Grapplers are one of if not the hardest fighting game archetypes to properly balance, and Zangief has been facing the brunt of that for almost a decade at this point in terms of modern updates.
Longtime Japanese pro DNG|Itabashi Zangief recently took a look at the new Street Fighter 6 balance update to take a closer look at the new toys his namesake character received, and he seems mostly happy.
After taking a look at the patch notes, Itazan is a bit surprised that Overdrive Double Lariat’s travel distance had been increased because he couldn’t feel that in prior testing, but that improved move is not what he wanted to test first.
Instead, he spent some time looking at Zangief’s Super Art 1, which was arguably the most inconsistent in the game with how much it would whiff but had its hitbox expanded lower.
Itabashi shows that the Aerial Russian Slam is still not great at catching opponents trying to jump in at him. He says it may be more of a timing issue, but he says it feels easier to catch characters trying to jump away from him, which he does multiple times against a Master-ranked Juri.
He also explores some new / more consistent options going from Gief’s level 2 Super to level 1 like standing heavy kick or headbutt in between the moves and found them to be easier to do — and also performed one of them mid-screen against a Legend-ranked JP.
His most recent video does look more at the OD Double Lariat buffs, but it doesn’t have English subtitles yet.
Itazan does seem pretty pleased with this too though notes the OD lariat into level 3 Super doesn’t really give him any extra damage, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering it already did 4,800 damage by itself.
You can check out Itabashi Zangief’s initial reactions to the new SF6 balance update for his character below by turning on the English subtitles option.