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Dodging Rising Attack FAQ for Virtua Fighter 4

by Hyun Supul
v0.2

hyun@earthling.net

v0.2 April 24, 2002
v0.1 April 22, 2002
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What is this FAQ about?
==================================
This FAQ explains somewhat advanced VF4 technique of dodging your opponent's
rising attacks. A rising attack can be performed after you chose not to, or
failed to tech roll after being knocked down.

When your opponent does a rising attack, you would want to do your best to
make him pay. There are many different ways to do this but this FAQ will
deal with one particular method: Making the rising attack miss by
sidesteping.
(After that you will be free to either throw or strike your helpless
opponent.)

I will be honest and say that in many times this may not be the best way to
punish rising attacks. But this is an important method to remember
nevertheless. Trying to punish rising attacks is usually a high-risk,
high-reward game. This method is no exception. Having a good knowledge of
when and how to dodge rising attacks will tilt the risk-reward factor in
your favor, no doubt.


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Quick reminder about dodging
=================================
In VF4 you dodge by tapping up or down and returning it to neutral (Unlike
Tekken4, if you tap and hold down your stick, you will crouch instead of
dodging.) If you time your dodge correctly to dodge your opponent's attack,
your character will make an audible grunt to let you know that you timed
your dodge just right.

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Down positions
=================================
There are basically four ways your the opponent is positioned after being
knocked down without a tech roll/quick rise.

face up, head away from you. (da most common situation)
face up, head toward you
face down, head away from you
face down, head toward you

Of course, there are situations when the opponent falls down in an angle
from you, not in a straight line. More on that later.


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Dodging Akira's Rising Attacks
================================
This is the easiest part. Because all his normal rising
attacks are semi-circular, it means that you can always dodge his rising
attacks as long as you get timing and direction right. To dodge his
rising attacks from his face up, head-away position (the most common
position), DODGE TOWARD HIS LEAD LEG.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE. HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO KNOW WHICH IS HIS "LEAD LEG"
WHEN HE IS DOWN?

Now this is an interesting part. Akira, and everyone else
for that matter, "bends" his lead leg more when they are down. This is
same for both face up and face down positions. So for the practice, just
knock Akira face up, see which of his knees are sticking up high. (Since
the lead leg is bent, the easiest way to tell is to see which knee sticks
up high.) Then dodge toward the "bent knee"'s direction. The same idea
applies when he goes face down, head toward you. You just watch which of
his legs are bent more.

Other knockdown positions
-----------------------------
Here are the list of the things to do when you have your opp Akira in
other knockdown positions:
Face down, head toward you : Dodge toward the lead leg
Face up, head toward (generally, the second most common case):
                       Dodge toward the opposite direction of the
                       lead leg
Face down, head away : Ditto


Easy enough huh?


===============================
For all other characters
===============================
This becomes much more tricky. Unlike Akira, other characters have circular
rising attacks. You may just well forget about dodging circular rising
attacks. But all hope is not lost. I will start to go over each specific
situation.

Face up, head away (most common case):
----------------------------------------
The rising attacks are full-circular. Not recommended to try dodging

Face up, head toward:
---------------------------------------
Mid rising attacks are semi circular. Low rising attacks are full circular.
To dodge mid rising attacks from this position, dodge to the OPPOSITE
direction of the opponent's lead leg. This is worth trying as, for reasons
unknown, the human players are more likely to perform mid rising attacks
from this position than low rising attacks. (Trust me)

If you watch out, you will be amazed in how many situation the opponent
falls down in this manner. This happens after many throws and spinning/
half spinning attacks.

Face down, head toward:
---------------------------------------
The rising attacks are full-circular. Not recommended to try dodging

Face down, head away:
---------------------------------------
Mid rising attacks are semi circular. Dodge to the opposite direction of the
opp's lead leg.

Rising attacks from rolling
---------------------------------------
In general, the same idea applies to the rising attacks after rolling. (Just
remember the lead leg and the position.) But there are exceptions. Here
let me let mushen (from virtuaproject.com messageboard) speak.

<begin quote>

One more thing to add to you faq.

Usually when the opponent is "Face down, head toward" the mid attacks are
full-circular if the opponent "stays in place" or "if he/she rolls
backward".
However, if the opponent is "Face down, head toward" and ROLLS TO THE SIDE
and does a mid rising attack, the opponent's mid rising attack will be
semi-circular.

But in this special case, you will have to dodge TOWARD his/her LEADING leg
(similar to how you would regularly do dodging rising attacks for AKIRA,
minus his special cases) instead of the dodging toward opposite the leading
leg.

Try it and see what I mean.

-Frank

<end quote>

=====================================================
When the opponent goes down in an angle
=====================================================
This usally happens after certain throws (such as Pai's P+G throw, Jeff's
b,f,f+P+G throw etc)
This is a tricky situation for both attacker and defender, but it's worth a
try to dodge rising attacks from this position. Why? Because mid rising
attacks, again, often become semi circular.

In theory, what you need to do in this situation is this:
1. Look at the opponent's lead leg.
2. Determine which direction the lead leg will be after he gets up
3. Act accordingly

This sounds complicated, especially the item #2. But this is not as bad as
it sounds. First thing you need to do is to know which moves of your
character puts your opponent in an angle. And what happens in those
situations. I will cover some common cases.

Jeffry
-------------
1. His f+P+G throw (opponent face up)
If the opponent's lead leg is his left leg, then his lead leg
will end up toward HIS head's direction after he get gets up. If his lead
leg is his right leg, the opposite is true.

Okay I know this sounds confusing. To put this in other, simpler words, to
dodge mid rising attacks after Jeff's f+P+G throw, if the opp's left knee
is up, dodge toward his head. If his right knee is up, dodge toward his
legs.

2. His b,f,f+P+G throw (opponent face down)
Rising attacks are circular (Except of course Akira)

Kage
-------------
1. d/f+P+G throw
Even though the opponent is in an angle, this is pretty much like face up,
head toward situation. You can dodge mid rising attack just like in that
situation

Pai
-------------
1. P+G and FC, f+P+G throw
Rising attacks are circular for non Akira characters. Against Akira, to
dodge mid rising attacks, if the opp's left knee is up, dodge toward his
head. If his right knee is up, dodge toward his legs.

Akira
-----------
1. d/f+P+G throw
Rising attacks are circular for non Akira characters.
Rising attacks are circular for non Akira characters. Against Akira, to
dodge mid rising attacks, if the opp's left knee is up, dodge toward his
head. If his right knee is up, dodge toward his legs.

2. b,f+P+K (if the opp doesn't tech roll)
Mid rising attacks are non circular. To dodge mid rising attacks, if the
opp's left knee is up, dodge toward his head. If his right knee is up,
dodge toward his legs.

Sarah
----------
1. Side throw
Mid rising attacks are non circular. To dodge mid rising attacks, if the
opp's right knee is bent, dodge toward his head. If his left knee is bent,
dodge toward his legs.

I am sure that I left many stuff out. I encourage you to experiment and find
set ups for your own characters.


===========================================
In an angle, Part Deux
===========================================
Actually, there are ways to artificially eliminate the headache. Let me
illustrate through an example.

Say you do Jeffry's frontal backbreaker (b,f,f+P+G) If you just stay
there and wait for rising attacks, they are circular. But if you move
toward your victim's leg before the rising kick starts, then you
just created a face down, head away situation. This means that you can
dodge mid rising attacks from this position.

When you see your opponent circling around your fallen body, your
instinct is to hit him/her with a rising attack. So moving around
your opponent has an added psychological benefit of encouraging your
opponent to perform a rising attack--which you can hopefully dodge.

Again, I encourage you to experiment and find set ups for your
own character.


===========================================
And lastly, "special" rising attacks
===========================================
Many characters have "special" rising attacks that look different from your
run-of-the-mill rising kicks. These include Bryant's handspring from face
up, head toward position, and Jeffry's head butt from face down, head
toward position.

These attacks usually have special properties, such as being not reversible,
guarranted knock down, or in case of the Bryant hand spring, just plain
sucking :) However, they all tend to be linear compared to normal rising
attacks. So if you notice your opp using these attacks, dodge and punish
them.

=========================================
Bonus Note: Reversing mid rising attacks
=========================================
Beside Aoi, there are several characters who can reverse mid kicks: They
are Akira, Pai, Wolf and (in Jumonji stance only) Kage. While Aoi can
parry all the circular rising kicks, other characters can only reverse
half-circular rising kicks.

But see, this guide so far told you how to identify mid rising kicks
that are half circular. So with the above characters, instead of dodging,
reversing rising kicks also becomes an option. If you pull this off
this can be a serious blow against your opponent's moral.
(Especially if you are using Wolf or Kage.)


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Tips for experimenting
=========================================
If you own PS2, you can go to the training mode (free training mode)
and set up your practice dummy to perform certain rising attacks after
being knocked down. Use this mode to experiment and find set up for your
own character.

=========================================
Acknowledgement
=========================================
I would like to thank "mushen" from virtua project for correcting the
special cases about Akira, and giving input on the "rising attacks from
rolling."