Thinking...

So I've been thinking about the Budokai games and how we play it. I've been realizing a lot of things we could be doing...particularly in Shin Budokai. Some of these things can apply to other Budokai games with the baseline system. If only SB's ad-hoc was actually playable...or Namco actually re-released this game on console...I'm starting to realize how good SB2 was. I think that if we had the opportunity to actually explore the risks and values of certain aspects further, SB2 could've been more balanced based on these values.


1. Too much emphasis on not being at 3 ki bars to the T
One thing I've come to realize...being barely below 3 bars in Budokai is slightly dangerous, but it's not atrociously bad to where we need to go OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD. And this mentality actually opens doors as far as more liberty in ki usage. Ki is important for defense, but too much stock is put into TCing. And I think that's why some characters are worse than they are, like Goku. It wouldn't surprise me if we had more time perfecting ki management vs humans, we'd end up seeing how useful specials can be.

2. Too much dodge, not enough block
Yes, in SB2 there's a guard meter, but smart blocking can net you more ki opportunities, since blocking builds back ki for the blocking player. It puts you at risk for guard breaks, but I think if we really learned our interrupt points, we could minimize this risk a lot, and being down on ki would be a lot less of a downer, too. This could transfer over to IW. Too much of the worries of ki, I've seen, come from this, actually.

3. Charged ki blasts?
What are the properties on a charged ki blast? Do they cancel null? If so, new shit to contend with Piccolo.

4. While on the subject...
I think lack of experience is also a reason Piccolo is deemed so good. As bad as Dimps can be on balance sometimes, there's got to be actual holes in his game we haven't found.

Pretty sure charged ki blast nullify cancels, yeah.

I've found that Kara aura dashing can shut down Piccolo's SSS string pretty well too.

The real monsters of this game imo are characters with really powerful ultimates, that have really large baseline ki, that can also be hit confirmed really easily.

Vegetto is one of those characters. And his starter leaves him at some pretty good frame advantage as far as I remember. Haven't played this in quite a while.

And yeah, there are definantly holes in this game we haven't found yet, just check out that thread where I posted Goku's infinite.