===================================
BLOODY ROAR 3 STRATEGY GUIDE v 2.4
FAQ teaches fundamental fighting strategies and tactics
===================================
Author: H2
E-mail:
[email protected]
Created: 1/8/02
Updated: 7/15/02
Suggested Reading Format: MS Word, Times New Roman, font size 12.
Disclaimer:
This FAQ is (c) 2002 Henry "H2" Huang. Bloody Roar is (c) Hudson. This FAQ
is intended for personal use only. Do not reproduce or distribute any part of
this FAQ without explicit permission from the author. To request permission,
simply e-mail me at
[email protected].
===================================
FAQ QUALITY:
-----------------------------------
In this FAQ I share my own knowledge... plus strategies and tactics given by
TOURNAMENT-WINNING JAPANESE PLAYERS. 'Nuff said.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
-----------------------------------
Before starting this FAQ, make sure you know how to DO the basic things in BR:
how to use special moves, heavy guard, beastorize, etc.
TERMS NOTE:
-----------------------------------
In this FAQ, I often refer to "attack strings." I am actually referring to
BR's "attack combinations" or "links," like P, P, P, K. To me, if a sequence of
attacks isn't guaranteed to hit, it can't be called a "combo" or "link."
===================================
*********************
TABLE OF CONTENTS
*********************
I. GAME SYSTEM THEORY & FUNDAMENTALS
= General Gameplay
= Basic Structure of a Fight *updated*
= Movement *moved, updated*
II. DEFENSE
= Standing Heavy Guard: Escape Install *moved*
= Heavy Guard Weaknesses
= Guard Escape
= Guarding Your Back
= Defense on Recovery
= Defense on Stagger
= Run Away
= Attack Reversals
III. COUNTERATTACK
= Countering After Guarding
= Low Throws After Guarding d+P/Low Attacks
= Countering After Getting Hit *updated*
= Countering After Guard Escape *updated*
= Countering After Running Away
= Learning It
IV. ATTACK
= AbG Low Attacks, Guard Breaks, and Throws
= AbA General Theory
= AbA Interrupting Attacks
= Canceling Attacks to Psyche
= Canceling Attacks Because You Don't Want Them *updated*
= Canceling Attacks to Recover Faster
= Delaying Strings
= Attacking Off of Stagger
= Attacking for Movement
= "Custom" Strings *under construction*
= Anti Guard Escape Attacks
V. JUGGLING
= Juggling
= Juggle Recovery
VI. OTHER
= Beastorizing *updated*
= Hyper Beastorizing
= Beast Drive
= Pre-fight Movement
= Getting Up *updated*
= Stages and Strategy
= Frames
VII. CHARACTER ANALYSIS
= Alice *updated*
= Bakuryu
= Busuzima
= Gado *updated*
= Jenny
= Kohryu
= Long
= Marvel (Shina) *updated*
= ShenLong *updated*
= Stun *updated*
= Uranus
= Uriko
= Xion
= Yugo
VIII. UPDATE HISTORY
IX. RESOURCES/LINKS
***************************************************
******************************************
I. GAME SYSTEM THEORY
******************************************
***************************************************
In order to understand how a BR fight flows, we must understand the general
elements involved in a fight and how they are set up in relation to one another.
We must understand the general game theory. It's not necessary to read this if
you have a basic understanding of 3D fighters.
===================================
Game System: General Gameplay
===================================
Actual BR gameplay revolves around three actions:
(attack) CAN beat (guard)
(attack) CAN beat (attack)
([guard/guard-escape] then counterattack) CAN beat (attack)
I'm not talking about RPS. I'm saying that players will attempt to deal
damage and win the fight by successfully performing one of these three actions.
The success of each action is dependent on whether it is properly executed or
not (thus I say "CAN beat" and not absolute "beats").
Let's look at each component of BR gameplay and evaluate its value and
difficulty. Please become familiar with each of the components, as I will refer
to them a lot throughout the FAQ.
-----------------------------------
(attack) beats (guard) : AbG
-----------------------------------
Refers to rushing someone down with a barrage of various attacks. Playing a
pressure game with low attacks, guard breaks, throws, attack cancels, attack
delays, etc. can help break down an opponent's defense.
-----------------------------------
(attack) beats (attack) : AbA
-----------------------------------
This refers to playing footsie; both characters moving around sticking out
attacks in attempt to hit each other and trying to get into/maintain their ideal
fighting position, trying to start an attack, whatever. Simply moving around is
also a big part of AbA.
-----------------------------------
(guard/guard escape then counterattack) beats (attack) : GbA
-----------------------------------
Guard or guard-escape your opponent's attack, then hit the enemy while they
are stuck in recovery animation, or hit them as they are starting their next
attack.
###############################
General Gameplay Summary:
###############################
BR gameplay is based on three actions:
(attack) beats (guard) : AbG
Rush down.
(attack) beats (attack) : AbA
Footsie. Fighting for position/control.
(guard/guard escape then counterattack) beats (attack) : GbA
Guard/guard escape then counterattack.
===================================
GAME SYSTEM: Basic Structure of a Fight
===================================
Now that we know the main components of a game, we can put it all together and
see how BR fights work:
When the two fighters are at distances of well over two bodies apart from each
other (a range where most attack strings will whiff), they fight using AbA to do
damage and fight for position. GbA is possible but not the focus.
There's a lot of free movement in Bloody Roar and lot of attack cancels.
You've also got quite a few characters whom, while in beast mode, can kill or
inflict severe damage off of a single error, especially on a human mode
character. So what you have in long and midrange is probably a lot of feints
with attack cancels, a lot of movement to try to bait an attack.
It depends on the players, but long range fighting usually only lasts a few
seconds before someone attempts a rush down.
When characters are about two or less bodies away from each other, they go in
and out of AbA. The fight usually ends up with one fighter attempting to rush
down (AbG) and the other fighter naturally reacting with GbA. Yugo, Uriko,
Long, and other characters who depend more on attack strings and grabs over
power hits deal the majority of their damage at this range.
Get used to the idea that you will need to make use of AbG, AbA, and GbA to
fight effectively (though the balance among these options will vary according to
your character and situation). Beginner players, in almost any fighting game,
try to fight exclusively through AbG and limited AbA.
###############################
Basic Structure of Fight Summary:
###############################
When fighters are at long distance:
AbA
Limited GbA
Often lots of baiting and feints.
Close distance:
Most of the fighting occurs at this range.
AbA
One fighter might attempt AbG while one reacts with GbA
===================================
GAME SYSTEM: Movement
===================================
-----------------------------------
3D Movement
-----------------------------------
Although I have not explored BR's 3D movement much, I'm pretty positive that
walking up or down on the Z axis does very little to dodge attacks, so it is
only a repositioning tool. I have experienced incidents of accidental attack-
sidestepping successes before, but these are rare. Note that BR: Primal Fury's
3D movement is supposedly much more effective than that in BR3's.
-----------------------------------
Dashing
-----------------------------------
Dashing is great in BR. It is very flexible and allows for a fast, edgy
combat.
The distance and speed of dashing varies from character to character. Each
character's back dash is about the same speed as his forward dash. A single
back dash travels a specific distance and has recovery time. Forward dashing
can go forever as long as you hold down forward, and will only stop and have
recovery time if you stop running or run into the opponent/wall.
However, dash recovery time is no problem:
You can cancel both forward and backward dashes at ANY time by pressing G. It
will cause you to stop your dash and instantly be ready to do something else.
So what can you do with dashing? Especially in the cases of characters with
long and fast dashes, you can dart back and forth with ease to get into a
desired position or mess up your opponent's aim. (Best thing about BR3's
dashing is that there is no longer that stupid heavy guard sound effect whenever
you cancel your dash!)
The general weakness of dashing is that you can make yourself generally
vulnerable if you dash too much. It does take a short amount of time to go from
a dash to a guard or whatever, so you can't overdo your dashing, especially in
close range combat.
Back dashing is a very useful method of getting away from attacks and
pressuring games. Jenny troubling you with the Twist (on one leg kicks)? Back
dash outta there. Don't like the pressure Uriko is putting on you with her
circle combo? Back dash outta there. And the added plus, of course, is that
you can get attacks to whiff you entirely, then use some sort of AbA attack to
hit your opponent.
The most obvious weakness of back dashing is that you are going somewhere
fast. Namely, into a corner or a wall.
Forward dashing can be used to move in fast or by surprise, but are generally
not as useful as back dashes because forward-momentum attacks are often a better
way to advance on your opponent. Characters with fast dashes can certainly do a
dash into throw... we'll talk more about that later.
A forward dash can artificially increase the distance of attacks; hit people
from ranges where they think they're safe from you. If you dash forward,
cancel, and do ShenLong's f+P (one arm swipe) he can really come in from a long
distance.
A forward dash can also be used simply to make up for the distance lost by
your back dash (to hold your position) or to counter your opponent's back dash.
eUriko wrote something like, "If one guy back dashes, and the other guy
forward dashes, the forward-dashing guy will get a run instead of a dash and he
can throw the other guy." I dunno :P (maai.html). But the point is, when the
opponent is doing too much back dashing, you can pursue them with either a
throw, a running attack, or an attack that has lots of forward momentum like a
pounce.
Naturally, dashing forward to chase a back-dasher is most effective when your
own character's dash is faster than the opposing character's dash.
###############################
Movement Summary
###############################
= Each character has unique dash speeds, distances, and recovery times.
= Dashes are instantly cancelable at any point by pressing G.
= Dashing is of course useful for fast re-positioning. You can use back dashes
to get your opponent's attacks to whiff. You can use forward dashing to sort of
enhance the range of your attacks or move in by surprise. You can also use
forward dashing to chase down someone who is back dashing.
***************************************************
******************************************
II. DEFENSE
******************************************
***************************************************
Like most 3D fighters, Bloody Roar has what I call, "Defensive Focus." All
that means is that defending in this game requires you to fall into an actively
defensive state instead of holding down-back on your controller. Due to the
effectiveness of using evasive movements and the ease/frequency of using guard
escapes, BR3 plays with more of an "active" defense than other fighting games.
Still, standing around blocking is usually where your defense starts, so let's
take a look at it.
===================================
DEFENSE: Standing Heavy Guard: Escape Install
===================================
Originally, this section was about "Defending From Standing (Neutral) Guard."
But now I almost never use standing neutral guard.
In BR, there is a way to defend against all high-mid attacks, guard breaks,
and cheaps from one easy position.
If you are a fighting newbie, a "cheap" is when you throw someone, usually as
they are guarding in anticipation of receiving your attack. This method of
throwing is not actually "cheap" or anything (especially not in today's "wimpy
throws" fighting games), the technique simply got that name as a reflection of
scrub's lack of ability to adapt to sensible tactics.
In BR, it is easy to avoid being thrown during a heavy guard. Why? You first
must realize that you can mash P+K to input a throw escape. The regular
downside to mashing P+K is that you will do a missed throw animation, leaving
you vulnerable to attack.
Enter heavy guard throw with mashed P+K. When holding G, you have no missed
throw animation. For ease of reference, I will call the process of heavy
guarding and mashing P+K "Escape Install," or EI. ("Install" is a cool word,
hehehe)
By holding G (heavy guard) and mashing P+K, you are simultaneously achieving
two great things:
1. Standing heavy guard
2. Inputting a constant throw escape
With EI, guard breaks and regular throws cannot harm you, so you have
basically eliminated two of the three major vulnerabilities of light guarding.
You are invincible to all AbG except low attacks and command throws.
In eUriko's discussion of this technique, he outlines how EI affects BR.
1. Person who uses the technique first has the advantage (take the lead, then
turtle).
2. Attacks must be chosen more carefully
3. Command throw characters move up
4. Attacking low becomes more important
The biggest part of AbG is low attacks, and they remain a solid threat against
EI. While it is easier to guard against low attacks in EI since you do not need
to consider throws and guard breaks, it is still difficult. Moreover, you can't
retaliate as effectively from an EI heavy guard as opposed to light guard,
especially since you are already busy mashing P+K.
When you are guarding low attacks, it is highly recommended that you switch to
a light guard. Against low attacks, the primary counterattack is an instant low
throw, and it comes out too slowly from a crouching heavy guard.
Also, it takes a couple of additional frames to go into heavy guard as opposed
to neutral guard.
###############################
Escape Install Summary
###############################
= "Escape Install" is the act of heavy guarding while mashing P+K.
= By holding G (heavy guard) and mashing P+K, you are simultaneously achieving
two things:
1. standing heavy guard
2. inputting a constant throw escape
===================================
DEFENSE: Heavy Guard Threats
===================================
Naturally, EI isn't perfect. It's beaten with command grabs and low attacks,
and if you want a solid EI, you might end up tiring out your thumbs by mashing
P+K too fast and too often. I'm serious.
-----------------------------------
Command Grab Throws:
hit because they can't be guarded
-----------------------------------
Command throws can be a pain. Throw ranges are short but setups are numerous.
Throw attempts can often run into an attack since attacking in close range is
frequent in BR.
To counter a command grab you can crouch or jab like in Virtua Fighter/Tekken
(unless you're against Marvel and her low command grab). Crouching is okay as
long as you don't crouch too early; your opponent can very easily switch to a
low throw by pressing df+P+K instead of f+P+K.
The best solution against command grabs is to stay out of throw range. Use a
backwards walking heavy guard or back dash to get distance. Keep the opponent
out by sticking out attacks. You can of course, anticipate the command throw
and reverse it just by counter-throwing or attacking (but the less guesswork,
the better, right?).
Of special notice are Stun's chain throws (HCB+P+K and QCF+P+K). If you get
caught by either throw, you can escape the next stage of the throw by pressing
P+K just before you receive damage from the current portion of the throw. So
for Stun's HCB+P+K, you can escape by pressing P+K right before Stun slams you
into the ground with his leg grab. If you miss that escape point, you can
escape the third part of the throw by pressing P+K right before Stun slams you
into the ground for a second time.
-----------------------------------
Low Attacks:
hit because they require you to low guard
-----------------------------------
Low attacks are the most annoying form of AbG. The are usually used in close
range fighting, mixed in the rest of an offensive plan. In order to properly
guard low attacks in BR, you need to recognize the attacks before they hit;
don't guess. You should also know when attack strings can go low. Luckily,
many strings follow a basic pattern of high/mid and low hitting, and most
characters mainly stick to certain patterns. Low, low. High low. Etc.
If low attacks seem too difficult to guard to you, here's a solution you'll
like: stop guarding them!! Yes, I am saying you should take a few low nicks
every once and a while, but I am also saying that you can use other methods
besides guarding to deal with low attacks. Like the aforementioned backwards
movement, or guard escaping.
-----------------------------------
Thumb Stamina
-----------------------------------
There are some very human disadvantages to Escape Install. You need to mash
P+K fast with your right thumb. If you don't mash P+K/triangle button fast
enough, it's like a swiss cheese throw defense; full of holes. Problem is,
mashing fast will not only tire out your thumb, it will also slow your ability
to hit any other buttons with your right hand.
Solutions? For one, you should only EI when you're under the possible threat
of being thrown. You don't need to EI when a slow character is three bodies
away from you because he can't suddenly grab you at that range.
###############################
Heavy Guard Threats:
###############################
= The three threats to standing heavy guard are:
command throws
low attacks
thumb stamina of the player
= Deal with command throws by staying out of throw distance, or anticipating
them and reversing them with counter-throws or an attack.
===================================
DEFENSE: Guard Escape
===================================
Guard escaping is one of the coolest and most exciting features of Bloody
Roar. Right now, we will look at guard escaping without considering the
specifics of what you do afterwards.
-----------------------------------
General Properties of Guard Escape and Differences From Earlier BR's
-----------------------------------
This is for anyone who is coming from BR1 or 2. Guard escapes have been
overall improved for gameplay. Guard escapes occur very quickly, and if you
don't attack after guard escaping your escape won't even disrupt your opponent's
attacks.
This, combined with the general lack of ground combos in BR (everyone can
theoretically keep going back and forth guard escaping each other every two or
three attacks because most attacks don't combo), gives BR fights a flowing,
natural feeling. I think it is truly much better than the "back and forth, I
attack and you sit there and guard" feeling in many fighting games. That is not
to say you can't get trapped guarding in BR, or stuck in a corner, but it is
much more psychological then technical. And indeed, you will see later that the
means of creating non-technical traps is pretty high in Bloody Roar.
Guard escapes are now much, much safer and easier to do and soooo versatile.
It's one-size-fits-all since f+G will guard escape low attacks and guard breaks
now. You also don't need to be light-guarding to guard escape. You can do it
at any relevant distance when your opponent is attacking. You can do it anytime
you're not attacking, running, or in some sort of hit stun. So you can walk
forward and guard escape. You can jump and guard escape. You can even do a
back dash, cancel it immediately, then immediately guard escape. Very useful.
At the same time ground-based guard escapes offer significantly less reward
since rather than sidestepping your enemy (causing them to whiff off to nowhere
if they're doing a string) you stay, horizontally speaking, in the same place
(sometimes you hop over low attacks so you can have vertical movement). If you
guard escaped part of an attack string, the next attack in the string can still
hit you.
This means that the counterattack situation in BR3 is opposite of that in BR2
and 1; you can now get much better counterattacks off of guard escaping single
hit slow attacks than fast strings.
On the plus side, you can guard escape into pretty much anything that isn't a
f,f attack. You can guard escape into a back dash, a throw, a jump... even a
taunt if you have one.
Guard escaping is a very powerful technique in BR and learning it is as
significant as learning how to guard or beastorize. Make sure you can do it and
do it well.
-----------------------------------
Basic Uses of Guard Escape
-----------------------------------
1. Can offer you a large counterattack window against slow attacks.
2. Gives you an opportunity to interrupt strings and go on offense.
3. Can be used as a general "cover" against opponent's attacks, like when you
are recovering from your own attacks or walking forward.
4. Makes opponent more hesitant to attack.
5. Can be used to handle low attacks, since no high/low judgement is needed.
6. Against some characters, it can be used as a universal reaction to their
attack mix ups (guard escape handles both Jenny's un-blockable BD and her strike
BD).
7. Can get you out of juggles
-----------------------------------
What to Guard Escape
-----------------------------------
What do you want to guard escape? Anything that'll let you go on offense.
Even better, you want to guard escape anything that lets you pull off a phat
counterattack. That's pretty vague, hunh?
"Slow Attacks"
Guard escape all attacks that have either slow recovery or have slow start up
and moderate/slow recovery. Guard breaks are slow. Some characters have slow
attack strings that you should guard escape: Gado, Marvel, Xion, and Stun
(against faster characters, AbA is usually better). Circle combo characters are
sort of in the middle of the pack in terms of speed, and quite logically, you
use a combination of AbA and guard escapes to beat them.
"Find Constant Guard Escape Points"
There are usually ideal points to guard escape a string. At the same time,
they are usually many BAD places to guard escape where you will probably just
end up getting hit if you try to counterattack afterwards. Almost all non-
cancelable string finishers are an ideal guard escape targets since most have
slow recovery. Otherwise, guard escape the attack right BEFORE any slow-startup
attack.
Usually if you have a stabilized point in a string to guard escape (like on a
specific attack), then you will be able to guard escape quite naturally and
consistently. The earlier the guard escape, the better, since you do not know
if your opponent is going to do the entire string.
Of course, if you start guard escaping at the same point, you can be baited
into guard escaping, so it is a double-edged sword... as it should be. I leave
true the details of handling guard escapes to you.
"Guard escaping after release or recovery"
A very standard fighting game strategy. After trapping or putting a lot of
heat on your opponent. You stop. If they do the predictable thing and
immediately try to attack you (the equivalent of someone trying to jump or DP
their way out of a corner in SF), you just guard escape them and continue
putting on the pressure again.
"If you don't know how to handle it, guard escape it!"
Well, I'm not quite serious. But if I don't know how to guard a string or
deal with an attack, I just guard escape it. Example? Bakuryu's f,b+P/K (up
the string run). Bakuryu can do different things after running up that string.
Guard escape is a universal solution to whatever he does.
"Moving guard escapes"
I will discuss the uses of this in another section.
-----------------------------------
Executing and Timing Guard Escape
-----------------------------------
Now that you sort of know what to guard escape, let's talk about timing. If
you time your guard escape too early, you can be hit by attacks even after guard
escaping. This is especially true when you guard escape certain multi-hit
attacks, like Gado/Marvel quick one-legged kicks (f+K strings) or attacks that
can be canceled into command attacks. In general, when your opponent has the
"potential" of doing an attack that is hard to guard escape or hard to
counterattack after guard escaping, you obviously want to handle the attack with
some other method.
Whenever you are guard escaping fast attacks either from a guard or just from
standing position, press and hold G, then immediately press f. This way, if you
mess up, you just get a heavy guard. But if you mess up, don't bother pressing
G+f again, because there is a split second of "no guard escape time" (12 frames)
every time you mess up.
XXXXX
5/26/02: Correction. Pressing G then f will only give you a heavy guard
animation, but the guard itself actually won't function if you keep holding
forward. So though it might look like you are heavy guarding, any attack will
break through your heavy guard as long as you keep pressing forward. The
technique is still not useless, because it gives you a split second of heavy
guard before the actual guard escape.
I apologize for not realizing this sooner. Although, I think e was the one
who promoted this method of guard escape! (There's always someone to blame,
isn't there?) :P
XXXXX
You can also guard escape simply by VERY quickly pressing b, f or db, d, df
because the b and db motions register as heavy guards. Unfortunately, since the
motions must be done so quickly, they are much harder to do than the G guard
escape and I consider them worthless. On the positive side, some times this
method of guard escape accidentally comes out when your opponent is attacking
your back and you are trying to turn around.
###############################
Guard Escape Summary
###############################
= Basic Uses of Guard Escape
1. Can offer you a large counterattack window against slow attacks.
2. Gives you an opportunity to interrupt strings and go on offense.
3. Can be used as a general "cover" against opponent's attacks, like when you
are recovering from your own attacks or walking forward.
4. Makes opponent more hesitant to attack.
5. Can be used to handle low attacks, since no high/low judgement is needed.
6. Against some characters, it can be used as a universal reaction to their
attack mix ups (guard escape handles both Jenny's un-blockable BD and her strike
BD).
7. Can get you out of juggles
= Good things to guard escape are
1. All slow-startup moderate/slow recovery attacks, slow recovery attacks.
2. Slow points in attack strings. Guard escape attacks that lead into slow-
startup attacks.
3. Specific attack points that you recognize.
4. Attacks that come as you release the pressure from your opponent or
recovering from your own attack.
5. Attacks you don't know how to guard
6. Attacks that come as you are moving around.
= Guard escape a string or initial fast attacks by holding G and quickly
pressing f.
===================================
DEFENSE: Guarding Your Back
===================================
It is absolutely critical that you are able to defend yourself when your
opponent is facing your back. That is, assuming they have the initiative to
attack. You have four major defensive options in this situation:
1. Beastorize
Let the invincibility and push-out effect save you.
2. Run away from or evade your opponent
Do a forward momentum attack (Long QCF+P hopping punch), run, jump, lie down.
All of these are viable options that can save you. After running away, a
regular turn around is usually okay. It is recommended that you run if you have
already have some distance between you and your opponent.
3. Guard Escape
If you do it right, you turn around instantly with your dodge animation.
Though guard escaping with your back turned might sound daunting, it is a very
good option and not that hard. If you mess it up you might end up with our next
choice. Remember that you must guard escape in the direction you are facing,
not towards the direction of the opponent.
4. Hit G as you are hit from behind.
This will automatically turn you around with heavy guard. This is only
effective as you're being hit, so if the first back attack you receive is Gado's
QCB+P (Fire! Punch)... then you're probably dead. I will often opt for the G
turn around when I mess up a guard escape attempt.
5. Attack
In this case, attacking is purely for defense. Turn-around attacks are pretty
quick, though an obvious attack is often guard escaped and countered. Attacking
for defense is not highly recommended unless you anticipate a back throw
attempt. The majority of turn-around attacks are obvious, single-hits that are
easy for the opponent to guard escape/block and counter.
###############################
Guarding Your Back Summary
###############################
= Move away with runs, jumps, or attacks if you have distance between your
opponent.
= Guard escape if you are already in prime attack range. If you mess up your
guard escape, try holding G and you will automatically turn around as you are
getting hit.
= If you anticipate a back throw, use a turn around attack.
===================================
DEFENSE: Defense on Recovery
===================================
-----------------------------------
Defense When Recovering From Your Attack
-----------------------------------
Realize that all of your attacks have recovery times, and during this time you
can get hit if your attack whiffed/was guarded/was guard escaped.
The only defensive measure you can take while recovering, particularly while
in a slow recovery, is to mash P+K for throw escape. Learn to do this
automatically and naturally for as many points as you can. Especially learn to
do it after slow recovery attacks or attack strings that you are purposely
stopping.
Let us consider your options as soon as you have recovered and are able to
move again. In order from most dependable to least, you should consider these
options to protect yourself when your opponent is likely to attempt a
counterattack.
1. Beastorize
2. Guard escape
3. Guard
4. Guard attack
5. Lie down
6. A quick attack like d+P
If you look at those options, four of them deal damage to your opponent. Two
of them, LD and guard escape, can easily lead to large damage. Hence, I feel
these two options should be used more frequently than the others. You can use
attacks with fast recovery times as bait for the enemy to attack and then
counterattack a guard escape or lie down. But since this is the "Defense"
chapter I'll shut up now.
-----------------------------------
Defense When Landing
-----------------------------------
When a player is landing from a juggle, the natural tendency is for him to
drop into defense, right? Hold G and EI. It makes sense, because his opponent
has the current attack advantage; if he tries to attack he'll get countered.
This is a common scenario in a number of fighting games so lets think about
it. If your opponent is any good, he knows that you probably want to stand
there and defend after landing. In other fighting games, that would mean he
would throw you. In BR, it means he will command grab you or hit you with low
attacks.
I just want you to be aware of that, because dealing with it is all mind
games. Stay sharp.
===================================
DEFENSE: Defense on Stagger
===================================
Like most 3D games, you can recover from being staggered and guard your
opponent's follow up attack. You definitely won't be able to recover from all
staggers, but hey, the more the better right? And you should definitely learn
to recover from frequently used staggers.
One way to recover quickly is to simply rotate the directional pad around
(touching all four points) and then press G to guard the opponent's stagger
follow up attack. Only one rotation of the directional pad is needed to recover
from most staggers (Busuzima is the only character I know who has "power
staggers" that require more than one rotation to escape). You can also just
shake the directional pad or press buttons but that might result in accidental
release of an attack. You do not need to input that many button presses to
recover from a stagger. It is just a matter of recognizing you have been
staggered and acting immediately.
I suggest you go into EI after recovering, but in many cases you'll even have
enough time to guard escape the follow up attack and make an awesome
counterattack. Sometimes recovering into a guard escape is your only
intelligent option, like if you are staggered from behind and thus cannot guard
anything.
If, for whatever reason, you anticipate the opponent's stagger follow up to be
a low attack, you can just rotate the directional pad on the bottom directions
(df, d, db) before guarding.
###############################
Defense on Stagger Summary
###############################
= To recover from stagger, rotate the directional pad once. For Busuzima's
staggers, mash wildly to recover.
= After recovering from stagger, going into EI is recommended, but actions like
a guard escape are also possible.
===================================
DEFENSE: Run Away
===================================
This is sort of defense, but not really. By "run away" I simply mean you make
an effort to avoid contact with your opponent by moving out of their range of
attack. The best defense against super beasts is certainly running away, and
when being rushed down, you might just want to run away.
Running away has some solid benefits:
1. You are avoiding conflict with your enemy.
2. If you are in beast mode, you can regain life while running away.
3. You can get counterattack opportunities.
4. You can get some temporary breathing space.
And the down side of running away:
1. You are avoiding conflict with your enemy.
2. Running away usually has a moderate-high risk of getting hit.
Pretty self explanatory, I hope. I'll just explain reason #1: "avoiding
conflict." If you're behind in life and the clock is ticking, you probably need
to go on the offensive in a fight unless you can get that life back at the last
minute through a beast drive. That's when avoiding conflict is bad since you
have to deal damage. But if you have plenty of time left, or are against a
super beast, then avoiding conflict can be good.
-----------------------------------
General Run Away
-----------------------------------
As mentioned in the Movement section, a regular back dash or backwards walk
away from your opponent can also provide you with some space. It is a vital
tactic against some characters.
If you are in beast mode and have exceptional jumping ability, you can run
away simply by jumping around. You can guard or guard escape anything that
threatens you while you're in the air.
If you have some space and some daring, you can use a move that leaves you
with your back turned (like Stun f, f+K step forward kick) and then immediately
run like a monkey. This is especially good for Bakuryu/Kohryu in beast form,
since he's got that zippity-zip back turned run (d+B).
Less common is using moves that leave you on your back. When you are on the
ground, not only are you invulnerable to everything except ground attacks (plus
a few low pecks), but you can also roll off to wherever you want. In BR2, Stun
u+K (flip over kick land on back), was a key part of his overall runaway
strategy (Stun is no longer a run away character in BR3).
Finally, some moves/attacks automatically create distance between you and your
opponent. Alice d, u+K (backward flip) is an example.
-----------------------------------
Running Away From/Avoiding Attack Strings
-----------------------------------
The most realistic way of running away from a rush down is to back dash or
walk back before it even hits you. Some players like to start up an attack
string at a whiffing distance and use the forward momentum of the string to
approach you. You can simply back dash while they are whiffing and possibly
attack them as they continue whiffing towards you.
To run away in the middle of a rush down, guard/guard escape some of the
attacks and then back dash during an opening. Or you can just start walking
backwards.
Note that the effectiveness of running away from a string depends on the speed
of your own character's back dash and the forward momentum of the opponent's
attack string. Yugo often rushes forward with his attack, so it is quite futile
to try back dashing away from him while he's attacking. In contrast, Jenny is
very immobile while in her QCF+P (on one leg kicks) so it is quite effective to
move away from her if you find an opening.
If you are in beast form you can also jump straight up as the attack string
begins, or I suppose you could jump in the middle of the string if it is slow.
In the finals of the second Alpha Station Tourney (see Links), immediately as
the last round began, Thermo (Alice) jumped straight up over eUriko's Circle
Combo. Thermo landed with a clear shot at eUriko's back so he busted out a
stagger hit into wall juggle for an awesome 95% damage!
###############################
Run Away Summary
###############################
Benefits:
Avoiding conflict
Regain life in beast mode
Breathing space
Counterattack opportunities
Demerits:
Avoiding conflict
Risk of getting hit
= For general run away, you can jump, turn your back and run, fall on the ground
and roll, move backwards by dashing or walking, or use a move that creates
distance between you and your opponent.
= To "run away" from whiffed strings, you can back dash or walk away before the
string connects. The effectiveness of this tactic depends on how fast your
character can back dash and the forward momentum of your opponent's attack
string.
= To run away in the middle of guarding an attack string, you can guard/guard
escape then back dash or just walk backwards.
= You can jump straight up (in beast) before a string begins.
===================================
DEFENSE: Attack Reversals
===================================
Few characters possess attack reversals, or even prominent attack reversals;
but they still deserve a quick mention.
You can use them while guarding a string, recovering from your own attack...
just anytime you anticipate a normal attack from the opponent.
The real thing I want to point out is that attack reversals tend to have
delayed reversal attack time.
For example, Marvel can do QCFx2 +B (beast drive attack reversal) AFTER
guarding certain attacks, like low slides (Thermo, naganuke.html). Man, it's
crazy. I hate that beast drive!! :P
One good way for Stun to use his attack reversal is to simply do it AFTER he
has light guarded an attack, because the reversal will still come out on slow
single hit attacks. If the attack is too fast to get reversed, it is usually an
attack in a string, so the following attack in the string will get reversed.
###############################
Attack Reversals Summary
###############################
= You can do attack reversals AFTER guarding and still have the reversal come
out.
***************************************************
******************************************
III. COUNTERATTACK
******************************************
***************************************************
This is it. If you have great retaliation skill then you are on your way to
becoming a great BR player. If you are not hitting your opponents when they are
recovering it is like giving them free energy or allowing them to stay in
control and abuse your puny behind.
You must have your counterattacks down pat to make sure people can't trap you.
Even if you're backed into the wall, a character with good traps can't
technically lock you down for more than a couple of hits, but there's little
push-out effect for guarding in this game, or rather, most attacks rush forward
and go past any push out effects. So if you don't know how to quickly identify
openings and counterattack, then your opponent will be in your face forever.
While it is impossible to take advantage of every single retaliation
opportunity, cashing in on as many counterattack opportunities as possible will
help your game greatly.
A lot of people don't effectively counterattack in any fighting games. In
modern Street Fighter, how many players out there are going to hit you with a
level three super after blocking your close-up Hadouken or c.HK? Why do scrubs
fear Tekken's Eddy Gordo? They have no idea how to counterattack him during his
gazillion openings.
In BR, many matches are won on counterattacks that lead to mega juggles or big
hits. *it's breath taking*
===================================
COUNTERATTACK: Countering After Guarding
===================================
Counterattacking is a big part of 3D fighters that leads many of people to
start counting frames like monkeys. Countering after guarding has lost much
of its prominence in BR3 due to the superiority of the new guard escape, but it
is still useful. There are two things you want to know to counter after
guarding. You have to know what you can counter with and you have to execute
your counter.
Remember a single-hit attack loses its ability to hit you as soon as you guard
it. Well, actually the attack window can last 1 frame or 2 frames, or maybe
even 6 frames... but those are all undetectable by human reaction.
It's probably better to try to use "easy" counterattacks. If you low guard
something with Long, just roll your left thumb up to f and press K to
counterattack with QCF+K. Very convenient, very easy. Make sure you take
advantage of buffering motions, too. So if you are using Gado and you want to
f,f+K (rising knee) after guarding, input the f,f motion while you are still
guarding. Release G and press K as soon as the attack has hit. Then the f,f+K
can come out as an immediate counterattack.
Also recognize that many attacks lose their hit ability before they have
noticeably retracted. Gado's QCB+P ("Fire!" punch) is an example. If it
whiffs, do not wait for Gado's arm to start retracting to start your
counterattack. You can attack a moment after Gado's arm has shot out
(obviously, know the exact timing and distance of QCB+P... or you will just run
into it! ).
And of course it's useless to have good timing if you don't have a good
counterattack.
Although you can use some general rules to determine the specific move you use
to counterattack, maximizing your retaliation abilities will require that you
recognize specific attacks and know how to retaliate against them.
I will provide a few general solutions based on the opponent's position and
the recovery speed of his attack.
All of these assume you have just light guarded an attack or heavy guarded a
guard break.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OPPONENT: in standing slow recovery right next to you or within half body away
EX: Gado running P (shoulder tackle); Long d, d +P (Bruce Lee punches circle
combo finisher); power attacks done at close range (Gado QCF + P); getting up K
(universal forward flip kick); something air borne (Alice QCF+P twirly jump);
most Beast Drives
-----------------------------------
YOU: throw, powerful strike/launcher attack (Alice QCF + B), pounce attack
(Gado/Marvel QCF+B), rushing strike (Yugo/Bakuryu QCF+B), quick strike Beast
Drive (Bakuryu, Yugo, Alice, etc), combo string (Bakuryu f, f+K...), drop kick
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OPPONENT: standing in moderate length recovery right next to you or within half
body away
EX: Long b+K (two hit pop kick circle combo finisher); Bakuryu b+B (quick
downward slash); string finishers like Xion Px5
-----------------------------------
YOU: pounce attack, rush strike, quick-start combo string (Gado P, P, f+P),
throw
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OPPONENT: standing slow recovery at two to three bodies away
EX: complete whiff of some sort of power hit move, like Gado/Marvel QCB + B;
Yugo QCB + K (flip kick); of a whiffed guard attack (Bakuryu QCB + P)
-----------------------------------
YOU: run forward cancel into throw, run into long range strike attack (Stun QCF
+ K), pounce attack, rushing strike, running attack (Alice running B launcher
kick), forward hopping drop kick (uf, f+K)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OPPONENT: crouching or "lying down" slow to moderate recovery right next to
you or closer than half body away
EX: Long db+P, db+K or f, f+K (sweep kick); Marvel d+B (low slash) or missed
ground d+P (elbow drop); Alice/Jenny db+K (two-legged sweep), Bakuryu P, P, d+K
(punch into low kick); Busuzima d + B, B (low head butt); Stun d, d, B (low
rush); running low attacks (slide attacks); some of Uriko's attacks; most
character's d+P low jab
-----------------------------------
YOU: low throw, quick mid attack (Long df + P, P and many df attacks)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OPPONENT: turned around crouching after an attack
EX: Bakuryu, Jenny turning around punches
-----------------------------------
YOU: quick mid attack Gado B, B (slashes); low throw
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
-----------------------------------
Counterattacking While Guarding in the Middle of an Attack String
-----------------------------------
If you looked carefully at the examples of "attacks that you can counterattack
after guarding" that I've given, you'll notice they're mostly special moves,
string finishers, or single hit attacks. It is possible to counterattack
someone in the middle of guarding their strings too.
It is not quite the same as interrupting the string (which is discussed in the
Attack section), because the purpose is to hit the opponent as they are
recovering from an attack. Counterattacking in the middle of a string is pretty
limited, but can be very awesome.
For example, if you light guard the start of Busuzima P, P... string (arm
swing punches); you can back throw him immediately as he is recovering from his
second P (assuming he doesn't cancel the recovery time of the P with a command
attack). This can be done regardless if Busuzima tries to continue the string
or not, because you are hitting him in his recovery.
###############################
Countering After Guarding Attacks Summary:
###############################
= When timing a counterattack, realize that you are free to move as soon as a
single-hit attack has made contact with your guard.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
= Fast mid attacks with forward momentum, like pounces or rushing strikes, work
very well as general-purpose counterattacks.
= It can be more effective and easier to use a combo string counterattack if the
enemy's recovery is fast.
= Throws are generally great for counterattacking even though they can be
escaped. If your opponent isn't escaping throws, it should probably be your
first choice of counterattack.
= For counterattacking low attacks, a low throw or fast mid attack are your best
options.
= Retaliation: You can buffer QCF; QCB; f, b; b, f motions from a heavy guard.
= In rare instances, it is possible to counterattack an opponent (hit them
during their recovery) in the middle of guarding their attack string.
===================================
COUNTERATTACK: Low Throws After Guarding d+P/Low Attacks
===================================
A subsection of counterattacking after guarding that deserves its own section.
Of great interest to me is the ability to low throw someone after guarding
their d+P/any other single-hit low attack (you know how pesky those low attacks
are!) In many situations, you can throw someone after guarding their low
attack.
To low throw after guarding:
1. Guard the low attack. Light guard is highly recommended.*
2. Press and hold df or db.
3. Then quickly press P+K (do not try to press df and P+K at the same time).
*Against some low attacks, you can even get hit by the attack and still have
enough time to low throw.
Like with all counterattacks, counterattacking immediately is of the essence.
You REALLY REALLY should learn how to do a low throw counterattack. Since
throws are instant, they can punish some attacks that might otherwise have been
very safe for the opponent to do, like the aforementioned d+P.
Here are some of the factors that determine how effectively your character can
counterattack low throw another character:
1. Throw range
2. Size of opponent
3. Distance from opponent
4. Foot position
5. Against the wall
1. Throw range
Speaks for itself. Throw range is pretty much relative to the size of the
character. I did some brief testing to see who could throw Long after guarding
his d+P and how close they needed to be to do it, and I'm pretty sure throw
ranges go like this:
Long range: Gado, Stun, Kohryu
Mid range: Alice, Busuzima, Long, Marvel, Xion, Yugo
Short range: Bakuryu, Jenny, ShenLong, Uriko
It is really only the short range characters who experience a lot of trouble
throwing after guarding low attacks.
2. Size of opponent
Smaller characters are much harder to throw than larger ones. Most characters
should be relatively easy to throw, but Bakuryu and especially Uriko are very
hard to throw after guarding their low attacks because they are too small in
horizontal width.
3. Distance from opponent
Duh. Unless it is a large character against another large character, most
counterattack low throws can only be done when you are near/next to your
opponent. Taking note of this range is usually irrelevant, since characters
generally have to get in your throw range just for their d+P to connect.
4. Foot position
This is weird, if not irrelevant. I thought foot position was a Virtua
Fighter only kind of thing. What is foot position? It basically means which
foot forward your character is standing with. Look at my vague diagram:
Key:
Baku's two feet: x x
Stun's two feet: y y
Bakuryu and Stun can stand facing each other in two different ways.
x_y
_x_y
Closed stance
x___y
_x_y_
Open stance
In closed stance, Bakuryu can throw Stun after guarding Stun's d+P if they are
right next to each other, but not in open stance because Stun is too far away.
Various characters have different methods of changing their footing position.
Jenny can walk (er... strut), and every time she steps forward she changes from
closed stance to open stance. For characters who don't strut like Jenny, you
can usually change foot position by doing a drop kick (u, f+K).
If you don't get any of this, don't be concerned. Foot position is a very
subtle factor in low throws, but it does make the difference as to whether a mid
range character can low throw a small character like Bakuryu, or whether a short
throw range character can throw a large character, like Stun. But since these
situations are too difficult to evaluate in game, they should not be regarded as
realistic throw opportunities.
5. Against the wall
If the opponent is against the wall, he doesn't get pushed back when you guard
his d+P because he is at the wall. This can let middle range characters throw
small characters.
-----------------------------------
Throw Ability Conclusion
-----------------------------------
If we put all these factors together, the basic equation is this:
Long-range characters can easily low-throw counterattack large and medium-
sized characters and can sometimes throw counterattack small characters.
Medium-range characters can throw large characters easily and do fine throwing
medium-sized characters. They shouldn't try to throw small characters.
Short-range characters can occasionally throw large characters but probably
shouldn't try.
###############################
Low Throws After Guarding d+P/Low Attacks Summary:
###############################
= After light guarding d+P or a single-hit low attack, press/hold df, then
quickly press P+K to low throw. Sometimes you can get hit by the attack and
still manage to throw.
= The ability to low throw as a counterattack mainly depends on the throw range
of the character and the size of the opponent.
===================================
COUNTERATTACK: Countering After Getting Hit
===================================
Get hit by an attack that doesn't cause much hit stun and has moderate
recovery time, then attack the opponent. Throw is probably the best choice
since throws come out instantly.
Throwing after getting hit is pretty much as situational as it is technical.
You don't need to know that you have a good chance of throwing someone after
getting hit; you can just see them standing there and think, "Hey, I think I'll
go for a throw now." If you just got hit and weren't staggered/knocked down,
and your opponent is right next to you recovering, throw that sucker.
Bakuryu/Kohryu f,f+P (dash punch), ShenLong db+P (two fisted punch), Alice f,f+P
(dash low punch) etc.
This theory can also be applied to any delays or stops in attack strings. If
someone hits you with P,P and you think they're stopping at that point, just
grab them or hit them.
Aside from throws, you can also use regular attacks to counterattack after
getting hit, but they usually have to be fast.
From my own testing, I estimate that getting hit by an attack with regular hit
properties puts you in a 16 frame hit reel. Let's take the hit reel frames (16)
and add on the frames of a fast counterattack after guarding, say, an 8 frame
jab. It sums up to 24 frames. So basically, if you get hit by any regular
attack that has more than 24~25 frames of recovery, then you can counterattack
with a jab after getting hit (assuming you are in hitting distance).
Of course, human reaction time will hamper your efforts to counterattack after
getting hit, because the timing is general pretty tight and counterattack
options are limited. Also, remember that it's usually only the last attack used
in a string that has any significant recovery time. A single P might have 20
frames of recovery time, but when used in P,P;; the first P might have no
recovery time in between the second P. I'm not certain about the frame-count
specifics, though. I only know that the recovery time for attacks is much
shorter when used as part of a string.
===================================
COUNTERATTACK: Countering After Guard Escape
===================================
-----------------------------------
Single Attacks, Strings, etc.
-----------------------------------
Counterattacking after guard escaping basically serves one of two purposes.
1. To stop whatever the opponent is doing.
2. To connect a powerful attack that would otherwise be too slow to connect.
If you guard escape a single-hit attack with moderate to slow recovery, you
counterattack as you would after guarding a slow recovery attack. That usually
means pounces, momentum attacks, and launchers.
After guard escaping a point in a normal string, your counterattack options
are usually limited to using a fast attack. For most characters, guard escaping
and starting an offensive with P, P, P or d+P is fine.
It depends on how fast your character is and how fast your opponent is. You
will not be able to guard escape and counter Bakuryu/Uriko P, P, P; most of Yugo
rushes, or Jenny Twist (on one leg multiple kicks) because there is so little
space in between the attacks (those must be beaten with AbA).
If you guard escape slow strings like Xion and Gado's strings or circle
combos, you can try to interrupt with a more damaging fast attack or a throw.
If you escape early in the string (which is what you should do), try to use an
attack that will stagger on counter hit, like Alice f+B (step punch), so you can
follow up with something big.
-----------------------------------
Timing
-----------------------------------
Just like timing your counterattack after guarding, it is of the utmost
importance to be able to cancel out of your guard escape animation immediately
with an attack/throw. Attacking immediately will allow you to interrupt strings
with slower, more powerful attacks.
Naturally, you won't want to attack immediately if an attack has not whiffed
through you yet because you will simply get hit. There is supposedly a four
frame (insignificant... around 1/6 of a second) delay before the attack comes
out if you cancel it from a guard escape (Arcadia Magazine).
Also, another time to delay your counterattack is if you are going for a
counter hit in the middle of a string.
-----------------------------------
df Guard Escape
-----------------------------------
In addition to f+G to guard escape, you can also guard escape by pressing
df+G. Pressing df was actually the best way to ground guard escape in previous
BR's, for uncertain reasons. Anyway, df+G is useful if you want to
counterattack with a df attack or want to crouch down.
But wait, there's more uses for df+G. You automatically buffer f, b attacks
whenever you do a regular guard escape. Sometimes you don't want this. If you
are Marvel and you press f+G to guard escape and then immediately press b+K, you
will do f, b+K fake low kick. Not good, right? You can get rid of this effect
simply by guarding escaping with df+G instead. Now if you press df+G, then b+K,
you will get Marvel's standard b+K.
-----------------------------------
"Buffered" QCF; b, f attacks
-----------------------------------
You can "buffer" b,f and QCF motions into a guard escape (eUriko, gge.htm).
It's not really a buffer, or it might be more like buffering a guard escape into
your b,f or QCF attack. Whatever.
Anyway, just press "b, f+G, attack button" and you'll immediately do your b,
f+P/K/B attack after a guard escape, assuming that you have a b, f attack.
Let's look at Stun to make this clearer.
Stun b, f+P (neck grab) can be buffered into a guard escape. If you press b,
then f+G as the opponent is attacking, Stun will do a guard escape motion. Now
if you immediately press P, Stun will cancel out of the guard escape motion with
his neck grab attack. As said, it works for QCF motions, including Beast
Drives.
For a QCF motion, it is just:
d, df, f+G, attack button.
What about other motions? Here are some tips.
-----------------------------------
Throws
-----------------------------------
It's always cool (and damaging) to throw after a guard escape. Throws are
best done after guard escaping those slow recovery string finishers.
To cancel your guard escape into a throw, you CANNOT press f+G to guard escape
and then press f+P+K or hold f, then press G, P+K to throw. Don't ask me why f
doesn't work (it also effects f,f motions after guard escape). Here is what you
can do instead:
f+G, b+P+K
So basically, just cancel out of your guard escape with b+P+K, or I suppose
db+P+K if you wanted to low throw (fancy, ain't cha?). Hold b down for best
results.
It's even possible to guard escape and throw your opponent in the middle of
certain attack strings. Usually at points where there's lots of recovery time
on an attack. It has to be a slow, spaced out string, like Yugo's f+P,P,P
(short stomach punches); points in Long's CC like f+P,P,K; or half the stuff
Xion does. You've also got to be pretty close to the opponent, depending on
your character's throw range.
However, throwing someone out of an attack string is pretty difficult,
especially in contrast to using a regular attack. You really have to know what
string you're guard escaping so you know whether you have a chance of connecting
a throw or not.
You might think throwing in strings is really bad because of the high
vulnerability of a missed throw animation. It's actually not too dangerous if
you miss. Assuming you distance and execute properly, you'll almost always
either connect your throw, or you'll get hit by the next part of the string. So
it's not like you miss and get juggled, you just eat the next part of the
string.
In general, throwing after guard escape is best used when the opponent is
canceling a lot. Xion is a very good character to use throws against, because
not only is his attack slow and spaced out (meaning you can throw him out of his
strings), it is in Xion's basic style to cancel a lot, which gives you a second
opportunity to throw.
Escape to throw is also a nice way to knock down your opponent if you're
backed in a corner and your opponent is right in your face pressuring you. Very
useful if your character doesn't have a good knockdown attack.
-----------------------------------
QCB Attacks
-----------------------------------
If you want to guard escape cancel into a QCB attack, you can simply press:
f+G, df, d, db, b+attack button.
Or if you want to be one micro-second faster...
df+G, d, db, b+attack button
Actually df+G is highly recommended because it IS faster.
-----------------------------------
f,f Attacks
-----------------------------------
If you have ever tried to use a f,f attack after guard escaping, you probably
ended up with a f attack instead. AFAIK, there is no way to quickly follow up a
guard escape with a f,f attack, but it can still be done. Simply press f,f
slowly after the guard escape and hold f when pressing your attack button.
Of course, since this must be done "slowly", using f,f attacks after guard
escapes is ineffective. Instead, if you want to counterattack with f,f attacks,
it is actually easier to buffer the motion from heavy guard position or low
guard.
###############################
Countering After Guard Escape Summary:
###############################
= Use slower, more powerful attacks to counterattack after escaping slow
recovery attacks. Use fast attacks for escaping fast recovery attacks.
Obvious.
= When counterattacking in the middle of a string, try to use an attack that has
counter hit properties.
= You can immediately cancel a successful guard escape with an attack/throw.
= You can guard escape with df+G.
= f, b motions are automatically buffered from a guard escape. You can remove
them by doing df+G instead of f+G.
= You can buffer b, f; QCF; and QCFx2 attacks into a guard escape.
= To escape cancel into a throw, use b+P+K.
= To escape cancel into a QCB attack, do f+G/df+G into a HCB+attack motion.
===================================
COUNTERATTACK: Countering After Running Away/Moving
===================================
Remember "Run Away" from the Defense chapter, where you walk/dash back as
someone is attacking you (usually with a string), so that you have gone out of
their attack range? At that point, you can hit them as you are free to move.
Counterattack after run away should be done without hesitation, or otherwise,
the opponent naturally has the option of stopping their attack. Although they
could also continue attacking if they simply believe you will not be able to
counterattack them.
Please refer to ATTACK: Interrupting Attacks for some ideas on what to use for
counterattacks after running away.
The true uses of counterattacking after running away, which is a large essence
of midrange footsie, will be discussed in more detail later on.
===================================
COUNTERATTACK: Learning it
===================================
On paper counterattacking looks easy... but it requires much practice and
familiarity with BR! I knew OF a number of counterattacks before I was actually
USING them on a consistent basis. There are still many possible counterattacks
that I am in the process of learning.
The best way I learn to counterattack (or just how to guard) an attack is to
get hit by it over and over in actual gameplay. Repetition. Adapt or die.
Once upon a time... Every time I got (er... get) hit by Long f, f + K (hopping
low sweep) I thought about that attack and hated how Long could always get in my
face with it and I imagined how great it would be if I could stop it.
Eventually I learned that you could low throw it and, after some practice, I
learned to guard and low throw it consistently. Now I can throw counterattack
Long and say, "There you go, you lil' #@$#, there you go!" Uh, THE END. (-_-)
Practice, practice, practice! It's all about string recognition, preparation,
and training your counterattack from a conscious, clumsy action to a natural,
automatic one!
***************************************************
******************************************
IV. ATTACK
******************************************
***************************************************
Of course, all well-structured fighting games focus most of all on attacking.
BR is no different. I will talk about using attacks in the context of AbG and
AbA.
===================================
ATTACK: AbG Low Attacks, Guard Breaks, and Throws
===================================
In the beginning of the FAQ I mentioned the elements of AbG. Let's take a
closer look at them and how we can use them to attack.
-----------------------------------
Low Attacks
-----------------------------------
Attacks that hit low. Note that in BR3 d + P is not a low attack (it's one of
them special mid/low thingies). I think it was a bad move for Eighting to
change d+P to a high-guardable attack but who cares what H2 thinks, ya?
Low attacks are generally very weak damage-wise and can't guard break.
Usually, any low attack that reaches two bodies or further is just slow enough
to be guarded on reaction, or it is slow enough to be punished hard on recovery.
Low attacks with shorter ranges tend to be too fast to be guarded "comfortably"
on reaction and difficult to punish on recovery if the opponent guards or guard
escapes.
The main purpose of low attacks are for AbG. You mix low attacks up with
other level attacks. You want to annoy your enemy with fast, safe, high-
priority low attacks, they interrupt a lot of things, like guard attacks. If he
starts guarding low, you can hit him with quick mid level attacks or a low
throw. And of course, if he doesn't guard low, you just drain him with more low
hits.
As you know from the Counterattack chapter, it is possible to get thrown if
your opponent guards your low attack. Possible. I don't know who you're
playing, but hopefully you're the only player who can do the low counter throw
consistently. If your opponent is actually good enough to throw you after your
low attacks, you will have to be much more careful. Only use long-range low
attacks that leave you too far away to be thrown (Alice df+B loooong leg),
multi-hit low attacks that push you out of throw range (Jenny d+K,K poke and
sweep), or standing low attacks (Xion d+K standing low kick). Just watch out
for standing throws after a standing low attack
You could also just try to input a throw escape after every low attack you do,
but that's a real hassle. It gets very tedious and getting thrown becomes
preferable. :P
###############################
Low Attack Summary
###############################
= Low attacks are mainly for annoyance and defense because they do miniscule
damage.
= Your opponent might open himself up to a more powerful mid attacks and throws
when he tries to deal with your low attacks.
= If your opponent is throwing you after your low attack, you will have to
restrict your usage of low attacks to doing long range or multi-hit push out low
attacks so you can't be thrown.
-----------------------------------
Throws
-----------------------------------
Throws seem to be instantaneous and will connect as long as you are in throw
range and the enemy is not in the start up or hit part of an attack (unless it
is a guard attack). You can throw during someone's recovery animation. They
can escape any grab throw by mashing P+K.
If you miss a regular P+K throw, you will do a whiffed animation of grabbing
nothing. Missing a low throw will cause you to do a downward missed animation.
During this downward animation, you evade high attacks. The length of these
missed animations varies from character to character. Alice has a long missed
animation and Stun has a short one.
If both characters try to throw each other at the same time, they will both
miss.
Large characters are much easier to throw than small ones. b.Uranus, the
Chimera? Very easy to throw. Her little sister Uriko? You could throw whiff a
lot.
Unlike many other fighters, you can cancel your run with a throw. Whenever
you are going for a throw from a distance, run cancel into throw.
Characters have different throw ranges, usually corresponding to their overall
size (see the Counterattack: Low Throws After Guarding d+P section for the
list). However, this is mostly a concern when using throws for counterattack.
Running speed and throw setups determine a character's throwing ability when
considering throws as an offensive tool. Bakuryu's throw range might be short,
but offensively, his standing throw is very good because his run is so fast. If
an enemy whiffs a move from far away, there is a good chance Bakuryu can run up
and throw while the enemy is recovering. What can Stun, the slow throw
character do to grab throw you in the same situation? Nadda.
Throw setups put your opponent in a "defensive focus" before throwing them. A
potent throw set up for Stun is a close up "Eat this!" (QCB+P low strike throw)
canceled into low command throw when the opponent crouches.
###############################
Throw Summary:
###############################
= When using throws offensively, run cancel into throw.
= Throw after canceling rush strings or guard breaks that leave you next to your
opponent.
= Offensively, throw efficiency is determined by running speed and throw setups.
= As a counterattack after guarding, throw efficiency is determined by throw
range.
===================================
ATTACK: AbA General Theory
===================================
An attack has four properties that will determine its efficiency in beating
another attack.
-----------------------------------
Speed
-----------------------------------
Fast attacks hit before slow attacks. If Uriko and Stun are next to each
other and both are attacking, Uriko will be the one landing all of the hits
because of her superior attack speed.
Speed is most important when characters are close enough to each other so that
attack range is no longer a concern. In more advanced fighting, speed is a
significant factor at all ranges since players will be trying to use every bit
of range and speed that their character has.
-----------------------------------
Range
-----------------------------------
Longer range lets you hit a character when they can't even reach you. In
beast mode, Xion and Busuzima get tons of long range attacks to hit their
opponents safely.
Naturally, range attacks are important when characters are further away from
each other. They are often too slow to be used close up.
-----------------------------------
Trajectory
-----------------------------------
Dodge and hit.
Attacks that go into the air will go over low attacks. The default hopping
attacks (u+P or K or B) will go over an opponent's low attack and probably hit
them.
Attacks that "sway" backwards or have a back step before the actual attack
will dodge the opponent's attack and then hit. Stun b+B (sway backward then
thrust head forwards) This effect can be partly replicated on any attack by
the simple usage of dash canceling.
Lie-down attacks allow you to duck under high and mid attacks before your
attack comes out.
There are attacks that just travel at good angles and "drive through" the
opponent's attack. Long K (snap kick) is an example.
Some attacks, like crouching attacks, you can use after ducking under high
attacks. This is not as substantial as it is in Tekken or Fighting Vipers, in
which there are many rising stun hits and launchers that you can use after
crouching under something. In BR, there are no "while standing" attacks outside
of the lie-down attacks.
AbA trajectory attacks come into play everywhere. Hopping attacks are usually
used close up against low pokes. Sway/back step attacks are usually used around
the edge of the opponent's primary attacking range (thus the back step moves you
out of their attack range). Lie-down attacks are best when anticipating attack
strings at close ranges, or during a continuous attack string like Yugo's rush.
-----------------------------------
Built In
-----------------------------------
Some attacks were simply built to beat other attacks. All guard attacks have
neutral guard built it. Stun QCB+B is an automatic high/mid attack reversal.
As I've said, I personally don't like guard attacks when used defensively.
However, on the offense, I think they're okay.
###############################
AbA General Theory Summary:
###############################
= Attack beats attack (AbA) based on
Speed
Range
Trajectory
Built In
===================================
ATTACK: Interrupting Attacks
===================================
Interrupting an attack refers to CONSCIOUSLY stopping someone's attack with
your own attack. Many fighters have openings in their attack strings that allow
you to interrupt even if your were guarding. You should be aware of
advantageous interruption points so that you can punish sloppy/abusive attacks
and so that you can make your own offense tighter (use attacks with
fewer/smaller interruption points).
-----------------------------------
What to Interrupt With
-----------------------------------
Not surprisingly, some of the best footsie attacks tend to also be the best
interruption attacks. They are attacks that beat other attacks (AbA). Speed,
trajectory, and built in properties are the big characteristics of a good
interrupting attack.
The standard attacks for interrupting another attack are P and d+P. These are
the fastest attacks for most characters, so they interrupt with speed.
Characters who have faster jabs, like Bakuryu, are able to interrupt their
opponents at many more points than characters who have slower attacks, like
ShenLong.
Attack trajectory is another big factor when interrupting. ShenLong/Long db+P
(duck back then two arm punch) goes low before it hits so it naturally avoids
high attacks. If your opponent is stupid and using too many high attacks, there
are plenty of attacks in this game that will beat those easily. Make sure you
know which attacks hit high and how to beat them.
The direction of the attack is important; Alice b+K (reverse roundhouse) is
not only fast but travels at a horizontal-diagonal angle that happens to beat
out many attacks. Any sway back attack, like Stun b+B (swing back then head
butt) also interrupts well.
Built-in attacks can also be used to interrupt, like guard attacks or guard
reversals.
Experiment with your own character and find out what their best interrupting
attacks are. As said before, great interruption attacks also tend to be great
footsie attacks.
Finally, remember that each of the BR characters are very different from one
another. An attack that can always interrupt Busuzima might always get beaten
out by Yugo. You will need different interruption attacks against different
characters and, if you want to get really specific, you might want different
interruption attacks for their different strings.
-----------------------------------
Examples of Useful Interruption Points
-----------------------------------
Examples of interruptible attacks would be Bakuryu f, f + K... (jumping
multiple kicks) and Bakuryu d, d, K, K (rising vault kick followed by dropping
heel kick). f, f + K, which puts Bakuryu above his opponent, can be stopped
just by punching as soon as Bakuryu's first kicks are guarded. d, d, K, K can
be stopped after the first K (rising kick) with various upward attacks like flip
kicks (Bakuryu ub+K). Interrupting either one can let you start up a juggle.
Circle combos, in general, are very interruptible. Just try to interrupt with
a mid/low attack because if Long/ShenLong d+P dodges low attacks and juggles on
counter hit, and Uriko is just plain short so high attacks whiff.
Against Long/ShenLong CC, I like to interrupt the low attacks. There are
issues. I might talk about them later in Character Analysis.
Yugo is constantly interruptible with low attacks. He's got some quick mid
hits, but they are either weak or slow.
For Jenny f+K, K, K... attack string, you can interrupt her with P after f+K,K
as well as after f+K,K,K (two hit spin around kick). You can interrupt her
after light guarding B, B. B,B interrupt results in a juggle and stops one of
her fly starters.
The second hit of Alice d+K, K (two low poke kicks) can be interrupted with a
quick mid-range attack, even special attacks will work, like Long QCF+K (jumping
double kick).
Get the idea? There are many, many interruptible attacks in this game. The
more of them you know (and can take advantage of), the less your opponent can
attack you safely.
Be careful, though. Many interruptible strings are safe if the opponent
simply stops their string at the interruption point. No big deal if you are
just interrupting with jabs, but it will mean trouble if you use slow recovery
attacks to interrupt..
-----------------------------------
Lying Down to Interrupt While Guarding Attack String
-----------------------------------
Lying down (LD) attacks are especially great at interrupting fast attack
strings. It is very useful to use lie down attacks against characters like
Yugo, who often hit too fast to guard escape.
To execute an LD attack while guarding a string, just hold G to heavy guard
then push d, d. Push d "slowly"; if you tap it, the LD won't come out.
And of course, make sure you can control your LD very well. Many LD's don't
have good attack priority. They just have the raw advantage of starting from a
position invulnerable to high and mid attacks. You often need good timing to
make an LD attack connect properly. If you don't hit with your LD attack, you
have a high probability of getting hurt because most LD attacks have moderate to
slow recovery times.
###############################
Interrupting Attacks Summary:
###############################
= Many guard breaks, guard attacks, and circle combo attacks are interruptible
with quick attacks.
= You can guard attack at certain points while guarding an opponent's attack
string
= To lie down in the middle of a fast attack string, hold G to guard and
"slowly" push d, d. Do not tap it or the lie down will not come out.
===================================
ATTACK: Canceling Attacks to Psyche
===================================
Canceling attacks to psyche is a major element of BR gameplay. It is one of
the best parts.
Canceling attacks is useful against competent players, especially if you have
them under pressure. By doing an attack and canceling it, you can egg your
opponent into a certain state (like guarding low or standing heavy guard) and
then capitalize on it by using an attack that specifically defeats that state.
Or you can just make them uncertain.
Essentially, a canceled attack is a feint, and Bloody Roar's plethora of
cancelable attacks helps make it one of the best fighters ever! :)
An example is Stun QCB + P "Eat this!" low strike throw. By itself, this
move is completely idiotic. It is so slow and obvious that anybody who
recognizes it can guard it or counterattack it. The only use for it would be to
pick people up off the ground after a bounce for a small bit of damage.
Enter the G cancel. Do Stun QCB + P, cancel it, and immediately do QCF + K
(mid hit kick strike throw). If they crouch in reaction to the QCB +P, or try a
hopping attack to AbA it, your QCF + K will hit them. A completely idiotic move
made dangerous through G canceling.
And of course you can kick the yomi up a notch and try a double psyche.
Meaning, you cancel two or more attacks in a row, or you do something like
cancel a low attack into another low hit attack. The knowledgeable player sees
the canceled low attack and thinks a mid is coming, so you hit him with another
low attack.
Canceled attacks can be guard escaped depending on what point the attack is
canceled. If your opponent likes to guard escape and counterattack with slow
recovery attacks, you can just do an attack, cancel it, then let your opponent
guard escape and try to counterattack you while you just guard.
But REMEMBER that when you cancel an attack, you can't hold f and G and expect
to guard anything. So if you cancel a QCF+P with G, you have to press b+G to
get a true heavy guard (or just neutral G for the more confident).
Naturally canceling attacks has drawbacks. You are vulnerable at the point
before you cancel. If you cancel an attack into a different attack, it is like
you are adding on startup frames to your real attack. If your opponent can read
your cancel, then they will just attack you during your cancel and you will be
in horrible, horrible pain. LOL
-----------------------------------
Canceling Guard Attacks
-----------------------------------
We can develop canceling games further by involving guard attacks. It is
certainly useful against characters that don't have lots of low attacks or guard
breaks.
In this section, I will basically summarize what eUriko has written in his
column on guard attacks (ga.htm).
The best time to use guard attack cancels is when there is some distance and
"breathing space" in between two opponents; basically a point when the match has
reset.
Do guard attack > G cancel > guard attack > G cancel... to get the opponent
into a defensive focus and then throw him. If the opponent tries to hit you
with a guard break, you just hold back and press G to cancel and you will get
heavy guard.
Another possibility is guard attack > low attack. Just mix it up.
Attacks that come after guard attack cancels tend to counter hit more, so it
is good to follow up with attacks that have advantageous counter hit effects.
When both characters are using guard attack cancels, the low attacks become
more predominant as they will beat guard attacks whether they are canceled or
not. If you anticipate your opponent's guard attack cancel, you can throw him.
H2's note: Let's mash P+K while we are in guard attack start up, then.
###############################
Canceling Attacks to Psyche Summary:
###############################
= By doing an attack and canceling it, you can egg your opponent into a certain
state (like guarding low or standing heavy guard) and then capitalize on it by
using an attack that specifically defeats that state.
= Canceled attacks can be guard escaped. You can use them to bait guard escape
counterattacks. REMEMBER to hold b+G to guarantee a true heavy guard after
canceling.
= Canceled command attacks are best done when you either have control of the
fight (rushing someone down) or when the match has reset.
===================================
ATTACK: Canceling Attacks Because You Don't Want Them
===================================
Probably the most obvious usage of canceling. You cancel a command attack if
you figure out that you don't want it.
For example, if Marvel is doing u+P xx QCB+B, she will probably want to cancel
her QCB+B if the u+P is guarded. That way, she can avoid suffering through the
recovery time of QCB+B, and possibly start something else up.
You can cancel attacks to save yourself a lot of pain when playing footsie, or
are attempting to "Counterattack After Running Away." If Alice back dashes away
from her attacking opponent with the intention of hitting the opponent's limb
with QCF+B (launch kick), and sees that her opponent has stopped attacking, she
can just cancel the QCF+B and be safe. Otherwise she'd whiff the QCF+B and be
vulnerable.
-----------------------------------
"Canceling" Lie Down Attacks
-----------------------------------
LD attacks work very much like a cancelable command attacks. When you lie
down, your opponent knows you only have two or three attack possibilities at
that given moment (LD+P, LD+K, LD+B). If you get just LD and don't attack, it's
like you canceled your LD attack because you didn't want it.
It depends on how you specifically use LD, but often you can just LD to freeze
your opponent as they wait for your LD attack to come out.
===================================
ATTACK: Canceling Attacks to Recover Faster
===================================
After going from a cancelable attack into a special attack (QCF/QCB),
immediately cancel that special attack with G. This can cut down the recovery
time of your original cancelable attack, had you done it without any cancels at
all.
Once again, the undeveloped BR world gives me the liberty of naming this
technique. I call it the (Speed) Drive Cancel... DC!
Here are some of the uses for DC on attacks that can be canceled into specials:
1. Gives you "new" follow ups.
2. Lets you perform a more continuous attack with shorter recovery holes.
-----------------------------------
New Follow Ups
-----------------------------------
Let me give you an example of how you can use DC to follow up with attacks you
normally couldn't follow up with.
ShenLong f,f+P (CH) xx (DC) QCF+P --> f+P, P, QCF+K
A CH f,f+P (elbow) will send ShenLong's opponent into a fall back stagger.
Normally, ShenLong can only combo off f,f+P by canceling into one of his risky
command attacks or using something fast like P,P after the f,f+P has recovered.
Since its hard to tell whether your f,f+P will CH or even connect, using any of
those slow-recovery command attacks to follow up is risky.
Instead, lets use that cancel point for DC. So you do the f,f+P; cancel it
into QCF+P; then immediately cancel the QCF+P. Now we've chopped off most of
the recovery time of a regular f,f+P and are free to use new follow ups to hit
the staggered opponent. Besides the above example, which is a quick low juggle,
you can do things like db+K (sweep); b+B (turn around kick launch); or f+P,P xx
QCF+B. A lot of attacks will now combo off the f,f+P (CH). Not to mention that
ShenLong can use the drive-canceled f,f+P to simply fall back into a guard or
get a...
-----------------------------------
More Continuous Attack With Shorter Recovery Holes
-----------------------------------
I actually learned about DC from the CPU when it was using DC to attack me
continuously. What did the CPU do?
Long did a circle combo into QCB+P, canceled the QCB+P, then immediately
restarted the circle combo from the beginning to keep the pressure on.
Xion can do things like P,P[DC],P,P[DC]P,P and on and on. DC is very relevant
to Xion. If you combine DC with canceling to psyche, you have a game plan
going. Going back to ShenLong, you can try f,f+P [DC] f,f+P [DC] f,f+P...
-----------------------------------
If you find some more good uses of DC, or specific applications, please e-mail
them to me at
[email protected] or write them up in a FAQ or something.
###############################
Canceling Attacks to Recover Faster Summary:
###############################
= Drive Cancel (DC): After going from a cancelable attack into a special attack
(QCF/QCB), immediately cancel that special attack. This can cut down the
recovery time of your original cancelable attack, had you done it without any
cancels at all.
= DC gives you new follow-ups to certain cancelable attacks.
= DC lets you use cancelable attacks continuously with shorter recovery holes.
===================================
ATTACK: Delaying Strings
===================================
You can delay attacks many attack strings.
Delay is not that useful against someone who is trying to guard, since they
are just sitting there guarding. It is relatively useful against someone trying
to guard escape a fast string since it can throw off their timing.
-----------------------------------
Safer Delays With Throw Escape
-----------------------------------
It is a common problem that if your opponent reads your delay, they will just
take your pause to throw or attack you. The throws, at least, can be limited by
entering a throw escape in between your delay points. It is definitely not a
guaranteed throw escape since you will probably only press P+K once in between
attacks, but it is better than nothing.
-----------------------------------
Delaying to CH
-----------------------------------
More importantly, delaying can be an excellent way of hitting (and more
importantly COUNTER hitting) an opponent who is trying to hit you during your
recovery or during your string "opening" or pause.
A fine example is Bakuryu's f+K, b+K (forward flip kick, backward flip kick).
Delay the b+K. This is good for a number of reasons:
1. f+K recovery looks vulnerable after finishing
2. the delay after f+K can be quite long
3. b+K is fast
4. b+K juggles on counter hit
Look at your character and find out which of their attacks have increased
benefit on counter hit (like launching, stunning, or bouncing your opponent).
Delay attacks before these counter hit attacks to bait your opponent into
attacking... and then BAM!!
-----------------------------------
Delaying for Certainty
-----------------------------------
Particularly for Yugo, it is possible to delay his combos in order to give you
more time to consciously determine whether the starting attacks hit or not.
Then you can decide whether or not to continue the combo. So for Yugo's B,P,P,P
xx QCB+K combo, he can delay every hit of B,P,P,P. If any of the attacks hit,
they will still combo even if Yugo delays them. If they don't hit, Yugo can
stop and do something else.
###############################
AbA Delaying Strings Summary:
###############################
= Delays can make it harder for your opponent to guard escape.
= When doing an attack string, you can delay attacks in hopes of baiting the
enemy into attacking so you can get a counter hit.
= Your string delay can also throw off guard escapes.
= Yugo can delay certain ground combos to see if they hit or not.
===================================
ATTACK: Attacking Off of Stagger
===================================
There are so many different forms of stagger/stun in BR. Guard crushes,
bounces, pop ups, on one knee, etc. At these points, you can often hit the
opponent with deadly attacks. The attack will do less damage then normal, but
attacking off of stagger often offers chances to juggle or knock down the
opponent..
There are basically three ways of putting someone in a stagger:
1. If the opponent light guards a guard break.
2. Hitting the opponent with an attack that has stagger properties.
3. Counter-hitting the opponent with an attack that staggers on CH.
-----------------------------------
Guard Break Staggers
-----------------------------------
If the opponent tries to light guard a guard break attack, they will get guard
crushed. A little explosion effect will occur and the opponent will stumble
backwards. At this point you can whack them.
Guard break staggering isn't that useful. First off, people don't get guard-
breaked often. Attacks that guard break usually have moderate-slow recovery,
and the stagger caused by a guard break isn't that long. Therefore, the follow
up attack has to be performed right after the guard break stagger and the
opponent cannot shake out of the stagger. So following up is not easy.
The only character who has any good use for guard break staggering is
ShenLong, because he has guard breaks in his CC.
-----------------------------------
Attacks That Stagger
-----------------------------------
This is very useful. Normal attacks that stagger can often take the opponent
by surprise, giving them insufficient time to recover from their stagger.
Busuzima f, f+K (foot stomp) is an attack that staggers; your opponent ends up
hopping up and down on one foot if he gets hit.
Leopard Marvel's u+P (overhead hop smash) is an incredibly deadly stagger
since it bounces the opponent and let's Marvel go into a juggle.
Many attacks, that get some sort of stagger on a normal hit will get a
stronger stagger on counter hit. Alice b+K (reverse roundhouse) will cause the
opponent to pop back on a normal hit, but on a counter hit the opponent will be
launched into the air.
-----------------------------------
Counter Hit Staggers
-----------------------------------
Certain attacks will have counter hit (CH) effects that leave your opponent
staggered. Marvel, Gado, and Xion d+K (standing low kick) and Uriko db+K
(sweep) are examples. It should be noted that attacks that stagger on CH will
often get CH effects if they are used on someone who is already in hit stun (or
in the air? -confirm). Make sense?
Lets look at Yugo db+P, P (two diagonally downward punches). The db+P causes
a small stagger on connection, the second P bounces on counter hit. However, if
you connect the first db+P, sending the opponent into small stagger, then when
the second P connects it will bounce the opponent just as if it had counter hit.
If the first db+P DOESN'T connect and the second P hits by itself normally, the
opponent will still be standing.
eUriko believes this happens because there is a "knockdown" counter programmed
into the game. It's like a dizzy counter in a Street Fighter game. Your
opponent gets knocked down or staggered when his knockdown counter reaches a
value of, let's say 10; and the counter resets whenever he goes out of hit stun.
You hit an opponent with attack X, which adds 5 to the opponent's knockdown
counter as he is in hit stun. Now you combo attack with attack Y, which adds 6
to the counter. Since the counter goes over 10, the opponent is knocked down.
-----------------------------------
Following Up CH Staggers
-----------------------------------
More often than not, you must do your stagger-follow-up attack before you can
consciously determine whether you scored a CH or not. If you plan to follow up
with an attack that will leave you vulnerable if guarded, you should try and
guess whether your attack will CH before it connects, and use that to decide
whether to follow up or not (Note: I do not do this. :P).
CH attacks and follow ups can be extremely powerful, but since most CH attacks
and their follow ups are character specific, it is difficult to discuss them in
detail here.
###############################
Attacking Off of Stagger Summary:
###############################
= There are basically three ways of putting someone in a stagger:
1. If the opponent light guards a guard break.
2. Hitting the opponent with an attack that has stagger properties.
3. Counter-hitting the opponent with an attack that staggers on CH.
= For most follow up attacks after a stagger you need to do it immediately after
CH'ing your opponent.
===================================
ATTACK: Attacking for Movement
===================================
This is an interesting topic. There are five different offensive purposes for
using an attack to move:
1. To quickly get in from long range distance
2. To stay with your opponent
3. To approach at ranges where walking forward will get you hit.
4. To get close enough for a throw
5. Looking vulnerable to incite an attack that you can counterattack
-----------------------------------
Closing Long Distance</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
-----------------------------------
If your character is an in-your-face fighter, you want them close up as much
as possible. Forward momentum attacks can be used to quickly cover long
distances and position you next to your opponent. Long f, f+K (hopping sweep)
and Bakuryu/Alice f+K (forward flip kick) are examples of attacks that can move
these characters in fast. Is it safe? Only if you set it up to be safe. You
could cancel a guard attack into these or do them while your opponent is
recovering from an attack.
A more interesting way of approaching is through a canceled special attack,
like Bakuryu QCF+B (rush and thrust) or ShenLong QCF+P (hop forward punch).
Very cool stuff.
Can you do something like a SF3 kara throw in Bloody Roar? Not really. You
can obviously cancel a special move into a throw, but it happens too slowly to
get any sort of decent range leverage off of it, and it's not like you "warp"
forward like in SF3. You need two steps in BR3, and in SF3 you only need one.
-----------------------------------
Keeping Close to Your Opponent
-----------------------------------
For characters with decent speed, a back dash or walk is almost a great
solution to handling an opponent's attacks at close and midrange. If your
opponent is constantly running away from your attacks, you can use attack
strings with lots of forward momentum, like Busuzima's P,P... (wavy arms) to
follow after your opponent and keep in close range with them.
-----------------------------------
Approaching When Close
-----------------------------------
Once you are about two or three bodies away from your opponent, it is probably
not safe to walk forward anymore. As soon as you walk into your opponent's
standard attack range you are likely to get hit by something. Your opponent's
attacks will probably be too fast to react to, even if you only want to react
with a light guard or G cancel. So how do you move forward? An attack string
is a possible solution. It is not unusual for Long or ShenLong to whiff their
CC starting attacks so that they are right into the meat of the CC attack when
they reach you.
-----------------------------------
Setting Up A Counterattack
-----------------------------------
The theory canceling an attack to make yourself look vulnerable to invite an
opponent to attack, and then hitting them with a counterattack. Now applied to
movement. In Thermo's Alice strats, he speaks of canceling Alice QCF+K (hop
back to slide kick) to set up counterattacks. I believe Kuu talks about
canceling ShenLong QCF+P (sway back hop punch).
Attack, cancel, opponent attacks, you counter.
===================================
ATTACK: "Custom" Strings
===================================
Under Re-Construction
Custom strings (CS) is the art of mixing different attacks/attack strings in a
continuous assault. In Virtua Fighter land, I think they call this
flowcharting, but the feature is in all games (like BR!).
You could say that characters like Long, Uriko, and ShenLong (the circle combo
characters) and Yugo all have "built in" custom strings, since they do one
attack and then they can smoothly switch to a plethora of different options.
Nah, scratch all that. I want to talk about CS that isn't built in.
For most characters, the art of using custom strings, or at least not
finishing strings, is almost a necessity. Almost every string finisher in this
game has slow to moderate recovery time. Meaning, it's very easy for your
opponent to guard or guard escape your last attack in a string and punish you.
The structure of a custom string varies a lot depending on the character and
what they are trying to accomplish. Busuzima P,P (wavy arms) is good for CS
because it hits mid, has speed and rush, and can be canceled at the second P.
Alice d+B,B (crouching paw swipes) is good because the attack is done crouching,
has decent rush, hits low-low-low/mid, and each hit in d+B,B,B has fast recovery
time. Jenny df+K,K (standing tap kick) hits low with decent range and is super
fast.
All of the attacks I've mentioned have a good degree of safety behind them.
Meaning, you can use them a lot.
###############################
"Custom" Strings Summary:
###############################
= "Custom" strings are what you get when you mix different attacks/attack
strings in a continuous assault. In Virtua Fighter they call this flowcharting.
= Custom strings are much more effective when mixed in with the rest of your
game like cancels, delays, AbG...
= The general idea behind custom strings is to use attacks that lead your
opponent into taking a particular action... so that you can hit him with
something that specifically beats that action.
===================================
ATTACK: Anti Guard Escape Attacks
===================================
Some attacks have a strong tendency to hit your opponent even after they guard
escape. Most of them seem to be fast multiple-hit attacks, or low attacks that
can be quickly followed by high attacks. They hit either because a series of
quick multiple guard escapes in a row are needed, or because the opponent
immediately tries to cancel out of the guard escape with an attack before your
attack has actually finished.
Jenny's Twist (on one leg kicks), Busuzima's P,P strings (wavy arms), Stun's
f,f+P (fast three hit) are examples.
On the other side of the spectrum is very slow-startup single hit attacks.
The attacks have such a large start-up window that the opponent can guard escape
too early, and counterattack right as your slow attack starts to hit. B.Uranus
has some of those too-slow attacks.
Another form of anti-guard escape is to just use a quick recovery attack like
P, in hopes that the opponent will guard escape and try to counter you with an
attack that you in turn can guard and counterattack. In the same sense, you can
cancel a command attack to bait a guard escape, because canceled attacks can
still be guard escaped depending on how soon you cancel them.
And the most useful anti-guard escape attack: the throw. If you think someone
is sitting there trying to guard escape your attacks, just go up and throw that
sucker.
###############################
Anti Guard Escape Attacks Summary:
###############################
= Fast multi-hit attacks are anti guard escape. Slow start-up attacks can also
be used for anti guard escape.
= Using a fast recovery attack or canceling a command attack can bait a sloppy
guard escape counterattack from the opponent that will leave them vulnerable
when you block it.
= If you can anticipate your opponent's desire to guard escape, throw him.
***************************************************
******************************************
V. JUGGLING
******************************************
***************************************************
Juggling in BR gets its own section because there is a lot to talk about.
===================================
JUGGLING: Juggling
===================================
In BR3, a certain amount of stability has been added to juggling with the
addition of a technique that eUriko has dubbed air canceling (AC). AC is the
ability, in beast form, to cancel/speed up the recovery of any attack by jumping
once your opponent is floated. The general juggling formula in beast mode is:
Launch->Air Combo->Ground Hits->Launch->Air Combo... etc. ->Finisher
Or:
Launch-->Air Combo ending with B to re-launch-->Air Combo Re-launch--> etc.
A launch is not necessary to start a juggle. You can also instantly go into a
juggle if your opponent jumps or uses an aerial attack.
Juggles in BR3 are technically very easy to do if you know they will connect,
but the presence of escape points in juggles and the fact that you have to input
a air cancel AFTER you launch an opponent makes the task of juggling a little
more challenging.
-----------------------------------
Launchers
-----------------------------------
The height at which an opponent is launched depends on the launcher used, the
position of the opponent at the time of being launched, and the weight of the
opponent. Yugo db+P, P (two low punches) sends the opponent into a bounce and
lets him go right into a low juggle. Xion QCF+B (generic upper slash) sends the
opponent high into the air and lets Xion go for an air combo. If you are in
beast mode, many times when your opponent has floated, even if they are just
hovering inches off the ground, you can air cancel into an air combo.
-----------------------------------
Air Canceling for Air Combo
-----------------------------------
Although I do not like or use this technique very much... Since you want to
AC as soon as you can after launching someone, you can mash u/uf after doing
your launcher.
I would recommend that instead you learn the precise timing of AC after using
a launch attack and always input it after using your launcher. If you did not
connect the launcher, no AC can come out, so you will not jump accidentally.
-----------------------------------
Air Combo Attacks
-----------------------------------
The air combos you want to use vary from character to character.
Against medium to light weight characters, using K, P, K or P, K, P in the air
are usually a good combos that let you go very smoothly from an air combo into a
ground combo. K, P, K is probably your first choice. Jumping K not only does
more damage than P, but it also recovers faster, letting you more smoothly go
from an air combo to ground hits.
The speed at which you press K, P, K or whatever should allow you to smoothly
begin the ground combo right as you end the air combo. So, if you do your air
combo too fast, you might leave a large escape point as you are landing from
your air combo and starting a ground combo. This seems to apply more at walls
than anywhere else.
When doing an air combo on heavy characters or on a low launch, B, K, P must
be used (B pushes the opponent up slightly).
Some characters, like Yugo and ShenLong, do not have many good ground hits to
go into after an air combo. If you do not want to go from an air combo to
ground hits; K,P,B or possibly P,K,P,B for a character like Alice; can be used
to re-launch the opponent.
The other type of air combo sequence Marvel can use is P/K, then f+P. This is
the Dragon Ball Z air combo as it makes use of a trademark DBZ hammer fisted
punch to send your opponent smashing into the ground in a bounce stagger. From
that point you can land and ground combo/re-launch.
If you didn't launch the opponent on a counter hit, they can recover at the
top of their launch and hit P to smack you as you are jumping up to air combo
them, or they can guard escape. (3/17/02: Correction. There are non-CH juggles
that cannot be recovered, though there are also plenty that CAN be recovered).
It is unlikely that the opponent can actually do this unless you are juggling
off of an obvious situation (like launching someone off of a stagger hit).
You can break an air recovery P attack by jumping STRAIGHT UP with B, B
instead of P, K, P or whatever. B works because it hits a little more
vertically. That lets hit the opponent earlier than you could with P or K, and
it has a trajectory advantage that will AbA the opponent's air attack.
Using B in your air combo will knock your opponent high up into the sky,
giving you some more juggle possibilities.
Do not neglect B,B as a combo. The B,B does solid damage by itself (a jumping
B does about twice as much damage as a jumping P/K), and is nearly guaranteed to
beat both an attacking opponent and a guarding opponent.
An opponent can also recover at the top of a launch and guard escape. While
this is difficult enough to do so that you shouldn't worry about it too much...
If they theoretically can guard escape consistently, then you could heavily
delay your air combo to offset their timing or perhaps use an air throw instead
of an air combo (if you have one). Or just run under the launched opponent
instead of going for an air combo.
-----------------------------------
Run Under/ Move Under
-----------------------------------
Launch someone up in the air, and then run underneath them. In limited
scenarios, you can also use forward moving attacks to go under the opponent,
like Bakuryu QCF+B (claw rush). At that point, you usually follow up with a
back attack as the opponent falls into your attack range.
By far the most frequently-used attacks after running under are turn-around
stagger attacks just as the opponent lands. ShenLong t,d+K (see the Shen (Kuu)
vs. Bakuryu match vid) or Gado t,d+B (turn around paw swipe) are examples of
back-turned stagger hits. I think almost every character has one. After
connecting these, you have a very high chance of being able to re-launch your
opponent because they are staggered, and even if they can recover from stagger
they can only beastorize or do a back-turned guard escape to save themselves.
Run unders are commonly used after hitting someone with B air combos or
certain launchers. They can be an effective confusion technique and option
limiting technique. Once you have gone behind them, they only have two ways to
defeat your attack while they are dropping down: do an air attack that hits
behind them, like b+K (back drop kick) or guard escape. Oh yeah, beastorizing
is possible too.
When you run under, you should really watch out for the opponent's expected
guard escape. That is because the air guard escape works like a BR2 guard
escape. If they guard escape in the air, they shift to the side and can end up
with a shot at YOUR back. I usually prevent this just by mixing run under with
air combos, and during run unders, I also like to let my opponent land before I
attack them. However, there might be ways of using the knowledge that your
opponent will guard escape to your advantage.
-----------------------------------
u+P/K/B Air Cancel Juggles
-----------------------------------
In my idiocy, I actually thought I had discovered a glitch when I first
encountered it. When you opponent is floating, cancel/speed up the recover time
of any of your attacks with a jump or an up attack like u+P. You can even cancel
crazy moves like Alice QCB+B (big jump and flip). (5/17: Correction, I don't
know what the specific rules are, but not every attack that floats can be AC'ed.
I need to look into it more.)
Let's say you're juggling someone with PPP... after any one of those P's, you
can cancel into a jump and air combo (or at least try to do it... more likely
you will jump past them), or more relevantly, an u+P/K/B attack.
Air canceling with u+P/K/B after a launcher is good for heavy opponents like
b.Stun or b.Kohryu because they can only be launched to low heights.
An example of a good air cancel sequence is Gado f,f+K (jumping knee) --> u+P
(jumping hammer fist) --> QCF+B (pounce). Without the air cancel, you've got no
follow ups to f,f+K, but the air cancel makes the f,f+K a great juggle starter.
AC is of course very suspicious technique. It is unlikely that the true
potential of AC has been tapped right now. If you have any specific uses for
AC, please mail me with the info:
[email protected]
-----------------------------------
Safe Juggling
-----------------------------------
Under construction
All juggles lose stability eventually. If your opponent guard escapes at the
correct time, they might get a large counterattack opportunity. The obvious
answer is to just stop juggling once your juggle becomes unstable and let your
opponent land.
###############################
Juggling Summary
###############################
= The general formula for a juggle is:
Launch->Air Combo->Ground Hits->Launch->Air Combo... etc. ->Finisher
= Air canceling (AC) is the beast mode ability to cancel/shorten recovery time
of any attack by jumping when your opponent is floated.
= Always input AC after you do a launcher. Learn the precise timing so you can
AC immediately, giving the opponent less time for an air recovery.
= The standard air combo for going into ground hits is K, P, K on medium-light
opponents, and B, P, K on heavy opponents.
= P/K, f+P which will basically put your opponent into a bounce stagger. Used
by Marvel.
= If you do not want to go into ground hits from an air combo, use something
like K,P,B to re-launch.
= If your opponent air recovers after you launch and hits P or wants to
guard/guard escape, air combo them with B,B.
= You can run under your opponent after launching them and then hit them in
their back attacks as/when they land. Running under and doing back-turned
stagger attacks into a re-launch is a good option. Running under someone limits
their defensive options to back attacks or guard escapes.
= In beast mode, once you have your opponent air borne, you can cancel the
recovery of many of your attacks into a jump or an up attack like u+P.
===================================
JUGGLING: Juggle Recovery
===================================
Most of the info on juggle recovery is taken from eUriko (ido_hukki.htm,
hukki.htm).
Air recoveries are another part of BR's theme of "keeping both players active
at all times." BR lets an airborne player recover from mid-air "reel animation"
and gain some limited defensive and offensive abilities.
You need to know how to defend in the air or you will be killed by mad
juggles. Of course, often it is not easy, and messing up in the air is pretty
frequent.
The first distinction you have to make with BR juggles is that almost all of
them aside from tight wall juggles are ESCAPABLE (eventually). We want to
master this.
The process of recovering in the air has two steps. First, you must choose a
direction to recover in. Then you need to take some sort of action like guard
or attack.
-----------------------------------
Air Recovery
-----------------------------------
General Recovery Directions
1. For high launches, recover upwards.
2. For low launches (quite low!), recover downwards.
3. For "horizontal" launches -something that pushes you backwards-, recover
backwards.
A downward recovery is generally best. Hold down the direction you want to
recover in and mash P+K.
H2: I'd say neutral recovery is best because it's easiest to go into a guard
escape from there.
-----------------------------------
Options After Recovering
-----------------------------------
Then you have four options for air defense after recovering:
1. Beastorize
The universal, brainless defense if you've got it.
2. Attack
Usually good for high juggles when the opponent wants to air combo. Use punch
when you're launched high. Kick for low juggles.
3. Guard Escape
Need this one badly. :P I think this is your best option. Because it has the
best overall use in battle and can be done at the last minute/in the tightest
situations.
4. Guard
Not too great since it only works once in the air, but even one guard can give
you some time to think, and against characters with poor juggles it can be an
easy solution.
5. Air Throw
For those with air throws like Alice, Jenny, Uriko, and Stun. AFAIK, it's way
too hard to air throw someone when they're trying to air combo you since you
can't throw someone when they're attacking. Perhaps a downwards or upward
recovery into a air throw can work since there's slightly less chance that your
opponent will actually be attacking you as you try to throw them.
It's not like Fighting Vipers where you can get guaranteed air throws after
recovering from certain attacks.
(6.) Fly Away (b.Jenny)
-----------------------------------
Recovery Points
-----------------------------------
Recover at the top point of being launched, the air-to-ground point, or during
an "captivity phase" like when you are being juggled with an attack string.
If you manage to recover at the top point of being launched and suspect your
opponent will attempt an air combo, hit P, or try to guard escape. If you can
master an instant air recovery-->guard escape, your life will be much easier.
If you miss that point of recovery, it is a good idea to recover at the moment
when a ground combo is going to be connected from an air combo. Air recover as
you are dropping then immediately guard escape or use jumping K.
It is important to learn the guard escape timing at the air-to-ground recovery
point. It works consistently for many juggles and I think it is the overall
best solution to escaping juggles. But be aware that it does not work for all
juggles. I think Xion's (AC) K,P,K --> P... cannot be escaped at the air-to-
ground point (of course, it's very easy to escape afterwards).
-----------------------------------
Recovery At the Wall
-----------------------------------
It is a bad place to try and recover. If you are being hit with a good
juggle, recovery at the wall is more like "I will keep on recovering until I
push myself up or down far enough to actually get out." And at that point
you've probably already lost too much life.
You should also note that if you are near a wall it's possible to recover and
guard escape into the wall, essentially meaning you went nowhere and are still
within hitting range of your opponent. I do not know exactly what influences
the direction you swerve in when doing an air guard escape, but it's probably
just "left foot/left handed attack swerve to right" and vice versa. You'd never
be able to tell so it's irrelevant.
-----------------------------------
Recovery From Unknown Juggles
-----------------------------------
I am not clear on this subject. But I will discuss it briefly. The question
is, should you try to recover from a juggle that you do not know how to recover
from? Before you say, "Yes," realize that there is damage scaling in BR.
That means for juggles, every successive hit does less and less damage as the
combo counter goes up. On the first hit, you do 100% damage, on the second hit,
you do 90%, third 80%, etc. Until you reach the ninth hit and then all attacks
do 20% of their damage.
If you air recover, you have reset the combo counter. If you continue getting
juggled after your air recovery you will now be taking MORE damage than you
would've had you not recovered because the damage scaling has reset.
So should you randomly try to recover from juggles or just eat it? There is
no definite answer. Certainly, if you never ever recover you can be juggled
forever. Does your opponent know you plan to sit there? Or will they just stop
with a juggle finisher?
Perhaps the best solution is to only attempt recovery at the aforementioned
recovery points; at the top of a juggle, the air-to-ground point, and... some
time on the ground. It is definitely more worthwhile to try and recovery from a
character who have shi-tee unstable juggles, like Yugo or Xion; than a character
who can really do much more damage to you if you mess up your recovery like
Jenny or Alice. And of course some juggles you MUST escape from, like Marvel's
ends-when-you're-dead juggle.
-----------------------------------
Counterattacking After Recovery From Juggles
-----------------------------------
Depending on where and how you escape a juggle, you might get a great
counterattack opportunity as your opponent is mindlessly continuing his juggle
while you are not their to receive it.
If you guard escape in the air, you often land with a shot at the opponent's
back. Don't waste an opportunity like this! Be sure to keep a counterattack in
mind, but beware the opponent's possible counterattack counterattack!!
-----------------------------------
Conclusion
-----------------------------------
Conclusion? If you know how to specifically escape a juggle, that's the best
case scenario. Thankfully, numerous juggles have poor stability so you can get
out using the general rules listed above. Stay calm but act fast!
###############################
Juggle Recovery Summary
###############################
= Most juggles, especially away from the wall, can be escaped. If they can't be
escaped early, they can be escaped eventually.
= Air recovering has two steps: choosing a direction to recover in and deciding
what you do after recovering.
= After you recover you can...
1. Beastorize
2. Attack
3. Guard Escape
4. Guard
= The best way to recover from juggles is to know how to recover from them ahead
of time. Otherwise just mash out your recovery and guard escape!
***************************************************
******************************************
VI. OTHER
Stuff that I didn't know where to shove
******************************************
***************************************************
===================================
OTHER: Beastorizing
===================================
Beastorizing is an important part of BR (that's why it's been shoved in this
"Other" chapter :P ). Important, but not complicated as far as figuring out
when you should beastorize or even purposely revert to human form. Here are
some good times to beastorize:
1. To save yourself from an attack
Juggles, back attacks, openings, whatever. Beastorizing will probably save
you from all of them.
2. To match your beastorized opponent
Very simple concept here. If your opponent is in beast, and you are not, he
is probably in a much better position than you to do damage (beasts tend to to
deal ~150% of the damage they did as humans... that is a BIG deal). All the
best attacks are in beast mode only. You also take damage much better. I
highly recommend that you try to be in beast mode if your opponent is in beast
mode.
3. Because an opportunity for a beast special attack has arisen.
Your opponent whiffs against you and is recovering slowly. Hit him with a big
damage beast special. If human Marvel connects b+P,P she will probably
beastorize-cancel into QCB+B to go into her juggle.
4. Regain life
Regaining life in beast mode is almost meaningless now because it's so slow,
and to substitute for it Eighting added the "regain all your regainable life
through beast drive" thing. I think this was a good move, because it decreases
the benefits of machi (chicken) play in beast mode, which was pretty common in
previous BR's.
5. Because you have a full beast meter
Hey, why let your beast meter just sit there?
By this list, you can see that against a human form opponent, you probably
won't beastorize unless you have to save yourself from an attack or find a keen
situation for a beast special attack. Otherwise, you just beastorize when your
opponent beastorizes, and he will probably only beastorize when he needs to save
his own ass.
If you manage your beast meter based on winning the whole match and not on
winning one round, I think you will be fine.
-----------------------------------
Anti Beastorizing
-----------------------------------
Smart players know when to back off and let the other guy screw himself. One
of those times is when someone is going to beastorize. Why? The opponent can
be vulnerable after beastorizing. For example, b.Alice is hitting h. Yugo in
his backside with P,P; and Yugo has beast meter. What's a predictable action
from Yugo? Beastorize. If Alice keeps hitting P,P,P,f+P xx QCF+P or whatever,
Yugo's beastorization will knock her out of the attack string as soon as it
loses comboability (probably after P,P.) But instead, if Alice purposely stops
at P,P and lets Yugo beastorize, she can guard the beastorization and then
launch Yugo with QCF+B right after he's done beastorizing.
===================================
OTHER: Hyper Beastorizing
===================================
Under Construction
It is very easy to finish someone off in hyper beast mode, especially if they
are in human form. The real problem is, you will probably have to lose at least
one round in order to get into hyper beast mode. Because if your opponent
beastorizes during the round and you don't, he will have a significant advantage
against you.
That is really the only thing that balances hyper beastorizing in this game,
IMO. The fact that you will probably be dead before you can go into it.
===================================
OTHER: Beast Drives
===================================
It's hard to talk about these since they're all so different from one another.
Generally speaking, you don't want to use your beast drive unless you have a
clear opening and you know it will finish off your opponent. Unless you have
about 0 beast meter left, maintaining beast form is simply more valuable than
doing, or even guaranteed connecting, a beast drive in many cases. Beast forms
have all the best moves, and beasts do around 1.5 as much damage as their human
counterparts. Beasts also take damage better.
The only real exceptions to the "keep the beast" rule, IMO, are for Jenny,
Stun, and Uranus. Jenny has a good unblockable BD and has a decent chance of
quickly rebuilding her beast meter. Stun has excellent BD's and lacks other
means of dealing big damage in one blow. Uranus simply doesn't need her beast
mode as much as other characters because her beast sucks.
===================================
OTHER: Beast Drive to Regain Life
===================================
It is vital to consider this ability when the timer is going down and a
character can win or lose the round based on how much life each player finishes
with.
Simply beastorize and then do the beast drive, hit or whiff you'll still get
your life back.
In opposition to this, you can hit a character out of their beast drive to
limit the amount of life they get back. This hit has to occur almost
immediately.
I am not clear on this, but sometimes you get your life back when you beast
drive and sometimes you don't. I'm not talking about those special beast
drives.
===================================
OTHER: Pre-fight Movement
===================================
You'll probably hear all sorts of stuff about how you should be moving around
before the round starts. Certainly, the initial positioning/moves can influence
the flow of the round. Get the opponent near the wall, get behind their back,
start with a dash, start lying down, blah blah blah. All I say is, don't do
anything stupid. Try to hold your general ground and start the round facing
your opponent.
If you watch one of the Yugo vs. Xion rm movies from the Links section, you'll
see two bunglers try to start off a round with all their fancy-smancy movement.
What happens? Yugo ends up starting the round facing the wall with his back to
Xion. Greeeaaaat. Xion juggles off ~75% of Yugo's life.
===================================
OTHER: Getting Up
===================================
In BR, getting up isn't quite as complicated as in most other fighters. There
are still variables you have to consider, but it is pretty cut and dry. You
should be thankful, because recovering from juggles in BR is already as fun as
getting up in Tekken. I just don't think we could handle any more of the fun.
-----------------------------------
When You Are Down
-----------------------------------
When you are lying on the ground, you can get up, roll in a direction, or kick
flip wakeup.
Pressing a direction will let you roll in that direction. Up, down, forward,
or back. You can only be hit by a ground attack while rolling. If you roll up
or down and the opponent does the 3D walk in the direction you roll in, you will
probably get up right next to him. That's something to keep in mind if you
knock someone down in the corner and have a good guess as to which way they're
rolling.
I am not certain, but you seem to have a vulnerability point when getting up
from a roll in specific situations. I do know that it's possible to get up
facing away from your opponent, or in a direction where you won't be able to
guard anything.
Pressing K will let you get up with a universal flip up kick. This wake up K
beats any attack it comes in contact with for minor damage, but you are very
vulnerable if your K is guarded or guard escaped so it shouldn't be used
frequently. Only use it if you are SURE your opponent is going to attack/be
vulnerable as you are getting up.
Generally, when you are knocked down, you want to act/press something as soon
as possible. The only time you want to stay down is against a super beast, as
you want to waste as much time as possible against them.
So here are the rules for getting up:
1. If you want to be somewhere when you wake up, you roll there.
2. If your opponent is attacking over you as you are down, you might consider
a wake up K.
-----------------------------------
Attacking Someone Waking Up
-----------------------------------
If you are attacking an opponent as they get up, you could be hit by the
wakeup K. However, attacking someone on wake up can let you set up certain
moves/ guessing games. By starting his attack before his opponent is standing,
Long can just whiff the un-variable start up attacks of his Circle Combos (which
are easy to guard and guard escape since they never change) and go straight for
the real Circle Combo which can be mixed up.
It's also worthwhile to point out that most character's downed attacks
(d+P/d+K/d+B when opponent is lying down) are worthless. They do beans damage,
have little positioning value, and often just put you at risk of getting hit if
you whiff. You can use them to annoy the opponent if you've already hit them
multiple times before knocking them down.
Some characters do have good down attacks. Bakuryu has the multi-hit d+B
(multiple claw swipes) and Stun has the quick d+K which might hit multiple
times.
Speaking of Stun, he is probably the only character with anything that could
really be considered decent okizeme. Heck, he needs okizeme because it's one of
his only chances to launch an offensive assault. With Stun's quick d+K ground
hit; f,b+P electric geyser that does a chunk of damage; multi-hit f,f+P guard
break attack; command throws... and his unblockable rushing beast drive, Stun
has a few options. The unblockable beast drive is very good on an opponent who
is getting up, especially on a roll. If the BD is properly timed and
positioned, the opponent's only choice is an instant guard escape (I'm assuming
it's possible) or wake up K.
###############################
Getting Up Summary
###############################
= Getting up by rolling if you want to go somewhere. Watch out when rolling,
because you might get up facing in the wrong direction.
= You can get up with tapping K if you suspect your opponent will try to hit you
with a ground attack.
= Use K flip kick to get up sparingly because of its slow recovery.
===================================
OTHER: Stages and Strategy
===================================
I hate it when stage structure gives certain characters advantages or
disadvantages. This is a big issue with Virtual On and Tekken 4, but thankfully
it doesn't affect BR that much.
There are only four stages that I think you should consider. The two small
stages: freezing space (refrigerator) and sewers. The two big stages: city
night and Xion's happy land.
In the small stages, there is not enough maneuvering room. Especially in the
sewer. If you back up too much, you're at a wall. Heck, the other guy is
already near a wall, too. Wall juggles are easy to set up here. I hate the
sewer.
So in small stages: Concentrate on juggles if you character has them. Try to
keep yourself facing along the long way of the sewer.
The larger stages are not as big of a deal. Just realize that you can often
have a little more room to back dash and retreat. If you don't like that, try
to hit your opponent with a power attack that will send them into the wall.
===================================
OTHER: Frames
===================================
If you have the JP version of BR3 and want to know the frame data for your
character's attacks...
1. Enter debug mode (L2+O when highlighting Option)
2. First option -PLAY_TEST
3. Press Select to get the menu
4. Go to DISP Menu
5. Turn off Gauge (otherwise it'll block your view of the frame data)
6. Set 1PMESS to ATAK2
7. Exit debug (make sure you take your memory card out, too) so the changes can
take effect and return to the DISP Menu
There will be some data up on the top left-hand side of the screen.
A = startup frames
V = frames where hit box is active/ hit is possible
K = recovery frames
D = damage
Looks like this, though this might not be lined up properly in this FAQ:
A V K D
(8 2 18) 9
If a number under D has an extra number in parenthesis next to it, like 12
(14), then I believe the parenthesis number refers to damage done on a ground
hit.
If anyone knows what the other ATK2 numbers mean, please e-mail me.
[email protected]
***************************************************
******************************************
VII. CHARACTER ANALYSIS
******************************************
***************************************************
For much better, in-depth info about certain characters, I suggest you visit
the sites in the Links section. A number of the juggles here are taken from
either eUriko or Kuu's sites.
I now offer a brief synopsis of each character's overall playing style and
their strengths and weaknesses. Of course, a character can have various playing
styles and their are many techniques I don't know about.
-----------------------------------
ALICE
-----------------------------------
+ Low attacks
+ Speedy
+ Juggles
- No basic physical power, especially when human
- No forward-momentum command attack
- Few good mix-ups in default strings
The love-love heroine. It is her occupation to injure people. Such is the
nature of nurses and medical practice.
Alice excels in low attacks and juggling. Her speed is also good but not the
best. A main component of her attack is her rush down and constant interruption
of her opponent's offense with her own attacks that put her back in control.
df+P (swing punch) rushes under high attacks and is a nice mid-hitting mix-up to
her low offensive attack strings like df+K,K (tap kick). Alice's d+K (low side
kick) is a defensive poke and can be decent to use after a guard escape in human
form.
In beast, Alice gets the d+B,B,B... string (crouching paw swipes), which is
awesome for in-their-face pressuring and trapping. The first two hits are low,
dodge high attacks, move forward, and most importantly, have recovery times
rivaling that of a standing jab. The third hit is mid and also has jab recovery
time. A valid strategy is for Alice to get her opponent against the wall with
an attack like df+P and then eat them up with the d+B.
df+B.B... (long leg) is slow and definitely not abusable, but the fact that it
begins a long-range low hit string makes it decent for closing distance.
Alice's main strength is derived from her juggles, commonly started by QCF+B
(upward kick). The QCF+B starts low and hits upward, letting it effectively hit
high-mid whiffed limbs that shoot out horizontally; the larger/taller the
character, the better it hits their limbs. QCF+B is also great as a
counterattack after guard-escaping moderate-recovery attacks or guarding slow
recovery attacks. Other launchers are u+P (CH); LD+P/K (CH); f,f+K xx u+P
(beast); QCB+K,K.
Alice's primary away-from-wall juggle is:
QCF+B --> (AC) P,K,P,B --> (AC) B,B --> run under --> t,d+B --> QCF+B...
It is stable to (AC) P,K,P,B; very hard to escape at (AC) B,B; and can be
mixed up with many other attacks afterwards. Another good juggle is just
repeated (AC) P,K,P,B.
Wall juggle is:
QCF+B --> (AC) K,P,K --> P,P,P,f+P--> B,B,B,f+B xx QCF+B --> air throw
Alice's obvious problem is that she has little physical strength. It is not a
big problem in beast form, but in human form she can barely do damage and often
has problems knocking a beast out of beast form. In human, her only workable
methods for beast knock out are QCF+P, LD+P/K (CH), b+K (CH) and u+P (CH).
Alice also lacks a rushing command attack like a pounce. Her closest
substitute is LD+B. This means she has to play a more passive role in long
range fighting because she cannot threaten her opponent with rush fakes.
-----------------------------------
BAKURYU
-----------------------------------
+ Fast
+ Tricky
+ Good mix ups
- No power
- AFAIK, no good BnB
- Big risks involved in tricks... takes damage badly
Bakuryu was transformed into bishounen. Complete with the most jiggly
appendages in the game. It is a sign of youth. Was the appearance of being
honorable ojiisan a disadvantage?
Bakuryu's keen ability of getting behind his opponent is not as brutal as it
was in other games due to back guard escapes and Bakuryu's overall decrease in
physical power in BR3. However, it is still good and confusing if used at the
right time.
Bakuryu's got good mix-ups and speed. Just starting from P,P; Bakuryu can
branch off into many different attacks. Unlike many of the other characters,
there's no single good way of dealing with his attack strings because some will
hit guard escape, some will hit lie down, low attack, etc.
Bakuryu's footsie is pretty good, especially when you factor in his foot
speed. b+P (one handed swipe down) staggers on CH, can be done easily while
retreating, and has decent priority. Same situation with b+B (two handed claw
swipe down). In beast, the fact that Bakuryu has long claws almost gives him
some Vega-esque poking ability (well, not THAT good, I guess). Repeated
standing B can be like little beeyotch slaps if the opponent doesn't have any
good "high dodge" attacks. d+B and f+B can be used to mix up the poking. And
of course, QCF+B is great to use from midrange in reaction to whiffed attacks.
Bakuryu has been given two major new tricks in BR3; the backwards run n' flip
and the little LD ground trap attacks. The ground traps are hard to use since
they come out and recover slowly. They can be used at close range defense, but
it has a risk. The backward runs are pretty good if used in moderation.
As usual, the speedy dude lacks in power. That's Bakuryu's main weakness. He
can't finish an opponent off of one mistake; they have to make a chain of
mistakes in order for you to do good damage. Of course, Bakuryu is equipped to
do that.
The other weakness is that he can be punished brutally for messing up any of
his trick moves, like f, b + P (run up the string/wall) or u+P (flip over).
Bakuryu takes damage just as badly as he did in BR2.
-----------------------------------
BUSUZIMA
-----------------------------------
+ Long range in beast
+ Tons of little gimmicks/tricks/throw setups
- Slow, especially on recovery.
- No counterattacks
Coolest. Win. Poses. Ever.
Has a lot of little tricks: f,f+K (foot stomp), (back, K) sidestep while back
turned, obscene range with certain attacks in Beast. Background
blend/invisibility. Most obvious is Busuzima's ability to stretch his arms in
beast. His Maji stance (QCF+K) gives him fast, long range attack power and can
be a real pain for opponent's to deal with. Busuzima's low attacks are pretty
good, too, though the recovery time they have if blocked is questionable.
Additionally, Busuzima has quick and early cancel points, like from his P, P;
which lets him play more canceling games than other characters.
The command grab (QCF+P+G) seems to be very good. His regular throw is also
good because of Busuzima's good throw range. Lots of setups to connect throws.
Like P,P --> [DC] grab or d+K --> grab. The problem is that there do not seem
to be stable, big damage follow ups to the command grab. Generally speaking,
follow up with LD+B --> u+K when away from the wall. It is cheap but stable,
and it offers positional advantages.
Busuzima suffers from being a little slow to attack. He can get snuffed or
thrown pretty easily. Movement is slow, too. Why did Eighting slow down his
d+B? Busuzima lacks good counterattacks after guard escaping and has only one
good counterattack after guarding: his command grab. So he can get rushed down
pretty badly.
-----------------------------------
GADO
-----------------------------------
+ Incredible power
+ Good range
- Poor low attacks
- Too slow
Old man who looks so much better hand-drawn. Come back when you're wearing
regular pants, dammit! The beast drive where Gado can get crushed by his enemy.
It is Eighting taunting Gado. Why do they torture him?
Gado has been made a less complicated character by BR3's game system. His key
power in previous BR's, his guard breaks, can now easily be guard escaped and
punished. Now he's completely brute force.
Gado's power is ultra-destructive. Some people say he is a "one juggle and
you're dead" kind of character. Which is true, but the difficulty for Gado lies
in connecting his juggles when he is hard pressed to put any pressure on his
opponent and is not equipped to relieve any pressure either. Gado's just too
slow and unlike Stun he doesn't have an attack reversal. All Gado's got is that
ridiculous db+P (step back and punch for the limb)
Gado has to be played with a strong defensive focus now, which is kind of
funny given how hard it is for him to get his opponent off his back. However,
the point when the opponent is attacking is the only situation where Gado really
has the opportunity to get in his big attacks. Most of the damage Gado does
should be off of GbA.
Like Marvel, Gado can do b+P,P xx QCB+B. And even if he can't follow with
Marvel juggle it still does great damage. Guard escape into QCF+B (pounce)
still works pretty well and can dish out some major damage fast. b+B (turn
around hind kick) and f,f+K (AC) u+P xx QCF+B are good counterattacks after
guarding slow recovery attacks. If you connect a back throw, you can also do
the u+P xx QCF+B.
Gado's QCFx2+B grab beast drive is relatively easy to connect but not really
worth it unless you can finish the opponent off. In human form, Gado is a
horrible victim of escape install turtling tactics. So forget the BD and keep
the beast.
On offense, the only good attack is fake/cancel into f,f+K juggle. You can
also use a QCB+P late cancel to get close to your opponent. Unless you abuse
the QCB+P, I do not think your opponent will try to "challenge" this attack by
interrupting it before it comes out. Use the anti-guard escape f+K mix ups
(actually just go to d+K 80% of the time) to annoy the opponent but watch out
for counter footsie tactics or guard-into-throw.
-----------------------------------
JENNY
-----------------------------------
+ Kicks are fast
+ Low attacks
+ Flying in beast
+ Air combos
Overall vulnerable
Poor forward mobility
The vicious, sexy lady that Activision unsuccessfully tries to use to market BR
in the US. The poor marketing is not her fault. The Primal Fury picture is
just horrible horrible. Her beast form is "naked woman with elaborate body
tattoos and no bra."
Jenny fights just as viciously as she behaves. She fights well at all ranges
using her flying ability, priority, attack speed, and low attacks. Standing K
(snap kick) is super fast and has great range. It's easy to use after a guard
escape and it can 7-hit combo into the Twist (QCF+P one leg kicks) for a nice
bit of damage. Since going all the way to the 7-hit combo is not safe, the
Twist can be canceled earlier. There is an incredible point to cancel the Twist
that has almost no lag time. That is after the first two K's, right before the
command cancel point on the third K.
K xx QCF+P, K, K... is very useful for human vs. human situations because most
human characters can't really punish flagrant, repeated combo attempts. What's
most important about the Twist is that is really builds beast meter up. You can
fill 1/3 of an empty bar by connecting one Twist.
IMO, the strength of a Jenny player is based mostly on his control over the
Twist.
Strong offense when close due to Twist and low attacks. df+K,K (standing low
poke kicks) is very good. Hits fast with good range. At a distance, it hits at
an angle that tends to beat out low sweep-type attacks very easily. d+K,K (low
poke kick to low sweep) has good range, and is very annoying. Nice for push-
out, but it can be countered after being guarded.
LD+B has good range for a launcher and leads to Jenny's air combos. Not
surprisingly, she has some of the best and most impressive juggles in the game.
There's a crazy one listed on eUriko's site, I guess I'll reproduce it here
because it's cool:
LD+B --> (AC) u+P,d+B --> QCF+B --> (AC) d+B --> back B --> (AC) B,B,B --> b+P
xx QCB+K --> (AC) K,B,B,B --> P,P,f+K,K,K,K --> QCF+K
It can be escaped early at the (AC) u+P, d+B, but you can mix this juggle with
an easier juggle that requires a different method of escape. That easy juggle </pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
is just the last part of the above juggle starting from (AC) K,B,B,B.
If you are playing against Jenny, please escape (AC) K,B,B,B by recovery at
the second B and blocking the final one.
Of course, Jenny has a few disadvantages. She cannot walk. She must strut,
and her strut is not good for fighting. However, the back dash is fine. In the
similar theme of immobility, Jenny does not move forward much when attacking,
meaning it is not difficult for opponents to walk back/back dash away from her
attacks.
Jenny can be pretty vulnerable at points, especially if she goes into Twist
(QCF+P one leg rapid kicks) or uses careless Flying.
-----------------------------------
KOHRYU
-----------------------------------
The old fart ugly Bakuryu returns. Does anyone welcome him? Nobody loves
machines because they have no souls. He must become bishounen like Bakuryu.
Here are some of the differences between Koh and Baku:
1. Takes damage much better than Baku
2. Heavy weight in beast and somewhat heavy in human.
3. QCB+K has variations (bicycle kick, spin stomp, land throw, regular)
4. No LD+P/B ground shock attack (elbow and hop instead) and no f,b string run
tricks.
5. Different guard attack: Koh has slow one-hit swipe.
6. Beast drives are different. Low-hit beast drive seems to come out slower.
7. Koh transforms into an iron mole that can pose and go, "Hahahah!" -Where is
the mouth/speakers?!
The ability to take damage alone makes Kohryu more attractive than Bakuryu.
Kohryu's QCB+K variations are also a little more useful than Bakuryu's silly
string run and ground punch tricks. When positioned correctly, Kohryu can do
the QCB+K bicycle kick to cross up the opponent. It's good for confusion.
-----------------------------------
LONG
-----------------------------------
+ Technical depth/Options
+ Circle Combo and command grab a good combination
- Circle Combo lacks sufficient speed/range/momentum (having just one of these
characteristics would make CC... too strong :p)
The favorite martial artist who screeches like Bruce Lee. Players are rooting
for him to kill off Yugo and take on the role of being BR's hero character.
Long is one of the most popular characters in both US and JP. His CC's
(circle combos) were laughably bad in previous BR's due to the ease in which
they could be guard escaped and punished, but the changed nature of guard
escaping in BR3 and the addition of the powerful B+P circle plus command grab
makes the CC a great weapon. The CC can still be guard escaped or interrupted,
but the magnitude of counterattacking it has been decreased significantly.
I still play my Long "old school" style, which means I tend to avoid using his
CC for anything other than quick pressure and instead rely on quick hits,
especially ones that knockdown. Lots of footsie both at mid distance and close
range. db+P (turn down and punch); df+P, P (shoulder check); df+B, B and db+B,
B (turn kick into back check); b+B (double palm), etc. are all moves that I like
to use frequently. All of these are great, great, great, for footsie (as long
as they connect, LOL). Problem is, they don't do much damage, especially since
life bars in BR3 are larger.
Use the CC and command grab.
Command grab is a great addition to Long's arsenal. In beast he can do a good
chunk of damage after it and set up small juggling games. Without this attack,
Long might have ended up a weaker character because otherwise he essentially has
very little to use against EI turtlers aside from his beast circle. I like to
do the command grab by pressing HCF+P+G instead of b,f+P+G.
b,f+P+G --> P+B --> d+K+B --> b+K --> (AC) u+K --> juggle games
In human mode just do f+P --> K --> b+K
"CC"
K, d+K, f+P xx (DC) QCF+P --> b,f+P+G
f+P comes up fast after d+K, preventing interruption. In beast, (DC) QCF+P
makes the guard break flash come out, hopefully encouraging your opponent to
heavy guard/EI. Canceling the QCF+P correctly moves you forward, right in range
for command grab.
Usually Long should keep the CC's short and use CC finishers in moderation.
If you do the CC in any direction, you will notice almost a "beat" to it, where
there are pauses in the flow of Long's attack. The attacks prior to these pause
points tend to get guard escaped into counterattack. Naturally, you could use a
string finisher or cancel to try and save yourself, but it is dangerous if you
miss (CC doesn't have much forward momentum either) or get guarded.
-----------------------------------
MARVEL
-----------------------------------
+ Guard attack
+ Powerful, stable juggles
- Insufficient low attacks
She is angry. Very angry with the guard attack and the juggling. Her father
didn't teach her any of this evil. Well, maybe the guard attack. I guess Gado
is too old to do that with his legs now.
Very fast guard attack (multiple kick QCB+K) that can be canceled at all but
the last kick. QCB+K is good for stopping the opponent from doing anything that
lasts more than two hits and can be used for pressuring.
Marvel also has the Marvel juggle
u+P xx QCB+B --> (AC) K, f+B --> QCF+P/QCB+B --> (AC) K, f+B -->
QCB+B/QCF+B...
It is difficult to escape even when not at the wall, and does devastating
damage. If the opponent doesn't know how to escape this juggle ahead of time,
he is simply dead (air recover after the QCF+P/QCB+B then attack/escape).
An equally deadly way to start the juggle is off of b+P,P xx QCB+B. b+P,P
combos and is a safer, faster attack than u+P. You can guard escape slow-
recovery attacks into the b+P,P; making it more connectable. However, the b+P,P
is not that safe (at least not abusable) and can be interrupted/guard escaped.
Marvel also has a small ground combo. f+P,P xx QCF+P. It doesn't do great
damage, but it hits mid, ends in a cancelable attack, and is pretty safe to do.
Therefore, it offers Marvel a safe and easy pressuring tactic. The f+K kicks
are also decent for pressure, but they don't accomplish much more than since if
the opponent guards high or just walks backward it will guarantee they take
minimal or no damage.
Attack reversal beast drive (QCB x 2 +B) is pretty good since it discourages
low attacks and can be used after guarding an attack.
Marvel's flaws come from her father. Slow speed. Mobility isn't horrible but
even with her guard attack she's not fast enough to compete with the top class
movers likes Yugo, Alice, or ShenLong. Her momentum attacks for long/midrange
fighting, like her pounce, QCF+P (duck rush and uppercut), and f,f+B xx QCF+B
(hop slash into pounce), are only the minimum system requirements.
Marvel can't really put much pressure on the opponent. Her only good low
attack is d+B (swipe). Everything else is either hard to connect or too
vulnerable like d+K (kick the can). Factoring in the fact that Marvel doesn't
have a standing command grab, and Marvel is in a bit of a fix against a good
turtler.
-----------------------------------
SHEN LONG
-----------------------------------
+ Strong offense
+ Lots of single hit, command cancel attacks
- Interruptible
Younger, more confident, and now fluent in English, ShenLong returns with a
vengeance. Japanese Pun: Japanese way of saying Long: Ron. Japanese way of
saying "clone": Ku-ron. Shen-Ron is Ron's Ku-Ron! Wahahahaahah! :P
Judging by the frequency in which he turns up in Japan's tourneys, I assume
that the Japanese consider him the strongest character.
ShenLong can basically be characterized as a fighter with massive offensive
power in beast, but poor overall defense and offensive stability. Flat out, he
does good damage with each attack and has some good guard break/stagger combos
from starters like f+P (long range swipe); f,f+P (elbow) and db+P (two hand
punch), all of which can be canceled into command attacks (f+P by following up
with P). Generally, ShenLong's theory revolves around rush down and CH hitting
his opponents from pretty much ANY range. His dashing is also pretty fast,
which helps him setup attacks from far range more easily.
The f,f+P elbow is very powerful, and is basically the centerpiece of
ShenLong's game. It's already been discussed across other sections, but as a
quick overview: it causes fall back stagger on CH, it can be buffered from heavy
guard to interrupt attack strings (that's how you make it CH), it can be drive
canceled for numerous follow-ups, and it travels a good distance. db+P works in
much the same way.
ShenLong has some good juggling ability. Note that Long can't juggle for his
life. In Shen's high offense, low defense style, b.Shen can use
b+K (turns back to opponent)--> (AC) u+K
to spiral launch the opponent. Won't work on CPU. His more conventional
launchers are f,f+B (upward swipe) or LD+B. f,f+B can be difficult to use
because ShenLong takes a step forward (often he can step into an opponent's
attack) before doing the upward swipe. The LD+B is much better but should be
used carefully since the attack has moderate recovery time.
While follow up juggles like (AC) B,B aren't completely guaranteed unless the
launcher CH's, it still works 99% of the time. A more damaging but less secure
sequence is (AC) K,P,B --> (AC) K,P,B --> run under. As mentioned in the Juggle
chapter, running under and doing d+K (d+B probably works, too) to stagger then
re-launching is an effective tactic.
-----------------------------------
STUN
-----------------------------------
+ Command grabs
+ Nice range
+ Solid single hit power
+ Stamina
- Very slow
- Big target
- Weak rush down
- Without beast drive, cannot take off huge chunk of damage in one go: no
juggles
The ugly thing with the goofy voice and strange fashion sense. Available with
metal plating. He is large. Please do not step on him. I will find a twig and
a large jar and then Stun will have nice home to live in.
Even though Stun is a "throw character," he is good for long range
defensive/machi/turtling. He has slow strings but can do solid chunks of damage
with single hit attacks and throws.
Stun was changed a lot from BR2. His back roll has been removed, his bio
shock (f, b+P) now has waaaaay too much start up time and less range (though it
can be canceled now and does huge damage on close, downed opponent). His QCB+B
(attack reversal) no longer takes off a sizable chunk of life, b+B (sway and
head butt) is also less damaging and seems to have less range. Stun can still
take more damage than the other characters but the difference isn't nearly as
great as it used to be... Stun the insect is not the turtle he used to be.
His defensive nature is still present, especially in beast. In addition to
the already mentioned QCB+B attack reversal, Stun's low command grab, as well as
the overall range of Stun's grabs, add to Stun's overall defense. The presence
of a low command grab completely alters the game for many characters. It is
dangerous to attack Stun with single-hit low pokes that don't knockdown/stagger
(d+P) or two-hit low pokes that don't push out (Alice df+K,K) because Stun can
just low throw for a phat chunk of damage. And of course at the same time, the
high road offers the threat of the attack reversal. Naturally, what hampers
Stun's defense is human reaction time/ability more than anything else.
Otherwise, I'd say Stun technically has the best tools in the game for becoming
an invincible wall.
To make up for some loss of defense, Stun has a somewhat better offense with
new throws, cancels, and anti-guard escape attacks. He is now much more like a
traditional throw character who plays best close up and throwing people in
obscene WTF situations. Get in their face with df+K (crouch move in). In fact,
df+K is probably the only decent move Stun has now for starting up his offense;
everything is else is too slow and vulnerable. If the opponent can handle
Stun's df+K, Stun will likely be forced to fight off of what his opponent
chooses to do.
Now that Stun's f,b+P (electric geyser) and b,f+P (choke punch) are cancelable
Stun has a more threatening fake-out game and can thus generate a better
offense. df+K --> command grab or df+K --> df+K are simple examples of what
Stun can do to put the heat on.
f,f+P (hammer punch) is a nice guard break because its fast multi-hit allows
it to drive straight through guard attacks. If it connects immediately follow
up with f,b+P. The recovery time of f,f+P is also good if the opponent guards
it, so f,f+P is one of my favorite attacks for BR3 Stun. I like to initiate a
lot of attacks with f,f+P, then occasionally switch up to b,f+P (cancel) -->
command grab.
As said earlier in the FAQ, Stun probably has the best okizeme (games played
as the opponent is getting up) in the game... if not some of the only good
okizeme. Mix in the multi-hit guard breaking f,f+P (hmmm... look's kind of like
Paul Phoenix d+1 or Makoto's QCB+P). Then follow up with f,b+P to hit them on
the ground after you've knocked them down. Play bastard games on them by
canceling guard breaks (b,f+P) into command grabs as they get up or use another
f,f+P. Or just whack them with the un-blockable beast drive. I shouldn't say
"just". If you see your opponent rolling, it's pretty darn easy to hit them
with the QCFx2+B. And of course if they don't roll you can hit them with f,b+P
(ground shock) or treat them to f,f+P games. :)
Stun suffers from being large, slow, and having no rush down ability. His
range advantage is pretty much canceled out by his complete absence of walking
speed. His long, slow limbs also make him easier to hit from a distance when
playing footsie (the exact opposite situation for Uriko).
Stun has zero good attack strings in human form, and in beast he has one that
is okay (B,B...) but has poor variation and is interruptible. Like many throw
characters, one of the biggest issues that Stun has is just getting close enough
to throw, unless the enemy is foolish enough to approach on their own.
Without his beast drives, Stun lacks the ability to do a huge amount of damage
in one "assault"/juggle. His beast drives are great, but the obvious issue
becomes weighing the value of landing a beast drive as opposed to just staying
in beast mode.
-----------------------------------
URANUS
-----------------------------------
The god-like chick who warps around a lot and engages in much ass-kicking. She
evokes many deep BR message board questions like, "How the heck do I beat
Uranus?"
Fast ground speed, easy juggle setups, tight juggling, large attack ranges,
air canceling in human form... Uranus is a true beast in human form.
Amusingly enough, I think she gets much weaker in beast as the Chimera has
limited attacks and slow speed. She's so slow that I would vote b.Uranus as the
only character in the game who you could realistically have ~100% guarding
success against (excluding the grab BD). The low attacks are way too slow.
It's the Gado formula and it doesn't work. Great range and power isn't enough.
... And I guess Eighting purposely did that. I've learned that in Primal
Fury, Uranus' hyper form is actually a powered up human form rather than Chimera
form. Makes sense since the human form is stronger.
-----------------------------------
URIKO
-----------------------------------
+ Automatically evades many attacks
+ Fast attack is hard to interrupt
- Weak attack power
- No attack range without risk
Silly little girl with the deceptive fighting style. Loved by BR players
everywhere. Nyo, nyo. Dejiko, she is not.
Uriko can seriously annoy opponents with her speedy attack and her small size.
Despite all her wacky recovery animations, Uriko is the hardest character to hit
in the game. Her short stature often makes her completely invulnerable to high
attacks and even some mid attacks. f+P is an example. It is the Virtua Fighter
elbow, and it goes under high attacks and leads into the CC. Uriko's short and
fast limbs make her hard to punish for whiffing. She is also just all-around
fast and versatile in her attack. There aren't many great spots to hit Uriko
while guarding her attack strings (usually circle combo), especially at the
early parts. But she can also delay many of her attacks and bait her opponents.
Uriko's short range helps her avoid some footsie atttacks, but it is also a
disadvantage. Her range is so short that the opponent can usually dash back to
safety in an instant. Weak attack power also means that you must attack very
intelligently in order to inflict damage.
-----------------------------------
XION
-----------------------------------
+ Lots of cancel points that come up fast
+ Ground combos
+ Range
- Attacks too slowly
- AFAIK, doesn't have a solid BnB
The guy who looks like many stock anime characters. He calls himself an unborn
because it is shameful. It is shameful for the beast form to be a cockroach,
the lowliest insect on Mars. There is a glowing head in the cockroach. It
weeps in shame.
His strength lies mainly in his ability to cancel main of his strings.
Supposedly you can do a lot of effective DC (drive cancel) with Xion. Xion's
guard attack is, not surprisingly, very good and effective for canceling. It's
comes out fast, knocks down, and I'd probably rank it the second best guard
attack in the game. Xion's also got excellent range with certain attacks in
Beast form.
Xion is one of the few characters who can use short, relatively safe ground
combos. K,K xx QCF+P is an example. If the K's are guarded, he can cancel into
something else like a guard attack and lower the chances of an opponent's
retaliation.
Xion's disadvantage is that he doesn't attack quite fast enough, making him
easy to interrupt or guard escape and counter. He can stop this by canceling
some attacks, but most of his cancels just leave him vulnerable if missed or
guarded.
-----------------------------------
YUGO
-----------------------------------
+ Solid overall in power, range, speed, etc.
+ Ground combos
+ Rushes
+ Command grab
- Very interruptible
- Not enough low attacks
Unloved hero. Back turned, the dog whimpers and runs away into the shadows to
speak Japanglish. "Boh-dee, boh-dee! Wan-tu! Uppaaaaaaaa!!!"
Poor Yugo. Although he's strong (he's got my vote for best chara), he's one
of the least popular characters in the game. It's extra humiliating for him
since the hero characters are often the most popular. Like Ryu or Jin Kazama.
Everybody plays those guys. Oh well. The Primal Fury version of Yugo looks
pimpin' so maybe he'll get some fans.
Yugo has the best ground combo in the game: B, B xx QCF+P, P, P xx QCB+K.
Does great damage and is relatively safe to attempt because if the B, B gets
blocked you can branch to different attacks very easily. If it is guard escaped
you're not likely to suffer a huge counterattack. Naturally, all other forms of
P,P,P can combo into QCB+K. So B,P,P,P xx QCB+K and df+P,df+P,P,P,P xx QCB+K
(first hit does not combo but good to use since it starts with two mids) all
work as well. In addition, they can connect even if the hits are delayed. You
can use these combos very easily after guard escaping or guarding. Very deadly.
Yugo's other good quality is that his high attacks are very strong. He hits
very fast (anti guard escape) and rushes forward so his opponents can't get away
from him. He can rush forward and backward relatively well with his db+K and
df+K (sway back/forward). Canceled QCF+P can also be used to rush forward and
encourage crouching from the opponent.
Yugo also has a command grab, which is always a great thing to have. It
complements his rush, rush, in-your-face fighting style very well. Yugo's
command grab lets him do a decent chunk of damage if he uses it to launch.
And let's not forget the Flicker stance. I don't have a full understanding of
this move, but it seems to be quite useful for those who could take the time to
master it.
At long distances, Yugo can fake rushes, hit limbs with his jabs, and react to
whiffed attacks with his QCF+P and QCF+B, but since he is so much stronger close
up that is really where he should stay.
Yugo's weak point is in the general low hit department. Yugo has only one
good low attack, his db+P, P (downward punches). Its hits really well when Yugo
is right next to the opponent since it is difficult to guard on reaction from
that distance, but the predictability of db+P (since it is Yugo's only good low
attack) hampers the effectiveness of the attack. A bigger indicator of Yugo's
designated weakness is that he can't even low throw properly; his low throw does
piddly damage.
The topper for low weakness is that the opponent's low attacks and lie down
attacks will stop about half or more of Yugo's primary attacks, since most hit
high. Yugo has mid attacks but most have weaknesses in speed like f+P,P
(stomach punches); b+P,P (straight power punches); and his command attacks.
df+P,P (two low uppers) is probably Yugo's best midattack, even if it is short
range it is fast and can be comboed into the P,P,P xx QCB+K.
***************************************************
******************************************
VIII. UPDATE HISTORY
******************************************
***************************************************
7/15/02:
I reworked the FAQ to try and make it more effective. Countering After Guard
Escape throwing elaborated on. Note that holding f+G doesn't heavy guard
anything even though you'll appear to be in a heavy guard.
Now where's my Bloody Roar 4 for PS2???
4/22/02:
This is probably the final update, simply because this FAQ hasn't really
spurred any improvement in the BR "community" and Primal Fury still got the same
ol' commentary from reviewers. I don't want to put anymore effort into a FAQ
that hasn't gotten any results. It was a tough objective anyway; to make BR
popular through a FAQ.
"Movement" updated with short but very important info on dashing. "Getting
Up" updated. Small sections "Stages and Strategy" and "Counterattacking After
Getting Hit" created. "Character Analysis" updated with a decent amount of new
useful stuff. Some corrections here and there. Two chapters removed as they
were throw aways.
3/14/02: Most important updates:
- Juggling chapter
- Interrupting Attacks
- Attacking Off of Stagger
Hmm... That "Learning" section was messed up in steps. Fixed that. But I've
got to make that section better next update. It's a throw away right now. Mini
section "Counterattack After Run Away" created.
"Positioning/Distance" added to Other chapter. "Attacking Off of Counter Hit"
changed to "Attacking Off of Stagger" and updated. "Character Analysis"
updated. Removed "Glitch" section.
2/24/02:
Canceling Attacks to Recover Faster", "Juggling" and "Low Throws After
Guarding d+P/Low Attacks" sections added. A few additions/modifications to
guard escaping. More links. Little changes here and there as usual.
2/14/02:
Separated the juggling section, added sections to most chapters. Added a lot
of links. Added more info from JP. It doesn't make a difference for you to
know what I updated b/c this FAQ hasn't been publicly released yet!
1/23/02:
First version of FAQ completed. Must finish a lot of ATTACK sections.
Confirm minor counter.
1/6/02:
FAQ started.
***************************************************
******************************************
IX. RESOURCES/LINKS
******************************************
***************************************************
===================================
FAQ Main Resources
===================================
Deeshad's Bloody Roar 2 and 3 FAQs
- I would've been clueless about BR without Deeshad's FAQs.
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/bloody_roar_2_a.txt
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/bloody_roar_3.txt
-----------------------------------
e (Uriko)
- His main BR page is officially closed, but the links still exist!
There are too many links to list. Search for "Bloody Roar" on lycos.co.jp and
you will find all of e's pages under "Bloody Roar Tactics" (they are NOT all
grouped together). To check out the links I referenced in this FAQ, simply use
the link provided below plus "br3/?????.htm"
http://isweb23.infoseek.co.jp/play/rz_/
-----------------------------------
Cafe Globe Translator (translates JP sites to English)
- I know some Japanese, but I'm definitely better using a translator! Just some
notes about the translations: cooperation refers to attack strings. SUKA refers
to dodge ability. SUKI refers to recovery time. GIRIESU is guard escape.
"brute man" is Beast. G KYAN is guard cancel. For controller/joystick
directions, the Japanese use the directions corresponding to the number pad,
which should be on the right side of your keyboard. So 6P in Japanese means
f+P.
http://www.cafeglobe.com/cafe/wotg/index_en.html
===================================
Japanese Players
===================================
All of these players except Voldest and the Roar Room guy are tourney players,
and most of them have done very well.
Sa-mo/Thermo (Alice, ShenLong written by RX78)
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-King/7434/entrance.htm
-----------------------------------
Kuu (ShenLong)
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Darts/4969/br3.html
-----------------------------------
Gou (Busuzima, Alice written by Fortune)
http://popup2.tok2.com/home/click/roar/index.html
-----------------------------------
Kou-den (Marvel, Yugo, Gado)
http://homepage2.nifty.com/naraku/
-----------------------------------
Duck (ShenLong)
http://www.people.or.jp/~br3_shenlong/index.html
-----------------------------------
Voldest (Uriko)
http://www.members.goo.ne.jp/home/voldest
-----------------------------------
Roar Room (system info)
http://www13.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/qa3/poli_o/roar/
===================================
Other Links
===================================
Alpha Station Tourney Movies (mpg)
- Download all the # files in a directory then run the bat file. Only 4~5
movies are available.
http://isweb32.infoseek.co.jp/play/alpha-st/
-----------------------------------
Hakuyama Plaza Tourney Movies (real media)
- You need an LZH decompressor. The level of play here is no good.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Knight/5877/taikai.htm
-----------------------------------
Alpha Station Arcade HP
- You can see the draw sheets for past BR tourneys here. There are sheets for
plenty of other game tourneys, too. Street Fighters will recognize big names
such as Ohnuki, Raoh, and Mester winning SF tourneys.
http://www.alpha-st.co.jp/index2.html
-----------------------------------
Bloody Roar 3 Debug Screens + Links
- Debug mode is so fun!
http://www3.tok2.com/home/sigh/index.html
-----------------------------------
Bloody Roar Official Site
- Why do official sites always suck? Right now they've got some nifty
wallpapers. Well, actually they suck like the site.
http://www.bloody-roar.com
**************************
**************************
And that's the FAQ.
-H2
