I've played 2 characters so far, Ivy and Raph. Ivy felt like she had something for most situations, but still had a few weaknesses. Her range is obviously pretty good, but she has decent options up close. Raph on the other hand, something doesn't feel right.
That's not to say I'm not enjoying my time with him, but some of his options are um, interesting. I like Prep and the pressure it brings in, but for the love of god why are so many of his options non-tracking verticals? I understand most people would probably just say why dont you just 6AA them, but like that's not the fix-all for his move set. His low options are ass, and his combo potential doesn't seem too too hot either. That could be attributed to me not knowing much about the character's playstyle history, maybe you don't combo much with him, he does seem very poke-y, but like there has to be something. Also, his Critical Edge startup is brutal. There seem to be a few characters whose CE's Guard Impact, maybe I'm stoned and they all do, but wouldn't it make the most sense for the fencer to have GI on his CE rather than like, Ivy? Why does Ivy even need that, she has all kinds of crazy tools. At the very least make it to where Raph's doesnt take a fucking eternity to start up
It could seem this way because I'm playing against almost exclusively Ivy, Cervantes, Nightmare, and Siegfried online, but it's rough out there. If they're going to make him with the intention of him having this super vertical shtick, they should at least bump his damage a little. People have low grabs and hits that do like a third of your health, and I can't even get a really good tracking move. I cannot for the life of me find a way to get 46A to work well into a sticky situation so I just kinda left it.
This is all just the beginning and maybe people will discover like the deep lore really good tech, but right now he's like middling at best.
