Bad Balance: SF3 Second Impact Sean 

I'm kinda late to this, but there's a couple good thing about him that weren't mentioned, and some of it doesn't really have to do with Sean specifically, but how 2nd Impact's engine is different from 3rd Strike. The first being one-button throws. He has a throw with standing HK which does slightly more damage than the average throw and of course gives him excellent oki afterwards. If you go for this throw but they weren't throwable, you get regular standing HK, which is an amazing button in this game. He has all the time in the world to hit confirm a super after standing HK - it's not even a buffer/cancel, he can literally just link a super after the animation ends. It's even easier than Chun crouching MK in 3S. It's super duper easy. He can do this off standing HP too! Supers are way too fast in 2I and can be used to punish or link off a ridiculous number of things. The other, although not quite as amazing, is his taunt. Using the basketball in the corner after a knockdown lets you set up high-low shenanigans that the opponent usually has to take, unless they've got a super grab or something. Even if Sean commits to it and they do some sort of wakeup move when he's sticking out a button, a lot of times the basketball will knock them out of it. Not a trade in his favor, but it lets him do some fun shenanigans in the corner to keep the pressure on. If they block the basketball, they could be stuck eating a blockstring because red parry doesn't exist in this game. Also I don't really see Ken as a "high tier" in 2I, he's more of a mid. He's worse than Akuma, Ibuki, Sean, Ryu, Yun, Yang at least. My favorite part of 2I Ken is that his standing HK is so slow that it's punishable by supers on hit (I actually did this to someone in a tournament in 1998 that I uploaded to youtube, lol). He's got most of the same tools, it just feels like he does a little less damage on most stuff (EX air tatsu being a big difference) and everyone above him has more abusable ways to either play neutral, or powerful gimmicks (Ryu double Denjin). I'm always down to play this game with people on Fightcade and it makes me sad that more people just won't give it a chance.

I found it really dumb they took out Sean's old DP because that move wasn't only good,but it fits Sean's aesthetic in terms of his interest in obviously basketball. He literally alley-oops you into a dunk which looked so badass.

Fun fact. The voice actor for Sean in 2nd impact is the same voice actor for jin in tekken 3

Sean’s tackle also goes under fireballs in this version and his axe kick goes over them more consistently than 3s

I really like this series. All killer, no filler -- just straight up info on the character and what makes them unbalanced. I would definitely love to see you tackle more 2nd Impact, but I'd also be interested to see what other characters/games you have in mind for this sort of thing.

Oh god that DP, looks like it feels absolutely amazing to use on a character like Sean.

Bafael, you shine when you get technical about fighting game characters. That's why the Vega video and these two Sean videos are so good. I also like your V-Skill explanations and Omega Mode details. Please keep doing stuff like that. I wouldn't mind if you decided to venture into realy unknown games too

I hate knowing that Sean was bad in third strike because "lol lore"

Sean is the reason I wanted 2nd Impact to have online in 30th Anniversary.

Honestly, second impact is likely the least explored SF out there. It sits between the Alpha series and its more popular sibling. And after many where turned off by vanilla SF3 who went back to Alpha 2, MvC, CvS, KoF98 and so on. I cannot stress how much people loved Alpha 2, they were not dropping it for SF3. It really wasn't until Japan came and showed everyone how 3rd Strike was meant to be played, then people took it seriously. Americans were still arguing if Alpha 2 or 3 was better and suddenly they saw some dope ass gameplay watching the Japanese gods flex hardcore looking good while they did it.

You know how there's this discussion on the FGC lacking content/content creators? This is easily some of the best content out there its something everyone should watch, it's informative and fun at the same time for both new and experienced players. I hope this becomes a regular series and more people watch this, it's amazing.

Hi Baf, you should redo your video about "proof tiers exist" with your good exemple of UMK3 scorpion and human smoke, this time with actual footage.

Second Impact Sean: Top 3 Third Strike Sean: The fucking basketball is higher tier

That background is amazing

One more addition - ex Tornado Kick hits crouchers. This makes it so you can practically punish anyone from any position without having to worry about it whiffing on people who are crouching. Since this hits crouchers and is plus on block, this means that if the opponent is blocking low you can throw this out and get FREE pressure. Combine this with his gigantic meter size for SA1 and SA3 and yeah... among all the other things he can do in this game.

I always wished third strike carried over character themes from second impact or atleast an option to choose music from older editions of sf3

Sean's dp in 2i is not only better but it also looks cooler also the São Paulo stage is awesome i really like the monkeys

The meter building bug is also in New Generation and works with Back + HK as well. I’ve only ever seen one person in my life talk about this on a forum so I’m surprised it got brought up. Wonder what causes it?

I'm gonna need that ibuki vid now big fella

These two Sean videos have been absolutely eye opening. It's great to have these concepts laid out so expertly. It's really hard to describe what makes a tier a tier, but when you show the combo potential of 2I Sean directly up against the frame disadvantages and total lock of combos of 3S Sean it's a really clear picture. Please continue this series!

That man lying on the ground in the stage background has no business being THAT MELON THICC

I don't believe Ibuki had it in Second Impact, but her one-button infinite in New Generation was the first thing that came to mind when you mentioned covering her at some point.

If you're looking for character ideas for the series, a character I think deserves a video is Kyo-1 from KOF 2002 UM. Because of the recient rollback netcode, I've seen a lot of tierlists on Twitter of the game, and one common thing I see among all of them is that Kyo-1 is on the lowest tiers (sometimes even on "trash tier/don't bother tier"). It would be interesting to see *why* people says Kyo-1 is a bad character.

Oh my goodness this series is amazing. You do such a good job explaining the specifics and conveying information. Keep it up!

Yay, you actually made this one as well!

Woah this series is awesome. Great to see you look at super strong characters to. As for 2nd Impact Sean, I like him way more than 3rd strike. Might be a bit on the OP side of things, but super fun to play.

This is a great series, I hope you continue with it. Thanks for doing what you do Baf!

When I watched an SI Sean matchup vid the other day, I couldn't believe he had a super fast universal overhead.

Excellent video! I'd love to see more videos that either breakdown how and why certain characters were unbalanced, or how some characters were either over nerfed or over buffed between game updates, going forward!

Sean def got mileage off winning a poke or two and not suffering for it, doing a single combo and then the Oki single hit... and that would stun. Fast and usual stuns was his entire thing. Paired with having a good DP and a wheel kick with a slightly better hurtbox and hitbox

Really love this video. It's great to see the balance and meta of those fighting games that most people don't play like this one.

My new favorite series man, I hope you keep this up and slowly expand into other game franchises.

Wow this takes me back, I used to play this at the pizza shop around the corner from my grandmas place in Harlem years and years ago. I even forgot they had different voice actors.

Great series. Looking forward to more!

Thank you for this video! I always understood that Sean got nerfed but didn't know what made him ridiculous aside from whiff s.HP meter build. So informative!

Thank you for this video. I love sean and its hard to describe how good he was in 2i to people for me

The thumbnails really help making things stick out better

Baf is pumping out high quality videos so quick. Good shit dude.

I always love your Third Strike stuff

Really loving these!

Godlike series btw. Keep up the good work Baf

Capcom didn't like their poster-boy Ryu overshined by Sean so they crippled him, cut off both his legs and arms... By far, Sean is the most nerfed character in fighting game history ever. Capcom literally treated him like he's dung pile

Good content Baf, eager to see more.

Thank you so much for this. This is a unresolved mystery from my previous FG life.

What a great series! I'm a huge SNK fan, so I would love to see a video like this on a KOF game. I would also love to see a video like this on Garou: Mark of the Wolves since it's my favorite fighting game (if that sounds interesting to you, of course). It's quite balanced, but there are a couple of low-tiers that stand out. Namely, Rock Howard and Freeman could be interesting picks.

Came from the 3rd Strike Sean video after looking up op Sean 2nd impact lmao. Got my sub.

Your videos are so underappreciated

LOVE THIS SERIES. Thanks!

Nice video. I'd love to see more old/obscure fighting game analysis.

!hese videos are great if you keep making these your channel will blow up I am 100% sure of that.

I can't wait for the next episode

I see you on the content grind. You should make another subtle lore video

Damn, I was just thinking that this would have been a good idea last night after watching your 3s Sean one lol

Cool vid. Great work.

Baf, my man, you made my Tuesday. This series is already one of my favorites. Looking forwards to the next installment!

Thank you for confirming something Luke is Sean from 2nd impact cuz I noticed lot of Luke his moves are exactly identical to Sean when he was when he was broken they whitewashed him

Love the vids!

Niiice. Loving this series.

It’s really a shame that Sean is one of the most fun characters to play in the series but only in one game. Sean is the only reason why I play 2nd impact, because even if I’m no competitive techskill god, I still love the way sean flows.

Another great video Baf

I love this series, and I'll subscribe to it just for it alone.

Ty for this!

Nicely done

Oddly enough I prefer 2nd impact to 3rd strike. I like the stages more but wish there was an extra character or two

God, the change in game sounds from 2I to 3S really made all the difference in setting the tone of the game

HE DID IT THE MADMAN

awesome vid

Yeah. This Sean is definitely something. Well, now that you confirmed you do high-tier Bad Balance videos, may I make a request people will crucify me for? I want you to cover SFIII Yun, AKA the demon with the Gen'ei Jin. (I don't know how requests work TBH.)

Keep this series going fam

Look at the cheeks on the guy bent over

the swerve! this series got even more interesting :]

Can’t wait for the Ibuki video! She’s my favorite street fighter character. 😊

I love this series. Adding some player history to go with the OP/garbage character could spice the video up even more (and create padding for that sweet, sweet ad revenue and algorithm *wink wink*)

I’m interested Reeeeally interested in this. Seeing him in 3rd strike as well.

He looks fun as hell to play

I would love to see UMK3 in this series since UMK3 is definitely a strange beast when it comes to balance so having a spotlight on a few specific fighters would be interesting

2nd impact is super fun, I wish it was more popular :(

excellent series

You can link Sean’s low forward kick into EX Tornado multiple times or for as long as you have meter. Tricky timing I’ve pulled off 3 and gone into low forward cancel into Hyper Tornado.

Nice vid! I'm not a 2nd Impact player myself, but I do know that you can also, while you are cornered, perform a back throw with Sean and immediately SA1 your oponent who just fell against the wall. Which makes it pretty good and annoying if you pressure Sean too much into his corner. I think Ibuki was the best due to similar reasons as Sean, but I think she can connect Hashinsho from like... EVERYTHING. It's like a better Shippu Jinrai Kyaku. I might show your videos to a friend who has lots of 2i knowledge so maybe he can contribute with more details!

i loved the 2nd impact stages )':

I think Ibuki is a super interesting case study for the balance of SF3 as a whole, since she went from: NG: Super Top 1 with her 1 button infinite 2I: Not the best, but very good, top 3-4ish character, with one of the best supers in the game, being alright at using jump in down-parry os, and being pretty well off without meter relative to the rest of the cast 3S: right smack dab in the middle, imo probably the best balanced character in 3rd strike, maybe the best balanced character in the series, which is especially impressive considering how unconventional elements of her toolkit are (hit-confirmable and linking tcs including air tcs, safe on block dp for 1.5 bars with sa1, air projectile, lots of hopping attacks etc.)

0:26 "noone does" me being the only person who's favorite street fighter is second impact :(

it'd be really funny if you did a second episode on Vega for this series on ST, don't know how much you know about that game but you covered 2i Sean pretty well

Lol that thumbnail killed me, after just seeing the bad one last night XD

Medium Dragon Smash actually has a weird goof: against certain characters-Yun, Yang, Elena, and Oro-the followup dunk simply does not connect because the first hit doesn't launch high enough (if timed properly against an aerial foe, both hits will connect). This goof existed in New Generation, and Second Impact actually didn't fix it.

Makes me want to play 2nd impact

I've played 2I hard back in the day. The competition scene for it back then was good but not on the level of 3S. To me, 2I >>>>>>> 3S. I wish more people played it though.

2nd impact Sean is sooo good!!!

didn't watch the video yet but thank you for doing more

I miss this sean, but there were some nerfs needed. Though the dp nerf was so bad. Also the way 3s sean works, I would love 2 bars for SA2.

Papa Bafael continues to carry the Street Fighter community on his back completely solo. S Tier Content as always

Read it randomly on either SRK or reddit, but seeing what Sean lost in this video reminds me of a post about how the top tiers in Third Strike weren't necessarily stronger supposedly, but were nerfed less than others. I don't play enough to know myself, but this video was a good reminder of it. Sean looks legit fun here, a shame what happened to him.

You should definitely check out A2 Rose and V-ism in the future.

The only thing better about sean in 3rd strike is his voice

God the background in 1st and 2nd impact are so much more lively than 3s.

2I Ibuki was busted for a couple of reasons, but mostly because of Hashin Sho. That super was like if you combined Ken's SA3 and Chun's SA2 from 3rd Strike. 2 stocks, short bar, absurd range, and comboed from so many different setups.

I'd be very interested in a video about Twelve in 3s

Sean can look out of almost all his normals I think he can link out of Dan kicks sometimes he can link out of overhead he can and cancel from his Target combo and second impact links in the super are actually far more meaning than some of the moves that are useless in third strike were confirms in second impact

A video on Q and another one on Twelve would be great, specially on Twelve. Both don't need to suck so bad in 3S.