DracoFighter/System

Movement

DracoFighter's movement is very basic. You are allowed to walk left and right, and dash in either direction by double-tapping it quickly. There is no universal jump, but most characters can perform some sort of jumping attack by pressing Forward + Special. Every character has a unique walk speed, dash speed, dash time, and jump height.

RPS System

Attacks beat Grabs, Grabs beat Blocking, and Blocking beats Attacks.

This is the basic RPS system (you can see how similar it is to Rock Paper Scissors), and is important because grabs are the ONLY way to damage a blocking opponent, while attacks are the most reliable way to defeat a grab.

Blocking can be performed by either holding Backwards or by pressing nothing at all. There is no way to receive chip damage, so one could block an entire round's worth of attacks and receive no damage. You cannot get crossed up if you press nothing to block.

You cannot break a throw once you are grabbed. The best way to beat a grab is to attack beforehand. Attacks grant you grab immunity for the entire duration of the attack, excluding the recovery frames (which allows grab punishes to be possible). Grabs can beat grabs if they either come out earlier or outrange another grab.

Attacks can beat other attacks if they either come out earlier or outrange another attack.

You cannot be grabbed during hitstun, to avoid infinite combos. The other player can always avoid a grab out of hitstun by attacking, which is more consistent with a buffer.

You are able to be grabbed during blockstun, but all non-secret characters have projectiles with very low blockstun to make this unlikely to set up.

Buffering

DracoFighter uses hold buffering so the player isn't required to mash. To perform a buffer, hold down your next move while you are in the middle of an action. For example, if you wanted to do Draco's combo N-Grab > B-Attack, then you would press Grab to grab the opponent, then hold down Backwards + Attack during the grab animation.

The game also includes more minor cases of buffering. A dash can be buffered during other actions as long as releasing the second directional button press is done when the other action is finished. There is also a buffer time for an A + B grab if you press either A or B too early. For example, trying to do an F-Grab but pressing A first will cause an F-Attack, but holding down Forward + A + B will cancel the F-Attack into an F-Grab.

Projectiles

Projectiles destroy projectiles that they come in contact with. Similarly, any attack can also destroy projectiles. Projectiles generally have a larger hurtbox than they have a hitbox to make them easier to destroy, but it's more consistent to destroy them with disjoints, since you may trade the attack otherwise.

Combos

DracoFighter uses a juggle system, so if a character is in hitstun and in the air, they cannot act until they're back on the ground and out of hitstun. Every additional attack on a player increases their gravity, so eventually they will touch the ground. However, this means that hitting the opponent into the air guarantees at least 1 followup attack.

The game also includes some links, where an attack is plus on hit to the point that it guarantees a followup attack. It is also possible to juggle into a link -- one example would be Plexie's N-Grab > B-Special > F-Attack, where the opponent lingers on the ground after B-Special but is in hitstun long enough for an F-Attack.