My curiousity to learn every nook and cranny of relating to the Street Fighter IV series of fighting games knows no bounds. I’ve written dozens of posts on the series in the past, and have started doing deeper dives into the nuts and bolts of the game. Most recently, I wrote about my recent experience of trying to master the art of ‘plinking’, a technique that helps players combo together moves with very tight timing windows. I’m still practicing this technique every time I play, and I’m slowly starting to see the dividends in using it.
Of late, I’ve also been experimenting with character selection. My most recent pet project has been Fei Long, whom I’ve been practicing with for the last few weeks. My analysis here isn’t meant to be expert analysis or a substitute for any number of guides available online, but to simply act as a place for me to discuss my experiences and feelings towards the character.
History of Fei Long in the Street Fighter IV Series
Fei Long was added to the roster as one of the console-exclusive characters when Street Fighter IV was ported to consoles. At the time, Fei Long was considered a weak character. However, players would eventually tap into Fei Long’s potential (and Capcom would give the character a few buffs along the way), which has made Fei Long a forced to be reckoned with. According to the most recent Arcadia Magazine tier list in Japan, Fei Long is considered to be one of the best characters in the game, ranked only behind Yun and Yang. Some of the most renown Fei Long players include Mago, Inthul, Starnab and EVO 2011 world champion, Fuudo.
About Fei Long
Fei Long’s play-style is very much in line with the footies-based approach from the Street Fighter II era. He doesn’t necessarily have the best tools to beat you with mix-ups or a rush down offense, but he can systematically poke his opponents into submission with his great normal and special moves if he can maintain a certain amount of space between himself and his opposition. In order to stay within that space and systematically poke away, you’ll need to exercise patience and sometimes play more lame than you’d like.
Why I’m Playing Fei Long
My reasons for taking Fei Long into the lab aren’t necessarily noble. Currently, my main character is Rose. She’s not considered to be a good character, but up until this point, her tools have best fit the way I want to play the game. However, her deficiencies as a character are becoming increasingly apparent to me over time, and I’ve come to thinking that it wouldn’t hurt to explore my options.
On this particular occasion, I decided to bow to popular opinion and investigate from the top of the tier list down. Having tried Yun and Yang in the past, I felt they were a bit too complicated to use. Fei Long on the other hand, I perceived as having a much lower skill barrier to entry, and therefore, an easier path to Street Fighter IV success. Shameless as it is, the logic is sound. Besides, there was no guarantee that this tier abusing would work for me, anyway.
What I Like About Fei Long
I love his normal attacks. He has good normal attacks that act as high-priority pokes whether he’s on the ground or in the air. Many of them have great reach, come out very quickly and do decent damage. In a lot of fights, you can do a tremendous amount of damage by standing around sweep range and simply sticking out the right normal to snuff an opponent’s attack.
Speaking of snuffing out attacks, his Rekka is one of the best special moves in the game thanks to its ability to snuff out attacks, punish whiffed moves and punish blocked moves. If your opponent makes even the slightest mistake from near point-blank to just outside of sweep range, you hit them with the three Rekkas for solid damage.
I also love his EX Chicken Wing. With full projectile invincibility, you easily close the gap on a projectile hurler anytime you want as long as you have at least 1 bar of EX meter in stock.
All things considered, there are very few characters in the game that have an inherent advantage him.
What I Don’t Like About Fei Long
The biggest hurdle for me hasn’t been the fault of the character himself. Over the past few years of my Street Fighter IV career, I’ve formed my own play style around set-ups, mix-ups and rushdown offense. Fei Long doesn’t fit that style very well. I’m in the process of trying to adjust my own play style to better fit the character, though I’m sure I’ll add my own flavour to Fei Long once I’ve come to grips with him.
As far as his special moves go, I’m not too hot on his Dragon Kick. In my experience thus far, it doesn’t function very well as an anti-air. It’s best used in a combo, particularly if you have the meter to FADC out of it, into his BnB ultra 1 combo. I also haven’t been able to work Fei Long’s command grab into my offense with much effectiveness, though that may be a personal failure more than anything.
Jumping back to his ultras for a second; they’re not the greatest. Ultra 1 is usually your best bet, though the odds of you landing the full ultra in a match are slim. It’s best used to end the Dragon Kick FADC combo, but that’s only good for 2 to 3 hits at best. Ultra 2 is a counter ultra, which is really hard to actually use in a match. It’s best used against characters who try and attack you as you wake up, though even then the timing is super tight.
As far as match-ups go, Fei Long does fairly poorly against the grapplers; particularly Zangief and T. Hawk. I find that basically any sort of offense Fei can try and set up will end with him getting command grabbed into oblivion. Right now, I’ve tried making all sorts of weird tactical adjustments to get out of grab range, but getting scooped is inevitable. The other thorns in my side as a Fei Long player are Balrog and Guile, as both guys have the weapons to keep Fei Long out.
My Experiences Leveling Up With Fei Long So Far
As is the case when learning any new character in a fighting game, it’s an uphill battle. I took a lot of lumps in the beginning as I tried to learn the basics of the character. It’s usually at this point where I decide whether I should keep going or quit. Once I came to grips with the basics of Fei Long, I liked what I saw and I could see the results of that effort coming through in wins. For Fei Long in particular, the biggest hurdle for me is an exercise in restraint. I like to rush in and hit lots of buttons, but Fei Long’s play style is a lot more about hitting the right buttons at the right time from the right space.
The turning point for me happened during a late-night online session, when I had a chance encounter with Lud. I’ve posted our match video above. Don’t let his online score fool you; he’s recognized as being one of the top Chun-Li players in North America. While it was not my best Fei Long performance by any stretch, nor was it all that impressive in my opinion, I felt like my Fei Long handled that fairly well, despite all of the circumstances. More importantly, coming out of that match, I felt like I could overcome a lot of the hurdles I faced against Lud if I just had more experience under my belt.
So far, I feel like there’s potential for me to make Fei Long work. It’s definitely still going to be an uphill battle, and things will get tougher once Fei Long gets all of the nerfs lined up for him in Version 2012. Even still, I still see the glimmer of hope that putting in the work will get me somewhere good. At the very least, having the skills and knowledge in my back pocket will be beneficial to my overall development with the series
In Third Person 