He's been gone ever since he's decided that it's perfectly good design to have moves whose only purpose is to create 2F links in combos, and where the hitstun could be extended by several frames without allowing any combos it currently doesn't.
It is perfectly possible for a new player to just not do that link. Maybe they'll find a different, easier route. Or maybe they'll have to settle with a worse combo.
There's nothing bad in optimized stuff being difficult. Several people enjoy grinding stuff in training mode, and it's perfectly fine to give those people something to latch on.
There's a problem when there's no alternative whatsoever to hitting a link, eg instead of classic chains we'd have a 2f window to press the next button at some point during the recovery of a normal, so you can't land more than 1 hit without the 2f window, but can land your 50 hit 8k combo if you got strong execution.
That's clearly not the case with Spiral (presuming you talk about it); you can just omit that last link, or fit some extra buttons earlier, or something else.
As a base ingame example:
My Parasoul combo starts with [cLK cMK sHPx2 xx L.Shot, sMP xx L.Egret, Dash cHP]
Both of those links (Shot - sMP, sMP - Dash cHP) are non-trivial. However,
1) Parasoul players can just go straight into launcher via cLK cMK cHP and not bother linking anything
2) You can fit extra buttons in to make the links much easier via [cLK cMK sHPx2 xx L.Shot, sLP sMP xx L.Egret, Dash cMK cHP]
Both of those are perfectly viable. 1) won't give me exactly what I want, and 2) will be unoptimized, but neither of those takes practice = Beginner Friendly.
If I want an optimized combo which precisely fits my needs, I'll have to work some, that's fair.
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But there is no alternative to hitting a reversal window. If you miss it, you die. If you don't attempt it, you also die.
These aren't comparable at all. One of these is "Waah, I can only do 8k as opposed to 9k damage, if I don't put in any work", the other is "Great, I'll have to drop the game if this makes it in, cus the 2nd most basic defensive mechanism (after blocking) just became utterly unreliable (if I don't spend 5 hours a day in training mode)"
All the while this doesn't even add anything to the game. Hard combos can be fun to drill, and you'll be proud of yourself when you pull them off in a match and the crowd gets hype.
If people can get hype for "Wow, he managed to pull of a DP!" your game is SF1 in 1988 or something. It won't happen. Being able to reversal when you want to is *expected*. There is no reason for it to be difficult.
Why do we have 360-jump-detection? What is negative edge for? Why are there no half circles or double-QCFs? Why don't we have to hit three punches on the same frame to perform a super? Why can we IAD with 9PP instead of 9-delay-PP, or 9-5-6?
Because there are silly execution barriers which don't add anything to a game, and this game doesn't like them - if you want to do a super, you should be able to get your super "guaranteed" (as far as the game can go in guaranteeing without harming other things, of course).
Why would the reversal window be tight? .. .. .. ?
It needs to be tight enough that someone only gets a reversal when he indeed wanted one, and that they only get a reversal at spot X if they actually attempted it at spot X (eg I fight Fukua, expect her to do cLK - Throw, and do Updo after the cLK. Instead she chains cLK-cLK and then does Throw; by now my Updo input should have disappeared). Both of those are given with 4f.
Making the reversal window 1-2f does nothing but make the game FAR less accessible, while also letting people randomly score hits they don't deserve (where the opponent knows what they'll do, and picks the appropriate counter, but misses his execution). Hype!
Even more fun will this add to online play, where 1-2f of lag with a 2f reversal window essentially means you are free to drop the stick the moment anyone lands a hit on you.
The list of possible regions for me to play against just shrunk from "Decent USW connections - USC - USE - Europe West - Europe East" to "Europe West". That's surely going to help my play, the community as a whole, and as such - the game.
