Thanks. Do you play her? I'm going thru P4A resources and figuring out what's changed, so it sounds like skulls are more easily removed mid-combo now, and Mudo's no longer a descaling tool.
Do you know if her challenge combos are okay for now, or should I immediately seek more optimized ones? I recall my friend struggling with the SMP loop in vanilla. Is some variation of that still in the game?
Yeah, I play her at a relatively upper beginner or lower intermediate level. As far as additional differences from vanilla go:
- The bullet gauge is new, and tells you the number of bullets left in the clip. There is a 2-3s gun cooldown after every 5 bullets.
- Related to the above, 6D out of gun stance gives you an attack akin to the counterattack out of her FA. This doesn't consume any bullets and is usable even when the gun gauge is on cooldown.
- Also related to the gun mechanics, I believe Naoto's final bullet takes off more skulls when it is the only bullet you have. For example, the final bullet of stance > AAAAA takes fewer counters than entering stance with one bullet > final bullet A.
- Naoto now has both a 5D and 4D option for sending her persona out. 5D is fast, but won't autocorrect directions when activated after moving past the opponent, whereas 4D is slower and does correct.
- 2C can now be special canceled. Pretty big deal for getting an actual combo ender at midscreen (stuff > 2C > 214A > A shots), and for comboing into 236B at/near the corner.
- 5B and 5C can now be dash canceled, but they don't seem to be particularly useful at closer ranges, since you are locked in a long dash animation when doing so.
- The kick on her awakening super doesn't reach behind her now. Instead, pressing C has her kick forward, and pressing D has her turn around before kicking.
- The recovery on her traps feel much longer, especially the air ones. I believe that you can have any combination of 3 out total, instead of the 2 C traps and 2 D traps of P4U1. D traps are also supposedly not breakable with jumping attacks.
As far as combos go, I don't think there is an SMP loop equivalent where it results in absolutely busted damage. There are higher-execution Blight loops off a fatal counter, but I don't think they are as prevalent / critical to playing Naoto.
I don't remember the challenge combos being particularly practical or high damage, but I found the following tidbits to be useful:
- j.236A (and the Air Fangs series in general) make for a nice combo ender, if you find yourself having to end in the air. I find that most recommended combos tend to stick to the ground though, since you don't get as strong / long of a knockdown off them.
- End combos in gunshots or 6D whenever you can. The untech time for the final shots are much improved in this game, giving you time to get out of stance and have non-trap oki.
- In corner combos, you can often fit in two 236B's and end with 236A > shots. A simple example is: stuff > 2C > 236B~D > 5C > 236B~D > 236A > B shots.
- You can often combo into 236236A or 236236AB or the awakening supers after ending a combo with gunshots, from any distance. Might be kind of tricky to get used to buffering the motion during the gunshots though.
Hope this helps!
