A Few Things About Street Fighter 4
Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 10:24PM Street Fighter 4 is finally here, with several perfect 100/100 reviews. Here's a few things I noticed about the game.
In ranked matches, you can see the opponent's name before the match and kick them or reject the challenge. This allows you to cherry pick who you fight and negates the entire purpose of a ranked match.
In ranked matches (well, all matches) there is no double blind character select. This means the optimum strategy is often to wait until the opponent chooses first so you can counter-pick. This is a very annoying situation.
When lag inevitably happens in an online fighting game, there are different ways to handle it. Some SF4 matches I played had large input delay, maybe as high as 15 frames. This is the time between your button press and seeing the effect happen. Adding input delay is really the worst way to handle lag. GGPO's amazing netcode shows that avoiding input delay and hiding lag in other ways is the way to go. That technology has been readily available for years, so it's disappointing to feel input delay in an online match.
The button config screen is "the wrong way." The right way is for the screen to list functions, then you press the buttons you want to assign. The wrong way is to list buttons, then you scroll through lists of functions to assign. The reason that one way is right and the other way is wrong is pretty clear when you watch people try to configure buttons. I've had to watch what must be thousands of people do this over the years in all the tournaments I've helped run (not to mention local gatherings). When the config screen says "Jab" and requires you to press the button you want, you just press the upper left button on your stick (or whatever button on your gamepad). This is a one-step process. But if the screen lists "X" and then requires you to scroll through functions until you find jab, it requires a two step process. You have to know which button on your controller is labeled "X." When this screen is the right way, no one has to know if the upper left button happens to be X or A or B or whatever else.
If you think this is negligible, you have never seen people set buttons. The wrong way turns what should be a 3 second task into a fairly confusing affair. Yes I know the wrong way allows you to have lots of functions in your list, but this can be done the right way also.
On to gameplay issues. The jumps have strange acceleration to them. While that's subjective, look at Zangief's jump that seems to have the acceleration of a flea. (Incidentally, why does his splash not stay out the whole time in the air?). Also, getting hit out of the air is extremely floaty, which means it takes unusually long to get back to a state where you can actually move again. This "moving in jello" feel is reinforced by many throws that have dead time at the end when it seems like you should be able to move (see Vega's for example).
The size of the stages is extremely large relative to the size of the characters. This helps runaway tactics.
Optimizing for the 1% rather than the 99% case. There's two examples, the first is tech recover (quick get up from a knock down). 99% of the time, I want to get up fast, but this is the action that requires button presses. Why not admit that getting up fast is the intent and make it default, unless the player holds down some buttons to get up slow? That's how it works for Robo-Ky in Guilty Gear, by the way. Incidentally, don't the two kinds of get up timing only lessen the importance of knockdown by allowing you mess up the attacker's timing a bit? Like the decision to have large stages, this seems not to favor offense.
Next is the 2-button throw, a bad idea in fighting games with 2D gameplay. 3D Fighting games are different beasts, so they are excused here, but note that even Dead or Alive offers a macro to turn its 2 button throw into a 1 button throw...and maps that macro to a face button by default. Anyway, 2 button throws solve a non-problem that no one has ever actually had. That's the problem of accidentally throwing and being sad about it. Street Fighter 2, Guilty Gear series, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 all demonstrated that 1 button throws work just fine and don't actually create any problems. Adding a second button press just adds complexity where it's not necessary, and helps nothing. (Edit: it does add a throw whiff which could be a good thing, but simpler is still better...)
Other non-problems we might solve in 2D fighting games would be to make blocking 1 button and jumping 1 button (each are traditionally zero buttons). We certainly could add those button presses, but it would make more sense to reduce the button presses to as few as possible: zero to jump, zero to block, and one to throw.
It's especially unfortunate that Cammy's hooligan throw requires a 2-button throw in the middle to complete it. Why exactly is this necessary, rather than one button?
2 button throws actually introduce the problem of kara-throws, a bug from SF3 that we now have again in SF4. This is when you cancel a forward moving attack a frame or two into it with a throw command in order to greatly extend your throw range. Do the designers want a long throw range or do they not? If they don't kara throws shouldn't be in the game. If they do, then base throw ranges should be extended for all players, not just the ones who input a difficult command.
Another similar bug is the chain combo cancel bug. As an example, consider Sakura. Low short does cancel into special moves. But if you rapid fire the low short (do it 2 or 3 times quickly each one cancels the last) then you CANNOT cancel the last hit into a special. I'm not saying this is a problem at all, necessarily. This restriction is there for good reason: to prevent the game from degenerating into low short -> big damage stuff. It would make more sense to give players a reason to start combos with bigger moves sometimes. Guilty Gear does a great job of this by reducing your entire combo's damage by 20% for each low short. (Hey Guilty Gear players, I know I'm simplifying there.)
Ok so what's the problem, sounds good that you can't do low short, low short, special move, right? But you can do it. If you make the last short a link rather than a chain (do it slowly, but not so slow that it doesn't combo) then you can cancel it into a special move. So really, you can get around this restriction if only you have high dexterity skills. Now, this is also true in ST and SF HD Remix, but that's not so much intent as what we were stuck with. For an entirely new game, I'm surprised to see this still there. I'm even more surprised to see combos that use this in the challenge mode, meaning the developers know about it and accept that low short is really this powerful. SF4 Sakura, for example, can low short, (link), low short, ex shoryken, ultra. She can do a lot more than that, but you get the idea.
This issue of rapid fire moves using a bug to cancel into specials is actually minor compared to the next topic though, a topic that will dominate much of the game: link combos in general. The game is filled with difficult 1-frame links. These are moves that just barely combo into each other with 1/60th of a second timing. In high level play, players will master these and they become common. So Sakura doing low jab, (link), low fierce, short helicopter kick, (link) low short, ex shoryuken, ultra for 50% will be common. One friend of mine already does this combo in real matches after only 2 days of playing, as well as other scarily damaging combos off low short that involve hard links.
Other examples, Ryu can now link low short, low jab, low forward. He can also link low strong, low strong, low roundhouse. Linking is the name of the game, which actually makes the game closer to CvS2 than to 3s or ST. The effect of all these links is to hide the actual game behind an impenetrable wall of execution. If you practice (ie, develop 1p skills unrelated to strategy and unrelated to interaction with the opponent) then you gain access to the real game, a game of high damage off small hits, but only for the dexterous.
Of course some level of this is inherent in just about every fighting game. It's a question of how far to turn the knob towards 1p activities and away from strategy. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo has dexterity requirements of course, but winning tournaments while using zero or very few link combos is entirely possible. That simply isn't the main focus of the game. The existence of many, many new links in SF4 shifts the focus toward that though.
Next up, we have ultras. All I'll really say here is that in real matches I find myself having to pump qcf x 2 over and over looking for the right moment to do the ultra. When I find that moment, I have to complete the qcf x 2 command with PPP. Let's hope I don't press PP in those moments, because that command gives me a super, which is an entirely different move. I'm not sure what qcf x 2 + PPP is doing in a "casual friendly game" in the first place.
Then there's focus canceling. The idea of paying half your meter to cancel a move is taken from Guilty Gear where it was called roman canceling. It's a wonderful mechanic in Guilty Gear, by the way. The command in that game is press any three buttons--I use PPP. This is actually pretty natural because when using a joystick, your right hand's natural resting position is on those PPP buttons usually. In SF4, the roman cancel command is medium punch + medium kick, then tap forward, forward. This is really awkward and a whole lot of inputs for one decision (the decision to roman cancel). I wish I could map this command to PPP or something, rather than having to do button presses AND double taps. There's many combos involving this that you'll need to be able to do to be competitive, so I'm not sure why this ended up requiring so many extraneous inputs.
When I read about the 100/100 scores, I see again and again how "simple and elegant" the game is. Two super meters, a 3-tier focus attack system, and all the complications above seem to fly in the face of that. Even more though, I hear how "casual friendly" it is. This is deeply mysterious and I'm not sure why this so often claimed. Not every game has to be casual friendly, so it would seem more honest to just explain how casual unfriendly all these things are. Qcf x 2 +PPP all the time, extra button presses to throw, extra button presses to roman cancel, and many, many extremely difficult link combos work in concert to create that impenetrable wall of execution between you and the actual game (the interaction between you and your opponent). I wish we could get rid of all this stuff and focus more on the gameplay itself.
Edit: I forgot to mention two more things. First, the unlocks. I'm very surprised to see basic functionality of the multiplayer game--the characters--locked behind tedious 1p tasks. I had to pay a tax of fighting the computer on easiest for long time just to get the core features of the game. (I did this picture-in-picture while watching episodes of Frasier.) I'm fully aware that casual players love unlocks, and that's why non-essential content like costumes, movies, icons, and titles are all perfectly fine to give as rewards for playing 1p content. But the *characters*? This steps on the toes of those wanting to play the multiplayer game by making our first experience with the game a very boring one. I wanted to hire a MMO gold farmer to do this for me.
And the last thing I should have mentioned here is that despite all these many problems, there is fun to be had in the game...
Reader Comments (275)
I think that the link combo issue, and similar high-level reflex/muscle memory components of the game, may end up creating a significant rift between arcade/tourney/in-person play and online play.
Even one or two frames of lag will kill your link combos, your kara cancels, etc. As such it is almost pointless to even try them in many games; lag exists even if it is unnoticeable in many cases.
Many arcade players will probably insist that this corrupts the game and makes it unplayable, and will be purists in many cases; some players will learn to deal with it and play online, effectively excising link combos from their repertoire in most cases. This makes me pretty happy to consider, because a) I don't want to sit and practice link combos instead of playing for real, and b) I play online exclusively.
It will be interesting to see the effects that online play will have on the game.
Overall, I think SFIV is really something special... I'm just disappointed that the development teams from SFHD and SFIV didnt' seem to communicate with each other.
SFHD would be so much better if it had SFIV's "Fight Request" system that users can enable while playing single player. I really appreciate the fact that they prompt you on your first play-through to turn it on (this is how I got my 10 ranked wins in a row icon... pray on users using the Fight Request system that also don't have icons set :)). SFHD could also benefit from the combo trial system.
And SFIV would be so much better if I could create a lobby with more than 1 person and observe other matches. The observation feature in SFHD really upped my game.
Both games also seem to be really sluggish when it comes to checking the ranks, and creating and browsing lobbies. With the way web pages load these days (sub-seconds), why does it have to be so slow on networked video games to pull back a simple list?
I'm really disappointed by this article, Sirlin. I can't help but feel that you're simply pessimistic of the game because it's not the way YOU would have done it.
Over 2,000 words of whining and predicting the degenerate future of a week old game? Where's the calm, calculated "wait and see" approach that so many people admire in the Playing to Win articles?
Response by Sirlin: Perhaps if we wait long enough, ranked matches won't show the opponent's name. Perhaps waiting will fix the button config screen. Perhaps waiting will make throws 1 button and fast getups zero buttons. Will waiting remove the many link combos? What are you even talking about?
All the discussion here so far has covered everything really well, but I just wanted to put in my own pointless bitch that the super high arcing, low horizontal movement jumps are the most awkward thing ever.
Best review of the game that I’ve seen, and I agree with almost all of it. Last night I couldn’t believe that I was once again practicing convoluted link combos in what was billed as being a simpler Street Fighting game that eschews memorization for timing and strategy. What we really need is a DLC mode that tones down all the kooky combos and lets us focusing on multiplayer.
While I do agree with some of your review Sirlin, I still gotta say your lovechild HDR isn't without its share of flaws.
* 2 Button throws aren't anything new. Third Strike even used the very same setting (LP+LK) and it worked perfectly. Why complain now?
*You are also right about the way the game handles button mapping. But... really, why didn't HDR even include the option to map 3 punches or 3 kicks on the shoulder buttons, hmm? Because you tournament people have no use for shortcuts? What about the rest of the pad-bound players?
And also, the various pre-mapped configs (type a, type b, type C) pretty much cover all the types of pads and sticks we have available in my group of friends. So setting a controller is quite simple really.
*GGPO netcode, flawless? The thing is a choppy mess in HDR when I play against anyone with less than 4 bars. At least SFIV always looks seamless to me, even though I did experience a bit of input lag here and there.
*Hitting 3 punches/ kicks for the Ultras is quite hard indeed. Especially when one uses a pad. But wasn't that how they handled super moves in Alpha and Alpha 2 too? I don't really enjoy these inputs, but... they're hardly anything new...
Response by Sirlin: What a weird post. First my post isn't about SF HD Remix. What is good or bad about it is neither here nor there. I was simply pointing out things about SF4. If SF HD Remix had never existed, this post about SF4 would be exactly the same.
Next, "why complain about 2 button throw now?" It's not like my complaints are new. 2-button throws in SF3 are also bad and unnecessary.
3 button moves. First your analogy seems to miss the point. This post talked about how qcf x 2 + PPP is a very common command in SF4 and shouldn't even exist at all. On top of that, it overlaps qcf x 2 + PP. You bring up special move commands like zangief's PPP in SF HD Remix that have alternate commands of just pressing 2 buttons. What is your complaint here? First, you should say "thank you for that." Second, it's not relevant to SF4.
Regarding ggpo, if you think adding input delay to online play is the best (or even an acceptable) method of networking, I think you are simply not aware what affect it has on timing (it ruins it completely) and are also unaware of enormous community support GGPO has. So strong that literally *thousands* of posts demanding it for SF HD Remix lead to finally getting Tony Cannon's consulting. You would advise "just use input delay?" Ha!
Hi Sirlin
Very interesting read. I also dislike the two button throw but I kind of wanted this because in HD Remix I seem to sometimes throw ppl by accident. Now I actually assign the "throw" to a button and II do not accidentally throw ppl anymore and if ppl misses the attempt they get a punishable whiff animation, which is always good.
Now I want to say that I am a PS3 D-pad user and it has been very tough to assign each button because it is almost impossible to press multiple buttons accurately and efficiently for throw, ex, FA and Ultra. So I actually sacrifice the light kick button. I just HAVE to assign the 3K, 3P and throw buttons. I feel they are more important then the light kick button.
Another point I would like to make is the unnecessary "harder" input for some char's special moves like:
Cammy's hooligan row is hcf > UF
Fei Long's new chicken wing also requires the same motion
I really REALLY missed the HD Remix's easier input =)
"Response by Sirlin: What a weird post. First my post isn't about SF HD Remix. What is good or bad about it is neither here nor there. I was simply pointing out things about SF4. If SF HD Remix had never existed, this post about SF4 would be exactly the same."
What a weird post?
Heh. What a condescending reply. :P
I was expecting something better from the man everybody worships.
I was just basically saying that yes, Street Fighter IV had share of flaws, but any game has them. I just used HDR as one example, don't get so upset... Most of the flaws in SFIV aren't really game breaking, and two-button throws are perfect if you ask me. But you're not, I know.
I dunno Sirlin, I think this nitpicking stems from one thing mainly::
1) SF4 is overshadowing HD Remix
And from what I've read, anyone who disagrees with you gets an edit. HD Remix is good, but it's no SF4, and no matter what you would have done, it would have been near impossible to create the same type of experience with a limited budget and team. Sorry my friend, but be a man and accept that SF4 IS good.
Response by Sirlin: Sigh. "Be a man" and realize that I would have written this exact same post whether or not Street Fighter HD Remix even existed. If that game never existed, it would still be a good idea to have double blind select in ranked, still be a bad idea to let you kick your ranked opponents. The jumps would still be homogeneous, getting hit out of the air still floaty, etc. Why would you think these things have to do with other games I've worked on? These problems in SF4 would still be there no matter what I worked on, or didn't work on.
I totally agree with sirlin. Though as a hardcore player, I don't really mind them that much, but one of the reasons I like SF2 was that it was more about foot work than execution imo.
I respectfully disagree with some things. Kicking players can be reserved for bad connections, that's what my friends and I do. No blind select doesn't bother me, if you play well, no one is unbeatable. No game is perfectly balanced: play a better game though, and you could win. Being counterselected by a 'higher tiered' character means you didn't play well enough. Button config is annoying, yes. When done, though, I don't see how it affects my game? As for quick default fast getting up and robo ky, that's one character in the dozens of fighting games out, and nobody minds. 2 button throws can be setup via shoulder button, if it bothers people. If tournament rules void that, it is for a reason: If you botch a throw, you made a mistake. Crap happens. Works both ways, as it affects your op as well. Kara cancels are hardly gamebreaking. It's an advantage, yes. However, a good kara cancelling player can be beaten by an equally good non kara cancelling player. As for ppp, same as throws. Assign them, or adapt. Again, in tourney's, everyone is affected if you cannot assign these buttons, to, say, a shoulderbutton. Also, the game IS casual friendly. People can have fun with the game in many ways, and hopefully encourages newbs to do the little extra effort it requires to master these basics. Compared to 3S red parries, A3's v isms, Mark o/t Wolves's just defend, Virtua Fighter's ENTIRETY, newbs have a far better chance at getting better, and enjoy themselves. Oversimplifying isn't going to help a newb beating say, a Daigo. Even simplified SF HD won't turn a newb into a superplayer overnight: practice does (or comes a long way). It wasn't meant to be like that in Ssft, Sf hd, and doesn't count in Sf 4 either. That doesn't mean Sf 4 isn't more catered towards casual players? I don't mean to sound overly negative on the article, just wanted to voice my opinion, and am certainly not a Sf4 fanboy. It's true that the 100 perfect scores are a bit too much.The article voiced an extremely well voiced opinion, one I couldn't possibly construct, but do disagree with on points. No more, no less. So, please don't kill. And most importantly, have fun!
Before the 17th of this month I had never played a Street Fighter game. When I got home with the game I installed it and promptly entered into online ranked matchmaking, where I proceeded to lose 100 straight matches. I have years of 3D fighting experience, my first real fighter was the first Virtua Fighter. None of that experience translated into this game. It took me a hundred beat downs and hours of practice in training to be able to start winning.
Now I'm at 1600 BP and rising because I have the basic controls down and can begin playing against the other player rather than fight myself. But I must say, this game is NOT newbie or casual friendly. I'm tenacious, hard headed, and I love a challenge, so I stuck with it. Granted I'm using Guile because hes cool, butt a hell of a lot harder to learn then a Ken or Ryu. Everyone else I know would have been beaten by a perfect two or three times online and never booted the game up again.
I have encountered one or two players (both using Ryu) who have used combos like you mention, and I can't touch them. I play on a Saturn USB controller, and I have spent hours in training trying to get Guile's FADC Ultra and other similar combos down. But I just can't execute them with any sort of reliability on my D-Pad. I'm confident that if I had a good stick I could practice and be able to execute them with little trouble. This frustrates me, I will be denied access to the top levels of play because I don't have a $150 arcade stick.
As for two button throws and getting up, I don't see the trouble. I have throw bound to R1 on my controller so I don't really understand why two button throws is even an issue. Can you not bind a button to throw on a stick? As for having to react to get up quickly, I'm conditioned to do that from the 3D fighters I have played, and I do it without thinking.
All said, I'm loving the game. Sooner or later I may spring for a good stick so I can get better.
Why did they have to make the netplay have so much input lag? It's okay when the ping is low, but when you start lagging, the input delay is horrendous. Perhaps it has something to do with how it's not as easy to draw 3D characters skipping around. Interp is better!
Also, reversals are a lot easier SF4. They used to be 1 frame timed too, but now everyone can reversal on wakeup, or reversal a command throw. Since they made this easier, why did they add even more 1 frame timed link combos?
So far I am happy with SFIV. I can see that the game is certainly slower, but I kinda like that, and I also don't think that 2 button throws are bad in the slightest. I actually prefer them specifically because of the ability to do what I want when I want. There are times when I in fact want a standing fierce/roundhouse etc. Although I can see that in a game like ST the throw may be favorable at times, I may have wanted that move as opposed to the throw and that is exactly what I should get. Not only that, I don't see anything wrong with execution being something to look out for in throw attempts, and honestly, 2 buttons as opposed to 1 is really nothing at all.
On the links thing, I agree on the game having a lot of them, but there are many in all SF games really. I felt like there were a lot of links in ST also.
The Ultra combo having a 3 button input and sharing the motions with supers is an issue that I tossed around a bit and eventually came to the conclusion that it can still work fine. At advanced/high level play we wont see people whiffing this, and I don't think that was so much the intention. I think that the whiff should cost you more than a whiff animation. Ultras are freaking strong, and you get them essentially for free. It is a positive byproduct of getting hit with the potential to radically change the outcome of the fight. Being able to whiff is great, but the idea of the whiff costing you super meter is understandable to me. When I see some one throw out a super when I know they were going for an ultra is a blessing to me, and I use that to take it easy and wait for them to mess up and accidentally waste the ultra, knowing that they now have less options to use it and will cause less damage when it lands do to not having extra meter to link it into combos with.
I find throwing on two buttons is more casual-friendly (read: accessible) than throwing on one button, which seems to be what you are striving for?
The first is readability, I asked my character to throw and they are playing a throw animation. What’s important is they do the throw animation even when I’m doing it wrong, visually I know the two buttons I have pressed were the throw input and my character has, successfully or otherwise, tried to throw. With one button if the throw check is unsuccessful I don’t try to throw I do something else, which is by all means less clear. I don’t know if I missed, why the check failed, if I pressed the buttons wrong, etc.
The second is consistency with the throw escape command. This input being the same as the throw itself makes sense, it actually means people see throws as people trying to “throw at the same time” rather than one player’s anticipation, and this is actually better at low level play for simplification. BlazBlue is another game that has a lot of emphasis on throwing and throw escapes and it feels really solid having both these functions on the same (two) buttons compared to the practically nonexistent throw escapes in Guilty Gear.
I think option select and punishment are higher-level considerations but, of course, have to enter the argument at some point. Not by me, though.
However, this is about the only concession made. For a game claiming to be accessible there are an awful lot of nasty links. But what really irks is the trail mode, which was advertised as an extended tutorial! Some of these are really esoteric. Are you supposed to link, cancel, dash or fadc? You work it out. It seriously needs more detailed instructions or a replay of the CPU doing the combo, right now it is just a challenge mode as (correctly) labelled by the game.
Nice article. I agree with mostly everything here except for the two button throw.
There is an interesting article on SRK about people having a negative impression of the game:
I personally do not like the game engine so far. It just doesn't feel right and as slick as SSF2T or 3S. I'm not happy with the way the game controls and each time I play I think ..."I could be playing HD remix or 3S instead". There is definitely some fun in the game but at this point I'm dissapointed....hopefully that changes...
Thank you Sirlin for a thoughtful article, and to everyone else with their comments and criticisms as such.
I'm a semi-hardcore player (time permitting) and all of what you write rings true after playing for a weekend. SF4, although enjoyable, is not polished, and you have definately identified the majoirty of the rough edges. I do think that some of your points are subjective (which is maybe why we see some backlash in responses), namely, you could argue picking and choosing fights is good/bad, that character selection being visible is another element of strategy to the game, and that button mapping is trivial or that it is more intuitive to go physical->game rather than game->physical. In most cases I agree with your side of the coin and I think most (but certainly not all) educated gamers do too.
I especially agree with the casual/friendly discussion you post. Street Fighter has never been casual, almost every rendition requires some degree of time/effort to unlock the vast majority of any character's potential. This version is no different and as a semi-hardcore player I have no reason to complain. When you contrast the SF series to something that is accessible (imo) like Smash it is apples and oranges. 2 button inputs or even 1 for the more powerful maneuvers in the game vs. the analog shuffle/homemade joysticks/+3 buttons.
Obviously, the best option would be to have 'options', and some sort of 'balanced' benefit go out to the more difficult option of motion and multiple button inputs. i.e. simple vs. advanced play (and sure simple might have to forgo some of the jabs or shorts etc. in exchange for special move inputs). Then, when you play casual everyone uses simple that need to and everyone is on the same playing field... or kind of.
fyi. I THINK the argument that it is accessible is that (on the surface and at entry play) the comeback meter and counter/reversal abundant system makes a lot possible for low level players that can a) perform the ultra, and b) perform an uppercut.
Anyways, technicalities aside (which is where most arcade to system ports fail miserably), the main reason I am posting is to address you and the communities subtle allusions to balance in their posts and the possiblity for a competitive SF4 scene emerging or do these admittedly obvious flaws take away from this games potential for a lifespan beyond unlock/mash buttons/eye at nice pictures/end?
woops..here is the SRK thread I meant to post:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=176711
Posted a comment before but didn't see it show up...
Anywho, agreed with pretty much everything you said, Mr. Sirlin. Not that I'm a huge Guilty Gear fan, mind you, but it's rather telling when Roman Canceling, which was already bordering on the needlessly difficult (to incorporate, not perform) is easier to perform than FADC.
I hope to see and play your fighting game someday soon.
It's casual friendly because there are -lots- of simple tactical decisions to be made that newbies can grasp, and if this is your first SF game ever, you'll feel comfortable not knowing or caring what a kara throw or a link combo is. As an amateur player, I'm enjoying this game a lot, certainly more than any of the Alphas and possibly even more than 3S.
As far as the awkward button inputs are, SF has always had complex inputs, so that's scarcely a fault of this version. QCF x 2 + PPP is scarcely more difficult than QCF x 2 + P. In fact, when I first got Street Fighter II for SNES back in the 90's, Zangief was one of the early characters I liked because PPP was an easy input for me, and things like DPM + P weren't. With analog sticks, the reverse is true, but on an arcade stick, PPP is a simple input, and on a controller there's a button mapped to it by default.
Lack of double blind character select seems like a glaring oversight, though. Hope that gets removed with a patch.