Wanna grab someone? Hook your leg around 'em and one of your arms!
i thought this was funny. but think of it this way, you're using the left or right side of your body, not just the two limbs. the animation portrays this.
i would agree that learning a character's
basics in tekken might be a bit less intuitive, but not by too much. for pretty much any character, you have the same basic pokes: 1,2 jabs ; d/f+1 quick mid punch ; d/f+4 quick mid kick ; d+1_2 crouching interrupt a la SC's 2A ; 4 basic interrupt quick kick ; d/f+2 launcher/uppercut ; d+anykick low kick ; 1+2 strong attack of some kind.
there is no real analog to SC's horizontals for steppers, verticals for duckers. movesets for each character must be learned. but SC itself is moving further and further away from the simple A beats X, and B beats Y, is it not?
somehow proper punishment (max damage) seems tighter and more frequent in tekken. could be animation issues, expectancies, distance considerations..
spacing is less of an issue in tekken than SC, because the weapons are your limbs. for the most part, you need to be as close to your opponent as they do in order to hit them. due to this, the games are often more intense and quicker-paced.
juggles are the goal of tekken, it is how you do the most damage, typically. in SC, juggles feel like just another way to get damage, and are often 2 or three hits. tekken's gameplay is centered around gaining a juggle or two.
SC is more
masher friendly (yes, i went there). if you block something that's -15 and you are in range for BB, you can mash BB and it will hit if your BB is i15. you can't do this in tekken, the buffer window is much smaller, and thus requires greater timing and knowledge of the move/matchup. input too early and nothing comes out. this also contributes to tekken's tighter, more in-your-face feel.
grabs in tekken are intended to be broken by visual cue rather than guesswork or ring positioning, although there are a few instances where you must guess the break. there are 3 ways to break a grab, 1 or 2 or 1+2, and you hit the button that corresponds to the input of your opponent. since there is no block button, it is not advisable to mash the input in anticipation of a grab, since you would actually be attacking.
lows in tekken are mostly launch punishable, even if they only do chip damage. by contrast it seems that most lows in SC are not so easily punished despite often being of a similar frame disadvantage (~-15). the best WS punishers in SC seem to be i16.
FC recovery in tekken is quite limited compared to SC. from full crouch, your options are: WS moves and FC moves and jumping moves. you can also RCC in order to do regular standing moves, and well timed f,f+whatever moves are fairly easily executed. compared to the ease and simplicity of the options in SC (all of the tekken options plus 6_4 moves, and any 8WR move), it is a far less advantageous to be in FC in tekken.
the
8 way run system is no where to be found in tekken, where movement essentially boils down to dashes (forward and backwards) and side steps and side walks. very few moves use the steps as input (like X's 2,N,B), and none make use of the side walk at all.
hmm i guess that's enough text.