VF5FS Vanessa Introduction

Author ： acebreaker
Translator ： Modelah
Original Post: http://virtuafighter.com/threads/an-introduction-to-fs-vanessa.19221/

What kind of character is Vanessa?(top)

Vanessa has two different styles; Defensive Style (DS) and Offensive Style (OS). During fights she can switch between DS and OS. Movement and attacks are considerably different in each style, thus effectively requiring you to have knowledge of two characters' movesets. Therefore, it will take a little more time to familiarize yourself with Vanessa compared to other characters; but she is a character well worth the effort.

In addition, as you can switch styles according to how your opponent plays, there aren't really any matchups that leave Vanessa disadvantaged. You have two characters' worth of strategy to employ, and you'll be able to dominate when playing opponents unfamiliar with Vanessa.

The difference between other characters "stances" and Vanessa's "styles"(top)

Other characters enter their stances from a neutral fighting stance, or after executing a certain move. Moves performed from stance will revert them back to neutral or shift to another stance; either way, eventually they will always end up back in neutral. In this regard Vanessa doesn't have a neutral stance at all, she will always fight in either DS or OS.

You cannot switch between DS and OS except with three certain moves, or by manual switching. Incidentally, Vanessa will always start a round in DS.

Defensive Style(top)

DS consists mainly of defensive moves. Though the most useful moves are slow, single-shot blows, this style also has sabaki-attacks that can hit while deflecting an opponent's strikes. There are many moves that can be utilized when at disadvantage, and you'll also find the fastest-executing attack of the entire cast here. In VF's system, when other characters are at a large frame disadvantage they will find themselves in nitaku between a throw or strike, but in DS Vanessa can quite easily interrupt nitaku attempts and turn the tables on her opponents.

Though all characters have one, Vanessa's middle kick is especially good, and she also has a great variety of circular attacks. Add to this damaging throws in all three directions, together with crouch throws, and all this makes Vanessa particularly good at dealing with fuzzy guard, a strong defensive technique that all characters can use.

In addition, she has the 'Intercept Position' (IP aka 'the Inoki') as a special stance. As the stance is extremely low to the ground and has a very good low hit-throw from normal hit, it is very effective against opponents not familiar with it. It is possible to enter the stance from two DS moves, and also after being knocked down; you can also enter stance similar to how you perform an 'ukemi' recovery. This system of ukemi recovering into stance is unique to Vanessa and not found in any other character. Basically IP is only used in DS but you can also ukemi-recover into stance from OS.

The drawback of DS is that it doesn't have the VF cornerstone of offense; a single-command, 14f elbow class attack. It's also difficult to stop low punches, a move often used by players to abare when at small advantage. It's very difficult to to mount a reliable offense without a reasonably large frame advantage, so DS isn't very effective as an offensive tool.

Another weakness is its poor ability to punish. This comes from a lack of the elbow-class move mentioned above, and there isn't a single move faster than 16f that can knock down a standing/crouching opponent on normal hit. This means that you can't use a knock-down-and-pressure approach so you won't be able to mount a steady offense. With moves that don't knock down on hit you really have to follow how your opponent moves, and even when you have advantage you'll find you can get hurt by misreading quite often. Another big minus is that the only launcher on normal hit is a 17f high. It can not be said not only they can not float when you guard a large low-circular total chance, return is greater.

Offensive Style(top)

OS consists mainly of offensive moves. In DS there were many moves that could be utilized when at disadvantage, and in exchange for those moves there are now a variety of elbow-class attacks available in OS. With fast launchers as punishment tools, a low risk special high half-circular that can get you a lot of damage off a counter hit, a so-so but unescapable catch throw on counterhit OS is significantly different to DS. Like DS, OS also has its own unique stances.

Known as Intruder Step (IS), this stance allows you to press forward during certain moves. Advancing forward or performing one of three moves are the only ways to get out of this stance but you have strong nitaku options between an inescapable catch throw, or powerful normal hit mid launcher that is also safe on guard.

Another 'stance' so to speak is the Mount Position (mount), entered from a successful catch throw. Once in the mount you have a chance for a santaku guessing game, and depending on certain conditions it's possible to do damage equal to or greater than the throw command if you guess correctly. If santaku doesn't go in your favor you'll end up sparated from your opponent and reset in a roughly 50/50 situation.

The drawback of OS is that because it lacks the defensive moves found in DS, you'll be subject to the same nitaku setups as the rest of the cast. OS also doesn't have the low throws found in DS, making it hard to attack players who are good at fuzzy guarding. It doesn't have a middle kick to counterhit backdashers either, so even though it's called Offensive Style there are some instances that make it difficult to do so.

Weaknesses found in both styles(top)

A weakness both styles share is the unusually high punishment Vanessa takes. Every fighting game has specific combos to used against heavier characters and that corresponds to Vanessa in VF as well. Against other characters combos can land under certain conditions but against Vanessa those conditions seem to have been relaxed. As a result she can be subject to high-damage combos, and quite often moves not usually used to start combos will work as combo starters against Vanessa.

Her weak low attacks are another disadvantage. Among the two styles, the only low attack that gives advantage on normal hit is a jumping attack and a back turned attack from OS. Since there are no moves in OS that will put you in a back turned state, it's extremely rare to see let alone use the back turned low attack. In addition, there are no low attacks that knock down on normal hit except for a jumping attack in DS. Therefore, instead of low attacks you'll have to mainly rely on mids and throws to break down your opponents.

So from this we know that even with high attack potential Vanessa can be hard to use, her low defensive capabilities and tendency to eat a lot of damage are her main weaknesses. Compared to other fighting game characters she's like Akuma, Milia (of Guilty Gear), Souther of Fist of the North Star and Craig Marduk (of Tekken).