I understand what you mean.
I find Raiden's Super 1 nonsense when you consider that he is one of the easiest characters to use with attacks that interrupt and take priority over other players' attacks.
In comparison, Sir Dan and PaRappa's Super 1's are crummy, so why play as them when you can have an easier time with someone like Raiden? Especially when Dan and PaRappa have extremely situational supers that require much rarer instances of enemy position to successfully hit. Then you look at Super 3's-- Raiden who can get 4+ kills much more easier than someone like Sir Dan, who has to struggle to get 4+ kills.
I think the game could use a couple of good tweaks here and there to bring the balance in line with the whole roster:
1) Ratchet: Super 1 needs a nerf
Reason: Too reliable to get 3 kills, Super 2 becomes obsolete.
2) Sir Dan: Super 2 or 3 (preferably 3) needs a buff, if anything. I'd like to see his homing missiles move faster, or his S3 radius/kill time improved upon
3) Sly: Super 1 needs a tone down, or Super 2 needs a buff
Reason: same as Ratchet's
4) Raiden: Super 1 needs a tone down, some of his attacks should have a reduced priority**
Reason: Super 1 is much too reliable considering his AP gain, combo ability, and priority.
5) Fat Princess: Super 3 needs a buff
Reason: Just worthless.
6) Kratos: Reduced priority/chain grab lock-on
Reason: Reckless play style makes him too easy to use-- I see 90% of local players use Kratos as a secondary because he's that damn easy, my local play is not immune from this
**I think it's real crappy that guys like Raiden have such an easy parry move, same with Kratos. On top of the incredible offense these two have, they have an ability to counter like no one else. Meanwhile, you mess up Heihachi's counter, and you are screwed. What sense does that make?
Then take someone like Big Daddy: he has a rush attack with forward triangle. If he misses or hits a wall, he does this whole animation where he has to get up, it leaves him vulnerable. Raiden? Dashes around like a mad man with little to no consequence, and damn is he fast.
Priority, priority, priority.
My balance suggestions aren't to say that the characters are themselves OP or not manageable. But when developing a Super system, you have to consider balance in relation to everybody else. Tweak the best tiers, and suddenly, the lower tier characters can compete relatively better, simply because the super system has a wave effect.
The point of having 3 levels of super was to have skilled players use level 1 to try and attempt multiple kills, to use super 2 to get easier kills with potential vulnerability, and to have super 3's to work up to get much easier kills with, with a slight chance of error depending on enemy skill. While some guys like Raiden have incredibly varied Supers that are reliable on all fronts, guys like PaRappa have worthless Super 3's, incredibly tough Super 1's and decent enough Super 2's. It wouldn't even be a problem if the core combat or AP gain or combo potential of PaRappa's could make up for this, but when you have guys like Raiden and Kratos wrecking shit up without a care in the world, gaining AP fast, comboing you with incredible moves with relative ease (Raiden: SQUARE SQUARE SQUARE SQUARE SQUARE), and KOing you with easily earned and much more forgiving supers, you start to see why less and less people pick the PaRappa's, Jak's, and Sir Dan's.
All that said, I continue to see incredibly skilled players use guys like Jak to outdo more common Raiden and Kratos players, but I do think that generally speaking, people would much rather gravitate towards Raiden or Kratos over PaRappa and Dan if they can always rely on an easier style of play, and you can't blame them. But a lot of common Raiden and Kratos players can blast through the competition, and I'd just enjoy matchmaking with a better diversity of characters. But that wont happen with the way things are right now. Hence why I enjoy playing locally
