Super Street Fighter 4 AE: Sako (Akuma) vs. Fen Tamu (Balrog) for one hour

What is it that's gonna make Akuma so strong in 2012?

Probably... nerfs to his worst matchups, Yun and Yang.

Lol I remember many, many Akuma players whining that their character got DESTROYED and they refused to play him. Booo my Palm mixups are now like Gouken's, weeeeeh my little vortex is totally gone, waaaaah **** Capcom!!

Overreacting smh.

Did they really say "the strongest"? As far as I remember they said he still going to be a top character.

So retarded, now everyone in the world is going to play my character. Hes not getting anything but the ability to fireball during a demon flip....hes already strong as it is. All this does, is make all the bandwagon scrubs copy who the pros use....awesome.

"...and Sako switching wouldn't be the biggest surprise."

I think it actually would be a surprise. Sako is not really known for switching to top tier characters.

@5: That's okay just think of how long they'll stick to him once they find out his health is low and his vortex isn't that easy to set up and apply. There still is a flood of scrub Seths (and more recently Sakuras) online lol.

Agreed with #5

Nice way to word the desciption! Now everyones going to bandwagon hard. Latest interview with Daigo states that if the changes stick to Akuma, he will not be playing him.

Source: Interview@SRK

Wait until AE v2012 before judging, Akuma got a lot of his essential tools nerfed. Sako used to play Akuma in Vanilla if you guys aren't aware.

@5 LOL "my character".

Akuma is one of the most overused characters, and always has been a favorite since SF2.

You are not unique at all, in fact, you're one of the more generic players.

I have been seeing soooo manyyyy Codyyyyyy's. :<

Sako played Akuma back in SF4.

And both sides of the argument are a little exaggerated. Akuma wont be as bad as a few(very few)of SRK Akuma forum posters think, but he will not be as good as Mago and Tokido think.

Remember, Mago and Daigo placed Seth low C tier when AE was released. So they don't know everything.

2012 Gouki actually got lots of his core stuff nerfed (vortex, shenanigans, also frame advantage and damage), even more than top characters like Viper.

Anyway they said Akuma would still be good, not the best character. And Daigo is not playing him in 2012, with all the nerfs.

@gtfopanda

Agreed entirely.

@11

I encounter more Ryu's and Kens oppose to Akumas in SF4/SSF4/AE. As soon as ppl see Daigo picking him up, I guarantee 90% of those Ryu's and Kens will switch over.

@14

Agreed

haha the description's a joke. "Sako playing Akuma competently" as if we should be surprised Sako would know how to play Akuma or should expect anything but "competetently" playing someone he used in Vanilla. He's Sako. I'm sure can play anybody "competetently."

@logic_boi

Agreed.

And by "competently" you mean, at a high level. Sako only knows how to play at a high level. That's the only gear Sako has.

@11

All im stating is that everyone dry humps the pros. They pick whoever the pros pick. Plain and simple...and no, I hardly run into ANY Akuma players,....stay free.

@14 I don't know where you got the "daigo is not playing akuma" impression from but he's been playing him before 2012 was even announced, his akuma is at a little over 1000 matches and ranked Grand Master not long ago.

ALSO: What im saying is, I hate that every time a professional player picks up another character, or wins a match in a large tourney,....people mimic the pros, it gets old. Poongko perfects Daigos yun at evo.....all the sudden everyone in the world mains Seth.

@temtt cammy was top in super; high in ae. and you know sako plays yang right?

@22 yamazaki

*Well, Cammy wasn't considered top tier until Sako picked her up.

*He mains Ibuki in AE and only uses Yang as a secondary character.

I figured if a person bought the game they can pick whomever they want to play as. All this it's my character stuff is stupid and if folks want to bandwagon let them. Remember people it's just a game for fun.

Why do people get mad when a decent player uses the same character they use?

I love it, means we can learn more cause someone 'may' discover something new. The more Gouki players, the better :D

Most of them made the ''Akuma Strongest'' comment before seeing the full nerfs to him tho.

So that statement doesn't rly count much, he def. won't be that strong but very very solid still. Weird to see them all play Akuma now tho so idk. Might be something idk

@16: Nope, that will never happen. Akuma is actually a very hard character to use/master/stay alive with. Ryu on the other hand..You'll be as good as 90% of the Ryu's in about 2 days of practice. Ken could be said the same, but no one can uses all his Kara moves.

People love Tokido and still there are barely any Akuma's. Not to mention there are only 2 Akuma's doing good and those are Tokido and Infiltration.

Love it how this Fen Tamu calls Sako "THIS GUY-!" and then remembers that he's actually a FG celebrity and quickly corrects "Er, this person-"

#27 There are many good akuma players in japan, not just Tokido. Eita/Yuu/6 are all playing on a competitive level, and don't forget Momochi who use to play Akuma as well.

Sako used Akuma in Super too, let's not forget. Sako is not one to tier whore as he simply plays for the fun aspect of it rather than to be the best. This is widely known.

Stop mentioning -6, he's cleraly not on Tokidos/Infiltrations level...everytime I see him play at tournaments he pretty much gets bodied by the top players. Sorry, he's for sure a good player but he's not that great!

@31

Agreed.....

@ #20

What #9 wrote.

At 14:00 did Sako OS into Raging Helicopter (is that even possible...?) or was he just gambling on a back dash?

@34 Cleckley

Yea, that's an OP...and he does it quite consistently (14:00, 15:34, 23:40, 34:41 ...)

I doubt Sako will main Akuma in 2012. He likes his female characters.

Wtf are those weird noises coming from the Bg during the commentary!?! It seems to loop the same Demonic chanting!

I turned the video off because of the scary, strange, weird noises!

option selects can make characters like akuma retarded. that balrog could do nothing but block those palms or he'd get OS U2ed

Sako did play abit of Akumer in vanilla, so it's not like it's completely new for him. It does sound strange that he'd switch though, he said in one of the interviews posted on EH that he likes playing characters that not many people use.

His akuma is obviously better than Daigo's. Daigo has no vortex and plays like Ryu.

That why I just don't grind .. You win 2 hours straight and grind 300 pp and lose 1 vs some scrubby Ibuki doing the same crap pattern over and over and lose 150 PP (which is around 30 minutes loss )

Man I don't know how Tokido kept his cool . I would be frigging mad lol . THis Ibuki was awful yet he was the only one who beat Tokido after 1-2 hours lol . Figure. I was pissed for him.

Scrubby Player awfulness just mess your mind up.

They should have a PP restriction for ranking match.

Man once again Akuma players underplaying or "victimizing" the nerfs.

@everyone saying Daigo wont use Akuma

You need to re-read the article:
------------
So let’s cut to the chase. Are you going to use Akuma on AE 2012?

“Everyone knows everything?!?! it’s true that I’ve been practicing Akuma for now. I don’t know when the AE 2012 version will be finalized, and I don’t think it would stay the same. While it is going to change, Akuma as of now fits my style, so I am using him. But again, the balance is not finalized yet, so depending on how Akuma would balance out, I may switch to another character.”
---------

What he says here is that he doesn't know what the final change list will be (since they haven't released the final changes yet. We only know the changes that were shown during the location tests.) He can't say for sure that he will or wont play Akuma. This isn't saying "if they stick" this is saying "depending on if they nerf him more or not"

He can knows whether or not he will use Akuma based on the CURRENT change list (that answer is: yes.) but if Akuma gets a major nerf or if another character gets a major buff that wasn't shown during the location test alpha/beta patches he may play someone else.

"Mago and Daigo think that Akuma will be the strongest character in AE 2012"

Where did they say/write this?

lol Akuma is getting nerfed badly in AE 2K12 so I don't think he will be the strongest character,otherwise please give us a link showing Daigo and Mago saying Akuma will be so strong.

@45 Google is your friend. It was posted on SRK and Eventhubs about 2 weeks ago. There was a Q&A session with Mago and then a separate Q&A session with Tokido. When asked who they think will be strong in 2012 the first name both of them mention is Gouki (Akuma) however Tokido does mention a few others after a little more thought. But both of them said Gouki first without even having to pause.

I don't recall Daigo saying that Akuma would be strong or not in 2012. However he has been practicing Akuma and is planning on switching away from Yun for 2012. He has also said that as a sponsered player he takes his job seriously and picks characters he feels he has the best chance to win with regardless if he likes them or not.