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Shiranui, that is...
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A Player's Guide to the Butt-Ugly Evil King of Samurai Shodown II
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As Set Forth by Dustin Stwalley, his loyal fan
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Version 1.0
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OK, here's the deal. I love to play SSII, and there are many
reasons for it: (a) It's a challenge, (b) The characters are for
the most part distinct, (c) It actually allows you, or even
forces you, to develop strategies for each fight, and (d) You
can literally win with anybody. The last is the most important
to me as I've seen too many games where you don't stand much
of a prayer if you use anyone other than one of the "select few,"
most of which I avoid because everyone else is using them for
this very reason. I choose fighters because of their style,
sometimes. Other times, I choose them for completely arbitrary
reasons. As evidence, I offer my preferred choice of characters
for several games below, and the reason I use them.
Mortal Kombat -- Sonya -- She's a babe and that leg thing is too cool.
Mortal Kombat II -- Kung Lao -- Anybody who flips themselves over
their opponent just to throw them is my kind of fighter.
Primal Rage -- Talon -- That victory dance cracks me up.
Street Fighter II -- E. Honda -- Grr. Fat boy slap you upside the head.
Darkstalkers -- Raptor -- Gosh, that's a goofy looking walk.
So you see, I go for quirkiness, and Shiranui Gen-an fits the
bill in SSII. I first started using him because he was just
so darn ugly, and the more I played using him, the more I
began to like the character. Now, I hardly use anyone but him,
and I'll tell you why. He's perfect. Really. There's nothing
he can't do. He can whoop you on the ground or slash you
out of the air. It doesn't really matter to him, but when
the fight is over, you know who will be left standing.
The following blurb is adapted from the TAPFAQ:
4 Good Reasons to play as GEN-AN SHIRANUI:
--> Regular attacks quick and long-ranged
(You know it, baby.)
--> Quick slide that can be repeated
(Repeated, blah. Only if you're into cheese.)
--> Nasty air AB slash
(Not to mention the Almost-As-Nasty air B slash.)
--> That maniacal laugh
(Ya, ha, ha, ha.)
Plus don't forget:
--> Decent choice for alternate color, a nauseating purple
--> Awesome-looking Freddy Krueger type weapon
--> That great butt scratch
3 Bad Things about GEN-AN SHIRANUI:
--> Standing AB has big initiation and recovery time
(True, but ooooooouuuuuuch!)
--> Special moves kinda suck
(I beg to differ.)
--> HE EATS PEOPLE, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD
(Where'd you get that idea? That's an alien in his stew.)
And now my own feature, a listing of each of the other characters,
and why not to use them (in alphabetical order)!
Cham Cham: Lousy range, specials too easy to block
Charlotte: Does little damage, bitchy in general
Earthquake: Slow as molasses in January
Galford: Predictable
Genjuro: Too aggressive, too pink, and too loud
Hanzo: Cheeseball of the century
Haohmaru: For simple minds
Jubei: Way too easy to counter
Kyoshiro: That jump is ridiculously slow
Nakoruru: Zero range and almost no damage
Nicotine: Almost impossible to hit anything
Sieger: Very clumsy
Ukyo: Everyone and their mother uses Ukyo
Wan-Fu: Can you say 'dork'?
Gen-an's Standard Moves (also taken from TAPFAQ with some modification):
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Standing Far --
A/B: Claw Thrust
AB: Lunging Forward Slash
C/D: Side Kick
CD: Backflip Kick
Standing Close --
A/B: Claw Swipe
AB: Upward Swipe
Crouching Far --
A/B: Claw Thrust
AB: Upward Swipe
C: Short Slide
D: Medium Slide
CD: Full Slide with a High Kick
Crouching Close --
A/B: Claw Slipe
Jumping --
A: Claw Swipe
B: Upward Forward Slash
AB: Downward Circular Slash
C: Knee Thrust
D: Side Kick
CD: Somersault Kick
Notes on the above:
The first time you use Gen-an, you may find that you keep doing the
same moves over and over despite different joystick/button combinations.
This is not an accident. Many of his moves look a lot alike.
However, they differ significantly in power, which means you could
easily fool a human opponent into thinking you doing a rather benign
A slash when in reality your doing a much meaner B slash, hitting
them for quite a bit more damage. This also works in reverse. You
could be doing a very quick A slash when your opponent is thinking
you are doing a more aggressive B slash; consequently, they jump
at you, thinking you will be wide open, and you quite ungracefully
knock them out of the air for making such a foolish mistake.
As stated before, Gen-an has great range with his claw, as good
as Charlotte's epee, and almost as good as Kyoshiro's naginata.
In addition, it is a very quick weapon, especially the A slashes,
which means you recover fast enough to block an incoming strike
and then counter with one of your own. The standing B slash will
likely be your workhorse, though, along with the crouching B slash,
which looks almost exactly like it. These are quick moves which
take off a decent chunk of damage and have good range. In close,
they retain their speed and damage causing capability, and are great
for punishing those who try to jump over your head. Gen-an's AB
slashes are rarely useful during the course of the battle, but
when they are use them above all else. The standing far AB slash
has an enormous reach and does heinous amounts of damage, but has
such lag before and after that it is dangerous to attempt. Save
this for stunned victims, or, if you're really good, for swiping
at people as they land. The up-close AB slash is even less useful
during the battle. You can try it on the larger opponents when
they're stunned (Earthquake, Wan-Fu, Sieger), and it does as much
if not more damage than the far AB slash. However, it will outright
miss the smaller folks, and it seems to be a little less consistent
about showing up when you want it. Therefore, stick with the
far slash; you'll be glad you did.
But don't rely upon the claw, as great as it is. Gen-an's kicks
are quick effective as well, especially the sliding trio. A CPU
Gen-an just loves to do multiple sliding C kicks at you (sometimes
5 in a row!) and then follow up with a slash. You should feel
free to do the same if the need arises. My personal favorite is
the CD sliding kick, though. It's quick and has great range. In
addition, even if the opponent blocks the first part, he has to
watch out for the follow through. I've beaten many a CPU opponent
with this move as they jump in the air to avoid the slide, only
to land on my foot on their way down.
In the air, Gen-an rules. If on the offensive, you can use
the extremely quick AB slash. This takes off mondo damage and
is great for catching opponents beneath you. On the defensive,
Gen-an can slash almost anybody out of the air with his upward
arcing B slash. It has quite a long reach, and can only be
countered (as far as I've seen) by a long-distance Kyoshiro slice,
a too-close Cham Cham face-scratcher, or the occasional Sieger
bellyflop. Anything else that beats it is usually a fluke.
Even more reliable, and surprisingly so, are Gen-an's air kicks.
The angle on these seems to be just right so as to catch any
who gets near him in the air, making these an effective counter
to the Cham Cham and Sieger moves mentioned above. I will admit
that I don't use these very much because the claw just seems
to work wonders when you're airborne.
General fighting style with Gen-an is really up to the person playing
him. You could use him quite aggressively and do just fine; that
is how the CPU uses him and it is very tough when doing so.
Yet, I prefer to be a little more conservative with this guy, which
really seems to make him even tougher. With the reach that the
claw gives him, Gen-an is wonderful at blocking and counterattacking,
and his straight jumping B slash will take out almost any incoming
opponent. He is quick enough to stop moves such as Ukyo's Snowfall
Slash before they get started, and does enough damage in the process
to make it really count. Experiment with him and you'll see that
you really can go either way with it. Even better is to mix the
two styles, switching back and forth arbitrarily so as to confuse
the opponent. This _will_ work.
Gen-an's Special Moves (and there was much rejoicing):
------------------------------------------------------
Poison Cloud Puff: | \ -O + Slash
O O
Gen-an reaches into his vest pulls out a little jar, turns
back, takes in a big breath of air, and blows across the
rim of the jar, producing a noxious purple cloud. The damage
done by the cloud is proportional to the strength of the
slash used, as is the speed with which it travels across
the screen. Of course, it also takes longer for Gen-an to
blow out the more powerful poison clouds, but not so much
longer as to make a difference most of the time.
Using the poison clouds is next to impossible up close. It
is too easy for an opponent to swat you and stop the sequence
of animation dead in its tracks. In fact, it is also very
difficult to use the poison cloud as a missile counter, as
it just takes so long to produce the sucker. What it is good
for is (1) catching jumpers, providing you have a good sense
of timing and (2) shielding yourself from attacks. The second
use is especially for the A poison cloud as it barely moves
from its original position.
If you hit someone with a poison cloud while they are on the
ground, they will turn purple, ugh, and sit there and cough
for a few seconds then fall down. During this time, they
are immune to all attacks, something I hope will change
in the near future as it is rather annoying to see your
opponent sitting there wide open for a gigantic AB slash
and knowing that nothing will happen if you try. Granted, the
poison cloud does do more damage than most other missiles, but
I would gladly sacrifice damage for a true stunning capability,
rather than this melodramatic crap.
Slaughter House Tumble: -O | \ + Slash
O O
Gen-an curls up into a little ball and rolls across the floor
in the direction of the opponent, screaming the entire way,
making for a rather noisy maneuver indeed. If jumped over,
he proceeds up the side of the screen then falls back off at
an angle. It blocked, he hits a seemingly random number of
times, taking off a little damage with each hit, then rebounds
much as if he had hit a wall. The bigger the slash you throw
into this one, the faster Gen-an rolls and the more he flies
up into the air after coming into contact with something.
Note: This move can be performed without the weapon; it just
doesn't look nearly as cool.
As a personal preference, I almost always use the AB slash with
this move because with either A or B alone, Gen-an moves so
slowly that it is easy to knock him out of the tumble with a
low slash or kick. Granted, I leave myself wide open to
missile attacks if I miss, but (1) human opponents often can't
time it well enough to hit and (2) CPU oppnents often don't
bother. Against opponents in the corner, this move just
rocks. If they don't knock you out of it, then either they
have to block it, losing several pixels of damage anyway
or they have to jump over it in which case Gen-an often baps them
on the way down, because he is just as deadly at the end of
the tumble as he is at the beginning.
This move is good for knocking off that last little bit of
health off an opponent because it often hits multiple times
even if blocked, and each of those hits takes off just a little
bit of damage. After 3 or 4 of these blocked hits (often
as a result of just one tumble) almost any opponent who is
desperately clinging onto life will drop. This move
is extra effective in tight, where opponents do not have
time to knock the little bugger out of it before he runs into
them. It is a quick move to pull off and gives no warning
of its impending destructiveness.
A warning about using this move on later matches: Skilled
CPU opponents will simply not let you near them with this
move, by perfectly timing a low slash or kick to knock you
out of it (a feat most humans could only accomplish due to a pure,
unadulterated accident). Charlotte will lunge low, Haohmaru will
slash at your feet, and Mizuki will absolutely murder you if you
try this from any distance. You must be in close to do
this move towards the end of the game. If the opponent
still knocks you out of it, it was not meant to be.
Blood Grip: -O \ | / O- + Slash
O O O
In this move, Gen-an tosses his claw, which is attached to
a previously hidden chain, at his opponent, then pulls it
and the opponent back toward him. If it connects, the foe
is also stunned for a few seconds in which time, Gen-an can
do what he wills to him. A rather quirky feature of it
is that the B slash seems to have the longest post-move delay
of all three versions while the AB slash seems to be the
quickest one for Gen-an to finish. So if you're going to
do it, go for the AB slash, it is by far the most efficient.
This move is slower than Nicotine's very similar Choke Chain,
and has a longer delay afterwards while Gen-an blinks.
It does moderate damage itself, mega damage
with the follow-up strike, and looks pretty darn cool.
Unfortunately, the delays both before and after make it
far from practical. It works well against newbies who tend
to get caught totally by surprise and against lower level
CPU opponents, but against anyone else, the net result of
trying this maneuver is usually a slash across your own chest.
One good this about this move is that it, like the Tumble,
is good for knocking off those last few pixels worth of
health, especially when the opponent is expecting a Poison
Cloud Puff or a Slaughter House Tumble. Blocking does no
good if an opponent is low on health, and it generally moves
too fast to jump over unless you see it coming.
Super Shredder: BCD when attacked
This move is rather like an airborne version of the Slaughter
House Tumble. If the buttons are pressed when Gen-an is hit,
he will, after a brief pause, launch himself through the
air spinning around with his weapon extended. If blocked, he
bounces off and lands a few feet away. If he flat out misses,
he lands normally.
The hard part about this move is timing. Guessing when you
are going to get hit and pressing three buttons at that time
is nigh impossible, though it seems that you can press the
buttons slightly after you get hit and still get the same
effect. If the opponent continues to slash at you, he will
end up being torn to shreds with your counterattack. If he
stops, you will likely bounce off his block and land on the
ground safely out of range.
This move is good in that it is safer than the Tumble once it
is actually started, as knocking Gen-an out of the air is not
a doable feat. Also, a rather neat glitch, unless you fall
victim to it, is that sometimes Gen-an ends up slightly behind
the foe as he comes down, meaning the block does no good and
he tears into them as if they were just standing there. Anybody
who has experience fighting Cham Cham will know exactly what
I mean because her Face Scratcher sometimes does the same thing.
In addition, it is wonderful against human opponents who tend
to hack and slash away at you while you're next to them, meaning
that they will get nailed when you fly at them with this move.
Unfortunately, you still have to take some damage in order to
pull this one off, and I don't think I've ever hit a CPU
opponent with it. Like Hanzo's and Galford's retaliation moves,
this one is more for the CPU's use than yours.
Manual Shredder: \ | / + BCD
O O O
The appearance of this move is the same as the Super Shredder.
The difference lies in that you do not have to be hit to actually
start it. That's a significant difference. No timing to
worry about, no damage to eat.
However, it seems damn near impossible to pull off. I have
yet to actually do it, despite numerous attempts. I usually
end up with a B Poison Cloud Puff (Note the similarities between
the moves). That's rather disappointing as this would be
the ultimate for finishing off an opponent.
*POW* Magic Diving Claw: -O \ | / O- -O + AB
O O O
This is a fun one to watch. Gen-an stands up like he going to
do his standing far AB, but then rushes forward at the
opponent, screaming and sending off sparks. If blocked, he
finishes the same as a standing far AB with the omission of
the little crawl forward he does after that move. If not,
oh boy, then the fun begins. Gen-an grabs the opponent like he
is going to kick the crap out of them, but instead tosses them
onto the ground and dives, claw first into their abdomen, where
he spins around screaming with glee. He then leaps off and
the opponent's weapon breaks.
This is a rather difficult move to pull off and actually do
anything. Smart opponents will just block then proceed to
kick the dookie out of you. Therefore you must learn to be
sneaky about it. First off, figure out how to do the move quickly;
granted, this is not easy, but it can be done. Second, and
just as important, wait for your foe to be vulnerable. Wait
for them to taunt you or jump needlessly. Another alternative
is to time this so you reach the foe as they get up. Or even
throw this in at the end of one of your own jumps. If you limit
your attempts to these situations, your success rate will go up
very quickly, and you will get to watch your opponents squirm
more often. Note: A CPU Nicotine gets hit with this a _lot_.
With all the sneezing and stuff that he goes during the battle,
he leaves himself wide open to getting nailed.
A Few Other Things courtesy of the TAPFAQ:
------------------------------------------------
Throws: -O + B, AB, D, or CD
Gen-an grabs the opponent then kicks them in the stomach
several times with his knees before tossing them to the
ground and hopping away.
Super Deformed Transformation: -O \ | / O- -O \ | / O- + C
O O O O O O
I have not seen this, or any of the other transformations myself,
so I cannot confirm them, and, given the joystick motions involved,
I doubt I will ever be able to do so. :P
Taunts:
AC: Laughs.
BD: Lowers weapon, blinks. (Note: He also does this after Blood Grip)
AC without weapon: Pulls hair from head, looks at it.
BD without weapon: Same as AC without weapon.
I have done these. They do work. Good for annoying people,
especially the laughing taunt.
-----------------------------------------------
Gen-an's Movement:
This guy has some rather special mobility which makes him a very
interesting character to play. First off, he can do what is
known as a triangle jump. This consists of jump up against the
edge of the screen then jumping off the edge higher up and farther
out that you could normally. It is a rather effective strategem for
getting out of corners, especially when combined with a jumping
AB slash which could hit from behind. Cham Cham, Earthquake, Galford,
Hanzo, Mizuki, and Nakoruru can do it, too.
Gen-an can also crawl forward or backward. The backward crawl
is nice because it lets you move away from your opponent and
automatically block any incoming low attacks. The forward crawl
is good for making human players of stunned opponents antsy while
you creep towards them.
He also has an interesting little roll forward maneuver, I refer
to as the spider hop. I call it this because of the position
Gen-an takes when performing it; his legs are spread out much
like a spider's. This is effective for getting up very close to
your opponent so you can throw them, but only effective when you
are already somewhat close. It is also good for ducking under certain
projectiles, e.g. Nicotine's electric hawks, without sacrificing
an aggressive stance. On top of all this, the spider hop just
looks downright wicked.
Gen-an's Victory Poses:
Which one of these comes up depends upon (1) whether you have
your weapon or not and (2) which direction the joystick is
pointed when you deliver the final blow. I do not know as
of yet which direction delivers which pose, but I hope to
determine this very soon. Anyway, here they are in order of
least cool to most cool.
* - Gen-an (weaponless) bows to the opponent.
** - Gen-an does a claw thrust, sticks the weapon in the ground,
then bows to the fallen foe.
*** - Gen-an watches as his kids leap from his clothes. All three
then laugh at his opponent. Kinda gross if you ask me.
**** - Gen-an tosses the claw high into the air, turns around, and
catches it on his left hand, making an 'eep' sound as
it presumably nicks him.
***** - Gen-an tosses the claw high into the air, turns around, and
proceeds to miss catching it entirely. In an attempt
to hide his mistake, he scratches his rear with his
left hand and scuttles off the screen.
Translations (or, What Is He Screaming About, Anyway?)
------------------------------------------------------
I don't know Japanese, but Kenichiro Tanaka does, and he not only
figured out what Gen-an (and every other character) was saying,
but what it meant. I offer you now some insight into Gen-an's ravings.
Phrase: Shine!
Translation: Die!
Occurrences: Gen-an screams this when he does the Super Shredder.
He also screams it repeatedly when doing the POW Special.
Phrase: Azami!
Translation: Azami! (That's his wife :P)
Occurrences: Gen-an cries this out when he loses. :(
Phrase: Koroshicharu!
Translation: I'm going to kill you!
Occurrences: Gen-an screams this out when he gets angry. It is
also the phrase you hear when you select him to play.
Other things that he says (in broken English) --
Beginning of game: 'Who? Who awakens me?'
Before a match: 'I drag your soul into the evil world.'
After a match: 'Dead! You are dead! Serve you right! He he he!'
Before a mirror match: 'Who is the real king of evil? Let's
have it our (sic)!'
After a mirror match: 'I'll take your clothes and talons. Oh a
perfect fit!'
During the interlude (after match #8):
'I have killed all, keeping my word.' [to Mizuki]
'OK.' [to Mizuki]
'The evil king is me!'
Just before the final match:
'The evil king? I'll get you at any cost!'
'So I said I'm the king of evil!'
Gen-an's Ending:
----------------
Blah. This is pretty silly, but I'm trying to be as complete as
possible, so here it is.
Gen-an is shown in a forest. He does victory pose **** (the one
where he catches the claw and eeps) and says, 'Don't make me laugh.
I'm the evil king. Well, who will be my next game?' He then
leaps off the left side of the screen.
The scene changes to his underworld stage with the boiling pot
in the background. On his right stands Todo from Art of Fighting
in a battle stance. Gen-an instructs Todo, 'Kill! Hate! Live
up to your anger!' Todo replies, obviously not realizing just
what Gen-an has accomplished, "Hmph! You inexperienced...you are
not my...Hey!' The last part is due to the fact that Azami has
just rushed in.
'Azami!' Gen-an exclaims.
She replies, 'Stop doing such things please, my darling!'
Gen-an turns his back and harumphs, "Ha! The evil king has no
place for women!' Todo can be seen tapping his foot impatiently.
Suddenly, Gen-an's kids leap out of his clothes, one of them
landing on Todo's head, and they plead with their father,
'Let's go home, Dad. Mom is with baby...I want to have dinner with
everyone.'
Gen-an sighs and lowers his head, '...All right.'
In response, the son cheers, 'Yey!'
The scene fades to black with Todo standing out, and he remarks,
'Nice story!'
ONE YEAR LATED (sic)
Azami is shown holding a normal looking baby. Gen-an beams,
'Oh, good boy.' As his kids ran past with his claw he says,
'Hey!' He chases them around for a bit, sometimes scuttling
after them, sometimes rolling. The screen then freezes and
a Japanese text appears.
Individual Character Strategies (Woo woo!)
------------------------------------------
In this section, I hope to detail each of the characters found in
SSII and give you an idea on how to fight them using Gen-an. The
tactics listed below are not guaranteed to work by any means, but
they are the ones I use, and they seem pretty darn effective. In
addition to strategies, I include with each character my opinion
of how difficult I think they are to beat, on a scale of 1 to 10,
with 10, naturally, being practically impossible. If you have a method
of beating a certain character which seems to work fairly consistently,
and consequently makes the character easier to beat than the method
I have listed here, please let me know. I'm always open to suggestions,
and anything which would provide a little more consistency to my
game play and that of everyone else is surely welcome.
Cham Cham (2):
This little one is probably the easiest opponent you could possibly
have with Gen-an. He just rocks her world. First of all, her reach
stinks, which means Gen-an already has a big advantage. In addition,
she jumps a lot, something Gen-an is great at punishing. These two facts
add up rather quickly to a defeated Cham Cham and a sad Paku Paku.
My approach is quite simple: crouching A a lot, with an occasional
standing A, crouching B, or standing B. Every once in a while, I throw
in a nice CD slide for good measure. All Cham Cham can do against the
quick slashes is either block them or jump over them. If she jumps over
them and towards you, jump up to meet her in the air and do a nice big
B slash. She'll eat it every time. Note that if you use a B slash to
get her up in the air, you often don't recover quite fast enough to jump
up and nail her. That's why you should use mostly A's.
You should also learn very quickly the difference between Cham
Cham's jump and her Face Scratcher launch. With the latter, there is
a sound like a rubber band and her screaming 'Ay!' This should be
your signal to block rather than jump and slash. Sometimes you can
catch her with the slash anyway when she launches herself at you in
this manner, but you're better off blocking and sticking her after
she bounces off.
Charlotte (7):
Charlotte is quick and that will cause you problems. Then again,
her speed causes everyone problems. Her special moves for the most
part stink royally, so there's not much need to watch out for those,
but some of her regulars are real whoppers. Her standing CD leaping
forward boot to the head is bad news if you don't block it, because
she'll generally follow that with a couple of pommel bops to ring
your bell. But fear not, brave Gen-an player, she is not impossible.
First and foremost, start the round with a crouching A. She almost
always starts with a quick lunge forward, and you'll catch her with
this just before her epee connects with your eye. Follow it up with
more low A's and B's, and the occasional slide. You've got to keep
her back on her heels, and force her to become very aggressive. Get her
to jump at you then leap back and slash at her. This is difficult
because her jump is so quick, but it works rather consistently. Blow
poison clouds at her a lot, too; she seems inexplicably susceptible to
them, often walking right into the things.
Generally avoid Slaughter House Tumbling at her, because she'll just
block it then stick you with a Power Gradation. Either that, or
knock you out of it with a well-timed low thrust. Jump at her using
quick attacks to counter her quick attacks, and sometimes a nasty AB.
Never, never, never jump at her when she's angry. She'll whip out
a star slash faster than you can blink, then you and your weapon will
be history.
Earthquake (3):
He may be big and have great range, but the Texas Ninja Bandit
should get eaten alive by Gen-an's relative quickness. Jump at
this guy a lot, and do whatever you like when you're up there.
B slash, AB slash, D kick, it doesn't matter. About half the time, you
will connect; even more often than that at the beginning of the round
where Earthquake _always_ tries to hit you low. Follow up your
slash or kick with a crouching version of the opposite when you land
and you've got a nice combo which he will likely not block at all.
Repeat this process as necessary. Oh, you can stay on the ground and
slash at Earthquake's feet all day, but he's got a big range advantage
and you'll often take more than you give that way.
Defense is almost entirely unnecessary when fighting this guy.
You should be on the attack almost constantly, and you'll need to
be to do enough damage to win. However, you've got to watch him.
Whenever he disappears, he is going to do a 'b', a 'c', or a 'd': buzzsaw,
clone, or death from above. No matter which it is, go into a block
at first, until you see what's he's going to do. If he buzzsaws,
block and wait until he stops then slash at him. If he clones, pick
one and use an A slash; if it's wrong, you'll often have time to hit
the other. If goes for death from above, just block it, and you just
might be able to stick him after he deflects.
One final note: Don't worry too much if he hits you with his
POW. Your kicks are effective enough, especially the slides, that
you should be able to stall until your weapon returns.
Galford (5):
Galford is tough to rate because his difficulty can vary widely
depending upon how cheap the CPU is feeling that day. Most of the
time, he's not too tough, though, as long as you remember the key
word: move. Stay moving against this guy. He's going to be jumping
and charging a lot, so you should do the same. If you don't he'll
take you apart piece by piece while you stand there confused.
Use lots of A and B slashes as anything else will have too much
delay on it to be useful. A well timed Tumble can be effective if
you've got him in a corner, but otherwise it's generally not worth
the effort. Jump with him; your air superiority will tear him to
shreds, especially if you use the B slash. The reason for this is
that he'll generally be higher than you in the air, and the upward
arc of the jumping B slash will catch him before he kicks you.
If Galford starts ordering Poppy around, just block and wait
it out. You'll take minimal damage, and sometimes, if Galford is
too close when he sends the dog after you, you can stick him before
he gets his defenses back up. Don't try to guess whether the dog
will charge at you or fall from above; you'll always be wrong.
And I do mean always. This is an unfortunate bit of cheat code in
the game -- if you jump in the air to dodge the dog, he'll fall from
the sky and bop you every time. Wait until you know what the dog's
going to do before you react to it.
By the way, Galford's retaliation move really stinks. If you
slash at him and he disappears, block. He'll appear from the sky,
bounce off your block, and be wide open for a claw to the belly.
His other disappering tricks can be countered in much the same way as
Earthquake's.
Gen-an (6):
Fighting a mirror match is tough for any character, but I think
fighting another Gen-an is probably one of the most difficult. The
reason: Gen-an just rocks as you well know if you're a dedicated
player, and the CPU knows how to use all his little tricks, especially
the cheap ones like the repeated C slide. But a little knowledge is
a dangerous thing and the easiest way to counter Gen-an's tricks is
to know about them; the easiest way to know about them is to use and
learn all of Gen-an's intricacies yourself!
Do a lot of countering against the CPU. He will be quite
aggressive, so consequently you should take a defensive stance
to defeat him. This will allow you the time to react effectively
to his maneuvers. Block or jump over a Tumble and slash at him
when he lands. Throw a Blood Grip through a Poison Cloud. Do a
jumping AB slash to stop the multi-slide. Overall, use his
aggressiveness against him. He will jump a lot, sometimes at you.
Go up to meet him, using a B slash to get him from below before
his AB can get you from above.
Genjuro (4):
Fighting the loudest warrior of the bunch is much like fighting
the mirror match, only not near as difficult. The CPU Genjuro is
ridiculously aggressive. Just wait for him to make a mistake.
He will, and he will often.
Genjuro leaves himself open for counterattacks a lot, whether it's
from a poorly-timed AB slash or a wildly swung Flash of the Phoenix.
When he does so, nail him. It's that simple. Oh, he'll hit you
every once in a while, and it will hurt badly, but he always tries
to do too much. Wait him out, and he'll drop with little sweat
on your part.
Hanzo (6):
If it wasn't for one particular move, Hanzo would only rate about
a 3 or 4 in difficulty. But, it seems that the CPU Hanzo can do the
Shrike Dash just about whenever it feels like it and so you can hardly
afford to get close to this one. Keep Hanzo back with A and B slashes,
sliding occasionally to keep him off balance. Jumping at Hanzo is
generally a bad idea, because he'll just catch you before you land
and slam you into the ground one way or another, though occasionally
you can get a slash in and keep him from doing so. Be warned, these
occassions are few and far between; don't expect more than one or
two per battle.
With better reach than Hanzo, you really don't need to get inside
on him, so don't. Stay back and remain calm. Overall, be patient.
This may not be pretty or fancy, but it works. Watch for his teleportation
tricks like you do for Earthquake and Galford. The same tactics will
remain effective, with one slight change. Hanzo's BCD retaliation
appears low on the ground, not from the sky. So instead of blocking
and then countering, jump up if he disappears when you stick him.
He'll appear crouching just underneath you, and you can slash away.
Haohmaru (7):
Haohmaru sucks. Using him requires no skill whatsoever
and is an act taken by impatient dweebs. Doing cheesy things
with him is a strategy used by cowardly dweebs, the CPU included.
Now that that is off my chest, I'll explain to you what you
should do when you have to fight this cheeseball. It's going to
require some work and no small amount of luck, because the CPU seems
to almost always order extra cheese with this pizza face. Haohmaru has
an extremely long range with his AB slashes _and_ they are very
quick. If you ask the CPU when fighting it, it will say that they
are quicker than your A slashes, which of course is crap, but like
I said, the CPU tends toward the unfair side with him. You've got
to watch for those big slashes and block them. Block low so he
doesn't get your feet either. Then, stick him. Lots of damage
is not a priority, you just have to whittle this guy down little by
little. Sliding kicks are somewhat effective. You'll end up on
your back as often as he will, but that's the price you pay for
being aggressive.
Do not jump at Haohmaru unless he is already in the middle
of something. He will do a Crescent Moon Slash faster than you can
say it, and he will do it every time. Even if he happens to miss with
it, he'll likely slam you into the ground anyway. So, hang back
and counter, if you can. If he tosses a whirlwind at you, which
he does a lot so that you'll jump over it and he can nail you, toss
a Blood Grip at him. It'll cancel the cyclone most of the time and
stun him. Heh, that's what he gets for being such a cheesehead.
Something to note is that sometimes, Haohmaru will be very
susceptible to crouching A and B slashes. He will try to do a
Crescent Moon Slash to hit you before you hit him and fail
miserably. Let me emphasize that this only happens sometimes.
Test it out once or twice in a round. If he falls prey to this
tactic, milk it for all it's worth. This guy is too cheesy
to waste your money trying to reason with the CPU.
Jubei (4):
Patience is the key in fighting Jubei. Never get too anxious
or this samurai will punish you for it. Taunt him with A and B
slashes, some standing, some crouching. Slide at him, too, a
move which often connects. Jubei will block most of your attacks,
but one out of every six or so will get through, if you have
to patience to persevere.
Jumping is rarely effective against Jubei. More often than
not, he'll toss you away like a stinky pair of socks. If you
do jump, go straight up so that if he wants to hit you, he must
become the aggressor, something which he does not do particularly
well. That, combined with Gen-an's air defense spells doom
for Jubei.
Be sure to block a lot when fighting this guy, especially
right after your own attacks. He is an expert swordsman and fights
as such, parrying and thrusting, parrying and thrusting. After
blocking one of your attacks, he will often try to stick you. Block
this incoming attack and you will quite likely be able to connect
with a quick A claw thrust. He's not terribly imaginative, but
he is effective at what he does.
Kyoshiro (3):
The kabuki master may have more reach than you, but the CPU
almost never uses it to its advantage. This is a good thing, or
Kyoshiro could wipe Gen-an up rather quickly. Believe me, I know,
I have actually seen the CPU decide to use it's reach, and it
wasn't a pretty picture.
One thing you can count on with Kyoshiro is that he will jump
a lot. As if this wasn't bad enough for him when fighting Gen-an,
his jumps are slow to boot, meaning the player using Gen-an has
plenty of time to think about what awful thing he is going to do
to the guy. True he has some nasty air moves, but he rarely uses
them effectively, mainly because their range of motion is so small
that it is difficult to actually hit anyone with them.
On the ground, Kyoshiro is even worse. He's still slow,
even if his range is good. You can get inside on him and just
wail away with lots of B's. There is little he can do to counter.
Have fun with this guy.
Nakoruru (5):
For a little girl, Nakoruru can be a real pain in the tush when
it comes to fighting. With such great speed and range of motion, all her
activity makes her difficult to get a hold on. If she were to stay
moving constantly, she would cause problems, but there is one time
when she must slow down. That is when she wants to use her bird, and
she just loves to use that bird. Whether she's sending it at you
to fry your bum or she's jumping up into its claws to drop down
on you, she has to stand relatively still to do so. This is when
you should attack, and attack hard, especially when she is flying
on the bird.
In the meantime, jump around. Stay moving, like you do with
Galford, using quick attacks with little delay or recovery time.
It you don't move, she'll nickle and dime you to death. Unlike the
American ninja, however, be a little more aggressive. Nakoruru will
not punish you quite so severely for jumping in on her at a bad time,
so go after her when you feel the urge, just don't do it constantly,
or she'll slice you up the middle and use you as an overcoat.
Nicotine (5):
Haohmaru's master is thankfully not the one who taught him his
cheese. Instead, he is a crafty fighter who knows his strengths,
and how to use them. Watch out for this one and don't underestimate
him because of his size. His small height, in fact, gives him
quite an advantage.
You can fight Nicotine much like you fight Cham Cham, but you've
got to make sure you stay back on the air slashes. That staff of his
is a great tool for knocking people out of the sky, but due to Nicotine's
bizarre style, it's longest ranged attacks reach more down than over,
so you can hit him with a B slash from a good distance away before he
can bop you on the head with the staff. His most straightforward air
staff strike has a relatively short range, so if you jump straight up
or back to meet him, he'll miss you with it. His hat is a bit of a
pain in that it generally gets in the way, but it does so little
damage as to be inconsequential in the end.
On the ground, Nicotine has a little more to offer than Cham Cham
does, so you have to keep your eyes peeled. He has three different
basic card attacks: the confusion card, the electric hawk, and the
flaming dog. Of these, the last is the only real worry. The first has
such short range that you can block it and stick Nic. The second can
be ducked or spider hopped under. The last must be blocked low or
jumped over. This gets to be a hassle when trying to get within
weapon range, even more so when it actually hits, because it does
some significant damage. The one to really watch out for, though, is
his POW card; that's the big one he can toss out there very quickly.
If you get hit by that, get away and beg for your weapon back. Without
your claw, Nicotine has a huge range advantage on you, not to mention
more tricks up his sleeve.
Sieger (6):
He of the bald head and the thick accent can be a real problem
to fight sometimes. He's got a pretty good reach with the mechanical
arm, and he has all sorts of things he can do with it, the most annoying
of which by far is the Wolf Fangen -- that's the one where he
grabs you by the toes, stuffs you into his arm, then shoots you across
the screen, a very painful experience. What makes it extra difficult
to deal with is that it hits low, meaning you're going to have to
block low, and Sieger seems immune to everything else while he does
it, a fact which is quite annoying. To be successful against Sieger,
you're going to have to watch out for this move, and be prepared
to jump over it.
For somebody who's not supposed to be very good in the air, Seiger
seems to do an awful lot of damage up there. Consequently, you should
avoid getting into a dogfight with him if at all possible. If you are
unfortunate enough to get caught in the air when he launches himself
at you, try countering with a big AB slash. The downward motion of
the move will catch the clumsy Sieger, who will almost always be below you.
The exception to this is when he either jumps first or tries a Blitz Jaeger
(the flaming bellyflop). If he is stupid enough to do either of
these, make him pay with an upward-cutting B slash just before he
lands. The CPU Sieger does lots of Blitz Jaeger's, most of them
needlessly, and you can tick away lots of health by slicing him
when he does so.
One peculiar thing about Sieger is that he does seem rather
vulnerable low, so do A and B claw thrusts at his feet. Many times
you will hit, but if you don't quickly hop away so as to avoid
a retaliatory Wolf Fangen. Sliding kicks are also nice, as is the
occasional Slaughter House Tumble, but be careful, because he can
and will Wolf Fangen you out of these manuevers.
Ukyo (5):
The mystery man is truly a mystery. He has a huge variety of
effective manuevers which he could use to slice you up into little
bits (Why do you think every uses him?), but the CPU Ukyo almost
never uses any of them effectively. The Swallow Swipe does minimal
damage unless he actually catches you with the sword in the
process, and the Afterimage Attack is rarely successful. More often
than not you will knock Ukyo out of the latter by attacking with
numerous A's and B's as well as sliding kicks. His Snowfall Slash
you can see coming from a mile away; once he tosses that apple,
do a quick A claw thrust, and he'll never get started. Even if he
does get this move off, you can hit him with a low thrust while
he is busy slashing at the air.
In the air, Ukyo can be very dangerous, especially if the
CPU is being liberal with its use of Swallow Swipes. If Ukyo
has a POW move in hand, do _not_ jump at him. As Gen-an you can
be quite effective on the ground against this guy, so don't blow
it by getting torn to shreds off of it.
Ukyo does have a mean little diving AB slash which can take
out your feet. It is a very fast maneuver, especially for an AB,
and does quite a good chunk of damage. Be prepared for it by
blocking low, and countering with something painful. After a
few unsuccessful attempts at taking out your feet, the CPU will generally
give up on this move, especially if you sticking him afterwards.
Wan-Fu (7):
Of all the regular characters, this is the one I dislike fighting
the most. It's not because of any particular weakness Gen-an has
against him or because of his general toughness. It's because
the CPU likes to pull of a number of lame stunts with this guy,
especially if you get ahead.
The only move he has which should cause any real problem is
the Confucious Swipe, during which he can spin around once, twice,
or even three times. The CPU will pull this move off at will,
but most often when you have a lead and are going for a low slash
or kick. The CPU has the advantage in that it doesn't have to wait
for the animation of a move to react to it; it reacts to your joystick
movements. So if it suspects you are going to try to stick Wan-Fu
in the feet, it will react by initiating a Confucious Swipe to
prevent you from doing so. This is not to say that it does this
all the time. At the beginning of the match, A and B slashes,
crouching and standing, seem to be quite effective, especially after
one of Wan-Fu's botched long pillar slams. On occasion, you can
even catch him with a standing AB and revel in the wonderful
slicing sound that it makes when it connects.
Wan-Fu is generally bad in the air, except when he is actually
above you. In this situation, he has a variety of moves he can
perform while airborne all of which he can follow up with a quick
Confucious Slash, making for a nasty combo. Therefore, don't jump
second at this guy; you'll only regret it. Aggressively jumping
has moderate effectiveness, mostly when combined with AB slashes.
Of course if you miss, Wan-Fu can throw you just like every other
character in the game can do.
One rather amusing thing which Wan-Fu does is his Benpatsu
maneuver. This one you will recognize immediately because Wan-Fu
will place his pillar on the ground, then start banging his head
on it. This costs him some of his health, but increases his POW
meter to full. Translation: Stick him before he finishes. Be
careful not to touch the pillar when he is doing this as you will
only get hurt. Instead use something with a long reach, like a
B slash, a Poison Cloud Puff, or a Blood Grip. Do _not_ try a
standing AB slash as tempting as it may look. Also note that
it seems that the CPU has absolutely no idea when this is good
move to attempt; sometimes, Wan-Fu will start banging his head
when he has almost zero health and is standing right next to you.
Slash him when he does this then say, 'Silly boy.'
Kuroko (7):
My information of Kuroko is pretty sparse to say the least.
I have only fought this guy once, and I was just learning how
to play the game at the time when he decided I looked like a
sucker and jumped in. Despite my inexperience, I did have some
success against the judge, and even almost beat him in the
very first round!
I cannot offer much as far as what to do and what not to do
against him, except to tell you to use your strengths. Gen-an has
good reach: use it. Keep Kuroko back and slash at his feet.
Slide at him, too, to mix things up, but do not get involved in
a projectile war as you will lose very quickly. He's got more
long-distance attacks than your little brother has baseball cards,
and Gen-an's pitiful Poison Cloud Puff is just too darn slow to
effectively cancel them out.
Kuroko also seems to be one tough customer in the air, but
almost all of his air attacks go downward. This means that you
should do your best to get above him in the air where your AB
slash is at its peak effectiveness.
Mizuki (8):
The boss character, fittingly, is the one that will cause
you, as Gen-an, the most problems. She is super-fast, faster
than any other character, and has great reach with her gohei.
She has a wide variety of special attacks, which you can only
counter in a satisfactory manner if you can recognize them for
what they are. Worst of all, she laughs at you when she wins;
that's enough to make me scream 'Koroshicharu!' along with
the little guy.
Mizuki's demon dog really shouldn't cause you any problems.
It has three different attacks: the Swine Curse, which is
terribly slow, along with the Rush Demon and Mad Demon charges,
which can be countered in much the same way as Galford's Poppy
attacks. An important difference is that Mizuki's wolf-thing
never appears from the sky, so you can safely jump in order
to avoid the thing. However, there seems to be a small glitch
in the game with the Mad Demon attack. If you try to jump over
this one, make sure you get well over it, because if you just
barely clear the dog, you will still get caught by his attack.
This most likely has something do with a small graphical aura
surrounding the dog which is used by the program running the
game, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Just
be careful, and get a good leap.
Mizuki herself has three different different projectile
attacks. First, there is the Mass Confusion; you can guess what
this does. It is easily recognizable as a shimmering whitish
globe which floats through the air at you. If you get hit,
all your joystick movements will be reversed, and unless you
are very good at switching orientation, stick with simple attacks
at this time like crouching (now jumping) slashes. Also, be
sure to press _forward_ to block. The second projectile is
her Passage Through Hell attack. This appears as a blue portal that
zips along the ground; when it gets underneath you, two hands
reach out and pull you in. You will then appear from the
sky and get slammed into the ground for quite a lot of damage.
This is probably Mizuki's most effective attack. It moves quickly,
takes off quite a lot of health, and must be blocked low or
jumped over. The last, and meanest projectile, is Mizuki's POW
move: her Hell Tempest. She creates a black sphere which
boomerangs out at you. That is to say, it can hit you going
either way! If it does, forget it because you will lose a lot
off your health bar and will have no weapon to show for it. Mizuki
is very good at tossing this thing out just as you land next
to her, so be careful about jumping when she's mad.
The most frustrating thing Mizuki can do is teleport, and she
does this on a whim. If she starts laughing, that means she is
about to disappear and reappear somewhere else. Sometimes this
is in front of you, sometimes this is behind you. It is best
to assume she is going to pop up behind you, so if she teleports
jump back, unless that requires going into a corner in which case
jump away. With a little luck, you'll end up with a clean shot
at her when she reappears.
Enough about what she can do, now I'll tell you what you can
do. First off, be patient. It will take some time to be able
to recognize all of Mizuki's attacks for what they are, but once
you can, she becomes considerably easier. For example, if you
can recognize the Mass Confusion and see an opening but have to
eat the confusion to slice her, go for it. The Mass Confusion does
very little damage, and if you play conservatively, the reversed
joystick orientation will not cause major problems. Also, get
it through your head that you've got to either block low or jump
the Passage Through Hell. This move causes a lot of damage, and
if you keep trying to block it normally, you're not going to
last very long at all. One thing to note is that Mizuki herself
is not a very patient fighter. She will play the aggressor a lot,
but don't panic. She may move fast, but she is also quite vulnerable
when she does so. Low slashes will catch her a lot when she's
charging; use them. She also jumps quite often, and in the air
she is very susceptible to your B and AB slashes; which one to
use depends upon whether you are below or above her at the time.
Mizuki also seems to be what I like to call 'soft in the head.'
If you stand directly in front of her and jump straight up, you
can often catch her with an AB slash on the way down. Even if
she blocks it, you recover so quickly that you can do it again
or follow up with different quick slash or slide. She will almost
always try to swat you out of the air with her gohei when you do
this, but for some reason, her timing is lousy, and she will miss
every time, her weapon going right underneath your feet. This
is her biggest weakness. Exploit it if you can.
That's all for now in this Gen-an player guide. Things I
hope to add in future versions:
* What joystick positions bring up what victory poses.
* Neat ascii pictures of anything associated with Gen-an.
* More info on how to fight Kuroko.
* Description of Gen-an during the Super Deformed Transformation.
If you have any of the above, or anything else which you think
should be added to the guide, feel free to let me know by e-mail
at dstwalle@dante.helios.nd.edu. My address will be
changing in mid-August, but until then, send me the good stuff!