Rugal gets no respect

I just wanted to start this Rugal thread cuz he is a pretty good character but gets no respect.

he is pretty good character.

Need play style and N-Groove rush hit pattern for Rugal in this game. Dose not play anything like 98’K.O.F Rugal?

I like him in C-groove or A-groove, but ive seen people play him pretty good in K. Although I think you need rolling with him.

One nice little thang mostly for low jump grooves is when you low jump, do nothing and do low short xx hcb fierce. The godpress combos after 1 low short. Then you can of course do the kick super or activate in A-groove (dunno why anyone let u normal jump empty into them, maybe they’re scared :lol:) Anyway that’s sort of a ghetto Sagat tactic. (Like his low short, st. jab xx tiger knee, which btw rugal can do too!..but godpress is more damage and gives u a free super.

Of course you probably have to open them up for it by doing lots of low jumpkicks.

I swore there were a few more Rugal threads in the Back log somewhere.

No respect? As is the case with a lot of good characters in CVS2 if your name isn’t Blanka, Cammy, Sagat, Bison, Vega…

But Rugal is a pretty good character. Lately I’ve taken a liking to him, particulary in C. I think C is his best groove because of his massive damage Level 2 cancels and the fact he can sit on them and easily put them out of nowhere. A is pretty good for him too as he has a lot of set ups to land his CC.

Some basic stuff I’ve learned…

-He seems to be a zoning-type character by getting people to jump over his fireballs and anti-airing them or by using his Dark Smash, Kaiser Wave, or Reflector to keep people away from getting too close to him. He does not seem very effective up close as he doesn’t appear to have any substantially good pokes.
-Standing strong and standing roundhouse are pretty decent anti-airs
-crouching fierce is a good poke, but should not be abused
-Forward is a very good cross up
-Kaiser Wave is good to use against P and K groove.
-Simple high-damage combo? Jump roundhouse/fierce, standing roundhouse/fierce XX Press, Level 2 Genocide Heaven, Dark Smash, level 1 Genocide Heaven. (Try to let the opponent drop as far as possible before doing the supers for highest possible damage/hits.)

That’s a base way to get into his big combo. He has other good ones and set ups too that maybe I’ll post later.

There are. Just set it to display older threads.

That’s a really good analysis of Rugal I’d say. It’s pretty funny that no one uses him, I think he is the answer to anti-RC, and just abusing RC.

I probably should get back into using him more. I think I mentioned before in one of the other threads, but I think of Rugal as one of the best counter-characters to Blanka and easily a decent match-up for most everyone else (with the exception of Psycho hat). I probably should analyze the Blanka/Rugal match but I’d make an ass of myself XD.

Hmm, I don’t know about that Shouta. Rugal actually has no chance against Blanka, in my opinion.

I agree, I think Blanka is a tough fight.

Anyway I just wanted to say that st. jab is pretty good. You can do multiple walking st.jabs like Rolento, but be careful because some characters (like Blanka) can crouch under it.

I’ll post something up tommorrow for you and Galz, SBRT. I need to type it up and edit it. There’s a few things that really help with a fight against Blanka that you have to know.

Ok cool, help against Blanka is always needed:D

Here it is, I could probably edit it better.

Well, to me he is. There’s several reasons for that.

  • The God press/Gigantic Pressure

To me, the GPs are probably the best punishing moves in the game for any mistake. They both do great damage and are the setups for the strongest Rugal combos. It also will shut out some moves, in particular, Blanka’s flying ball, c.fp, and electric flying ball (good ol’super). This section is more or less about this move although I point out a few other things.

A. The Flying ball

The GPs will catch an FB anywhere in the middle of the attack with the exceptions of at the very beginning of the attack or just when it hits you (of course). Sure, most people don’t use it at long range often, but with the fact that both GPs stuff it will most likely make it unusable outside of buffering or a linked combo. The Vertical ball isn’t too much of a factor since it’s used for anti-air most of the time (at least that I’ve noticed). You can GP it on the way down.

B. The mighty Crouching Fierce

Surprisingly the GPs crushes it for the most part. There is maybe two situations I’ve encountered where they trade hits or MAYBE the c.fp will stuff the GPs (The God press more so since the Gigantic Pressure is a super but Ifve had it stuff a lvl 1 Gigantic Pressure on occasion). The point where Blanka’s fist is fully extended and sometimes at the very beginning of a c.fp where he starts to extend his fist are the two situations Ifve encountered. The beginning of a c.fp will sometimes stuff a GP but a trading of hits or the c.fp will get stuffed itself are the two outcomes I encounter most. The instant the c.fp is fully extended is the other instance. If the timing is even a little off when the person launches that c.fp, Blanka will get GPfed.

Therefs an interesting property with his c.fp that helps with a lot of characters as well. Itfs the fact that doing a c.fp makes Blankafs own hit-box very horizontal. This allows players with a decently long poke to hit Blanka when their just outside of the range of the c.fp. In the case of Rugal, his standing fp more or less stuffs the fuck out of Blankafs c.fp from about a half to three-fourths a screen away. It will trade hits on occasion but thatfs really hard to do unless youfre both rhythmically pressing FP.

It doesnft mean that the c.fp has been completely rendered useless, it just prevents it from being used as anti-ground rush attack or a poke to keep opponents away. It still carries a bad problem for your point blank and happens to through it out. Then again, youfll most likely see it coming out before it hits you anyway.

C. Supers

Oddly, a GP can actually stuff these BUT itfs pretty hard the higher the level of the attack. The level 1 EFB can be God Pressed or Gigantic Pressurefd no problem. The issue is the level 2 and 3 EFBs. The level 2 EFB can be GPfd but more often than not itfll trade hits (and not in your favor). It needs to be the later half of the attack to effectively take Blanka out of the move. Itfs quite the same for the level 3 ball. The standard GP has a slight wind-up to the start of the move. If youfre able to time the GP so that youfre just starting to move when the EFB is about to hit you, youfre more than likely to hit the move. You can sometimes do it in the later part of the flight but itfs semi-hard to. Ifve noticed this works because there have been a number of occasions where my friend would try this and I would GP him out of it. Of course hefd go gWHAT THE FUCK!?h :wink:

The Kick special is more or less the same idea as the EFB but a standard GP will crush any level granted that Blanka is on the ground and moving already or he starts by doing that slight vertical roll. I keep getting hit as the ball comes down to the ground and starts the roll. Of course the level as Invinci-frames so that one has to be GPed when hefs rolling on the ground.

Now the question you ask is what does this have to do with defeating Blanka right? Well with these you can prevent Blanka from turtling the snot out of you. Seeing as Rugal has a better long distance game than Blanka does, you can launch fireballs until the cows come home OR until he starts rushing you down.

This is the tricky area. Blankafs rushdown is really good for the most part and if youfre playing the long distance game, hefll more than likely start to close the distance on you since playing from a full screen away isnft going to do him any good. Now since he canft use a Flying ball to close the distance rapidly (GP that shit :cool: ) wefll be forced to move either in a more vulnerable form. Either jumping, running, dashing or rolling (depending on their groove). Of course, you donft want Blanka rushing you down, so knowing which way hefs going to move, you can react to what hefs doing and prevent him from rushing you. Thus you can set of the pace of the match.

The only other issue that could crop up (that I can think) is a really good P or K groover who can nullify a long distance game. Thankfully, they donft have a roll so unless they are parrying or JDing everything you do (which even then will prove troublesome to them) you can still play an effective game against Blanka.

An alternative to deal with the EFB is either by doing a Dark Smash which will float you in the air for a second and make you dodge the attack. Sometimes you can knock Blanka out of a level 1 ball with it as well although dodging it is safer. Another solution is just to throw out a jab at the right time. The last solution is the Dark Barrier (hcf+k) which will prevent any of the 3 levels of the EFB or Kick special from hitting you. The Dark Barrier also prevents his Kick special as well.

It’s still a tough match overall though.

I hope that helps a little bit, if you have any more questions just ask. If you think this is BS, well, just ignore me. :wink:

C-groove Rugal is sick. Short, short, lvl2, lvl 1 is too good. It’s easy and does tremendous damage. I use him in S-groove, and one combo with flashing life does about half life on equal ratio (with supers of course).

Just FYI, Rugal dies under pressure without meter or landing an RC. You all probably know that though. When CvS2 first came out a year and a half ago, I used him alot in C Groove and the only things saving my ass was Level 2 cancels (naturally this was before RCs).

Rugal is my boy (obviously :smiley: ), and he’s always my Tiered character in CvS2.

Although, I have to say that my favorite version of Rugal is Omega Rugal from KoF '99.

pretty sure you ment 98 but any i love using rugal my self and his jump df punch is an excellent move i think when facing a geese or bison

I have respect for Rugal, but ever since RCs were discovered his zoning game became useless, and everyone knows he’s a pussy in close range