Needless to say, this post is about Tatsunoko Vs Capcom… I just had a pretty interesting session at it. First, I went into training mode. Lately, I’ve been using training mode for almost nothing at all, but practicing my damn Ippatsuman combo that I may have mentioned here one or twice before. And I don’t regret that, that remains what I see as the next big hurdle in my progress, but it’s important to try out a lot of things in training mode, not just repetition.

So, this time around, I decided to play around with new Saki stuff. Ippatsuman/Saki is my main team, but I hardly ever talk about Saki here. The reason for that is Saki is primarily a zoning character and I feel pretty good with my game with her. She is not a combo machine by any means and so I basically ignored the combos she can do in favor of other skills (again, primarily zoning skills). BUT, needless to say, I want to fully flesh out my game to the highest degree possible, which means continuously learning more and adding (what works) into the game plan. In this case, yeah, Saki is great at zoning, but there are some players who just know how to push the action up close where she sucks, and getting some close-range solutions would definitely flesh her out some more.

I’m really going off on some tangents, but anyway, the point is I played around with some combo ideas with Saki and one of them is really nice. Not only is it pretty decent damage, but it’s actually MUCH easier to pull off than Ippatsuman’s combo (at least in training mode). I repeated it a number of times in training mode, and damn it was easy to pull off. At this point I realized that Ippatsuman’s gotta have one of the most difficult combos ending in hypers in the game. After all, I can pull this off (in a more limited fashion, but still ending in a hyper) with most secondary characters I play, with whom I’ve never even entered training mode (Ryu, Morrigan, Batsu, Soki). It’s because Ippatsuman’s only viable hyper at that point is a 45-degree angle air grab. But I digress again…

The combo goes like this, first you’ve gotta load up some special ammo: 2,2B then at VERY close range you do:

(5,2)A, 5B, 2B, 3C, (jump) B,B (jump) B,B, C(shoots the special ammo, which juggles the opponent), Hyper-45-Degree Particle Beam

So this was great, the only iffy thing about it is that it requires loading up special ammo before hand. While this is not difficult to do, it doesn’t jive with the rest of my keep-away game. It removes my ability to use my regular C shot (until I shoot the special ammo). It’s semi-unsuitable for me to use the way I would most want to use it: in response to a breach of my personal space. It pretty much needs to be loaded up before I decide to go in close-range for the combo. Still, it is a good combo and having a mixup certainly never hurt anyone. It was time to test it out.

So after nailing this down in training mode and finding it very easy, I hopped online and could not have been luckier. I got matched up with a rank novice (absolute button masher, it’s easy to tell) and unlike most novices, he rematched me probly 10 times. Unfortunately, this is not a happy story. Pretty much all I did while I was Saki was load up the special ammo and try to go for it… I’m slightly embarrassed to admit, I did not accomplish it once. The two main reasons for this are (1) she has nearly no range on her jabs (or most of her regular moves) and (2) it does take a while to become natural in an actual fight. First off, towards the end I decided to ditch the 2nd move (5B), although that reduces its damage slightly, it seems well worth the sacrifice as it’s more forgiving with the spacing and even easier to pull off control-wise. I think this is a good move that helps point 1 a bit. Point 2 obviously will take a bit more practice.

So, as it stands, this is basically theory right now. It’s proven that it CAN work, but whether or not it’s viable to become part of my game is still questionable. Again, the main issue is that it requires loading up special ammo beforehand, in anticipation of close-range combat. As Saki, I see little reason for ME to ever initiate close-range combat and if I’m not initiating it, then it’s difficult to predict when it’s coming. On the other hand, it may well be worth it to load up the old special ammo at semi-random times in the game. I can still throw grenades without limitation and it’s good for mixup purposes. Also, I reckon there’s a lot more I can learn to do with the B-shot special ammo, so it might become a much more versatile preparation later on. Time will tell. In the very least, I’ve learned an ok no-hyper combo for her (the combo before the special shot), which is better than nothing when the pressure is on.

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