Okay! So. Decade? Not
nearly as bad as originally thought! Looking at Black's CH/CHW movelist, I can now kind of see why 8ing/players thought he might've been needed to be toned down. And while Decade Complete is LITERALLY a one-trick pony along with some decent Rider Cancel combos, KamenRide Decade is a very fascinating beast.
This is entirely due to his KamenRide form change, which acts as a cancel, though not near as quick as a Rider Cancel (otherwise he'd break everything). It is, however, free, and:
1) Allows Decade to cancel out of the animations of most special moves, combo strings, what have you. (Sadly, Sparkle Cut is unaffected. Clearly 8ing was on a mission to shut that **** down

) Once the KamenRide animation is complete, Decade is free to do whatever he wants. This can be used for quicker recovery after doing a knockdown hit, making some moves safer and easier to recover from (best if not at point-blank range), or infinite mind games involving faking-out special moves (cancelling Kabuto's teleport, etc.) There are other uses that can be found via experimentation.
2) Allows Decade to "phase through" single strikes/some gunshots during the duration of its animation, and quickly counterattack.It gets shut down during quick combo strings, so it's not something to be thrown out whenever and whatever. This also applies to finishers depending on the opponent's height during their attack. KamenRide through hit, jam on finisher, boom.
Basically, anyone who's good at reading attacks/plays a lot of Third Strike can actually have one hell of a time with Decade. Where before he had crazy cheese power, he's now centered around on quickly executing and combining moves, while mindgaming the opponent and changing his own mind a lot. Sort of a Fury Form Lite.
With this in mind, a quickie personal ranking for best companion FFRs:
- Faiz Blaster: Bar none. Can be used at close range, and if the first attack hits, the opponent will be frozen a la Sparkle Cut. Decade then has two options: 1) Let the laser happen for easy damage, or 2) KamenRide once the opponent is frozen. If done close enough to the enemy, Decade can Blaster, then KamenRide into a fast-charging character like Kuuga or Kabuto to get up to three levels of meter. It's entirely possible to Blaster into finisher. If opponent sidesteps Blaster, KR out of it. Doesn't work against super armor.
- Hibiki Ongekiko: If hits, can be KamenRided early to create your own combo, or KamenRided late to recover while the opponent if flying for meter charge opportunity. (Also can be KamenRided INTO, making the form-change and FFR a little safer?) Doesn't work against projectiles, sadly.
- Ryuki Dragreder: KamenRide after summoning Dragreder to move around while it's onscreen. Fires one fireball; make it count.
- Kabuto Zecter: Like Hibiki, but not as good. KR messes with the hit detection.
- Blade Blade: Can be Rider Canceled into, and can be made safer by KR'ing out of knockdown hit. Otherwise not too special.
- Kiva Arrow: Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally crappy now compared to before. No tracking, pitiful damage depending on opponent. Decent firing speed though.
- Kuuga Gouram /Agito Tornador: Decade is stuck on the vehicles for the duration of the move. Also, blockable?
(Some Riders also work best with certain FFRs; I'll either experiment later or leave it to others. I'm working overtime on this one as it is!)
All of this looks to be a deliberate decision on 8ings part as I've tried other form-changing characters and NONE of them have this amount of freedom in the slightest. Black, wouldn't mind hearing your opinions on this. It's been a long time since I've analyzed a fighting game and I very well could be talking out of my ass.
