Content mixups - YouTube, SFxT , P4A

Guile Theme Comebacks #1

On a personal level I'm glad to get this video posted finally because it marks a progression for what I'm looking to do in terms of how I'm documenting my matches. More importantly than the existing episodes of Replay/Review, because even those are pretty fuzzy in terms of video quality. The following uploads will be up to the same definition as the video above. Until this point I had been experiencing various compression issues and technical constraints. However my overall goal of compressing what I really wanted out of my blog posts and extensive replay postings into a single video is finally realized. With that in mind, the content of this blog will be likely shifted to broader fighting-game related posts that the videos may not wholly cover.

Street Fighter x Tekken
Boshadro and I put in some paired versus matches this weekend, and ended up with some curious point discrepancies. Fought an A-Ranked player and lost, I think we expected it to be 16, or at most a 32 point loss but it ended up being a 56 point loss.


In the same session we fought a B-Ranked player and only lost 24 points.

In comparison you can't see the actual A-rank, but look at the 10k+ point difference between the two player's ranking on the right side. I speak for both of us when I ask "WTF?" I didn't think that SFxT's glitches went as far up as to affect point distribution as well. Between this and the inherent lag with SFxT, it put both of us in a crappy mood. Personally, I wasn't a big hater on SFxT, but the laggy response to patching and "fixing what's actually broken," such as netcode stability and matchmaking have been a sore letdown.

Persona 4 Arena
This has been a welcome breath of fresh air for me. I was unfamiliar with the Persona story, but so far I haven't been overwhelmed with a lot of "required reading," to jump in the game. I'm having a bit of a button crisis with both this and KoF13. Something about the arc of my buttons on my stick doesn't lend itself well to the 4 button square these have as a default layout. For now I've mimicked a BB/SC layout "D,ABC" which has been okay, but still doesn't feel right on different days.

Next big release will be Tekken Tag 2, I might throw some T6 back in so I can get reacquainted with it again.
Signing off for now, Happy Hunting!
~Eienhikaru

"Climbing the tech tree," -SFxT, AE

Street Fighter X Tekken: "Pandora Moan Lili" (Hilarious sound bite video)

SFxT has this horrible reputation for being absolutely broken and like the video states, I seriously thought this was some kind of glitch. That the spammed inputs were accessing some sort of unused "hurt," sound. I also thought this when I accidentally triggered the quick combos within the first week of release. I really wish this had a Sound Test option to better sample, or even a gallery to collect other stuff. There's so much art / media surrounding this game, it's a shame you can't access it, besides farming arcade repeatedly or letting the menu idle.

New character progress.
I wish I could say that I had the foresight to pick up the characters that I did, when I did. With the new DLC of SFxT coming out, along with Persona being released in a matter of weeks, Tekken Tag 2, and  Aqua Pazza down the road there's going to be a whole lot more "growth," both in my game library and range of available characters. One thing I figured out with this venture was that experimenting with new characters was probably overdue for me and that (thankfully) I'm not so specialized in 2-3 characters per game that I cannot improve in an overall sense.

My best improved characters by far feel like Cammy, Ryu (Both in AE and SFxT), and Pyrrha (SC5). I feel comfortable enough with these three that I can consider them counter-pick, or maybe "anti-counterpick," characters if my mains become too easy to read.

An unexpected "Why haven't I been using these characters more?" category has come up, and the characters fall into here are, Magneto, Vergil, Sentinel (UMvC3) , Noel (BB), and Ryu (AE, SFxT). I wasn't originally going to focus on Marvel, but trophy farming and more frequent sessions have renewed my interest.
Cammy has overlapping inputs with the shoto characters, but I preferred Ken's effective range and speed for the longest time until recently. Whatever I said about "you know it's casual matches when I'm picking Ryu," doesn't apply anymore.
Noel was sort of a "re-found," character who I've been trying to understand since Calamity Trigger, but now seems very intuitive this time around in CSX. Even if she's not considered "top tier," she almost feels better than Mu in some respects.

Characters that need more work would be Mu (BB),  Sakura (AE, SFxT), and as of this week, all of my choices in KoF. My KoF has fallen to the rabble now, I had a session with TimeAppl3 on Monday and even my main team was just holding down back all day and couldn't make anything happen. KoF's gotten the short end of the stick for scheduling, so it's more just an extreme case of rust. It was still pretty scary to have my main team shut down.
With Mu and Sakura I don't have a good feel for an approach. I must not be understanding Mu's comfortable range beyond the corner. She doesn't feel like a ranged character, and her response doesn't lend to a rush down at all. Until the last month or so I had no problems with Sakura, and what I'm experiencing isn't just a matter of shaking off rust. The little bit I've dinked around with her iteration in SFxT is she has a ton of options, so it would be sad to "lose," a character I've been playing since Vanilla SF4.

Lastly I will not be putting a great deal of work into Julia, Asuka (SFxT) or Natsu (SC5).
I'm not retaining anything of Natsu, I'll hit the lab, get a good feel for her, start a match and all of a sudden nothing works. Damn that Taki curse (again)! While Julia is super intuitive, I don't feel the need to "clone," a paired versus team for SFxT, I'm better off rolling with two of my mains.
Asuka is a funny case. You wouldn't think so, but she's really "slow," in terms of frames and move startup. With the recent patch to SFxT, Ryu's donkey kick was dropped from 0 frames to -6 so in theory it's super punishable and can't be spammed to hell and back. Boshadro (who has used Asuka more than me) figured out that the closest she can come to punishing the kick is a 6 frame standing MP. This still puts Ryu at a 0 frame safe zone against Asuka. Everything else has slower startup, or the kick pushes Ryu too far away for her to naturally punish. Unless they plan on buffing her anytime soon I'm getting the sense that whatever next tier list to come out will put Asuka pretty low.

Overall I'm really happy with the last 2ish months of new characters. I was beginning to feel trapped with the same 4-5 characters. It would be nice to be considered a "specialist," but I know I'm not anywhere near that level of skill yet. It feels a little cheesy to have Ryu quotes reflect on my own progress, "The more I learn, the more I realize how far I am from the end of my journey." However it really fits in terms of my new characters, and my mains as well.
I feel like a fool to think I would have done well at the tourney in January. Looking back I was so unprepared and unfit. I was so focused on "points," and sort of reliving those days of being an "arcade god," when you could knock quarters and players down like fools. Ranked matches get that feel back, but I feel like it's contributed to a false sense of progress. I'm slowly pulling away from the idea that "ranked is where the rubber hits the road," but it's difficult not to want your tag emblazoned with a (hopefully) high ranking.

Novelty Pizza: "The Scrub"

Ingredients and Prep:
"Chicken Blocks" :
Marinade chicken breasts with "Italian" style flavoring, Salt, Basil, Garlic, White Pepper, Crushed Red Pepper.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 mins or until done and cube / chunk as best as possible

"Spam" : - Use regular ham instead? NOPE, learn and respect the matchup!
Uncan and cube spam.
Brown in frying pan.
Flavor with seasoned salt and garlic.

Bread / Dough:
Serve on choice of pizza dough, flat or french breads.

Sauce: - Because liquor in stuff is cool! Shoutouts to middle school.
Vodka Sauce

Cheese:
Mozzarella and Shredded Parmesan.

"BnB": - Scrubs don't use bread and butter properly, it's all flash.
Bacon Salt and Basil.

Arrangement:
Apply enough sauce to coat the surface of the bread or dough.
Spread a base layer of Mozzarella and some Parmesan cheese to cover the sauce.
Apply Chicken Blocks and Spam.
Add a bit more cheese to the top, and season with "BnB."

Heating:
Heat / bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until crust is baked and cheese is melted/browned.
Cut accordingly, serve to hungry players and enjoy!

Admittedly, right now this is an theoretical recipe. Pics / results will be posted from this weekend when I try this out.

~Eienhikaru

"Fraudulent Frames," - UMvC3, SFxT, AE2012

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
It's no secret that I'm an uber scrub at Marvel but this week's session was pretty rough. Barely eked out the 2 wins after 3 drinks and using a Magneto / Dante / Sentinal team. I will need to further test how effective the "Ballmer Peak," approach to Marvel fairs for me.

Street Fighter x Tekken
If you could do a word cloud I bet "lag" would be a really large word within the cloud. As a result of this, if you happen to main one of the more "aesthetically pleasing," characters you're likely get some screenshot worthy disconnect screens. (Despite my character loyalties, this doesn't fully make up for bad netcode.)


Fate conspired to bring these characters and their outfit swaps together. Boshadro and I both changed characters on a whim after a bunch of Asuka / Lili matches, and Bosh went with Julia's Chun swap outfit. Then ended up fighting someone running an Ibuki x Asuka team with Asuka on her swap outfit. We only hope that the lol-ness of this wasn't lost on tbgamer17.
Super Street Fighter 4 AE 2012
We decided to roll with a more open lobby for AE2012 this week, it ended up being really really awesome in terms of skill and character variation. This didn't turn out to be a "casual lobby" at all. We probably all lol'd at this guys "trollish," name and choice of character, but weeped when he made me us look free against E Honda.

The lobby happened to have two really cocky Kens, one you'll see in the replay. Clearly brought up from the "Just Do It," school of Shoryukens. The lobby got turned into an "any," zone and we got a player from Mexico and Yagami22 from Japan. He actually messaged me and we had a short but good conversation about PSN and lag. Haven't had a conversation in "real," Japanese in so long and was totally able to keep up, it felt pretty awesome. I need to find the Japanese IME inputs for the PS3 if I ever run into another Japanese players though.

EricD504 (Ken) vs Yagami22 (Yang) Player Match 07/04/2012

Boshadro and I both expressed surprise at seeing a 'more than decent,' Yang in action. It was totally wierd to watch at first because I'm more used to seeing them on Youtube or something, not in an actual 'live,' lobby. Even when he got that super in at ~1:55, I wanted to be like "Genei Jin!" but that's Yun's move. I'd have to look up what Yun's super is named. Shows just how rarely I run into a Yang.

As of this posting, EVO 2012 is well underway, so more streaming and less typing from me! Until next time!
~Eienhikaru

Picturesque Escapades - Fight Stick, SCV, UMvC3

Fighting Stick
So I'm using an older Hori Real Arcade Pro, recalling why I went to this stick, I'd read that was that it was "easy to mod." I'm more comfortable with Hori than I am with the TE sticks overall.
Before:

After:

Don't let claims of "easy to mod," fool you though. Trying to get the buttons out and replaced took close to 4 hours. Not all button cutouts are created equal apparently. Also wedging the "quick," disconnects off was more than tedious and the overall necessity of pinching/pushing/pressing left my fingertips in a painful spot. I'd hate to see what "long," disconnects are. I also wish I'd decided on some art, had I known it was going to be that difficult, I would have picked up a new plexiglass and considered the stick mod "finished," for the time being. Despite the difficulty it was a fun experience, it was a good emulation of the geeky dream job that would be working in an arcade.

Soul Calibur 5
One of the male Soul Calibur creation peices is the spitting image of Kajiki Yumi from Saki:


The default color and form are spot on. What's most hilarious though, is this hair style is not available for the female created characters. And they said SC5 would have more gender neutral equipment than before, HAH.

Marvel

I'm getting this error in both Vanilla and Ultimate Marvel. I don't know what's up with it because I never had DLC for either game. I'm going to post this issue somewhere as well, but Google searches for this error actually haven't helped. I can still load into the game just fine, but it's another click on top of the "check for online content," gauntlet. It's getting more annoying with time.
While I'm on the topic of Marvel, I've taken up the task of farming Galactus for endings in Arcade. This has given me a better feel for a Magneto / (Whoever I need an ending for) / Sentinel team, but I shouldn't fool myself to think that the basics of Arcade are the same basics in multiplayer Marvel. My 1 - 14 losing streak this past Monday was painful proof of that.

Replay overview "Lowbie Revisited" -- AE2012, BB:CSX, KOF13, SFxT

Street Fighter 4 AE 2012
Probably the biggest amount of progress is Cammy. With help from a few YogaFlame24 videos I have a better sense of approach. I feel like I've shed a lot of my crappy habits from Vanilla SF4 too. Back with vanilla I could just use MK all day for a Cannon Spike > Super Cancel. Until this push to really "play Cammy," I could not to 236 MK then trigger a Super with MK.

PuFfIn3308 (T-Hawk) vs Eienhikaru (Cammy) Ranked Match 06/13/2012

This fight was the "rank up," fight that I had. In a previous match I'd fought this guys' Sagat and my victory was scarily decisive. It was clearer that T Hawk was more his main though in this match. What probably really "saved," me in this match was his impatience to get the Ultra out. To be fair it was some crazy damage, but he could have closed it out if he kept that meter to have it kill.

Eienhikaru (Cammy) vs WoAh_323 (Akuma) Ranked Match 06/06/2012

An early game of dusting my Cammy off. What a way to bring it back, dropping a B-ranked Akuma like this. I pretty much got away with murder in this match. Seems like there was a lot more going on besides just Akuma's low health and Cammy's high priority in this one. I was unable to fight him again, so who knows.
Also did two sets of FT5 against Boshadro's Makoto this week which were crazy intense. Almost swapped to Chun Li when I was 4-2 in the first set. I think I'd like to do more FT5's. Bosh and I talked about this afterwards and even a best of 3 set seems way more "autopilot." friendly, and if gimmicks work for now they get you the win and you move on. However, even with 3, up to 9, more potential matches you're forced to use different tech, adapt, and really push yourself to think and act on reaction.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
The matches so far have been truly bi-polar, either I will destroy someone who fights like they're "day 1" at this game or character. Or a pro will body me with his fully tested sub character. Despite my talk I'm really a hothead in terms of "getting out there," and seeing what happens. I don't like hanging out in training mode all day, and somehow I wish the trials were more BnB / approach focused as opposed to seeming "beyond," character mastery. So far the frustrating thing with Mu is there seems to be a great deal more "Counterhit combos," or stuff off a throw. The counterhit stuff I feel is situational, and it feels like an eternity between her throw animation and when you can successfully dash cancel into something.

Eienhikaru (Mu-12) vs TacticalHiderFTW (Carl) Ranked Match 05/28/2012

I'm really lost right now in terms of what a "range game," with Mu, may look like. This happens at ~1:20 where I'm waiting to see what happened to Hider's Drive, and more times throughout the match as I set up the Steins and either get blown up between them and my approach, or nothing really happens with the beams and you see me moving in from miles away.

KoFXIII
Switching out to Iori (claw), was probably the best selection so far. He chains into a bunch of his moves and the damage output is high enough that I'm not used to a character so "effective." I could probably have given more time to understand K',  but right now he seemed too slow and clunky for me. What I really need to do to improve my sub team is commit to some solid BnB's with Elizabeth and cut down on my accidental supers. Also I look at a more solid approach for Yuri.
Both Drizzmat's Iori EX and TimeAppl3's Kyo have really taken off and gave me a good deal of trouble this week. Despite my scheduling for more KoF time, I'm really sort of "stuck," right now in terms of skill, even with my main team.

Street Fighter X Tekken
The Cammy x Asuka team is moving albeit a bit slower than I'd like. Running into matches cold is problematic because I'm obviously losing tech with Asuka like incoming swaps, and crossups, so that needs to be addressed.  I'm really enjoying her counters, but I worry that  I want to rely on them too much. It's addicting to directly punish anything that gets stuck out there to be countered.
I'm not a big stats sort of player but the raw numbers I took were  5/11 rounds at "same" ranking. 3 wins with my main Chun x Lili team, and 2 with Cammy x Asuka. The matches I took with my main team were pretty scrubby, I probably could have done that with my newer alt team for sure. I'd like to get the numbers a bit tighter, perhaps only limit ranked matches to 5 or so and try to avoid the "Point farming," (whichever way it goes.) I really wish you could better counterpick online. Being able to see their rank before you select characters, would make it so I could switch to a "better character," if I needed to. AE has the same pre-match rank blinders too, so no hope on getting that added anytime soon.
In more recent news I've deleveled once again, pretty salty about that and being fully unable to reach a good amount of points and actually keep them. I've regained enough points to be in the thick of C+ maybe even B Rank, but I'm clearly missing something just stupidly fundamental.

Replay Overview: "Pyrrha-licious!" -- SC5

Catching up on some of the previously uploaded replays. I managed to catch both the MLG and ECT4 Soul Calibur 5 streams this weekend and I'm really glad to see the varied amounts of characters from both tournaments. Besides the few repeat Violas and Pyrrhas in the MLG stream, I think we'll have a great variety of characters come EVO and after. Even with the repeat characters there's so much room for personal styles to make the characters play differently. Not a strict set of BnBs that a lot of the other games and characters fall prey to. With that in mind, I don't feel as dirty, picking up a character that could be "trending," and will be lauded as "A or S tier."

Soul Calibur 5

BULBABRAWLER29 (Natsu - "Yaminto") vs Eienhikaru (Leixia - "Lili cosplay") Ranked Match 05/19/2012

Bulba's Yaminto has some serious Mai Shirunai! Oh and a pretty dominating Natsu as well. As I rank into the C's now, many of the fights are more serious, and my usual RTSD > sidestep > RTSD isn't cutting it. Especially with Natsu, her bombs very literally, blow me up all day. I really need get a better feel for the match up, and take up some anti-Natsu tech (hops, low blocks, faster punishes). On the bright side, I'm learning to Just Guard better online (2 times starting at ~1:46). The problem is even if it gives me some frame advantage, it's obviously not going to blow up a faster combo. Maybe I can get in a 2K or something if I'm JG-ing something high? Either way it's not helping me just doing the JG alone, or at the very start of something that's high multi-hit.

Eienhikaru (Seigfried - "Saber") vs kranks02 (Natsu - 2P) Ranked Match 05/19/2012

Amazing the difference in playstyles between kranks and Bulba's Natsus. I got away with a lot of 1A's which help clear out feet, and is easy to fudge my way into if someone is pressuring me hard. I was a little more aware of bombs this time, but this match was a lot of luck and simple spacing for me.

Eienhikaru (Pyrrha - "Azunyan") vs Good_Cool_0306 (Hilde - "Haruhi Yatsubaki (6th)") Ranked Match 06/01/2012

Let this be a lesson in "Autopiloting is bad." Somewhere between D3-C5 I've run into this guy a bunch (5+ different matches). His Hilde is no slouch, but after the 2nd or so match previously I picked up on his B-throw > super low poke gimmicks (~0:40, ~2:04) early on. Also he has a combo that he can super into at ~2:08, but the amount of hitstun, or late execution make it a waste of meter. He only gets one hit as opposed to the full cutscene and the additional 4 other high damage blows. Finally mad props to the SC5 netcode, I'm fighting this dude who's in freaking Japan and the matches were super smoothe. I can't even get that fighting "localish" people in other games.

SoullessShogun (Voldo - "Sigyn") vs Eienhikaru (Pyrrha - 2P Recolor) Ranked Match 06/03/2012

Shoutouts to this Voldo player, I see them about as often as Vega's in AE. I'm also surprised at his choice of some of the crappiest looking armour for CaS, and making it work for that character. Amazing what some faux Zettai Ryouiki and a large rack will do for this game, haha! This was one of the matches where I fell in love with Pyrrha's 4A > B. I get one in at ~0:51, and it's the move where she spins and does like 2 huge strides to close in on the opponent with a massive overhead. I don't think it's that slow of a move, but I didn't see any of this move at all from the various Pyrrhas I saw on the MLG stream this weekend. I don't claim to be a real innovator, but I feel like this move is getting slept on, in favor of the 236 B stab move.

Negarema (Pyrrha - Custom) vs Eienhikaru (Siegfried - "Saber Lily") Ranked Match 06/03/2012

SPEAKING OF THE 236 B STAB MOVE... You'll see the varying versions of this in the match, the "good" version which requires an additional "just input," (perfect timing of a directional 4) starts off at ~0:34. Turns into a big command throw with flames and all. The "drop throw," which happens at "less than perfect timing," on that 4 (~0:46). Finally the stab with no throw at ~1:01. Sophitia had this move in the previous SC's and I grew to loathe it's speed and "spam-ability." Comparatively, Negarema has put a more time into his Pyrrha to know her punishes and mixups effectively. He also knows the Seigfried match up really well apparently. I had no idea that my 2nd wide sweep of that my 1A>A wasn't a true string.
TL;DR: Screw the Sophitia PTSD, punish with 236B with Pyrrha more, and learn to pick faster moves with Seigfried.

Replay Overview: "New characters, corner pocket," -- SFxT, AE2012

Street Fighter X Tekken
After much frustration with the "matchmaking," in SFxT I've decided that seeking "any," rank is equivalent to "same," and I get the added bonus of picking on newbs, along with *not* losing a ton of points to the B and A ranks.
 

Oloren (Sagat x Ogre) vs Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Lili x Asuka) Ranked Match 06/01/2012

Props to Bosh for picking Asuka back up in SFxT, and holding it down all 3rd round! That was some super-yomi at ~4:16 for using her Falling Rain to blow up Ogre's drop attack. I think everyone playing went "OMG" when that busted open his setup. She didn't get rusty at all, good show!

Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Chun-Li x Julia) vs CryX4 (Vega x Kazuya) Ranked Match 06/01/2012

2v2 Paired Versus can't even save this match. If I had a more thought-out complaint about SFxT it's that you get rewarded for turtling, running away, and spamming only "safe," stuff. I see this with characters Vega, Nina, Rolento even Heihachi to a certain degree. I despise the fact I (as Chun-Li) cannot respond/counter/challenge all the air-claw spam that goes on in this match. So much so that the Vega decides this is all he's going to do, and gets away with it.

Super Street Fighter 4 AE2012
I remember days where seeking matches in SF4/AE were dreadful even after the first release of AE, these days it seems really popular. I don't know what spiked the interest all of a sudden, SFxT sending people back to AE maybe(?) who knows.

Eienhikaru (Chun-Li) vs Havok2144 (Guile) Ranked Match 05/26/2012

Historically I've had really crap luck in the Guile/Blanka matchup, and initially when I saw his rank I was expecting this to pan out like most of my vs Guile matches. Seeing how I nearly start out the match with a crappy Ultra at ~0:44 it's already starting to look bad. Most of the advice I've seen is to "allow them to move to the offensive, and punish any mistakes." What might have helped me was Havok seems to underestimate my sweep distance and this probably ruffled his approach / responses. When he sticks out that 2.MP at ~2:34, I was expecting this for his hit confirm into Flash Kick, but judging by the inputs I wonder if he didn't want a Sonic Boom instead. Either way, I'm pretty stoked I reaction-punished that instead of repeating what happened 1st round.

Eienhikaru (Chun-Li) vs Miguel_2123 (Sagat) Ranked Match 05/26/2012

I'm used to seeing higher ranked numbers off of YogaFlame's YouTube Channel, not necessarily PSN. Props to Miguel_2123 for being 10th ranked Sagat on PSN. I sorta feel lucky I was able to hit him at all

TOMASE666 (Ken) vs Eienhikaru (Chun-Li) Ranked Match 05/27/2012

There were too many Shoryukens that I "blocked with my face," this match. Despite the special spam I was actually scared because you can kind of get away with that shit as Ken due to the high priority of all those moves, SRK, air Tatsu etc. Where I see him crack is that random Ultra at ~1:20. Now I know what to look for. However he's watching meters a bit more closer than I am when he gets that 2nd Ultra, that's actually pretty rare to get 2 Ultras I've seen. I don't know how it didn't just kill me seeing how we're both pixels away from dying. 3rd Round is looking pretty grim too, I think if he moved a bit into mid range and started SRK-ing again he would have had me. Amazing what a change of distance does when I throw him into the corner at ~2:34, all I remember being focused on was baiting that Ultra.

As a change of pace, I will work more some new and existing pocket / sub characters. This has been pretty gradual, some casuals on Pyrrha (SCV) here, some trials with Elizabeth (KoFXIII) there. Not to mention that it's been irksome that I can still only play Litchi in Blazblue. So for the following weeks or so I hope to have more of the following character replays posted:
BB:CSX: Mu - 12
I already need better BnB's and a better idea for approach. I took her for a spin in Arcade this week and my crappy day 1 training, and wimpy combos got destroyed by the Unlimited Hakumen boss.
KOFXIII: Elizabeth / Yuri / Iori (Claw)
This team may see some heavier revision. Originally I wanted to use K' as my anchor, but the few player matches I had with TimeAppl3 makes me think I need someone a bit more intuitive. Also I should probably learn Yuri better, I'm probably playing her too much like a Sakura (AE).
AE: Cammy
I think I subconciously dropped her when she got nerfed (like most everyone else it seemed) in Super. I don't think I've seriously played her since her Shadowloo outfit came out, if that gives you any idea how long ago that was.
SFxT: Cammy / Asuka / Julia
If my Chun Li  / Lili is a "yin" team, I'd like to see if I can roll a "yang," team of Cammy / Asuka. I want to Play Asuka as a more serious pocket character but I can't remember her inputs at all for stuff. Doesn't help me at all that her counter inputs are the complete opposite to Lili's. If that goes south with learning Asuka, Julia's really awesome too.
SCV: Pyrrha / Natsu
I have reached my "Taki," phase of Soul Calibur V. Usually a late-game thing where I have plateaued with my usuals and want to rotate in who I "wanted" to play from the very beginning. I've had this phase / problem since SC2, and every SC game now, including SCV. The biggest challenge is Natsu's / Taki's moves are so unique that my brain can't seem to remember anything from the training besides a sweeping 1A and 3B. I can use the her bomb move easy, but the airgrab followup never happens right.
Pyrrha on the other hand, caught me off guard in terms of how intuitive she was. She has a great deal of moves to close distance and keep pressure on people. I didn't know any of this until I'd seen her played at UFGT8. I had originally thought that her "weak," looking stance and stylized hesitations in attacking would keep her slow and defenseless, but I was totally wrong with that assumption. (If you want a spoiler of some of my progress, then by all means...)

Replay Overview: "Mayonnaise moves," - AE2012, KOFXIII

Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition 2012
Coming back to AE has been nothing less than awesome. I was afraid initially that SFxT would have overpowered the AE scene. However, the lagging response to improve SFxT has re-stoked our enjoyment of AE to a point that SFxT feels like a bad fanfic attempt at a game. Boshadro put it best when he said "Playing AE felt like going home."
We did some player matches last week and here are some of the funnier replays we ended up with. A term I heard in '93 from a friend called "Mayonnaise Moves," comes to mind when watching these. It was explained to me when characters slip out of a corner randomly or other odd "not-in-this-realm-of-physics," collisions happen in game. Think of the characters as slippery and "being covered in mayonnaise."

Eienhikaru (Chun-Li) vs TimeAppl3 (Dan) Player Match 05/17/2012

SF4 laughs in the face of gravity and momentum at ~2:26 as I attempt an EX Bird Kick, and TimeAppl3 gets his arm gets caught in the calamity. It's moments like this I wish we had player cams to get our reactions.

Eienhikaru (Chun-Li) vs Boshadro (Zangief) Player Match 05/17/2012

Another incident of unintended priority testing at ~1:48. The setup is hilarious and while we weren't questioning 'Geif's strength, I wasn't sure that his AGI stats were capped out like that too! I thought it would have been hilarious if he stayed airborne and we spin away from each other like repelled magnets. Yet, hurt boxes are hurt boxes and we all get blown up.

King of Fighters XIII

Eienhikaru (Athena, King, Mai) vs R1OMA (Mai, Elizabeth, Chin) Ranked Match 05/09/2012

Huge huge props to R1OMA's Mai in this ranked match for KOF13. Streams blow up Mai all day saying she "has no combos," or "has no options," it's good to see players kicking tier lists to the curb. I was glad to see his Mai in action, had he chosen Elizabeth or Chin to roll first I wouldn't have seen her at all given how this went down. As of now, it's super overdue that I work on my HD combos. Even if I don't have a clean mid-combo opening for one, getting just the rhythm and basics down would be a huge leap for me.

Edit: Also props for the custom colors on Mai, I'm pretty sure they're in homage to Mina from Samurai Shodown:

Overall the new schedule has been really nice to break off the rust for stuff like KoF and Blazblue. If anything else it's been a great rehabilitating step away from SFxT. I'm not putting the game on blast, but the "shiny," factor of the game has worn off and it's a good time to refocus my efforts to games that aren't going to make me insta-rage.

Replay Overview: "What you need is: ORGANIZATION~," -- SC5, SFxT

Soul Calibur V
Due to some inspiration and a heavier dose of impatience I have uploaded some CPU vs CPU matches that have some my favorite Create-a-Characters.

Street Fighter x Tekken
The ups and down downs continue with this game. Seriously it's 'top of the world,' one day and 'I'm selling this game back for Pokemon or something,' the next couple days.

Eienhikaru (Chun-LI x Lili) vs Supe12man23 (M Bision x Vega) Ranked Match 04/28/2012

This is considered a "call for help video," in that, the characters that jump the highest seem to be un-challengable in the air. Very seriously if anyone is running into this and has a good answer / approach to breaking the high level jumps please comment here. I'm running out of ideas.

You see Bison just pound my face in with the j.FP from ~1:13 to ~1:17, and I'm trying different buttons to see what gets priority. I might try airthrows in the lab, but to have just a high angled j.FP be totally OP like that just grates on me. You don't see it in this video, but I've been seeing a lot of Vega tech where they'll spam his wall dives. I consider it the same level of annoying as the j.FP we saw from Bison in this match.

Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Lili x Julia) vs cartoon123 (Heihachi x Hugo) Ranked 04/28/30

Also a "call for help," replay. I've looked over this replay multiple times, and for the sake of our team and my life bar, I cannot figure out the style and play differences between Bosh and I. It's been said that SFxT is a "3v1 game," and this game makes me look like the handicap. Very seriously I would love some speculation, suggestions, full out disses, something. Something I can work on with regards to how this match ended, or even the Heihachi matchup, I'm at a loss about it.
Speaking of...DAT HEIHACHI. I'm somewhat used to the high/low/high mixups I've seen online before, but I just cannot avoid them in this at all. It's like they were just getting snuck in, like candy to the movie theatre. I'm also going to cry "nerfbat," because Heihachi having multiple OTG options off of normals is too OP.

str8harlem (Raven x Vega) vs Eienhikaru (Chun-Li x Lili) Ranked Match 0428/2012

This is a match where I'm doing singles to pull up my points and avoid ranking down again. I've said it in different places but the matchmaking is pure ass, at least it seems so for PSN. Boshadro and I both hit C rank 1K+ points early last week and took a couple days off so it would stay there. Once you break that threshold they just open up the flood gates of monsters and makes me look like I just got this game yesterday.

fireheart26 (Kazuya x Jin) vs Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Lili x Julia) Ranked Match 04/29/2012

This is a great example of two very glaringly obvious problems I have. 1) Incorrectly punishing / defending crossups, and 2) Spamming for an Ukemi / Fast getup out of sheer frustration. I ended up letting 7 successful crossups blow me up, and I don't even start trying to prevent them until 3rd match when I suddenly remember I have an anti-air to blow up jumping pressure. It will require labwork, but I need to figure out where I keep trying to throw punish from a defended cross up too. I've never seen it work in SFxT, I'm not trying anything crazy after the throw, it's just my hands just immediately want to throw punish and I'm paying for my autopiloting dearly. You see the attempted Tech spam most of 2nd match while I eat that huge Cross Arts, and again when the random super comes out at ~3:20.

Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Chun-Li x Marduck) vs RamboStorm / devilkg (Raven x Rolento) Ranked Match 04/29/2012

Juggling was meant to happen in this game, but IMO, it shouldn't be happening off of the same move more than like twice. Having Raven's 214FP (like at ~0:43) be a valid juggle for four times is just madness. Straight forward match for me, I wish I'd punished that Rolento harder, I was seriously expecting him to just "turn it on," at some point, and really the only thing that blew me up here was waiting for "a better punish," rather than just rolling with it.

clockiller (Ryu x Ken) vs Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Lili x Marduk) Ranked Match 04/29/2012

The purpose of this replay is to teach me to stop relying on Lili's 214.K move. You see this at ~2:48 and again at ~3:02. The second one that didn't end up punishing is heartbreaking. Bosh had mentioned this (and has mentioned before) that those moves are unreliable without the proper distancing. Before reviewing this I was convinced that clockiller had some how recovered stupid quick to block my follow ups, but nope, I would have been better off with a neutral jump >  punish. That would have punished easier than what I chose. Unlearning this approach will be difficult.

The Plan
So SFxT's newness has worn off quite a bit. To say that it's been dominating what I've been playing lately is understatement of the year. Blazblue's fallen off the wayside, so has KoFXIII. I'm looking to start a more regimented approach to the games / and other stuff I want to keep up with:
Monday: Blazblue / KoF13
Tuesday: SC5 / UMvC3
Wednesday: SFxT / SSF4AE
Thursday: Blog Maintenance.
Fri-Sun: Open.
I have a great deal to catch up with, and I have managed expectations for the games I don't play much at all ( *cough* Marvel *cough* ). But I really need to follow up on what I "want," to do like when I watch replays of the other games and "need to play them again now!" and yet nothing comes of it. As much as I enjoy, and need to improve on SFxT, it's really bled into my time and desire for the other games I like. Obviously, updates on that progress to be posted here.

~Eienhikaru

Replay Overview: "All work and no play..." -- SCV, SSF4AE2012, SFxT

Nothing critical about these posted replays, however I found them to be very entertaining. I definately want to post more of the SC5 created stuff I've done, and potentially even the older stuff from SC3 and 4. I have lamented that 4 never had a serious online scene and what came out of there in terms of created characters never got the exposure I thought they needed.

Soul Calibur 5

SC5 rezraptor (Corn Flakes - Aeon) vs Eienhikaru (Momohime - Siegfried) Ranked Match 04/09/2012

This was a match I absolutely had to save. I certainly didn't expect the Corn Flakes Rooster as a created character. The drumstick joke weapons are icing on the cake for this. Props to rezraptor and shoutouts to Kelloggs.

SC5 Drizzmat (bobbum girl - Devil Jin) vs Eienhikaru (Leixia - Chun-Li custom) Player Match 04/17/2012

IT'S A TRAP! That's some fearsome looking weaponry, and the gloves look mean too! Follow this tutorial if you want to make something with a "bigger hitbox," if you get what I mean.

SC5 Eienhikaru (Rider - Devil Jin) vs Drizzmat (Ivy) Player Match 04/17/2012

Originally I wasn't too fond of the Rider creation, especially giving it the "creation default Devil Jin stance." It was more proof of concept for me, but after this match it has turned out better than I'd originally thought. The voice is obviously a weak point, so hopefully I can tweak that without making it sound too distorted.

Super Street Fighter 4 AE 2012

SSF4AE2012 Eienhikaru (Ibuki) vs Boshadro (Juri) Ranked Match 04/15/2012

Picking taunts and trophy farming with Bosh. Closing down Saturday Night PSN like mofos.

SSF4AE2012 TimeAppl3 (Dudley) vs Eienhikaru (Ryu) Player Match 04/15/2012

Despite (mistakenly) thinking I could channel some of Alex Valle's Ryu, this turned out to be a super close match. Shoutouts to TimeAppl3!

Street Fighter x Tekken

SFxT Vivavariety5 (Paul x Abel) vs Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Chun-Li x Julia) Ranked Match 04/14/2012

Mad props to Vivavariety5 to rolling NO GEMS online, and rocking it out with Paul x Abel. Way to show those [Mishima x Shoto] teams they're not all that.

Replay Overview: "Scrubs and Subs," -- SFxT

Street Fighter X Tekken
Wow, what a crazy month it's been. SFxT got released and I just lost a month of my life LOL. Overall my time with SFxT has had it's ups and downs. I got C Rank in mid-March and my ranked partner and I fell into a longer-than-comfortable loss streak which bottomed out my points. Bosh (Boshadro, who you see me teamed up with in these vids) and others have said that "it's not all about the points," and I get that it's not a direct representation of skill. However as a raw score, it shows you're winning more matches than you're losing, so that's where a lot of my frustration occurs with losing.

The patches we've seen so far have helped a bit, we're starting to see a lot less of the "carbon skinned," jet black characters which looked silly IMO. The neon colors look cool as hell, I would like if they did a low light level maybe or even a blacklight level as DLC. I'm not quite sure what or where the "sound fix" patch really applies, Bosh and I were in the lab this week and we got back to where the collision flashes were getting lost and that tinny, "mobile phone," shift in the music still occurs. I've heard it still happen in local games too, I would have assumed if you fixed the issue in your networked games, it would work the same in local too.
The rest of this wishlist looks like anyone elses in terms of fixing matchmaking, netcode, the lag bars being a bit more representative etc etc. Anyways, onto some recent replays:

Boshadro / Eienhikaru (Julia x Chun-Li) vs Kuptain (Lili x Poison) 04/05/2012 Ranked Match

This was a hilarious matchup coming right after the costume patch on the 4th. 4 characters, 2 of the same swap outfits everyone sort of on the same "Yo dawg..." hivemind haha.
Obvious flaws on my part are a lot of whiffs on my 2.MK > Hyakuretsukyaku (~1:13, 1:39). I can't tell why this seems to be so inconsistent for me. I'm not hit confirming properly which results in that heart-breaking whiff of a super at ~3:29 and again at ~4:11. The whole point of hit confirms is to not waste meter like I'm doing. On the flipside Kuptain kept his Poison well out of striking distance from me and exploits Lili's multihit overhead on Bosh and I all day. GGs, Kuptain props on that Lili.

SOapBEEst (Kazuya x Heihachi) vs Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Chun-Li x Julia) 04/10/2012 Ranked Match

The lesson from this replay is DON'T BE A HERO! Spoilers, SOapBEEst may have lasted longer if he'd used more than 50% of his team. Marked improvement for Bosh's Julia, and props to the flashy Super kill in the first round. SFxT doesn't have snapbacks, so if it means ending the round, meter's meant for burning!

ZomBieEdDude (Paul x Law) vs Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Lili x Julia) 04/11/2012 Ranked Match Match 1

This match is part of set that makes you wonder "why didn't I think of that?" Obviously not everyone saw the UltraChenTV episode where they talk about reducing the amount of moves before a launcher to keep your damage scaled to a minimum. You'll see me do some form of M > Launcher most often and so far I'm liking it. What he seems to be exploiting is when you start from a 5.L those are super fast and generally don't trade. Also  he's spamming the ABC > Launcher to lock us down and eat time off the clock, roughly 3-5 seconds for each successful exchange and follow up. Add to the other factors like his Auto-Noob Block GEM, and us not expecting this level of persistent asshattery, it actually starts to work. Salty props to that troll quick combo kill at ~4:11.
One executional problem I've been seeing with Lili lately has been trying to land 2.M > Overhead (see the match with Kuptain). Instead of the overhead I get a DP which has no range and whiffs, this happens at ~6:07 and likely could have turned this match around. This is odd considering it's a fundamental Shoto move, if I had  2.MK > DP happen more often, I'd probably have a better Sakura than Chun-Li :< .

ZomBieEdDude (Paul x Law) vs Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Chun-Li x Julia) 04/11/2012 Ranked Match Match 2

The very first runback I've had in Ranked! I wish you could issue a Runback challenge that counted towards Rank Points. You can still call for a rematch, but it's done in Player Match which is great if you're into moral victories I suppose. Since it feels like I'm levelling a sub character with Lili, I ran with Chun-Li to get those points back. I still had problems under-estimating the speed of ABC > Launcher, and I'm losing my 2.MK > Hyakuretsu again at ~2:24 and ~2:36. Despite the momentum of the first round we still ended up to laming this out. Overall the ABC > Launcher mega spam must work on some level, he clearly got enough points to rank up to C (1K+). However the long run may not be so good for him considering he was back down to 500 in these couple matches though.

Eienhikaru / Boshadro (Lili x Julia) vs FrostDeity (Lili x Asuka) 04/11/2012 Ranked Match

I shouldn't let the first round get me thinking that I'm "good," with certain characters. I figured since I was keeping the life lead for the first little bit, I could measure up to another Lili user. Turns out I'm forgetting a great deal of her moves and again i'm still plagued with execution errors and the hivemind trades / throw whiffs make me laugh though (~1:05 and ~2:28). Calling FrostDeity just a "Lili user," is unfair, while he does get her groove back later in the match, you really see his talents blow us up with his Asuka at ~1:20 with that really clean looking extended combo.

Bosh did clue me in on something this week that I can try, to improve execution, and my overall offensive approach. My fight "style," tends to be 'responsive,' and by that I mean, a majority of what I'm doing is mostly responding to whatever the opponent does. I think the logic behind how this takes over is that I will either, blow up what the opponent is doing and block / punish as best as possible. Much of my damage is in knockdowns and anti-airs that I'm not converting into offensive pressure. This becomes easy to rinse / repeat when you have opponents that continue the same approach repeatedly, or if I'm able to respond successfully to a different mixup. Basically, if I'm able to break momentum even semi-consistantly, I'm doing little to no work while the scrub is wearing him/herself down in terms of the life bar.
This actually gives me a great deal of insight as to why my Marvel has never improved. I'm 'waiting for something to punish,' and most times the approach in that game has mixup shenanigans, or sometimes a true unblockable setup. Even if my opponent drops the setup, the damage I get from just 'stopping,' them isn't great enough to ensure me a victory.
Thinking on it more that's why the Hsien-Ko / Ghost Rider / (Morrigan or Trish) team has been 'working out,' more often. I start with Hsein-Ko's armour, swap out for Ghost Rider and lame them out with the Sempu-Bu (armoured) assist and his big ass chain. Most teams just barrel on in and either my assist or Ghost Rider will blow up the approach. ( For reference this is how a game would go with this team, Props to ComboFiend! )

With that in mind, a new goal is to work on my "offensive conversion," and ideally some worthwhile time in the lab to work out these executional inconsistancies. Thanks again for reading and watching!
~Eienhikaru

Verbal Blurb: SFxT, BB:CSX

YouTube Channel:
The SFxT replay list is now up.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1445F3B82DA6C8A8&feature=plcp

Blazeblue: Continuum Shift Extend:
I'm again having to relearn my characters again in this new version. Comboing out of Litchi's throws seem to be (actually) impossible or 1 frame difficult. Noel however, feels more intuitive so I'm stoked to actually play and improve with her. Overall I feel like this is the version update that CS2 should have been. I don't remember what CS2 was meant to fix or nerf, but it feels like they pushed too far with it and potentially lost sight of how the characters were supposed to play. For example some of Tsubaki's most basic BnB's felt like 0 or 1 frame inputs and nothing about her changes looked fluid.
I haven't been on network just yet, I'm still working through trials and some of the Single Player content. Abyss is way more fun than Legion ever was.

Street Fighter X Tekken
There's a lot of this game I'm really enjoying, mixed offline/local matches (I feel so sorry for the 360 community on that loss, seriously, that just blows), multiplayer (including online partner) training room, and the Paired versus mode. (I'm sure Scramble is awesome, but haven't gotten many online matches).
The netcode needs some patching maybe, the latency handling is great, but the matchmaking seems to be bugged, Day 1 match seeking was excruciatingly impossible.
Thankfully GEMS is not looking to be the &%@#storm people thought it was going to. But I hope they improve the actual loadout system because right now it only has 2 sets of GEMS and no way to add more sets. Without any way to add new sets, it's not enough to explore potential counterpick options, accommodate local mulitplayer or have a "no GEMS" type selection without intruding on the options above.
Currently, on a player level I need to restrain myself from spamming HF/HK so much because it triggers that Launcher > Swap which on block is super punishable. You see this happening a bunch here, but more on that in a later post!

It feels like the new era of fighting games has shifted, and shifted in a good way. I don't know what led to the dark ages that were 1999-2005(?), but we're a long ways away from that in terms of number of titles and new technology. It's a great time to be a fighter!

Replay Overview: "Turn-about Ring-out edition," -- SSF4AE2012, SCV

Super Street Fighter 4 AE2012
More matches added to the AE2012 Online Tourney replay playlist. Props to DemonEyesLeo and Kazou-8492 for busting through intercontinental latency!

Soul Calibur V
You've been given a fighting stick to carve your own path! It's everything I wanted addressed with SC4, different and better netcode, and more armour pieces have been added to this game. I would feel wrong demanding more, but I hope they add more stages as DLC in the future. In short I'm loving this game!

Eienhikaru(Saber-Seigfried) vs taniguti_1986 (kobasan-Pyrrha) Ranked Match

This was my 2nd or 3rd match online and already the players are making some crazy stuff! I think this is what I look forward to the most is what everyone will come up with in the Create-a-Character. The striped underwear, and freakish horse legs! You cannot unsee!
I don't know if he was specifically going for the Prinny penguin look or not, but props to taniguti_1986 you've set my expectations high for hopefully more "wtf-ness," to come in SCV ranked!

ARCEO-59(custom-Pyrrha) vs Eienhikaru(Arisu Pld-Seigfried) Ranked Match

We come to the break where fighting CPU characters to farm armour parts, and fighting real opponents are two different monsters. This lesson is to remind me that there are those who go for ring out wins because it's highly efficient, and increases sodium content to dangerous levels. That embedded mixup with Pyrrha at ~0:30 was unexpected, and ARCEO-59 wastes no time in abusing it and my blind-spot for it, and the later one that switches to low/high at ~0:57. Overall if I have something to improve on, is to adopt some close-in tech with Seigfried. His potential for distance control is a major crutch for me, and this match is proof.

ARCEO-59(custom-Pyrrha) vs Eienhikaru(Arisu Pld-Seigfried) Ranked Match

Being able to run it back is so gratifying because you've learned what you have to watch out for, and what you can exploit. I've picked up on his mixups, and know that he prefers to go for Ring Outs. What helped me this time around was matching his pressure and going after the same objective. Something to hit the lab with is that stab at ~0:51, it looked like it was coming in low but still got me, I need to know if it hits high, or I was slow on my guard. The Armour Break/KO at ~1:03 is so dramatic and badass, nothing says "STATUS: TOLD!" quite like it. I see that happen a great deal, not even as a Siegfried main so I can't help but think that's on purpose. Freaking awesome.

IrishEdge(Ezio Auditore) vs Eienhikaru(custom-Leixia) Ranked Match

As a Xianhua main it's natural I would want to play Leixia as well, however I'm still getting used to the fact she's not a 100% clone of Xianghua. I don't know if it's story-based but she's not nearly as fluidly played as Xianhua. She lacks a great deal of the ambiguous spinning moves it seems, or I'm just not finding them yet. This match also makes me wonder how much I "like," instant ultra mechanic in SC5. There doesn't seem to be any penalty for just throwing them out, nor any way to interrupt them. I was expecting at least a trade at ~2:36. Nope, not today.
Overall I need to transition better between Siegfried and Leixia. Again Sieg's distance control is a crutch to me, this whole match had me feeling unsafe the whole time, even at my normally comfortable mid-range. I don't have a good feel for her approach or striking range right now and should get worked on before I'm serious enough to take her back into ranked matches.

Replay Overview, "21 Days Too Long" : SSF4AE, KOF13, BB:CS2

Super Street Fighter 4 AE2012
As the title states it's been exactly 21 days since I've played any AE2012. The time apart's been good for some brushing up on Marvel and getting reacquainted with Blazblue. What it hasn't been good for is letting the rust settle in again.

XxSitHappensxX(Chun-Li White) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li Red) 02-04-2012 Ranked Match

Seriously, no joke. My first day back on ranked AE and I fight another Chun Li user. Considering the sluggishness in my play, and disappointing punishes, what I really need to be mindful of is my mid-air game. At ~0:39 and ~2:30 I'm doing empty jump ins to gain some ground and I'm not expecting him to meet me up there and blow me up. SitHappens is also a different Chun-Li player than me. I feel like I'm a "safer," version reliant on mid-long spacing , where he's willing to bait things out for Chun's 4.MK > Tenshokyaku string, and EX Spinning Bird Kicks. The Tenshokyaku string is flashy, but severely punishable like you see in the second round. I feel like I might be too conservative with my EX meter after re-watching this. Also, I need to repractice my Ultra conversions, those big whiffs were not lag, that was all rust.

Eienhikaru(Sakura) vs DemonEyesLeo(Adon) 02-04-2012 Player Match

Played some sets with DemonEyesLeo as well. Mad props to his B-Ranked Adon, as you can see my Chun-Li isn't even that high! As with the SitHappens matchup my ultra conversion at ~1:47 is non-existent here. This one looks like it was too early. I'm beginning to understand why DemonEyesLeo's rank is higher because  his spacing with Adon was very smart, and mixups are different than other Adons I've seen online who rely solely on Rising Jaguar priorty, and throw baits.

King of Fighters XIII

Aozaki_Kyo(Kensou, Kula, Kyo EX) vs Eienhikaru(Kula, King, Mai) 02-01-2010 Ranked Match

One of the first few games I've had on KoF13 since the new netcode patch has been out. It's improved a great deal. Now I really have no excuse to not be putting more time on KoF. This is posted more for suna_19's enjoyment, who is also a Kensou user. I was really disappointed with this match only because  Aozaki_Kyo had a sick customization of Kula. His choices in coloring made her look exactly like C.C. from Code Geass. But I wasn't able beat his first, or second character to see it.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs mr_nagooyen(Arakune) 01-31-2012 Ranked Match

So the new version of BB:CS2 is coming out in 11 days, and I've been running into more less-than-50th-level players a lot recently. This is my third match with mr_nagooyen in as many sessions. Arakune's are an uncommon character so I don't quite know the matchup. I feel like I get tripped up on where Arakune is most times and I'm lost on his priority. In this match I can't help but get myself cursed and just destroyed in the process. The turnaround is dramatic at ~1:.36 where I have nearly 90% life and just lose it all during his curse spam. I have to resort to mashing out a Tsubame Gaeshi just to break the momentum.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs KoopaDoopa(Litchi) 02-01-2012 Ranked Match

Let's play a game of "Is it conversion, or is it legit?" The first one starts at ~1:02 with a 6.A > Hatsu > Chun then dashes into a 5.B, 6.C cancel etc. It's too bad I didn't get to fight him again. I'd call legit if he did it 2 more times. The conversion is beautiful don't get me wrong, but I shy away from situational / improv tech.
The next full combo starts at ~1:10 and extends through 1:19. This I feel is legit/reproducible because I've seen similar setups occur, I'm just shocked at how the links are made with the staff being sent and brought back. I got lucky that his Daisharin started at 2 (straight down) instead of 1 (his angled left). This match makes me sad that my Litchi has plateau'ed for so long without any new tech. There's so much I don't fully know with her, and yet she's my only good character in BB.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs Judgemastar(Hakumen) 02-02-2012 Ranked Match

Hakumen has become my 2nd least favorite matchup for a number of reasons. Primarily for longer range pokes, and the ability to counter within valid blockstrings. The corner control from ~1:03 to ~1:17 was infuriating for me. The second j.C from him at 1:16 to keep me back there was particularly rage-inducing for me. That 14 seconds of game time was an eternity.
I'm actually a bit confused as to why his counters at ~0:51 and ~2:13 didn't take, the ones after my Itsuu.B. Those look valid and I've been further away and gotten blown up like that before. I got stupid lucky at ~2:38 that I didn't input an A when he dropped his DD counter like that. I honestly couldn't tell you if I messed up my inputs or was expecting him to try and counter.
My last and final beef with Hakumen is his DD counter. Recently in an unposted replay, a Hakumen caught me with a DD counter, and I had enough time to cram down on my 1 and Barrier Block to feel safe. NOPE! That Hakumen cut right through it for a killing stroke. Spoilers - the same thing happens here, but I'm freaking BEHIND HIM. Hide the hitbox much? Rage!! I'm starting to think Hakumen is more trollish of a character than Hazama.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs Yukito-chan(Rachel) 02-02-2012 Ranked Match

Matches against Rachel make me feel like the slowest learner in the class at times. One of my frequent opponents SBRS-Bulange has used her as a main, but it's still not enough for me to turn a lot of these winning matches. Overall my sloppiness in this match is bordering unremarkable. I am uncertain how a dash suddenly turned into a Daisharin. Where you see nothing happen for a good 2 seconds is me going "WTF, I didn't do that!" I commend the close, inward-drive where he pulls me in and drops Baden-Baden Lily at ~2:02. It may not be new but I've been seeing more of that same maneuver lately.

Yukito-chan's defense at ~1:48 through ~1:58 is astounding, or maybe he just had me with a genius download. Either way that level of reading your opponent, and patience is a key aspect to fighting games, and I can respect that level of skill. I hope that later games do not try and take away the potential for defense in favor of forcing people to rush in *cough*Marvel*cough*
I've heard similar sentiments on WakeUpSRK regarding Soul Calibur V's changes where normal parries are now gone and Gaurd Impact eats meter. What's replaced parrying is the Just Guard. (besides that video by Aris I haven't been able to draw out my full opinion on it, more on that after I get SCV!)
I'm saddened by that prospect because that changes the "3-Dness" of the game to keep the players in close quarters and facing each other. Under the old parry systems you could force a player to either side and change your footing, like in actual sword fighting! IMO Gaurd Impacts, and Just Impacts were rare enough that it couldn't have been abused.

Pics or it didn't happen!

Shoutouts to Lord Omlette , who demanded proof of a recent tweet of mine. Also found and posted a couple of other gems while I was digging around the inbox, and in BB:CS2 this week.

The Bang Player:

http://imgur.com/wvzfG
I'd fought this particular player a few times and what makes this significant is he had a ranked level of 66, but PSN was matching us to character levels instead. I'd fought his Tager and won 2 matches, and  took another match against his Bang. He rage quit on the Bang match and sent this bit of encouragement to me.

The Hazama Player:

http://imgur.com/6LaIQ
Nothing terribly spectacular about the match that generated this. What I think is funny is I don't know how effective "I let you win," is if you're not gonna run it back. Plus I feel that no one should attitude in ranked match. My only reply is: "Thanks for the points!"

Numerology:

http://imgur.com/UsMxH
Take note of the number of player matches! (-.- ) |,,|

Replays from Blazblue coming this later this weekend as I near the end of my path to a player rank of 50, and probably my last network related trophy I need until BBCS: Extend comes out!

Replay overview - Sakura Raging Demon ass-hattery was my first mistake.

Had some crazy sets with my good friend Boshadro. It's unfortunate I couldn't post all the matches we fought but these were a few of the good ones that resulted from what went down.

Eienhikaru(Sakura) vs Boshadro(Makoto) 1-16-2011 Player Match

At ~0:32 you'll recognize some familar inputs, hence the namesake of this week's overview. This is proof of me not putting my serious face on and getting destroyed as the result. Overall this match is fraught with execution error and little knowledge of the match. One of the heartbreaking errors I had was at ~2:15. It was supposed to be a j.FK > 2.MK > EX Tatsu. Instead all I got was the sweep right after the jump kick. Props to Bosh and that Fukiage > Fukiage > EX Hayate at ~3:11, that's some sick shit there.

Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) vs Boshadro(Makoto) 1-16-2011 Player Match

This looks like the match that made me painfully aware of how quick Makoto's Hayates are. I'm just blocking them with my face all day in this. This isn't the greatest example match, but Makoto's Ultra II will continue its animation even if the first hit is blocked, or improperly hits (~2:07). Between Sunday's matches and early ones from this set the Ultra would still catch me off-gaurd. Yay for learning matchups through trial and error!
Praise Altana for the dropped setup at ~3:15 because that would have cost me the round.

Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) vs Boshadro(Makoto) 1-16-2011 Player Match

I didn't capture these in succession, these were spread out among a great deal of matches. This one in particular I feel like I'm rattled by something either I'm switching out of Sakura Mode or something but a great deal of this match are pointless sweeps (3 of them as in Bosh's not even close to me), cautionary 2.LP's to stop seemingly random Hayates. Add in the random-should-not-have-worked Ultra and I'll be well on my way back to D rank with slop like that.
This is probably one of the next longer-term goals is to cut down on wasted moves like this, not only because it's keeping me planted while i'm just throwing stuff out, but it's a clear indication of my brain stuck on a bad sector and just asking to get blown up.

Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) vs Boshadro(Makoto) 1-16-2011 Player Match

If I had a great fault with my gameplay is that it takes a long time to incorporate new tech into my approach. This one specifically I'm starting to use 2.LP > Hazanshu. In this match it helps me not freak out and try to reflexively throw when Makoto's within her own striking range. This is a quick move, but I'm certain it is punishable, so I'll have to not overuse it like I did in this match.

At ~1:53 there's some craziness. I decided to try and end the match with an EX Hazanshu and it whiffs. At the time I felt like I was 90% sure of my range but it still missed. I asked Bosh if that super had invincibility but he wasn't sure.

Eienhikaru(Sakura) vs Boshadro(Makoto) 1-16-2011 Player Match

This match starts off rather awkwardly for me. Most of my damage is due to lucky guesses, but I'm unable to "stay random," enough to surprise Bosh. The second round starts off a great deal better for me. I need to learn more options to convert off of a EX Tatsu without Ultra. Sakura Otoshi's good, but I've had issues with execution in the past. The only thing that came to mind was another EX Tatsu which works but is really only burning meter.
If I learned anything from these matches is to keep Makoto out as much as possible, and stick to short and high priority moves. Once Bosh gets some momentum rolling with the command grab > Hayate this was essentially game over for me. The only thing that saved me was some LP spam because it looked like he was moving in for an EX chop. I don't even know if he did do an EX chop if that would have saved me because what looks like happened is he got an EX Fukiage instead. Yes that Ultra was very much a "Hail-Mary-hopes-he-presses-buttons type.
In the third round, I'm uncertain as to why the (what looks like a j.MK, but input says is a HK) kept catching me off-guard. It looks like I was trying to do a 1 o r 2.FP as an anti-air but it didn't help at all. However this is proof that Makoto's super has mad invncibility. At 3:03 you see my 2.MK full on whiff as Bosh is in the middle of the super animation, then he goes into Ultra and destroys me. This was a full or pixels short of being a full Ultra, and with the damage boost from the Super I actually want to hit the lab to replicate that and see what kind of number damage that does, I'm certain it as crazy as it looks.

I may not run into many Makotos this weekend, but I come away from this knowing that my usual approach and 'bullshit' does not work against all characters. This is a continuing lesson for me surely, but it keeps falling out of focus with all the "standard," characters you face online like Ryu/Ken/Akuma.