Hello folks! Korey here! As many of you may have heard (if you haven’t, then wtf?) Keits has announced Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament will have a Vampire Savior special event to be held and streamed. For many of you who are clamoring for a new Darkstalkers game, this will be your chance to experience the series for the first time or re-live old arcade memories. But you don’t want to enter the event and scrub out do you? DIDN’T THINK SO! So let’s get down to the nitty gritty of the game and learn us some VS!
Vampire Savior plays like no other fighter around. While it has elements from many many fighting games you may be accustomed to (Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Versus series) it stands alone. You can’t play VS like ST, nor can you play it like Marvel or GG. But, I’ll try to mention the things that it has in common with other games.
Game Engine:
Life bars
Vampire Savior doesn’t run on a traditional 2 round system like other fighters (the older games in the series did, however). Instead it adopts a style similar to that of Killer Instinct, where the second round immediately starts after the first life bar has been lost. The standard fight has two life bars, signified by bats in the corner. Lose a bar, lose a bat. Lose both bats, you lose. Simple, right?
What makes it complicated is the existance of red damage and white damage. After being damaged by an attack, the character will have red damage deplete from his life bar and a little white meter will be flashing on his life bar as well. The white portion can be regenerated if the character can avoid being hit again for a certain period of time. Red damage, however, can’t be regained.
Meter
VS also has a multiple stock super meter that players can use for a variety of things. I’ll break them down here.
ES Special Moves: These are EX versions of characters special moves and are performed by pressing two buttons to do the special move instead of just one. Similar to SFIV or Third Strike. The character will flash blue while performing these moves and they all cost 1 meter to use.
** EX Super Moves**: These moves are your basic Super moves, also executed by putting in the super motion plus two buttons. Your character will flash rainbow colors while performing this move. EX moves cost 1 meter to use as well, with some exceptions for certain characters.
Dark Force: This is a unique aspect of VS. The screen will turn into this weird looking cave background and your character gets a unique ability that they may use until the meter runs out (flight, super armor, extra attacker, etc). Dark Forces are performed by pressing a punch and a kick button at the same time. These also cost one meter.
Push blocking
While this concept is familiar to those of you who have played the Versus series games before, the execution of push blocking in VS is totally different and much much much harder to perform consistently. To do a pushblock (tech hit) in VS, you have to press four hits within the timing window to push your opponent out. Depending on the last button pressed will be the distance that the other character is pushed back. There are techniques that can increase your chances of pushblocking, such as drumming the buttons or swiping them, but the game accepts most inputs. inputs pushed at the same time do not count twice, they are counted once. Therefore jab+strong, short, Roundhouse is counted as three inputs, not four.
Guard Cancel
Similar in concept to an Alpha counter, but performed a tiny bit differently. To perform a Guard Cancel in VS, you must enter a DP motion while blocking and press either Punch or Kick, depending on the character. GC’s can also be ES’d which give them the ES version of that specific move. ES GC’s cost one meter. ** NOTE:** Anakaris does NOT have a regular GC. He can, however, ES GC.
Hunter Chains/ Chain combos
Vs utilizes a system similar to the Versus series when it comes to chain attacks. The VS system utilizes the magic series of buttons, where it is possible to chain together moves going from weakest to strongest. VS also allows inputs of weaker buttons to same strength buttons.
Some examples of these combos include:
*jab, short, strong, roundhouse
*
or
short, strong, forward, roundhouse
VS even allows you to mix up your combos between standing and crouching, so combos such as:
low short, stand strong, stand forward, low roundhouse
are also completely feasible.
Air Chains
Also borrowing from the Versus series, Air chains involve chaining normals together in the air. Done the same as ground chains. So chains exist such as:
jump jab, jump strong, jump fierce.
Air Chains work regardless of whether you hit the opponent or not, so you can whiff them in the air.
Air Dashing
Many games have included air dashing, including the Versus series and the GG/BB series. VS air dashing is performed exactly like the latter, with pressing forward forward in the air executing the Air Dash. The game also incorporates the use of Instant Air Dashing, where a character dashes as soon as the airdash input is able to be performed. This allows a character to air dash really low to the ground. NOTE: Only Hsien-Ko, Jedah, Q-Bee, and L.Rapter have air dashes/ IADs.
Pursuits
Pursuits are an attack unique to the Vampire series. This attack allows you to tack on extra damage after a knockdown. To perform a pursuit, press up+ punch or kick. You can also ES a pursuit for more damage, at the cost of a meter.
Rolling
Vampire’s wakeup system allows you three options on your wakeup: you can get up in place (like most fighters), or you can roll forward or backwards by pressing left or right plus a button on your wakeup. This can help you escape hairy situations such as being trapped in the corner.
If you have any further inquiries you can always consult theVampire Savior Wiki for more info as well.