The Attack
By far Street Fighter IV's biggest addition to the classic Street Fighter formula is the Focus Attack, which every character can execute by pressing MP + MK. While each character's Focus has a unique look, range and damage rating, they all share the same general properties.
The most prominent property is the hyper armor effect, which lets you absorb one hit from the opponent without being interrupted from your Focus Attack. While absorbing the hit does not completely negate the damage from the hit (you take the damage, but it regenerates quickly as long as you don't get hit again), it does let you immediately follow with a counter hit.
Here's an example of its use: If an opponent jumps at you with an air attack, you can begin a Focus Attack to absorb that hit and then release the MP + mK input to instantly counter attack. If, alternatively, you blocked the attack, you would suffer a frame disadvantage because of block stun and would not be able to counter attack until block stun wore off.
There are three stages of the Focus Attack that change depending on how long you hold down the MP + MK input. If you quickly tap the input, you still get the brief hyper armor effect of the Focus Attack but the attack itself won't have any special properties (though it will crumple on counter hit). If you hold down MP + MK for a second, just until your character flashes, the Focus Attack will crumple the opponent, leaving them vulnerable to a follow-up attack. If you charge the Focus Attack entirely, holding down MP + MK until the attack automatically unloads, the strike becomes unblockable in addition to causing the crumble effect.
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