Ask Us Anything: KOF FAQ & Advice Corner

Classic Fighting Games King of Fighters XIII
41

Just went to my first KOF tournament. A poor performance on my part. I really want to improve though. I normally play Kula/Andy/Claw Iori, but my Kula was so bad I had to swap Kensou in mid-tourney and just adopt dacidbro’s “Sweep -> Fireball” strategy (which worked surprisingly well, actually…), and my Andy was really poor as well.

Question 1: Are there any other quick characters in this game that can do great damage off a quick, standing low? This is one of the biggest tools I use with Iori, and my general game plan with him is to hound them with hopping overheads until they stop blocking low, then hit them with his s.B, follow with his f+A command normals, and end with a SDM or HD combo which’ll do around 800+.

Question 2: What is the best way to deal with a good Duo Lon? The player using him (who ended up winning the tourney) kept saying that he has no way to open you up, his teleport left him vulnerable, that he was a mediocre character, blah blah blah, but I couldn’t even begin to approach the guy. Soon as I got to him, it was Rekka Rekka Rekka Teleport, repeat. I couldn’t find anyway to punish him once he started his dance. What is my game plan when approaching this character? What do I need to force him to do, and how do I avoid getting stuck in his Berserker Slash shenanigans?

42

EX Kyo, Daimon, King, and Mr. Karate have low-hitting st.B attacks and I may be forgetting others. The thing is though, that many cr.B attacks are cancelable and hitconfirmable as well, so I don’t particularly see your fascination with st.B over cr.B. With Hwa Jai you could ‘hound’ with st.A, st.B and especially cr.B and a cr.B can be chained into st.B into his slide which goes into anything, and likewise King can do the same. If you’re just looking for a HD combo from a light hitconfirm, you can choose from pretty much the entire cast since cr.B cr.B st.B BC cl.C/D is nearly universal.

Rekkas > teleport has variable safety. First, if he ever has you cornered and then teleports into the corner you can punish him with a close normal into whatever move you want. Midscreen, try recording a dummy to do the blockstring and try finding a special that can punish the teleport. You’ll need to input the special backwards since he’ll cross you up, but fast, horizontal moves will blow him up. The EX teleport does recover faster, though not enough to make him completely safe since for instance an instant command grab will always punish him. With Kensou, I’d suggest try auto-correcting an EX DP or his grab DM and seeing if it can’t punish the teleport. Otherwise a good universal option is to Guard Cancel Roll the second rekka: if he does the third one, it’ll whiff and he’ll be unable to cancel it to the teleport, which then leaves you with just enough time to run forward and punish him with a close normal.

Worst case you can just block and then play the neutral game once he flies to the other side of the screen. Get a knockdown and go wild since Duo Lon doesn’t have any reversals outside his EX DM, and his EX teleport can be punished or thrown just like a roll.

43

Thanks Sparks.

I actually was trying Hwa Jai, but I screw up the timing going from cr.B to st.B too often for me to be able to rely on it. Sometimes I’ll get it, other times I’ll stand up and Hwa will just do nothing. If I have that hard a time doing it in Practice, I know it’ll be impossible for me to do it under pressure. By comparison, Iori’s st.B, fw+A, A is braindead easy to perform. There’s no way I’m screwing that up - and after I do it, I can do a special, SDM, HD, whatever I feel like. Better yet, st.B, fw+A,A is safe enough that when it does get blocked, the enemy is pushed back far enough away that I don’t have to worry too much about a reversal, depending on the match-up.

I’ll definitely try some training stuff with Duo Lon, thanks!

44

kupô

what’s the base gameplay of robert ?

thanks

45

Low-hitting standing normals are great for grapplers and certain setups because people reflexively start blocking if they’re being harassed with a low hitting move and it’s coming from standing - which makes it slightly more deceptive. As a combo tool you can take it or leave it.

It’s subtle, but you can condition them to try to jump or duck/freeze to guard it and either option can be punished. Don’t quote me on this but I’d imagine low hitting s.B have more active frames sometimes and a lot more range too.

46

Just to note, I’m pretty new to KOF in general, though I’ve already read most of the guides I could find already…/

I use Robert / Kula / Yuri, my friend who I play against uses Saiki / King. He has yet to pick a 3rd main. Anyway, Saiki isn’t too much of an issue, but his King absolutely infuriates me. It’s very strange, in that I can’t find a window to punish anything she does, even moves that I know are unsafe on block, like a deep Tornado Kick or Trap Shot. Any time I’ve ever tried to punish King, he gets me with an EX trap shot, and if I block to bait it out, he’ll either not do it and throw me, or do yet another one and catch whatever limb I stuck out to punish him. It’s odd because I’ve gone into training mode and recorded her doing the same moves, and I can punish the dummy without getting hit, but in an actual match it feels as if the EX trap shot and tornado kick are just ridiculous. The only time I ever feel decent against King is when he’s out of meter, but even then it feels like everything I do to punish her ends up turned around against me.

With Robert, I usually feel that I hold an advantage against both his mains, because of his good, long-reaching normals. Kula’s normals are pretty good too, even if I can’t stand the slowness of her Far S.C, but I have trouble trying to open up my opponents with her. With Yuri, I have the same issue, except I just get zoned out hard by both King and Saiki. So basically, how do I go about the vs King / Saiki matchup using Yuri or Kula? Because at this point, I feel as though I want to trade Yuri out for a character with longer legs…

TL;DR Version:

Yuri: Gets zoned out hard by Saiki/King. Vs. Saiki either manage to work my way in slowly, or just get kept out all day. Vs King just get zoned by venom strikes/slide. Can’t find a way to reliably punish tornado kicks or trap shots, even blatantly unsafe ones.

Kula: Have trouble getting past opponent’s blocking.

47

To better punish Tornado Kick guard down cause when crouch the 2nd hit is whiffing so you can do st.C>combo

48

That’s exactly it, I’ve had it whiff because I was crouching, and tried to S.C, and even then “-EX whoosh- TRAP SHOT!” And it’s not like I’ve got slow reactions, I counter-sweep C.Bs and anti-air hops all the time. I’m literally waiting for him to just throw it out, and even when I’m expecting it, I still can’t hit him. Though, he usually uses Tornado Kick D, since it doesn’t whiff over crouchers (iirc). I know I should be able to punish him if he does it deep, and yet (see above sound effect).

49

With Yuri when it doubt use her HCB B command grab. It’s 1f and you can convert off of it. Or leave it alone for a hard knockdown. Which will set you up for all of her shenanigans. I happen to main King(if I get my information wrong feel free to correct me) and I can say getting in on her can be a chore. But a couple of things to note. Her air fireball has a huge window of recovery. It might seem irrelevant to the conversation but if King is just throwing it out there just to do it use that as your opportunity to advance(while being careful of course). All versions of Tornado kick are unsafe, but the B version can be a little tricky to punish. If you’re unsure on how to punish it just use Yuri’s HCB B grab as I explained earlier. However D and EX are a guaranteed free punish. If you’re friend is managing to EX Trap shot you off of those versions then your reactions simply aren’t up to speed. King is arguably at her worst when her back is against the wall. And seeing how Yuri has corner rape for days you might want to center your game plan around getting her cornered. Meter or not King has an extremely tough time when cornered. Meterless she’s virtually free in the corner as she has no solid reversal options whatsoever. Don’t fear regular trap shot as it’s incredibly slow and is prone to trades. Also take a look at her fireballs and see the speeds at which they fire. From 3/4ths to full screen the light one recovers fast enough to set up for some good spacial control from her. So if you jump from those distances you might eat a D Tornado kick, S.D, or S.C depending on the spacing. Her heavy fireball while fast, has quite a bit of recovery on it. So even if you can’t get a punish from a jump in use that as another opportunity to gain some ground. From 3/4ths to 1/2 screen away from her be aware of jumping as her S.D and S.C are great anti-airs. Speaking of her S.C It stays out for a long time and whiffs on crouchers. So if you see King just throw that out there it’s pretty much a free sweep. I could go on and on, but I’m drawing blanks on what else I should mention. But while I’m here I might as well ask the better people if this is legit match up knowledge for King? Or am I just playing her wrong? lol It might not be Yuri specific but it’s just general knowledge of King’s weakness’s, which are pretty easy to exploit.

50

Any anti-Yuri strats will be greatly appreciated.

51

Thanks for the advice.

52

I’m going to paragraph this for readability. Also I thought certain EX moves with King were decent reversals? I think the hyper guide says something like that.

EDIT: Err…wait you did say meterless – whoops! Well, it’s worth mentioning this regardless methinks.

53

I think I get this mostly. It needs some proofreading, which I could do at some point but I’m lazy atm.

Correct me if I’m wrong - depending on the character’s height and rise speed a meaty j.D will either whiff or connect, and you can land and just go low instead of having to do any sort of hit check. I’d actually leave the j.D in any way to keep them from throwing something out if my timing is off (big Raiden gut will dissuade people who don’t know even if it loses or trades to their reversal on paper heh heh heh).

I can already think of a few things in a mixup with this if they start blocking but it sounds great.

54

Sorry everyone. I’ve been sick the past few days and I’m still recovering even now. I’ll try to give some feedback and answers on Saturday. Chances are tonight I might go to Ramnation and have a friend drive my sick self up there and then go stay at a place over in the Bay Area and attend STA on Sunday. I’ll be getting back to answering questions shortly and thanks for the patience.

55

Just wanted to know if you install this game to the ps3 hard drive if the load times decrease?

56

Yes.

57

Awesome thanks

58

Ok, went to my first local KOFXIII tournament and got blown out 2-0
ugghhh haven’t trained hard in KOF since KOF98

I haven’t decided on a full team yet, please help me decide on my 3rd teammate

So far decided:
Iori (claw or flames), Clark

and either

K’, Takuma, Andy, or NESTS Kyo.

K’ - I’m okay with him, but I can’t do his HD combos, and I can’t seem to maintain consistent pressure. His moveset is all great, but I always end up jumping around too much with him instead of going in all the time. If I have him on my team, he will be on point with K’, Clark, Iori

Takuma - Probably my last choice, mostly because I can’t do his HD combos, but from all the videos I’ve seen, his HD combos are crazy town. His fireball is huge, his jump attacks are great, he’s got good normals, but he needs meter to do heavy damage. If I have him on my team, I will either have Takuma in the middle or as anchor.

Andy - Overall I feel good with him, his specials are good, but his jump arc is high and and I haven’t seen too many long HD combos with him. The great thing about him is that he doesn’t really need too much meter to do damage. I don’t know who his bad matchups are. If I have Andy on the team, I will either have him on point first or in the middle switching up with Clark.

NESTS Kyo - I feel good about him, but since fireballs and uppercuts are stronger in this game, I have to find a way to get in safely and maintain pressure. I can actually do some of his HD combos. The main thing about Kyo is that the only 2 ways to get heavy damage with Kyo is with his double kicks juggle or with HD combos. If I use NESTS Kyo, I will probably have him on point with Kyo, Clark, and Iori

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

59

Seems like you are obsessed with HD combos and forgetting the rest of the match. I wouldnt really consider HD combos a significant portion of my character selection.

60

HD combos are huge in this game, I don’t remember seeing any high level play without HD combos implimented in play.