SFV is now in, what is dubbed, Season 2 (Essentially, Capcom decided that "Season 1" is over. Because... they can) and they recently released a new patch that "Balances" the game. There's also a new character, Akuma, the first of 6 to be added as the Season 2 progresses. The other 5 are NEW to the SF universe and there's wild speculation as to who they are. Feel free to leave a comment with your guess(es) of who you think they are. [GO!!!]
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| Image of Akuma (first from left) and the 5 (silhouettes) |
In the Fighting Game Community (FGC) these patches to the game are referred to as "Balancing". Simply put, the Developer tries (emphasis on tries) to make the game an even playing field, for all players involved, by normalizing every character so that no character is inherently "better" than the other. Specifically for Fighting Games, they try to make it so that every character has a fair chance of winning against every other character. If one character is found to be OP (Over Powered) then he/she gets a Nerf (A detriment of some kind. A decrease in Damage, Hit Box [Area that can hit opponent] or Health [Life Points], to name a few). On the other hand, if a character is GIMP (Under Powered) then he/she gets a Buff (A benefit of some kind. An increase in Recovery [Time taken to return to starting position], Stun Threshold [Damaged need for Stun] or Meter Gain [Amount of resource accrued], come to mind). This back and forth, of buffing and nerfing, continues until the Development Team (Capcom, in this case) decides that enough is enough and the game is then considered BALANCED!
Sometimes this happens quickly and other times it takes years. Players will often find and/or create scenarios that Developers didn't think of/expect and use these scenarios as advantageous exploits for themselves. Things like: Option Selects and Kara Throws are examples of advantageous exploits and Developers will, quickly, try to balance them (Or remove them altogether). This usually leads to other exploits being discovered/made and more balancing (Rinse and repeat). Often times, balancing forces the players to adjust their play-style, after taking the patched changes into consideration, or they may have to re-learn the character if the changes are pronounced enough. In a worst case scenario though, players, left with no other choice, decide to choose a new character to play with. Especially if their character has been nerfed into the ground (GIMPED).
Did someone mention "nerfed into the ground"? Enter, SFV's Season 2 Ryu!
It's a calamity what they have done to my beloved character. The tragedy is almost too much to bear and it keeps getting worse. The more I play with this "balanced" Ryu, the more I loathe what they've done to him. How could they have done something so... WRONG?
Now I know you may think that I'm a bit biased when it comes to Ryu (and your suspicion may be merited) but even if I look at this setup (setup here is a double entendre) as objectively as I can, I still find it to be 1 of 2 things. I consider it either heart-breakingly abstruse (I just don't get why) or perplexingly deliberate (I still don't get why). And I hate both of those options, equally!
I think it's safe to assume that most of you will not read through the patch notes (as it is quite a lot of reading and you may not be as into fighting games as I am or as aux fait with frame data) but believe me when I say Ryu was GIMPED! I don't know if the Capcom Development Team (I'm looking at you, Peter) has been over-taken by the Satsui no Hado or if they decided to be completely Anti-Ryu but it seems to me that SFV (I, 70% seriously 30% jokingly, refer to it as Ryu Fighter V) is being built around the concept of "let's make a game where most of the characters and abilities are PERFECT for defeating Ryu". And now, to make matters worst, they have nerfed him so hard that he doesn't play like Ryu (MY RYU). I would even go as far as to say, he isn't Ryu anymore. After having a few discussions about the issue, the best way I can put it over, succinctly, is to liken this "Season 2 Ryu" to "Some strange new character wearing a Ryu costume"!
Let's look at the cold, hard facts, shall we?
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| Cold, Hard Facts |
Did you notice anything?
*gives you time to look at the photo and realize the "Red-ness" but doesn't give you time to actually answer the question*
There were approximately 100 changes made to Ryu. (100 lines)
63 of those changes were nerfs! (63 Red lines) *serious face* 63 OF THEM!! 63% of the changes were BAD!!! Nearly two-thirds of the changes are swayed negatively i.e. AGAINST Ryu. How in God's green earth is that "balancing"? HOW?! *serious face*
Remember when I told you that there were system mechanic changes involved as well? Well, those (system) changes aren't listed in the character specific notes because they affect ALL characters. And guess what? Ryu is a character and all of those (system) changes affect him too. Adversely! For example:
1. Jabs are no longer good anti-airs (Nerf for Ryu)
2. Medium Dragon Punch is no longer 3f invincible (Nerf for Ryu)
3. Meter gains reduced on special move activation (Nerf for Ryu)
4. Throw recovery is now longer (Nerf for Ryu)
5. Attack range has been reduced on some attacks (Nerf for Ryu)
Did you notice anything?
*gives you time to look at the list and realize the "Nerf for Ryu-ness" but doesn't give you time to actually answer the question*
Those were just 5 of the system changes that I could remember off the top of my head and they all nerf Ryu! *serious face* ALL 5 OF THEM!! They were all BAD!!! Those 5 changes are swayed negatively i.e AGAINST Ryu. How in God's green earth is that "balancing"? HOW?! *serious face*
"But T.A.G, you're just concentrating on the nerfs to validate your argument! Didn't you see the Buffs he got?" (Am I the only one who's beginning to dislike this guy?) [From now on I'm giving him his own font as a mark of distinction {And scorn}. So he will be distinguishable {And separate} from me]
*Resists the urge to stick the "Cold Hard Facts" photo in his face* Yes I did see the buffs. I highlighted them in green. Remember? There are about 15 of them and if I recall correctly 4 of them have to do with activating or being in V-Trigger, 2 of them are buffs to attacks that are extremely situational and thus hardly ever used and the others are so negligible and/or crappy that I didn't even bother to commit them to memory. (This is me being uber objective and I'm REALLY trying) The only buff I can think of that is worth mentioning is the ability to cancel his axe kick and target combo into a special move. *3 second pause* Oh! And his Air Tatsu can now link into Critical Art. That's it! Really, that's it! The End!
I mean... C'mon now! It's BAD! As in Horrible!! Like atrocious, even!!! Seriously, it has gotten to the point where Daigo has stopped playing Ryu. (I'll wait for that to sink in...) DAIGO (The poster boy for Ryu, the die-hard Ryu fan, the ultimate Ryu loyalist) has put up his gloves and has taken up dog tags. (Ryu wears gloves and Guile wears dog tags.) Basically, I'm saying Daigo plays Guile now! (I would also like to point out that Guile is Ryu's worst match in SF. That means that Guile has all the tools needed to defeat Ryu and does so both convincingly [without losing much health] and regularly [8 out of 10 times]. This [Daigo switching to Guile] is further proof as to how bad they have made Ryu now. It's SSSOOO BAD that Daigo had to pick up his favourite character's arch-nemesis. Tsk tsk tsk] I don't think I can make it any clearer at this point so I won't even try and if you still don't agree that Ryu has been GIMPED, then, that's... *loaded pause* OK. (It really isn't OK but I'm a firm believer in "Don't beat a dead horse" and "If you can't say something nice...")
Capcom (Peter?) has wielded the GIMP-Hammer, to its fullest potential, with this one and there's not much us Ryu players can do about it. We are left with 2 choices at this point: Struggle (through the nerfs) or Switch (tier-whore ftw?) and I don't know about you but Urien is looking mighty feasible right about now (70% serious 30% joking). I haven't been giving much of a choice have I? Because when it comes to Ryu, Capcom's (Peter's?) stance is - It's Nerf or Nothing!
Addendum - THIS!!! Is almost exactly how I feel. (1. Replace the things he says about Nash with Ryu and 2. Remove all the swear words)
(Disclaimer: "It's Nerf or Nothin' " is the slogan of the NERF Company and is NOT T.A.G's original creation and/or property. It was used as the title of this post in nostalgia and as a pop-culture reference. It also fits the double entendre that I was going for very well.
If anyone related to NERF is reading this. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't sue me!!! I can change the title, remove the line, take down the post or anything of the sort. Just don't sue me!!! However, it would be uber cool if I didn't have to do any of those. OK? OK!)
(Disclaimer: "It's Nerf or Nothin' " is the slogan of the NERF Company and is NOT T.A.G's original creation and/or property. It was used as the title of this post in nostalgia and as a pop-culture reference. It also fits the double entendre that I was going for very well.
If anyone related to NERF is reading this. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't sue me!!! I can change the title, remove the line, take down the post or anything of the sort. Just don't sue me!!! However, it would be uber cool if I didn't have to do any of those. OK? OK!)
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