It would be good to see something on Aganos’ F+HK. In Finchomatic’s Aganos guide and even in the IG reveal stream, the move was pretty much introduced as, “oh yeah, I forgot that he had this move”. You don’t really see anyone use it at all in tournaments either.
It’s definitely not the best command normal in the game, but it has (very situational) uses as a mobility and setup tool. Plus, the move is already very comedic on its own, if that’s what you’re going for. It’s great for ridiculously long Ultra combos and trolling players who don’t know about the 3-hit rule.
Yeah the ultra combo thing is funny, I’ve done that to a few people, lol. Interestingly, you bring up how it’s breakable by the 3-move rule, but really, it’s just a target combo, so it shouldn’t be. Of course it NEEDS to be, because it’s a target combo that can go on infinitely long, but it makes me wonder if they programmed a special override for Aganos’s “target combos” in order to make sure fwd+HK was breakable, and it also made the peacemaker strings breakable as collateral damage. Just a thought that came to mind because of that other thread you made.
In order for us to make a video on fwd+HK, I’d have to know exactly how to use it (and I basically have no idea, it seems pretty bad to me), so if you have specifics on the “mobility and setup tool” part, let me know.
Additionally, it’s called ‘War Path’, which is such a kick-■■■ (I mean kick-butt) name. I haven’t put too much time into learning it either, but I’ve found a couple of things.
a) It’s pretty good off of a forward throw. With two chunks, you can use it to get back into throw/overhead mixup range with mashed timing x2, or turn it into a meaty with a third. Against Sadira, its hitbox is low enough and tall enough to stuff both wakeup Shadow flip kick and Shadow demon blade.
The forward throw + War Path x2 is particularly good against Kan-Ra. Forward throw reset has tons of corner carry and doesn’t have the same risk as ND linkers (maybe the easiest linker to break). Since Kan-Ra’s wakeup is the worst against Aganos (and his neutral the best), it’s preferable to march him to the actual stage corner while consistently keeping pressure on him, rather than using a chunk to corner him and maybe losing your pressure (especially since Kan-Ra knocks walls down more easily than Ronald Reagan).
b) A strategy that I can struggle fighting against is turtling. The opponent just crouch blocks from mid-range, dashes forward when I jump back, and anti-airs my jump-ins (really easy against Aganos’ jump). I can’t pick up a chunk, my walk speed is terrible, and my overhead is pretty easy to block and -50 when you do block it.
What surprisingly works quite often is whiffing War Path once then throwing. Its startup looks a lot like Cr.HK, which you can condition your opponent into expecting. Even better with a Peacemaker, because then your throw is untechable. I don’t know, maybe I’ve only done it against people with poor reactions, but it works more than I’d expect it to.
Maybe bastfree can dive into it and find some good stuff.
@TheNinjaOstrich, having played you, I can confirm that you do utilize frame traps quite a bit. You’re not very prone to the more obvious/spectacular versions of it that a lot of Jago’s use (meaty LK “spam”, wind kick->DP), but your basic game plan relies on Jago’s generally amazing frame advantage. I think it’s actually kind of difficult to play Jago even moderately well without incorporating frame traps into your game. They’re just really essential to who he is as a character, even without going into the “unsafe thing->yolo uppercut” dimensions of the character.
Random note: every time I see someone utter the words “your shadow is/does/etc…” I shudder a little. Shadows are good and a really cool idea, but I pretty emphatically believe that they are not a great proxy for actually playing someone. Maybe it’s because of my characters, but I find both of my shadows to be pale imitations of my own play. They have my setups and a few of my habits, but anyone who thinks beating on them makes you ready to face me is in for a rather rude awakening. Their difficulty with grasping the context of certain actions really hinders them - I’m hoping they manage to make them feel a bit more “natural” in future updates. Shadows are far and away better than the standard AI, but they still don’t hold a candle to fighting a really solid human being IMO.
Also: cool video idea. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with
I do know those frame traps, I just don’t like using them. Yolo Windkick into Heavy DP isn’t my style, and I know how people feel when I catch them in stuff like that, so I try my best not to do it. Light kick I use sometimes, but meh…Depends on the situation. Same with Windkick into DP, although I try my best to stray from that.
I think frame traps from normals and endokukens are more fun IMO than Unsafe move into DP.
Back on Topic:
@Infilament, is there an Order of characters you guys have set, or is it a more random thing? Like Aria is first, then will it be Sadira, then someone else at random? Or more of the characters that are difficult to play and hardly used first, then everybody else?
We ran into a few snafoos with the video (especially since we’re working across big time zone differences) so I think to be safe we’re gonna postpone it and try to release it hopefully tomorrow (Tuesday). Hopefully once we get in a better flow, we can better understand the workload/when a video will be done. Thanks for understanding!
Aria video is out! You can leave feedback here, on the Youtube comments, or on any of our Twitter pages! Let us know if the information is useful, and if the style of the video is something you enjoyed.
Nice vid. I always wanted to improve my ARIA game and this tip would definitely help.
The only criticism I have you could cut back on some of the jokes and be a bit more informal. You can still try to be funny/entertaining, but try not to give the impression like it’s being forced imo.
We tried a few different voiceover styles for this video, including one that was fairly dry and just said the information. In my opinion it didn’t turn out very well so we went back to the drawing board a bit. Most of Geoff’s videos have humor as a focus, and I think he handled the humor pretty tactfully in this video. We’re still trying to find the sweet spot of humor to information, though!
I like the humor. It keeps me laughing and engaged with learning about the characters/techniques you are showing off. All things can use refinement, but I think episode 1 is a step in the right direction humor wise compared to the preview episode. Keep it up!
Love it. I’ve been a fan of Geoff’s comedic style for some time, and it’s always cool to see someone posting informative KI content. Thanks so much for the effort!
Hmm on one hand I like short, sweet, and simple presentation of information. On the other hand I feel like the video could go into things a bit more in depth. For example Aria has multiple ways to get into that vortex without the grenade arc ender, there’s also variations using her other drones should you not have access to bass, plus corner variants as well since you can’t land the grenade part of the sweep in the corner nor can you cross up.
