Ultra Street Fighter 4

[Silent Bob]

EX Red Focus will crumple on level 1, creating new combos in Ultra Street Fighter 4 - hard knockdown on Ibuki's neckbreaker is back

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Evans pointed out that one of the changes that wasn't documented in the release notes is that level 1 EX Red Focus will actually crumple the opponent.

He feels a lot of new combos and strategies will develop from this change, and that's why EX Red Focus has a heavy cost of 3 meters.

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One of the points of contention among staff members was having an indicator when someone used the delayed wake up mechanic, though.

"We had debated internally about [if we should] have a visual cue," said Evans.

He noted that a lot of people requested an indicator, but they didn't want something that was distracting to the experience, so they struck a balance of just having the word 'Technical' come up on screen.

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One of the more controversial changes was making it so that Dragon Punches/Kicks that are FADCed are -5 on block, making them punishable by throws and moves that are 5 frames of startup or faster, which includes some ultras.

"This is the hottest debate right now that we've had," said Evans. He added that most characters who had an invincible DP were usually -2 or -3 after an FADC in the current version.

"[It's] a big change, it's going to change the way a lot of the uppercut characters are played," he added.

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Additional USF4 notes from the stream

• Adon: A lot of Adon players complained about his st.HK only being one hit now, saying it took away too much from their ground game, so Capcom reverted the change.

• Cody: Juggle potential has been increased on the knife. What that actually means is you can do follow ups that you couldn't otherwise do — if you're holding the knife. After a Light Criminal Upper, you can follow up with any number of knife attacks, like cr.HP.

• Dan: His close HK being changed to Back + HK has given him new combo possibilities, from a bit further out where it couldn't be used previously. Apparently, Combofiend was able to pull off Back + HK, st.MP, Back + HK. Haunts said one of the combos that was pulled off was a jaw dropper. It also works as an anti air. The hit box increase on his Light Dan Kicks was to help it connect on smaller characters. His Ultra 2 was said to be greatly improved.

• Dee Jay: They confirmed they EX Machine Gun blow is still hit invincible, along with the other buffs the move received, like throw invincibility.

• Gouken: They said his EX Hurricane Kick is "so good right now," hitting from further out, including crouching characters. They say it's a huge buff for the character. They talked about cancelling his Far Standing Light Kick into Fireballs and his Running Palm being a solid upgrade.

• Ibuki: It was confirmed that she got her hard knockdown back on her regular Neckbreaker. With delayed standing, players will have more opportunities to escape her Kunai vortex now, though. The devs said Tsujigoe's recovery being removed gives her more mix up opportunities that weren't there before.

• Ken: His EX Hurricane Kick was changed so you couldn't run away as easily with it, when using it on the way up in your jump. They're still adjusting and tweaking it, though.

• Makoto: Her Fukiage (Upwards Punch) is only jump cancellable on hit now, but very powerful, so they had to tone it down. Both guys felt the move is a ton of fun to use in USF4, currently.

• Rose: Like Yun, she got a considerable amount of damage buffs to her 'combo buttons'. They also gave her the 'huge contender' label when talking about how strong the characters are.

• Seth: During the first few rounds of battle balance, Seth was buffed greatly. He's been dialed back now, but still has some interesting buffs, they said. The juggle potential on his Ultra 2 has been increased, so now if your opponent is cornered you can DP, FADC backwards and go into Ultra 2 and it'll combo. His Ultra 2 also hits more times than it did previously. They added that Seth is still a character they're thinking about daily, so he has potential to change before the final version of the game.

• Vega: He got many buffs, and in testing it felt like he got a little too strong, so he had some changes reverted, like the invincible Scarlett Terror and cr.LP having an extra frame of hitstun. It was noted that his Super hitting on the way up is a big buff, as he can combo into it quite easily now.

• Yang: His cross up jumping medium kick is some where between v2012 and Arcade Edition in terms of effectiveness. They say it's very good.

• Yun: While his Up Kicks and command grabs got nerfed, his Medium Punch moves got buffed a lot, they felt, adding extra damage just by using pokes, and multiple MPs in combos. They noted that all of Yun's 'combo buttons' got buffed in damage — and that was not by mistake. He has a lot more damage output now. They felt Yun would be a 'huge contender' in USF4.