Is there a chance you guys can put up match videos?
I’m happy that someone requested match vids, because it means that some real interest in the game can be sparked.
My friend and I play this game religiously, so next time we go at it I’ll record some matches and have him put them on youtube. Might take a awhile though because he is a real estate agent and gets very busy at times. But I’m going to see him tommorrow so hopefully it will happen sooner then later.
Lilman and oldboy: You two seem to have the most interested. I would encourage you to play the game, experiment and share your thoughts. Myabe just maybe a community for this game will emerge.
I need time to gather my thoughts about the next character I’ll be doing.
I think I’ll do Genshin.
Edit: I have decided to post the gameplay mechanics of Psychic Force 2012. This is copied and pasted from JOng’s faq on Gamefaqs. I editted the parts that show directional input.
===================================================================
B - CONTROLS AND GAME BASICS
B.1 - Overview
This game plays like no other fighting game. The commands for each
character works regardless of whichever side he or she is facing.
To make it simple: Imagine a character facing the right. If the
command require a semi-circular motion of the joystick, it can be
either from left to right, or right to left, or top to bottom,
etc…
Though this is a 3D game, but it plays in a 2D way. This means that
you won’t be able to go into the background or foreground areas,
just like plain 2D fighting. The fighting area is limited to the
space within the large cube.
There are 8 directions: Up, down, left, right, upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right.
Some movements not using the symbols above:
360 Degrees - A complete circular motion of the joystick
180 Degrees - Semi-circular motion of the joystick
Other 3 buttons are:
Guard (G) Light Attack (L) Strong Attack (S)
Like any other fighting game, commands are entered through a swift
movement of the joystick followed by buttons. i.e. left, right + L
On the side of the screen are two bars (one for each player). Each
bar is seperated into 2 gauges - Life gauge and Psycho gauge. To
execute most moves, you will deplete your Psy gauge. As your Life
decreases, the space for Psy increases. Hence, your Psy can go
beyond 100% (max 200%) Above there’s a Power indicator. This
indicator shows a number that represents the strength of the
character (default is 100, max 200). More basics explained below.
There are 4 walls of the cube (battle arena) that the characters
can contact with. Note that finishing off the opponent with
a special move during the last round will cause the opponent to be
smashed out of the arena (most of the time). It only applies to
left and right sides.
B.2 - Normal Attacks
L will execute small projectiles from far. These projectiles will
not deplete your Psy gauge and are weak. S will fire a bigger
projectile, and depletes your Psy gauge by 30%. (i.e. the first
move of every character.) When both characters are close together,
L and S will execute punches and kicks. L can be pressed multiple
times for a combo. S will deliver a powerful blow. A combination
of both may be used (i.e. L, L, L, S). More below: Combination
Moves.
*Notes: As noted above, S will consume 30% Psy. So when the Psy
gauge is depleted, the character will fire small
projectiles just like pressing L.
Another thing to note is the two commands that are
available for the first move of every character. As S
command will deliver a strong physical attack up close,
the other will be used to fire a projectile.
(i.e. right, right + S)
B.3 - Guarding
Here are a few ways of guarding. Please note that normal guarding
will not block everything.
Normal Guard
Press G
This guard will only block basic moves, mostly front and small
projectile attacks.
Barrier Guard
360 degree + G
This guard blocks every move that comes from any direction.
The Psy gauge will deplete at a constant rate when you use it.
However the Psy gauge will not be depleted only when you’re
blocking an attack. If the opponent is right next to you, he
or she will be knocked back.
Retreat Barrier
Left, right + G
This barrier interrupts attacks from the opponent. However, it
will not break combos, but just prevents the opponent from
attacking you after being knocked away.
Psy: 50%
*Notes: Retreat Barrier will function only if you do hold G button
after being knocked away. It will turn into a Barrier
Guard after a while.
B.4 - Movement
Normal Dash
Any direction + L + S
You can move around quickly around the screen with this.
Quick Dash
L + S
This version of dashing is faster, but use only when you’re
trying to get near your opponent. This dash will bounce off
any small projectiles shot at you.
Slide Dash
left, right + L + S
This move allows you to side-step into the opponent’s defense.
B.5 - Charging
Psycho Charge
G + L + S
If you’re not using the Auto option (Beginner), you must press
and hold all buttons to refill your Psy gauge.
Hyper Charge
360 Degree + G + L + S
This move will increase your Psy gauge while depleting your
Life gauge. This will increase your attack power, hence the
purpose of the Power Indicator that appears at the top.
B.6 - Other
Psy-Impluse
Press L or S repeatedly
After being knocked into the wall a few times, you can keep
pressing either L or S to repel your opponent. This will deal
damage, a form of counter-attacking.
Psy: 25%
Barrier Break
Right + S
This move has to be done when both characters are close. This
move will break the opponent’s barrier and cause damage.
However, this move can be guarded by a Normal Guard.
Psy: 50%
Catch
Close, G + L
Character will perform a catch. i.e., throwing, etc.
In-game Options
Normal -
Most projectile directions controllable. Charging of Psy gauge
is done manually. However, the Psy gauge will still recover
at a slow rate if character doesn’t move.
Beginner -
Psy gauge is automatically charged when character is not
moving. You may Auto-guard as many times (set in the options)
throughout the game.
Handicaps (Dreamcast only) -
VS Human only, the number of stars indicates the offense.
B.8 - Combination Moves
Combination moves are determined by type: light, middle and heavy
weight. Combos listed below can only be done close. Below are the
combinations you can execute:
Light weight
L, L, L, L
L, S, Special
L, S, L, Special
L, L, S, Special
Middle weight
L, L, L
L, S, Special
L, L, S, Special
Heavy weight
L, L
S, Special
L, S, Special
L, S, SThe tier was only partly made by me. Most of it I got from a friend here who’s been the one keeping psychic force alive for our group. He based the tier off the little tournaments we’ve had. I sorta put him on the spot about it, so some of the decisions for the tier were probably rushed.
Also, do you play the ps2 complete version with the added characters? or only the DC version? I’m working on obtaining the ps2 one, and I was curious if there were any sort of dramatic changes and how the new/old characters fit into the tier.
DC version. Might get the ps2 version. I don’t know. From what I remember about the old characters, I don’t think they change the tiers too much.
I think Brad is slightly worse then Gudeath. Sonia is a little better then Might. And Genma is a little worse then Genshin. This is just from what I remember about the old characters though.
I heard about psychic force complete. Isn’t it only in Japan though?
Well, anyway back to business
Important notes on Advanced Gameplay (This was written by me alone)
Wall Barrier- It is possible to interrupt many wall bounce combos with a barrier. To do it just hold G and do a 360 motion on the joypad repeatedly after you have bounced off a wall. You don’t have to be super fast, just fairly quick. Doing this will stop many of the characters wall bounce combos and it will cause them to bounce off of your characters barrier. The comboability of nearly every character in the game is greatly reduced with this technique. In fact Burn is the only character that is virtually unaffected by this technique, because almost all of his Psy moves have quick execution time. Thanks to this technique all of the other characters only have 1 or 2 reliable wall bounce combos. This technique only works on close wall combos. I’ll talk about close wall combos and other types of combos next.
There are several types of combos that I have created names for. I will discuss all of them.
Close wall combo- This si the combo that occurs the most in matches. This occurs when one opponent is comboed into a wall and immediately bounces off the wall or almost immediately and then a Psy move is chained at the end of the combo after the wall bounce. Wall barriers can interrupt most close wall combos, so each character only has a few that are applicable except for Burn. Setsuna, Patty, and Wendy don’t have any close wall combos that don’t get interrupted by wall barriers.
Bread and Butter combo- This is the staple close wall combo a character has. It’s the combo a player should go for when near a wall. Some characters have only one close wall combo that works, so it automatically becomes their Bread and Butter. Other characters have other combos, but their Bread and Butter does the most damage. Gudeath has the strongest bread and butter combo. Carlo has the weakest.
Far wall combo- All 3 weight classes go different distances when they are sent reeling. Light weights go far, Middle weights go moderate distance, and heavy weights hardly go anywhere. Knowing how far a character will reel before he/she will be able to put up a retreat barrier is the key to doing more powerful combos. This is because while your opponent is reeling from strong hit the player is already executing his Psy attack and going through it’s first frames. This way it will hit his opponent after they do a wall bounce, but before they can do a wall barrier. Psy moves that take too long to execute in close wall combos become great choices for far wall combos. Obviously light weights are more susceptible to these combos, while heavy weights are the least susceptible. Some characters have stronger close wall combos then far wall combos. Burn is one such character.
Buffering- You can buffer Psy moves from pretty much any action in this game. ANYTHING! From dashes, hyper dashes, barriers, combos, when you’re in a downed state, during a psy impulse, etc. You can even buffer moves while the announcer says, “READY?, GO!”. One trick to master is slide dash buffering. You can use the left, right directions of the slide dash as buffers for Psy moves. So you could do left, right, dash, strong attack, with Keith and he’ll do a slide dash then a Frigid Spine. You could also do left, right, dash, right, strong attack and Keith will slide dash then do Blizzard Tooth. Buffering is a powerful tool and can lead to more mindgames.
Perfect Shield- When a character’s barrier is struck with an attack it won’t drain any Psy energy. Perfect Shielding is the art of doing a barrier the moment before an attack strikes you so as little Psy as possible is used.
Understanding Weight classes- There are advantages and disadvantages attributed to the 3 weight classes. I will list them.
Light weight- Fly farther from attacks, fast dash, fast physical attacks.
Middle weight- Fly a moderate distance from attacks, fairly quick dash, fairly quick physical attacks.
Heavy Weight- Don’t fly far at all from attacks, slow dash speed, slow physical attacks.
Overall middle weight is the ideal weight class. They have decent attributes with no horrible weaknesses. Light weight is also very good. Great speed, but at the cost of being hit very far by attacks. Heavy weight isn’t good at all. They don’t fly far, but so what? They are slow and their lack of speed hurts them.
Crap i have to find this game now. Damn it who did i play…Regina, Emilio, and Genshin i think. That fucking seal card move was awesome to me. The game reminded me of the anime X so i played it just for that when i started.
Psychic Force was inspired by Clamp’s X. Yes, Lilman you are correct.
oldboy: I’m really looking at you mostly for discussion here. You seem to be the most interested. I mean do you want to play this game on a high level? I would also encourage your friends to go online and post in this thread. I really want to talk about this game.
Found it!! Starting to play with Genshin again. Too fun!
Edit: WTF i dont even have Keith? What was i doing?
Yeah, a pal o’mine should be joining us soon. He wants to argue Gates placement in the tiers. I didn’t know that whole thing about buffering attacks from side dash. That will really help out my Keith.
Emblemlord.
Hey. I am Oldboy’s friend, the one that made attempts to rouse up competition in my area. I signed up to SRK just for you, and this thread. A little bit about myself, I began playing Psychic Force when it first arrived for the dreamcast, I still remember renting it at blockbuster. Me and a friend competed at it constantly.
After a great span of time, I began playing the game again, and enjoyed it immensely. I liked it so much that I began recruiting as many friends as possible to begin playing the game, and assisted them in finding used dreamcasts to play the game on. I was constantly burning copies of the game.
After a while I began the “Dark Tournament” (a silly reference if you can catch it) series which enjoyed three separate tournaments, typically featuring 10 opponents or more. These were very happy times. The Tournaments always wore down to someone attempting to beat me. I was defeated once in a heated Wong vs. Might match. It was exceptional.
END
There are a number of things I would very much like to address immediately.
About the tiers that were submitted:
When I first estimated the tiers, they were very similar to yours. However, I had second thoughts about what it is to place characters in the tier system. Essentially, it went from
Characters who are the most powerful upon deep-level mastery,
to
Characters whose attacks are most easily manipulated for best performance.
And hence the tier system became a quick matter of what characters could land an inescapable (unless a retreat barrier is thrown) attack after a light punch and a strong punch.
I would like to open this discussion by saying that I believe you may have missed some crucial abilities concerning Gates. I don’t believe he qualifies for bottom tier.
GATES
Gates was one of my favorite characters to play as. Despite his lack of speed, his power attacks made up for it.
Correct me if I am wrong, but did you mention anything of Gates’ ability to L, S, Plasma Cannon? (I hope I have the name right. It is the giant electric ball that stuns the opponent.)
If the opponent does not use a retreat barrier in time, the use of the Plasma Cannon is horrendous.
All gates as to do is a light punch, strong punch, launch the plasma cannon (the special). The opponent will be stunned, leaving lots of time for the next attack.
Half circle strong for the boost arm, and prior to the hit, half circle strong again to use Gates’ pull-in-and-punch attack. The attack hurts!!!
I really feel that this excellent combo gives him a one up against most characters. I suppose all that I will offer additionally to what you posted about Gates is that he features a great mind game trick that was considered to be a near-guaranteed hit.
Use the all-range missile (left right right strong), leaving the opponent naturally guarding. Take this opportunity to rush the opponent, and land a shield breaker. This attack has two outcomes:
1, the opponent holds the guard up and gets his shield broken indefinitely, or
2, the opponent knows what’s coming and attempts to dash away from the missiles, and the incoming hit. He will either escape, or eat a whole lot of missiles.
What do you think? When you fight your opponents, is use of the retreat barrier common? My judgment of characters does rely heavily on the fact that only a few of my opponents could actually retreat barrier after a L, S, Special combo.
Retreat barrier and barrier owns Gates.
He is too laggy after his best moves. Doing a retreat barrier is second nature to my friend and I who play this game.
Secondly, the tier list that I created is based on more then damaging combos. There are several criteria.
Does the character have tools that lend well to playing a certain way?
Can the character pressure the oppenent?
Does the character have good ways to control movement of their oppenent?
Is the character fast or slow?
Does the character have strong reliable combos?
Does the character have powerful techniques that are useful for different situations?
Does the character have effective mindgames/traps using thier moves?
How much do the characters weaknesses impact thier game compared to thier strenghts?
Is the character laggy after alot of thier moves or laggy after alot of thier most useful moves?
Going by this you can see that Gates really doesn’t have what it takes to go beyond low tier. The highest someone could ever convince me to raise him is low tier right next to Wendy.
He is slow and if his Plasma Cannon, Boost Arm, Double Boost, or Stun Spark is blocked he will take a beating. I’ll admit that all of those moves have fast start up time, especially Plasma Cannon. It’s good as a dash in counter, but once again, all those moves lag just a little too much.
All Range Missile is cool and can lock your opponent in thier barrier, but only if they let it. It can be dodged. And if you see him start it up you can hit him out of it with a quick projectile.
Seriously, when I think of Gates, I think of a watered down Might. And that’s bad because Might is just a watered down Burn.
Both Might and Burn can do what Gates does, but better. They can pressure better, and have better punishers. They are also faster. Burn’s Triangle heat is the ultimate dash dance punisher. Might has Magnet Anchor for combo extensions, but it’s safe on block.
Burn can use Triangle heat in the same way. Triangle heat is laggy as hell too, but Burn is an overall much better character so that weakness doesn’t hurt him enough to warrent him going down a tier. Burn has God Pheonix and Exploder for dash in counters. Might has the Lighting Sword. and Exploder >>> Stun Spark IMO. They have the same uses, but Exploder comes out faster, can hit up to 3 times and does more damage on the first 2 hits. Stun Spark can only hit 2 times and both hits are weaker.
I make the comparison between the 3 of them, because I consider all 3 of them to be utility characters. Meaning you use the moves they possess to deal with whatever situation you find yourself in. They are like swiss army knives in a way. Burn is the best. Gates is the worst. Might actually has less moves to work with then Gates. But the few effective moves he does have are actually better then Gates’ moves. You can really only play them in an aggressive/ rush down way. But Gates can’t do that as well. That’s why he is bottom tier.
Whoof. You are truly into this game. I give, your reasoning is too solid, and your tier criteria makes sense. I believe that I have not encountered good enough competition to begin to understand the functionality of the characters.
However, I agree with you on your standpoint on Burn >>> Might >>> Gates.
Why couldn’t I have fought you? I would have gone absolutely insane once upon a time. I really pressured people to learn how to retreat barrier, but they never got it, and I think I became disillusioned because of this. I have only had one opponent that would retreat barrier often, but he didn’t always get it.
Good sir, I will be keeping close watch of what you post in this thread. You’ve got your shit together when it comes to this game.
Dude where do you and oldboy live? My friend says he wants to play you guys and so do I. I’ll post more about characters later.
Do you still play this game often? The way you speak makes it sound like your community died. If so, that sucks. I guess I’m grateful to just have one friend who kicks ass in the game and loves it just like I do.
If you are starved for competition, then the A.I in this game is actually a good substitute. The CPU is no slouch and will give you a run for your money.
Oldboy and SeizureSalad: Please post often and if you want to, get better at the game and experiemnt often with characters. Like I said I’m dying to talk about this game, share info, and take part in discussion. If you have a question or something to say about the game don’t hesitate to post.
We live in Houston, Texas. And yeah, my community died. As soon as we left for college, we all parted ways, and had nothing more but fond memories of the tournaments.
I have not played seriously in little under a year. I can say with complete certainty that I have retained all of my old skills. Psychic Force is practically second nature to me.
Wouldn’t it be fortunate if you lived nearby…?
Oh yeah, and the CPU is good, but I don’t remember losing to it frequently.
I will be visiting the thread frequently, it’s great to meet another enthusiast. Truthfully the game will be somewhat dead to me in terms of discussion until I start fighting good competition again.
Where did you hear this?
Project Psychic = Psychic Force 3 for the PS3
Check it out on Gamespot.
SeizureSalad:Hmm, I see. Well, I live in the U.S as well. Only I live in Jersey. >_>
You can still play the CPU to test a lot of the things I have said. Also if you have friends in college that like games why not introduce them to Psychic Force 2012?
Anyway, now it’s time for the next character.
Genshin
Pros:
-
Fast attacker and fast dasher (Light Weight)
-
Soul Mine is good for boxing your opponent in. They can also be used as a shield for Genshin to hide behind. They have fast start up time as well.
-
Big Foot is a nice surprise attack. Good damage, it executes quickly, and goes through projectiles.
-
Ogre spirit is a nice lead in. It travels slowly so he can throw 2 out and then close in, while his opponent is dealing with them. He has alot of tricks with his Ogre spirit.
-
Good Bread and Butter combo. Light attack, light attack, strong attack, wall bounce, Adamant Ring.
-
Adamant Ring is good for dash in mindgames and a decent close range move. Also it comes out fast.
-
Thunder Rosary is good for combos and mindgames. Genshin can throw it at and it will come back to him, like a boomerang. It is great as a distraction.
-
Has a solid containment/control game with the use of his projectiles
Cons:
-
He flies far from attacks. (Light Weight)
-
Alot of his attacks have significant start up time, especially Trap Card which takes nearly a second to come out.
-
Adamant ring is limited in it’s use as a dash in counter. The attack doesn’t hit until the rings are completely out of Genshin’s body, so it is possible to grab him out of it or attack him out of it.
-
Most characters in the game have ways of dealing with Genshin’s Soul Mines and use of projectiles. This means that it’s harder for Genshin to take control of the match.
-
His grab has the longest start up time of any grab.
-
Soul Mines don’t last too long. Only about 10 seconds. They can also be dashed through in their first few frames, before the flames materialize.
-
Thunder Rosary will return to Genshin automatically if he is hit or takes a hit from a barrier.
Summary: Genshin is all about control through the use of his projectiles and his Soul Mines. Soul Mines can be used to fence your opponent in or shield Genshin from attacks. They are also good for distracting your opponent. While they deal with your Soul Mines you can attack. Ogre spirit is slow, but with a purpose. He can throw them and then dash right after. It also moves in a weird swaying motion which makes it more deceptive. He can also combo his opponent and then throw an Ogre Spirit, while they are throwing up a retreat barrier. If they hold the shield up in fear of the Ogre Spirit, Genshin can dash in for a barrier break. A very good strategy, but not fool proof. This is just one example of what Genshin can do. He is all about intelligent use of his projectiles. Using Ogre Spirit as a lead in then following up with Soul Mines is another example. If your opponent gets hit with a Soul Mine or an Ogre Spirit and they hit a wall, then he can go for a Death Curse for good damage. Thunder Rosary can be thrown out and then while it comes back he can play his normal game and Thunder Rosary will act as a stand alone projectile. He can do alot with his Psy moves, but he has faults that really hurt him. The main thing is that almost all of the characters have moves that can really mess up his projectile game. It sucks to set up a bunch of Soul Mines to hem your opponent into a corner, and then Setsuna’s Daggers Shadow blows them all away. Which leads me into his next weakness. Genshin needs to setup his Soul Mines to control his opponent, which takes a little time and alot of foresight. And it doesn’t help that Soul Mines can be dashed through before the flames actually form, which makes it easier for Genshin to get rushed down. Ogre Spirits can be dashed away from and dealt with if his opponent plays smart. This is true of all characters, but impacts Genshin more because he relies so heavily on projectiles. He can play rush down, because his Adamant Ring gives him a good combo finisher, but it still isn’t a great close range option for him. Genshin can be grabbed or attacked out of Adamant Ring and his grab is a little slow, which hurts his rushdown game. He is a complicated character that takes alot of thought, understanding, and effort to play. His projectile game is solid, and it’s too bad that his weaknesses hurt his game as much as they do. If his Soul Mines came out faster and his Adamant Ring was a better close range move he would definitely be a better character. As it stands he is a solid, complicated character, balanced by his pros and cons.
Wow i remember i used to love Regina. He BnB did decent damage. And her projectiles are good from mid to long range.
So which character should be done next?
Regina or Wendy. Two personal favorites.
Wendy first then, Regina.
Here it is.
Wendy
Pros:
-
Fast dash and the fastest attacker. (Light weight)
-
Good far wall combos with Vortex Stream, Air Crescent, and Air Slasher.
-
Vortex Stream is safe on block and decent for mid range projectile wars. It can also be aimed, which is a plus. Wendy can combo after it using a grab, a barrier break, or just a normal combo into a Psy move if her oppenent hit the wall or can’t retreat barrier. Comboing after Vortex Stream is garuanteed and barrier break is usually the way to go after it hits.
-
Air slasher is ok for close range, because it’s so fast. Comes out in 6 frames. Also good for countering slide dashing around Wendy when she hyper dashes.
-
Tri-Crescent is good as a lead in. She can shoot it and then dash after or use an Air Crescent to cover either side of the Tri-Crescent. She could also seperate the Tri-Crescent for mindgames. If her opponent shields it then she gets an easy barrier break. Overall it’s good as a pressure move and forcing your opponent to react. Great with Slipheed dance for rushing in afterwards.
-
Mirage step is a good mindgame. It’s really just a teleport so, it can dodge attacks.
-
Slipheed Dance is great. It increases her dash speed making her into a speed demon. Due to this speed increase she becomes more unpredictable and her rush down game is enhanced.
-
Earth Gale is good for pushing her opponent back and controlling thier movement. The debris also helps to pin them down. While Earth Gale limits thier movement, she can use Tri-Cresecent to control her opponent even more. She could also use Slipheed Dance and then rush them down while thier pinned down.
-
Air Crescent destroys slide dashing and dashing to the side to avoid projectlies.
Cons:
-
Air Crescent gets super predictable at high levels of play. When she uses it all her oppenent has to do is Hyper dash into a combo to counter her technique. It’s just too laggy and you can hyper dash at her on reaction to her use of this move.
-
Alot of her Psy moves have considerable start up time. So she can easily be grabbed or attacked out of her moves if her opponent sticks to her.
-
Air Slasher isn’t really a good reliable dash in counter because as a character comes in with a hyper dash they slide forward. This pushes them towards Wendy and away from the point where the two blades cross over for the attack. Plus even though Air Slasher has insanely quick start up, it’s somewhat negated by the fact that the blades are formed behind Wendy’s back, so the blades have to come around her body. This means that it actually takes even longer for the attack to hit her opponent, which makes it easier fro her to be grabbed or attacked out it.
-
She doesn’t have a Bread and Butter combo.
-
She flies far from attacks. (Light weight)
-
Alot of her moves take a considerable amount of Psy.
-
If Vortex stream is used after a combo where her opponent doesn’t hit the wall, then they don’t have to use a retreat barrier to block it. A regular barrier will block the Vortex Stream. This allows her opponent to conserve Psy energy.
Summary: Wendy has alot of ways to control/limit her opponents movement. She is a all about movement control. She wants to either pin you down or force you to react so she can respond to get in damage. She has nice ways of doing this with Tri-Crescent as a long range tool, and Earth Gale to push opponents into walls and corners. Slipheed dance compliments both these techniques well, increasing Wendy’s speed and movement capabilities while limiting those of her oppenents. Her game is a mix of long range tools and then going on the offensive usually in close/mid range. She has some problems though. The slow start up time for her moves just begs for her opponents to grab/combo her out of her Psy moves. And the fact that her moves take alot of Psy put’s her into a dangerous position. If she does a move that gets interrupted then she probably won’t have enough Psy to retreart barrier which hurts her alot. If she charges her Psy after a Tri-Crescent it will hurt her approach, because her hyper dash in will come later. But if she doesn’t then she will have less Psy to work with so her offense becomes limited and she becomes more predictable. Air Crescent is nearly useless at high levels of play as well. Tri-Crescent is useful, but definitely not spammable. She also doesn’t have a bread and butter, which hurts her offense. She has good far wall combos, with Vortex stream though. Still a bread and butter, really would have helped her offense as they are more reliable. Overall she lacks a good close-up game. She really depends on her set-ups to approach opponents. But those can only go so far. Tri-Crescents are good, but they aren’t that hard to deal with. Opponents can dash out of the way and shield to block the Tri-Crescent seperating. Opponents could also use a move that cuts through projectiles, or a multi-hitting projectile to deal with a Tri-Crescent. If she throws a Tri-Crescent and then throws out another move her Psy will be minimal and she will have to charge, or else take a severe beating from a combo that she can’t retreat barrier. She can be very predictable and her long range control moves can be shut down just by sticking to her. Overall, she has some cool tricks and mindgames that can really shake up players at lower levels, but at a high level her tricks just aren’t good enough.
More stuff on Gameplay
Notes on Hyper dashing and spacing: I’m sure you have noticed when you hyper dash a character goes about half way across the cube. They also dash for about half a second. Of course depending on the weight class you will dash slower or faster. Which means a light weight will cover the set distance of a hyper dash quickly, and they won’t stay in their dash animation as long. Heavy weights cover the distance more slowly, and stay in their dash animation longer.
Why is this important? Because if you’re slower and you stay in your animation longer, it gives your opponent more time to react to your dash. Which makes you more predictable.
If you Hyper dash at someone while you are already very close to them, it also gives them more time to react to you. So that’s why it’s important to space out your hyper dash. When buffering techniques while doing a hyper dash, the Psy move that you buffered won’t actually come out until the animation for the hyper dash has ended. So if you hyper dash while in someone’s face and buffer a technique, you are just asking for them to grab/combo you.
Instead, space out your hyper dash so that your buffered Psy move comes out just as your dash finishes and you are right in front of your opponent. This is most effective with light weights and middle weights that have moves with quick execution time. This is a good tactic to master because it makes you more unpredictable. You could hyper dash into a combo, a psy move, even a barrier break. If they try to dash away you could also hyper dash again to chase them. You could also grab if they expect a barrier break.
Speaking of grabs, did you know that a grab will stop a hyper dashing character almost instantly? So you can hyper dash then grab and your character will almost immediately cancel their dash, stop in place, and grab. Remember when I said it’s better to space out your dashes? Well, not always. With this tactic, close up dashing is more viable. You can hyper dash and then immediately grab to get past their guard or to interrupt their attempts to launch a Psy move. It’s also great for catching Slide dashers, because when you grab you will automatically face your opponent. So grabs can actually track your opponent. But if you grab too early your opponent can still slide dash out of the way, so be careful. Still grabs are not to be underestimated. You can even grab Wong after he does his teleport to get out of combos and he reappears behind you. It’s so strange to see him teleport behind you then your character instantly turns around for the grab. You just have to time it right.
There’s still more. Did you know that doing a light attack out of a Hyper dash is several frames faster then just a regular light attack? So that means a dashed light attack can beat out a lot of moves that your opponent can try to use to counter your dash in. Also a hyper dash light attack makes your character slide forward as they attack because the momentum of the dash carries them. So you don’t have to attack right when you get into your opponents face. You can hit it before then and your character will sort of, slide into your opponent with the attack, and you can combo from there.
And you can mindgame with hyper dashes too. In fact Hyper dashing in itself is a mindgame. What will you do afterwards? Will you grab, attack, buffer a Psy move, Hyper dash again, barrier break, or do a barrier yourself? You could go into dash dancing after a Hyper dash as well. There are a lot of options.
With proper use of the Hyper dash and the options you have out of it, your offensive close range game will be greatly enhanced. Mix it up and stay unpredictable. Aggressiveness is a powerful tactic in this game and mastery of the Hyper dash is pivotal. Hyper Dashing in itself is very good and allows a close range player to get in his opponents face easily, due to it’s homing ability. As long as a player varies up their hyper dash approach, they can stay in control and force their opponents to guess correctly to deal with their assault.