'Akuma Enjoys 5/4' Po-faced analysis

As well as featuring new videos. I'm taking the opportunity to look-back, write up detailed transcripts and hopefully provide a little insight into some older CMVs. Specific video requests are more than welcome.

Firstly, the slightly odd title is a geeky reference to the time signature of the soundtrack. The music was actually written specifically for this video and ended up on the 'mega' EP.

In Super Street Fighter 4 , the start-up of Akuma's st. RH was increased in order to stop his vanilla SFIV loop of [st. jab, st. RH] repeat. That pretty much did the trick as, under normal circumstances, it isn't actually possible to combo into the st. RH. Every instance of it happening in this video is after a jab that cunningly avoids it's first active frame (ie. it connects 'meaty') allowing it to end sooner and compensate for the st. RH change.

I made extra effort while capturing the footage for this video to avoid using training mode. Most non-tool-assisted CMVs you'll see will be dominated by the training mode background. That's simply because it's much, much easier and quicker to get footage this way. Doing the same thing in vs mode requires having to build meter after every attempt, going to the next round so the dummy has enough energy to survive the combo, taking hits to build ultra meter back etc. For me though, it's definitely worth it for a project like this. Aside from just making everything look better, it also allows for clips to end with the announcer shouting "KO!!". Which I enjoy very much.

Most of the combos are still very difficult but I found that, after I had spent so much time learning the Chun loop a few months earlier, I felt like my overall execution had improved 30-40%. So, getting the footage from vs mode wasn't half as annoying or time consuming as I thought it would be.


Detailed Transcription:

0:14 Vs Seth: Slightly delaying the 2nd st. jab allows it to connect meaty and enables the st. RH combo. Post stun - air.hk, hadoken, dp was something I didn't realize would work but it did. Rock!!!

0:33 - 0:52 : 2 reps vs Fuerte, Dictator, Boxer and Viper.

0:42 - vs Gief: meaty jab set-up after cr. mp x 2. HK juggle after far EX hadoken.

0:53 - vs Hawk: In order to get 8 cr. mp. You have to walk forward for 2-3 frames after each fb xx FADC. Anymore and the combo breaks, any fewer and the final cr. mp will whiff. The cr. mp xx teleport xx U2 must be done, very, very quickly for it to connect.

1:02 - vs Dudley: 3 reps. After the final RH, st. MP is the only normal that will connect.

1:12 - vs Sagat: the st. jab must be delayed to create the meaty opportunity.

1:17 - vs Sagat 2: Using FADCs to maximize linkage. 3 separate meaty jab set-ups are used.

1:26 - vs Viper: 3D Demon!!!!

1:31 - vs Honda: His crouching hitbox allows... cr. mp x 4 + EX hadoken, dash, dp without FADC.

1:40 - vs Honda 2: cr. mp x 3 into crumple stun is actually quite straight forward because of Honda's crouching hitbox.

1:49 - vs Honda 3: 3x reps + st. jab, sweep.

1:56 - vs Rufus: cr. jab into st. jab must be performed slowly to enable the meaty set-up. Also, using all meter midscreen and ending with untechable knock down.

2:05 - vs Rufus 2: cr. mk into RH-HK will not connect on Rufus after the loop x 2 (He will be out of range). In order for it to work the HK KOs, creating a juggle state and allowing Akuma to catch up. Also the HK motion must be input before the cr. mk connects. This is difficult.

2:14 - vs Cody: RH x 5 into cr. mk RH-HK.

2:23 - vs Adon: 2nd cr. mp connects meaty allowing for the untechable knockdown.

2:28 - vs Adon 2: Loop x 3 into st. mp (again, this is the only normal that will connect at that point).

2:35 - vs Abel: EX Air fireball x 4 is very spacing and timing specific. st. fierce xx teleport xx U2 is a lazy link.

2:42 - vs Abel 2: 4 separate meaty jab set-ups. All requiring hugely specific 1 frame delaying of stuff. Plus a juicy untechable knockdown cherry on top.