Last Blade 2 Juzoh guide, V.1.2 By "Da homerun king", Tenchu! COPYRIGHT: The Last Blade 2 and all associated intellectual property (characters, storyline, etc) belong solely to SNK. I don't own any of that. What I DO own is everything else in this guide that isn't credited (see bottom of guide for credits). You are not allowed to reprint this guide in any collection of guides on any medium, magazine, total strategy guide etc. What you CAN do is distribute this guide over the internet, so long as it is distributed free of charge, the guide isn't modified in any way whatsoever, and I retain full credit for what belongs to me. Should you want to use parts of this guide in your own, contact me (email address is towards the bottom of the guide), give me the details, (what part you want to use, in what context, how, why, etc) and I'll get back to you. History: 21/07/03 - Work begins on power Juzoh guide 26/07/03 - Version 1.0 complete 29/07/03 - Version 1.2 complete (Wow, that was quick!) Went through the whole thing a second time, corrected many, many errors, and improved the layout so its a little easier on the eye. NOTE: This is my first guide. Some areas may be lacking (presentation, writing style, etc). Some of it was written late at night too, so there may be a few spelling/grammatical errors. Please take this into account, and bear with me. Thanks! At this point in time, I consider posting all the game basics a waste of space, so right now I'm of the opinion that I should omit those details to reduce clutter. If you want the basics (speed combos/super speed combos, parrying, etc.) take a look at General Blood's or Deuce's excellent FAQS, found at gamefaqs.com in the Last Blade 2 section. Sections: 1 - INTRODUCTION -Intro -A look at Juzoh (why Juzoh)? -Why power Juzoh? 2 - MOVE LIST/ANALYSIS -Legend/Move notation -Juzoh's cancellable moves -Normal moves -Standing moves -Crouching moves -Crouching moves -Running moves -Special moves -Super moves 3 - COMBOS/STRATEGY -Combos -Juzoh's hcb+B throw -Juzoh's qcf+C charge -Juzoh's ranges -Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM -Juzoh's overall strategy 4 - MISCELLANEOUS -Bugs -Outro -Contact Tenchu! -Special thanks +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INTRODUCTION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Intro. ====== The night I started writing this I was getting whupped. Badly. I didn't know what I was doing wrong, but I'd just catch beating after beating after beating, me losing maybe 7 out of every 10 matches. Losing to a guy I wasn't used to being beaten so much by (whose name is NOS btw and is very very good. Hunt him down and he'll happily beat you down too!:D). Even using power Juzoh, my supposed "best" character, couldn't break my losing streak. So why am I writing a guide about him? Should I be? You'll have to play me in order to answer that question for yourself. Maybe its because not many use him (or maybe I'm just being cocky as all hell), but I have yet to find a power Juzoh better than my own. Most of the time he will do more than hold his own, having earned me some impressive wins, in fact a good number of them. I've also been using power Juzoh for a while. Due to my experience I'm pretty sure I have a good idea of what makes this character tick. But that's beside the point. Anyway, the night I started this I was getting owned, and owned badly. I was getting pretty annoyed and when we both quit I needed a little break instead of just going straight into another game that I would have probably embarrassed myself in giving my level of suckage at the time. So, seemingly out of the blue, I decided to write up this guide. Why? Mainly for 2 reasons: 1)Perhaps seeing my style of play laid out like this can better show me where I'm going wrong. If I do find stupid mistakes in my advice, you'll find the corrections here in updates. 2)I almost NEVER see anyone pick Juzoh in any mode, let alone power. I don't know why, but people seem to hate him, in fact I'd go as far as to say he's the least used character in Last Blade 2. Hopefully this guide will help repair Juzoh's reputation, as well as show people how to play him properly. Some may disagree with the advice given here. All I can say is that this way of playing power Juzoh has served me very well, and it could well do the same for you if you give it a shot. In fact, I'd be happy to play any of you, to show you (one word: kaillera! If you know what I'm talking about, look for -=Tenchu! -X-=-). So without further ado, on with the guide! _______________________________________________________________________________ A look at Juzoh (why Juzoh?) ============================ On the character select screen, you'll notice that the third character down is a very large man (not as big as that giant Shigen, but still pretty big). He doesn't seem to be the most civilised man in the world or have the greatest dress sense, but he does have a body like a tank and one BIG ASS studded metal club, almost as big as him, that just screams "DEAL THE PAIN!" That character is Juzoh, and he is the subject of this guide. One of Juzoh's greatest strengths is his flexibility. IMO, Juzoh can be played well in many ways if you know what you're doing, and this vesatility not only allows him to capitalise on advantageous situations, but also get out of sticky ones. In terms of overall damage dealing capability, Juzoh seems to rank quite highly. On characters that are weaker defensively, he can kill with just two throws if you're lucky. Those with stronger mostly die with 2 throws and a smack with his club. Also, being a big guy, Juzoh doesn't take a lot of damage, in fact he takes hits joint best in the game along with Shigen (if you ever get, for example, a speed Mukuro trying to catch you in his spinny bladey thing DM, walk up to him, take it and LAUGH!). Juzoh can take a lot of hits, and its probably a good thing he can. Sometimes with Juzoh you'll have to take a hit or two before you get that all important move in, taking half the opponent's life. You can get perfects with him as his matches have the potential to end so quickly, but it can be as much a matter of luck as it is skill at times. Also adding to Juzoh's defensive capabilities is the ability to gain super armour. This goes hand in hand with Juzoh's ability to take hits well. His super armour moves also either propel him forward or also act as a strong attack, so you get a good chance of gaining the advantage. That huge club of his also gives Juzoh good range on his moves as well as priority. As well as this, Juzoh does well in most ranges. He can more than his own as at close, mid or long range. Perhaps one of Juzoh's greatest strengths is that just about nobody uses him (at least until this comes out haha). This puts Juzoh at an advantage because most people have either only played the CPU Juzoh (not very good), or people who have no clue how to use him, probably hitting qcf+B all day. Most people wont know what to expect against a good Juzoh. So Juzoh seems to be a pretty good character, right? But of course, anybody that's played Last Blade 2 properly should know how incredibly balanced the game is, and each character has weaknesses as well as strengths. The same goes for Juzoh. In fact, I can think of two. Juzoh's first weakness is that he isn't exactly the fastest character in the world. Even if you use his faster attacks, most characters have attacks that are faster and can nip yours in the bud. This can be dangerous if your character chooses speed mode, as one quick standing A or b+A can lead to a large chunk of your life gone if you're not careful (Moriya, Lee come to mind). Its a good thing Juzoh takes hits so well. You really have to use the right attacks at the right moment with Juzoh, to make sure your attacks aren't stopped time after time. Juzoh's second weakness is the lack of a solid anti air. A grounded Juzoh hates bunnies, it seems. He has a hard time punishing jump ins (he has a couple of moves that SEEM like perfect anti airs, but they're hard to connect with in practice and you'll probably take the jump in instead of nailing your opponent). So, quickly, the pros and cons of Juzoh: Pros: -Versatile character -Highly damaging -Good range -Good at most ranges -Good priority on some attacks -Ability to gain super armour -Extremely rare character (People don't know what to expect) Cons: -Not too fast, you have to pick and time your attacks well -No reliable anti air As you can see, Juzoh is by no means a "perfect" character. However this does not mean that he can't do really well. Juzoh does have weak points, but is flexible and his pros far outweigh his cons. _______________________________________________________________________________ Why Power Juzoh? ================ This guide is on power Juzoh, which is IMO his best mode. He has some big advantages over speed and EX. For one, all of Juzoh's moves do a lot more damage than in speed, and more than EX mode too (damage difference between power and EX varies from move to move). Another SEVERE handicap for speed and EX is the fact that his throws are awful in those modes. Juzoh's throws in power are a huge part of his game, I mean HUGE. They're extremely damaging, quick and the range is fantastic for a throw. You can actually grab some people out of their standing A attacks (I've done it to Lee enough times), and there are plenty of instances where throws make the perfect counter. Grabbing speed Setsuna in the middle of his B slash? Yep, but only in power mode. As well as being less damaging in speed in EX (although the damage loss isn't so bad in EX), Juzoh's throws have practically ZERO range. No more throw counters, no more seemingly impossible grabs. You have to be right on top of your opponent in speed or EX for throws to work, and the damage they do doesn't really seem worth it, especially in speed mode. So when you're in speed or EX, and close enough to throw if you were only in power mode, what do you do? You combo. Only Juzoh isn't exactly a combo machine. His combo starters, A and b+A, are just too slow compared to combo starters of other characters, so most of the time you'll be hit out of them. Even if you do manage to combo, Juzoh's combos don't do much damage at all. The damage on Juzoh's combos in speed and EX are well below average. I actually used to use speed Juzoh, when I tried to learn how to use the character. There ARE opportunities for very high damage (actually the only one I can think of is his super speed combo launcher, run, air grab super), but these opportunities come very rarely, are highly circumstantial, and are harder to take advantage of than in power. As bad as speed is for Juzoh, EX is much, much worse. The disadvantages of EX (very high damage taken, very slow power gauge buildup) do NOT lend themselves well to Juzoh's overall game, especially the high damage handicap as with Juzoh you normally have to take a hit or two. So basically to sum up, use power to do well, don't expect much from speed, and if you choose EX pray you get lucky. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MOVE LIST/ANALYSIS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Legend. ======= Commands: All commands assume Juzoh is on the left, facing right. b=Back(Left) d=Down f=forward(Right) u=up db=Diagonal down/back df=Diagonal down/forward ub=Diagonal up/back uf=Diagonal up/forward For those of you not familiar with neogeo button notation, there are 4 buttons, A, B, C and D: A = Weak attack B = Strong attack C = Kick D = Parry/Reflect Move motions: qcf = quarter circle forward (d,df,f) qcb = quarter circle back (d,db,b) hcf = Half circle forward (b,db,d,df,f) hcb = Half circle back(f,df,d,db,b) 360 = full 360 turn on the controller (e.g. f,df,d,db,b,ub,u,uf,f) Hold/charge moves are self explanatory. Supers: Super gauge/bar = The little bar at the bottom of the screen that fills up as you perform special moves/hit your opponent. When it's full, you can use a super. DM = Desperation move. Can only be done if you have a full super gauge/bar, which is drained completely when you perform the move, or when you have low life (1/4 life left, or "flashing life"), during which no super bar is needed to perform a DM. If you have flashing life and a full super bar, performing a DM won't drain your super bar. SDM = Super desperation move. These are usually stronger than DMs in some way and need you to have both flashing life and a full super bar to perform them, after which your super bar is emptied. Miscellaneous: Parry/deflect= The move you perform by hitting D (there are variations), that repels your opponent's attack if he hits you, leaving him stunned and allows you to counterattack. Some say parry, some say deflect/repel because they think parry sounds too SF3. I say parry, just so you know what I'm talking about when it is mentioned. Startup = How long it takes for a move to hit the opponent Recovery = How long it takes to return to a neutral state after the hit frames of a move, when another move can be performed. Hit frames = The frames of animation during the move when you can actually hit the opponent Cancelling = performing a move while you're in the middle of another move, eliminating its recovery (or most of it). Cancelling moves is the most basic method of creating combos. _______________________________________________________________________________ Juzoh's cancellable moves. ========================== Just a quick list of what moves can be cancelled out of: Standing:A b+A B f+B C f+C Crouching:A B df+C Running:A/B Special:qcf+C _______________________________________________________________________________ ===================== Juzoh's normal moves. ===================== If you expect to win by just busting out specials/supers all the time, forget it. If you want to do well and play a strong Juzoh, you'll need to learn all his moves, including his "normal" ones. Besides, for normal moves, some of these can be pretty strong! Standing moves. =============== These are the normal moves you'll be using most. Learn them well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Standing A Juzoh brings the handle of his club forward for a quick hit to the face. Quick to come out (for Juzoh, that is), priority is quite good, and ever so slightly more range than b+A. Hits jumpers easier than b+a, but also hits crouching opponents. Probably the move of choice for Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM (see later on). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -b+A Juzoh does a little gut punch. An OK move for Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM (see later on) but doesn't seem to come out as quick as normal standing A. Stick to that, I'd say. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Standing B Juzoh takes one helluva swing with that huge club of his. This move pretty much has all the characteristics of a standing B - nice range, about 1/4 screen, damage is good, but one thing it doesn't share is the speed. Just a tad slower than most, not slow enough to make it less useful, but just enough to throw off a parry happy opponent - especially if he likes to use df+D to parry everything, because while it catches almost all moves, the window to deflect is VERY small. So if they try it, unless they're used to Juzoh and have great timing, you'll probably smack em. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -f+B Juzoh takes his club with both hands and brings it down to the floor, hard! Nice move. Great range, a little over half screen, and the damage being a f+B is of course good. Little startup, so you might wanna mix this up with standing B for parry happy opponents (btw, the closest you should EVER be when using f+B is the RIGHT on the edge of standing B range, and even that is dangerous! Any closer and its quite punishable). Recovery is quite good, there is some recovery time, but if you're at the right range for using the move (best is the outer limits of the move's range) you cant really be punished. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Standing C Juzoh does a tiny little kick aimed at the opponents shin. This hits crouching opponents of course, but for some strange reason does NOT hit low. Range is tiny. damage is tiny. And if you're close enough to hit with this, you're close enough to throw, so why bother? The only use I can see for it is as a followup attack when you're close to the downed opponent and u+B is just too slow. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -f+C Juzoh thrusts his foot forward in a front kick aimed at the opponent's torso. If this hits an opponent while he's standing/crouching, it sends him flying across the screen to bounce off the opposite wall. Has the range of a standing A, little more damage, but recovery is huge for a move with such short range, and priority doesn't seem to be too hot. So why use it? Its cancellable, that's why. Yeah so are his other short range moves, but if any of those hit, it doesn't matter what you cancel into, it wont combo. Things are different with f+C, it sends them flying, and you can catch them with a move while they're doing so.The recovery is awful, but it can be cancelled into other moves if blocked, removing the recovery time in which you can be punished. Also, some of the moves you can cancel into are perfect for an opponentthat's just blocked your f+C and is waiting to punish you. This makes it a great move for Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM. The only problem is the priority. A lot of moves beat Juzoh's f+C, meaning that his standing A is still useful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -BC Juzoh rears back for a little less than a second, then stabs his club forward with both hands, knocking the opponent down. This move is one of Juzoh's two unblockable moves. That's right, you CANT BLOCK IT. The range is a little further than a standing B. The recovery is good, and priority is great. Holding BC delays the move, up to a maximum of a little over one and a half seconds. What you ought to do is mix this up with your standing B. Only use it very occasionally and you should nail em, they wont see it coming, even if you do have a big yellow ring of I don't know what around you screaming "IM ABOUT TO HIT YOU WITH A BIG SLOW UNBLOCKABLE! HIT ME OUT OF IT QUICK, OR PARRY IF YOU PREFER!" That's right, it can't be blocked but it can be parried by someone with good reflexes and timing. If your opponent is good at parrying the move or has already and is used to the timing, try holding BC to delay the move. You should whack the guy just as he's recovering from hitting D. And if you do hit them, the damage is very nice, in fact BC is Juzoh's most powerful normal attack. Even if they see it coming, most will be too scared to hit you out of it, they'll either run away or try to parry if they're good, so most of the time you go unpunished (unless you overuse it, so don't! This isn't like Zantetsu's/Washizuka's BC!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -CD Juzoh's CD throw. He grabs the opponent round and flings him to the other side of the screen. Never ever use this. Use hcb+B instead, it has MUCH greater range (in terms of throw ranges that is) and does a hell of a lot more damage. Don't even use this as a piddly move to finish the round for style points, there are better moves for that than this goofy looking throw if you're into that kinda thing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Start Juzoh's taunt. He rests his club on the ground, scratches his belly, yawns, and says "I'm hungry" in Japanese, at least I think he does. It's a taunt! What more do you want? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crouching moves. ================ Mixed bag these moves, some are useful, some trash, but they have more uses than you think. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -d+A Juzoh does a little gut punch while crouching. Seems to be a crouching version of Juzoh's b+A, same speed, same damage, same everything, only shorter range. It doesn't hit low either,so maybe you should leave this one alone. It is, however, easier to cancel Juzoh's d+A into his unblockable headbutt than with most other moves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -d+B Juzoh changes hands holding his club then brings it onto the ground in front of him. This is a little slower than standing B, but little more range and basically the same damage. Just out of standing B range? Use this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -d+C Juzoh juts out his foot a little for a tiny kick to the opponent's feet. The damage for this is small, but its quite fast and hits low. Combos into itself for a maximum of 3 hits if you're close enough, but if you're near enough to hit them with this more than once you should be throwing. Consider it for Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -df+C Juzoh thrusts his foot outwards, kicking the opponent hard in the legs and knocking him down. You can count this as Juzoh's sweep. The range is actually quite small, maybe just a little longer than d+C, but it does around double the damage and knocks down, while still hitting low. Another possibility for Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jumping moves. ============== Juzoh has the potential to do well in the air both against airborne and grounded opponents, but you need to know what move fits what situation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -Jumping A While in the air, Juzoh brings the handle of his club forward to hit the opponent in an air version of his standing A. This move is important for air to air battles, the priority is high. Its quite quick, but unfortunately it doesn't stay out long, so you have to time it right. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Jumping B Juzoh swings his club downwards hard with both hands while in the air. This is a good move, you'll want to use it often, but be careful as it isn't exactly abusable. There's a bit of startup and the move doesn't stay out long, but when it is out, the damage is good (like all B attacks), the range is better, and the priority is fantastic. It hits downwards at around a 45 degree angle, making it THE move for air to ground battles should you be involved in any. It can be really good for air to air as well, if you judge it right. As it doesn't stay out long, Juzoh's jumping B is another move you'll have to time. Generally you want to press B a little early in your jump due to the startup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Jumping C Juzoh thrusts a foot out to kick in front of him while in the air. While this looks like a midair f+C, jumping C has longer range and the priority is much better. It's like a mini version of Shigen's godlike Jumping C, only with less range and not as abusable. It hits in front and very slightly downwards, the direction of the kick makes it good for air to air battles, and acceptable for air to ground (just about, but don't expect miracles with it.) It also stays out longer than jumping A or B, which is useful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Running moves. ============== Running attacks are very important to Juzoh. You should learn the minimum distance you have to run in order to execute one (about one of Juzoh's running steps.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Running A/B Juzoh does a much faster version of his standing B, with greater range too as he slides forward a little while doing it. The range, damage, speed and priority on this are all great! Use this move often! The range is really good, you wont believe how far it reaches. The deceptive range and speed of the running B WILL fool your opponent, they'll never expect it that fast from so far away. It's even cancellable, so follow up with the move of your choice! If they're running away, use it. They jump backwards, use it. Need to beat a move, use it! This move had many, many uses and will serve you well. NOTE:Try pausing the game in the middle of Juzoh's running B. Check the face, gotta love it! (Never a good idea to cross a psycho with a body like freakin He-man and a 5 foot iron club....) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Running C You get Juzoh's f+C, just as if you did it normally, no change whatsoever. See Juzoh's f+C in the standing moves section. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Running far/B/C The same as Juzoh's normal df+C sweep, no added range or anything. This is good to use to surprise an opponent that's used to running B, as this is quite fast, hits low and knocks down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Followup moves. =============== Get into the habit of using these. If you recover from a move fast enough to use a followup on a grounded opponent, do it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Run That's right, Juzoh can run over his opponent to damage, but it doesn't mean you should. The damage is tiny, and anywhere you can reach with run, you can reach with u+B, which hurts the opponent more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Standing C This can hit grounded opponents on the floor if you're close enough. Not the strongest move in the world, but sometimes its the only followup fast enough (like after mini beating 1/2 throw in corner - see later on), and extra damage is always welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -u+B Juzoh jumps from anywhere on the screen to stomp on the opponent's back with his club. The followup of choice, if you can connect with it. Juzoh travels really fast in this move, but sometimes it isn't enough. However, there are instances when you should be using this only (such as after hcb+b, qcf+B, qcf+C). As followups go, this one does good damage as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -f,d,df+A/B (Special move, refer to special moves section) Yes, you can hit grounded opponents with these moves, and yes, they are highly damaging for followups, but they're so slow they will almost never connect. The only time I can think of that they will connect off the top of my head is after a df+C knockdown, which is quite useful, but you have to do it quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn which followup will connect after each move, if any. Every little helps, And the extra damage quickly adds up. _______________________________________________________________________________ Juzoh's special moves. ====================== Now its time to do some damage! The high power special moves of Juzoh go a long way towards making him a force to be reckoned with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -qcf+A (Bopper) Juzoh whacks the ground in front of him with his club, creating a fiery explosion. This is the move you should be ending your comboswith, so any time you connect with a standing or crouching B, follow up with qcf+A to get a nice 2 hit combo, doing a little more damage than a f+B. There's a 1/16 chance that the super version of the move will come out, and its better in every way, but only by a little. The super version does a little more damage, fills up a little more power gauge, and recovers a little faster. You'll now if it comes out, because Juzoh says something different and he has a little piece of grass (I think) in his mouth. Nice if you get it, but does the exact same job. You can use it as a far range weapon, it's about as quick as a f+B and has range in between crouching B and f+B. But with f+B being just as fast with a longer range and greater damage, you're probably better off using that for long range beatings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -qcf+B (Strong bopper) A slower, more powerful version of Juzoh's qcf+A, which also knocks down. Juzoh does a little hop forward before bringing the club down, increasing the range. This is too slow to end combos with so don't try. Also, it only does a TINY bit more damage than qcf+A. The range is a very very small amount bigger than f+B, but you should still be using f+B when far away as it's faster and does more damage. Like qcf+A, there's also a 1/16 chance that a super version of qcf+b will come out, with a small increase in damage, power gauge increase and recovery. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -qcf+C (CHARGE!) Juzoh rears back quickly, then dashes forward, having turned red. The red colour means that Juzoh has super armour, he cannot be hit out of what he's doing unless he's hit by a super armour busting move (a throw, low move or a move that causes him to fall slowly forward to the ground like Amano's f,db,f+A/B piercing sparrow). The super armour lasts until the move ends, when Juzoh stops running and Juzoh looks like he's about to fall over. This does no damage by itself and would be pretty useless, if it weren't for the fact that you cancel the move with a parry, or ANY special or super apart from his hcb+B throw. This actually makes the move very useful to Juzoh, the uses of the move will be explained in further detail later. Note that you can't cancel into another move at just any point during qcf+C. During the move, Juzoh will shout "TATSU GEKI!", and you can cancel from when Juzoh shouts out the "GE" of "TATSU GEKI". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- qcb+C (Sneeze) - SUPER CANCEL Juzoh rears back, then sneezes, stomping forward in the process and creating a small gust of wind in front of him, sending the opponent flying across the screen. Officially, this is a super cancel, meaning you CAN cancel it into Juzoh's DM. However, I've never the DM connect after a sneeze. qcb+C knocks the opponent too far for the M to juggle, and the DM can't hit otg either. If I ever do find a way to connect the DM after a sneeze, you'll find it here in an update. You can hold C to delay the move for quite a long time. At first glance, this seems useless. It's slow, blockable, and only does the damage of a standing B. However, it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to parry - I've never seen it done, perhaps it's not possible as the gust of wind in front of Juzoh may count as a projectile. Also the range is not only quite long, just a shade longer than a crouching B, but the range is also very deceptive - perform the move and you'll see. Its quite easy to catch out your opponent if you're right at the edge of qcf+C range and they're not blocking - if they don't move back, or try to parry, you'll almost definitely connect. Best used on the parry happy, but if used rarely you'll catch most out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -f,d,df+A (Stomp) - SUPER CANCEL Juzoh does a little jump straight up and then stomps down with his club. As already mentioned, this is Juzoh's super cancel, meaning you can cancel this move with his DM - but only if you do it when you're really close, close enough so that the move launches the opponent. This can be tricky as the move isn't exactly fast, has virtually no horizontal range (in terms of getting the SC-able move to come out), and you don't have the benefits of super armour. However, there are ways to extend the range - you'll see later. If you're not close enough to launch, you'll create an invisible quake that doesn't do much damage, but does knock down. The range for the quake is about standing B range, so you may be able to catch out your opponent if you know your ranges. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -f,d,df+B (Big stomp) - SUPER CANCEL The strong version of f,d,df+A. This is as fast as f,d,f+A, but Juzoh jumps forward, giving this move good range, in fact this is Juzoh's longest range move. It's just as fast as f,d,df+A (even if that is quite slow) but only does a little more damage. Also, this move can catch people out of the air on his way down. The opponent becomes caught below Juzoh's club and he lands on their stomach. This is practically an air throw, so it has good priority against jumpers if Juzoh's on his way down. However, it's hard to catch jumpers with this move as its slow and Juzoh doesn't jump that high. For some reason, it's a super cancel, but the DM will never, ever connect, so don't even try. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Hold f,b+C, or b,df+C (headbutt) Juzoh rears back and then delivers a massive headbutt to the opponent, causing a small explosion if it connects. The range on this is real short, but its the fastest unblockable move in the game, as well as one of the most powerful in the game (only behind Washizuka/Kojiroh's SDM, their fully charges BC, and Kagami's DM). They fall down right in front of you, so you can always follow up with a standing C to further increase the damage. This move does really well if mixed in when you're up close, or in the RANGE OF DOOM. If you get the opponent used to blocking and then bring this out, its very unlikely he'll react in time and you'll nail him for some really good damage. Also, this move looks almost exactly the same as Juzoh's qcb+C, you can mix these up too. Maybe get your opponent used to blocking your qcb+C, then run up close and bring out the headbutt to take em out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -hcb+B (Hammer whop) OK, this is it. THE move. Only possible up close, Juzoh grabs his opponent and flings him high into the air, setting up for a massive number of highly damaging moves. some are more damaging than others The minimum damage you can do is less than a standing A, but there's many, many followups, I count at least 8 and that's just off the top of my head. If you count variations, you can at the very least double or maybe even triple that number if you want every single way this move can end. Ill go through this move in more detail later, but for now I'll just list the "natural" followups to Juzoh's hcb+B throw. The move has 4 "natural" followups. You can either press: -qcf+B (Play ball!) -qcf+C (Play ball part II!) -qcf+B, THEN qcf+C -qcf+AB (HOMERUN!) - This is a DM. Out of these, you should be going for the third or fourth option each time, but I'll explain each one anyway. All these followups are inescapable, by the way. After hcb+B, hitting qcf+B makes Juzoh play baseball with his opponent, using his club like a baseball bat and swinging HARD on the opponent's way down. Depending on your timing, you'll do different damage. Here's the damage for each hcb+B usual followup possibility, tested on Moriya who takes average damage. Just so you know, each character has 256 points of life: -Hitting with the very tip of your club (Mega early)=8(!) damage -Hitting with almost the very tip of your club (Real early)=10 damage -Missing completely (Mega ultra super hyper early/late)=19 damage -Hitting when the opponent is at head level (early-normal)=21 damage -Hitting when the opponent is at chest level (normal-good)=32 damage -Hitting when the opponent is about to hit the ground (perfect timing)=54 damage You'll have to work on that timing as you can see, because you can do as little as 1/32 of the opponent's life, or half the damage of a standing A! You'll know if you get the max damage, because you'll setyour opponent on fire. After hitting your opponent, hit qcf+C and Juzoh swings a second time, creating an explosive fireball with his club that hits the opponent for a little damage. If you hit your opponent with the tip of the ball its tiny damage, but if you wait just a little and time it so you hit him full on, the damage approximately doubles. Still small. but worth aiming for. You should ALWAYS follow up your hcb+B, qcf+B with qcf+C, because if you hit, not only do you get the extra damage, but you can also follow up with u+B, EVERY time, no matter how far away you are if you time it properly. This isn't possible with just qcf+B, and it really pushes up the damage. Even if you time qcf+B terribly and get 8 damage, follow it up with qcf+C, u+B and it increases to 44 damage if you get it right, which is quite nice, just a little less than a f+B (although its still terrible considering how much damage you can do with Juzoh's hcb+B throws). Time everything right, including the qcb+B and the maximum damage you can do is 90, that's more than a third damage without even using a super! This is what you should be aiming for out of all of Juzoh's "natural" throw followups, as it's the most damaging non super, non corner throw Juzoh has, and it's inescapable. Timing is everything with Juzoh's throws, people! Initially it may seem impossible to get the max damage, but after playing a few your timing improves you'll get it a lot more often. The timing depends to a certain extent on how fast you can do the motions. I get max damage by pressing qcf+B when the opponents at about the same height as Juzoh's head, wait a little less than a second before the qcf+C, then the u+B when the opponent is on the floor and you've recovered. It may be different for you. Of course you'll never be able to get it all the time, but that's ok as there are easier, more reliable (if escapable) ways to get just about the same damage (difference is tiny), or even more damage if you're in the corner! It's not a natural followup, so I'll go through it later in strategies. Alternatively, if you're crazy, you can skip the qcf+B altogether and just use qcf+C to hit them with the fireball. It does a lot more damage on its own (43 than when used as a followup to qcf+B, but as the swing has the same animation as a standing B, there's a much greater chance of you missing completely, you can't follow it up with anything, and compared to Juzoh's other followups, the damage stinks.never use the qcf+C followup without hitting them with qcf+B first. If you have a full super bar or low life, you should be using one of two followups. One of them is qcf+AB (Ill get to the other one later). In this move, Juzoh Pauses briefly, then takes the BIGGEST SWING OF HIS LIFE at the opponent. It's another baseball swing, but this time he's trying to right em right outta the park! A homerun swing if I ever saw one. This move comes out slower than a normal qcf+B followup, and its damage is dependant on your timing as well. There are two possibilities. If you hit them at all with your club, even just barely graze your opponent, you get 76 damage, more than a quarter. OK damage, but bad for a DM. Hitting your opponent when he's level with your chest or lower gets you 120 damage, that's about half! (Hitting someone with low defense, which is actually the most common level of defense, gets you 132 damage, even more than half!) The timing isn't so hard to get used to, it's a lot easier than qcf+B. As there is a little startup to the move, you have to do it a little early. To get max damage, I personally hit qcf+B when the screen has stopped scrolling up due to the hcb+B and is just about to scroll down. Whatever your personal timing, get used to it, as this is a move you'll be using often, and you should really be getting max damage every time to make it worthwhile! If you miss completely, you get the usual 19 damage as your opponent hits the floor, while you strike a goofy pose (the missed throw animation), and start hopping forwards as if you're about to lose your balance. It's easy not to miss, so don't! The only consolation if you do miss is that while you're hopping forward, you seem to be invincible. However, it looks like you can be hit while recovering from the miss animation. Those are all the usual followups of the hcb+B throw. If you don't mess up, the damage is great on this move, as you can see. The throw also has no startup, and the range is enormous (for a throw). You can throw people from much, much farther away than you think. All these characteristics make the hcb+B throw most likely the best move in Juzoh's arsenal. You could practically win by using this move alone - SO USE IT! Often! Mix it up with your normal attacks, use it as a counter, or just play grappler and run up and throw, whatever you do, make sure you use Juzoh's hcb+B throw! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -hcb+A (Piledriver burial) Juzoh reaches upwards to grab an airborne opponent by the neck, then slams him to the ground, setting him up for a number of back breaking followups (Literally!) This move can act as an anti air, but it isn't easy. The vertical reach on this is great due to Juzoh's size, but the horizontal reach isn't so hot. You'll only catch your opponent if he's either right on top of you, or very near to you (such as when your opponent is right next to you and jumps straight up. This happens more often than you think, especially against good players that try to catch you out). What really makes this move worthwhile though is the fact that you can use it as a followup to Juzoh's hcb+B throw! The timing is the easiest out of any followup, because as long as you catch the opponent (which is easy after getting it first time, and you dont forget it - like riding a bike) you get the full damage. And the full damage is huge, just as much as Juzoh's usual hcb+B throw followups! There are 5 ways to follow up the move after slamming the opponent to the ground. You can either: Do nothing (FORE!) Hit qcf+A (Mini beating No.1) Hit qcf+B (Mini beating No.2) Hit qcf+A, then hcb,hcb+AB (Big beatdown) - this is a DM. Hit qcf+A, then hcb,hcb+AB, THEN qcf+B (Ultimate beatdown) - this is a DM. Heres an explanation of what each followup does: -Do nothing: Juzoh takes a golf swing at his opponent, knocking his opponent across the screen. This followup does the least damage, but as far as I'm aware, it's inescapable. This doesn't mean you should be using it though, the damage is just too small, so unless you need the guaranteed damage to finish the opponent off, stay away. -qcf+A: Juzoh starts beating the opponents back for a total of 4 hits, then does the golf club swing. This does less damage than his final followup when used on its own (but the damage is still great, there's not a lot in it), and is escapable, but you should still use this. This is his second most damaging hcb+A non super followup, and both this and his most damaging are escapable, so you should mix them up so your opponent can't predict you and get his guaranteed escape. Mix them up for a guessing game. If you do this in the corner, you can follow up with a standing C to further increase the damage. But, if you have a super bar or flashing life, follow this up with: -hcb,hcb+AB: Juzoh does 3 really big stomps on his opponent's back, doing great damage, then jumps away to strike a pose. To get this move to come out, you need to both start and finish the motion after Juzoh's first qcf+A club whack, but before the golf club swing. To get the most damage, try to finish the motion after Juzoh's fourth club hit. This move and its followup is inescapable if the original qcf+A isn't escaped from. The damage on this super is fantastic, but can still be increased. You should only leave the move at this stage if you have both a full super bar and flashing life, and you wont kill the opponent with an extra 20-30 damage - or you dont want to sacrifice your whole super bar for that amount of damage. Otherwise, follow up with: -qcf+B: Juzoh comes down on his opponent's back with a REALLY big stomp, creating an explosion that covers almost the entire screen. Then jumps back to strike his happy pose (a shortened version of his winpose). This is Juzoh's most powerful DM, even more painful (by just a little) than hcb+B, qcf+AB. Try to time doing the motion so that you finish it just as the second stomp ends to get the most damage. While the damage is enormous, the strange thing is, while the damage is always the same, sometimes it acts as a DM, sometimes as a SDM. If you have a full super bar and high life, the move will come out using only the bar. No super bar but flashing life, the move comes out. But if you have both flashing life and a full bar, the move acts as a SDM, not increasing in damage but taking your bar if you do the qcf+B ender. That bar can be better spent than an extra 20-30 damage, so only use it if you need to, such as if the extra guaranteed damage will kill your opponent and its your only chance at winning. Otherwise, miss out this step. NOTE: I know this has nothing to do with gameplay, but I gotta say, this move is just pure comedy. Can you say overkill!?!? I just have to laugh out loud when Juzoh uses this move on someone like Akari. Use this often, if only for the comedy value! Anyway, there's one more followup to the original hcb+A, which is: -qcf+B: Juzoh stomps down on his opponents back twice, then the golf swiing. This escapable move is Juzoh's most damaging hcb+A followup, but you shouldn't use it all the time. Like I said before, mix it up with qcf+A so your opponent doesn't get used to one move. Mixing up your followup makes it harder for your opponent to escape. Like qcf+A, doing this move in the corner allows you to follow up with a standing C to further increase the damage. In fact, this move followed up with a standing C in the corner makes it Juzoh's most damaging non super throw followup (remember, you can follow up hcb+B with hcb+A). Don't forget this move. _______________________________________________________________________________ Juzoh's super moves. ==================== OK, here we go, Juzoh's strongest moves. You want to deal the pain, learn these, each one does at least around half damage and can win you the match in a second. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -qcf,qcf+AB (REALLY Big Stomp) - DM Juzoh, rears back, turning red and gaining super armour, then jumps really high, really fast and comes down with a REALLY big stomp, creating a explosion (small if it misses, HUGE if it comes close or hits). While this is Juzoh's weakest DM, it still does really great damage, and is the DM that f,d,df+A super cancels into. One big advantage of this move is that it's an overhead, it can't be blocked low. If your opponent tries to block it low, you'll just hit him anyway. One other thing - this move has the highest priority against airborne opponents of any move in the game. You CANT beat it if it's timed correctly. (Well, you can, every one time in a million, but doesn't ever try if you're fighting Juzoh, the window of opportunity to hit him out of it, coupled with the move's extreme priority in the air, makes it just about impossible).If you're Juzoh's opponent and see him do this move, don't jump! Get out of the way! This would be one of the best anti airs in the game by far, if it wasn't for the startup. It still can work well, but you have to do it early, which is difficult. But if you're in the air with this move with your opponent, you can pretty much guarantee that your opponent will be kissing nearly half his life goodbye. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -hcb+b, qcf+AB (HOMERUN!) - DM Juzoh's homerun swing super. See earlier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -hcb+A, hcb,hcb+AB (Big beatdown) - DM Juzoh's big beatdown super. See earlier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -hcb+A, hcb,hcb+AB, qcf+B (Ultimate beatdown) - DM Juzoh's ultimate beatdown super. See earlier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -qcf,qcf+B (Ultraviolent eruption) - SDM Juzoh starts off by rearing back and turning red, but this time he busts out a headbutt, the same one as his f,b+C move, but a lot less damaging. If it connects, Juzoh whacks the opponent into the air with his club for more damage, then as his opponent falls to the ground, he slams the end of his club down very very very hard, creating a very painful, very large explosion. This is Juzoh's one true SDM. There's not much in it, but this is Juzoh's single most powerful move. The damage increase isn't why you'd want to use it over normal DMs though - its speed and super armour make it a great (if costly) counter. It's not quick enough to combo into, but it is quick enough to blast through an opponents move (as long as its one that can't overcome Juzoh's super armour, see charge! move) and give him the beating of a lifetime. However, one thing you really don't want is to have this move blocked. If it is, or you miss, Juzoh does the headbutt, loses his super armour and follows up by smashing the end of his club down into the ground twice, the second smash doing more damage than the first, but if you hit with smash No.1, smash No.2 will miss no matter what. To be honest, I don't use this move all that much unless I have to, or I want a flashy finish. The damage and speed is good, the range is not. Also, the loss of your super bar when your life is flashing is just too costly when you can use the guard cancel parry (b,db,d+D) or use a super next round without flashing life. If I want to counter, I usually just throw into a super instead, no loss of bar and you do practically the same damage (maybe a standing A's worth less). You're not an idiot if you do like using this move, but it perhaps isn't the most efficient use of bar and the lack of range, plus the block/whiff hazard, makes it risky. _______________________________________________________________________________ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COMBOS/STRATEGY +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Combos. ======= Power Juzoh is not really a combo character. The few he does have are short and damaging, most of which rely on following up his f+C. However, some of his short combos link nicely and hurt too, proving themselves to be useful: Running B/Standing B/d+B, qcf+A Only a 2 hit combo, but nice damage. Just poke with the move of your choice (try to do it from the edge of the move's range), then follow up with qcf+A. Simple, yet effective. You can tack on another hit by starting with a jump in. -f+C, qcf+A/B. The qcf+A needs to be done pretty quickly, so that it hits before the opponent bounces off of the far wall. If you use qcb+B, you need to delay it very slightly. -f+C, hold f,b+C. (Corner only). Pretty self explanatory, follow your f+C with a headbutt, but only in the corner. Nice damage, but can't follow up afterwards. -f+C, qcb+C. The qcb+C needs to be held a little, timing can be tricky on this one. -f+C, qcf+C, f,d,df+A/B. Cancel the f+C with the charge to run forward, then cancel that with the third move. I recommend you use f,d,df+B for the extra damage, but either will work. -f+C, qcf+C, hcb+A, throw followup of your choice. Potentially Juzoh's most damaging throw, really just another way of getting in one of his throws, but this method effectively gives Juzoh a blockable throw with the range of his standing C(!) and so can prove to be very useful. _______________________________________________________________________________ Juzoh's hcb+B throw. ==================== If there's one move that belongs to Juzoh that you should know absolutely everything out, its his hcb+B throw. The range, speed, priority (huge, it is a throw after all) and damage make this one of the best moves in power Juzoh's arsenal, if not the very best. The range is about a half character space, if you're that close or closer, the only thing you should be trying for is the throw if you're sane. Whether your opponent blocks, parries or attacks, a well timed throw will catch him every single time. You can throw people out of so many moves its ridiculous. Obvious examples are in the middle of speed Setsuna's double B slash or f+B, Moriya's repeated qcf+A/B, Kaede's qcb+A/B, just before the B slash of any speed character's combo, any point in a speed character's super speed combo if the speed of the combo drops even a little.... those are only the very most obvious ones that come to me as I type. There are many, many more, including ones that you wouldn't think are possible, such as Lee's all too common combo starting standing A during its hit frames if timed and ranged correctly. Remember the throw is instant, so you can throw your opponent out of any move with even a tiny startup if you're close and quick. Also, as a throw, the move will beat any character that has temporary super armour, such as Shigen or even another Juzoh. Because a well timed throw will beat just about anything, you can use it in a number of different ways, so you can use the hcb+B throw in the way that best suits your style of play. You can run up and throw offensively as it beats blocks, parries, and the range is so large that you don't have to run right up to your opponent, greatly reducing the risk of him being able to attack in time as you perform the move. You can throw defensively for the same reasons. Say somebody comes at you with a jump in. You could just block and throw him as he lands. Of course, good players will try and fool you by jumping forward with a jump in, then jumping straight up while they're right by you for another airborne attack. no problem, all you have to do is use hcb+A to snatch those out of the air that try to pull a stunt like that. And like I've already said, the throw beats so many moves that it makes a fantastic counter. The hcb+B throw counters moves so well that I'd go as far as to say that it practically eliminates the need for parrying at close range. If you do come across a rare situation where you're in range and can't throw, just block until you can. Don't forget its instant, so you can catch your opponent between moves or during his recovery from a move if you haven't been pushed back too far. Once you've caught your opponent and have flung him into the air, there are two things you need to make the throw worthwhile - knowledge and timing. You need to know each throw followup and which one is best for a given situation, and you need the timing to get the maximum damage from each move. Here's a quick recap on just what you can do from a hcb+B throw, in easy to read diagram form. Route (1)----------qcf+B----------qcf+C----------u+B(A) \----------qcf+C(B) Route (2)----------qcf+AB Route (3)----------hcb+A----------qcf+A----------hcb,hcb+AB----------qcf+B(A) \ \ \----------Standing C (corner)(B) \ \ \ \----------qcf+B----------Standing C (corner)(C) \ \----------Nothing----------Standing C (corner)(D) If you don't have a super bar ready, you should be alternating between routes 1A, 3B and 3C (Remember you can only add on the standing C for 3B and 3C if you're in the corner). Route 1A depends heavily upon your timing, while routes 3B and 3C depends upon your opponent's ability to escape throws. With a super bar, follow routes 2 or 3A. Again, route 2 depends on your timing, while route 3A depends on your opponent's ability to escape throws. If you follow route 3A and have flashing life and a full super bar, only add on the final qcf+B if you feel you have to - is the extra 20-30 damage worth the loss of a whole super bar that can be put to much better use? The decision is yours, and depends on the situation. But if you only have flashing life without the bar, or the full super bar without the flashing life, go ahead and tack on the qcf+B at the end. I tried to keep that simple, but you have so many options with your hcb+B throw that it had to get a little complex somewhere (I haven't even covered all his throw followups yet, see bugs section!). Hopefully you're able to take that all in and put it to good use. Try and remember it - its fundamental to playing Juzoh well. For the timing of each throw followup, refer to the moves analysis. As mentioned before, some followups are escapable. If your opponent does escape, there are a number of things you can do. As the opponent is likely to want to regain the advantage after escaping a throw, there is a strong chance he'll attack you right away. To stop this, simply press D as you recover. You should catch his attack, leaving him at your mercy. If you don't have the best timing in the world, try a qcf+C charge into some other move, letting your super armour eat the opponent' attack. Jump ins can work well, either straight up or backwards jumping B if you want to get away from danger. There are more ways to gain the advantage when your opponent recovers from a throw, but they depend on the situation. For example, if your opponent tries to run away, you could run up and throw. Experiment and see for yourself what works best. Even after you have landed a successful throw, things don't need to stop there. You want to keep on at you opponent and pile on the pressure. You can follow your opponent as he gets up with a qcf+C charge cancelled into something, or jump forward with a jumping B. Long range attacks like f+B can work to catch the opponent off guard, or running attacks. Running attacks can work well if your opponents used to keeping his defense up after a successful throw, because/B/C hits low. Failing that, you can DM from a run or qcf+C charge, it acts as an overhead and can work well. You basically want to follow your opponent some way, attacking without letup. Another possibility is to walk forward a very tiny amount (tap forward) and hit BC, delay it until it's able to hit. This works best in the corner, but can work anywhere if your opponent doesn't roll away. However, this relies on your opponents inability to anticipate the BC unblockable just as much as which way he rolls, so don't use it too much. If your opponent is too used to you piling on the pressure after throws, he may adapt and find ways around your continuous attack. He may find gaps in your assault. If you feel that your opponent is getting to used to your post throw strategy, do a 180 and stay where you are, or maybe even start moving back. Your opponent isn't likely to stay there and will probably follow you to make up for the damage that he's just taken. If he does, just keep your cool and parry or counter in some other way the first move you see - easier than you think, as you know what to expect. In fact the opponent will probably stray too close, giving you a free counter throw. There are many strategies to follow your throws, I've only outlined 2 main ones, only one cycle of strategy and counter strategy. There are many, many strategies you can use after something like this, you could probably guess if you're a high level player in and 2D fighter. My advice again is to see what works best for you in any given situation. _______________________________________________________________________________ Juzoh's qcf+C charge. ===================== Another important part of Juzoh's game is his qcf+C charge. It's important for two reasons. One the move grants Juzoh temporary super armour, and two, it can be cancelled out of with any parry, special or super, apart from his hcb+B throw (if you could cancel into that, no doubt about it - Juzoh would be by far the cheapest character in the entire game, even outstripping Kouryu by a long way). These two characteristics give the move a lot of uses. One such use is performing the move to run up to the opponent, then cancelling into a df+D parry. Most players think this move is absolutely useless after they see it does no damage on its own, so they'll try and attack you. You'll have drawn out their attack and be ready for it with a parry, whether they try and hit you high or low (make sure you use the df+D parry, as more often than not your opponent will try and hit you low, and df+D also catches high attacks anyway). So draw out the attack with qcf+C, go for df+D, and punish your opponent any way you want. Of course, this strategy is by no means foolproof - anticipation and timing is required for the df+D, there's no guarantee your opponent will attack, or he may throw you, but this use of qcf+C is still very useful to get up close and allow you a free move just so long as you don't overuse it. There are other ways to use the move as a counter, if you have life to spare. Try using qcf+C to run up to your opponent, take the hit he gives you, and then hit him with a fast, quick move in his recovery. Juzoh's headbutt is ideal for this, just hold forward as you charge your opponent, and then as soon as he hits you (hopefully with something like a B slash or special move) tap b+C for the headbutt. However, this strategy is even more risky than the previous one, as you're relying on the opponent hitting you, not only with something slow but also a non super armour busting move. By the way, don't use this strategy on a character in speed mode. If you run up to him hell combo you, and due to the multiple quick hits you'll just be hit out of your move as soon as you cancel the qcf+C charge and lose your super armour. For speed mode characters, you want to cancel into a DM/SDM. Both give you super armour, and as long as your opponent doesn't use a super armour busting move you'll blast through anything he can throw at you from his seeing the qcf+C charge and destroy him. Your decision on which move to use, DM or SDM, depends on the situation. Both have short horizontal range, but that wont matter as you should be right by your opponent from the qcf+C charge. The SDM needs both a full bar and flashing life, takes your bar, and is fully blockable, but is faster and does a little more damage than the DM. The DM doesn't have the SDM life/bar restrictions, but is slightly less damaging, is a little slower. However, don't forget that it is an overhead - it can't be blocked high. These two moves work very well on characters in speed mode, but you don't need to limit it to just them. This works well on power mode characters too, but the super armour really does well against characters in speed/EX. There is a flaw, though, and a big one - if your opponent throws a low attack in his combo it stops everything. Because of this, don't overuse it because otherwise that is just what your opponent will do. Another way to use it as a counter is to use the qcf+C to get an opponent to attack, then as his move comes out, you cancel into a longer range move while out of range of his attack. The sneeze works well here as the range is longer than many think. You could cancel into the sneeze early when you're just in range, to have things work a little differently, instead of waiting for the opponent to attack. Cancel early into the sneeze and delay it while you're just in range. The opponent will probably think he can outrange you, and hopefully attack with a non projectile move. When it starts to come out, let go of C and you should sneeze him away as it outranges quite a few attacks. Perhaps even better to use instead of the sneeze is the stomp/big stomp (f,d,df+A/B) because of the quake that is created. Wait for the opponent to attack then stomp/big stomp, the quake will almost definitely outrange your opponent. You can use f,d,df+A or f,d,df+B, because cancelling f,d,df+A out of qcf+C causes Juzoh to jump forward instead of straight up, greatly increasing his stomp range. Of course, this gives qcf+C another use. Now that Juzoh's stomp range has increased, it's a lot easier to get close enough to launch your opponent for the super cancel. If you want to use the super cancel, this is probably the best way to use it - qcf+C, f,d,df+A, DM. The f,d,df+A doesn't need to be done even nearly as close due to the increased range. It won't catch your opponent out every time though, so use it sparingly. I personally hardly ever use this, which makes it all the better as a surprise when I do. The f,d,df+A stomp isn't the only move with increased range - the range on the f,d,df+B big stomp has increased too, Juzoh jumps further than before when the move is cancelled into from a qcf+C charge. So far, in fact, that you can use it as a crossup. Use qcf+C, wait till you're right on top of your opponent, then f,d,df+B to sail right over his head, coming down for the hit and crossing him up. This works on all characters except Shigen and Juzoh himself, they're both a little too tall. This strategy is very useful against overly defensive players or turtlers, it can work on offensive players too to catch them out, but they're much more likely to use a super armour busting move on you so there is more of a risk involved. You should never overuse this, you definitely want to use it as a surprise tactic. If you cant get through your opponent's defense, this is your trump card to break through. Don't ever let your opponent get used to blocking this. As well as all this, you don't need to use the qcf+C charge from far away. You can use it up close if you're out of throw range, say after a standing A, but this is RISKY. Before you're able to cancel into a damaging move you'll be right on top of your opponent and pushing him backwards, setting yourself up to be thrown. And don't forget, the move you cancel into will have a little startup, and it will be easier for you to be hit out of as you're so close. This strategy really depends on how calm your opponent is, as well as the pace of the match. If the match is fast paced and your opponent is easily psyched out, use it and you may shock him enough so he doesn't attack you - remember, you can go from starting the charge into finishing your cancelled move in just a couple of seconds in real time. If your opponent makes mistakes, this amount of time could well be too short for he to recover. There's probably more uses for this move that I've forgotten, but that's all I can think of right now. If I remember any more I'll put them here in later updates. Until then, experiment for yourself, see what you can come up with! As you can see, the qcf+C has two main uses - either to get you close and in a better position (such as the opponent knocked down or stunned from a parry), or to get close so you can counter with a big hit. Either way, its there to get you close, so think of it that way. Each strategy that incorporates the qcf+C charge is not without its risk, so use each one sparingly - don't overuse any one strategy. _______________________________________________________________________________ Juzoh's ranges. =============== Although Juzoh's hcb+B throw is a huge part of his game, its not all there is to him. It is quite possible for Juzoh to win without even getting in close. His club and size gives him good range, and he has moves that enable him to hit all the way from the other side of the screen, even though he doesn't have a projectile. It's definitely to use his other attacks as well as his throws, to keep your opponent guessing. You have different options from each range: full screen-mid screen distance:qcf+C charge, running attack, running jump in Mid screen-1/4 screen distance:f+B, Jump in, running attack, standing B, crouching B, qcf+A/B, f,d,df+B, qcb+C 1/4 screen-half character space distance:RANGE OF DOOM - see below Half character space distance and closer:hcb+B throw, hcb+A throw (if opponent is airborne) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM. ====================== Around this guide, you'll see me mention Juzoh's RANGE OF DOOM (from now on ROD). Just what is it? Well, the ROD is the range in which Juzoh has serious problems. There's not a lot he can do in this range at all, and most of the time he'll be beaten. In fact, a good Juzoh will usually only lose from spending too much time in the ROD, or by being forced there by his opponent. The ROD extends from just outside Juzoh's throw range to the outer limits of his standing B range - about half a character space to 1/4 screen distance. Why is Juzoh so bad in the ROD? Well he can't throw for one, he's just out of range. Most of the time you'll try to throw without even knowing you're just out of range. You'll get Juzoh's missed throw animation, and the opponent will punish you. You can't use your better attacks that are usually used from further away, they're too slow for up close fighting and the opponent will knock you out of your attacks. Power characters can do this as well as speed, for example power Setsuna can take nearly half your life with standing A, qcf+A, super cancel into DM. The problem is, Juzoh can't do this. His "quick" A attacks are cancellable, but nothing will combo out of them, giving the opponent a chance to block. Also, his A attacks are slower than most. So what do you do if you find yourself stuck in Juzoh's ROD? you do what you can. Good ROD attacks (or the best he has) are Juzoh's standing A, b+A, f+C, crouching C, his headbutt special, His DM/SDM and vertical jump ins. The first thing you should try and do is see if you can get out of the ROD. Perhaps tapping b,b for a little backdash and get into a more comfortable range, or risk walking/dashing forward a little and go for the throw. However, you can be hit out of either the back or forward dash with a quick attack. Don't be so deadset on getting out of the ROD that you end up making mistakes. If you're stuck there, don't panic! you still have plenty of options, they're just not so effective. They're either not so damaging, easy to overcome, extremely risky, extremely costly, or all of the above. You can use random normal fast ROD moves in quick succession if you want, giving your opponent the idea that you're putting pressure on him instead of him on you (standing A, b+A, d+C, df+C). Mix the high and low moves, because even though all those moves can be blocked low, you're at least giving the impression that your opponent needs to change his guard. if you hit with df+C, you get a knockdown, eliminating the ROD threat. If enough moves connect or are blocked, you get pushed away and out of the evil range. In between throwing out those four moves, try mixing some slower, stronger ones like Juzoh's headbutt, DM or SDM. Go for the headbutt if your opponent keeps blocking, or the DM if your opponent thinks he's safe by just blocking low. The DM/SDM works on an opponent that keeps hitting you with little quick attacks. Vertical jump ins can work well. If you're in the ROD, maybe try a vertical jump in, into standing B, qcf+A. If you're not parried or knocked out of a move, you're safe as you get pushed out of the ROD, it doesn't matter if it connects or you're blocked. The f+C, while not having the highest priority in the world, can be very useful. If it hits, the opponent is sent flying for the combo of your choice. If blocked, cancel into another move to save yourself. If your opponent is overly defensive, cancel the f+C into a headbutt - do it quickly, as soon as f+C hits, you need the speed - to knock down your opponent. Follow with standing C, free big damage and no more ROD threat. if your opponent is aggressive and likely to attack you right after blocking the f+C, cancel into DM/SDM. If you use the DM, cancel right away, you need it to come out fast. If you use the SDM, wait a SPLIT SECOND, say 1/5 of a second for the opponent's reaction time, and time the SDM so it starts after that 1/5 second. You'll eat the opponents move, but you have super armour and he doesn't, so he'll end up hurting a lot more than you, and you're out of the ROD. If none of that works, never forget the good old D parry. It always had the ability to turn a match around and get you out of sticky situations no matter what character you are. It's no different here. The main thing to remember when you're in the ROD is to keep calm. Even if you're taking big damage in there, don't panic and assess the situation and your options. Don't use just any attack in desperation, but it is OK to keep throwing out the right attacks. One such pattern you could use is standing A, d+C, b+A, df+C, if all those are blocked, try a f+C into headbutt/DM/SDM, failing that, vertical jump in into combo. This is just one pattern you can use, make sure you don't stick to that one! Make your own random pattern out of those attacks. You need to keep flexible and don't EVER become predictable in Juzoh's ROD. if you do, it makes things a whole lot worse. Some these strategies/moves when used on their own would be a very bad idea, they can be countered very easily. The thing is, you have multiple options, so use them all. Your opponent can't counter you unless he can anticipate you (Unless he gets lucky). This is why you cannot afford to be predictable in Juzoh's ROD. If you're stuck in the ROD, its not impossible to win - you're in much greater danger, and you cant really do much damage safely, but it is possible to take the match even if you're stuck in the ROD. Just remember to keep calm no matter how much damage you take - panic, you'll make mistakes and take a lot more. Keep your cool, and make the best of the situation. _______________________________________________________________________________ Juzoh's overall strategy. ========================= One thing to remember about power Juzoh is that he is a very versatile character that can be played in a number of ways. His throws are very, very good, but you shouldn't just limit yourself to trying to get in the throw as your only way of winning. Juzoh can be played as a grappler, yes. But he can also be played as a semi grappler, a keep away character, a counter character, offensive, defensive, he can be a pressure character, he can be an anti turtler geared towards breaking the opponent's defense.... the list goes on. Probably the best way to play as Juzoh is a mix of all of the above. What I personally do is have my power Juzoh set to be more aggressive than defensive by default. There's so many ways he can be played, at almost any range, that I can switch seamlessly at any time and most of the time the opponent wont even know I've done it (except Fox - DAMN YOU!:)) The more ways you know how to play him, the more situations you can deal with. With all styles under your belt, you pretty much have all bases covered, even those where you shouldn't be doing too well (like the ROD). Your overall strategy needs to be as far reaching and flexible as possible. But the thing is, strategy or not, you need the skill to apply it first. You need to get good. To get good with Juzoh, (or any character, in any game - this applies to just about any 2D fighter) the first thing you need to do is learn all the moves. Seems pretty obvious yes, but nearly every move has a purpose with Juzoh. Next, and this is important, you need to be able to execute those moves at a moments notice, every time without fail. It doesn't matter how you get the moves down, practice mode, playing the CPU or real comp, but the only way you'll be able to execute the moves perfectly is to do them again and again, whether you practice in a real match or not. It's important you can execute the moves well, because the next step is learning the attributes of each move, and which move to use at what time. If you cant do the moves properly in the first place, you'll be concentrating almost solely on getting the move right. This is NOT a good idea, you have more important things to worry about, like reading the situation of the match so that you can do those moves. And in order to be able to use those moves at the right time, they need to be second nature to you. You must have confidence in your own execution. Once you have it, then you can start trying to play well. You can't get good by just reading this guide over and over - I've tried it all, but you haven't. It's all just theory to you. You need to put this theory into PRACTICE. Just because you read that you can counter a move with a SDM, do you think that means you'll be able to, time after time? No. You need experience, and that's the best advice I can give you when it comes to getting good and being able to apply any kind of strategy. PRACTICE. _______________________________________________________________________________ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MISCELLANEOUS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bugs. ===== I've come across two bugs with power Juzoh in the past, those are the defense up bug, and the otg throw followup bug. Defense up bug - Get your opponent in the corner with power Juzoh's SDM. Follow it up with u+B, you need to be quite quick. Now the very next move you do apart from a throw or another DM, will do less damage, the opponent's defense will be jacked up to the next level for that one move. This even works for characters like Juzoh and Shigen.... they gain super high defense, more than his usual level, in fact more than any character in the game (Maybe the defense of CPU Kouryu?). This souped up defense only lasts for one move, and is nullified if you use another SDM or throw as your next move, meaning the move does its usual damage, and the defense powerup is lost. Not all that useful to your opponent as it only applies to the next move and has two important exceptions, but it sure explains to me why people I should have killed survived, annoying the hell out of me! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- otg throw followup bug - Throw someone with Juzoh's hcb+B throw, and to hcb+A STRAIGHT after, cancelling the hcb+B animation into the hcb+A miss animation. You'll revert to neutral state before your opponent comes back down, so you can hit him with the move of your choice. This isn't so strange, in fact it could almost be expected, but it does have two strange effects - the opponent takes no damage from hitting the floor if you let him (and therefore no damage at all from the whole throw), and when he does hit the floor, you can hit him with any move that hits the ground, so long as its fast enough (moves like f+B are a little too slow in power but its possible in speed/EX). For example, you could cancel hcb+B with a missed hcb+A, then when your opponent hits the ground, hit him with a crouching B, qcf+A for a nice little combo. Its quite damaging, but I have yet to find a combo exploiting the bug that brings the damage anywhere near usual hcb+B throw followups, as most moves don't connect. So for now at least, this bug isn't really useful for actual matches unless you feel like showing off. _______________________________________________________________________________ Outro. ====== OK, that's it, the real meat of this guide is over. I hope you took the time to read through all of that (yeah right) and hopefully you'll do better for it. To all the Juzoh haters out there hopefully I've opened your eyes as to just what the character can do if used properly. Hopefully it's done me good as well. NOS, I'm coming for YOU!:D OK, hope you got as much out of reading this as I did creating it. Happy gaming! _______________________________________________________________________________ Contact Tenchu! =============== If you feel there's something missing from this guide, suggestions, strategies, whatever, contact me through email at shot_makerathotmail.com (Replace at with @). If it's worthwhile, I'll see what I can do. _______________________________________________________________________________ Thanks to: SNK, for making the game in the first place.... and a fine one it is, too! Definitely one of my all time favourites, if not my favourite game ever. NOS, Gamer, Cheng, Kei, Iorimaru, in fact our whole little LB2 "family" (Although its rare we ever see Iorimaru or Kei), for providing me with great comp and keeping my ego in check by somehow always handing me my ass just when I get a little too cocky. The guys that gave me the beatings of my life when I met them, forcing me to get better by rising to their level (Still working on that for some), in order of when they did so: Lalla (Always a good game with him) and the three LB2 monsters: Walchuk (best LB2 player I've ever seen, but not by too much with the other two around), NN (a real killer) and that godamned Silver Fox for still managing to get the better of me even though he plays the game every once in a blue moon. Enjoy it while you can, pal! Which may just be a while yet:D I learned something from them all just by playing them, probably the most from Fox, for his inadvertently teaching me speed Shigen almost single handedly amongst other things, but I learned a lot from Walchuk and NN too. If you ever see any of these people around, ask them for a game. You'll get the beating of your life, but you'll have learned something if you're paying attention, I can almost guarantee. CladR, for being nice, and Cartman, for being the world's cockiest punching bag. You know its true, haha! All those that have been friendly to me around kaillera, and those that I haven't mentioned that have provided me with good LB2 games in the past. There really are too many to count! General Blood and Deuce for their brilliant LB2 guides, without which I probably wouldn't have even started out on this game. Also, Deuce again because I know that all the official names of the moves I can remember I got from his guide. Too lazy to recheck his guide for them all though, so some I just made up. Sue me! And you, for taking the time to read this guide. Hopefully you now know just how painful Juzoh can be, so get out there and bust some heads - the more Juzoh players, the better!:)