While it isn’t the major yearly update that’s been foretold, Capcom did roll out a balance patch for Street Fighter 6 that had direct effects on no fewer than 13 different characters.
While the majority of these changes were on the minor side, there were a few characters that received notable alterations that will likely move them around on the overall tier charts. Among those with more favor shown upon them were Ryu and Jamie, and while two of the three (Ken and Luke) widely received top three were nerfed a bit, the obvious big loser of the patch is the game’s main antagonist (within and without the story) JP.
In our latest episode of Talk and Block Catalyst and I cover the more significant changes and discuss how we feel the over impact will manifest, starting with JP.
There’s not much love lost between the villainous character and the community as many have expressed frustration with his relatively unconventional abilities and maneuvers.
At the top of this complaint list was easily his OD Amnesia counter, which Capcom went after with more ferocity than any other single move in the game.
In addition to now scaling four times as much as before the patch, OD Amnesia combos will no longer build Drive Gauge for JP. What’s more, if JP decides to go into his level 3 Super during an Amnesia sequence, the manifested projectiles will instantly explode and hit the opponent so as to ensure the Super receives as much scaling as possible.
On top of this JP saw nerfs in his footsie play as standing heavy punch now has more risk associated with it (similar to what was done to Luke’s infamous crouching medium punch) and his main anti-air, crouching fierce punch, has lost upper body invincibility to airborne attacks.
The fact that JP even had upper body invincibility during his crouching fierce was news to many (and yet another instance of a somewhat peculiar attribute relative to the rest of the franchise) but this is something that’s not unique to JP in this game.
A handful of other characters boast normals that have anti-air invulnerability frames including Manon, Blanka, Chun-Li, Dee-Jay, Dhalsim, E. Honda, Jamie, Juri, Kimberly, Marisa, and Zangief.
Does this all add up to a more balanced version of JP or will it over-nerf him? Perhaps it’s still not enough to make him fair? Check out our discussion on JP and others (timestamps below if you’d like to skip about) and let us know what you think on this newest evolution of Street Fighter 6.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:52 – JP
10:04 – Luke
13:18 – Ken
16:50 – Dee Jay
18:30 – Chun-Li
19:49 – Jamie
22:17 – A.K.I.
23:22 – Zangief
25:48 – Ryu
29:15 – Ed Reactions
35:58 – Capcom Cup Experience Recap