Xiba Demo Impressions

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Signia

Signia

[13] Hero
I'm reposting my Xiba impressions here.

http://www.twitch.tv/leveluplive/b/303016385 1:05:00 streamed match

Ok, I myself played a Xiba for a good bit. Highlight of his movelist:

His is CE is just as fast as something like Pat's or Pyrrha's CE where you can use it in a juggle

AND IT'S A COUNTER-CE :D

Also his 2A... is like a fast character 2A. S-Low, tracking, etc. HIS GO-TO INTERRUPT. The Xiba player everyone's talking about did not use this or 6B to interrupt, so he got pressured very easily by my Pat.

Moves I used as BnB:

WR A. Just like Kilik's WR A, it's a tracking mid with decent range and if spaced is relatively risk free.

6B or 6BK. This is Kilik's 66B with a high kick on the end. 6B can be used the same way as Kilik's 66B. String is BEable I think.

AAK - NC Kilik/Mina AA into a mid kick. Even on NH they all connect and stun guaranteeing 6B. Does a lot of damage for long range move with good tracking.

66BBB - something like that. It's more like 66Bmashmashmash because I didn't know exactly how to do the string. This launches, guaranteeing a CE. String is BEable I think?

1B - This can be used like Mina's 4A. It backsteps the does a low. Looks exactly like Kilik's 236 stance B but without the stance part.

2A - Same as a fast character's 2A!

BB - Natural combo! Good damage!

B(B) - Fakes the second B and shifts into his stance, which looks like Kilik 236. The stance GIs something, but I'm not sure what. Wasn't very successful with the GI BUT the point of going into the stance is the fact he has a tracking high, damaging safe mid that combos in 6B, and a knockdown low (not sure if there's a followup here).

B+K - manually goes into Xiba-stance. Go-to aGI. Probably GIs horizontals like Kilik 236?

FC1B - same as Kilik's FC1B in SCIV. I use this because he doesn't have Kilik 44B.

WR K - my duck-punish. Looks like Kilik WR K except on hit he continues kicking them into the air. Very Hwang-like.

BT B+K - He straddles the stick and pushes up and down on his side of the stick, causing the other side top beat the opponent senseless. Hilarious and effective.

66KKKK... - I think that's the input. He does a kick, turns a around, and does BT B+K.

22B - big launcher, probably unsafe. Guarantees BT B+K

22AB and 22(A) or 22A(B) I forget which - Kilik's 22AB and also goes into the special stance somehow by holding one of the inputs.

2K - Like every 2K, it does like 6 damage but it hits grounded so it's still worth using

22K - Kilik 22K but no B followup afaik.

bK - Kilik's bK, or whichever slide input did a fast low-high string where they hit at almost exactly the same time.

3kB - Not what you think. 3K is still Kilik's shitty 3K, but 3kB is a BODY CHECK where Xiba launches his back against the opponent by pushing himself with the rod. Unsafe, high damage. Possible TJ.


He also has a weird fucked up strings that I didn't bother with. There's two of them where there are like 3-4 hits. I couldn't find the BE shown in the trailer (the low one)

2A+K is back but I didn't bother with it. Sweeps might be better in this game, they effectively kill Quick Step.

Edit: Oh yeah and his 6A is like one of Kilik's old moves that wasn't in SCIV. It's a track high.
WR B - SCIV Mina WR B. No more Kilik WR B. No Asura. Couldn't find SCIV 1B or 4B+K.

------------------------- Day 2
I played Xiba on the stream since you've all seen Patroklos. I messed up a lot though, I was still trying to do Kilik inputs for moves. Fighting Maxi at range is really scary too. Barry is a smart player too.

More moves that I missed:

66A - This is TJ long range tracking mid. It closes the distance on hit and block in contrast to his other moves. It looks like there's a string followup but I couldn't find one. It seems really safe too. Yeah, a safe TJ long range tracking mid.

33A - the low that's in the trailer. BE is a NCC. Non-BE does two lows, BE does 4. Mixing up between them is not viable due to the BE flash coming very early. The best use for this is to hit rollers, it all combos if they're grounded.

6BK and 6AK are also BEable. The sidestep kick is delayable so it might be possible to CH confirm to do the KA+B+K part. The extra BE attack is like his 3bK.

3A

1A - Kilik's 2A+K

44_11_33AA - Kilik's 44AA

1A+B_3A+B - opening treasure Kilik/Mina lows

A+BK - Kilik 4A+B into the gimmick kick

4A - his go-to reverse mixup move. It sidesteps and TCs. Hits high, knocks down. Seems safe! I think Kilik had this move but it was never really used due to there being better tools.

6K - Kilik 6B+K. Seems safer this time around, 2A afterword interrupted a lot of people

6B+K - Kilik 6A+B

2A+B - Kilik 2A+B

44B - causes a shake stun? It's got some range.


I really wish I spent more time on Xiba, I kept wanting to go to his move list and check things out but people wanted to play... but there shouldn't be very many things I missed.
Windstar said: ↑
As far as Xiba's abilities are concerned, he looks like a character that plays similar to SC1's Kilik with an emphasis on pushing ranged with a bit of SC2's Kilik's mindgames. It doesn't look like he has a lot of pressure tools, but since he has good range and some really speedy stuff, he can probably play at a range well and provide a good set of mix-ups there. His real interesting draw right now, is his really impressive use of high-low-mid strings and trying to get the opponent to guess wrong. I suspect that a lot of his moves have some very basic variants that will make players guess low or mid. Seems like he might be able to juggle well with all his BE stuff and extensive strings.​
No pressure tools? Think again. He has transitions into a special stance where he can mixup for good damage. He has tricky strings that can be truncated safely. His bK is a safe advantage low (not very much damage if just the low hits though). He has good oki with 6B and 33A. His movement is good enough that he control his spacing easily. It might just be gimmicky but I was putting up a good offense on everybody.

Oh yeah I almost forgot! His stance aGI counters kicks and horizontals but not verticals, weird huh? Mixing up with Step 22B or 4A with this aGI is all you need for reverse mixup. If they hesitate they're subject to your mixup.


NDK said: ↑
Any command throws?​
nope, sorry. Checked his movelist he just has normal throws.


I'm still remembering more things. About his reverse mixup, to beat 2A he also has 44K, a TJ overhead mid kick. I believe this was Mina's 11K? Kilik had it too, I think. But this time it's BEable and does tons of damage!

3AB is a fast horizontal mid to highthat looks like the first hit of Kilik's 6AAA string, except mid, but ends with the second hit of Kilik's 2*BB.

44AA is Kilik's safe horizontal mid-low string.

8K is still "Give me strength!" useless high hop kick. For some reason it can clean hit!

8B is the same as Kilik's

1K is still a fast TJ mid kick

44B+K is Kilik's 44aB unblockable

11B is Kilik's, the slow toe stun

I forgot to check for 6B8 and 6B2 >.<
 
Ok let me break down Xiba's possible strategies:

Keep out: Xiba has the tools to do this. 66B and 44B are good mid pokes that aren't too slow for their range. 33A is a tracking low poke. 1A is a safe sweep which will hit quick steppers. 1B gets Xiba away from the opponent, while being a low poke with decent damage. FC1B is a long range, but probably reactable low poke but it seems to Super TC; it goes under Hilde 22B, which Ceirnan liked to use a lot. 66A is a long range safe tracking mid, but it closes the distance. AAK is a high damage CH tool at a decent range. He might have the strongest range, competing with Siegfried, Asta, and Hilde. BB is ok, earlier I said it was a NC but people just weren't blocking lol. The only thing he seems to lack here is whiff punish. 3BK and 22B are really strong, but outside their range he has 3kB, which does at least 40 damage and knocks down. 3kB also serves as his punisher, probably.

String pressure: 6BK, 6AK, A+BK, AAK, and 3BK are all delayable strings that end in a high kick that stuns on CH, leading to a combo. Some of this stuff might be gimmicky, they are highs after all, but the stopped strings are safe, I think. There's also 22AB, 66K/33K string, 66BBB and his BEs. Sadly 22AAA is gone but he got something to compensate. His damage with these moves is very high. There's some funny properties with the K followups in 6BK and 6AK; he sidesteps before he does the kick and it evades things, sometimes even when the first hit of the string whiffs.

Stance pressure: 3(B), 22A(B), and B(B) cancel the strings into his stance. His stance has fast invisible mixup tools. AK tracks and launches, B does a lot of damage and causes a sit-down stun, and K is a knockdown low. 3B is especially scary because the string followup does a LOT of damage and can clean hit, and if just 3(B) hits it will launch and combo into stance B or K.

Reverse mixup pressure: B+K manually enters the stance and it aGIs horizontals and kicks. Everything else will be steppable. His step whiff punish up close is 22B which combos into BT B+K. 4A and 44K will also beat everything. 4A steps and TCs with a safe-looking high attack, and 44K is a BEable TJ mid kick. 1K and 66A (lol) also TJ. 1B can be used to escape. If they start to hesitate, B+K will give you a free three-way mixup. If they block 4A or 44K, just do it again! Actually I have no idea how safe these moves really are, but everything seemed to be working, even stopping strings into grabs. For after ducking grabs he has WR K which does a lot of damage and can be BE'd for more. WR K is preferred over WR B since idk what to followup with. 3bK maybe? His CE is a counter which beats everything! GG Maxi and Siegfried stance pressure!

Standard up-close mid-low-tracking mixup: For unseeable lows he has the crotch crushers 1A+B and 3A+B, kB, and 2K. For slower and possibly readable lows he has 33A, 1A, and 11B. For tracking he has 6A, 22A, 2A (remember this is a fast 2A), AAK, 44AA, 66A, 1A, 33A. For mids... he doesn't really have any fast safe +on hit mids that I'm aware of. I'm just assuming 1K and 6B are still -frames on hit, and that his stopped strings like 66B, 3A, and 3B aren't both advantage on hit or safe. But you have fear advantage to work with. Other mids are pretty slow but they're there.


You can kinda see how you can seemlessly transition between these strategies with 66A to close in from range, 3(B) as a power mid with stance pressure or string ender on block, and scare them with your reverse mixup and string enders so they just stand and block so you get free up-close mixup, risk free movement, and ranged mixups and guard pressure.

So that's the character, think of him as new and drop your Mina/Kilik strategies. There probably isn't that much more to him.

Edit: Found it! 4A is Kilik's 33A, but faster. and Xiba has Kilik's 4KB too, same input. And he has Kilik 4B and 4(B).
 
Kilik had 33AA =) Same deal as Mina.

There also used to be a move similar to 33AA that could be guard canceled. Basically, Kilik would still do the TC animation but stop before the impact frames.
 
Wow. I really want to try Xiba. At first I was unsure if he was a worthy successor to Kilik, but now I think that he is. A few questions about tournaments and other stuff (I know that this is probably the wrong place to ask):
  1. Is there an age restriction to enter a tournament? If so, what is it?
  2. Is there a qualifier or skill restriction to enter a tournament? If so, how good of a player do you have to be to get in?
  3. Are there any professional tournaments in New York City (I believe that I have seen some on this website)?
  4. Is a game pad generally better than a normal Sixaxis Dualshock Playstation 3 Controller?
 
I don't live in the USA so my answers aren't going to be 100% accurate.
1. Age restriction usually depends on the venue, like if the event takes place in a bar or club etc. (it happens) you'll need to be of legal age to enter the venue. However, in these rare situations the tournament is usually held outside of regular operating hours so you'll probably be able to get in if your parents/guardians don't put you on house arrest.
2. There are qualifiers for Nationals. But no real "skill restriction" to join those, or any other tournament. Tournaments don't discriminate against a player because he is new. If you're new, feel free to join and get the exposure and talk to people. You'll meet people who will be your friends for a long time and help you improve in your game. Of course, if you are an obnoxious fool then nobody will want to talk to you.
3. You'll have to wait for the game to release before anyone can really answer that. But in the past there have been tournament scenes in NYC.
4. It is all up to preference, most people would clump a gamepad and a sixaxis controller together in the same category even! Back when Fighting Games were a little more niche; anyone would tell you that a Stick > Any form of pad. But today i think everyone has realized that it's really up to personal preference. (Enter Wolfrone or Razer|Latif if anyone brings up execution issues)

Another thing you'll want to note about gamepad/joystick vs controller is that gamepads (I assume you mean the 6 button ones) and joysticks come in a standardized design. No matter how many years past from now, there is a very high chance that your basic gamepad/joystick's shape and layout will remain the same, or at least have 3rd party peripheral manufacturers making something similar. Whereas if Sony and Microsoft decide to pull a N64/NGC controller on us in the next gen. Controller users are also screwed.

Also, the best competitive environment for ANY fighting game is still the Arcades.. and Arcades don't have any slots for you to plug in a controller, there will be a point (a small chance, but still it's there) that if you want to start travelling to play your game, you'll need to pick up a joystick if you visit any country with an active arcade scene.
On a slightly relevant note for others reading this, if you live in an asian countries like South Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong or Singapore. You will definitely want to pick up an arcade stick instead simply because the arcade cultures in these countries are still active and the communities for Soul Calibur (and any other fighter) do push for an Arcade Release or some homebrew setup to be placed in an arcade. With only joysticks as an available option (because that's what the bulk of us use)
 
Thank you very much! I am only a casual player, but I am looking to become more serious in SCV. I doubt that I will do any tournaments, but this information is very helpful, in case I ever decide to. So theoretically a 14 year old could participate in a tournament?
 
Makatak said:
Thank you very much! I am only a casual player, but I am looking to become more serious in SCV. I doubt that I will do any tournaments, but this information is very helpful, in case I ever decide to. So theoretically a 14 year old could participate in a tournament?
Click to expand...
Yes, no problem with that at all. There was this 14 year old looking kid that gave me a run for my money at SCR :0 he had a pretty good Leixia.
 
There's always the classic story of Kayane schooling FetZ back in Soul Calibur 1.

When she was 10.
 
Sorry to sidetrack the thread again, but I have one more tournament question. At tournaments, are Xbox 360s or Playstation 3s used?
 
Signia, does Xiba have a 214 back parry? Also does his CE counter only specific attacks or does it kill everything?
 
NDK : Xiba does not have 214.
I managed to GI a fair number of moves with Xiba's CE. I'd wager to say it is a normal GI right now. (highs and mids, I got hit out of it by a low)
 
Maybe I missed it. But I assume that Asura and FOTD's are gone?

NDK can no longer spam me with asura.....I LOVE IT!!

HRD
 
NDK said:
Damn, they're taking away all my favorite moves
Click to expand...
Yup, this ain't Kilik anymore. Kilik's core tools 1B, 4B+K, WR B, Asura... gone. His reverse mixup tools are just different now, and he has an added string-based offense on top of Kilik's solid lows. I think Xiba's oki and ranged moves are better than Kilik's too?
HRD said:
Maybe I missed it. But I assume that Asura and FOTD's are gone?

NDK can no longer spam me with asura.....I LOVE IT!!

HRD
Click to expand...
Now he can spam you with his new B+K... it GIs kicks and horizontals for guaranteed big damage! That's in many ways better than a mid/TJ GI... Xiba's step and B+K beat everything I think. And if you bait B+K just by blocking, Xiba can still mix you up with A, B, K.

FOTDs are indeed gone.

I'm not sure about his CE or B+K hitting lows, but he has 44K$ for a very high damaging tech jump.
 
Is it me or are one of his BE's an Asura combo? I was just looking at your video and I think I saw something reminiscent of Asura...
 
Well his BE After 6A,K/6B,K is a shoulder check (like 3kB) so maybe that's what caught your eye.
3 hit ending with a shoulder check.
 
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