Understanding Fireballs in 6 Compared to Older Games

I recently had a kick of learning/playing a lot of Alpha 2, and I'm shocked at how different fireballs feel in that game compared to 6. For context, I've played a lot of 6, 5 and Third Strike, and a decent amount of 4. I have barely ever played Super Turbo.

I'm surprised that despite having air-blocking, A2 has a much more traditional interaction of fireball and antiair. There are few antifireball options other than your own fireball, jump-ins need to be really deep to give you a combo, and even supers don't necessarily give you a good punish. Throwing projectiles is very safe and decently rewarding.

This stood out a lot compared to Third Strike, where traditional projectile zoning basically just doesn't exist thanks to Parry, and 5, where antifireball moves are all over the place. It was pretty refreshing to have a genuinely strong projectile game that threatens with chip damage. At the same time, I can see why this can be very frustrating, particularly with unoptimized punishes for when you do get in correctly.

This made me understand the design of fireballs in 6 better. They are obviously quite strong in this game, almost all the top tiers are fireball characters, and on-reaction antifireball moves are... I think it's basically just Cammy Super 3 that does that? Frame data, damage and pushback isn't that different from what it was on 5.

Drive Parry fills that space and makes indiscriminate fireball spam while you look for antiairs a lot less productive than it is in older titles, but it doesn't completely shut down the option like Third Strike Parries do. I can also appreciate that the strategy is then centered around fireball feints, timing mixups and making the opponent waste meter on the way in.

I do feel like relying on fireballs is a lot more stressful in 6 than in A2 though. They don't do that much damage, cause good reads and shallow jump-ins give you very solid return compared to antiairs, and it feels like the best way to do fireball mixups is within Drive Rush distance so you can punish a missed Parry, which means you don't have the luxury of being safer the further away you are from the opponent.

I don't know that I prefer the current version, but I can understand why things are the way they are and I can respect the idea.