Really? How hard is it to parry in SF3? Parry is very easy to do, and it gives casuals a great sense of accomplishment because they can parry a fireball or even a super fireball. At the end of the end day however, partying breaks the fundementals of Street fighter gameplay. In a parry-less version of SF3, characters like Ryu, Nero, Urien and Remy would be much more dangerous.
Also, the strongest character in SF3:3S was ken who is a casual's favorite.
Casuals weren't turned off by SF3 because of its complexity. They didn't like the characters. It wasn't as flashy or frantic as X-men vs Street fighter or MvsSF, which were huge games at the time. All the fighting games in the arcades, at that time, were about chain combos, air combos and super moves that looked Dragon Ball z attacks.
Street fighter 3 was very different at the time. It had a darker feel, and an all new cast. I remember playing SF3 on the first day of its release. Nobody liked it, and nobody like second impact either. It didn't really catch-on until 1999 when SF3:3s was released. Sf3:3S was actually much easier to play, and the infinites like Hugo's were taken out. Also, ultra powerful characters like Sean and Ibuki severely nerfed. The casual's favorites like Ryu, Ken were given buffs and they brought back more casual favs like akuma and chun li.
Sf3:3S was the casualized version of SF3, and it was hit. It wasn't anymore deep the SF3:NG or SF3:2I. They made it more accessible to casuals by toning characters like Sean or Hugo who could rape life bars with one opening, and they made the parry very easy to pull-off. Wasn't it SF3:3s that first implemented combo damage limits?
