Discuss it here.

Street Fighter IV is coming and it's looking hotter than ever. Now that the arcade is out in Japan, vids are starting to pop up.

To start off, here's two channels containing early match videos. Feel free to post any other solid channels/videos you find and share the wealth.

http://youtube.com/profile?user=gostunv
http://youtube.com/user/noev
http://youtube.com/user/xeromos

Interesting.  Apparently the focus attack has the possibility of working like a pseudo-parry as shown in this vid.  The damage sustained during a focus attack can slowly recharge if the user is not attacked during that time.  Remember that it still costs bar to do this and the player will still lose if the last hit they take is during a focus attack.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/g9936x8ovPs&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/g9936x8ovPs&rel=0</a>

Hmm, yes, at E3 they seemed to show this parry/focus technique quite a bit in the trailer. Good that now the 2D hitboxes are back in and the 3D ones are scrapped.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AUHmTSJ7b-Q&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/AUHmTSJ7b-Q&rel=0</a>

I definitely am hyped about this game....I wish I could play it on Cabinet instead, but damn, it looks great. I've gotta wonder though (since I haven't really been reading too much on it) about this Focus thing, it's like a parry, but takes bar and is a button sequence? I ask this because, you look at the vid that Jayse put up and it looks like they're parrying during the animation of a move, or is it some sort of auto counter when you do it?

What focus attack does (it's also called saving attack but I like focus better) is it has hyper armor and depending on how long it's charged, it could be an unblockable and cause crumple stun allowing for some quick follow up. You can also do a dash to cancel the focus which some use for a tick throw or even as a pseudo-roman cancel (since you can combo into the focus). There's vids of Valle trying to come up with roman cancel type combo possibilities. Supposedly it was implemented in order for there to be a viable way to approach opponents on the ground rather than simply jump-ins. As for that spark, it supposedly only shows when it's done in the first few frames. In other words, like a parry.

I'm not sure how it's designed so it doesn't work very similarly to 3S's parry so I'll have to look into it more. Here's a vid of Daigo using it in a sort of parry fashion. He's still able to do fireball traps as well as always though so there must be more to it than it simply takes some bar. Azrael said that players who tried abusing it died rather quickly.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/eRxBsJApIe4&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/eRxBsJApIe4&rel=0</a>

Rumour has it that Zangief's alternate outfit is Haggar. 

Another thing about the focus attack.

It seems that each character gets moves designed specifically for breaking the super armor in a focus attack.  Supposedly to prevent people from just randomly throwing them out.  These are from the official Japanese site.

Ryu: Hurricane, EX Hurricane
Ken: Hurricane, EX Hurricane, Ultra
Chun: SBK, EX SBK, Ultra
Guile: Flash Kick, EX Flash Kick
Viper: Knuckle, EX Knuckle
Abel: Wheel Kick, EX Wheel Kick, Super, Ultra
Fuerte: Headbutt, EX Headbutt
Rufus: Spin, EX Spin, Super, Ultra
Balrog: Low Rush Upper, Overhead Rush, TAP, EX Low Rush Upper, EX Overhead Rush, Super, Ultra 
Vega: Flip Kick, EX Flip Kick, Ultra
Sagat: Tiger Knee, EX Tiger Knee
Bison: Psycho Crusher, EX Psycho Crusher
Honda: Headbutt, EX Headbutt, Ultra
Dhalsim: Yoga Flame, EX Yoga Flame
Blanka: Horizontal Ball, EX Horizontal Ball
Zangief: Nothing

Gief in Haggar outfit

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ky2f6c_CM0A&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Ky2f6c_CM0A&rel=0</a>

Ryu as a bum I guess

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/qF2pnAHhLbs&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/qF2pnAHhLbs&rel=0</a>

Definitely gonna look around for Sagat, Abel, and Viper (yes, still) vids. They are probably the most interesting characters to me. Tall, Bulky projectile guy who hopefully has a bit more stamina then the shotos. In all honesty I'm looking for characters that have higher stamina and can kinda rush in. Which is why Abel seems kinda cool, and why Viper is last on my list lol. Hopefully this game is fast paced, but not so much like ST.

Well it looks like a lot of the Rufus being broken attention has died down.  The current "omg he's so good" attention is now going towards Sagat.

People are crapping themselves over Balrog damage too (no word on his placement though).  They're talking about stuff like j.fp, c.lp, c.lp, EX dash uppercut, link c.lp, c.lp, headbutt

Good to hear boxer is doing well. I was thinking of using him again for sf4.

So yeah. Totally confirmed now. They've even got a remix of his theme in there.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5IPYfFqx_tE&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/5IPYfFqx_tE&rel=0</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/gXIDkSdhxi4&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/gXIDkSdhxi4&rel=0</a>

This makes me wanna pick up Abel even more...he looks pretty damn good...just need to know what kind of things he can do.

hahahahahaha

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/NbHzW0adTnI&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/NbHzW0adTnI&rel=0</a>

it would kick ass if there was a setting for this