Monday 25 October 2010

Blazblue Continuum Shift II Hazama Changes


As of BBCS: II Loketest IV, the apparent changes to Hazama have quite clearly made him a royal pain, if not, useless to use; Feel free to read below on my opinion about how each change may affect how he plays.

Changes to Ouroboros (Drive):

'Startup and move speed have been slightly slowed.'
Now, the changes to his Ouroboros, while you can look at it and go "Oh...slower startup...and slower movement. Greeeeeaaat!" I've heard that it is barely noticible, and so shouldn't have much of an impact on Hazama's playstyle; of course, this applies only if you can use him correctly.
Whether this changes by the next loketest or by retail has yet to be seen, since these changes have been around since about loketest #2, and we're on #4.


'Gauge takes longer to recover.' - 'Gauge increases by one if guarded.'
His Ouroboros gauge taking longer to recover, in my opinion, is offset by an increase to it by one if guarded because you will generally use his Drive for zoning into your opponent. So there is going to be plenty of instances in which they will block and your gauge will increase. So maybe it taking longer to recover isn't so bad afterall.

I doubt very much that these changes to his drive will change his overall game, unlike the changes to his normals that I will be discussing next.

Changes to normals:

'6A/6C downs on hit.'
This, I can see as being a good change. A knockdown is a knockdown and 80% of the time, it's going to put you in an advantageous position. I like the thought of 6C downing on his because there are instances you will screw up a 3C combo start and it comes out as that. If the 6C connects, I suppose it gives you a second chance, if you will.

'5B > 3C is harder to combo, tighter link is required.'
Now this one, I'm not sure if I see a need in it; the link is fairly tight enough as it is, but then I can never really tell what Aksys are thinking with these changes, honestly. Kind of makes me glad I'm more in favour of using 5C > 3C instead, despite it being seemingly slower.
Considering his other changes, I don't think this will be much of a favourable combo anymore anyway.


'3C floats/knocks opponent upwards.'

Again with the needless changes, though I do wonder if this means you can use 3C > 2C to start off your juggle combos instead. Otherwise, his next change may make it slightly difficult for him to work anymore with his air juggles (A.K.A. MASH DAT C!)

'5B 3C 214D~C doesn't connect anymore.'
Why, Aksys, why? First you make it harder for 5B > 3C to connect...and now you take away his main focus of starting off an air juggle. Allow me to give you a round of applause for your utmost FAILURE of keeping this game balanced *sigh*
Maybe there's hope in the 3C > 2C perspective, but so far; I'm not seeing it.



Throw changes:

'Air throw can be followed up by Zaneiga (214D~C).'
Alright, so this isn't too bad, though, this could mean a slight loop for Hazama if you take into consideration that you start off the combo with 214D~C, and are able to end it with Air throw. And it's a ridiculously easy loop too if that's the case!
I've never really been sure what I think of characters having loops, and I don't think I'm particulary happy with even my own character having one. They just make the game focused around getting your opponent into that single loop and taking it from there...Boring.


'Cannot cancel throws into chain.'
If I mentioned I wasn't too bummed about this, I would be lying. This could possibly mean Forward throw > 6D > 623D No longer works and even worse still, following up a throw with 6D~D, *Insert C mashing here* may no longer be possible. 
I'm not too sad about losing the Backthrow > 5D > Serpent's Infernal Rapture, as the chain on that often misses certain characters (ie, Jin) completely.


Other changes:-

'jC: no longer jump cancelable(?)'
While unconfirmed, I think this will ultimately make Hazama completely useless, taking into account his other chains. This means you would only be able to do one half of his usual air juggle. Which would account for absolutely miniscule damage that isn't worth the effort.
 

But, there is still time for Aksys to change their minds, and I think only us Hazama players can hope that this is indeed the case!

7 comments:

Riizu said...

Why make things harder to combo? A combo is a combo is a combo. If it's made harder to do, it's just an obvious attempt to 'become more competitive', and I don't like it.

.Francys Pai said...

Yup, that's what really annoyed me about it. If you look at it this way, if the jC is no longer jump cancellable. You'll get like, a maximum of something like...9/10 hits off his usual juggles (including combo...oh...wait, he can't do things off 3C anymore. MY BAD!)

Seriously, I'm seeeeething about it right now.

Writer8 said...

I hope by now, being several months later, you've seen awesome clips of Hazama owning~ His damage has been amped like crazy and there are simply new combos that take awesome advantage of the changes. You also realize that his jump combos had proration to the extreme hence low damage right? I'm a Hazama user too~

.Francys Pai said...

Yeah, I'm perfectly aware of that, but to be honest with you. Who likes seeing their character get nerfed?

.Francys Pai said...

I also knew about the proration. It happens in most fighters (...though I think Tekken does not since it is based around pretty much getting your opponent in that10 hit combo to ko them).

It's nice to see that he can do a few things, but initially I was a bit skeptical (weren't we all?) I just kinda hope this hits consoles soon enough so he can be played around with a little more.
Haven't played BB in a while (since I've been concentrating on SF for Evo because I wasn't sure they'd announce BB for it [Last year they took it out for MBAA] but since it's confirmed now, I've started picking it up again).

Writer8 said...

Ah, yeah well I kinda just started BBCS recently after having played BBCT ages ago on PSP. Soooo I kinda missed out on the skeptical part haha D;
Ah yes I seriously hope it comes out on PS3 so we can mess around. Tbh though I think the change for Hazama was for the best, because I already grew slightly tired of his main BnB. Aaannnddd~ I'm also gonna start with SSF because I just recently discovered Ibuki's sex(iness). Too bad I can't really travel for tournaments or whatnot.

.Francys Pai said...

Haha good luck with Ibuki. She's very very difficult to master. Relatively execution intensive and really requires a lot of thinking.

And yeah, that would be fun, I hope they fix the netcode again by then. CT had a flawless netcode, whereas CS is like...SF standard Urgh.

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