The Arcade Edition guide for Fei Long has been updated here on EventHubs. If you follow the link, you'll see a rundown of all of Fei's special moves, command normals, Ultras and combos.Fei Long is a character that is based around controlling space in the air and on the ground while punishing whiffed moves. He has a brutal control of game pace along with a deadly corner pressure game. The entire focal point of Fei Long's gameplan is to force the opponent into the corner with his combos and pokes and then keep them there as long as possible.
There are holes in his gameplay though. He has no long-range cancelable moves, forcing him to get very close to the opponent for knockdowns and damage. His low game is also weak, making it hard for him to force opponents to crouch block. Lastly, his armor breaking game is one of the worst in the game, meaning that you'll have to constantly force your way into the opponent's zone to get them to stop Focusing.
A big thanks to DMG Inthul for showing me a lot of the strengths of Fei Long.
High priority normals, arguably one of the best anti-air in the game with huge hit box both vertically and horizontally, multiple hit armor breaking move with invincible frames even on normal version that links into st.fierce, free-to-spam rekka. You don't even need a guide for a character like this.
Speaking of which, the question of “How to deal with Fei-Long” seems to hold the key to the future success of the SSF4 AE scene. Are there any tactics that can be used to fend off Fei-Long?
Mago: Waiting, being patient is of the upmost importance. You’re going to have to hold steady and try to find a way to irritate Fei-Long in some way.
Tokido: Vertical jumps against Rekka-ken?
Mago: There’s no real breadth in his movement. Fei-Long cannot do a whole lot from mid to far range. Sure, he has his Rekka-Ken, but if you show that you can properly read that with a vertical jump or a focus attack, you’re going to gain the mental advantage, which is vital.
Fei Long is definitely not one of easier characters to play. I think people are annoyed that he is considered top tier in AE.
#8 Technically Rekkas are not armor breaker, but the fact that it can hit up to three times can make it useful for breaking armor.
And yes, Fei Longs Ultras are generally bad compared to the rest of the cast. Only threes hits gained my comboing in Ultra I and Ultra II is risky.
rogueish1 #8 I was thinking the same thing! I was reading it thinking "here we go, his weaknesses....wait, what? this isn't true!" Lol!
Fei Long is an example of why tier lists can't be taken at face value.
Fei Long was never weak, he was underplayed and highly underrated (for some reason, probably because zoning/chargers were so dominant).
Good pokes, good specials, a nice grab special, though his ultras are MIGHTY situational. I'd say if Fei Long has 2 reliable ultras, he'd be the strongest in the game.
Fei Long was once like Deejay, I'm hoping to see more of him as well.
@12 It kills FAs period and it is super effective at it, just because it doesnt say armor breaking move in the ssf4 manual doesnt mean it isnt good at it. Thats reaching anyway regardless the article says his armor breaking game is one of the worst in the game and lets be honest that is a bold face lie. So "technically" you didnt even respond to what the article wrote.
Ultra 1 has partial invincibility, can be juggled into for good damage (flame kick FADC chicken wing U1)
@5, if dats the case then i'm pretty sure he'd be over-used as hell by noobs everywhere, buts obviously dats not the case now is it. he aint a shoto or a sagat, he requires great skill to be used properly.
Always curious to see how Fei-Long will stack in AE. He's top tier alright but I never thought he'd be this good.
@15, yeh ultra 1 has partial invincibility but its not good at punishing fire balls (unless someone is spamming fireballs right next to u, which is something dat a noob wud obviously do).
also the flame kick fadc cw ultra damage isn't dat good. hec on certain characters u only get 2 hits of the ultra instead of 3. his ultra 2 wud of been A LOT useful if it beat armor breaking moves, grabs and punsished projectiles up close range (like johhny cage's counter in mk9).
Rekka is only a focus-breaker if you don't fish for it.
If the focus is already out, you can counter the first hit of the rekka chain.
Try it, it should work wonders.
@18 Anyone who plays against Fei thats decent will know that also so they will stop throwing fire balls at a certain range so the mere fact that you have it means you have essentially made the match easier.
Its good enough to take 300+ damage imo thats good
At the ranges that you can ultra fireballs is pretty damned limited, a lot of the time you'll either run out of invincibility or it'll not punish the fireball properly.
I mean, it pretty much counters fireballs no better than most of the cast can - infact pretty much only worse. >_>
Also, by my last post I meant that if you're activating focus at the last minute to absorb a rekka, then yeah - that's the only time where it'll "armor break" you. Just make sure you fish and you should be able to punish it every time, unless your characters' focus attack is really that bad/slow.
@20, i dont think it makes the match easier. the ultra is still bad at punisihing fireballs cuz the range sucks. i played a shoto once and he threw a fireball at close range as i was knocked down, so i did a wake up ultra. i got him with the first hit but he was able the block on the second hit of the ultra. so overall its still bad at punishing fireballs. and even if they stop throwing fireballs at close range, they will surely do it at long range which is worse and makes it harder for fei to get it.
the only way fei can punish fireballs up close range, is on wake-up if the other and the other person is throwing it right next to him, which is obviously something any decent player will not do.
my god, a lot of u make fei long sound like a braindead char! Dk,fadc,cw u1 does ass dmg,in fact dudley has a combo that does just 100 dmg less and it doesn't even require super or ultra.rekkas can be focused very easily if ur not a damn scrub.its called lvl 1 focus.read the rekka and use it.
even with the nerfed zoners sh!t ain't easy for fei.he still has to get in and stay there.which is never easy in a game where ppl can mash dp on missed links,wake up as well as spam fbs all day.A LOT of patience is reqiured both to fight and play as fei.a lot of u are just salty cuz ur turtle chars got nerfed.
^true said man. it makes me laugh how people can hate on a character like fei. shotos & sagat i can understand, but fei? are u serious! XD
Yeah, I'm so glad that there's only 1 braindead character in the top/upper tier bracket it seems in this game, and that is Yun.
Hell, even Yun pays for mistakes with his presumably lower health and heavy link reliance.
if he pays for his low health and heavy link reliance, how does that make him a braindead char? I think that any1 that says a rushdown char in THIS game is braindead is braindead themselves. yun needs dive kick to do anything and dive kick is very beatable. ppl need to break their piggybanks, gather their quarters and play the damn game! LOL
in any case i'm just glad in AE kung fu characters (fei, yun & yang) are on top rather than shotos.
I can't believe I ignored 27's comment.
Yun basically has some braindead tools, which allow lesser players to be powerful with him.
Heck, many, MANY characters have high link reliance in order to be truly scary anyway. Luckily this means that lesser players won't be able to tap into his scary full potential.
I dont think Fei is OP just disagree with 2 of the said disadvantages "his armor breaking game is one of the worst in the game" and "Ultra combos are either very risky or have little utility" I agree U2 is risky I think its pretty bad but I disagree U1 has little utility.
Fei's U1 probably has less utility than most of them in the game.
It's only better than some because it piggy-backs off of Fei's godlike focus attack.
Fei Long is retarded good.
I rather lose to a good Yun (because you hafta be good as a Yun) as to a bad Fei Long. As a Fei Long you can just chill the sh!t, push the opponent in the corner with your stupid footsies and Rekkas. As soon you cornered your opponent it's like over.
Also FA weakness? Wha?
Fei has almost the best FA in the game, if you FA he will just FA too and you will lose the situation, because his FA is god like paired with good dashes.
And yay I got Fei Long knocked down!
He just Chickenwings outa there.
Theres like nothing what Fei Longs have problems with nor can you shut him down. He has an answer to everything.
And he's a slow played character. Not fun to play against. Well, he has some Links n sh!t but still...
Hate Adon, Vega, Blanka, El Fuerte and Fei Long.
^
Ok, what does fei do at med-long range?
You can intercept chicken wings and neutral-jump rekkas, or fish for them for lvl 1 focus punishes.
By the sound of your list of disliked characters, you have no patience and/or don't know wtf to do in the matchups.
@37
Adon, Vega, Fuerte, and Fei take lots of skill to play correctly...
You sound like someone who first started fighting games with SF4 also....
@37, so fei has an answer to everything eh? i guess dats why he has problems against certain charge & zoning characters like guile, rog, chun, etc.
its takes great skill to use fei properly and if your losing to noob fei players, then u must suck yourself cuz fei is NOT a noob friendly character.
either learn your match-ups or be a family man. nuff said.
@33 - if scrubs wont be able tap into yuns full potential then again i ask, how is yun a braindead char?if u lose to a scrub yun its ur own fault. only thing i see in yuns arsenal thats somewhat free is ex lunge punch.thats it. which costs meter so even that isnt really "free".yun is just powerful, not braindead.but he has a glass jaw and a big, very hittable hitbox on divekick which is his main means of mounting his offensive.
@34 - his official armor breaking move is his chickenwing which only breaks on the 1st hit which no1 would focus from that distance.thats y his armor break isnt very good.rekkas arent as good as u think at breaking armor.as for his ultras both are ass compared to other chars.u dont get full animation comboing u1 from fadc NOR do u get all 3 hits the 3rd hit (which is the strongest in non animation)misses a good amount of chars.even when u do get full animation it does atrocious dmg.u2 is ass for obvious reasons.if u get caught with that ultra u deserve it.
ok im noticing a bunch of ya swearing fei's armor break is soo good so im gonna let you in on something.rekkas only break well when the jab ver is used from close range and blocked rekkas are only safe when blocked at the tip of his fist.so a GOOD fei player wont just throw blind rekkas from any ol' range just cuz he/she sees an opponent's fa.lvl 1 fa can beat mp & fp rekkas easy.even jab rekka can be beat by lvl 1 fa but timing is tight.not to mention a decent amount of chars low fowards beat rekkas clean.too many scrubs in here.smh
I don't play as him, but I'm finding all the whinging about how good he is just sounds like everyone is jumping on a tier bandwagon witch-hunt. How often do you even fight against him online? I almost never fight Feis, I'd love him to be godly tier, at least then I might get a bit more variety online by seeing more of him.
He may have good tools, but there can be no question that he requires more skill and thought to play well than many of the cast. He's only going to be played to this full potential by very good technically savy players and they would be good with most of the cast. Any beginners trying to pick him up will still have an easier time doing well with Ryu/Ken/Sagat/Akuma.
Was going to let the opinions die because it would take too long and too much time illustrate what I meant but people keep posting so maybe I can learn something about new about the fei matchup. So ill start with my first comment and what it meant.
"< Pushing the Disagree button "his armor breaking game is one of the worst in the game" Rekka anyone?"
The article refers to someone doing a focus attack FIRST. Thats what an armor breaking game is based on your opponent focusing THEN reacting to break that armor NOT I rekka then you level one focus they are not the same scenario. Now if you think his armor breaking game is one of the worst then cool but I dont think it is between correctly timed dps, chicken wings and rekkas all can snuff a focus so do I think it is one of the worst in the game? No and definitely not enough to consider it a disadvantage. If that statement was made to describe makoto I would agree but fei I cannot.
Next I said "< Pushing the Disagree button "Ultra combos are either very risky or have little utility" Ultra COMBO singular" As in I think his U2 fits that description but not his U1. Its not risky unless you throw it out unwisely and that goes for almost any ultra it does not have little utility imo. A synonym for utility is usefulness. U1 has just as many uses as other the downfall is that when it juggles you dont get much damage but the trade off is you can juggle twice before the ultra.
@45 - do u even play fei to be saying those things?even going by ur way of the fa already being out b4 reacting dk needs to be close to land 2 hits needed to break it.only scrubs would focus from that close.with the fa out its worse for mp & fp rekkas.only the 1st hit of chicken wing is feis OFFICIAL armor break.by that alone his armor break game is weak.his u1 compared to other chars is ass.it doesn't punish fireballs properly unless the person is in the corner,even then there's times where the 1st hit lands and the rest is blocked and punished.off a juggle u don't get full animation nor does the most powerful hit connect. so u tell me what utility does his u1 have?
come on now! I've mained Fei Long when everyone said he sucked on Vanilla SFIV. Sure he don't have fireballs, but he has amazing speed and is versatile. His MUs are a little better than alot of characters in the game......I learned this from experience.
And his U1 is harder than most, if not all Ultras in the game. Other than focus -> Ultra, its pretty much not good to use it unless you know your opponent is going to attack. I won alot of matches and I lost alot because of this. At least Ryu has his uppercut -> ultra
Tiers dont really matter to me, but I will like this update. I was planning on using Fei Long/Yun/Yang waaaaaaay before the game was confirmed for the U.S.
I think everyone knows how fei long works.