No, you haven’t woken up in the year 2009 and we aren’t talking about Street Fighter 4 here. It is indeed 2024, we have Street Fighter 6, and a new option select has been discovered that seems to help players deal with the game’s newest universal mechanic a bit more easily.
Footage of a fresh option select coming out of Japan has surfaced and demonstrates how you can essentially perform a meaty light attack while simultaneously baiting wake up Drive Reversal, allowing you to parry and punish the new defensive mechanic. I have gone in and tested it out a bit myself, and here’s how it appears to work.
The initial footage of this option select was shared by Twitter user dos236236, and thanks to the translation work of Ryan “Fubarduck” Harvey, we have the details on what it all entails in English as well.
It basically works like this. After you knock an opponent down in the corner, you can shoot for a meaty light attack to begin your pressure.
If the opponent doesn’t hit anything or attempts their own normal attack or throw, you’ll either hit them outright or counter hit them. Should they go for a wake up Drive Reversal, though, performing your light attack with the option select behind it will see you automatically parry the Drive Reversal attempt allowing you to punish it.
To perform this option select, you’ll have to hit the initial light attack, then quickly hit a parry input and then another light attack afterward. When done correctly, you’ll see a couple of different behaviors.
If the first light attack lands in some way, the parry won’t come out and you will go right into your next light attack instead. Be careful, though, as if you perform the parry input too quickly here, you will cancel your light attack into an unintended Drive Rush instead.
If the first light attack whiffs (due to wake up Drive Reversal), then the parry will come out instead of the follow up light attack.
A ‘new’ OS making the rounds in Japan:
Input light attack, parry, light attack consecutively:
– if they do nothing, get the light attack chain
– if they wake up DR, you’ll parry it
– also works on slow reversals, like Ed’s
– have to input the parry fast, requires practice https://t.co/PLtrlTySnM— ふーばー@Ryan Harvey (@fubarduck) June 5, 2024
The timing to successfully perform this option select is a bit tricky at first, but I found that timing the parry input as the first light attack is pulling back (after the cancellable window for it closes) worked the best when trying to get this option select in play.
According to Fubarduck’s translation, this is an option select that is making the rounds within the Japanese Street Fighter 6 scene currently. We’ll have to wait and see just how strong this technique actually is in real matches, but similar to something like the throw tech option select in Street Fighter 4, this one could end up becoming a staple this season due to its utility and how easy it is (relatively speaking) to perform.
