Zeku could be the test subject for future global balance changes

So Zeku has been in the hands of the public since October 24th. He is turning out to be quite the interesting character.

As we all know by now, he is a character whose moveset is split into two different forms. One form has him old while the other is young.

A short while after that, Zeku's frame data was officially released by Capcom on their website. It revealed something perculiar, yet interesting about Young Zeku.

His standing heavy punch, standing heavy kick, and crouching heavy punch all suffer from an additional five frames of recovery if they are whiffed. His light Hozanto suffers from an additional ten frames of recovery on whiff as well.

This is a handicap that currently does not exist for any other character. Given that Zeku is the final Season 2 DLC character, could Capcom potentially be exploring a global balance change for Season 3 and the Arcade Edition?

Here's a look at the frame data for these moves that Capcom posted below. It's especially important to note the "comments" section of the table at the far right.



Click images for larger versions

Now given, of the three normal attacks that Zeku has with this handicap, only crouching heavy punch can cause a crush counter. In addition to this, Zeku's old form is not hindered by this frame data quirk.

Still, this seems like it might be a good solution for "crush counter fishing." For many of the current top tiers, these moves tend to generate high rewards for somewhat of a low risk.

In the case of Urien, for example, his standing heavy punch had at one point sort of became a meme within the community thanks to the efforts Floe. While streaming, he ended up winning a number of matches simply by fishing for crush counters.

This was referred to as "one button Urien." Upon counter-hit, he is granted a damaging combo followup.

It is often cited as a criticism of the game that the meta's footsies revolves too heavily around crush counter fishing. If Capcom were to agree that this was a problem, then they would obviously opt to address this issue.

Adding additional recovery frames to these buttons if they are whiffed looks like an elegant solution. As the meta becomes more evolved, Capcom will surely have a better understanding of how to go about making changes for Street Fighter 5.

This handicap for Young Zeku could be the experimentation for this. Being that we are very close to the end of the year, it is very likely that Capcom already has plans developed on what balance adjustments need to be made in Arcade Edition.

Why not implement it for Zeku's old form too? Perhaps Capcom are looking to better define which characters have really strong neutrals and better emphasize their strengths.

While old Zeku is intended to be more focused on playing from a mid-range, Young Zeku is able to pressure up close. This certainly helps define the differences between these two forms.

Characters like Ryu and Chun-Li who appear to be intended to play the neutral slow and methodically, aren't doing very well this season. Toning down other characters would obviously help them in the long run if this was the route Capcom was going with.

Do you think this would balance out the risk vs. reward for some of the footsie tools that exist within the game? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comment section.