I played lots of FerraTorr while practicing for commentary on that Fatal 8 tournament. I like him a lot! I'm gonna be going with "him" because the character is basically Torr, and sometimes he throws Ferra.
Anyway his buttons are gigantic and really really great. In ruthless/vicious variations with Ferra on top, he has a legit overhead/low game from about half screen, and they're safe. Even without Ferra in lackey he still has huge range. Back 2 is a low pops the opponent up over his head and you can get a neutral jump punch ground bounce into a big combo. His toward 3 2 string has craaaazy range and is safe on block. Both hits were overheads but I heard that was gonna get changed in a day 1 patch to just be regular mids. Oh well though, still really good! Stand 3 or stand 4, I forget which, is a fast ranged boot with a nice hitbox. Back 4 is a gigantic ranged low, half screen with a Ferra variation. His down 4 is fast and far ranged. He has safe pressure strings that are cancelable too. I was pretty surprised how great his normal attacks are heh. Some of them look like they'd be slow or punishable but actually they're mostly faster and safer than you'd think. His down 2 uppercut is garbage though, takes really long to come out and is really unsafe and doesn't even have that great a hitbox.
Tom Brady showed me some pretty basic combos out of the low launcher that were doing like 35%, but I'm sure we'll improve on those over time.
In lackey he has a really great uppercut move, great hitbox on it. If exed, it has armor, it's safe on block, and it causes a ground bounce on hit! He has a roll that hits multiple times and goes faster than you might think, actually not a bad way to react to someone throwing a fireball. The command grab's range is incredible, literally half screen, to the point where you can actually walk backwards at round start and still be in range for ex grab! Like 20% damage too, pretty legit. Lackey in general seems like it has the best up close options on both defense and offense, maybe the most traditional grappler in the game. He doesn't have the counterzoning and zoning of the other variations, but it doesn't seem that hard for him to get in either.
Ruthless and vicious variations are a little different. I forget which one is which, kept getting them mixed up the whole time lol, but they have more midrange options. Like I said the normal attacks become even bigger because Ferra extends their range. The regular Bane raging charge becomes a realllllly good midrange antiair because Torr swings Ferra up and toward first, even without ex it beat tons of farther ranged jump ins but with ex it's pretty much foolproof. Iirc the Bane charge is -7, which can be punished by some characters but not all (apparently frame data is real weird; to punish a -7 move, you need either a 6 frame special move or a 5 frame normal move).
One of these variations, I want to say ruthless, has a great powerup where Ferra stabs Torr and they get a good damage boost. Well that move is armored for one hit, no ex or anything, it just has armor! So if someone is trying to zone with projectiles, great, time to power up right through them! On top of that, Torr can throw Ferra as a mid projectile and nullifies all other projectiles as it's moving. So whereas most characters have to worry about throwing projectiles vs someone like Sub for fear of a trade where they end up frozen, FerraTorr can throw projectiles and actually be more secure. The downside is that, like Chang/Choi in CvS2, you have to wait for Ferra to run back to Torr before throwing her again, and your normals that get bigger when you have Ferra wil just be normal lackey sized before she gets back as well. The command grab has less range than in lackey but it's still good.
The other, I think it's vicious, gets rid of the mid Fera projectile in favor of overhead and low Ferra projectiles. Both nullify projectiles as well. The overhead can be aimed close, midscreen, or almost fullscreen, while the low just covers the ground up to about 3/4 screen. This is really nice because it gives you additional mixups, like string xx overhead Ferra toss or string xx low Ferra toss. I think the grab became even smaller range and changes into this thing where Ferra slashes the opponent and you have to mash for more hits, but I think it might do less damage than the other ones? I don't remember exactly but I think that's the case.
I'm really up in the air about which I prefer between vicious or ruthless. Might just be a matchup thing, I'm not sure. For matchups where we need to get around projectiles, ruthless might be better to armor through and to throw Ferra as a mid projectile. Vicious might be a little more about pressure because of its high/low Ferra toss mixups, so, maybe in a matchup where you want the extra range of normals Ferra gives as well as those extra projectile mixups? Or maybe one where you think the opponent might jump so the overhead Ferra toss could antiair as well? Lackey definitely seems like the best choice if you're worried about getting rushed down, but if you think the opponent is susceptible to getting rushed down, maybe lackey or vicious? Lackey has that giant command grab, but vicious has that extra high/low mixup. Lots to think about, certainly.
Honestly, the character seems really good. I talked with a tester who felt that FerraTorr is at least high tier and maybe top tier. Ranged normals, safe strings, high/low/grab mixups from half screen, great pressure and defense variations, a couple variations that can zone or at least counter zone, good damage, etc. I'm not sure what's missing! Can't wait to play more.
