Shrug. I still think Akuma is top, he's just not exactly a broken top. Like, he.. eh, trying to think of how to say this properly.
He doesn't do you any favors. I don't see much/anything that he has that's just spammable and always works. He has a huge toolset and lots of options for almost any situation but he doesn't have like a s1 Mika whip or s1 ia legs that you can just spam out with relatively low risk. Most of his options have counter options and he obviously can't take many hits.. but at the higher levels of play I think he's super strong and will stay that way, probably getting stronger as time goes on. He requires a neat mix of clean, intelligent play with a SMALL side of Yolo horseshit to make players respect him when maybe they wouldn't/shouldn't .
This is early and I'm not speaking from my own play, as I don't play at a high enough level to make these calls based on my own experience, but from watching a million Akuma matches played out at a high level by several Akuma players , Akuma feels like, to me, the best kind of top tier in that he doesnt bulldoze and like 6/4 or 7/3 a bunch of MUs, but goes super 5-5 with most of the cast. He may have a bad MU or two though, but to me, a 5-5 is a winning MU in that, nothing except the other player is stopping me from winning..It's purely a skill thing.
Now I could be wrong and he could have some terrible MUs, but Akuma has so many little tools and options that he's very much a character that requires playing to the MU.. a good example is the Gief stuff we've been discussing. You have to alter how you play vs Gief a LOT.. I think Akuma will really shine when people have begun to really hash out his approach vs each member of the cast. I do know however that I am terrified of Laura and Sim right now.
