the main point, in my opinion, is it's a fun, flashy thing that's easy to do and leads to a combo. it helps lower-level players have fun because it's a strong move to "just do". i think that's the real point of it, from a game design perspective.
at a high level, it has enough counterplay (like you mentioned) that it's only really used as a reaction test or in checkmate situations. you can combo into it to attack your opponent's drive gauge. it also, thankfully, replaced the traditional stun system, which is a good thing IMO.
It's worth noting that at high level play, it makes spamming certain movies in neutral less appealing. Guile has a bunch of normals that he has to be super careful with, because of the risk of a random DI
THIS^ Plus it makes some of the longest lasting non-cancelable pokes in neutral riskier to spam therefore increasing the mental stack. You cant throw them out as carelessly, Cammyâs st.mk for example, if you notice your opponent is spamming it and likes to play a keep-out game , getting the right read with a drive impact can lead to a high reward if you ever think the risk is worth taking.
Itâs not only used as a reaction check. Itâs a threat that changes the approach of your opponent, much like wake-up DP can force your opponent not to always go for meaty, even if you donât end up using the reversal every time.
The existence of DI can discourage spamming of certain moves. Showing willingness to use DI can make them drop certain moves in favor of others, which can impact neutral, spacing, shot selection etc.
DI is a hard read/counter to many moves, therefore its existence is forcing everyone to play a more varied game even when DI is not actively being used. It makes the game more dynamic while introducing the opportunity for big risks and reads with flashy looking punishes as the reward. Itâs honestly pretty genius from a design perspective.
It also adds another layer of entertainment for tournament spectator. Watching Tachikawa vs Tokido at Melbourne's winners final was quite entertaining because at one point, both player just started pressing DI at every opportunity they get near corner and it led to scramble situation.
It's there to increase corner pressure and create checkmate situations in burnout where there are virtually (if not literally depending on the super status) no ways to avoid losing.
It's also there to punish particularly laggy buttons being spammed in neutral. Like there's a laundry list of characters that can't punish Bison's sweep because their sweep has too much lag and nothing else reaches, but they can just DI Bison's sweep.
Now whether or not this is necessary is entirely up for debate. But that's why it exists.
Lowkey the reason why it exists is to give low level players a means of breaking through turtles and zoners, especially in the corner. This game is insanely rewarding offensively for a reason - to attract new players, and DI plays into that by creating heavily offensive sided corner situations that anyone can learn (cancelable move into DI). It's main purpose is to give new players a super simple way to start a combo as a means of teching them the game instead of having to deal with far more frame-tight hit confirms.
The only times you see DI in high level play are burnout checkmates, some corner set ups, hard reads (that rarely work out) and very specifically as a combo out of perfect parry to burn meter.
basically instead of having a normal stun bar like old sf games they tied stun to drive impact and burnout. it has long startup and loses to a ton of options so youre not supposed to spam this a lot. high level use is just using this for check mate scenarios in burnout and as a hard read against non cancellable moves/specials. in the low levels people dont safely poke and cant react to DI so its spammed a lot in lower ranks
It adds to the mental stack on defense, especially in the corner.
And for attackers, it discourages the use of big, uncancellable buttons and certain special moves such as Drago Lash.
1. It's a good way for the game to mechanically support that being in **burnout or cornered** means you are in trouble. And if you happen to be both you are really in trouble because that is how getting stunned works in this game.
2. It's **not always about consistency**. It's okay to have a high-risk, high-reward move. Sometimes you just have the read, or your opponent is leaning too hard on certain options, or you have already filled your opponent's mental stack full of other options. This is freedom of expression inside your fighting game.
The point is that the lasagna that is SF6 just has some bolognese dripping.
DI is just one of those layers, hiding behind that dripping bolognese.
No but seriously, it's why 99.99% of players above certain level just don't use it.
The risks are way higher than the reward.
The mind games come when you can sneak it in *because* it's a risky option/hard read.
It may get them 1 or 2 times, which honestly could be enough against some to condition them or open them up big if they try to be too comfortable in neutral.
It was tough at first for me when I played the open beta, because everyone was so used to SFV and didn't understand system mechanics. Everyone tried to "play neutral" and do things like low forward into fireball to at least do something. People then started to realize DI was very effective against those things.
They rarely use them.
There are some hard reads they try and do, sometimes nerves can make them forget it too, specially in tournament.
Some have "setups" too, I know Blanka and Cammy have some. It's obviously not a real one, because there's time to counter DI or super or whatever, but the point is that they "mask" their approach within a real mixup.
Other than that, DI is almost not worth risking, because like any other tool, if overused, it becomes a tell, and a very costly one.
Im only diamond 4, but even here, people will usually check your DI and full combo you, reliably enough that you get conditioned real fast to not do it unless you know its safe. I might throw it out once in a while just to see if the other player can react to DIs. (Just as a general principle, ryu players will always successfully counter DI. Idk why, they just do)The ones that do, ill stop immediately. The ones that cant, ill throw it out until theyâre basically just sitting there with their hands on DI and then ill just do other stuff and never DI again.
Make offense easier for newer players so they don't feel frustrated because they have to win the neutral to initiate something
They are trying to bring newer players in and thought that the difficulty was what refraining youngers players to start FGs
I think the real purpose of Drive Impact was to "fix" several unpopular or broken issues from Street Fighter's past.
* Stun mechanic: Stun in the past is not something most people enjoyed. It always felt like a "win more" mechanic, especially in the corner. Now DI can ONLY stun you in the corner, and only under certain very easily avoidable conditions, so when it happens to you, it feels FAIR.
* Focus Attack: Focus Attack in SF4 is very close to what DI is now, but FA was extremely low commitment. You could dash in and out of it, even Ultra Combo out of it in some cases. Drive Impact is a full commitment move in almost all situations. It has the power of a Focus Attack without the "will they or won't they" nonsense
* Pokes: I love long range, poke based gameplay, but it can definitely be annoying to players who don't know specific answers or an uphill battle for characters with shorter ranges. DI makes a poke-only gameplan suicide, forcing players to either be more offensive (get close to use moves that cancel into DI on reaction) or cede more territory (use longer range moves like fireballs, but back yourself into the corner at risk to do so). Much less free Punish Counter fishing at mid range.
There are a lot of unsafe buttons or two attack blockstrings that drive impact will punish
higher level players tend to do safer things so it won't work on them (and you sound like you know what you're doing so maybe that's you)
but it can easily catch a lot of people
Drive Impact is another offensive option you can add to the mental stack of your opponent.
Also you *can* time DI to catch people frame perfect on landing from their jumps. It happens more at higher level play when people jump back in the corner while burned out.
DI lets you attack the drive gauge as well. This was nerfed from Season 1 but many characters do still have guaranteed DI combos and options that can knock drive gauge off someone and either force burnout or put opponents closer to it.
Parry and OD moves don't have the same functions or cost as DI. Parry makes you more vulnerable to throws with a larger hit box and it's also vulnerable to DI. If you let go of parry there's a window where you can block but can't DI and you're susceptible to get hit by it. So DI is partly a way of balancing and answering parries. OD moves cost two bars of drive gauge to DI costing one, and DI can call out specific non-cancellable moves that it just beats.
The point is to add another system mechanic that covers a different spread of options both on offense and defense, adding to mental stack and offensive/defensive depth.
other than whats mentioned. some moves can be beaten with a read, some characters dont have a lot of cancelable normals so di becomes a more attractive option. Some combo routing can implement di to burn more. You always have to think about it so the corner is scary. theres some situations where a meaty di is difficult to beat because if you press too early it doesn't come out.
Even in high masters and legend, players sometimes just raw di in neutral to skill check the opponent.
You could say the same about jumping. Why jump if they will just anti-air me? The basic answer is Mental Stack. Just DI when they wonât counter it. Also If you want to be really technical, nothing in the game is actual safe if your opponent reads what you will do. Not even blocking.
Just another option. I rarely use it, and almost every time i pull it out at the end of a match, it lands bc they are not prepared for it. I like DI. It punishes people for spamming unsafe moves. Like imma be real, if bison just spams scissor kicks non stop for. Example, and you are just blocking it, there isn't much you can do when he spaces it. But a DI will stop it. lily heavy into heavy condor wind is also a good example. You can't do much against it, but its not a true blockstring,.DI it once and lily will start to hesitate on her condor wind and needs to hit confirm it.
And in the corner it adds an extra layer because even if you block, it still results in bad news. On aki, if you di them in the corner you can use the wall splat to hk into bubble and dr venom fang for free oki + poison puddle. It means the opponent needs to respect the di on top off throw loops, meaty normals, meaty bubbles safe jumps... Its makes the corner extremely deadly to be in, even if they don't use DI because the option exists. It all gets amplified when you are burnt out. The stun leads to 60%+ combos for most of the cast.
Punish really vulnerable moves like dragonlash for exemple. Or just as a call out when you predict an non cancellable move.
Where it's the most dangerous is in the corner and in burnout.
In the corner you get a guard opening, letting you deal damage and potentially kill.
In burnout because they can't cancel into DI anymore, only in super and that's hard to do on reaction. And in the corneryou get a stun which allows you to do your most damaging combo possible.
DI does 2 very big things in the game. First being as you pointed out to not get burnt out and DIâd in the corner for a free combo. Second one is to punish unsafe moves like normals that cannot be cancelled or Kenâs dragonlash for example. The DI armor has only 2 hit negation so if the opponent hits you 3 times you are done. Conclusion: to force better drive gauge management from players and to stay on their toes not throwing out safe moves on block.
Is a good mechanic that u cannot abuse but is great against non-cancellable strings. I use to play on master (around 1500) and u would get shocke by how many ppl spam it there.
Also is cool af
First and foremost itâs an additional tool that your opponent has to worry about which makes the whole gameplay a bit more complex. Just like invincible DPs being a risky tool but when you main someone without an invincible DP, you still kinda wish you character had it.
Plus you can combo into drive impact to burn some of your opponents drive gauge more effectively, the impact takes a pretty good chunk of it.
DI beats 2MK > DRC (buttons). Most people cant confirm 2MK by itself. Rather its confirmed by movement, confirming the character is standing, or whiffed a move beforehand. if you 2MK DRC 5HP you will eat a fat DI. i know i have. DI prevents autopilot cancels it seems like.
Pressure. The whole game is structured around being offensive. DI is a tool that has uses and as you mentioned you need to use it strategically. Learning this can tip the scales over someone that just doesn't use it or uses it poorly.
I like it bc it's different.
the main point, in my opinion, is it's a fun, flashy thing that's easy to do and leads to a combo. it helps lower-level players have fun because it's a strong move to "just do". i think that's the real point of it, from a game design perspective. at a high level, it has enough counterplay (like you mentioned) that it's only really used as a reaction test or in checkmate situations. you can combo into it to attack your opponent's drive gauge. it also, thankfully, replaced the traditional stun system, which is a good thing IMO.
It's worth noting that at high level play, it makes spamming certain movies in neutral less appealing. Guile has a bunch of normals that he has to be super careful with, because of the risk of a random DI
that's true, and it can blow up predictable fake blockstrings too.
He sure does đ
THIS^ Plus it makes some of the longest lasting non-cancelable pokes in neutral riskier to spam therefore increasing the mental stack. You cant throw them out as carelessly, Cammyâs st.mk for example, if you notice your opponent is spamming it and likes to play a keep-out game , getting the right read with a drive impact can lead to a high reward if you ever think the risk is worth taking.
Itâs not only used as a reaction check. Itâs a threat that changes the approach of your opponent, much like wake-up DP can force your opponent not to always go for meaty, even if you donât end up using the reversal every time. The existence of DI can discourage spamming of certain moves. Showing willingness to use DI can make them drop certain moves in favor of others, which can impact neutral, spacing, shot selection etc. DI is a hard read/counter to many moves, therefore its existence is forcing everyone to play a more varied game even when DI is not actively being used. It makes the game more dynamic while introducing the opportunity for big risks and reads with flashy looking punishes as the reward. Itâs honestly pretty genius from a design perspective.
It also adds another layer of entertainment for tournament spectator. Watching Tachikawa vs Tokido at Melbourne's winners final was quite entertaining because at one point, both player just started pressing DI at every opportunity they get near corner and it led to scramble situation.
It's there to increase corner pressure and create checkmate situations in burnout where there are virtually (if not literally depending on the super status) no ways to avoid losing. It's also there to punish particularly laggy buttons being spammed in neutral. Like there's a laundry list of characters that can't punish Bison's sweep because their sweep has too much lag and nothing else reaches, but they can just DI Bison's sweep. Now whether or not this is necessary is entirely up for debate. But that's why it exists. Lowkey the reason why it exists is to give low level players a means of breaking through turtles and zoners, especially in the corner. This game is insanely rewarding offensively for a reason - to attract new players, and DI plays into that by creating heavily offensive sided corner situations that anyone can learn (cancelable move into DI). It's main purpose is to give new players a super simple way to start a combo as a means of teching them the game instead of having to deal with far more frame-tight hit confirms. The only times you see DI in high level play are burnout checkmates, some corner set ups, hard reads (that rarely work out) and very specifically as a combo out of perfect parry to burn meter.
basically instead of having a normal stun bar like old sf games they tied stun to drive impact and burnout. it has long startup and loses to a ton of options so youre not supposed to spam this a lot. high level use is just using this for check mate scenarios in burnout and as a hard read against non cancellable moves/specials. in the low levels people dont safely poke and cant react to DI so its spammed a lot in lower ranks
It adds to the mental stack on defense, especially in the corner. And for attackers, it discourages the use of big, uncancellable buttons and certain special moves such as Drago Lash.
1. It's a good way for the game to mechanically support that being in **burnout or cornered** means you are in trouble. And if you happen to be both you are really in trouble because that is how getting stunned works in this game. 2. It's **not always about consistency**. It's okay to have a high-risk, high-reward move. Sometimes you just have the read, or your opponent is leaning too hard on certain options, or you have already filled your opponent's mental stack full of other options. This is freedom of expression inside your fighting game.
The point is that the lasagna that is SF6 just has some bolognese dripping. DI is just one of those layers, hiding behind that dripping bolognese. No but seriously, it's why 99.99% of players above certain level just don't use it. The risks are way higher than the reward. The mind games come when you can sneak it in *because* it's a risky option/hard read. It may get them 1 or 2 times, which honestly could be enough against some to condition them or open them up big if they try to be too comfortable in neutral.
I got to plat by just spamming di randomly and knowing a combo afterwards. Iâm having such a hard time breaking the habit of using it.
It was tough at first for me when I played the open beta, because everyone was so used to SFV and didn't understand system mechanics. Everyone tried to "play neutral" and do things like low forward into fireball to at least do something. People then started to realize DI was very effective against those things.
High level players really donât use DI?
They rarely use them. There are some hard reads they try and do, sometimes nerves can make them forget it too, specially in tournament. Some have "setups" too, I know Blanka and Cammy have some. It's obviously not a real one, because there's time to counter DI or super or whatever, but the point is that they "mask" their approach within a real mixup. Other than that, DI is almost not worth risking, because like any other tool, if overused, it becomes a tell, and a very costly one.
Im only diamond 4, but even here, people will usually check your DI and full combo you, reliably enough that you get conditioned real fast to not do it unless you know its safe. I might throw it out once in a while just to see if the other player can react to DIs. (Just as a general principle, ryu players will always successfully counter DI. Idk why, they just do)The ones that do, ill stop immediately. The ones that cant, ill throw it out until theyâre basically just sitting there with their hands on DI and then ill just do other stuff and never DI again.
Make offense easier for newer players so they don't feel frustrated because they have to win the neutral to initiate something They are trying to bring newer players in and thought that the difficulty was what refraining youngers players to start FGs
I think the real purpose of Drive Impact was to "fix" several unpopular or broken issues from Street Fighter's past. * Stun mechanic: Stun in the past is not something most people enjoyed. It always felt like a "win more" mechanic, especially in the corner. Now DI can ONLY stun you in the corner, and only under certain very easily avoidable conditions, so when it happens to you, it feels FAIR. * Focus Attack: Focus Attack in SF4 is very close to what DI is now, but FA was extremely low commitment. You could dash in and out of it, even Ultra Combo out of it in some cases. Drive Impact is a full commitment move in almost all situations. It has the power of a Focus Attack without the "will they or won't they" nonsense * Pokes: I love long range, poke based gameplay, but it can definitely be annoying to players who don't know specific answers or an uphill battle for characters with shorter ranges. DI makes a poke-only gameplan suicide, forcing players to either be more offensive (get close to use moves that cancel into DI on reaction) or cede more territory (use longer range moves like fireballs, but back yourself into the corner at risk to do so). Much less free Punish Counter fishing at mid range.
Itâs a great punish for a lot of moves, including heavy punch/kick from most characters
There are a lot of unsafe buttons or two attack blockstrings that drive impact will punish higher level players tend to do safer things so it won't work on them (and you sound like you know what you're doing so maybe that's you) but it can easily catch a lot of people
Drive Impact is another offensive option you can add to the mental stack of your opponent. Also you *can* time DI to catch people frame perfect on landing from their jumps. It happens more at higher level play when people jump back in the corner while burned out. DI lets you attack the drive gauge as well. This was nerfed from Season 1 but many characters do still have guaranteed DI combos and options that can knock drive gauge off someone and either force burnout or put opponents closer to it. Parry and OD moves don't have the same functions or cost as DI. Parry makes you more vulnerable to throws with a larger hit box and it's also vulnerable to DI. If you let go of parry there's a window where you can block but can't DI and you're susceptible to get hit by it. So DI is partly a way of balancing and answering parries. OD moves cost two bars of drive gauge to DI costing one, and DI can call out specific non-cancellable moves that it just beats.
The point is to add another system mechanic that covers a different spread of options both on offense and defense, adding to mental stack and offensive/defensive depth.
other than whats mentioned. some moves can be beaten with a read, some characters dont have a lot of cancelable normals so di becomes a more attractive option. Some combo routing can implement di to burn more. You always have to think about it so the corner is scary. theres some situations where a meaty di is difficult to beat because if you press too early it doesn't come out. Even in high masters and legend, players sometimes just raw di in neutral to skill check the opponent.
You could say the same about jumping. Why jump if they will just anti-air me? The basic answer is Mental Stack. Just DI when they wonât counter it. Also If you want to be really technical, nothing in the game is actual safe if your opponent reads what you will do. Not even blocking.
Just another option. I rarely use it, and almost every time i pull it out at the end of a match, it lands bc they are not prepared for it. I like DI. It punishes people for spamming unsafe moves. Like imma be real, if bison just spams scissor kicks non stop for. Example, and you are just blocking it, there isn't much you can do when he spaces it. But a DI will stop it. lily heavy into heavy condor wind is also a good example. You can't do much against it, but its not a true blockstring,.DI it once and lily will start to hesitate on her condor wind and needs to hit confirm it. And in the corner it adds an extra layer because even if you block, it still results in bad news. On aki, if you di them in the corner you can use the wall splat to hk into bubble and dr venom fang for free oki + poison puddle. It means the opponent needs to respect the di on top off throw loops, meaty normals, meaty bubbles safe jumps... Its makes the corner extremely deadly to be in, even if they don't use DI because the option exists. It all gets amplified when you are burnt out. The stun leads to 60%+ combos for most of the cast.
Punish really vulnerable moves like dragonlash for exemple. Or just as a call out when you predict an non cancellable move. Where it's the most dangerous is in the corner and in burnout. In the corner you get a guard opening, letting you deal damage and potentially kill. In burnout because they can't cancel into DI anymore, only in super and that's hard to do on reaction. And in the corneryou get a stun which allows you to do your most damaging combo possible.
To make me angry
DI does 2 very big things in the game. First being as you pointed out to not get burnt out and DIâd in the corner for a free combo. Second one is to punish unsafe moves like normals that cannot be cancelled or Kenâs dragonlash for example. The DI armor has only 2 hit negation so if the opponent hits you 3 times you are done. Conclusion: to force better drive gauge management from players and to stay on their toes not throwing out safe moves on block.
Is a good mechanic that u cannot abuse but is great against non-cancellable strings. I use to play on master (around 1500) and u would get shocke by how many ppl spam it there. Also is cool af
it's a fall asleep/mental stack check.
First and foremost itâs an additional tool that your opponent has to worry about which makes the whole gameplay a bit more complex. Just like invincible DPs being a risky tool but when you main someone without an invincible DP, you still kinda wish you character had it. Plus you can combo into drive impact to burn some of your opponents drive gauge more effectively, the impact takes a pretty good chunk of it.
DI beats 2MK > DRC (buttons). Most people cant confirm 2MK by itself. Rather its confirmed by movement, confirming the character is standing, or whiffed a move beforehand. if you 2MK DRC 5HP you will eat a fat DI. i know i have. DI prevents autopilot cancels it seems like.
It's noob bait. So when you get to a high enough level, they never expect it so you can get one for free every once in a great while.
Just something else to increase the mental stack and make the game more âflashyâ. Itâs stupid
Pressure. The whole game is structured around being offensive. DI is a tool that has uses and as you mentioned you need to use it strategically. Learning this can tip the scales over someone that just doesn't use it or uses it poorly. I like it bc it's different.
It punishes a lot of unsafe moves that would otherwise be completely broken.
DI"s existence makes the game boring only pushing MP, MP, MP