VF5FS Akira - Overpowered??

Hi all. I've been maining Akira since vanilla. I was good with him back then but just struggled a little bit with execution but all these issues are irrelevant as I can perform all of his moves fine now. As many Akira players try, I spent a lot of time in the dojo on the GBoD and I can safely say that I can perform it 9/10 now but what bothers me is that it cannot be avoided. Even if the other player is respecting the VF system (attack -> blocked? start guarding etc.) all you have to do is wait for them to finish attacking and punish with GBoD and you got yourself 70 pts of damage. The only option to avoid it is to not guard or evade but then the Akira player only has to attack or throw. This is also aside from all the damage Akira can pull off. I get at least 80 pts of damage off a NH Yohou or Knee on 90% of the cast.

So ultimately, is Akira an overpowered character and should be nerfed in VF6 or is it my lack of knowledge of other characters means that he's still a balanced character in comparison?

 

Inb4 99% of VFDC says YES! lol

But seriously, the principle of a guard break is ridiculously strong. But, using it on a player who stands there and blocks isn't indicative of the strength of the character, but the weakness of the opponent. Good players will find ways around it, and you'll have to earn your guard breaks.

Akira does need to get nerfed, but only a damage nerf. More accurately the damage after his GB's. Totally removing GB's from Akira would hurt him too badly, due to lazy TE and the fact that he lacks lows and strings.

 

Not overpowered at all.

Some of his signature moves were actually better in older games, faster exe on moves like 6p+k+g (12f, same speed as throws in vanilla), SDE (14f and more damaging when taking into account the changes to to health).

GBoD isn't a massive threat imo, plenty of ways to avoid it. Can be crouched or evaded ...hell moves that go under highs like 2p will beat it. If your opponent is stood there holding vs Akira then he's playing the game wrong.

His damage is fairly average, he knocks out a pretty average 80 from 99% of his launchers. Could be wrong but i'm sure Eileen puts out more damage :/

I think the main reason he got a bump up the tier list in FS is down to how safe he is, moves like , his half circulars and & SPoD all gave the defender nitaku in previous versions, whereas in FS they are totally safe.

Risk is really low for Akira if he's playing it safe but the reward is quite high in the grand scheme of things.

 

It's tougher to fight fs akira than vanilla akira from a defensive perspective. The threat of guard break forces me to play in a way I'm not used to playing.

 

Nah, Akira's dmg is great, just not on Jacky/Goh/Brad's level.

Eileen can do slightly more, but that's off a launcher, which is -15 and poor, frail Eileen gets hit like a mack truck afterward.
The fact that he's super safe is the real reason he's top. Akira + someone with good defense is hard to deal with.

 

The damage itself really isn't great, Goh knee does more damage than any launcher Akira has (it's almost Akira wall combo damage lol) and the move is still safe.

I struggle to think of a character that can't put out more damage than Akira.

 

So basically you're saying that the game is broken but Akira is fine

 

Akira and Jacky overpowered... Ill keep my mouth closed on this one...

 

Weirdly, despite being a bit crap at VF and fighting games in general, I find Akira's moves the easiest to predict out of all the VF cast, which is handy with Aoi "Reversal" Umenokouji as my main. So in my very-not-expert opinion I'd say anything that makes him potentially overpowered is very heavily mitigated by his predictability.

I still loose a lot online to him but when fighting Akira it tends to be the few times my defeat is not a complete curbstomp (if I'm fighting against Shun of Lei I basically might as well put the controller down and go for a walk). And I can reverse everything AI Akira throws at me all day long, which I find highly amusing to do because I'm strange that way.

 

Akira is so broke, his users make me single palm my own face when they complain about anything.

 

No reason to complain, because no one exploits his weaknesses.
I'm kool with that

 

Of course he doesn't. He's OP and of the two omnipotent characters in this game.

 

Exactly. Tool for pretty much every situation.

Not to mention vs. Jeffry match up.

That's purely up to the Akira player. You lose, you're doing something wrong.

 

Sooo picking Akira means I win automatically? Annnnddd no amount of skill can change that?
And If I lose, I'm doing something wrong... Not my opponent doing something right, and vise versa...
I'll never understand that mentality. regardless if this is the scrubbiest VF ever made, skill makes I difference.

 

I speak from the perspective as a Jeffry player. Other characters have waaaaaay better tools (all of them).

You could only understand when nearly all you mids can be ducked under. So maybe it isn't so much an Akira problem, but rather Sega really hates the black man.