Man, I’ve been waiting all month for this question. Well, here it goes:
Bonuses
First let’s start with team creation. Choosing and knowing your team is the most important thing. Ichipoo and I already went over assist jutsus, but you’ll need to also consider the team bonuses. These are indicated next to the support character faces by three rows of spaces for six dots. The more dots you have in a row, the greater the boost you have in that category.
The top row gives additional attack power to Team Ulimate jutsus. A team with this row mostly filled will take at least one tank of health with a team ultimate.
The middle row decreases the support gauge’s time needed between support calls. Focus on this row, and you can call your support every four counts (Trust me, that’s *very *frequent. You’ll never be alone).
The bottom row incerases the amount of storm gauge filled with every support call and support landed hit (2 hits and you activate the special support type. 4 and you can use your team ultimate. Done well this should take less than 20 seconds).
The only way to know exactly what team gives which bonuses is to hold your cursor over them, but generally you get three dots for two people, four dots for a team of any unrelated three characters, and five or six dots for special teams (teams with names next to them that relate to in anime relationships). The way the dots are distributed depends on who is the *lead *character. E.g. Tsunade must have one dot on the top row and one on the bottom row no matter what team she leads.
Here’s some suggestions on which teams give focused bonuses:
Top row (Team ultimate attack up)-
Orochimaru (Tsunade, Jiraiya)-Sanin
Deidara (Itachi)-Dangerous characters
Kisame (Suigetsu)-Seven blades of the mist
Middle row (support frequency)-
Sakura (Ino)-Rivals in love
Sasori (Deidara)-Artists
Bottom row (storm gauge fill)
Lee (Guy)-Hot-blooded master and student
Choji (Shikamaru, Asuma)-Team Asuma
Sai (Naruto, Sakura)-New team Kakashi
Gaara (Temari, Kankuro)-The sand siblings
Those all give at least 5 dots in a row, but by experimenting you can make an original team with 4 dots in a row. Of course you can forget about team bonuses and chose people based solely on their ninjutsu, but then you only get 3 or 4 dots which may be scattered. Choosing the best team is minigame in itself:wgrin:
Cancels
There are 4 basic cancels, but you should be aware of the 3 extra kind.
1-Shiruken cancel- Any normal ground attack can be cancelled with shiruken if you’re on the ground. Air attacks can’t shiruken cancel, but air dashes can.
2-Air dash cancel- Any ground normal attack can be cancelled into an air dash. Air dashes lead into air combos which are hard to punish; so some people like ending most combos this way. It’s good for avoiding ground assist, and it’s hard to substitute out of.
3-Jutsu cancel- Any normal ground attack can be cancelled into a jutsu. An air dash can cancel into a jutsu if it’s an air jutsu, but only at the end of the dash (whether it hits or not).
4- Throw cancel- Any normal ground attack cancels into a throw.
------extra cases
5-Special item cancel- Throwing special items or using them on yourself has normal recovery time, but you can cancel that time into anything including an ultimate.
6-Ground pound cancel- Some characters have air combos that smash themselves into the ground. You can cancel the huge recovery time into any chakra loaded attack (e.g. jutsu, ultimate jutsu, chakra dash, or charged shiruken).
7-Tech cancel-Air techs can be cancelled with an air jutsu (if available to that character). Ground techs can be cancelled with a jutsu or ultimate jutsu.
Button locks
When a button is locked and you press it the game makes a torturous sound.
-You can’t chakra load while being hit, while stunned, while lying on the ground, or during the recovery time of a jutsu.
-You can’t double chakra load during a normal combo, throw, or while air teching.
-You can’t substitute during the execution time of a throw, jutsu, or ultimate (no sound for this).
-You can’t call an assist if that character is already on the battlefield using their assist type attack or guard. Even if the support gauge is full.
Tech recovery
When you’re smashed to the ground you can press x just as you hit to somersault to your feet, but there’s a moment when you’re vulnerable to any attack, with substitution being your only defense; so sometimes you should just get up slowly after a stop, or cancel into a jutsu or ultimate. Some moves leave you floating lightly through the air (like Kabuto’s jutsu, and certain parts of some air combos). Most of these can be air teched, but again you’re vulnerable during your fall. However, some characters can use a jutsu from that fall. Be aware that there’s one tech recovery that only computer can do. If you smash him from an air combo he can use an ultimate as soon as he hits the ground. People can’t because you can’t chakra load while being hit.
Stuns
All hits make characters flinch, but some make them stagger for a while. These are stuns, and they’re usually found at one or multiple points in a normal combo, in some jutsus, and all dashes. Stuns are usually safe to cancel into throws, shiruken, jutsus, and fast ultimates.
Sidestep shiruken
By pressing X twice, holding it, then tapping square you can throw shiruken repeatedly while in motion. Although this leaves you open to rushing, it’s a good way to keep pressure on at long range. If you do just the movement, the movement can be cancelled into anything.
Substitute to ultimate
This is what people hate the most, but it’s extremely hard to do in an actual fight. Either you have to guard while your opponent hits you; then double chakra load; then substitute and press O at about the same time (usually by mashing O and guard), and a log will appear where you are, and you’ll execute your ultimate. Or double chakra load before being hit then mash O and guard while being hit and you’ll substitute and use your ultimate from the same spot. No good player’s gonna stand there hitting you while you guard so your best chance is the second way. Still, no good player will approach you if you keep loading your chakra like you’re planning it, but there’s no way to hide it.
Team jutsus
These have priority over everything except throws timed exactly (the only way to throw break a team jutsu is luck. I’ve seen it done only 3 times in over 1,000 fights). It even goes through fireballs.
Guard breaks
There are only 3 ways. You can chakra dash into someone opening them up for 1 second for your assist attack, break their guard shield for a few seconds of free hits, or throw them.
Substitution
Press guard when being hit to substitute away. Most people just mash it, but if you press guard with the rhythm of the attacks, you’ll have more luck.
The rest of the game is pretty character specific. Maybe I’ll detail all of that later. General strategies like playing defensively, offensively, at close range, or at long range I’ll get into later too.