We already did a piece discussing Cammy last year, but let's have a look at the newcomer Sakura, Myers' classic main

Ever since the original collaboration story I did with Tempo|Alex Myers back in December of last year regarding Cammy and what could be fixed with the character, you've been requesting that we do more pieces like it.

There've been a couple more since then - I spoke to Ixion about Nash and to Reiketsu about Vega, and now we're actually back to Tempo|Alex Myers once more.

The reason he's back is because this article is about Sakura, the character Myers was most known for playing back in Street Fighter 4 when he made a name for himself, and a character he showed incredible excitement for at her reveal for Street Fighter 5.

However, things haven't been as rosy as we might have hoped, with Myers opting more for Cammy ever since Sakura's release, largely because the character just has too many problems to ignore, something I've experienced first-hand as well, since I tried playing her for about a month after she was added to the game as well.

As such, it felt like a prime opportunity to reach out to him once more and see what he had to say regarding Sakura, what's good with her, what isn't, and how her issues could potentially be fixed.

Gracious as he always tends to be, Tempo|Alex Myers accepted, and thanks to him, we have this piece. I'll remind you that this piece is formed based on Alex's opinions, but it will be written with my words, so it's a collaboration article of sorts, just like the previous three were.

Good things about the current version of Sakura

Sakura feels good when everything lands the right way To start things off on a positive note, I began by asking Myers what he likes about Sakura in Street Fighter 5 right now. Myers notes that he likes how Capcom made her pressure work, and that the light kick version of her Shunpukyaku feels pretty balanced. He also says that he thinks her standing light kick and standing heavy kick are both nice. "What feels really good is when everything lands the right way," he starts. "Like when your pressure is working and when your footsies are working out with her." Although Sakura is quite a different character than she was in Street Fighter 4, she has retained a lot of things from that game. I asked Myers what he's happy to see still there. "I'm happy that she retained most things from Street Fighter 4, but I am not happy she gets no oki when she whiff punishes you," Myers said, which leads us straight in to the negative aspects of Sakura in Street Fighter 5.

Bad things about the current version of Sakura

Lack of oki from whiff punishes Following up from the note that she doesn't get any okizeme from whiff punishing situations, Myers went in to more detail what he meant. "When I standing light kick whiff punish someone, it only combos into medium Shououken, and standing light kick is her only real whiff punish half the time", he explains. "Her back heavy punch is SUPPOSED to be a good whiff punish with her, but the hitbox is so short that it doesn't go as far as you need it to." Not getting proper payoff from whiff punishing your opponent is a rough situation to be in, especially for a character that has several other faults and even more so in such a oki-heavy game as Street Fighter 5. "If her whiff punish game was improved, I'd be a lot happier," Myers continues. "Because when people get whiff punished by Sakura right now, she gets no oki and has to take major risks to get oki off of her medium punch Shououken, such as double dashing, and because of that, people feel that they can take dumber risks against her because the risk is so low based off of her weak situation after whiff punishing."

Jumping Medium Kick and V-Skill mishaps Since I've been playing Sakura a bit myself, I decided to poke Myers about one of the moves that's bothered me the most about her, namely her jumping medium kick. To me, this move looks like it should hit in so many situations where it ends up not doing so, and overall it feels like a crossup button that simply isn't going to pay off for you in many situations. Myers agrees emphatically, saying "Yeah, dude, they need to buff that move. It whiffs every time, not even worth using. I just do jumping light kick." Following up naturally from the comment about jumping medium kick, Myers recalls another thing about Sakura that's just plain odd. "Sometimes when you do his V-Trigger 2 Shunpukyaku to her V-Skill dive kick in the corner, the dive kick corners you." I try to wrap my head around what he means, asking if it whiffs and then corners you, but that's not quite accurate. "The V-Skill automatically shoves you in the corner before the dive kick even comes out", he explains. It's hard to imagine that something like this isn't purely a bug, where Sakura gets shoved in to the corner for an unknown reason and you end up in a disadvantageous situation basically mid-combo, so hopefully this is an area Capcom can fix posthaste.

A lot of dysfunctional normals When I ask Myers if there are any other moves besides her back heavy punch that he thinks need adjustments, he's instantly ready with his reply. "Counter hit standing light punch to standing medium punch to back heavy punch should always combo" he says, without missing a beat. I ask what he means exactly, if it's a range thing that prevents it from always working, which turns out to not quite be the case. Myers shows me a video he's put up on his Twitter which details how it won't work if the opponent is waking up with a standing 3 frame normal, which seems like a very strange occurence. It's not that the move is out of range, but the back heavy punch will simply not connect after standing medium punch for whatever reason. You can see the video yourself below in the embedded tweet. .@CapcomFighters @Capcom_Unity I hear you're fixing bugs in the new update, I ask you to please look into this weird bug with Sakura.



Her counter hit standing LP -> standing MP -> Back HP whiffs mid combo if opponent wakes up with a standing 3 frame move, but works on crouching pic.twitter.com/tWbh92Ahin — Tempo | Alex Myers (@AlexMyersFGC) February 2, 2018 It doesn't stop there, though, Myers had several more opinions regarding Sakura's normals and what needs to be fixed with them to help Sakura out as a character. He shows me a video where he does a jumping light kick to crouching light punch to standing light punch, and the standing light punch will simply not connect sometimes, which also seems to be a glitch, if anything. He goes on to lament her crouching medium kick. "It needs more hit stun so you can hit confirm crouching medium kick to heavy Shououken. It's dumb that you can only hit confirm to medium Shououken which leads to no oki," he details. He specifies further by saying that the move can go in to heavy Shououken, but only off a buffer, and can not be done on reaction, which is what a whiff punish would require, but is only viable as a combo tool at the moment. There are also issues with the ranges on her buttons. He begins by reiterating something he's brought up in the past, saying "standing light kick reaching further than crouching medium kick is NOT ok. I hate it." That's not the only range problem though, there's another strange one for Sakura, as Myers explains. "Standing medium punch needs more range, it has less range than her standing light punch..." Finally, as far as her normals go, Myers points out a clear flaw with her standing light kick, which is generally accepted to perhaps be her best button. "I think that standing light kick to EX Shunpukyaku should always hit. It makes no sense that Kolin can do her standing light kick to EX Parabellum and get oki, and I can't even combo to mine from a light kick..."

V-Trigger problems Finally, Myers talks to me about what he thinks are issues with Sakura's V-Trigger 2, pretty much the V-Trigger of choice for anyone who ever picks the character. "Her V-Trigger 2 Shunpukyaku needs a buff in range," he starts. "When you whiff punish Kolin's standing heavy punch, for instance, while she's in V-Trigger 2 mode, standing light kick will hit but the V-Trigger 2 Shunpukyaku will just whiff." I tell him that I can relate to that problem, as it's happened to me as well, and he moves on to talking about her Shououken in the powered up mode. "Also, her V-Trigger 2 Shououken needs to be buffed all around," he says. "Either a buff in range, or what I think would be a really cool design for her, would be to make all of her V-Trigger 2 Shououkens range dependant based on what button you press, similar to what they did with Cammy's V-Trigger 1 Cannon Spikes." Myers begins explaining in more detail. "Meaning that light punch Shououken is meant for close jumpins, medium punch Shououken for a little bit further jumpins and heavy punch Shououken for really far away jumps and going through fireballs, since heavy versions of Dragon Punches are meant to have more projectile invincibility," he finishes. Moving on to a different issue he has with her V-Trigger 2 Shunpukyaku, he says that they should not be -10 frames on block. "Maybe -7 at worst so that they can sweep it," he says, unaware of how privileged this statement sounds to an Alex main like me, with my 9 frame crouching medium kick. I ask for confirmation that what he's saying is it should absolutely be punishable, but not to the extent that it currently is, and he agrees. He says maybe -8 frames would be okay, but that -10 feels like too much. With V-Trigger 2 sufficiently covered, I tell him that when I started playing Sakura right at her launch, I was actually using her V-Trigger 1 for the first 2 or 3 days because I thought it seemed more fun, until I realized that there really wasn't much difference to her regular charged Hadoken to what she actually gets in V-Trigger state. I ask what he thinks needs to be done about her V-Trigger 1 since it's almost entirely unpicked now. "Hmm... I think they should allow more fireball uses with it. You only get like 4, whereas Akuma can bump out 6 with his V-Trigger 1," he ponders. "I don't think that's very fair in comparison." Following up on V-Trigger 1 itself, Myers notes the extra move the state gives. "They gave her Hogasho, which is cool, but ... Just feels kind of whatever in comparison to V-Trigger 2."

There you have it, folks. Huge thanks to Tempo|Alex Myers for taking the time to talk to me about Sakura for this article, and hopefully we'll see some of these issues with her being adressed by Capcom in the near future.

So, what do you think? Anything you think should be mentioned besides these issues? Anything in here you disagree with? Let us know in the comments.

You can follow Tempo|Alex Myers on Twitter here and on Twitch where he streams regularly here.