Thoughts On The E3 Build of TTT2

E3 is finally over and I got plenty of time with TTT2. Most people who go to E3 are interested in checking out the thousands of games on display. However, this was not the case with me. I had an agenda.  To get as much hands on time with TTT2 as possible and that’s what I got.  I’ll do my best to give my impressions of the game in general as well as the characters I played.

Before I go into detail, I would like to make it very clear that the version of TTT2 that I played at E3 is the same version that was at the Korean playtest in Jeongin. I was told that this version is about 75% complete. What this means is that the game is very likely to change dramatically by the time it is actually released to the public. In fact, at the time of E3, there was already a newer build of TTT2 that had several changes. In a way, we were playing an out dated version of the game.  Please keep this in mind.

My early impressions of the game were very mixed. When you initially sit down with TTT2, the first thing you think is that you are playing Tekken 6 BR. Just about every system feature from T6 remains in TTT2. Combos, walls, gravity and in my case, even movement felt identical to T6BR. This definitely seemed like a bad thing in my eyes. Not because I don’t like T6BR, but because I expect new fighting games to bring an abundance of new features to the table. This feeling of disappointment was definitely amplified when I heard from Harada and Murray that America will never see a working arcade version of TTT2 (I’ll get into this later).

A few hours into my first day with TTT2, I started to find the tag button in my combos and began to learn how the tag function changes the way you play the game (I’ll get into this more in detail later). As the day went on, we were lucky to get random visits from the very busy Michael Murray. In these quick 5 minute visits, I was able to ask him minor questions I had about the games current build. As always he was very cool to talk to and gave us as much information as he could without getting himself into trouble. After playing TTT2 for about 6 hours and having mixed opinions of the game, I went home itching to play more. This was a good sign.

About half way through day two of E3, I had made my decision. TTT2 is fucking good! This is almost completely due to the amazing depth that is added to the T6 system by the tag button. Though it may not seem like it, the tag button adds quite a bit of strategy and depth to the game. It also changes the individual characters exponentially. For example, Feng is a relatively weak character in T6. But this is only because of his lower than average combo damage. However, the simple addition of the tag assault system now takes care of this problem. In theory, this alone could move Feng much higher on the tier list. The tag function, as well as the other new subtle features in TTT2 certainly add more than I initially thought they would. By the end of day two, everyone was hooked on TTT2.

E3 was quickly coming to an end. It was already day three and I had literally not seen anything in the entire show other than TTT2. Around midday I pulled myself away from the Tag machine and spent about an hour playing Street Fighter X Tekken over at the Capcom booth. Just after that, I was very lucky to score an interview with Harada and Murray who as you can imagine, were extremely busy. During this interview, I almost exclusively asked about TTT2’s availability in American arcades. The video will be available in Youtube soon.  

After my interview with Harada, I got my final games in before they kicked everyone out of E3. After three full days of playing TTT2, I’m left wanting to play more. The game is showing some great potential and I can honestly say that as long as the balancing is as on point as T6BR, we will have another great Tekken game on our hands.

Stages

Most of the new stages seem to be fairly large. The smaller stages that exist now have breakable areas that take you to a much larger area to fight in. From what I remember, there are no longer small stages like the Tomato Fiesta stage in T6.

Universal Tag Assault Launcher

Every character has a universal Tag Assault launcher which is performed by hitting 1+2+5. It is a downward mid hitting punch that starts a tag combo. This can be used as a whiff punisher for characters that have more limited options.

Tag Buffered Launchers

Similar to TTT1, You can tag buffer just about every launcher which will bring in your secondary character causing the forthcoming combo to take away red life. I couldn’t find any changed properties to tag buffered moves like in TTT1. One interesting change this adds to the game is that you can tag buffer a strong launcher that usually yields weak juggles. One example of this is Yoshi’s NSS df+2.

Tag Buffered Bound Moves/Tag assault

The generic way to use the Tag button in juggles is to tag buffer off of bound moves. This can be very confusing at first but becomes quite fluent and smooth once you get the hang of it. From a tag buffered Bound, your secondary character will appear on screen and at this point you have several frames to input one attack to fill in your combo. This one attack can be a single hit or a string and you are not limited to standing moves. WS and stance moves also work. The strongest Tag combo I was able to pull off was Feng/Drag…

Feng uf+4, df+1, df+1, f+4,3~5, Drag f+4,4,3, Feng f+3,4, W!, f+2,1,2

Tag Throws

There are two types of tag throws, generic and team specific. Both types take away red life and the team specific ones seem to take away much more damage.

Netsu/Rage

Rage does not exist in the same way that it did in T6. In TTT2, when you take several hits of damage, your secondary character’s life bar flashes red. This is similar to the Netsu system of TTT1. However, from what we could tell, it works in a more universal way and less specific to what characters you have on your team. Netsu lasts about 10 seconds and is comparable to Rage in terms of damage boost. This Netsu system adds a very interesting twist to the gameplay. It forces you to be more cautious when your opponent has Netsu activated. Netsu is in my opinion what X-factor should have been in MVC3.

Stamina

All characters now have the same life. I think this was a great choice for balancing issues.

Movement

I had heard reports of TTT2 having improved/faster movement when compared to T6. I didn’t feel this at all, and neither did MYK. However, Kane and Rip felt like movement was improved. I found this odd so I asked Murray and Harada for an explanation. Their answer was that movement has not changed in a universal way. However, they have altered movement in a case by case basis. For example, Alisa has a smaller back dash while Devil Jin has a much larger one. This explains why we all had mixed opinions on movement changes.

Raw Tagging

From what we could tell, TTT1’s tag cancel has been removed. This makes raw tags very unsafe. However, you can attack with an inbound character much earlier than you can block. This lets you use a fast move like Feng’s b+1 to attempt to counter hit your opponent’s punisher. You can also use crush moves, parries, reversals and even stances like AOP in an attempt to avoid raw tag punishes. Another change to raw tagging is that you can now access all running attacks on your way in by hitting fff. This is how you do cross chops and tag slides. With this new feature you can now access inbound running slash kicks, unique slides, or even iSW. One last thing that I think is worth noting about raw tagging is that you can use it to avoid lockdown. Though it doesn’t have invincibility frames, if timed correctly, you can use tag almost like a huge backdash in situations where a normal backdash would not work.

Possible Addition of Combo Breakers

In an interview with Rip, Harada mentioned the possibility of adding a type of combo breaker that could be used once per match. They aren’t 100% sure if this will make it into the final game but they are heavily considering it. The way it was described to me was you can use this combo breaker to call in your tag partner to interrupt a combo that is being performed on you. The fact that a major system feature like this could still be added to the final build further emphasizes that this is a work in progress.

Dragunov

Dragunov has improved in my opinion and his new b+1 is the primary reason why. One of his weaknesses in T6 was his lack of solid high crush moves. His new b+1 is just that. It’s mid, has good range, tracks fairly well and is safe on block. B+1,2 is a natural combo and if the second hit scores a counter hit, you get a DOS stun. The notation for his old b+1 has now been changed to uf+1 and the move itself has been buffed. You can no longer escape the full combo that this move yields on CH because of the new crumple stun animation. It looks similar to Steve’s CH b+1 stun. 1+2,4 is a mid homing move to a high kick. This string is a natural combo that wall splats but does not jail. To compensate for this, you can do 1+2,1+2 which does the new homing move into a tackle. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t a great way for the opponent to option select this other than a simple d+1. Another new addition is WS 1,2. This is another 12 frame WS option. It is a mid, high natural combo but does not jail. It’s kind of like they gave us back WS 1,3 from T6.0 without taking away the knock down. If the second hit scores a counter hit you get a knock down similar to uf+4.

Feng

I thought Feng was very interesting. He has barely changed at all, yet I think he has improved because of the Tag assault system. In the E3 build of TTT2, Feng only had a few new moves. 3,3,4 is a mid,high,low string that ends back turned and seems almost useless. The first two hits are a natural combo and the low is launch punishable. I couldn’t find any mix up or cancel for it. CD+2 is a new mid class 1 launcher. It’s about -13 on block but it has push back. This launcher has quite a bit of recovery on hit which made it hard to take full advantage of the high launch. However, if you tag buffer it, you are able to get some fairly high damage as well as take away red life. His most useful new move is 1+4. It is an un-seeable low, high natural combo which gives frame advantage on hit. The problem is that it staggers on block making it very punishable. People originally thought that this move had the potential to pick up off the ground for float combos but the second hit is too slow and too high for that to work. I was very confused as to why they left such a complex character like Feng so unchanged in TTT2. So naturally, I asked Harada about this. He told me that there are several new moves and property changes that aren’t in this build. One thing that he told me would change is his uf+4. He thinks that it is too week and either will do more damage or will have improved range in the final version. As a whole, Feng felt very incomplete and unchanged. I’m looking forward to seeing how they change him in future builds.

Availability in America

I was very sad to hear that TTT2 will not be playable in American arcades. This is also the case with most of the western world. I was able to ask Harada and Murray about this in detail and they gave me very complete answers. The 30 minute interview will be uploaded to Youtube in the next day or so. This interview should answer most of the questions I’m sure everyone has on this topic.

Conclusion

TTT2 is a work in progress and I don’t want to judge it too heavily just yet. However, I will say that from what I’ve seen so far, combined with Namco’s great track history, I would most certainly bet on it being a great success. The only real problem I see with it at this point is it’s fundamental similarities to T6BR. There is a chance that the same people who disliked T6 would dislike TTT2. The game still has a high learning curve and tons of characters you must learn to succeed. However, my personal opinion on this matter is that you shouldn’t fault a game for being hard. Shout outs to three button X-ray supers. 

Comments

[Deathbybears]

Regarding movement:

The majority of you must realize: you suck cock at backdashing. In T5, with the addition of good spacing, I could evade most everything with a single, well-timed backdash. I can only fucking imagine the shit that Korean niggers were pulling at the time. In T6, with the addition of good spacing, it takes two or three perfectly well-timed backdashes (using back dash canceling) to evade most anything. With this in mind, realize that the movement of T5 and Tag era was a luxury.

More, realize that increased movement across the board would be an even greater luxury in T6 or Tag2, as characters now have many more moves that crush or evade in some way.

So before you complain too much about movement, watch T6 videos of jdcr and master what he's doing. Or, see the reason why movement was nerf'd by watching old korean Tag1 or even T5 tournaments.

With all that said, I think that T6 movement movement nerfs along with the addition of more evasive moves and crushing attacks makes for a game where blocking and movement need to be considered at the same time without too much choice in the matter, where as T5 and Tag1 movement makes for a game where you can choose your style of play between blocks and block punishing, or whiff creating and whiff punishing.

So I guess preference in this case is subjective. Personally, I like them both for different reasons. Creating whiffs and punishing whiffs all fucking day is really alot of fun and isn't too difficult when you're pro at movement. Then again, getting your opp to think you're going to block, then backdashing like 3 times in a fraction of a sec to create a whiff that you launch punish blows minds and is also a lot of fun. So for me personally, being a "try-hard", I prefer T6, but really, I could go either way.