Picking a character guide

Just a bit nore on Sarah's catch throw, the maximum range is about what ice-9 said, the starting position of rounds. However there is a large area between that and standing on the toes of your oppoinent that the throw will "catch". Call me crazy but in VF4 I think her catch throw has to run its animation before connecting. So if you were in punch range and execute her catch throw you would run up and then proceed to push your opponent back and if they are stupid and just stood there blocking they will eat it at the end (low punch anyone?).

Just to answer some questions, your opponent will eat it if they stand (linear), if they dodge BEFORE, very close to the exucution of, or near the end of the throw. Somewhere in between, depending on how good your oppoinent is in dodging and if they dodge up or down you will miss. I have ran past Myke's Vanessa plenty of times and we would end up back to back. As for my sanity.. I get plenty of attcking linear catch throws in. Just a matter of placing it at the right situation.

 

Hey guys, her catch throw's starting to sound useful, cool. You guys really know your Sarah!

Triple Lei, thanks for the word of support, always appreciated!!

 

"Hey, about that SS iageri, I couldn't get it off at all. Any tips on the timing?"

Wish I could show you, but for obvious reasons, I can't. You should hit guard before the kick animation, but not so early as to cancel it totally.
Hmm...this "tip" doesn't sound too useful, does it?

 

Do you think Lion is a bigger combo character relative to other characters? A lot of characters have KD combos, but would you say Lion depends on it more than others?

Lion (my Lion anyway ) depends heavily on combos. Escpecially KD combos -- he has more than his fair share of moves that cause KD. What makes him special is that all of his moves that cause KD do so on a normal hit, whereas other characters need a MC to get the KD. That property alone makes Lion very special. When I toss out f,f+P, b,df+P, or d>b+P (they all crumple) I know that I get a "free" combo if they hit. I'm counting on it, and I get it because they cause KD on a normal hit. There are a bunch of other moves that if they hit (even a normal hit) I can get a "free" combo or pounce, such as P+K, b,f+K+Gd+K, and df+PP.


cheers,
kbcat

 

I agree with everything Vansen says about the catch throw... it is greatly improved from VF3. I get the catch throw half the time I try the b,f+P+G throw because of the huge diagonals on one of the sticks here in Boston. I'm toe-to-toe with my opponent and if they aren't ducking or attacking the catch throw always connects. It's good to use IMO because most opponents seem to get upset that they were stupid enough to not avoid it... its like getting hit with Akira's guard crush...

Akira-- "Here I come... I'm gonna attack you shortly.... here I go... HAH!"

Yupa-- "Oops. I got whacked again."

 

Hey Graham, thanks for the input, I now agree that Lion should be given the combo tick. The KD situations, his D,f+P, and his b,b+K do make him a reasonably good combo character.

 

Lion Throw variety? Zero low throws. (minus-). Throws...most are low damage compared to other characters in VF4.
RO potential. (Plus+). I would rank Kage and Wolf at top of list. nice work ice! Few float starters in VF4 for Lion.

 

Character guide updated!

Just to quickly take your points, Art, Lion has throws ending in u/f, f, d/f, d/b, b AND he has a catch throw! He has two high damage throws, two ring positioning throws, and one "nobody escapes this" throw (u/f+P+G). Other good things: all the throws take pretty good damage, six throws are available in "dash in to throw before he recovers" situations, and his normal P+G throw is great too. That's definitely variety. As for his floaters, D,f+P is really good, and KD situations count as combos.

Anyway, after playing everyone in the game, I'm updating the character attributes chart, but I bet even this incarnation will stir just as much controversy, but speak up, because controversy is what it's supposed to stir!

The biggest changes are in Sarah, Lei and Vanessa.

Sarah is a much more versatile character than I gave her credit for, and I'm giving her technical control for her many hit throws and for managing her stances. Relative to other characters, however, I still don't think her throws can be considered a strength (they're good, but not as good as say, Lion's).

I split Vanessa into two, DS and MT, and I believe this is the right thing to do as she really is two different characters. Seriously, you can play one without ever touching the other, and you'll be fine. Taken together, she has the most depth among all the characters.

Lei definitely has a strong ground game. Someone wrote in to me about that, and I apologize because I was wrong. u/f+K+G hops over low rising attacks. u+P+K+G > P+K will duck under high rising attacks. He doesn't have much else, but these two are very strong. However, I took out his defensive depth...and the reason is that, even though he has many sabakis (the most in the game?), the sabakis are too stance/situation dependent to play a prominent role in normal gameplay, unlike Akira's b+P+K+G, Lion's QCB+P, etc. I actually like Lei's QCF+P+K, though Chris doesn't (25 base damage, highly counterable =).

You can check it out here: <a target="_blank" href=http://virtuafighter.com/view.php?section=vf4&file=vf4_chara_chart.html>Character Attributes Chart</a>

P.S. I'm thinking of adding DA Utility as another criteria...worth it? Not all characters need a good DA...