GameSpot has posted a 2 page interview with Super Street Fighter 4's producer, Yoshinori Ono.GameSpot: Street Fighter has always been a series balanced and tweaked at each iteration. Which characters will be receiving changes in Super Street Fighter IV? Who was too powerful, and which characters underperformed?
Yoshinori Ono: We have carried out tuning for all characters. It has been a year and a half since the arcade release and almost a year since the console release. In this time span an unbelievable amount of research and study has been done on characters and tactics. We are very surprised to the extensiveness of this and many things we were not expecting were discovered as a result. However, for SSFIV I don’t think anyone is too strong or too weak. I know there is the legend of over-powered Sagat and supposedly weak Vega (Balrog in Japan) and Guile etc, but these tierings really depend on the reviewer and their favourite characters. Also, although everyone talks about Sagat being too strong, I don’t know any major tournament champion who uses Sagat. But I do admit the unique elements of characters are exploited at mid-level matches and this has been re-adjusted in SSFIV.
Sagat is good everyone knows that, he isn't top in EVERY street fighter game though. He didn't dominate in alpha. Either way he shouldn't be the focus weaker characters need buffs and stronger ones are entitled to buffs and nerfs. Nerfing the hell out of a top character isn't going to fix anything it will just flipflop the tier list and they we would have another large group big whining babies. Again Sagat is good but it not like you can't beat him...learn the match up...
"But I do admit the unique elements of characters are exploited at mid-level matches and this has been re-adjusted in SSFIV. "
Good, now when I pick Ryu, 'Rog or anybody that my friends deem is "top tier", they won't complain since it'll be re-adjusted in Super. Man, what am I saying, scrubs will always complain.
I agree with Meee. But I've been wanting to say something about nerfing Sagat for a while now. I look to Wolverine in Marvel Vs. He was the one of, if not the, best characters in those series of games. But MvC2, he became one of the weakest in the game. If you're going to nerf someone, do it very carefully, or you will end up with a situation like Wolverine.
Sagat is strong but he has a point not that many Sagats win high level tournaments. No Sagat at EVO, Sagat wasnt even in the top 2 at SBO. Only problem with Sagat is his comeback potential. And from the sound of it Ultras dont do as much damage in Super. Buffing the weaker characters is all that is needed.
When are ppl gonna stop bitching about Sagat, is isnt OP I think the one's who are saying that just SUCK at the game! It's just like Tru1yodd sad he just strong and there is a diffrence between being strong and OP! the top 3 players don not even play with him. for example Daigo=Ryu, Justin=Rufus/Balrog...
@#10
My problem with Ono is that he's himself Japanese and he said he didn'T know any major tournament players using sagat...
well there was like what 7-9 sagat qualified for the national tournament...
they have Mago has a terrific sagat player...
he doesn't even know some of the top players in japan beside daigo ?
Stop talking about Sagat already !
I liked the last thing he said: "If I have the chance I would like to complete the roster and create a new (bonus stage) in the future."
And also, there's hope for a PC version because they "don’t want to leave those who love SFIV behind" and they "will definitely keep on moving forward".
Vanilla Fighter IV: Everyone's the same and it's boring but it's balanced!
MUGEN with only KFM
Smash Bros with no items, mario only, final destination
I'll take interesting discrepancies over perfect clones any day.
Sagat isn't that bad, they handled him the right way. What annoys me is that he's saying vega and guile are "supposedly" weak.
WTF is so strong about them? What the hell does it take to get someone to admit a character is weak?
@ #14
you need to go back to high school and take some remedial english classes. either that, or your current english teacher needs to fail your ass, but i dont know how old you are to know which applies.
ono said there are no tournament CHAMPION sagats. as in "sagat isnt WINNING tournaments, theres just a lot of them playing".
and he's right. ryu wins pretty much every major tourney. i'm not saying sagat doesnt need to be tweaked, but FFS get your facts straight.
Yoshinori Ono and Seth Killian are two very great men.
Without them we would never have been blessed with this Street Fighter goodness.
Hopefully when they see all these fools they would take it to heart, and just write these fools off.. I wouldn't even waste a bullet of most of them.
I hope Sagat's tiger uppercut takes 1/2 an energy bar in Super SF4 when its powered up.
Here we go, our typical discussion is back...
Let me say my arguments for the 20th time:
- SF4 is balanced well. If you take out Sagat and Dan it's balanced amazingly well... (look at the middle section of tier lists)
- Match ups are quite even(many 5-5 or 6-4), therefore better player wins most of the time (So stop crying over your losses to Ryu, Balrog, or Akuma)
- 7-3 match ups aren't that bad... you still have a chance to win those if you're a good player who knows the match up well
- Sagat is the weakest top tier in probably any SF game(he doesn't even get any 8-2 match ups), but he is very strong and sticks out on the tier lists... therefore he needs and he will be toned down in SSF4
Cheers!!
I always suspected that it was among the mid tier that Sagat is overpowered.
Low-tier players can't use his combos or even specials well enough. They'd rather stick with easier characters. Hence, why people pick Ryu, Ken and Guile when they start playing.
High-level player have no problem playing around his moves. Sagat players have to be just as good to beat non-Sagat players. Hence, why Justin, Alex, Daigo and the rest have no problem beating Sagats.
At mid-tier however, Sagat is the most effective and easiest to abuse character. When you are at a level when you are not good enough to win on skill alone, it's no small wonder why so many pick Sagat.
If you did a survey on all the number of players from each tier that comments on forums, I bet you a large majority of those will be from the mid tier. Which is why the community is so vocal about Sagat being overpowered.
ono must snort something insane.
@24
U need to take out more then sagat, add ryu rufus and balrog. ANd then u would stil have gief prob rape the other half of the cast since now the sagat isnt there with his round house of doom. too many characters are under developed(gouken is a good example of this).
@28,
Yes yes the amount sagat takes off was intended as a joke.
Point being if you know your matchups, you shouldnt be working yourself into those positions in the first place.
IE: Dont jump in on Sagat. Prevent the tiger uppercut from even happening.
@33,
Backdash? EX counter? Option select?
Beauty of it is you can do the exact same thing to the opponent.
Ono knows more than the average person here, obviously. It's true that the myth around Sagat is created by the mid-level players. At high level he is still top-tier, but nowhere god-tier or he would usually win. Which he doesn't. He is balanced at high-level.
If you'd beleive the majority, then Ken would be god-tier, as every entry-level players thinks so.
Not much longer to wait for the game. I can not wait to play. New battles, new ways to win. No more complaining guys. Let us just enjoy what we have and will receive. There is no such thing as perfection and in many ways there never should be. We should just be accepting of these changes and understand that perhaps balancing out characters is not as an easy task as many are setting it out to be. It seems no matter what, you tweak one thing, and something else gets knocked out of place. Let us all just smile about and move on forward to the days of butt kicking and having fun. :)
In my opinion command grapples like zangief, T.hawk need to get big buffs, Just being a contender isn't good enough. Command grapplers have never even been high tier not to mention top. This should be their time to shine.
@ #30
Don't jump in on Sagat is easier said than done. You have to jump in sometimes. How am i supposed to get past his tigershots? It's impossible to win a fireball fight vs Sagat.
And if you get close he grabs you and throws you all across the screen.
"But I do admit the unique elements of characters are exploited at mid-level matches and this has been re-adjusted in SSFIV."
A.K.A - lets take out Gen's mk/hands and his awesome jump, and fully expect people to wall dive more. CUZ THATS SAFE.
r.i.p = sf4 gen
I dunno bout you guys but I have a much tougher time fighting against ryu than fighting sagat.
@samurai but maybe your just ignorant and or not that experienced sagat DOES have weaknesses i play as him and a few others, but mainly you should try combating his tigershots and wait till he throws one and jump over it and punish any sagat not fully tuned to every aspect of him will get tricked and get hit with a combo of your choice and TG's stuff works too but if your ryu and or any char. that has any hadouken baiting a tigershot and jumping seems to work best for me.
yeah dude some ppl are just not realistic about it. I mean yeah I can beat sagats with Guile even with a huge gap between tiers. that doesn't mean sagat is a bit overpowered. but I'd rather keep him godtier than having dudley instead, because high level dudley's are gonna be a lot more trouble than sagats. sagat is so straight forward, anybody can find a way around. I think the most ridiculous decision about dudley is lightningfast overhead into super. and jabjabjab fierce into super. well actually there are a whole lot of questionable decisions about him.
as for sagat, he's alright. except that scar uppercut should have been timed, like any other buff move in the game
Sagat is not that overpowered, besides the fact that he has range and VERY LARGE combo potential, his walking speed is slow and his moves are repetitive and easy to read sometimes. A blocked tiger knee can be punished, as well as a tiger uppercut and some blocked moves.
& im not gonna lie, Guile was pretty garbage and useless in SF4, hopefully the old classic character will shine again.
Seth still has a ridiculously low stamina of 750 (less than akuma, dhalsim, gen, and all the chicks in the game) and takes little crappy damage. His tandem typhoon ultra looks good though
Zangief and still annoying as hell with those command piledriver grabs
Does anybody understand the meaning of balance? Half the people defending sagat keep repeating tactics that help with a sagat, but no actual weaknesses. I understand that he's beatable, but I shouldn't have to either work super hard to beat him or be substantially better than my opponent to pull off a win. That "Ryuthegreatest" suggested "don't let the tiger uppercut happen." The tiger uppercut is not hard to land at all, it's not a super damaging ultra with no lead ins and no tell, it's a goddam reversal. How the hell are you going to tell me not to let a DP hit me, ever? Imagine if his jab did 75% of your health bar every hit. Would you tell me the same thing? No, because a jab, no matter how expected or how guarded against it is, will eventually hit. Don't give me tactics on how to beat a sagat, I know them, I beat sagats all the time, but I have to work way too hard to do it, which pisses me off when I know I'm much better than my opponent. In a truly balanced game, differences in skill should show very easily, no matter how slight those differences are.
i dnt think sf would be boring if it was balanced but thts jus my opinion. I think tht would be a bad idea to make it totally balanced b/c people who play lower tier fighters lyke vega(claw[when are they gonna change tht for all countries btw]) for instancehave a sense of pride when they take on some one who uses a higher tier character...lyk sagat
Sagat being overpowered is not a legend. He hasn't heard of any tournament winning Sagat's? Is he on drugs? 9 Sagat's have qualified for the National Tournament run by them.
I don;t like how him and Seth always deviate from giving an actual answer. At least Seth has admitted that Sagat was OP and Guile/Vega were trash.