====================================================== SEGA VIRTUA FIGHTER 3[ob/tb] OPTION SELECT by Joji Suzuki & Rich Williams version 1.10 [last updated 8/31/02] ====================================================== DISCLAIMER ---------- This guide is for private and personal use only. It can only be reproduced electronically / placed on a web page or site as long as it is unaltered, with this disclaimer and the copyright notice appearing in full. Any information used from this document, quoted or not, should have this author's name somewhere clearly as acknowledgement. Feel free to distribute between others, but this guide is not to be used for profitable/promotional purposes; this includes being used by publishers of magazines, guides, books, etc. or being incorporated into magazines, etc. in ANY way. TACTIC: OPTION SELECT ===================== Unlike the option select in VF2, where it took on so many uses, shapes and forms, the option select in VF3 is almost completely limited to one main area - the loss of initiative and escaping throws. Here's a list, in abbreviate form, of some of the standard throw escaping techniques that the VF3 engine allows. E: dodge A: attack R: reversal G: guard HT: high throw LT: low throw HTE: high throw escape LTE: low throw escape DTE: double throw escape What follows is a list and summary of the available and practical option select techniques in VF3. The whole point of OS is to reduce your risk to reward ratio, with the hope that if you bugger up, you can save yourself from being mC thrown or struck by entering a few extra inputs. All of these techniques are far from fail-safe, and you do need plenty of dexterity to do some of them. And even then, you still may find that you guessed wrong. But it never hurts to know...and knowing is half the battle. * DTE ----- Done with P+G -> x+P+G. This technique will escape both command throws and the basic P+G throw, should your opponent muck up his XPD attempt and get a P+G throw instead, or whatever. There is little extra added risk, it's not much extra work, you might very well save yourself 40-60+ points, and you might even gain more on your opponent (remember your throw escape followups!). It's extremely effective against certain characters and players. Getting into the habit of remembering to add the P+G is the hardest part. * A-DTE & A-LTE --------------- This is an interesting and sometimes very effective way of avoiding both throws and attacks. It works because if your opponent is in a position to have a guaranteed throw, and does throw you, any attacks entered during the rigour time won't come out in any case. But! you can still escape the opponents throw. So this means if your opponent does instead choose and strike attack, you have a chance to interrupt their move with a move of your own, provided that your move is fast enough. Of course, you have to choose which move to use wisely depending on the situation and character you're fighting. Probably the safest moves to use are single punches and elbows. If your character has a fast P, you have a chance to interrupt numerous alternatives the opponent might have to throwing you. Faster P's may work against knees and heelkicks, and will foil KG-throw attempts. Elbows can work wonders on people attempting to CD-throw or do CD-attack on you - often you can stagger them. I'll just give an example to explain this, using one of the most common examples of lost initiative - a blocked rising attack: Akira just blocked Kage's high rising kick. Kage quickly enters f+P -> P+G -> df+P+G. Akira attempts a m-shrm, but because Kage recovers before Akira can fully execute his shrm, Akira recieves an elbow in the face and gets staggered. Ha ha screw you Akira. In three commands you've eliminated the threat from three of Akira's throws, and the elbow would have protected from a CD-throw attempt as well as the possibility of other slow attacks Akira might have tried. Of course, Akira might have simply chosen to b,f+P+G throw Kage, or used any other of his throws. Of course, this technique is not going to work if you've just whiffed a kickflip or anything similar like that. You should only try it when you still have enough initiative to attack the opponent back. * E-DTE & E-LTE --------------- This works similar to A-DTE, except it's a bit iffier than A-DTE, because it really depends quite a bit on what attack the opponent does, and in what situation. In some cases you might try this only to find that you simply didn't have enough initiative to dodge whatever attack opponent has chosen. It works simply because while you can be thrown out of E's, you also can escape throws during E's. Let's use the blocked rising attack scenario again. You've just had your rising attack blocked. Because you don't have enough initiative, you won't be able to dodge quick attacks or certain attacks that track you. But against Kage, you'll be able to dodge his heelkick (just remember to dodge to the front), and you'll be able to dodge most knees from anyone; Wolf's short shoulder; and so on. And of course, you still have a chance to reverse a throw, provided you guessed right. You can also use it after being low kick-MC'd to prevent people from strike attacking when they think you'll simply go for a throw reversal. After Akira lands a df+P+K on you may be a good time to try it. After some SE or ST type throws, it's good to try and see if will work as well; it may stop Lau from being a bastard and throwing you after he just ST'ed you, and so on. Just remember that if they don't do anything (for whatever reason), you'll simply dodge and then get a nice big fat whiffed throw animation. * R-DTE & R-LTE --------------- Characters who have reversals have new options when they try this, but of course it's all a matter of who you're fighting and being able to guess right. It works similar to E-DTE, in that you can also be thrown out of reversal attempts, but that you can also buffer in throw escapes during missed reversal animations. HP reversals can prevent Akira from trying to SPoD or f|d+P+G you, or Aoi's f+P+K,P after a blocked move or after a stagger. Those with mid reversals might stop people from kneeing, sidekicking or elbowing you. And high kick reversals may work against Kage's heelkick, Sarah's d+P+K, etc, etc. And you still have a chance of escaping your opponents throw. Again, this is similar to A-DTE, in that you must have enough initiative to reverse the attack. The (general, far from ironclad) rule of thumb is, if you can block it, you can reverse it. i.e., you can block a knee attempt after a blocked rising attack (knees are slow; commonly 15 frames), so you can reverse knees after a blocked rising attack. And so on. Of course, they could just use a non-reversable catch throw or attack, or simply use a throw that you didn't guess upon. * LT(or LTE)-DTE ---------------- Obviously this only works with those who have low throws. One purpose of it is to try and land a low throw on someone who just low kick-MC'ed you - yet still have a chance of escaping their high throw. Low throws usually have priority over the high throw after being low kick MC'ed, provided you're in range. So let's say Jeffry has just been low kick MC'ed by Kage. Jeffry enters in df+P+K+G -> P+G -> b+P+G. If Kage is in range, he'll be low thrown by Jeffry, but if not, Jeffry has a chance of escaping Kage's throws anyway. You can also use this to avoid players who intend to high throw you out of a missed low throw animation (missed low throw animations recover high and leave the player vulnerable to high throws and all attacks, but you can still enter in throw escapes). Say Aoi just had her sweep blocked, and the Wolf player expected her to try and escape his d+P+K+G low throw. Aoi hits d+P+K+G, but Wolf simply pauses, and immediatedly df,df+P+G throws Aoi. Ah! But Aoi had entered in d+P+K+G -> P+G -> df+P+G. Aoi escapes Wolf's throw and gets a free backthrow. Or not, if she guessed wrong. * HT-LTE -------- This can be a good option against characters with low throws, especially after a low rising attack has been blocked or (especially) whiffed, as they can often have such borderline throw counterabilty. Example: Jeff has just blocked Wolf's low rising attack at very long range. As Jeff dashes in to bash Wolf's head in, Wolf enters in HCF+P+G -> f+P+K+G. Jeff's too far away and too slow to dash in, and gets Twirled out of his dash forward. If Jeff had been fast enough, Wolf would have escaped Jeff's triple knee bash. I've done this quite a bit, actually. It's so great to GS or TFT someone who thought they'd be low throwing you. This will also prevent people trying be fancy by trying to (low) side throw you by dodging your low punch or high punch. Of course, if they just do a mid like a knee or something, it's all in vain. * G-DTE/GTE ----------- G-DTE can only be entered during [your] recovery time. It cannot be done in any other situation: not during staggers, not from standing, not during dodges. The timing is very tricky, similar to but not exactly like Akira's knee command. The way to do it is to do a TE or DTE, and then after the final P+G command, let go of P, and keep holding G. If done correctly, there will be no missed throw animation. Apparently it works because the throw escape command can be entered 10 frames prior to the end of the recovery time, and if you enter the TE/DTE during this time and are still holding the G button at the end of the recovery phase, you don't get the missed throw animation. The implication of this is very important. If done correctly it can completely eliminate any chance of the opponent mC'ing you. The rising attack situation again: you've had your rising attack blocked against Akira. You enter P+G, df+P+G, release df+P and hold G. This prevents three of his throw and all of his slower attacks. It will not, however, protect against his P, as you lack the initiative to be able to block it. G-DTE also works with low throw escapes. So against Jeffry, for example, you can enter d|df|f+P+K+G, hold G, and block without the whiffed motion. G-DTE is not infallible, though. As noted beforehand, it can only be entered during recovery time. It won't work when you are staggered, because the opponent can't throw you during a stagger anyway. This leaves you with DTE, R/E-DTE, or attack-DTE. K,G and Jacky's d,d (among other movements) can foil it, and even simple delays can foil it as well - especially the possibility of the opponent simply entering the throw command _after_ your final TE. It is also pointless to bother with it after long recovery moves. E-GTE is not mechanically possible, as you cannot guard during the execution phase of the dodge. It's not fully known if there's a limit to how much you can mix and combine them (i.e E-LTE-HTE, G-LTE, R-HT-LTE, and so on). Some say as much as you can enter in 10 frames, and others say there's a limit of three specific commands. Other Tidbits ============= * K,G ----- Useful both offensively and defensively. If you are expecting your opponent to make a throw escape attempt, or to throw you, you can enter K,G during the time you would normally be expected to throw (or be thrown by) the opponent. The opponents throw (escape) attempt won't come out, as your kick will come first - and moves cannot be thrown. That results in a whiffed throw by the opponent, and plenty of time for you to act on it. Similarly, Jacky can do his switch stance (d,d) in place of the K,G technique for the same results, but the timing is a bit less forgiving. It's riskier. * K+E,G ------- Long forgotten technique. For most characters K+E results in a dodge followed by a high kick. The interesting part is that the dodge is a crouching dodge, and that the kick can be cancelled. Timed right you can duck attacks that would normally hit a dodge. However, you are still vulnerable to high throws and catch throws during this dodge. [end of file]