VF5FS Sarah Strategy

[FOREWORD: If there is any terminology within this strategy section that you may not understand, check the System Wiki or the VFDC Glossary.]

Introduction(top)

In Final Showdown, the best single word to describe Sarah Bryant is 'bully'. Sarah is an offensive-focused powerhouse; if left unchecked, she can use endless attacks and mix-ups to intimidate her opponent into making mistakes, for free counter-hits and knockdowns. Unfortunately, also similar to bullies, her defensive abilities are sorely lacking, if not outright non-existent, outside of the universal VF system fundamentals.

In short, success with Sarah in FS involves focusing on staying as much on the offensive as often as possible. In another way of putting it, your goal is to attack non-stop until your opponent forces you to stop; in which case, you would either: 1) play Morally, until you find another opportunity to resume attacking again, or 2) take a calculated risk and use Reverse Nitaku to punish habitual actions observed of your opponent. Sarah also has great kicking attacks that are good for spacing and footsies.

If you are the aggressive-type player who prefers Abare and fast-paced spacing, rather than playing defensive and waiting for the opportunity to strike, then Sarah Bryant is the character for you in Final Showdown.

She favors a more highly-aggressive style of play, and while she can play a more Moral style when necessary, a largely moral-style Sarah will be sacrificing damage potential. Playing too defensively with her leaves her open to free mix-ups and eating throws more than any other character in the game, due to a lack of useful Sabakis/Reversals/high, mid, or low-crushes/etc (outside of very specific and risky situations).

Players interested in learning Sarah in Final Showdown are heavily advised to first seek to gain a thorough understanding of the universal VF fundamentals. She is a somewhat technical character that often relies on skills rooted in a very solid foundation to win. Many potential Sarah players have tried and eventually switched characters because they found her too complex. To those that are up to the challenge, getting wins with her can be one of the most rewarding experiences the game has to offer.

Nitaku(top)

A short definition of Nitaku (二択, "two-choice", i.e. "a 50/50"), is forcing a 50/50 mix-up situation on your opponent by using a mid attack or throw when in heavy (+6 to +9 for Final Showdown) frame advantage. This is the most important concept to learn in the entire Virtua Fighter series. Until you figure out how this concept works, you will ALWAYS suck at every VF ever made. Yes. Its THAT important.

• Nitaku Example #1: You hit a crouching opponent with an elbow/ (+6 advantage). Your next action is either elbow or throw.
• Nitaku Example #2: You are fighting against a Sarah player. You block the opponent Sarah's (+6 advantage). Your next action is either launcher(18f startup or less) or throw.

VF5FS' Sarah's nitaku game is the absolute core of her game, even more so than most other characters in FS, and its even more important than taking advantage of Flamingo stance. In short: while Flamingo stance mix-ups makes Sarah scary, a strong nitaku game is what truly makes Sarah competitive; this is especially true for high-level play.

So, why is understanding nitaku 'so important' for learning Sarah? There are several reasons:

• Damage: Nitaku and Oki/Ukemizeme are the two primary areas where Sarah achieves competitive damage in matches. It is also where Sarah can use the majority of her higher damaging combos. Flamingo stance shenanigans and Counter Hit KP are notable exceptions, but are not as consistent or reliable because they are easier to escape.

• Opponent Conditioning: Being primarily a strike - based character, Sarah is uniquely weak to the 'Guard' button. This fact is made worse by her relatively weak lows, and a majority of Sarah's less risky attacks being Highs. She no longer has a true guard break, and her hit throws are slow (though still useful). For example, is someone blocking like a statue versus all of your 's, your 's, and your FL 's with standing guard? Annoying, huh? How will you make him/her want to stop? Well, one way is to force them to choose between eating a 60-pt damage (~30%) throw or getting hit with a counter hit launcher. Manipulating your opponents defensive habits is key for Sarah players to win against high-level players.

• Staying Aggressive: Because of her extremely poor defensive options, Sarah simply cannot afford to be forced to block too many times. Also, unlike characters like her big brother Jacky, Sarah does not have a large selection of long, delayable strings to keep opponents from pressing buttons (though she certainly has some). Fortunately, she has decent ranged attacks for spacing and footsies, though she will often lose the spacing war to characters with great ranged tools, like Shun, Pai, and Jacky.

So what are some good attacks and throws to use for nitaku? Lets have a look:

Throws. Her throws are pretty average, but useful. You only need these three.

1. Neutral throw/ is a given; it is a weak (25 damage) throw that pushes your opponent backwards and encourages an optional ground tech. If your
2. Full Moon Heel Rush/ causes a hard knockdown right next to Sarah, while switching positions. If your opponent's back is near a wall, this throw turns into a damaging wall throw.
3. Dancing Shadow/; 60-pt damage throw. Can turn into a ~90-pt damage combo, if your opponent is near a wall. is also a good throw to replace Dancing Shadow with.

Mid-attacks. She has a variety of useful choices.

1. Sarah's Elbow/ is one of the best mid attacks in the game, hands down. It's her safest mid-attack option, as it is -5 on-block (which means you can use to fuzzy guard afterwards), and is safe if evaded. It's great for hitting opponents who like to crouch alot, which is rewarded with +6 frame advantage, and thus, a free nitaku guess. This is great for conditioning your opponent to crouch less and stand up more. It also has alot of useful (though less rewarding) follow-ups, including , , and the classic Double Joint Butt/. The major weakness of in a Nitaku setup is its short range; if you use this too much, your opponent can use backdash to make your elbow whiff, for a free launcher-punish. Using -->Throw is also a great tactic to beat players that tend to guard Sarah's elbow.
2. Switch Kick/ is an awesome mid. It staggers crouching opponent for a free combo, and if they block it, you are still at advantage (at least +4) in Flamingo stance, meaning you can still continue to press buttons to attack, if you want. It's main weakness is that it is evadable, which can lead to a very awkward and dangerous sideturned situation where Sarah is still stuck in Flamingo stance (and can't block).
3. Long Snap Side Chop/ is Sarah's equivalent Counter-Hit Launcher. Counter-hit launchers are great, because they are low-risk launchers that are safe on-block (-6). The trade-off is that it does not launch on Normal Hit (though you are still in +2 advantage). That's not a big deal though, since you often use launchers in general during situations where they will likely Counter-Hit anyway (unlike, say, during spacing/footsies/neutral game). This attack even crushes high attacks in specific situations.
4. Dragon Smash Cannon/. Sarah's quintessential launcher; high-risk/high-reward. It's a hard read that's extremely risky to use in nitaku setups, but it will counter-hit launch mashy-mashy, button-pressing, abare opponents into Sarah's most damaging combos.

Sarah also has other mid-attacks that are useful in nitaku situations as well; try them out and experiment for yourself!

Side Turned(top)

As mentioned before, while Final Showdown Sarah's offensive options are great, her defensive options are pretty crappy, since she does not have many (or any, really) sabakis/reversals/inashis/high,low, or mid crushes/etc. This leaves her particularly vulnerable to mid attacks; moreso than any other character in the game.

What does this mean? This means you will be blocking and evading mids alot more. And if you are evading successfully, you will find your opponent in sideturned situations pretty often. Also, using to sideturn characters with pesky reversals and sabakis that disrupt Sarah's kicking game (Aoi, Goh, Vanessa, Lion, Pai, Brad, Wolf, Akira, and Lei-Fei) will be very helpful, too...Use all of these sideturned-opponent opportunities to your advantage!

The great thing about Sarah sideturning her opponent is that it makes it even easier for her to mash buttons like she wants! As a reminder, there are two primary universal benefits for sideturning your opponent.

1. First, when Sarah's opponent is sideturned, it takes them 3 extra frames to even begin blocking (if they aren't already blocking, of course) or to begin evading. For example, if Sarah hits her opponent and ends up at +11 advantage (sideturned), an Elbow/ (14 frame startup) will hit your opponent, even if they attempt to block.
2. Second, any of Sarah's attacks will add extra frame advantage (both on-hit and on-block). The amount of frame advantage is determined by the normal hit damage amount of the attack:

• • From 0 to 15 damage: +2 advantage.
  • From 16 to 24 damage: +3 advantage.
  • 25+ damage : +6 advantage. For example, Dragon Smash Cannon/ is normally very punishable on-block (-15), but versus a sideturned opponent, it is safe on-block (-9).

Getting your opponent into sideturned position:

• Evade -- Sarah players will be using this alot!
• -- Very useful against characters with reversal attacks.

You can also try and use Offensive Move ( or ) to force a sideturned situation against players that love to block all the time!

Strategies vs. a sideturned opponent:

• Using the extremely fast is great, safe way to continue sideturned pressure (using >>>...), to set up attacks that allow you to get into Flamingo stance (such as or ), or to set up a mix-up opportunity for damage (and okizeme). On top of that, if it is evaded, you are (usually) still at advantage (~+2), which means pressing again or at that point is a good option, as well.
• is also a good alternative to , as its just as fast, but it's also half-circular, which can counter-hit an opponent trying to use evade out of sideturned status. It has good optional followups, with and . --> is also a good mix-up option.
• is the attack that likely provides the biggest reward for a correct read against a sideturned opponent. If Sarah counter-hits her opponent with this move, it causes a side crumple animation, which can lead to an insane ~90-damage combo from midscreen. A very safe and crouch-dash-fuzzyable -2 on-block (vs sideturned). The biggest weaknesses of this move vs. sideturned, is that it offers a weak normal hit reward (+2), and even worse, it can be evaded in most cases. But Sarah has the option of finishing the string to beat out any attacks her opponent may try to do after evading (though its pretty risky). Also, as a gimmick tactic, you can use to get into Flamingo stance for a free mixup against opponents who are overly defensive.
• If you can land a on a sideturned opponent, you will get a good frame-advantage reward, whether it's blocked or hits. On counter-hit (+13, vs sideturned), you get a free FL (+7, vs sideturned) or FL into Flamingo (+8, vs sideturned). If Sarah's opponent is crouching, will cause her opponent to stagger for a free FL combo.
• is the safest mid to use, and benefits from the extra sideturned frame advantage.
• and are great options to beat evade, and both offer potentially great rewards ( is a great follow-up for good damage, and on counter-hit leads to Sarah's near highest damaging midscreen combos).
• is great for ensuring your opponent gets hit if they try to evade; espescially if they are boxed in near a wall or the ring-edge for a potential ring-out. On block, it is neutral frame advantage (+0, vs. sideturned), which means you've essentially reset the situation, and can be used against players that press non-crouching buttons after blocking the spin kick. In some cases, this move will backturn your opponent on-hit.
• vs sideturned opponents is great, as it is crouch dash fuzzy-guardable () on-block, and offers decent frame advantage reward on normal hit. On counter-hit, this launches for a free combo.
• is a good mid for sideturned opponents, as you retain frame advantage both on-hit and on-block.

That's alot of options to choose from! Head to dojo mode and try them all out for yourself to see which ones you like best!

Combos(top)

Any additional notes about combos (e.g. favouring one over another due to ring position)
Discuss techniques that can be used for 1 frame delays

Wakeup Strategies(top)

Much like the Nitaku situation, Wakeup Strategies are one of the most important aspects to learn when playing Sarah Bryant in Final Showdown.

Sarah excels in punishing wakeup, particularly ukemis(tech rolls, when you hit the ground after a knockdown) and wakeup kicks; at those times, she can be thought of as VF5FS' closest equivalent of a 'vortex' character (like SF4's Akuma or Guilty Gear's Millia Rage). Successfully reading and punishing wakeup patterns subjects your opponent to massive damage and forcing them into yet another knockdown.

Okizeme(top)

Baiting and punishing whiffed rising attacks
Guaranteed punishment after blocking certain rising attacks

Ukemizeme(top)

Ideal attacks to pressure with
Option selects between attack or down attack
Meaties

Ring Position(top)

Wall Pressure(top)

How to induce, and follow-up, wall staggers
How to induce, and follow-up, wall side stuns

Ring Out(top)

Ideal ways to ring out over half fences
Ideal combos that carry good distance (for ring out)

Other(top)

Stances:

In Final Showdown, Sarah has a total of 6 stances:

Normal (the bouncy stance you see her in at round start)
Back-Turned
Flamingo
Step
Forward Slide
Backward Slide

Each stance has its own special strength, but in reality, it is only necessary to learn and use Normal and Flamingo stances in order to play as Sarah with proficiency. Step, Forward Slide, and Backward Slide, while useful if you have specific setups in mind, are largely novelty stances that often carry too much risk to be used any more than sparingly.

To any new Sarah players: simplify your workload and focus your attention exclusively on Normal stance before beginning to learn Flamingo. Sarah's Normal stance, while not as powerful as most characters' default stance, contains every tool that you will need to win your matches without using any other stance. Use this as your foundation in learning Sarah, and apply Flamingo and other stances as a supportive supplement to Normal stance.

Back-Turned stance is a stance Sarah players can do without; however, the stance has decent Mid/Low attack mix-ups with moderate-damage reward for a correct guess. However, in exchange, you give up the option to block, evade, or fuzzy guard, leaving her with no real defensive options, other than backdash('forward' dash, in this case).

Flamingo stance is the iconic technique that defines Sarah Bryant in FS. It is a threatening stance that grants access to Sarah's fastest attacks and scariest mix-ups. Combined with the fact that she has several Normal stance attacks that automatically places her into Flamingo stance from positive frame advantage, Flamingo stance functions primarily as a bait to provoke opponents into attacking, which will force them to eat a an attack for Counter Hit. This consistent threat effectively makes a large amount of your opponent's attacks completely useless, which discourages aggressive opponents from attacking and conditions them to defend against their will.

Flamingo stance has a variety of strings, as well as attacks that are positive on-block for offensive pressure or effectively baiting abare attacks for Counter Hit combo damage. It is also a decent mix-up tool against defensive opponents and a scary Oki/Ukemizeme tool. However, all of these significant advantages come at a heavy cost: she cannot block at all in Flamingo stance, nor can she use a traditional evade. Her mobility is very limited and binary, and her maximum combo damage is also noticeably less, when compared to her Normal stance launchers. However, by far her greatest weakness within Flamingo stance is that it is impossible for her to have nitaku setup in this state (due to the removal of FL P+G). The best she can hope for in Flamingo (outside of guaranteed damage) is a santaku setup, thus giving your opponent more ways to get away from or punish Flamingo without taking any damage. In particular, she loses the 'throw' option, which was great at beating both (standing) guard and evade options of her opponent simultaneously; this means (in this case) that the opponent's evade option is much stronger than normal, especially if they use Evade Crouch-Dash Cancel (ECD). While there are ways to beat evade while in Flamingo stance, its best to stick with using Normal stance, if your opponent tends to evade your Flamingo stance attacks.

Flamingo stance will absolutely wreck less-experienced players and players unfamiliar with the matchup, but a greater focus on using Normal stance is recommended when fighting more experienced players.

Step stance is a stance technique only available while in Flamingo stance. This stance is very much a novelty, and is not recommended to be used, as it comes with great inherent risk (HUGE startup) for often-questionable reward. That being said, this stance has its use primarily as a mix-up tool for opponents who have become extremely defensive against Flamingo stance; especially if they are noticeably reliant on standing block. If you actually get away with landing an attack from Step stance on a live opponent, that can be an especially effective psychological deterrent to condition your opponent to stop blocking or evading against Flamingo stance.

Forward and Backward Slide are also novelty stances that should almost never be used in actual combat. While they are not useless, their inherent risk (again, HUGE start-up, as well as limited mobility and no blocking) are far too great to justify any reward they might give. That being said, Forward Slide is a tool used for continuous pressure versus opponents who rely too much on standing guard. Tools of pressure from this stance include FS PP strings into another FS stance, FS P+K for sideturned on-hit or push back on-block, or a sneaky FS 2K for free knockdown and immediate follow-up okizeme. The biggest con of this stance is that it's completely defeated by 2P, which is easy to get hit by, due to FS stance's huge startup time.

By going into Forward Slide from one of a variety of Normal stance strings (or getting into it by blending it in with dashing), you are effectively attempting to bait your opponent into nervously pressing a quick elbow or high punch to get you off of them. If they take this bait (and you successfully read it), you can cancel the FS stance animation directly into Backward Slide stance for a free sabaki. The sabaki will give you enough frame advantage to land a free BS P+K or BS K for some of Sarah's highest midscreen combo damage available. If you do not land the sabaki, you can still attempt either of those attacks, use BS K+G (a full-circular mid) to beat evades or oncoming attacks, or (if you are feeling lucky) go for a CH BS P (the infamous attack known as Bil Jee), which will lead into a combo for over 100+ midscreen damage. However, you will not land any of these in a match, as not only are the attacks slow to use, but BS stance is ONLY available from FS stance, thus inheriting all of that stances weaknesses as well.



Anything else is unique about the character?