Virtua Fighter Notation (updated 22.08.2006)

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All the move notation should be applied to 1P (Player 1, on the left) side. Reverse everything for 2P (Player 2, on the right) side. In virtuafighter.com forum you can use instant command buttons on the left of your posting screen for move notation. If you don't like them, you can use regular ASCII notation (called here "standard notation") or numerical/Japanese notation; they are all explained here. As default, I will be using VFDC instant commands.



STICK MOTIONS:
When you "tap" motions you enter them, but they aren't held - the stick is then either immediately returned to neutral ("no motion") or goes straight into another direction, for example - half circle from back to forward. If you see two identical motions one after another, eg. , return the stick to neutral after the first one. You can also see things like - in this case return the stick to neutral after 1st tap, and HOLD the 2nd one. There is also so-called numerical/Japanese notation where you use numbers on your numeric keypad which correspond to directions.
"_" - means "hold the first motion", eg. 2_6P for Pai's double palm.

Straight motions:
/ f / 6 = tap forward
/ F / 6_ = hold forward
/ b / 4 = tap back
/ B / 4_ = hold back
/ d / 2 = tap down
/ D / 2_ = hold down (the instant command is also used to denote a "FC" move, discussed later)
/ u / 8 = tap up
/ U / 8_ = hold up

Diagonals:
/ df / 3 = tap down-forward
/ DF / 3_ = hold down-forward
/ db / 1 = tap down-back
/ DB / 1_ = hold down-back
/ uf / 9 = tap up-forward
/ UF / 9_ = hold up-forward
/ ub / 7 = tap up-back
/ UB / 7_ = hold up-back



BUTTONS:
or P - press Punch button
or K - press Kick button
or G - press Guard button (don't use "B" for "Block" or "D" for "Defend", since those are reserved for stick motions)

Sometimes you may see something like x, x ("Px" or "PPx") - those are series starting with the same move(s), but ending with different options. Take a look at this example:

= Lau's punch-kick
- Lau's double punch-heelkick
= Lau's triple punch-sweep

All of the above could be denoted as x, and the 2nd and 3rd one could be x.
Even though the standard arcade button layout goes G -> P -> K (from left to right), we use the order of P -> K -> G for notation. Please type eg. df+P+K+G instead of df+G+P+K.
In some other games it's possible to hold a button and add another button to the sequence, eg. press , add without releasing , making it + - you cannot do that in Virtua Fighter. You need to release the , and then press and together.



PRACTICAL USAGE:
Includes most commonly used combinations.

/ f,f / 66 = dash forward
/ b,b / 44 = dash back
/ f,F / 66_ = run forward (you can't run back)

With instant commands there is no need to use commas.

Crouch Dash, the CD, can be achieved with inputting various motions, here are the most popular methods:
/ df,df / 33
/ df,d,df / 323
All the above make your character CD forward. Buffering a crouch dash is used to get to crouching position faster than just holding . You can buffer a backward CD to get to crouching position too, which allows to execute some moves a lot faster.

Examples of complex motions:

/ d,df,f / 236 = QCF, quarter-circle forward
/ d,db,b / 214 = QCB, quarter-circle back
A ">" can be used to denote QCF/QCB too, eg. > which means . There are no QCF/QCB motions which start from a direction different than down.

/ b,db,d,df,f / 41236 = HCF, half circle forward
/ f,df,d,db,b / 63214 = HCB, half circle back
A ">" can be used to denote HCF/HCB too, eg. > which means . There are no HCF/HCB motions which start from a direction different than back or forward.

/ u,f,d,b / 8624 = 270 throw, 3/4 circle up-back
/ u,b,d,f / 8426 = 270 throw, 3/4 circle up-forward
/ d,f,u,b / 2684 = 270 throw, 3/4 circle down-back
/ d,b,u,f / 2486 = 270 throw, 3/4 circle down-forward

A ">" can be used to denote 270 throws too, eg. > which means . There are no 270 motions which start from a direction different than down or up. While inputting the motions you're allowed to go through diagonals, but not neutral.



Examples:
/ P,K / PK = Pai's punch-heelkick
Press , release it, then press .

/ f,b+P / 64P = Pai's lunging palm
Tap , then input and press together.

+ / D,f+P+G (or FC,f+P+G) / 2_6P+G Pai's reaping knife (throw)
Enter crouching by any means, then tap together with buttons and .

++ / f+P+K+G / 6P+K+G = Pai's flipover (throw)
Tap together with all the buttons, , and .

Some rare moves require you to hold a button; it's always denoted descriptively in the movelist (check Vanessa's movelist for holds).

+ (release within 1 frame) / K+G!G
Another descriptive notation, this is Akira's knee - sometimes such moves are also denoted with an exclamation mark.



DENOTING STANCE:
The basic stances in Virtua Fighter are called "closed" (characters' legs are aligned with same foot forward) and "open" (one character's left and other character's right foot forward). They are usually denoted as CS/OS or just C/O, respectively, and used mainly in combo notation.
After many character-specific stances have been added in VF4, it was needed to invent abbreviations to denote them. The most commonly used ones include FL (Sarah's flamingo), JM (Kage's jumonji) and DS (Vanessa's defensive style). Examples of usage:

FL / FL K,K,d+K / FL KK2K = Sarah's low cut combination
JM / JM f+P / JM 6P = Kage's turning elbow
DS / DS b,f+K,P / DS 46KP = Vanessa's parrying combination



COMBO NOTATION:
In combos we denote series of moves. Here's an example VF5 Pai combo:

CH > > + > = instant commands

CH FC,f+P (or D,f+P) > F+P > P+K > P,P,K,K = standard notation

CH 2_3P > 6_P > P+K > PPKK = numerical

1st move - double palm: the move requires crouching, so is used in instant commands one. In standard notation you can use either "D" or "FC" ("From Crouching") - it's probably better to use the latter, since no motion is required and you can use the crouch dash.

2nd move - punch: you're required to hold forward for the combo to connect, hence the - this is not !

3rd move - ensei katan heki: additional element, this move makes the opponent rebounce for the last sequence to connect.

4th move - double punch, kick, hopkick: the finishing sequence.

It's common to use either ">", "->" or commas (the latter especially in case of instant commands) to separate different elements.

You may also want to denote if move is a small down attack, or , by adding an appropriate note. You don't have to add notes to throws in combos/sequences, since all of them end in either + (high throw) or ++ (low throw) - but ground-hitting move commands are usually the same as regular move ones (eg. can be either a side kick or small down attack). You can also see "pounce" used in place of "small down attack", meaning the same, though the term is mostly used to denote (or + in case of some characters) jumping down attacks. Please note that some characters also have throws that work on knocked down opponent only, done by + and +.

In some combos you may notice moves in brackets, for instance () - this is to denote that a move is entered, comes out, but misses. In this example the 1st punch hits, 2nd misses, but 3rd punch and the kick hit normally.



POPULAR ABBREVIATIONS:
All of the abbreviations below can be used to denote various states the character's in. Here's a quick list with examples:

BT = backturned (eg. after Sarah's )
FC = from crouching (after crouch dash or while the character is simply crouching)
WS = while standing (releasing the stick to neutral while the character is crouching)
All = all buttons press simultaneously, same as ++ (eg. f,f+All, standard notation only)
N or n = neutral (no stick input)
CH or MC = counter hit or major counter

Virtua Fighter 5 only:
DM = defensive move ( or , add + for a dodging attack)
OM = offensive move (++ while doing a DM)



That's pretty much all you need to know about notation. Check out the forum for other info - this post shouldn't serve as a system guide and no such information will be added here.