Aoi

What combos and what syle of play is good for Aoi? I cant seem to get any of my starting combo to hit i.e + or + and +

 

Against who? Try hitting your opponent first with or with normal or counter hit to provoke your opponent to choose between different tactics. That should be used when you are in small disadvantage.

 

I'm a VF noob, but I've played fighting games since the days of Street Fighter II, so I'll give my opinion on Aoi anyway.

Aoi isn't a huge combo character, from what I've seen. She is mind games to the extreme. She doesn't have hellacious juggles or combos, and probably has the weakest juggles in the game. She's fast enough to poke from halfway across the screen, but don't expect her to take off half a life bar with a combo. Play for crumples and counter hits, and take what you can get from them.

But she's definitely the best defensive character I've seen in any fighting game. If you played Tekken, Aoi is a lot like Jun with King's throw variety. She's a 'bait' character. Predict your opponent's moves, lure him into exposing himself, bait him into doing his favorite moves, and counter. Take your hits where you can get them. Annoy him to death with pokes. Keep him guessing, and while he's second guessing himself, grab him and throw him. Many characters (and players) have a tendancy to toss out a high percentage of mid attacks - reverse them. Use YY stance to stop long range pokes, break poke timing up, and generally string out your opponent. Crouch dashing is a good offensive setup tool as well - it can lead to a mid range attack or a throw. If you can make your foe start to play defensively or hesitate, you're on the winning stretch.

She really suffers against a computer foe - I don't think the computer can be conditioned like a human foe (except for throws /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif ), and computers are more random than any human player as far as move selection. You can't really make the computer afraid to toss out a move. And they have instantaneous reflexes - if the computer decides it's going to dodge/counter your next move, you're stopped. I hate when I see the computer fuzzy guarding at lightspeed.

 

The first two of those, like the others said, are to be used when you are in a slight disadv. Mix up those, and her sabakis, and her YY, and her reversals, and of course evades, and you have a wide variety of options from a slight disadv, moreso than any other character. The b,f+p+k, personally, I only use it after a low crescent reversal. There's a combo that uses that move against in okizeme, but I'm too much of a scrub to do it consistently (do a search, and you'll find it, or the PS2 has it in training).

I kinda disagree that she's a defensive char. While she certainly does well on defense, esp on paper, I think it's best to go offense with her. I mean you have all these tools to be used when in disadv, so why not make use of them? And her elbow attack strings are just so versatile. If you want to use one of the above, do something like f,f+p. If it's blocked, you'll be at a slight disadv, but not throw counterable, that is, you are in an ideal position to do one of the above. Or, you can really mess with them, and do the 2nd p, guard cancel and throw, etc..

Actually, I think she does well against the AI, too. Because well, the AI tends to be a bit more predictable than a good human. And there are too many AI exploits that Aoi can use (low throw after a blocked sweep, ground throws, YY to RO, AI rarely breaking multi throws, etc.). I have a champ Aoi, despite myself being somewhat scrubby with her. It honestly didn't take that much effort, except for the WMAC.

 

When I say she's the best defensive character I've seen, I don't mean that you turtle. I mean that she has the best defensive options I've seen in a character. She can counter 99% of the moves in the game, and she has the best defensive stance. If you have superhuman reflexes, or you can read minds, she's invulnerable. But playing her defensively or turtlishly will make you lose, because you don't have Akira's or Wolf's power and can't kill with one or two combos. As Agios said, you've got tools to cover some of your mistakes. Use yourself as bait while poking.

I do wish she had some better kick strings, though. I get tired of slipping up and tossing a punch at a moving Vanessa AI and getting grabbed. /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

As far as AI exploiting, it's something everyone does, but until you get the computer in the right situation, an AI can zap you by just standing there and waiting for whatever you do, and ducking/countering/ss'ing it. I'm sure everyone has seen the computer go into 'invulnerable' mode and backed off when you'd still be rushing a human foe down. Getting evaded three times in a PPPK string is rather demoralizing.