Xenozip's Notes

Simultaneous Fapping

2010-08-30T09:30:00.001-04:00

FelineKI, Dammit, and MZK bringing that goodness. And the script just keeps getting better and better with more games and emulators supported.

Pleased to be enjoying Super Turbo.

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Fighting Game Mechanics

2010-08-28T14:24:00.003-04:00

FYI: "dammit" mentions that "omni" had a post regarding Combat Systems.

- Blocking
- Airblocking
- Hitstop/Blockstop
- Hitstun/Blockstun
- Counter hits
- Ground recovery (bounces/rolls/slides)
- Air techs (air recovery)
- Launchers
- Juggles
- Gravity scaling
- Knockback scaling (hit/block)
- Hitstun/blockstun scaling
- Damage scaling
- Damage proration
- Damage reduction (self-input/mashing to reduce)
- Off the ground hits
- Off the ground limitation
- Wall bounce
- Wall bounce limitation
- Super jump
- Short jump
- Double jump
- Super short jump
- Neutral jump air control
- Run
- Dash/Backdash (sometimes with inv-frames)
- Airdash
- Rolling
- Dodging
- Guard meter (blocking gauge)
- Pushblock (advancing guard)
- Guard reversal
- Guard counter
- EX block (faultless defense/fortress defense)
- Timed block (Just defend/EX Guard)
- Reversals
- Throw invulnerability (after hitstun, blockstun, wakeup, reset/tech).
- Specials
- EX Specials
- Supers
- Revenge (rage/ultra)
- Special cancel
- Super cancel
- EX cancel (roman cancel/rapid cancel/focus attack cancel)
- Normals (stand/crouch/neutral-diagonal-jump)
- Command Normals
- Dashing normals
- Overheads / lows
- Sweeps (knockdown attacks)
- Standing knockdown attacks
- Airborne knockdown attacks
- Throws
- Holds (throws that drain life)
- Command throws/holds
- Comboable throws
- Normal chains
- Normal chain cancel limitation
- Gatling chain (target combos)
- Rekka (normal/special sequence)
- Renda
- Kara cancel
- Negative edge (button up specials)
- Teching throws (breaking/softening)
- Parrying
- Catch-counters (geese/karin)
- Absorbing (focus attack/ultimate guard)
- Bursts/Bombs (hitstun cancel stocks)
- Critical-Life bonus (damage/supers/defense)
- Custom combos (Cancels/speed/shadows/helpers)
- Power up moves (meter stocks/power/armor)
- Meter charging (generally a bad idea)
- Command throws
- Command supers (sequence inputs / sequence breakers)
- Super command throws
- Assists (calling characters with lifebars)
- Helpers (moves that become autonomous of the player, no life bar)
- Partner (tagging/controlling a second character)
- Stances (modes/weapons)
- Teams (pick more than one character
- Life regeneration (heal)
- Life steal (leech)
- Life drain (poison)
- Status effects (dizzy/freeze/locked-moves/slippery/slow/weak/vulnerable)
- Guard point (armor frames)
- Super armor (1-hit absorb, can be thrown)
- Hyper armor (all hit absorb, can't be thrown)
- Suction/Repulsion (wind/magnetism/ropes/grapples/ice/oil)
- Partial invulnerability (high/low/projectile/melee/throw)
- Activation/declaring (stocks/moves)
- Overheads/lows
- Unblockables
- Charge moves
- Button hold moves
- Held and released moves
- Timer-based moves (countdown)
- Timed moves (just frames)
- Move limits (gauge/stocks)
- Projectiles
- Projectile reflection/absorption/neutralization/push
- Character level (warzard/red-earth)
- Items (food/bombs -- samurai shodown)
- Meter items (gems -- Marvel/BBB/pocket fighter)

- Arcade
- Story
- Survival
- Challenge
- Time trial
- Training
- Lesson/tutorial
- Hitbox/Frame display
- Random select (holds character between rounds / randoms between rounds / picks opponents character between rounds)

The Game

2010-08-28T13:49:00.005-04:00

In the past, fighting game players dumped tons of money and time into fighting games at the arcade. Even if they are usually winning every day, they are still putting money into the machine each day that they play. Plus the cost of travel.

That weeded out a lot of players because those that lost would be sticking quarters into a machine and losing, and eventually realizing they are paying just to get steamrolled.

But for those that won, the important thing to remember is that they do not earn anything back either, they put money in with the full knowledge that they will not earn it back.

Even with tournaments, you must take into account that you (or they) would need to assume the player has a realistic chance at placing top three to earn anything. If they do not have a chance at top three then they're really just paying for the entry fee, and playing for no other reason than themselves. Thus, it's easy to say most players are not competing to earn money.

The reason to keep doing it is because of competition and growth. It's a hobby, and an addictive one. Since the beginning of competitive fighting games it's always been about learning to counter the opponent. If you fight a player abusing [x] tactic it becomes a fun and interesting challenge to learn to beat it. What is the [y] the player needs to do in order to counter the opponent's [x] tactic. When you see it in videos it might not be entertaining, but so what -- those players aren't there to entertain you, they are there to entertain themselves. What that "cheap tactic" is doing is helping the community by forcing everyone to level up and fight harder. It's all about setting a bar and having your opponent beat it, or finding some one else who raised the bar even higher so that you could try and beat it.

One might think it's an asshole move to pick top tiers or run the clock for wins, but nothing says "step up your game" better than a loss, because that was your quarter that just went down the drain. It gets the point across, because next time you don't want to lose. If you don't like watching it then don't watch it, if you don't like fighting it then don't fight it, you're only forced to do so if you actually want to win a tournament; in which case you must deal with it in order to face the reality of competition. That's just how it is. A "cheap" tactic is an invitation to counter it, it's an invitation for competition.

These days, in the era of console gaming, online play, and boundless recorded match videos at everyone's fingertips it's easy to get disillusioned. You may not feel like playing a particular game or against a particular person just because something rubs you the wrong way and you think it's "cheap". It is truly a convenient privilege to be able to pick and choose from dozens of opponents at a whim any time of the day, where as without online you'd be stuck with only a handful of players that live in your immediate area and only at specific times when you and they are available.

A lot of tactics that average players would have gotten destroyed by if they never encountered it before are in videos now for all to see. A lot of combos they never would have figured out on your own are recorded both in TACVs and match videos. But it is not just there to entertain you, it is also there to educate you. Information flows in large quantities very quickly, so the game evolves extremely fast. It raises the bar that much higher, that much faster. A lot of those would-be players that, back in the day, lost too many quarters and quit before they began can now see where they went wrong. A lot of players that couldn't figure it out on their own now have a helping hand. A big one.

So let's face reality: tournaments for fighting games, even today, do not rely on spectators because there are none. The spectators are the players. Tournament prizes consist pretty much entirely from entry fees from the tournament. We support our own community, the players themselves, no one else. The videos that people put out aren't there for entertainment, the players are playing for themselves and sharing it with the world to bring others in. Casual online play is there to branch out and bring more players in. Games with easy execution and simple game mechanics and simple combos are there to bring more players in. It might all be seen as spoonfeeding and a disconnection from the days when we were shoulder to shoulder and shoving quarters into a machine, but it's all there to help, not hurt.

No one is forcing anyone, and no one is playing for the sake of anyone else. It's all for the love of the game(s) and ourselves.

More Boxes (Alpha)

2010-08-17T06:42:00.002-04:00

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RE: Vampire Boxes

2010-08-16T00:53:00.005-04:00

Things are looking more on the up and up for older 2D fighting games.

Fortunately, SFA3, another 2D Fighting Game by Capcom, has been implemented into the Lua script that runs in FBA-RR and Mame-RR for displaying hitboxes.

There's also a chance that Jojo's, yet another 2D Fighting Game by Capcom, might also be implemented.

For me it's amazing to see the inner-workings of these games that people have played for years and years. The major intricacies of footsies becoming actually visible right before you.

It's shocking and exciting because the visual sprites don't always match up with the game's hitboxes. A great example is what we see in the thumbnail on this blog; Lilith MK has her leg no where near the actual hitbox. The real hitbox that interacts with the opponent is drastically lower than her sprite's leg appears. Just glancing at the image to the right, you can very clearly see that the attack-box (red) is quite a bit lower than Lilith's extended leg. Imagine for a moment that you can not see her hitbox and only her sprite (like normal gameplay) for round one, but the second round you could only see her hitboxes and not her sprite. I'm certain it would put things in perspective.

While many players can learn the game through trial and error, actually seeing what is really going on can drastically change the way we think, and therefor play.

Personally I always get blown away by how cross-ups appear in-game with hitboxes overlayed onto the sprites. It also gets me giddy to see basic anti-airs used at a pixel's distance.
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Vampire Boxes

2010-08-15T16:07:00.001-04:00

The 2D fighting game Vampire Savior has had very little organized documentation for quite some time, but that is quickly changing.

Bellreisa has been kind enough to host a VSav wiki over at Mizuumi which has been collecting a good amount of information as time goes on. There's still some missing data that has yet to be transcribed, but it's coming along quickly. In the meantime there's GameFAQs for character movelists, and for framedata there's a mirror in Japanese and a mirror translated in English of the shu180sx data site.

Additionally, Felineki over at the RandomSelect forum has discovered the memory addresses for hitboxes in the arcade emulation of the game. Because of that data, MZ over at TASVideos was able to implement a Lua script into their build of Mame-RR and FBA-RR (which was updated by MZ to be able to run Lua scripts) that allowed us to see the hitboxes while playing the game. More information about what the boxes are and where to get the emulators and script can be found: here.

Naturally, I encourage anyone to help transcribe data onto the wiki, as help is appreciated. If you know anything about a particular character, that's cool, but if not then anything would help: move list, frame data, hitbox screen captures, whatever.

In the mean time, please enjoy some videos.

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Samurai Throdown

2010-07-20T09:57:00.016-04:00

The subject of throws, and how to avoid them, in SS5Sp has been the topic of some discussion lately. Throws in 5Sp are a little awkward compared to other Fighting Games, since there are a number of eccentricities about 5Sp that make it unique relative to other Fighters.

First of all, most fighting games have either throw teching or throw softening, while Samurai Shodown has neither. Second, in Samurai Shodown if the opponent was not in a throwable state when the throw was input it results in a passive action (a hop) rather than a throw whiff. That generally makes throws quite valuable, especially since all normal throws have 3F startup and even auto-guard during the startup. However, there's quite a few ways to avoid being thrown in the first place. I'll go over the specifics of each one after this little quick-list:

- Jump
- Ducking: 2D
- Hopping: 4D, 6D
- Backdash
- Throw-invulnerable move
- *Rolls: 1D, 3D
- *UOH: BC
- *Airborne Normal

But first, 5Sp has 17F throw invulnerability after blocking, being hit, or waking up off the ground (from being knocked down). That means during that time you have about a quarter of a second real-time before you become vulnerable to throws.

Most fighting games grant a period of throw-invulnerability status after hitstun, blockstun, and on wakeup: as seen here. But if you notice though, Samurai Shodown grants significantly more than any other game listed.

It also does not have any throw invulnerability off a reset. A reset meaning: knocked out of the air by a non-knockdown move. Such as being anti-aired or air-to-aired with a normal that hits you but places you back on your feet rather than knocking you down. This is important because both landing recovery and reset recovery are mostly identical, and therefor vulnerable to throws if left uncanceled.

Now for the explanations:
- Jumping. Jumps have zero startup animation. You transition from the ground to the air on the first frame of a jump. Therefor you are invulnerable to throws from the first frame of a jump input. However, not all jumps are created equal, some jumps are more floaty and more punishable than others, and they all have a cancelable landing recovery.

- Rejumps and Landing Recovery. This is important because while there is no jump startup, there is a cancelable recovery state on landing from a jump or from being reset. The amount of recovery time varies from character to character, however this can be canceled into any action including another jump. But, you can not simply hold up in order to cancel the recovery into a rejump. You must press the input once you have landed rather than before. If timed right this can avoid normal throws and even meaty command throws.

- Ducking. The 2D action has upperbody invulnerability (ducks under mids and highs) and is invulnerable to throws for 21F, starting instantly. After that window there is a special-cancelable window and a recovery window (4F and 7F respectively) where you can be thrown. This is generally the most ideal throw-bait, because your character is stationary during it. Thus, if the opponent attempts to throw during your laying-down state they will whiff a grab instead of a hop, which has a rather long punishable whiff animation. Other anti-throws (hops/jumps/etc) usually cause the opponent to whiff a hop (6D) instead of whiffing a throw, but 2D has a large throw invulnerability period that can bait out an actual throw whiff.

- Hopping. The 4D and 6D movements have lower body invulnerability (dodge lows), are instantly throw invulnerable, and remain throw-invulnerable until landing. They are also special-cancelable on landing. This is less ideal than the 2D action for baiting throws because you are instantly airborne during these hops, which means if the opponent attempts a throw after you've left the ground they will not whiff a grab, instead they will whiff their own hop (either 4D or 6D). They will only whiff a grab if you were on the ground when they input it, but you hopped during their 3F throw startup window. However, this action is still valuable in the sense that hops avoid lows (but vulnerable to mids/highs), while the 2D action is vulnerable to lows (but avoids mids/highs).

- Backdash. The 44 action is bufferable and instantly throw invulnerable. It also has about 3F of full-body invulnerability on startup. It is also air-special cancelable while airborn and ground-special cancelable on landing. However, it should be noted that despite being bufferable there is always a 1-2F suki on landing from a jump or reset before a backdash will begin. This is unique only to backdashes and only on landing from a jump or reset. It also means that backdashes when buffered correctly will always avoid normal throws, but they can be grabbed by meaty command throws due to the backdash suki. Backdashes are quite valuable for avoiding normals throws in general due to the prebuffer window. But it suffers the same issue as hops in the sense that it won't bait out a throw whiff as well as a duck (2D).

- Throw-invulnerable moves. Some special moves gain the property of being throw-invulnerable. This is entirely character specific and may or may not have anything to do with other forms of invulnerability or ground/air-state. A good example would be Yoshitora's 236B (Mid-Nadeshiko) which is not hit/projectile invulnerable or airborn, but it is throw invulnerable on startup. Likewise Yoshitora's 623AB (Heavy-Shirayuri) is hit-invulnerable on startup but not throw invulnerable.

- Rolls. The 1D and 3D actions are 3F full invulnerability on startup. During this time they can avoid throws by virtue of total-invincibility. However, the forward roll is quite vulnerable to throws any time after the startup invulnerability wears off. On the other hand, the backwards roll is slightly better at avoiding throws by virtue of it moving away from the opponent, potentially outside of throw range. Still, forward rolls are probably the least ideal method of avoiding throws while backwards rolls are decent due to the early special-cancel-ability.

- UOH. The B+C action is usually airborne after the third frame, except for some characters like Haohmaru/Charlotte/Gaira/etc. Though, if your character does leave the ground within 3F then it can be useful for avoiding throws in some situations while still granting the potential of hitting the opponent as a nice option select.

- Airborne Normal. There are character specific moves that become airborne rather quickly. For example, 5C for Amakusa, Sogetsu, Suija, etc. They are usually not throw invulnerable on the first few frames, but after the startup occurs they have the same benefit of UOH's in that they become airborne and attack at the same time.

Mina is special in that her jumping arrow attacks incur a 7F uncancelable recovery on landing. This is a true-uncancelable period for Mina's air arrows, however she can block during this uncancelable time (EG. she can perform no action other than blocking). This only effects her air arrows, not her jumping kicks or unarmed attacks or empty jumps.

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Bottom line (tl;dr version):
2D is your best bet for baiting throws. Perfectly timed rejumps is your best bet for avoiding meaty command grabs on landing. Backdashes are bufferable and therefor your best bet for avoiding normal throws in most situations (but not for avoiding meaty command throws). To avoid getting hit out of anti-throws it's important to vary what you do, for example ducks and hops have upperbody and lowerbody invulnerability respectively.

On landing: Backdashing always has a 1-2F suki on landing, regardless of anything. The D actions and anything other action have a 0-1F suki randomly. Rejumps never have any suki period.

Evo 2010 Stream

2010-07-11T13:27:00.005-04:00

Top 8 for all games. Live! Let's go!
- http://www.ustream.tv/channel/leveluplive/v3

Evolution 2010

2010-07-09T16:08:00.005-04:00

Evo Championship Series, World Finals 2010 in Las Vegas NV.

- http://g4tv.com/evo
- http://evo2k.com/live/
- http://www.stickam.com/evo2k

Stickam Popout: http://bit.ly/asEufe

I hope everyone has fun, and I wish my friends good luck.

Diablo One

2010-06-28T02:56:00.004-04:00

This post won't be about Fighting Games.

Well, I admit I have fond memories of Diablo 1 and 2. But, in retrospect, I actually liked Diablo 1 more. I'll also admit they were sad times, but special times.

The music: Town, Catacombs, Caves, Hell.

Well I don't think I need to elaborate. Can anyone even remember the D2 music right now? D1 music was amazing. The Cats and Caves alone practically make me giddy. IMO D1 did everything right in terms of atmosphere and aesthetics and tactical gameplay.

All the monster were cool in D1. They all had personality and it was really noir, twisted, and awesome. Some monsters were carried over to D2 like Balrogs and Goatmen and Skeleton/Zombie. But what happened to Cave Vipers, Hidden, Bats, Lightning Demons, Succubus, Hell Knight, Winged Demons, etc etc etc. The Harlots in D2 are a poor excuse for Succubi.

I have seriously always wanted D2 to have another act that brought back all the D1 monsters and maps, just one act with everything from D1. Even if we say D2 improved gameplay, I can only say I liked D1 more due to the environment it created. Some one out there really needs to make an add-on or hack or something that brings this dream to a reality.

So anyway, I'll reminisce a bit about some of the finer points.

I remember that you'd get to a point where collecting and selling items was more or less worthless. You'd do a hell/hell run, pick up relevant armor and weapons, then after identifying it you'd just drop it in town. It really didn't matter what it was or what it was worth, money was useless because even just a couple of the armors you just dropped was worth more than your inventory could hold, and the items were worthless unless they had better stats what what you had on.

There was one time that Griswold rolled the absolute best possible armor, perfect stats. Of course it was not difficult to flood my inventory with the maximum about of 5k gold stacks possible. And, I could not buy the armor, because it cost more than I could hold. Actually, more accurately, It was worth a stack or two less but because the armor is a 2x3 space I couldn't buy it anyway. So the best armor in the game had to drop, it couldn't actually be bought at Griswold even though it could spawn there.

Eventually the speedrunners figured out the RNG in the game, because of that they could get anything they wanted to drop, and they could get any type of map/monster they wanted to spawn. It basically had to do with your system's clock, so at the right time (or by modifying your date/time) you could kill a monster and have the desired item.

D2 is easy. I'm sorry but it is. With D1 there was something extremely exhilarating about walking down into the Cats or Caves and having to pay attention to your every footstep, as you might very well die at any given moment. Who can count how many times my heart skipped a beat when I saw a Storm Rider or Pit Viper pack coming towards me and my back was pinned. I never really liked the "difficulty" in D2 where the monsters gained more health and resistances as time went on, which did not make them harder at all, it just made them take longer to kill. But I'm more use to the difficulty in Fighters and RTS where increasing the difficulty made the AI play smarter (hello ST AI), not just increase life/defense/damage.

I remember one time where in hell/hell myself and another Rogue player somehow spawned four types of Succubi monsters. We had Soul Burners, Hell Spawn, Snow Witches, and the generic Succubus. Not really sure how it was possible, but I can tell you it was ridiculously rare. The significance of this was not only did we have to strategically place ourselves around every corner in order to do projectile-on-projectile battle with map coverage, but when we entered a large open space there were multi-colored sparkly Bloodstars and blood and tits and ass and moans EVERYWHERE. It was awesome.

I think I may have had one of the first level 40 Rogues on battle.net, though that doesn't really mean anything other than /sadlife.

Duping and hacking and massive amounts of playing eventually led to the best possible items in the game being easily accessible. Ironically, many of the popularized items weren't actually the best possible items.

Duping and hacking also gave rise to the decay of public games. But that also gave rise to cliques where a player would become friends with like-minded players and play with only them on a regular basis.

D1 was the first game that made me appreciate not actually playing the game, for several reasons.

First, when you get to hell/caves and hell/hell you run into monsters that are immune to all three elements, so as a Mage your only option for killing them was to Stone Curse them and summon a Golem. That led you you just standing there watching your Golem punch away at a group of frozen monsters, and if they ever became unfrozen you'd zip around with teleport to avoid being gang banged. Prolly sounds boring as hell, but I came to appreciate it.

Second, regarding the aforementioned cliques, it was a lot more fun at the end of D1's lifespan to just sit around chatting on b.net. For me, it was also to the point of meeting up with people offline. Though times changed and people either went back to IRC or on to other social networking gizmos (heh, I remember when ICQ was popularized during the D1 days).

Third, replaying the Mage made me love Hydra for the same reason of cast-it-and-leave-it. As much as I was/am thoroughly obsessed with D2 Assassins there will always be a special place in my heart for skeleton-Necromancers (or summoners in general) and anything anywhere that lets me cast a minion and let it rock house while I sit around doing nothing. Hydra eventually became my favorite spell in any game, next to Chain Lighting (in any game).

This was also the first game that made me appreciate patches. The company may or may not have known they would get the game absolutely right on the first try. But, with thousands or millions or w/e of players scrutinizing and criticizing every single imaginable aspect of the game, patches really helped. Any one who has ever complained about anything in a game at all better not complain about patches, ever. Something that stands out to me was how the yellow zombies called Black Death could permanently reduce your maximum health, and how scrolls use to cause the spell to occur instantly and in multiplayer yet the effects were not seen by other players (which meant you could spam Chain Lighting scrolls and no one could see you cast or the lightning that came from it, things would just suddenly start dying).

When you play D1 you break your mouse. I broke several. I'm not exaggerating. Every action required a click, so unlike D2 where you could hold the mouse button, you had to click for every single attack in D1.

Fortunately my brother created a hack on request to make actions auto-fire. Thus, I played the game again as you can see in this playlist. Years had gone by since I played D1 last, and absolutely countless amounts of D2 hours have come in between, and I still fell in love with D1 all over again. Auto-fire helped though, I surely wouldn't have played it if not for that, so special thanks goes out to my bro'.

GameFAQs

2010-06-28T01:49:00.002-04:00

I would like for some one to explain to me the stigma and decline regarding fighting game FAQs on GameFAQs.

I'm aware that their forums are polluted with casual scrubs and youtube-level idiocy. However, what I'd like to know is why this effects anything. Lots of places have scrubby and retarded comments (hi YouTube and EventHubs), but why does this get in the way of content? It's free access and a fairly well moderated knowledge base.

Whenever I try out a new fighting game I'd at least like an accurate and comprehensive move list before I play. Honestly I sometimes won't play if I don't have at least that. In the past, Wiki's were not the places to go because they were often defunct and neglected, but I could always count on a FAQ. What baffled me was that lately I've been noticing FAQs getting rather skimpy or non-existent, and this is for games that I figured were ancient enough to have tons of FAQs with ridiculously comprehensive information.

Fighters aren't the only ones by the way, FPS/RTS/Diablo communities treated GameFAQs similarly and although I was deeply involved in each of the aforementioned communities I never understood the stigma regarding GameFAQs. I just don't see why the users or forums have anything to do with sharing information to literally anyone with an internet connection.

Again this isn't about newer games like SF4 mind you, these players have been around since the dawn of fighters and have played the games that have zero content on GameFAQs. But I will daresay it's slightly hypocritical for the fighting game community to be desperately reaching out to the SF4+ scrubs in an attempt to boost the genre, meanwhile turning a cold shoulder to GameFAQs and just about any other game (hi MeltyBlood haters).

Hitbox Stuff

2010-06-15T01:22:00.015-04:00

Ibuki: http://bit.ly/a0N8ze

So apparently some one has been working on a hack for Mame to display hitboxes in SF3:3S.

Well I'm all over that. It may be that I've spent the most time playing 3S than any other Fighting Game, so it's rather exciting to me.

Also, I created a playlist for all my hitbox videos: Hitbox Viewer Videos. You may or may not care for the games therein, but I think the videos provide a few things to relish in, even if you don't care for the games: disillusioning visuals, proof of concept, cool music.

Let us reflect on my personal favorite Alice Margatroid. The visuals, the concept, the music -- and keep in mind, she's not even top tier.

We've seen hitboxes for SF2, SFA3, and VHunter, among other oldschool fighting games. Now we're looking at a game that's over a decade old yet is still considered staple, Third Strike. With the advent of hitbox data revealed for SSF4 things were set aflutter. I hope more people can appreciate this sort of thing these days, and hopefully reflect on what those rectangles actually mean in the grand scheme of things, past and present.

Yay.

Juri Math

2010-06-11T09:07:00.002-04:00

You can pretty much ignore this post.
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Considering -4 or worse to be unsafe:

O n.LP
X n.MP
X n.HP
O n.LK
X n.MK
X n.HK
O LP
O MP
X HP
O LK
X MK
X HK
O c.LP
O c.MP
X c.HP
O c.LK
X c.MK
X c.HK
O f+MK

10/19 (52.63%)

O Fuhajin
O Fuhajin (store)
O Fuhajin (release)
O Fuhajin EX 1
O Fuhajin EX 2
O Fuhajin EX 3
O Shikusen LK
O Shikusen MK
X Shikusen HK
X Senpusha LK
X Senpusha MK
X Senpusha HK
X Senpusha EX

5/13 (38.46%) [15/32 (46.87%)]

X Super
N Ultra 1
X Ultra 2

17/34 (50%)

Not 90%.

If we consider -4 or better to be safe it becomes 10/32 (31.25%) or 12/34 (35.29%)

Though I still stand by the argument that a character can still be brainless if all of their moves were unsafe except for their one or two overpowered and mashable moves, because that's all you need. For example, if a character had nothing safe except c.LK and an overhead then you'd spend the match looking for ways to land short short super or overhead mixups. If nothing Storm had was safe except j.HP and Hail you could still mash j.HP for meter and spam hails or simply use her as a battery for other characters, not exactly rocket science. If nothing SFA2 Rose had was safe except c.MP you could still mash the hell out of that move, again it's not complicated. Same goes for a lot of characters, like Claw's c.MP. IMO

Low Tier

2010-06-04T08:37:00.001-04:00

You can't change who you are so easily, so you might as well get comfortable with it.

That's not an easy philosophy to maintain, but it's an easy one to respect. IMO it also applies to gaming. In the past, people have argued about tiers, and the question of why people pick high/low tier characters arises from time to time. Even with a competitive nature, not everyone will make it a point to pick the best character. It seems that most people choose characters based on what interests them on a personal level.

That's probably a good thing. I think it's better that you should devote time and effort into getting good with a character that meshes well with you, rather than wasting your time trying to force yourself to get good with a character that just doesn't suit you.

Why? Well because if everyone played Sagat, the ones who aren't comfortable with Sagat are going to lose to people who are comfortable with him, when these same people losing might have won with a character that fits them better. It's easy for some one like me to say "I suck with Sagat", because I do, and that's why I don't pick him.

The characters that I naturally gravitate towards have changed from when I was younger, so it's not as though people can't or don't change. But I think change is best left up to time.

Still, it's impossible to deny the fact that bad matchups exist in most games. And being at a severe handicap against an opponent who's about as good as you are is really no fun. That's why having more than one character to choose from can make things go more smoothly than they would if you limit yourself to a single character.

Thinking Ahead

2010-05-20T01:25:00.007-04:00

Sometimes one should question how well you are able see yourself when you play.

There's an aspect of most competitive games that involves looking through the opponent's eyes. Not literally, but preemptively examining the situation from their point of view and "see" what the opponent is looking for in your game. This isn't a mind game, nor is this a mixup, it is simply an aspect of competition that I can only refer to as "thinking ahead".

For example, if you notice that the opponent has a blind-spot or weakness in their midrange game then you might start specifically looking for it in the future, in order to take advantage of it. To elaborate, let's say you notice an opponent's fireball leaves a huge gap in their game, so you might wait for them to toss out a fireball or perhaps wait for a situation where they might toss out a fireball in order to jump in at them. Another example would be; you might notice the opponent has a blind spot or weakness from the knees down, so you do low pokes as much as possible to both take advantage of that weakness and to bait them into jumping which you can anti-air.

Now look at it on the flipside. Did the person with a weak fireball/leg really realize that their fireball/leg left them at such a huge disadvantage, one has to question. Because that person is you. You need to consider your own potential weaknesses because everyone has them.

Everyone gets hit by something eventually, in all of fighting game history there is no one that gets double perfects 100% of the time against everyone. We all get hit. Those moments that you do get hit, you have to analyze why you got hit. A lot of the time it's a wrong guess in a mixup situation. Sometimes it's a bad play in a mindgame situation. But I believe that most of the time: your own damage comes from your own lack of foresight about yourself.

This is, in fact, why I actually even bother recording match videos and posting them on my youtube channel. Clearly it's not for the views/comments/ratings/fame/whatever because I don't get any of that and I don't give a shitdick about that either. It's more because I always watch them. Every last one. And I pay close attention. The first time I did it I only watched myself and only paid attention to what I was doing. But shortly thereafter I realized how tunnel visioned that was, and why I was the one getting hit. It was blatantly obvious that I was not looking at things from the opponent's point of view. In retrospect I could very obviously see that my opponent was waiting for or fishing for a certain situation that would lead to me getting hit. I actually started rooting for the bad guy, to fuck that shit up.

So all I can really say is that I highly recommend the practice of reviewing yourself whenever possible. Nothing feels more liberating -- at least to me -- than visually seeing and realizing "oh, that's why I lost, I didn't look at it that way.". And strengthening up for the future.

Admittedly, doing this in the heat of battle can lead to further tunnelvision, but I believe that in the long run it helps tremendously.

SFA3 Movies

2010-04-19T15:50:00.005-04:00

A random assortment of thoughts on the subject:

SFAA's version of SFA3 can be arcade perfect if the dipswitches are set correctly. This is good because no one cares about the patched/inaccurate versions. This can be used in lieu of emulators if preferred.
All other versions, arcade inaccurate, should be avoided unless specifically to showcase differences between that specific version and the arcade version.
The advantage of using SFAA's incarnation is the training mode dummy has auto-teching, among other things, which can help avoid invalid combos.
Invalid combos (where the opponent can airtech) should be avoided at all costs.
The only exception to using an invalid should be to show a valid tech-trap. If the tech trap is valid but escapable then focus on this combo should be limited to just the tech trap itself and the fact that it's escapable.
Common mistakes include Zangief's vertical jumping HP, Gen's kick stance j.HK j.HK target combo, and R.Mika's Paradise Hold which can all be air-teched from before the attacker even lands/recovers (despite normal juggle rules).
But other common mistakes also include midscreen invalids where there's no juggle limit midscreen, or sweeps like Guy's c.MK which allow the opponent to tech.

With the above in mind, some things that should probably be covered:

Meterless BnBs.
Possible guard crush strings and tick setups.
X-ism and A-ism standard combos.
Air to air counterhit and crouch cancel combos.
Situational counterhit and major counterhit combos.
Utilization of untechable moves (Ryu's hurricane super, Guy's kick super/bushin chain/backflip, etc).
Utilization of glitches to extend combos (chain cancelling, Gen's jakouha juggle limit breaker, Rose's unblockable friends super, etc).
V-ism standard combos.
V-ism tech traps and crouch cancels.
V-ism possible guard crush.
V-ism unblockables (high/low and cmd throw).
V-ism shenanigan/mixup/reset (left/right/high/low/shadow mixups).
V-ism post-dizzy activations.
V-ism post-dizzy valid juggle setups.

Fuzzy Numbers

2010-04-09T07:56:00.005-04:00

A lot of people are rather apprehensive about framedata. But, framedata doesn't have to be scary or confusing or even misleading if you don't take it too seriously or literal. There are general rules of thumb when looking at framedata that can really help in a lot of ways.

Skeptics seem to argue that you don't need to know framedata to play the game. This is true. But by playing the game for hours and hours and hours you are achieving the same fundamental knowledge about frames that you could get by very briefly glancing at some framedata tables: fuzzy numbers.

For example, we would say a small number like 3 is "a little", a larger number like 10 is "several" and a big number like 20 is "a lot". After looking at framedata, you don't need to memorize every number and figure out how each number applies to every situation, because that's just absurd/silly. Rather, you could say that jabs have "a little" startup. This overhead has "a lot" of active frames. And this uppercut has "a lot" of punishable recovery.

So again, you might have come to those conclusions after playtesting the game for hours, but a simple quick glance at frame tables would have also revealed the same thing without memorization required. Really, I daresay it's been my experience that you may even discover much more about the character just by skimming a table for a few minutes than you would after playing for days.

Personally what I look at when I see framedata tables is exceptional numbers, rather than giving a crap about what they mean. I don't have to know everything right away either, just things like "this is more, this is less". For example, out of standing and crouching jabs and shorts, plus close variations of them (so let's say six different light attacks): the crouching short is the fastest. I don't care what the numbers are, I just know crouching short is faster than my other options and is therefor that's what button I want to press when I need a fast light attack.

I also look for really big active frames and really large numbers on block, whether they be plus or minus. If it looks like "most characters" mid-strength attacks are 6F startup then I know any move that I have that's -6 or more is "punishable by most characters". And then I immediately forget the actual numbers because they are replaced by fuzzy numbers and rules of thumb like "punishable on block".

This is also why I take a good look at active hitframes. Because let's say a move is -10 on block, and is therefor really easily punishable by just about anything. But let's also say this move has 15 active hitframes. If I hit an opponent out in the open then obviously I'm going to get punished, so I know not to do that move out in the open. But if I do that move after a knockdown and it hits meaty, let's say after 5 active frames have passed, then it becomes -5 which is not so punishable anymore. If I hit on the last possible active frame it could even be +5 instead of -10, which is great for practical applications. An opponent blocking that move might instinctively stick out an attack thinking it's free damage, or at least free initiative because their attack would force a block, but if it's meaty like that then I recover much faster so I can DP being getting hit and hit them out of their attempted retaliation. And once again, the numbers leave my head after I discover this, I just know "this move has no active frames, useless as a meaty" or "this move has a lot of active frames, it can be safe if meaty" and so on.

Looking at numbers doesn't have to be a puzzle or math. The only time you ever really want to crunch some numbers is when you're trying to find link combos. Aside from that, basic rules of thumb like "this move is plus frames, so it's safe and can be used as a tick throw" or "this move is minus frames, unsafe, but it's got a lot of active frames so it's safe when really meaty" or even just "this is my fastest attack" can go a long way.

Fuzzy Guard

2010-04-09T06:38:00.003-04:00

FuzzyGuard is an unfortunately ambiguous and inauspicious term used by both the 2D and 3D fighting game communities. Unfortunately the definition between the two communities is quite a bit different. But, whatever, I'm going by the 2D definition.

Basically it's when you use a while-rising attack after putting your opponent into a standing blockstun. The reason this is important is shown in the above video.

But more importantly, let's take a look at SF4 Chun-Li as a better example. Chun normally can't do a while-rising j.HK on a crouchinging opponent, she can only hit with j.HK on the way down, not on the way up unless they were standing. However, if she first makes the opponent block a j.HK on the way down she can then do an immediate while-rising j.HK on the way up and it will connect even if the opponent is attempting to block low. The reason this works is even if they are pressing down+back to block low their character is still stand blocking. And when they are hit by the second j.HK they immediately enter crouching blockstun.

Incidentally this is kind of useless for her because she can get punished for doing it, but it's kind of nice to know how the mechanic works so it can be applied in other situations. For example, Gouken can do the same thing with his air Tatsu.

So I was looking at the games it's in, and here's what I've tested:

ST: No
SFA3: No
Garou: No
VSav: Yes/Special
SF3: Yes
Jojo's: Yes
MB: Yes
GG: Yes
IaMP: Yes
SS5sp: Yes/Special

In the case of VSav you can not switch your guard during blockstop, but you can during blockstun. That means if you were caught in blockstop high and an attack hits you low the low attack is unblockable, or the revere (caught in low block stop then hit high, the high is unblockable).

In Samurai Shodown it works essentially like other games, however if you block incorrectly you will then enter hitstun based on the direction you were caught during block, rather than switching to whatever position you were holding.

Twitch Baits

2010-03-31T12:29:00.007-04:00

A twitch response is what happens when the opponent baits you into doing something. This technique in general is usually referred to just as a "bait", but since that's such a broad blanket term the actual mechanics of the technique tend to get lost. It's sort of like reverse tunnel vision, or simply exploiting anticipation or panic reactions. It's almost so simple that it feels a little ridiculous explaining it. But let's start with an example:

- c.LP walk forward throw (classic tick throw).
- c.LP walk forward -pause- c.LP

This is one of the most basic twitch-response exploits. The reason it works is because the defender is sitting there afraid to get hit, so they keep blocking and end up getting thrown a bit. After getting thrown enough they start looking for the throw so that they can tech/jump out. The problem is, most good players will just walk right up in a blatantly obvious/telegraphed manner, knowing damn well that the defender is afraid of the grab now, and then instead of grabbing they punch them in the nuts.

The reason this is so effective in games like SF4 and CvS2 is because jabs link to strongs which combo to specials and supers. Even better, if you attempt to tech the throw high you'll whiff a throw attempt, and if you tech it low you'll do a jab which gets stuffed by their jab which results in a counterhit.

It was made more effective in SF3:3S because this pattern could include down parry, as in c.LP walk forward down parry attempt c.LP/throw, where if the defender is hitting buttons to defend themselves aggressively/panicky they'll get parried and eat heavy confirmable damage, or again if they try to optionselect tech the throw by teching while crouching the defender would stick out a low jab and get parried.

It was also pretty effective in SFA2 and SFA3, and can be found in most fighting games where throws aren't instant and either counterhits or jabs/shorts are really powerful.

This is just the basic foundation of getting in your opponent's head and baiting out reactions that you want though. Pressuring people in the corner while whiffing obvious pokes or throwing fireballs tends to bait people to jump, which gives you free anti-airs. Doing a move with frame disadvantage tends to bait people into attempting an attack even if they know they can't punish it, which gives you an opportunity to beat their attack with an invulnerable or partially invulnerable move. Wiggling just within sweep range can bait people into trying a sweep despite most sweeps being incredibly risky and punishable.

Because you're getting into the opponent's head and getting a read on people, players will often mistakenly call this a "mind game" when it's not. It really is just a simple mixup. This mixup with the first example is a two option mixup, like flipping a coin. Either it will be a jab, which is melee and you prevent damage by blocking. or it will be a throw which is a grab and you prevent damage by avoiding it or teching it. In other words:

Melee/Grab == c.LP/throw --> block/tech (or jump or backdash or walk back or whatever).

Something Azrael said a while back made me realize SF4 was teaching a legion of MB and GG/BB players what the basic twitch-response mixup is in most "classic fighters". At first I thought it was the other way around, I thought SF4 was teaching SF/GG/BB players what staggers were. But that's mostly because I don't actually play the game, so it wasn't until I thought about it more that it became apparent that it was indeed teaching GG/BB players the twitch.

I'd say MB players already sort of know the twitch and the stagger, because it works like KoF or run-grooves in CvS2, but honestly I think a lot of players get wrapped up in what they are doing that they don't bother thinking about the opponent or what they want the opponent to do (other than lose) to really get a grasp on it. For example, it's easy to just go into auto-pilot mode and fall into the habit of running tick throws or block strings without actually even giving your opponent room to twitch or panic.

I daresay a player who is too focused on doing only tick throws and/or block-strings is missing about half the actual game, even when utilizing both ticks and strings. I also daresay the scariest pressure is the one that has holes, usually intentional holes designed to bait the twitch.

SFA3 Rose Sucked

2010-03-31T05:35:00.012-04:00

A few people I know play Rose in SF4. And Rose is pretty much the only SF4 character that I care about, so I tend to get into Rose-related discussions from time to time (despite not playing SF4 at all). These conversations naturally lead to how bad she is and wishlists for SSF4, and all I can say is "at least she ain't A3 Rose". This more or less escapes a lot of people because: while A3 players are rare these days, A3-Rose players are even more rare.

Well let's examine how bad she really was in A3 (in comparison to SF4):
- Jabs and shorts did not combo into any special move (unless on CH).
- No links at all, her only link worth mentioning was c.MP into c.LP at point blank which only comboed into Lv.3 super. Or meaty c.MP into c.MP.
- Her crossup j.MK was really tiny and difficult to space.
- Her jumping HP lost to most anti-airs since the hitbox wasn't particularly good. So for the most part she couldn't jump.
- All versions of Sparks were -F on block.
- The LP and MP Sparks were very punishable on block/hit (which would reward with CH).
- All Sparks had a very long animation which were really easy to jump over and punish.
- Sparks pushed Rose/Opponent back depending on strength used so HP version was useless in blockstrings (since it's -F on block anyway) though it was technically the only one "safe" on block due to pushback range.
- All versions of Spiral were punishable on block. You could only really make the LK Spiral "safe" but landing it from max range and hoping your opponent couldn't reach you.
- Her MK Spiral and HK Spiral were slow startup and only comboed from close HP or c.HP (you couldn't make them airtight on block).
- Spirals knocked the opponent too far back for a meaty crossup j.MK.
- Both LP and MP Reflects were punishable on block which rewarded CH.
- Her HP Reflect was safe on block but all reflects were only comboable from point blank close MP or c.MP or c.MK and none of those into HP Reflect were airtight on block (opponent could hit Rose before the HP Reflect hit).
- Slide (df.MK) was unsafe on hit/block from most ranges except absolute max range.
- Slide (df.MK) did not go under fireballs at any point.
- Her close HK was actually her f+HK except it didn't move forward after the kick, and was not cancelable.
- Her close MK wasn't cancelable either.
- Her anti air options sucked: c.HP, MP-Reflect, f+HK, Soul Throw, and Slide were all garbage.
- Her forward/back throw was a mashable hold both ground/air, which meant it didn't do much damage, especially when teched.

Don't get me wrong, not hating on the character, we all have our low-tier love. But thinking about it, the one thing that A3 Rose had over SF4 Rose, IMO, was her supers, which weren't all that great. The Soul Throw super would throw the opponent behind her, so doing it against a cornered opponent put you in the corner, plus you could mash down the damage fairly easily (cutting the damage down by 50%) since it was so few hits and very rhythmic/telegraphed. Her Spark super wasn't bad at all, generic fireball super at level 1, autocombo that moved forward at level 2, and a super-reflect into fireball at level 3. And her friends super was good, kind of like Yang's friends super in SF3 except hers was glitched too giving her unblockables. I'd say it was the only thing that kept her out of the bottom tier.

I would also say that A3 Rose could combo anti-air c.HP into Soul Throw but the fact that c.HP wasn't a particularly good anti-air makes that kind of trivial/worthless. Her MP Reflect was her better anti-air option and yet it lost to so much mundane shit like Shoto j.MK that it didn't really matter.

Overall Rose was low tier in A3, just barely escaping bottom tier. Although that's still her status in SF4, she was improved upon by leaps and bounds compared to her A3 incarnation. Her A2 and CFJ versions are a different matter altogether. Though thinking about it, they didn't really change much about Rose from A2 to A3 except speeds and hitboxes, which just goes to show how frames and rectangles (the shit we don't really see) can make or break a character (turning a top tier Rose into a low tier Rose while changing "nothing" about the character).

Though, SF4-Rose can combo Spirals and Reflects from c.LP. And she can link to c.MP from c.LK in SF4 which let her combo Sparks and stuff. Not only that, at least HK Spiral and HP Spark were safe (HP Spark is actually advantageous in SF4). The main things I like about SF4 Rose is her jab into Spiral or c.lk into c.mp into spiral which sets up a crossup, her HP Spark being advantageous, and her really good j.HP and j.MK (all things her A3 version didn't have). But there's other little things that were nice too, like her close MK being cancelable and her slide going under fireballs (even under low tiger shots!), among other things. So personally my SSF4 wishlist for Rose is that they change nothing but numbers.

Oh and if you were wondering, she was one of the chars that had an infinite in V-ism. Meanwhile four of the top five characters did not have infinites. Which also goes to show that infinites don't automatically make a character broken (or even good).

I still think the one thing that I miss about A3 Rose is her airthrow (everyone in A3 had an airthrow). And that's about it. Well, that and fool card winpose.

RE: SF4 Unblocks / Seth

2010-03-28T03:04:00.003-04:00

So I did further testing with Seth. He has a couple setups actually that work differently.

He can SPD into LP-Boom then Ultra. This setup works exactly like Sagat's, basically. If Ryu is blocking pre-flash he will be hit, and if Ryu does not block pre-flash he can block post-flash.

His other setup is backthrow into MP-Boom then ultra. This one works exactly like Rose's but better. Ryu can't block pre-flash or post-flash (meaning he can't block at all), he also can't backdash AFAIK. In fact the only way to escape it with Ryu is EX-DP. But Seth is safe if Ryu does EX-DP since they recover at about the same time. Seth is also able to just not do his Ultra and that lets him bait escape attempts for free. Regardless, if Ryu has no meter he's fucked since there's no way to avoid it.

Now I need to test some Ken stuff. And keep in mind this sort of thing MAY or MAY NOT be possible with Sakura, Dan, Dhalsim, and Gouken. It's definitely not doable with Ryu because he can not perform an Ultra while there's a fireball already on the screen, so he's out, and it's basically useless for Akuma because his ultra can't grab people out of hitstun so he's out. I would have suspected Chun and Guile not to be able to do this, but weirder shit has happened so maybe they can (I dunno).

SF4 Unblockables

2010-03-28T01:23:00.011-04:00

Ok, so a "glitch" was recently discovered in SF4 that allows you to force an unblockable projectile hit during ultra flash, which naturally combos into ultra for a lot of characters.

- Sagat
- Rose
- Seth
- Ken
- Sagat again

- Rose again
- Sagat again

On further inspection here's what I've learned about Sagat's. With the LK-TigerShot setup seen in my video, Ryu can crouch. He'll still get hit, but the Ultra will whiff. Testing a MK-TigerShot setup reveals that Ryu will get hit standing if he attempts to block at all before the flash which lets the ultra hit too. If he does not block before the flash in either setup he can block after the flash. I don't really know why, it doesn't make sense, but it's true AFAIK.

This isn't inescapable though, Ryu can EX-DP or HP-DP and both characters will whiff each other. Ryu can also MP-DP and Ryu will beat Sagat out of his Ultra.

With Rose there is no option of blocking either before or after the flash, Ryu simply gets hit during the flash regardless if he is blocking beforehand or not. However he can backdash pre-flash and he will be hit out of the air by the LP-Spark which causes the Ultra to fail.

I tested a bit more with MP-Spark setups and against Ryu-sized characters this setup is only unblockable if Ryu attempts to block low, however if he blocks high the MP-Spark completely whiffs him. Though with this MP-Spark setup Ryu could not backdash because the Spark whiffed entirely which let the ultra grab him out of backdash. Thus Rose's only legit setup (against Ryu-sized characters anyway) LP-Spark.

Personally I haven't gotten around to testing Ken or Seth much, but I can tell you that Seth's is definitely the best out of all of them. Reason: he doesn't need to FADC.

In the case of Rose, if you see the FADC you can react accordingly and avoid the unblockable (backdash preflash). But with Seth there's nothing to react to. That allows Seth to bait escape attempts for free any time he has Ultra. If you attempt to escape when he doesn't do his Ultra he can punish your escape attempt. With Rose and Sagat they are kind of committed after the FADC so they are wasting two bars of super-meter (and ultra if they attempt the ultra).

I'll probably do some more testing with Ken and Seth, but for now I'm posting this before my thoughts get all jumbled and I forget everything.

Jinrai compiled a list of escapes and such for Seth's unblockable here. And there's a discussion thread here.

[Edit]: Made a post about Seth.

RE: Samurai / Amakusa notes

2010-03-26T03:27:00.015-04:00

Re: Samurai Shodown Five Special. Amakusa in Samurai Shodown 5Sp seemed like a weaker version of Dhalsim to me; ridiculously floaty jumps and really long range pokes and a teleport. A Dhalsim-lite, for an SNK Fighting Game. But lately I've been tinkering with him and I've come to realize that he's not really a Dhalsim clone. Though he does have certain features that are similar in some ways, the features that are different are what really defines him. Either way, he's an interestingly gimmicky yet solid lower/mid-tier character despite how he looks at a glance.

One really cool thing about him is that his 66S is an overhead, but it's -7F on block which makes it basically safe (in SS, that's technically safe). And a safe overhead is quite a commodity. It's also part of a gimmicky midsreen 4-way mixup out of dash. His 66K is low, and his 66H will hit from behind if it passes through the opponent, and you can throw out of a dash -- that gives you high-left/low-left/right melee 3-way plus dashing throw for a 4-way. Unfortunately all of his dash attacks are unsafe on block except the 66S overhead or throw, so it's not really that scary of a mixup, especially since most of those options do basically very little damage anyway.

His 5S is also an overhead on the way down, though it becomes a mid attack when he calls it back to him. The interesting thing about 5S being an overhead is that it's about the same range that you can pester the opponent with 2P or 5P which are both lows. That gives him "outside of sweep range" high/low mixups, though (un)fortunately 5S isn't safe on block and the hitbox for it is a very thin vertical point. On the other hand, 5S does not knock down, so in Mu no kyochi (timeslow mode) 5S allows you to combo into his Issen (runpast) or basically anything else, which is kind of scary if you don't Rage Explode because of his 5P/2P/5S being low/high mixups from outside of throw range, all of which will combo into whatever.

Speaking of combos, his n.2H combos to 214H or to his WFT, which does absurd amounts of damage. Mostly a punish type of technique though, but on the other hand n.2H allows you to teleport cancel on recoil/block which essentially makes it safe, but if you hit with it you can combo to the portal for stupid heavy damage. At point blank his n.2S also combos to 623K for a bit of damage, plus small pursuit if near corner. His 66A also links into 623K.

Speaking of his teleport, it does have a few frames of recovery, but these frames can be canceled by anything (much like jump/dash/wakeup recovery) including another teleport or a throw or jump (literally anything). This teleport is really what makes Amakusa so interesting. It's a great movement option, but it also makes a lot of his otherwise-unsafe moves safe by virtue of recoil canceling. For example 5H would be ridiculously unsafe, but if blocked you can cancel the recoil into a teleport and you're fine. This makes his c.5S, c.2S, f.5H and c.2H all safe to use whether you confirm them or not because you can just teleport cancel them on recoil.

The one thing he lacks is anti-air, IMO. His 623K grabs limbs so it can work as an anti-air. His 5K can also hit anti-air and has the benefit of being OTG which minimizes punishment if he's hit out of it (namely against multi-hitters like Yoshi j.S or j.H). Despite how they look 66P and 66S are NOT anti-airs, they have really low hitboxes and suck etc. Though 66H can work as an anti-air by virtue of being invulnerable once he starts to teleport and hitting from behind with a relatively high hitbox. The problem with 66H is the somewhat slow 19F startup, and ridiculously punishable recovery if it fails. Alternately a preemptive j.S or j.H can be used as anti-air, but in both cases it's a bit risky since the opponent is likely to land before you do. His 5S would seem like a good anti-air but it doesn't have a large hitbox so it's actually kind of garbage. Instead, 5H actually does the same thing you'd think 5S would do but better. In fact, as long as you're sure you're out of range of the opponent's attack then 5H is actually fairly easy to use as an anti-air and does loads of damage. But if they are within range to attack you then you're limited to some pretty risky options. The only attack that he has that hits ridiculously high into the air his n.5H which is not something you'd use very often, probably just if the opponent happens to jump vertically right in front of you or something. But personally, I teleport.

Some framedata.

Move	Hit Adv.	Block Adv.	Cancel	Dmg	Block/Deflect
n.5P	+1	-4	Y/Y	4	M/N
f.5P	-10 ~ -5	-15 ~ -10	N/N	6	L/Y
n.5S	-3	-18	Y/R	9	M/Y
f.5S	-10 ~ +2	-21 ~ -11	N/N	12	H/M/Y
n.5H	+2	-21	N/R	28	M/Y
f.5H	-4 ~ +4	-21	N/R	31	M/Y
n.2P	-1	-6	Y/Y	4	M/N
f.2P	-7 ~ -3	-12 ~ -8	N/N	7	L/N
n.2S	-2	-13	Y/R	9	M/Y
f.2S	-5 ~ +1	-18 ~ -12	N/N	11	M/Y
n.2H	-2	-19	Y/R	26	M/Y
f.2H	D	-55 ~ -45	N/N	27	L/N
5K	-16 ~ -3	-15 ~ +10	N/N	6	M/N
6K	-1	-14	Y/Y	5	L/N
2K	-2	-7	N/N	2	L/N
3K	D	-28 ~ -21	N/N	7	L/N
BC	D	-16	N/N	16	H/N
66P	+10	-22	N/N	8	M/N
66S	D	-7	N/N	13	H/N
66H	D	-52	N/N	20	B/N
66K	D	-21	N/N	6	L/N

Some more framedata:

Name	Damage	Startup	Active	Total	Cancel	Type	Hit adv. f.	Hit adv. r.	Block adv	Deflect	Weapon	Recoil
c.5a	4	5	7	14	1~3(3)/5~14(10)	Weak	+1	+1	-4	N	N	N
5a	6	12	11	32	1~2(2)	Weak Low	-10	-10	-15	Y (weak)	Y	11(1)
c.5b	9	12	13	33	12~24(13)	Medium	-3	+5	-18	Y (med)	Y	8~11(4)
5b	12	21	14	49	1~2(2)	Medium Overhead	-10	-2	-21	Y (med)	Y	N
c.5ab	28	18	19	53	1~4(4)	Heavy	+2	+12	-21	Y (heavy)	Y	17(1)
5ab	31	17	11	58	1~3(3)	Heavy	-4	+6	-21	Y (heavy)	Y	N
c.2a	4	5	4	16	1~3(3)/5~16(12)	Weak	-1	-1	-6	N	N	N
2a	7	11	8	28	1~5(5)	Weak Low	-7	-7	-12	N	Y	N
c.2b	9	16	7	36	16~28(13)	Medium	-2	+6	-13	Y (med)	Y	N
2b	11	9	7	32	1~5(5)	Medium	-5	+3	-18	Y (med)	Y	N
c.2ab	26	14	8	53	22~23(2)	Heavy	-2	+8	-19	Y (heavy)	Y	N
2ab	27	15	17	75	x	Low Knockdown	KD	KD	-55	N	N	N
5c	6	9	13	29	1~6(6)	Medium	-16	+6	-15	N	N	N
6c	5	13	14	32	13~32(20)	Medium Low	-1	+7	-14	N	N	N
2c	2	6	6	18	x	Weak Low	-2	-2	-7	N	N	N
3c	7	7	8	40	1~4(4)	Low Knockdown	KD	KD	-28	N	N	N
u.5s	4	6	3	24	1~4(4)	Weak	-2	-2	-6	N	N	N
u.2s	4	7	3	24	1~4(4)	Weak	-1	-1	-5	N	N	N
u.5c	8	9	13	29	1~6(6)	Medium	-16	+6	-15	N	N	N
u.6c	5	13	14	32	13~32(20)	Medium Low	-1	+7	-14	N	N	N
u.2c	2	6	6	18	x	Weak Low	-2	-2	-7	N	N	N
u.3c	7	7	8	40	1~4(4)	Low Knockdown	KD	KD	-28	N	N	N
j8.a	7	8	11	30	x	Weak Overhead	--	--	--	Y (weak)	Y	N
j8.b	11	4	21	38	x	Medium Overhead	--	--	--	Y (med)	Y	N
j8.ab	24	12	9	47	x	Heavy Overhead	--	--	--	Y (heavy)	Y	N
j7/9.a	7	8	11	30	x	Weak Overhead	--	--	--	Y (weak)	Y	N
j7/9.b	11	4	19	37	x	Medium Overhead	--	--	--	Y (med)	Y	N
j7/9.ab	24	12	9	47	x	Heavy Overhead	--	--	--	Y (heavy)	Y	N
ju.s	8	8	5	14	x	Medium Overhead	--	--	--	N	N	N
j.c	5	7	15	29	x	Heavy Overhead	--	--	--	N	N	N
ju.c	5	7	15	29	x	Heavy Overhead	--	--	--	N	N	N
5bc	16	20	3	41	x	Medium Overhead Knockdown	KD	KD	-15	N	N	N
u.5bc	8	22	11	48	x	Medium Overhead Knockdown	KD	KD	-20	N	N	N
66a	7	6	8	33	1~5(5)	Heavy	+10	+20	-22	N	N	N
66b	13	14	6	26	1~4(4)/9~11(3)	Medium Overhead Knockdown	KD	KD	-7	N	N	N
66ab	20	19	6	76	x	Knockdown	KD	KD	-52	N	N	N
66c	6	10	12	36	1~4(4)	Low Knockdown	KD	KD	-21	N	N	N
u.66s	7	5	19	33	1~5(5)	Knockdown	KD	KD	-22	N	N	N
u.66c	6	10	12	36	1~4(4)	Low Knockdown	KD	KD	-21	N	N	N
2bc	5	13	11	27	26~27(2)		--	--	--	N	N	N
u.2bc	5	13	11	27	26~27(2)		--	--	--	N	N	N
8bc	14	39	3	71	45~67(23)		--	--	--	N	N	N
u.8bc	8	24	18	79	x		--	--	--	N	N	N
死霊刃・小	11	28	-32768	59	x	Knockdown	KD	KD	-19	N	N	N
死霊刃・中	11	33	-32768	64	x	Knockdown	KD	KD	-19	N	N	N
死霊刃・大	-32768	37	-32768	71	x	Knockdown	KD	KD	-4	N	N	N
汝、暗転入滅せよ	24	37	-32768	-32768	x	Knockdown	KD	KD	-18	N	N	N
天照封鳳撃・小	26	33	5	58	x	Medium Overhead	KD	KD	-21	N	N	N
天照封鳳撃・中	26	33	5	58	x	Medium Overhead	KD	KD	-21	N	N	N
天照封鳳撃・大	26	29	3	76	x	Low	KD	KD	-21	N	N	N
戒烈掌	23	8	42	58	x		KD	KD	??	N	N	N
凶冥十殺陣	38	20	14	45	x		KD	KD	-17	N	N	N

SF4 Misc

2010-02-26T04:39:00.010-05:00

Char	6Throw	4Throw	J.Throw	Stage	Stage Name
Abel	0.9	0.9	x	airbase	Small Airfield
Akuma	0.9	0.9	x	temple moon	Deserted Temple
Blanka	0.9	0.9	x	jungle day	Inland Jungle
Boxer	0.9	0.9	x	diner	Drive-in at Night
Cammy	0.75	0.75	1.0	winery	Historic Distillery
Chun	1.0	1.0	1.1	china day	Crowded Downtown
Claw	1.05	1.05	1.2	winery	Historic Distillery
Dan	1.0	0.95	x	jungle night	Pitch-black Jungle
Dhalsim	0.9	0.9	x	boat day	Beautiful Bay
Dic	0.9	0.9	x	volcano	Volcanic Rim
El.F	0.9	0.9	1.15	volcano	Volcanic Rim
Fei	0.85	0.85	x	china day	Crowded Downtown
Gen	0.95	1.05	x	china night	Run-down Back Alley
Gouken	0.9	0.9	x	temple moon	Deserted Temple
Guile	0.9	0.9	1.25	airbase	Small Airfield
Honda	0.9	0.9	x	bridge	Overpass
Ken	0.9	0.9	x	diner	Drive-in at Night
Rose	1.0	1.0	x	tv stage	Cruise Ship Stern
Rufus	0.9	0.9	x	diner	Drive-in at Night
Ryu	0.9	0.9	x	high temple	Old Temple
Sagat	0.9	0.9	x	boat night	Morning Mist Bay
Sakura	0.8	0.8	x	brige	Overpass
Seth	0.9	0.9	x	lab	Secret Laboratory
Viper	0.9	0.9	x	tv stage	Cruise Ship Stern
Zangief	0.9	0.9	x	train yard	Snowy Rail Yard

Character	Dash	FA1	FA2
Chun	15	+1	+7
Abel	16	00	+6
Fuerte	16	00	+6
Gouken	16	00	+6
Dictator	17	-1	+5
Fei	17	-1	+5
Akuma	18	-2	+4
Boxer	18	-2	+4
Cammy	18	-2	+4
Ken	18	-2	+4
Ryu	18	-2	+4
Sagat	18	-2	+4
Sakura	18	-2	+4
Seth	18	-2	+4
Gen	19	-3	+3
Guile	19	-3	+3
Honda	19	-3	+3
Viper	19	-3	+3
Claw	20	-4	+2
Rufus	20	-4	+2
Blanka	21	-5	+1
Dan	21	-5	+1
Rose	21	-5	+1
Zangief	26	-10	-4
Dhalsim	32	-16	-10

Character	BackDash	FA1	FA2
Fuerte	19	-3	+3
Cammy	22	-6	00
Chun	22	-6	00
Claw	22	-6	00
Rose	22	-6	00
Boxer	24	-8	-2
Abel	25	-9	-3
Akuma	25	-9	-3
Dictator	25	-9	-3
Gouken	25	-9	-3
Seth	25	-9	-3
Blanka	26	-10	-4
Dan	26	-10	-4
Fei	26	-10	-4
Guile	26	-10	-4
Sakura	26	-10	-4
Zangief	26	-10	-4
Gen	27	-11	-5
Honda	27	-11	-5
Ken	27	-11	-5
Rufus	27	-11	-5
Ryu	27	-11	-5
Viper	27	-11	-5
Dhalsim	29	-13	-7
Sagat	29	-13	-7

- Rose Max Absorb
364 c.LK c.LK c.MP hcf+LP s
423 c.LK c.LK c.MP qcf+LK s
438 c.HP hcf+MP s
514 c.HP qcf+LK s
- Chip
12 Reflect
20 Spark
25 Spiral
32 EX Spark
73 A.S.Spark
98 Spiral xx A.S.Spark
- Absorb Chip
27 Spark
44 EX Spark
102 A.S.Spark
127 Spiral A.S.Spark

Here is a visual representation of how p-linking works.

In a nutshell: When you kara SF4 reinputs the previous input. So going from HP to MP results in HP on frame one then HP+MP on frame two. Frame two is important because the game treats the HP+MP as a new input, and since HP overrides MP what happens is you get a HP attempt on frame one and another immediate HP attempt on frame two (two rapid-fire HPs).

TL;DR: So with the above example the red star represents a 1F link, you must push HP on that red star frame (frame five) in order for the link to work, any time sooner and it will fail and any time later and it will also fail. Using a single input that means you must push HP on exactly that frame. But with P-Linking you can begin the process on frame four or on frame five and either will result in success. This doesn't actually make the link a "2F link" but it increases the window for execution by one frame which essentially makes it FEEL like a two frame link rather than a one frame link. However this only works with a single kara, double kara attempts result in failure so HP~MP~LP will not give the desired results at all. Also, due to the strength priority of attacks you can only go "backwards" in strength, meaning this is useless for linking LPs and LKs, since there's nothing weaker than a LP and kara'ing LK to LP results in a throw attempt. On a side note, light attacks are actually chainable into themselves and sometimes into other light attacks, meaning you cancel the first light attack rather than waiting for it to finish. This creates a couple complications unique to SF4: first if the light attack is chained you lose the ability to special/super cancel the chained light attack, so in order to do c.LP c.LP qcf+LK it must be a link and not a chain. Second, when attempting to p-link into a higher strength move from a light attack you must avoid using the same light attack, for example with Ryu doing c.LP into c.MK~LP can result in a chained c.LP rather than a linked c.MK, but since both of his lights are chainable it's difficult to avoid this making the link somewhat less "plinkable" than others. I honestly think most of this is very self explanatory and everyone should have gotten the jist of it by now, but for some reason when I first heard about it I had trouble wrapping my mind around it, so w/e.

PS. I don't really like the comments system on Blogger because I don't think anyone really notices people's comments and I doubt anyone checks back to see responses to comments made. Thus, I set up a chat box that I put over on the right side of the blog, which I think might work better than comments. I won't disable comments though, FYI.

Nostalgia

2010-02-18T06:55:00.003-05:00

Let's take a stroll down Memory Lane.

Crossposting the description: - You get bonus points for knowing all the games. Extra super turbo hyper ultra mondo mega bigtime shin orochi bonus points for knowing all the music.

The games are not shown in any particular order, just what I happened to feel like at the time. Yeah there's some games "missing", but again this is just what I felt like adding in, the games shown are the ones that have special meaning to me one way or another (honorable mentions: Clayfighter, Rumblefish, Battle Fantasia, Brutal, Shaq Fu). -

Believe it or not, I've played almost all the games in the video to varying degrees. About the only ones that I feel guilty for having added to that video that I've never played before is any of the Arcana Heart games. But I added a couple shots anyway for my own reasons. Of the honorable mentions I've only played Clayfighter, I never did get a chance to play the latter mentioned games. Yet, I know there are those out there that could list many more 2D fighters that they have devoted time to (for example: Tokidensho Angel Eyes, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, Ranma ½, etc).

On a side note, the number of people who can identify the last and second-to-last songs should be somewhat high. However, I wonder how many people will actually be able to identify the first song. Fortunately I know the music all too well, so I'll be able to spoil inquiring minds that want to know.

It's funny looking back on this video. Each picture appears for five seconds, so with a 6:10 video length that means 74 images (right?). This isn't including the games I purposefully left out like SFA1 and MK1 and such, which I have played rather extensively btw. The first "three" (more like the first two and that one sample) songs I chose for strong sentimental reasons. I'm definitely not the only one that has strong emotional ties to some of this stuff though, so I hope you enjoy the novelty, I enjoyed putting it together.

Anyway, I don't really want to talk too much about the video itself. Rather, I'll say that I hope I can talk about the games that appear in the video on this blog some day. I also plan to talk a little more about the games I've played outside of fighting games one day as well.

Samurai Shodown Five Special

2010-02-15T20:39:00.006-05:00

I've been playing Samurai Shodown 5 Special on and off sparingly for some time. The Samurai Shodown series unfortunately never struck me as a fighting game series that I could really get in to. Be that as it may, 5SP is definitely the only one of the series I could possibly take seriously at all. And since I've been dabbling, it was unavoidable that I'd dig up some random esoterica.

- Rera while mounted on wolf Framedata
- Yoshitora Framedata
- Yoshitora Yuchouka (secret sword) unlocking requirements.

Basically Yoshitora was the first character I got interested in, he has gimmicks... I like gimmicks. I made that framedata chart for him before I knew about the pre-existing Japanese frame tables (orz). On the bright side the JP tables lacked some information that I was able to find so at least my effort wasn't wasted, and also I was able to confirm that my data was correct and matched theirs.

Regarding the second text file though, it basically lists the requirements for unlocking his super sword wave move. It's not like a WFT, as it doesn't require rage nor does it disarm the opponent. But it does MAJOR damage, can be used repeatedly, and is HUGE, plus it does pretty darn good chip. Sounds awesome right? Well the requirements for unlocking it are too steep to make it practical usually, plus the move is pretty slow startup and recovery so it's not like an auto-win even if you do unlock it. Still, at least knowing the requirements is kind of handy if you just happen to land some of the more difficult to land specials. Example, if your opponent whiffs a DP which lets you land his qcb+S then you might want to look out for other opportunities to land rdp+S and dp+K. Personally I tend to work rdp+S into my game a lot, it's not easy and it will in fact get you killed if you use it recklessly (like I do) but it's rather satisfying to land it, especially as an anti-air or anti-whatever-action. But it's not good as a mixup between the light version and mid/heavy version, it just doesn't work, there's too large of a gap between when you recover from the light version and hit with the mid version for it to be useful (the opponent can poke as the autoguard ends and before you recover/slash). The good news is that even though his dp+K grab is blockable and punishable, it's not especially bad as a reversal or punisher since it's startup is only 2F (catches on 3rd). Thus, knowing your opponent's framedata will actually let you use the dp+K from time to time as a punisher or wakeup move. And the best news is that those three are the only moves you actually need to worry about, since landing qcf+S is stupidly easily and you can whiff his dp+S and j.qcf+S safely from across the screen. Though one more little downside: the entire qcb+S move must hit from start to finish, it won't count if the first hit doesn't connect.

Yoshi doesn't strike me as a particularly solid/reliable character, at least not in comparison to the very obviously well rounded characters like: Charlotte, Jubei, Haohmaru. But his advantages are to my liking/play-style: he's a poke character with some silly abare gimmicks. Just glancing over the framedata would suggest tragedy, but he actually places either mid or high tier (not top) in most people's tier lists, so that says something about the value of pokes and movement at least.

Yoshi is also peculiar as a character because his backwards roll and backwards ground-tech are hops rather than slides. This means that both his backdash and backward roll are cancelable by air moves, which means j.qcf, though sadly that's hardly useful in most cases. Likewise since his backwards groundtech is a hop the cancel window for it comes at the very end of the move (groundtechs are invulnerable but have cancelable windows) which is also slightly less useful.

The other kind of cool thing about Yoshi is that most of his hits are multi-hit and hit all over the place. His medium slashes for example can hit behind him, whether it be ground/air/crouching. And his heavies multiple times air/ground and twice crouching. Though the bastard might not have a sf-Claw c.MP but he definitely has some wicked pokes. In particular 66B basically hits all over the place, high/mid/low/backwards, and it's two hit. That makes 66B great for anti-roll and anti-hop, since it can hit people out of the air if they are hopping in front or through (behind) Yoshi, and anti-roll since it hits low enough to the ground. But since it's two-hit it's also confirmable into 236A, as well as his far 5B and close 5B. His 66AB is ridiculous anti-air. It hits deceptively high and I don't think his hittable box is particularly high either. In Samsho when you dash under the opponent you automatically turn around to face them upon cancelling the dash with a dash attack, so dashunder 66AB is pretty good. His 2AB is actually cancelable on the second hit, which means you can cut down on the recovery by canceling it and also cancel into a big-pursuit (8BC) on hit, and since it hits twice is therefor confirmable into the big pursuit. Unfortunately since it hits twice it suffers from Guile/Remy syndrome in that the opponent can hop or DP him between the hits (or grab or whatever).

One thing I really like about his 236 moves is that 236A has very fast startup so it combos off his mids, but 236B while it has slower startup has stupidly good range and recovery. Since it recovers so fast 236B can even be used as a tick throw setup, despite being -9 on block (it "feels" more like instant/neutral). Speaking of tick throws, 66A is an "ideal" tick since it's -10F on block and Samsho has 12F throw inv on wakeup/block/hit (which is a lot).

His 623A and 623B DPs are sadly not really DP/Shoryuken moves, more like upper-body inv if at all, since they have zero actual invulnerability frames. His 623AB does have some actual invulnerability though, about 18F which is the same amount as the startup, meaning it can trade on it's first active frame. Still, 18F is enough to get through plenty of meaties and other such stuff. Basically, don't expect it to be anti-airing people other than Yunfei, nor is it a reversal unless you use the heavy version which is slow and unsafe.

His WFT is a rarity in that it's fully invulnerable until it's first active hitframe, which means it can blow through attacks but it can also trade. Unfortunately it kind of blows anyway, since it has somewhat slow startup and very poor range. It's comboable off close 5AB but that's about it. Being that it's so telegraphed and so punishable on block people don't use it much except in situations where you can beat very obviously telegraphed moves or punish major blunders.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what's up with the Rera stuff. Well when she mounts Shikuru the wolf a lot of her moves change. She can dash cancel her normals, and her dash is cancelable by blocking, even during the dash-cool. Her dash is also cancelable when you pass through the opponent by pressing up. And, if you press up for 1F while in front of the opponent is also will instantly cancel the dash. You can see some examples of Rera quick-stop and dash cancels in this video. Personally I don't play Rera and I don't really care for her at all, but I started digging around for this information because it was randomly prompted by some one else.

Evo 2010 Poll Results

2010-02-06T17:54:00.004-05:00

This year, at Evolution: Melty Blood Actress Again.

Together with: Super SF4, Tekken 6, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, SSF2T-HD Remix, and PS3- Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (which is now replacing BB:CT).

Incidentally, Super Battle Opera news: Confirmed for September, will now have two stages, and be executed in "festival" style. The lineup: SF4 (not Super), Blaz Blue-CS, Tekken 6-BR, Virtual Fighter 5-R, King of Fighters 2002-UM, Arcana Heart 3, Guilty Gear-AC, SF3-3S, SSF2T (ST non-HD), Aaaaaaaaaaaand: Sengoku Basara X.

You'll notice MB-AA is missing from the SBO lineup again this year. In fact the only game that will be at both Evo and SBO is T6. But really, what the hell is SBX doing there, isn't it a little late to the party?

So anyway, there's your answer folks. MBAA won the poll. I'd also been wondering what Evo/SBO was planning on doing with SSF4/SF4, and now we know.

Evo 2010 Players Choice Poll

2010-02-03T01:50:00.002-05:00

Players Choice, What game would you like to see in Evo 2010?

The poll closes February 6th 2010.

Only Shoryuken forum memebers registered prior to poll's open can vote. Poll results will be hidden until poll close.

I've voted, I hope you do the same.

Throw Down

2010-01-08T13:19:00.000-05:00

This post might be for Rithli.

One thing that makes games fast and exciting is good offensive options/mixups, and poor/unsafe defensive options. SF4's DP FADC is a good example of something gone awry.

I think the terms offensive and defensive options get skewed some times. People think that DP's and parries are defensive options because you can use them to counter an attack. But, they result in a knockdown and damage, which is not what I'd call a purely defensive option like a pushblock or teleport.

So for the sake of simplicity I'll say they are momentum breakers. When you have advantage, when you take control of the flow, when you have initiative, when you have momentum, things like DP FADC backdash (confirm Ultra) are breakers. They disrupt the flow because they reset the situation off an educated guess. It's difficult to bait and punish it, it's mostly safe, and so even if it fails the one who did it is at worst no longer at a disadvantage. And as long as the one doing it is taking well educated guesses then the DP won't be whiffing.

That said, this has helped me decide whether 1-button proximity throws or 2-button command normal throws were more ideal.

Initially I would say 1-button throwing is better because of simple crude option selects, such as holding back and pressing close MP to either get a block, a throw, or a close MP which could be canceled into something. Which, if the opponent jumps, the close MP may also serve as an anti-air (or anti-jump).

But it also depends heavily on throw invulnerability and throw startup. If the game had a lot of throw invulnerability duration and/or throws had a somewhat slow startup then 2B cmd is better. This is because you're able to begin the throw before the opponent becomes throwable, overlapping the active catch frames with the first vulnerable frame (like, a meaty throw, so to speak).

For example, a player does a deep crossup jumpin that leaves them at a large frame advantage. At this point they have to wait several frames before the opponent leaves blockstun and becomes throwable. With a 1B input they have to wait until blockstun ends and throw inv ends before pressing the button, then if there's any throw startup it won't be until [X] amount of frames after throw inv ends before the opponent is grabbed. With a 2B input they still have to wait for blockstun to end but they can begin the throw before throw inv ends, leaving the first active catch frame to occur right when the throw inv ends.

So on one hand 1B throws keep the game more aggressive in the sense that there are no throw whiffs only throw failures which result in attacks.

But on the other hand, if there was very little or no throw startup then it becomes a possible defensive tool as well. Where the player blocking may be option select throwing in an attempt to grab the opponent out of rushdown.

This is bad for aggressive games because it's a potential momentum breaker. Since throws are fast and 1B it means a player can try grabbing while getting rushed down and they will either block/throw/normal move. If it was 2B cmd then they will have to be willing to risk sticking out a throw whiff which will lose to things either out of range or off the ground (like hop moves). I would say this from experience, since I know with 1B games I'm more likely to be mashing a throw attempt and hoping for an option select than a game with 2B. With 2B I have to commit to that decision to do the throw and only the throw which has a punishable whiff.

In that same vein of thought, I'd say that throw softening is better than throw breaking. And, in the end, I have to think multi-input throw commands are better simply because it's less likely to disrupt momentum.

RE: SF4 Rose Notes

2009-12-16T21:18:00.004-05:00

I've always liked Cammy, Claw(Vega), and Chun-Li in: ST, SFA3, and CvS2. In SF3:3S I still liked Chun, though I grew vastly more fond of Ibuki. With that, I would think that I'd also like the same characters in SF4. But I really hate what they did to Claw and Cammy, and Chun just didn't float my boat this time. Actually the only character to catch my interest at all in SF4 was the poor ole Weak Purple Thing; Rose.

That said I still have very little-to-no interest in SF4 other than waiting for SSF4, or whichever of the 4-series they decide to "get it right" on (probably the third iteration as per usual).

Anyway. SFIV Rose is similar to SFA3 Rose, except that she's been "SF4'd" so to speak. Changes (AFAIK):
- c.LP combos into qcf+LK or qcb+HP.
- c.LK links into either c.LP or c.MP and both of which are cancelable/comboable.
- All her special moves are super cancelable, making hitconfirm off qcf+LK or qcb+HP very easy (c.LK c.LP qcf+LK xx super for example).
- Her oc.MK (Slide) goes under fireballs during it's active hitframes and the frame data for it was changed.
- Recovery on Sparks were modified so that LP-Spark has fast startup but slow recovery while HP-Spark has slow startup and really fast recovery.
- No pushback on Sparks.
- Spirals are all 1-hit (which effects pushback and chip damage, etc).
- Her reflects are all terrible. Not good as reflects, not good as pokes, not good as meaties, not good as anti-air, etc. Her absorb is decent if only for meter and spark power-ups, while her reflects are just garbage.
- No airthrow (aarrgg).
- Her vertical jumping attacks were changed, but they are still pretty good.
^ Unlike poor Cammy and Claw whose vertical jumping attacks were completely bastardized horribly.

Regarding her EX-moves.
- Her EX-Spiral has invulnerable startup for the first 11 frames but the active hitframes aren't until the 13th frame. So it's kinda like 3S Chun's EX-SBK. It's a decent reversal in the sense that it will blow through meaties that have less than 11 active frames (which is nearly everything). But the downsides is that it can trade with intentional non-meaties, be option-selected against, and punished on block since it moves her forward and is -6 on block (easily punishable).
- Her EX-S.Throw is 6F startup inv and 6F startup, so it will beat meaty airborne attacks and can technically be used to get out of meaty traps. It's a far cry from her old supers but every character only gained their level one super anyway so Rose is no exception.
- Her EX-Spark is basically as one would expect, comes out as fast as the LP version and has a lot more damage and stun. Being two hit, it also kills FA's and will beat normal 1-hit projectiles. The advantage on block isn't as good as MP or HP versions but it's definitely better than LP version, which at least makes it a good combo item as well as a pretty good utility item. In a way it's basically a more buff version of the LP-Spark.
- The EX-Reflect may be the rotten egg of the bunch. Her normal reflect can only reflect/absorb normal projectiles, not EX ones, while the EX-Reflect can reflect EX projectiles and powers up the damage by 10%. Other than that it's a pretty crappy move.

Close MK, far MK, and far HK come off the ground. I know at least that close MK is unthrowable from the first frame which makes it a good anti-throw reversal or anti-tick-throw. Since the other two are "far" moves its a moot point, they're out of throw range, but presumably those aren't throwable either.

Rose's oc.MK slides under fireballs as said. But it's also -6/-3 on block/hit, though with 8 active frames the range then becomes -6/-3 to +1/+4. That means you can link it into c.MP on a meaty hit but timing must be perfect on the slide and the c.MP. It's actually a pretty good move in SF4, decent meaty and decent tick throw setup or utility move (poke/anti-air/cross-under, etc).

Rose's qcf+K armor breaks and is super cancelable and sets up a decent crossup j.MK if the opponent quick recovers. It may be one of the better armor breakers in the game, though I doubt it's the "best armor breaker" due to it's weaknesses -- C.Viper's qcb+P also armor breaks and works basically the same way except it's not nearly as punishable as Rose's. The LK-Spiral is horrifically punishable and moves her forwards, making it a really unsafe move to just use randomly, particularly at close raneg. Ideally you'd hit-confirm it from c.LK c.LP into LK-Spiral or c.LP c.LP LK-Spiral or c.LK c.MP N-Spiral. The advantage of it armor breaking is that it discourages the opponent from using FA's during blockstrings due to potential Spirals causing armor breaks. Also, since it moves forwards, if the first few active frames whiff air before connecting then the disadvantage on block is reduced (eg. meaty/far is safer).

Both c.MP hcf+LP and c.HP hcf+MP combo midscreen or corner and you can FADC then link c.MP into whatever (typically into S.Spiral). On block this is pretty safe midscreen due to pushback, and in the corner it's mostly safe depending on other variables. Something to consider using in lieu of the punishable LK-Spiral. Though the opponent can FA1 through the projectile but it won't score a counterhit. They also don't have enough time to FA2. The only real threat is if the opponent reversals through the projectile with an inv-move or does FA1 through the c.MP/c.HP which will score a counterhit and/or trade against the projectile, causing crumple. Though, the other downside is that c.HP is ridiculously punishable on whiff/block/hit so it's not a good idea to use c.HP without intending to cancel it. With the threat of Spirals at least the opponent should be shy of using FA's during block strings though. An opponent Rose can c.MP to punish the MP-Spark on block in the corner since it's -4 but the c.MP must be perfect reversal timing and will only combo at that range into qcf+2K or super. The plus-side though is that MP-Spark looks very similar to HP-Spark. HP-Spark doesn't combo on hit, but on block is +2F which allows her additional corner pressure or blockstrings or whatever. Although there is a large frame gap before the Spark hits it's still not a terrible idea to use in moderation to Spirals or empty baits because Spirals will beat FA's and empty baits will allow you to punish reversal mashing. For example doing c.HP HP-Spark in the corner when you know the opponent will block gives you +F to do more stuff with (like c.MP).

Rose's qcb+HP also combos from c.LP and is also hitconfirmable into super both midscreen and corner by linking it rather than supercancelling it (making it a stupidly easy hitconfirm). Even though it's -7 on block which is about as bad as the LK-Spiral, the difference is that HP-Reflect pushes Rose back pretty far instead of moving her forwards, so it's safer than the LK-Spiral. So for example if you do c.LK c.LP LK-Spiral the opponent can punish the Spiral on block with almost anything (c.HP is easy to punish with for most characters). But if you do c.LK c.LP HP-Reflect an opponent Rose's only option to punish the HP-Reflect is c.MK into super, which requires 1F reversal timing to connect with c.MK (which is not easy and not confirmable). Likewise with Sparks the opponent can FA1 through the HP-Reflect but it's a lot harder to time it since Reflects and c.LP are both so fast and it still doesn't score a counterhit on the Reflect. They also don't have enough time for an FA2 either, and it's incredibly difficult (albeit not entirely impossible) to FA through the c.LP and beat the HP-Reflect for a counterhit which makes it a bit less of a gamble than Sparks.

The downside is that for some stupid reason c.LK c.LP HP-Reflect doesn't work on crouching thin opponents despite working on standing and/or fat characters, forcing Rose to simply do one c.LP into HP-Reflect against the skinnies (like a crouching opponent Rose). The plus side though is that if you step back just a little bit then do c.LP HP-Reflect an opponent Rose's only option to punish this is with reversal c.MK into super, because the pushback puts her too far away to be punished even by c.MK into EX-Spiral or anything else. Oddly close MK combos to HP-Reflect on crouching characters but not standing characters, and HP/c.MP can combo to HP-Reflect but then the Reflect can whiff on block.

Funny thing about Rose's Ultra, the "shamwow" as it's been dubbed, is that it does more damage if you land it randomly off nothing than if you combo it from an FA or most other options (as seen in the previous Rose post). But it's probably the most practical way to hitconfirm into Shamwow. Alternately a max-range c.MP into hcf+2P FADC Ultra will combo but it's quite difficult to space it and time it and buffer it. It also costs 3 stocks of super, for that matter. But since it is possible there's a couple of ways to set up the correct distance, such as N.MP c.MP EX-Spark which sets the distance perfectly, or c.LK c.LK c.MP EX-Spark which again sets you at the ideal distance but is also by far the weakest way to combo it. Really I don't think the Shamwow was meant to be a combo-type Ultra, though it just happens that there's several situational ways to combo it. It's strongest attributes are that it's invulnerable up until it's first active hit frame and it can grab airborne opponents, so it's quite easy to land it off a crumple or if the opponent jumps.

Rose's f+HK (Piede) will knock down an airborne opponent rather than resetting them. Has very little juggle potential though, as the only thing you can combo after it is one hit of EX-Spark or super (same as HP-Reflect). However practical applications of this would be as an anti-air, or if you crumple the opponent and you only have enough time to land a juggle move (due to backdash or trade or whatever). Though she can combo into super off HP-Reflect or Spiral (and juggle FA1 for that matter), the Piede is the strongest juggle-only option.

Rose's super, though so easily hitconfirmable, is also pretty good for chipping too. Her Sparks and AS.Spark are powered up by absorbing projectiles with LP-Reflect which IIRC is how it worked in every game. In SF4 it's 5% increase per absorb with 35% max (7 times). Incidentally though the powerup also affects chip damage, which I suppose is kind of cool. Storing powerups for super may not be worth it though since normal Sparks are so valuable.

Other than that, I think Rose is pretty straight forward, though definitely not a very strong character. Many people regard SF4 Rose as either bottom tier or at least low tier. It comes as no surprise to me though since Rose was only ever top tier in SFA2. She was low tier in SFA3 and low tier in CFJ, so it doesn't really seem out of place for her to be low tier in SF4 either. To me she "feels" like Rose in the sense that most of her moves are the same, unlike Cammy and Claw who don't feel anything like Cammy or Claw to me at all (they were changed SO much). Though she gained a lot of things in SF4 that she wasn't able to do before, most notably the c.LK into c.MP/c.LP links and the ability to combo LK-Spiral from c.LP (and super cancels and ex moves for that matter). I mean sure she sucks but she's still Rose with some interesting improvements/modifications over "old-Rose". O.Rose didn't have any links and couldn't combo off c.LP, she also couldn't slide under fireballs or supercancel her specials or link her super off HP-Reflect, among other things. I would say that it's pretty inarguable that O.Rose is stronger due to CCs/VCs and her old supers (friends) and better reflects, but disregarding the supers I think SF4 Rose is the stronger "core character" so to speak. Honestly I do really miss her SFA3 airthrow though, that's probably the one/only thing that irks me about SF4 Rose, hopefully she gets that back in SSF4 or whatever.

RE: E-Sports

2009-12-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

Continued thoughts from E-Sports post.

The generation that was born at the same time that the video game genre was born is getting kind of old these days. The OG of VGs, so to speak. But quite a few of them are still at the top of their game, or rather, they're still at the top. While there's some newcomers that compete at top level, the older generation hasn't seemed to have fallen off despite getting.. old. They have a lot of experience under their belt, after all, and the NewGen has some catching up to do. I would say, then, that experience conquers age.

Perhaps gaming really never had a whole lot to do with a person's age. Rather, maybe it had everything to do with the generation before the OG-VG not having access to video games at an early age. It's not that our parents were too old for video games, it was just too late for them to start. What I find is that you can understand and appreciate competitive games/sports a lot better if you've played them at least a little bit at an early age. I think Football is difficult to appreciate if you've never experienced it in grade school, or martial arts if you've never been in a fight. I think video games just don't click with much of the pre-VG generation. I feel this is particularly the case because my friends that are the same age as me who basically ignored video games in their youth are essentially at the same point my parents are, where they can't really get into gaming now because they missed the boat. Even if they wanted to, it just doesn't click.

Though, what happens if and when the OG-VG'ers do "retire". I assume plenty have, and have moved on to new hobbies or simply set gaming to rest. But wouldn't it be interesting if, for example, Justin Wong retired from playing one day and became a coach for a younger generation of players. Imagine a top player tutoring a team of players at a local college. Spending time practicing execution, grinding out bad habits, grinding in good habits, exploring footsies, learning matchups, perfecting setups, mastering a the sense of risk and reward, developing game plans, and just beefing up in general.

It's not something we really have right now. Sure, we practice and study, but not really cooperatively or objectively. We don't have a personal trainer, a coach. Our idea of practice is the equivalent of sparring in that they are just like casual practice matches, but we don't really run drills or take time out to exercise and train specific things with each other. If some one's weak spot is not being able to handle mixups when getting off the ground, when do we stop and have that player let themselves be knocked down so they can practice what to do on wakeup. If some one's weak spot is midrange, when do we record them and review each step of the footage in order to isolate mistakes. We also tend to stick to the same sparring partners rather than getting fully experienced with all forms of play style and character selection from a wide variety of players. We only get that experience at major tournament events a few times a year.

If such coaches did exist though we could have teams that go through this kind of training. And with trained teams, a league with rivalries. And with a league, major events that bring spectators who have team spirit. And with all that, a sport. An E-Sport. It's not entirely far-fetched since it already happens on some level with RTS and FPS genres. There is actually a college league for RTS in the USA that's alive and well. But when is it going to happen with Fighters. Will it ever?

Like I've said before, just imagine the day when a kid gets offered a college tuition because he's a top player in a video game, and then thousands of people tune in to watch college e-sports (video games) on TV. That may sound unreal, but the generation before the OG VG crew is also getting old. One day there won't be anyone left who wasn't born after the first console video game. It's hard to think of it, but there's no one alive today that was born before baseball or hockey in America (they'd have to be like 160 or something). So the number of people that "can't relate" or "don't get it" will grow fewer and fewer for video games just like it did for sports, and the number of kids that are all about it will grow more and more.

But it needs to be taken a bit more seriously though. I think fighting games may one day take bigger steps in that direction, as RTS and FPS already have, but fighters are pretty far behind. There are already leagues for FPS and RTS in America and "professional gamers" in these genres predates fighting games. Just to drop some quick links Johnathan Wendel, Lim Yo-Hwan, and Daigo Umehara. I would like to link Justin Wong's wikipedia article, but apparently there isn't one.

I don't think fighting games are actually doomed. It's just that arcades are not the way for us to go any more. Arcades are dying and that's that, lamenting over the past and treating the future with skepticism and apprehension isn't accomplishing anything -- it's not bringing arcades back nor is it helping to build a future for the fighting scene.

SF4 Rose Notes

2009-12-05T04:58:00.010-05:00

Sibladeko knows.

Normal-Super
90-330 c.LP qcb+HP s
110-320 c.LK c.LP qcb+HP s
120-360 N.MK qcb+HP s (crouching)
140-380 c.HP qcb+HP s (crouching)
192 c.HP qcb+HP hcf+2P (corner)

140-380 c.LP qcf+LK s
150-360 c.LK c.LP qcf+LK s
160-370 c.LP c.LP qcf+LK s
160-400 c.MP qcf+LK s
170-380 c.LK c.MP qcf+LK s
170-410 c.HP hcf+MP s
178-358 c.LK c.LK c.MP qcf+LK s
182-362 c.LP c.LP c.LP qcf+LK s
190-430 (c./N.)HP qcf+LK s
196-346 c.LK c.LP c.LK c.MP qcf+LK s
200-440 N.HK qcf+LK s
210-420 N.MP c.MP qcf+LK s
220-430 N.HK c.LP qcf+LK s

160-400 f+HK c.MP s (meaty)
180-390 oc.MK c.LP qcf+LK s (meaty)
200-410 oc.MK c.MP qcf+LK s (meaty)
217-397 FA1 c.HP qcf+LK s (counter hit)
233-383 FA1 N.MP c.MP qcf+LK s (counter hit)
240 f+HK c.MP qcf+2K (meaty)

160-370 FA2 f+HK s
160-370 FA3 qcb+HP s
184-389 FA3 hcf+HP s
200-410 FA3 f+HK s
200-410 FA3 qcf+HK s
222-402 FA2 c.HP qcf+LK s
238-388 FA2 N.MP c.MP qcf+LK s
270-450 FA3 N.HK qcf+LK s
278-428 FA3 N.MP c.MP qcf+LK s
280-490 j.HK N.HK qcf+LK s
288-438 FA3 N.HK c.LP qcf+LK s
302-482 j.HK N.HK c.LP qcf+LK s
313-493 j.HK N.MP c.MP qcf+LK s

140 c.LP qcf+2K
160 c.MP qcf+2K
170 c.LK c.MP qcf+2K
190 c.MP hcf+2P
194 c.LK c.MP hcf+2P
196 c.LK c.LP c.LK c.MP qcf+2K
200 c.LK c.LK c.MP hcf+2P
210 c.LP c.LK c.MP hcf+2P
234 N.MP c.MP hcf+2P

242 c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.LP qcf+LK
258 c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.MP qcf+LK
288 c.HP hcf+MP FADC c.MP qcf+LK
296 N.MP c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.MP qcf+LK
296 c.HP hcf+MP FADC c.LK c.MP qcf+LK
296 c.HP hcf+MP FADC c.LK c.MP qcf+2K
301 N.MP c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.LK c.MP qcf+LK
301 N.MP c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.LK c.MP qcf+2K
309 c.HP hcf+MP FADC c.LP c.LK c.MP qcf+LK
310 c.HP hcf+MP FADC c.MP hcf+2P
314 N.MP c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.MP hcf+2P

360 j.HK N.MP c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.MP qcf+LK
362 j.HK N.MP c.MP hcf+LP FADC c.LK c.MP qcf+LK
366 j.HK N.HK hcf+MP FADC c.MP qcf+LK
380 j.HK N.HK hcf+MP FADC c.LP c.LK c.MP qcf+LK
422 j.HK N.MP c.MP hcf+2P FADC N.MP c.MP qcf+LK (corner)
427 j.HK N.HK hcf+2P FADC N.HP qcf+LK
434 j.HK N.HK hcf+2P FADC N.HK qcf+LK (corner)
437 j.HK N.HK hcf+2P FA2 c.HP qcf+LK (corner)
448 j.HK N.HK hcf+2P FADC N.HK c.LP qcf+LK (corner)

428 FA2 Ultra
452 c.LK c.LK c.MP hcf+2P FADC Ultra
468 FA3 Ultra
476 hcf+LP Ultra (max range)
494 FA3 N.MP c.MP hcf+2P FADC Ultra
494 c.LK c.MP hcf+2P FADC Ultra
496 j.HK Ultra
342-498 Ultra (half-full)
528 hcf+LP FADC j.HK Ultra (max screen)
534 N.MP c.MP hcf+2P FADC Ultra
538 c.MP hcf+2P FADC Ultra
549 j.HK N.HK hcf+2P FA2 Ultra (corner)
560 j.HK N.MP c.MP hcf+2P FADC Ultra
590 s Ultra (trade / 4 hit s)
619 hcf+LP s Ultra (trade / 4 hit s)

Controllers, and Claw-Style

2009-11-05T15:29:00.011-05:00

Controllers have been the subject of some debate among Fighting game fans. However, the vast majority of competitive Fighting game players prefer Arcade setups or to use custom-built Arcade Sticks for console gaming. A nice thread regarding arcade sticks can be found on the SRK forums here.

Pads have often been rather taboo when associated with Fighting games because the majority of people who play on pads tend to use their thumbs for attack inputs instead of their finger tips. This is not really ideal because of the differences between using thumbs and finger tips. The idiom "You're all thumbs." has always been an expression to imply a person is awkward at handling things, because thumbs just are simply not as dexterous or swift as the other fingers. When one uses finger tips in lieu of your right thumb on a pad it is sometimes referred to as Claw-Style.

Here's some reasons why Claw-Styling is superior to Thumbing, which are also reasons why Sticks are often thought of as superior to Pads:

#1 - Rapid Tapping. Fingers are able to rapidly tap buttons much faster than thumbs. You can test this on your computer by rapidly tapping a letter for a given amount of time and then comparing your input per-minute speed with your index finger.

#2 - Simultaneous Inputs. Finger tips allow you to input any kind of two or three button combination much better than with thumbs. While thumbs can push two buttons that are vertically aligned with one another, it's difficult to input diagonally aligned or horizontally aligned buttons, as seen with this image of a PS2 pad:

The first examples of □ and X being pressed and the second example of Δ and O being pressed are examples of easy simultaneous inputs for thumbs. However, all the other examples are difficult for thumbs because it is necessary to contort and move the hand in order to press them. The last example of □ and O being simultaneously pressed is practically impossible with a thumb. But all of these inputs are rather trivial with finger tips. When there are even more buttons involved the task becomes even more difficult, as in pressing three buttons simultaneously. While button mapping is allowed in tournaments it's widely looked down upon (note that macros and autofire are not allowed).

#3 - Sliding/Pianoing. Thumb Movement is slow. Moving your thumb to each of the attacks on the face of the pad is significantly slower than having your finger tips already on the buttons. For example, first pressing X then pressing O with your thumb is a lot slower than if you had your index finger on X and middle finger on O. While sliding (kara/RC) inputs and piano inputs are possible with a thumb, it's not nearly so easy as with finger tips. This is especially important for reversals and such.

#4 - Hovering. It can also make a big difference for things like simply having your finger on the attack button you need when you need it. Like with the example of CvS2 footsies: if your thumb is hovering over light kick and you need a medium punch to anti-air a short jump. But it takes time to move your thumb from light kick to medium punch, time you don't have. And you can't say you could just hover over medium punch because if the opponent dashes or rolls in at you instead then you're likely to need light kick pretty fast. Here's a nice little quote from Bob Sagat that really illustrates this point.

#5 - Mashing. Most games allow you to mash out of dizzies by rapidly tapping buttons and wiggling your directionals. Some games, like MvC2, allow you to cause more hits from a super by mashing buttons. And other games, like SFA3, allow you to reduce damage on hits by mashing buttons while getting hit. In any case, mashing with fingertips is significantly superior than mashing with a thumb for the sole reason that you can hit more buttons much faster when you're using more fingers, obviously.

#6 - Holding. This may not apply to every character in every game, but holding buttons while fighting can be difficult with thumbs. For example Balrog (Street Fighter, boxer) and Shizumaru (Samurai Shodown) and Aoko (Melty Blood) gain moves from holding multiple buttons, or rather they can execute special moves by holding and releasing a button. And they are still able to fight while charging these moves, which would prove rather difficult with thumbs.

Using a Keyboard is in a bit of a gray area. In theory, since you'll be using finger tips for both attack inputs and directional inputs, it would be acceptable. However, keyboards are rather bulky and blocky, so it can be difficult to input motion/directional inputs such a 214 (QCB) or 623 (DP). The good news is that you'll most certainly not have difficulty inputting commands from either the left or right side, which is something that many Fighting game players have an issue with on both Sticks and Pads.

Example video of claw-style, while playing Vampire Savior.

Tiers Again

2009-10-20T15:46:00.010-04:00

Often the subject of tiers comes up. And on a broader spectrum; the philosophy behind game balance.

I recently had a bit of a self realization regarding this. To use a quick analogy: It's like picking a really badass katana that was made just for you over a gun that looks like shit. Pick the gun if you don't like dying all the time OK?

tl;dr ahead:

That said, I'd like to point out that Yoshinori Ono (and Capcom designers in general) want a little imbalance among the tiers. I said it before -- I'll say it again -- Ono (and probably others) have gone on record as saying that that's what they want: Imbalance.

Reason? A lot of players like the wacky underdog. Who doesn't root for Chikyuu when he plays Anakaris/Twelve/R4-Raiden/etc? Everyone loves to see the bottom tier just beast the hell out of that asshole top tier, they just do!

Meanwhile, a lot of players get stuck on a character in a game because they just "like that character". And then suddenly they have complaints. Either because the top tier is too common or too strong or they see too many weaknesses in their own character. But to the rest of the world: If you have a PROBLEM with your character then pick another character, even if that problem happens to be that yours is inadequate compared to another. If the only reason you're picking that character is because you just happen to really like them then shut the fuck up because you bring it on yourself. Choose preference or power, but don't complain, you chose it willingly. If tiers matter to you then pick top tier. Do not expect the rest of the world to play mid/low just for you, the world does not revolve around you. To use another quick analogy: Between soda pop and V8, you might enjoy drinking soda and everyone thinks it's cool, but you're really not as healthy or strong as the lame V8 drinkers and that's that.

What you don't want: Single god tier character (like #R Eddie)

What you do want: As close to 3 definitive tiers as you can get (high/mid/low)

Slow Motion Fapping

2009-10-06T03:26:00.002-04:00

I wonder if there's a demand for this kind of video or not. I'm guessing not, but who knows?

Frames are very esoteric in fighting games. Or at least, in my experience, very very few competitive fighting game players actually understand a game on a frame-level, let alone being able to apply that knowledge (Buk's one of a kind).

Anyway the point of the video is to show a little quirk with SF3 3S Chun-Li's EX Spinning Bird Kick. A lot of players thought it had no invulnerability frames and that it just had a tricky hitbox. They would go on and on about what moves could beat it and what moves couldn't, etc. However, it's clear when you watch the video that there is actually 8 frames of startup invulnerability. But the startup for the attack is 12 frames, so it's invulnerable for the first 8 but then becomes vulnerable on frames 9-12, the 12th frame being vulnerable but also attacking which means it could trade on that frame.

Anyway, that means it could blow through meaty attacks with less than 9 active frames.

But upon experimenting with the EX SBK I also discovered that the damn thing is vulnerable to Ken's SA3 (shippu) even during it's would-be invulnerable frames.

Like, near the end of the video I start hitting the SBK on frames 1-4 when it should be technically invulnerable, but Shippu hits it anyway. Why? I have no idea. It's clearly not a hitbox thing but a special property, as in it's invulnerable to any attack less than a certain strength.

It doesn't have anything to do with the superflash "draining" the invulnerability duration out of the move either, because I activated the EX SBK after the screen freeze, and just to prove a point also before the screen freeze and during the screen freeze.

Anyway I also discovered that Ken's Shippu is invulnerable until it's active hitframes, so it will pretty much blow through and hit anything that isn't invulnerable or above the first kick's hitbox (like a UOH will go over the first kick so a UOH can stuff it).

Though oddly it's still vulnerable to throws, heh.

My Beef With Parries

2009-09-30T23:26:00.005-04:00

I know this subject has been done to death, but whatever. Here's my problem with 3S style parries. If you can find an answer to all of these problems then I'm OK with parry. Good luck.

Option selects. Tapping a direction invalidates some mixups like crossup j.MK.
Risk/Reward. In a lot of situations the most you risk is getting thrown while the most you gain is a hitconfirm combo into super.
Reaction/Anticipation. Parries can not be punished on reaction since there's nothing to react to, they can only be beaten on anticipation (meaning the aggressor has to guess right).
Startup. There is no startup for a parry so that lets you invalidate a lot of would-be setups.
Guarantees. If I throw or sweep you successfully I can't guarantee any kind of additional reward because there are no guarantees in a game with parries.
Throwing. Because throws beat high/low parries it puts a much greater value on throws. Even in top level play; some times a player will eat a meaty throw five times in a row simply because they are fishing for parries and scared of c.MK xx super.
Hitconfirm. The biggest problem is sometimes you can't hitconfirm a super off a light or mid attack because stun duration is too short to visually confirm the hit, but with parries it's easy, now you're confirming off the parry (visual/audible/long duration) rather than only the c.LK.
Jumping. Some characters have no business mindlessly jumping at the opponent without momentum/advantage. With parries, it's okay, because air parries can compensate for stupidly retarded mindless aggression. If you option-parry correctly the worst that happens is you land in their face. It promotes totally scrub-like behavior.
Position. Footsies are diluted to whiffing attacks and hoping your opponent walks right into them, there is no forcing your opponent into a bad position in a game with parries.
Guessing. (explained below)

Guessing: A lot of players seem to say that the one parrying is the one guessing, and this isn't entirely correct. What parries actually do is force the one attacking to guess, not the one parrying. In fact, at least there's something to react to for the one parrying, whereas there is nothing to react to for the one attacking.

Take for example a game without parries, without invulnerable DPs, but with invulnerable backdashes. The aggressor in such a game doesn't have to guess every time he wants to attack in fear of getting parried or DP'ed, and if the opponent backdashes to get out of these options then no harm comes to the aggressor or backdasher. But with parries and invulnerable DPs he can't land a meaty attack without guessing what the opponent will do, he can't tick with staggered jabs without guessing if the opponent will parry or not, and worst of all he can't bait out a parry and punish it on reaction like you can with a DP. Assuming you know the opponent will take an aggressive option like reversal DP you can bait that out, see it come out, and punish it during it's recovery. But with parries if the aggressor blocks expecting an offensive action to occur there is nothing to punish. You have to beat it by countering. In other words in order to inflict damage to the parryer, you have to attack either high or low or throw and if you guess wrong you get parried. THAT is the guessing game parries cause. Every time you attack YOU have to guess, not the one parrying.

I've said it before but I can't stress it enough, parrying is not a defensive option, it's an offensive option.

Now before people say that I don't know what I'm talking about, what I'm saying isn't even unique, most of the best 3S players have said the exact same things about 3S parries many times. Pretty much all of the best 3S players were eager to drop 3S as soon as SF4 was released, yet they still play older Capcom games like MvC2 and CvS2, they simply needed an excuse to ditch 3S. Also keep in mind that this doesn't come from inexperience either, I actually played 3S against some of the best players in the US, and I also play MeltyBlood, Akatsuki Blitzkampf, and VanguardPrincess (which have parry-whiffs fortunately), so it's not like I'm theory fighting over here.

Good Bye Street Fighter 4

2009-09-29T16:47:00.003-04:00

So now that Capcom has officially announced Super Street Fighter 4, I think it's safe to say that regular SF4 is now dead in the water. People will probably continue to play it up until SSF4 is finally released some time in 2010, but it's more than likely that once they get their hands on it then SF4 will die.

But here's the real kicker, it's being said that there won't be an arcade release for SSF4. No arcade release means no SBO spot, and no SBO spot means Japan isn't going to care (plus they pay very little attention to console-only games anyway). So this will be the true test to see how much the Western world has it's head up Japan's ass. I for one am very interested in seeing if America/EVO will go with SF4 or SSF4, or both, and what Japan will do (if anything).

Anyawy, I've been keeping quiet about SF4 for a long time now, and there's a reason, I knew something like this would happen. Why? Take a look at Capcom's history. They never get a game right on the first try.

1991 Street Fighter 2 (Super Turbo)
1994 Dark Stalkers/Vampire (Vampire Savior)
1994 X-Men/Marvel series (MvC2)
1995 Street Fighter Alpha (A2 and A3)
1996 Street Fighter EX (EX3)
1997 Street Fighter 3 (3S)
1998 Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (HftF)
2000 Capcom vs SNK (CvS2)

They may get it "right" eventually, but no one really plays the first version of any of those series titles any more. So I wasn't personally expecting the first version of SF4 to be the one that sticks anyway (I was waiting for part 2). Now we're in 2009 with SF4 and SSF4 is slated to be released 2010. With 8 new characters being promised (10 total is rumored) there's good incentive to want to play it. Presumably the game will at least be as good as the prequel -- if not better. But not having an arcade release may be significant enough reason to downgrade back to SF4, and if that's the case then the series itself is as good as dead, since obviously the community will split and eventually dwindle.

I hate to be a cynic and bring anti-hype to something still alive, but people have been asking me if I've been playing SF4 and if I'll ever do any combo videos for it. The answer to both is no and no. I recently installed it for the PC, and will probably soon uninstall it. So mainly I've been keeping quiet because I never had any intention of playing SF4, and frankly I look at SSF4 as the nail in the coffin for SF4.

R.I.P.

Jojo's Ghettoness

2009-09-17T22:25:00.001-04:00

I think I've posted this information before, but I'm going to try and make a more concise post.

- You can not do reversals in Jojo's, period.
- That makes meaty unblockables inescapable/unavoidable.
- Example: Hol Horse sweeps you, his time-slow bullet is unblockable and unavoidable on wakeup due to no reversals (guaranteed super off sweep).
- You can be thrown during jump startup and backdashes.
- There's 3F throw inv on wakeup or off blockstun, but 0F coming out of hitstun
- The two factors listed above make certain throw traps inescapable.
- Example: Old Joseph does his tandem (custom combo like Genei Jin) and ends with slide into 360, the grab ender is unavoidable/inescapable because there's no throw inv off slide hitstun and no reversals.
- There is ground crouch-cancelling. Example: normally Mariah can't link 5A to 5B, but if you do 5A [2] 5B it combos easily.
- But it's not a universal rule, some characters have no useful crouch cancels while others have many.
- Pushblocking is done by inputting three attacks during blockstun, while holding any direction, and can be done any time during blockstun.
- There's no limit to pushblocking. In games like MvC2 you can only push once per blockstun, the stun will have to end before you can push again. This is not the case in Jojo's, you can push every hit during blockstun at any time.
- Characters that can tandem (custom combo) have a jump-install, where activating the stand in the air will flip a switch (glitch) in the way the stand behaves during tandem.
- Example: Jotaro's Stand's 5C won't combo into itself during tandem, but if he activates his stand in the air the 5C will chain into itself during tandem allowing him to do [5C]xN.
- Petshop has a 9:1 matchup against the entire cast, he is normally banned in tournaments.
- Young Joseph's block animation will cancel his normal moves if an opponent's attack is active.
- With Young Joseph you can literally hold down-back and mash and the first frame of each attack attempt will be canceled into block (as evident when you c.A3 and hear his attack sound) while there's an attack like Mariah's Stand on the screen near him.
- There's 5F throw invulnerability when landing from a jump.
- So empty-jump into throw is pretty valid since the opponent can't throw you.
- And a number of other things I can't think of right now.

Stuff Fu

2009-09-17T03:17:00.008-04:00

When the Smash community complained about the Ice Climbers having ridiculous rewards off a throw, the SRK community responded with "Don't get grabbed". This upset the Smash community who argued that the technique should simply be banned altogether. The response from SRK was a concise one-liner that doesn't actually explain anything, but the message isn't really false either. You could say it's sort of like a Confucius-style anecdote intending to convey a message. A message that was meant to guide people who were willing to open their minds and question things.

However, this message can't be conveyed with just words alone. No, some things can only be learned through experience. Perhaps most would only understand such a concept by example and experience. Like explaining how to paint a portrait, or to play a musical instrument, or to score points in a sport: You can't simply learn it on paper or with words, you have to practice and learn through self-discovery.

The real trick to a lot of these -- let's call them overwhelming situations -- is mindgames and footsies. In other words, not allowing yourself or your opponent to create the situation where you are put in this bad situation in the first place. In laymen's terms; "Don't get grabbed.", means: "Don't let yourself be put in a position where you're going to get grabbed.".

To put it another way, the best way to avoid getting grabbed is to avoid being in grab-range in the first place. If you're never in a spot where you can be grabbed, you'll never get grabbed.

So, how to accomplish this is like I said before: footsies and mind games. If your opponent jumped in at you then you failed at basic anti-airs, and if your opponent dashed in and grabbed you then you failed at footsies, and if your opponent made you block a projectile and then grabbed you for the win then you definitely failed at mind games.

The best answer is to be in a position where you can't get grabbed. That means you have to not only control yourself into a position where you won't get grabbed, but also prevent your opponent from getting himself into a situation where he can grab you. That latter is about one half of the hard part: stopping your opponent from doing what he wants to do (which is to grab you). You must understand that once you are in that situation where you can be grabbed you are essentially fucked anyway.

And thus is the actual definition of a mindgame (versus a mixup). A mind game is being put in a position where you are forced to choose between a tree of all failure -- so after blocking an attack you are forced to choose between options, all of which lead to you getting hit -- learning that means to avoid that position that put you there to begin with by using superior footsies (spacing, baiting, etc). When the opponent throws a fireball and you block it, then the opponent can press toward and punch which will result in either an attack that will anti-air you if you jump, or throw you if you don't jump, this is called an option select. The mind game here was the whole situation of the defender blocking the fireball and that being the trigger that lead to this inevitable damage of melee/throw.

A mixup is where the attacker puts the defender in a situation where the attacker can succeed or fail depending on different options that can not be reacted to. Such as, getting hit on either the left or the right, or getting hit either high or low, or getting hit by a punch versus getting grabbed. The defender does not know which option will be chosen and can't react to it, and the attacker also does not know which option the defender will choose to try and prevent damage.

Things like high/low, left/right, blockable-melee/unblockable-throw, and parry/no-parry are all mixups that neither player can actually react to, they can only anticipate, which means they can only guess.

But to define a mind game, it is the act of avoiding the mixups.

For example one, a grappler character can not simply throw you at any time or any where, the character must be within throw range. The trick of footsies is to prevent the character from getting within throw range.

For example two, if a grappler can do more damage with a throw than they can with any of their melee attacks, you should choose a defensive option that will result in you getting hit by the grappler's melee rather than you being grabbed.

The mindgame therein is understanding and applying both example one and example two. Without these elements there is no mindgame, there is only blind guessing. To use an analogy, when there is no mindgame and only guessing it is like Rock-Paper-Scissors game (not something you can react to, just options you can guess from), but with a mindgame it is like chess where you can react to your opponents skill and experience (and can defeat them with better decisions).

Level Up

2009-08-28T09:22:00.004-04:00

I've been thinking about the different tiers of skill among players in competitive gaming for a while. A recent IRC conversation spawned some interesting nice observations.

- level 0 is watching yourself (autopilot).
- level 1 is being random (mashing).
- level 2 is paying attention to your opponent (countering).
- level 3 is reading your opponent (beating).
- level 4 is controlling your opponent (ume shoryu).
- level 5 is being champion.

In regards to level 0, this actually applies to fighting games, RTS, and FPS alike. If you are entirely focused on what you are doing and what you feel like doing then you'll almost always get crushed by better players. In fighters this is like jumping at the opponent just because you want that sweet jump-in combo only to be consistently anti-aired. Or throwing fireballs because you think they look cool, only to have your opponent jump over them and kick you in your chest.

However, autopilot has many dimensions to it. With fighters you can actually pay attention to your opponent to some degree, long enough to get a knockdown for example, then autopilot the rest of the match based on rushdown/mixup patterns that are really strong. In RTS if you're not scouting your opponent you will most likely get countered/destroyed, but if luck is on your side then you can just pick the strongest build and roll with it without having to adjust your game based on your opponent. And it definitely applies to FPS, it's possible to run the map and control respawn and item-spawn points once you get the first frag, but if all you do is autopilot then you're being predictable and leaving yourself open to be countered.

With level 1 the player isn't necessarily autopiloting. Sometimes players just do the weirdest shit for no rhyme or reason. In fighters we get that "Why would you do that?" moment, because there's really nothing that happened over the course of the match that would prompt a player to do (x) move at (y) time).

Interestingly, level 1 has a chance of actually beating the higher levels of play by virtue of luck. Also because the higher levels depend so heavily on paying attention to the opponent, yet if the opponent is acting in a way that is entirely non sequitur then these skills are hindered to some degree. In RTS and FPS this applies in the sense that you're left completely in the dark if you're unable to physically see your opponent at any given time, so randomness can actually be really strong since there's a chance these unpredictable actions are set up without you even being aware of them until it's too late.

That's pretty much the only reason being random is placed higher than autopilot. Moreso, the reason auto-pilot is given level 0 rather than level 1 is because it can take many forms and be incorporated into the other levels to varying degrees.

Speaking of luck, it also occurred to me that luck plays a really huge part of RTS and FPS, and other competitive games like Poker. With most fighting games, players create their own luck by forcing mixups and guessing. But in RTS/FPS/Poker, the game creates the luck for them and you need to compensate for your luck with talent.

Level 2 is all about reaction. It seems like the strongest leap forward when a novice player grasps the concept. Indeed, it's a rather large and essential step forward in fighters, but even bigger in RTS and FPS. As mentioned before, if you're not paying attention to your opponent you're subject to being countered. On the flipside, if you are paying attention, you can counter them.

If some one flips a coin and tells you to call which side the coin lands, but you have five seconds to call it once the coin lands, why would you guess? Why would anyone not use those five seconds to inspect the coin before saying which side it landed on. So, when a player is obviously blocking low you can go for an overhead, or if the player is clearly blocking high you can try for a sweep, and things like that. One of the greatest joys of a counter is probably anti-airing the opponent, not because it's difficult, but because once you learn to watch your opponent you begin to realize how fun it is to punish the opponent for doing something they clearly should not be doing.

In a way, it's kind of like saying that you're letting your opponent come to you, and you're not really beating them so much as you're allowing them to beat themselves. Basically, you're killing them based on the mistakes they make.

But this is why raw countering is pretty low on the skill-tiers in the grand scheme of things. It has it's own set of weaknesses. First of all, how can you punish mistakes if the opponent doesn't make any? Further more, you are subject to tunnel vision and loss of control. If all you do is sit there and try to react to your opponent, your opponent is then free to take initiative entirely. They will make it increasingly difficult for you to predict/react to what they do, intentionally using tools that are difficult to counter.

It's a pretty disheartening and cold feeling to realize that you were so focused on that anti-air that you let the opponent walk across the screen and smack you in the face. Though that's an extreme example, it's not unrealistic. Some players that are so intent on countering they will watch much too closely for the wrong thing -- they are so sure the opponent will jump that they are baffled and surprised when the opponent simply does not.

Level 3 is all about anticipation. If some one hides a coin in their hands and lets you guess which hand the coin is in, you're using anticipation. You don't really know which hand the coin is in, but you're making an informed choice based on an educated guess. This compensates for vision in a lot of ways. In fighters things can happen in an instant. After you knock an opponent down, you don't know if they will do a reversal or not when they get up, and it's much much too fast to react to. But if you don't do an attack when they are getting up then you're giving them the opportunity to recover, regain initiative/momentum, and you lose your mixup potential. This is where anticipation comes into play. You have to just assume you know what the opponent will do, whether they will try to defend against you or try to counter you with a reversal.

The strength of level 3 is that you're freeing up your tunnel vision and just playing based on both reaction and anticipation. You're not so focused on any one thing, but rather you're allowing yourself to be fluid.

Level 4 is a bit esoteric, it's not something that many players comprehend, let alone achieve. It takes a lot of time and practice and observation for some people to realize just how strong it is to simply walk forward in a fighting game. What level 4 does is exploit the weaknesses of level 2 and 3 and 0. The trick is getting your opponent to do what you want them to do. That way you can throw out your reaction and anticipation all together. Why risk guessing if they will jump, and why bother trying to react to it, when you can just force them to jump?

The idea is using fear and uncertainty and feints. If you walk right up to your opponent, but just outside any of their pokes, you're putting the pressure on. Their personal space is invaded, and now you're throwing fireballs in their face and they are taking chip damage. They are worried, they see you qcf and start a fireball, they jump. Only to be anti-aired because it wasn't a qcf-fireball at all, it was a qcf-LK feint. A simple trick, but an effective one. The LK recovers much faster than a whiffed fireball, so they person feinting is free to anti-air the fool that jumped.

This all sort of revolves around the idea of the Umehara Shoryuken (psychic dragon punch). It's not so much that he's psychic at all, more like he puts you in a situation where he can't possibly guess wrong and he doesn't need to react. He just forces you to make a mistake or bad decision, rather than waiting around for it to happen.

Level 5: The champions fists are special.

Double Standard

2009-08-16T00:33:00.004-04:00

I had a self-realization about a double standard that the fighting game community seems to have about pronunciation of terminology and names in fighting games.

Honestly, you don't go around mispronouncing the French word champagne, nor do you go around mispronouncing the Spanish words tortilla or fajita. You'd be getting a lot of dirty looks and scolding fingers if you did, making yourself look like an uneducated douche.

So it personally kind of annoys me when I hear people calling other gamers weeaboo otaku Japanophiles for trying to pronounce Japanese correctly.

I'm sorry but, no. Collecting stupid amounts of anime and manga, cosplaying as characters from these collections, and worshiping the culture for no reason is being a weeaboo. But incorrectly pronouncing Japanese character names and move names or refusing to use the actual Japanese move names or terminology is just being a douche, just like being a douche for failing at pronouncing Spanish or French words.

A horrible double standard to accept proper Spanish and French into the English language but reject Japanese (or any language for that matter). IMO the otaku-bashing has become far too popular of a trend, and frankly I think you're a prick if you call other people weeaboos for just trying to pronounce words correctly.

Puzzle Fighter

2009-07-29T05:09:00.012-04:00

Okay so it's not really a fighting game. But it is a versus game by Capcom so screw it, I'm talking about it. Actually a few people have asked me (yea, more than one, who knew I was popular?!) what I've been playing lately. Well, short answer is: nothing.

Long answer is as follows: I've been a fan of Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo for a long time. I've always loved the arcade version, personally, even though it's less balanced and glitchy. I sort of prefer the glitchy unbalanced version anyway. Lately I've been playing it online via nFBA emulator and P2P netplay client with some people, and I really enjoy it in general.

First of all, to you Puyo scrubs out there, Puyo Puyo is actually a much "easier game" to play. Puyo doesn't have a lot of strategy and the game is designed for very easy chain-combos, and doesn't emphasize the need to pay attention to your opponent as much. You can basically play it optimally as if you were playing against yourself, ignoring your opponent entirely, which makes it feel more like a single-player game. However, in Puzzle Fighter there's quite a few different strategies, and watching what your opponent does is significantly stronger than only paying attention to your own board, which makes it feel very interactive. Plus, while chains can be strong in SPF2T they aren't always the best option and you have to work to build chains properly. They don't just fall from the sky automatically like they do in games like Puyo Puyo.

Anyway, Some things to note:
- Gems. The squares you build.
- Breakers. The circles that break the squares.
- Damage. The counter-blocks you drop on your opponent.
- Diamond. The shiney white bit that will break all pieces of the same color.
- Chains. When you break some pieces, then break more pieces afterwards on the same "turn".
- Life column. The 4th column and the column that will end the round if it is filled to the top.

In this game the characters have different drop patterns for their Damage. One of the very first tactics that most newbies learn in this game is to specifically counter their opponent's Damage pattern, since it's not random. In most cases the character's "weakness" is either red or blue on the left side. Usually column 2 or 3 are the ones that players start stacking the color that their opponent drops and they throw all their "junk" in column 1 or 6 (using 4 only if necessary).

Honestly, this isn't such a bad tactic since you don't get breakers whenever you want them. But if you're stacking breakers up in your "junk piles" then you may be able to access them when you want, instead of relying on luck to get the color you want when you want it.

What this usually results in is really tall power gems of a single color. It's fairly easy to do against most characters and it leaves a large power gem open to be broken at any time, since it's difficult to cover such a large gem with damage. If a gem was built horizontally it could be easily covered in a row or two of damage, forcing the player to "dig" the gem out with breakers. But with a vertical gem the player can fairly easily place a breaker on it at any time because it's difficult to cover it in damage. But because not all drop patterns are created equal, this leads to character strengths and weaknesses, in other words: tiers.

The first names you hear about in regards to Puzzle Fighter tiers are always Ken and Donovan. They have probably the best drop patterns out of any normal character. Honorable mentions go to Morrigan and Devilot.

The reason Morrigan is interesting is because her colors change in her third row of damage like Donovan. Even though she drops a lot of red in her center, if the opponent tries to counter her by building red, they are taking a huge risk by gambling with their 4th column (since building red means there's red in column 4), making them prone to sudden-kills. Otherwise they will have to either build blue in the left corner or yellow in column 2 and 3, which can be stifled if Morrigan drops 3 rows of damage in one turn, followed by another row of damage in her next turn.

Gouki (Akuma) and Devilot both have diagonal color drops. However, their damage is also nerfed. Even so, Devilot's damage isn't nerfed as bad as Gouki's. She actually does a fair amount of damage both with single large breaks and chaining, as apposed to Gouki who really has to rely on very large chains to do significant damage. Her only real weakness is to Red in the left corner or Blue for columns 2 and 3, but she can easily make it a chore to try and counter her by dropping two or three rows of damage which puts a variety of mixed colors all over the board.

Meanwhile it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the worst character is, master of self ownage, Dan. Though honorable mentions also go to Chun-Li and Felicia who also have some pretty pathetic drop patterns.

However, if your opponent is aware that you are going to try and do this, they can take counter-measures of their own by throwing lots of mixed damaged at you rather than singular rows for you to counter-build against. The best way to do this is with "double breakers" and chaining.

Whether by glitch or design, breaking two colors simultaneously counts mathematically as a singular break. Thus, when you get a piece that contains two breakers of different colors you have the potential to cause a lot more damage with a double-break than with a chain. In the scenario seen to the right, the double break actually does slightly more damage than if the breaker piece is flipped and causes a 2-hit chain.

However, this only really applies to small chains and short chains. A small chain meaning the hits involve very tiny amounts of gems (like one or two gems per chain hit). Or short chains like 3-hits. The multiplier for chaining is actually quite ridiculous, I don't exactly know what the multiplier is but it's pretty obvious that it increases per hit of the chain which gives 6-hit and 7-hit chains the potential to flat out kill your opponent. The playing field is 72 spaces (6 columns, 12 rows) so assuming your opponent's field is clear then that number would result in death on the next turn, and if they have a row of blocks already on the field then instant-death.

But one (dis)advantage to chaining is that Attacking is much stronger than Defending. When playing, if you do damage the damage doesn't actually fall until the opponent finished dropping a piece (ending their "turn"). Instead a number is put on the field and you have a chance to reduce that number with your own damage. But, the amount of damage you do to the counter is actually a lot less than if you had attacked.

In other words, if your opponent does 20 damage and the counter is set to 20, and you break the same number of gems you won't decrease the counter to 0. Actually I think it decreases only to 10. Which means defending is only about half as strong as attacking.

The reason this effects chaining is because you're unable to act while a chain is going on, but your opponent can.

This brings me to the next subject, which is something I like to call "parking". Basically, when your opponent drops a lot of damage the blocks are set to timers, each turn reduces the timer by one. When the timer hits zero it converts the damage into regular gems.

You can take advantage of this by placing breakers on top of damage. And over the next five turns if you placed breakers on all the colors by the time they convert then they will all break simultaneously. You know what that means, huge damage. So although defending is weaker than attacking, countering-damage or "parking" can actually be ever stronger. You send back the same amount of damage that was done to you, plus some.

Now, remember I said this game was glitchy? Well, one notorious glitch in the arcade version is known as "the diamond glitch". It basically involves flipping a piece that contains the diamond vertically. To do so you have to have a column that is blocked off on either side, leaving a 2x1 space. Then you press down to land the piece, and just before the piece locks you rotate the piece by pressing either button to flip the piece vertically. For some reason this only works vertically, not horizontally. And it only works if you actually flip the piece, not rotate it. I believe it also doesn't work if the piece you're landing on is a damage block, but I could be wrong. At any rate, the game calculates the damage you'd do approximately twice instead of once. I don't really know the specifics of the calculations, but I just know that there is a major, significantly noticeable difference between a normal diamond break and a glitched diamond break. I've seen a diamond glitch do about 20-30 more damage than it would have done without the glitch.

In closing, here's some casual online matches between myself and an "anonymous" player:

World Champion

2009-07-20T01:42:00.010-04:00

The first world champion for Street Fighter IV has taken his title.

Lead producer for SF4, Yoshinori Ono, was present at the Evolution grand finals to watch history be made. Along with the 23,000 (twenty three thousand!) viewers on the live stream and the estimated 4,000 (four thousand!) spectators at the Evolution hall.

Although there was not that many players in the hall the begin with, during the events that lead up to the finals and during the finals itself the hall was flooded with ever increasing cheers, energy, and viewers.

Just like the Marvel versus Capcom II finals; the Street Fighter IV finals went to the wire. Both players having been put into the losers and taking matches off each other, putting an extreme amount of pressure and hype on everyone involved.

It was great. Congratulations to everyone involved.

---

Spoilers:

With MvC2 Justin Wong met Sanford Kelly in the winners, resulting in Sanford sending Justin to losers. Justin then came out of losers to send Sanford into the losers. Grand finals between Justin and Sanford came down to the wire, both players taking matches off each other up until the final round, and Sanford with his back to the wall switched teams to include Cable and took the win, giving him the long-deserved championship title. Some ridiculously high level play and classic Wong-effects, where Wong somehow managed a comeback with a single character (an assist character, at that).

With SF4 we again had Justin Wong meet with Daigo Umehara. Once again Daigo sent Justin to losers. Then Justin came right out of losers again to send Daigo into the losers. Just like in Marvel it came right down to the wire, both players taking matches off each other. It became a huge East vs West, Japan vs America, epic battle with fans cheering like crazy both live and probably all over the world. Initially Wong had been using Rufus for much of the tournament, though he switched to Abel in his first match with Daigo only to be shut down and shut out. After losing with Abel he switched to Balrog(boxer) and convincingly took wins right from Daigo. However, Daigo who is known for his Ume-Shoryu (Umehara Shoryuken / Daigo's Psychic DP) managed to not only use his trade mark many times successfully but also showed us a new trade mark: the Ume-Hadou. An unbelievably tense final round of the tournament, right down to the wire, resulted in Daigo taking the win and being crowned the first world-champion for SF4. The room having exploded in cheers many times already erupted again as the crowd flooded in with overwhelming excitement. Truly amazing.

Personally, I'd like to point out that these finals were a good representation of what matchups and character strengths actually mean. In the case of Marvel you could say that when the players picked the same characters they were perfectly evenly matched in every way, but Sanford picking a Cable team in the final rounds gave him the edge to counter Justin and take the win solidly. Likewise in SF4 you could say it's pretty obvious that if Justin had stuck to Abel he would have been destroyed, but switching to Balrog(boxer) gave him the edge he needed in a lot of ways. This is when a character adds extra power to a player's potential. And, when a character has a lot of favorable matchups you have to say that character is top-tier. On the other hand, this was also the best representation of top tier not guaranteeing victory; Sagat was nowhere to be seen. Just like in SC4 where Hilde did not make it to the grand finals, no Sagat players made it to finals in SF4. What that means is the players are the ones that determine the win, but a character selection is definitely going to adjust handicaps. Justin was heavily handicapped while playing Abel, but was able to do a strikingly good job with Balrog(boxer). Though Daigo gunned it out with Ryu the entire time.

Incidentally, we also got to see a lot of interesting character representations. We were able to see an impressive display from E.Honda, Akuma, and many others. I hope in future years we can witness even crazier events. But, only time will tell.

Congratulations to everyone involved with Evolution 2009. And especially thank you for the live stream that allowed people unable to attend to be a part of it. And thank you to all the viewers that supported the live stream.

Marvelous

2009-07-19T20:41:00.003-04:00

Evolution Fighting Game Championships: Marvel versus Capcom 2.

It's Marvel, baby.

The finals are officially over now. Between 11,000-13,500 viewers on the live stream to watch the grand finals, and with good reason. They caught quite a show.

I don't want to spoil it for those who didn't watch it (who wasn't watching, really?) but I'll say this; the finalists met in winners. One was sent to losers by the other, and that player came out of losers to knock that same player into losers as well. That means they both lost to each other once. And in the grand finals they both took rounds off each other. It went down to the wire. Holy hell it was epic. They may not have been on the top of their games, but playing three sets and taking wins and losses off each other to the point where it went to the absolute final round was crazy intense.

Once again mad props to Skisonic for his incredible commentary. He was even doing a great job commentating Guilty Gear, despite not playing the game or knowing much about it.

Psychic DP 2K9

2009-07-19T00:57:00.005-04:00

Our friend Suou asked why Psychic DP's (Dragon Punches / Uppercuts) were so popular with the crowd in Evolution 2K9. Or rather, maybe he just noted it, and I took it upon myself to explain it a bit.

Seth Killian was the first to write about it, I think. That means he's obviously the guy to go to when you want to know what a Psychic DP is thoroughly. But what I'd like to do is explain it in another way, starting with an analogy.

So, if you can imagine yourself in a real-life fight situation, that's what I'd like to talk about.

Picture your opponent much bigger than you, and much faster. He punches your guard with a heavy force, so you know he means business. You try to punch him back, but he's much too strong and quick for you, you end up guarding just to keep from getting knocked out. As you back up, you eventually find yourself in the corner. Now you're pinned, nowhere to run, and all you're doing is guarding.

This is the pivotal moment. Your opponent moves his body to your side and that makes you feel vulnerable. You opponent moves closer, invading your space, and that makes you feel even more vulnerable. Your opponent pulls his body in front of his hands.

Now here you are, nowhere to run, and now you don't what your opponent will do. You're so scared, and you don't think you can successfully block this next attack, so your instincts tell you the best defense is a good offense. You throw out an attack to intercept and counter your opponent's obvious actions

Only to get uppercut in the face.

That's because you dropped your guard. You dropped your guard in order to attack. And you did that precisely at the time that your opponent designed. He set up the situation, he forced you, he pinned you. He knew all too well, like a cat toying with a mouse, that if he showed you what he wanted you to see that you'd have a reaction, and that reaction is something he knew he could blow right out of the water with his fist.

That's a psychic DP (Ume Shoryu).

How is this in fighting games? Simple; when some one in invading your personal space it tends to be a natural human reaction to attack in order to push you out. But someone skilled in the ume-shoryu will pressure you in specific ways and eventually "read" your actions by giving you little other choice, which is why it's often called "psychic".

No Sagats

2009-07-19T00:08:00.009-04:00

Good news or bad news, depending how you look at it: There's no Sagat for Evo2k9 tomorrow in the winners or losers. That's right, the final brackets will consist of characters other than Ryu and Sagat. Surprisingly we did not see many Sagats today. It was pretty amazing today actually. I'd like to say that for today; I've been glad to see Akuma, Rufus, Dhalsim, and Viper being represented, among other characters. Not just represented but there was some really awesome choice moments (spoiler: like Balrog whiffs a short rush punch and Rufus does an ultra on reaction, but it was out of range due to the short rush punch).

Actually, I have to say there has been a very very impressive showing in general.

Next, I'd like to say that SkiSonic is awesome. One of the best English commentators we could hope for, in my opinion. Surely DogFace is awesome and we love other commentators like Arturo and Seth, but SkiSonic is something else. I'm not just being bias because I've met him a few times and spoken with him online a couple times, no. He says everything that is going on perfectly, and his understanding is just uncanny and highly appreciated. He says it right as it happens and exactly what happend and/or what should have happened. In other words, he sees all the angles and tells it to you immediately. Seriously, mad props to Skisonic.

Oh and also random note: I increased the embedded stream window size per J-Boogie's request: Evolution 2k9. So if you're having trouble directly connecting you might want to try the embedded stream in that post, it's larger window size now so it's the same thing, but you might get better connectivity.

Also another little golden gem spoiler: When Sirlin was up for the SF-HD remix (HDR) match early this morning the commentators had a thing or two to say about it. Obvious hijinkes ensued. But right as the match was scheduled to start Sirlin refused/objected to play. That's right, Sirlin who was on staff for the HDR project did not play in a scheduled match on the grounds that "he did not like the TV screen", or so we heard. I can't confirm though because all the live-stream-viewers actually saw/heard was the scheduled match players step up to the plate and plug in and set their controls, then Sirlin refusing to play after plugging in.

Evo 2k9 Live

2009-07-18T12:27:00.007-04:00

A live steam of Evolution 2009 has been put up for broadcast.

A good opportunity. You'll see more footage than what can fit on a DVD, and you'll see it much sooner than the DVD release, so be sure to tune in.

http://evo2k.com/live/

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/969589

Smash Revealed

2009-07-10T12:17:00.003-04:00

I was eavesdropping on a conversation between Mauve and Tropsy when Mauve mentioned the words "versus-platformer" and Tropsy responded with "like Smash?".

It was like an epiphany. He was right. All this time I'd been thinking Smash was a fighting game. But it all make sense now; it's not, it's a versus-platformer.

To be fair, I've never actually played Smash. But I tell you; that realization sure was a load off my mind, now I can see the game for what it is and take it at face value. Sweet.

Incidentally I'm now also convinced that 3D fighting games are kind of like versus-beat-em-ups (like a versus River City Ransom) while 2D fighting games are not. Well, crap like VF5 and DBZ, anyway.

Games, Arts, Music and Drugs

2009-07-04T23:12:00.010-04:00

Morally or legally obscene/violent/illicit material has frequently been associated with the inspiration or encouragement, and sometimes even the direct cause, of violence or other crimes. For example, when it's learned that a criminal was allegedly influenced by a video game that contains graphic violence, the game itself is blamed as the cause for their actions. Does it not occur to people that this person could just simply be really fucked up in the head, regardless of influences?

You may remember some incident in the news where a criminal is said to have played a first person shooter game and the media starts pointing fingers -- not at the criminal, but at the game. Perhaps it goes with the need for an answer to the always-asked question: "Why did you do it?". Gaming isn't the only medium to receive this treatment though. Music is often associated with the cause behind violence as well.

And now, some of you may have heard about the issues with sexually explicit material in gaming, written/drawn works, and visual novels in Japan. There is a certain amount of interest in seeing some of the more obscene or grotesque versions of these games either banned or made illegal. Whether or not either banning or illegalization will actually take place remains to be seen (in all likelihood they will not be), but one thing is clear to me personally; it's very sad anyone would consider banning/illegalizing these things, and even more sad if it actually happens. A foreboding snowball effect looms over this concept like a fist of doom.

Why? Well, I believe it is wrong.

I personally believe people who commit violent or illegal acts should not shift the blame onto something or some one else. I believe they are violent people and criminals, regardless. And more importantly, I do not believe the people who create art/games/music should be blamed for another person's violent or criminal acts.

I can safely say that I've been exposed to graphical violence, drugs, and violent music. Yet, I am not a violent person, nor am I a drug addict. Just like people who become violent; I feel that people who become addicts are simply that: drug addicts. They are not the victim, they are the criminal.

I also think that illegalizing the obscene/violent material will only cause harm, not good. It is as though we are saying that the person who is influenced by the material is the victim, and the criminal is the one who created the material. And I truly, honestly, completely disagree with that. Here is what I think you're actually doing when you illegalize such material:
1) You are making the person who commits a crime after experiencing this material a victim, not a criminal.
2) You penalize people who aren't negatively influenced by this material the right to access it.
3) You are making the creators and distributors of this material criminals when they are not.

Unfortunately, the only way I can explain what I mean is to go over it by case. I want to talk about how this effects gaming, but I must first talk about drugs since they are widely illegal.

What happens when you illegalize a drug is make the creators and distributors criminals. The police and DEA don't target drug users so much, but rather their goal is to find the distributors and creators. Occasionally they will hunt down users, but they will offer them bargains in order to gain information on distributors. What they are doing is treating the people who make and sell drugs as the problem. Drug users are often just put in rehabilitation, treated as victims of an addiction to illicit material. Basically it's like saying the world needs to protect people from bad influences by criminalizing the ones that make it available.

In a way it's like illegalizing alcohol, wherein you penalize the people who are able to consume alcohol responsibly and not be negatively effected by it or negatively effect anyone else. And, when you illegalize it, you are suggesting that a person who abuses alcohol and causes a car accident was more of a victim of alcohol, rather than being a criminal who was unable to responsibly drink without becoming a danger to themselves and others. You also, of course, make breweries and distributors criminals for no reason.

Now, imagine what that would mean if they were to illegalize explicit/violent art or writing? That would mean artists and distributors are the criminals supplying the public with a bad influence. And, that would mean that the lunatic that murdered some one because they were supposedly inspired by a book would probably be offered a bargain in order to gain information on distributors. That's right, the murderer isn't the criminal, but a victim.

This could also happen to gaming. If a game is banned/illegalized it sends the message that what authors are doing is wrong and that players need to be protected from illicit material found in games.

Music and drugs are different though.

First of all, if a person purchases and listens to a violent sounding music album, and then goes and commits a crime, I believe that person would have been a criminal anyway, with or without the album's influence. Because I know that if I listened to the same album then I won't commit any crimes.

On the other hand, concerts are a different ballpark. At a concert it's not just the music, but also the environment and the people there. I highly doubt you'd ever see people moshing at a violin recital, but it happens at punk rocker and heavy metal shows. But to me, it is not the music or the artists that are to blame, but rather peer pressure. When surrounded by a group of like-minded individuals, one is more easily influenced and more willing to do things they would otherwise not do. A person might do something to impress their peers, or may suggest something to their peers and some one acts on the suggestion. If you were to hear the messages "You should punch some one.", it could be easily brushed off with a laugh; but in a large group of angry violent people if that messaged is played then some one is likely to actually do it.

Drugs, however, actually effect a person's mental state. Additionally, they contain addictive chemicals. It isn't just that the experience is so enjoyable that a person would want to do it again, but really a chemical that makes them want to.

In the end, I believe drugs have plenty of logical reasons to be illegal. But art, writing, music, and video games should never be banned or illegal. In a way, I guess I am saying that I believe in the freedom of speech.

By the way, happy 4th of July to all you Americans out there.

Chars I Like

2009-06-25T23:57:00.005-04:00

Just a list. The characters are listed in order, but the games aren't in any special order.

- Vampire Savior: Q-Bee, Lei-lei, Felicia, Lillith, Victor
- Jojo's: Rrubber Soul, Mariah, Midler, Shadow Dio, Young Joseph
- IaMP: Yuyuko, Sakuya, Suika, Yukari
- Blitzkampf: Kanae, Mycale, Marilyn, Sai
- SF3-3S: Ibuki, Chun, Remy, Elena
- GG#R: Venom, Millia, Baiken, Dizzy
- MB-AC: Mech-Hisui, Satsuki, V.Sion, W.Len, Aoko, Kohaku
- Monster: Ryougen, Orju, Maya, Othello
- SS5sp: Amakusa, Yoshitora, Mizuki, Basara
- SFA3: Claw, Rolento, Cammy, Chun
- ST: Claw, Cammy, Chun
- CvS2: Claw, Kyo, Chun, Mai, Cammy, Vice
- MotW: Grant, Dong Hwan, Kevin, Rock
- KoF98: Mai, Daimon, Blue Mary, Chizuru, Vice, Shermie
- KoF2k2: Mai, Daimon, Blue Mary, Maxima, Kula, Shermie
- KoF2k0: Mai, Blue Mary, Maxima, Kula
- VP: Ayane, Lilith, Kaede, Eri
- TMNT: Aska, Wingnut, War
- LB2: Shigen
- SF4: lol.. (?) Rose
- SWR: lol.. (?) Alice, Suika
- CFJ: lol.. (?) Mukuro/Kenji, Karin, Ingrid

Well, these are the characters I like. Some games I've played a lot more than others. The ones with question marks at the bottom are games I don't play much, so the characters listed are just vague assumptions.

Looking Around

2009-06-25T13:27:00.002-04:00

Looking at certain features in fighting games, I have to wonder why developers don't adopt good ideas from others and make them standard features. Things like advanced training mode options, replay record, custom character colors, netplay lobby, peer to peer netplay, spectating netplay, and all the little things. Little things like survival mode, character move lists, challenge modes, sound/music test, and things like that.

When something is a good idea, I have to wonder why it gets overlooked/forgotten in the future. The same might be said for actual gameplay mechanics as well, and not just features outside of the game.

Then again, I have to wonder why the scene doesn't adopt standard codes of practice as well. I think the competitive gaming scenes could learn a lot from one another. Fighting game players could learn a thing or two about the way events are organized and run for FPS and RTS, for example. And things surrounding events, community bases and knowledge bases. Again, when something is a good idea, why isn't it made standard? Above all, I think competitive gaming could really learn a lot from organized sports.

A Hook

2009-06-25T13:21:00.000-04:00

Relative power versus Universal power is something that isn't always apparent or easy to gauge. Especially not just from simple observation.

For example, a character could be improved in 2 ways
- Give them a move or cancel properties that is useful/advantageous in all matchups.
- Give them a move that specifically counters another character's move.

To elaborate, giving a character an invulnerable DP is a universal tool that can be used against just about any other character. Likewise, not giving a character any reversal-type move (or any inv. move) universally handicaps this character relative to to the rest of the cast. What this means is that we could see a character moving up or down in their tiers just based solely on these qualities, which is why many Western players feel that if a character has a apparently overpowered move then they must be top tier.

On the other hand, there's sometimes ways to improve a character within the tiers by giving them moves that counter a specific other character in the cast. A broad example of this is like giving a character a throw-invulnerable move, which would be significantly more useful against the grappler-type character(s) in the roster than the poke/runaway type characters. A more specific example would be to give a character a move that dodges either just high enough or just low enough to beat a specific character's pokes, but do not have that property against other characters.

One really good example I'm fond of is GGXX#R Eddie and Anji. Wherein, Eddie was undeniably top tier and certainly overpowered compared to the rest of the cast, and Anji was undeniably bottom tier and very underpowered. Yet, because Anji had auto-blocking on a lot of his normal moves, Anji turned out to have a decent/even matchup against Eddie. The inclusion of autoguard moves sounds like a universal ability, but in this special case it turned out being significantly more useful against one specific character rather than the whole cast because it specifically countered all of Eddie's strong points, which meant that Anji could shut down Eddie's whole offensive game.

Now, while Eddie was still top tier and Anji was still bottom tier, the tiers don't always go unaffected.

A theoretical example would be to introduce half of a roster of characters, wherein character "A" is top tier because of their superior low pokes. However, after introducing the other half of the roster it's found out that these characters are all low tier, but they all have moves that counter low pokes, making character "A" significantly weak against half the cast, dropping that character down from top tier. Even though character "A" seemed to have universally good moves, if half the roster counters this character then you can't rightfully say this character is top tier, even if that half of the roster is universally weak (except against character "A").

I believe this sort of thing has happened in games like Vampire Savior, Garou, and Jojo's where certain characters would be the dominating top tier if not that they have some critical bad matchups which lowers their over all ranking.

And, it's important to keep that sort of thing in mind when evaluating tiers. You can not just look at a character and say that they are top tier because they have a single awesome attack. In a match, you're doing more than one move, so one good move alone isn't enough. You must also analyze matchups, because if you don't then it's possible a seemingly strong character is actually not that good because of bad matchups.

Personally I think tournament results should also be cataloged and analyzed and weighted with other data to determine actual tiers. Reason being, even if everything looks right on paper it may not actually be plausible in reality due to execution. Somethings the easy-mode characters that aren't especially strong do better than they theoretically should simply because they are reliable and easy to use.

Once again, for those that "don't believe in tiers"; it's true that a player's skill is going to be a stronger determining factor in the outcome of a match than character-ability. BUT, it's still technically a potential handicap. Just like turning up/down stars for damage/life handicap in versus mode, picking a character with a bad matchup will also be a handicap. That isn't to say the better player can't win, it's just that it will be much harder to do so.

Post Devastation

2009-06-25T12:36:00.003-04:00

For those who might have missed the Devastation live stream, Shiro420 is uploading the finals from the stream up on youtube. Framerate is a little shoddy but, raw captures may be released at a later time, so at least these are available now.

Quite a lot of games got represented, which is cool. A rather large event. Some one called it a mini-Evo, though the gaming hall was actually larger than an Evo venue from what I'm told.

I'll try not to spoil anything, but here's some general thoughts:

- Where was CvS2? I wonder.. could it finally be put on hold now that SF4 is here?
- MvC2 finals went exactly as everyone expected. I wish I had tuned in to see more MvC2 footage, because the finals just came and went in a blur of rape and ownage.
- 3S finals were unexpectedly exciting. But then, that's what happens when you get a Mokoto player who likes to bank on lucky randomness.
- HDR finals were also unexpectedly exciting. Considering all the bad things people had to say about it I would have expected ST to be a better choice, but somehow the players made it cool anyway.
- GG finals made me facepalm. The players were good, but the winner wasn't even using his main. He chose to alt. to an easymode character, which he admitted was a decision based solely around wanting to eat up wins. Now, I approve of switching to a character for wins, but I just happened to hate the character he picked so all I could do was roll my eyes.
- SC4 is tragedy incarnate. I have only seen bits and pieces of it thanks to Crow. But now after watching the Devastation finals I have to wonder why no one is really willing to just drop it in lieu of SC2.
- Tekken was as boring to me as ever. Props to the players and mad props to the winner but uhhhg it was heinous.
- TvC was a laughing stock. The players had skill of course, but even with that much skill the game is just retarded. You get hit, you burst, and then you combo them off the burst. Brilliant (not). It was mad douchery the whole set.
- SF4. I think everyone was surprised at SF4. I know I was. Good job guys.

They Paused

2009-06-21T20:00:00.004-04:00

Devastation.

3S Finals.

The stream went down, AND THEY PAUSED. The tournament stopped and waited for the stream to go back on the air before continuing with the finals.

This is the fighting game community actually understanding and respecting the importance of spectators.

Amazing.

Devastation.

2009-06-21T18:48:00.004-04:00

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/369751

Kinda late posting this, but yeah. Be sure to check it out 6/21/09.

SF3, SF4, HDR, MvC2, Tekken, GG, TvC, SC4, and all that good stuff.

Shmup Concept 3

2009-05-23T15:22:00.000-04:00

Weapons:
01) Bullets: Slow moving dots of energy.
02) Machine Gun: Rapid fire bullets.
03) Beam: A narrow ray of energy that pierces targets.
04) Railgun: A narrow single shot, large reload/cool, pierces.
05) Missile: Proximity based AoE explosions, slow moving.
06) Grenade: Delayed AoE blast, explodes on target or at specific range.
07) Scatter: Pseudo-random "spray" of bullets.
08) Spread: Fan shape "wave" of bullets.
09) Flame Thrower: A spout of flame, continues to burn for constant damage.
10) Tracking Laser: Auto-aim beams (like Ikaruga).
11) Delay Missile: Missiles that will start behind ship and accelerate slow.
12) Timer Mines: Placement of mines that will explode on proximity or timer.
13) Wallbounce: Bullets that ricochet off walls/units.
14) Ricochet: Sets a pseudo-random array of points for bullets to ricochet against.
15) Zig-zag: Wavy bullets.
16) Probes: Not AI controlled, won't follow the player, totally autonomous.
17) Sentinels: AI controlled assistants.
18) Options: Assistants that follow you.
19) Reflector: Charges/infuses debris then reflects them back.
20) Tazer: Electrical discharge.

Some really ghetto concept diagrams:
--

Weapon #11 is omitted.

Weapon Concept:
Weapons can be switched between instantly. Due to delayed damage on many of the weapon types and the reload/cool time for each weapon, it would be incentive to switch between weapons in a sequence or series, creating a chain or combo. Such as burning a unit with a flame thrower, firing a missile, and then hitting it with rapid machine gun shots -- essentially hitting the same unit with three weapons at the same time.

Enemy Types:
Biological/Bio-Mechanical
- Bio: The infestation is mostly biological and mostly amorphous blobs, weak and easy to destroy, unintelligent. When destroyed they explode, debris from the explosion may by absorbed by surrounding enemy units or by the player.
- Bio-Mechanical: The infestation can assimilate natural materials from the surrounding area and create makeshift/primitive devices. These are more resilient than ordinary bio units.

Absorption:
- When an enemy explodes the bio debris will harden/crystallize and can be absorbed by either enemies or by the player.
- When enemies absorb this they will grow in mass and density, causing them to be more resilient. Large clusters are also more intelligent.
- The player ships come equipped with a collector that acts as a vacuum for the debris. The debris are used to power the bombs/specials for the player.

Tutorial Videos

2009-05-23T11:43:00.002-04:00

Linking these because I realized I haven't:

- Akatsuki Blitzkampf :: Wei Tutorial for ver. 1.1.2 SP1 Beta
- Akatsuki Blitzkampf :: Marilyn Tutorial for ver. 1.1.3.1 SP1
- Akatsuki Blitzkampf :: Kanae Tutorial for ver. 1.1.3.1 SP1
- Immaterial and Missing Power Tutorial

First three are by Rithli and Zar. The IaMP one is by Bellreisa and myself (with help from Mauve).

Minds Eye

2009-05-11T06:11:00.005-04:00

This is sort of a recap on something I refer to as "Mental Tunnel Vision".

Basically, in competitive gaming (Fighters/FPS/RTS) I've noticed that there's an incredibly huge difference in player skill/ability based around one concept: being able to watch what your opponent is doing. It's sounds really basic and fundamental, but it doesn't always come naturally. I find that many players, especially in fighters/RTS, will be so busy watching themselves that they aren't paying attention to what the opponent is doing.

But there's more to it than just that. Sometimes tunnel vision can occur even when you're paying attention to what your opponent is doing. Usually in this case it's because you're paying attention to what you think your opponent will do, and focusing on what you expect to happen next, rather than what's actually occuring.

A good example of this is sitting and watching for a jump-in so you can react to it, but focusing too much on that potential option that you don't see when the opponent dash in c.mk's you. Or, getting knocked down and expecting your opponent to meaty attack you, only to find out that they jumped and you whiffed your reversal. Neither of these would happen if you were actually looking at the opponent instead of what was in your mind.

So, in my opinion there's different levels of tunnel vision. The most extreme form is watching only what you're doing at any given time, and playing your character just based on what you feel your character should do, or just doing moves because you like them. The next level is being able to watch your opponent, but focusing too much about what you yourself thinks will happen. And the last level is being able to actually watch the opponent and allow your subconscious mind to handle your own movements and what you expect from your opponent.

It's like watching a game rather than playing the game. As a spectator/observer it's so simple to see both player's actions and you can make good calls easily. You can say "he'll do think next, and this guy will do that, and that move was so obvious, and that next move was a huge mistake that will cost later", and things like that. But really it's like looking at the game in hindsight, which most players can't do while they are actually playing. A lot of players need to grind each situation until they find out their best options, then grind those options so that it gets implanted into muscle memory as "good habits". That way when they play they can just auto-pilot and dial-the-buttons without putting much thought or attention into what's actually happening. However, these dial-a-match players on autopilot are usually the easiest to abuse with traps and baits, because they are so predictable, they do everything out of habit. All you have to do is recreate a situation where they habitually choose a wrong answer, then you can just keep doing it until they wise up.

Being able to observe, evaluate, judge, react, predict, and just generally pay attention to what's actually occurring with your opponent and not with yourself or what you yourself "expect from the opponent" (because technically it's still you paying attention to your mind) is a huge step forward.

Formalities and Respect

2009-05-11T05:29:00.009-04:00

A follow up to my Got Read post, sort of.

In a lot of games it's quite common to run into formalities. What I mean by that is a series of events that you absolutely know both players are going to do because they are the absolute most ideal or optimal plays in that situation.

For example, let's say player Bee gets in and throws a projectile in a game with airdashing. Player Eff jumps to avoid the projectile then airdashes forward, but player Bee turns around and attempts and anti-air, knowing that player Eff with air backdash to avoid the anti-air and is put back into the corner.

Basically, everything that occurred after the first move was a formality and returned back to neutral. Even though player Bee could have attempted to read the airbackdash it was not ideal to do so because of the risk the player might not air backdash and get out of the corner with just the singular forward airdash. Likewise, player Eff should never really just forward airdash because of the risk of getting anti-aired, put back into the corner with okizeme, and then rushed down with mixups/pressure.

But, every once in a while you get people doing completely random things that go way outside of the formal movements, and this makes good players go "What? Why would you do that?". We call this a lack of respect.

Lack of respect can also mean other things though, like not respecting the opponents options. Such as being put into a frame disadvantage; the aggressor now has control and has a ton of options for mixup, continued pressure, or baiting the opponent into doing something stupid. A lack of respect for these options would cause the defender to do an aggressive attack in retaliation, even though they were at disadvantage. A very foolish choice, yet it doesn't always fail.

With high/low/block/throw mixup options that can't be consistently reacted to you get people trying to guess their way out of the mixup with a counter instead of trying to defend against it, and you either succeed or fail based on luck. It's disrespectful, and while complete lack of respect is easy to counter (because it's predictable), varying levels of respect and disrespect can be really annoying at times. We call it a lack of respect because the defender did not respect the potential punishment for doing a counter-action -- like doing a DP to get out of a mixup -- only to have the aggressor block and punish the DP. When you don't respect your opponent you are not respecting the risk, and you are not respecting their ability to play, you believe that the counter will work and you'll be fine.

This is also part of what separates mixups(guessing) from mind games(reading). It is an assumption that has the potential to be incorrect, but the odds of it being incorrect are very slim, so it's more of an educated guess.

To use a chess analogy it would be like intentionally placing your pawn in a bad spot as bait so that it can be taken, only to use another piece to take whatever piece the opponent used to take your pawn; a simple trap. Now, on a more specific scale, pinning the opponent on the board to where they have no choice but to act a certain way, a way that is favorable to you.

I think Viscant probably said it best when he said: "Forcing your opponent to choose from a tree of all failure".

Unfortunately it's incredibly common for gamers to confuse the differences between guessing and mindreading. For some reason people feel mixups and yomi are synonymous, when they aren't really.

What If..

2009-05-10T22:49:00.004-04:00

What if there was a central hub for gaming in America? Like, a "gaming state" or "gaming city" that's known specifically for it's high volume of gamers. Would we specifically try to find a job there and move there?

What if we all moved there?

Japan is pretty small geographically compared to the USA. Many gamers are spread out. We could say that this theoretical gaming state already exists in Japan, since anywhere you want to go in Japan is no more than a day's ride on the subway. Though, moving there requires not only leaving the country but also learning a new language which simply isn't logical/practical/realistic for many of us.

But what if there was an extremely large and accommodating arcades and game centers in a place like Vegas, the city that's already known for something similar to gaming: gambling. Theoretically this is the most ideal spot because people already frequently visit there just for vacations. While visiting some random area in PA with nothing in around it but the world's-best arcade doesn't sound particularly interesting, visiting Vegas for an arcade "plus everything else" does. And this is most likely why it was decided that the Evolution national tournaments are held in Vegas.

But Evo's something that happens just once a year. I'm wondering if people would actually consider moving to Vegas if there was year-round comp in Vegas.

Long ago I theorized that cyber cafe's and arcades should merge since they generally tend to attract the same breed of people. So, imagine for a moment a Casino opens a daughter-building that houses an internet cafe, an arcade, and also supplies access to pay-to-play consoles (via membership cards or something). It'd be fairly all-inclusive, with gambling and hotels right next door, and especially being in a city where you can find just about everything else.

Kanae Bunz

2009-05-05T04:47:00.005-04:00

Some quick notes about Kanae from Akatsuki Blitzkampf:

After 2A you can 236A late. It's a tick into command throw, pretty basic.

Or:
- 2A, 236B
- 2A, 6C (2A 6C)
- 2A, nothing

And here's the opponent's options after blocked/hit 2A:
- block = grabbed by 236B // take guard bar damage from 6C (neutral if nothing).
- jump = avoid 236B // take much more guard bar damage from 6C (neutral or worse if nothing).
- Reversal = Reversal is countered/blocked which leads to combo // counter the 6C or 236B

Kanae can also 2A late 5B or 2A late 22X, but I have a feeling these are subpar options.

The real difficulty here is backdash. And relative distance to the corner, I suppose.

But don't take my word for it; plenty of good players here: xUberSoldatx.

Shmup Concept 2

2009-05-03T22:41:00.002-04:00

I apologize for cross-posting between blogs, but eh.. anyway

I did some basic concept designs for several ship types. Not all of them would make the cut of course, there's some obvious duds in there. I decided that creating the ship designs first was probably more important, since that's what you'd be looking at the majority of the time in-game. Plus, I think creating ships and choosing which ones, then designing a character to be associated with that ship might be easier. For example; ship #1 looks somewhat effeminate in design so the character would probably be female.

Personally I'm a fan of colors and numbers, so I would say that each character would be associated with a color. The problem with the number of unique colors is there's some overlap: magenta/pink/purple, green/teal. But given that it's somehow workable I'd say a maximum of 12 characters. If each character needed a second color for their player-2 palette then the number gets cut down to 5 or 6 characters. So, somewhere in that ballpark. I'd lean more toward the former because I just have the mentality that more is better. Though coming up with entirely unique weapons and special moves then balancing them might prove rather difficult, let alone names and profiles for the associated characters.

As far as the character roster goes, I have this theory about the two "main/lead" poster-characters:
One should be male and the other female. They should look like they would be popular in a social environment, so the jock and prom queen archetypes. They should look "cute" together as a couple, but actually dislike each other or have some sort of rivalry, which would allow for some underlying (but obvious) sexual tension and attraction between the rivals. I'd probably want to re-use my old character design that I named "Grad" for the male lead, and give him a red-headed female rival (who I haven't really given much thought).

More importantly they need to be easily identifiable in silhouette without looking too "weird". Thus I'd need to rely on some interesting (but not bizarre) hairstyles and clothing for the pair. With militaristic uniforms that's kind of difficult but not impossible. Because they are waring uniforms the need to add accessories to make them look unique, personable, charismatic, and easily identifiable is probably necessary. For the male especially since the hair doesn't leave much room in that department.

For other characters I'd say there'd need to be an antagonistic pair (male/female) to contrast with the two lead characters. The obvious opposite of the jock and prom queen are the effeminate male nerd and the "emo" goth/punk chick. Basically characters that would fit in with a niche underground scene rather than being generally popular and charismatic. However, they would still need to be rather charismatic, so giving them the idealistic versions of these archetypes seems to make sense. Rather, the personality of these characters is more critical in that sense. The leads would be sunshine and happiness while the two opposing characters would need to be dark, combative, wild, and possibly have other traits such as cynicism or skepticism.

The other characters, in theory, should be very atypical and as non-generic as possible, to contrast with the overly generic archetypes listed above. I haven't really given these "others" much thought yet but I figure I should get the above four characters planned out better before moving on and continue adding more concept designs for ships (to compensate for the duds).

Shmup Concept 1

2009-05-03T16:20:00.006-04:00

The plot:
In theory, fighting against an attack force isn't particularly realistic or appealing -- why would a single ship be able to defeat an entire attack force single handedly? Rather, an infestation that needs to be "cleaned up" manually would be theoretically more ideal and gives greater possibilities for enemy unit designs.

The infestation could be sentient and able to defend itself, but not especially strong or intelligent. The larger mutated infestations can be treated as stage bosses and could be significantly more intelligent and stronger, possibly having special attacks or the ability to spawn enemy units as well.

The world:
With an infestation theme it could take place anywhere on a world, or even between worlds. In arcade story mode it could start by entering the planet's atmosphere and then take place over several infested-world locations:
- Aquatic
- Volcanic/Island
- Mountain
- Forest
- Desert
- Ruined/infested cities

The player's wouldn't necessarily need to fight the infestation on a ground level or deep within the areas though. Such as flying above the trees of a forest rather than through the trees at a ground level. This could be explained in the storyline as only the larger parts of the infestation need to be handled manually as they are able to defend against automated removal, but once the larger infestations are taken care of by the player then some AI-based probes can just remove the rest of the weaker infestations at ground level.

Characters:
There could be several different characters to choose from, each of which would be humanoid and have profiles and unique ships. The ships could be either homogenized or very different from one another. Theoretically it would be more ideal to have very different mechanics for each ship in order to encourage versus-play aspect.

Because the ships are the ones actually fighting, the characters themselves could be very diverse; male/female, young/old, completely human/mutated/alien/whatever with different personalities associated with the character type. The primary theme would be that they'd need to be somewhat militaristic, so fatigues or uniforms, and at least some level of patriotism. Also at least old enough to pilot a ship in combat so preferably in the 18-45 range.

Gameplay:
- Arcade story mode with simple dialogs and sequences of events, areas, stage bosses.
- Versus arcade mode with two players battling in split screen (like PoFV).
- Versus arena mode with two players battling in a small arena (like AoSX).

Ships:
Size, speed, and color differences standard. Possible palette swapping to slightly modify the color of the ship to identify between player1/player2

Weapons:
bullets (slow, static)
machine gun (instant, rapid fire)
lasers (fast autoaim, weak, no splash)
missiles (slow autoaim, stronger, AoE splash damage)
options (like alice dolls, time based, no AI, no autoaim)
second options (have HP, have AI, autoaim, will die when hit, not time based)
bombs (AoE, meter-based/limited by stock, nulls bullets and deals damage)

Bombs could be charged up for more damage or released immediately on keypress. After bomb, timer could be used to refill meter/stocks. More enemy kills = less time before reload.

The bomb charge could also be used to modify the behavior of the normal weapons. As in, if the bomb button is held when another button is pressed the weapon will do a special attack or something entirely differently.

The function of having bomb+attack become a special move should discourage players from charging bombs to full on every stock, because you won't be able to do normal attacks while charging for bombs (dual input = special). The special moves can also give incentive to burn meter on things other than just bombs. The special attacks would theoretically be more ideal as they could be extremely different between the different ships.

Infestation:
Organic. Could be a hive mind. Individual units could be amorphous blobs but could also take on unique shapes and personalities, attacking in different ways. In order to make them seem like life forms they could also take on slightly humanoid forms or form structures that resemble human technology and behavior.

We Were Right

2009-05-03T01:58:00.003-04:00

Million Knights Vermilion is the game by NRF that came after Big Bang Beat.

And, it's pretty much as terrible as we all expected it to be. In it's defense; MKV is at least marginally better game-play-wise than BBB. Unfortunately MKV is also marginally worse aesthetic-wise than BBB.

Also in it's defense; the game was very much rushed for release. It seems they wanted to release it early so that the general public could help the developers beta test it. We know it's still an incomplete game because it keeps getting frequent patches that modify the game a lot, and the character roster is also incomplete. There's two characters (Ivan and Sven) that have been mentioned and promoted in the trailers but have not been put in the game yet.

Personally I'm willing to give the game a little time in patience. If the developers keep updating it with patches it could mean they are still willing to work on it in order to make it a good game. So, I'll be keeping my eye on future patches, but I'm really not expecting it to be any good any time soon.

Admittedly I kind of like Virginia's character design in general, I think she's "cool". But she's also currently a little too strong/unbalanced (like a few of the other characters).

Akatsuki Notes 2

2009-04-29T20:07:00.014-04:00

Just some bread and butters.

Damage-wise, Akatsuki gets about as much as other characters midscreen. Meanwhile, his damage output in the corner is significantly better than most (not all) characters. And his combos are quite simple, in contrast to Sai's which require very tight links.

Depth and Exploration

2009-04-28T01:37:00.011-04:00

What actually makes a game "deep" and interesting.

Let us first look at Rock Paper Scissors. It is a simple guessing game where you pick from three options and you're either right or wrong. There really isn't much to learn, as long as you understand those rules you're set for life. Despite that, some people can have a lot of fun playing RPS. Is it really deep? Probably not, no, but that isn't to say it's not fun given the right situation.

What about chess? Chess is technically a "solved" game in the sense that a computer programmed with the absolute optimal plays should win every time. But most of us are not computers, so the game is interesting to us because we have to learn these optimal plays, memorize them, and then exercise our ability to remember. As in my last post, when the brain fails to remember it's human nature to guess in order to "fill in the blank" and hope for a correct answer, which can also be interesting to us.

When a game is complicated enough that humans can not fully master it you can say that the game is "deep" because we are always in pursuit of those optimal plays -- but achieving 100% optimal is just not humanly possible in some games. Just like how chess is "fun and deep" even though it's technically solved, because humans can't play at that capacity.

Adding RPS elements to a game doesn't actually add depth though. All it really does is give the illusion to weaker players that they could possibly win if they get lucky, and aggravates skilled players when they are unlucky. In the end, RPS may look like depth, but it isn't.

Fighting games have the issue of entertaining both elements marginally. When you speak to the old veteran players they often talk highly about exploring the game in order to discover the optimal plays. The "glory days" of fighting games are often when a player discovers a strategy that is seemingly not possible to counter, then some one revolutionizes the situation by coming up with a counter-strategy. Just like with chess, they are seeking to solve the game.

You could argue that fighting games are significantly less deep than chess because it doesn't take us nearly as long to solve a fighting game as it did with chess. Plus, even once fighters/chess become solved there are drastically fewer people who can play on an optimal level in chess by comparison to how many players can play optimally in fighting games. A great example of this is to just look and see how many Yun, Chun, and Ken players all play exactly the same (optimally). What separates them is not their mental ability to remember optimal plays or decision making, it has more to do with reaction speed, guessing/luck, and execution: physical abilities.

Compare for a moment a tool assisted play of both chess and a fighting game. Both players are playing at totally optimal levels in both games. The object for the spectators would then be to try and recall what the best possible options for each situation is as the games progress turn-based style. Most of us would probably choose an incorrect answer in chess fairly easily, but that might not be the case in the fighting game..

So why do people keep playing them once they are solved? Once a fighting game's optimal plays are solved it reverts back to a question of reaction speed, execution, and guessing. In other words; after a certain number of years it's more of an exercise of our physical abilities rather than our mental ones, and RPS/luck becomes more emphasized. But just like with RPS they can be fun in certain situations.

After all, we still highly enjoy most mainstream sports, even though the difference between most players is physical ability and not mental ability. Surely there isn't much to learn for a game like baseball, but we tend to idolize good baseball players purely on their physical ability.

So, the counter argument is that depth is in itself the game's capacity to test our ability to play at optimal level, be it mentally or physically (or both). It's fair to say that you shouldn't add RPS elements to a game because it's neither a test of physical or mental ability, it is only an exercise of luck which both players and spectators generally find unappealing.

With fighting games (and RTS) I think veterans appreciated the mechanics of the game more. And in the end the audience appreciates physical ability more. The suboptimal "flashy" eccentric plays they will win you the audience, but not always win you the game.

Got the Read

2009-04-27T23:00:00.004-04:00

With human reaction speed comes the dynamic of abusing it to your advantage. Players create intentional guessing games. If we had a dice game where the object was to guess the number rolled as quickly as possible, this game would be entirely reaction based. When this is placed in a competitive environment the person with the best reaction doesn't always win because humans have a tendency to guess as well. So, even though you could rely entirely on your reaction speed, a little bit of guessing can come into play, which means luck plays a part in it (guessing right and wrong is luck).

This is where a lot of the guessing games comes into play for just about any real-time sport or game. Anything turn-based wouldn't need reaction speed at all. You have all the time in the world to take your turn and therefor it's a matter of decision making. When this is placed in a competitive environment a couple things can happen depending on the nature of the game.

With a turn based game like Poker there is quite a lot of guessing involved because the cards you get are randomly given to the players.

With Chess the absolute best play can be determined at any given turn from the first turn to the last turn. But most humans are not capable of memorizing every single correct play for every single possible occurrence on the board. Once again, humans have a tendency to guess in order to compensate for the lack of knowledge.

So even without reaction speed there's marginal amounts of guessing. But the difference between these types of guessing games is; with turns the guesses are entirely education based guesses. With reaction speed type games is comes down to simple RPS (Rock Paper Scissors).

There's also a significant difference between guessing and mind-reading, similar to above -- though many people tend to confuse the two. With guessing you are simply guessing at random or pseudo-randomly. With mind reading you are taking into account things like: risk and reward, security, probability.

Mind reading therefor isn't the simple act of guessing, but highly educated guessing. It is intentionally doing specific actions to create a situation in your favor, then performing your next action based on what you anticipate your opponent will do. In an controlled environment you know what to expect, and so you've read the opponent's mind.

For example, let's say you can put your opponent at a disadvantage with a move that puts you next to them, appropriate for a tick throw. However, the throw doesn't have a whiff animation, instead you attack if the opponent can not be thrown. Thus, if the opponent attempts to jump in order to avoid the throw they will be hit instead. This is forcing your opponent to make a decision, not a guess.

The "correct" option is to take the hit because it does less damage than the throw and gives the aggressor less mixup options after the hit. It's very little risk for the aggressor so there's hardly any reason not to use this option. And you don't need to react to what your opponent did because you've read the situation well enough to know your opponent will choose that option: the path of least pain.

This is only one example of many possible examples. There's countless ways for you to lead your opponent into a situation where they are forced to take damage, and knowing all their options they will choose the option that is going to hurt them the least. And because of the risks, the odds of countering, and the probability that both players are likely to follow that path, you can know in advance what your opponent will do. A predictable action that gets countered.

However, many players experience the "why would you do that?" moment when we fight a "bad" opponent that does not consider risk/reward and such. This happens when a player uses an option with ridiculously high risk and poor reward, such as a dragon punch or other punishable such move. When this happens, the player doing the dragon punch has risked being punished for huge amounts of damage, whereas if they had taken the safer option they would be hurt quite a lot less. The reward is also not particularly good; minor damage and a knockdown with limited mixup options at midscreen. And the security is usually rather poor, if they fail they'll probably be in the corner, whereas if they succeed they will probably only get the opponent at roughly mid-screen.

And that's why the aggressor needs to take into consideration probability. You need to be aware when the opponent is likely to be willing to bank on a huge risk. It's often when they are in trouble, but not always. There's also player personality and habits and such that you can familiarize yourself with.

In the end, simple random guessing would always lose to mind-reads (educated guessing) because the risks and rewards are not balanced. Mind reads are also less prone to failure. Rather, a true mind read isn't prone to failure at all. Instead your forcing your opponent into a situation where you can only succeed, and are therefor forcing your opponent to decide which option they want to get hit by. The trick is getting your opponent into the trap in the first place.

Reason not to Play

2009-04-23T17:24:00.006-04:00

Something interesting has been occurring in a few small communities that I've been following. Mostly they are the "underground" or unpopular games that people try to promote. Something that inevitably comes up during promotion is the question "why?". Either we ask "why should I bother playing the game", or on the flip side "why not play the game?".

What's interesting to me is all the responses we get. And, it's also interesting how difficult it is to tell whether the reason is actually objective or subjective opinion.

With a game like Big Bang Beat it's pretty obvious that a lot of reasons why people don't want to play it are objective. The game is just poorly made and plays really poorly, so there isn't much reason for people to want to play it.

But on the other hand, some games get a lot of response reasons that really don't have any foundation at all, while some just blatantly do not make sense. But this is where subjective opinion comes in. They may not be totally bullshitting, they may genuinely dislike the game. But sometimes they don't actually need a valid reason to dislike the game, they just don't like it.

Unfortunately it's just human nature to question it and try to debate it. Sometimes these debates get rather fierce and cause a lot of emotional drama on both sides. But there really is no debating subjective opinion. Even if you battle it logically and win, the person isn't likely to just magically change their preferences.

Personally I look at it like mushrooms, spiders, and music. I really don't like mushrooms. A lot of people do, but talking about mushrooms logically won't make me taste them any differently. All the talking in the world isn't going to make me like them. With spiders there's no reason to fear them, but arachnophobia is defined as an "irrational" fear of spiders. So, fearing them may not make sense but then trying to rationalize it isn't going to change it; it's irrational.

That's pretty much how I look at a lot of games, too. Certainly there's no reason not to try something out, but people are not so active that they'll go and seek things out on their own. You have to hand it to them and tell them it's good before they'll give it a test. Like with food, a person isn't going to go running out to try something just because you said it was good, you have to really encourage it or even just hand it to them.

On the flip side, when you like a game and some one else does not, it's kind of a waste of time to bother asking why. A person who doesn't like cheesecake or chocolate might seem pretty batshit insane to me, but then I can't really argue the point since I probably seem pretty weird for not liking mushrooms and I understand it's subjective and possibly irrational.

Music is a little different from food or insects. With music there's actually quite a huge variation in quality within a genre. But, if a person hates a genre then it doesn't matter how good or bad the song is; they hate the genre.

There's no reason, it's just the way it is.

Akatsuki Anti-Airs

2009-04-18T21:11:00.010-04:00

Akatsuki: close 5B, far 5C
Fritz: 4B
Marilyn: 4B
Wei: 2B
E.Soldat: close 5C, far 5C
Adler: close 5C

Now, there are of course other anti-airs in the game. Particularly specials and supers. However, the above listed normal moves are "special" in that they have attack boxes that extend vertically higher than the hittable box. Most other characters like Mycale and Kanae only have moves where the attack-box will overlap the hitbox, not extend above it.

The significance of this is that there are no air normal moves with attack boxes that extend vertically lower than their hittable boxes. At best they overlap. What this means is trades. For example; an anti-air with overlapping hit/attack-boxes (like Kanae's 2B) against a jump-in with overlapping hit/attack-boxes: the two moves would trade hits. Because both attack boxes are hitting both hittable boxes at the same time (hitting each other).

However, the anti-airs in the list above will have their attack box hitting the opponent's hittable box first, before they can be hit. So those anti-airs will beat the jump-ins, not trade.

Only exceptions would be Anonym's bullets and B.Tank's cannon. Oddly though, there's a few jumping attacks that extend horizontally past their hittable box and a bit lower vertically than their extended hittable box. Marilyn's j.C is somewhat like this, but more notably Wei's j.C and Anonym's j.4A have that kind of attack box. Thus, if spaced properly, these moves could beat normal anti-airs (like Mycale 5B). And possibly even beat the exceptional anti-airs too.

But again, this is discounting specials and supers.

RE: Netplay Suggestions

2009-04-17T12:28:00.008-04:00

[mauve] so will this match me up with frenchmen still
[mauve] i'm pretty sure that capcom has absolutely no comprehension of what the american player base actually needs though.
[mauve] everything would be 800x better if you could just specify a general location so it stops matching you up with lower bogoslovia
[Edible] Like "east coast US" "central US" "west coast US" "france"
[mauve] Yes.
[Edible] That would be helpful. ... But I'd still prefer a goddamn simple replay save option
[Edible] AT THE END OF A MATCH, LET ME SAVE A REPLAY IF I WANT. END
[mauve] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASzEzPbwkb8 pink gen is pink

Stop Doing This Shit

2009-04-13T07:27:00.004-04:00

MvC2- "Stop Doing this Shit in Combo Videos" video (audio commentary) by TS (who is not me)

I love this video. Personally I think the commentated version is even better than the original version. It basically embodies everything wrong with common poorly edited videos and showcases it in a highly amusing way. Some traits of which I am rather guilty of myself.

TS has said in the commentary what he knows he could have added to make it even better (rain clouds!), but I think it gets the point across rather nicely just as it is. Especially the taunting after every single combo. I did the excessive taunting thing when I released my first video and I am so very glad some one corrected my ass quickly enough for me to re-release the video sans the taunting.

Sometimes it takes a really good satire to wake people up. And the great thing is that it's entertaining, too.

One thing that still really bugs me about common "ghetto combo videos" that I think may or may not have gotten lost in TS' video is invalid combos. TS did show quite a lot of resets in his video, but to be fair some of them aren't as ghetto as they seem (while others clearly are blatantly ghetto). Though, I think Marvel gives me mixed feelings about it.

Again, I too am guilty of showing a couple invalid combos in videos I've released, but the point is I really try not to have invalids. Things like resets that lead to mixups are great for character-specific exhibitions, especially if the character relies on mixups more heavily than other characters, but resets are not okay for all-character exhibitions IMO. And, invalids are simply NOT okay unless they show a legitimate tech trap or a really good mixup.

To me, the exception would be Marvel, since a lot of resets are specifically designed to be mixups and are even used in high level play. Plus, many modern games we have "invalid" and "black beat" and such that shows up on the screen when the combo could have been escaped, so it's not so much of a problem with these games.

But a lot of older games didn't have any such HUD warning. SFA3 and even SF3:3S are prone to having videos showcasing combos that could actually be escaped, misleading viewers into thinking these would actually work against a human opponent.

And yes, it really pisses me off when I see invalids in videos that don't show them as invalid or show any tech trap or mixup off of them. Probably more than bad editing.

SFA3 Invulnerability Glitches

2009-04-13T06:59:00.003-04:00

This video is actually quite old by now. So, it's not really of much importance.

But anyway, there's a glitch in SFA3 that causes a character to go into an invulnerability state if: You air recover and then air block in the corner, then you can land and perform an action and that action will be invulnerable. It's really quite obscure, and it's only triggered by that condition AFAIK (airblocking after air-teching in the corner).

But since the properties of this glitch cause the entire move to be invulnerable you can retain the invulnerability state by bypassing neutral states. Exactly like how you use crouch canceling and walk-canceling to bypass neutral states in order to prevent your opponent from air teching.

It really really is obscure though. It's not exactly something that would happen particularly often. But it's not something you can't plan for either, because if the opponent somehow manages to screw up a tech-trap then you're probably going to be airblocking in the corner, so then all you need to remember is that when you land you have the opportunity to abuse this.

At any rate, in the video you can see the player land and use a walk cancel to bypass neutral and retain invulnerability as Rolento, who gets thrown. Next part, Akuma also meets the condition and then uses rapid-fire jabs to keep himself out of neutral. In his case, Sakura can't even approach him in order to throw him due to the jabs, so her own invulnerability was necessary to grab him.

The next couple clips show another "glitch" regarding invulnerability. As said in my previous post about SFA3 there's specific characters whose air activations are fully invulnerable until attacking or landing: Adon, Akuma, Cammy, Charlie, Dhalsim, Guy, Juli, Juni, Rose, and Sakura.

The video shows Dhalsim using it. And then it shows Guy using a "Kattobi cancel", which is actually just a kara-cancel into VC activation. But since the move Guy kara cancels from is his down+toward+HK (backflip) move, it leaves him suspended indefinitely in the air. And since he's invulnerable until landing, well he's invulnerable indefinitely as well.

The air activation glitch isn't like the corner glitch in the sense that the corner one is only melee invulnerable and not throw invulnerable. The VC one, being throw invulnerable, makes Guy literally impossible to hit until round over.

While neither glitch would necessarily need to be banned in tournaments, usage of Guy's "kattobi" to run the clock would definitely be banned in tournaments.

Of course, these aren't the only glitches in the game.

There's a thread on SRK named All Dip Switch Settings Revealed!!! which shows all the dip switch toggles for all the SFA games on the SFAA disc. Just skimming through the list you can see all the glitches that existed in the arcade board that were either removed or modified in the console versions.

Fortunately though, with the SFAA disc you're able to select a preset that automatically sets all the dipswitch toggles so that it mirrors the 980904 arcade board perfectly, with the exception of star 2-15 which has to be unlit manually after selecting the preset.

In other words: selecting the 00/11/20ver preset then unfilling start 2-15 will make the SFA3 that's on SFAA run arcade-perfect.

QTV

2009-04-12T22:02:00.000-04:00

Pew pew.

Knowledge Bases

2009-04-12T04:36:00.002-04:00

The topic of knowledge bases has always been rather interesting to me. I don't think any sort of formal experiment or survey has ever taken place in regards to fighting games, so all I have to go on is my own personal experiences with gaming in general.

First, I'd like to say that for me personally; a knowledge base can be both incredibly useful or incredibly obsolete, depending on the game. I always enjoy contributing to knowledge bases when I can (if that wasn't obvious), but I have to be honest; sometimes I'm really bias or partial for various reasons.

Personally, I believe that learning the game by yourself can be half the fun of a game in the first place. Normally I enjoy picking apart a game on a very technical level. On the other hand, there are some games where I know I wouldn't have made progress at all and eventually would have quit playing without the presence of some form of knowledge base. Some games can be significantly more fun when shared information enlightens you to the possibilities and potential within the game, but I think the opposite can be true for other games. I assume it's pretty much the same for everyone. The intuitiveness of a game and the interest level per each user will presumably determine the need for a knowledge base, in theory.

That said, I also think it's interesting that there are so many different kinds of knowledge bases and how each one can influence another quite dramatically.

There's individual pools of knowledge that circulate within the community around arcades or other meeting places, instant messaging, IRC, FAQ sites, web forums, videos sites, wiki sites, and specialization sites.

With individual arcades the knowledge rarely ever circulates outside of just those people who are involved. Word of mouth can indeed travel, but there's a limit to it. An extreme example of this would be to examine how Japan learned the usage for V-ism in SFA3, and America was left so far behind. Back then, no one really knew the potential of V-ism in the US because everyone was so focused on A-ism and X-ism, and it wasn't until Japan visited the states that we learned just how much better V-ism actually was.

However, you could say that without other available knowledge bases the same thing can occur on a smaller scale, and is probably very common. On the other hand, you could say that with the existence of other knowledge bases they begin to influence each other, often in both positive and negative ways.

A great example of this is IRC and private chats. Just like with offline knowledge, information gets shared and passed through word of mouth within the direct community. But, a lot of things get lost because not everyone can be around 24/7. Lord knows if I log off IRC to go to bed on the day of a new game's release I might miss a whole fuckton of information, because everyone is talking about the game on that very day. People also don't like repeating themselves, players with the knowledge might get sick of saying the same thing over and over, and stop repeating it entirely.

Wiki sites may get neglected by users who actively use IRC and web forums. When knew knowledge is discovered it's passed around IRC and discussed, but eventually people get tired of "old news" and the knowledge is kept there, the information doesn't make it's way onto forums or wiki's or FAQs because they are already tired of it. Even when it makes it's way onto forums, there's a chance that it could stagnate there, being lost in a sea of other posts. Sometimes no one is really willing to go through it all to collect and transcribe it. I've been guilty of this many times in the past myself, where after having learned something new and discussed it, I became disinterested in it and never posted about it or felt like transcribing it after the hype died.

There's also misinformation, speculation, and theory.

Video sites tend to influence other knowledge bases quite a lot, because video data can be interpreted and misinterpreted in many different ways. Maybe a combo wasn't actually valid, maybe the player did a misinput, maybe the player didn't know they had a better option available, maybe "this"/maybe "that" and so on. Certainly, it's also extremely rare that a video tutorial would ever get updated after it's initial premiere, so old footage may become outdated. We also tend to rely on individual analysis of match footage, it's rare that the community discusses every aspect of what happens during a spectated match and why. Discussion threads regarding matches are generally a bunch of people praising the players and critiquing it based on how entertaining it was.

FAQs are also often not updated years after their initial publication, even if new knowledge has been discovered and the gameplay has been reinvented as we know it. Many people simply leave it as-is, and others don't bother writing their own update versions because only marginal amounts of information has changed while the core has not.

Web forums tend to have new posts to correct old outdated information, but old posts tend to linger and never get corrected, sometimes even without any correct followup posts. Or worse, there are those who adamantly defend incorrect, situational, or subjective information based on limited experience, even when the community is disagreeing.

It's also been my experience that a lot of the top players are unable to verbalize what it is they do and how they do it. Sometimes there's also heavy disagreements on technical information between top players as well.

Knowing all this, it's easy to see how incorrect or incomplete information can be passed off on various mediums and never really thoroughly examined, and how there can be a lack of information on a game.

That's not to say there aren't good resources out there. Certainly, there are. But it's extremely rare that you could find an absolutely complete and comprehensive one.

Honestly, I can't really think of a solution though. At least, not a practical one that is even remotely likely to happen in the near future.

Netplay Followup

2009-04-12T01:31:00.005-04:00

To clarify/follow up something I posted earlier regarding netplay:

Netplay is a bonus, not a miracle. Netplay did not revive a scene for old fighting games that were actually already good. I can name several good titles that had scenes that are dead now even with netplay support. It also didn't create a scene for the PC games that came equipped with it. Again, I can name several titles that are PC games with netplay that are now dead. The majority of popular games played at tournaments either don't have netplay or didn't until very recently. All netplay really does is let people play casuals when either: they live out in the middle of nowhere, or the scene is dead except for a handful of hardcore diehard fans, or allows people to play during the week when no local events are happening.

The real issue is indeed availability. Regardless of how good a game is; if it's not available as a console standard it isn't going to thrive outside of Japan. These days, especially with Evolution being a console tournament now, if a game thrived without a console release it'd be a miracle.

Between a console release versus a PC release, if the game didn't get a console release it would be as good as dead in terms of major tournaments, there's really hardly any question of that. It might still get played as a side event, but even that would be pushing it. On the flipside, if it did get a console release but didn't get a PC release then all you'd lose is just a handful players.

But, the community is really fickle. Even with arcade perfect ports some games just don't make it in the long run, so getting a console port isn't any sort of guarantee either.

It's also obvious that netplay can't be the core to a community either. It isn't an acceptable medium for serious tournaments, though you can have fun little "mock" tournaments online. Potential cheating/abuse like autofire and macros is enough reason in itself, but lag is also not acceptable for tournaments.

I still think there's a lot of power in netplay though. In my own experience there's been quite a few games that I never would have even tried if not for netplay, and I know I'm not the only one. Plus, the number of rounds and the number of different players I've played over netplay is significantly higher than the number I've played offline. I've learned things that I know I would have otherwise not learned. And I've even got to play some players from Japan. I am assuming these sorts of things are similar with other people.

I also still think it can "assist" in building a scene, though I don't think it'd be the deciding factor that could otherwise make or break a scene.

Akuma Gouki

2009-04-09T03:46:00.004-04:00

Don't mind me. I am not a fan of Gouki (aka Akuma). I really like lots of characters, but I have no interest in him.

However, in this video at 6 minutes and 45 seconds you can hear this character's musical theme and see part of his stage from SFA2.

I'm just blabbing and it's because; of all the themes associated with this character I feel the SFA2 theme that was created for him is most fitting.

SlayerS_`BoxeR`

2009-04-07T19:32:00.002-04:00

Blip sent me this link: Crazy As Me

It's an English translation of many segments of the autobiography of Lim Yo-Hwan (AKA. SlayerS_`BoxeR`). The autobiography titled "Crazy As Me" was released in Korea by BookRoad Publishers in 2004.

And yes, it is an amazing read.

SFA3 Traps

2009-04-02T21:18:00.014-04:00

A followup post to my old SFA3 Misc post. The video shows a bunch of different concepts like unblockables, tech traps, escaping unblockables, escaping tech traps, and a guard crush VC example, among other things.

High+Low Unblockables:
With V-ism custom combos the shadows that follow you retain all of the move properties that the shadow copies. VC1 (activated with light attacks) makes the shadow follow you very closely. So, a jumping attack followed by a low attack creates an unblockable situation. As seen in the video with Chun-Li the j.LK can be blocked, and her c.LK can be blocked, but the shadow of the j.LK must be blocked high and it connects at around the same time as the real c.LK which hits low. So c.LK low + shadowed j.LK high = high+low = unblockable, since you can't block both high and low at the same time.

These are fairly difficult to avoid, especially ones that involve a crossup, because most Alpha Counters and reversals won't even stop them.

But, they are not inescapable. Everyone in V-ism can activate a VC and use the activation invulnerability to escape/counter the unblockable. In A-ism there are a number of characters that have particular moves that can get out of these unblockables, which are typically teleport moves, as seen in the video.

Throw Unblockables:
Not seen in the video. But, these are actually even more evil than high+low unblockables. During a VC, a command throw will break all normal throw rules, allowing the command throw to grab opponents during: hitstun, blockstun, and jump start-up. So, after performing a crossup you can then activate the VC and immediately command throw.

The reason this is even more evil is that they are even harder to escape, and there is a lot less risk involved because you can confirm them off the crossup. In other words, if the crossup whiffs you know the opponent escaped, so you don't activate your VC and do nothing. If the crossup hits or gets blocked; you can activate the VC and then command throw them. So, while you can escape these with teleports and activations, the one doing the unblockable doesn't waste their meter even if you do manage to escape.

And, there is basically no way to escape after you've blocked the crossup except with Juni and V-Dan's character-specific push-block moves. Most Alpha Counters fail to prevent from getting grabbed.

Tech Traps:
In SFA3 the way air teching works is you can technically air recover at any time that the opponent is in a state that is called "neutral". What this generally means is the last few frames of recovery from a move or an uncanceled landing from a jump. In other words it has little to do with what state you're in, rahter; you're allowed the tech when the opponent is finishing a move.

When you air tech you are temporarily invulnerable and unable to perform normal actions for a while. However, the invulnerability wears off before you're able to do anything, including block (airblock). So, if the opponent hits you with something right as the invulnerability ends you will be hit because you won't be able to do defend.

Thus, players learned to create tech-traps wherein they are able to hit you right as your invulnerability from a tech is ending, or hit you even if you don't air recover.

Escaping:
As a quick note, I feel I should point out that the unblockables and tech traps in the video were not performed incorrectly. If the opponent had not attempted the escape at the proper time, each setup would have had guaranteed success.

I believe escaping unblockables is pretty self explanatory. Actually, I explained that above and in the video, so read up and/or watch the video.

Tech trap escapes: Technically even though you are unable to perform normal actions when air recovering, you are actually able to perform special moves and supers, which will immediately cancel the invulnerability as well. In addition to specials/supers, V-ism activations are considered supers, so they can also be done immediately after teching while you're still invulnerable, as seen in the video.

Once again, A-ism is limited in this department. There aren't many characters with air-based special moves that are actually useful for getting out of tech traps, and there are even fewer characters with air supers. Actually, Gen and Akuma are the only ones with air supers for that matter. Some are pretty interesting though, Dhalsim has his air teleport which has invulnerable startup, and R.Mika has her air command throw which has zero startup at all (it's instant, AFAIK). And there may be others. Sadly (or perhaps fortunately?) wall-jumps and command normals don't count, so those won't cancel your recovery state.

Specific Air Activation Glitch
Specific characters in V-ism are blessed with a special "glitch". The characters are: Adon, Akuma, Cammy, Charlie, Dhalsim, Guy, Juli, Juni, Rose, and Sakura.

When these characters activate a VC in the air they will remain completely invulnerable until they either attack or land. There's one frame of vulnerability between the transition from air to ground. In other words, one frame where they are still in the air and vulnerable, and unable to perform a ground attack. That prevents them from transitioning from air invulnerability to a ground invulnerability seamlessly. They also become vulnerable if they attack after the "normal" invulnerability duration has ended.

What this means for tech trapping is that these characters can activate their VC immediately when air teching and they will remain invulnerable until landing. So even if the tech trap was really good and hits all over the place (like Sagat's) they are safe from being hit until they either attack or land. This can be seen in the clip with Cammy, normally Sakura's shadow should have hit Cammy, but the prolonged invulnerability duration glitch made it possible for Cammy to land then anti-air combo Sakura.

Damage Reduction:
To further decrease the effectiveness of unblockables and tech traps, you also have a couple of options for making them weaker.

Not teching is one. Because if you're unable to escape then you're better off letting it hit you. The reason is because damage scales very steeply with the number of hits in a combo, and by the time most characters get you into their tech trap they are only going to be doing about 1-pixel of damage per hit, which isn't a whole lot. They may choose to do an infinite on you and kill you one pixel at a time, but it depends on the character. A lot of characters don't even have infinites, such as Akuma and Sakura, who really only tech-trap you in order to rebuild their meter after their VC has ended. In other words, you never ever want to air tech a trap against Akuma and Sakura (or anyone without an infinite) unless you're absolutely positive that you can punish them for it. If you tech and get hit by the trap, all you'll be doing is resetting the combo count and resetting the damage scaling, increasing the damage you take by a lot.

Mashing buttons is another. In SFA3 you can reduce both actual damage and guard bar damage by pressing an input. This includes both directionals and attack inputs. Amusingly (or perhaps unfortunately?) this reduction is a flat 50%. So if you mash every hit of a combo you literally reduce the damage by half.

Chip damage is always only 1 pixel per hit, but damage reducing on block will also lower the amount of guard bar damage you take by 50%.

The Special Four
Normally when you transition from a ground combo into a jump attack you must enter a neutral state, which is why tech-trapping is necessary (because the opponent can tech when you jump).

Pretty much everyone can start a crouch cancel series if they first take place air-to-air (both characters in the air). Though this requires a counter-hit to put the opponent in a juggle state, or an air special move that will put them in the juggle state.

The only other way most characters can bypass a neutral state is by using a dizzy and having a delayed shadow hit the opponent when the real body has already gone into the air. For example: dizzy, activate, whiff an uppercut, jump, let the shadow hit the opponent into the air, continue with air attack and crouch cancel series.

However, there are two characters in the game that can transition from a ground combo to an air combo seamlessly, and two that have pseudo-airtight setups. They are: Guy, Rolento, Chun-Li, and Sodom.

In Guy's case, both his oc.HK (down+toward+HK backflip) and the last hit of his Bushin Chain (LP-MP-HP-HK target combo) put the opponent in a forced back-roll state in which they are unable to air tech from even if Guy enters neutral. Therefor, if Guy can hit with either of these moves on the ground he can then jump and attack without worry of the opponent air recovering.

Rolento is more simple, he has a super jump which technically counts as a special move, and therefor during a VC he can cancel his normals and specials into this super jump, transitioning from ground to air seamlessly.

Chun-Li and Sodom have pseudo-airtight setups. Technically they are airtight in the arcade version because their setup hits the opponent at the exact same frame they are leaving the ground. Thus, the opponent is locked in hitstop and unable to airtech while Chun/Sodom are technically transitioning from neutral.

Chipping
Some combos are designed to chip away at your life and guard bar regardless if you block or not. Some of the more popular ones are the "hadou-rave" and Yoga Fire customs, in which you throw a bunch of fireballs in the opponents face very rapidly. There's also others like Vega's Claw Roll and Cody's Criminal Upper loops which rip through your lifebar and guardbar.

The wonderful (or fucked up) thing about these is that apart from Juni and V-Dan, most characters are forced to Alpha Counter in order to avoid these. However, Alpha Countering not only costs meter but also permanently costs a portion of your guard bar. So whether you Alpha Counter or not, you're losing a section of your guard bar for the rest of the round.

This means that X-ism is basically screwed. You're also kind of screwed if you happen to be meterless at the time of eating one of these. Blocking fills your super bar, so you'll eventually be able to AC once you have enough meter, but by then you'll have taken enough damage that the result is basically the same whether you AC or not. And, if the person happens to be really good at taking chunks of your guard bar away, you're going to find yourself eating Guard Crushes over and over throughout the round, each GC or AC lowering your maximum guardbar by a full segment making it easier to GC you.

Execution

2009-04-01T03:50:00.003-04:00

Just following up a thought on my previous post to clarify something.

Regarding ridiculous execution requirements. Personally, I don't feel that I should have the same APM or micromanagement execution as a top RTS player. Nor do I feel that I should have the same aim efficiency or movement efficiency as a top FPS player. And, I also feel there should be a rather large gap in execution levels between a top player and an average player in a Fighting game, just like with any other game or sport.

When you have a game with ridiculous execution requirements it lets the players with talent really shine, and also showcases their hard work and training. This also applies to sports, obviously.

Of course, when a player isn't able to execute like the top players it makes them feel inadequate and put out. But, why would we want to reward laziness and inexperience? Rather, why would we want a game where even average players can pick up a controller and do all the same things a top player does mechanically without any effort?

In my opinion, when you have a game that doesn't have a lot of absurd execution boundaries then that's just one less thing that can make a player special. It also doesn't really incite a player's natural abilities or test their limits or potential.

A game that has low execution requirements would be good training wheels into the genre for newcomers, and probably make it a better casual game than one that does not. But it isn't going to really allow talented players to thrive and push themselves to become much better through hard work and dedication, since the execution requirements for such a game would be far beneath their potential level or limit.

Sure, it makes the gap between newcomers and higher level players less wide, which makes it more fun for newcomers. But it also makes the gap between high level players, top level players, and the absolute best player just that much less as well. Which in the end, I don't think is a good thing at all.

To use the sports analogy; lowering execution in things like basketball and football would make the star players less special. And personally I don't think a person like me should be able to just walk onto the field and be able to manipulate the ball like they do without drilling any sort of execution practice. And, I feel the same way about games.

So yeah, it sucks and feels crappy when you try to execute something and fail it. But, I much rather have limitless execution potential with no boundaries so players could test the height of human ability.

After all, one of the bigger, more well-known events in the Fighting game community was Daigo's parry against Wong's Chun SA.2. It's not something just anybody could have done, and that is why we were cheering so hard.

E-Sports

2009-03-31T21:04:00.017-04:00

I'm very glad that I keep an eye on Star Craft, because I randomly find incredible gems like this interview video:
SlayerS_'BoxeR' : Emperor of Terran Lim Yo-Hwan Interview [English Sub]

Yeah, it's an interview. With one of the (if not just simply the) world's greatest StarCraft players. I highly urge anyone and everyone to view it, even if you know nothing about StarCraft. Don't worry, there's no gaming footage or crazy technical StarCraft talk.

It really makes me weep a little on the inside to hear some of the things he says. And looking at things in retrospect; Fighting Games have a long, long, long way to go.

The significance of this interview is that it points out certain things he was able to achieve. Such as actually forming a team of players within the Korean Military. As in, real life. The Korean Government's Military actually allowed him to do this, and the players play on a professional level as "Pro-Gamers" in the "Pro-Leagues" of Korea. Not only that, but his ultimate goal is to continue to strive for StarCraft being officially recognized as a legitimate sport, and possibly even added to the Olympics.

So, hearing "Olympics" is probably shocking and maybe even laughable to some people. But personally, I'm not laughing. Not after seeing the look in his eyes when he said it, and not after considering all that he's done and probably will do in the future. Not after really thinking about it either.

To be fair though, I guess I'm pretty bias. First of all, I've been keeping an eye on StarCraft for a long time. I've played it on and off casually since sometime in late '99, after Brood War was released. Be that as it may, the keyword here is "casual". I horribly suck at the game and never really had much (any) intention of improving or playing it competitively. But I still love spectating it.

And that brings me to another point: isn't that one of the key elements to a good sport? Spectators! Spectators pay money to the sponsors to watch the game, advertisers also pay the sponsors to be able to advertise to spectators during the games, and the sponsors pay the players, thus turning the players of the game into professional athletes of a sport. All thanks to the money that comes from the spectators. More spectators, more advertisers, more money from both that goes into the sponsors and players.

Plus, I have to think that if we can appreciate non-digital/electronic and non-physical games as sports such as Chess and/or various card games, why not digital ones? Really, how could one say that turning a non-physical game like Chess or Poker into a digital form would illegitimize it? And don't think things like Chess aren't recognized as sports, because they are. They may not be the main attractions, but they are still legitimate sports. And technically a game like Chess can just as well be played on a computer instead of non-digitally, which would technically already make it an e-sport.

I've also played a particular First Person Shooter game for a long time on a more competitive level than I have Fighters or RTS. And from my experience with that FPS I really feel an E-game could become an e-sport through the power of organizing and sponsoring leagues and attracting spectators. I feel that if any digital game is close to being considered a sport in the Western world; it's definitely the FPS games -- if they aren't already.

StarCraft may already be on another level though. Even in the USA the players have organized inter-collegiate leagues. This sounds an awful lot like a sport to me; colleges setting up teams and pitting them against one another during a specific season with thousands of people watching the action take place. Pretty soon we might even see jerseys and banners, who knows? Honestly I'd love to live to see the day when a kid can get offered a college tuition for doing well in a video game competitively.

Honestly though, I don't know how Fighting Games could take that next step and join the ranks of FPS and RTS Games on their march toward being classified as true Sports. Fighting games are currently going through some major transitions; with Arcades being slowly butchered and consoles and online gaming becoming more popular. Maybe the online aspect is really one of the things Fighters needed all along, since FPS and RTS certainly always had that kind of support -- even though off-line tournaments and lan-party gatherings were always stressed/preferred for true competition.

It really makes me wonder why the Fighting game community is so afraid of consoles and online play -- Is it fear of change? Fear of unknown? Do they think it will kill the tournament scene? Personally I think it could only help, not hurt. It worked for RTS and FPS. Certainly, off-line play in real-time will still always be there for actual competitive tournament play in Fighters just like RTS and FPS. But online opens up the door to a much larger player base to practice and share knowledge with across the nations, rather than skill and knowledge bases being constricted to singular arcades and small areas within the nation.

For example, with online play a player in Alaska or Oregon who might never play another human being under normal circumstances (due to distance from anyone) now has access to tons of players from all over the USA and Canada. They can practice, learn strategy and tech, and can connect with the community as a whole. They might get to play the top players on the East Coast and maybe even Japan, and learn all sorts of things. And who knows, maybe they will start attending tournaments and become a top player too, where as without netplay they would otherwise not have ever bothered to even play against another human. Simpley because they were just too far away from anyone who also plays to reasonably travel for competitive opponents, or to find out if they even liked the game.

But also, I think Fighting games also need a major breakthrough in design, one that highly stresses mind games and ridiculous skill requirements. Rather than doing the opposite, which would be stressing educated-guessing-games (reading/yomi) and catering to low-skill-requirements. Really, looking at the top level of play in RTS and FPS and comparing it to a tier or two below, it's easy to see that it isn't just their incredible minds but also their incredibly good execution that puts them above the rest of the players. And these are the players we enjoy watching, enjoy aspiring to, enjoy competing against, and enjoy idolizing.

If Fighting games keep lowering execution expectations and moving away from strategy in favor of randomness, I personally can't see them being taken seriously. How can we expect a prodigy to really max out their true potential and skill in an environment where that is totally stifled? How can we truly idolize a player who is only marginally better than the rest, instead of way above and beyond everybody? And how can we expect people to care about spectating when the best showcase of skill relies on actually less execution and less true mental battles?

What we really need are games that have tech that seems inhumanly possible, so that we can watch and be amazed as our top players actually execute them. And we really need games where players are rewarded for out-thinking the opponent rather than out-reading the opponent, so we can watch and be amazed out how genius and innovative and pioneering our top players are. And of course, we need these things so that we ourselves can also aspire to achieve these levels of play, and enjoy our struggle on our journey to the top, hopefully bringing our friends and colleagues along with us. But most of all -- though I might catch mad hate for this -- I feel we need a way for casual players to be connected with competitive players easily and cheaply, which I think netplay provides while arcades do not.

"Dead or Alive is the epitome of David Sirlin's ideal fighter, in that there is a yomi game comprised of three options and every character is equally balanced around those three choices." -Bellreisa

And we all know how we feel about DoA.

Brain Damage

2009-03-31T19:25:00.006-04:00

[misumikasi]: I recall saying that the AI was predictable and they(doujinstyle) said it's only predictable because I'm predictable.

VSav IAD Shenanigans

2009-03-24T13:30:00.004-04:00

IAD's in VSav are executed rather easily with 9 9 or 9 (5) 6.

Only a few characters IAD's in the game though. Namely: Q-Bee, Zabel, and Lei-Lei. Although Jedah does have an air dash he also has a ground-to-air dash like Morrigan, making the act of IAD'ing kind of redundant. Basically because his airdash has startup whereas his ground-to-air dash has very little initial startup (none for the dash itself). It's by no coincidence that I play the three former characters (on and off) in addition to my interests in Felicia and Lillith.

Incidentally, all four airdashes are unique, with QB's being potentially the best out of them. Not just simply because it homes in on the opponent's location, but also because it will automatically turn her around if she is facing the wrong way. Whereas Zabel's does not turn him around regardless of relative position. And Lei-lei's always makes her turn the direction of the airdash, so backwards airdash causes her to face and attack backwards. Jedah, if you were wondering, also turns around automatically from his airdash or his ground-to-air dash once again making the airdash seemingly less useful, and he oddly doesn't have a backwards airdash even though he does have a backwards ground-to-air dash.

Pretty much the entire cast of VSav has a true command throw, barring Anakaris and Lilltih whose unblockable moves aren't standard (though they do both technically have unblockable grabs). While it's arguable if Jedah's dash into command throw is useful, it's pretty blatantly useful for the other three characters, particularly for Zabel and QB who have dash momentum on their dash normals. Empty airdash or airdash with a whiffed normal is obviously good QB and arguably pretty good for Zabel and Lei-lei, though Jedah certainly wouldn't be doing much of that off an airdash in lieu of just using his j.HK or some other tick setup.

In regards to their airdashes and ground dashes, Zabel can cancel both air and ground into an attack instantly. QB's ground dash has some substantial startup time before she can dash attack, but her air dash does not. Lei-lei is the opposite where she can cancel her ground dash at any time, but her air dash has a bit of startup before she can attack.

Implementing Lei-lei's and Zabel's airdashes is really very intuitive. Some trickery that Zabel has with his involves a backwards IAD (IABD) j.down+MP for a very fast overhead that spaces him in a way that is extremely difficult to anti-air or even see coming. He's also able to cancel his airdash into his j.down+kick moves which modify the drill trajectory, making them go pretty much almost downwards very swiftly. For Lei-lei, about the only thing out of the "ordinary" she can do is IABD toward an opponent that has tech rolled under her, since again her airdash turns her the direction she's "running". Though in Lei-lei's case she can combine and empty airdash with her Senpuubu chain-swing move, which is actually fairly common practice. Such as, air dp+HP, K to cancel, airdash, air DP+P, etc.

However, in some cases Lei-lei's Senpuubu chain swing alone provides better shenanigan potential that her airdash (even though her airdash it quite good). The reason being is she gets free-action after canceling it, and the move itself can pass through the opponent even while it's hitting. Thus, she's able to cancel it and attack in the air for a swift overhead, or land and do a low attack from either the left or the right side, all very quickly. But still, utility-wise, her IAD gets plenty of use. The Senpuubu cancel mixups; not-so-much, due to the slow startup speed for the Senpuubu and it's general flakey hitbox and the fact that it's basically guard reversal bait. Though that's not to say Senpuubu isn't used at all (it's actually frequently spammed as a standard practice).

Jedah's airdash does have one other unique property: it's an attack in and of itself. However, both his ground-to-air dash and his airdash trigger the special cancel properties for his air moves. In other words, during a normal jump Jedah is unable to cancel a jumping attack into a special move, but during either types of his dashes he is able to cancel and even whiff cancel his jump attacks into specials, allowing him to do things like j.MP into scythe.

Regarding the other characters, QB and Lei-lei are able to special cancel their light air attacks only during a normal jump, and QB can also cancel her j.mids too. They're unable to chain or special cancel during an airdash. Zabel isn't able to chain during his airdash either, but he can special/super cancel at a specific height from the ground during either his normal jump or airdash but (un)fortunately his typical IAD height is too low for any of his air specials or supers.

So, back to Q-Bee.. Some of the more devious things she can do with hers are actually fairly simple. Such as IAD'ing twice in a row, empty IAD'ing into a low, crossup/no-crossup IAD from left or right -- all of which can be done after a knockdown or reset or if you float past the opponent with her jump float. Other things she can do is upback IAD a good distance away so as to use the range on her j.LK or j.MK to your advantage. Or at the same distance, to empty IAD in an attempt to bait out a poke or other reaction from the opponent -- things like upback IAD then c.MP/MK or first upback IAD then forward IAD.

Once you get in, which is pretty easy with her, you can start ticking into IAD's and alternating with staggers. Such as staggering c.LK or staggering from c.LK to c.MP c.MK or going from c.LK to IAD, among other things. QB's crouching moves mostly hit low, only her c.MK and c.HP do not. Her c.LP and c.LK are also advantageous in terms of frames, but her c.MP is not, so when using c.MP as a lot it's a good idea to chain to c.MK. Also, chickenblock airdash is surprisingly good with QB, especially checkenblock into float and then airdash.

So just as a tl;dr list for QB:
- Crossup airdash
- Float airdash (crossup or not)
- Chickenblock airdash or chickenblock float airdash
- IAD * 2, namely: IAD then up/upback IAD
- Upback IAD midrange followed by a poke or IAD or even just walk-block
- Meaty left/right (front/back) IAD
- Reset/anti-air then airdash

VSav Q-Bee notes

2009-03-24T09:07:00.016-04:00

I guess one of the main defining features about Q-Bee is her homing dash. And admittedly, it's also what makes her stupidly fun. Having an air dash that directly targets the opponent with zero recovery and almost no startup gives her some pretty ridiculous tri-jump mixups and pressure. Indeed, many have dubbed her "the Magneto" of VSav.

She does have rather outstanding normals though. Her j.MP has extremely good vertical reach and her j.LK has very good horizontal and vertical reach, both of which seem to have pretty nice hitboxes in general. For anti-airs, hers are somewhat unique. Her MK seems to be the obvious one, but it's situational like her c.HP is. From what I can tell based on my experience and observations, the MK is more effective when used early and directly under the opponent, so against really shallow/close jump-ins, reason being is her whole upper body seems to include the hitbox so it's actually able to hit directly above her. And it works because a lot of jump attacks are not able to hit directly below them. Against jumping attacks that can, however, there is her c.HP move. Even though this move can be airblocked, it's quite good as an anti-air because she crouches so low to the ground and the spikes she spits out are autonomous to her (they act like projectiles), therefor it generally wins or trades at worst.

Now, it would seem like trades aren't a good thing damage-wise, but for QB they are absolutely wonderful mixup potential. As long as you recover first (and, you will) you'll be able to IAD/low mixup and sometimes IAD/low/throw.

Amusingly though, it's almost like she was designed to be a grappler type character. She has a hit-type move that will catch/grab the opponent and is thus comboable, and she also has a command throw. In other words; a throw you can combo and an unblockable one you can't combo. The important feature to her command throw is that is has invulnerable startup, all two frames of it. The input also doesn't overlap any of her other special movies so she has the same option selects as depicted in my previous post regarding Felicia. The only difference here is that Q-Bee's HP and HK are really horrible so you're better off just negative edging (button up) the command throw input for a throw/block option select.

Q-Bee's forward dash is cancelable, so like Lei-lei she can tick into dash and cancel into command throw. But unlike Lei-lei, Q-Bee's dash retains some momentum when canceled, making her dash LP and dash LK useful tick setups since they leave you right in their face. Though (un)fortunately most of the cast can crouch under her dash LP, but because her dash LP is +8/+7 it's really quite awesome against the tall crouching characters (like Demitri, Jedah, Victor, etc). Her dashing LK is still +4/+3 though so again it's quite good at ticking to command throw or staggering into another melee attack for a melee/throw mixup. Of course, she also has the potential to tri-jump over low pokes with her instant air dash and get a command throw in that way.

So her common options are
- dash cmd throw
- dash LK cmd throw
- tick dash cmd throw
- tick IAD cmd throw.

Where "tick" is typically c.LK or c.LP c.LP (+6/+5 and +7/+6 respectively). But can be any number of her +F moves such as LP, LK, or c.MK, etc. Personally my favorite tick throw with her is dashing LK followed by a buffered negative edge (button up) O.M command throw.

Another nice thing about her command throw is that it sets up her Q.J bubble super, as it sends the opponent flying across the screen. Normally QB doesn't have many ways to set this super up except for her ES C.R, which is her hit-type grab move. Thus, the command throw provides a meter-less way to set it up in lieu of ES C.R.

An interesting side feature is that I have seen some people use the command throw to set two bubbles on the screen one after another. I've also seen a cmd throw followed by an immediate bubble followed by an intentionally whiffed pursuit attempt though this may be character specific and/or just-frame timing. The second bubble and the whiff pursuit seem rather flakey/gimmicky to me though, but I find it interesting that they are possible.

The bubble itself doesn't seem all that great at a glance, especially since you're not comboing it and it's blockable ground/air. But, with a proper setup QB is almost guaranteed at least one free mixup. If the opponent respects the bubble and blocks you can easily get at least two IAD/low mixups or even attempt a throw. If the opponent chicken blocks the bubble you can ground dash anti-air them with MK and then do a mixup as the opponent is landing, and thus you're guaranteed at least one good mixup.

If the bubble hits in the air you get some minor damage which can be stacked with a simultaneous hit for added damage. If the opponent is hit grounded they are trapped in the jelly for a short time and QB is allowed a 1-hit follow-up. So naturally her C.R or ES C.R is the obvious 1-hit followup. Though, it's also possible to combo her bees super after the bubble super, but due to it's startup and positioning requirements that combo probably won't happen too much. Certainly though, the strongest followup would be her ES Delta A divekick move, since the ES version poison's the opponent allowing for a full combo followup after the poison. But once again the startup and positioning requirements for the ES Delta A make it very unlikely to ever be used on bubble hit.

She does have a couple of useful links. Her dashing LP will link to LK, c.LP, or c.LK (3F, 2f, and 3f links respectively). Her c.HP also links to MP, c.MP, and c.MK (all 2F links). Again, the trouble with dashing LP is the height restriction, but it's a good move to keep in mind against tall crouchers. The c.HP link is also not particularly strong in comparison to her other options, but it's nifty anyway.

In fact, all her BNBs do almost the same damage.
- c.LP c.LK c.MP c.MK
- c.LP c.LK c.MK c.HK
- c.LP/c.LK C.R

Her chain ending with MK does a pixel or two more damage than the sweep combo, and her C.R combo does a few pixels less initial damage but more unrecoverable damage.

However, One of the more deadly things she can do though is:
- IAD j.whatever c.whatever ES C.R

Where "whatever" is typically IAD j.LP/LK/MP into c.LP/LK/MP into ES C.R.

Example:
- IAD j.LP c.LK ES C.R -> then okizeme Q.J

The reason this is so great isn't just because it's damaging (though it is damaging indeed), but also because it sets up her dp+2P Q.J bubble super due to the amount of time you have before the opponent gets up. However, the Q.J bubble super should never be attempted off a normal C.R, since the opponent can tech roll toward you for a free punishment. And for the same reason it shouldn't be done off a sweep or normal/air throw, especially in the case of normal throwing due to potential tech hits.

The cool thing about the chain ending with c.MK though is that her c.MK is surprisingly +5/+4, so this can lead to the meat of her pressure/stagger game. After c.MK you can use MP to tag early jump attempts on their way up, or you can do another c.MK to stagger which should stuff most normal poke attempts, or you could use a C.R which is rather safe on block and has the potential to stuff quite a lot of mid pokes. The C.R itself is also airborne so not only does it go over low attacks it will also reset QB even if she's hit out of it by a normal move, so at worst you're only getting hit by one attack as apposed to a full combo (barring supers or something). Hilariously, not only does C.R go over low attacks it will even beat out Felicia's ball roll special and super. And if you can get your opponent to really respect your options after c.MK you can IAD, which even when the opponent is being disrespectful has the potential to go over a lot of attacks and/or stuff pokes.

In general her Delta A and S-by-P moves are not good utility or combo moves. Though hilariously enough both of them give rather large hit advantage. On crouch hit the Delta A links into almost anything, though certainly c.MP c.MK is obvious. And her medium kick SxP is +13/+14 (her other two strengths also being double digits). Though the pushback from SxP makes it impossible to really do anything afterwards AFAIK.

QB's crouch is tiny. Like, extremely tiny. It's incredibly obnoxious when fighting against her for some characters. She definitely crouches under basically all standard fireballs, which is one of the things that makes Lillith vs QB pretty crappy for Lillith. Incidentally though, even though she can crouch under projectiles or IAD over them, one of the things that makes her reluctant to spam IAD's and random C.R's is actually projectiles. Slow moving ones in particular are better off chickenblocked instead of crouched under because of free-action after airblock.

In other words, after airblocking a fireball she can use her airdash, float, or combination of float/airdash and attack. Her specials and supers can be done in the air too (except her guard reversal and cmd throw of course) so she can also chickenblock into C.R as well.

Speaking of float, it's one of her anti-anti-airs. Because her normal jump j.MP is so good most anti-airs have to be done on anticipation. Thus, if you instead float you can bait some anti-airs and punish them by either ending the float or airdashing. And, one of the features to her float is that you can be pressing any upwards direction to activate it, so up+back is valid float input even when jumping forward, and thus you can optionselect airblock jumping attacks and DPs and such while floating forward. Her other anti-anti-airs are not so great, her j.HP changes her trajectory and fires off some projectile bees, which can stuff a lot of anti-airs, but it's completely vulnerable on the way down making it pretty poor. Likewise you could also use an air special move like Delta A or an air super (like the Bees super), but these are also rather punishable when they fail. Her airdash is also special cancelable so things like airdash into air C.R are possible though only marginally useful.

VSav Felicia notes

2009-03-23T22:49:00.003-04:00

Just some random notes about the character in general.

Framedata:
dash j.MP first hit +2 to +6
dash j.MP second hit +2 to +7
dash j.MK -2 to +10
dash j.HP -3 to +7
dash j.HK -3 to +7

This framedata may be slightly inaccurate though, I've been having difficulty verifying framedata with this game (in relation to the Japanese wiki). Though, it at least shows for certain that her d.MP and d.MK are a bit superior to her HP and HK regardless if the data is actually perfectly accurate or not, which is the point of listing it anyway. If the data is incorrect then it's likely to only be offset by just 1f (as seen when I compare my other data to the wiki).

Felicia's dash has 7 frames of recovery on landing, however the latter 6 frames are special/super cancelable which makes d.MP into super possible. This also can amusingly be canceled by her meter-building special move and her taunt. Though obviously canceling it into super off a well timed d.MP or d.MK is more ideal.

Felicia's c.LP into linked (not chained) c.MP is a 2F link which also allows her to hitconfirm into super or ES ball-rush. It's also possible to c.LP c.LP super/es at close range. And as said, since j.MP is a two-hit move it may be possible to hitconfirm it to super. Though it's also possible to d.MK then link into either c.MP or c.MK and then super. And I've also seen d.MP c.LP link c.MP into ES ball rush, though only the ball rush combos in this case and not her super (due to speed).

So I guess a tl;dr list of confirm into supers for her are:
- c.LP c.LP super
- c.LP link c.MP super
- d.MP super
- d.MK c.MP/c.MK super
- d.MK c.LP link c.MP ES ball

Where in all cases that super is possible the ES ball is also possible. But for the last combo, only ES ball is possible (in corner, anyway, not sure in regards to midscreen but I assume the same applies).

Felicia has a move where if she lands on your head while you are standing she will literally sit on your head. The amazing thing about this move is that it will interrupt ground-based attacks, even normally uncancelable attacks. If she attacks while in this state she will "slip" off your head with a vertical falling attack (whichever attack you used). She's also able to jump off your head in any upward direction. If the opponent performs any action after the headsit it will interrupt the head-sit and cause Felicia to rejump vertically into the air.

Doesn't sound all that great, but being able to interrupt ground-based standing anti-airs is really outstanding for one thing. But also being able to use it as a throw-bait is also rather outstanding if the opponent has a habit of attempting throws using heavy attacks. As in, if you headsit and they expected a throw attempt they may try to mash standing HP, only to whiff it and be hit by Felicia on her way down from the head-sit rejump. Alternately you can intentionally whiff a slow air normal to avoid the headsit and then do a throw or command throw on landing.

She also has a wall "grab" which she will attach herself to the wall until you release, the jump off the wall. Hilarity ensues when this move is combined with headshit.

Felicia's dp+LP, dp+LK, and dash attacks make for some pretty good tick throw setups. Her command throw allows her to buffer some negative edge (button-up) throw option selects, which is also good when combined with her close heavy attacks. Such as, buffering the command throw input and holding down the buttons during whatever action you're doing, then releasing the kick buttons one after the other to execute the command throw. If no throw occurs you don't do anything since you used button releases, but if you're in range and the opponent is throw-able then you'll attempt it. Her close HP and HK also hit very far vertically so it's also a good option select, if the opponent jumps either one has the potential to tag them out of the air, which makes them slightly more ideal for throw attempts than her mids which don't hit as high vertically. Felicia's command throw doesn't have invulnerable startup, but it's fast at only 2F startup.

This option select is entirely different from character's whose command throw inputs overlap with another special move (like Lei-lei's). Another option select that exists for these characters (like Felicia) is to take advantage of whiff canceling. Cancelable normals in VSav can be whiff canceled during startup and active hitframes, which is pretty substantial. Thus, the option select becomes to kara-cancel the attack by inputting a normal and then intentionally inputting the command throw input during the normal move's startup frames. If the opponent can't be thrown then no throw will come out and the normal move will continue to execute, and if they can be thrown then the grab will interrupt the normal move.

Felicia has two pursuit types. The universal one is her ball bounce, and she also has a down down punch pursuit which is a catscratch OTG (amusingly her rat/mouse appears when she does it).

As far as anti-airs go, I'm surprised at how effective her c.MP and c.MK are compared to her c.HP. Though her c.HP is certainly good against people with high jump arcs and crossups (like, Lillith comes to mind) it seems c.MP and c.MK are significantly more useful. I've actually had a lot of success with them against Q-bee and Sasquatch standard rushdown. The hitboxes for this game must be rather interesting. I sure would like to be able to see a number of Q-bee's moves.

Felicia's far HK actually has lower body invulnerability. It doesn't actually take her off the ground like her c.HP does, but it will go clean over a lot of low attacks like most of Q-Bee's low pokes (c.LP, c.LK, c.MP -- and c.HK for that matter, not that that's a poke). In general, I find far HK to be rather amazing against Q-Bee, along with Felicia's other good pokes such as far MK for that matter, as both moves will either beat or trade with Q-Bee's other moves. Another interesting property to her c.HP and close HK is they will both launch (reset) a grounded opponent.

Her dark force is pretty cool. It summons an assist which times it's attacks with yours, making it possible to do loops like c.LP c.LP [d.MP c.LP*3]xN, or like c.MP dp+LP [c.LP dp+LP]xN and stuff. The jump arc for the assist seems to be determined by the attack strength used. I've seen some players using the startup invulnerability during Dark Force activation to blow through laggy attacks and start combos. This could be one application. Another would be a guaranteed 50/50 off a knockdown. The recovery when DF ends is (un)fortunately pretty laggy though so it would be rather prudent to make sure and end it with some sort of knockdown that could cover the recovery. An amusing trait to her dash is that it can pass through people, and an amusing trait to her assist is that it can knock the opponent forward if hitting from behind, so in the corner she can actually use the assist to push the opponent forward and then dash through them for an interesting mixup.

Personally I'm a big fan of random super so I like the "Please help me" super, which is affectionately dubbed gang-bang super. Though, I'm even more a fan of really slow moves that are stupidly punishable and you have to be psychic to use them, so yeah I like this super even though you should never really use it in a match if/when you're playing to win. And for that matter, her ball super and ES should only ever be comboed as well, never randomed.

Aside from all that, I think Rithli said it best when he called Felicia a "neutered version of the top tiers". She basically has all the right stuff going for her, but none of it is especially ridiculous like the top tiers get. As in, things like Q-bee homing airdash and Sasquatch dash cancel and command throw bullshit and so on.

But something about her makes her rather fun and interesting to play. Be it her jump arc or absurdly good normals, there's something about her that makes her more than just a vanilla version of the top tier characters.

Vampire Savior Lei-Lei notes

2009-03-21T19:13:00.007-04:00

A) 0:01 - c.LK HK Tenraiha
B) 0:07 - c.LK c.MP Tenraiha
C) 0:13 - c.LK Tenraiha
D) 0:19 - c.LK c.LK++ Tenraiha
E) 0:25 - c.LK c.MP c.MK Tenraiha
F) 0:32 - anti-air c.HK, OTG Tenraiha
G) 0:39 - c.LK c.MP c.MK c.HP, OTG Tenraiha
H) 0:47 - blocked c.LK, dash, Houtengeki
I) 0:55 - blocked c.LK c.LK++, dash, Houtengeki
J) 1:02 - blocked c.LK, dash crossthrough, whiff c.LK, reversed Houtengeki

Tenraiha is a command super or "dial-a-super" executed by inputting LK, HK, MP, MP, Up. In Vampire Savior you're not normally able to cancel chained normals into specials or supers, the exception to that rule is the dial-a-supers like Morrigna/Lillith's Darkness Illusion, which is a Raging Demon input, or in this case Lei-Lei's Tenraiha.

Tenraiha is a fairly good super, aside from being a dial-a-super that is able to break cancel rules. The first part that looks like an anvil is an overhead. If the overhead whiffs and hits the ground it becomes a full-screen shockwave that hits low and sweeps. The spike balls that fall will fall pseudo-randomly and can hit OTG for small unrecoverable damage and substantial recoverable damage. The spikes, when blocked, will also knock the opponent around also pseudo-randomly. If the spikes happen to juggle the opponent in the air, you're sometimes able to additionally juggle with a Senpuubu.

A) Is probably the easiest way to combo into it, since you're able to hold any direction during the sequence of button inputs you can just down LK release down then HK MP MP Up for a natural combo (I'll bet intended).
B) Is basically the same principal, except that you hold down for the whole sequence and you press HK before the LK hits the opponent, skipping the HK. This bypasses the HK and goes to MP for another natural combo, though the inputs have to be done very very quickly to the point where it's almost like a kara-cancel input (as in LK~HK~MP,MP~UP).
C) This doesn't combo. But, because of the stiffness/strictness of the chain cancel window you're actually able to input the whole sequence during the LK, skipping the window for the chain cancel and doing only a LK before finally pressing Up to execute the Tenraiha.
D) Same thing but with mashed c.LK. Again it doesn't combo, but because the Tenraiha is an overhead it hits on wrongblock, which is a pretty cool way to stagger since you're able to instead do another low attack after the c.LK or go for a dash throw tick-throw attempt.
E) This one is extremely difficult to input. The game doesn't allow you to sequence-break or store inputs for the command supers, so you have to input the entire super command after pressing c.MK. Which means c.MK~LK~HK~MP,MP~Up, in other words, inputting the LK even before hitstop from the c.MP ends and the c.MK begins to execute.
F) Way easier to execute.
G) Harder to execute and slightly random, but is basically her standard BNB chain into Tenraiha OTG. It's more likely to hit if the opponent attempts to tech roll forward like they are likely to do if they were in the corner, though it's possible to get the Tenraiha to come out as soon as the c.HP hits, which makes it more likely to OTG correctly.
H) Tick into command throw. Her dash becomes invulnerable when she disappears.
I) Same thing but with a mashed c.LK for added frame advantage.
J) If you pass through the opponent a command grab attempt will normally fail, resulting in a Henkyouki (gong). But you can c.LK then input the command throw the opposite direction and grab them as soon as the c.LK recovers.

And on a somewhat related note, Rithli has set up a Mogulus stream:
http://www.mogulus.com/batmasta

And I started putting netplay casuals in a youtube playlist: here.

I'm bat mastuh.

Predictable Yomi

2009-03-17T20:20:00.007-04:00

This post is another dedication to Comic-Z.

Personally, I still believe that anything truly predictable should have a counter to it. Certainly, if you know what is coming at you then you should be able to either beat/punish it or at least avoid taking damage.

Unpredictability is really quite important, though that doesn't necessarily mean random. Rather, knowing all your options and all your opponent's options at any given time, and keeping a "poker face" on.

To use an example, let's say that character (A) is unable to anti-air character (B) from the ground (heinous) and so the best option for beating/stopping jump-in abuse is to jump vertically and go air-to-air. In this situation it's necessary to act preemptively, on anticipation.

Because you're acting on anticipation, assuming you know what the opponent will do, this is where yomi and predictability comes in. If you constantly vertical jump in order to totally prevent a jump-in attack, then your opponent will easily know what to expect and take a direct counter to it, such as dashing in and anti-airing you from the ground.

If you eventually abandon your vertical jump option because it keeps getting directly countered, you may instead start using c.MK preemptively in order to keep your opponent from dashing in like they were before.

But again, if you continually only rely on your c.MK option then your opponent will again easily know what to expect and start jumping again, which will beat/punish your c.MK attempts. You can't simply rely on one option and one option only, because the opponent won't simply abandon or give up their options, they will force you to guess whether they will jump or dash. So, if you're only trying to stop one they will just use the other. But there is no one guaranteed stop-all, because even if you find an attack that covers both options, if you use that attack predictably then the opponent will just find a way to counter that too.

This scenario would be like playing Rock-Paper-Scissors and constantly throwing out only one option (like paper) before the opponent does anything, and then until the opponent has had time to see which option you're tossing out repeatedly and counters it accordingly. In other words, you keep whiffing Paper out in the open, trying to shut down Rock, when the opponent isn't relying only on Rock and is able to cut you down with Scissors.

Hence, the "poker face", where you wait until the situation actually arrives before you reveal the option you've decided to go with. Ideally you don't want it to be easy for the opponent to read exactly what you have planned, but this isn't the same as being random. Randomly selecting from a set of three logical options based on what you believe your opponent will do is entirely different from performing completely random and illogical acts. However, educated guessing based on probability, weighing risk/reward, using reaction instead of anticipation, and option selecting when applicable can all greatly reduce the necessity of simple blind picking.

Fighting games aren't really pure RPS anyway because not all options are created equal. Some options are more rewarding and less risky than others, so being able to identify what options are better on risk/reward is a good idea.

It's also important to understand advantage and disadvantage. When the opponent connects with an attack hit/block such as a jump-in you're not put at massive frame disadvantage (assuming the jump-in was deep). This limits your options for defense, and increases the aggressor's ability to do a mixup or continue pressure. Constantly using the same option for defense is the same as the above scenario of predictable yomi.

And this is commonly where the word "respect" gets tossed around in regards to fighting games. If you don't respect the fact that you're at disadvantage and don't understand or don't respect your opponent's options you often find yourself getting smashed in the face repeatedly by things like frametraps/staggers/suki. But then again, if you're too respectful you will most likely find yourself getting steamrolled by high/low/throw mixups because you're not attempting to defend yourself. So once again, it's necessary to evaluate the situation and not be too predictable in your choice of respect or lack of respect.

Of course ideally (in a dream world) you'd always choose the correct option for any given situation every time, but the correct answer to a situation isn't always the same answer as it was the last time the situation occurred (unless your opponent always chooses the wrong answer and never learns).

RE: Top Dog

2009-03-16T13:29:00.003-04:00

Yoshinori Ono has said in an interview that he actually wanted SF4 to be slightly unbalanced in order to keep things interesting, so to speak. Personally, I think it's pretty obvious that some unbalance in games is entirely intentional. And IMO you're really just deluding yourself if you don't believe that the designers themselves would intentionally make some characters stronger/weaker than others on purpose, especially when Capcom staff has specifically said so on record. Though I'm sure he isn't the only example of this.

Why would they do this?

Because people like unbalance and character variety. Just ask the MvC2 players if they would really play a perfectly balanced and toned down Marvel game. Some people like to root for the underdog character, some people want to play the gimmicky cheesebag character, and some people just want to play the strong protagonist hero or strong antagonist bastard.

But, how do bad matchups happen and what makes them bad?

Obviously, some attacks are better than others, because not all attacks are the same. But to use a very basic example, let's say character (A) has a really shitty jump arc with crappy jump attacks while the other does not -- and character (B) has outstanding anti-airs and a really good jump arc with good jump normals. What happens here is that character (A) can't rely on jumping or they will just get anti-aired, while character (B) is free to jump in all day. That's a very clear and obvious lopsided advantage/disadvantage. You can try to compensate for the weakness of not being able to jump and not being able to anti-air, but character (A) is having to deal with that weakness by playing harder while character (B) doesn't have to deal with it.

This isn't just a hypothetical/theoretical situation though, it actually does happen in games like SF3:3rd Strike where some characters really shouldn't(don't) jump in while others certainly can (and do). It isn't limited to just jump arcs though. Other things happen like a character will have a specific move like a c.MP with a good hitbox or special move that just simply shuts down the opponents options and makes the battle much more difficult. It's really easy to see why if you simply analyze why there are some 8:2 matchups in some games when the same character can have decent/fair matchups against other characters. There's usually at least one specific thing that is highly advantageous or when put into use makes the matchup highly disadvantageous.

Well, to share an amusing but fairly accurate quote from IRC:

"japan just learns their chars. america goes for that tier list
then when they lose, the tear list happens" -DS893

And it's true. Presumably for a lot of Westerners in general. I assume it's because they like to win, but I also assume it's more than just that. I'm pretty sure most people don't want to question if they were losing because their character was crap. Imagine going to an arcade and dumping quarters into a machine, losing 10 times in a row, then later realizing you just "wasted" 5$ playing a character that had little chance of winning because it was a shitty low tier character. I don't think there's many people out there that are willing to drop down an entry fee at a tournament only to pick an obviously weak character and then have to question when you lost if it was because of the character or not.

However, I'd like to say that this doesn't really reflect how I feel personally. I tend to play whichever character I feel most comfortable playing with, because I assume that I will be playing to the best of my ability if I'm able to use the characters' strengths properly. Often, the characters that I choose aren't top tier. But, to be fair, I also generally don't pick low tier characters either and tend to drop low tier characters if I find their matchups to be too horrendous.

Throw Invulerability

2009-03-12T10:01:00.006-04:00

Just a quick couple notes.

Throw invulnerability for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure:
- 3F on wakeup
- 3F on blockstun
- 0F on hitstun
- 0F on jump startup
- 5F on landing (with 1F vulnerability on pre-invulnerability-window)

For Vampire Savior:
- 4F on wakeup
- 4~5F on blockstun (random)
- 4~5F on hitstun (random)
- inv on jump startup

For SF3, 3RD Strike:
- 7f on wakeup
- 7f on blockstun
- 7f on hitstun
- inv on jump startup
- inv on superjump startup

For SF-Alpha3:
- 3f on wakeup
- 3f on blockstun
- 3f on hitstun
- inv on jump startup (VC breaks this rule)

For Samurai Shodown 5-Special:
- 17f on wakeup
- 17f on blockstun
- 17f on hitstun
- 0f on reset (anti-air / air-to-air)
- (samsho has no jump startup, you are inv to throws and airborne on first jump frame)

For Street Fighter 4:
- 0f on wakeup
- 0f on blockstun
- 0f on hitstun
- inv on jump startup

On a random side note, Seth's Tandem Engine moves won't "grab" an opponent who is performing a wakeup jump, but the EX version will for whatever reason.