(For how this all got started, read here)
Omatase shimashita saikyo fans!
I’ve still been playing Dan whenever I’ve been on USF4 lately. But I hadn’t had any especially good matches for a while that were post-worthy. As my ranking’s been rising I’ve been having some really close fought battles and I’ve been edging closer to a 50:50 win rate. Whilst I’ve had some really good games in the past few weeks, they weren’t anything especially fun to upload and watch the replays – some back and forth block-fests against strong Ryu players aren’t the most thrilling viewing in my opinion! I’d also been cursing the vagaries of lag on USF4 lately as I seem to have had some bad luck with that, that was really frustrating for me, especially as when I’m already struggling with, well, playing as Dan 😉 (Laggy Zangief players are especially annoying on SF4… he does seem to be one of the most lag-friendly characters to play as, just keep spinnin’ that stick, wait for the lag-whiffed combo… 😦 ).
This, however, all changed last night when I had an 8-3 run with Dan, and two of the losses I could pin at least partially on atrocious input lag I was suffering from in them too… But we don’t really need serious analysis here in the saikyo-ryu dojo, and we certainly don’t need to hear about Dan losing. So instead, here’s the highlights of Dan winning! 😀
I suspected my night was off to a bad start when I immediately came up against a high-ranked “B” grade player of the #1 student of the saikyo-dojo; Sakura… who was ripping off ridiculous combos the likes of which I could never do… then, this happened:
Don’t worry Sakura, with some more training your fireballs can travel across the whole screen too!
I reckon this was one of my best ever wins with Dan, especially for the crazy comeback even after whiffing my Ultra against one of the highest ranked players I’ve faced with Dan. That really got my D-groove fighting style going!
Another especially nasty match-up for Dan I usually find is Juri…
Rakusho! 😀
Backdash while I’m on wakeup will you? Uhuh… I’ll show you the hidden power of saikyo-ryu! Shisso Buraiken!…
I’m still a bit miffed every time I see my Dan get hit out his Ultra by a ground fireball though 
Now, how do you beat the usual boring keep-away Gouki player with Dan? It would seem impossible on paper…
… but persistence, a lot of blocking, and a healthy dose of random-LOL-ULTRAAAA!! shall carry the day for Dan 🙂
To be fair these weren’t real random Ultras – both were yomi-based decisions by me when I was pretty sure he was about to poke an attack out. There’s a really funny failed super and failed super retaliation to watch for in the final round too 🙂 My own super was the usual accidental super caused by the stupid overlapping inputs. I actually try to NEVER EVER have a super meter up with Dan on purpose, as I know if I’ve got a full meter there’s a huge chance I’ll accidentally throw out his spectacularly useless normal Super move 😦
Also to be fair to this guy, he was good – I went 50:50 vs his Gouki and his (better) Yun, although one of the Akuma matches I lost I had awful lag and could barely dragon punch which was driving me nuts…
So about that Yun? This was our last battle… of course this one was going to the upload channel (as was one of my earlier wins vs his Gouki)… if it’s a ranked match upload-to-replay channel, you know I’m feeling good about it already!
Ultra that Ultra! 😀 …Kore ga saikyo-Ultra-da!
Oh and btw, some more Street Fighter V news came out over the weekend, this time with some actual meaningful content. Not as exciting as Dan matches I know, but the return of Nash is a pleasant surprise for me.
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