Street Fighter 5 Announced: PC and PS4 Only With Cross Play!

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some information from Eventhubs, Shoryuken, & GameSpot:

Dahlgren: With Street Fighter 5's launch, I believe you'll see more pad players than stick users initially

Capcom feels there will be a changing of the guard initially when Street Fighter 5 drops on Feb. 16, 2016.

"Since Street Fighter comes from an arcade heritage, a lot of people have this general belief that arcade sticks are the premier way of playing," Capcom's Matt Dahlgren told Games Industry.

Luffy, Liquid|NuckleDu, RB|Snake Eyez, Wolfkrone and many others actually played on pad in the Street Fighter 4 series — and they all made great names for themselves at the highest of levels of competition while doing so.

Dahlgren feels that since Street Fighter has went away from being an arcade based title to a console only game, that it will be more common to experience the title with the default controller, at least initially.

"I think now that the platform choice has moved more towards consoles, pad play has definitely become much more prevalent," said Dahlgren.

"I would believe that at launch you're probably going to have more pad players than you actually have stick players.

"In the competitive scene, we've seen the rise of a lot of very impressive pad players, which has pretty much shown that Street Fighter is a game that's not necessarily dictated by the controller you play with; it's the strategies and tactics you employ," expressed Dahlgren.

It wasn't that long ago where pad players were considered clearly inferior to their stick using counterparts within the FGC, but those times are now past us.

"Both [types of controllers] are essentially on equal playing ground," Dahlgren concluded.

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F.A.N.G's Street Fighter 5 move listings

F.A.N.G is the final playable character for the Street Fighter 5 launch roster, but how his moves are performed have remained a mystery, until now.

John 'Velociraptor' Guerrero was able to capture how all of F.A.N.G's attacks are performed in SF5 today, and also offer a rundown of what they do.

F.A.N.G's SF5 moves explanation

Senpukuga: Coward Crouch (follow up with 2-hit rolling kick attack).

Nirenko: 2-hit heavy attack.

Nishkyu: Fireball, these travel upwards.

Sotoja: Poison Lunge Punch.

Ryobenda: Poison Bomb (medium, heavy and EX stay on ground for short period).

Nikankyaku: Escape Slide (looks like Dhalsim's dash, acts exactly like Abel's roll).

Shishiruirui: Super.

Nishodoku: V-Skill.

Dokunomu: V-Trigger.

Nikaiho: V-Reversal.

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Capcom Placed Greater Emphasis on Street Fighter V’s Story Because of Fan Feedback

Street Fighter V is set to be the first numbered installment of the game to feature a heavy emphasis on its own story. Aside from individual character stories, the game is also set to receive a free cinematic expansion in June.

It’s that increased emphasis on story that’s the main focus of GamesBeat‘s new interview with producer Yoshinori Ono.

According to Ono, part of the bigger emphasis on story comes from feedback from the fans. They’ve recognized that a large subset of fans have been wanting to see the games give the same focus on story as the series tertiary material, such as 2014’s hit web series Assassin’s Fist.

As part of this, Ono also admits that work on the cinematic story expansion only started during the summer of 2015. This is why it’s coming as a free update in June and not at launch. That said, he says that the individual character story prologues, illustrated by legendary Capcom artist Bengus, that come at launch will lead into the main narrative.

Ono also talks about Street Fighter V’s place in the series’ chronology. As previously revealed, Street Fighter V is supposed to bridge the gap between Street Fighter IV and III. He compares this to Star Wars, with how the release order of the movies in that series don’t match the chronology, but more complex.

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'Personally, I think [Cody] is the strongest character in the game' - Sasaki talks his USF4 character choice, SF5 prospects, traveling abroad and more

Note: This interview was conducted in Japanese and subsequently translated by the interviewer.

We're very committed here at EventHubs to bringing you as many interviews with top players as possible. As such, we've reached out to one of Japan's top Street Fighter 4 players that our readers might not be all too familiar with.

This time around, we've interviewed Sasaki, Japan's top Cody player, who has been a mainstay in the Topanga B League for as long as four years.

In our interview, Sasaki talks about Cody's strength as a character, fighting game history, training regime and more.

MajinTenshinhan: Why did you start using Cody in the Street Fighter 4 series?

Sasaki: I used to play Ken. When Street Fighter 4 became Super Street Fighter 4, Ken's EX Shoryuken became weaker, and I thought "Man, that's boring" and decided to switch characters.

I've always gravitated towards characters that I think look cool, so I instantly chose Cody. I had no idea about how he played or how good or bad he was.

Hit the jump to check out the rest of the interview.


MajinTenshinhan: How long have you been playing fighting games?

Sasaki: I think the first time I played a fighting game was Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. At that time I was ... Probably around 8 years old.

Then, after growing up, I started playing fighting games seriously maybe 10 years ago.

I was a college student then, but I thought that Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike and Guilty Gear XX#Reload (the second version) were so much fun, I got completely absorbed in them.

MajinTenshinhan: Street Fighter 5 is going to be released soon. Are you interested in this game? If so, what character do you plan on using?

Sasaki: Honestly, I can't say that I'm more interested than I was during Super Street Fighter 4 or Ultra Street Fighter 4. That's not to say that Street Fighter 5 is bad, I think I'm just not as passionate about fighting games as a whole anymore.

Of course, this is just how I currently feel, and it could definitely change in the future. As for characters, Laura I guess? If she were a guy, I'd instantly pick her, haha.

MajinTenshinhan: I'm not nearly as skilled as you, but I'm also a Cody main. Personally, I think Cody is a pretty weak character, but how good do you think Cody is in Ultra Street Fighter 4 compared to the other characters? Also, do you have any advice for other Cody players?

Sasaki: Objectively speaking, I seriously think that Cody might be top 10. Speaking personally, I think he's the strongest character in the game. When trying out other characters, I don't feel I could get better with any of them than I am right now with Cody.

I get made fun of a lot for this, but hey, laugh away, I say. I can't really explain it, but that's what I believe, and I think it's important to keep playing with what you believe in.

I sincerely believe that I'm playing the strongest character in the game, and I guess I ignore the people around me. I'm repeating myself now, but I truly believe he's really good.

As for advice... Explosiveness and anti-airs. Stomach Blow and Crack Kick. Discerning when you've got a regular hit or a counter hit, and even reading that in advance.

I think that if you seriously work on all these things and polish them up, you'll become a lot better with Cody.

MajinTenshinhan: You've been in the Topanga B League for 3 years running, haven't you? Going up against opponents of that level every year is amazing. How much do you practice Ultra Street Fighter 4? And in what way do you do so?

Sasaki: Actually, it's 4 years running, haha.

I don't really have any concept for practice, per se. To me, fighting games are just a hobby and for enjoyment, so I just try to have as much fun as possible. I mostly play online at home. When I really hole myself up in training mode, it's to counter characters I think are difficult to fight against.

I remember putting a lot of time into training mode with Stomach Blow, and how to follow up on it. On hit, on counter hit, on block, on whiff, I practiced a lot to the quickest and optimal options afterwards.

Also, I trained like mad to get used to anti-airing divekick moves with Heavy Ruffian Kick. I felt "it's impossible", and "I can't" so many times, but I kept doing it and eventually I reached the point where I generally was anti-airing divekicks with Heavy Ruffian Kick.

MajinTenshinhan: In Japan, I think there are very few Street Fighter 4 fans that don't know who you are, but since you haven't participated in many tournaments overseas, you're fairly unknown worldwide, which I think is a real shame.

Are you planning on going to more tournaments abroad in the future?

Sasaki: If we're talking purely about fighting games, then right now I'm not interested at all in going overseas. I have more than enough fun just playing in Japan.

I do love tournaments, though, so if I had the chance, I'd probably go. My values might change after going once. But if I were to go, it'd have to be for something more than just the game. Even if that "something" is just sightseeing.
Huge thanks to Sasaki for agreeing to do this interview with us, and we wish him the best of luck in the upcoming Street Fighter 5. Also thanks for Reiketsu for putting me in touch with Sasaki and making this interview possible to begin with.

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Momochi's F.A.N.G drains about 50% of Kazunoko's lifebar using critical art combo - Two pros square off in Street Fighter 5

Two top players took part in a Street Fighter 5 exhibition Capcom Japan held recently, EG|Momochi and Kazunoko.

One of the best aspects of this footage is we get to see a bit more of F.A.N.G in action, and in the hands of professional players no less. In one bout Momochi manages to land a near 50% critical art combo with F.A.N.G.

Both competitors square off against each other, and have some high damage combos along the way. Check out these gifs, and find the rest of the footage after the break.

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/03/look-damage-street-fighter-5-highlight-1/

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/03/look-damage-street-fighter-5-highlight-2/

at 50:50

Time stamps for additional matches
Momochi (Chun-Li) vs. Kazunoko (Birdie) 54:00
Momochi (R. Mika) vs. Kazunoko (M. Bison) 59:13
Momochi (Necalli) vs. Kazunoko (Nash) 1:03:07
Momochi (Ken) vs. Kazunoko (M. Bison) 1:07:00
? (Birdie) vs. Momochi (F.A.N.G) 1:15:05

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Preview of Prima's Street Fighter 5 guide book

Prima has released a preview of their upcoming official Street Fighter 5 guide book.

This 400+ guide has frame data for every character, combos, character strategy sections and a bonus artwork section.

Prima will also being offering a mobile-friendly eGuide, which has all of the content from the print version, plus a web companion.

This eGuide will be updated to include frame data, game changes for the first season of DLC, for up to one year after the game comes out. You can pre-order the guide here.

www.primagames.com/games/street-fighter-v/products

The guide will be available on Feb. 16, 2016, the same day the game launches. Also, we'll have a review of the guide posted in the future as well.

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Street Fighter 5's Yoshinori Ono Reflects on the Past, Worries About the Future

If you follow Street Fighter, you probably know Yoshinori Ono; he's the affable custodian of the series who makes regular appearances at public and press events, sometimes dressed as Chun Li, but always with a miniature figure of Blanka on-hand. He recently sat down with GameSpot to discuss the upcoming story expansion for Street Fighter V--which will be released for free this June--but also to just have a chat about games in general.

Given that he's the face of one of the most valuable video game series there is, it was tough to know when he was being open and sharing his personal feelings and when he was steering the conversation in order to promote the game--a challenge with almost any interview at a PR-organized event.

Despite some instances where he did his best to sell Street Fighter V, he eventually loosened up. The conversation that followed veered into more interesting territory, including Ono's thoughts on the challenges young game developers will face when old-school veterans are no longer around to offer guidance. With a little nudging, he also examined his friendly rivalry with Katsuhiro Harada, and how the two are collaborating despite working for competing companies.

GameSpot: How are you feeling now that Street Fighter V will be on store shelves in a few weeks?

Ono: In all honesty, I've been at the company for over 20 years, and I've been involved with the Street Fighter brand, and we're finally reaching the point where it's Street Fighter V. It's like this ultimate cap-off point. In all truthfulness, it's kind of like, "Oh my God, has that much time gone by?"

The goal really isn't to just get Street Fighter V onto the shelf. Really, it's a new starting point where we're going to be constantly supporting this for the next six, seven years, like we did with Street Fighter IV.

How did you feel before Street Fighter IV came out? At the time, we hadn't seen a new Street Fighter in a while.

At the time, with Street Fighter IV, there was a huge gap, and not a ton of fighting games. There weren't big tournaments, or the phenomenon of esports. Within Capcom, Street Fighter III felt like "that was it" for Street Fighter, back in 2000. Part of the reason is that making a fighting game is very difficult, and releasing a fighting game is a difficult task. But, with SFIV, we had this awesome build up. With Street Fighter V, we need to get more people to jump in and enjoy playing Street Fighter.

How do you feel about game development in 2016? What's working and what isn't?

I have been almost entirely involved with fighting games. One of the things that I feel is not happening is getting a good understanding of what users want. As a developer, it can be very difficult to get information from fans. Even though we have this awesome internet infrastructure, it's still very difficult to get info. Even with Street Fighter IV, I was getting lots of messages on my Twitter account, and that was the extent of how we were getting input. So, not only were our developers limited in terms of what information they could get from fans, but also on the publisher level, it takes time to digest all of that feedback.


We're going to be constantly supporting this for the next six, seven years, like we did with Street Fighter IV.

Input from hardcore fans is really important, but there's more to Street Fighter than just the hardcore; it exists in a larger industry that has concerns that go beyond frame-data and character balancing.

One of the criticisms has been that some characters are unnecessarily sexualized, and I'm wondering what your stance is regarding such feedback?

You may have seen sometime ago, for R. Mika's Critical Art cutscene, the camera angle was changed a bit, and we made some other changes with how the camera angles worked with the characters, and that was one of our answers to some of this feedback. On the flip side, the hardcore fans attack my Twitter account with lots of f-bombs.

We want everyone to be able to enjoy playing this game. We don't want anything offensive in there; we want everyone to be able to enjoy the game as much as possible. So we're working to be able to provide a friendly environment for everyone. The message we want to provide for our hardcore fans is that we are cognizant of the series' identity, and we are going to make sure that the Street Fighter identity is in place. We may be making more adjustments moving forward, but the fighting experience, the battle, is the same.

I'm curious how you feel about development now, and how fun it is, when your audience provides constant feedback. How do you feel about how game development has changed, now that it's a global market?

A lot of things have changed. When I started at Capcom, it was very common for people to show up at 9AM and to leave work at 2AM. I feel like there has been a very nice shift in game development, where working hours are getting closer to the norm.

It seems to me that, 20 years ago, you had a team working in an intimate environment, and the game was a product of their desires. Now, you have to take so many things into consideration. Do you ever miss the days when you had a core team making a game, without so many voices from the outside, pushing you one way or the other?

It gets into sensitive stuff talking about the past, how things are now, and if one is better than the other. A good narrative in terms of what my experience was: when I started at Capcom, a normal development cycle was six months from the very beginning of development to the [end]. And, this day and age, it's not uncommon for a team to be built with 100, 150, and even up to 500 people working on a single game. Back in time with Capcom, it was normal to have just a twenty person team. What was neat about that time was...I came from the sound team, but I felt that I was able to express my opinions very freely within this tight-knit group of people. I was given the opportunity to learn how games were made. With the six month development life cycle, I was able to experience all of that, two times a year. It's not that it was better, or anything like that, but I think of it as a great learning experience for myself.


Within Capcom, Street Fighter III felt like "that was it" for Street Fighter.

To talk about people now, who are new to game development...what I can say is that we have this base knowledge of how to make games, and we always carry that with us because we started a long time ago. But, the new people are looking at things with a very new perspective because they have all of this technology that's available to them when they come into game development, and so I feel like the next big challenge in game development is how do we have us old folks, and these new folks, come together and connect with one another in order to make something new.

Making video games is a daily evolution, things are constantly changing, so the next big challenge will be to unite the new generation of game developers and the old generation of game developers to make something new, and I would really like to have that opportunity moving forward.

Harada-san: Great villain, or greatest villain?

On a personal level, Harada-san has served as an amazing and best friend of mine. In terms of the goal of widening the fighting game franchise and getting more people involved, we actually share that goal, we see eye to eye there. However, where we don't see eye to eye is the approach in terms of how we want to achieve that. In terms of our relationship, we don't fight with one another, and we both mutually understand that our approaches are different. It's an agree to disagree situation, where we understand that we each have our own viewpoints and approaches. It's hard to answer that question because he's been an amazing friend to me in my personal life, but I would say that he's been a very good bad guy.

It's really interesting because it's not like we're trying to beat Tekken, or beat Harada-san. People are actually quite shocked when they see us together, because we always have breakfast together, lunch together, dinner together, and we even go on overseas business trips together.

Harada-san and I are so close, he's second to my wife at this point in terms of the closeness we share with one another. You might have the perspective of him being the villain, but sometimes I'm the villain.

I totally understand, I just really like it when you guys get together and play fight. If you can, give me one quote, as the character Ono, to Harada, your opponent.

"You need to study more!"

Harada-san is someone who moves based on his passion. Myself, I'm very rhythmic and logical in terms of my approach. That's where that comment is coming from. You need more than passion alone; you need real knowledge.

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Here is an image of an unused concept art

Zen was originally planned for SFV but was at some point cut, he was suppose to be from India.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here is an update about Zen & additionally a female Blanka from Shoryuken:

Capcom Shares Hypothetical Street Fighter V Concept Art for Zen, Female Blanka

Correction: Looks like we jumped the gun on this one. According to numerous reports and our own internal translations, the art below is not from development, but merely a response to the rumor of a new character named Zen originating from India. e-Capcom also shared a similar design for a female Blanka, which they whipped up when Laura was first announced.

We here at Shoryuken are beyond sorry for this mistake, and we promise to take greater care when reporting on things of this nature in the future. The original has been adjusted slightly to reflect these new details.

Back when much of Street Fighter V’s cast was still a mystery, widely circulated rumors mentioned that a character named Zen would debut alongside Laura and Rashid. As new developments came along, many assumed that the newcomer became F.A.N.G, but a new piece of concept art from e-Capcom dispels that notion.

In a bit of fun, Capcom latched onto those rumors and put together a piece of concept art detailing how Zen may have looked according to speculation. They did the same with a female version of Blanka.

Could these characters make an appearance in Street Fighter V sometime down the line? Stranger things have happened, but as of now there’s no indication that these designs are anything but an entertaining distraction.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Have you had a chance to play the game yet Nyu?

The female Blanka looks interesting, and the guide won't be necessary unless you want to collect it since you can get the information for free. It is a nice looking guide though.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Feb 4, 2016 5:42:13 GMT -5 The Big Daddy C-Master said:

Have you had a chance to play the game yet Nyu?

The female Blanka looks interesting, and the guide won't be necessary unless you want to collect it since you can get the information for free. It is a nice looking guide though.

The only chance I had to play SFV was at EVO 2015, and that was it which I haven't played as much compare to Tekken 7. Since then you had to pre order SFV in order to get access to the beta.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some information from Eventhubs & Shoryuken:

How to avoid Ryu's formidable fireballs, a shocking discovery about Bison's Critical Art and great quality Mika play: SF5 round up

It's no secret that the only way to chip someone out in Street Fighter 5 is to use a Critical Art, but we're finding that even this method doesn't seem be all that effective.

A player named Nevillebamchew has gone to the lab to show us the best ways of avoiding chip death and guard break against Ryu's Shinku/Denjin Hadoukens.

In a second video we find that Bison's Critical Art has projectile properties. Knowing this, certain characters can better approach Bison despite the threat of a reversal Critical Art.

Finally, Negativedge has compiled and edited together a ton of footage of their R. Mika in the latest beta. You'll see some great examples of set ups, resets and all around effective play with the wrestler in her current build. Check out a slick OTG V-Trigger combo they use to pin Rashid.

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/03/otg/

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Street Fighter V Final Beta Roundup feat. Ambiguous Chun-Li Setups, R. Mika Strategies, and More

We’re now less than two weeks away from having the final version of Street Fighter V in our hands, and we’ve got one last beta footage roundup to share. In a style similar to our previous roundups from this final beta phase, much of the content you’re about to see comes in the form of match highlights.

Up first, Lucius from Rush and Kill Clan offers a look at some devastating Chun-Li technology. After ending a combo with EX lightning legs, it seems that Chun-Li can use her V-Skill to put herself into a position offering ambiguous jump-ins.

We saw similar footage earlier this week from wauhti, but Lucius’ contribution provides options for outside of the corner as well. Don’t forget to stick around until the end for some lengthy combo extensions.

Next on today’s list, EyeOfThundera822 shows off his chops with Nash. These highlights offer a look at the sort of potential the returning character has, including combos, resets, V-Trigger usage, how to deal with projectiles, and plenty more.

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Smug discusses who he's playing in Street Fighter 5, which characters look the scariest, how to sharpen your game and more in this BornFree interview

Just last weekend, 10 titans from the East Coast gathered to participate in the King of New York round robin, Ultra Street Fighter 4 send off tournament.

When the dust settled, PIE|Smug emerged as royalty with a convincing 9-1 record. YouTuber and Street Fighter enthusiast Mark "BornFree" Sheridan was able to catch up with the young champ for an interview.

Smug shared his thoughts on an array of topics ranging from his Street Fighter 5 impressions to how he feels about Ultra Street Fighter 4 not being at EVO this year.

He also gives a bit of advice on how newer players can better their game as they enter the fray. You'll catch the full interview below.

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Street Fighter V Beta Glitches Hurt Cammy, Help Chun-Li

Being that the game is still in beta, it’s understandable that Street Fighter V still has some glitches that need ironing out. At least two were discovered in recent builds.

First up, if Cammy mistimes an anti-air back strong and gets hit, the attack lands not once, but twice, regardless of the jump-in’s properties, and she receives additional damage. In the video below, SBABigArch breaks this glitch down showing the range in which it’s triggered.

Next, Raf El discovered a strange interaction that causes an airborne opponent to slowly float to the ground should they land on Chun-Li’s Kikoken, allowing her a chance to juggle. As we haven’t seen this before and no other examples were provided, it’s possible this is character-specific to Zangief or an oddity of early online play.

The bug in question happens around 1:47. A slow motion replay is also available near the end of the video.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

I didn't know you were at Evo. What did you compete in?

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Feb 4, 2016 17:02:49 GMT -5 The Big Daddy C-Master said:

I didn't know you were at Evo. What did you compete in?

Did you forget? I've already explained it on "Tell us a bit about yourself"

thacmaster.proboards.com/thread/2645/hello

The games I've competed were Tekken 7 & DOA5LR.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some information from Eventhubs:

F.A.N.G takes off his hat, Chun-Li readies her gear, and more: New Street Fighter 5 story mode artwork from Bengus

It is no secret that famed Capcom artist Bengus is illustrating Street Fighter 5's story mode cut scenes. We got our first taste of these during the tutorial mode that sprung up for beta users late last year.

Today, we get a look at a handful of new story cut scenes, this time featuring F.A.N.G, Ken, Chun-Li, and more.

Included below are the new images coupled with each of the art pieces we've already seen, for those who may have missed them.

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Capcom: Effective play with Ken in Street Fighter 5 is about staying on top of the opponent and making them fear his options

Capcom has started a new video series for Street Fighter 5, focused primarily on helping new people get their feet firmly placed under them.

Narrated by Capcom Community Manager, Matt Edwards, this video runs through Ken's options in the new game.

The clip is only two minutes long, and serves as a great jumping off point for the character.

Ken SF5 notes from Capcom

• His V-Trigger functions as both a damage booster and combo extender.

• Ken's EX Hurricane Kick now functions similarly to a dive kick, if you time it just as the opponent throws a fireball, you can tag them before they have time to recover.

• Effective Ken play is all about staying on top of the opponent and forcing them to fear his options.

• His fireball isn't as useful as Nash or Ryu's, due to its hefty recovery, but he makes up for it with his forward momentum and crush counter conversions.

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If we only focus on hardcore player feedback, it would lock Street Fighter 5 off from other people says Ono

Talking about the rigors of game design and the decisions that are be made, Capcom's Yoshinori Ono said that if they only listened to hardcore player feedback, it would lock out other people from having as strong of an experience in Street Fighter 5.

"With Street Fighter 5, we've been keen to not just take on board very specific details from the hardcore players that give us a lot of information about very mechanical, very in-depth parts of the game," Ono told Redbull eSports.

"We are not making a game that appeals only to the hardcore players and the professionals.

"Their kind of feedback is obviously important, though, and we're never going to start ignoring that," he said.

Still, Capcom must be mindful of how to have a top to bottom positive experience, regardless of what level the players are at.

"If we just focus [on hardcore player feedback] alone we would start designing the game in a way that locks it off to anyone that isn't at that very high level, whether you call those people 'casual' or 'amateurs' or whatever," Ono stated.

"We want to be able to let these less experienced people into the game and we're doing that in a variety of ways.

"I've tried to have the controls be tuned in such a way as to allow a certain ease of use that wasn't there before, and to have it be more forgiving.

"Of course, players aren't suddenly going to become pro because we've loosened the timing for the input of a fireball," concluded Ono.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some details from siliconera:

Street Fighter V Complete Presentation Will Have More Information And Matches

Right before Street Fighter V launches, Capcom will have one final event. On February 10, 2016, it will hold a Street Fighter V Complete Presentation live stream event on YouTube. The goal is to give people one last chance to see what the game is about, with additional information and an assortment of matches from famous Japanese Street Fighter players.



Eleven of the Street Fighter V Complete Presentation Event guests have been announced. Popular players Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue, Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, Hayashi "Mago" Kenryo, Kayo “Kayo Police” Satoh, Tatsuya Haitani, Kumada "Itabashi Zangief" Hiromiki, Ai “Fuudo” Keita, Takahashi “Bon-chan” Masato, and Yusuke Momochi, and cosplayer Yuka Kuramochi will be present. They’ll be participating inn the Pro-gamer 4v4 Street Fighter V special match and Miss Chun-Li deciding match.



The Street Fighter V Complete Presentation will begin at 6pm PT/8pm CT/9pm ET on February 10.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Feb 4, 2016 18:12:17 GMT -5 Nyu Nozomi Hyuga said:

Feb 4, 2016 17:02:49 GMT -5 The Big Daddy C-Master said:

I didn't know you were at Evo. What did you compete in?

Did you forget? I've already explained it on "Tell us a bit about yourself"

thacmaster.proboards.com/thread/2645/hello

The games I've competed were Tekken 7 & DOA5LR.

• I was going to say "refresh my memory" as I wasn't sure if I had heard it before or not. Now that you say that I do remember. Do you generally prefer 3d fighters over 2d then?
• How do you like the artwork for SFV?
• I thought we were supposed to be having an event in London or something. I guess I wouldn't be too far off if I said the characters won't be changing dramatically at this point before launch. The game is very close to coming out.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some information from Shoryuken & Eventhubs:

UltraDavid Explores Uses for Street Fighter V’s V-Trigger Activation Freeze

In this latest episode of Randoms, David “UltraDavid” Graham goes over some new findings involving Street Fighter V’s V-Triggers. Upon activation, any inputs made by the opponent during the slight freeze are seemingly ignored by the system, similar to Ultra activations in Street Fighter IV.

Below, you’ll see UltraDavid utilize this input eating to prevent certain actions from coming out. From there, he theorizes and demonstrates some possible uses, such as using it to beat out wakeup reversals with characters like Chun-Li and Zangief, and convert it to damage.

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'Top players rush Chun-Li down, but play it safe against R. Mika?' Street Fighter 5's in-game stats will show you how people approach matches

"Daigo, I'm going to copy every style and approach you have," are words that may or may not have come out of my mouth, but alas my results through the years are slightly worse than his.

It's almost like I'm not as skilled or talented as Umehara, but since that can't be it, I went on a mission trying to find tools to aid me in my quest at copying Daigo developing my abilities further.

As luck would have it, I found a nifty feature in the Street Fighter 5 beta, a stats area which shows how you approach different matches, all with an easy to understand graph, which indicates if you play offensively or defensively.

While I don't have actual stats for Daigo here, since I'm indisputably regarded as a much better player, I've just included my own — as this has nothing to do in the slightest with the fact that these images were far easier for me to capture.

When coupled with Street Fighter 5's other stats features, you're going to be able to pick apart your game to a high degree, discovering which style adjustments you could use to improve.

Also, given the ability to look up other players' profiles in game, you could track down their personal stats, and come to a better understanding of how to approach things... not that I would ever need to do such a thing.

On an unrelated note, if someone could message me Daigo's username in Street Fighter 5, I need it...

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Snake Eyez, Infiltration Invited to Red Bull Kumite 2016

Red Bull’s Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis and Razer’s Lee “Infiltration” Seon-woo have been invited to participate in this year’s Red Bull Kumite, an official announcement revealed this morning. As two of the strongest Street Fighter players in the world, their inclusion should do wonders for the events overall hype levels.

www.redbull.com/uk/en/esports/stories/1331775071017/red-bull-kumite-2016-snake-eyez-and-inflitration-confirmed

The two will join other high-level competitors like Twitch’s Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang, Evil Geniuses’ Justin Wong and Yusuke Momochi, r/Kappa’s Lee “Poongko” Chung-gon, Razer’s Kun Xian Ho, Alioune Camara, Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue, and Keoma Moutsatsos Pacheco in Paris, France just two months after Street Fighter V’s release. Will strength in Street Fighter IV translate to this new release? Only time will tell.

Red Bull Kumite 2016 is scheduled for April 23-24. More details can be found here.

www.facebook.com/events/1627871747476028/

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Capcom: Zangief's standing headbutt is great for beating normal attacks and comboing into big damage

Capcom is back with another entry in their character introduction series for Street Fighter 5.

Matt Edwards points out that Zangief's standing headbutt is great for beating normal attacks and comboing into big damage.

He adds that it's important that Gief players need to make the opponent fear his normal attacks before attempting command grabs. Here's one of the combos featured in the video.

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/05/crush-counter-combo-big-damage-zangief/

The entire clip is available below, and there are many more combos and things to pick up on, so check out the video.

Zangief SF5 notes from Capcom

• V-Skill lets him absorb two attacks without being knocked back.

• V-Trigger draws the opponent towards him and makes his V-Skill even more potent.

• Zangief is tied with Birdie for the most health in the game.

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Capcom Introduces Ken, Zangief to Street Fighter V

With Street Fighter V’s launch just a couple of weeks away, Capcom recently started a brand new series that introduces the main roster. While light on content for those who have been keeping up with the game since its announcement, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about the characters if you skipped on out on the various beta tests.

The first video in this series focuses on none other than Ken Masters. His Street Fighter V incarnation is one of the most unique to date, with diving air hurricane kicks, a command run V-Skill, and fire installing V-Trigger.

Zangief, on the other hand, retains his signature style with a few new additions to make him even more of a threat.

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Arcade Shock Announces Limited Edition Street Fighter V Arcade Stick Bag

Whether going to Capcom Pro Tour events or just weekly local tournaments, anyone who wants to remain competitive in Street Fighter V will need to be ready for a lot of travel, and playing on an arcade stick means finding a way to transport and protect the controller while on the move.

If you find yourself in that boat, Arcade Shock’s limited edition, officially licensed Street Fighter V Ryu FS Traveler arcade stick bag may be right up your alley.

These backpacks, based on the original FS Transporter, are designed with a special layer of thick padding combined with a ballistic bottom material to help protect your arcade stick from the rigors of travel. Their large size and side loading design is also perfect for accommodating large peripherals like the Mad Catz Tournament Edition 2+ and HORI Real Arcade Pro 4 Kai.

Pre-orders for the Ryu FS Traveler backpack are now open through Arcade Shock, where they can be purchased for $84.98. Anyone interested in picking one up should do so soon, however, as only 225 will be produced. Shipments are expected to begin on June 1.

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Capcom Still Evaluating Legacy Controller Support for Street Fighter V

It seems as if one of Street Fighter V’s most requested features is the ability to use older arcade sticks in the PlayStation 4 release, but the developers have been rather quiet on the subject since first mentioning the possibility of using Lab Zero Games’ driver last year.

Back in December, Shoryuken reached out to associate producer Peter “Combofiend” Rosas to see if any notable progress had been made. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to provide any updates, stating that they were still evaluating the driver for use in Street Fighter V. This sentiment was mirrored by producer Yoshinori Ono in a recent interview.

“The current situation of working within Sony’s SDK and APIs is that we’re looking into it and how we can get sticks working across consoles…maybe not necessarily within the framework of those official APIs,” Ono told Red Bull. “We do hear fan feedback that they want to be able to use their existing sticks on PlayStation 4 and, while I can’t really say anything for sure at the moment, it’s something that people can definitely watch this space for in terms of future announcements as and when we’re able to reach potential solutions as a company.”

Capcom utilized Lab Zero’s driver, which allows for the use of legacy controllers on PlayStation 4, in the console’s Ultra Street Fighter IV rerelease.

Implementing this useful piece of code could remove one more barrier to entry for numerous community members. As fighting games make the move to the current generation of consoles, prices for simply playing have begun to rise, and eliminating the need for a brand new arcade stick would go a long way in securing future success.

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Street Fighter 5 launch event in Germany live stream

A live stream for the Germany Street Fighter 5 launch event is taking place now in Hamburg. Capcom's Yoshinori Ono is in attendance for this gathering.

This is a 15 character build of Street Fighter 5, lacking F.A.N.G as a playable fighter. Here are some photos from the venue.

xhttp://www.twitch.tv/fight_club_nrw/v/40916815

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some detail from brokentier:

Hit The Ground Running #2: The First 8 Fighters

The access we've had to early pre-release versions of SFV is unprecedented in fighting games. We've had an opportunity to play multiple builds and see changes that we never got to see before in earlier titles.



Usually when a game first comes out, the first couple months are spent just trying to figure out exactly what the developers intended. It's a mini game that's both fun and frustrating at the same time. You'll look at a move and think “why is this move so bad, it looks like it should do something specific but it doesn't work for that at all. Why would they do that?” And the answer is usually because someone found something in testing. This time around since there were so many various builds that the public had access to and since everything is on youtube it's much easier to follow the trail and understand the reasoning behind various nerfs and buffs better than we could have in previous games.



This process has major implications for competitive play. If something is changed, I want to know WHY it was changed. If a buff was given late in the development process, it was given for a reason. It's a finger pointing you in the right direction. And a nerf isn't necessarily just a middle finger straight from Capcom to you. A nerf is telling the player “we want you to look at other parts of this character” just as often as it is a “we don't like you don't this, please stop!” And even when it's the latter, that can be a starting point just as much as an ending point. If Capcom thinks something is overpowered, this intrigues me. If you're telling me I can't have something, that just makes me want it even more. It makes me want to look for as many possible other ways to get whatever it is they took away.



So we're going to break down the first 8 characters now, focusing mostly on the changes that affected the character's overall gameplan. There are too many changes and too many builds to go over everything but I'll try to hit the biggest and most important ones. For the purpose of this exercise, I'm going to assume that Capcom is smart and they know what they're doing. Not all changes will work out exactly as they intended but I'm going to assume that all the changes have a purpose. Let's get started.



Ryu

Ryu is a good place to get started because he's received round after round of nerfs. Almost every time a new build was released Ryu would have something taken away from him. This upset a lot of people who started calling the game Nerf Fighter 5 and what not. So let's look at the major changes and try to understand why things changed.

A lot of the nerfs Ryu received early on in the patching process were combo related nerfs and this is mostly because Ryu was the hardest hitting character early on. His medium hurricane lost the ability to hit crouching characters. This serves no other purpose than to lower his damage output off of common starters a little bit. Towards fierce into low fierce was removed during the third beta before the change was reversed in the final beta.

Back roundhouse into standing strong was taken away during the third beta as well. These changes were made so that the normals would retain their purpose but the damage output for landing one goes down a bit. This is especially important for the back roundhouse button which we've learned through the beta tests is one of Ryu's best buttons to throw out any time. It comes out in 8 frames, leaves him neutral on block and still leads to standing short into uppercut. They could have nerfed this kick even more and it would still be a great button to throw out there as often as possible.


Other combo nerfs were less for damage and more for function. He lost the ability to cancel out of crouching short into uppercut. So instead of low short, low short, uppercut, you can still do crouching short, crouching jab, standing short into uppercut for example, but that requires you to be closer and a string with two lows is easier to catch people flinching with. Also Ryu lost the ability to do standing strong into sweep as a link. This is an interesting nerf because the combos you can get instead of the sweep, like a low forward into fireball or crouch fierce into uppercut for example, will actually do more damage than just the sweep. But positioning is the key here, the game doesn't want you to pressure with safe-ish jump in setups or meaty back roundhouse.

And what we've learned from the beta process is that the game REALLY doesn't want you to have any kind of setup that either guarantees the unblockable denjin or sets up unblockable denjin mixups in any way. Any time one pops up like off a crush counter sweep, the next revision of the game would take it away.




This is exactly the kind of thing that I look for when reading patch revisions. It's a clear signal that Capcom thinks something is too good. You can't really fight against combo related nerfs; either something combos or it doesn't, there isn't a lot of room for the player to game the system. But when it comes to setups, there's wiggle room here. We know what kinds of setups used to work, now it's up to us to find things that either work just like the setups that are gone or are sort of like those.




For example corner setups involving full meter are still in and likely will remain in the final build. Ryu can make the opponent block crouching fierce in the corner, activate v-trigger, shoryuken into critical art, then combo them while they're staggered. This setup will likely remain intact. Capcom has known about this setup for multiple builds and left it alone. It requires full v-trigger and full super meter and there are opportunities for the opponent to v-reversal out.




And then there's the group of setups that are somewhat similar to previous setups but not guaranteed. Ryu can wait for the opponent to jump, activate v-trigger to freeze time then jab shoryuken to hit them with just the tip of his fist. Then when he lands, charge up the denjin. This is not a guaranteed setup because they still have the option of quickrising or staying down but people were using it in the final beta last weekend to some success and since it isn't guaranteed it stands a good chance of remaining in the final build.




While Ryu's damage has been normalized and isn't likely to ever reach the levels he had in the E3 build where he was hitting the high 300s regularly, the denjin setups he lost might be replaced. If he can get back the kind of reliable unblockable setups that work in real matches that he had in earlier builds, this character is going to be a major threat.




Chun-Li

If Ryu is one side of the nerf coin, Chun-Li is the other. Ryu was brought down damage wise by a repeated wave of nerfs but Chun-Li was mostly left alone. And at least for her sake the process seemed to have worked out. Most people seem to consider her to be one of the day 1 top tier characters largely due to things she had in the earliest builds.




Take her bread and butter combo for example, the low jab, standing strong, low forward into forward spinning bird kick combo. A pretty straight forward, 200+ damage confirm. But during the Mad Catz V Cup, commentators said on stream that this combo was the main reason she was a top tier character. What's the big deal? The big deal is that very few characters retained the ability to link lights to mediums. And very few characters retained the ability to have 3 normal hit confirms. And very few 3 normal hit confirms are safe with all normals. Chun has all of these in one and even has frame advantage on her low jab and standing strong. In earlier versions, most of the available characters had something like this but theirs all got taken away. Why did Chun retain hers?




It's impossible to say for sure but it's likely due to her v-trigger. In order to keep the overhead link into low jab, low jab link into low forward and towards roundhouse link into low jab in v-trigger the hit advantage on low jab couldn't be tweaked any further than it actually is. Taking out her light to medium hit confirm would require a complete overhaul of the character.




She didn't dodge the nerfs completely, but the major ones she received didn't affect her core gameplay too much. Along the way back roundhouse was made less effective as an anti-air but this was one of the nerfs that was more a suggestion to do something else than a hard “stop doing that” nerfs. Air throw and jump straight up roundhouse pick up a lot of the anti-air slack and using standing short as an anti-air actually leads to a mixup which is a better situation than the original. She lost combo damage and some cancels off her low fierce but this was made up for with the change to her spinning bird kick when the forward version was changed to hit crouching characters. So actually her bread and butter confirm off a light was technically BUFFED from first builds to the final beta. Before she'd have to finish combos with lightning legs which does less damage and doesn't create as strong a setup.




So what are the tradeoffs here? Does Chun-Li have any negatives at all? Her main negative in Capcom's eyes may be execution. The spinning bird kick cancel in her bread and butter is difficult. It's nothing that Chun players shouldn't have mastered in a few weeks but by SF5 standards, it's pretty tough. And her instant air stomp and low air lightning legs. She's had those tricks since the first public beta and most people theorized she'd lose them. They're still there and they're still somewhat high risk techniques; missing either of them will leave you wide open. Also Capcom played with her health repeatedly, lowering it all the way to 900 before walking it back a little bit. Another clear sign that they recognize that the character has strong tools and it'll take other methods to balance her out.




So while this is a more technical Chun-Li than previous versions of her have been, she also looks strong right out of the box, which is a really good sign if you're a Chun-Li player. Low health, high execution characters are usually good in Street Fighter games. Over time people will master almost anything that seems difficult on first glance. She seems to be a big winner in the beta process mostly by having her key and defining tools left alone.



Nash

Nash has had an up and down beta process. In the first public beta people hated the character. Everyone thought he was cool but they also thought he was surely the weakest. Then in the second public beta he was mentioned with Karin and Vega as possibly the strongest in the game. Even after a healthy wave of nerfs between the second and third public betas he was still thought of as a very strong character and that opinion has stayed the same going into the final build. Almost all the changes the character has gone through in the end come down to one question. How much safe pressure is this character allowed to apply?



A major nerf the character took between the second and third public betas was regarding his standing jab. At first a lot of people assumed this was a combo nerf. Nash could no longer go from his short-foward target combo into his jab-strong, or from low short to the jab-strong target combo. The jab would push away. And yes, this does affect the amount of low risk damage Nash can generate but the more important change was pressure related. Making the jab push away farther makes it harder for Nash to start sonic boom and moonsault slash pressure.



The moonsault slash was at the same time an overrated and underrated move during the betas. On the one hand Combo Fiend had to come right out and say “guys, this is a worse version of Adon's jaguar kick, don't be afraid of it, just hit a button and you stop it!” So the move became overrated for a time because people would just do moonsault slash, jab strong, moonsault slash, jab strong, etc. as a block string or just naked moonsault slash for no reason and expect to get away with it. This was never a great idea but people still complained.



But the move was also underrated because the threat of repeated moonsault slashes would allow Nash to start mixing in strong and fierce sonic booms at a range that could set up crush counter opportunities, overheads, dash into throw or low short mixups and that sort of thing. In addition to the previously mentioned standing jab nerf, Capcom changed the frame data on Nash's sonic booms just as a double nerf. Fierce sonic boom went from +1 to -1 on block at point blank and strong sonic boom went from -3 to -5. They really didn't like this strategy.



But what's interesting to me is that they left the frame data of moonsault slash mostly alone. They want the move to still have a purpose but just weren't so sure about the followups it generated. All strengths are still positive on block and you can still get one jab out, you just can't use the target combo to evaluate before committing to your next move. So there are still opportunities to create strong pressure with the move, it's just slightly more of a risk. You'll have to count on the opponent knowing that they're supposed to block after moonsault slash to do low strong into sonic boom and then carrying on, or a slightly unsafe low jab into sonic boom. But seeing as how strongly discouraged this kind of pressure was, it makes me want to know exactly what I can salvage going forward. This character wasn't supposed to be able to press this hard, so how much can I still get away with?



Another interesting change comes in the juggle properties of Nash's sonic scythes and v-skill. In the second public beta, Nash could do roundhouse sonic scythe and then EX sonic scythe for a big damage ender in the corner. They took it away by the time the third public beta rolled around and that seemed to be the end of that. But during the PAX build and the final beta, they gave a little something back in the ability to use v-skill as a juggle ender. This set up an interesting v-skill cancel to v-trigger teleport mixup in the corner but it also made me ask some theoretical questions.



That may be the newest way to use v-skill in combos and in blockstrings but it isn't the only way. How much should Nash risk trying to get a second v-trigger usage per round? It's mostly safe on block (-4) so I've noticed some Nash players using it in blockstrings or after fierce sonic booms. It seems like by adding juggle properties Capcom is gently reminding players that the v-skill is for more than just wiping out fireballs. Seeing as how v-trigger is almost guaranteed damage the way people are playing the game now, if Nash could get two v-triggers per round, he'd become a monster. Is it worth going out of your way for though? Time will tell.


M.Bison

Bison has possibly undergone more minor changes to his gameplay than any other character, even including Ryu. His general gameplan looks about the same, his combos look about the same so most people who don't play Bison a lot haven't seen what's going on here. But if you look closely, almost all of his special moves and some of his important normals have changed.

The scissor kick changed in almost every build up until the third public beta. During the E3 build the short scissor kick was slightly negative but still safe always. For the first build that Ken was introduced in, the short scissor became very unsafe and was easily punished, possibly as unsafe as -7 at point blank although no conclusive testing was done in this build. They changed that back to -4 for the second public beta where it's stayed since then. After that they started changing the forward and roundhouse scissors. From the third public beta onwards, forward scissors has been -3 and roundhouse scissors has been -2. So the move is actually backwards from Street Fighter 4, the higher strength versions are safer.

From the second to third public betas psycho blast was changed pretty dramatically also. The move went from -6 for jab, -3 for strong and -3 for fierce to -4 for jab, -1 for strong and +2 for fierce. The move was then buffed again in the final beta with a slightly expanded hit box, most noticeable on the fierce version of the move.

Then you look at the psycho inferno. For the E3 build and first public beta this move had frame advantage on the higher strengths of the move and was a charge move. Then for the second public beta it was a charge move but highly negative on block. And for the third and the final versions it became a motion move that was even more negative on block, -12 for jab, -11 for strong and -10 for fierce.

When you look at the three changes together the message is clear. Capcom is telling Bison players that they have to choose between minimal frame disadvantage and safety on block strings. They can't have both like with SF4 scissors or E3 build psycho inferno. The fierce psycho blast looks like the no brainer solution to all block strings but it's also easily interruptible.

Then you look at his normals. Low forward went through a pretty significant change from the second public beta to the third one. Originally the move was not cancellable but positive on block and able to link back to jabs or low strong. The move is now cancellable but no longer has frame advantage. Bison players are divided on this change. Is it a nerf or a buff? On the one hand for a character who walks as slow as Bison, losing meaty pressure is a big blow. But on the other hand, a move with good range that you can option select to scissors or walking forward option select to psycho inferno is pretty nice since walking away from Bison was solid strategy in earlier builds. Time will tell on that change.

There is no ambiguity with the psycho axe though. Changing the move from -1 in the second public beta to +1 in the later versions is a major buff. Previously Bison players were trying to find a use for a move like this, thinking that if it was going to be this slow it should at least be an overhead. But with frame advantage it allows Bison to get back in to create more frame traps without having to walk or jump. This is a clear signal from Capcom to use this move more.

In the end everything with this character is going to come down to speed and how the character is able to move forward and apply pressure. On pure walk speed the character is the slowest in the game, even slower than Dhalsim. He has no overhead and no real ability to tick throw. He has to spend meter to advance safely and create mixups once he's out either with EX scissor kick (+1 on block) or EX psycho blast which becomes a slow moving fireball that he can dash or headstomp behind. His walk speed means that he's missing things that most characters take for granted, not just in SF5 but in Street Fighter in general.

But in return he has things that SF5 characters aren't supposed to have. Capcom made a big deal out of hard knockdowns being out of the game. But Bison EX scissor kick is a guaranteed hard knockdown. Before the second public beta Bison's dash was changed to a teleport that allows him to phase through normals; it's less a dash and more of KoF style roll. He can also generate damage from his low short, with low short, low jab, standing short, psycho blast. In v-trigger you can cancel that to EX scissors or EX psycho blast to EX headstomp near corners making a low short a major damage dealer. Street Fighter 5 characters aren't supposed to have that, especially a character who has a v-trigger dash that's a built in left-right mixup.

I see Bison as an experiment more than a character. How effective can a frame trap character be without the threat of a throw? Is the white life mechanic scary enough that the other side is going to be afraid to block 3, 4, 5 strings in a row? Or will they just yawn and keep on blocking until they can finally get away and turn the tide? Characters who lack basic fundamental tools but have things that no other character has tend to be either really strong or really weak, rarely anywhere in the middle. They either have enough tools to overcome their fundamental deficiencies or they don't. I'm super curious to see where Bison ends up.

Birdie

Just based on raw hours on public betas and locations tests, I've put more time into SFV Birdie than any other character. Here's the question I've been kicking over for months now. Is Birdie a grappler or isn't he? Let's look at the beta changes and his tools and try to find out.

It's clear that he wasn't a real grappler in the earliest builds and the first public beta. Players gravitated towards his pokes and hit confirms, especially off the low jab which was probably the single best normal in the game at that point in time. Even Tokido stopped what he was doing at E3 to mess around with Birdie's jab a little bit and when Tokido thinks he's found something, people should take notice, that guy is one of the best in the community at exploiting new games.

Even if jabs weren't going to be universally nerfed, clearly something had to be done. Command grab was one of Birdie's least important tools during the E3 build and the first public beta. What made him good was his strong midrange pokes, v-skill options, his 1 button anti-air with the low strong and that low jab. Players weren't fighting as aggressively with Birdie as Capcom had hoped since they didn't need point blank range to generate damage. At the time I posted in a few places that Birdie standing fierce and standing forward were unlikely to make the final build intact. A Capcom grappler just doesn't have those kinds of buttons.

But those buttons made it to the final version and will probably make it into the final game. Standing forward's hurtbox was tweaked a couple times from E3 but it's still an amazing button, borderline spammable in the mid-range. Standing strong also made it into the final beta intact as a counterpoking normal that combos into bull head.

But nothing was done to encourage the command grab until this final beta where the standing short was buffed from +5 on hit to +6. Birdie really only has two functional command grab ticks. Standing short into grab and point blank low forward into grab, the 3s Alex/CvS2 Yamazaki tick, usually done as a meaty since it's extra negative on block. Other buttons can be used but are much less likely and less suited for that purpose. Even with standing short being buffed a little bit, it's still not plus enough on hit to let the player react to the hit or block and then decide to finish the combo or go for a grab. The player has to decide in advance what they want to do. Going from a 3 light hit confirm to a 2 light hit confirm actually made Birdie play less like a grappler than he did in the earliest builds.

None of Birdie's other tools encourage grappler play either. The chains are designed to catch someone coming in. His v-skills are designed to be done at a distance, with the banana peel specifically designed to keep the opponent from approaching. He has one of the better one button anti-airs in the game with low strong. The aforementioned standing forward and standing fierce are distance pokes. The bull revenger hopping grab is only effective if the opponent is otherwise occupied at a distance either throwing a fireball or waking up. None of this toolset suggests an in close character at all!

I think Capcom is sending a clear message here. Does this mean Birdie's command grab is bad? No, definitely not, it may not have great range but has its uses. But if we're going to play the character most effectively out of the gate it makes sense to concentrate on the best parts of the character. I think the beta is telling us that Birdie is a strong character but not necessarily a grappler.

Cammy

Cammy is another of the characters who partially survived the universal light to medium combo nerfs. She retains the jab to target combo link since the first hit of the target combo, back+strong activates in 4 frames. So thanks to this link staying intact, she's another of the characters who can break 200 for no meter off a light. Not quite as good as Chun-Li's since the target combo won't always connect but it's still important.

If anything, her light button pressure game has been encouraged. In the final beta this weekend her standing short was buffed from 0 to +1 on block and her crouching short improved by 1 frame also. Now on paper these seem like minor changes, just 1 frame here and 1 frame there, but it's a nice buff for her throw and frame trapping game. Cammy was already one of the more effective characters in the tick throwing game, this just reads to me like encouragement from Capcom to keep at it and keep playing her like a Street Fighter 4 character in Street Fighter 5.

Other than minor frame related changes, the main changes to Cammy all revolve around her v-trigger bar. From her introduction up to the second public beta, Cammy could do three specials in v-trigger but from the third public beta onwards she can only do two. This is a huge nerf and I was surprised people didn't make a bigger deal out of it at the time. Since the main function for Cammy's v-trigger is combo extension, this change basically turned her v-trigger into a SFV version of an ultra. You fish for a normal, land one, activate v-trigger and combo to spiral arrow into cannon strike and then it's gone. Whereas before you still had enough to either look for a dive kick, or take a swing with a safe-ish spiral arrow, or fish for a hooligan.

In compensation she had her v-skill buffed from +1 to +2 on block for the third beta. Then for the final beta the v-skill was buffed again, going from 60 damage on hit to 90 damage on hit. Any time I see two straight rounds of buffs on the same move that makes me take notice. Was the move that bad to begin with? Or is Capcom just trying to encourage Cammy players to try to get two uses of v-trigger per round? I'm not sure but just like with Nash, if Cammy players can consistently sneak a second v-trigger per round, her damage potential goes way up.

Ken

I think when I said that I was going to address the changes from the “Capcom is smart” perspective, a lot of people scrolled down to the Ken section. I don't blame them. Ken is the most visibly nerfed character from earlier versions of the game, even worse than Ryu. After the third public beta he was almost everyone's pick for worst character in the game.

It makes sense why people would think this since big chunks of his gameplan were removed. He lost his basic confirm off low short. Low short, low jab, standing short no longer combos, the standing short is just too far away. He lost the ability to combo out of a counter hit overhead. The target combo launches instead of leaving the opponent standing which lowers his combo potential. All of that is bad but it looks a lot like some of the nerfs that other characters got.

It's the changes to his v-skill that have people up in arms. It was not just a major combo tool, with standing fierce into canceled v-skill comboing to either low jab or target combo. It was also used occasionally as a mixup tool. Sweep canceled to v-skill was never safe but from the third public beta and onwards it's as bad as -10. Even worse, all hits Ken takes out of the run animation are counter hits, meaning the v-skill used in this way is so negative, he can actually run into crush counters! The move used as an in close mixup tool simply doesn't work. Either Capcom deliberately put in a tool that sucks or they're trying to tell us that it's used for something else. So it's up to the players to find a use for the v-skill.

If the move doesn't work from in close and we're operating under the assumption that these changes happen for a reason, the logical thing to do is look for uses outside the in close mixup range. What is Capcom trying to tell us to use this tool for?

Cancelled v-skill has uses as a weaker version of Sagat's kara tiger uppercut from SF4. Ken can control the air from ranges where opponents think it's safe to jump from. He can use stop short or step kick as a semi-credible mixup when closing from half screen or greater. In a game where most characters move like their feet are encased in cement being able to set the distance at will has uses. Say Ken throws a fireball at slow moving characters like Nash. On reaction Ken can step kick if he sees Nash try to absorb the fireball at roughly half screen distance, something Nash doesn't have to worry about against too many other characters. Are these uses as good as what Ken had before? Obviously not. But these are the types of things that Ken players should be looking for instead of trying to fit the square peg into the round hole.

Also it's a good idea to check Ken's other tools when looking at what range he's best at. And there's a strong case to be made that given Ken's toolset he should be fighting from further away than most people are playing him. It seems like most Ken players I ran into online are playing him at the low forward range which might be the worst possible place to play him. What other good tools made it through the adjustment process?

It turns out that many of these tools are in fact distance tools. Before the second public beta, Capcom adjusted the frame data on Ken's best distance poke, the standing roundhouse, making it -4 on block, basically safe in this game unless done way too close. His standing forward kick is a great range finder. Ken's short hurricane kick is also 3f startup, another tool that's best used at a range outside of where people are playing him. Ken can't threaten as effectively with air EX hurricane kick in close. But he can at slightly extended ranges.

As I said before, I don't think what Ken has right now is better than what he had during the second public beta but it's not like he has nothing. He has these distance tools. He has the best reversal punish in the game so far with 3f jab shoryuken and 4f EX shoryuken (the shoryureppa). A strong midscreen combo ender in roundhouse hurricane kick that leads to somewhat decent okizeme, which is great by Street Fighter 5 standards. These don't sound like “worst in the game” tools to me. Ken players will always miss what he once had but as long as they don't play him like he still has the old v-skill option, he's going to be a lot better off than people are saying right now.

Necalli

Necalli's been all over the place in the beta tests. He's been both a full motion character and a charge character and he ended up a character with motion moves and a charge move...except his charge move doesn't need to be charged sometimes. Confused yet? I feel like Capcom was when they started messing around with his inputs.

Necalli never had the tools that charge characters in Capcom games normally depend on to get by. These characters usually need some kind of move that moves them forward and allows them to hold a charge. You look at past Street Fighter games and historically Bison and Blanka had slides that let them hold their down charge and Blanka's had the hop since ST. Guile had bazooka knee letting him push in while still holding a back charge. Vega had a slide and backflips. And they usually have at least one strong normal that they can use while holding a charge. Bison has his long range kicks, Blanka had low fierce, Guile had low forward, Vega had low strong. After 25 years of this Capcom has learned what charge characters need to get by.

Necalli never had these things. His low forward and standing roundhouse were the closest thing to a traditional charge character normal but they weren't as good. It seemed like they just arbitrarily made him a charge character because Vega and Nash became motion characters and they needed another charger for variety's sake. So making his uppercut a motion move was a major buff to the character. The one good thing about the “is this move charge or motion” drama is that it gained invincibility along the way which is always helpful.

Overall his toolset is designed more for offense anyways with command grabs and a semi-credible air mixup between the divekick, jumping fierce and crossup jumping forward. His walk speed was also improved a little bit, further cementing the change. He still has the reputation of being a slow character but his forward walk speed was buffed to just slightly under Chun and Vega and pretty close to Cammy.

He received another interesting offense oriented buff in the final beta that went mostly unnoticed. After target combo into v-skill, Necalli can now juggle with 3f moves like jab or EX raging light but also with low short or low jab. In the corner this creates an interesting reset possibility. He can go for meaty standing roundhouse, overhead, command grab, etc. Most people ignored this since there are more high damaging options that the character can go for but it brings up two major questions with the character going forward.

How much value should Necalli players place on the reset game? Clearly Capcom is letting us know that the character was designed with resets in mind, his EX command grab is a giant advertisement that this character has a reset game but so far I haven't seen that much of it. Even outside of the new v-skill buff, on the occasions that Necalli players land an EX command grab, they usually just finish with uppercut instead of going for a reset.

And secondly is it worth sacrificing damage to get into v-trigger earlier? V-trigger Necalli is probably one of the stronger characters in the game and his stomps become much more dangerous as frame trapping options. But is it worth it to combo into v-skill or make it a priority to harass with v-skill at the midrange? We'll see.

_____





That's all for this week. Next week we're going to look at the final 8 characters. They've undergone fewer revisions than this set of 8 but there's still a lot we can learn from what we've seen so far. See you then!

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

They still seem to be a bit vague when it comes to the characters. They're saying that you can unlock them quickly at first but that it won't be grind heavy as long as you play every other day or so.

Do you have to do the challenges though?


Guess we'll have to find out.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Feb 5, 2016 4:56:38 GMT -5 The Big Daddy C-Master said:

Feb 4, 2016 18:12:17 GMT -5 Nyu Nozomi Hyuga said:

Did you forget? I've already explained it on "Tell us a bit about yourself"

thacmaster.proboards.com/thread/2645/hello

The games I've competed were Tekken 7 & DOA5LR.

• I was going to say "refresh my memory" as I wasn't sure if I had heard it before or not. Now that you say that I do remember. Do you generally prefer 3d fighters over 2d then?
• How do you like the artwork for SFV?
• I thought we were supposed to be having an event in London or something. I guess I wouldn't be too far off if I said the characters won't be changing dramatically at this point before launch. The game is very close to coming out.

I honest prefer both fighters of all kind whether its 3D fighters like Virtua Fighter, Tekken, SoulCalibur, & DOA along with 2D fighters like Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, Arcana Heart, Killer Instinct etc.

I will say the character portraits do look pretty nice, but part of the Story Mode cutscenes while looks pretty cool however some of them needs bit of improvement.

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Heres few information from Eventhubs:

There may be other stress tests for Street Fighter 5 before game is released

If you're hoping to get more time with Street Fighter 5 before the game drops on Feb. 16, 2016, you might be in luck.

The community manager for Capcom UK, Matt Edwards, spoke with Orangina Dreamer about if there were any more betas planned for the game.

While there are no more beta tests on the horizon, you might see a short stress test pop up to see how the game's netcode is holding up. In the past, these sessions have only lasted for a few hours, typically.

It's worth checking the beta client periodically to see if it's live, and of course you can follow SF5 Server on Twitter as they may announce if the servers come up for a short period of time.

You can find the entire interview below, where you also get to see a bit more gameplay footage of F.A.N.G.

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DLC characters will cost about $6 apiece in Street Fighter 5, premium costumes will be around $4

Approximate prices for an individual DLC character in Street Fighter 5 were recently given out by Capcom's Matt Dahlgren.

Speaking with Venture Beat, Dahlgren said that individual characters will cost around $6 USD (600 zenny) and premium costumes will run about $4 USD (400 zenny) apiece.

You can compare this with the season pass of Street Fighter 5, which includes all 6 initial DLC characters and a premium costume for each of those fighters, priced at $29.99 USD.

All content that impacts gameplay can be earned with Fight Money

If you're worried that content that will impact the game's balance will be hidden behind a paywall with no other way to open it up — that's not the case.

"Some costumes will be available to earn with just Fight Money, some costumes will be available just for zenny, but anything that could affect the outcome of a match needs to be earnable with Fight Money," said Dahlgren.

But how much time will it take?

Giving a ballpark idea of how much time you'll have to put in to unlock the first character, Capcom said that getting enough Fight Money for an initial DLC fighter will be pretty easy.

"In the beginning there's definitely a large influx of Fight Money through all of the single-player content. It should be relatively easy for players to earn a new character in that first month," Dahlgren said.

"In the long term, it depends on the player's skill, but we're trying to make a system that's fair and balanced to reward players of all types. We don't want to make it too grind-heavy on top of that. That's part of the reason we developed the daily challenges. It's supposed to be about remaining engaged.

"If you log in on a daily basis, or every other day, and complete the challenges, you should be able to get the new characters as they come out," Dahlgren concluded.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

That's what I'm thinking. Bengus has done some great work in the past too.

What's your favorite 3d fighter and 2d fighter then?

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some SF info from Eventhubs:

Sagat's scar, Gouken's murder, Evil Ryu and more depicted in Street Fighter Unlimited - comes with Amazon pre-orders of SF5

One of the perks you get for pre-ordering Street Fighter 5 off of Amazon is a free digital copy of Street Fighter Unlimited #1 from Udon.

The comic depicts things like Sagat receiving his scar, Gouken's murder by Akuma, Evil Ryu and more.

This is an interesting inclusion for Street Fighter 5, and it makes one wonder if these are events we'll see fleshed out in the game's story mode, or if it's just a simple throw in item.

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Capcom: Necalli is a good starting point for new Street Fighter 5 players - damage output is one of the highest in the game

If you're looking for a character to get your feet wet with Street Fighter 5, you might want to take a closer look at Necalli.

Capcom stated that he's a good starting point for new SF5 players, similar to Ryu.

His damage output is among the highest in the game as well, especially off of a heavy punch attack.

Capcom's character introduction series continues below.

Necalli SF5 notes from Capcom

• Activating Necalli's V-Trigger releases the shackles on his dreadlocks, increasing his mobility and damage.

• His overhead attack can lead into a crush counter.

• Disc's Guidance attack is great for shutting down fireballs.

• He's ideally played up close and personal.

• Has one of the highest damage outputs in the game, especially off one of his heavy punches — even without meter.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Feb 6, 2016 6:33:25 GMT -5 The Big Daddy C-Master said:

That's what I'm thinking. Bengus has done some great work in the past too.

What's your favorite 3d fighter and 2d fighter then?

My current favorites are:

3D fighters: Dead or Alive series & Tekken series

2D fighters: Street Fighter X Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom Origins (Marvel Super Heroes & Marvel vs Capcom 1), & Skullgirls

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Necalli has many powerful options and is definitely beginner friendly.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Heres more info from Eventhubs & Shoryuken:

Check out F.A.N.G's best Crush Counter punish combo in Street Fighter 5

I was recently lucky enough to finally score some time with Street Fighter 5's final launch character, F.A.N.G. The poisonous charge character was just about everything I imagined: incredibly fun, and a total change of pace from the rest of the cast.

It's pretty evident that F.A.N.G's main game will be keep-away, but I still wanted to know what kind of damage he's capable of when decides to go in.

While playing against Capcom's Community Manager, Peter "Combofiend" Rosas, I asked him to show me his best Crush Counter punish.

Fiend obliged by using Crush Counter, V-Trigger and special meter to quickly demonstrate the hardest hitting sequence he could muster. Hit the jump to see it.

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/05/fang-stuff-03/

As you can see, this combo is good for about a third of your opponent's life bar. You'll score 335 damage right off the bat, but like most of F.A.N.G's sequences this leaves your opponent bleeding out via poison.

Alternatively, you can sub the two EX moves for F.A.N.G's Critical Art, but it's close to the same result and costs a third bar of meter.

I'll be putting together a broader impression piece very soon, so stay tuned for more direct details on the Shadaloo's number two.

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'I personally don't like [Street Fighter 5] as of right now... it looks really boring' - NuckleDu discusses SF5, SF4 and more with BornFree

A contender for the best Street Fighter 4 player in America, Liquid|NuckleDu's resume over the past few years has been nothing short of impressive.

Combine skill, youth and just the right amount of cockiness, and it seems the result is a charismatic fan favorite that the community can't get enough of.

BornFree was able to sit down with Du at the recent King of New York USF4 tournament, and get him to open up on his feelings towards Street Fighter 4's final chapter, Street Fighter 5's upcoming arrival and, of course, his infamous taunting sprees.

Street Fighter 5 hasn't sparked much interest in the young player, as he reveals that it actually bores him more than anything right now. He very clearly states that we're still in the pre-release for the game, and things will likely change in coming weeks.

Du opens up quite a bit in this interview, giving us new insights into the mind of this usually quiet contender. You'll see their discussion below.

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LI Joe Invites Smug, K-Brad, and More to Exclusive Street Fighter V Tournament on February 20

Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli is set to get the era of Street Fighter V started right with an exclusive invitational later this month. Sixteen of New York’s strongest fighting game players will be competing for $500 with just a few days worth of practice, which should make for an exciting event.

The full list of competitors includes Team PIE’s Smug, Evil Geniuses’ K-Brad, Bifuteki’s Spab Rog, Tinshi, Javits, Flipside Tactics’ Alucard, Moons, Marvisto, Kreymore, Empire Arcadia’s Hiro, Flux, Kick-Punch-Block’s Manny Fuerte, DaFeetLee, Zeus, OG’s Shine, and Always Godlike’s Native Impact.

LI Joe’s invitational is scheduled for February 20.

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Mike Ross gets hilariously salty as he and Combofiend try to teach Street Fighter 5 to brand new players in IGN's Grudge Match

Street Fighter 5 is just ten days away, and it seems that just about everyone is hoping to get in on the action.

Capcom's Combofiend and Twitch's Mike Ross make a stop by IGN's studios to attempt to help out a few... less experienced players find their bearings.

While Brian and Max, the two IGN reps, don't necessarily shine in their gameplay, they do wind up in an intensely close match. Combo and Mike also square off in a few matches during the video to give us some higher level play.

After his beating back at the Mad Catz V Cup, Mike is certainly looking to get some revenge on Capcom's Community Manager. Will today be his day? Find out after the jump.

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Most people that are complaining about Street Fighter 5 right now simply don't understand it; Alex Valle joins Best of 3

This week's Best of 3 news broadcast welcomed one of the forefathers of the American FGC, Mr. LU|Alex Valle.

A player, innovator and tournament organizer, Valle has been a major figure in the community since its inception. As such, he knows a thing or two when it comes to crossing such precipices as the one we find ourselves at right now with Street Fighter 5.

Valle gives his input on the direction of the FGC as he discusses such topics as the EVO line up, keeping Wednesday Night Fights up to date, Street Fighter 5 and more.

He specifically warns that much of the public opinion we've been hearing about SF5 is coming from players who don't really understand the game. In a statement about those who would feel they've already found major problems with the game or its characters he says,

"Most people aren't on Infiltration's level, most people aren't at top 100 at EVO level. All they see right now is what's easy to win with."

Mr. Street Fighter goes on to elaborate on the topic, as well as give a ton of insight on plenty of others. Hit the jump to see this week's BO3 broadcast.

Valle's Street Fighter 5 opinions begin around 1:00:45.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

He's definitely right about people jumping the gun on the game. They've been too accustomed to SF4 and now that the BS doesn't work like it did there they have a problem with it. I welcome the change.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Heres some information from Eventhubs & Shoryuken:

Winning ranked matches rewards you with Fight Money in Street Fighter 5, leveling up a character offers bonus as well

Capcom's Matt Dalhgren recently told Venture Beat that Street Fighter 5 will offer a plethora of ways to earn Fight Money.

"Players are going to be able to earn Fight Money through playing single-player content that’s available. If you complete any of the character stories, you’ll earn Fight Money. If you complete survival mode with different characters, you’ll earn Fight Money.

"If you level up individual characters, every time you reach a new level, you’ll get some Fight Money," he said.

And if you happen to be a strong online player, you'll also earn additional in-game currency simply by winning sets.

"If you just play online in a ranked battle, every time you get a win, you’ll be able to generate some Fight Money.

"If you play through all of the single-player content, or just a majority of it, you should be able to earn enough money to get the first DLC character for free, if not more money on top of that," said Dahlgren.

Players will have about a month to earn Fight Money before store content becomes available

Street Fighter 5 is going to give players a good amount of time to build up Fight Money before the first store content becomes available.

"Our in-game store will launch in March," Dahlgren noted. "This gives our players about a month’s time frame to play through the single-player content and earn enough Fight Money before content becomes available.

"Street Fighter 5 does not have any day-one DLC. No content is going to be available on day one, with Fight Money or zenny [Street Fighter 5’s in-game currency].

"Once the store opens, content will be added, and we’ll also be adding our daily challenges. [Those are] specific goals that players need to accomplish on a daily or weekly basis, which will also give them a boost of Fight Money.

"That’s coming with the in-game store because this is a model that’s there to provide long-term sustainability and a way to earn Fight Money in the long term," Dahlgren concluded.

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'He has more normal attack variations than any other character in Street Fighter 5' - Matt Edwards introduces us to Nash

Nash SF5 notes from Capcom

• Nash has more normal attack variations than any other character in SF5.

• Nash pins his opponents down with one of the best fireballs in the game.

• He's the only character capable of stealing the opponent's Critical Gauge.

• He's a "fortress of buttons" that's tricky to breach.

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Street Fighter V Story Screens Provide Glimpses of a Younger Sean, Guile’s Updated Look, and More

Street Fighter V still has a few days left until its official release, but one lucky NeoGAF user was able to get some time in with the final build during a tournament at their local GAME location. While they didn’t provide gameplay details, they were able to try out the early story mode that will be available at launch.

Story is never the most important part of a fighting game, but Street Fighter V’s features a number of cameos from important characters in the universe. In the shots they provided, a younger Sean Matsuda can be seen having a tender moment with his sister Laura, Nash speaks with the mysterious woman (who is apparently named Helen) from the cinematic trailer, and Guile reunites with Chun-Li and Cammy in a more casual version of his military uniform.

We can glean a few things from these images, as random as they may be. For one, Sean seems significantly different than he did in Street Fighter III, with red hair and lighter skin. Also, we may be looking at an early version of Guile’s design before he becomes playable later this year.

This art was created by famed Capcom illustrator Bengus, and will act as the initial, character-focused story mode before the full cinematic narrative drops this June.

For more specific details on what happens in these various story scenes, be sure to check out this additional post.

www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=194484671&postcount=15277

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Heres more info from Eventhubs:

'You have to mash in Street Fighter 5... you have to take chances' - Dieminion offers his impressions to BornFree

Continuing his series of interviews from the King of New York tournament, BornFree sits down with YOMI|Dieminion to discuss the huge changes currently taking place in the Street Fighter community.

Dieminion explains that he's ready to embrace SF5, and say goodbye to Street Fighter 4. He feels it would be too much to try to divide his attention between both titles, and that the community's attention and resources will be going primarily into 5.

Having spent some time with the beta, Dieminion offers us some of his observations thus far. He notes that Street Fighter 5 is a game filled with guesses while on both offense and defense.

Despite not many people using them yet, he states the importance of V-Reversals and how they'll be integral to high level game play. You can see the interview after the jump.

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We got some exclusive time with Street Fighter 5's F.A.N.G, here are our impressions

Two weeks, we’ll have Street Fighter 5 in our homes in just under two weeks! Actually, by the time I actually post this it may be closer to one, but there’s no way I’d miss the opportunity for yet another, now near cringe-worthy, F.A.N.G joke.

I was recently able to get some play time with F.A.N.G, and though there’s still a lot left to be uncovered and understood, I was able to garner up a collection of impressions on his general feel, flow and approach.

I took note of the Shadaloo character's most notable anti-airs, the uses for his specials and his go-to combos. In case you missed it, we'll kick things off by showing you his Crush Counter punish.

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/05/fang-stuff-03/

Zoning

It doesn’t take a lot of investigation to see that F.A.N.G is designed as a zoning and keep away character. His projectiles are meant to control the air space, and come out very quickly.

Each version of F.A.N.G’s fireball sends two noxious orbs through the air, both with their own trajectory. They inflict fairly minimal damage, but their strange arcs give them an uncanny ability to tag foes.

F.A.N.G’s main poke looks to be his crouching medium punch. It’s a traditional Street Fighter poke, and he can combo it into his lunging poke, Sotoja. His standing medium punch is also great, as it’s quick, reaches decently far and hits twice.

He has a few options when it comes to anti-airs. If it’s too late for a fireball, F.A.N.G’s crouching fierce punch is very good. His crouching medium kick is incredibly fast, and swings in a crescent above his head. Both of these moves move him forward slightly, as you’ll see below:

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/05/fang-stuff-02/

Offense

F.A.N.G does have the potential for some good offense, but it obviously comes with the risk of closing the gap between him and his opponent. His roundhouse, twice-hitting knee attack, looks like it will make for some great frame traps.

He has a very unique cross up attack in his jumping roundhouse, which actually does not come out if F.A.N.G does not cross his foe up during a forward jump. He can mix this with with his jumping medium kick for ambiguous jump ins. Below you'll see a beefy cross up counter hit combo.

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/05/fang-stuff-04/

It's worth noting that his cross up needs to be a counter-hit in order to continue the combo.

V-Trigger

F.A.N.G's V-Trigger surrounds him with a toxic cloud, which will damage his enemy even if they’re on the offensive. It’s all about proximity here, as you’ll see Nash taking damage even while he attacks.

www.eventhubs.com/images/2016/feb/07/fang-stuff-05/

As you can see, his poison effect depletes the enemy's life at very slow rate. It almost feels as though this is more for psychological warfare than anything else.


Miscellaneous

Nikankyaku is his command dash, and it acts almost exactly like Abel's SF4 roll. It's a good way to maneuver through fireballs, and I imagine we'll see some interesting ambiguous set ups after knock downs. It will also be somewhat useful in trying to escape sticky situations, though can be read and heavily punished.

We've already seen his Critical Art, but I did notice a few interesting points about it. For starters, it's the only CA in the game thus far that does not start with an animation flash.

More importantly than that, F.A.N.G's CA is a great anti-air. It's invincible on the way up, and starts reasonably quickly. I had a ton of success using it against opponents that were jumping in.

Finally, even if he doesn't hit with his initial knee attack, F.A.N.G can cross his foe up with one of the poison bombs he drops as he flaps forward. We might see some ambiguous set ups similar to Blanka's Ultra One after forward throw in USF4.

I do have a few very big fears about F.A.N.G, but I'll be divulging those in another post very soon. At this point, we'd like to know how you feel about the game's final launch fighter.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Good to see things shaping up.

That woman Guile is talking too is actually Helen. It's funny since everyone was saying it was Kolin.

[JACK-2]

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some photos of CG trailer from Eventhubs:

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@the Big Daddy C-Master

The only thing that isn't going well is how Sean looks like, check out shoryuken comments for details:

shoryuken.com/2016/02/07/street-fighter-v-story-screens-provide-look-at-a-younger-sean-guiles-updated-look-and-more/

[JACK-2]

Not gonna lie, seeing Charlie in that trailer made me kinda hyped and brought me feelings of nostalgaia. As far as I'm concerned he's the main character for me.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

You're a big Charlie fan eh?

I liked a lot of it. Evil Ryu is being discussed quite a bit as some are wondering if Necalli devoured his powers.

[JACK-2]

I commented on that on SRK. When Ryu transforms, necali is seen swallowing and then gulping down some kind of energy before he starts glowing. So, it seems Necalli defeated Ryu.

[Nyu Nozomi Hyuga]

Here some information from Shoryuken & Eventhubs:

Witness the Power of M. Bison’s Okizeme in Street Fighter V

When Capcom gave M. Bison a fireball in Street Fighter V, they didn’t just give him a way to control space at long distances, they also gave him a tool for soul-crushing okizeme.

As Pan demonstrates in the video below, placing an EX projectile over a downed opponent directly after one of Bison’s standard combos is a great way to force opponents into choosing whether or not to attempt a tech at the risk of eating a Crush Counter roundhouse.

And don’t think you’ll escape simply by jumping; Pan has that option covered as well. As it stands, correctly-time dragon punches and Critical Arts look to allow escape from the pressure, but performing actions like that on wakeup could result in Bison landing a heavy punish if he smells your fear.

Bison isn’t alone when it comes to this sort of tactic in Street Fighter V. As Lucius of Rush and Kill Clan previously highlighted with footage from the final beta, Chun-Li has 50/50 options at mid-screen that offer vortex opportunities. If you didn’t catch that video, be sure to check it out.

Post from Feb 4, 2016 at 6:31am

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Rare footage of Yoshinori Ono actually playing Street Fighter 5 - just how good or bad is he?

Capcom's Yoshinori Ono is one of the most beloved figures in the entire fighting game community.

His energy and passion for this series shines through time and time again, and he seems to genuinely love working on these games.

But just how good is he at Street Fighter 5? Well, he recently participated in an exhibition match against EG|Momochi, testing his mettle against one of the best in the previous entry.

We won't spoil the outcome for you, but Ono's gameplay abilities may or may not live up to your expectations...

at 1:15:40

Yoshinori Ono is using Rashid, while EG|Momochi is in control of Ryu.

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Kim1234, Logan Sama Discuss Street Fighter V’s Future

Back in November, YUBIKEN’s Kim1234, WinnerStaysOn’s Logan Sama, and Shady K kicked off The Jump-In, a podcast dedicated to all things fighting games. Since then, the crew has had several sessions, and even spoke with UltraDavid and James Chen in a recent episode.

In their latest installment, Kim and Logan discuss rivalries and trash talk in the fighting game community before moving on to a topic that has certainly been on everyone’s mind since long before we got our hands on a beta build: what kind of future can we expect from Street Fighter V?

Alex Meyers reportedly spoke to Mad Catz’ Tokido to get his opinion of Street Fighter V, and Tokido (allegedly) thinks top players in Japan will play the new title for a year, and then go back to Ultra Street Fighter IV. Since Kim can easily speak with the rest of the YUBIKEN, he was able to offer a bit of insight from the Japanese group, and it seems that they all have a fairly neutral opinion of the game so far–except Dashio. Dashio loves it.

Logan, who has gotten a fair amount of time with the game himself, went on to say Street Fighter V “feels quite limited in terms of expression,” something that will undoubtedly affect the way certain players–especially the tech-minded–interact with the game.

The duo also spend some time talking about the ways in which Street Fighter V’s launch will differ from Street Fighter IV’s, so check out the video below for all the juicy discussion.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Feb 8, 2016 15:08:12 GMT -5 JACK-2 said:

I commented on that on SRK. When Ryu transforms, necali is seen swallowing and then gulping down some kind of energy before he starts glowing. So, it seems Necalli defeated Ryu.

Perhaps, though we don't know for sure yet.