Author: James "Bafael" Maule

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Street Fighter IV: Omega Mode — Introduction, FAQ, & Ryu analysis video

In light of Ultra Street Fighter IV‘s inclusion in digital pre-orders of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I’ve decided to dedicate some time to examining the most slept-on online-capable Street Fighter title: Street Fighter IV: Omega Mode. Packaged as a free alternate version within the edition select of USFVI, Omega uses leftover game files, recycled taunts, and repurposed animations to completely change each character’s toolset; it’s essentially a completely new and unique Street Fighter title built within SFIV’s engine, with an entirely different balance philosophy than Ultra.

Omega was not popular at release due to some easy infinite combos — not to mention players’ interest in Ultra as a more serious, competitive game. I personally think Omega went woefully unexplored for being an extremely interesting venture, and I’m starting a series where I document each character’s Omega changes, and then show off some basic optimal combos.

As the first video of the series, I’ve decided to explain my venture, and describe in more detail what Omega Mode is. I won’t recap the whole video here, but Omega was made by the developers of Street Fighter V in order to test the waters of making a competitive fighting game, and many things in SFV were introduced in Omega, such as the three-frame input buffer. I’ve also taken some time to anticipate questions — such as the basic mechanics of Omega Mode — and why I’m making these videos.

In addition, I’ve also released the first video in the series, focusing on Ryu. I consider Ryu to be the easiest entryway into Omega, as he’s almost a perfect half-and-half between his SFIV and SFV versions. Ryu’s main feature in Omega seems to be a prototype to his V-Trigger II parry — and to be quite honest, I much prefer this parry to the one he has in SFV!

The formula to this video series is new, so tell me what you think in the comments. I plan to go through the entire roster over time, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

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Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Important changes for Kolin, Ed, Abigail, Menat, Zeku, Sakura, & Blanka

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition has only been out for a few months, but the community has been voicing strong opinions about various characters’ Season 3 changes; in light of this, Capcom released a mid-season balance patch which sought to address some of the most common complaints about the game’s engine and the characters in question. This patch also includes various small balance changes to every character. Because of this, I’ve prepared a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments on a per-character basis.

Continuing from my last three posts, this week covers the second season of DLC: Kolin, Ed, Abigail, Menat, and Zeku, as well as the season 3 characters who changed in the 3.5 patch: Sakura and Blanka. Many of these characters saw very little revision in the season 3 patch — probably because they were still very new — and thus this is their first serious rebalance. Abigail was notably significantly buffed in the Season 3 changes, and has now seen significant adjustments; calls for his debuffs probably justified the 3.5 patch in the first place.

If you missed the previous videos, check them out here:

Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Overview and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, & Zangief

Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Important changes for Nash, Karin, R. Mika, Birdie, Necalli, Rashid, Laura, & F.A.N.G

Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Important changes for Alex, Guile, Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, Urien, & Akuma

That’s all for this update series; I’ll start it again at the next significant balance patch. Until then, I’ve got something special coming up on the horizon, so stay tuned.

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Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Important changes for Alex, Guile, Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, Urien, & Akuma

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition has only been out for a few months, but the community had been voicing strong opinions about various characters’ Season 3 changes; in light of this, Capcom released a mid-season balance patch which sought to address some of the most common complaints about the game’s engine, and the characters in question. This patch also includes various small balance changes to every character. Because of this, I’m preparing a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments on a per-character basis.

Continuing from my last two posts, this week covers the first season of DLC: Alex, Guile, Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, and Urien, as well as Akuma, the first character from the second season. I include Akuma because he’s a returning character — and also to split the remaining characters into seven and seven, so my next post will include the remaining characters from Season 2 as well as Season 3’s Sakura and Blanka.

If you missed the previous videos, check them out here:

Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Overview and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, & Zangief

Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Important changes for Nash, Karin, R. Mika, Birdie, Necalli, Rashid, Laura, & F.A.N.G

We’re in the home stretch now, I should finish all remaining characters in the coming week. Keep an eye out on the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel so you don’t miss out!

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Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Important changes for Nash, Karin, R. Mika, Birdie, Necalli, Rashid, Laura, & F.A.N.G

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition has only been out for a few months, but the community had been voicing strong opinions about various characters’ Season 3 changes; in light of this, Capcom released a mid-season balance patch which sought to address some of the most common complaints about the game’s engine, and the characters in question. This patch also includes various small balance changes to every character. Because of this, I’m preparing a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments on a per-character basis.

Continuing from my last post, this week covers the returning Street Fighter Alpha veterans Charlie Nash, Karin Kanzuki, Rainbow Mika, and Birdie, as well as the characters who debuted in Street Fighter V (on the launch roster): Necalli, Rashid, Laura, and F.A.N.G.

If you missed the previous videos, check them out here:

Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Overview and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, & Zangief

That covers the base roster of the game; I’ll continue on with the DLC characters in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out on the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel so you don’t miss out!

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Rising Up: Season 3.5 — Overview and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, & Zangief

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition has only been out for a few months, but the community had been voicing strong opinions about various characters’ Season 3 changes; in light of this, Capcom has released a mid-season balance patch which seeks to address some of the most common complaints about the game’s engine and the characters in question. This patch also includes various small balance changes to every character. Because of this, I’m preparing a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments on a per-character basis.

For this first week, I’ve made a video describing all changes that are universal across all characters, as well as covering most of the returning SFII veterans: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, and Zangief.

Here’s the playlist for all characters so far, which I’ll update as I go.

I won’t stop making videos until I’ve covered all the SFVAE characters, so keep an eye out on the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel so you don’t miss out!

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Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for Akuma, Kolin, Ed, Abigail, Menat, & Zeku

It’s been about two months since Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition was released, and players seem to have gained a good grasp of how the balance changes have affected the overall feel of the game. Nevertheless, it’s very important to learn each individual character’s changes so that you know how to fight them. In light of this, I’ve done a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments for each character. I made one video a day in this series, and I’ve officially covered all characters.

I looked at the characters based on the order they appear on Capcom’s official patch notes. The order seems to be SFV’s twelve returning characters, the four new characters, the first season of DLC, and then the second season of DLC, in order of release. This week I’ve covered the second season of DLC characters: Alex, Guile, Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, and Urien. These characters for the most part saw the fewest changes, probably because they were the newest characters, and thus the most volatile.

Continuing with last time, I also made a video covering each character’s new V-Trigger II. These new V-Triggers significantly affect gameplay, and they have a lot of intricacies that are not well-defined in the game’s demonstration mode. So, I look at each character’s new V-Trigger in detail here, and explain its uses.

With this latest wave of characters, I’ve finally finished the series! Check out my previous videos here:

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, & Nash

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, Zangief, & Karin

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for R. Mika, Birdie, Necalli, Rashid, Laura, & F.A.N.G

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for Alex, Guile, Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, & Urien

Finally, here’s the playlist with all videos in the series in one convenient location.

I’ve really enjoyed making this series, and this isn’t the end of my SFV tutorial content. Keep an eye on the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel, so you don’t miss out!

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Rising Up: Blanka bread-and-butter combo guide — Punishes, confirm combos, juggles, & more

The feral World Warrior Blanka has just made his playable debut in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. Like most SFV characters, his moveset has been somewhat streamlined, and he’s a bit more traditional (and less reliant on tricks and gimmicks) than he has been in previous games. I’ve put together this guide of his most essential combo routes so that players can quickly learn the basics and start developing their neutral game. Here are your best bread-and-butter combos that I’ve found for every common scenario. This video features anti-airs, punishes, confirms, counter-hit combos, crush counter combos, juggles, and more.

This Blanka bread-and-butter video is not the full Blanka tutorial I’m working on, but rather simply a guide to his basic optimal combo routes. The combos are all my own findings, alongside a few things I’ve observed from other players. While I’m certain that most of the combos are extremely optimal, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are small improvements that can be made to his V-Trigger routes, especially considering ease of execution and final positioning. Thus, I wholeheartedly encourage anyone watching to point out further damage improvements in the comments, for both me and the other players, so that I can amend them into the final video when I release it.

Remember to subscribe to the Shoryuken channel so you don’t miss any of the awesome upcoming SFVAE content.

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Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for Alex, Guile, Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, & Urien

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is officially one month old, and I’m starting to see a lot of new balance changes shaking up the previous character usage.With all these new match-ups, it’s important to learn the full extent of your own character’s changes. In light of this, I’m doing a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments for each character. I’m making one video a day in this series, until I’ve covered all characters.

I’m covering the characters in the order they appear on Capcom’s official patch notes. The order seems to be SFV’s twelve returning characters, the four new characters, the first season of DLC, and then the second season of DLC, in order of release. This week I’ve covered the first season of DLC characters: Alex, Guile, Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, and Urien.

Continuing with last time, I’m also doing a video covering each character’s new V-trigger II. These new V-triggers significantly affect gameplay, and they have a lot of intricacies that are not well-defined in the game’s demonstration mode. So, I look at each character’s new V-Trigger in detail here, and explain its uses.

That’s 24 characters down, and I’m moving on to the last wave of DLC! Check out my previous videos here:

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, & Nash

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, Zangief, & Karin

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for R. Mika, Birdie, Necalli, Rashid, Laura, & F.A.N.G

I’ll continue with both series every day until I’ve covered all characters, which should take about a week now. Keep an eye on the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel, so you don’t miss out!

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Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for R. Mika, Birdie, Necalli, Rashid, Laura, & F.A.N.G

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is not yet a month old, and I’m starting to see a lot of new balance changes shaking up the previous character usage.With all these new match-ups, it’s important to learn the full extent of your own character’s changes. In light of this, I’m doing a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments for each character. I’m making one video a day in this series, until I’ve covered all characters.

I’m doing the characters in the order they appear on Capcom’s official patch notes. The order seems to be SFV’s twelve returning characters, the four new characters, the first season of DLC, and then the second season of DLC, in order of release. This week I’ve covered Rainbow Mika and Birdie, as well as series newcomers Necalli, Rashid, Laura, and F.A.N.G. With these six characters, I’ve now covered the base roster of the game.

Continuing with last time, I’m also doing a video covering each character’s new V-trigger II. These new V-triggers significantly affect gameplay, and they have a lot of intricacies that are not well-defined in the game’s demonstration mode. So, I look at each character’s new V-Trigger in detail here, and explain its uses.

That’s sixteen characters down, now only the DLC to go! Check out my previous videos here:

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, & Nash

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, Zangief, & Karin

I’ll continue with both series every day until I’ve covered all characters, which should take about a month total. Keep an eye on the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel, so you don’t miss out!

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Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, Zangief, & Karin

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is barely two weeks old, but it seems players are rapidly adapting to the balance changes and new V-triggers for their characters. But, not only do players need to know the new adjustments to their own character, they need to know their opponents’ new tools! In light of this, I’m doing a series of videos on ShoryukenTube showing off the most important gameplay adjustments for each character. I’m making one video a day in this series, until I’ve covered all characters.

I’m doing the characters in the order they appear on Capcom’s official patch notes. The order seems to be SFV’s twelve returning characters, the four new characters, the first season of DLC, and then the second season of DLC, in order of release. This week’s five characters are M. Bison, Vega, Dhalsim, Zangief, and Karin.

Continuing with last time, I’m also doing a video covering each character’s new V-trigger II. These new V-triggers significantly affect gameplay, and they have a lot of intricacies that are not well defined in the game’s demonstration mode. So, I look at each character’s new V-Trigger in detail and explain its uses.

That’s ten characters down! Check out the prior batch of five here:

Rising Up: Season 3 — New V-Triggers and important changes for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, & Nash

I’ll continue with both series every day until I’ve covered all characters, which should take about a month total. Keep an eye on the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel, so you don’t miss out!