Community SSFIV Developer Blog: Move Tweaking and Costume Alts

By Crimson Relic — February 9, 2010
Tags: blog super-street-fighter-iv xbox-360

A little bit of info regarding some adjustments to moves.

I really wanted to go to the 1st Kansai Regional Qualifiers... It seems like the Kyushu Regional Qualifier last week was also incredible! This week it's the Chubu Qualifiers! Everyone, do your best!
Hello, this is Tsukamoto!

This time, I'd like to talk about some things that all our players have been concerned about - move adjustments/tweaking and the alternate costumes. I'll be joined by director Mr. Okada, and the battle player Mr. Tamamura.

-- What kind of adjustments are being made this time around for SSFIV?

Okada:
First, we decided to stick with the idea of keeping whatever was possible in SFIV intact. For balancing a fighting game, there are two different possibilities - make the moves of the stronger characters less effective (nerf) or to make the moves of the weaker characters more effective (buff). Going the route of buffing the weaker characters moves makes for more difficult adjustments, but as we didn't want our players to feel stressed out, we decided to go with buffing the weaker characters for SSFIV.

-- Will we still be able to do combos and such that were possible in SFIV?

Okada:
Yes. As long as leaving it in wasn't too dangerous, we've been making our adjustments while leaving in combos that were possible in SFIV. We had decided on this at the very beginning of development.

-- What kind of adjustments are being made for the characters who are said to be too strong?

Okada:
If we're talking about strong characters, that would be Sagat right? Before making adjustments, we asked for the opinions of people who play Sagat. We found that, more than using him just because he was strong, that there were a lot of people who enjoyed playing the character. So we have been making adjustments while trying to preserve that sense of enjoyment. Sagat has the infamous Tiger Uppercut FADC Tiger Destruction Ultra combo, as well as many other powerful tools. So we're not trying to take away all of his powerful tools, but just look carefully look at what we can retain and then make adjustments from there.

-- So that means that the feel of playing Sagat won't really change in SSFIV?

Okada:
To a point, it will be really close to how it was in SFIV. Of course, there will be adjustments made to his move's damage output and effectiveness, so it won't be exactly the same as SFIV. But it is our intention to keep as much as possible of the play of Sagat that players found fun and interesting.

Tamamura:
Also, I don't think that there will be any instances where you feel that a move has become really nerfed from the previous game. Not just the moves, we are also looking at things like vitality and stun values.

-- Zangief was also pretty strong.

Okada:
In SFIV, when Zangief did a Double Lariat against larger characters, really the only thing they could do was to block it. For example, maybe Abel players aren't too fond of the matchup against Zangief. So this time in SSFIV, we're making adjustments to avoid things like that.

-- But if we're talking about strong characters....

Okada:
If we just look at the effectiveness of his moves and his general abilities, Ryu was also considered to be pretty strong. We've made some general adjustments on Ryu as well, but probably the easiest to understand is that his strong and fierce Shoryuken have been changed from SFIV - they've gone from one hit to two. Those who have been playing Street Fighter games for a while probably already know this, but in SFII the Shoryuken was two hits. So now we feel as if we've come closer to the feel of that time.

-- How does the 2-Hit Shoryuken change things from the last game?

Okada:
If he doesn't get the full 2 hits, if only 1 hit connects on his opponent, the damage output is less than what it was in SFIV.

-- Does this mean you've nerfed the damage on the Shoryuken?

Tamamura:
I don't think you can really call it a nerfing. You can still use it as a poke/counter, and I think its easier to use in combos now, so we've adjusted it to make its proper use a bit easier.

-- What kind of adjustments have you made for the characters who are considered to be weak?

Okada:
In general, our weak characters are thought to be Vega and Guile. So of course, we've been making adjustments to buff them up. To give a specific example, we've increased the amount of hits Vega can take before he loses his claw. His claw has a lot of priority, so in SFIV in order to make it not too good we made it so that it came off fairly quick. But the players all responded that Vega was weak, and I think this is a big reason why. So this time, while also thinking about general balance, we've made the claw a lot more durable as compared to SFIV. And for Guile, in SFIV I felt that we didn't really capture his "footsies and normals" gameplay style, so we took a good look at that area and made adjustments.

-- If there have been any big changes for other characters, please tell us about it.

Okada:
We had a lot of requests from Rose players who wanted to be able to grab an opponent with the Soul Throw after they've been launched by the Soul Reflect. So now you can. This wasn't something that she's been able to do before, but it certainly looks like she should be able to. So this time we've made it so that she can catch with the Soul Throw. We've made adjustments such as this, so please look forward to them.

-- If you are making adjustments to all characters moves, then does that mean we have to re-memorize all our opponents combos from scratch?

Okada:
We felt that we didn't want to make big changes to the combos, so we haven't for the most part. We have been balancing things so that players from SFIV can make the transistion to SSFIV with all their knowledge intact, and for new players to be able to pick up the game without feeling too much opposition.

-- How about the strength of the CPU opponents?

Tamamura:
As we heard a lot of opinions from our players about this, we've also made adjustments to the CPU opponents.

Okada:
We've widened the difference a little bit between EASIEST and HARDEST in Arcade Mode. So EASIEST is a bit easier, and HARDEST feels like it might be the toughest yet. So this will give you a different play experience from SFIV!

-- So here let's switch gears and talk about the alternate costumes. Tell us the details of adding the alternate costumes to all of the characters this time around.

Okada:
First, our development staff had decided from the beginning that all of the new characters in SSFIV would have to have an alternate costume. But then we started thinking about how to give our fans even better service, and talks arose of giving the existing SFIV characters another costume. As SSFIV is on a pretty tight schedule, originally Mr. Tsukamoto had said "That's not really possible is it?" But then Mr. Kamei said "I'll get it done even if I vomit blood!" and since he was willing to go that far, we decided to go ahead with the additions (laughs). So we really are grateful to the designer.

-- How do you decide on the look of the alternate costumes?

Okada:
For the alternate costumes in SFIV, we looked at the character personality, and then what type of look they would have based on that. So we decided to stay faithful to the characters. So generally, we have a lot of stoic designs. For SSFIV, producer Ono expressed a desire to bring out the more playful elements of the alternate costumes, so from that we have ones like the Mega Zangief F.

-- Were there any difficulties in creating the alternate costumes?

Okada:
First, time! That's what we want the most when trying to make something good. During the draw-up period all we talked about was how and if we could make the costume that would be the coolest for the character.

Tsukamoto:
The character it took the longest to decide on was Ryu.

Okada:
Yeah. If we're talking about Ryu, he's martial arts clothes with a headband! ...But aside from that he doesn't really have a strong impression, so it was difficult to break that. For his alternate this time around, there were some opinions to just have him look casual, in a T-shirt and jeans. But we felt that Ryu is at his coolest while fighting, so he should be wearing something that shows his battle readiness. So that's how we arrived at his current alternate costume of the hakama pants.

-- Were there any ideas that were dropped?

Okada:
To go along with Mega Zangief F, we also had a Mega Blanka. When he does his Electric Thunder move there'd be these coils on his back that would light up. But then when we put Mega Zangief F and Mega Blanka together, it didn't really feel like a Street Fighter game anymore, so we eventually dropped it.

-- What are some of your personal favorite alternate costumes?

Tsukamoto:
I like Mega Zangief F. When he jumps, he's got rocket boosters in his feet that light up and make you think that something's gonna pop out. Its a really intricately designed costume.

Okada:
There are a lot of great things about Mega Zangief F! If you look closely, you can see the background is reflected in his various parts. Also, we made sound effects just for him (laughs). But personally, I like Balrog. He's got a nice wild look that's just really cool!

-- Do you have any final comments to the players looking forward to the game?

Okada:
First, about adjustments, aside from just tweaking existing moves, we've also added new ultra combos, which is sure to increase the fighting styles of many characters. For all the players who have been giving it their all in SFIV, they can bring all their techniques over to SSFIV and also enjoy new ones. And of course for those who are just getting started with SSFIV, we've made adjustments so that its easy to jump right into, so please look forward to it!

And about the alternate costumes, the work that goes into making one is almost the same as it would be to make a whole new character. There's a lot of detail in even the smallest areas, and it shows how hard the designers worked on it, so please take a good look at them. As Ms. Shiozawa mentioned on her blog last week, the alternate costumes for Guile, Blanka, Dhalsim, Gen, and Fei Long will be available from the start as a special feature. Give those a try, and if you like them then we'd be thrilled if you used the other alternate costumes as well!

Tsukamoto:
Well, I hope you enjoyed this week's entry. We were able to get some details about the game balance and adjustments. If there's demand for it, I'd like to make another chance to talk a little bit more about adjustments.

Well then, see you next week!

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Community SSFIV Developer Blog: Move Tweaking and Costume Alts

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