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Do you plan on covering thing from FD2 which are not in the first game? also, do you plan to publish this on some sites like gamefaqs?

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Once I get off my ass and finish a basic strategy section, I’ll gussy it up with a table of contents and page numbers before throwing it around. I’ve been humming and hawing on just adding an addendum section for FD2, since it’s really only there to cover Fabien, Dixon and Kate.

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Kept you waiting, huh?

Guide’s updated with a rudimentary strategy section and the streamlined list of combos. I’ll be updating these as I get more offline gameplay in hand (looking back into decent netplay options, by the by).

Some observations about offline matches:

[details=Spoiler]
N64 hardware runs like buttcheeks, even moreso if you have Hit Frame and Key History on. Prepare for Matrix levels of slowdown during some throws.

Bob’s Palo Special loop is more like a mixup, since an opponent escaping 62A+B can jump away. Guess between Palo Special or 42B lol

Abdul is a barrel of laughs, but man oh man do his normals blow. When it rains, it pours–he either scores the perfect read and wins before anyone can assess the faults in his technique, or he gets badgered to the ledge, can’t waddle away, and gets bodied.

Tomahawk is fucking savage. Every single disadvantage by the enemy is an opportunity for a TAGS/246A+B mixup. Whiff “punishing” with 44B and forcing them to block it leads to crazy damage, so he’s very menacing to be around.

I apparently suck with Leon, but even on N64 hardware his infinite is as easy as ever. 6B would be busted if not for how easy it is to parry. 61B is a lot easier to land if you’ve cornered the opponent, but it remains unreliable.

Master is pretty good at comebacks thanks to the ease and power of his combo game. 46B and 44B are pretty easy to stuff, so landing key hits with him requires distancing and patience.

Ushi’s RFF oki is cute, but lousy.

Playing on default settings is pretty cramped. It might be worth cranking up the arena size to accentuate the poking game (and downplay the ease of which one can sandbag a bad round for only a one-point loss).[/details]

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Wouldnt a bigger arena favor characters with infinites? yeah, with a smaller arena they would still lose once caught by an infinite but it would be by a ringout instead of getting in place for a finisher/grab.

I dont know, dude. Should be somehow like they handle stage select in tournaments or something.

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Stage select isn’t really a convenient option, since the size is fixed globally in the options. There’s probably a middle ground somewhere where they’re big enough to breathe, but small enough to manage infinites. For the moment I’d stick to the default unless necessary, but it’s food for thought.

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I mean in the way how its decided who gets to make the choice. Personally, if it was a “best of 3” scenario the first fight would have default stage size, then the loser gets to choose the size for the next fight.

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That could be reasonable. The game grants the option, may as well use it (speaking of which, long sets in this game are fast. You can press A after character select and during the splash screen to skip to matches really quickly).

More comments about offline:

[details=Spoiler] Played a truckload of Master. His 44B either has the wonkiest hurtbox ever, or it has an unlisted high crush property. Unsure which. Opening a round with it or his 46B can lead into a combo that meets the ledge. On default stage size, characters with Ryuji HP or above (Valerie and below get zonked) will meet the ledge during a 5ABBBA juggle–but only if Master nails them at the start of the match. Essentially, the closer he is to his ledge, the more his overall point value increases. Additionally, dependent on spacing, 5ABBBA can flick dudes right off the ledge as they land.

In regards to your mention of bias towards infinites, Ferlanga, you’re right on the money. Default stage size isn’t favourable to characters like Leon, downplaying the strength of their infinites. Master has fewer issues–412AAB has lower ledge carry. Fighter’s Destiny seems to have a lot of these Miracles of Accidental Game Balance™.

Inashi is really damn good, but if your character has no unduckable mids and/or no BT holds, scoring guaranteed damage is tricky. I grew fond of calling out BT attacks with Counters, but parries work in BT. Basically, if you don’t have 100% free stuff from Inashi, play it by ear.

Middle ground in our sets was tough. True to form, most rounds started and ended in an instant with a good read–if they didn’t, it was nickel-and-dime poke city until Judge or sandbag RO.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than opening a round with a Counter and watching them dodge it harmlessly. Try to stay conservative at the outset.

Dodge-buffering is pretty strong, but defensive throws can and will make you look like an idiot.

It’s tempting to constantly retreat during Piyori, but in doing so you’ll inevitably corner yourself. If you recover, you’ll no doubt have put yourself in a spot. Sometimes it’s worth taking some gambles in Piyori to improve your long-term position.[/details]

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So I cracked open Nintendo Power 105 (Feb. 1998), and it includes a list of the unlockable attacks. It confirmed my suspicion: I’m missing one Gained Skill for every character. I can’t seem to get characters with the Initiate tag to gain that last skill through Win Or Lose; it seems as though you’ll never have quite the same version of a character, depending on the Memory Pak.

That’s odd, since when I made new files to test that theory, I unlocked the same sets. Very confusing. The article itself makes no mention of this, so there’s a missing link here I’m not getting.

(In other news, Pierre can delay Satellite Kick with 64B2, I’ll need to add that)

EDIT: Debunked. TL;DR I cocked up the previous plugins for memory paks or something, there shouldn’t be any issues in normal play.

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Yeah, you definitely can’t have all the skills. I’ll get a new N64 controller next week, so I’ll be able to test that out finally.
How many unlockables are there per character? 1 Master skill and 9 Win or Lose skills, right?

The NTSC version sure has it’s share of slowdowns, so I actually prefer the European version. It is a bit slower, but at least it has a steady frame rate, no drops whatever move comes out and doesn’t matter what stage you play on

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There’s one universal skill gained when a character clears VS COM (denoted by the star), and 10 skills that can be unlocked in Master Challenge/Win Or Lose–one of which can only be gained through Win Or Lose, and of which only 9 total can seemingly be learned.

For example: a skill for Abdul called Rabbit Hell (26B). It’s a Counter, but I have no idea what it’s like and have yet to learn it somehow.

EDIT: Worth noting that Ziege’s Throw Reserve, which I’m so fond of, debuts with Tomahawk. The inputs are weird, but it’s there–even though I’ve never seen it used anywhere.
EDIT II: Debunked. TL;DR I cocked up the previous plugins for memory paks or something, there shouldn’t be any issues in normal play.

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Well that sucks. I guess you could lose on purpose to lose a skill and win again to get another one. Did you check my FD2 savefile just in case?

Maybe its just my imagination, But i think one of my character had one more skill than the others. I’ll have to check myself that sometime.

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I checked the file. I’m thinking this issue I’m having is a product of the emulation, but it’s puzzling–for some characters (like D-Dog), my savefile is identical, but for Ninja or Federico I’m missing one of their attacks (666_B and 1BBA, respectively).

I’m going to take another pass at new save files to see if anything changes. Until then, these missing attacks will fill in some holes in the movelist. You have my gratitude.

EDIT: Figures that I learn the mysterious missing Bob attack seconds into my new attempt. I switched some plugins, so it looks like I’m on the right track?
EDIT II: Ran through the game with Leon and had no difficulty gaining every attack, so I either pooched the emulation or going Master Challenge > VS COM had some effect I wasn’t aware of. Expect some updates to the movelists in the future.

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Well i think Federico’s 666_B is just an unlisted move available at all times, since its never been in the movelist yet I could perform it (if this happens to be the move where he lays down)

Btw what emulator are you using?

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I couldn’t find that for Federico or Ninja without unlocking it first.

(I used PJ64 primarily, with Mupen64 and BizHawk to test frames and whatever)

EDIT: The issue may have something to do with having a character only unlock moves in Win Or Lose, not Master Challenge–I didn’t get Cross Elbow with Meiling, and I didn’t take her through like I did Leon. In any event these moves were carried over into FD2, so once again: Ferlanga, you da real MVP

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MVP?

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The movelists have all been updated. It would seem clearing Master Challenge with a character is required, else you reach Initiate minus one Gained Skill. I paid the price for not noticing this sooner. The only move that has no analogue in FD2 is Boro’s 6ABB, which I’ll need to update later on.

In light of a couple of these developments, Pierre might go up a bit and Meiling might go down a bit.

Most Valuable Player, playa

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Lol no im not.

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Played this a lot back in the day because I had an N64 and was starved for fighting games. Played Boro the most (or “Heidi” as she was called in the German version) so I guess she’d be my “main”. I suppose Valerie, Tomahawk and Leon would be my other characters.

I recently played it again and boy is it slow and mediocre, but I can still enjoy it.

Edit: Oh yea and that guide is amazing holy shiiiet, great job. Never thought Tomahawk would be a top tier…

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Hey, somebody knows a good n64 emulator to run this game??. I played A LOT of this game back in the day!. Also great stuff by IM_amazon!, very good guide!.

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Yooo. How did I miss this!? Good show OP!