Street Fighter IV

[djpubba]

Please discuss the Street Fighter IV review.

And get in line if you think you can beat me, loosers.

[Risen_Hell_Fire]

So far the most detailed review I've seen for for the game, no other review touched upon the content of characters and extra's or even mentioned the 360 problem.

[Racewing]

In others' defense, this is the first review I've done since Sonic Unleashed. I've had time. But thanks!

There's a wild Dan running around in my review ;_;

[Leonhart]

From all the videos I've watched over the past couple months, SFIV has made me a sad SF fan.

But I'll actually try out the game before I send Capcom any hate mail.

[Racewing]

I'm curious as to your distress. Were you a gigantic Third Strike fan? They're the ones I usually see not happy about this game.

[Risen_Hell_Fire]

There's a wild Dan running around in my review ;_;

[Leonhart]

Yeah, I am a 3S fan, and I still play it competitively.  I am also a huge Alpha series fan (moreso than even 3S, but the competitive scene for it is pretty much dead).

I will miss the Parry system quite a bit, especially considering it took years to master (and I use "master" loosely because I could still get better at it), but it just seems like Capcom went a bit too far on the whole "appeal to non-hardcore gamers" thing.  It almost seems like they decided to forget about the hardcore SF players altogether and hope the fanservice is enough to make them buy it.

Also a bunch of nit-picky things: I don't like how the supers go into FMV, or the announcer (thankfully can be turned off), and the graphics and animation really bother me for some reason and I usually don't care much at all about graphics.  It just seems that from the graphic style and animations - and the new characters... minus C. Viper, she's decent - they not only tailored the gameplay for the non-hardcore but pretty much the entire engine.

And the English VA... another tally in the "appeal to non-hardcore" crowd. "Oyajiiiii" > "Fatheeeer", always.

Also the matches are over too quickly (from what I've seen anyway).  In prior SF games, if a match was over quickly, it's because some major butt-kicking went down.  But from the matches I've watched, they end quickly without anything epic going on.

But like I said, I am going to try the game out before I say it's bad. A good friend of mine who is even more of a hardcore SFII/3S fan than I am - and has competed at Evo the past few years - felt the same way I did until he played it and now he likes it quite a bit so I am willing to give it a chance.

In all seriousness, I believe you and others when they say it's a good game.  But I have to wonder, is it a good entry in the Street Fighter series?  Does it truly feel like a Street Fighter, or is it a solid fighting game with SF tacked on?



PS. I don't like what they did to Dan.   He's comic-relief, yes, but Capcom went a bit overboard.

[SonicTHP]

I'm curious as to your distress. Were you a gigantic Third Strike fan? They're the ones I usually see not happy about this game.

...

Nice review, Racewing.

P.S. Leonhart, I love you.

[Arlieth]

My two cents (more detailed than my brief 2nd Opinion):

There were certain things that 3rd Strike simplified, yet had other things with a ridiculously high learning curve. Combos are FAR easier to perform in 3s because of a distinct lack of linking- very rarely did you ever have a combo containing more than one (ONE!!!!) link. On the other hand, the ability to create openings for those combos relied upon the ability to parry attacks in your sleep. If you even tried to think about parrying, you missed your window of opportunity.

The other thing that 3rd Strike did that simplified the entire "Street Fighter" dynamic was that it simplified tactical options, almost to a fault. Instead of having to know exactly what moves beat what in a situation, you could instead parry, and ANYTHING afterwards would hit. This also had the effect of equalizing the cast, so that every character had a defensive option in most situations. It smoothed out the rough edges of character design flaws.

By removing parrying, SFIV forces players to rely once again on their character. However, it also highlights character design flaws in a brand-new system. This makes character rankings and matchups much more stratified and rigid. Focus Attacks can somewhat alleviate the lack of defensive options (especially as anti-air) but see far better use as an offensive maneuver instead of a defensive one (Focus Attack Dash Canceling aka FADC). Furthermore, many EX attacks have enhanced invincibility frames for counter-attack purposes.

In regards to technical skill, SFIV's combo system reverts back to a link-heavy system, often requiring precision of up to 1/60th of a second (one frame links). You'll see these featured in the Hard-Mode Trial challenges. Unfortunately, the skill required for these combos is MUCH higher than what most new players will be able to achieve within a reasonable period of time.

As such, SFIV requires a much higher degree of discipline and timing. There is actually far more mental pressure in SFIV because positioning (key element of strategy) is so unforgiving (i.e.: you jump, you'd better not get hit). And because you can no longer create counter-openings by pure psychic powers (parrying) and instead must know the frame advantage/disadvantage properties of your opponent's moves, you have to be willing to sit there and take a beating in the corner until you can make a come back... and in the meantime, your opponent is building a metric crap-ton of meter. If your opponent is really good at frame-trapping, those situations will get really hairy, really fast, especially if you crack under pressure and try to use your GTFO button (EX uppercut, etc) prematurely.


TL;DR: So, while much of what we see in SFIV is advertised as being "simplified" back to 'old-school', the maximum ceiling for strategic experience and execution precision is VERY well within the domain of 'hardcore players'.

[SonicTHP]

Valid points, all.

I won't go into a lengthy SFIV discussion, because I've done too much of that already. If SFIV opens people up to the fighting game genre again, then excellent. If not, then we can all go back to business as usual.

[Leonhart]

If SFIV opens people up to the fighting game genre again, then excellent. If not, then we can all go back to business as usual.

Well said.



Thanks for the additional info, Arlieth.  I still get a sense it appeals to a different crowd than 3S does, though, which is probably why I don't like what I see.  Not saying it's a bad game at all, just different. 

But hopefully I will get a chance to play it in depth here soon, and hopefully I'll eat all my words and enjoy it as much as you guys.

[Leonhart]

Well I played it for a while today.  My university's gaming club set up two TVs and a projector with the 360 version and all unlocks.

* Note that this post is based on a couple hours of playing, so I'm not claiming to know everything already.  This is just first impressions

First off, my complaints:
- Zangief.  He is overpowered and his grabs have way too high priority.
- Gouken can throw into a Super.
- M. Bison's Skull Diver is basically worthless against anyone who can air throw.
- You can jump behind people who are cornered. While this was probably put in as a measure against turtling, it makes combos troublesome.
- I am baffled as to how Capcom managed to make Dan out of character. And I could do without the tooth shines.

Now, what I liked about it:
- Outside of what I mentioned above, the balancing seems to be pretty good.  Hopefully Zangief will be fixed in a patch or the inevitable rerelease.
- I went in hating the art style, and I hated it for a couple matches, but it grew on me and I actually kinda like it now (although I would still prefer 2D, or 2.5D a la Capcom vs. Tatsunoko, but SFIV's art is an alright change).
- The attacks felt satisfying, something that is lacking from many fighting games.
- The option for Japanese VA.
- C. Viper's English death scream.  Hot stuff.


That's all I really have for now.  I do kinda wish it had a parry system (or an Alpha Counter-esque system, for that matter), but I didn't really try out the focus attacks yet so I'm not going to complain too much about this now.

Most importantly, though, I did enjoy playing it. At times I hated it, but for the most part I enjoyed it.  Still, far from my favorite SF, at least so far.

[Risen_Hell_Fire]

I take it we can expect a SF4 tournament?

[georox]

I need a goddamn joystick or something with a real D-Pad.  Sixaxis don't cut it.