I finally got to play offline TFH with more than one person! I want to share some of my initial feelings about playing offline. Very quick: If the only question you have is "Does offline play differ heavily from a good connection at zero delay?" The answer is "not by much." It's a little smoother & you can play with more confidence. I'm sure it's skewing some interactions that I'm not seeing, but for now this is the main takeaway. My primary observation is how much "looser" everything feels in neutral. Everyone we playing a lot faster, and I think we all felt comfortable moving. Neutral was speedier, but the speed at which someone won it was generally slower than I expected. There isn't as much of a need to commit when you can move with less effort and twitch react to the things you're looking for. It actually reminded me a bit of BlazBlue... but everything in this game reminds me of BlazBlue. Defense felt different too, I act

Since the meaning of "stagger" can get confusing in different contexts, allow me to provide some basic examples. Usually "stagger pressure" refers to an offensive gameplan built around delayed gatlings. Example: Amaron uses a lot of stagger pressure against me. The singular "stagger" often refers to using a delayed gatling to reset pressure or frame trap. Example: I use stagger 5B > 2B against Bubbleboots. Plural "staggers" refers to the potential of a player / character's overall ability to perform stagger pressure. Example: Pom's staggers aren't very strong because 5B and 2B are minus six. But in this write-up we'll mostly refer to the first example. S tagger pressure is the use of delayed gatlings and pressure resets to open up the opponent.  This style of offense is built on the question of "How do I make my opponent commit to escaping" rather than "How do I mix them up?" For an example from another game

This is NOT  about the technical side of rollback and delay based netcode. For information about that, read this article by Infilament or watch  this video by Core-A-Gaming . This write-up is about how online play is different from offline play.  In December of 2020, TFH was a casual hobby for me. Javamorris jokingly asked what it would take for me to enter tournaments. I half jokingly told him "Region locking and banning Wi-Fi connections." He then started planning what would become Rodeo Regional, which is now a very popular tournament series. It has very strict connection guidelines: US & Canada only, plus your jitter has to be below a certain amount. Rodeo Regional's strict connection guidelines brought a bit of controversy. The eligible players were happy with a way to properly prepare for offline tournaments. The rest of the world was extremely disappointed, especially as it gathered a small sub community of high level players who refused to enter anything else

I throw the words "stable" and "unstable" out a lot during gameplay discussion. For someone who uses these words so often, I tend to hesitate when asked to define them; that's what this article is for. In this context, "stable" refers to being effective while minimizing risk.  This may refer to a specific tool, an entire gameplan, or even a character's overall playstyle. I will be referring to gameplans specifically in an offline or low ping tournament context.  This is an important distinction because bad connections skew what is stable in a competitive setting (this will be another writeup soon, don't worry). A stable gameplan is generally less reliant on hard reads, as it puts more stock in your  ability to execute it than the   opponent's inability to respond to it. (If you want another perspective on this, I strongly recommend reading Daigo's book , which has a whole section about it. I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone

I'm writing this post as a follow-up to a recent discussion about the reversal window added to TFH 2.0. I am of the opinion normal reversal windows out of block ("input buffer" from here on out) should be the standard in fighting games. It is very concerning (though also funny) that the Z engine did not come with one. The addition of an input buffer reduces inconsistency in play, which is generally a good thing. Anyway, I raised an eyebrow at people calling the addition of an input buffer a "balance change." I am viewing this through the lens of a relatively "seasoned" fighting game player. I do not claim that this is a perfect perspective- there are blind spots in my understanding of the game, but I believe I understand enough to know how it impacts high level play. "TFH 2.0 has a lower skill ceiling than 1.0" From a purely execution perspective, you aren't wrong. Input buffer means that players can land stricter punishes more consistent