[S4]The Phantom

Boy...that was boring... Yeah well, my emphasis was on the utilization of the Zetsumei Ogi and the furious fight not to get grabbed, and so on. I was hoping to help those who were dieing to see Zetsumei-Ogi in a tournament. But seriously, how fun can mirror matches get? I'm glad it's not something like Kyoshiro vs Kyshiro. ...or worse yet, Gaira vs. Gaira.

Most of them are minor changes. Although I will post the whole thing including the changes in the basic throw system(command changes and more), the following are the changes for Mina. 1. Overall increased delay after a ranged arrow attack. 2. Sitting kick (1+C) recovers faster.(means less delay after its executed) 3. Jump kick's attack priority has been shortened, which means she can no longer Jump backwards and press C to counter almost all Mu no Kyouchi and more. 4. Dash A is now an arrow attack. 5. Dash B has been changed similar to Rimururu's. Its priority has also been changed as a combo attack. 6. Dash Kick (or C)'s motion changed into something that looks like a dash sitting kick. 7. Dash AB no longer deflects off an opponent, which means you are more vulnerable to counterattacks if your Dash AB gets blocked. 8. It is now easier to do Dash grabs(or guard crush, whatever) with Mina, and her grab range has increased. Great, just great. 9. 4(hold)6 + A, the rapid-fire move on ground now has an increased delay after finishing the move. 10. Jump arrow attacks have been toned down. In SSZ, after a jump arrow attack, Mina was pushed back, allowing her to escape secondary persuits. Now she is much more vulnerable after attacking in mid-air. 11. Her weapon-destroying DM is now a mid attack, along with an invincibility time to go with it. -Conclusion- Due to the delays and nerf to her jump attacks, she can no longer spam arrows and win the game. Her ability to keep distance and rapid-fire is now toned down(although quite potent). However, her sitting kick, grab, and most of her dash attacks having a buff, she will be quite potent even in close-quarters although quite risky. Her hit points(defense rating) still remain the lowest in the game, and she will now need to use: 1) Carefully coordinated ranged attacks. 2) When necessary, Mina must go into close-quarters combat starting with the Ka Ji Hu chi (Aerial drill kick). 3) Due to the change in the grab-attack system, she will no longer lose 1/4 of her life due to Rage explosion- grab method. ...So I don't know. I think she'll still be a bow-throwing whore, just worse in my opinion. So those with slow hand-eye coordination is gonna have to type GG against a decent Mina, cause it's just hard enough to block the damn arrows when suddenly she comes dashing to grab. I think I cannot get into the link cuz I am not registered..dunno Well, thats all about Mina that I can find out about. Hope that helped.

Try opening them with Quicktime 6.5... I think that might help. Also, these videos are encoded with wierd codecs... I kept downloading one codec to another till I got them to play Btw, I think the link is broken...

Sure. Right-click on the match-ups below to download. P.S. I think, in general, A-cho tourneys are not as good as other ones... Amakusa vs. Hanzo Points of focus : Amakusa's extremely evil low-mid attacks. Even his normal attacks must be blocked low/high. Not much change with hanzo except his disappearing acts are much more viable to use. Gedo vs. Ukyo The gedo player, JEO is quite famous - his controls are godly. Not many hands can do moves he can pull off. However, the ukyo player is great too. Notice how Ukyo's dash-grab has a greater length compared to SSZ, and his standing AB even more powerful now. Ukyo vs. Gaoh Same Ukyo player as above. Ukyo's 6D-Tsubame Gaeshi pattern seems extremely destructive, and his dash B proves to be a counter to Gaoh's long, slow but powerful attacks. Gaoh has changed alot from SSZ(duh), and is a very good character with solid set of moves and powerful normal attacks. Kazuki vs. Charlotte Very good video, notice how Charlotte's dash B is now a mid attack. Kazuki's been improved except for his longer delay when his fire-burst grab misses, and the ability to throw fire at the enemy while on the ground (AC button move) has been notoriously strengthened. Basara vs. Genjuro I personally think this video is really cool. You can see how Basara's feint attacks are much more faster, which is a illusion of a dash rather than a slow walk in the previous series. Genjuro has been toned down a LOT, and you can see some noticable differences other than the colors. Gaira vs. Genjuro The Gaira player is extremely good, as you can see as he blocks Saren-satsu all the way(the 3-slash move), and he never gives Genjuro to bounce his card over his head. But as you can see Genjuro's card fireball(ok, i know that sounds lame) has gotten a significant delay at start-up, and overall increase in delay as a whole. Damn you SNKP-_- (<- Genjuro user). Don't think this Genjuro is weak - one of the most famous players in ShinJuKu Land Arcade. Mizuki vs. Mina As you can all see, Mizuki seems to be a huge heap of delay and lag. You can see how Mina's ranged bow attacks have gotten a bit of a lag, but Mizuki has too much delay on everything. Although continuous experimenting must be done, as far as it seems for now, Mizuki sucks. Especially against those characters who dominate air. Zankuro vs. Jubei Thought I'd upload this to show Zankuro in action. He still retains his heavy slashes from SS4, although most of his stuff are toned down(duh). His fireball must be blocked low and his heavy slashs are fast, long and powerful. Note how Jubei's shoulder charging attack now execute faster and have little bit of invincibility time while Jubei charges forward. Althoug Jubei's standing AB and Jump AB has been toned down, it still seems extremely powerful. Also his ground fireball, Shigetsu-to now travels slower but Jubei recovers much faster, making him a lot like Jubei in SS4. However, his defense rating went down. I personally think Zankuro is the coolest in SSZ:Special, although I liked his voice in SS4 better Well, here you go folks, watch it to quench the thirst to play SSZ:Special... There are a lot more videos but I can't link'em on one day All the videos except the last 2 are from ShinJuKu-Land tourneys, specifically exerpted from the 10th to 13th tournaments. Enjoy P.S. Sorry, wasn't able to find one for Sogetsu. He is still strong in SSZ:Special as he is in SSZ.

Location : Shin Juku Land Arcade in Japan Type of battle : Single(1vs1) Tournament You can get it here. To download, right lick the link above and click on "save as..." Amazing fight. Pay attention to the notorious power of BC and the full invincibility time of the Zetsumei Ogi. The Kusaregedo stage music is nice as well. Clap clap

So yeah, it is true, the Zetsumei is back in (yay!) but you can't have the death animations(cutting in half, heads blowing off, only feet are left etc. death anims) I think I wrote this earlier in another thread... The more obvious reason for the recall is the numerous bugs contained in the AES version where the game would freeze when certain moves were executed and numerous other types of bugs. The death animation is replaced with the flash of light of the Issen move(BCD), and SNKP said that they have no intention of changing the violence level or even having that option available. The death animation for the zetsumei Ogi is oblivious in the cartridge, I heard...

What do you mean Hanzo's brainbuster? Are you referring to his dp+S command throw (Mozo Otoshi)? I believe he still has it. Hanzo wouldn't be Hanzo w/o that move. No, the copy move that can be done by 632146+A or B. The reasons why this was removed from the game (same reason Galford's shadow copy got removed) is... 1) SNKP called it "Hot spring of bugs". If SNKP called it this, then 'nuff said. 2) One can get out of Mu no Kyouchi way too easily with this. Instead of fixing the bugs and changing it around to be balanced under Mu no Kyouchi, SNKP actually thought it would be wise that it be removed from the game. The typical response from SNKP

I felt that it felt like hitting paper bags with cotton bats in kof2003... At least compared to other ones before (i,e, 98 ~ 2002)

Actually the full list of changes has been already released. I'll post it when I get the permission to translate & post it here

No competitive games for me until I finish my Transfer applications... Oh well, it's one of those times in life.

For SS4, I don't have a main char... I would play anything except Nako/Galford/TamTam. I enjoy Kyoshiro, Haohmaru, Genjuro, Sogetsu, Jubei Bust and sometimes Hanzo. For SSZ, I play Yunfei, Kusaregedo, Genjuro, Rasetsumaru. Ooh, I have this thing for evil dudes like Genjuro

It is very easy to kill Jubei with Ukyo. First of all, his Shigetsu-to (ground fireball) can be countered by Ukyo's Dash C which has extremely high priority. His counter move has a long long LONG delay if it misses, so run, grab, and do a good combo. Rinse and repeat, and Jubei can't stand a chance. The main weakness of Jubei bust is that he only has 2 viable special moves, which makes him very limited in pattern. Also, he only has 3 good damaging combos, which is usually the only thing Jubei relies on. Do NOT jump with Ukyo, because Ukyo stays in the air way too long. just do Dash C, evade oncoming fireballs with AB, and you don't even have to worry about Jubei's CD because it sucks ox balls. There's nothing for Jubei to combo in after the CD-12, and when Jubei enters a rage his fireball gets slower without much improvement, and everyone knows Jubei's Desperation move is a hugh pile of garbage, if not total suicide. Also, if you jump, don't attack. jubei will do his counter-thing as usual and stand there with his sword up in the air, while you land and pull out that sword to do a one-liner combo.... GG for Jubei. As in general, tip for defeating Jubei for any character is : Don't do expectable stuff.

I wonder where GeForce FX5700go fits at. I got a new HP zd7000 few monthes ago and its been running stuff without anything... Laptop video cards are always so controversial...

I'd rather stay somewhere else than this mortal plane... Infernal or Celestial.

Heck, if it wasn't for perfect dark I probably wouldn't be playing FPS games now. What a great game... it has the best bot mode that even FPS games these days cannot even come close to. Such a good mixture of baddass weapons, bloody firefight and great replayability. The "dizzy" effect kinda gets on my nerves though.

man, you're sick, Gryph Actually I think they do

The fatalities, when used, grant FULL IMMUNITY against normal attacks, grabs, command throws, etc. All of them. And all of them have same framerate startup, also they can be used in combos. I think there's more than flashy spectacle to this "fatality", in my honest opinion. Also, the AES version DOES have the fatality, just without the original motions so the gameplay itself won't be too different.

I think the site K'Dash was referring to was www.sihon.net, which is not the place where the pictures are hosted...

Heck, I even remember the one with Robert... But that was KOF2003... The only fraud I saw with Samurai Shodown series was when someone drew dot pixels of the three bosses in the character selection screen

If it gets out of Japan... My, aren't we pessimistic today. Limited edition, Japan only, overwhelming price tag. I wouldn't get too optimistic either But who knows

If these pictures are real, the fourth picture makes everyone really happy.. Remember how they removed the violence option in the AES version, and SNKP just annouced that it will come as-is? This means that: 1) The AES version was dumped, but hacked so that violence level can be changed 2) the MVS version was dumped, which means... well... unstatable joy The Chinese site that originally posted this said "Coming soon" so it will be some time before the release.... Maybe it's going to be another Christmas gift

I was just lurking around in www.sihon.net today and found these pictures : The original poster said the pictures were from RomShare, and its origins are not known yet. Do you think these are fake? Especially the fourth picture is very... hopeful, yet doubtful..... Any news? *Added content Here are some more pictures from the same site above. Looks like transparancy screenshot and a screeshot opened with tileviewer. Looks like we'll have to keep our eyes open vigilantly. EDIT : Added screenshots

If it gets out of Japan...

I hope it doesn't have green blood like GGX PC version...

To add a note, I think Rimururu's voice acting when being hit by Jetsumei Ogi is great in my opinion. The scream sounds pretty chilling