Tekken Revolution

My official opinion on the Special Art (aka those spammy invincible glow red attacks)

A scenario:

Imagine I'm an Asuka player and while attacking I do a fairly ordinary high mid mid string or something. It's blocked and I'm at about -3 frames.

Now, because of my constantly happening psychological profiling of my opponent I'm almost certain he will attack, it's just a guess, but having been paying close attention to how he fights, and by association, how he thinks I'm about 90% sure he reckons something fast or with crushing properties is worth the risk at this point in the round.

In previous Tekkens I might set something up to intercept the incoming attack, perhaps a crouch jab, an attack reversal, a b+3, or a SS,2. These all beat quite a few different options but lose to certain others.

Now in this situation there is nothing more unfair then guessing your opponent's action correctly only for the SS you did to be fluke tracked, your crouch jab to be fluke hopkicked, your attack reversal to the fluke shouldered, kneed. sworded, tailed or otherwise, etc etc.
Basically something either going wrong because the opponent did a preposterously silly move that just happened out of the blue to beat your genuine attempt to trump the attack you knew was coming, or, the opponent did a move he assumed you would block and give him plus frames, but you didn't block for you suspected this was his plan, but it just so happened that because of a technical condition of the command you chose and the command he chose, he was rewarded, even though you won the psychological battle.

Every one complains about this in Tekken including the best players in the world; when a command unfairly rewards, when someone guesses wrong but still gets rewarded and vice versa when someone reads correctly but gets punished.

Special arts don't let this happen: so long as you predicted the attack, it will work. In poker terms it's a no bull**** all in; "I bet 1/3rd of my life bar (or your best punish) that you are about to attack"

To the casual player and beginner, this is a game balance and a God send; No more thrashings because someone is just scoring counter hit after counter hit in a well practice routine of attacks without any real requirement for sentient recognition of the human opponent.

For more advanced player it means less otherwise good defensive reads you're absolutely certain of, crushed by technical accident.

It also means less utter hopelessness if you don't know the treacherous "cheap shots" of a match up, which is a chapter in itself.

For a very long time Tekken has had far to much stuff "everybody knows" about (said with rolled eyes):
"everybody knows" the next hit on that string is a low launcher that can take half your health bar
"everybody knows" that character does a high crushing launcher after that attack is blocked
"everybody knows" attack reversals doesn't work on (insert character's body area)
"everybody knows" you can't SS to the (insert direction) after blocking that.

Well it's too much **** to know. HWO alone is a one man, "too much **** to know" and there is another 50 or so characters to 'study'
It's gone beyond saturation and to rectify this, there's now an "attack-be-gone" called Special Art.

if you know your enemy is going to attack (your human opponent), this will work. end of.

It takes tekken back to psychology and guesswork in balance, and of fighter and person controlling the fighter in balance or at least puts it back closer to being 50/50 knowledge and psychology and 50/50 player and character. Correctly profiling your opponent's mindset is now roughly as important a skill and knowing all the strings like some special little encyclopedia man.
At least now it's not a case where you have to spend eons studying the move lists, how good players use the moves and so fourth before you ever get a glimpse at fair match play. That any instinct you have for games, versus fighters, or just vs sports in general is completely useless until you first commit to either memory or 'reflex' (depending on how quick the move is) the 100+ 'noob killers' Tekken has amassed over the years.

The Special Art is a 'knowledge proof' tool for exercising the basic match playing skill of when you think you're opponent will or won't attack.
It doesn't have a complex weakness elite players can utilize or bully their way into making useless, the only way to deal with it is profiling your human opponent and when they might use it.

For the attacking player the special art is another pressure tool; it's 'another hit' to the string or series of attacks but at the cost of gambling for an even worse punish. If you guess right, you keep your health and you get the damage. If you guess wrong you don't get the damage and you lose the health.

Thus I theorize that the only people who will actively dislike Special Arts (and cite the reason that it's cheap or cheapens the game) are those who have grown too comfortable in separating themselves from competition via knowledge only, and not via knowledge and match play intuition in equal measure, especially when against newer or more casual players.

Plus there is no legitimate issue; it's not like anything is broken. You can punish the **** out of SA's. Their huge punish window actually bring moves back onto the table that were becoming redundant due to slow start up and such. For that I thank them; I like when Tekken introduces something in a newer game that makes already existing moves become important again, it's like a little time travelling present for your character.