As you may or may not have known, while we were taking character balance requests here in the US, Japan was also doing the same. Ayano-san chimes in this week to let us know what Japanese players are requesting. I see quite a few similarities to what was constantly mentioned over here. Enjoy the read below.

Yello everyone, Tomoaki Ayano here!

Last week was Golden Week here in Japan, and almost everyone in the entire country had pretty much the whole week off. Instead of going off on a trip somewhere like a lot of people do, I decided to just stay in Tokyo, which was a lot of fun. The crowds at every turn, however, were not so fun.

There won’t be any national holidays to give the team here a brief respite for a while now, so we’re going to dig in deep and get a lot of work done!

Moving on to the SSFIV balance update questionnaire, I want to say thank you to all of the fans who sent in their balance requests.

The deadline for requests has now passed, so we’re currently tallying up everything. We’ll announce the final numbers once they’re ready, so sit tight. In the mean time, here are some more suggestions that your fellow fighting game fans have suggested!

Dee-Jay

– Change his crouching LK from a 5 frame to a 4 frame start up

– Tweak Double Rolling Sobat so that it’s -4 on block instead of -5

– Buff the start-up, active, and recovery frames on standing MP, and increase his throw range from 0.85 to 0.90

I’ve loved playing Dee-Jay since the Street Fighter 2 days, but this time around he’s well-known for being a weak character – although that just makes me like him even more! These changes may be small, but I think they’ll make a real difference!

Ayano: As well as these changes, many Dee-Jay players have been asking for his Jackknife Maximum to hit crouching opponents and to increase his throw range. Many fans wrote in saying they feel the character is a bit weak, so we’ll make sure to balance him with other characters and tweak him in a way that is Dee-Jay-esque!

Zangief

– Take away his close standing LK! (If it whiffs, it’s lights out for ‘Gief)

– Make the area around Zangief’s chest during Quick Double Lariat invincible against projectiles from the first frame (so he doesn’t have to keep blocking fireballs)

– Make his standing MP just a little bit faster (really, only a smidge…)

Thanks, from a dude who’s crazy about his Russians.

Ayano: We got a lot of feedback about Zangief’s close standing LK whiffing, as well as requests to make his crouching LK have more frame advantage and make his Banishing Flat have fewer negative frames. Zangief is one of the original SF2 characters, so we’ll do our best to make the big Russian a better character.

Gouken

Please do something about Gouken’s uppercut. He’s a character that can definitely fight, but once he’s in a fight with one of the top tier dogs, it gets ugly really fast.

I’d also like Gouken to be able to combo from his footsies better, and, even more than that, I’d like it so that EX Tatsumaki Gorasen hits crouching opponents. I’d be really happy even if you only did that!

Ayano: We’ve had a lot of requests asking us to make Gouken’s EX Tatsumaki hit crouching opponents and to improve his combo potential from his footsies. Fans have also said that they’d like Gouken’s Tatsumaki to be tweaked, as there are too many downsides and it’s hard to connect with some characters after a cancel. Gouken is supposed to be a unique character compared to his pupils Ryu and Ken, so we’ll take everyone’s ideas into consideration and tweak him carefully.

Sakura

Please keep Sakura as she is right now.

She has strengths, such as close standing HP coming out in 3 frames, and EX Shunpukyaku being +4 on block, but she also has a lot of weak points too, so keeping her as she is would be ideal.

Her close standing HP is an essential part of her Shunpukyaku loop, so making that come out slower would have a huge effect on her attack power. Doing that would be doing a disservice to the character!

Ayano: Opinions are divided between fans who want to see Sakura nerfed and those who want Sakura kept the way she is. I think this is representative of Sakura’s characteristics. Those who want Sakura weakened want to see the advantage of her Shunpukyaku decreased. We believe that this move is an essential part of Sakura’s close-range arsenal, and we’re going to make sure that Sakura remains a character that has great rushdown potential but is weak defensively.

Adon

Please weaken Adon’s Jaguar Kick. You probably already know this, but that move is fast, has great range, and even if blocked doesn’t really result in the player being punished. It also does a lot of chip damage and his mid-air Jaguar Kick links to ground normals. This makes the move way too good. Even the best players are saying stuff like this, so I think it needs to be looked at.

Ayano: We’ve received many demands to do something about Adon’s Jaguar Kick, as well as suggestions to make it weaker by doing things such as decreasing its damage, removing its armor break property, decreasing its hitbox, and making it have fewer frames of advantage. Members of the SSFIV dev team also agree that Adon is a strong character, and that his strength is related to the utility of his Jaguar Kick. We’ll see what we can do!

That’s it for this week, thanks for reading!