Street Fighter 6 just received its latest DLC character, Street Fighter 5’s Ed, and much to the surprise of the people the game also saw its first real set of balance changes added to the game with him. While this wasn’t the large balance patch that everyone was expecting, a handful of characters saw some fairly significant changes with the Ed update.
Two of the most notable sets of changes belong to JP and A.K.I., with the former being nerfed pretty heavily and the latter getting buffs. Now that we’re post patch, YogaFlame24 has assembled replays of a set between the best JP player in the world, Kakeru, and the best A.K.I. player in the world, Hikaru_Shiftne, to see how things stack up now with the recent changes.
When it comes to changes, A.K.I. essentially received better frame data on her standing medium punch and a more reliable crouching light punch. JP, on the other hand, saw his crouching heavy punch, standing heavy punch, Amnesia (including OD), and Departure (including OD) all nerfed.
We definitely see these changes making an impact throughout this set, as Kakeru is clearly adding new things into his kit in order to adjust to the nerfs.
For one thing, we see that the OD Amnesia changes have not deterred Kakeru from attempting the move. He goes to it in several different situations, and when it’s successful, the damage output is heavily reduced, but still effective.
We also see more attempts to use standing heavy punch as an anti-air for Kakeru instead of crouching heavy punch. Crouching heavy punch had the invincibility to mid-air attacks that applied to his upper body removed, meaning you have to time it much more specifically in order for it to work as effectively as it once did. It’s likely that Kakeru hasn’t quite built the muscle memory for this timing change yet, hence more of a focus on using standing heavy punch from a little further out as an anti-air.
As you would expect, both competitors here play exceptionally well making for an exciting set. Be sure to check out the full set between Kakeru and Hikaru post-balance patch below.