I've been playing this game a bit more since last weekends wonderful Evo top 8 .. well and also all the content coming on Tuesday ... and I've had another epiphany that might well apply to SF in general more than just SFV.
I love using RYU so long as it's against another shoto player , so in SFV that means Ken , Akuma or a straight up mirror match. He's not quite as much fun to use against anyone else but man do I have a blast with shoto warfare. I suppose it boils down to knowing enough of the options available to both me and my opponent combined with spending a lot more time with Ryu than anyone else (going back to USF4 really, just to try and properly learn the games) means that *I* understand the character at a pretty good level and the matchup knowledge isn't quite as crazy.
I mean, as I've said many times in the past , I quite like Rashid and feel I'm another 10 hours of practice away from being decent with him but , I don't get the same satisfaction landing a combo with him just yet because... I'm not quite as good at it as I am with Ryu.
Calling a spade and spade here - I'm currently a bronze ranked player that could probably grind himself up to super bronze with Ryu or Rashid but not accomplish much else. I've also grown fond of using Cammy, Chun, Juri and I dabble in Guile, Karin, Laura and Dhalsim but the rest of the cast just isn't holding my interest that much. Abigail looks entertaining in a trollish sort of way because I know my buddy (CFN - justletmeplay) will hate fighting him but I don't think he'll be a serious pick for me, more like he's on par with Hakkan from USF4.
So hopefully Menat has a cool playstyle and isn't massively underpowered like Juri or hard to use properly like Ibuki.
It's still a long ways off but I really do hope the Super SFV rumors are true and that revision fixes many of the things I still hear people complain about just to get them to either start enjoying the game more or move on already. Changes like maybe knocking that last half a ms of lag off to put sf5 in line with sf4 at roughly 6 frames. Perhaps taking the 2 frame buffer down to 1 frame while they're at it to open up large combo possibilities as well as more exciting reactions at the highest level. Maybe add in a "V-select" that tweaks characters to play differently - giving them a new vskill/trigger and possibly even a new critical art while having subtle tweaks to damage and range to make sure the variation is properly balanced. It would effectively double the potential cast if they do it right. Some might say it's too little too late but tossing in that arcade mode coupled with rebranding the game might actually work to get those that skipped the original release a reason to try this one out.
As far as what's rumored for SSFV/season 3 for characters ? Sagat and Sakura are fine choices , C. Viper is basically the only SF4 character worth bringing back and as for the SF3 peeps (if rumors are to be believed) well... Oro and Necro I could do without but I know Necro has a fan base and hasn't been in a game since third strike... and Oro is in the same boat I guess although ... he was never very fun to use ? Q is cool though.
So the future (season 4/5) of this games lifespan (quoted at 5 years more than once) should be interesting.. will capcom go with more new characters to round out those last dozen characters OR will they bring in nothing but fan favorites that aren't in there ... maybe a little of both ?
By my count , there aren't too many classic cast members left to throw in that seem that desired ... I mean if the season 3 rumors are correct anyway. Dudley and Makoto as well as Yun/Yang ... maybe Sean (but I doubt it) ... possibly Sodom if they want to toss in barely used characters ... maybe Cody ... perhaps Roxxy instead of Poison. I mean I guess... maybe Fei Long as well ...
Only time will tell I suppose.
