GGXXΛ+: Chipp Counter-hit Combo

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg141/Skiegh/CounterhitCombo2.gif

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

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg141/Skiegh/SF4GoukenCornerCombo.gif

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.

GWED Epyon Gundam: Backattack Combo

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

A spiffy looking combo which can be done as Epyon Gundam; the overpowered hidden character which can only be played after inputting a series of directions at the character select screen. 

This combo requires a back attack which I achieve by utilizing Epyon's command jump while my opponent is down. The timing on it is really tight -- in-fact, that was the most difficult part of this GIF. It took me about 40 tries to get over my opponent so they would face to the right side and I would be able to attack them before they turned around. 

As for the combo itself, it's pretty straight-forward. It's really just a series of attacks into Epyon's command jump. One interesting thing to note about Epyon however is that he doesn't really follow the normal rule that you can't cancel a heavy attack into a light attack, which is the norm in most games and every other gundam. You'll notice however, whenever I am near my opponent in this combo I am wailing on them back and forth with my whip and sword without any delay whatsoever. Typically, you can only revert to light attacks after a heavy attack via links but Epyon as the boss of the game says fuck that and as such, he is easy to use and immensely good.

Only other thing of note (which I'm really the only who probably cares but I found it interesting) is that at the end of the whole ground hopping fiasco, I actually do land on the ground after I crossup my opponent. I was watching someone do this combo before I did it and I was staring at the video like "How is he turning around in mid-air?" Turns out, he was actually just hitting the ground and just jumping and attacking so fast that the game actually doesn't even show you hitting the ground. Which is uh... pretty weird, just goes to show that there is 0 frames involved when it comes to jumping in this game.

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Unrelated to this GIF, I am still working on practicing the new game I plan to show GIFs of. I don't think I'm wrong when I say it's one of the more input-heavy fighters out there but I am certainly grateful for it. It has cleaned up my input immensely!

I'm probably gonna have to show more Gundam GIFs for now because I am no where near ready to transition to my next game. Hell, I'm only JUST barely getting decent with one character and I know next to nothing of the others. It's a popular fighter as well so I don't want to end up posting stuff about the game that is just blatantly obvious. I have to say though... I do love the game so far.

GWED Mercurius Gundam: Overpowered Shield

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg141/Skiegh/DuelMercShield2.gif

A little showcasing of just how ridiculous Mercurius's shield can be when activated. It has a long start-up and is easily cancelled but if you manage to get it off, it offers you complete immunity to attacks with the only exceptions being throws. Sure it drains your meter slowly but considering how fast you gain meter in this game and how evasive you could be to avoid throws, it is just plain ridiculous.

GWED Mercurius Gundam: Random Combo

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

This GIF had a lot of issues but first let's start with the combo itself. 

This combo was fairly whimsical of me, I started originally doing the 100% combo which requires a bit of a strict timing but is unimpressive looking. Going from that, I devolved it (or evolved maybe) it into this random strings of attacks. I did this combo several times as I wasn't sure how I wanted it to end or anything of the sort. Mercurius Gundam left me a lot of options in that regard but overall I'm satisfied with it. 

Also yes, that initial dash in attack to the energy swing is an infinite, you can repeat that starting loop over and over again but like most things in this game, it's a tight timing. 

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Now onto why this GIF was a pain in the ass. Typically, when I convert my video into a GIF, I also convert it to 30 frames per second which is typically fine since most 2d fighters have the same animation for 2 frames at least. However, silly Mercurius gundam here has a unique little effect with her energy shields -- they are invisible every other frame! So when I converted it to 30 frames per second -- well, it looked like this...

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg141/Skiegh/DuelMerTASCombo2.gif

Funny thing that; something that's invisible every other frame is gone completely from a GIF which removed every other frame. This was irritating as it made a lot of the attacks just look... weird and considering Mercurius Gundam already has a pretty bizarre moveset (quite unique), she doesn't need any help when it comes to confusion. 

My solution was to halve the speed of the emulation so it would record each frame more than once which solved it more or less, though it took a few tries for some reason. If the frame I started from was had the shields invisible, there would be way more frames where they were gone than present. Along with that, photobucket also refused to upload this for awhile until I shortened it's number of frames.

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Time to make a few more set of GIFs I think, as I finally used all of the ones I had premade. I'll probably stick with Gundam Wing Endless Duel for a little while longer -- at least until I'm knowledgable enough in the next game to which I am already practicing. (Hint, hint, it's a pretty well-known fighter and gets compared to Melty Blood quite often or should I say Melty Blood gets referred to it?)

GWED Shenlong Gundam: Jumpaway combo

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

This is a weird combo that can only be done if you hit your opponent with a heavy kick the very second he jumps away. That being said, it's not something that will ever come up really. I will say that you can include a 3rd repetition of that punch -> spear bit but it's timing is bizarre and I could never get it, I think it's better to do the consistent version which is this. Important thing to note is you do need to attack the moment you leave the ground to link that attack together into Shenlong's amazingly satisfying dragon throw.

GWED Deathscythe Gundam: Backattack combo.

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

This is such a snazzy looking combo, I adore it. However, behind each great looking combo in this game are millions of little things that make doing it so extraordinarily difficult. Before I delve into that, I should also state that this combo (I believe) can only be done on a back attack and a crouching opponent. (More hitstun but I may be talking out of my ass, I never tried doing this on a normally standing opponent.)

Now I mentioned in the last GIF how I would be using a slower emulation speed to perform these combos and now let me explain why that is. Now what may look like a seamless combo from attack to another is actually a series of small one frame stops in order to connect each attack together. The first part of this begins when I use Drill Shield for the second time. (My favorite special in the game, teleports you upon hit if you use the heavy version of it.) This timing actually isn't all that bad and in-fact, I would say this entire combo could be done consistently if you practice enough but I'm too lazy to practice a combo for a game I'm only passing through. 

 

Anyways, as I was saying, the second drill shield needs to be delayed a couple frames, canceling into it right away results in it only hitting twice which is not enough for your to boost upwards in time, cancel too late and the gundam either regains himself and can block it or hits the ground. 

Now after that shield is thrown we must boost the moment we teleport but we also need to make sure not to attack right away! We need to glide to the right for a moment and wait until the last possible moment, utilizing all of our previous attack's hitstun before attacking. Once in that distance, we slash and the moment we hit the ground we cancel into that light shield swing but before we cancel into that scythe swing, we must wait exactly 1 frame. Canceling into it right away results in the swing whiffing and too late and the hitstun is worn off. The reason we need to wait 1 frame is so the opponent's gundam falls just 1 pixel more so it can hit. 

After landing that we instantly boost, wait just a moment as before -- being sure to glide a tiny bit closer and utilize the hitstun of our previous attack before attacking with a heavy kick. Depending on your distance, you can either cancel into your special spinning scythe or your super which is more or less the same thing with more range. In my case, I used the super. 

All in all though, though I used an emulator to perform this, this combo for the most part is quite doable at a normal speed. The only real tricky part is after the second shield is thrown.