VF4: How is the character balance ?

I know its early stage, but curious, what people think of the character balance, who belong in the top tier and bottom tier and things for VF4 ver B

 

Pai

THAT'S.......IT.......NOW!!!

 

No offence VIVI but I believe this question is irrelevant. Every character has the ability to beat everyone else. It's down to the players own skill to realise that potential.

AM2 have put grades on the character select BIOS that refer to the user friendly factor of each character but they in no way give an insight into the characters effectiveness. Merely a guide for the beginners. This grading system in mind, Akira, Shun Di and Vanessa are marked as Expert choices while the Bryants are very user friendly and are considered Beginner choices. Everyone else is in between and classed as Intermediate.

Adio.

 

it's not irrelevant. some characters in some vf games were far bigger pigs than others, and the answer that some of those characters were just "easier to use" is a cop-out. some have more abuse moves than others, some have just more useful moves all around.

lau and (especially) akira are beginning to sound like an overpowered whores in vf4. but i shouldn't be surprised, that's business as usual. vf2(.1) and vf3ob all over again! whee!

--
"A chem bla deshembla blurr fuh bli fouzh"

 

Well, I was referring to VF4 verB. Everyone has been evened out or expanded to make the game even more balanced. Jacky can't follow through anymore with some of his combos, Sarah has lost a lot of float from her elbow knee and damage from her catch throw while gained an edition to her Flamingo stance. Lion's PPP no longer knocks down and side throws are now escapable etc. If you have played the test version you will further appreciate this. Gradually through the series, the fighters have become more and more balanced, and Virtua Fighter 4 is a testament to this.

Lau and Akira sound "powerful" because the people who use this message board are of a high calibre and have their own preferences. Someone could just as easily talk about Jeffery or Lei-Fei in the same way giving you the impression that they were somehow more important.

I still stand by my convictions. There are no tiers in VF4.

Adio.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Adio on 10/06/01 02:25 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

Based on the test version (the only version of VF4 I've played) I would tentatively put Jeffry at the top, followed by Wolf.

 

My guess is because of their float combos? That will soon change though as the float heights have been dramatically changed in VerB. Sarah was a real beast in the Test version. VerB brought her back down to earth. And a lot of what Jeffery dished out with his uppercut combos are no longer possible. Damage has been tweaked too, move damage in the Test was very high compared to verB.

Still, everyone has their own bane in the game, I can't stand Pai, she always nails me.

Adio.

 

at the moment in the uk, the top characters are lau followed by jacky twice ( win streaks ). the three most played characters are akira, jacky then lei fei.
because adio hasn't been for ages, sarah is second from last!
i heard from a friend that namco in islington has a test version of VF4 (no vanessa)

 

I'll be back....

lol. Dang, well it makes sense. You got Hatim's Lau and his win streaks whenever he plays, combined with Jacky and Lei-Fei being fan/scrub favorites they're bound to be high on the list. 1st thing next month I'll be getting a little cash. I intend to be in the Casino everyday from then just chilling getting better with Sarah, the usual. BTW. I bet Shun or Jeffery are last, I hardly saw anyone use them.

Adio.

 

Re: I'll be back....

Actually,
from past experience with previous VF, the best character kinds of evolve as time passes with different character being better at different time/place. It is who thinks of a better technique for is character. One someone thinks of a really great way to fight for that character, more people will play that character.

Although VF usually has good balance there is still some characters that will be seriously neglected and considered weak.

 

Re: I'll be back....

Yeah I agree with AlanTan,

That's why I asked, what people thinks is in the top tier in these early stage, and it would be interesting, how people change their mind as time progresses or as they improve more. Like in VF2. I know they are all pretty balance, and it all depends much on your skill as ever, but its still interesting to hear people opinions

 

Re: I'll be back....

When I was in Tokyo playing version a/b, I thought that in the hands of people with equal skill levels (two fighters of let's say pretty informed, good play level) that Shun seemed to be dominating, more so than any other single character.

I spoke to my friend in Tokyo last saturday, and he said there that there are many "untouchable" Pai, Lion and Lei-Fei players. And that guy's no slouch.

I don't think any character is overpowered at all, but Shun's basic flowcharts at this point are killer, and easy to execute.

Spotlite

 

Re: I'll be back....

Another reason why it would be nice to see a list of the top VFnet players here and updated over time to guage how the different characters are evolving over time as the game gets played more in Japan.

 

Re: I'll be back....

untouchable lion??

mmm, why? I played quite a lot of ver B lion. Doesn't look much improved. In fact everyone got cool new moves but what does lion get?? Sarah gets this really really cool throw while lion gets this stupid catch throw. Does anyone know of any followup to the f,d/b+P+G,d?? ie instead of doing the followup throw I do some combo instead. Might be really uesful near the edge of the ring. How about if I just did f,d/b+P+G? who recovers faster? so many questions so little answers. when is the frame stats coming out??

Saw all of chibita movies and well, his lion looks pretty "simple", meaning no new complex stuff, just good reading/blocking. In fact I do not see significant improvement for Lion. Perhaps Lion's throw seems stronger, esp his FC,f+P+G with followup.

Still I like Lion for his simplicity. I do not have the dexterity to learn those ultra complicated combos so Ilike lion pretty well. b,b+K to interrupt at long range. simple sidekick at mid rang. P,P or d+P at close range. U+K recovers much faster now too and lion no longer get knocked down when interrupted (I think).

One think I noticed is Chibita seems to use the b+P+K a lot. Does anyone know how long to charge b4 it becomes unblockable?

 

Re: I'll be back....

Ice-9,

Jeffrey and Wolf have been toned way down since VF4test. Throws do less damage (e.g. XPD, b+P+G for Jeffrey), that baseball bat charge move (b,f,f+P+K) no longer does ridiculous amounts of damage, and I *think* (IIRC) that crouch dash throw buffer has been reduced somewhat. And knees don't float as much.

Actually, and this just is my personal opinion, I think from VF4test to VF4 ver.B (*not* from ver.A to ver.B):
- Akira and Lei Fei have been the prime benefactors... Akira has new moves, k.d. DE/SDE, Lei Fei has more float potential.
- Kage and Lau have been weakened oh-so-slightly (db+K and elbow-palm respectively).
- Sarah has more moves from regular and flamingo stance, but a weakened elbow-knee.
- Lion has been toned down -- df+P+K and PPP no longer knock down.
- Pai's stumble throw is no longer as powerful, and her db+K+G sweep no longer knocks down, but she gains her wushu moves from b+P+K+G.
- Jacky didn't have the BKC in test, but had BKC-PPu+P in ver.A, which was reduced to just BKC in ver.B. But according to Segaduck (the Taiwanese guy whom I had the pleasure of playing against yesterday), auto-inashi~P can be followed up by a guaranteed throw if you're fast enough, and dodge attack can also be followed up by a throw in ver.B... ack.
- Wolf and Jeffrey have been tweaked down as mentioned above
- No idea whether Aoi or Shun have been improved or weakened from test-->ver.B, although I do know that several of Shun's moves have been command modified.
__________________________________________

Yupa,

Yep, would be nice to see how the characters rank in Japan, and who the top players are right now. I'd hazard Chibita and Dragon Jiji, but... that's just a personal guess.
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AlanTan,

Chibita's Lion is untouchable just because he has insane reflexes and the ability to anticipate what moves the opponent is doing and interrupt or block. Actually, after a while, I think we all end up using the same flowcharts and combos, the question is how well can you mix up your tactics, and execute throw escapes and block all the moves that the opponent does. FC,f+P (MC) ~ b,b+K,P+K ~ f+K is nice, but I'm sure you've been reading the same Japanese sites, so you probably already know that. =)

Unsure how long you have to hold a charge move before it becomes a guard breaker... half a second? One second? I just play it by ear...