Critical Burst to a degree I can accept when you surpass critical threshold, as this takes a bit more skill to achieve. Granted some characters can get it earlier than others, but those characters also tend to be slower so I can kind of swallow it to a degree.
I still feel weird about the fact that repeating the burst move twice will grant you Critical burst (yes, I do know this is shortcut to exceeding threshold). but the outcome is far too deadly for this. As far as I see it this is an exploit. In this one condition I have suggested several times that if a move was repeated twice (regardless of what move it is), it should always lead to knockdown or reset. But I also DO see the value of having it in, which I will explain near the end of this comment.
Critical Burst as it is now DOES lead to a lot of repetition. However it is very different from the repetition we have in DOA in terms of an optimal air-juggle, a wall-juggle, or a danger-zone juggle. Repeating any setups that lead to these usually gets you blown up (unless you are a non-adapting scrub then I would spam the same setup away over and over). In addition, the net result damage is far less than what could be achieved with burst, particularly if you were away from a danger zone.
The thing about burst is that it not only guarantees a launcher, but also a Power blow. From there, all hell can break loose.
Burst > Powerblow > Dangerzone > Follow-up juggle. This is the simplest scenario I can see happening over and over, particularly if burst can be done so early by simply just repeating a move. But even when you take out the Powerblow factor and simply go for a guaranteed launcher Its still stupid as no game has a stun that long (since you like comparing other games).
One concept I had in mind was:
Burst > free step for repositioning > fast wall slam (like Hitomi's <>P for example) > air juggle.
(this can also apply to dangerzone setups)
Having that sort of luxury mid screen, and mid combo for that matter, is just stupid....... or is it ??
Then you have Tag. For those who don't give a shit about tag can move along but I personally think this is a system that should not be overlooked, especially since we are up against TTT2. They wanted to create a way to make Tag Powerblows usable. (for those who don't know this yet, a tag powerblow can be done when both characters on a team are down to 50% health). Now I was thinking, what the hell is the point of that if I can simply do the following ?
Burst Cancel into tag > reduced health Teammate powerblow. If anything, this is even far easier to apply as the length of the burst stun would be even larger due to he tag cancel. You don't even need the tag powerblow concept.
I also liked the fact that a Powerblow was a high risk/ high reward move. Having a bust completely eliminates that concept. Something I personally am not very fond of.
Before this discussion turns into a rage war, I do like to point out that I do see some potential in burst. But as it is now, I think its too easy to get to with the double poke. At the same time however, I can see how the mind game can come into play with this, where the defender has to pace himself and go for a slow escape to completely avoid the threat of the second burst and capitalize on the punish with a throw (which will probably be the ideal punish scenario in the end), or to wait for the right moment to hold (which is not impossible as the burst moves tend to be slow and the burst itself is not a sit down stun). This eliminates reckless reactions in fact so I DO actually see good in this.
Also, the fact that the majority of dangerzones only happen once in a match. This reduces the repetition factor....slightly. I have also taken this into consideration.
One fix I was thinking of was to make the powerblow damage less when connected with burst, as opposed to the damage from a raw powerblow. Since the powerblow can pretty much setup for other types of damage anyway, I see this as a good fix for having it guaranteed.
Again, like i said before, I do have faith in Shimbori and Co. and I am certain they will take things like this into consideration. And I do see this from both its positive and negative side.
As I stand now, I am neither with nor against it.