How come i never hear you guys talking about Akira in the states?

well? I've been perusing all the old discussions along with the Dojo's Ice-9 has been putting together... first, thanks for all the info just browsing and listening to you guys for a month has taken my jeffry and shun skills to a new level. But hey?! what about Akira, he seems like forbidden taboo? Is he that hard of charecter to tackle? Going over his ver C move list there's a few moves i can't stand. His rising knee (forgive my crappy move/abbreviation vocab) the f+k+g(hold g for 1 frame). Okay cause how hard is it to get within 1/60th of a second in terms of consistent accuracy? His other move, and i know it'll just take practice is his "Dragon Lance, Dashing Elbow, Body Check" It's perfect for floating combos and i love the move, but damn, you must have quick, quick hands! /versus/images/icons/smile.gif what do you guys think, sorry for being a newbie turd but I'm a serious fighter and i'll dedicate limitless time to this thing to get it right.

thanks in advance,
Tekshow

 

I own the American version of VF4, and I don't speak a word of Japanese. I agree; Akira is sadly underrepresented in these message boards. Oh sure, there's the occasional Akira thread, but if it's not about DLC followups or how to do his knee, people just don't bother. I've been trying to change this, with minimal success.

Akira is, without a doubt, the most difficult character to master. He also represents the most unstoppable warrior in the VF4 universe, once he IS mastered. The knee is a combo-stopping motherfucker like nothing else, and if one finally masters the DLC ("Dragon Lance Combo", df+K+G,f+P,b,f,f+P+K) then you're golden. Add in the high, mid, AND low P+K reversals, the Stun Palm of Doom (SPoD, if you haven't figured that one out), and his shrm (Shoulder Ram) and you've got some great weaponry.

My biggest pet peeves:
- The $50 that one has to spend on an arcade stick in order to play Akira properly, because there's no way in HELL that you'll pull off the DLC with a controller all the time
- Playing against the computer's Akira players in Kumite mode. I was just passing 10th Dan, working on my 100-win streak with Sarah, and in jumps an Akira at Subjugator level to break my streak at 88.
- The fact that no one has practical discussions about Akira anymore. Give me some topics, and I'll give you my input! I've gotten my Akira up to 8th Dan just learning by myself. I'm sure there are other Akira freaks out there like me. Make yourselves heard!

 

The reason why I think there aren't many Akira discussions is that there doesn't seem to be much stuff you can talk about. Actually, there are some Akira threads, but they are mostly regarding how to do moves like Spod, Knee, DLC, or some are about why Akira isn't respected enough while he has the hardest moves in the game... etc...

Personally, I don't think Akira is the hardest charecter to learn. People seem to think so because some of his moves are hard to perform. But you can see that he has a short move list, and you can easily learn when to do some of his moves. His SDE is a very good move that can either KD or Crumble on MC. His shldram is a float starter, and you don't necessarily need the DLC at first to get good damage out of that. I've seen players do shldram >> stdgplm >> DJK for example.

Another problem with Akira seems to be modifying moves. Like the famous ST >> sglplm >> m-dlplm. You have to be quick and precise.

He may be hard to learn, but not the hardest IMO. /versus/images/icons/laugh.gif

 

"Akira is sadly underrepresented in these message boards. Oh sure, there's the occasional Akira thread, but if it's not about DLC followups or how to do his knee, people just don't bother."

...

"and if one finally masters the DLC ("Dragon Lance Combo", df+K+G,f+P,b,f,f+P+K) then you're golden."

Dont get to play against breathing opponents often do you ?

" The fact that no one has practical discussions about Akira anymore. Give me some topics, and I'll give you my input! I've gotten my Akira up to 8th Dan just learning by myself. I'm sure there are other Akira freaks out there like me. Make yourselves heard!"

Use the search engine and sift through the thousands of Akira posts on this board. People dont post much about Akira recently because he's pretty much been the character VFDC has most focused on. He's saturated. Post some new information, some new technique discussion and I'm sure the bandwagon will reappear. But I doubt that'll happen from you, as 2 weeks of playing VF4 alone at home and 9 posts dont go very far here. Ask questions I'll be happy to answer or somebody else will. Find new shit, I'll be there too.

Keep in mind to "search" and "Download videos".

 

yeah whitey, but the DLC in a float combo does unbelievable damage, he also brings up another good point, an arcade stick is the way to go, there's no way you're doing b, f,f, before you get the elbow part of the move out with the pad. At least i can't do it with any type of consistency, the SPoD is fairly easy, but on a breather they get used to seeing it...

i did use the search, and it seems largely Akira is ignored...


i'm just curious, cause i've never seen a video of someone holding complete mastery over him...

Tekshow

 

There are two parts to learning a character. There is the mental aspect, which is learning the moves and when to do them, and the technical aspect, which is doing the correct motions in the required time period (frames). Each character has various levels of difficulty regarding these two components. Akira is very heavy in technical difficulty and pretty light when it comes to the mental aspect.

Last, but not least, you have to learn the psychological aspect of the game, and *that* is when you really start to enjoy the game. Imo, of course.

Mason

 

DLC does decent damage on float, its mostly a backup combo finisher, there's much better options. As for searching on Akira, takes a while to sift through, but trust me its there. Maybe the moderators could compile a list of threads worth reading about him ?
Videos : check out TBZone.co.kr ( which is one of the obvious clues along with your 3 posts that you havent search thoroughly ) for Shinz vids with Akira.

 

let's just say most of the general stuff is already stated; what most people don't realize is that DLC is not Akira's most powerful combo finisher; m-ShRm,PG,m-ShRm,m-DblPm does insanely much more damage and will take off 50% life whenever it connects.

he's actually not hard to use; vf3tb, ok maybe, cause you had to master the DLC, and the korean step, but definitely not vf4; he's fairly straightforward; end all your crumble stun combos with DBC or DJK. the hard part is learning how to set up those combos. i believe his best 3-hit string in VF4 is the SPoD, and even then you don't need to use it to do ludicrous damage with him.

if you can start posting stuff like new backstagger combos besides SgPm-->SPoD or new tricky setups, then people might pay attention. else...

don't get me wrong though; akira's my fav character, and i would love to see you talk about something NEW about him that i haven't seen before

edited: whoops, i meant that most people that have started VF4

 

In your opinion, who do you think is the hardest to master?

 

in the sense of move abusability and the need to variate your moves, it would be shun, hands down.

in the sense of finger dexterity, it would be akira(the most un-button masher friendly character)

 

Hmm, I would say Aoi probably. Many players have been talking about how you need to put so much effort to actually compete and win with her. Her floats aren't the craziest too...

And just like what Mason said, it's not just how you do the moves, it's also about when you do them and what moves lead to better situations and etc. With Akira, while I don't say this is always the case, some moves will reward you big... LBF on MC gives a free DJK. SDE on MC gives similar results. Evading those isn't the easiest too.

Just my 2 cents. I play Akira by the way.

 

It's K+G, then let go of G, hold on the K.

No need to tap F.

Why isn't there any discussions on Akira?
Maybe because the lot of us have used him since VF2...and haven't found anything suprisingly different or new with him in VF4.

His combos are piss easy to do in 4...good damage...Personally, I find him to be a boring character in VF4. (okay I'll admit, the knee is still hard to do...but compared to before, it also feels easier)


Plus in all honesty, his moves don't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to use em.

Kage, now...he's the interesting guy in VF4.

 

Gotta agree with most of the last few posts here.

Akira just isn't discussed that much because...well, he's about as stright forward as a character in VF gets. He does incredible damage with VERY easy combos and honestly just doesn't have a whole lot that's "new" from the older VFs, unlike other oldies like Sarah and Pai.

For hardest to play very well...I dunno. Akira's up there only for the manual dexterity that needs to be developed to fully exploit him. I'd probably place Vanessa up at the top, but that's just me.

 

MY GOD, how i love akira and his moves..... especially when i play the CPU in story mode.... they do some crazy ass things.. although it never last more than 10 seconds for me (killed me in 7)

i can easly WIN in VF4.. but it's not fun to use the same simple moves over and over again. it gives you a great satisfaction when you execute a fancy combo. that's what fighting games are all about, WIN WITH STYLE, not just win.

 

DLC is not the best option when it comes to damage in float combos... experiment some in free training and you'll see.

One important combo IMO that has not been discussed above is the QCB+P --> b,f,F+P+K. It was toned down from Ver B to Ver C. In Ver B you could get over 100 pts damage, but now it maxes out at about 72 pts. Also the high level kumite opponents like the f,b+P+G, d|u+P+K variants... lots of manual dexterity needed, but it's still just a throw...

 

That's what I've been saying; DLC is not the best solution all the time. A shldram >> P >> m-shldram >> d+k does the same damage as the shldram >> p >> DLC combo for example, and the low kick recovers faster.

The combo you mentioned was indeed a killer in version B. But I've seen players dodge to the back before doing the DBC, did that make a big difference?? It doesn't seem so now with version C.

 

Yeah, you need to dodge before the body check to get over 100 pts damage... hits the fallen character in the side I guess. In Ver C, this has been fixed AFAIK, and dodging will not increase the damage, but over 70 pts for a simple 2 hit combo is still rather excessive IMO. Luckily the QCB+P is kind of slow.

 

I've been toying with ST->sgpm->dbpm and it seems unstoppable if done correctly (and opponent doesn't escape the ST). Around 60 damage I believe.

I tried to flailing on the buttons and joystick to recover after the ST, but I could never recover fast enough.

 

Yeah, that's the best scenario after the ST. It's the only guranteed 'combo' against struggling opponents.

 

I'm pretty sure if you buffer in a SgPm or DbPm after the stumbling trip, both are guaranteed. I laughed when I did these on PS2... same as it was in VF2... buffer in the palm strike, grab a sip of Mountain Dew, and wait as Akira does the move.