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Evading

Evading, also referred to as escaping or dodging, was first introduced with a couple of characters in Virtua Fighter 2. It was then implemented for every character in Virtua Fighter 3 via a dedicated button, and now has been further refined in Virtua Fighter 4. The obvious change from VF3 is in how you evade (via joystick rather than button), but there's also a subtle, and yet probably more important, change in when you evade.

The key to successful evading in VF4 is timing. When you evade an attack during it's execution time, the evade is much quicker and recovers faster. This special evade is also acompanied by a unique sound effect, similar to a quick scraping sound. A normal evade is usually quite slow, takes longer to recover and has no unique sound efect. Thus, the difference between the two types of evades is quite pronounced.

Not only is timing crucial to successful evading, the direction you evade in must also be taken into consideration. Every attack will follow a pre-set path during it's execution. Some attacks are linear and others are circular. As a general rule of thumb, linear attacks can be evaded in any direction, whereas circular attacks can only be evaded in one particular direction, either to the front or back of your opponent.

Knowing when and where to evade is one thing, but putting it into practice is another. Your opponent's front and back will be obviously determined by his/her stance. In other words, evading to their leading foot is in the direction of their back, and evading to their rear foot is in the direction of their front.

The chart below is taken from the Arcadia Magazine, November Issue, 2001. It lists a selection of attacks from each character, and the direction to successfully evade in. Also listed is a rating on the usefulness of knowing how to successfully evade a particular attack. Take it as a recommendation, and nothing more.

Character	Command	Evade Direction	Usefulness
Akira		front	***
		back	**
		back
		front	**
		back
Aoi		front
		back
		back
		front
		back	***
		back
		front
		back
Jacky		front	*
		front	**
		front	***
		back
		back	*
		back
Jeffry		back
		back
		front
		back	**
		back
		front	**
Kage		back	**
		back
		front
Lau		front	*
	(while standing)	front	**
		front	***
		back	*
Lei		back
		front	**
		front
		front
		front
	(evade stance)	front
Lion		front
		back	**
		back	**
		back	***
		back
		front
		front
Pai	(while standing)	front	**
		back
		back
Sarah		back
		back
		back	**
		back	*
		back
	(while standing)	front
	(flamingo stance)	front	***
Shun		front
		back
		back	**
		back	*
		back	*
		front	**
	(handstand)	front
	(lying down)	back	***
	(lying down)	back
Vanessa (Defensive Style)		front	***
		back
	(while standing)	front	*
		back	**
		back	*
		back	*
		back
		front	*
Vanessa (Muay Thai Style)	(while standing)	front	*
		back
		back
		back
		front
Wolf		front
		back
		front
		back

A couple of footnotes.

Some attacks have tracking properties. That is, they have the ability to follow their target (you) during execution. This adds another degree of difficulty to evading, because you don't want to commit to an evade while the attack is still able to follow you. In these situations it's best to time the evade at the last possible moment.

It's possible to evade certain attacks while walking into or out of the screen. This can sometimes work into baiting your opponent to attack which hopefully misses you. Don't forget, you can walk while your back is turned as well!

Rising attacks, like other attacks, can be evaded as well. This can be tricky because the opponent has full control on the type of rising attack and the timing of it, so a lot of anticipation is required. Familiarity with rising attacks available from various knockdown positions is essential to success.