Zappa Love: Series Renovation. AC Edition!!!!

[Zerite]

The only other thing that I can think of that's awkward is that the sword 2H no longer has to be fd'd to be blocked in the air.

[rexkim]

Hm...I have a question. I love Zappa's Ghosts but I end up using all of them. =/ Is it worth keeping at least one ghost with you all the time? Also, about Raoh and dust. What's a better dust combo? Spamming J.hs or 214s?

[Phrekwenci]

Hm...I have a question. I love Zappa's Ghosts but I end up using all of them. =/ Is it worth keeping at least one ghost with you all the time?

Also, about Raoh and dust. What's a better dust combo? Spamming J.hs or 214s?

1) I don't believe so, they will come to you eventually and if you are too worried about having a ghost on you or not you'll get hit (similarly to how you many people concentrate on maneuvering the dog and get hit in the process). Just stick the 2P, 2K, 2D combo as plan B at all times and by the time you hit D, you'll (generally) have a ghost or two.

2) I don't believe AC lets you spam the jHS (which is what I used to do). I go for the Edguy since it's easier but then again, I usually get rid of Raoh before any of those decisions are made.

[Zoogstin]

Phrek is right about the ghosts. Yeah there will be times when you use all the ghosts and you may have to back off from the opponent every now and then, but be stingy with them either as long as you're using them right. They can come back pretty fast. Mid screen I use an impossible dust combo for Raoh. In case you don't know what an impossible dust its when you cancel the homing jump after a successful hit with 5D and you just drop back down. You can do this by either Faultless Defensing immediately after you leave the ground or double jumping after you leave the ground. For Raoh I use FD'ing: 5D, 8, ID (FD immediately),jHS, land, jS, jHS, 214S. Its awkward at first, and you might find yourself switching sides with opponent every no and then by accident, but you'll eventually learn the timing. The first j.HS should hit as you start to loose upward momentum and fall down from doing your impossible dust. It works on every character too.

[Zeero]

Besides, lets face it, rather than making Zappa more solid to improve his standings, the developers have just been giving him more BS to improve his standings instead. Which, once again, I'm not mad at. =P If they want to make the dog attack twice in succession, give the ghosts a homing ability, and make Raoh bounce his opponents like a basketball all day, that's fine by me.

that is so true

i hope the next edition will have sword have chargeable moves like HOS!

[Phrekwenci]

that is so true

i hope the next edition will have sword have chargeable moves like HOS!

God, how complex do you want this character to be? Think about trying to charge something and then not being able to use it because you got jabbed once.

[lymevirus]

2) I don't believe AC lets you spam the jHS (which is what I used to do). I go for the Edguy since it's easier but then again, I usually get rid of Raoh before any of those decisions are made.

[zand]

Raoh ID combo that I typically try to use is basically, from midscreen to corner, Dust, doublejump/FD, j.p, land, 214S, ball~k (OTG) into loop. My midscreen 214S RC combo is ~ 214S RC, IAD j.H, land, jump j.S j.H, whatever you want. You can really fuck them up with a good timed edguy to OTG ball but it can be hard. I believe you can do 2 edguys at the end of this if you time it correctly, but you can't do the OTG ball if you do the 2 edguys. The IAD seems to work better for me than the run jump combo and I think it makes them go farther into the corner

[Iruel]

Can't you gatling 5S©->6HS w/ Raoh? That shit's disgusting.

[Zerite]

Yeah you can. You can get to 6HS from almost anything you hit with with Raoh.

[Phrekwenci]

what? why the hell...?

I explained this elsewhere, I do way better without him.

[lymevirus]

explained earlier or not...why? i just dont see the purpose in intentionaly getting rid of him...ever.

[Zeero]

even though he has godlike damage, usually i find most players do worst with raoh than any other summon just look at that korean zappa in the video criticism thread, the moment he got raoh, his game fell apart and he lost face it, raoh just makes u rush and play kamikaze of course, intentionally getting rid of him is a waste unless you really hate him, any random hit will win you the game =\ all comes down to the players decision

[Chomite]

Raoh pressures the opponent but one who feels REAL pressure is you.(at least, that's what I find.) Becuase of that big blue giant behind you, you feel like you have to do something/anything. With 16 seconds clocks ticking, it just feels like 'god, I must do something.'

[amishrolf]

Raou only does so much for me. if i can somehow trick a fellow into a simple 5H, sure i can work off from there. maybe also throwing a Darkness Anthem when they're jumping in too. but, yeah. a lot of people are way better without Raou; i feel he doesnt have too many options or any other overheads outside of 5D. whenever i get Raou, i just try to raise the enemy's guard meter by lots.

[Dangief]

That's called "mental toughness" you can't go crazy with Raoh and it's not like you lose the match if he goes away. If they want to run, then chip and throw. Don't let him get in YOUR head, that's not what Raoh is for.

[Zoogstin]

I spell Raoh differently from whats in the my sig. Regardless, Raoh is strictly intimidation and baiting. He has good pokes, good chip and damage of course, and thats about it. That fact that Raoh has a crappy mix up game is what prevents him from being broken... in a sense. Yeah Raoh does big damage but actually hitting the opponent is the tricky part. To properly use Raoh against a defensive opponent, is simply to poke and hit confirm. That's all you got. Throw out a 5D every now to catch them off guard. Another mix up is a jump-in j.S - jHS. The opponent will block the jS but may crouch afterwards and can get hit by the jHS. In previous versions I just simply used jHS canceling into itself for that mix-up (the fact that they took that out made me hate Raoh for a good while in AC despite how much better he was overall. ;_; But I was just being lame). Offensive opponents are more tricky. You cant get cocky and think that Last Edgy will save the day if they have you in a block string. depending on the character their block strings and mixups are tight, as well as uppercut bait-able. Some times you're gonna have to be calm and play defensive with Raoh (I know it hurts). And like I've said before, if you're on the other side of the screen away from an opponent. Unless you know they suck don't go flailing across the screen at them because you have Raoh. Some characters like HOS has a force break with your name written all over for it for you to go running into. Poking and sending out Darkness anthems is sometimes all you can do.

[lymevirus]

That's called "mental toughness" you can't go crazy with Raoh and it's not like you lose the match if he goes away. If they want to run, then chip and throw. Don't let him get in YOUR head, that's not what Raoh is for.

and thats it...hes not an end all hes not a mobile 1 hit kill, but he is very effective.

dont go to pieces when you get him and youll still win if you were winning already

[Oiboi]

This is why I don't summon without combos. If you opponents on the ground when Raoh comes out, you've got a big advantage, and can start charging a DA on their heads as they stand up, forcing them to guard or die. From their, the possibilities are endless if you don't launch it. If they somehow zone out of your pressure, just throw DA's at them, mixing up the K,P, and S tosses (this all depends on match up. For sol, Throw K tosses more than anything, for instance.) until you get a hit confirm or they start guarding, letting you rush in for pressure. Don't be silly and think your invincible; Zappa's hit box includes Raoh when Raoh is attacking (j.HS is very easy to get counter hit @_@) so be careful. Keep in mind you still have those jewels of pokes, 6P and 5K when you have Raoh, which is very good to play with an opponents head. 2HS works on people who aren't familiar with the matchup (it's tricky and doesn't look like a low), and charge a DA on them from there, gaurded or not. Ultimately, Last Edguy is a combo extender/big damage move. It will work as a counter in many situations, but don't get nuts with it and throw it out whenever, it's like Zappa's form of an Ice spike. Roman cancel almost every time you can (though some combos don't require it), it'll help you combo. Overall, just play smart with Raoh. Eventually, opponents will try to get more offensive when Raoh comes out, so try to find a hole in pressure and counter hit them into a combo. Zappa love ftw.

[lymevirus]

yes. its all about being smart with the big fella, keep your whits about you and your fine...

[Zoogstin]

Hey guys, got a problem. All the links that I posted in the various guides have all died because the threads got deleted. If the person who made the chart ( I forgot who) that described the various difficulties of hitting a character with OTG Summons, Raohs 6HS loop, etc. please post it here. I will make a link straight to that post. Thank you.

[vane505]

I'm new to Zappa (and quite new to GG). I've heard that at Zappa is very hard to learn, and I'm wondering if it's just because you have to learn how to play with three summons or is there anything else that makes him hard to master? Appreciate your answer.

[Zoogstin]

yes learning all 4 of his summons are part of it (of course some are harder than others). But other factors include, learning what move is good and what move is bad in a particular situation. Other difficulties come into the fact that he can SOMETIMES work against you due to his randomness. For instance, there is without a doubt that a particular summon is better in a particular matchup than others. If you arent' getting that summon in situations where it would be helpful you may at a disadvantage. Of course this isn't too much of an issue if you know how to use all of his summons. =) Sometimes the random and quick change in summons that you experience because you got poked by a simple punch or something may throw you off because you weren't ready to change your gameplay from dog to the sword. but all you need is a little under 1 second to see what you have and you're back in the fight. Just a random annoyance that happens to me a lot is when I'm in the corner and get hit or something and the sword comes out but I have no idea that its there because its off the screen. But i'm just being nit picky. But I don't mean to scare you off. Zappa by no means is a crappy character. He's very good. Its just that there is a lot to think about when playing him. Anybody disagree? and also I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO GET A HOLD OF THAT CHART!!! Thanks you.

[aaronyu2]

yeah.. sword being off the screen in the corner gets me a lot too XD

[kanom]

about corner sword thing!! just listen to "shidamteeee" or "hamo nodaaaaaa" with that you know he's got the sword,i use my ears to know what summon i got,my ears and i look at the clock too!! zappa in short is fast enough,and got weird invincibility,many hits don't reach him and many combos don't work on him but when you don't have a summon you have liiiiittle range that's quiet annoying,to play zappa try to be fast don't leave time to your ennemy to think,rush,hit 5p or 5k or 2k and abuse fS