Hello again everyone! My apologies for double posting, but anyway, here’s what I’ve written for the Garouden Breakblow : Fist or Twist FAQ I’m working on (well, used to be “we’re working on”, but I guess I’m alone in writing this at the moment 
). This is my first time writing an FAQ, and this is still a rough draft with some unconfirmed info:
Notation (default control scheme):
P = Punch - Square button
K = Kick - Triangle button
A = Unique Attack - Circle button
G = Guard - X button
Fighting System:
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Tandem Mental gauge: This will be your general “life bar” in fighting games, with a unique property - it’s tandem with both you and your opponent’s, and the more you damage the opponent, the more the tandem bar expands towards your opponent’s. If your bar reaches all the way to the opponent’s side fully, you win.
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Stamina gauge: This is the green gauge that indicates how much stamina and maximum stamina you have. The gauge recovers fast when standing still, and recovers slowly while guarding. Doing an attacks depletes a little stamina, getting hit depletes a more, and getting hit while stunned or recovering from an attack depletes a lot more. Getting attacked while low in stamina will stun you longer, rendering you open for even more attacks until you recover, do a recovery roll or get knocked down. Getting hit also decreases the maximum stamina gauge, and getting hit decreases it more. Stamina gauge starting length differs for each character.
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Body Health: Right next to your stamina gauge, there’s an outline of a body, which represents the health of each of your individual body parts. This includes the head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg. The more a body part gets damaged, the more damage you’ll acquire if you get hit on that weakened body part. The body part health are indicated by colors: green for full health, yellow for damaged body part, red for heavily damaged body part, and black if the part is broken. When your body part is green, getting hit there would not flinch you, unless it’s a counter attack.
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Chains: On your Tandem Mental Gauge, there are three chains on your side and three chains on your opponent’s side. If you get damaged enough, the tandem bar goes towards your side and will “break” one of your chains. If the first chain breaks, the number ‘1’ will be shown, which enables you to use your Level 1 special move. If the second chain breaks, you can use your Level 2 special move and if the third chain breaks, it will enable you to use your Level 3 special. The chain also serves as defense, as the chain prevents some of the damage from going past the chain when the chain gets broken from an attack. (NOTE: I don’t know how much damage is prevented by the chain for now.)
Basics:
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Movement: Use the directional pad to move forward, backward, to the foreground and to the background.
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Neutral Guard: To perform a neutral guard, simply stand still without doing anything. It will block high, mid and low attacks, but the recovering from your opponent’s attacks as well as countering them with your own would take a longer time. Getting hit on a damaged part while in neutral guard will make recovery even longer. (NOTE: I forgot if doing a neutral guard when guarding attacks an attack towards a damaged part will guard it with slower recovery, or the opponent’s attack will go through).
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High/Low Guard: To perform a high guard, simply hold the G button. To perform a low guard, hold down + G. High guard blocks high attacks while low guard blocks both mid and low attacks.
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Parry: You can parry an incoming attack by pushing forward + G. When you successfully parried an enemy’s attack, the opponent will be open for an attack of your own, and your next attack immediately after a successful parry will automatically count as a counter hit.
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Quick avoid: You can lean and evade a high attack for a split second by pushing back + G. Good for avoiding a quick high attack at the extent of its range.
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Recovery roll: While you’re stunned and recovering from getting hit, you can push towards a direction twice to roll towards there. Use this to immediately get out of harm’s way.
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Grapple: To perform a grapple, push P+G button simultaneously. This can be followed up afterwards with P, K, or S (for most characters), or direction + P, K, or S (also for most characters unless otherwise specified. Performing a neutral + attack will throw a quick attack whereas performing a direction + attack will result in a stronger attack, but are easier to escape from. It’s generally recommended to grapple on your opponent’s left or right side (it’s harder to escape from a side grapple), grab when the opponent is expecting an attack and attempts a guard, or while the opponent is stunned. Grappler characters should know how to set up grapple attempts as part of their gameplan.
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Back Throw: Performing a grapple (P+G) on the opponent’s back will result in an inescapable throw that does good damage. Strikers would perform a back attack while grapplers would generally perform a suplex.
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Grapple Escape 1: To escape a grapple attempt, push P+G the moment the opponent grabs you to immediately escape it. During this escape, most characters will do a quick knee to counter for a small amount of damage, while wrestlers will deflect the attempt, creating an opening for less than a second.
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Grapple Escape 2: When failing to escape the grapple itself and if the opponent attempts a direction+button grapple attack, you push towards the direction the opponent goes to and hit P+G in order to throw the opponent off balance, therefore, escaping the grapple attempt.(NOTE: I forgot if P+G is necessary to escape or not, so I have to confirm this)
10: Grapple Escape 3: When caught in a grappling submission attack (the grappling attacks that gradually damages you, like armbars, kneebars and leglocks), pushing certain attack buttons at the right time will help you escape them. For example, pushing K at certain times while caught in a heel hook submission will have you kick at the opponent to escape the grab. (NOTE: I am still not sure on how to escape these moves. I can escape against opponents in easier difficulties, but I can’t escape them at the hardest difficulty, so I’m not sure whether it’s timing or simply just having to mash certain buttons).
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Cheap Attack: While your character is being introduced, push K+S to perform a cheap shot at your opponent. The attack used depends on what introduction the character did. Keep cheap shots in mind while the characters are being introduceed ;). List of introduction attacks used will be listed in character specific sections in this FAQ. (NOTE: List of introduction cheap attacks will be listed per character’s section).
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Level 1-3 Special Moves: To perform a special move, push K+S simultaneously when a chain from your side is broken, depending on condition. To perform a level 1 special move, the first chain must be broken. For the level 2, the second chain and for the level 3, the third chain. Special move can only be used once per chain, ie you can only use the level 1 special once, the level 2 special once and level 3 special once. Some moves are attacks that simply shoot out when you push K+S, some are grapple special moves in which you have to grab the enemy with a grapple first before you push K+S, and there are reversal special moves where you anticipate an attack as soon as you push K+S and it will reverse an incoming attack if successful.
Advanced:
- Reversals and Deflecting: Some characters can perform a reversal, in which when they’re attacked at a certain elevation, they can grab it and counter with an attack of their own. There are some who can deflect an attack in order to create an opening against the opponent. Here are some of the characters that has reversals:
Tanba Bunshichi:
-Back+A = Mid Kick reversal
Fujimaki Jyuzo:
-Up-Back+A = High Punch reversal
-Back+A = Mid Kick reversal
Izumi Soichiro:
-Up-Back+A = High attack reversal
-Back+A = Mid attack reversal
-Down-Back+A = Low attack reversal
Jyoji Umekawa:
-Up-Back+A = High punch reversal
-Back+A = Mid attack reversal (reverses into a grab position)
Tsutomu Himekawa
-Up-Back+A = Punch reversal
Toshio Kajiwara
-Back+A = Mid Kick reversal
-P+G immediately when grabbed = Grapple reversal into Triangle Choke
Kazue Shiina:
-Up-Back+A = High punch reversal
-Back+A= Mid reversal
(NOTE: I have to look into some of Kazue Shiina’s reversal attacks, since I know there are two that reverses with an attack, while there are two that deflect them.)
Toru Kamiyama:
- A = Mid attack deflect
- Up+A= High attack deflect
Shozan Matsuo:
- Forward + P = Punch counter
- Ground Grapple: The grappler characters also have the ability to grapple against an opponent who’s laying on the ground. In order to perform a ground grapple push down-forward+P+G. Some grappler characters have or does not have a ground grapple technique depending on body position, which has four possibilities:
Opponent facing up with feet pointed towards you
- Heel Hook:
Fujimaki Jyuzo
Soichiro Izumi
Toshio Kajiwara
Hiroshi Nagata
Jyoji Umekawa
- Boston Crab
GREAT Tatsumi
Rikiozan
- Figure Four Leg Lock
Hikoichi Kurama
Opponent facing up with head pointed towards you
- Kimura/Reverse Keylock
Fujimaki Jyuzo
Soichiro Izumi
Jyoji Umekawa
Kosei Ino
Toshio Kajiwara
Opponent facing down with feet pointed towards you:
- Rear Naked Choke
Fujimaki Jyuzo
Jyoji Umekawa
GREAT Tatsumi
- Half Boston Crab Neck Crank
Toshio Kajiwara
Opponent facing down with head pointed towards you
- Guillotine Choke:
Fujimaki Jyuzo
Soichiro Izumi
Jyoji Umekawa
Toshio Kajiwara
Hiroshi Nagata
Rikiozan
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Counter attacks: In fighting game terminology, counter attacks are attacks that land on an opponent while they’re attacking, therefore, the opponent will get more slightly damaged than usual. See “Attack direction” for more details.
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Continuous “Combos”: Unlike other fighting games, this game does not have a true combo or juggle moves (which in a way, makes this game a lot more realistic than nearly all other fighting games out there). However, you can continously attack a stunned opponent so long as they’re standing, and some attacks will keep them standing for a few hits until they get knocked down. Experimenting with certain moves will help you find combos, and the ending credits of the arcade mode providess good examples of how combos are performed in the game: [media=youtube]g2jcAgvCuNc[/media]
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Attack direction: The direction of the attack plays a factor on the effectiveness of the attack. Hitting someone who’s hunched downward (either from attacking or while stunned) with an upward attack (like an uppercut) will have them lean back then standing while hitting them with a downward attack (like an overhead punch) will have them hunch forward then standing (if hit enough times, the opponent will fall down). So does hitting someone with a left hook while they’re moving or leaning towards their right and vice-versa, or hitting someone with a straight punch or kick while they’re moving forward with an attack. Knowing what attacks to use on an opponent’s body position will help in counter attacks and combos.
That’s just the first part of the FAQ, and therefore, is not finished and it’s not edited thoroughly yet.
Anyway, here are some vids that show the special moves in the game:
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[media=youtube]eBkOTI9FgV8"[/media]
