couple of guys who live too far away to get regular casuals with. Online is fun and you can level up a lot doing netplay, but to compete in tournaments as I enjoy doing, you have to get offline experience as well. That's almost a moot point here in AL, actually--the last local BB tourney had 2 entrants, including me. I had hoped Stickbug's posts on the state of the scene would encourage people to attend more events, but even at FR, the numbers paled compared to nearly every other game there. I've tried to endure having no local comp but when the closest serious comp is 3 hours away just for casuals... Realistically, that takes too much time and money that I do not have. I just can't do it anymore. I know this sounds like personal blog/Facebook type shit and for that I apologize. The only reason I'm even posting this in this thread is to show gratitude. Thanks to everyone who has supported BB and realized it's the great game it is, thanks for every game I played online, from the serious matches where I learned things and leveled up to the humbling defeats and even to the ragequitters/saltmailers for giving me something to laugh at, thanks to the friends I've made along the way, like Thomas who flattered me when he said I inspired him to learn the game, or LK who I feel I had a rivalry with in the past but ultimately is a pretty cool guy who inspired me to become a better player, or Chris for letting me crash at his place and overall being a great friend ever since we met during BBCT casuals at AWA. GGs everybody.

I apologize for declining some invites lately. I feel FR really leveled me up and exposed some stuff I need to work on in training mode (one of the reasons I love majors), so I've mostly been in the lab when I'm playing Blaz. Either that, or Ranked since I can train between matches. Finally starting to get that 5k full corner-to-corner carry down though. Just gotta pair that with a little more experimentation/testing.

A word of caution: the results posted on finalround.org for Blazblue are pretty fucked. There are a ton of errors on them, e.g. Jan placing 4th, Patrick Toney placing higher than me when I knocked him out, KoopaDoopa placing higher than Lockhart when he (Lock) knocked him (Koopa) out, people who got DQ'd for not showing at all somehow being ranked higher than last, etc. Be wary that tourney results for other games might be similarly inaccurate.

Instant block their burst and Renka. You can even do 5C but the timing is obviously tighter.

Edit: GGs Hitsuki, crazy fun matches. Dem Jin resets Edit 2: Tapatalk fucked up, sorry for double post. Edit 3: Also Patrick Toney DEFINITELY didn't get 7th, I put him in loser's in round 2 and knocked him out my first match in loser's. These results look pretty fucked. Edit 4: There are also a few people who were DQ'd right off the bat for not being present when their first match came up, yet somehow they didn't place last (Dooku, Ageo Joe [a.k.a. Kusoru]).

Those results are inaccurate, Jan didn't place that high (he might have even been DQ'd, can't remember) and Lockhart should have placed higher than KoopaDoopa since he eliminated him.

1. Lord Knight 2. Ivysaur 3. Leonil Requiem 4. Kid Viper 5. Green Mario 5. (Can't remember) 7. Skeletal Minion 7. (Can't remember)

Final Round was SOOOOO much fun this year.