Whoever comes up with the best title gets to pick the next SF4 Biweekly TACV character! As always, the rules are one entry per person and i’ll choose my favorite on Monday.
DS Victor’s PPP ES Giga Hammer passes under J.Talbain’s HP ES air Beast Cannon. Talbain isn’t exactly my favorite Darkstalkers character, but his stage background is absolutely gorgeous.
Abel’s episode ended up slightly longer than expected, mostly due to his inability to combine multiple concepts. He has plenty of interesting facets, but can only showcase one at a time. Thus if anything seems repetitive, that’s because having “tool-assisted” in the title forces me to maximize each combo – even when only one piece is special. With Abel, meter to burn always leads back to the same road, although i did try to employ different links every time.
0:11 Finish Low isn’t a throw, but rather a low-hitting attack which would combo from Abel’s Change of Direction chains if not for its prohibitively slow 21-frame startup. Trading lvl3 Focus Attack with Dhalsim’s c.LP gives Abel enough time to whiff LP Change of Direction -> Second Mid and catch Sim with Finish Low right before he becomes invulnerable. Also, the starter is trickier than the usual Focus Attack trades because Sim’s c.LP reaches out as a vulnerable hitbox before it becomes an active hitbox. You have to use distance to make it work. Dhalsim has to push c.LP early to place his fist in front of Abel, then Abel’s lvl3 Focus Attack has to be spaced correctly so his shoulder advances into the punch. If you don’t start slightly out of range then Abel wins cleanly every time.
0:17 Abel has that rare combination of dash speed and quick Focus Attack startup to link a dash-canceled lvl3 Focus Attack into lvl2 Focus Attack before the opponent falls over. Crumple stun works as a meaty setup for Abel’s s.HK against Dan and Dhalsim due to the way they lean in, but far s.MP xx HP Heartless doesn’t connect against Dan at maximum s.MP range.
I’ve noticed that every single time i release a video, someone writes a remark about English versus Japanese voices. To be honest, my preferences aren’t set in stone, which makes me curious about everyone else’s reasons for choosing one setting over the other.
Obviously the vast majority of these decisions come down to a matter of personal opinion. There’s no right or wrong answer, regardless of how strongly certain people feel about their favorites. Granted, there may be some voice samples which we can all agree are bad – but they’re few and far between. Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Sagat, C.Viper, Rufus, El Fuerte, Abel, Dan, Gen, and many others sound perfectly fine under English language settings.
Generally, i like being able to understand what my characters are saying. Since i speak English but can’t speak Japanese, my default starting choice is to leave the sound setting on English voices. Each character remains that way until one of them says something so unbelievably corny that i decide i’d rather not know what they’re saying. Prime examples include Ken’s idiotic “Try this on for size!” cry during EX Hurricane Kick and Akuma’s inane rambling.