With Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate's release came the new feature that could be used once a player's health is decreased to below 50%, the Power Launcher. Akin to the Power Blow it is a global roster attack that launches an opponent high into the air allowing for higher damage juggles than normal or gives all characters access to a ceiling hit. Unfortunately there is a bug with the Power Launcher that is able to render it to continue to be an even more niche option to characters that may not get as much damage as a Power Blow.
This bug isn't something you see all to often in gameplay if at all but it is an incredibly annoying one when it occurs. The example I am about to use is one that I have experienced many times in Training Mode, Online, and recently offline at NEC 15 with Leon and was even recorded/streamed during the "Salty Runback" session Saturday night at NEC 15.
If you have access to the character Leon (assuming you are playing Core Fighters) take him into Training Mode, set Powerblows to "On" and perform this combo as quickly as you are able to achieve a "fastest input."
:[[p+k]]:
It may take several tries to do if you are not as familiar with Leon as people who regularly play him. What you are trying to do is start a stun, combo into the stun, burst with Leon's Critical Burst, then execute his Power Launcher. Done with fastest inputs and as much buffering as you can you should notice something very odd about the combo. Did you find what it was?
If you did, you can see why this bug is incredibly annoying and possibly match breaking.
For those of you who can't quite seem to get it, buffer the starting at the last half of the Critical Burst animation.
Get it yet? If not I'll just show it to you.
Yeah. It's annoying. Worst part is that I can do it consistently. Even worse, more personally than anything, is that I like to play a Critical Burst heavy Leon (aka if I see it I'm probably going to go for it) which is why I know the timing needed to get a "fastest" Power Launcher.
Here is the intended effect.
This bug seems to only occur immediately after a Critical Burst. A raw Power Launcher always comes out when just thrown out willy-nilly.
So how do you avoid the unintended effect? You play the waiting game. You have to wait until the end of the Critical Burst animation before putting the commands in to perform the Power Launcher. Unfortunately from that you have the chance to whiff with the Power Launcher by waiting too long so getting the command in in time forces you to play along the "would I rather" line of the game where you want to use a tool but do you want to wait to use it later to capitalize on it in another situation. I don't like to play the waiting game when I get a CB, if I can't get the right launcher in time I lose a lot of opportunity, especially playing as Leon.
A while ago @Rikuto and I briefly talked about it and I learned that this wasn't exclusive to Leon but ranged out mostly to characters that showed up with 5U's iteration, namely Phase 4. I myself haven't seen it with others but I am willing to believe that it is possibly a global roster issue (feel free to correct me on this, I have video evidence that it is possible right above).
I think I surprised the other players in the room at NEC with my sudden outburst of foul language when it occurred but this is something I feel needs to be looked into. I seem to have no other issues when using Mila, who is my other CB heavy character I use, whether or not it is due to command inputs I am not sure. This bug annoys me to no end, you could say "just slow down the timing" but muscle memory hits like a train when it comes to combos and that affects everyone, not just me.
Last Round update: This bug is still in Last Round, I found it on the PS4 version. After a discussion with Sly Bass it may be attributed to the camera type you use. I use the "Action/Casual" camera where many camera effects are very different than what you would typically see on a tournament stream (ex. camera angles on fighters during combos becomes angled showing more of the character's back that is performing the combo. You can notice it in the second video where Bayman performs the CB combo). After testing on the "Pro" camera the glitch is still doable but more difficult to execute.
This bug isn't something you see all to often in gameplay if at all but it is an incredibly annoying one when it occurs. The example I am about to use is one that I have experienced many times in Training Mode, Online, and recently offline at NEC 15 with Leon and was even recorded/streamed during the "Salty Runback" session Saturday night at NEC 15.
If you have access to the character Leon (assuming you are playing Core Fighters) take him into Training Mode, set Powerblows to "On" and perform this combo as quickly as you are able to achieve a "fastest input."
:[[p+k]]:
It may take several tries to do if you are not as familiar with Leon as people who regularly play him. What you are trying to do is start a stun, combo into the stun, burst with Leon's Critical Burst, then execute his Power Launcher. Done with fastest inputs and as much buffering as you can you should notice something very odd about the combo. Did you find what it was?
If you did, you can see why this bug is incredibly annoying and possibly match breaking.
For those of you who can't quite seem to get it, buffer the
starting at the last half of the Critical Burst animation.Get it yet? If not I'll just show it to you.
Yeah. It's annoying. Worst part is that I can do it consistently. Even worse, more personally than anything, is that I like to play a Critical Burst heavy Leon (aka if I see it I'm probably going to go for it) which is why I know the timing needed to get a "fastest" Power Launcher.
Here is the intended effect.
This bug seems to only occur immediately after a Critical Burst. A raw Power Launcher always comes out when just thrown out willy-nilly.
So how do you avoid the unintended effect? You play the waiting game. You have to wait until the end of the Critical Burst animation before putting the commands in to perform the Power Launcher. Unfortunately from that you have the chance to whiff with the Power Launcher by waiting too long so getting the command in in time forces you to play along the "would I rather" line of the game where you want to use a tool but do you want to wait to use it later to capitalize on it in another situation. I don't like to play the waiting game when I get a CB, if I can't get the right launcher in time I lose a lot of opportunity, especially playing as Leon.
A while ago @Rikuto and I briefly talked about it and I learned that this wasn't exclusive to Leon but ranged out mostly to characters that showed up with 5U's iteration, namely Phase 4. I myself haven't seen it with others but I am willing to believe that it is possibly a global roster issue (feel free to correct me on this, I have video evidence that it is possible right above).
I think I surprised the other players in the room at NEC with my sudden outburst of foul language when it occurred but this is something I feel needs to be looked into. I seem to have no other issues when using Mila, who is my other CB heavy character I use, whether or not it is due to command inputs I am not sure. This bug annoys me to no end, you could say "just slow down the timing" but muscle memory hits like a train when it comes to combos and that affects everyone, not just me.
Last Round update: This bug is still in Last Round, I found it on the PS4 version. After a discussion with Sly Bass it may be attributed to the camera type you use. I use the "Action/Casual" camera where many camera effects are very different than what you would typically see on a tournament stream (ex. camera angles on fighters during combos becomes angled showing more of the character's back that is performing the combo. You can notice it in the second video where Bayman performs the CB combo). After testing on the "Pro" camera the glitch is still doable but more difficult to execute.
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