Despite apperances, M.Bison and Akuma both obey strict combo limitations. Neither character has much that could be considered an x-factor, apart from Akuma’s strange Shakunetsu Hadoken juggle behavior and Bison’s interrupted ultra. As a result, most of these combos contain only one interesting detail. Still, this episode turned out better than i expected.
0:11 Bison’s EX Head Press slams grounded opponents straight down, but acts as a standard knockdown on air hit. Cammy is considered airborne during the last stage of lvl2 Focus Attack crumple fall, with her hitbox as low to the ground as possible. EX Head Press connects deep enough to follow up with EX Somersault Skull Diver, which has a juggle potential of one. Unfortunately he needs to float forward to reach her, making it impossible to charge for ultra.
0:19 Bison’s lvl3 Focus Attack trades with Dhalsim’s vertical j.LP, creating enough elevation to allow for F+PPP Bison Warp and lvl1 Focus Attack startup. There’s plenty of time to charge before backdashing, and then the LK Knee Press Nightmare input is executed slowly to outlast the backdash. It would’ve been possible to juggle Bison’s ultra after forward dash, but it’s far too slow to connect after backdash under these circumstances.
0:27 With the right corner spacing, Bison’s HK Head Press can trade with Gen’s HP Zan’ei and result in Bison landing behind Gen. This setup pulls Gen closer to Bison instead of pushing him away. Light attacks combo into MK Scissor Kick but not HK Scissor Kick, so the MK version is used both times. The c.LK -> s.LP link requires c.LK to land meaty, which it does at far range due to Gen’s c.LP hit stun. The rest is straightforward, with a focus on variety. I had to get rid of the First Attack message using a single hit of Gen’s LP Hyakurenko, because there was no other way to avoid it and it looked terrible. This combo deals 391 damage and 565 stun.
0:39 Rose’s far s.LK has the rare capacity to serve as a counterhit setup during a trade, which is important because that LP Soul Spark would disappear if Bison took the time to charge up a lvl2 Focus Attack. Bison stops one frame short of walking into Rose’s fireball before performing that lvl1 Focus Attack, which only causes crumple stun due to counterhit. There’s no trick to comboing Bison’s Nightmare Booster ultra directly after j.HP other than precise charging and quick execution. When the torpedo portion of his ultra connects, it knocks down the opponent and initiates the cinematic finisher. Running into a projectile frees Bison while the opponent continues along their elaborate swirling trail. They’re not technically considered airborne, yet the juggle counter still registers them in standard knockdown state. Bison has time to teleport into the corner with F+PPP Bison Warp, then jump backward to juggle with j.MP -> j.MP, since the second punch has a juggle potential of one. Rose reverts to grounded hit stun, but the juggle counter is raised to one, meaning all of Bison’s normal moves would whiff at this point. LK Knee Press Nightmare becomes his only remaining option aside from EX Psycho Crusher. This combo inflicts 494 damage and 310 stun.
0:53 Akuma trades lvl3 Focus Attack with Dhalsim’s vertical j.LK, then cancels HP Gohadoken into whiff Raging Demon super strictly for transportation. LP Shakunetsu Hadoken has a juggle potential of one and the last hit of HP Goshoryuken has a juggle potential of two. This whole combo is rather pointless because Raging Demon is essentially useless in SF4 combos. There’s really nothing it can do that FADC couldn’t accomplish at cheaper meter cost.
1:01 Akuma’s EX Airborne Tatsumaki Zankukyaku trades with Rufus’ j.LP, pulling Rufus hard right and taking Akuma along with him. Akuma lands first and lands on his feet, so he juggles with two hits of HP Goshoryuken and three hits of EX Tatsumaki Zankukyaku. The initial setup works on many characters, but EX Tatsumaki Zankukyaku only connects twice against most.
1:07 Akuma’s HP and EX Shakunetsu Hadokens are strange. First of all, both have the same startup, exhibit the same juggle properties, deal roughly the same damage and dizzy, so the main difference between them is recovery time. Generally speaking, the EX version is better for juggle follow-ups, unless you intend to FADC, in which case the HP version provides identical results for less meter cost. Every individual hit acts as standard knockdown and carries a juggle potential of three. Here’s where it gets weird: The second hit of HP/EX Shakunetsu Hadoken can only raise the juggle count from two to three. It can’t raise the juggle count from zero to one, or from one to two. In this clip, Akuma’s MP Zanku Hadoken and HP Shakunetsu Hadoken strip away four hits of Dhalsim’s Yoga Catastrophe ultra, slowing it down in the process while Dhalsim’s F+KKK air Yoga Teleport closes the distance. Dhalsim’s j.B+LP trades with Akuma’s HP Shakunetsu Hadoken, which connects twice before the third hit is nullified by the only remaining hit of Yoga Catastrophe. At this point the juggle count is at zero. The next HP Shakunetsu Hadoken raises the juggle count to two, in the following order: 1, 1, 2. The last EX Shakunetsu Hadoken connects once and immediately raises the juggle count to three, at which point the rest whiffs. Akuma quickly takes a small step forward and kara-cancels s.HP into EX Tatsumaki Zankukyaku for two more hits, since it has a juggle potential of five.
1:17 Akuma possesses exceptional dizzy capability. He can dizzy Seth without using any meter at all – or in this case, buning one bar at the beginning then restoring it back to full along the way. The post-dizzy portion is a slight variant of a Combonauts original which happened to be my favorite Akuma combo at the time. Despite appearances to the contrary, Akuma doesn’t have very many ways of bypassing the standard uni-directional mold that defines most of his juggle strings. This combo totals 547 damage.
1:32 This entire combo revolves around whiffing the second hit of HK Tatsumaki Zankukyaku in order to connect the third spin, permitting Akuma to recover in time to juggle HP Goshoryuken. Somehow Rose is the only dummy character who leans into Akuma’s knee after getting hit by c.MK, then leans away from Akuma’s foot. Her Illusion Spark ultra invincibility simply serves as a meaty setup for Akuma’s EX Zanku Hadoken, which wouldn’t combo together at that range otherwise. Once again, Akuma demonstrates the ability to rebuild an entire bar of meter in the midst of a combo without relying on dizzy. The interesting thing about that EX Shakunetsu Hadoken is that it’s actually HP Shakunetsu Hadoken kara-canceled into EX Shakunetsu Hadoken. This trick provides no functional benefit, but it does double the amount of red waves emanating from him. It’s also possible to add red waves to EX Tatsumaki Zankukyaku via the same method, but not in this particular midscreen combo because Akuma must kara-cancel s.HP for added range instead. This combo causes 459 damage and 690 stun.
1:45 Personally, i think this is the least interesting combo in the video, although it was the most difficult to record by far. The only notable component occurs at the end, where Akuma cancels an s.LP -> s.LP chain directly into his Wrath of the Raging Demon ultra. There’s actually a buffer delay between chained light attacks which makes it possible to complete the ultra input in five frames instead of two. However, there’s no leniency whatsoever for timing the last input. If it’s pressed any sooner, Akuma kara-cancels the s.LP before it connects. If it’s pressed any later, the KO halts input recognition. Another oddity is the fact that this combo should add up to 87 hits, but post-KO Wrath of the Raging Demon only registers as 26 hits for some reason, instead of the usual 27. This combo clocks in at 670 damage before the ultra.
This is a tool-assisted combo video recorded with two ASCII PAD V Pro programmable controllers. Absolutely no cheats, hacks, or game-altering devices were used in the making of.
I wasn’t sure last time but i’m sure now: Cutting down five combos per character to three/four only saves me two days, tops. Barring some miraculous thaumaturgy (synonym for miracle), this thing’s not getting done before Thursday at the earliest.
Apologies once again. Check back Friday, maybe?
No apols necessary. Each and every TACV have been fab and would be worth waiting for.
Besides, anyone getting restless can just try and combo the fantastic ‘thaumaturgy’ into a regular sentence with their dad, or boss, or local shop attendent!
Ha I’ve used it already.
One quick thing that I’ve just noticed is that on my iPod sonichurricane is lower case.
The problem is, i spend most of my time trying to figure out each new character before i can plot out what’s gonna end up in which combo. So the combos don’t come together in their final form until the end of the process. If it takes two weeks to do five combos with one character, then it should take three weeks to do five combos with two characters at the same pace.
With these double-character vids i’ve been working harder trying to speed up the research, but everything has to run smoothly for me to finish within two weeks. And you know, things rarely go according to plan in life. I know apologies don’t mean much but i can’t think of much else to say.
@Maj
Well hey, at least you’re showing you care about your viewers and that at least you’re -trying- you know? I think that’s all the most of us care about.
When it’s done it’s done, and we’ll be grateful!
I know they’re supposed to be biweekly and all, and sticking to that as best you can is admirable! But I’m pretty confident that you shouldn’t feel bad about being late on this sort of thing.
Haha well they’re still biweekly, in the sense that i get one done every two weeks. They’re just not punctual. But i have to admit, i’m always late to everything. I guess i must enjoy being in over my head all the time. Between website updates, SF4 TACVs, trying to keep Evo videos on track, and random side projects, there aren’t enough hours in the week.
Take it easy then, just cut down to one and don’t do them all, its’ a small sacrifice to make to preserve your sanity.
I have absolutely no idea how you manage to do all this stuff. It took me an entire day to do one basic combo for your last combo challenge.
jamheald: I appreciate the concern sir, but it’s gonna take a hell of a lot more than a late combo video or a missed deadline to affect my sanity. I’m just trying to keep you guys updated; not trying to make anyone feel bad for me or anything like that. I mean i wish it didn’t have to be late, but it is and i honestly can’t do anything about it except explain why. But don’t worry, i can handle pressure; and even if it turns out i can’t, well it’s was still worth a try to get all these projects ready by Evo.
Sh33p: Yeah it takes a while to get anything substantial done, but it’s pretty cool to see something finally come together.
hey Maj, What do you use to record your videos?
S-Video cable from PS3, into Pinnacle Studio Movieboard PCI capture card, using (free) VirtualDub software. I record at 720×480 29.97fps, then deinterlace to make it 59.94fps.
You can get a pretty decent capture card for like fifty bucks nowadays. I think mine was a hundred when i bought it.
Cool, Thanks, cuz I’m thinking about getting a capture card
@ShaXan
I got mine at Ebay for 35 bucks. Included shipping. It’s an okay capture card, but the video display is a bit off time. I had to buy an AV splitter box and a few extra wires for it. I feed the capture card with video from one output from the AV splitter box, and send it straight to my TV with another output. I play on my TV while I record the delayed version on my computer. It’s not hard. The Resolution isn’t as good as I wished, but it’s all I could afford.
You can check out the results by clicking on my avatar. It’ll lead you to my Youtube page. If you don’t like the resolution, you may have to buy a more expensive capture card.
All good things are worth waiting for.
Sorry guys, something came up and i got sidetracked. I don’t have a solid e.t.a. for this episode at the moment, but i’m gonna try to get it done over the weekend. Um, it’s probably best just to forget about it until it shows up.
(I’d hate to be one of those goons on u2b saying “rate/comment/subscribe!” like a broken record, but in this case subscribing seems like the easiest way to go. I mean, i don’t know how much it bugs people to check back here daily and see that nothing’s been updated, but if it does bother anyone then i’d imagine u2b would be the simplest alternative. Don’t get me wrong, i don’t even like u2b and if it was up to me i’d much prefer having people check here regularly than visiting there. But what can i say, gotta admit u2b is a convenient way to keep track of new releases.)
hello, first let me say this. I am a huge fan of all the work you have done with this tacv. now the down side…..why would you start to cut down on the best character in the game? (M. Bison) i been waiting months for you to bring up Lord bison but now i am upset you are not even showing all of his combo’s…….PLEASE reconsider. I know the video is coming out soon but PLEASE show all of bison’s combo’s
@judah1984
Wait – you want all of Bison’s combo’s?!?!?! You do realise that you have to visit http://www.kneepressnightmare.com for those kinds of requests?! C’mon dude be serious – it sounds like your after a 10 min bison combo vid from Maj but when has he ever done anything like that for anyone in this series. I’m an Akuma player so yeah I’d love a full dedication to Akuma but this series is about uncovering and showcasing some of the more unique and revealing aspects of the characters in their sf4 incarnations. In maj we trust to put together the most interesting finds from his efforts in the practice room pit, and I’m sure when it’s done there will be something nice for both of us to see :-)
Well, it looks like i’m gonna have more combos for Akuma than i thought, but Bison is a different story. He really isn’t built for combos in SF4. All of his special moves are either knockdowns or airborne, so basically all he’s got is Scissor Kick FADCs. I have a few ideas for him though, so i’d rather not spoil anything until the video’s done. But yeah, 3-4 Bison combos tops.
Hahaha i just did some ghetto 4-hit combo with Akuma and the announcer goes, “The attacks chained together one after the other!”
I’m keeping it.
haha, nice. I like when you do nothing, and the announcer is still hyped up. It’s like a soccer announcer. Well, I’ll keep checking your Youtube channel bro. Best of luck!
@Maj
That’s a really original idea for a funny sf4 vid – manufacturing situations that make the anouncers commentary really inappropriate, someone could also do the same with some of the rival battle dialogue. I had a really protracted fight with my rival the other day and all sorts of dialogue that I never knew existed came out. I’ve no idea how the dialogue triggers are set up to be honest – but I think it’s something that’s hardly been covered – probably because it’s not the most invigorating sf4 topic in existence perhaps…. But still.
@Killweir
That’s every situation isn’t it though? :)
i vote “In maj we trust” for the website’s new motto. i really think Killweir may be on to something here. if this website ever has its own form of currency, this obviously must be on it.
Don’t meen to pester you maj but do you by any chance have a estimated time of completion?
Maybe another day or two? Here’s the story, in case anyone cares. A friend of mine asked for help with a non-fighting-game project a couple weeks ago and that took way longer than expected (since i had no idea what i was doing). Turned out kinda cool though. I’ll probably make a post about it tomorrow. Anyway then a family matter i’d rather not talk about basically made it impossible for me to get anything done for a few days.
Also i wasn’t anticipating spending this much time on Akuma. He seemed hopelessly boring at first glance, but i ended up with (twice) more stuff to test than i expected. Anyway i’m done with him as of 15 minutes ago so i just gotta focus on Bison some more before wrapping this up.
@jamheald
Yep the more protracted the fight the more dialogue you get. What I was thinking about though is what exactly are the triggers for the dialogue and how could you manipulate them or set them up in some way to make something interesting happen. I actually think it’s got the potential to be the most boring idea I’ve ever had – but it’s something that interested me for a moment – for instance how do the dialogue triggers work – if it’s energy depletion could you get dialogue from absorbed focus damage rather than actual damage? Could you get dialogue to repeat that being the case or could you get it to loop in some way. Could you get two sections of dialogue to overlap for some sort of humorous effect – i dunno what I was thinking, but I do know that I was putting the idea out there for someone with perhaps more imagination than myself to think about or more enthusiasm as the case maybe lol :-)
I think there’s a selection of 3 or 4 (rough rough estimate) phrases per situation, like when you get an Ultra, or when you’re low on life, and the announcer then randomly voices one. I have had him interrupt himself (or maybe just instantly repeat himself, not sure) with the same sample, so it’s possible to get some announcer shenanigans going.
@Killweir
I’ve had like one hit on somebody and he goes something like will the attacks ever stop, interupting himself saying neither can get the upper hand.
Yeah there’s about 4-5 phrases per situation. Here are the one i’ve caught:
– first hit
– gaining ultra meter
– gaining super meter
– performing an ultra
– performing a short combo
– performing a long combo
– getting dizzy
– getting down to about 10% life
He also says something generic ~10 seconds after the round starts if nobody attacks and then something really funny if nobody attacks for ~30+ seconds: “And time marches on!”
@jamheald
Lol xD
I can’t wait for the Super announcer, he sounds so agressively ott.
@onreload
Yeah that’s the sort of thing I was talking about – getting some weird shenanigans going.
@Maj
Doesn’t the and neither fighter can get the upper hand come at any time if neither attacks for awhile? Or is that just my imagination?
@Maj
Cheers Maj, nice to see it mapped out some what. Are they the same triggers for the rival battle dialogue?
Maybe you could set up a fight so that the announcer never stops talking. Oh wait, that’s EVERY fight.
@Killweir
You also get different speach for doing your ultra. Like with rose against ryu “this is the final card”
Come on dude I’m dying here…….i have to start the chant!! WE WANT BISON!!!! WE WANT BISON!!!!WE WANT BISON!!!!WE WANT BISON!!!!WE WANT BISON!!!!WE WANT BISON!!!! please man i really want to see this bison in action…..plus since i been waiting so long to see him i want you to do E.honda for the next one…please
@judah1984
Your so desperate and been waiting soooo long ehy? Why not put that time to use and make your own? Thought not.
judah1984: Oh so you like torpedo characters? How do you feel about Sky High Claw?
jamheald: I don’t know man, i gotta admit i’d be pretty impressed if he managed to get a chant going in here.
@Maj
BISON! BISON! BISON! I’d prefer a Mexican wave.
BISON BISON BISON BISON
(i don’t even like bison, but I’m all for cheering for the next TACV)
DAN, DAN, DAN, DAN!
@Maj
I got the chant started…..I’d rather have my bison tacv. I have a few characters I play with most of them are charge or “torpedo” characters. I’m not impressed with vega’s high claw but, vega has always interested me. I just wish u could include his ultra into his combo’s or give him more priorities on his attacks. Why do u ask? I guess vega will be the next one up?
@judah1984
I think Maj was reffering to “Sky High Claw” a pro claw SSF2T player. I saw a match on yt against Shooting D’s Ryu – Great match as I’m a huge Shooting D fan :-) i love shooting D’s zoning and reading ablility – great all round game. I don’t know if Sky High Claw has done much with SF4 though? Anyone seen any vids for him in SF4? If you like pro Bison’s though check out Inoue’s Bison – there’s a very nice set between him and Diago on yt… Oh and – SAKURA, SAKURA, SAKURA!
@Killweir
No he does mean the move I think as Vega is in the next pair so he was referring to his slightly torpedo like move (in appearances).
I don’t know what he means really but, I know this for sure. It has been a month since the last tacv and that WE WANT BISON!!! WE WANT BISON!!! WE WANT BISON!!! WE WANT BISON!!! WE WANT BISON!!! WE WANT BISON!!!
P.S. oh and by the way did i forget to mention we want bison?
Looks like Psycho Crusher and Scissor Kick have the exact same charge time. That’s too bad. If Scissor Kick had even one frame less charge time, i could charge for exactly that long and then walk forward and do s.MP xx Scissor Kick. But since they’re equal, walk forward s.MP executes Psycho Crusher.
@Maj
whats the eta on bison’s arrival? oh and please give me a shout out on the video i been waiting so long please please please. judah1984 on the psn network
It’ll be done today. Just trying to get a fourth combo for Bison.