GENIUS !
http://otersi.com/makotobible/testspread_oct23.pdf
i had to redo the entire book to fit lulu.com’s (on demand printing) 6x9 size. i think it’s for the better, the type should be a lot more legible in print now. what a pain in the ass. also, i’ve been working on fleshing out the tricks / specials section. LMK what you guys think, and if you can point me to some more tricks and such that i haven’t listed.
ALSO: does anyone know of a way to turn off the UI in ssfiv AE PC?
I’m new to Makoto and ssf4 and think the guide is great (played BlazBlue before)! One suggestion would be maybe having a glossary at the end? Keep up the good work. These Makoto forums are great! Hopefully I’ll be able to contribute some myself once I learn a bit more.
i think a light glossary is a good idea. i’ll try to work that in somewhere.
i’ve finished the ‘specials / super / ultra section’ and just about finished the ‘normals’ section. ‘setups’ is coming along well too, just need to finalize the crossup tsurugi stuff (might actually wait on 2012 for that …). gonna start writing the overview + post hayate soon, and try to finish compiling some more tricks. just need MATCHUPS! hint hint
Last weekend was a bit of a thing, but I swear I’m on it.
My first chunk. I’ve already re-written this thing twice, it’s killing me.
Character Name: Rufus
Matchup Rating: 5-5
Approach: Offense dictated by his meter. You’re most likely going to start your offense with an anti-air to reset or crossup situation, or blocked/hit focus attack since Mak is neutral even on blocked level 1 and Rufus doesn’t have any 3 frame moves to contend with f+lp other than his throws ( IAT crushes that, among other things). Dashing in can be effective in this match since Rufus can’t really OS anything without meter, but it can be pretty easy to react to Mak’s dash with a quick divekick, so don’t get transparent. Or, you can just jump at him since early j.fp is crazy in this matchup. Once you’re in, the rule is mix up hard, watch your spacing, and get him off his meter.
Ultra Choice: Debatable. U1 has combo-ability, good damage, and IAT’s strong showing in this matchup makes it an easy default; your all purpose ultra. A fully charged U2 with the proper follow up can kill from half health, can thwart EX Messiah follow-ups (although not reliably), and Rufus is susceptible to a few choice crossup U2 setups. U2 is also great for corner escapes, but it can turn south if Rufus is not either in the air or right up next to you in the corner; his tall hit box can cause him to block it (or occasionally, if you’re Vegas lucky, it’ll randomly cross him up). Both are good choices, but for the sake of solidarity and actual advice, I would suggest U1.
Footsies: Rufus’ best footsie tools are st.mp and st.mk (ranged poke), st.rh (launcher, crushes low attacks), cr.mk (made effective with meter), and sweep. None of these are super great; they’re all slow for what they do, and cr.mk xx EX Tornado is the only one that’s not focusable. Possibly of note is also his far st.lk, which has a weirdly strong hitbox at range, although he gets nothing off it and it’s really just another way to pester you. Mak’s st.mk can stuff st.mp as well as mid range dive kick attempts if spaced properly. Sweeping’s dangerous for Mak since Rufus is scheming for divekicks anyway and Mak’s sweep has a lot of recovery. Be on the lookout for Rufus’ cr.fp from full screen: it’s punishable on block with EX Hayate.
But seriously, this match starts when one or both of you jump.
Option Selects:
Cr.lp + cr.lk + cr.mk: Defensive option select to tech throws and tag Rufus if he goes for low divekicks. Effective defense against basic Rufus pressure. However, it’s more susceptible to frame traps due to cr.mk’s longer startup compared to cr.lk, and can be baited out by delayed divekicks. Essentially, very useful until the Rufus player catches on, which may be before the match even begins.
I swear I’m on it. The book looks amazing, dude.
UPDATE: http://otersi.com/makotobible/testspread_oct26.pdf
bunch of new tricks and setups capped and inserted. i need at least 2 more to even out one of the spreads, so if anyone has suggestions i’d love to hear them.
looking for a comprehensive crossup U2 guide as well, if the work’s already done. if not, best to wait until 2012 to test.
i think since the matchups section is looking to take a while (a long while …) it’s probably best to actually split the book in 2:
volume 1: rindoukan primer (all this stuff i have here)
volume 2: dojo hit list (matchups only)
Hoo boy, this is good stuff you’ve gathered from the forums and put all into one place. Excellent work, one day this WILL surpass the AEMAKOTO guide, as long as you don’t stop.
One small thing: FA1 dash forward is 0 on block/hit.
I still would love to see a Karakusa range chart like your Fukiage one. Maybe get a section on FA mix-ups, maybe with this as a rough guideline?
Wow, very impressive. Great job!
CHARACTER NAME: Guy
1,000 health, 950 stun
Backdash: 26 frames
MATCHUP RATING: 6-4 Makoto
APPROACH: Guy has two main goals. One is to get his opponent to the corner so he can trap his opponent, beef up any combo with an additional BSK added to the end, and play elbow/cross-up mix-ups. The second goal, and his primary goal, is to get in and start frame trapping with Run Stop pressure or combinations of c.HP, c.MP, s.MK, c.LK, and his various versions of LP. Makoto can play her primary game of buffer poking and dash/Tsurugi games without too much of a match-up specific approach.
ULTRA CHOICE: U1, to make him second guess frame trapping you for fear of EX Karakusa, and to punish any of his guerrilla style tactics or accidental EX Hozanto. U2’s only purpose in this match is to escape from the corner, which will lose if Guy does a meaty aerial elbow or if he jumps and does his air throw.
FOOTSIES: Guy has 3 primary normals he throws out in mid-range footsies: c.MP buffered EX Hozanto, s.MK, and c.HK. All have decent priority and marginal utility. In terms of whiff punishing, Guy can use s.MP xx EX Hozanto to punish obvious slow pokes and missed Tsurugis/FAs. In order to combat c.MP, Makoto can use s.MP, c.LP, or s.HK, and if spaced close enough, c.MP. In order to combat s.MK, Makoto can use virtually any poke at max range, but unlike Makoto’s pokes, Guy’s s.MK can be used from any range safely. In order to combat c.HK, Makoto’s options are varied but risky; of her pokes, only s.HK will actively beat c.HK. The ways to combat this move are s.HK, neutral jumping preemptively, HK Tsurugi, FA, blocking, and HP Oroshi if done from far away.
Makoto wins the poking war in general with s.HK and s.MP, but watch out for that slide if getting predictable. Guy doesn’t have much else besides those moves, he’ll have to resort to jumping or betting on unsafe guerrilla warfare with Run attacks, EX Hozanto, and c.HK. f+MP is only good to approach if Guy likes using s.MK, as it loses to c.HK and c.MP. Guy can buffer poke c.LP and c.LK with EX Hozanto when he has meter, but as long as you use s.MP and s.HK, you don’t have to worry about those.
One thing to know is FAs give Guy fits naturally. He has to specifically target them to beat them, and a lot of his pokes are FA bait.
OPTION SELECTS:
Safe jump OS c.HP Beats backdash, EX BSK, U1. Loses to U2. Neutral with EX Run.
c.LP OS s.LP + f+HP Beats backdash, U1. Loses to U2, EX BSK, EX Run Slide.
OFFENSE: As long as you don’t whiff too many things, it’s not too hard to get in on Guy. He can’t do anything full screen, he can’t even build meter safely, so he will try to get close, play mid-range footsies, or stay outside of Tsurugi/dash range and whiff punish. The ways to get in are buffer poking with s.MP/c.MP/c.LP or poking with s.HK, low to the ground IA HK Tsurugi, and regular dash up shenanigans. Ultimately, Makoto shouldn’t HAVE to go to Guy if she doesn’t want to because she can build meter and out-poke him.
Directly jumping at Guy doesn’t work in footsies because of the very easy-to-time c.MP, IA Kaiten Izuna Otoshi, and EX BSK. Stick to IA HK Tsurugi if jumping at him. Neutral jumping works against his ground game, but air-to-air Guy will win every time, so don’t try to compete with that if he’s jumping a lot.
Dash up HK Karakusa works on him as long as you don’t dash up from max range.
When pressuring, you have to watch out for his 3 frame c.LK, EX BSK, and his pretty good backdash. He can’t FADC his EX BSK, so it’s very risky to mash with him. His backdash, while pretty far in distance, has 25 frames of recovery, meaning he can’t just throw it out as often as some of the better backdashes in the game. Guy has to take considerable risk to get out of trouble, so don’t be too scared when attacking; keep your frame traps tight.
Against his wake-up, Guy has many options when he has meter and Ultra 2, albeit most are relatively risky, to mess with Makoto’s oki. For one, he has a way out of every normal safe-jump situation because of U2 and EX BSK; the timing that works on one, won’t work on the other. The only way to safe jump him is from afar, such as “EX Oroshi, s.HK whiff, neutral jump MK,” where you lose all pressure if blocked. Guy also has EX Run, an armored running attack that has 3 pieces of armor, but it loses to throws and MP Oroshi. Because of his options, the best way to deal with Guy is to safe jump him or meaty MP Oroshi if he doesn’t have U2, and if he does have U2, test the waters with a late MK Tsurugi. Guy can counter this, so it’s a guessing game.
MK Tsurugi works normally, and his hit-box is a little bigger than some, allowing s.HP xx HC, s.MP, s.MP.
DEFENSE: Makoto can lame Guy out much better than he can lame Makoto out at mid-range. In fact, Guy has to go random or start whiff punishing to get in. Primarily use s.MP buffer pokes with a good amount of s.HK, and watch for jumps.
Up close, Guy has amazing frame traps and the tool dubbed Run Stop pressure. Try not to press too many buttons, Guy gets good frame advantage and easy frame trap hit-confirms like s.MK and c.HP to give you ~250 damage and put you ever closer to the corner. Wait it out and try not to get thrown. Run Stop pressure is this: Guy can cancel his normals into Run and immediately stop it, maintaining his distance and keeping himself at minimal frame loss, usually around -1 frame advantage. At this range he can throw or c.LK on average, or he may go random here and go for EX BSK or something. Backdash, EX Karakusa, backthrow, or very late crouch techs work best here, as often Guy’s c.LK will beat or trade with Makoto’s normals here even with perfect timing.
c.MK and LP Fukiage anti-air Guy’s aerial shenanigans very easily. The only time Guy can jump is when wall jumping out of the corner (jb.MP in this case), and when baiting an AA by elbowing in the air short on purpose. Try to limit AAs to c.MK only unless he’s jumping directly at you excessively.
After forward and back throw, Guy gets free cross-up shenanigans, either into Elbow, cross-up, or empty jump c.LK/throw. There’s not much you can do to stop this, just block and hope for the best.
After Run Slide, Guy can hold up for a free safe jump. EX Karakusa grabs this for free, and he can’t empty jump into jump, but he can empty jump and LK BSK or EX BSK (very risky, but if he knows you’ll do it, not that risky). Watch out for delayed jumps to bait this, in which case you can c.MK.
To physically stop Run guerrilla tactics, use HP Oroshi for both attacks, LP and late c.MK for the overhead, and s.HK or EX Oroshi for the slide. While these tactics can work and be annoying, the risk vs. reward isn’t in his favor doing it randomly.
When knocked down, primarily you will guess between c.LK and throw, or less commonly f+MP overhead. Guy can’t OS Makoto’s backdash with c.HK, so backdashing is pretty legitimate unless he specifically counters it. In the corner, you will have to guess left, right, up, and down all at once if he safe jumps and you can’t Fukiage. Avoid the corner like the plague.
To stop Bushin Izuna Otoshi (the flip into grab), crouch and c.MK or stand and use LP Fukiage. Whatever you do, don’t stand guard it, there’s literally no reason to stand guard except against true jump-ins. There are setups where Guy will grab the auto-stand frame on wake-up; to avoid this, use U1, or a wake-up c.MK to erase the standing frame.
LP and MP Hozanto are safe on block. HP and EX Hozanto can be punished with U1 and s.MP. Both Run enders can be punished with EX Karakusa or s.MP. EX BSK can be punished by holding up forward and giving a full jumping combo!
MISC NOTES: Two mix-ups and Guy is stunned 
FUCK, it’s too long. I hope you’re good at trimming the fat, blackadde.
I wish I could contribute to this effort, but I lack the analytical mind to compose my thoughts on matchups in such a manner. I usually just play 'em by ear, so to speak.
thanks robot! i’ll work that into my latest build of the file.
edit: latest -> http://otersi.com/makotobible/testspread_oct31.pdf
i started the ‘character intro’ section, will finish soon + add images to illustrate. i’ll worry about copy editing the matchups at a later date. might as well leave all the writing in for now.
This looks amazing :o, whatever I said before I was being an idiot. The use of images and clean presentation is something I can only dream of doing. =)
Omg I want one so badly. Will you change the hitboxes and such when the patch comes out?
Add the acronyms to the glossary. You know
OS = Option Select
HC = Hayate Cancel
Also add her OS’s and situational uses. The useful ones anyways.
Keep up the good work. Hope to see the finished product!
I love the idea for this.
Oh. My. God. What you’ve done since the last update is nothing short of amazing. Already it’s spectacular … keep at it and I’d dare anyone to find a better condensed Makoto guide in the whole world, Japanese or not.
Man i feel like you should be charging for this… amazing!
Hey.
Can you edit the first post with the latest update? So we dont have to look the entire topic for the newest version.
Thanks
hey guys. i’ve updated the top post with the latest revision.
san510: i’m debating on where to put the OS stuff: i think the most general ones (c.LK xx ex hayate ~ ex hayate / fukikusa / OS dash / OS sweep) go in the ‘tricks’ section but since all the others are so character dependent it seems like most of them belong in ‘matchups’.
hitbox images all come from the japanese mook since we cannot dig that info out of the game. if a new mook is released for v2012, then i’ll try to get scans and put those in. they didn’t mention any hitbox changes, so hopefully it won’t matter.
PS i know the images are compressed to hell, but that’s just because i’m trying to crunch the file size down for the preview builds. all the caps i’m taking are high res and look great in the working file.
PPS i’m taking a break for this weekend cause i’m helping to run canada cup. check out the stream and maybe you can see my scrubby makoto lose to gootecks again.
This will definitely help in tournament play to have a actual book in hand =D
Its gonna be so Sick!
Ill be watching the stream also.