Gameplay Glossary

Takumaji

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Every now and then, I see questions like "what is a crossup?" or "what does hcb, qcb or dp mean?" You know, all these shortcuts that ppl use to describe their combos and fighting game strats. I feel that more members could take part in cool gameplay discussions if more of them would know what a dragon punch is, or what ppl mean if they're talking about move cancelling, hit trading, auto-guard, unblockable moves, etc.

I know that there are a lot of faqs about this on the internet, but I think it wouldn't hurt to have a nice sticky topic in the gameplay forums with a fighting game tech glossary so that ppl could refer to it during a discussion.

Thoughts? Charlie, what do you think?
 

COMEDISDEGNO

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It sounds good.

And what about making sticky the gameplay topics that prove to be deep enough to deserve the attention of everyone, like the Shock Troopers 2 one?
Rather than having the same threads popping out over and over again...
 

FeelGood

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you could start with using this one as the thread, and if it becomes fleshed out, I'll sticky it. But if anyone makes a redundant post or starts attention whoring with some stupid remarks, I'll take the liberty of deleting said posts from the thread. Sounds like a good idea?
 

SonGohan

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I'll start with a few:

QCF = Quarter Circle Forward; to rotate the joystick from the 'Down' position a quarter circle forward to the 'Forward' position

QCB = Quarter Circle Backward; to rotate the joystick from the 'Down' position a quarter circle backward to the 'Back' position

HCF = Half Circle Forward; to rotate the joystick from the 'Back' position a half circle forward to the 'Forward' position

HCB = Half Circle Backward; to rotate the joystick from the 'Forward' position a half circle backward to the 'Back' position

DP = Dragon Punch; to Press 'Forward' to 'Down' to 'Down-Forward'. Name taken from the first move to utilize this motion - Ryu and Ken's Dragon Punch (Shoryuken) in Street Fighter.

Crossup = To position your character perfectly on one side to attack and land on the other through a jump attack. This lets the attacker land while your opponent falls forward towards you from the blow, allowing for deep hitting combos to followup that would otherwise not be possible because of your opponent being pushed away by attacking with a regular jump in attack.

Move cancelling = To cancel a move essentially means to cancel the rest of the animation into another move, which normally is unblockable. These make up your basic combos, and knowing what moves can cancel into others (normals and supers alike) are the building blocks for your every day combos.
 

Robert

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a little DM,SDM and HDSM explanation would be great too. I let the native english members make a definition with the good terms.
 

COMEDISDEGNO

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General glossary:

f = forward
b = back
u = up
d = down

+ = to press different directions or buttons at the same time.

For example, A+B, f+C...
When talking about combinations of two different directions this is often skipped, as it's preferred to use notation like 'df', ub' etc.

*RDP = Reverse Dragon Punch motion
Performed by moving the joystick from back to down to down-back
(or b,d,db)

*QCD = Quarter Circle Down
Forward to down-forward to down (f,df,d)

*RQCD = Reverse Quarter Circle Down
Back to down-back to down (b,db,d). Quite rare.

*360 (degrees) = a motion that, most of the time, requires rotating the joystick 270 degrees (yes, the name could be misleading ).

Examples:
b,db,d,df,f,uf,u
u, uf, f, df, d, db, b

Most of these require perfect timing, and are easier to perform when landing from a jump. Motions are generally equivalent, without need to care about the direction you follow (clockwise or anti-clockwise) or the position you start from (forward, back, up...).
There're exceptions, though.

*720 (degrees) = same as above, but the required joystick rotations are two, for a total of 630 degrees.
Unless you cancel the move from another action it will be almost necessary to perform it after landing from a jump (and therefore starting to imput the motion when still in the air)
 

COMEDISDEGNO

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Juggle

To hit an airborne opponent thrown in the air by a previous move.

An example could be Kyo in Kof: his qcf+K, K sends the opponent flying ('juggles him'), open to any other attack as long as he remains in the air ('juggled').


Counter

1) A move triggered by the enemy's attack. When hit, the character stops the opponent's action and performs a counterattack.
There are lots of possible variations:

it could be a general feature (CD in Kof, Matrimelee, ROTD, dp+X in Vampire Saviour, hcf+A in Kizuna) or simply a peculiar move (Kyo's qcb+P in Kof);

it could be performed BEFORE the enemy attack, as a stand alone move, or DURING the enemy attack, when blocking;

it could counter any kind of attack (high, low, phisycal, fireballs, DMs...) or just a particular one;

etc etc.

2) an in-game feature that shows when an action by any of the character has been interrupted by the opponent attack.
This could have no consequences, or lead to new combo chances: a countered attack could let the character stunned for a longer time, or juggled higher, or more severely damaged.


Pursuit or Off The Ground (OTG)

A move that has the ability to hit a grounded opponent. It could be a peculiar attack, not available when the enemy is standing (Vampire Saviour, Last Blade, Samurai Spirits, Waku Waku 7) or a normal move (Kizuna Encounter, Capcom VS series, Kof).


Soon to follow:

Dizzy or Stun

Follow-up, Add on

Autoguard


If anyone has any correction, both with grammar and concept, i'll be happy to make the due editing.
 
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Takumaji

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Had to split up my post into two, obviously the new vB limites the # of characters per post to 10,000... hmm...

All terms in italics refer to a description in this post for cross-reference.

(S)DM

(Super) Desperation Move. Very strong Special Move, usually with a more difficult command compared to the standard moves/specials. Example: Ryo's Ryuuko Ranbu, qcf,hcb+P. A Super-version of a DM delivers more hits and/or does more damage. Comes out slower than other specials.

Originally, a DM was intended to be used in desperate situations only when the power bar is flashing. The first Neo game that introduced DMs was Art of Fighting (1992).

Air Block

The technique to block in mid-air with the normal block-command (usually back or down-back). This comes in handy when fighting against charas with good anti-air moves. Not all games offer this, tho.

Anti Air

Normal or Special Move useful to defend against an opponent that does a jumping attack. Example: Ryo's or Iori's Dragon Punches.

Attack Breaking

Gameplay option in Garou - Mark of the Wolves. Every character has a move that can be broken by pressing AB. The move animation gets interrupted and suddenly ends. This can be used to get a faster Recovery Time or to pull off a Break Combo. Example for breakable moves in MotW: Kevin Ryan's Hell Trap (qcf+K), Marco's (Butt's) Kou'hou (dp+P).

Backstep

Command: quickly press the stick back twice and your character will hop back. Not all games have this. Usefull to dodge an attack and continue with a counter.

Break Points

Refers to a gameplay feature in Fighter's History Dynamite/Karnov's Revenge. All characters have a weak spot (like head band, knee, leg band, etc.) that take more damage when hit than other areas. Concentrating a hard-hitting combo on a weak spot can lead to immediate defeats, for example hitting a slightly weakened character with a high Break Point (like Matlock's head gear) with Mizoguchi's aerial qcf+K x5 combo.

Canned String

Pre-defined String Combo, can only be used if you input a fixed sequence of button presses. Example: The CD-Strings in Samurai Shodown IV, after initiating the String with CD, follow up with A,A,B,B,C,C,A,B,C,C,C,C,C (there's one minor variation as well). Gives you no flexibility and always comes out the same way.

Command Attack

A CA refers to simple moves that consist of pressing the stick in one direction, followed by a push of a button, like forward+A, back+B, down-forward+A, etc. In games like King of Fighters, almost any character has at least two command attacks, most of them can be used in combos, that's why they're an important part of the engine.

Command Throw

Most Grapplers (like Goro, Clark, Shermie, Zangief) have additional throws apart from the usual standard throws. These Command Throws have Special-Move-like commands (qcf+A, hcb+K, etc.) but have to be pulled off when being close and thus need extra timing and a good sense for strategy. Examples: Goro's Kirikabu Gaeshi (hcf+C), Clark's Super Argentine Backbreaker (hcf+D).

Dodge Attack

Term used in conjunction with the Extra (EX) Mode in King of Fighters up to and including KoF98. Refers to an attack that immediately follows a dodge move (AB), useful to initiate counters

Emergency Evade

Certain games like the KoF series have a feature that lets the player escape from a dangerous situation by sacrificing one power Stock/energy. Command: back/forward+AB. Your character will leave a blue trail behind while rolling away. Can only be used if you have at least one Stock.

Evade Roll

See Emergency Evade

Feint Move

In Garou - Mark of the Wolves (and other games), you can pull off fake moves to annoy your opponent and/or to start hard-hitting combos. A Feint Move refers to a special move that does not come out, usually only the first two or three anim frames can be seen, tricking your opponent into thinking that you're about to use a certain move which may lead to a wrong strategy that can be exploited. Advanced gameplay feature.

Frames

The animation of a sprite you see on the screen is composed of several frames. Each frame represents one position of the character's movement, the more frames, the more fluid. For example, if ppl refer to the Auto Guard-feature of "the first few frames" of an attack, they refer to the first two "pictures" of the move, the beginning of the move animation.

Grapplers

Characters that use Throws and Command Throws as their primary fighting techniques. Grapplers can be very powerful opponents because in order to counter their mid- and long-range weaknesses, most developers gave them insanely damaging throws. Playing a Grappler needs good timing, a calm playing style and profound knowledge of counters, Reversals and when to use a Command Throw to reach its fullest potential.

Guard Cancel Attack

If you hit a blocking opponent with a Guard Cancel Attack, his block automatically ends and you can follow up the Guard Cancel with another move. Many DMs can do guard cancelling. Also called Guard Break or Guard Crush.

Guard Crush

See Guard Cancel Attack

High/Low Games

Mixing high (for ex. standing A, jumping D) and low attacks (any crouching attack, crouching B, etc.) in a more or less random way to confuse your opponent and use his confusion to open him up and combo him. Very effective against players that are bad at blocking or slower/bigger characters that mostly rely on their powerful but hard-to-connect specials.

Hit Trading

If you hit an opponent and he hits you at the same time with an attack that has the same Priority as yours, chances are that you hit the opponent but he will hit you at the same time with about the same amount of damage, so the hits get traded and you (and your opponent) won't get an advantage from the attack. Not all moves that have the same priority always trade hits, it depends on the type of move; as a rule of thumb, most punching attacks tend to trade hits.

Hitting/Landing Deeply

For most combos that start with a jumping attack, the first command of the combo (the jumping attack itself) has to be pulled off very shortly before hitting the ground or else the following moves won't combo and you will hit the block, thus giving your opponent a free counter ticket. This is called "landing the hit deep".

Knock-Down Attack

Like the name suggest, an attack that knocks the opponent to the ground. Some characters even have follow-up moves that can attack or pick up a grounded opponent. Most of them lose their KO potential when used in combos, else they wouldn't be usable because the combo would end with the KO.

Mind Games

Any form of attack or strategy that comes out totally unexpected and/or tricks your opponent into doing something stupid that could be exploited by a nice counter attack. Sometimes, simply jumping up and down can be enough to make a nervous opponent attack you with a predictable move which can be punished right away. Playing these mind games and being unpredictable is a core part of competitive 2P fighting games.

Plane Attack

Term used in conjunction with the Fatal Fury games like FF1/2/3/Special, RBFF, RBS, RB2 (not Motw). In these games, you can change the plane from the foreground to the background, thus dodging incoming attacks like projectiles, etc. You can also start a Plane Attack that refers to a an attack against an opponent that is on a different plane as you.
 
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Lee Gray

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I have never used the letter approach myself

I use the clock system for example if i was trying to explain to someone to do a fireball, i would tell them its 6 to 3 as in 6 being down and turn to 3 on the clock being right. anyways it works for me :)
 

COMEDISDEGNO

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A method that i personally hate.
I find it bloody unintuitive and annoying, but i suppose it's just me :)

Phew, great work Takumaji.
Must have taken two or three hours to be written, my respect.
 

Takumaji

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COMEDISDEGNO said:
A method that i personally hate.
I find it bloody unintuitive and annoying, but i suppose it's just me :)

Phew, great work Takumaji.
Must have taken two or three hours to be written, my respect.

In Asia, the number system is very common, but I'm not used to it so it's hard for me to figure it out. I even wrote a sed script once that translated all the 236's and 63214's into qcf's and hcb's...

Oh, and thank you! :)
 

Takumaji

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Part two of my post... that 10,000 character limit really sucks.

Poking

Standing more than a character-length away from your opponent and hitting him with your farthest-reaching normal move. In many fighting games, a well-timed poke can even stop (S)DMs and Super Combos.

Priority

Some moves are more powerful than others, and some "overrrule" another move. For example, Iori is infamous for his high-priority jumping D which is stronger than most other jumping attacks; if you jump against him with a normal A punch and he uses his jumping D against you, you will lose to it and get hit. Knowing the priority of your moves or at least the highest-priority moves of your fave characters is essential in knowing which move to use in what situation. Note that Priority does not necessarily mean that a high-Priority move does more damage than a lower-priorized move, it's just "stronger" in technical terms.

Recovery Roll

See Tech Roll

Recovery Time

Time that passes after a missed (or even successfully landed) move before your character is able to continue with another move. Most Special Moves have a Recovery Time if they miss which opens you for a counter-attack, that's why it's important to weigh the damage a special move does against the drawbacks should you miss.

Repel

Term used in the Last Blade games. Command: D or forward/down-forward+D. A repel reverses an opponent's attack and gives you the chance to counter with a attack/combo of your choice. This way, you not only can avoid getting hit but also punish your opponent for hitting you. This technique becomes essential in competitive 2P battles.

Reversal

A Reversal is a move that catches an opponent's attack and turns tables so that you can counter-attack him. This is specially useful against players that keep up high pressure by floading you with an ongoing cascade of string combos and normal Pokes. Examples: Rock Howard's Crack Counter Jou-dan/Ge-Dan (qcf+B/D), Yamazaki's Sadomazo (hcf+K).

Special Move

Any move that is not a standard punch or kick or a Command Attack. Example: Iori's projectile, qcf+P.

Stock

Energy Unit. Commonly refers to the Power Stocks in the King of Fighters games. You can stock a certain amount of Power Stocks for later use, pulling off a (S)DM or doing an Emergency Roll uses one or more of these Stocks that can be replenished by using Special Moves.

Striker Bomb

Term Used in King of Fighters from KoF99 to KoF2k1. Energy unit for a striker call (Command: BC), you will have to spend one Striker Bomb for such a call. Some combos involving strikers even consume a Striker Bomb AND a Stock.

String Combo

Sequence of button pushes, A -> B -> A -> C, etc. Many fighting games have these String Combos (or short Strings) that can be used in a much more flexible way than Canned Strings. Usually good for starting longer combos because you can follow it up with Special Moves in most cases. Games like the Real Bouts (Garou) or Last Blade 1+2 (Speed Mode) heavily rely on these type of combos.

Super Cancelling

Interrupting a Special Move or Command Attack into a (S)DM. Interrupting means that you not only combo into the (S)DM but actually interrupt your Special into the DM which normally is unblockable and does high damage. Example: Cancelling Robert's dp+A into a Haou Shikou Ken (f,hcf+P).

Tech Roll

If you have been hit by an attack that pushes you into the air, you normally fall down to the ground and it takes a while before your characters stands up again. By pressing AB (command may vary from game to game) shortly before hitting the ground, your character will do a lil' leap and safely lands on his feet, giving you the chance for a Counter.

Tick Damage

Damage that occurs if you hit a blocking opponent with a Special Move or (S)DM. Most DMs are able to damage an opponent even if he blocks the move. Cheaping out a blocking opponent that is very low on energy with a DM is called "ticking to death".

Turtling

Crouch-blocking (usually done by holding the stick to down-back) any attack your opponent comes up with to either wait for the timer to run out or for an exceptionally good chance for retaliation.

Unblockables

The animation of an unblockable move will continue even if your opponent blocks it. It will still do (reduced) Tick Damage.

Wake-Up Move

A normal, Special or Command Attack that can be used for attacking an opponent immediately after waking up from a Knock-Down Attack. If you input the command shortly before waking up, the command will come out as soon as your character is back to his feet again. This may surprise your opponent and opens him for a follow-up attack/combo.

---

I'll add more stuff later on.
 
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COMEDISDEGNO

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Dizzy or Stun

Dizzying an opponent is a fundamental technique that requires to hit the enemy repeatetly in a short time OR with a particular attack in order to leave him confused and defenceless, open to any attack for a while.
Stun is usually unavoidable, but the player often has the chance to influence its length by pressing buttons and directions as fast as possible.

The feature was originally introduced by the grandfather of modern fighting games (Street Fighter 2, of course) and remained almost unchanged til today.
Possible variations can be found in a few games: Double Dragon for NG had two different dizzy states, the classic standing one and a knockdown one that required a specific pursuit attack.

A particular kind of dizzy can be found in many mid-nineties titles like the Mortal Kombat series, Killer Instinct 1, Samurai Shodown 4 and, in a different way, Kizuna Encounter.
It required to conclude the match with a given set of moves, thus stunning the opponent and enabling special features like finishing moves (the infamous MK's Fatalities) or the continuation of the previous combos (Kizuna).
By no means this had any impact on the gameplay, as the opponent was defeated anyway; its only effective use was as a score increaser, like in MK 1, where Fatalities granted thousands of bonus points.
 
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Great idea and execution so far!

My only problem is that some of these definitions express opinions that are not directly gameplay related (e.g. Turtles are among some of the most hated in the 2P fighting community, poking shows no skill). Dictionaries/glossaries are usually neutral on such matters.... besides, I thought that turtling wasn't just blocking low all the time, but has grown to describe any very defensive style of play. Also, lots of skillful players use pokes...some would say if it wasn't skillful it wouldn't be effective. I think its best for a resource such as this to stay out of such debates...or at least present both sides in a neutral manner.

Also, I thought unblockable meant any command that can not be defended against with blocking. (e.g. throws, raging demon, full charged washizuka SDM in Last blade). Maybe I'm wrong...

Finally, the term reversal should be amended to include the Street Fighter definition of reversal, which is a special move executed shortly after block stun has subsided for a defending character. Similar to Guard Cancel in MOTW.

Anyway, more terms:

Block Stun
The recovery period after blocking an attack, during which your character can not move. This can be used to one's advantage, especially by grapplers, when executing 720 or 360 motions as a grappler in block stun will not jump while executing a 720 throw. Also useful in Tick throws.


Tick Throw (aka Tick)
Technique used by grapplers comprised of throwing a quick attack to cause an opponent to block, during which time the grappler will execute a command throw (e.g. 360, 720). on their now block-stunned opponent. This is predominately found in fighting games during the early-mid 90s (e.g. Street Fighter 2, TMNT Tournament Fighters, Fighter's History).


Wake Up
The time during which your character is returning to his/her feet from being knocked down. Attacks that can pre-empt this animation are known as Wake-up attacks.

Forward
1. Left or right on the joystick, whichever direction points toward your opponent.

2. Middle attack button on the bottom row of buttons in most 6 button capcom fighting games. Typically had the effect of launching a kick attack was stronger than that of the button to its left and weaker than that of the button to its right.

Option Select
Entering one command a that could have 2 different, but advantageous, outcomes depending on the actions of your opponent.

This term comes from virtua fighter players, but the situations where option select is useful appears in multiple fighting games. For instance, many SNK games could be considered to have option select throws since pressing a direction +punch will result in a throw, if you are close enough to your opponent, or a punch if you are too far away for a throw. In either case you are attacking, which is likely what you wanted. A more typical example would be in Street Fighter 3:3rd Strike, since ducking and pressing weak punch+weak kick will result in throwing a weak punch, but also act as a throw counter should your opponent try to throw you while you are executing the move.

Buffering
Executing an attack while your fighter is in the animation for another attack. In this situation, moves that can be buffered will not pre-empt the attacking portion of the attack which comes before it. Instead, they will execute after the first move has completed or made contact, despite you having completed the motion long before it executes. Example : ducking weak-kick followed by buffered dragon punch in CvS2. (could use some help clarifying this or coming up with a better example)

Armor
1. The quality of a physical (usually non-projectile) attack to complete its animation, unaltered, if the character is counterattacked during the move. Attacks known for this quality include Juggernaut's Juggernaut Punch and Colossus' shoulder charge in the Capcom "vs." games and Shigen's Hisui Sai (HCF+C grab). Note that the character with Armor on his attack still takes damage from being counter attacked by his opponent. However, it is almost always the case that moves with armor will do more damage to a counterattacking character than they will do to the armored character resulting in their being effective attacks. Some projectiles could be said to have armor, I suppose. For example, Sean's Hado-burst actually absorbs other special projectiles on its way to hit sean's opponent.


2. Armor mode in KOF games. (anyone want to provide more details?)

Combo
A sequence of attacks that are unblockable, after the initial attack, when executed with the proper timing between successive attacks. (E.G. Butt's combo of jumping-D, standing C->QCF+B in MOTW). Some games allow combos to be extended should the opponent dizzy during the first part of the combo. (dizzy is underlined because its it defined elsewhere in this thread)

Infinite (when used as a noun)
A combo that can be repeated indefinitely to comprise one combo of greater length. (Example: Geese in SvC: C, D->dash can be repeated indefinitely to form one large combo).
 
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Takumaji

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galvatron said:
Great idea and execution so far!

My only problem is that some of these definitions express opinions that are not directly gameplay related (e.g. Turtles are among some of the most hated in the 2P fighting community, poking shows no skill). Dictionaries/glossaries are usually neutral on such matters.... besides, I thought that turtling wasn't just blocking low all the time, but has grown to describe any very defensive style of play. Also, lots of skillful players use pokes...some would say if it wasn't skillful it wouldn't be effective. I think its best for a resource such as this to stay out of such debates...or at least present both sides in a neutral manner. [...]

Well...

Yes, after thinking about it, I guess you're right, there shouldn't be opinions or subjective ratings in glossaries like that, I'll edit my posts accordingly. Regarding the pokes, I wrote that "excessive poking may lead to boring matches and [...] is no sign of great skill", but here I'm refering to poking-only gameplay without any other skillful combos, strats, etc., not to poking itself, of course it's something that can (or must) be done in some situations, as well as turtling. However, there are ppl that EXCLUSIVELY use poking and turtling as their main strategy, which not only can be annoying but hardly requires any other skills than knowing how to block/crouch-block most attacks and the range of the crouching/standing normal attacks.

IMO, Turtling is more than just defensive play. As the name suggests, a turtler always tries to find a position or a guarding/blocking feature that makes him more or less invincible for attacks and only goes for a hit if it's safe to land without a real chance for a counter by the opponent. Maybe most people have a less narrow defintion of the term, but then you'd need to call most Goro, Clark or Kasumi players turtlers because their characters have only a few offensive moves in favour of command throws and normal grabs.

About your definition of unblockables, the specials/DMs you mentioned certainly are a part of them, will do some research and add changes to my definition if necessary.

I'd also like to hear other people's opinions about this.

Here are some more terms:

Jab, Strong, Fierce

Light, medium and hard punch as defined by Capcom in their Street Fighter games. Unlike SNK, Capcom designed a 6-Button layout for their games. Most FAQs you can find on the Internet use these terms when describing punches in Capcom games.

Short, Forward, Roundhouse

Light, medium and hard kick as defined by Capcom in their fighting games. The terms not only refer to the kick power but also to the way the kicks come out.

Charging, Charge Moves, Charge Characters, Charge Supers

Charging means holding the stick in one direction for a few moments and then pushing it to the opposite side, followed by a push of a button, these commands are called Charge Moves. Examples: Terry's Rising Tackle (charge down,up+P), Guile's Sonic Boom (charge back,forward+P). Some of these characters have Charge Supers with a command similar to the normal charge but more complicated. Example: Guile's Sonic Hurricane (charge back,forward,back,forward+P).

Groove

Term used in Capcom vs SNK 1+2 (Arcade, ported to DC, PSX, Xbox, GC, etc.) to describe the selectable fighting styles. In CvS, you can choose between Capcom and SNK style, in CvS2, there are six different styles (S, N, K, C, A, P). Most of them lean towards existing fighting game franchises like Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Samurai Spirites, Fatal Fury, etc.

For example, playing in N Groove will give you gameplay elements such as running, rolls, small jump, Tech Rolls, a KoF-style power bar system, etc., while you cannot roll in K Groove, instead you get the Just Defend feature from Garou - MotW, etc.

-isms

-isms are extensions of the normal gameplay options in Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha 3. You can choose between X-Ism (a basic play mode with a few simple specials but no Alpha Counter), A-Ism (a more enhanced mode with Level-3 Supers) and V-Ism (less costly Alpha Counters, different movesets for certain characters, your chara does less damage).

-isms also affect the way Super Combos come out, how much damage a character can take and the length of his Guard Power Gauge. What's more, not all Supers and/or Specials are available in every -ism.

T.O.P.

Gameplay feature of Garou - Mark of the Wolves, short for "Technical Offensive Position". The Power Gauge in MotW has a small overlay bar, once your character's energy drops to T.O.P. level, your characters starts to flash and "T.O.P. IN!" appears on the screen. While in this mode, you can pull off a T.O.P. move (Command: CD) that does good normal and guard crush damage. You also get a little extra power, all other attacks do more damage.

Guard Power Gauge

When you block an attack, this gauge decreases. Once empty, your character suffers from a Guard Crush and becomes dizzy. Afterwards, the gauge recharges but with less energy than before, making it easier for your opponent to Guard Crush you again.

Just Defend

Gameplay feature of Garou - Mark of the Wolves. By blocking an incoming attack at the very last moment, your character can be set up for a counter, he will flash blue momentarily and you'll will gain a small amount of health. With good timing, you can counter with a Guard Cancel attack that does heavy damage.

Super Combos

Term used in Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha series. Refers to an exceptionally strong super that does lots of damage and needs parts of or a complete Power Bar. Commands vary, but mostly it's qcf x2 + button.

Alpha Counter

Term used in Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha series. All characters have AC moves that can be used to counter into a hard-hitting attack out of a block. Command: forward + button while blocking (varies). If done successfully, the character suddenly stops blocking and counters with his custom Alpha Counter attack. Useful when defending against opponents that try to tick you to death. This needs one level of the Super Gauge and also decreases the Guard Power Gauge.
 
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Takumaji said:
[...]However, there are ppl that EXCLUSIVELY use poking and turtling as their main strategy, which not only can be annoying but hardly requires any other skills than knowing how to block/crouch-block most attacks and the range of the crouching/standing normal attacks.

Some would still say, if its winning matches then its the "right" way to play. Winning at tournament level with those tactics still takes skill...I saw a japanese CvS2 tourney where a sakura just destroyed a sagat with nothing but jump, down+short and roundhouse. I surely couldn't do that...

Rushdown
Applying constant pressure to one's opponent at close range. Entails running, dashing or any other method to quickly closing the distance between you and your opponent. Usually involves pushing your opponent into the corner high/low games and Blocked Strings to probe an opponents defenses in hopes of landing one of your attacks. Upon landing an attack a good rusher will start a combo/super to further punish the opponent then continue to be on the offensive.

the corner
The leftmost or rightmost point on the screen were the background can only scroll in one direction. Placing an opponent in the corner usually puts them at a tactical disadvantage as you have eliminated their ability to back way from you (since the screen can only scroll in the direction they are facing) and certain damaging combos are only possible in the corner. This usually forces the opponent into a more defensive posture while opening more offensive options for you.

Blocked string
a combo or sequence of attacks that can be executed on a blocking opponent. A good blocked string is one which results in your character being too far away from your opponent to retailiate (most fighting games cause your character to move slightly further away from your opponent after a blocked attack).

Bread and Butter(combo) (aka B&B)
A Bread and butter combo is a combo that strikes the balance between being applicable in a wide range of situations, simplicity of execution/ reliability, doing an acceptable amount of damage, and offering little opportunity for retaliation by one's opponent should the combo be blocked. In short, this combo is a staple (pun intended) of an effective player's offense, hence the name "bread and butter". A very basic potential B&B with Ryu is ducking medium kick->hadouken.

On reaction
An attack is said to be done "on reaction" if it was done in response to seeing an opportunity to land said attack. For example, when blocking a jumping atttack with shigen or tizoc one can execute a special throw "on reaction (ie. upon seeing the your character block the incoming attack). Moves done on reaction sometimes require an alert player and fast hands whereas other games move slow enough to make this type of offense easier.

Another situation in which one might want to do an attack on reaction is when using terry's ducking weak kick, weak kick combo. Should the 2 -attack combo hit the opponent, the alert player would realize that he has the option of ending with a "burn-knuckle" or "buster wolf". If the combo was blocked, the player can simply execute another weak kick to push their opponent further away. The decision for the 3rd attack, in this case, is made "on reaction".
 
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on isms

I wouldn't describe v-ism a hybrid of X and A...custom combos make it very different. Also, I'd mention that only SFA3 offers the option of isms. Isms also affect special moves (sagat throws tiger uppercuts in X-ism instead of tiger blows), which supers (only 1 super in X-ism) are available and the damage they do. Then there's weird stuff like Cody's autododge in v-ism...sheesh, this one is complicated!
 

Takumaji

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Re: on isms

galvatron said:
I wouldn't describe v-ism a hybrid of X and A...custom combos make it very different. Also, I'd mention that only SFA3 offers the option of isms. Isms also affect special moves (sagat throws tiger uppercuts in X-ism instead of tiger blows), which supers (only 1 super in X-ism) are available and the damage they do. Then there's weird stuff like Cody's autododge in v-ism...sheesh, this one is complicated!

Yeah, Capcom's gameplay elements are quite complicated. After reading a lot of faqs and other docs about the isms, I now think that they're a nice service for ppl that want to play their SF games in their own way, if you combine them with the other Special Modes of SFA3 that is. On the downside, they're unbalanced, for ex. I can't see a valid reason to exclude the Alpha Counters from X-Ism just because the X Supers always do Level-3 damage. Anyway, I edited my definition according to the -ism comparison chart in Chris MacDonald's SFA3 faq.

I've also experimented with the Special Modes (Classic, Mazi, Saikyo) and tried to find a catchy Glossary entry for them, but so far I can only say that Classic mode basically is good ole' SF2 with a few extras and Mazi mode is hard as hell because you take much more damage and you lose the match if you lose one round, but the only thing I know about Saikyo mode is that you have a shorter Guard Power Gauge. What would be your definition of these modes?

...and here are some more entries:

Tiers

The Tier system refers to a classification of all characters of a fighting game into three categories, bottom/low, middle and top. Bottom Tier characters are those that take more damage than others while their moves aren't exactly powerful, Middle Tiers are the "bread and butter" of the game (not too strong/too fast/too slow/etc.), and Top Tier are those which have both very good defense and offense ratings, they take less damage while their moves dish out lots of it. In games like the King of Fighters series, Top Tier characters would be Kyo, Iori, Terry or Ryo, Middle Tiers Robert, Mai, Andy, Low Tiers Chin, Hinako, etc.

One consequence of the Tier System can be seen in character lineups of tournament players. While only a few players would choose Chin or Bao, characters like Ryo, Ralf, Iori, Kyo or Terry are among the most-used.

Boss Code

Sequence of stick movements and button presses to be performed in the character select menu, opening screen, etc. of a game that lets the boss(es) of the game appear in the menu as selectable character(s). In most cases, using the bosses is limited to 2P games only because of their exceptional power. Example: To unlock the sub-boss Abubo in Rage of the Dragons, enter the character select screen and input the following command: up x4, down x3, left x2 and right, Abubo's avatar will appear in the middle of the character menu.

Super-Deformed Transformation

Special Move in Samurai Spirits 2 that turns your character into a small deformed anime version of his former self. This mode lasts about 10 seconds if not interrupted by a Special Move or attack. You can not move or attack normally while being small, but you also can't get thrown; you can get hit, tho.

Catch Throw

Term used in the Samurai Spirits series. While engaged in weaponless combat against an armed opponent, you can catch his sword and throw him by doing a hcf motion with the stick without pressing a button. With the right timing, your stick reaches the forward position at the same time the opponent's sword strikes and your character will catch the weapon and throw the opponent.

In Samurai Spirits 3 and 4, the Catch Throw can be done with the weapon as well, in this case it Block Stuns your opponent instead of throwing him.

Rush Hits

Number of sequential, unblockable hits per combo. In most fighting games, a counter appears on the screen and starts to increase while pulling off combos, the engine counts all combo'ed, consecutive hits and stops as soon as you hit the block because of a) a timing mistake, b) an attempt to combo into a move that isn't comboable, or c) a counter by the opponent.

Parry, Parrying

Gameplay feature in Capcom's Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. By tapping the stick forward (for mid/high attacks) or down (for low attacks) while being attacked, you can Parry the attack. If done successfully, your character flashes blue and takes no damage.

A special form of Parrying is Guard Parry. While being hit by a move that hits multiple times or by a combo, you can press forward or down to parry the first hit and repeat the parry with the next hit. Your character will flash red and can block even more hits as they come in. This is useful to avoid heavy Tick Damage by a Super Combo or powerful special move.

Super Art

Very powerful special move in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, similar to the Combo Specials of the Alpha games.

Personal Actions

By pressing Hard Kick + Hard Punch in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike during a match, your character will do a little animation or even a simple attack. For example, Chun Li will yawn and/or crack her neck, etc. Personal Actions give you a small amount of Super Art Gauge power and improve some of your stats such as attack/defense power, stun damage, etc.

You can even combo into some Personal Actions that actually do hit, like Ibuki's.
 
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Re: Re: on isms

Takumaji said:
Yeah, Capcom's gameplay elements are quite complicated. After reading a lot of faqs and other docs about the isms, I now think that they're a nice service for ppl that want to play their SF games in their own way, if you combine them with the other Special Modes of SFA3 that is. On the downside, they're unbalanced, for ex. I can't see a valid reason to exclude the Alpha Counters from X-Ism just because the X Supers always do Level-3 damage. Anyway, I edited my definition according to the -ism comparison chart in Chris MacDonald's SFA3 faq.

Yeah, Isms are definitely a bit unbalanced. The strange thing is when the US played Japan A-ism characters dominated v-ism characters. I've yet to see anyone make a compelling case for X-ism as being the best ism. I think capcom was just trying make a Super Turbo style with X-ism and not so much focusing on making it competitive.

I think Mazi mode consists of your character doing increased damage and taking increased damage. If Saikyo is Capcom's way of Dan-ifying a character, then Mazi is their way of Akuma-fying the character. A person playing Mazi (which I think means serious) mode is betting that their offence is better than that of their opponent's as the fight is all about doing tons of damage quickly.

More definitions:

OCV
abrreviation for One Character Victory. This is when a person wins a team based fighting game (e.g. Capcom vs SNK 2, KOF '96) by only using one character on their team. Since the one character doesn't necessarily regain all of his or her energy after defeating an opponent, this type of victory indicates a very decisive win.

srk.com
abbreviation for ShoRyuKen.com, a popular site for 2-D fighting game strategy, discussion, tournaments, etc.

Kara Cancel
certain moves in fighting games require the player to do 2 tasks simulataneously, such as pressing 2 buttons at the same time or executing a QCF and pressing a button just as the QFC finishes. Since it would be very hard to actually perform 2 actions at exactly the same time, the game allows one to perform the designated actions within a short period of time. This can be exploited to one's advantage, since the game will start to animate the action triggered by one of the button presses quickly after it happens. The player can then complete quickly the command for another move that uses the button that was pressed to preempt the attack that was animating and start a different acttack.

This can be used to perform tricks like pressing down and D in MOTW, to have Butt start his sweep animation then completing a QCF to cancel that animation, without hitting the opponent, and executing his flying kick. An opponent who is looking to just defend the sweep may be taken by surprise by the flying kick. A more common use of this trick is the KARA THROW, which is when one performs a motion throw after an attack's animation has started. This can often have the effect of moving your character closer to your opponent, due to the animation of the cancelled move making your character move closer to your opponent. The net result is increased throw range and a bit of misdirection in the form of the half-executed attack that was cancelled. This can be done with every character in Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike since every throw is a motion throw ( the normal throw command is weak punch+weak kick).
 
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Takumaji

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Re: Re: Re: on isms

galvatron said:
Yeah, Isms are definitely a bit unbalanced. The strange thing is when the US played Japan A-ism characters dominated v-ism characters. I've yet to see anyone make a compelling case for X-ism as being the best ism. I think capcom was just trying make a Super Turbo style with X-ism and not so much focusing on making it competitive.

V-ism is all about the Custom Combos, some characters are quite good in X/A-ism but become super-cheap monsters in V-ism. For ex. Akuma, he is a so-so chara in X/A-ism but in V... total domination of the game, and you don't even have to be exceptionally good with him.

X-ism on the other hand is a lil' blunt IMO, but there are charas that are quite nice in X. Take Gen, he's a very good combo character and the fact that he loses some of his chains in X-ism seems like a major drawback at first, but the cool thing is that X Gen combines moves of his two styles (the kick and punch style) into an even more flexible combination, I really like that.

I think Mazi mode consists of your character doing increased damage and taking increased damage. If Saikyo is Capcom's way of Dan-ifying a character, then Mazi is their way of Akuma-fying the character. A person playing Mazi (which I think means serious) mode is betting that their offence is better than that of their opponent's as the fight is all about doing tons of damage quickly. [...]

I've read that Dan's fighting style is called Saikyo which translates to "strongest". Funny thing is that some characters' moves seem to do way less damage, there are less combos, the guard power gauge is much smaller, etc. Haven't really played in Saikyo mode very often, perhaps I've missed something nice.

Mazi can be cool, tho; the game almost feels like KoF95 damage-wise, and you have to win two rounds to advance but if you lose only a single round, it's game over. Mastering Mazi on the hardest diff can be a hell of a challenge even for an elite player... Not for me tho, I can't even survive the 4th level on 5 in Mazi...

Okay, will formulate a Classic/Mazi/Saikyo definition and edit this post accordingly.

Thanks for your contributions so far, good job.
 
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There's nothing nice about saikyo...just bragging rights, since its such a handicap. Saikyo Dan even does less damage.

Just filling in some gaps today...

Super (used by itself)
See DM or Super Combo

AutoGuard
Much like Armor, a move with autoguard will not be stopped by incoming attacks if your character is hit during the start of the move. Unlike armor, your character will not take damage from the incoming attactk during the portion of the move with autoguard. The difference between autoguard and invicibility is that autoguard moves tend to only have invincibility at the beginning of their animation and tend to leave your character standing still during the autoguard phase of the move. Because the character stands still moves with autoguard are more flexible counter moves than moves that only do damage when countering an attack.

For example, pressing back and A using Shigen in the last blade makes him execute a punch with autoguard. The player can hold the A button to delay the punch, resulting in shigen standing still. While in this pose any mid or high attack will not hurt shigen. Upon being attacked he will immediately throw the punch, hitting his opponent while they are still in their attacking animation. This is called autoguard since the character is immune to the incoming attack without actually executing the normal blocking command.

Frame Advantage
The amount of time, measured in the number of frames of animation that take place during this time period, that you are able to act while your opponent can not.

For instance, the tick works based on the grappler having a frame advantage over the opponent has Block Stun ed . While the opponent can not move, the grappler executes a motion throw which connects with the opponent, thus capitalizing on the grappler's frame advantage. One might also gain a frame advantage from parrying in Street Fighter 3, countering an attack by pressing D (repel) in The last blade, or simply after an opponent misses an attack (as most games require the opponent to retract their limb or some other form of recovery).

Recovery (time)
The period of time after an action has been performed and before another action can be performed by a character.

For instance, throwing a punch in most games consists of extending then retracting the character's arm. The period of time during which they are retracting their arm is the recovery. Throwing a hard punch, dragon punch usually has a large recovery time as your character must travel to the top of the screen and come all the way back down before he can attack again. Usually, the stonger the attack the longer the recovery. The overall usefulness of an attack must take recovery into account as it quantifies most of the risk associated with executing the move.
 
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Robert

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Is there a way for the mods to take all this knowledge and put it in an another section(the FAQ one for example)?
 
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Fighters aren't the only games...

Tate (mode)
A screen with a 3:4 aspect ratio is required for proper play of the game. This is mainly true of arcade space shooters, but other games have been known to require this aspect ratio. Since standard TVs and arcade monitors have a 4:3 aspect ratio (i.e. the screen is 3/4 as tall as it is wide) Tate mode is achevied by rotating the monitor 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise. Most modern games require a clockwise rotation, while some ,mostly older arcade, games require a counter-clockwise rotation. (e.g. frogger). Examples of tate games include frogger, Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, Gunbird 2, and ESP RaDe. Modern console ports of arcade games presented in tate mode sometimes include support for this mode on a standard TV or VGA monitor (e.g. Ikaruga)

Some people say the term "tate" is short for "rotate" where as others say its a japanese word (pronounced "tah-tay").

Shmup/Space Shooter
Short for "shoot-'em-up" which is a description of a game typified by shooting large amounts of enemies. These games are usually comprised of a single player vehicle(usually a flying vehicle) trying to make through an incoming army of enemies.

Some would also say that this genre would include games with platforming elements such as Metal Slug and Contra.
 

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Re: Re: Re: on isms

galvatron said:
Yeah, Isms are definitely a bit unbalanced. The strange thing is when the US played Japan A-ism characters dominated v-ism characters. I've yet to see anyone make a compelling case for X-ism as being the best ism. I think capcom was just trying make a Super Turbo style with X-ism and not so much focusing on making it competitive.

I had the idea that v-ism was the best mode, after seeing a video of Alex Valle in that world SFA3 competition against the Japanese guy. Both of them were v-ism, and both seemed to do the same stuff during their custom combo. And well, they were both competiting for world domination. :rolleyes: (you know there probably exists a kid in Brazil who's six years old and a superior SFA3 player compared to anyone in the universe.) Maybe v-ism is just the best for shotos? I don't know.
 
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Re: Re: Re: Re: on isms

EvilWasabi said:
I had the idea that v-ism was the best mode, after seeing a video of Alex Valle in that world SFA3 competition against the Japanese guy. Both of them were v-ism, and both seemed to do the same stuff during their custom combo. And well, they were both competiting for world domination. :rolleyes: (you know there probably exists a kid in Brazil who's six years old and a superior SFA3 player compared to anyone in the universe.) Maybe v-ism is just the best for shotos? I don't know.

Yeah, I was under that impression as well (for much the same reasons). Then I saw this
showing that A-ism managed to hold its own. So, I say its a bit of a toss up between Aism and Vism...
 
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