GGXXΛ+: Axl Low general combo

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http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg141/Skiegh/AxlFRCBnB-1.gif

Axl Low, the strangely British time traveler! He's primarily, from what I could gather, a hardcore zoning character as he can cover most of the screen with some of his basic attacks. 

Both of these combos cover about the same basics so I decided to stick them together, much in the same way that I did them at the same time. While attempting them, whenever the opponent hit the corner, I'd try the throw combo and whenever not, I'd do the regular one. Eventually, I got em both down but it was far more difficult than it needed to be because I randomly have fits of not being able to do motions for some reason. It's a mental thing I think.

The bottom combo starts with what I have gathered as Axl's standard starter, c.K, c.D, Rensen Geki. His Rensen Geki is a charge move and carries a few variations depending on whether you hit up or down afterwards but in this example, I simply FRC'd it. After that it's just a simple run up into f.p and after that into a nice series of slow, double hit chain attacks, the second of which is jump cancelable. 

Jump, follow up and the rest more or less explains itself. Abuse the crap out of his force break Axl Bomber which launches both myself and the opponent upwards while also letting you continue on after it, it's really quite lovely. Depending on the combo you're watching, I end with either the normal Axl Bomber (Along with another Rensen Geki with the down variation I was talking about.) or Axl's giant 360 slash Kokuu Geki.

Starting slow and simple with Axl since I screwed up Ky so bad. That and I haven't had much free time.

GGXXΛ+: Ky Kiske; I failed to do a combo

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This my friends is me failing to come up with a combo or at least successfully completing it. Typically when I do a combo for a character, I make it a fact to learn the character first but for some odd reason, I refused to do that for Ky and the result is as shown; failure. This combo went through at least 50 variations before I just said "screw it!"

That aside however, there is some stuff in here I can at least describe even if the combo itself is worthless and impractical. (Not that I don't mind showing impractical combos every now and again.)

I start off with a Charged Stun Edge mainly to get a higher hit count but also because it's an amazing ability for wake-up pressure so this starter could feasibly happen. Afterwards, I run up for a simple gatling which soul purpose is to put me at the maximum distance from my opponent so I can use Stun Dipper, which will only land both hits at maximum range. (The sliding kick must hit near the end of it's slide.)

After that I RC into a tightly linked f.HS, which, on airborne opponents, produces a wall bounce effect, allowing me (if I did this mid-screen) to run up a ways before using my super Sacred Edge. After that it's just a typical Ky launch combo into a failed finisher and the end of m creativity apparently. 

This combo makes me sad.

GGXXΛ+: Ky Kiske Greed Sever Loop

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Ky Kiske or as I think of him; the Ryu of this game. He's easy to learn and contains some very shoto elements. (good uppercut/fireballs/zoning)

So I heard you like loops? Well, good, because that's what this combo is all about! Granted, it's not very damaging but I'm sure that's my own ineptitude than anything else, I'm sure there's more beneficial ways of doing it. Regardless, Greed Sever is a nice little ability, that while slow, grants a free combo opportunity on hit. Essentially a powerful overhead ability -- I like it.

This combo revolves pretty heavily around the fact that a lot of Ky's attacks induce a lightning shock (The inability to tech), allowing him a lot of time to combo into other things. His s.HS is great for this since it's pretty fast but induces quite a lot of said stun. After a point however, the stun becomes less effective and you're forced into mixing up the move from more Greed Severs to a super jump cancel into K, S, Vapor Thrust. (Ky's shoryuken) Of course, in this version of the game, Vapor Thrust can be followed up by Rising Javelin, a nice little zap of lightning which bounces the opponent against the wall and can be FRCed. That said, this combo could have been longer but just look at that damage scaling, it's not worth the meter.

Also to note, at the end I used one of Ky's useful yet useless ability, Lightning Strike, which can only be used against downed enemies. It's decent damage and a nice finisher I suppose but that's about it.

GGXXΛ+: Baiken Youshijin Counter Combo

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg141/Skiegh/BaikenBlockCounterBnB.gif

A decent showcasing of Baiken's primary style of play which is offensive defensive, primarily due to a good 4 of her abilities only being able to be used while guarding. Personally, I love that style as it is generally how I play most games, why I hate SF4 so much (because it's impossible) and why I love SF3 and it's parry system. 

I start this combo with Youshijin, one of her abilities which can only be used while guarding and as you might expect, it's easy to get counter-hits when you cancel your block stun. As such, my opponent can't tech his landing, allowing me to land f.HS into a Tatami FRC. From there, it's all just the typical Baiken BnB affair. I do show how Baiken can use a nice FRC, (Air) Tatami follow-up to perform her usual BnB length even at mid-screen.

GGXXΛ+: Baiken Counter-hit Combo

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A counter-hit combo for Baiken; the one-eyed, one-armed, female Kenshin, though apparently inspired by Tange Sazen.

The reason for the counter-hit is more for showing off more of her abilities in one combo rather than it being necessary for this combo. Counter hits involving her aerial Tatami Gaeshi (It's essentially just a flipped floor mat -- you know, those Japanese style floor planks.) results in the opponent wall bouncing from any distance and not being able to recover. The regular version however can be recovered after a short while and will only knock them into the wall if they're quite close to it.

The inability to tech allows me to link into Baiken's Kabari, a chain with a claw at the end of it which pulls opponents closer to you, while also allowing you to perform her Tetsuzansen which are those two vertical slashes.

Other than that however, this combo more or less showcases almost the entire content of Baiken's BnB, which is generally just j.p/j.s into j.d. Her j.d is very nice as it takes away the player's ability to tech the fall which is great for setups. You'll also notice that the move is able to be FRCed which is something you can do to extend the damage of it, specifically mid-screen where you can't follow up with the dash into j.s, j.d.

Overall, I quite like Baiken. She makes me debate my choice in main character as I do love her offensive defensive style. A lot of her abilities can only be performed while blocking and she even has a command dash that blocks. (I'll attempt to show those off somehow in a GIF) I love that form of play so I may consider making her my main. God knows parrying is all I'm good at in games.

GGXXΛ+: Chipp Kick Plummet Combo.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg141/Skiegh/ChippKickCrashCombo.gif

Bizarre little Chipp combo that I came up with after experimenting a bit with Chipp's rather unique aerial kick. It's uniqueness (and awesomeness) comes from the fact that it's two hits, the first being a standard hit that generally raises an opponent slightly while the second being one that provides a hard knockdown, thus lowering the opponent. You can tell just from the description that this sort of has infinite potential where you simply raise a player up and down indefinitely, resetting your jumps easily upon hitting the floor and I believe it does but it's rather tricky and not worth much in terms of damage.

The hard knockdown from the second hit is just strong enough so that if the opponent is close enough to the floor, they will slam into it and not have time to recover and as such crash into the floor without the ability to tech the landing, allowing me to connect Gamma Blade; the rather amazing zoning technique that Chipp has that locks an opponent in place for a moment.

GGXXΛ+: Chipp Launch BnB

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This is what I have come to think of as my BnB when using Chipp. Though it requires 25% tension, it does decent damage and isn't the most difficult thing to do. That and this combo can easily be altered to a 0% tension version which contains more hits but a little less damage ironically. (I may show a GIF of it as well.)

Let's see... what does this combo introduce as far as game mechanics go? To start, it introduces jump installing which, if I recall, was originally a glitch in the previous Guilty Gears but has since then become an actual part of the game. Jump installing is essentially inputting a jump during any move that is jump-cancellable (In this case, Chipp's slashes on the ground) but rather than jump, you input another attack but the jump remains registered; installed if you will. So when I teleport up to continue my combo, I am now able to jump even though I normally wouldn't be able to. Which is why I am able to use Alpha Blade a second time after my False Roman Cancel.

Segway! Now onto False Roman Cancels (FRC), which are somewhat of a spin-off of normal Roman Cancels. The difference being that, for one, they only cost 25% tension instead of 50%, they can be performed without connecting with your opponent which makes them useful for saving yourself from whiff openings and lastly, they can only be input during specific frames of special moves. In Alpha Blade's case, it's the moment you launch forward. (Telling the difference between a RC and a FRC is easy because FRC's show a blue flash rather than a red.

Anything else? Ah, right, uh... Guilty Gear is a bit odd in terms of crossup input. In most games when you crossup someone (go over them), you need to adjust your inputs where forward is towards that person. So if I wanted to do a super for instance, I could potentially do a quarter circle forward and then a quarter circle back once I crossed over someone and it would qualify as doing two quarter circle forwards. However, in Guilty Gear, forward is the direction your character is facing and the only way to turn around in the air is to jump/air dash. This is why jump installing is necessary because I need to turn around in mid air when I cross up the opponent and jumping is the only way to allow me to Alpha Blade in that direction.

*Side Note*

May is absolutely adorable. (The character I was beating on, though it's not the best color that I picked for her.)

GGXXΛ+: Chipp Counter-hit Combo

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And so we move onto Guilty Gear X2 Accent Core Plus (What a f'n title!). I'm very new to this game but I can already understand why it's such a popular fighter, it has a lot of depth. It also has a lot of game mechanics for me to tinker with, which I am always a fan of. Though it's almost the point of being too much but this is the billionth version of the game so that's to be expected.

It took me awhile to pick a character but in the end I picked Chipp, who I believe is the fastest character in the game which is always a plus for me. 

The combo specifically is pretty simplistic. Though I say it's a counter-hit combo, that really only applies to the extra forward high-slash I do at the beginning. Far as I can tell, Chipp's forward HS is easily his best damage so adding more of it into combos is always a goal. This combo specifically does a crap ton of damage but considering the slowish speed of his F+HS, it's to be expected. Along with that, this combo also requires 50% tension because it contains a roman cancel. Mentioning that is my cue to explain it...

Roman cancels require 50% tension and are used to cancel the rest of your attacks animation and as you can imagine, it creates for a lot of combo opportunities as well as allowing you remedy a risky attack by yourself.

Far as the tension gauge goes, it's actually quite nice, I like it a lot. Most fighters have a meter but I specifically like GG's. It increases by hitting and getting hit as per usual but it mainly increases by dashing towards your opponent and being close to him/her -- essentially being in combat increases it, which I like a lot. This game seems to frown upon turtling, in-fact, staying out of combat lowers your tension to 0 and reduces the increase of it for several seconds.

I haven't been playing it too much, so I don't expect to get any good at it really but I may at some point try and get into it more thoroughly. I will say, playing it has helped my input a decent amount since it's a pretty input intensive game.

SF4AE Gouken: Corner Combo

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A rather beefy but long-winded corner combo for Gouken. It's damage isn't particularly great if you consider all of the meter you're using but it's worth doing and I believe it generates close to 700 stun, which is a lot since most characters only have 900. 

 

I don't find any of Gouken's combos to be very difficult to do and as such, I don't have much to say about this combo. Besides the focus cancel and maybe the very useful MP to cHP link that Gouken has, there isn't much to say; it speaks for itself.

This isn't what I was planning on my next GIF being but I've been having trouble recording video of the game I wanted to show footage of so until then, I may dabble into SF4 despite my hatred of it. On that subject though, I have been playing SF4 simply because my brother does and he's actually liked it enough to go out and buy a stick, despite the fact he said he never wanted to play fighting games at that "super high, frame data crap level -- I don't want to practice days and days just to play a game." Yet here we are, and he is doing it, though he is currently under the massive frustration that I dub "The Transition!"

Learning a stick is not easy, it took me 6 months before I was better on a stick than a pad and even now, I have fundamental problems with a stick. For him, it should be easier since he's hasn't exactly perfected anything about fighting games prior to switching to a stick like I had. Still, he's easily annoyed by the fact he can't do anything in an actual match now despite being able to do it in practice. He's convinced it's lag that somehow only sprung up due to his switch to a stick but I'm quite aware it's just him not being used to the stick yet. Doing something in a match is 100x harder than in practice and even more so, adjusting to even the slightest bit of lag is near impossible on a input device you're not used to. 

So yeah, I've been playing SF4 a decent amount and it's sadly gotten better than it used to be but only because I've adjusted to all of the stupid things the game has to offer. Which is how I feel most SF4 players are, which is sort of sad. Gouken is sort of the saving grace to this game for me, with his ability to parry attacks, he is the closest thing I can come to to a parry system.