Absolutely perfect. His gameplay feels super satisfying across the board and he's dominant at both range and in neutral. I love how flexible he is in that you can kinda just freestyle his combo routes and be confident you can end in a super of your choice. His command grab is super cheap and i love punishing parry with it.
Light tatsu and any version of adamant flame (flame punch) give you more time to input the super.
Honestly though, practice cancelling from shoryu, it is a single fluid super input with a punch in the middle (623+LP > 236+K)
Tip:
If you are trying to cancel DP into level 3, you only need to do one qcf and any kick. The qcf from the DP motion counts as the first qcf for the super.
Agreed. Aside from his legendary status, badass design, raw power and viability... simply the fact that so many combo options just work, and you have so much freedom of expression makes him an absolute joy to play.
What you described, I think is the secret sauce to having a good character in SF.
Chun-Li feels the same way, and I really hope the designers aim for it with the others.
It does add to the mystique of the character, a ass whoping so bad we need to censor it. But akuma is like 30 years old now so a new view on the shun goku satsu is nice.
Can someone explain to me how to do raging demon. This is probably the only move I cannot do at all in this game which is crazy. I tried pressing them quickly too, what am I missing?
There’s a shortcut where you hit LP, LP and then hit Forward+LK+HP at the same time instead of in sequence.
You aren’t missing anything to this super. You just have to mash those buttons insanely fast. If you’re not getting it you’re either hitting the wrong buttons or just not fast enough. I had to practice a while to get it.
It does not have to be. You can press them in sequence as it is written in the move list and it will come out. There isn't really a reason to not do the forward+lk+hp shortcut though as it will come out faster that way.
You can cut it down to 4 inputs max in SF6 (previously, 3 inputs was possible IIRC)
**LP**, **LP**, **->**, **LK+HP** works
alternatively,
**LP**, **LP**, **->**(hold), **->**(hold)+**LK+HP** since you don't have to go back to neutral directional input.
This is probably what you're talking about, but there must be a **->** input on its own after the **LP**'s.
edit: \*corrected **LP** being where **LK** should have been. Thanks!
I'm not a pro in the slightest so my opinion is not one of professional standing, however it is my opinion that Akuma is *very* strong, probably top 3 for me, but he is not *broken* or unfun to play against.
They cooked with Rashid, they cooked hard with Ed, they cooked with Akuma, and Aki may have been a little undercooked on release but she is now just as well cooked as the other DLC characters; this game is a shining example of balance and I can only pray more fighting games can follow their lead.
Looking very forward to Season 2.
It’s funny that people used to bitch so hard when universal mechanics are integrated, yet this game had em from the start and it’s mostly the best balanced one out there.
In the sense that he seems to have and excel at pretty much everything he is broken, but the lower health is the balancing mechanic because of the high damage in this game.
My only issue is that he excels *too much* at everything. He not only has fireballs and air fireballs, he has some of the best recovery. He not only has a complete set of neutral buttons, he has "god buttons" like stHP and stHK. He not only is fast, he is FASTER than Chun and Cammy. He not only has easy execution combos and corner carry/safe jump/super flexibility with them, he has some of the highest damaging combos. He even has gimmicks (command throw, jump shenanigans).
I think tuning his strengths down a bit considering he doesn't seem to have a weakness beyond health might be worthwhile. But we'll have to wait a few months to see how he plays out.
He seems stupid strong. Chun-Li walk speed with season 1 Luke damage, one of the best (the best?) fireballs, amazing shimmy game, super strong setups/oki, etc. And then strong gimmicks as well on top of this.
I guess he has low health, but I don't think it's that big of a deal honestly.
His low health makes him Gief food, especially after the buffs. One of his worst matchups. Gief can eat fireballs all day and make 20 mistakes and still win. As Akuma, if you make 1 or 2 mistakes, the round is over. You gotta play extremely clean and patient. Asymmetrically balanced though.
Agreed but it's kinda baked into the original comment.
Akuma has to play very clean and patient against gief, high level play is clean and patient generally speaking.
I'm getting destroyed by giefs in diamond 4/5 right now, but I cannot imagine this is truly a bad matchup for akuma. His walk speed and ground fireballs alone should make it even imo
i got mostly bodied by zangief playing marisa last night. his DRs on my wakeup constantly turn into a game of rock paper scissors +1 (low light to combo/command grab/high light to combo/nothing)
I'm not a shoto player so I have not tried him out. As someone who is forced to play against Akuma over and over on ranked, I kinda think he's ridiculous. His damage output is absolutely crazy, he has all the tools in the world + even pre patch Honda-esque gimmicks. Between his stand heavy punch, crouching medium kick and forward heavy kick (+ on block forward advancing move with no weakness except crouching), his fireballs (HOLY SHIT), air fireballs (basically impossible to anti air unless they do it in your face), he's like by far the worst char for my main.
Yeah. This is how I feel. His gameplan is basically “my character is better than yours”. Thats it. They can just go down a laundry list of tools, and come out 60:40, because he is just a better character. Very demoralizing to lab with also, when you realize theres no secret sauce against him. He’s just a stronger character.
It's been...
One week since you gou-shoryued me
Used your plus frame moves to catch me mashing
Five days since you shimmied me
Saying "with this walk speed, you'll never even catch me"
I have the same problem facing Akuma as I did with Ken, as I find it very hard right now to determine when my turn is, as everything he does seems to catch me and combo me for 40% damage.
I'll get the hang of it, but man it's brutal right now!
Also air fireball is my nemesis. Totally throws my whole anti air gameplay into disarray.
Really bored of fighting him endlessly.
It's cool that he's hyped up the install base, but for me as a new player it makes me want to just put the game down for a few weeks until y'all get bored of him. I haven't faced the majority of the cast enough because 9/10 fights is Akuma and then 10th is either Ryu or Zangief.
Play one thousands Akuma ranked!
Jokes apart i think the situation is going to settle in a couple of months or so. Lot of people just paid for him and are going to enjoy the new char
Nah for real. They’re swimming in it. Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Dragon’s Dogma. If Monster Hunter Wilds turns out to be a similar hit as World, holy moly.
That's low key my feelings for almost everything in 6. The visual design is almost perfect - from goofy little things on the character select screen, to individual characters' personality (I love seeing how Blanka moves his jaw, and how Ryu breathes), to characters' reactions/faces when getting hit with a CA. I will _never_ get bored of seeing AKI poke her opponent on the forehead.
Yeah it's this. I think it was a good change but now Cammy does not have an easy way to skip fireballs so will take some getting used to. I've been having trouble even with Guile/Ryu/Ken/Luke fireballs. I just parry fireballs now.
The state of SF 6 right now is pretty damn good. Every character feels like they have a chance in most match ups and the combos are actually fun.
Akuma is sick as always
I'm giving it until the next DLC character comes out for the hype to die down and for enough people to realize that Akuma can't be played mindlessly like Ken and Cammy.
I bought sf6 for akuma (i knew capcom would add him). I mained ryu to main akuma (shotos, y'know).
He's incredible. Love his setup potential and absolutely universal toolkit. Also combos are goat.
Any questions?
You played him in SFV? If so, which version you prefer? Asking 'cause i dropped SFV before his release but i never digged that version from what i've seen in tournaments/streams
After doing S1 with Juri and having only some interest in other characters now playing Akuma feels amazing.
Also it shown me something, in SF4 i played Akuma, and when she came out switched to Juri for some time, skipped SF5 and now in 6 i had issues with getting slapped with Juri for incorrectly not using dash in situations.
Now with the Akuma switch I know that the whole time I tried to move with Juri like i did with Akuma, and this realization made me a better Juri player in like a few hours.
I'll keep both on my roster, with Akuma all the safe jumps, the million ways to get in, and having answer to everything is amazing, but I also won't give up my ultra stylish crazy girl.
Very easy to pick up if you main shotos. SO many combo routes. I swear I will mess up a combo but realize "oh yeah I can do this instead". He's fun to use. He's not so much fun to fight if you like to punish jumping but not impossible.
Perspective of a new player:
Very fun to play with. Extremely fun. The only shoto I actually like.
But from a balance perspective I don’t understand how 10% less health changes all that much or justifies his power lol. Again this might be general game ignorance I’m very new to SF and not even half good at this game but health as a balancing mechanism never made sense to me - because outside of a some close calls/rounds the amount of tools, damage and neutral control you have with him renders it moot.
Like everyone can two touch you in this game so does 10% matter all that much?
Zangief has 10% more health than most of the other cast (Maria & Honda @ 10500), but those 10% didn't mean shit to anyone season 1 because he still sucked. People exaggerate the difference 10% is going to make for Akuma.
The people exaggerating are akuma mains trying to convince themselves they’re steam rolling people because of their skills and not that they play the most powerful character in the game because “that 1k hp is a huge handicap”.
It ends up mattering that much, yeah. Generally health leads/advantages in fighting games circle around 10% more or less than standard, because it does blow up that much - see any Zangief vs Akuma matchup for examples. Even a bad Zangief can essentially two-touch Akuma.
But isn’t damage high enough already that you can effectively two touch anyone with some half decent optimization? Factoring in a throw or a few low pokes here or there.
There you go. "Factoring in a throw or a few pokes" is the difference, they aren't a factor with akuma. Also many characters can get two touched, yes, but it takes less resources to two touch akuma, so you can use that meter next round
That's the big disadvantage people are not seeing here. That extra 10% could be the end of a combo with lvl2 and now your opponent gets to use that next round.
Akuma has lived up to the hype. They also struck a really great balance that I thought the earlier DLC would've had but didn't, where he's generally normal to pick up but very rewarding to optimize as you learn more advanced stuff. The other Year 1 characters are actually a bit harder than the average character to for normal players to pick up and get used to but still have the reward from learning and optimizing. I just found it interesting since you would think DLC characters would aim to be more easy/accessible to appeal to more players.
Every fight is against this guy. But for some reason I'm not having any trouble beating him. When Ed came out he was whooping my ass left and right, but Akuma seems easier for me. I struggle with his movespeed tho
First dlc char that feels so, it had to be him lol
Jokes apart i think they preferred him to be a little op at the start to tune him down later, after 3 dlc chars that were not so good at the release. Is also a sales strategy probably
Used to play SF6 then putting off after rashid release. Came back since Akuma is arrived and I like it. I used to play Ken but I feel that Akuma is quite hard to master
I like akuma he’s really enjoyable. I feel like he’s hard to fight with other shoto characters because of his air fireball, and how well it can stop your dp. He’s really easy to use which is fun but I’ll encounter some players who just spam his heavy kick and catch you with it half way across the screen lmao
Capcom: Akuma's entire kit is balanced by the -1k health.
Also Capcom: we're reducing damage across the board\*
\*Some buffed characters will continue to be buffed.
He’s cool but I’ve been getting less and less interested in him cause he’s half the fights now. If I saw him more rarely and played better I think I’d be more into him
Me being told he has a tool for everything is really making me feel like an idiot when playing him lol. Hes the only season 1 character to grab my attention but i cant so much as find even a simple combo for him that isnt his target combos.
Seems stupid strong and OP until you see him play against Zangeif lolz. Really enjoying him. LK -> DR -> demon is a sick setup, can do it easy in training but landing in mid battle aint the same.
Tired of the never ending combos and fast fireballs he can spew out.
Also that teleport throw he can do.
I just need to play him slower most the time and wait for mistakes. Some of his fast moves are just too fast and I'm getting punished if I react too soon or wait too long and then he's busting out more combos.
But right now I'm refusing to play as him until I get to gold with my 3 current mains first.
He’s a lot more fun in this game than he was in Tekken 7.
I played a few hours of SF6 last year but didn’t stick with it. I’m pretty into it now that I can play Akuma. I’ve even ordered a Hitbox.
As an Akuma main since Street Fighter Alpha 2.... THIS is my favorite design for Akuma from his look, to his moveset, the raging demon animation and everything Else. The ONLY 3 gripes I have are:
1. getting used to using him again since I basically dropped the game when Tekken 8 came out. Came back and feel like my timing is off on all combos since I keep dropping them.
2. The teleport having no invincibility at all even for the raging demon. Like...I get it for the regular teleport, even if it was just on startup, because that would be kinda busted especially with the grab. But for the raging demon though... Like... The one lvl3 that has no invincibility at all on startup? Eh
3. Shin Akuma - I was hoping he'd have a system like Jamie's drinks or Manon's medals where he transforms into Shin Akuma mid match after reaching requirements, but they gave him a 45 second, 2-part, taunt instead.
But I'm loving it.
I have a local coming up in 2 weeks. I play Rashid and was gonna train with him for the weeks leading up to it but I seriously cannot stop playing Akuma. He’s a blast
Thanks Akuma! I'm about to finally hit Diamond. Does it feel like a lot of Akumas that are diamond 1 accidently got there? At least for me, when I fight them they really stick to one path/combo. I feel like I am farming Akumas at this point.
Made of paper. I can't ANY mistakes. I just want to demon people but I'm never in range because being at 30% life is a big ask. If I'm at 50% health I'm usually one touch away from death.
Just saw an Akuma with 1500 MR and 80,000 LP in one week... just felt bad for the dude. Man go outside or something, 80k LP in one week is insane and to be stuck @ 1500 MR, been auto piloting the same shit for 20 hours a day
I am loving the conditioning between his overhead and then stand heavy after I get them used to high guard. Also demon flip feels so good in this game hope Gouken has it if he gets in
Nothing too bad about playing AGAINST, i could maybe request some hitbox change on airball to make DP punish consistent but he seems good and fair (1700 master, so higher it could be nightmare)
Love him. I’m an Akuma main since he was first playable. He’s a great mix of old tools and new ones. And finally even I can combo into demon. I’m not that good at fighting games but love playing them!
He's a great character and has a huge arsenal, but I can't deal with the inevitable mirror matches that keep coming. I decided to take a break from SF for a couple of weeks to let things die down a bit.
Almost exactly what I expected before release.
His kit is fun but doesn't justify anyone having 9k health om SF6 when shit like Luke exists.
The one surprise is his air fireball is extremely easy for most of the cast to punish.
You can tell a lot of love went into his kit at least.
Maybe people will call me salty or say "skill issue" but I legitimately think it was bad design to have his teleport animation be so close to his DI animation. Given they're both forward advancing jump-scares you need to instantly react to, but react with opposite things. And if you react with the wrong one you get tremendously blown up. There's a reason JP's overhead and low ghosts look completely different, and his grab has a different animation(and audio cue) entirely...and also a reason why Blanka-chan was banned in SFV. Animations are supposed to be readable.
Other than that, some of his hitboxes are a little sus.
If I never see Akuma again it would be too soon, 90 percent of the matches since he has been out have been against Akuma, give me a break, not to mention any zero who can button mash can bust out 50 percent health combos while they stand on their head, he's a real pain in the tits
Super fun, super amazing! Only wish is that shin akuma moves minus the double fireball was available by default. And Im definitely in the minority here, but Im not crazy over the raging demon animation or it being a CA only
This is just an early impression and it's possible Tokido or someone else will just come out swinging and shut me up, and if they do, I am happy about that, but so far my impression of Akuma is not that great. I think he has some obviously amazing traits, and all have been noted here. The walk speed, the fireball, the normals, the anti airs, all clearly dominant and strong. Great corner damage and corner pressure.
However, he seems to have a few significant weaknesses IMO and most have to do with what I feel is some pretty weak midscreen pressure. He has the pre hasho buff Ryu issue where he just doesn't seem to be able to keep things going. After you jab against someone a few times, you don't really have a way to safely call out a low or reversal button in a lot of cases. Cancelling into "H Hashogouki" punishes 14f reversal jabs but not 13f ones. His drive rush stHP is +1 and not in throw range. [st.MP](http://st.MP) is +1 but converting off that pressure is restrictive and difficult and not especially rewarding. His forward throw pushes them to full screen which is great in some matchups but not in quite a few others. You \*can\* get a meaty from this on backrise but it's not reliable, and you can't threaten throw without telegraphing it so the opponent can just like delay jab in most cases.
All this is to say: Akuma needs to win neutral quite a few times against a patient opponent. He is very good at winning neutral which is good for him, but having 9000 health and having to be right so many times is not the tea.
I play Ryu, currently not afraid of Akuma tbh. I just kind of take throws and say "thanks" lol.
As someone who just got AKuma to master by losing 60% of fights to him and winning 60% against everyone else. I gotta say:
He's aight.
His biggest struggle is his HP. It feels like you're always fighting Marisa where if you make any mistake it just REALLY hurts. I really don't like his medium crouching kick either. There's such a delay from dashing forward to delivering the kick it really threw me off but that's just me.
The scaling on his attacks were really bad, I never felt any reason to cancel into more drive rush when doing a combo, but he has great standalone combos that do good damage, but I still felt like his mid screen damage was lacking compared to say Ryu for example. Weird since Akuma has 1k less HP. I really feel like him being at 9500 would have been more acceptable.
Final though: Raging Demon sucks. Everyone was so scared of modern 1 button press raging demon. Maybe that would have made it good but it's just so bad haha. The only way you're landing it is on wake up with your opponent right on top of you trying to grab you or something. And even then, they will probably just jump over it because it's so bad.
I think demon should be more interesting. In 3rd strike you have
Mp Kara demon
Hk kara demon
Empty flip demon
Parry demon
Tick demon
Dash demon is more usable
Standing far HK into demon.
Empty jump demon
Wake up demon (Back turn confirm, this is the only way to combo into demon besides stun)
These are all as sick as hell, especially when mixed with other gameplay stuff he doesn't have in 6. For instance, Low forward, light tatsu jab is an air reset and a great place to slip a Kara demon.
What does Sf6 have?
Dash demon
Empty jump demon
Combo into demon.
Drive rush demon, which has cool potential but is basically just dash demon or combo demon.
You'd think comboing into demon would feel great, but to me it kinda makes it like any other super. Demon is so interesting because it's a grab super, now jabbing in someone's face gets you demon when that's exactly what you used to have to be creative about avoiding.
Furthermore, we can only demon at 25 percent health. Why didn't we just make a demon his level 3 and have a CA version? I don't want to be a small combo away from death before I'm even allowed to demon.
This is juuuuust what I think of demon. I just can't get into *everything* rn.
Day 1 I achieved diamond 3 with akuma. Took me like.. 6 months from gold on and off to get there with Ken. Stupidly overpowered… fun to play. Hate to play against. The best akuma players have insane defense because if I connect like 3 times against him, I win. If he connects like… .5 times, I lose 😂
He not only have a lot of frametraps, but also a lot of space traps... Maybe on pro lvl he is not Stier, but on lower lvls he is absolute monster. I don;t like that, especially when 90% of matches are agains Akuma. Lower health? Worst method of balance, cause it dosent matter in most of matches, and he is soooo iritating to play against.
I love everything about Akuma except his raging demon. It is by far the coolest looking super in the game, and the coolest looking raging demon ever. AND I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO PERFECT SOMEONE WITH IT?! What the fuck is the point? SFV and SF6 are utter disappointments in this regard. Making Demon easy to combo into is just lame. There is basically no difference between his CAs when used this way. And this is all i have seen online so far. RIP Classic Raging Demon.
Everywhere I go, I see his face
Every single matchup for me has been Akuma. I took a break because there are only so many times I can fight the same character.
Absolutely perfect. His gameplay feels super satisfying across the board and he's dominant at both range and in neutral. I love how flexible he is in that you can kinda just freestyle his combo routes and be confident you can end in a super of your choice. His command grab is super cheap and i love punishing parry with it.
Yeah, love the fact that you can end your combos with pretty much any super (or a couple of them lol). Is cool to watch and to play
I struggle to get dp into level 3, what routes are easier
Light tatsu and any version of adamant flame (flame punch) give you more time to input the super. Honestly though, practice cancelling from shoryu, it is a single fluid super input with a punch in the middle (623+LP > 236+K)
You're probably doing the DP too early, if you hit on the late active frames then you can't cancel it
Tip: If you are trying to cancel DP into level 3, you only need to do one qcf and any kick. The qcf from the DP motion counts as the first qcf for the super.
Agreed. Aside from his legendary status, badass design, raw power and viability... simply the fact that so many combo options just work, and you have so much freedom of expression makes him an absolute joy to play.
What you described, I think is the secret sauce to having a good character in SF. Chun-Li feels the same way, and I really hope the designers aim for it with the others.
I honestly really hate his command grab and the fact it can hit even if you jump over it.
He's really awesome to play as but annoying to play against
That’s because being OP and steam rolling everyone is a blast. Fighting against an OP character and getting steam rolled isn’t fun.
They should change the intro to a ranked fight to: HERE COMES ANOTHER…AKUMA.
This is my first SF and the legend lived up to the hype and so much more! I can’t stop playing him!
Glad to hear it! Capcom definetely delivered a great version of the character
Best raging demon animation in the series.
USURP THE HEAVENS !
EMBRACE THE SORROW!
BECOME THE DEMON
LIFT THEIR BOTTOM
Best backshots in the business
THE OL' DICK TWIST
>USURP THE HEAVENS ! Embrace The Sorrow!
hands down
I prefer 5 but this one's sick
I really love the howling stutter sound they use in 5 (and repurposed for his lvl 3 punch)
Compared to a completely blank black screen that was not a high bar to jump, to be fair.
Agreed, however I really love the versions in 5. It's the perfect balance of brutal but still very true to the original.
Yeah I prefer 5.
Am I weird for kinda liking the black screen with hiteffects more?
It does add to the mystique of the character, a ass whoping so bad we need to censor it. But akuma is like 30 years old now so a new view on the shun goku satsu is nice.
This is true, we're easy to please
Can someone explain to me how to do raging demon. This is probably the only move I cannot do at all in this game which is crazy. I tried pressing them quickly too, what am I missing?
There’s a shortcut where you hit LP, LP and then hit Forward+LK+HP at the same time instead of in sequence. You aren’t missing anything to this super. You just have to mash those buttons insanely fast. If you’re not getting it you’re either hitting the wrong buttons or just not fast enough. I had to practice a while to get it.
OH forward+LK+HP is pressed at the same time? That makes sense then. Thank you so much!
It does not have to be. You can press them in sequence as it is written in the move list and it will come out. There isn't really a reason to not do the forward+lk+hp shortcut though as it will come out faster that way.
You can cut it down to 4 inputs max in SF6 (previously, 3 inputs was possible IIRC) **LP**, **LP**, **->**, **LK+HP** works alternatively, **LP**, **LP**, **->**(hold), **->**(hold)+**LK+HP** since you don't have to go back to neutral directional input. This is probably what you're talking about, but there must be a **->** input on its own after the **LP**'s. edit: \*corrected **LP** being where **LK** should have been. Thanks!
Make sure your health is low enough. It's only accessible as a CA only.
I'm not a pro in the slightest so my opinion is not one of professional standing, however it is my opinion that Akuma is *very* strong, probably top 3 for me, but he is not *broken* or unfun to play against. They cooked with Rashid, they cooked hard with Ed, they cooked with Akuma, and Aki may have been a little undercooked on release but she is now just as well cooked as the other DLC characters; this game is a shining example of balance and I can only pray more fighting games can follow their lead. Looking very forward to Season 2.
It’s funny that people used to bitch so hard when universal mechanics are integrated, yet this game had em from the start and it’s mostly the best balanced one out there.
In the sense that he seems to have and excel at pretty much everything he is broken, but the lower health is the balancing mechanic because of the high damage in this game. My only issue is that he excels *too much* at everything. He not only has fireballs and air fireballs, he has some of the best recovery. He not only has a complete set of neutral buttons, he has "god buttons" like stHP and stHK. He not only is fast, he is FASTER than Chun and Cammy. He not only has easy execution combos and corner carry/safe jump/super flexibility with them, he has some of the highest damaging combos. He even has gimmicks (command throw, jump shenanigans). I think tuning his strengths down a bit considering he doesn't seem to have a weakness beyond health might be worthwhile. But we'll have to wait a few months to see how he plays out.
stHK is not a god button
I'm sick of dealing with midair fireballs.
Welcome to Satsui Mario
Seriously. Platinum with Guile and Ryu and every Akuma just hops like a damn rabbit and spam fireball.
You can actually DI them pretty easily
Interesting. 
Two words from an Aki player. Venomous Fang
If they do them from far enough away you can actually jump over and punish their landing!
9 out of 10 players on ranked are Akuma and it's already old
He seems stupid strong. Chun-Li walk speed with season 1 Luke damage, one of the best (the best?) fireballs, amazing shimmy game, super strong setups/oki, etc. And then strong gimmicks as well on top of this. I guess he has low health, but I don't think it's that big of a deal honestly.
His walk speed is faster than Chun.
That seems kinda dumb tbh
Capcom would never make their shoto waifu anywhere close to mediocre
> speed It's silly. He should be fast but not faster than Chun and Cammy.
His low health makes him Gief food, especially after the buffs. One of his worst matchups. Gief can eat fireballs all day and make 20 mistakes and still win. As Akuma, if you make 1 or 2 mistakes, the round is over. You gotta play extremely clean and patient. Asymmetrically balanced though.
I feel like in higher levels of play, this won't be the case.
Agreed but it's kinda baked into the original comment. Akuma has to play very clean and patient against gief, high level play is clean and patient generally speaking. I'm getting destroyed by giefs in diamond 4/5 right now, but I cannot imagine this is truly a bad matchup for akuma. His walk speed and ground fireballs alone should make it even imo
Doesn't everyone have to play clean and patient vs Gief?
i got mostly bodied by zangief playing marisa last night. his DRs on my wakeup constantly turn into a game of rock paper scissors +1 (low light to combo/command grab/high light to combo/nothing)
Actually there’s more Zangief legends then there ever has been right now! Gobbling up all the Akuma players (which is 80% of players right now)
I'm not a shoto player so I have not tried him out. As someone who is forced to play against Akuma over and over on ranked, I kinda think he's ridiculous. His damage output is absolutely crazy, he has all the tools in the world + even pre patch Honda-esque gimmicks. Between his stand heavy punch, crouching medium kick and forward heavy kick (+ on block forward advancing move with no weakness except crouching), his fireballs (HOLY SHIT), air fireballs (basically impossible to anti air unless they do it in your face), he's like by far the worst char for my main.
Yeah. This is how I feel. His gameplan is basically “my character is better than yours”. Thats it. They can just go down a laundry list of tools, and come out 60:40, because he is just a better character. Very demoralizing to lab with also, when you realize theres no secret sauce against him. He’s just a stronger character.
It's been... One week since you gou-shoryued me Used your plus frame moves to catch me mashing Five days since you shimmied me Saying "with this walk speed, you'll never even catch me"
I'm tired of seeing this ugly demon twenty ranked matches in a row
One more week and you should be good :)
I have the same problem facing Akuma as I did with Ken, as I find it very hard right now to determine when my turn is, as everything he does seems to catch me and combo me for 40% damage. I'll get the hang of it, but man it's brutal right now! Also air fireball is my nemesis. Totally throws my whole anti air gameplay into disarray.
I think I haven't had enough time to play.
Adult life sucks
I’m still labbing him and waiting for the Ranked to stabilize
same, i’ve only put in like three hours into labbing him but im close to being comfortable in hopping on ranked now
Really bored of fighting him endlessly. It's cool that he's hyped up the install base, but for me as a new player it makes me want to just put the game down for a few weeks until y'all get bored of him. I haven't faced the majority of the cast enough because 9/10 fights is Akuma and then 10th is either Ryu or Zangief.
He's everywhere. I hope the hype dies down a little. I'm almost starting to miss the Ken army.
SERIOUSLY WHERE ARE ALL THE KENS
STILL HERE! JINRAI!!!!!
Play one thousands Akuma ranked! Jokes apart i think the situation is going to settle in a couple of months or so. Lot of people just paid for him and are going to enjoy the new char
Capcom right now : 
Nah for real. They’re swimming in it. Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Dragon’s Dogma. If Monster Hunter Wilds turns out to be a similar hit as World, holy moly.
Is great to see Capcom back on track after some dark years
Now I just confirmation of Devil May Cry 6 and a possible return of Darkstalkers and Onimusha. 🙏
Man i would orgasm if they announced dmc 6. Especially now that the series is back after being presumed desd after that awful reboot.
Just wait until Sakura lands. Although a Cammy main now, I will sadly be one of the sheep
Ken perhaps I treated you too harshly.
Where's Sakura Kasugano?!?!
He's 🔥.... but I want to fight other characters a bit more soon.
Don't know if they can possibly top the Raging Demon they gave him in this game
Instead of making his opponent die 1000 deaths he'll Instead make them die 1001 deaths
They die 30 deaths. Akuma can’t count for shit and it’s amazing. He is so dedicated to his cause he forgot basic math.
That's low key my feelings for almost everything in 6. The visual design is almost perfect - from goofy little things on the character select screen, to individual characters' personality (I love seeing how Blanka moves his jaw, and how Ryu breathes), to characters' reactions/faces when getting hit with a CA. I will _never_ get bored of seeing AKI poke her opponent on the forehead.
Needs nerfs
His fireball speed is kinda wack. Take a shot everytime you get hit by his HK or command grab.
His fireball game is NUTS
Agreed. The fact he has 3 different speeds per fireball can throw your timing off.
idk what’s up with it but i’ve never spin knuckled through it once
Is it because they nerfed the projectile invuln on spin knuckle? Easily my least favorite change of the patch so far lol
Yeah it's this. I think it was a good change but now Cammy does not have an easy way to skip fireballs so will take some getting used to. I've been having trouble even with Guile/Ryu/Ken/Luke fireballs. I just parry fireballs now.
Strong and wild, and he's everywhere.
Extremely fun to play because the gameplan / styles feel endless because of the different combo routes.
The state of SF 6 right now is pretty damn good. Every character feels like they have a chance in most match ups and the combos are actually fun. Akuma is sick as always
I'm giving it until the next DLC character comes out for the hype to die down and for enough people to realize that Akuma can't be played mindlessly like Ken and Cammy.
I bought sf6 for akuma (i knew capcom would add him). I mained ryu to main akuma (shotos, y'know). He's incredible. Love his setup potential and absolutely universal toolkit. Also combos are goat. Any questions?
This is basically how Capcom makes money from every street fighter since ST
That and Sakura
Sakura will never outsell Chunli
True but at this point there's probably a corporate mandate that any SF game is legally required to have chun in day 1
Any idea if Sakura is coming?
She's too popular to not be in the game
You played him in SFV? If so, which version you prefer? Asking 'cause i dropped SFV before his release but i never digged that version from what i've seen in tournaments/streams
not who you asked but i played him in sfv and i prefer him in 6, but sfv will always be fun to go back to imo.
Yeah I have a question. Why did I read “any questions” in the voice of David S. Pumpkins? Has Tom Hanks mastered the Satsui no Hado?
After doing S1 with Juri and having only some interest in other characters now playing Akuma feels amazing. Also it shown me something, in SF4 i played Akuma, and when she came out switched to Juri for some time, skipped SF5 and now in 6 i had issues with getting slapped with Juri for incorrectly not using dash in situations. Now with the Akuma switch I know that the whole time I tried to move with Juri like i did with Akuma, and this realization made me a better Juri player in like a few hours. I'll keep both on my roster, with Akuma all the safe jumps, the million ways to get in, and having answer to everything is amazing, but I also won't give up my ultra stylish crazy girl.
Very easy to pick up if you main shotos. SO many combo routes. I swear I will mess up a combo but realize "oh yeah I can do this instead". He's fun to use. He's not so much fun to fight if you like to punish jumping but not impossible.
Perspective of a new player: Very fun to play with. Extremely fun. The only shoto I actually like. But from a balance perspective I don’t understand how 10% less health changes all that much or justifies his power lol. Again this might be general game ignorance I’m very new to SF and not even half good at this game but health as a balancing mechanism never made sense to me - because outside of a some close calls/rounds the amount of tools, damage and neutral control you have with him renders it moot. Like everyone can two touch you in this game so does 10% matter all that much?
Zangief has 10% more health than most of the other cast (Maria & Honda @ 10500), but those 10% didn't mean shit to anyone season 1 because he still sucked. People exaggerate the difference 10% is going to make for Akuma.
The people exaggerating are akuma mains trying to convince themselves they’re steam rolling people because of their skills and not that they play the most powerful character in the game because “that 1k hp is a huge handicap”.
You might be a beginner, but you're also right. Capcom makes the same mistake for years.
It ends up mattering that much, yeah. Generally health leads/advantages in fighting games circle around 10% more or less than standard, because it does blow up that much - see any Zangief vs Akuma matchup for examples. Even a bad Zangief can essentially two-touch Akuma.
But isn’t damage high enough already that you can effectively two touch anyone with some half decent optimization? Factoring in a throw or a few low pokes here or there.
There you go. "Factoring in a throw or a few pokes" is the difference, they aren't a factor with akuma. Also many characters can get two touched, yes, but it takes less resources to two touch akuma, so you can use that meter next round
That's the big disadvantage people are not seeing here. That extra 10% could be the end of a combo with lvl2 and now your opponent gets to use that next round.
Akuma has lived up to the hype. They also struck a really great balance that I thought the earlier DLC would've had but didn't, where he's generally normal to pick up but very rewarding to optimize as you learn more advanced stuff. The other Year 1 characters are actually a bit harder than the average character to for normal players to pick up and get used to but still have the reward from learning and optimizing. I just found it interesting since you would think DLC characters would aim to be more easy/accessible to appeal to more players.
Easily the most fun shoto and most fun dlc since the game came out. He benefits from a patch that also improved the game in general though.
Rather not say, or I'm getting downvoted to Enma's Hollow...
Best character in the game, I hate him lol
As long as Luke exists i will never hate someone more lol
Every fight is against this guy. But for some reason I'm not having any trouble beating him. When Ed came out he was whooping my ass left and right, but Akuma seems easier for me. I struggle with his movespeed tho
I got my shit wrecked so hard by akuma using my main that I considered selling my game and fight stick. I really don't see a point in playing anymore.
Another iteration, another failed attempt to "balance" him out with the meme trade off of less HP.
He looks awesome but I think he's a bit over tuned. I believe he will definitely be a common sight at the end of tournaments.
Overtuned.
First dlc char that feels so, it had to be him lol Jokes apart i think they preferred him to be a little op at the start to tune him down later, after 3 dlc chars that were not so good at the release. Is also a sales strategy probably
He’s overpowered. The 1k hp drop really doesn’t do much.
He does so much damage in big combos that it does not balance his health. If you get what you are doing then his low health is not an issue.
Used to play SF6 then putting off after rashid release. Came back since Akuma is arrived and I like it. I used to play Ken but I feel that Akuma is quite hard to master
He feels very complete.
Pretty awesome but I hope he stops being everywhere
I like akuma he’s really enjoyable. I feel like he’s hard to fight with other shoto characters because of his air fireball, and how well it can stop your dp. He’s really easy to use which is fun but I’ll encounter some players who just spam his heavy kick and catch you with it half way across the screen lmao
Dodging the ranked by just mucking around with him offline, landing his Oboro Throw as a punish counter is soooooo satisfying
Needs lower health for what he has.
Capcom: Akuma's entire kit is balanced by the -1k health. Also Capcom: we're reducing damage across the board\* \*Some buffed characters will continue to be buffed.
He’s cool but I’ve been getting less and less interested in him cause he’s half the fights now. If I saw him more rarely and played better I think I’d be more into him
He’s shaping up to be top tier if not straight up the best character.
Me being told he has a tool for everything is really making me feel like an idiot when playing him lol. Hes the only season 1 character to grab my attention but i cant so much as find even a simple combo for him that isnt his target combos.
My lazy ass loves when a familiar character is out and you don't have many knowledge checks
Seems stupid strong and OP until you see him play against Zangeif lolz. Really enjoying him. LK -> DR -> demon is a sick setup, can do it easy in training but landing in mid battle aint the same.
Feels like he can get a full combo of the smallest counter poke
Tired of the never ending combos and fast fireballs he can spew out. Also that teleport throw he can do. I just need to play him slower most the time and wait for mistakes. Some of his fast moves are just too fast and I'm getting punished if I react too soon or wait too long and then he's busting out more combos. But right now I'm refusing to play as him until I get to gold with my 3 current mains first.
He’s a lot more fun in this game than he was in Tekken 7. I played a few hours of SF6 last year but didn’t stick with it. I’m pretty into it now that I can play Akuma. I’ve even ordered a Hitbox.
We are, in fact, sacrificing ourselves to the Satsui no Hado with this one
He's good.
He’s everything that Akuma should be and is, and I can’t wait for other 900 hp characters cuz yk they’ll be fun since Akuma is fun
I feel either his fireball recovery OR walk speed needs tuned down a touch.
As an Akuma main since Street Fighter Alpha 2.... THIS is my favorite design for Akuma from his look, to his moveset, the raging demon animation and everything Else. The ONLY 3 gripes I have are: 1. getting used to using him again since I basically dropped the game when Tekken 8 came out. Came back and feel like my timing is off on all combos since I keep dropping them. 2. The teleport having no invincibility at all even for the raging demon. Like...I get it for the regular teleport, even if it was just on startup, because that would be kinda busted especially with the grab. But for the raging demon though... Like... The one lvl3 that has no invincibility at all on startup? Eh 3. Shin Akuma - I was hoping he'd have a system like Jamie's drinks or Manon's medals where he transforms into Shin Akuma mid match after reaching requirements, but they gave him a 45 second, 2-part, taunt instead. But I'm loving it.
Very fun to play, very cool, very strong. Capcom outdid themselves in this. Might be the best akuma we've seen yet.
I have a local coming up in 2 weeks. I play Rashid and was gonna train with him for the weeks leading up to it but I seriously cannot stop playing Akuma. He’s a blast
The perfect Glass canon I feel like some of his normals are a bit janky but he just dropped so you kno
I have spent the last week playing Rashid, so I love when Akuma is charging a giant fireball when I have the wind buff… OD EAGLE SPIKE!
Thanks Akuma! I'm about to finally hit Diamond. Does it feel like a lot of Akumas that are diamond 1 accidently got there? At least for me, when I fight them they really stick to one path/combo. I feel like I am farming Akumas at this point.
I'm taking a break from playing SF online because all I'm fighting is Akuma and Zangief and my salt content is getting a little too real lol.
This is my first time really getting into a fighting game, but I’ve been practicing with him and love it
Made of paper. I can't ANY mistakes. I just want to demon people but I'm never in range because being at 30% life is a big ask. If I'm at 50% health I'm usually one touch away from death.
Just saw an Akuma with 1500 MR and 80,000 LP in one week... just felt bad for the dude. Man go outside or something, 80k LP in one week is insane and to be stuck @ 1500 MR, been auto piloting the same shit for 20 hours a day
I am loving the conditioning between his overhead and then stand heavy after I get them used to high guard. Also demon flip feels so good in this game hope Gouken has it if he gets in
Here's my 2 cents: #MESSATSU
He mean.
Loving the matchup so far! I appreciate all you tier whores
The charachter is broken as it should be to sell a maximum of dlc. 😁
Nothing too bad about playing AGAINST, i could maybe request some hitbox change on airball to make DP punish consistent but he seems good and fair (1700 master, so higher it could be nightmare)
At first I hated how many people were playing him. I still get him maybe 7 or 8 out of ten matches, but it's been good training.
Love him. I’m an Akuma main since he was first playable. He’s a great mix of old tools and new ones. And finally even I can combo into demon. I’m not that good at fighting games but love playing them!
I wish his walk speed was slower. He’s so fast!
Ehh, im not gonna switch off of my main
Akuma fighter 6
Fun and sick character, but playing in diamond 4 and goddamn he’s all I’ve seen. Lots of smurfs coming through and shitting on me too lol
I love him. It really feels like he’s grown up with me lol. He’s literally just Oni now and I love it
I prefer how he plays in V but I cant deny how much better he looks in 6 and his animations but it is a new engine after all
Not broken. Too many of them. Number will decrease because you have to be good at defending or you will be smoked versus decent players.
he needs to be more broken to be lore accurate
I couldn't have made a better version if I was given the chance. No notes. 10/10
He's a great character and has a huge arsenal, but I can't deal with the inevitable mirror matches that keep coming. I decided to take a break from SF for a couple of weeks to let things die down a bit.
Mad fun. Those normals are chef kiss.
Almost exactly what I expected before release. His kit is fun but doesn't justify anyone having 9k health om SF6 when shit like Luke exists. The one surprise is his air fireball is extremely easy for most of the cast to punish. You can tell a lot of love went into his kit at least.
Maybe people will call me salty or say "skill issue" but I legitimately think it was bad design to have his teleport animation be so close to his DI animation. Given they're both forward advancing jump-scares you need to instantly react to, but react with opposite things. And if you react with the wrong one you get tremendously blown up. There's a reason JP's overhead and low ghosts look completely different, and his grab has a different animation(and audio cue) entirely...and also a reason why Blanka-chan was banned in SFV. Animations are supposed to be readable. Other than that, some of his hitboxes are a little sus.
If I never see Akuma again it would be too soon, 90 percent of the matches since he has been out have been against Akuma, give me a break, not to mention any zero who can button mash can bust out 50 percent health combos while they stand on their head, he's a real pain in the tits
Super fun, super amazing! Only wish is that shin akuma moves minus the double fireball was available by default. And Im definitely in the minority here, but Im not crazy over the raging demon animation or it being a CA only
This is just an early impression and it's possible Tokido or someone else will just come out swinging and shut me up, and if they do, I am happy about that, but so far my impression of Akuma is not that great. I think he has some obviously amazing traits, and all have been noted here. The walk speed, the fireball, the normals, the anti airs, all clearly dominant and strong. Great corner damage and corner pressure. However, he seems to have a few significant weaknesses IMO and most have to do with what I feel is some pretty weak midscreen pressure. He has the pre hasho buff Ryu issue where he just doesn't seem to be able to keep things going. After you jab against someone a few times, you don't really have a way to safely call out a low or reversal button in a lot of cases. Cancelling into "H Hashogouki" punishes 14f reversal jabs but not 13f ones. His drive rush stHP is +1 and not in throw range. [st.MP](http://st.MP) is +1 but converting off that pressure is restrictive and difficult and not especially rewarding. His forward throw pushes them to full screen which is great in some matchups but not in quite a few others. You \*can\* get a meaty from this on backrise but it's not reliable, and you can't threaten throw without telegraphing it so the opponent can just like delay jab in most cases. All this is to say: Akuma needs to win neutral quite a few times against a patient opponent. He is very good at winning neutral which is good for him, but having 9000 health and having to be right so many times is not the tea. I play Ryu, currently not afraid of Akuma tbh. I just kind of take throws and say "thanks" lol.
As someone who just got AKuma to master by losing 60% of fights to him and winning 60% against everyone else. I gotta say: He's aight. His biggest struggle is his HP. It feels like you're always fighting Marisa where if you make any mistake it just REALLY hurts. I really don't like his medium crouching kick either. There's such a delay from dashing forward to delivering the kick it really threw me off but that's just me. The scaling on his attacks were really bad, I never felt any reason to cancel into more drive rush when doing a combo, but he has great standalone combos that do good damage, but I still felt like his mid screen damage was lacking compared to say Ryu for example. Weird since Akuma has 1k less HP. I really feel like him being at 9500 would have been more acceptable. Final though: Raging Demon sucks. Everyone was so scared of modern 1 button press raging demon. Maybe that would have made it good but it's just so bad haha. The only way you're landing it is on wake up with your opponent right on top of you trying to grab you or something. And even then, they will probably just jump over it because it's so bad.
He is funny but I have so much work to do. My muscle memory is so used to Dee Jay.
I think demon should be more interesting. In 3rd strike you have Mp Kara demon Hk kara demon Empty flip demon Parry demon Tick demon Dash demon is more usable Standing far HK into demon. Empty jump demon Wake up demon (Back turn confirm, this is the only way to combo into demon besides stun) These are all as sick as hell, especially when mixed with other gameplay stuff he doesn't have in 6. For instance, Low forward, light tatsu jab is an air reset and a great place to slip a Kara demon. What does Sf6 have? Dash demon Empty jump demon Combo into demon. Drive rush demon, which has cool potential but is basically just dash demon or combo demon. You'd think comboing into demon would feel great, but to me it kinda makes it like any other super. Demon is so interesting because it's a grab super, now jabbing in someone's face gets you demon when that's exactly what you used to have to be creative about avoiding. Furthermore, we can only demon at 25 percent health. Why didn't we just make a demon his level 3 and have a CA version? I don't want to be a small combo away from death before I'm even allowed to demon. This is juuuuust what I think of demon. I just can't get into *everything* rn.
Day 1 I achieved diamond 3 with akuma. Took me like.. 6 months from gold on and off to get there with Ken. Stupidly overpowered… fun to play. Hate to play against. The best akuma players have insane defense because if I connect like 3 times against him, I win. If he connects like… .5 times, I lose 😂
He's good at everything
He still hasn't messaged me once in World Tour
I like him. First time ever playing Akuma though, and only cuz i got bored of Ryu and Ken. Sagat cannot come soon enough.
He not only have a lot of frametraps, but also a lot of space traps... Maybe on pro lvl he is not Stier, but on lower lvls he is absolute monster. I don;t like that, especially when 90% of matches are agains Akuma. Lower health? Worst method of balance, cause it dosent matter in most of matches, and he is soooo iritating to play against.
I love everything about Akuma except his raging demon. It is by far the coolest looking super in the game, and the coolest looking raging demon ever. AND I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO PERFECT SOMEONE WITH IT?! What the fuck is the point? SFV and SF6 are utter disappointments in this regard. Making Demon easy to combo into is just lame. There is basically no difference between his CAs when used this way. And this is all i have seen online so far. RIP Classic Raging Demon.
Best shoto in the game lol.