Stream Monster: Fergus Talks About His History With Julia Chang And Her Transition To Tekken 7
Legacy plays a big part for many fighting game players.
Having a character return for a new iteration is one of the most satisfying feelings. It’s a burst of nostalgia and a sense of calming familiarity when an old favorite graces the select screen.
However, few warriors are ensured to return in sequels, and it’s up to the developers discretion as to when they do show up. Fergus, a long time Julia/Michelle Chang (an adopted daughter/mother duo respectively) player, has been waiting patiently to use at least one of them in Tekken 7.
And after months of waiting, Namco Bandai granted his wish with Julia’s return.
Ryan “Saint Cola” Collins: What got you involved with Julia? What’s your origin story with her?
Fergus: I’ve always just liked the Changs from older Tekkens and mashed with them as a kid. I actually took up Julia competitively before I even got into Tekken Tag Tournament 2 in Sreet Fighter x Tekken. In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, I bounced around for a partner for Asuka for 1–2 years then I finally settled on Jaycee/Julia and used her for the remainder of the game’s lifespan.
It’s just a combination of me liking the character a lot and her being really fun and unique in comparison to the rest of the cast.
R: I know you played Asuka heavily while also using Anna, but how did you feel about Tekken 7 while waiting for your legacy character?
F: A lot of people would know me as an Asuka player primarily and I was pretty much half/half on Asuka and Julia in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, but I thought my Julia was my stronger character so I really wanted to see how she would turn out in this iteration.
Asuka has been good to me in Tekken 7, getting me to Tekken World Tour finals and such, so I didn’t have much issue waiting on Julia, but I am glad to have her back regardless.
Anna was just a nice distraction for a while when I was having a Tekken burnout, and I have a lot of love for the character from previous games, so she was like a fresh breath of air. But right now, I’m confident in using Julia primarily, with Asuka for the odd matchup in the future.
R: Sell me on Julia — why should anyone pick her over the rest of the cast?
F: She might have the best combos in the game in terms of carry + damage output, so that’s definitely one aspect. She has always been quite unique in playstyle as well - no other character remotely plays like a Chang, so if you want a different feel of Tekken, it’s worth trying out Julia in Tekken 7. Strong neutral control, amazing mixups and okizeme with damage/carry to boot.
R: How do you feel about her in line with her previous iterations? Has Namco Bandai done right by you?
F: I really, really like this version of Julia. This might be the strongest Julia we’ve had in the series so far. Not only does she have wall to wall carry and huge damage burst, she also got some nice new moves that really helps her at neutral such as DB41, WR21, windroll 2, DF3,1+2, and she got damage buffs on certain situations such as WR1/FF3 to WR21 into strong okizeme.
She also gained mid counter hit launchers which she was lacking in before with B1 giving a counter hit launcher and UF1 as well. Most of all, I love her new streamer persona (laughs). It suits me really well as a streamer of Tekken for 7 years so I’m happy to have a character I can meme about in a streaming culture.
So yeah I’m more than happy with this Julia in Tekken 7.
R: It’s still early days, but what weaknesses and problem matchups do you see popping up at higher level play?
F: Hmm, I think the only thing she really lacks is a good plus on hit low since swift step 4 is slow and B3 is seeable, but at the same time, she doesn’t really need it. Her 10f/12f is a bit weak compared to a lot of the cast in terms of damage but her 2~B 1+2 is unique/strong in the fact that she can use it to side switch to put opponent at or closer to the wall.
I don’t really see any noticeable bad matchups so far, a lot of people are worried about standing 14f launch characters (Paul, Xiao, Law, Bryan and co.) as Julia has quite a few -14 strings but she doesn’t even need to use them to win in any matchup.
She’s well rounded enough to be able to dictate the pace of any matchup in the game in my opinion.
R: Do you feel confident about taking her to a tournament, or running Julia through the entire Tekken World Tour circuit?
F: Season 2 of Tekken 7 has been very very kind to me giving me really good buffs for Asuka and bringing Julia back in top shape. I plan to use Julia primarily in tournaments with Asuka as secondary for some matchups/players.
The only thing I am a bit nervous about is her execution under tournament pressure/nerves but I have backup easy staples to use if I need them.
You can nab the best Julia tech from Fergus’ Twitter here.
