Who's most changed... and least, in VF4?

I just picked up VF4 - awesome, etc etc, all that, but, as a long time VF3 player, I am wonder about general opinion on something: So far in VF4, it's very plain to me that there's a lot more flexibility on how to play everybody, but who seems to be the -most- changed from VF2 and/or VF3, and who seems to be the least changed? And who seems to have gained the greatest amount of flexibility?

I'm both curious to see what the opinions are on it, and because I'm trying to decide which 1-2 characters to put my focus on - I have favorates from VF3tb (Lion, Wolf), but if another character has really gotten a big change or boost in new ways to play them, I'm tempted to go there first for the new experience.

-- Kai

 

The most obvious least changed character is Lau at least in terms of new moves. He's still a combo whore and he benefits alot from VF4 bounce and wall juggle physics. If there is something extremely different about him you'd have to be a serious Lau player to know as it's not screaming obvious (at least to me).

As for the most changed... hmm? I want to say Sarah but her basic concept is still the same aka offensive kicking whore (I want to kill her and her Flamingo). Kage is a little more "out there" now as well (his new stuff is almost as crazy as Shun's). Aoi might be a good choice because she seems to have alot of defensive major counter style attacks and more dodging techniques. Oh well, that's my two pennies.

 

Sarah, Kage, and Pai get my vote for the most changed from VF3 to VF4, mostly because of stances. Sarah has her Flamingo Stance, which gives her added options such as sabakis (though most if not all characters have sabaki attacks now), hit throws, and added combo hits. Kage's Jumonji stance and weakened TFT make him different than in VF3, even though the TFT is still a big part of his game. Pai is changed because of her inashis, which now lead to different followups such as the Swallow Kicks(?), and d (or u)+P+K which trips up tech rollers.

The least changed is Lau. As mentioned before, he has a few more moves, but those added attacks don't make much of a difference to the way he is played.

If you'd like to do a little searching for yourself, one document I recommend is Ice-9's <a target="_blank" href=http://virtuafighter.com/view.php?section=vf4&file=vf4_chara_chart.html>Character Selection Guide</a>. It's located on the VF4 home page. There are a lot of other documents there which might help you with VF4.

 

Thanks for the input both /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

-- Kai

 

Lau is least changed, his tiny handful of new moves are only halfassed alternatives to his good old moves... you can say the exact same thing about jeffry.
Pai seems most effectively played about the same, the wushu whirly-girly crap is best left along, the opponent can just backdash and wait for pai to come to her senses.
Jacky is also pretty similar, you can toy with the SS stuff, but if you're playing in a tournament you're likely to see more P, elbow, PP, low punch, throw, etc.


For most changed, Kage seems less effective played the old fashioned way, and much stronger if you play with jumonji. His d/f+P gives him a generic float tool which is something he didn't really have before. The guaranteedness of PPhelix is a nice change too, making it worthwhile to poke with something more than P/d+P/PKG.
Sarah seems pretty changed thanks to the pantsload of stance stuff, but outside of the stance stuff she has like... two new moves, both of which are designed to go into stance. I sort of wish the useful new moves a combos didn't need to be telegraphed with chop-K or flutter kicks.