First tiem impressions (day 1):
Graphics are awsum. But I'm a pretty low bar setter in these regards, but I do find them very pleasing. No shadowing issues in XII appearing here anymore. Maybe I'm used to uber closeup sprites in XII, but it now somehow needs some getting used to from me. Neomax effects are dramatic and it's like suddenly they went nuts for a split second doing something we never saw before. The wow factor is awesome.
The music is what we heard on the website, bears no repeating. It's good. That's all.
The color palette's pretty cool and amazing. I saw some pretty unique color combination, Kyo had this Shin Kyo color and Iori has two variants of his current suit, etc. And to top it off, the character select screen's timer does give you sufficient time to choose 3 characters AND their respective colors (if you are choosing your characters semi-decisively).
Controls aren't uber responsive, I had times where I tried to do a DP, but then instead a jump comes out. I think it may be my own alignment problem more than the stick's. But the feedback has been the stick isn't as responsive as the players want.
On Drive Cancels (are they called Drive Cancels?), it's too easy to pull off without warning. At times I try to do a dp, and then it comes out with a qcf move (eg my Kyo does a dp+C and then a qcf+C comes out after the first hit). I'd prefer personally that I am at least able to drive cancel like I wanted to.
The hyper drive bar seems to be an auto-fill bar which is fine to me. It does feel very much like 2k2(UM) to me when people activate it.
It seems like a lot more normals can be kara-cancelled. First thing comes to mind for me is Shen Woo's low D. Kyo's far C is now also cancellable. However, I must note that some normals like Kyo's close C seems to have a smaller than usual cancelling window. At times, you need to input the next move early.
Speaking of which. I'm not 100% sure whether all far/close attacks are back yet. The majority of them are, but eg. Ryo still is stuck with his old standing D in XII and I haven't seen Kyo do a close D yet.
Character impressions:
Kyo - Compared to XII Kyo, he doesn't have a gameplay revolving pressing B like a madman. While his low B->standing B->whatever combo is still around, it's harder to come out. His Oniyaki still feels nigh invincible. His Orochinagi still has the old invincibility. Air Orochinagi for combos and so far is only used by cancelling his rdp+D.
Mature - Very fast, and in the right hands, can be pretty much the hardest character to deal with. Low A into qcb+K is super safe, can repeat on block, can combo (but obviously not repeatable into an infinite). qcb+P is easy hit confirm and safe. I think she's the best of the lot. Easy combos, good damage, hard to get away from on defense. EX fierball juggles if you didn't know.
Terry - RISING TACO has some pretty good invincibility. Buster Wolf won't continue on block. Trap Shoot is not an overhead, I think. If you ask me, I think he's pretty much the same from XII in general.
Ryo - Fireball seems to have improved slightly. His hcb+K now moves faster (thank god) than XII. Otherwise, it's very much like what he was in XII. f+A doesn't knockdown anymore but I never tried cancelling that into anything. You can sorta play him like 2k2 Ryo and it works pretty well.
Larf - Only saw him once and I can only think of one thing...is his vulcan punch *that* invincible in XII? Seems to protect him really well if the other character is in range and trying to do something funny.
Ash - qcfx2+P is much faster now, yay. His Neomax is pretty nice but maybe aside from the Neomax vid on SNKP, since it's a grab super, most Ash players will jump in and perform that. It does look awesome, but I think it's not an instant grab...like Kyo's Kamikura before 2k2UM.
Joe - Thank god that his dp+K is slower. I don't think I'm seeing anything different aside from that.
Takuma - The stance looks weird but this guy is fierce. Has 98 Takuma's movelist but with now a bigger fierball, his db,f+D may juggle but pushes the opponent farther than before, so no zan retsu ken followup for you (maybe aside from corners). In fact, so far nobody connected anything from it yet. He has another variant of his fierball where he sorta like does his 2k2 incarnation's HSKK (the invisible one) and a fierball comes out. He also has this guard break move which allows him to followup with whatever within a short timespan. His Neomax is useful, and is well worth the stock usage. In short, he good.
Leona - Nothing I never saw before in XII, except for her EX X-slasher.
Athena - Saw her once, but I think she can set up her shield move and do other stuff while the shield is up (which lasts for a second or two I think).
Kim - Nothing else you never saw before, very much is the guy you already know about from XII and early XIII loketest feedback.
Shen Woo - Oh my gawd, I think he's probably the most toned down character from XII. The only thing I can see improving is his qcb+A's speed. Reduced range in his low D. C version of SHEN WOO PUNCH LITE has chargeup time of around a split second regardless if you're charging or not, A version of SHEN WOO PUNCH LITE if hit is actually a 50-50 with your opponent where you can get thrown. SHEN WOO UPPERCUT is slow - I mean XII D version slow, doesn't seem to connect from weak attacks even if it's his B version (I can't fathom how slow his D version will be). Never tried SHEN WOO BITCHSLAP yet, hopefully it's at least same as XII. And yes, you can do SHEN WOO PUNCH LITE into SHEN WOO UPPERCUT once in a blue moon if he can do drive cancels. SHEN WOO GOES SSJ takes 2 stocks, lets him do more damage and does a quick closeup of him. SHEN WOO PUNCH is pretty much same as XII. So if you ask me, I think he now sucks.
Hwa Jai - Joe clone...after all this writing of Shen and his disappointments in XIII, cut me some slack here (see my post above). D:
Neomaxes I saw:
Terry - Starts off like his Power Stream (WUSS POWER!) in 2k3, but then it turns out to be like a fullscreen beam attack of sorts at the end (think zillions of geysers appearing from the ground). Super awesome.
Joe - Does a windup (like his 2k3 LDM) and then punches a hurricane forward, horizontally for major ouchage.
Ryo - Shin Tenchi Haoh Ken, but does seem to trade hits with opponent. It was used to KO so can't tell about the damage/counter damage and dizziness effect, if any.
Takuma - Shoryuken by bringing the opponent offscreen with him, and then supposedly lands with the opponent beneath him with a karate chop. In my first vid, with Kyo he apparently caused a bug which caused Kyo to slide away afterwards.
Larf - Larf summons his inner Kenshiro fanboyism, turns red, and does something either like ZA WARUDO/ORA ORA fists of fury or Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken or whatever mango/animu multi punch. Covers the halfscreen space in front of him. After this, he needs like a second of cooldown.
Ash - It's liek...Kyo's Kamikura!
