Sad for Akuma

[Peistor2]

I am a veteran Street Fighter player since the 90`s, and my favorite character since Super SF 2 Turbo is Akuma. But I`m seeing now, sadly, how weak he has become in SFV. Through the years he has passed from being the most powerful character in all the rooster (so powerful that he was nearly scary) to be now the one most easy to kill, so easy that some players begin a challenge to defeat him with only two combos.

Yes, all of the cast of characters has an array of strengths and weaknesses, but you will agree with me that nobody is easier to kill than Akuma. He is painfully slow, heavy, has the least stamina and can get knocked out quicker than anyone! Of course, in the hands of a capable player, and used wisely, he can do a certain amount of damage, the V trigger gives him a great range of powerful attacks, and the Shun Goku Satsu is better (in my opinion) that the last version in SFIV, but in general terms he is not a balanced character, he is objectively weak. For example, his rating card, at the start of the combat, is clearly a joke! But not enough joke as his "official" skin with the flower-lion look, that seemed something done as purpose to mock him and made him laughable.

I love the character since he appear for the first time in the summer of 1994, but is sad for me to see what Capcom has done with him, nerfing him to nearly reach the parody of himself and made him look like an angry clown. The kids of today doesn`t know what a character was Akuma in his true self, seeing him now. They must think that he is only another soto, an angry, weak and ridiculous one.

[IITWLLII -ES-]

I agree on the annoying "Lion" hairstyle.

But everything else leads to a very controverse discussion, because Akuma is definitely not the easiest opponent to deal with.

Fact is that he will be buffed in the next balance update 2.1

Akuma

Vitality
Increased from 875 to 900

M Goshoryuken
Added a hurtbox for frames 3-6F
Added invincibility for airborne attacks for frames 1 to 6F
Increased the knockback distance for the first hit

Slightly expanded the forward hitbox during rising animation

H Goshoryuken
Added attack and projectile invincibility for frames 3-6F

Developer Comments: Akuma has very high potential.  That potential however, comes with low health. What we noticed is that due to his low health, Akuma players were playing much more conservatively than anticipated and not really exploring his options as much as they could be.

We hope that with the change to his vitality, Akuma players will be able to approach matches more confidently and fully explore new strategies with him without the fear of losing the round quickly.

Akuma feels slower than in SFIV, I've had a lot of fun playing him in SFV nonetheless.

[Brandon]

3rd Strike Akuma doesn't seem like a huge threat. He's definitely not the most powerful character in that game.

[Peistor2]

As I said, in a capable hands he can do a certain amount of damage (and I also have fun playing it sometimes), but he is incredibly weak to be a true Akuma. Akuma is not an ordinary character, he is like the true boss of SF!

Bison is still enough powerful to be a final boss, but Akuma (who in his origins was even more powerful than Bison) is clearly not.

Few examples of an incredibly nerfed classical moves of Akuma: The Ashura Shenkuu is not a true teleport anymore (the opponent can grab him), and out of his V trigger the air fireball and normal go hadoken are useless.

[Peistor2]

Originally posted by Punymeyer:

3rd Strike Akuma doesn't seem like a huge threat. He's definitely not the most powerful character in that game.

I somewhat agree: he is not the most powerful character in Third Strike, but is one of the three most powerful, I think. In any case is a very worthy Akuma.

[Brandon]

Originally posted by peistor2:

Originally posted by Punymeyer:

3rd Strike Akuma doesn't seem like a huge threat. He's definitely not the most powerful character in that game.

I somewhat agree: he is not the most powerful character in Third Strike, but is one of the three most powerful, I think. In any case is a very worthy Akuma.

Top 3: Chun, Yun, Ken. Makoto 4th. Akuma 5th maybe.

This might interest you: https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFighter/comments/69b9h7/master_rank_character_usage_as_of_542017/

[IITWLLII -ES-]

Originally posted by peistor2:

As I said, in a capable hands he can do a certain amount of damage (and I also have fun playing it sometimes), but he is incredibly weak to be a true Akuma. Akuma is not an ordinary character, he is like the true boss of SF!

Bison is still enough powerful to be a final boss, but Akuma (who in his origins was even more powerful than Bison) is clearly not.

Few examples of an incredibly nerfed classical moves of Akuma: The Ashura Shenkuu is not a true teleport anymore (the opponent can grab him), and out of his V trigger the air fireball and normal go hadoken are useless.

I know what you mean but that's the price for making character changes and balancing them in multiplayer.

No one would want to fight a supercharged boss character online.

Bison is also not perfect, he has a very strong block stun pressure game, but has no overhead attacks and is weak on knockdown against air attacks/meaties (no real invincible reversal, aside from his Critical Art). He also has no psycho crusher or a classic teleport any longer.

[Wezilla]

I always see Akuma as coward bastard.....it true he still has strongest control freak. He has longest strong oneside combos.... Last night I play vs Akuma oh I cringed then I Jabbed him out hahaha it funny Akuma to lose and I'm not runback. I going to my bed laughing to sleep...

End rant

[Peistor2]

Akuma is far to be a supercharged boss! He is ridiculized by the community with challenges as that:

http://compete.kotaku.com/street-fighter-v-fans-are-proving-akuma-sucks-by-oblite-1793775494

[Lord Wholesome]

Originally posted by IITWLLII -ES-:

Originally posted by peistor2:

As I said, in a capable hands he can do a certain amount of damage (and I also have fun playing it sometimes), but he is incredibly weak to be a true Akuma. Akuma is not an ordinary character, he is like the true boss of SF!

Bison is still enough powerful to be a final boss, but Akuma (who in his origins was even more powerful than Bison) is clearly not.

Few examples of an incredibly nerfed classical moves of Akuma: The Ashura Shenkuu is not a true teleport anymore (the opponent can grab him), and out of his V trigger the air fireball and normal go hadoken are useless.

I know what you mean but that's the price for making character changes and balancing them in multiplayer.

No one would want to fight a supercharged boss character online.

Bison is also not perfect, he has a very strong block stun pressure game, but has no overhead attacks and is weak on knockdown against air attacks/meaties (no real invincible reversal, aside from his Critical Art). He also has no psycho crusher or a classic teleport any longer.

^ Was about to say, do we really want to see a character running amock online and in the competetive scene in all of his Lore glory? Please don't!

That said, throughout the games Akuma's always been plenty powerful in his own right.

[TEAM SALTY]

Go play Tekken 7. You can have a kuma versus akuma matches.

[Peistor2]

Originally posted by I am Vengeance:

Originally posted by IITWLLII -ES-:

I know what you mean but that's the price for making character changes and balancing them in multiplayer.

No one would want to fight a supercharged boss character online.

Bison is also not perfect, he has a very strong block stun pressure game, but has no overhead attacks and is weak on knockdown against air attacks/meaties (no real invincible reversal, aside from his Critical Art). He also has no psycho crusher or a classic teleport any longer.

^ Was about to say, do we really want to see a character running amock online and in the competetive scene in all of his Lore glory? Please don't!

That said, throughout the games Akuma's always been plenty powerful in his own right.

I think that Akuma is objectively one of the weak characters of SFV. And to be a minimum of lore-wise for what is this character, Akuma always need to be one of the four or five most powerful chars in any SF game. If not, if you are going to make a parody of Akuma, doesn`t include him in the game (a game clearly focused in the online) and it would be better.

[Blacque]

The glass canons of the game are a tough thing to handle I think. Akuma is suppose to be a force of nature. Those cannot exist in a fair balanced game. However the tools that Akuma has this time around have made him extremely dangerous but I do have to agree with a singlar point. He can be destroyed very quickly. This game does Akuma a great deal of justice in that the defensive measures that anyone would utilize to get away from him are greatly reduced. Akuma can keep you pinned with his hard punch which if crush countered means he can strip away a great deal of your life.

If there's anything that needs to be contested with it's growing accustomed to his movement speed. Whenever I pick him up I am blown away with by how damn slow he feels. Yet at the same time once you get a bit of momentum it's just as staggering to see how much damage you can deal in a relatively easy fashion. The problem is the amount of work that must be put in to get a good outcome. As the OP stated "In the hands of a good player," That logic seems to be the catch all argument shut down as it places all responsibility on the player. Unfortunately not every player has the ability to spend 18+ hours a day mastering a character. However a lot of the player base has 4 hours to spend mastering others. The gap between characters so far is apalling. Akuma's damage is a tremendous threat but it's a solid fight if you manage to pin him down. The other top tier characters are top tier because the mechanics of the game favor them far too much.

Ultimately Street Fighter V is still very new and doesn't have the years behind it that Ultra did. Maybe in time we'll see some better balancing. I imagine a lot of your frustration with Akuma is that you work your ass off only to be stomped by a Balrog, or Urien or Laura who plays with complete abandon and a tremendous amount of life that makes each bout an exercise in frustration. Just a guess.

[Brandon]

Originally posted by peistor2:

I think that Akuma is objectively one of the weak characters of SFV.

Did you not see the link I posted? Akuma sits in the middle as far as the number of Master ranks go. Pros seem to be putting Akuma in the middle on tier lists as well. Maybe he's not the top tier godlike character you want him to be, but he's not one of the weak ones either.

[Bumbledoof]

If you're sad for Akuma you should be destroyed over Fang. He's shadoloo's nr2 and he can't do anything. bad dmg, bad poison dmg, bad mixups, no ivs reversal and bad moves in general.

[Peistor2]

Originally posted by Punymeyer:

Originally posted by peistor2:

I think that Akuma is objectively one of the weak characters of SFV.

Did you not see the link I posted? Akuma sits in the middle as far as the number of Master ranks go. Pros seem to be putting Akuma in the middle on tier lists as well. Maybe he's not the top tier godlike character you want him to be, but he's not one of the weak ones either.

I see the link you posted. Have you seen mine?