Cool thanks. I’ll get started on this game a bit more seriously when I find the time. Right now the system is pretty interesting. I’m pretty lost at how that the smaller blue/red bar builds. It just seems to do whatever it wants.
The IC bar builds on its own independantly of the guard, life, and super bars, afaik. Lots of meter management in EFZ. It’s really deceptively deep and complex despite its pastel-wai-wai exterior.
EFZ is very much an okizeme game, IMO. Since there are no wakeup roll options, a lot of characters specialize in setting up traps upon characters getting up off the ground and 50/50 mixups. Just off the top of my head and based on my rather limited knowledge of the game: Mai’s got setups with little Mai a la Eddie, Minagi’s also got Eddie-esque setups but is much more dedicated to the partner system, Misaki has a 50/50 mixup after level 3 air super, Mizuka’s got Aegis-like rushdown by laying down notes, Makoto’s got 50/50 mixups off a knockdown using her ground bomb thingie… there’s much more straightforward characters like Ayu, Shiori, and Misaki, and there’s some gimmicky characters like Misuzu, Mio, and Mayu. Learning recoil guard is pretty much essential even at mid-level play because it’s very difficult to escape traps and rushdown strings otherwise.
The game’s really really fun and very good once you get the hang of it, but it’s kind of difficult to get into, at least for me. It kind of pains me to say it but right now I’m digging this more than MBR and I have a feeling MBR might not get any better in the future. 
I think that’s how most of us feel anyway.
Quote of the thread ^^
Anyways, RF bar recharges at full speed when in blue (0-49%), half speed when in red (50-99%). A full RF bar is flashing white. The bar fills by itself with time, but it pauses whenever you are getting hit/knocked down.
A 50%+ RF (filling red bar) gives you an EX move and a HIC (Half IC as we call it). A 100% RF (white) bar gives you a RIC (Reinforce IC as we call it - damage scaling reset and extra juggle time) and up to four EX moves. A full Reinforce bar depletes either either by getting hit (depends on attack) an EX (25%) or an RIC (100%).
Once the white RF depletes it starts again filling as a blue bar.
Also, as mentioned, your RF bar fills up faster while you are blocking attacks… so if you are waiting for that EX DP… you’ll get it pretty quick while on the defensive.
Japanese EFZ rankings:
- Mio Kouzuki (Folder-on-a-string girl)
- Mayu Shiina (Ferret girl)
- Kano Kirishima (Magic gauge girl)
- Rumi Nanase (Bokken girl)
- Sayuri Kurata (Magical girl)
- Ikumi Amasawa (Blood girl)
- EX Mizuha (Tiny girl)
- Makoto Sawatari (Pistol girl)
- Ayu Tsukimiya (Backpack girl)
- Akane Satomura (Hair girl)
- Shiori Misaka (Ice girl)
- Kaori Misaka (Boxer girl)
- Nayuki Minase (Sleepy girl)
- Misuzu Kamio (Feather girl)
- Misaki Kawana (Reppuken girl)
- Minagi Tohno (Girl with the little kid)
- Doppel Nanase (Ponytail girl with a tan)
- Mishio Amano (Fire/ice girl)
- Mizuka Nagamori (Cello girl)
- Mai Kawasumi (Girl with the familiar)
Mai’s low placement odds me, to be honest. I’m also not sure why Nanase’s so high but admittedly I haven’t seen too much of her. Ikumi’s placement really weirds me out. How does she get someone off of her? She’s got no good reversals that I can see, and I don’t quite see how the “keep them guessing” factor factors in as strongly against people like Kano, who can keep you locked down like crazy, or people who can just pull a reversal/EX move to get her off their ass. Also, what the heck is her 2141236 super supposed to be used for? Sometimes she punches the ground and nothing happens, other times she causes a blood fountain to pop up.
IIRC, Ikumi first needs to set up the super and then the second input will cause the blood fountain to come out. If she’s in genocide mode she doesn’t need to set it up first. I’m a bit surprised to see Mizuka so low considering her 3-4k dust loop in the corner for no meter, but I guess that’s all she has.
I had no idea Mayu was that high up, I must be missing something entirely with her.
O_O
What’s the source?
Most characters have 3-4k damage corner combos for nothing, assuming you have the right setup. You need a lot more than solid combos to be a high ranking character, you usually need something that trancends normal characters. See GG#R as an example… Eddie ranks #1 because of his nearly-unstoppable rushdown and unblockable setups (that kill you), Slayer ranks #2 because BDC glitch makes all of his moves turn into DPs.
I would guess Mai is low on there because of her slow speed, and lack of abusable normals, just a guess though.
I wouldn’t take the tiers too seriously. As mentioned before, there aren’t any horrible matchups, and nobody is particularly shafted on bad matches (assuming the tiers are accurate).
Well I’m still new so haven’t really seen them. Lots of probably average stuff impresses me. Anyone have some replays of basic Rumi Nanase combos? She also seems scrubby enough for me to play but aside from ICing her uppercut and Maiden fang (which I don’t really have a consistent way to combo into yet) I dunno what to do with her.
Gwy, got anything with Mayu?
I can think of some things off her EX command grab 41236+C from the wall slam, and set ups for her super after a sweep and 623+A, but looped combos escape me.
;p
I have no clue how to get these .rep files to play. smacked with the n00b stick
There should be a replay folder, put them in there and select replay. Choose the right replay and select the first option. There easy.
If you don’t have a reply folder, you can just make a folder called “reply” in your EFZ folder.
I wouldn’t be against playing around with Mayu to find some stuff, but it’s a baaad time right now. Still have two projects to worry about, two finals to study for, have to deal with getting evicted from my apartment, have to deal with getting my job… yadda yadda. 
I am pretty much done with my thesis. A couple format changes and that’s it!
Anyways, what lina said about Ikumi’s super is correct. You setup first, then you activate. Setup takes meter, activate doesn’t.
I am still not sure why Mayu is top. I have to see more matches with her. What I did see on replays is that jumping B is a great crossup though, and her lv. 3 super is pretty good.
IMO, Mai became bottom because she lost all her abusable stuff. She was a lot faster and with more priority in previous versions, and her old familiar system allowed her to do pretty retarded stuff (summon, teleport, familiar attack, 2B, 2C, teleport, familiar attack, repeat - looked pretty nice though since you had Mai and little Mai attacking from both sides while moving around the opponent). The new system is a lot more interesting, but doesn’t allow you to do crossups for free. Her teleport gained attacks at the end, but they no longer “teleport” you in the sense that you can move around (also losing her free crossups with the familiar). Only one of her 6 attacks knockdowns (6C was the prerfect setup for too many things). So at the end, she became “balanced” where she has no good or bad matchups, but she just happens to have more 4/6 matches than 6/4 matches.
So she DID used to be like Eddie then. I’m very glad they got rid of that… but that does give me some new ideas for rushdowns with her. I gather that most of her game envolves getting that summon out and doing something… as when that thing is out there, it’s greatly increasing what she can do (and gives her some neat combos).
Well, the thing is this. Before, little Mai worked like this (besides her regular assist moves):
- You summon with D
- Once you summon, you can make her attack as long as she had time (the little time bar appeared when she was summoned), or until you get hit.
- A little forward hit would take 25% of time.
- A multiple hit attack would take 50% of time
- A slow homing fireball (like CPU EX Mizuha’s balls) would take 100% of time
So she had a lot of less options, and you cannot make make her attack during summon. However, she could attack up to four times before summoning again. So in the teleport combo, even if the first wave was blocked, you had three more chances, as each teleport/little Mai attack combination is a very hard to block mixup as you can change the timing of the attacks. And a couple repetitions were more than enough damage considering that it doesn’t take meter.
Oh, and her lv. 1 Hibiki like-super was able to stuff everything.
Source was the site you linked me to.
Mayu seems to be untouchable whenever I play against the AI, at least with Ikumi. She’s got insane mobility and is very tiny, and I imagine her throw mixups are pretty powerful when coupled with that.
I don’t take the tiers too seriously, but a tier discussion is always an easy way to spark discussion. 
I’m going to try and stick with Mayu then.
How do you do her hidden lvl 3 though?
o.o