Xenozip.'s IaMP Blog

Mizuumi

2010-10-24T00:30:00.003-05:00

Just as a general FYI, the Mizuumi hub has gotten an overhaul and is currently in great shape.

My entire experience with IaMP, and lately other games, has been based around my years spent with Mizuumi. I'm glad to see it changing, improving, and expanding. I highly recommend checking it out of if you're into netplay and/or poverty, and certainly for IaMP.

Situational

2009-08-13T14:40:00.007-05:00

The answer to every IaMP related question is: "Depends."

The reason is because there are quite a lot of situational variables to take into consideration for any given scenario, so it's impossible for any given answer to be right all the time. It's just one of those qualities of IaMP that is both rather frustrating and yet can also be endearing in retrospect.

For example, in most fighting games you could say: "If the opponent jumps at you, do c.HP or DP as an anti-air." and it would apply in almost all situations where the opponent jumps at you. It's a good general rule of thumb. Sometimes this even leads to players not jumping at all unless it's after a knockdown, because there's never a right time to jump except on okizeme.

But in IaMP you can't say that you should always anti-air the same way in every situation, it depends on many different things. Lots of things can effect your method of anti-air:
- If the opponent has no bullets in front of him and has used up both airdashes, either a bullet or melee anti-air works fine.
- If the opponent has bullets in front of him and no airdashes you can anti-air with bullets.
- If the opponent has both airdashes saved up and no bullets in front of them you can use a melee anti-air at the right distance.
- If the opponent has both airdashes saved up and bullets in front of them you your options are to use bullets to force them to use their airdash and negate their bullets, or to attempt to dash under them to graze their bullets and force them to airdash toward you.

You would also think that you should always go for a tech-trap setup in order to capitalize against a bad air tech. Or to never air tech against a good tech-trap setup. But even these have conditions. You might not want to go for the tech-trap setup if it would cost too much spirit, self draining you as a result, especially if you know your opponent respects the risk of air teching and you assume that the opponent will not tech. Some characters would also shy away from trying to tech-trap Youmu, Yukari, and Remilia due to those character's unique properties. Likewise, you may choose to air tech and risk taking extra damage in order to deny your opponent bomb stocks, because you won't be landing on the ground so you can prevent them from regaining any bombs they used. You also avoid having to deal with a meaty okizeme rushdown that would put you back into the corner.

I myself am guilty of getting hit by the same thing in the same situation repeatedly, without realizing it or fixing it. Though in my defense I think I'm like most players -- I need time to think about it before I can adjust my game. So don't worry, if you find yourself getting repeatedly lamed by something or other, you're not alone.

If you find yourself beating your head against the proverbial brick wall, you may want to take a moment to consider what all your options are and if you've fully explored each one. What do you think would be a good word to describe; trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results?

And if you do find an answer, and then that same answer fails the next time, just remember that situations can change frequently in IaMP.

- Bellreisa says: "There's never an always in IaMP."

The Brick Wall

2009-05-21T11:57:00.019-05:00

Being that this blog was meant as a personal journal, I feel I should probably make a personal post about the game. The blog is old enough now, I think.

I've likened the learning curve in IaMP to that of a brick wall for years now. I've continued to feel that way even to this day. To elaborate: each brick represents a bad habit or unlearned "function" that you'll beat your head against until you break it. These "bad" habits may come to us naturally/intuitively or be formed from other games. And these "functions" are usually the things that apply to IaMP's game-flow that we may not automatically consider or recognize, but they tend to bite us on the ass.

Simple things like: Attacking first doesn't always win, height superiority has it's advantages and disadvantages, not beating bullets with melee or visa versa, moving backwards can be stronger than moving forwards, using cover for advantage, and how the mixup and pressure games actually work. They sound simple, but if you don't "get it" it can be a real chore to learn it during a round or even multiple sets of games.

Some bricks are harder to break than others. And, all that head-banging is bound to cause some headaches. Indeed, rage and frustration is really rampant in the IaMP scene once you get to a certain skill level and continue to move upwards. This is generally caused by getting repeatedly hurt by something, realizing that something is wrong, and not understanding/recognizing what's wrong or how to correct it. That's when the head-banging begins.

IMO, you must first isolate a single brick among the wall of other bricks and then forcibly break it by grinding it out. If you're not careful and attempt to break too many foundation bricks at once then the whole wall might come crashing down on you. I know it sounds like a silly analogy, but it's actually very real and has happened to others (we've witnessed it first-hand numerous times). If you allow yourself to get too frustrated while banging your head against the whole wall all at once it'll probably end up being much too overwhelming. You'll crack before any brick even starts to. You can't expect to pick it up and be automatically good at it or level up very rapidly. All you can really hope to do is be patient and observant.

The best players in the IRC channel have been around for years, and they were trash at the game when they first started (we have recorded evidence of this). It took a long long time to get good, and the same applies to everyone else.

Know what? I think that's a good thing. A very good thing. If you consider the opposite, it'd be quite a great tragedy to have some newb pick up a game and then suddenly be playing as well as the top 3 players outside of Japan. That would suggest the game has very little to offer in terms of skill development and depth. But I say IaMP holds a vast amount of areas that we can develop and is indeed quite deep. And the same should hold true for any good game, I think.

Unfortunately though, the scene tends to be cruel to newcomers at times. When first starting out; there can seem like such an enormous gap between yourself and the best players around. Which can be even more menacing if you happen to also pick the worst character in the game.

Indeed, this was my experience. I first started playing with Hong Meirin, the inarguably bottom tier character -- and my first real opponent was Bellreisa, one of the top 3 players outside of Japan who is probably very capable of doing well in tournaments in Japan. And that kind of noob hazing is actually a bit common in the scene, I wasn't the first or the last to get demolished on a debut.

Fortunately, I'm the type that gets hungry to level up after a beating. Sure, I freaked out then, but my rage only fueled my interest and desire to learn. I thought to myself, if I could receive that much of a beating with my years of fighting game experience under my belt; then it stands to reason that the game must have a lot to learn in it, and I wanted to learn it, even if that meant more beatings.

Though, I can safely say that at the time I was in great danger of quitting because I was very stubbornly attached to Hong Meirin. Had I actually stuck with her exclusively, I think I can safely say I'd have quit long ago. It's not necessarily the character's fault or the game's fault per se. Actually, one of the fundamental things that I believe in regards to IaMP is experiencing a variety of characters. Had I stuck to just her, I probably wouldn't have learned anything. Be it due to a very narrow perspective of the game, or just due to my overall incompatibility with the character itself. It wasn't until I really tried experiencing other characters that I was able to learn more about the game, and able to realize that I actually like other characters more and at the same time realize I didn't actually like Hong Meirin at all. And that's when the brick breaking process actually really began for me.

Some of us in the scene have also noticed other "narrow perspectives" and some pattern habits that can be associated with other characters. A common one that often arises is the trends we see prevalent among the Youmu players, such as reliance on naked air attacks and tactless brute force. Further leading me to believe that character variety is a window out of this form of tunnel vision.

To put things in a little perspective, let us examine this Alice flowchart made by Bellreisa (click thumbnail for larger view). This flowchart isn't a joke, like the SF4 Ken flowcharts you see floating around the 'net. No, this is actually very much what goes on in the mind of Bellreisa while he's playing Alice, and probably other Alice players like TMN and such. The thing is, that at each junction, you need to know what all the optimal available options are to you. If you don't, guess what, that's a brick that's going to hit you when you ram face first into it. In order to fill out that chart in your head and put it all into muscle memory, that's a lot of bricks you gotta run into and break along the way before you feel competent and in control of each situation.

Fortunately not every character is as complicated as Alice. It's possible that she is the most technical and complicated character in the game. But, it should give you some idea of what you'd be looking to accomplish if you were to pick up the game years after it's initial release, main Alice, and stick with Alice exclusively while playing against players with years more of experience. It's going to be a long and windy road. It's only slightly less windy and less full of potholes if you pick another character, and IMO you can make the ride smoother by choosing to learn with multiple characters rather than maining just one character exclusively.

- Bellreisa says: "I'm busy".

Commentated Matches

2009-05-16T07:21:00.007-05:00

Bellreisa has been commentating match videos for the Japanese tournament series called "Bullet Action" and putting them on youtube. You can see the playlists for the videos here:

- Bullet Action 3 w/Commentary
- Bullet Action the 5th Commentary

I strongly recommend watching these videos regardless of your interest level with the game. It's not only entertaining, but they can also help give some insight into what's actually happening during a match.

Bellreisa mentions when a player has done something they shouldn't have, or missed an opportunity to do something they should have. Not only that, he also mentions why the players sometimes intentionally don't do certain things. I feel it can be rather educating to those who would otherwise overlook the things that he mentions.

Hearing his commentary makes me wish all tournament matches were commentated on in a similar fashion. It also makes me realize parts of why the Japanese regularly do match commentary. Which also makes me sad that I can't understand Japanese commentary.

At any rate, props to Bellreisa for doing so. I feel it was a good thing for him to do, and I feel he did a great job.

- Bellreisa says: "Bad bomb!".

Drip drip

2008-05-23T03:15:00.004-05:00

Hehe, don't ask.

- Copyright © Xenozip.

Baiting and Provoking

2008-05-09T13:50:00.013-05:00

In all Fighters there's many ways to set up traps using the archetypical hook-line-sinker to bait the opponent into a trap or trick. Due to the movement system in IaMP there tends to be instances that are somewhat more common due to seemingly intuitive reactions for many situations. A particularly common occurrence among newer players is to pass through bullets by forward dashing and then highjumping into an airborne opponent, such as in the above image. The route of this movement is outlined with the yellow arrow. Perhaps because using D6 then pushing 9 will transition you from a dash into a highjump very seamlessly, we sometimes do this without thinking.

-
However, the bait was Yukari herself, floating around in the air where she appears vulnerable. The trap occurs once Yukari air dash cancels her bullets and uses height, range, and speed to her advantage. The result of this exchange is often like what you see in the above image, with Yukari at a height and range advantage. Here, Yukari is free to flop Youmu right in the face, causing a counterhit ground bounce which leads to a massively damaging combo. The speed advantage Yukari has comes from the fact that she is able to attack immediately after the airdash startup ends, whereas Youmu can't attack until first passing through all the bullets, which doesn't happen until some time after Yukari has already started to attack.

Though, this certainly isn't limited to just Yukari, many characters have bullets that they can cancel in the air very quickly, such as; Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, and Patchouli.

It's also all too tempting to try and do a graze attack in a lot of situations. But graze attacks are often laggy, either on startup or recovery. Therefor, we can attempt to take advantage of this by provoking our opponent into doing it when we want them to like in the above image, then punishing it.

Since we have two airdashes, we can not only avoid these attacks but also punish them. The Sakuya player in the above image first used an air backdash to avoid Patchouli's D3B anti-air, then after the attack had whiffed Sakuya used the second airdash to kick Patchouli in the face, as seen above.

Not all baiting occurs in the air, though. I'm not really sure where the bad habit of jumping at your opponent comes from -- within ourselves -- but it's rather intrinsic to the Fighting game genre in general to try it, even when we know it will probably fail. In IaMP it's a bit easier to goad the opponent into doing such a thing, partly because anti-airs in IaMP aren't quite as consistent and guaranteed as they are in other games (like CvS2 lol), and also partly because of the way grazing works.

Firing off some bullets on the ground that recover quickly, then covering the nearby horizontal area with ground melee, allows us to set up yet another trap. Our opponent knows that we can cover the ground with some large attacks before they can move close enough to attack, so it can be rather enticing to try and jump over them and hit from above.

But this isn't an uncounterable action. As we see in the case of Yukari, we can jump back and attack from far away which takes advantage of range. We can HJ8 and attack from above which takes advantage of height, since HJ8 moves vertically higher and faster than an opponent's diagonal jump does. We can also anti-air with a ground normal provided we have a good one. And we can use a graze attack or special move with graze frames, such as Yukari's 623B.

The correct action the opponent should take is not to fall for these obvious traps in the first place. But rather, taking evasive actions and then setting up their own array of bullet cover is really ideal, as outlined in my Moving Backwards to Win post.

So what we end up with is a game of actions, counter actions, and countering counter-actions. Thus, nothing we do is really just free and simple, but rather we have to work for our rewards.

Reversals, Gaps, and D

2008-05-08T11:51:00.006-05:00

Reversals have been around the Fighting game genre for ages, but they often come with their own set of rules or quirks depending on the game. Generally, it's the act of performing a special/super move when getting up off the ground (after being knocked down), known as "wakeup" reversals.

First, in quite a few games when you perform a successful wakeup reversal the HUD will notify you with a "reversal" message, and this doesn't occur in IaMP at all, so in some cases it's hard to know if you did it right or not. Second, IaMP does indeed have it's own set of quirks regarding wakeup grazing, backwards reversals, and frame "Suki" which means frame "gap".

The 1F Suki;

In IaMP there's a special mechanic called Suki (or Gap) that refers to a situation where a bullet move connects 1F (one frame) after blockstun, hitstun, or wakeup invulnerability ends. The easiest and most common example of this would be to use a bullet on a knocked down opponent just as they get up, such as Patchouli's f.2B bubble move as seen above.

If you simply hold D and a direction in this situation you won't graze the bullet. You will either be hit by the bullet or block it, depending on if you were holding a backwards direction or not (1, 4, or 7). The reason is because holding D and a direction will not trigger an instantaneous dash/highjump movement, but instead there's 1F before the action begins. I like to refer to this as a "wakeup dash" attempt, which I refer to independently of a "Reversal-Graze" attempt.

For dashing and highjumping, IaMP treats a reversal input different from a held input. It is technically possible to graze a bullet on wakeup using the D button, however this requires you to push the D button -- or to push a direction while holding the D button -- on the exact one single frame before you're hit, known as a Just-Frame. Doing this would be considered a Reversal-Graze since it requires "reversal timing".

Directional Input Reversals and Cancels;

As outlined above, the D button requires a 1F timing to use as a reversal, however there is another input method to perform a graze and that's with a double-tap. Such as dashing with 6-6, or backdashing with 4-4, or highjumping with 2 then 8 or 1 then 7, and so on.

This method of input is a lot more lenient in regards to reversals, among other things. Using this method, IaMP will allow you to input the last part of the input a few frames earlier than is necessary and it will still perform the action on the first possible frame. In other words, unlike the D button, this method doesn't require 1F timing. Instead there's a larger window for when you can push the button that will result in success.

The rundown in laymen's terms: If you just hold D and a direction you will not graze, you'll get hit. If you tap D at the right time it requires a 1F (perfect timing) input. And if you double tap your directions there's a 5F input buffer window, resulting in a "reversal graze".

But this doesn't apply only to reversals, this also applies to bullet cancels. For example, using D to cancel Remilia's 236C into a highjump on the very first frame that the move is cancellable, you must once again input the D button on the exact right frame in order to cancel "as soon as possible". In other words, you can't input the D button any time before the move is cancelable, you can only input D on the same frame that it's cancelable or any time after that frame. But using your down-then-up input method, such as 2 then 7, the timing again becomes more lenient. It's actually 5F (five frame) input window, if you're wondering. That means if you tap down then push upwards four frames before the cancel window it will cancel into a highjump on the fifth frame (the first cancelable frame).

Indeed, upon inspecting many Japanese matches and examining their inputs with an input viewer, the majority of the best Japanese players (AKA. the "top players") use directional taps to cancel bullets and for Reversal-Graze, but they use the D button for pretty much every other kind of movement. In other words, they only use directional taps for HJC and Reversal-Graze, and D for everything else.

Backwards Reversals;

To demonstrate the concept of what happens when you get up facing the wrong way, let's look at a video:

High quality youtube version: Reversal Graze (1F Graze) from behind

As we see in the above video, another peculiar quirk occurs with reversals which I call "Backwards Reversals". This happens when you are knocked down and the opponent ends up on the other side of you or "behind" you. Thus, when getting up off the ground your character is facing the "wrong way", meaning away from the opponent.

In this situation a couple of peculiarities occur. First, reversals are done by inputting the directional buttons the way that your character is facing, and not "toward" the opponent. Second, reversals turn you around automatically to face your opponent, including Reversal-Grazes.

To use an example we will say that Marisa is knocked down, and then uses a ground tech roll forward and ends up on the other side of the opponent. Now, in order to do a reversal uppercut (623A) you would think that you'd need to push the first direction toward the opponent, so in the above image that would be Right (towards Reimu). But this is not the case for IaMP. As outlined above, you instead need to push the direction you were facing when you were knocked down, so like in the above image you would push Left first (away from Reimu). It kind of feels like you're inputting the DP motion "backwards", but in reality you're always inputting it "forwards" relative to the direction you're facing and not relative to the opponent's position.

You'll know if you did it right because Marisa will perform the Miasma Sweep uppercut toward the opponent once she gets up off the ground, but failing it will result in either no attack or possibly her 214A broom ride move instead of the Miasma Sweep.

Now, this also applies to Reversal-Grazing as we saw in the video posted above. When you double tap the direction, it's not relative to where the opponent is, but rather it's dependent on what direction you were facing in the first place. So after crossing the opponent, while you're facing the "wrong way", double tapping toward the opponent results in a backdash instead of a forward dash.

One last peculiarity that occurs with this is Highjumping. Normally you are able to Reversal-Graze with a highjump either forwards or backwards. But after crossing the opponent up and performing a Reversal-Highjump you will always either jump vertically or towards the opponent. Both HJ7 and HJ9 result in you jumping toward the opponent rather than away, regardless of how you input it.

Seems odd indeed, but this is actually very beneficial. The reason is because it prevents crossup shenanigans from countering reversals. You see, in other games if the opponent were to use an airdash or two airdashes to cross over your fallen body, with the intention of screwing up your reversal inputs, this would actually succeed because inputs are relative to their position. In IaMP though, you need not worry about that because the Reversal inputs don't change when your opponent changes sides at all. Attack reversals also won't point away from the opponent when you succeed, but rather the only time such a reversal ends up going the wrong way is when the attack begins and the opponent crosses you up after the attack has already started.

IaMP Tutorial Video

2008-05-06T18:15:00.014-05:00

High quality version: Immaterial and Missing Power Tutorial

So, here we have it. A collaboration between Bellreisa and I, with assistance from Mauve. Bellreisa was in charge of the narration and video production, while I was in charge of the video editing and direction, and all three of us were responsible for recording the material and for general collaboration. The video should be self explanatory, so I'll talk about things surrounding the video instead.

The concept of a narrated demonstration tutorial was something I've been wanting to do for the longest time. I don't even really recall exactly how long ago it was, but it was when I first saw the Street Fighter 3, Third Strike Anniversary Edition DVD that included a video tutorial with both verbal and written explanations, oh so long ago. You can see a sample segment of the tutorial regarding Gouki here.

Later, I bumped into David Sirlin's Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo tutorial which was a representation of exactly what I had in mind; a video that demonstrated a concept both verbally and visually, and then showed it to you again visually but in slow motion and with graphical visual aid. You can see a sample segment of the tutorial regarding beginner techniques here.

Then even later I stumbled on Buktooth's Capcom versus SNK 2 video "tutorials" which were really simply just a recording of him explaining different character's core gameplay to some one else in the room. Sounds simple enough, however when I think about it I realize this is exactly what an ideal kind of tutorial would be; the act of explaining something to some one as though you were talking to them in person (just minus the actual interaction). You should be able to see a sample segment of this stuff regarding K-groove Rock here and part 2 here.

Certainly, all of these were huge influences for me in different ways. With these things combined I had become somewhat obsessed with the idea, so I was certainly poking around and fishing for opportunities to give it a shot myself. Finally, around December 28th of 2007, a couple days before my birthday, the concept of an audio+video narrated tutorial for Immaterial and Missing Power started to spring to life over a late night IRC chat conversation.

Quite a jump from late December '07 to early May '08, roughly four months plus one week, but there was a lot of deadspace in between dates where we just talked about the video rather than did anything. Or times when one of us was procrastinating and just doing other things. In reality the video didn't take nearly that long. I was able to complete about 3 whole sections of the video per single day once we had all the material recorded, and worked on it on separate days. The only section that took one whole day on it's own was the first section, because I needed to appropriate the footage that you see in the intro and outro, and also create the ghetto button input screens and other such panels. I also spent a few days deciding on a format and whatnot where I didn't work on the video at all, but rather I just toyed around with static sample junk in Premiere.

Now, just to clarify, when I say that Bellreisa was the Producer and I was the Director, I mean it quite literally. I decided back when we first talked about it that Bellreisa would have full creative control over the script for the narration, and also control over what visual content would be used to demonstrate what was being said. The only creative control I had was over the concept design of the presentation itself, and whatever I was able to do with video editing in Premiere. So in a way you could say that it is really his video, and all I did was encourage the idea and then presented the content that was given to me.

Anyway, that's the brunt of the backstory on the video. No need to get into further nitty gritty details or anything. In future posts I'll try to get back to talking about the game itself.

Reading Yomi

2008-04-29T21:01:00.019-05:00

Yomi is a Japanese word that literally translates to "read" or "reading". So the title of this post sorta means "Reading Reads". This will be a followup post to my previous post regarding Frames and Numbers.

What it refers to in Fighting Games is essentially the act of predicting (reading) the opponent based on educated guesses and weighted values. In some Fighting situations, there are some things that are simply too fast to react to, and in those cases you must use anticipation in order to take advantage of a situation. So, we must make assumptions about what will happen, done in advance. The difference between a reaction and an anticipation is simple; a reaction is done after you've already seen what is happening and "know", while an anticipation is done before you know what is going to happen and "assume" (or guess). Reactions can only fail if your execution fails or your reaction is slow, while anticipation can fail if you guess wrong.

There are different facets to Yomi which is referred to as Yomi layers, and there's three of these layers (or "levels"). If we label these layers as Layer-A, Layer-B, and Layer-C, then we can say that A < B < C < A (like math, A is less than B, and so on). While two layers of equal value nullify or cancel each other out, so A versus A = neutral.

In a way, it's a lot like the classic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors (shortened to "RPS"), since R < P < S < R, just like above. But with Fighting Yomi there's some weighted values behind each one which makes it more complicated than a simple random guessing game, because some correct guesses are more rewarding than others, or some incorrect guesses are more damaging than others.To explain how this works in Fighters, and why it's lopsided in Fighters, I'll refer to my previous example of Alice 66B against Suika and what happens after it's blocked. Now, in this situation there's a bunch of different things each player can do, and each of them is categorized as a Yomi layer. These are the things that can occur for each player after Suika blocks an Alice 66B:

- Suika layer C is to do the least risky thing, to guard by blocking standing/croching.
- Suika layer B is to perform a risky defensive action, to jump back and airguard.
- Suika layer A is to do something completely random, like 6B or 66b.

- Alice layer C is to take the correct action, which is back off and do 2A.
- Alice layer B is to perform a risky reset, which would be to do 6B or 66B again.
- Alice layer A is to perform something totally random, like an instant air j.C or sword-doll special move.

Again, neither player can react to what the other will do after blocking Alice 66B, since the following actions will be too fast to react to, the players must assume what will come next and perform their action on anticipation. And we know the formula is A > B > C > A. Indeed, the formula holds true in this situation as well.

If both players are on Layer-A, then random garbage tends to happen such as both players CH'ing each other or whiffing each other, and other such nonsense. The only reason this wouldn't result in "neutrality" is the difference between characters.

If the Alice player moves on to Layer-B, expecting the Suika to remain on Layer-A, then Suika outright loses for mashing buttons and gets an Alice Boot to the face as seen above. On the flipside, if Suika moves on to Layer-B while Alice remains at Layer-A, then Suika will be rewarded with a successful firepunch/bomb or even a jumping kick.

If both players are on Layer-B then the situation results in a neutralization, since Suika avoids Alice's follow up attacks, but doesn't really gain much in the process either.

If the Alice player moves on to Layer-C, expecting Suika to be on Layer-B, then Alice will be rewarded with the 2A countering Suika's backwards jump by either hitting it or chipping away at Suika's spirit bar for a guard crush, as seen above. On the flipside again, if Suika moves to Layer-C expecting Alice to be on Layer-B then Suika is rewarded with a correct block, which is in Suika's favor since Alice loses control over the situation and gains nothing.

But, here's the kicker. What happens when Layer-A and Layer-C collide? Well, that's what I like to call Negative Yomi (totally arbitrary name). As in the formula before, Layer-A wins. Even though Layer-C should have been the best choice for both players, it still loses outright to the random "stupidity" on Layer-A. These are the exchanges where good players on Layer-C are often left baffled and question "Why would you do that, don't you know what could happen?" to their opponent.

To break it down, if Alice moves up to Layer-C, expecting Suika to be either on Layer-B or Layer-C, Alice will get hit by the random nonsense spewed out by Suika Layer-A like Suika 6B or 66B, since her 2A loses to Suika 6B and 66B as seen above. And on the flipside, if Suika is on Layer-C and blocks, then Alice is rewarded with a bullet lockdown into guard crush. Technically, neither player should still be on Layer-A since it's the least rewarding, and most risky, of the three layers. But alas, because it technically works, it can't be counted out entirely. It can be used to force the opponent to recalculate and readjust to the different Layers.

When you use all three options equally then you would in theory become unpredictable, and therefor unreadable. However, that also means that you're taking rather large risks that gain low rewards in the process, while the other player is not. And you would be doing this all just for the sake of throwing your opponent's game off. This is why you most often see Layer-C being the most used in tournament play, since it's the least risky and allows you to evaluate what Layer level your opponent is on.

With the above scenario, if the Alice player is on Layer-C all the time, they they are rewarded quite a bit for successful counters to Layer-B and are not harmed when the opponent chooses Layer-C as well. Now, the Alice does indeed get hit with random crap from Suika's Layer-A, but the payoff isn't nearly as good for Suika Layer-A>Layer-C as it is for Alice Layer-C>Layer-B. So even if you go through the trouble of using all three Layers, at the end of the day the payoff for Layer-C, when used consistently, ends up being better and stronger than the payoff of Layer-A. This is why many good players get frustrated when they bump into novice players relying on things somewhere between Layer-A and Layer-B. It forces them to "level down" their game to Layer-B and/or play even more aggressively than they'd like to.

Finally, you can't really classify all this as a Mixup, since a Mixup is defined by one player having absolute initiative and the other player being forced to defend against it. This also isn't a Mind-Game since again you don't have full initiative, and you're not technically forcing the opponent to do anything. This may be labeled as a Metagame since it relates to tactics and strategy, and is certainly preemptive. But for the most part, the Fighting Game community just labels it as "Yomi". And refers to bad Yomi as either "RPS" or "Mashing" because RPS is commonly seen as just random guessing.

In closing, I would like to say "anything truly predictable can be countered". However, reaction and execution time can get in the way of this. It's both the game's rules and the player abilities that determine what is and what's not rewarding/reliable per scenario.

Frames and Numbers

2008-04-28T19:20:00.014-05:00

I've talked about Advantage in the past, but I know a lot of players look at frame data and just go "huh, numbers, wha?". And even if they somewhat understand what a + or - in a chart means, they really don't do the math on it or care about specifics. Now, I can relate to this because math hurts my head, I hate mathematics outside of geometry (which is the only form of math that I love) for the most part. Be that as it may, I want to look at some numbers and talk about how they effect the game.

First, we're going to look at Alice's 6B or 66B, as seen above, both moves actually have the same data. And here are the stats:

Startup: 9F
Active: 3F
Block Advantage: +1F

First, what this means is that if the opponent blocks this attack (which we call the Boot), Alice will recover one frame before the opponent. So if both the opponent and Alice jump after that move is blocked, Alice leaves the ground first, by one frame. It also means if Alice were to immediately do it again after the first one, an opponent would need a move with 8F startup just to trade with it, and 7F startup in order to beat it. And this is assuming they both did it as soon as possible.

In my opinion, data isn't really hard to look at when looking at neutrality (rather than advantage/disadvantage). For example, If a move is +0 on block and the next move has 9F startup, then the opponent needs at least 9F to trade -- since that's frame for frame -- and 8F to beat it.

Now I know people sometimes wonder what any of that has to do with actual playing. And really, not many people (or possibly no one) actually thinks of those numbers while they are hitting buttons and playing. But it is something to think about before and after a game.

Here's why. If we look at Suika's move list, we can see the fastest move she has is an 8F startup move, and that's her 2B kick. That means the best Suika can do against Alice 66B followed immediately by Alice 6B is to trade with it, since Suika has no faster moves it's impossible to beat it. However, the Boot isn't even Alice's fastest move, Alice also has 2B which is 8F startup and 5B which is 7F startup, meaning they're faster than the Boot. So, what that means is Suika really has no hope of beating Alice's 5B or 2B after blocking a 66B. Suika's only real options are to jump away, or risk using either a 236B Firepunch or Bomb. In the case of both the Firepunch and Bomb, these moves have recovery time so they are baitable and therefor can be punished on block/whiff if Suika guesses wrong.

And that's pretty much all there is to it. People sometimes get confused by this sort of thing because of random variables like execution and lag/latency. Occasionally a Suika player might just stick out a 2B there and it might actually work because the Alice screwed up, but this is why knowing the data is important to some people. When we "look at the facts" by reading the data, the fact is, Suika can't stop Alice's 5B or 2B after blocking Alice's 66B, and can only hope to trade with a well timed 6B after a 66B. Knowing that all this is fact, and not fiction or theory, can help both players. It can help the Alice player understand that, while a character like Hong can certainly stop this situation using a 5F move (Hong's 5A), a Suika player simply can not, and if Suika gets away with it, it means the Alice player's execution isn't as it could/should be. Likewise, it also lets Suika players know not to mindlessly attempt things that shouldn't/don't work.

Analyzing frames also let's us discover things like the correct way to escape Boot Rush in general. It also helps unravel the mysteries of why Youmu can escape tech traps when the rest of the cast can't, and why Yukari can escape aerial blockstrings when the rest of the cast can't -- it all comes down to frames and hitboxes.

But, So What;

Well, I will say that you don't actually need to look at frames, memorize them, or even understand how any of it works to be a good player. In fact, all of that information can be learned through trial and error experience. You don't need to know that none of Suika's moves are fast enough or not from looking at the data, not when you can experiment with each move in-game and discover that through gaming experience.

But as I pointed out before, there are random variables that effects us. Execution issues, and netplay lag/latency can sometimes create chaotic results. And rather than grinding until you have "proven" it through manual means, you could just look at the raw data, do a little math, and prove it at a glance. And there are some people who are stubborn or perhaps not so observant as to even notice this situation.

To quote Buktooth: "Match experience can replace knowing data, but knowing data can often let you come to conclusions that would otherwise require match experience.

In plainer English, being up on your knowledge helps you adapt to unknown situations faster".

Aerial Strife

2008-04-19T20:48:00.008-05:00

Again, we start this post with a video, rather than an image:

High quality version: IaMP: All Character air traps

As we can see in the above video, blocking a move in the air can lead to disaster of varying levels. In the first half of the video we see the majority of the roster has a way to deal 100% spirit damage resulting in an air guard crush, which rewards the attacker with a juggle combo opportunity.

In the second half of the video we see that most of these aren't actually air-tight as far as frames go. The defender can drop their guard and intentionally be hit out of these strings in order to prevent themselves from being spirit crushed.

On the other hand, even when the opponent drops their guard, plenty of characters have some sort of follow up combo they can do. For example, Sakuya Izayoi can continue the combo rather seamlessly even if the opponent "takes the hit". But Patchouli Knowledge pretty much gets nothing if the opponent intentionally lowers their guard against j.B book and gets knocked down. But some aren't really even particularly good. Alice Margatroid's is very specific to the corner (and exceptionally difficult to pull off), while Suika Ibuki's also must be done near the corner and yet can be avoided altogether.

Reimu Hakurei doesn't appear in the second portion because Reimu's air string is actually completely airtight, and the opponent can't intentionally drop their guard against it. Hong Meirin and Yuyuko Saigyouji also don't appear in the video at all until the end (where they stand around and do nothing), because they aren't really able to take advantage of this functionality of the game. Both Yuyuko's bullets and melee are far too slow to be used in this way, and Hong simply has no real way of keeping the opponent high enough.

All characters, however, can intentionally land before their opponent and use a ground-based melee attack that can't be air guarded, in order to guard-break the opponent. This was left out of the video because I feel it should be rather obvious and should go without saying (or showing).

So, this brings up the subject of intentionally taking a hit in order to avoid something that's really worse. A sacrifice, if you will. This really isn't a mindgame or a mixup, it's simply a lockdown trap that forces the opponent to basically go kamikazi if they want to avoid a worse situation. But what does that mean for how the game flows? Well it's really rather simple: By being in the air mindlessly and uncovered, you risk being locked down in an air-to-air string or simply guard broke by a ground-to-air break, so don't be in the air recklessly.

But more importantly, it also means a player shouldn't be using air-teching (mid air recovery) thoughtlessly. As most of these characters can and will use their air strings to tech trap you. This is particularly common practice among Reimu and Sakuya players, who regularly end their bread and butter combos in a way to provide them with an optimal tech trap situation. If the opponent foolishly techs into the trap they will be met with one of these air lockdown strings resulting in another crush or break, which leads to a reset-combo.

This isn't uncommon in other games with air-techs either. Games like Melty Blood, Guilty Gear, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 all have players who regularly take advantage of the way tech recovery works in each game. Of course, learning how to do these consistently is also an important part of preventing your opponent from teching recklessly against you.

On a final side note, some characters have better chances of escaping air lockdown strings and air tech traps than others. Remilia Scarlet (seen above) has a rather unique airdash due to it's overall speed, and Remilia also comes equipped with the ability to do three of them instead of two, which can help to avoid a lot of traps. Youmu Konpaku also recovers from an air tech three frames faster than any other character. And Yukari Yakumo recovers two frames faster after airblocking than any other character. So it's nice to keep these sorts of things in mind when playing as or against these special characters.

Moving Backwards to Win

2008-04-18T21:27:00.007-05:00

Moving the opposite direction of your opponent may sound like an odd way to win, but in IaMP it's not a bad idea.

Air Backdashing

In the above image we see that Yuyuko's j.A has a blind spot. What isn't apparent in the image is that Yuyuko's j.A is also incredibly slow with a very laggy 15F startup, while Youmu's j.A has a very quick 6F startup. Adding to that, Yuyuko's forward airdash isn't cancellable until after the 10th frame, whereas her air backdash is cancelable after the 7th frame.

So, instead of challenging Youmu in the air by moving forward, Yuyuko can instead move backwards and keep Youmu at her optimal distance, as we see in the above image. The attack box has quite a bit of range, while Youmu's doesn't quite reach. Therefor, moving away from Youmu is really much better for Yuyuko than moving forward.

But it's not limited to just the use of range, it also compensates for a lot of things. Baiting your opponent into trying to attack you in the air leaves them vulnerable when they whiff the attack, which you can capitalize on by using one airdash to first avoid their attack, then quickly using your second airdash to move forward and hit them as they are recovering from their move. Of course, it may be more satisfying to use superior range in order to CH your opponent and send them reeling, but even just forcing your opponent to block on the recovery of a whiffed move can reward you with a crush sequence, which is even better since you get both physical damage and spirit damage as a reward.

Tri-Grazing

Here we have another air backdash situation, but this one's a little different. This one involves Alice starting on the ground, and Sakuya using bullets. This is referred to as a trigraze (triangle graze) because it involves a forward ground dash into a quick instant air backdash. Since you transition from a forward dash to a highjump and then immediately into an air backdash you are grazing the whole time, and most characters will continue to graze until they land.

Because Sakuya's knives have a laggy startup you can't really do the j.236C knives at point blank range, nor would you want to do them while on the ground. If Alice simply walks forward into the effective attack range then Sakuya is forced to back off before using the j.236C, or risk being sniped by Alice.

However, once the bullet coverage is set, Alice will not be able to counter it so easily. Pretty much any forward movement from Alice will result in Sakuya's melee attacks connecting. Instead, what Alice can do in this situation is a trigraze. This is because at that specific range Sakuya will attempt to hit Alice with a melee attack, but Alice is quickly moving backwards in the air which both avoids Sakuya's melee and grazes Sakuya's bullets.

Back-Dashing

Here we have another situation where moving backwards can avoid problematic situations. In the above image we see Alice backdashing through Marisa's 22A and 22B that were canceled off a 6B. This would normally be a high/low mixup that is difficult to react to, but because backdashes contain six to nine frames of melee invulnerability (depending on character) plus grazing frames, they can be used to avoid some things. Now, being invulnerable for only 6F doesn't sound like a lot, and really it isn't, but it's just enough to pass through an attack.

Marisa is a bit special in this case because if she were to instead cancel the 6B into a 5C bullet then Alice would only graze the first two bullets, the third one fired would actually hit Alice for a knockdown. And that can discourage mindless backdash option selecting. But instead of doing mindless backdashing; you'll want to react to the fact that Marisa is doing a melee and not a bullet, or choose to delay your backdash right before an attack comes so that you'll naturally backdash right before a bullet instead of being much too early. But as said before, Marisa is special in that her bullets can cause knockdown on hit, while most bullets actually don't. Therefor even if you do mindlessly backdash out of a lot of situations, the worst that can happen is some minor damage caused from weak little bullets.

HighJump-7

In the above image we see Yukari starting with a 6B stopsign followed by a 2C and then cancelling the 2C with something (from top to bottom: hj9.2B, 623A, hj9.2A). This is a really effective bullet trap when used in the corner, since the opponent's movement is limited to either forwards or up. However, while midscreen, the opponent Youmu doesn't have the limitation and can therefor use options such as D4 or HJ7 (high jump 7).

What isn't shown in the image is what happens when Yukari doesn't use a bullet at all and goes straight for a 22x melee. Well, it's really dependent on the opponent and the 22x move used. In the case of Yukari, a 22B would fail since it has quite a low hitbox that can be jumped over, and in the case of 22A it depends on how close Youmu was when it was used. The problem is that 2C's effective firing range happens to have a gap, so it must be used from a bit further away, and from that distance 22A fails. Therefor, Youmu is rather free to simply use a HJ7 out of Yukari's trap while midscreen.

But, that's when the Yukari player will have to start using clever staggered melee, leaving a few frames gaps between a melee chain will cause a move to hit a recklessly HJ7'ing opponent. For example, if Yukari does a few 2A's to push the opponent into the 2C range, and then uses 2C, the opponent can escape with an HJ7 like before. But if Yukari instead does a few 2A's followed by a 6B, the sign will smack the opponent out of an HJ7 attempt. Thus, melee chains are used to discourage mindless option selecting.

Backwalking

There is one other way to move backwards, and that's to simply walk backwards. Pretty simple sounding, isn't it?

Well, once again I'll mention that I come from a Fighting game background, and for many years the concept of walking backwards out of the range of a melee attack has been ingrained in my head. For example, if Ryu were to do a jump-in attack, rather than having to block it and suffer the -F disadvantage, or having to risk anti-airing it when he has options like VC/CC/parry that can potentially punish my anti-air, I can simply push 4 and move backwards our of it's range.

IaMP makes things a little difficult though because of the functionality of an airdash, and moves with gigantic range such as Alice's j.A dolls. When I first began playing I wondered how the hell one was supposed to walk away from Alice's effective range, since even if Alice started with her back to the corner she could cover basically the entire screen with an HJ9 and two forward air dashes.

But, this is when I realized that airdashes are rather limited, and it's in their limitation that you find the answer. Backwalking away from Alice forces her to use an airdash in order to keep you in range. But forward airdashes are laggy and move in a linear and predictable way. Alice's forward airdash requires 10F before it can be canceled, and her j.B and j.A have 10-16F startup (respectively). That gives you time to do things like dash forward under her or anti-air her. You could also choose to walk inward under her j.A or backward away from her j.B, since Alice is moving forward it means the player has lost the ability to use precise control, both the j.B and j.A are only able to hit specific areas which you can avoid. But in many cases, if Alice does use an airdash then the next attack won't be so quick, and the opponent can smack Alice with a well timed and spaced anti-air.

Passive and Direct Anti-Airs

2008-04-17T17:53:00.010-05:00

We start this post with Youmu Konpaku performing a jumping A attack with the hitboxes overlayed on the image. As you can see, that jump attack is rather good. And what you may or may not realize is that very few characters in the game have moves that can hit directly above them, and therefor if a Youmu player positions the j.A directly over your head there's almost no normal moves that can actually beat it.

Now, I came from a Fighting game background with such games as Super Street Fighter 2 (and Turbo), Street Fighter Alpha 3, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Street Fighter 3;3rd Strike. And so I was extremely use to the fact that a simple down+heavy = free guaranteed anti-air. And so, diving into games such as IaMP and MeltyBlood where you don't always get to punch some one out of the sky was really giving me quite a headache. But, fortunately, I've learned that I was simply looking at it the wrong way.

My first instinct was to get under the opponent, since I normally play the characters in other fighting games who can usually use some sort of crossunder trick like a slide or something. This actually works pretty well for characters that go really low to the ground during a forward dash, like Sakuya Izayoi in the above picture. But first of all, this wasn't working too well for the characters that didn't go low to the ground like Patchouli Knowledge or Yukari Yakumo. And second it wasn't really flipping the situation in my favor since forward dashes have a cool-down period and therefor I was still at a disadvantage.

What I was looking for is what is seen in the above image. My precious one-button anti-air, Sakuya 2C. This move hits directly above Sakuya and it's what I thought to be the answer for all my troubles. However:

As you can see, bullets can be air dashed through via the graze function. And I began to realize when I started to use this move was about passive control over the opponent's air movement and the controlling of certain vectors. See, I started to use Sakuya 2C as seen in the above image, but that wasn't working since Youmu can airdash through it and smack Sakuya anyway. But that's when things started to trigger in my head; instead of moving myself, I could force my opponent to move instead. And it's this movement that I wanted to take advantage of.

Basically, if I positioned myself and fired 2C upwards at Youmu, the opponent would be forced to airdash through to bullets. But what I understood about airdashing is they only move in two directions, forwards and backwards. This essentially achieved the exact same thing I was doing in the first place, which was dashing under my opponent. But this was infinitely better because instead using forward dashing myself and losing my advantage, I was forcing my opponent to airdash and make them lose their advantage. As we see in the above image, if Youmu comes in at the angle in which to use j.A then Sakuya's 2C will hit, and a player paying attention would instead use an airdash to avoid being hit by the 2C. If the player does a backwards airdash then they are put well out of range to use any of Youmu's air melee attacks, and likewise if they airdash forwards they will overshoot Sakuya by quite a bit and Sakuya can hit from behind freely.

Now, while this isn't a direct "I'm going to punch you in the face" anti-air, it's still a very highly effective one. Especially in the case of Sakuya who can highjump cancel her 2C or special-cancel it as well, enabling Sakuya to hit Youmu out of the airdash or simply gain direct advantage and begin a lockdown string.

So, in previous posts I talked about how using bullets can prevent an opponent from using a melee attack, and so tossing bullets and then performing a jump-in will prevent the opponent from using an attack to anti-air you. And the fact is, mindlessly jumping in at your opponent is pretty scrubby play in just about every game, including IaMP. In order to prevent Sakuya from having such a free and effective anti-air, the Youmu player should have been setting up an array of bullets in which to prevent the Sakuya from attacking in the right place at the right time. What we see in the image above is Youmu having used 5C before doing a hj9.A, this prevents the Sakuya player from "camping" the ideal anti-air space because the bullets fired by Youmu prevent Sakuya from attacking.

Once again, it all comes back to controlling space and zoning. If Youmu shot bullets in the spot where Sakuya intends to anti-air from, then the opponent Sakuya could not stand there and fire 2C, making Youmu's j.A once again safe to use. But this is where the game gets a little tricky, since now it's Sakuya's job to limit Youmu's ability to set up bullets, which Sakuya can do with f.A and 236C and 214A and j.C, etc.

Thus, our midrange game is again filled with fun and interesting dynamics.

Old Man's Opinion

2008-04-16T09:13:00.000-05:00

Well, it's true that I am getting relatively old for this genre. My reaction speed is simply not what it use to be. So that may be one of the primary reasons I have taken quite a liking to how things work in IaMP.

In other Fighting games that include throws you get mixups such as melee/throw, rather than the melee/bullet mixup existing in IaMP. The major difference in this mixup is that a melee/throw mixup isn't something you can react to at all. A low ShortKick might be as fast as only 3 frames, and a standard throw might also be as fast as 3 frames, therefore whenever the opponent is at frame advantage point blank you have to guess whether to block low or jump, there's absolutely no way you could possibly react to only 3 frames. And there isn't very good option selects for dealing with this in quite a few games, such as DPs which are horrible at dealing with this because it's quite hard to hit a move that happens so quick. The opponent can simply delay the action by a few frames, which gives them the opportunity to block and punish the DP. I believe this may be why a lot of people are fond of 3S, since down-parry + tech throw option select isn't half bad in that game and will directly punish a low short and neutralize a throw attempt. The functionality of parries itself tends to dilute midrange, mindgames, and even some mixups to the point where the game becomes heavily momentum based, relying on throw/melee and high/low almost entirely (but I won't get into that right now).

The true beauty of IaMP, I believe, is how both defense and midrange works. I occasionally like point-blank momentum-based RPS-slugfests like the younger crowd does too, since we all know mashing buttons is fucking fun.

However, in IaMP there really are no single-digit-frame mixups, with the exception of left/right crossups. And blocking incorrectly on a high/low melee mixup or melee/bullet mixup does not instantly break your guard. Instead it allows you to block and then whittles away or instantly crushes your spirit gauge putting you in a stagger state. Once your spirit is broken you are then fully vulnerable to high/lows since incorrect blocks at that point result in a hit or a stagger (and staggers to lots of chip damage). therefore, for all intents and purposes, you get two chances to block in IaMP instead of just once. That, in and of itself, is really really really beautiful. Because that means when you actually do hit your opponent it meant that you actually really earned it by solid play, and not just a single correct guess that got you lucky.

Additionally, there are not really abusable bullshit option selects in the game (though option selects do exist for some situations), but there are some nice well rounded defensive options such as minor backdash invulnerability a D-Bombs. Because backdashes contain 6-9 frames in invulnerability (depending on character) and graze frames, and D-Bombs will cancel block stun, you are able to protect yourself from players who are mindlessly mashing out high/low stuff, since that small window of backdash invulnerability lets you pass through attacks. But you don't exactly gain a huge direct advantage for doing it, it's a true defensive option in the sense that you defend yourself from the attack without harming the opponent. D-Bombs on the other hand might be considered minor offensive options because they knock the opponent down, therefore you took an aggressive (attack) option in order to reverse the flow of momentum/initiative. But fortunately this was really well balanced out by the fact that you only get two bombs and have to rebuild stock, and bombs are very baitable and punishable, and D-Bombs do zero actual damage at all. IMO, a perfectly wonderful mechanic design in regards to both functions.

And then add to that the wonderful mid-range mechanics in the game that involve using projectiles to control space and zone, which I've outlined in other posts, and the game becomes extremely technical and strategic. In IaMP there really isn't a situation where "that was bullshit because you had an unavoidable 50/50 mixup that's impossible to react to, and you simply guessed right, I didn't get outplayed I got out-guessed." that honestly, really sometimes does happen in other games, such as Melty Blood and Guilty Gear and Street Fighter 3; 3rd Strike.

So yeah, over the past year since my last post I have only gained more and more respect for the game, rather than less. As much as it use to aggravate me, and sometimes still does, I have now totally fallen in love with it.

Cheers.

Mind-Games

2008-04-15T09:32:00.003-05:00

This will be a follow-up post for my previous post regarding Bullet Traps and Coverage, so make sure you view that a bit first.

The Yomi Therein;

When looking at the way corner bullet traps work (more specifically, bullet cancel traps), it may appear to be a mixup at first glance, but it is actually a "mind game", not a mixup, which is very significantly different, and I'll try to first explain how before I explain why.

Now as we see in the second video I posted "All Character Tech Traps" in my previous post, if the opponent chooses to highjump through the bullets, they risk getting counterhit by Marisa's j.B or j.A for a whopping 4,600 damage which is nearly half their lifebar. The punishment for moving forward is decidedly less, but still quite a bit being somewhere in the 3k damage area (and possibly more).

However, the punishment for simply blocking the bullets is only spirit damage and some very minor recoverable chip damage. On the other hand, as we see in the last Marisa clip, the situation loops back in on itself if Marisa chooses to cover forward movement with an instant air dash and the opponent blocks. Marisa can do it again, and again, provided the opponent either blocks or moves forward and doesn't move upward.

The result of these facts is what causes most top players not to recklessly highjump through bullets or spam laggy graze attacks. They are fully aware that choosing the incorrect option could lead to a loss in a heartbeat. Instead, they choose to block and be patient.

The reason is because, particularly against Marisa, blocking the bullets doesn't immediately result in a GC or any real direct damage. And even when it actually does result in a GC, they still have one more chance to block correctly or allow themselves to be staggered before they take any real damage. And even if Marisa manages to do all this, they really can just block low and the only way Marisa can hit them is with a 22A or a jumping attack, both of which are telegraphed and they can react to them with a high block. And even if Marisa manages to hit with a 22A, the defender will simply be knocked down and will take some minor damage and give the aggressor chips/point items, but the defender will also be able to tech roll out of the corner.

And then there's other important things to remember, like being able to D-Bomb a melee attack, or backdash through a 22 attack, or being able to reversal/DP through gaps. And then there's also the option of dashing forward and immediately blocking by inputting D6 [4], which is a pretty good option select for those with very quick dashes.

So, you might be thinking "So I should never move? Just block?", and the answer is actually "You should do both moving and not moving". If you simply block all the time, the opponent will have free reign to chip you, guard crush you, and possibly combo you if you block wrong. In the case of Sakuya and Alice, its very important to move when you are aware of the correct direction to move in. If you don't move they can 100% spirit damage GC you very easily and once that happens; Sakuya's 22s can actually lead to a B&B combo anyway, and Alice's boot attacks can keep you permanently staggered or break your guard into a 'boot loop' combo.

Thus, what they are doing isn't just pestering and baiting you into moving, there is actually a real threat in not moving as well, it's just that you have a lot more options when you block and you have a better chance of using reaction to your advantage. Since blocking means you will be reacting to what they do and trying to confirm before doing anything, but moving is entirely based on anticipation and is a guess where there is a right and a wrong with huge risk and low reward.

Mind Game;

So, as a result, we have a mindgame. The intention of a mindgame is to use a certain set of moves in order to force your opponent into making a bad decision, in which you can capitalize on. But there's much more to it than just that. To use a chess analogy, you can sacrifice several Pawns in order to bait out a really valuable piece like a Bishop. In fighting games like this one, the analogy applies in the sense that you can risk punishable movement for the opportunity to take away their life if they fall for the bait and allow themselves to take the risk of guessing right/wrong at the cost of potentially very high damage.

It becomes a mindgame when both players are aware of that and take carefully calculated measures to play to each other's yomi. After all, it isn't a mindgame if one of the players is mindless.

Here's the breakdown; In the case of Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya as examples, if they go for that upwards movement coverage they have to highjump9 in order to do it. In the case of Marisa and Sakuya, if they do this when the opponent blocks they can simply take a step forward out of the corner and get behind Marisa/Sakuya, putting them in the corner. This is particularly bad for both of them since Sakuya can only hit behind her with her aerial 623 move and Marisa can't hit behind herself at all. Now that means they'd be put into the corner and the opponent would have direct frame advantage in which to do a jumping guard break or anti-air guard break for free damage plus corner knockdown. In the case of Reimu the opponent could D6 [4] to front step and then block, allowing them to jump up and hit Reimu from behind who is also unable to hit behind her with anything but her 421 teleports or air 236D Balls spellcards.

therefore, when the aggressor assumes the defender is a smart conservative player and will defend by blocking, they will ideally low IAD in order to keep the pressure string going and do additional spirit damage, as seen with the Sakuya and Marisa clips against the blocking opponent. The aggressor won't risk fishing for that huge damage with the highjump9 option because that risks completely losing momentum and they assume the opponent isn't crazy enough to risk using that option.

Now, a really smart and conservative aggressor would simply not cancel the bullets at all and wait to react to what the opponent does. Such as, if the opponent does a highjump, they lose the opportunity to net huge damage with a counterhit, but they still have the ability to chase the opponent out of the air with ground dashes for positioning and a quick jump string for a guard crush or a good solid anti-air for a guard break. Doing all this in-action allows the aggressor to take mental note of how the opponent reacts in a situation so that they can get a "read" (yomi read) on the opponent and familiarize themselves with the opponent's habits, perhaps even subconsciously.

If the opponent doesn't move then the aggressor still has frame advantage and they can smack them with another melee or another bullet and keep going, so they don't lose any momentum or initiative by doing this.

Thus, when better players see the opponent constantly doing highjump8 in any situation where they are at a disadvantage, the better player is thinking to themselves "Why would you do that? Don't you know if you keep doing that you'll eventually get CH to death?". And that's when they flip modes and start fishing for it.

If the situation was reversed and the smart player was on the defensive, the correct option is to play conservatively while mixing in some well educated guesses in order to keep the opponent from getting a read on you and getting in your head (if you're predictable, you die). Since if you do things intelligently-random it forces the opponent to guess what you will do, and the act of guessing is technically risky (as outlined above).

A well informed and patient opponent might simply allow themselves to be hit by a bullet out of a low jump (non-HJ jump), or be hit by a 22x move rather than trying to block it, simply so that they can be knocked down and tech out of the corner, which gives them much better chances of escape against certain characters, since a lot of characters will be forced to use melee in combination with bullets for okizeme rushdown. And it is the predictable melee attack that can be countered by DP's and D-Bombs or possibly even escaped with proper footing or backdashing, which is what the defender is banking on. Once you've teched into mid-screen you have slightly better movement options as outlined in the following section.

But really, that is quite literally the true definition of playing a mind game. A player who blocked intelligently and waiting for the right moment to either take the hit or sacrifice a bomb in order to get out of the corner and switch momentum was playing a counter-mindgame. They knew that they were being forced into making a bad decision, so they chose not to make any really bad choices and just take the hit that was least painful. In a way, it's a lot like a classic ST Ryu fireball trap, except that you can graze the fireballs.

Bullet Traps and Coverage

2008-04-14T11:05:00.007-05:00

Been a while since I've posted, but I have learned quite a bit since my last post (I would hope so, it's almost been a year now) so I hope to transcribe some of what I've learned. Strap yourselves in, this post might be a doozie.

We start this post not with an image this time, but with a video:

High quality version: Suika Ibuki, bullet cancel framegap traps

Here we see some corner traps done with Suika Ibuki. If you were unfamiliar with the concept you might wonder what the hell is going on since all you really see is a bunch of hits and misses.

Well, the concept is, after using a melee attack the opponent is caught in blockstun, in which time you can toss a bullet which can be grazed by the opponent. However, in order to graze the bullet, the opponent would have to move in some direction. And that's what we're trying to hit; the movement.

However, you can also see in the video what happens when the opponent simply blocks; there's a good chance you can either continue to the pressure or even cause a GC.

But, as we see in the video, there's a correct answer and an incorrect answer for each situation. The reason is because most characters can't cover both forward and upward at the same time, but rather they can only cover either one individually. With Suika Ibuki for example, she can cover upwards movement by highjump canceling the bullet into a jump kick. And she can cover forwards movement either by using an instant air dash or by using her firepunch 236 special move.

If Suika picks the correct option she gets massive damage. And if the opponent picks the correct option they escape the trap. This is very clearly in Suika's favor because guessing right gives quite a chunk of damage as a reward, but guessing wrong when the opponent blocks or moves upwards hardly hurts her much, if at all.

This concept isn't limited to Suika Ibuki though. The Suika video was intended to illustrate how the situation becomes a forward/upward/block situation where there's a right answer and a wrong answer each time. But, most of the cast can utilize this technique as we see in the following video:

High quality version: All Character corner traps and combos

Now, this video was intended only to illustrate correct guesses, rather than going through and showing every single permutation of hit/whiff/block (the whiffs were omitted).

Sadly, there are some characters that simply do not take full advantage of this. Remilia, Yuyuko, and Hong Meirin rely mostly frame-traps rather than bullet-cancel-traps (which in the case of Remilia and Patchouli can actually be airtight blockstun strings). In their case they transition from melee to bullet without a gap, and then back into melee without giving the opponent the opportunity to pass through the bullets at all. So the trap occurs only after the bullet has been blocked.

Mid-Screen;

So, does this apply while midscreen?

Well, the answer is both yes and no. While midscreen the opponent has some additional options such as moving backwards, which they can't do when their back is to the corner. There are three kinds of backwards movement, which is highjump7, backdash, and backwalk. I would say IABD is a separate form of backwards movement, but that hardly applies to this situation since it loses to everything.

A character like Suika can begind the trap midscreen by using 6B stomp canceled into a bullet, then canceling the bullet. The 6B moves her close enough that even if the opponent moves in a HJ7 fasion to get away Suika can smack them out of the sky with j.B explodey-foot. The reward for doing this is decidedly a great deal less than in the corner, but it's still rewarding.

The opponent also has the option of using a well timed backdash, which for all intents and purposes does indeed counter all of Suika's primary options after tossing the bullet.

Yukari Yakumo, however, has no real way to stop HJ7 (highjump7) movement in this situation. The reason is because her fastest HJC (highjump cancel) is with 2C, but 2C has a very very specific range of effect. If Yukari is too close, the bullets will simply whiff. But if Yukari is within the proper range where 2C will connect, she will be out of range to really do anything that can counter HJ7 movement.

So while much of these traps don't "work" midscreen, they still "work" in the sense that even when you fail to gain direct damage you are still awarded with two direct benefits: First, the opponent is moving backwards and therefore closer to the corner. Second, you now have bullets on the screen to cover you and are at a direct strategic-position and frame advantage, which enables you to apply additional bullet and melee attacks to force the opponent further into the corner.

Adding Mixups;

There is actually a way to further discourage the use of movement while still baiting damage. But it's also particularly useful for crushing option selects and people who simply refuse to defend intelligently. The method is either delay chaining or using frame advantage "staggering" (note, staggering in this case is different from normal IaMP staggers). Basically, if you use quite a bit of bullets and goad the opponent into reckless movement, and if they are successful in escaping quite a bit then they might become overly reckless, which you can punish. Since a lot of bullet traps can begin from the first or second hit of a chain, you have a few opportunities to smack them out of a movement option with an additional chained/staggered melee rather than using bullets at all. Which in effect would be considered a bullet-feint, you pretend that you'll throw a bullet but instead hit with a melee that can't be passed through without invulnerability frames.

For example, as we see at the end of the Suika Ibuki video, rather than canceling 2A into a bullet, you can delay the cancel into a 6B which is a melee that can't be passed through. therefore if the opponent recklessly moves, expecting you to throw a bullet, they will be tagged by the 6B. But it doesn't end there either. Suika can also cancel the 6B into another bullet, or cancel that 6B into a 22x melee. In the above image we have Sakuya who blocked a 6B and held HJ8 (D8) expecting to graze a bullet, but Suika instead canceled the 6B into 22A which results in Sakuya getting CH out of Suika's 22A headbutt.

So now you're applying both mixups and mindgames to the opponent, which will really force the opponent to either get their head in the game or be crushed.

The "stagger" that I referred to is using a melee attack that has significant frame advantage or neutrality, followed by another melee attack that isn't normally chainable but very fast or high priority. For this concept I'll use Suika and Sakuya as examples. Both of these characters have moves that are +0 on block, Sakuya's is 6A and Suika's is 6B.

After blocking one of these moves the opponent would normally expect the melee chain to be at the final stages and the following move to either be a bullet or 22x crush mixup. therefore they might be trying to recklessly option select by mashing buttons or trying to jump away. However, since these moves aren't disadvantageous, the aggressor can simply not cancel the attack but follow it up with a well timed quick light attack afterwards while option blocking. If the opponent does something like a late D-bomb or uppercut the aggressor will simply block. But if they are trying to jump or are mashing some laggy high priority move then the aggressor will most likely follow up with that quick light attack and stuff them out of their attempt, such as Sakuya 5A or Suika 2B, both of which are particularly fast and deadly. At which point they can reloop the chain back into their 6A or 6B, respectively.

Doing this is mostly effective against opponents who are really bad at defending against mixups and try to breeze through them by not dealing with them (countering them). But after all, any really predictable action has an answer to it, and if the opponent is predictably trying to escape rather than dealing with it the right way, they will die.

In my next post I'll talk about what effect all this has on the game and more specifically, regarding Mind-Games.

Advantage

2007-07-18T05:03:00.001-05:00

In most games there's a few types of advantage, and in IaMP there's actually several.

In the above image we see a timeline example of Yuyuko's 5A used twice against an opponent Yuyuko's 5A, which is an example of Frame Advantage. The different colors represent the different status during an action. Yellow, Red, Turquoise, Blue, and Purple represent: Start up frames, Active hit frames, Recovery frames, Block stun frames, and Frames on a timeline (respectively). If both Yuyuko's used their 5A's simultaneously then they would collide on the same frame and trade hits. However, when blocked, Yuyuko's 5A gives a +3F frame advantage, which literally means the blockstun caused from this move lasts longer than the recovery frames of this move, and therefor the Yuyuko who uses it will recover a full three frames sooner than the opponent Yuyuko. In the timeline image above we see that the top (player one) Yuyuko's second 5A begins three frames before the bottom (player two) Yuyuko's 5A. Thus, the first active hitframe from Top Yuyuko collides with the Bottom Yuyuko's startup frames on the fifth start-up frame (which is three frames before the Bottom Yuyuko's hitframes). Therefor, due to frame advantage, Top Yuyuko's 5A wins.

The exact numbers aren't particularly important though, except for very particular situations. This is because what's really important is whether a move has Frame Advantage or Frame Disadvantage, because that's generally what's going to decide who's next attack is going to win after a block or hit. Concerning yourself with the exact numbers is hardly important, unless you want to find out if something is technically possible or impossible with perfect timing (though keep in mind that perfect timing isn't practical 100% of the time, especially online).

In the above image we see something that is more along the lines of a Direct Advantage. The Yuyuko player is knocked down and Alice is clear across the screen, so it appears as though there's plenty of time for Yuyuko to get up off the ground and do some sort of movement or action, but this is not the case. As we can see in the second section of the image (center, circled yellow) Yuyuko does get up off the ground quick enough to at least fully recover before Alice is in range to do anything, but it would not be wise for Yuyuko to move or attack at this point because it will only be a few more frames before Alice's j.A connects with Yuyuko. If Yuyuko moves backwards, up+back, up, up+towards, or towards then Yuyuko won't get very far before Alice's j.A starts hitting, even if Yuyuko backdashes. Additionally, it isn't a good idea for Yuyuko to attack either because there isn't enough time for any of Yuyuko's attacks to fully animate before Alice's j.A connects, much like the timeline example in the first example above. Even Yuyuko's 6B "Flip" move which awards temporary invulnerability is not a good idea in this situation because Alice's j.A has no hittable box inside the doll. The "Flip" move would completely whiff Alice's body and do nothing against Alice's doll, so Alice is quite safe even from a Flip or bomb. Fact is, the only and thing Yuyuko can do is block, which isn't such a bad idea since blocking avoids immediate damage anyhow.

The above image is an example of Indirect Advantage. Here we see that Alice appears to be in no immediate danger and with plenty of room to move around, however despite how it looks, this is actually a disadvantageous situation for Alice. This is because there are butterfly bullets on the screen fired by Yuyuko flying right towards Alice, and Yuyuko is close by and directly in what is known as a Blind Spot for Alice. The reason this is a blind spot is because Alice has no attacks that can immediately hit the space that Yuyuko is currently in other than j.B or bombing. However, if you notice Yuyuko is not trailing blue shadows, which means Yuyuko can block both Alice's j.B or bomb. What this situation boils down to is; if Alice attempts to graze in any direction or graze attack, then the Alice player risks getting hit with Yuyuko melee (typically Yuyuko j.B or j.A in this situation). If the Alice player instead attempts to attack with a bomb or j.B, then the Yuyuko player can simply air block and allow the bullets to hit Alice, then continue with a melee afterwards. Even if Alice backs off with a backdash, the odds of escape are not in Alice's favor since both melee and bullet are going to be hitting soon. The proper action Alice should take here is to block.

General rule of thumb: When in doubt, just block.

Trying to highjump or backdash away from stuff will often get you CH, and airblocking with a normal jump will often get you guard broken in the air by an anti-air, so blocking in generally your best option. Especially if you know you can't beat an oncoming attack with a melee or bullet (normal/special), in this situation you should usually just block instead of trying to get away.

Controls

2007-07-17T10:55:00.002-05:00

In IaMP there's usually multiple ways of doing things, and usually multiple reactions for every potential action.

Dashing or Grazing and HighJumps can be done in two ways, for example. You can hold the D button and push a direction to get a dash. Or you can input forwards or backwards twice for a forward and backward dash, or input down and then up for a highjump. This can be pretty important for graze attacking and movement in general. The preferred method for most movements is to use the D button and a single direction. For example, after landing Hong Meirin's AAAB string, it's ideal to use to hold 3 (down+toward), then immediately tap D as soon as she recovers from the B kick, and then immediately tap A as soon as you begin to dash, and that should allow you to juggle with her palm thrust move. The method of inputting D3A (D+down+toward+A) should be significantly easier than inputting 663A (toward, toward, down+toward+A). The example given for Hong Meirin can be seen below:

Another simple trick involves using Bombs as stated in my previous post. Rather than inputting 22 (down, down) you can instead input 11 (down+back, down+back). The main advantage of doing it this was is that you'll be inputting a block command instead of neutral down, which means while you're trying to input the bomb inputs you'll be blocking oncoming attacks that may have potential gaps in them. If, for example, you attempt to bomb using 22 in between Alice 5A 6A, you may be hit because there's a small gap in there just large enough for your guard to drop. If you input a bomb with 11 instead then odds are you'll continue to block until the bomb begins, so you should not be hit.

And another shortcut involves HighJumping backwards. When highjumping backwards (HJ7) it can be difficult to use the D button in order to move the way you want. Often, when using D7 you'll accidentally get either a backdash or a vertical highjump instead of a diagonal highjump. To avoid this it can actually be better to manually input the highjump motion with 27 or ideally with 17 (down+back, up+back). The advantage to this is that you'll first block low, and then transition into a diagonal highjump backwards without the risk of accidentally backdashing or vertical highjumping. Although this is much easier to do with a Stick controller or Pad controller than it is on a keyboard. But regardless of the controller, backwards highjumps should be easier with manual inputs than with D7. However, for vertical highjumps and forward highjumps, ideally you would use D8 and D9 (or D69) respectively since it's faster and easier.

Controllers have been the subject of some debate for with competitive Fighting game fans. However, the majority of competitive Fighting game players who attend major tournaments and compete at high levels of competition prefer to use custom-built Arcade Sticks for Fighting games. A nice thread regarding arcade sticks can be found on Shoryuken.com in this thread here. Most serious hardcode Fighting game fans agree that Sticks are the way to go.

Game Pad controllers have often been rather taboo when associated with Fighting games because the majority of people who play on pads tend to use their thumbs for attack inputs instead of their finger tips. This is not really ideal because of the difference between using thumbs and finger tips. If we examine the difference, we can clearly see that finger tips are able to rapidly tap buttons much faster than thumbs. Finger tips also allow you to input any kind of two or three button combinations much better than with thumbs. While thumbs can put two buttons that are vertically aligned with one another, it's difficult to input diagonally aligned or horizontally aligned buttons, as seen below:

There's also several other techniques which finger tips allow you to do that are difficult to perform with thumbs, such as: Tapping, Drumming, Pianoing, Sliding (kara/RC), and - as previously mentioned - simultaneous inputs.

These techniques may not seem to apply to IaMP, but some of them actually do. The ability to hold the D button and input another attack such as A or B while dashing or highjumping is the same as a duel-input, which is significantly easier with finger tips than thumbs. This applies to things like Meirin's AAAB D3A (seen above) and lots of characters j.A and j.B loops that require you to to dash or highjump during them (such as Sakuya, Marisa, Remilia, Yukari, etc). Additionally, having one finger over a specific button like D, and another finger over a specific button like C, allows you to quickly highjump cancel or airdash cancel without having to move your thumb from one input button to another. Since your fingers are already in-place, you need only press the buttons without having to move any fingers. And lastly, drumming and tapping can assist with timing for reversals such as a 623 (dp) uppercut move in between hits or while getting up off the ground (example: Marisa 623 in between Yuyuko 6A 22B).

The good news is that IaMP only has four input buttons, so even if your controller is limited to four input buttons on the pad's face, you'll still be able to use finger tips for playing IaMP instead of thumbs. The downside is that many players feel that using thumbs for directional inputs is still not ideal in comparison to using a stick (since with a stick you'll be using finger tips and wrist for directionals).

Popular gamepads of choice are: Japanese Sega Saturn pad (AKA. satapad). Japanese PS2-Sega Saturn pad (Saturn pad built for the PS2). The Saitek USB-pad series (ideally P220 -- P220 > P2500 > P990). And the default PS2 pad.

Using a Keyboard is a bit of a gray area. In theory, since you'll be using finger tips for both attack inputs and directional inputs, it would be acceptable. However, many keyboards are limited in how many inputs it can process simultaneously. Additionally, keyboards are rather bulky and blocky, so it can be difficult to input motion/directional inputs such a 214 (qcb) or 421 (rpd). The good news is that you'll most certainly not have difficulty inputing commands from the left or right side, which is something that many Fighting game players have an issue with on Sticks and Pads. For the sake of IaMP you can probably get away with using a keyboard, provided you're able to perform simple special and super movements.

Bomb Games

2007-06-15T17:26:00.002-05:00

"Bombs Part 2; Rock-Paper-Scissors, anticipation and reaction".

The concept of the child's game "Rock, Paper, Scissors" is very simple; It is an anticipation based guessing game. Both players select from one of the three options, depending on what both player picked the result is either a win, loss, or tie (draw game).

To simplify the concept of anticipation even more we can use the analogy of a single playing card; if someone places a card face-down and asked you to guess which suit it is you would need to guess in anticipation to the card being flipped and the answer being revealed. Since there's four suits and you only get one guess we can assume you'd have roughly a twenty five percent chance of getting it right (unless you were psychic or something). Which is entirely different than if you were allowed to answer a few seconds after the card was flipped, since then you can react after the card has been flipped and can clearly see what the answer is, therefor we can assume you'd have a one hundred percent chance of success (unless you were blind or something). However, if we reduce the amount of time you were allowed to answer to a fraction of a second, let's say one sixtieths (1/60th) of a second, then it becomes a great deal more difficult to do on reaction to the card being flipped because you simply do not have enough time to clearly see the card before making your answer -- and so we are back to an anticipatory guessing game and your odds of success are reduced again. However, it's not completely reduced back to twenty five percent like in the no-reaction example because two of the suits are colored black and two of the suits are colored red. Even with just one sixtieth of a second you still can recognize the difference between colors, which increases your chances (unless you're colorblind or daft or something).

What does all that have to do with bombs? Well, in the situations where you would use D-bombs in particular you are at a disadvantage. Against a decent opponent, you're not actually sure if your opponent is going to attack or not, and because a great deal of attacks are fractions of a second you have to anticipate whether or not your opponent will attack. And that brings us back to the card game. If you guess wrong and your opponent blocks you will most likely be punished and eat a combo. If you guess right you score a knockdown against your opponent. This is very clearly a big risk; guessing wrong means a huge loss, and guessing right means a minor gain.

The important thing to understand about the risk, however, is that it's relative to what the results would have been if you hadn't taken the risk in the first place. In other words, if you had chose to try and block instead of trying to bomb. Remember that by bombing you are actively attempting an offensive action, which is a risk, to try and escape from being pressured. In reality, blocking is a much safer option. Particularly in IaMP where blocking wrong doesn't immediately break your guard. The opponent must first crush your spirit before they can break your guard, and even after your spirit is crushed some mixups will only cause stagger instead of a guard break -- so you get two or more chances instead of just one (unlike most other 2D fighters).

In order to properly take advantage of bombing you must avoid patterns and predictability. The more predictable you are with bombs the more punishable you are. After all, the opponent isn't able to block on reaction to your bombs either, they will have to anticipate your bombs. Therefor, you must remember to use that to your advantage instead of to your disadvantage. You may not necessarily bomb at a given situation, but if you get your opponent to block because they were expecting you to bomb, then that means they are trying to block and therefor they are not attacking. That means there's a gap in their offense while they are blocking and you can therefor take advantage of that gap. Thus, it's not a good idea to always bomb at every opportunity, which is why you want to use it as a potential threat and not as a direct tool. This is the same concept as was Bellreisa calls "Equity" which you can read about in my Mixups and Spirit post.

More information about the concept of RPS can be read in my Tunnel Vision post. And more information about why it's a good idea to block on wakeup can be found in my Wakeup Monkeys post.

Bellreisa says: "Do you wish to be the cherry blossom, fluttering uncertainly beneath the breeze that commands and compels you? Does your tenacious dance quiver with uncertainty, fear, or harmony?"

Bomb Types

2007-06-14T21:13:00.002-05:00

"Bombs Part 1; What are they".

Bombs are a universal tool in IaMP, and they pretty much work just as you'd think they would; an explosion occurs around the player. Of course, there's a lot more to in than just that. The explosion will not interact with the opponent's projectiles (unlike a lot of shmup games), but rather the explosion will only interact with the opponent's hittable area (opponent's body). While the explosion can not be grazed, it can be blocked.

Each player has two bomb stocks that start filled at the beginning of a match. These stocks can be used by inputting a universal input (22C or 11C), however there are three types of bombs: Neutral Bomb (N-bomb), Offensive Bomb (O-bomb), and Defensive Bomb (D-bomb).

Due to the fact that all three are executed the same way, and partially due to their names, one might suspect that the only difference is when or how you use them; but in actuality all three bombs have different properties and effects when used in different situations. One major difference that should be noted is that N-Bombs and D-bombs have start-up invulnerability frames, while O-Bombs have no invulnerable frames. N-bomb and D-bomb's invulnerability starts on the first frame and lasts to either the thirteenth or fourteenth frame depending on your character.

Generally speaking: O-Bombs are useful for extending combos or making unsafe attacks safe on block, D-Bombs are useful for canceling blockstun and knocking your opponent out of a string, and N-Bombs are useful for recharging spirit while gaining a knockdown which opens an opportunity for rushdown (okizeme).

N-Bombs: Neutral Bombs occur when you perform a bomb while you're not attacking or defending. If you cancel an attack or a blocking state into a bomb it will either be an O-Bomb or D-Bomb (respectively), not a N-Bomb; which is performed without canceling anything into the bomb. These bombs have invulnerable start up from first frame to thirteenth or fourteenth frame depending on character. These types of bombs are often likened to Gold Bursting in Guilty Gear, since they have a very similar functionality. If this type of bomb hits the opponent it will restore all your spirit and knock the enemy down, but it deals no damage on hit/block. It can be punished if blocked, though the frame disadvantage is character specific -- generally somewhere between -8 to -11, with Alice's and Remilia's having the fastest recovery. The primary times you would use this is when you see a blatantly obvious attack coming your way that you can't necessarily beat with a anything other than a bomb. While this can be effectively used on anticipation when you read your opponents patterns, it's generally better to use on reaction to situations where you're likely to succeed (such as against an obvious jump-in).

O-Bombs: Offensive Bombs occur when you cancel an attack into a bomb. These bombs will also restore your spirit to full when they successfully hit the opponent. A major difference with this bomb type is that it has no invulnerability frames, but is also less punishable on block. They are a little disadvantageous on block (-3F for most characters, and -4F for Alice), but not technically punishable on block. Another major difference with these bombs is that it will lunch the opponent vertically, which allows for a follow up juggle combo. The primary uses for this is to extend combos, since you are able to cancel normal moves, command normals, graze attacks, and special moves into bombs, and then continue the combo after the bomb hits. Another use is to make some moves safe on block by canceling into the bomb, such as a special move that you can't cancel with a high jump that leaves you vulnerable to punishment on block. This can also be used as a bait, since some characters have attacks with extremely long recovery periods, the attack can be canceled right before the opponent's retaliation connects. If the attack was canceling into the bomb the result will be an O-bomb, which has the potential to hit the opponent when the opponent was trying to punish. A common example of this is a blocked Remilia's 22B canceled into an O-bomb very late into the move. The opponent may try to punish Remilia's 22B, only to eat the O-bomb while trying to perform their attack. Keep in mind that baits like this are risky though due to O-bombs not having any invulnerability frames.

D-Bombs: Defensive Bombs occur when you cancel blockstun into a bomb (meaning, when you bomb while blocking). These bombs have invulnerable start up from first frame to thirteenth or fourteenth frame depending on character. These bombs are even more punishable on block, though the disadvantage is character dependent ranging from -24F to -31F depending on character -- with Alice and Remilia having the fastest recovery once again. While these types may sound good for breaking the opponents attack strings, they often fail to bullet strings and can be easily punished on block if properly baited. Many novice or lazy players will abuse D-Bombs on block or as a reversal, thinking that it's an easy escape, only to get baited and punished. Therefor, it's important to use these bombs very sparingly (perhaps it's a good thing you only get two stocks at a time).

To regain used bomb stocks you need to collect point items. A description of this point system can be read on the Bomb Section of the IaMP Wiki.

Rushdown (Okizeme)

2007-06-13T12:18:00.001-05:00

If you've read my previous posts you may have wondered why I keep relating this game to Guilty Gear. Well, aside from the aforementioned reasons in my previous posts, IaMP also has a Rushdown (okizeme) game that is very similar to Guilty Gear as well. And as said before; it's also got a lot to do with controlling space and zoning, which is heavily seen in both games.

In Guilty Gear, once a player scores a knockdown they generally have a projectile attack or projectile based attack that they can use as a meaty. The projectile itself is a hitbox, but contains no hittable box. And for the most part, projectiles in Guilty Gear either leave quite a bit of frame advantage or move slowly enough to leave an advantage on hit or block. Therefor this makes for a splendid meaty attack because if the defender performs an invulnerable reversal the reversal can then be blocked by the aggressor and then punished, but since the projectile connects meaty there is no other options that to either block it or eat it. Once blocked (generally speaking) the aggressor can take advantage and perform a long string of attacks in order to try and break the opponents guard with mixups. And the same holds true for IaMP.

In IaMP most characters have a projectile that gives enough advantage for them to use in the same fashion. The projectiles themselves can land meaty and can not be wake-up grazed. Therefor, the opponent must either reversal or block (or eat it), and in the case of reversals those can be baited and punished with proper blocking and timing, especially if the aggressor's projectiles have a very delayed hit.

Here we have Alice kicking Youmu down with her boot, then using 236A "spinner" to throw a projectile over the fallen Youmu. This projectile lasts for a while and is worth four hits. Youmu can't graze this projectile when getting up off the ground, so the player has little choice but to block it. Once blocked, Alice can take advantage of this by hitting Youmu before Youmu leaves blockstun. Mainly because the projectile's active frames begin at roughly the same time Alice recovers from tossing it. However, that brings us to our next point:

Some characters have special moves that award graze frames on the first frame they are executed at. Even though Youmu can't use a ground dash or high jump to graze as soon as she gets up off the ground, she can instead do a special move that has first-frame graze; in this case it's Youmu's 623B uppercut. However, because Alice had already long since recovered by the time the "spinner" would have connected with Youmu, and that means she is free to block whatever Youmu does in return. So, what we see in the above images is Youmu using 623B to graze through Alice's spinner, but Alice simply blocks Youmu's uppercut. This leaves Youmu very open for punishment since the uppercut has a great deal of recovery time. If you're familiar with Guilty Gear; This is basically on par with I-No's Music Note or Dizzy's Ice-Bit -- even though some characters can reversal through them, by the time the reversal begins the aggressor can block the reversal anyway. This leaves no choice but to block the meaty, which allows the aggressor to continue with an attack string while the defender is still in block-stun.

However, this game does have "Tech-Recovery" on the ground and in the air, which is sometimes called "Tech-Rolling" or simply "Tech". It refers to the act of moving your character either forwards or backwards by a character-specific distance after being knocked down, or not moving at all. However, due to the fact that ground bullets can be canceled into high jumps and air bullets canceled by air dashes; what this leads to is "tech-trapping" which is basically covering two or more spots that your opponent could stand up at.

Here we see Patchouli has knocked down an opponent Youmu into the corner and has done a 2B to throw a Bubble near-by, then canceled the Bubble into 236C Water Sprout. If the Youmu player decides not to tech forward then they will have to block the Water Sprout when getting up. If Youmu decides to tech forward then the Youmu player will roll right into the Bubble and again be forced to block. This is an example of covering multiple areas with projectiles where the opponent could tech to. However, it really only works effectively in the corner, since if done midscreen then the Youmu player could tech backwards away from both the Sprout and the Bubble.

Some characters don't really have the arsenal to cover multiple spaces at once, but they can still cover at least one spot while guarding another spot at point-blank range and risk planting a meaty melee attack. This is generally a good idea, but it should be noted that doing so will leave the aggressor open to being hit with a reversal from the defender. On the other hand, this also gives an opportunity to the aggressor to play meaty crossup games. Because you can switch sides with a tech-rolling opponent simply by walking through them, if the opponent techs in the aggressor's direction they can position themselves on either side of the opponent very quickly and hit from either side (either ground or air).

* Note: Holding D and a direction input to graze meaty bullets when getting up off the ground will cause the graze to fail. However, there is a 1F gap where inputting the dash command (tapping D or pushing the final direction) will allow you to graze through meaty bullets. What this means is that you can not normally graze meaty bullets by simply holding inputs, the only way to graze meaty bullets is to use reversal (1F) timing.

- Bellreisa says: "And when you reach the higher level of understanding you will see that indeed, a droplet of water falls only from the cherry blossom if it wishes so, not because it is compelled by gravity".

Overwhelming and Zones

2007-06-12T18:05:00.002-05:00

"Defense Part 2; Overwhelming, Zoning, and Controlling".

Due to the nature of bullets in IaMP, mid-range bullet wars become inevitable. However, because not all graze attacks are all-purpose it's sometimes necessary to rely on bullets in order to either limit your opponents options or defend yourself. It almost becomes a mathematical battle, since each projectile can clash with and negate with an enemy projectile, therefor bullets that have more projectiles and are more densely packed tend to "overwhelm" enemy bullets.

Here we see Alice Margatroid firing some bullets with her f.5A. In response, Sakuya fires 5C which fires many more bullets than Alice's f.5A. Thus the knives begin to trade with the shots, and after all the shots from Alice's f.5A are subtracted from the field we are still left with some knives that continue firing past the point of impact. This is a very basic example of "Overwhelming", and probably wouldn't occur much in battle anyway since Alice has better bullet attacks in her arsenal.

One advantage to this technique, as you might guess, is the option of dealing with bullet+melee combinations that your opponent uses. Rather than relying entirely on Graze Attacks or avoiding your opponent's setups, you can try overwhelming them. Which takes us back to Sakuya:

As you can see, Sakuya airdash canceled the j.2C rather quickly, so there's only six knives on the screen. Rather than attempting a graze or an air-to-air beat, it stands to reason that a bullet attack that fires more than six projectiles would overwhelm Sakuya's knives. Once the bullets pass through Sakuya's knives, Sakuya is forced to either block or graze the opponent's overwhelming projectiles which grants a little more leeway to the defender. Unfortunately for Yukari, none of her bullets are well suited for this. But in the case of an opponent Sakuya, the defender Sakuya could use 2C to quickly overwhelm the knives.

As we see here, simple numbers aren't always the cause of bullets being overwhelmed. This is Yukari's fj.A knives against Yuyuko's j.C butterflies. Both attacks send of three waves, and five projectiles in each wave. Thus, because of numbers, we could assume that they would simply collide and break even; canceling each other out. This is not the case though, because Yuyuko's butterfly bullets actually have rather large hit areas (like the fat cow herself), and that leads to multiple butterflies trading with a single knife. The end result is that there are some knives that did not collide with anything, and therefor persisted through the waves.

Here we see the opposite happen. This is Yukari's fj.A against Yuyuko's fj.A fired at slightly different heights. The hit areas of both types of bullets is quite small, so what ends up happening is they pass by one another without collision. Despite Yuyuko's fj.A not firing as many bullets, the end result is actually more in Yuyuko's favor than if she had used j.C in this situation. This is because if she had used j.C then all of her bullets would have been negated and nothing would have reached the opponent, and yet Yukari would still have succeeded in getting a few bullets past Yuyuko's waves. But with Yuyuko's fj.A, she is able to at least sneak some bullets past the enemy's bullets.

Here we have an interesting situation. Not all projectiles in IaMP can be overwhelmed -- some are indestructible like Patchouli's 236A (seen above), and some do not collide with enemy bullets such as: Youmu's far-A attacks (all three types), and Yuyuko's far-B (standing and jumping).

However, rather than trying to overwhelm Patchouli's fireball (because it can't be overwhelmed), we see Sakuya use the bypass method with a f.2A which sends knives slightly below the oncoming fireball. At this point, Patchouli has no choice but to high jump cancel the recovery animation for the fireball, otherwise the knives will impact before the recovery ends. The Sakuya player, knowing that Patchouli's only option for avoiding the ground knives is to high jump, sends off another set of knives with fj.A. This puts bullets in a horizontal area that Patchouli will eventually cross while moving upwards. Therefor, Patchouli can not stop in that particular area to fire more bullets, the Patchouli player will need to continue grazing higher into the air, or use an air dash to pass through the second set of knives.

While both sets of knives are likely to whiff an opponent that is paying any bit of attention, that does not mean the act of tossing the knives was worthless/pointless. In reality, the point of throwing the knives was for two reasons:
* First, to force Patchouli into the air. Because Patchouli's arsenal is reduced once in the air, Sakuya will have an easier time advancing on the opponent than against a grounded Patchouli.
* Second, to "buy time" to move forward against Patchouli. Because Patchouli will be busy grazing the knives, Sakuya is free to either throw more bullets or move freely while Patchouli is grazing. After all, if Patchouli is busy grazing then she can't very well be firing bullets.

This is essentially the same as limiting your opponents options through the use of "zoning". By forcing them into the air, and then forcing them higher, you have both limited what they can do and "purchased" time to take initiative by "controlling" specific areas where you know your opponent is likely to move.

More information regarding zoning can be found here and here

Mixups and Spirit

2007-06-11T17:58:00.001-05:00

Once you've gained advantage on your opponent by forcing your opponent into a disadvantageous position; next comes the question of how to hit them. The answer is quite simple if your opponent simply allows you to hit them, however, most competent players will not simply allow themselves to be hit. Rather, competent players will tend to block correctly against your attacks, making it difficult for you to do any real harm.

Thus, in order to deal damage you must apply mixups. In order to mixup, you must unpredictably select an attack from a set of moves that must be defended against in different ways than each other. In IaMP, there's universally four kinds of mixups, and in the case of Youmu Konpaku there is also a fifth. But first, we must understand how the "Spirit" gauge system works in order to understand the virtues of mixups.

First of all, the spirit gauge is what allows you to fire bullets and perform special moves. However, it also allows you to air block and auto-block. So, what is auto-blocking? Well, in IaMP, blocking an attack incorrectly -- such as blocking a low attack with a standing block, or blocking low against a high attack -- will not immediately result in damage to your life and your guard being broken. Instead, blocking an attack incorrectly drains a chunk of your spirit. There are also guard crush attacks that are done with a 22A/B input that hit either high or low and will instantly drain all of your spirit if blocked incorrectly.

When the spirit gauge is drained it turns red, and this is called a "drained state". During this state, a few critical things change:
- You can not fire any bullets or special moves.
- You you can not air block any attack.
- You can not autoblock. Blocking an attack incorrectly will result in a hit or stagger.
- Your spirit recovers half as fast.

Most experienced players will manage their spirit gauge rather well so that they don't accidentally drain their own spirit. Therefor, it's in your best interest to forcefully drain your opponent so that you have an opportunity to land hits. And so that takes up back to mixups.

So, let's see what kind of mixups we have:
- High / Low
- Left / Right
- Melee / Bullet
- Attack / Defend

And in the special case of Youmu Konpaku we also have: Throw / Attack

However, it is very important to note that blocking is a very critical and ever-present third option in all of these mixups.

Here we see Sakuya performing her 2A and then canceling into either 22A, which hits high -- or canceling into 22B, which hits low. If either of these 22* attacks are blocked wrong then the opponents spirit gauge will be instantly drained. The concept of unpredictably selecting either 22A or 22B after another attack is a basic High/Low mixup that most characters are able to use (with a few exceptions).

Here we have Yuyuko Saigyouji performing a Left / Right mixup using her j.A, which is called a Cross-up. This attack has quite a huge range and hits from both sides of Yuyuko's body, making it an ideal crossup. In this picture, the image on the left shows Yuyuko timing her j.A a little late while above the opponents head, it hits from the left side (so the opponent must block right). And on the image to the right we have Yuyuko timing the attack a little early which causes a crossup, therefor it hits from the right side (so the opponent must block left). Crossups are universally familiar concepts for many 2D fighting games. However, it should be noted that a lot of crossups can be performed in this game using bullets: bullets can be fired at the opponent, then while the bullets are about to hit your opponent you can perform a crossup so that when the bullets connect the opponent must either block left or right, depending on where you are.

Here we have Sakuya performing a 5B in the first image. Next, Sakuya chooses between a 5C bullet string, which we see up top, or a 22A melee attack which we see on the bottom. This is a mixup because in between 5B and 5C there is a gap, which means the bullets don't connect quickly enough before the blockstun ends from the 5B. Technically, Sakuya could do a 2C instead and then the bullets would connect fast enough, but leaving a gap in between 5B and 5C is intentional. This is because it allows the opponent to graze through the bullets with either a high jump or dash. However, this is when it becomes a mixup. If the opponent attempts to high jump or dash after the 5B, and Sakuya did a 22A instead, the opponent would be hit by the 22A. The method to prevent getting hit with Sakuya's 22A is generally block, but the action of blocking allows Sakuya to continue the string by high jump canceling the 5C and then immediately performing an instant air dash into a j.B, which then allows her to continue the string further leading into more chip damage, spirit damage, and another mixup.

So, this is what the permutations would look like:

Opponent grazes : Sakuya 5B 22A -> opponent is hit, opens up a combo
Opponent blocks : Sakuya 5B 22A -> Safe on block, neutral position
Opponent grazes : Sakuya 5B 5C -> Opponent grazes, Sakuya chases with j.A or j.B
Opponent Blocks : Sakuya 5B 5C -> Sakuya IAD j.B j.C D6 j.B 2B/5B -> etc. Opponent takes spirit damage, chip damage, and must face another mixup when Sakuya lands.

And the final type of universal mixup is a mixup based on anticipation. Or rather, it exploits anticipation. Basically, it is taking advantage of an opponents poor reaction, or takes advantage of moments where it's impossible to react in time even with really good reaction. In other games, this is generally referred to as somewhat of a "Mindgame" moreso than a "Mixup". The well experienced player Bellreisa has dubbed the concept in regards to IaMP as "equity". To quote Bellreisa: "Basically, I use it to mean training the opponent" - "You're basically investing in using a certain action that gives you match equity in the form of reducing their potential reactions, giving you more freedom to work with". Sounds complicated, but it is actually quite simple and makes perfect sense. Let's take a look at a simple example:

Here we see Yuyuko performing her 66B, and then either performing a 6B or 2A. Yuyuko's 6B may not look like much, but it's one of the more feared attacks in the game and is dubbed "The Flip". But before we get into that, the thing about 66B is that it is actually -7F on block, making it a disadvantageous move to use on block. However, the opponent Alice Margatroid's fastest move has a 7F startup, which is her 5B. So, in this situation Alice can not actually punish Yuyuko's 66B because the recovery ends fast enough for Yuyuko to block Alice's fastest retaliation. However, Alice is technically at an advantage here, if Alice performs a 5B it will technically beat almost anything that Yuyuko does, simply because the hit frame of Alice's 5B will connect on the first frame that Yuyuko recovers. Therefor, if Yuyuko performs any action then Alice's 5B will connect during that start-up of that action (including 2A).

That's where 6B comes in. Technically Yuyuko's 6B has invulnerability frames, including the first frame. Thus, if Yuyuko performs a 6B immediately after a 66B and Alice sticks out a 5B, then Yuyuko's 6B invulnerability will allow her to pass through Alice's 5B.

However, this is not particularly useful on it's own because if the opponent Alice simply blocks then Yuyuko's 6B will whiff, and Alice can punish the 6B with 6A. And that's where the mixup begins. Because if Alice anticipates that Yuyuko will perform a 6B, then she will block. If Yuyuko instead performs a 2A, then it will connect against the blocking Alice. On the other hand, Alice's 5B will beat Yuyuko's 2A after Yuyuko's 66B, but keep in mind that if Yuyuko does 6B instead then it will beat Alice's 5B.

So, labeling Yuyuko's 6B "The Flip" the permutations would look like this:

Yuyuko 66B, Alice Blocks, Yuyuko 2A -> 2A is blocked, Yuyuko continues attack string.
Yuyuko 66B, Alice Attacks, Yuyuko 2A -> Alice connects an attack.
Yuyuko 66B, Alice Blocks, Yuyuko 6B -> Yuyuko's Flip whiffs and Alice can punish with 6A
Yuyuko 66B, Alice Attacks, Yuyuko 6B -> Yuyuko's Flip counters Alice's Attack due to invulnerability frames.

As you can see, it's technically a disadvantageous situation for Yuyuko. However, if Alice always attempts an attack then Yuyuko can always beat this attack with 6B. Therefor, if Alice understands that her attacks will lose to 6B, she can instead choose to block, which is more advantageous because in every situation blocking doesn't result in failure for Alice, it only potentially results in blocking Yuyuko's 2A which leads into a blockstring and potential mixup.

Keep in mind though, that Yuyuko also has the option of simply blocking after the 66B, much as Alice does too. If Yuyuko chooses to block after the 66B she isn't technically vulnerable to a hit, although she is vulnerable to a mixup from Alice.

However, knowing this, Yuyuko can still take advantage of Alice's blocking by continuing the block string. And this is what Bellreisa refers to as "equity". But constantly using 6B after 66B, you "train" the opponent into blocking because you force them to fear/expect/respect/anticipate the 6B Flip, which they can not beat with a melee. And once you have gotten your opponent to fear/expect/respect/anticipate the 6B, you can take advantage of this by instead using 2A and continuing with a block string. To put it simply: Yuyuko's 6B can and should be used as a "threat", and not as an actual "weapon" (Such as: "All bark, no bite").

This concept in particular is nearly as old as the Fighting Game genre itself, or at least as old as Street Fighter 2.

Defense and Graze Attacks

2007-06-10T13:18:00.004-05:00

"Defense Part 1; Melee, Graze Attacks, and Cover"

Defending yourself in IaMP is somewhat like defense in other games. But once again, the bullet and graze systems existing in IaMP modify a lot of how players perform even the simplest of actions.

Here we see Yukari Yakumo performing her 2B and 6B (respectively). As you can see from the approximate (now exact) hitboxes placed in the pictures, these attacks appear to be incredibly good. In the case of the 2B the slash is the hitbox, and it extends very far vertically into the air, which seems to make for a wonderful anti-air attack. Likewise, Yukari's 6B appears to be an anti-ground attack because the majority of her body sinks into the ground so that her hittable box becomes very small, while she extends some signs that have no hittable box, but are actually just solid hitboxes. These hitboxes are quite large and start right in front of Yukari and extend a large distance forward in a sweeping fashion. These attacks might well be considered on the same level as Cammy c.HP / s.RH (of Capcom's CvS2 fame), and Chun c.HK / s.HP (of Capcom's 3S fame). But in this game, these moves alone don't quite cut it due to bullets and Cover.

Here we see a couple pictures (scaled 50%) of instances where Yukari is at a disadvantage due to the bullets that Sakuya has placed on the screen. In the first picture we see Sakuya performing j.2C then air dash canceling; this sends off some knives diagonally downward and lets Sakuya follow closely behind. Against this, Yukari can not use her 2B for anti-air against Sakuya because the knives already on the screen will hit Yukari out of her 2B. If Yukari instead tries to graze with a high jump then Sakuya can hit with her j.A, and if Yukari tries to graze forward then Sakuya can hit with j.B.

In the second picture we see a rain of knives from Sakuya's 214B. In this instance Yukari can not use 6B to keep Sakuya away on the ground due to the knives that would hit Yukari out of the 6B. And again, if Yukari tries to graze by high jumping then Sakuya can hit with her j.A, and if Yukari tries to graze forward then Sakuya can hit with whatever melee she likes.

This is where Graze Attacks can become useful. They are attacks that are performed while ground dashing forward and the attacks themselves are able to graze while their hitbox is extended. Thus, you are able to attack while grazing. Every character except Remilia Scarlet comes equipped with four dash attacks, although some graze while attacking and others do not, therefor some are certainly more useful for grazing than others.

Here we have Patchouli Knowledge performing her 33B and 66B (respectively). Despite how they look they are both technically melee because they can not be grazed. But these are also graze attacks which means they can pass harmlessly through bullets while active.

As you can see, Patchouli's 33B is angled diagonally upward, making it a rather good anti-air for situations outlined previously, such as Sakuya's j.C airdash cancel:

In that situation, Patchouli's 33B can pass through Sakuya's knives while attacking at an upward angle and hit Sakuya out of the air.

However, Patchouli's 33B is angled upward and isn't particularly effective against grounded opponnets. So in the case of Sakuya on the ground; Patchouli could instead use 66B to attack in a horizontal path.

These types of attacks aren't all-purpose though and can be baited. In the situation of Patchouli using 33B, Sakuya could simply air block the 33B and punish, or airdash out of it's hit area and punish from a different angle. On the ground Patchouli's 66B has a fairly sized hitbox, but it's not large enough to beat all of Sakuya's moves. If Sakuya predicts Patchouli's 66B then Sakuya can counter with her own 66B or 6B, or some other move that directly counters Patchouli's melee hit area.

Thus, baiting becomes part of the game. It is important for players to be aware of their opponents potential reactions to each movement. When you're aware of their potentiality, you can take steps to bait these reactions and punish. Such as in the Patchouli vs Sakuya example; one might expect Patchouli to anti-air with the 33B, but knowing that Patchouli is capable of this the Sakuya player can take steps to avoid being hit by it and punish it.

Gaining Advantage

2007-06-09T01:35:00.001-05:00

As outlined in my previous post, there is an interesting dynamic involving the "first step" for advancing in on your opponent successfully in IaMP. In most older 2D fighters; every action is a short, deliberate, and generally direct action. Although the game of footsies can sometimes seem indirect because you are pushing your opponent into the corner and advancing on your opponent slowly, but after a certain amount of experience the concept becomes more obvious and and seemingly more direct.

The fact is; if a movement doesn't immediately lead to you punching your in the face, that doesn't mean the movement was a failure or worthless. In most older Fighting games, it is more ideal to control the area around yourself with hitboxes and potential hitboxes, while slowly advancing forward and forcing the hit-area "bubble" more and more toward your opponent, thus pushing your opponent further into the corner -- because obviously they don't want to be inside your bubble unless they can guarantee an ideal outcome (countering/beating your attack). Yes, it seems indirect to the untrained player, but in reality it is brute force and very direct -- the aggressor is pushing and shoving their opponent into a very bad spot where they have less options.

IaMP, however, can at times feel even more indirect due to the movement system that allows characters a large range of motion. However, deep down it's really quite the same, it just doesn't appear that way superficially. In order to advance on your opponent you must purchase a particular area in order to own that area, and once that area is owned you must react to your opponent in order to gain advantage. In IaMP this is called "Cover", though in other games it's generally referred to as "Zoning" and "Controlling Space".

In short: there's multiple steps that you have to take before you can hit your opponent without fail, you can't just go from point (A) to point (Z) without stopping at all the other points first.

Here we see Sakuya performing her 236C bullet attack, scaled at 50% size. Another particularly strong bullet move. The bullets fired spread out rather erratically by shooting in a random direction angled forwards, and thus it becomes a swarm of knives that travels gradually horizontally. By spending some of her meter she has partially purchased the area in front of her. The projectiles move horizontally slow enough for Sakuya to dash into them either from the air or ground. And now that area, plus the area she is able to cover with melee, is "owned".

At this point, with Sakuya you can choose what to do depending on what your opponent is doing. If the opponent attempts to overwhelm your bullets with their own bullets then you can graze or graze-attack through the opponents bullets. If the opponent attacks from the ground (generally with a graze attack), then you can attack from the air. If the opponent goes into the air, then you can chase them with a jumping melee such as with her j.A. And if the opponents gets hit or simply blocks, then you now have momentum.

As you can see from these two pictures (scaled 50% again), Sakuya has purchased a great deal of vertical and horizontal space by firing her 236C (in these pictures, a j.236C). But she does not control that space with the bullets (knives) alone, since the opponent can simply graze through the bullets. However the opponent can't graze forward against Sakuya's j.B because they will run right into the j.B hitbox. They also can't high jump graze or they will run into Sakuya's j.A hitbox. They also can not attack with melee because the bullets will hit them out of the melee. And they can not use bullets because Sakuya's bullets will trade with them, leaving her melee to smack the opponent in the face.

The correct answer for this trap is to either block, or avoid it in the first place by using your own bullets and melee to control the space that Sakuya would normally try to perform this string in. Basically, push comes to shove, much like in other 2D Fighters.

Bullets, Graze, and Cover

2007-06-08T23:55:00.001-05:00

One thing that makes IaMP very unique in comparison to other 2D Fighting games is the bullet and "graze" systems.

Each character has the ability to throw a variety of projectiles (called Bullets or Danmaku) with a wide range of properties at the opponent, at the cost of some meter (called spirit) -- which recharges on it's own. These projectiles will dissipate if they collide with enemy projectiles.

All characters also have the ability to pass through these bullets with a dash or high jump which is called "Graze". There are also ground-based graze attacks that all characters posses that allow the character to transition from a dash into an attack that also has graze properties.

What's more, most projectile attacks can be high jump canceled after firing on the ground, or air dash canceled if fired in the air. Due to this, characters are generally able to perform melee attacks (which cannot be grazed) while their projectiles are still on the screen. What develops from this is a very dynamic and deep controlling, zoning, baiting, and trapping game. To put it simply, each character can fill specific areas with their bullets in order to control that area and force the opponent into some kind of reaction. Once this reaction takes place, the aggressor can take advantage of this by using projectile and melee attacks. However, it's not as clean-cut as simply that and there's much more to it.

This is Sakuya Izayoi and she is performing her jumping C bullet attack. As you can see, she is firing multiple knives. Three per set, and five sets, making it a total of fifteen knives. That's quite a lot of projectiles. This is one of the better (and easier to use) bullets in the game. The main reason is because it's so fast and so dense. Because there's so many bullets fired and because they are so densely packed, it's difficult for the opponent to overwhelm these bullets with their own. Meaning, if you only fire one or two bullets of your own they will quickly be destroyed by Sakuya's j.C, and more knives will continue to fly past your projectiles and at you.

There is the option to just block it, but that means that Sakuya gains direct advantage and can begin trying to use attacks to break your guard or chip away at your life. There is the option of grazing, but while you graze you can not block which leaves you vulnerable to melee. And thus, the trap becomes apparent:

Again we see some knives on the screen from Sakuya's j.C. But now we also see that Sakuya has thrown some knives, air dash canceled the knife toss, and the performed a j.B melee. Kind of a puny looking kick, isn't it? In most games we have attacks that could easily beat it with superior hitboxes, either with anti-airs or air-to-airs. Most fighting game players are use to this sort of concept of using the correct hitbox to counter the opponents hitbox, which is called a "Beat".

But wait, there's projectiles. Thus, the game changes. You can't use a melee attack on the ground or air to beat Sakuya's j.B because the bullets directly in front of her will hit you. You will also have a lot of trouble passing through her bullets with a ground Graze dash because as soon as you pass through her bullets you will run right into her j.B. You simply do not have enough time after passing through her bullets to perform your attack because you will be far too close and your attack will have too much start-up. You will also have trouble with air-to-air for the same reasons, if you try to high jump Graze through the bullets then you will immediately run into Sakuya's j.B. Your air attacks will be simply too slow to beat Sakuya's because hers is already out, and yours has start-up frames that it needs to go through before the hitbox comes out.

So how to beat this attack. Well, there's a couple ways, but for the most part it's situational (like almost everything else in IaMP). There is the option of Graze Attacks which are ground-based attacks that can pass through bullets. Sounds pretty good, but it's character-specific and can be baited. Again, because Sakuya's j.B is already out you have to begin your attack early while inside the bullet wave in order to really have a chance at beating her j.B, but if she faked and did not do the j.B attack she can instead punish your attempt with her own action like another bullet wave or special move or even another airdash to avoid your graze attack. The other thing is that a lot of graze attacks are very specific (character specific, at that) and the attacks that you get might not beat Sakuya's j.B. Or rather, Sakuya may place herself in the air at the correct height to avoid your graze attacks knowing what your character is capable of. Another option that some characters have is to overwhelm the bullets with their own, if they have an attack that is simply more dense or persists through bullets.

However, the final option is to simply avoid both attacks with proper movement. Since you have attacks of your own, you can control specific areas and make these areas "safe zones", which allows you to move into a position of your desire safely. Therefor, if Sakuya is high in the air you can pass below her, or if she is low to the ground you can pass above her and use attacks to ensure your safety while moving. Doesn't sound like it achieves much, but it does; you avoid Sakuya's trap.

You see, in most 2D Fighters you can't simply run up and punch your opponent in the face. In these games the opponents will be using their own attacks to prevent you from advancing close enough to "punch them in the face". IaMP isn't much different, you can't simply run up and punch the opponent in the face. However, it's a lot less of a question of using the correct hitbox to counter your opponent's hitbox, and more of a question of dominating specific areas and forcing your opponent into making bad choices. Sounds kind of familiar actually, sounds a lot like MvC2 and the mindgames that exist in ST -- I know that's a bold statement, but in reality it's very very similar.

An example of what I mean is to say Sakura c.HP, Cammy c.HP, and Chun-Li c.HK (of Capcom fame) are all good hitboxes for countering a jump-in attack. However, even if such attacks existed in IaMP you could only use these attacks as anti-air against an opponents melee-only jump-in. However, the players in IaMP would not simply come at you with a plain melee attack and allow you to beat them with a superior hitbox. Instead, the players will use a combination of bullets and melee to ensure that you can not directly beat their melee so easily, such as the Sakuya example. This is called "Cover", and what it means is that the c.HP's and c.HK's anti-airs will fail to the bullets.

And that takes us back to how to beat such an attack as Sakuya's j.C airdash cancel j.B. And once again, you can not directly beat it with a simple melee -- in order to beat it you have to indirectly beat it with stratagem. You can not simply run up and punch her in the face.

Immaterial and Missing Power

2007-06-07T23:34:00.001-05:00

Immaterial and Missing Power is a PC doujin 2D Fighter that supports online netplay. Based on the Touhou series, it was created by Tasogare Frontier and developed by ZUN of Shanghai Alice, which is a doujinshi game circle.

The game generally plays like a cross between Guilty Gear and Marvel, except without all the ridiculously long dial-a-combos. However, the strong emphasis on controlling space, zoning, trapping, baiting, and momentum exists in IaMP.

The game aesthetics are rather deceptive. At first glance it appears that a bunch of chibi lolita girls "farts rainbows and sneezes pixie dust" at each other, then "shit out stars and spin around like crazy bitches on counter hits" (quotes taken from Bellreisa and Lovely_K, respectively). However, there's quite a bit more to it than just the aesthetics, actually playing it is quite a different experience.

The purpose of this blog will be to depict some of what I've learned while playing and spectating other players, so that others may share and possibly benefit from my observations and analysis.

To learn some of the basics of IaMP, read the IaMP Basic's FAQ and/or read the IaMP Wiki.