How important is execution difficulty for character balance?

Now and then as life rolls on I find myself thinking about VF and one thought that comes to mind, as I've been playing around with Akira lately, is: of what significance is akiras "hard" execution to the games balance between characters? I'm now thinking of the moves and combos themselves, not the fact that akira should be played with a lot of stepping etc (which I believe is the case, but I dont know that much /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif).

For instance, is in evo a very powerful move, only 15 frames (with the 1 frame delay), great range, not even throw counterable on block (that changed for FT but whatever), huge payoff on fat counter hit bla bla bla... What if the input was just ? Let's ignore the fact that that input is actually another move and also that that input would not cause the 1 frame delay, for arguments sake. Now, would that make the move totally overpowered (more than it is /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif) ? What is peoples opinion on this?

I think it's pretty obvious that the lower the execution skill, the more this matters. which would mean that a scrub could easily throw out the move much more, whilst a good player can do so anyway. So it would definitely give akiras an easier time (hugely on noob level and a little on pro level), but would it make akira better vs other characters? It's pretty obvious that akiras execution is supposed to be harder than for example jackys, so sega never intended to balance "difficulty of execution". Thus, somehow, I think execution shouldn't matter for actual character balance (even though that is pretty hard to define).

So once again, what are peoples opinions on this?


PS. SDE was just an example; say spod was just one input with no particular timing, combos were as easy as any characters and didn't require modifying crouch dash, I'm talking about all "hard" akira moves and combos.

PS2. I would never wanna change the execution of akiras moves and combos, cus i love just doing them even tho i suck when it comes to actually trying to win with akira /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

I think if you made Akira's execution easy I would call him overpowered. I've played with Dural - yes, she's loaded with only the most powerful moves - the ease of execution just makes her ridiculous.

Even pros screw up Akira move execution from time to time. I think execution difficulty is a factor in character balance. One button SPoD... imagine the uproar.

 

yeah, i see what you guys are saying, but i think it's not that black & white. it's tricky classing akira, but i think the basics of akira are probably just as / or more effective than the technical exicutions anywayz.

if you can SDE, and modify FC moves then i think akira is no problem and these things arent difficult, especially in VF4 compared to previous VFs, the only 1st or 2nd priorities which can become fiddly is timing his FC f+p -- (p) becasue i think that's quite bread n butter. (and mabye AS3 on normal hit SDEs)

dragon lance is only really used with low float shrlm or pull-in switch catch throw, the damage isnt very much more rewarding then his variables by a long shot.

SPoD can become very handy in the right place, but it's not bread n butter it's probably 3rd priority attacking or even yomi, and it has very dangerous recovery even if it had simple exicution. - kindda like toe kick stunner from wolf.

i think akira is classed very well, i dont think move exictuion is too much of a worry unless you really get to high level learning.