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Behind-the-Scenes: Rebalancing Super Street Fighte

Apr 04, 2008 // s-kill

This is part nine in an extended series of articles from David Sirlin , detailing the changes we’ve made to the rebalanced mode of the new Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix project. The previous articles can be found here . This week focuses on the character so cliched that he stands out even among a strong field of cliche contenders: Hitenryu kung-fu master Fei Long! Balancing Fei has been a long and rocky road, so this is a long entry, but it’s also a ton of fun for Fei Long fans and game design nerds alike. Read on! Part 9: Fei Long Fei Long is usually considered one of the five worst characters in the original Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, but he‒s still pretty deadly if he can get close to the opponent and get his offense going. The trouble is, it‒s very hard for him to ever get close enough to most characters to get it going. Also, his Flying Kicks move (aka Dragon Kicks, aka “Chicken Wingâ€) is just too hard for most players (including myself) to physically execute. Unlike the other Tiger Knee-like moves, the Flying Kicks required you to start with *back* on the stick, then go down/back, down, down/forward, forward, up/forward + kick. Fei Long, Version 1 In HD Remix, Fei Long, along with Akuma, have the notorious distinction of each being the best character in the game and the worst character in the game at various points throughout development. The changelist for HD Remix, version 1 was: • Flying Kick move changed to qcf+k (easy!) • Flying Kick with short button can go through fireballs during startup. The control change immediately made him fun, and being able to do short Flying Kicks over fireballs easily seemed like just what he needed. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast was just too powerful relative to this. Fei Long seemed like the worst character, or close to it. Fei Long, Version 2 Then came a ridiculous number of buffs. I was going to make Fei Long viable, damn it! • All three version of Flying Kicks can go through fireballs at startup. • All Rekka punches (qcf+p) travel farther. • Super travels much farther, which also makes it safer on block because last hit doesn‒t whiff so much And this ease of use stuff: • Flame Kick input window is bigger (easier) and not random • Medium and roundhouse Flame Kicks always knock down and can juggle. • Input window for second and third Rekka punches longer and not random. Expert players who played this version said Fei Long was unquestionably #1. His Flying Kicks were too good at locking opponents down. Like in ST, they can combo in standing fierce, then all three Rekka punches. Ouch! His super became the best in the game and you could even juggle with a Flame Kick afterwards for a total of 90% damage. (Oops!) Also, you could get about 3 supers per round if you tried. You could also juggle Flame Kicks after Flying Kicks due to…well some technical stuff we won‒t go into right now. And to top it all off, Fei Long could pretty much ignore fireballs and do the new qcf+k command to go through them on reaction, every time. Incidentally, a lot of people requested that he be able to cancel his ducking medium kick into Rekka punches, but that is really the last thing he needs, as I hope you can see by now. Giving him that would be similar to SF3:3rd Strike Chun Li‒s ducking medium kick into super. She can stick it out constantly and if it happens to hit, bam, super. In Fei Long‒s case, he wouldn‒t even need super meter to deal huge damage off his 3-Rekka series. What we need to do at this point is turn the knobs DOWN on Fei Long. Fei Long, Version 3 (a.k.a version 20) This is really more like Fei Long version 20 than version 3, but I‒m compressing the story for readability. He‒s now settled down into seemingly fair state. Here‒s the actual change list: • Flying Kick move changed to qcf+k (easy!) • Flying Kick with short button can go through fireballs during startup. • Flying Kicks have 5 additional frames of recovery. This prevents you from comboing if you hit, and it also prevents you from trapping people by doing the move repeatedly. • Flying Kicks have worse priority air-to-air during the first hit, so it‒s easier to counter them with a jumping attack if you predict them. • All version of Flame Kicks always knock down and can juggle. They *can* still juggle after you juggle with Flying Kicks, so have fun, combo-maniacs. • Flame Kick input window is bigger (easier) and not random • Rekka punch input window is bigger (easier) and not random • Rekka punches travel a little farther, but not as far as in Version 2 • Super travels farther and faster (by a lot) but not as much as Version 2 • Super is now vulnerable at Fei Long‒s head during 4th and 5th hits • Super meter gains reduced on Flame Kicks and Flying Kicks • Super knocks the opponent down too quickly for a Flame Kick to combo after The farther reach on Rekka punches allows Fei Long to actually deal some block damage vs a defensive Honda. It also makes it a little easier to pressure a defensive Guile who mostly just sits there and does low forward and the occasional sonic boom. (Both of those matches are still hard for Fei Long though). The Flying Kicks are easy to perform now, and still have many uses, but they cannot really be abused like they could in some situations before. The recovery time at the end prevents you from constantly looping Flying Kicks -> Fierce -> Flying Kicks, etc. I don‒t want to give the impression this move is weak though. It still has 14 frames of invulnerable startup, it still juggles and travels in a useful arc, and it‒s still an overhead attack (must be blocked high). The short Flying Kick going through fireballs is a help, but not a total solution. The opponent can still back up and sweep you if he predicts this move, especially with extra recovery. But it‒s at least one option to get around fireballs, rather than practically no option, as he had before. I think it was a real mistake when I let all three versions of this move go through fireballs on startup, because even if it were somehow fair, it goes too far in negating the power of projectiles in Super Turbo. It just felt wrong. The super move is very useful and a key move for Fei Long now. To balance that out, he can no longer get so many per round and if the opponent does predict it and jump over you, he has at least some hope of hitting you back (for example, with Ken‒s new longer-reaching Hurricane Kick from behind!). Fei Long is much more fun now, partly because executing all his moves is easier, and partly because he‒s generally juiced up. Longer reaching Rekkas and a longer reaching super give him even more offense, while the new short Flying Kick gives him a mild new way to get in.