Japanese KI scene - Interview with "Tonosama", the Japanese Riptor player

Great interview, thanks for doing this!

Tougeki (also called Super Battle Opera, or SBO) was Japan’s most prominent tournament series from the early 2000s until about 2011 or 2012. It was kind of like their EVO. It’s an invitational tournament that was particularly famous for its punishing structure (single elimination, single game) and for the general lack of success America had when they tried to send representatives over there.

As SF4 grew in popularity and more and more tournaments were held with best 2 out of 3 + double elimination, the Japanese eventually realized that single elimination, single game was really dumb, so they tried to get Tougeki to change it. But they were pretty resistant to the idea, because Japan likes status quo. So all the top players stopped going to Tougeki (in favor of their own events like Godsgarden, or overseas tournaments) and Tougeki stopped running tournaments a few years ago.

6 Likes

Yoooooo I forgot about Mass Effect characters!

2 Likes

@BoJima404 excellent interview, very interesting! it’s great to see the community creating all kinds of stuff, and these japan interviews are a very unique type of KI related content

1 Like

this guy’s charming um… give or take on the skirt shots

totally want, moar interviews!

3 Likes

Thank you. If I am going to ask you to read 1500 words then I have some kind of obligation to do it right…

They are lurkers like myself originally… Also, everyone has their favorite spot, most Japanese players talk more than their own FG and can likely be found on general FG or anime fighter boards, etc.

Exactly what Arbiter does with people. Just watch the trailer again. He talks his way into our heads and makes us forget what we really love, then stabs us mercilessly while never failing to continue his soliloquy. Sorry, I’m getting carried away…yeah Grunt would be cool!

Riptor is my main … great interview

great kudos for this wonderful interview hope you are able to reach the rest of the great japanese players @BoJima404

1 Like

Great interview @Bojima404!!

1 Like

I am planning to interview a Spinal and Hisako player next. It will be interesting because these two characters are among the ones mentioned by Tonosama as being hit hard by the Nerfinator.

It has been stressed at the KI WC that changes have to be seen as a whole but that’s what some Japanese players were doing when looking at the Hisako and Spinal nerfs…so I dunno.

Tonosama is hilarious. Hope we would be able to see more of his play again. Not sure about what he meant about Hisako becoming weaker. Thanks for the tag Bojima.

Well, as a Hisako main I was pretty underwhelmed by her changes too. The nerf to low counter is going to hurt, as counters are now even more of a hard read than they were before. The wrath refilling only on the ground also takes away from her ability to actually get away while refilling wrath, and at the very least will change up her setup options. The start-up nerfs to air-ORZ make moves that were already pretty slow even slower, and the added trip guard frames don’t help either.

On the buff side we got a speed increase to the mostly useless command teleport, stagger on some normals that already behaved much like staggers, a better juggle opportunity off something that’s kinda hard to hit people with anyway (most common rekka juggle is after an instinct cancel anti-air), a single flipout button, and a shadow air-ORZ that does the same thing the full wrath/counter hit version of the move already did. Oh, and I can wrath cancel into descent now. Even though descent isn’t particularly useful, on account of being hittable, throwable, and more than reactable.

So yeah - not jumping for joy over my S3 changes :unamused:

I don’t think Hisako got a ton of help either, but we’ll see.

She did get anti-air cr.HP into recapture (shadow air ORZ) for 1 bar, so that’s something.

1 Like

Oh man… I could rant. Hisako may not have received many nerfs, but the ones she got are pretty nasty. In a nutshell: whiffed air ORZ is punishable, low counter no longer catches mid, and wrath meter doesn’t regen while jumping.

She lost that “get me outta here while I regen” semi-safe mobility. Air ORZ was a staple of her air game, now it’ll get you killed. And the low counter was usually safe vs grounded attacks. Now countering ground attacks will simply not be worth the risk.
It’s like they took this high risk character and made her even more risky, but added no extra reward.

Meanwhile the buffs she got aren’t overly useful. Faster descent will be nice… That’s about it. I can’t think of any situation where I would use Shadow air ORZ. It’s like a shadow jump kick. Why risk wasting that meter instead of using it on a lockout or ender? Shadow air ORZ could whiff or be blocked too easily, at which point you’ll now get punished.

With a heavy heart I say: is it’s a good thing Tusk is coming. I’ve wanted him as my main since Season 1.

Sorry for the bump, but just realized why this is actually really good for Hisako (apart from hit confirms being easier): you get to start the combo system after a stagger. So you know how in the past you’d get a counter hit off one of these buttons and then you’d have to do a manual into a 3 hit ORZ string which was pretty easily broken? Well now you get to stagger, do a manual and you get to go into linkers now (or an ender, if you want a one-chance). That 2nd normal becomes breakable but it’s way better than being forced to do 3 hit ORZ to get any damage, I think.

Yeah, that occurred to me as well a week or so ago.I think the strength will probably be in trying to bait timing lockouts with weird follow-ups, or in just using the stagger to go into command grab for new oki or a full combo when in instinct. Can’t say I’m super excited about the buff, but it should have some interesting utility to it.

Or you could some cool time-waster combos! Like, say… waste your opponent’s instinct by doing delayed heavy influence linkers (like you normally do now), then pop your own instinct, reset the KV to zero, do the same combo again, then at near-max KV, do a far HK manual after heavy influence linker (staggers, since instinct keeps your wrath up), dash up and do a regular influence, then do a level 4 influence ender!

Nobody will have instinct left after this! :smiley:

1 Like

Lol. No one ever has instinct anyway if Hisako kills them within combo :laughing:

From Ogty’s new Japanese blog. Lots of Arbiter tips in Japanese only, but just putting this link to a vid for you Arbiter players (and haters) and learners…

@Keits Please nerf :laughing:

2 Likes

EDIT: Sorry! Wrong topic!

1 Like

Nice article, I like it :smiley:

1 Like

should get a community fund going for Domi, Tonosama and other top Japanese KI players to evo, could cause quite the stir if they break top 8, like Domi did before (without even attempting to break a single combo)