So today, my redeem codes for buying the CE version of MvC3 actually became redeemable now that both Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath have now been released in the US. I would question why the download was only 100 KBs when Capcom said that this wasn’t a disk unlock and they simply weren’t ready before the game came out, but oh well. Keep in mind, I’m no expert in trying to reveal the potential of a character, that’s what good fighting game people are for.
Jill Valentine
Obviously, because she now takes after her RE5 incarnation, Jill is a very far cry from the heavily armed S.T.A.R.S member from MvC2.
To make comparisons, Jill’s control style feels a bit like Cammy from Street Fighter would play if she were revised for MvC3, very acrobatic and quick. Her Feral Crouch stance is also a bit weird to get used to, but I can see it being used in mixups similar to Zero’s Hienkyaku. I’ve mainly only used the automatic one placed on Jill when she uses Cartwheel (QCF + B) in order to followup with Somersault, though. Most of her combos will revolve around either that or her Arrow Kick, (QCF + C) which causes wall bounce as opposed to ground bounce. Now yesterday, I myself hadn’t really found a way to really combo with her as opposed to the old A-B-C shit…
But apparently someone did. A lot of the damage is heavily reliant on landing jump-ins though, something I’m not too comfortable with considering how punishable that can be in SF. Then again, It’s Mahvel, etc.
As shown in the video, the Machine Gun Spray Hyper doesn’t do a whole lot of damage, but makes a good OTG move when combined with an assist like Chun Li and/or when you’re not in a corner to land Fallen Prey (DPM + L). The Raven Spike Hyper will most likely be the Hyper of choice during combos, as it’s Jill’s only other damage hyper that does much more than Machine Gun Spray AND knocks the opponent up in an un-techable state similar to Wesker’s Phantom Dance, which will be perfect of DHC extensions. Jill’s Level 3 Mad Beast Hyper combo is what frustrates me about playing Jill: it keeps Jill in a constant Feral Crouch state and all of Jill’s movements become teleports, but she’s also able to chain moves used in Feral Crouch consecutively in combos, specifically QCF + L xx QCF + M, repeat. In that aspect, it works much like Yun and Yang’s Genei Jin Custom Combo in SF3rd Strike/SSF4: AE, but because of the teleport movements, I can’t consistently land the infinite. Maybe someone else can, but it seems way too fast for me.
EDIT: FUCKIN DESK
So, now I realize things I should’ve probably realized before: Jill can extend her combos by canceling Feral Crouch, and it seems like hitstun deterioration is lower for Jill, therefore she can do a lot more damage. I still think she works way too hard for her damage, but I think this will change a lot of people’s initial views of Jill. It certainly did for me.
Shuma-Gorath
Now Shuma, on the other hand, seems like a beast. Shuma can loop his aerial combos and perform relaunches with Mystic Stare OTG. Now having not played Shuma in MvC2, I’m not sure if he was always capable of this, but he seems very rush down based, with the only weird part of his style being charge commands, something I’m not used to in MvC3 save for Chun’s SBK. Other than that, I’m not sure how much more I can talk about Shuma that isn’t really redundant, there are already a few videos about what he can do. I look forward to seeing more of him in tournaments to come. Like tonight, since Justin Wong is apparently going to be running both of them tonight on Wednesday Night Fights.
So that’s that. I had intended this to be put up yesterday, but then I got lazy and didn’t want to. I also wrote my Shuma thoughts today while my Jill thoughts were planned from yesterday, so you’ll have to forgive me if my short thoughts on Shuma are a bit of a cop out. But there’s already quite a few videos on Shuma while there’s only one so far on Jill, so I at least hope I was a bit informative on that part.
brb, training mode.
-Jay
My Blog Can't Possibly be this Weeaboo 
I’m really looking forward to Wong trying out Shuma. Shuma was definitely one of my favorites from MvC2. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of Jill. I’ve played a few of them online today and she doesn’t impress me at all. The Machine Gun Spray hyper is pretty pathetic and, to be honest, somewhat telegraphed. I don’t believe I’ve actually been caught by it out of block in any instance.
Good read.
@Dakota L: I agree, Jill really sucks right now, especially her damage output outside of assists. One of my friends are trying to make her work, but it seems Jill’s one of those characters you really need to build a team around rather than being an overall good character like Doom or Sentinel. We’ll see how well Wong uses her tonight if he actually does, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he only decided to use Shuma.
@Jay: The thing is, I don’t know how a team could be built around her. It seems like everything she does, someone else does better. I haven’t seen anyone surprise me with a Jill good enough to keep away, rush me down or perform a hybrid of the two. In fact, I’ve mostly just read assists and punished my opponent bringing her in with an Okami Shuffle or two or something and by the time she comes out, she can’t do anything with the health she has remaining.
Shuma, on the other hand, I feel has a lot of promise. He’s just an awkward character to play and use and I think he will throw off a lot of people who oppose him. Still, time will tell and we’ve been surprised before. I can’t count how many people jumped on the Spencer bandwagon after Combofiend dominated with him last weekend at Final Round XIV.