Absence of focus attack is a step back imo. Focus attack kept momentum high, and prevented squatting in neutral. Focus attack was abused, particularly in laggy online(focusing all jump ins), and by situations like Infiltration vs Daigo (focus dashing into neutral off of fireballs), and horseshit like Rose(focus backdashing everything), but it was so dynamic, and led to fadc hype(unpredictable hype to be exact). I am seeing less potential for hype with V. V looks spectacular, and the mechanics are all reasonable, but the meta seems(theory fighter) really linear.
Without focus cancelling and focus dashing you have to play old school Street Fighter to break an opponent's defense. This old school method is slow and methodical. That's probably why we see a lot of old school players licking their lips at the thought. I can play that way because I've been playing since SF2, but I prefer a more uptempo style with differing rhythms(focus dash cancelling and backdashing facilitated this at the cost of gray health. fair).
That said, I applaud Capcom for taking out crouch teching, and invincible backdashing. It's really crazy that they are removing such casual friendly tactics. I'm also shocked that they're willing to force casual bums to learn real zoning and footsies, risking alienating scrubs. You have to work for what you get now, which I'm sure will be despised by 09ers.
Disagree about the focus attacks. It negated the neutral game by simply pressing two buttons, even going as far as giving a crumple state on lvl1 focus counterhit, which is incredibly scrubby and abusable. Single pokes seem to deal big damage, so there is a real threat when playing the neutral and actual footsies.
Honestly getting rid of crouchtechs is great for beginnners, it was yet another hurdle for beginners, it needlessly made the game more complex to play on a competitive level.
With the addition v-skill and v-trigger we can see some very uniqye gameplan for characters.
Links are also easier as in Omega style links. They probably added a buffer which makes 1-frame links actualluy doable for the beginner.
I personally hope the DP shortcut is GONE, people mashed the shit out of that during block and churning from df,d,df +button, the fadc mechanic also made it "safe" when they had atleast 2 meter, again an incredibly scrubby but legit tactic.
Hard knockdowns are rare it seems, only from critical arts and throws, so less flowchart okizemi 50/50 mixups hopefull equals more focus on neutral and smart gameplay. ANd when you get a throw or critical knowckdown you might get rewarded big, it is something that needs to be earned.
