KK there will be more vids up on my account tomorrow afternoon.
ADVIII went beasting tonight for free.
Check it.
I’m uploading a bunch of P2P matches with DeadlyRave-Neo as we speak (look up rashreflection on Youtube). I play Sokaku the whole way, he uses a bunch of characters - Rick (his main), Xiangfei, Terry (his other main), Krauser, Joe, Duck (1 game lol), & Tung. Good games, Neo!
There’s no sound in these because I just wanted to do multiple-match uploads and I get more audio desync the longer it goes. Yes, Big, I tried DivX and that didn’t help. =(
I fail super hard vs. Krauser & Terry here. With Krauser I know what I was doing wrong - forgetting Kaiser Wave exists, blocking Leg Tomahawk low, and falling for command grabs. But I’m not as clear vs. Terry. Probably not being patient enough during his pressure strings, and I need to be a bit more afraid of Burn Knuckles, but I’m not coming up with much else right now…
I’m still not the most experienced at this game, particularly since I was messing with Yama a lot before, so I do a lot of dumb things that leave me yelling at the screen now. It does get better as the set progresses - I start using breakshots more and countering jump-ins better, among other things. And I start to figure out how good backplane C is, though watching Yor’s matches made me realize I need even more of that!
Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated! =)
Enjoy,
Josh.
That was some nice battles,ggs to both,ur sokaku is good eh eh:wgrin:
but u could use the :d::snkb::snkc::d::d::snkc: combo,which damage nicely
and use more :qcb::snka: Breakshots,or either :r::l::r::snkc: Breakshots.
And u don’t work ur play style on cornering with sokaku,his main shit is
the cornering abuse!!and his jumped C hit far if is done right,even on a vertical jump,it can be used goodly.
I’m happy that more players use soka now:wgrin:,ggs excellent matchs!
Heyas Josh! I’m still in the process of watching the videos, and from what I’ve seen so far I’ve got some observations that may help you out.
I see your somewhat lead-footed: sticking to one place (particularly the Pt. 4 set of vids). It really important to keep moving regardless of the character you’re using. Keep shifting your distance so the opponent can’t get into their optimal range. Not only is it easier to hit a stationary target over a moving one, the more time they spend paying attention to where you’re going, the less time they have to think about what they’re going to do.
Also, if they try to perform a combo (such as the feint combos Neo does with Rick and Terry), that inch of difference can be enough to for them to whiff: sparing you some damage or, better yet, allowing you to counter attack.
This idea mainly comes from KOF. KOF is second only to Samurai Shodown for movement options, but it makes up for that in speed and in the varieties of attacks you have to avoid. You really have to think on the move, as staying still in KOF is akin to suicide. The best defense to an attack is to not be there.
That being said, just as there are bad times to roll in KOF, there are bad times to Quick Recovery in RB2. Chars like Rick have explosive speed, and can easily take advantage of a QR in a flash; especially if he has momentium. However, Rick, Terry, Franco and Xiang-Fei (among others) don’t have any pursuits, so they have little reason to force you back onto your feet. So use the QR sparingly against them, just enough to make them think twice about wakeup games while taking extreme care if they have forward momentium or if you’re anywhere near a corner.
Also, don’t forget about the backplane; though it is a position of disadvantage, used carefully it can get you out of a rough spot and potentially leave the enemy open due to a whiffed attack. Additionally, it reduces the amount of options the opponent has to damage you.
A lot of the other things (getting used to Krauser’s Leg Tomahawk being an overhead, avoiding the Kaiser Wave etc.) will come in time. The interesting thing about Krauser is that he has doesn’t have too much reason to block him low. He has the:
:d:+:snkb: (which won’t combo into any special or super aside from the Deadly Rave P-Power).
:d:+:snkc: (can’t be pursued)
:d:+:snkb:, :d:+:snkc: (can’t be pursued or cancelled into specials / supers).
While he does have a good sweep, he has far, far more damage / pressure potential from standing attacks than from anything hitting low. Being the sucker for mindgames that I am, I used to love tricking people into blocking low with the :d:+:snkb: so they get stomped by the Leg Tomahawk. Problem is, whether the low B hits or not, if they block the Leg Tomahawk…it’s goatse Krauser. :shake:
And ADVIII, just hit the link that God 2.0 gave ya (the same in signature) for plenty of RB2 info. :tup: But from the sound of CoosCoos’ post, you’ve already found it. :wgrin:
Oh, and before I forget, Josh, let me know what kind of specs your computer is running at and all. We may be able to boost your framerates and correcting that sound sync issue for ya. :tup:
Whew, I think that’s about all for now. By the way, it’s a bit off-topic, but what sticks would you guys recommend? I’ve been using an N64 pad exclusively for emulator play for 10 years now, and I’d really would rather not switch to a stick the day of FRXI. :looney: (If I do wind up making it there, that is). I’ve been keeping my eye on various threads on SRK and other places, but the suggestions seem to vary.
I like Terry in MotW(Grant also) and KoF series. Mr. Karate in MIRA. Thats about all “favorites” i have. Also i hate charge based chars, are there any here?
In this game, characters are not usually charge or non-charge characters. Some character may have just one charge move, some with back -> forward and some with only down -> up.
Listing all charge moves:
Cheng - has both charge motions and rely on them both.
Laurence - has both motions and also rely a lot on them, especially because of his small movelist.
Mary - has both charge motions and rely on them for her mixup game.
Billy - Has a back -> forward charge that is quite useful, and which does not really interfere with any other of his moves.
Krauser - His S Power is a back -> forward motion.
Kim & Terry - Both have a down -> up uppercut charge move. Both are fast and dangerous.
Hon Fu & Franco - Both have a charge back down -> forward charge.
Bob - has a back -> forward charge which is very similar to other characters’ command moves. Close range overhead, not particularly useful.
The stuff on charge moves made me remember that I wanted to post something on Breakshots.
Charge moves are by far the easiest to use for breakshots, since all you have to do is press f+button. These are the only moves that can easily breakshot a single hit on reaction, so they can be quite powerful. Cheng lives off of his breakshot, and Franco’s Golden Bomber is one of the best in the game as well.
QCF moves are the second-easiest for breakshots, and obviously can be used in more situations than charge moves - hello, Fire Kick! :wgrin: QCB motions are just about as easy if you’re blocking low, but they take a bit longer if you’re blocking high. Tiger Knee (e.g. Franco’s anti-air special) is just QCF with one extra input. DP motions are not especially hard, either. All of these can be used to breakshot 3-hit strings and a good number of 2-hit strings.
The other motions after these require longer block strings to pull off, except maybe Sokaku’s f,b,f+C (need to work on this more). This becomes especially important to keep in mind against a few characters who can use supers as breakshots. Here are some examples:
Xiangfei’s flying S-Power
Terry’s S-Power (not sure how useful this is, kinda slow)
Andy’s P-Power
Hon-Fu’s P-Power (only good against a few moves that take forever, like Rick’s P-Power)
I could’ve sworn Geese’s Deadly Rave could breakshot too, but I don’t remember. That would be downright lethal if it could!
And against a good Escalation Mode Mary, you have to be careful with any sort of offense - she has charge, QCF, and DP breakshots that can lead into a super!
So, what to do to avoid breakshots?
First off, cut your strings short! That’s the obvious first step. From there, though, you have to start thinking and trying to bait them - if you stop a string early, there is a chance that your opponent will perform the special normally.
Thus, what you do depends on the move to some degree. If it’s a projectile, then hop in and go for a combo or more pressure. If it’s an unsafe special, wait and see what happens - after a second or two, if nothing happens, start attacking again. If it’s a safe special, then try line shifting, or jumping in to take 1 hit and land -> punish (this works on Rick’s Shooting Star and some other things). Of course, you want to mix up these options to some degree!
There is probably more to this that I’m missing, but this should be enough to help!
-Josh
Yor, thanks a lot for the comments! I can do the qcb+A breakshot consistently now, but need to practice the f,b,f+C. I forgot about the d+B combo honestly, so thanks for the reminder. =) And yes, I know how scary his corner game can be, so I’ll work on setting it up.
Big, movement has been one of my main problems in any fighting game, ever. That’s part of why I’m trying to learn Melty Blood actually! In this game, I guess I would just have to walk back and forth, vertical hop C sometimes, backplane C other times - Sokaku doesn’t have a whole lot of other things you can safely throw out, even from a distance. I know that if someone whiffs a jump-in, I can far C or even far B-C combo sometimes, so that’s something to look for more often.
I have no idea why I was quick recovering against Rick, I knew about the dashing C. Just getting greedy, probably.
Thanks for the Krauser info! =)
And when it comes to sticks, I like the Horis best myself. The Tekken 5 and HRAP2 are popular and darned good. If you only need 6 buttons, then the Soul Calibur 2 stick is excellent and may come cheaper than the others.
Also, if you do get a stick, it’s also well worth it to get a Pelican PS2-PC adapter. Something like $10 as I recall, and doesn’t add input delay like other options.
Hope this helps,
Josh,
Is there any use for sokaku’s supers? I never found any… just f,b,f breakshot all day. it’s too [bad] his 360 does such piss poor damage… at least its a decent mixup.
The S-Power actually has one tiny legitimate use, so it’s better than Cheng’s S-Power at least. =P Specifically, if there are just a few seconds left, you can run out the clock for free with it.
The P-Power is a GREAT anti-air, only loses to crossups from what I can tell and it’s difficult to punish. Not good for much else, though - he can be hit by projectiles or anything else with a long duration. At long range it becomes unblockable, but people can easily line shift that.
And funny you mentioned the 360. Big tested this and found out that 360 + pursuit, normal throw -> followup, and normal throw + pursuit all do practically the same damage. The 360 does have more range at least, and the pursuit after normal throw gives you much more advantage for wakeup than the followup.
-Josh
Cheng’s S-power if you are good at canceling into it off a sweep can be used near corner sometimes… to bad its god awful slow
Just got done playing Mr. Big.
Very good games man, you are too solid.
If anyone’s down for playing me get my aim off of here and get at me.
You guys have to help me get into this game.
I want to have a fucking beastly Xiangfei.
I have to comment a bit on Sokaku’s grabs.
The damage output, from lowest to highest goes as follows:
Regular throw
Regular throw + follow-up
360
Regular throw + pursuit
360 + pursuit
But the main point of the 360 is that it counts as a special move, so you can go directly into it from a dash. It also has better range than the other grabs, and can be done as a reversal. A quite useful move that gives Sokaku another attack option.
As for his S Power… Well, I have landed Cheng’s S Power more often. That should give you an idea about the usefulness of Sokaku’s. Use your meter on Breakshots instead. At close range, the QCB+A comes out instantaneously. The f,b,f+C can also be used, but I have seen it get beat a lot by combo strings in progress. At very close range, you may also try using HCB+B, The Wailer.
So last night I played both Mr. Big and FullMetalJacket.
These guys are beast. It was my first time in a while playing online but I did pretty well I think.
Anyway, the vids from wednesday should be up today. I’ve been having trouble uploading to youtube so it’ll take a sec.
Wow, things have been busy here! :looney:
Heyas Yor! We need to play again sometime. :woot:
Mmm, as God 2.0 pointed out, the vast majority of the cast has at least one charge move. Judging by the chars you listed, you seem to have a preferance for well-rounded characters. In that case I’d recommend Terry (of course), Kim (though he has a :d:, :u:+:snkb: charge), Rick (there’s a slight learning curve to unlock his full potential), Joe & Andy (though they aren’t as solid as the aforementioned), and potentially Xiang-Fei (though she’s one of the more difficult chars to use effectively).
As Josh said, Sokaku’s supers really aren’t anything to write home about, especially the S-Power (which is basically the same as the old versions, except bigger, prettier, and a whole lot slower).
Many people would recommend the :qcb:+:snka: as a breakshot, but I think you’re on the right track with the Possession Blast (:r:,:l:,:r:+:snkc:) is, in my opinion, his best breakshot: it’s fast, eats projectles, can’t be lept over; in short if they are any where near the thing when you breakshot, they will get hit by it. The biggest downside is the lengthy recovery.
As God 2.0 mentioned, the 360 has more range than a regular throw, can be used as a reversal and from a dash, which is very important. The other thing is that it puts them -clear- on the other side of the screen, making it not only great for getting them off of Sokaku, but for putting them into the corner for his Dance of Demons trap / chip / infinite.
Almost, Josh! I actually said that they did as much as the 360 by itself. :wgrin: The 360 + Pursuit does more, but only by about a jab’s worth. It’s really ironic that the most potential damage from a throw comes from a normal throw (Bob’s normal throw + followup into juggles). :amazed:
Yeah, as far as S-Powers, it’s probably the worst in the game. There’s just no way to land the thing unless the opponent is just 
Maybe if it was faster, or hit both planes, or an overhead, an unblockable, or was a 1-hit kill.
Good games, CoosCoos! 
We need to do it again sometime. You’ve got the beginnings of a great Xiang-Fei, especially since you have the best command over her counters I’ve had in an opponent yet. If there were a few things I’d suggest, it’d be to keep on moving and shifting your positioning. Also, don’t forget about Xiang-Fei’s mixups and her :snkc:, :db:, :r:+ :snka::snkb: x2 S-Power: it’s the only one she can combo into (aside from the :r:, :hcf:+:snkb::snkc: from a high counter) and it’s the safest super she has. :tup:
Heyas Chibi! If you want to get started with Xiang-Fei, I’d recommend talking to CoosCoos & FullMetalJ: they both use her extensively. :nunchuck:
Whew, I think that’s about all for the moment. Seeyas next time! :woot:
only when bob is in the corner. otherwise krauser can take as much damage of a throw (command throw, :hcf: + :snka: into ppower combo). bob does around the same damage as krauser or even a few chipps less, unless both are in a corner. then krauser can make his combo a lil bit harder (it already does around 80% damage without corner, which is around bobs damage without the added corner). bob can make it 100% cause of the infinite, in the corner that is.
also, i was trying a rick combo yesterday (on my ps2 this time). seems you can kill your opponent in 1 go or almost as good as in 1 go.
for those rick users.
jump and hit :snkb: then :snkc:, after landing walk forward and :snkb:, :snkc:, :r: + :snka: + :snkc:, walk forward a bit :snkb:, let go of the forward otherwise rick will do his uppercut when hitting the :snkc:, :r:+ :snka: + :snkc:, again walk forward a bit again :snkb:, let go of forward again before hitting :snkc:, :r::hcf: + :snkc:, now when the opponent hits the ground he will be rendered powerless against the unblockable, meaning you can always hit the:qcb::snka: if you time it right after the ppower. do this when krauser (or any other opponent) hits the ground and check out for the timing yourself.
after this krauser had basically 4 or 5 hits of chip damage left. (meaning a blocked :qcf: + :snka: will kill them, otherwise you can ad a :dp: + :snka: for 2 hits extra chipp damage) another way to get almost the same amount of damage in another nice way is by doing the :qcf: + :snkc: (with s or in this case ppower active) before the ppower and juggle with the ppower and finish it with the :qcb: + :snka: move. this one is a bit harder as you need to hit your opponent in the right timing if you want the ppower to juggle correctly.
these combos where performed against krauser, thus on short characters you cant hit them with the :snkb: then the :snkc: in the air, so just go for the :snkc: instead.
p.s. te ppower and the spower can both be followed up by the :qcb: + :snka: move if timed correctly.
Thanks for the corrections on Sokaku’s throws, guys!
Wow, that’s an awesome Rick combo! One issue, though:
Unblockables are never guaranteed in this game. Some characters can DP/counter/super, and everyone can backdash or line shift on wakeup. Heck, if this weren’t the case, I’d be working on setups for Sokaku’s P-Power!
Also, speaking of which, the pursuit is guaranteed after Sokaku’s P-Power. I can’t believe I never figured this out until yesterday. =P Makes the move deal a little over 50% damage total, I think. Not bad for a (mostly) invincible anti-air!
-Josh
can anybody make me a avatar?
Actually, Sokaku’s S-Power does hit both lanes, but has amazingly poor priority. It stays out forever, though: I’ve seen a few matches where the opponent tempts fate and walks forward during Sokaku’s S-Power because they think it’s about to run out, only to take the full damage from it by hitting it with their toe. :looney:
I second that they make it a fast overhead unblockable 1-hit kill, though.