Virtua Fighter 3tb/Lion Rafale

Country	France
Birthday	1979.12.24
Blood Type	AB
Fighting Style	Tourou-Ken
Height	174cm
Weight	63kg
Occupation	High School Student
Hobby	Collecting Knives

Storyline

In the Second World Fighting Tournament, Lion was knocked out in the first round, but in that bout he discovered within himself a hidden fighting spirit. With a brand new focus, Lion became totally absorbed in his training as he sought to improve himself. A year and several months passed, when an invitation finally arrived for the Third World Fighting Tournament. In order to redeem himself, and evaluate his new skills, Lion entered the Tournament. This time, he will do better!

Playstyle

Lion
Pros	Cons
Good Strings for Pressure: Lion's strings are quite good for pressuring the opponent due to them having enders that knock down. Mobility: Lion has some of the best mobility in the whole game. Good jump, special movement, left-foot forward tricks, great evade moves. Okizeme: Thanks to his mobility, he has easy access to urawamari tech and an overall great okizeme game. Fast Normal Hit Launch: 44K, while a high move, is 11 frames of execution, which is lightning fast in this game for a normal hit launcher. Strong Lows: In a game where lows are almost all bad, Lion's stable of lows are really good with many of them resulting in knockdowns of some kind.	Foot-Stance Heavy Character: Lion relies a lot on being in left foot forward for his mobility to be used to its' full potential. Without it he has poor option selects. Low Combo Damage: Outside of specific scenarios, Lion has lower damage than the rest of the cast, but not by much. He excels against Taka, however. Weak Backdash: His regular 4E backdash is bad, but in left-foot forward you can use a bug/technique to enhance it. Slow Jab: His jab is 10 frames for execution, on the slower end. This means that Lion cannot really spam jabs like some other characters can as his can get beaten out. He will need to get creative to win neutral situations.

Key Techniques

P - 10f execution, making it on the slower side.

PK - Important natural combo. Can be used to force crouch, and is a safe pressure tool.

PPP - Knocks down and is a natural combo. Use for 10f punishes.

PP2P - Ends in a low and knocks down. Not natural.

2P+E - Arguably Lion’s best low attack. Fast, not very telegraphed, switches foot stance

6P - Will stagger on crouch. Fast. Good pressure starter.

3K - In certain scenarios this will launch, so go for a small combo! Same for 3K+E.

8P+K - Fast mid with a long reach that can go into a small combo.

44K - The fastest way to go into backturned for Lion and a great whiff punishing tool.

1K - A strong low attack that will knock down. Keeps Lion in his current foot stance.

9K - Typical combo ender. Works as a down attack and can crush low rising attacks and rolls. 2KK also works here.

P+G - Leaves Lion standing, so start an oki game here or go for ura tech!

HCBP+G - Lion’s strongest throw in terms of raw damage. Hard to break, so go for it often.

Strategy

A Quick Overview

Lion has good damage throws, multiple strings with knockdown hits in them, very strong lows, great pokes, good pressure, and multiple CH launchers. He's has arguably the strongest okizeme in the game along with Shun. His PPP is a true normal hit knockdown, which is very strong, and he has the fastest NH launcher in the game with 44K. He has many low knockdown hits, both single and with strings.

However his backdash isn't very good, but he still has other tech to compete in frame tight situations, and he relies very heavily on foot-stances in all situations (whether it's for his extra mobility options or for maximizing his combo damage). This, combined with a pretty slow jab, means he will need to work hard in low advantaged situations to enforce his strategy and take advantage of what he's good at.

General Strategy

Lion is a tricky character to get to grips with in the system because his basic tools can be seen as slightly worse than everyone else’s. Notably, his backdash is bad compared to characters other than Taka-Arashi who cannot dash at all. His knee doesn’t give very high floats, and even though it's his main mid-level launcher, nets low combo damage and his jab is slower than everyone else’s. However, much of this can be resolved by playing strictly for knockdowns to start an okizeme game where Lion is quite strong. Key moves for knocking down opponents are 3K, 2P+E, 1K, and his P+G throw. These are all single hit or single command moves that have a good chance of succeeding unless an opponent is looking for them. Make sure to use Lion’s 6P to create opportunities to use these moves, especially since crouching opponents will be staggered allowing him to start his pressure game.

In low advantage and disadvantage situations, Lion’s basic quick jabs can get you by just fine. Landing a jab can lead to deadly knockdown strings like PPP and PP2P. He also has true lows in 23PP and 1PP to eek out wins or get small amounts of damage. Beware that when an opponent blocks these, Lion is -15 which is a knee punish for the opponent, so use these moves sparingly. To force opponents to crouch, try using PK which is quite safe and may lead to opponents trying to duck your high strings to get a throw punish or similar, opening them up to elbow staggers.

During the okizeme game, basic options are 2P+E, 2K+G, 66K+G, 1K, and throwing the opponent. These will all catch evades or people abusing standing guard too much. The safest options are usually just to keep elbowing or do an okizeme-friendly throw, but there are reasons to use Lion’s other low attacks in this scenario, such as to keep foot stance or push opponents closer to the ring or wall.

Frame Data

Movelist + Frame Data

Watch Your Feet

Lion becomes a much more mobile character when he is in left foot forward stance. This is because of a strange animation behavior that when holding back, Lion will take a much larger step back than most of the cast and thus will move his whole character model backwards. The basic option for this is 4E~41: a backdash into a 41 step. This gives him an incredibly large backdash but will cause him to go back to right foot forward. You can use this enhanced backdash to protect yourself against close and mid-ranged punches and kicks and throws. A punish with 3K or an elbow is recommended here unless the move whiffed is a large move in which case 44K will likely catch the opponent.

Another enhanced backdash option is 4G. This will cancel Lion’s walk back animation but still move him slightly back in a granular fashion depending on how often the G button is pressed. To perform this maneuver, hold back and then repeatedly press G. This will cause Lion to do a funky teleport by one step or less, and can be used to create massive amounts of space between you and your opponent. This is effective for running away, but also to make moves whiff on wake up. It is not recommended to use this in low disadvantage or above situations as you may get caught by a longer range-move such as a side kick.

Easy and safeish ways to switch foot stance are 4P and 2P+E. Both are quite fast but be careful when using 2P+E to switch stances in case your opponent is in range for a whiff punish. It is more recommended to use these attacks when up close and when Lion can get a real hit on the opponent. 1K meanwhile will keep your current foot stance and knock down, making it an effective knockdown tool when in left foot forward stance.