Free Step Dodge

Atleast that's the case with Ryu since his Fireball, Dragon Punch & Critical Art all Overlap with eachother.

Ken Fairs a bit better but he also has god awful Hit Confirms so I aint playin him.

you're just mashing if that happens. also, the dp shortcut is a safer "mash-free" reversal if you want to

LoL... Nope... I test it out...The 3 Directional Input is not at all necessary for performing the first half of the Critical Art... atleast not for Ryu.

Ergo if you perform a quick recovery (by pressing 2) then perform a textbook DP using the proper motion then you'l get a Critical Art.

I've actually had this Happen with Cammy too... but its rarer with her because even if she has the Fireball motion... she doesn't have an actual Fireball so its less likely encountering these poorly design input issues.