Capcom vs. SNK 2/K-Groove
K GROOVE
OVERVIEW
Meter Style:
- Level 3 Only Rage Meter
Groove Systems:
- Just Defend
Groove Sub-Systems:
- Run
- Small Jump
- Safe Fall
Possible Levels of Supers:
- Level 3
Games of Origin:
- Samurai Shodown Series
- Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves
Meter Length: 72 units Guard Bar Length: 43 units Damage Bonuses: Full Bar
- Normal attacks : 135%
- Special attacks : 130%
- Super attacks : 110%
Full Meter Duration: 180 units on the timer (1080/60 secs) (random note:) Just Defending gives you 6 units of meter and 100 units of life.
Strengths: Scare Factor, multiple level 3's.
Weaknesses: Defensive options, chip damage
Play if you enjoy: Rush down while glowing red. YOLO supers.
Characters well suited for K groove: Sagat, Cammy, Blanka, Geese, Kyo, Hibiki, Rock, Mai, Nakoruru, Ryo, Balrog
SUMMARY
K-Groove's entire system is a hybrid of two different SNK games: Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves (from which Just Defense was taken) and Samurai Shodown (from which the Rage Meter was taken). Basically, this is the SNK-version of the P-Groove. Essentially, the two Grooves are virtually identical: both only have Small Jump to aid in their attacks and both have an all-purpose, manual defense system. In P-Groove, it's the Parry. In K-Groove, it's the Just Defense. The only thing that REALLY separates P-Groove and K-Groove is the way the Meter works in K-Groove. Otherwise, it's very similar.
K-Groove is definitely one of the more difficult Grooves to use.
And because it's Super Meter is based on you taking damage, it's almost suited better for high Ratio characters. In fact, some may argue that K-Groove is the best Groove for Ratio 4 characters in a way, allowing you to gain multiple Level 3's in rapid succession thanks to the K-Groove's Meter System. However, unlike P-Groove, K-Groove is not based on Just Defending and Counter Attacking. K-Groove is definitely a very limited offensive Groove, thanks to the lack of Sub-Systems. However, Just Defense and the Rage Meter easily combine to form a formidable Groove. K-Groove can almost be considered the "comeback" Groove, allowing you to spend a round getting beat up, and then instantly making a comeback by landing your Super while you're "Raged". Because you can build Meter in large chunks at a time and do huge amounts of damage with your Super Combos, all at the same time gaining life back from Just Defends, K-Groove can be a very difficult Groove to deal with.
METER SYSTEM
K-Groove, by far, has the most unique Meter System. It isn't based on building it up through actions like the other Grooves. No, in K-Groove, there are only two ways to build up your Meter: take damage and Just Defend. Otherwise, your Meter will never fill up in any other way. Having your Meter fill up is what is known as becoming "Raged". The Meter is supposed to measure your anger, as it did in the Samurai Shodown engine. That's why every time you get hit, it builds up.
Once your Meter builds up, you are allowed to perform only a Level 3 Super Combo. That is all you are allowed with your Super Meter in K-Groove because the K-Groove is just one, long Meter with no tiers. So when it fills up, that means you are Raged and your character will turn VERY Red. Not only are you allowed to perform a Level 3 Super Combo at this point, you gain two other benefits: you take less damage and you dish out MORE damage! When Raged, you take 12.5% less damage from enemy attacks, and you also dish out 35% MORE DAMAGE. AND you do more Guard Damage as well! This is a huge benefit of K-Groove. Becoming Raged practically raises your character another Ratio!
However, there is a limit. Once the Rage Meter is full, a Time Bar appears above the Meter. It slowly drains, but once it drains, you lose all of your benefits and can also no longer do a Level 3 Super Combo. You are going to have to build the Meter all over again. So if you have no Meter and your character is about to be defeated, the only way to build more Super Meter without losing all of your energy is to Just Defend! Also, if you perform a Super Combo, the Time Bar and your Super Meter will both completely drain to empty. And unlike the Samurai Shodown series, even if the Super whiffs, the Meter drains completely.
In K-Groove, whatever Meter you have is retained if you win the Round. If you have 75% of your Rage Meter filled up, you'll have 75% of your Rage Meter filled up at the start of the next Round. However, if you are currently Raged and the Time Bar is present, if you defeat your opponent, your Meter will start out completely empty the next Round (so an anti-K-Groove strategy could be to Taunt to fill up the enemy's Meter before your character is defeated). Also, if you are defeated, your character starts the next Round with an empty Super Meter no matter what.
JUST DEFEND
Just Defend is a pretty accurate name. Basically, if you perform a Just Defend, it means that you "just defended" an attack. That's because to perform a Just Defend, you have to Block at the last second. So if you are about to be struck by an attack, simply don't press Back or Defensive Crouch to Block until the very last second, right before the move strikes you. That will cause you to perform a Just Defend. You character will then flash a bit, indicating success.
Performing a Just Defend has five major benefits:
- You earn some Super Meter.
- You regain a very small amount of life back.
- You will not get pushed back at all as you would normally would in Block Stun.
- Your Block Stun is shorter than normal.
- You will not take Block Damage.
So performing a Just Defend has many benefits. Although the Benefits are not as direct as a Parry (which frees you up for instant retaliation), the various smaller benefits can make it VERY worth while. Although you still do have Block Stun, the Block Stun is still noticeably shorter to allow you to actually Just Defend and retaliate against certain slower attacks. Also, you will gain Super Meter, and in K-Groove, having a Full Meter is a HUGE benefit. You will maintain your ground and not get pushed back any distance at all, so you can take advantage of an enemy's delay if you, for example, Parry a Fireball up close. And on top of all these benefits, you will even gain a little amount of health back. It may not be a lot of health, but it's easily enough to discourage an enemy from throwing Fireballs from a screen away if you keep Just Defending them all.
Again, to perform a Just Defend, just hit Back or Defensive Crouch right before a move connects against you. Now, unlike P-Groove, Just Defending is a little more cut and dry. Whatever you can Block by holding Back, you Just Defend by pressing Back. Whatever you can Block by holding Defensive Crouch, you Just Defend by hitting Defensive Crouch. If you can Block a move with either direction, you can Just Defend it with either direction. It's all very simple.
And of course, BECAUSE you are hitting Back or Defensive Crouch to perform a Just Defend, Just Defend is a FAR less risky technique than Parrying. If you Just Defend too early, for example, you'll most likely end up Blocking the attack you tried to Just Defend and not take any damage. In P-Groove, Parrying too early will cause you to eat the attack. However, you CAN still Just Defend too late, and thus eat the attack. So you're usually better off trying to Just Defend early rather than late.
Keep in mind that you can only Just Defend Attacks. If you try to Just Defend Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver for example, you'll fail and get Thrown. There is nothing to Just Defend!
You can Just Defend during Jumps as well. Thus, even though you cannot Air Guard in K-Groove, you still have some form of defense during a Jump! You can even Just Defend moves that cannot be Air Guarded!! Just hit Back or Defensive Crouch in the air right before you are hit by a move and you'll Just Defend the attack and not get harmed. However, in order to Just Defend in the air, you cannot have done any other move during your Jump beforehand. So you can't Jump Kick on your way up and then Just Defend on your way down.
However, when you Just Defend a move in the air, you character will get bounced fairly high up into the air, and slightly backwards, regardless of which direction you are Jumping. Once you bounce backwards, you are free to move almost right away, and you can do whatever you want: a Jump Attack, an Air Special Move, or even another Just Defend. But, if you bounce back after a Just Defend and perform some attack like a Jumping Roundhouse (HK) the instant you bounce up, on your way down, you can no longer do a Just Defend or any other attack. After a Just Defend in the air, just like a normal Jump, you are allowed only one action.
When you push Back or Down/Back, any move that makes contact with you within 6 frames gets Just Defended. If the joystick is moved away from Down or Down/Back during those 6 frames, the Just Defend input is lost. Thus, unlike Parrying, holding the joystick in the position is better than returning to Neutral.
In order to perform multiple Just Defends in a row, the joystick needs to be put back to Neutral within 6 frames of the previous Just Defend in order to be able to perform another Just Defend. When the attacks come really quickly, the best way to Just Defend all the hits is to quickly wiggle the joystick between Neutral and Back or Down/Back.
You can't Just Defend in the middle of a Run. This can be important in gameplay. Majestros brought this up to me, and I paraphrase his words here: I think this is pretty important because with the other Run grooves, if you see someone Running at you, you have to consider whether they're going to attack or whether they're going to Roll. But if the enemy is in K-Groove, you can pretty much perform a Wake-Up no matter what they do if they're in range since K-Groove can't Roll and K-Groove can't Just Defend in the middle of Running.
If you Block the first attack in a series of hits that Combo, you can no longer Just Defend any of the later hits. Basically, once you are put into Block Stun, you aren't allowed to perform a Just Defend. Thus, if you have the intention of Just Defending a series of attacks, you'll have to start by Just Defending the first hit all the way until the last hit.
And yes, that means you can Just Defend multiple attacks in a row. So when you perform a Just Defend, you can continue to Just Defend every attack that comes your way by repeatedly hitting Back or Defensive Crouch against every hit. This is possible DESPITE the fact that performing a Just Defend puts you into a type of Block Stun. During a normal Block Stun, you cannot perform a Just Defend, but after one Just Defend, you CAN do another Just Defend during THAT Block Stun.
Other that that exception, a Just Defend's Block Stun behaves like a normal Block Stun. In other words, if you Just Defend the first attack in a Combo of attacks, you can NO LONGER get hit. So if you fail to time a second or third or later Just Defend correctly, you'll just end up Blocking the rest of the attacks rather than getting hit by them. So unlike Parrying, you are relatively safe after you Just Defend the first attack.
Just Defending multiple attacks while in the air is a lot trickier than Just Defending multiple Attacks on the ground. Because you bounce high up, it's much harder to time proper Just Defends in the air. For example, if you Just Defend Sagat's Fierce (HP) Tiger Uppercut, each Just Defend will occur with a small "delay" in between them, because you get bounced up so high. Sagat has to "catch up to you" after every Just Defend so don't expect 5 quick Just Defends in a row.
And another problem with Just Defending in the air: because you have no Air Guard, failing a Just Defend in the air after Just Defending one attack means you get HIT. When you fail a second Just Defend on the ground, you will end up Blocking the rest of the hits.
But in the air, if you fail a second Just Defend, you will eat whatever other moves are coming.
Do note that because you ARE still in a form of Block Stun during a Just Defend that you CANNOT be Thrown. If Zangief does a Crouch Jab (LP) and you Just Defend it and Zangief Buffers that into a Screw Pile Driver, the Screw Pile Driver will miss, leaving him vulnerable. This is contrary to Parrying, where if you Parried the Crouch Jab (LP), you will get Thrown by Zangief's Screw Pile Driver.
Now, even though Just Defending still leaves you in Block Stun, you CAN still recover in time to Counter attack the opponent if they do a move with a long enough delay. This is because your Block Stun IS shorter than a normal Block Stun and that the enemy's attack doesn't push you anywhere, leaving you at a distance where it's MUCH easier to take advantage of the enemy's delay. Interestingly enough, since you never get pushed away, continually Just Defending a series of non-stop attacks will essentially make you "stuck" where you are, Just Defending forever.
For example, if Ryu walks up to you and starts to fire off Crouch Shorts (LK) forever, all of which Combo, and you Just Defend each and everyone of them, you'll never get pushed away! So Ryu can sit there and Crouch Short (LK) forever while you Just Defend forever! Thus, you may be FORCED to Block, just so you will get pushed back and can move again!! Of course, no one will ever do that because if you did Just Defend forever like that, you'd get all your energy back eventually.
With Just Defend, most moves do NOT produce any sort of "Just Defend Freeze". When you Parry, the game freezes for a second with what I call a "Parry Freeze." With Just Defend, there really isn't much of a pause. So to Parry multiple hits from, say, a Super, you'll need to perform Just Defends one after another VERY, VERY, VERY quickly. So if Chun Li does her Hoyokusen (the Thousand Burst Kick-like Super), you will literally need to Just Defend every hit in real time. This is not easy AT ALL, but if you do manage to Just Defend the first hit, you'll, at worst, Block the rest of the hits. This makes Just Defending multi-hit attacks MUCH more difficult than Parrying multi-hit attacks. But since you will Block if you fail, it's still much safer than Parrying.
For some reason, Just Defending Super Fireballs actually DOES cause a slight "Just Defend" Freeze. Thus, Just Defending an entire Super Fireball is about the same timing as Parrying a Fireball Super. Why this is, I have no clue, but just keep it in mind if you do plan on Just Defending an entire Projectile Super.
A small side note: you cannot perform a Just Defend during a Small Jump. You are only allowed to Just Defend if you perform a regular Jump or a High Jump. Also, because of the combination of the slight delay at the beginning of a Small Jump and the fact that you cannot Just Defend during a Small Jump, the period of right when you start Jumping up to the point where you JUST barely left the ground, you cannot Just Defend anything. What makes it even worse is that if you are hit during that delay right before you Jump, you DO stay grounded. Most people won't be trying to Just Defend right when they Jump, of course, so this isn't really much of a big deal. But I figured I'd rather be thorough than not thorough, and so I mentioned it anyhow.
A little section will be added here, for your benefit, dealing with learning how to properly Just Defend a Level 3 Super, or any other Super that generally hits "quickly" (note: this section is exactly the same information provided in the Parry section for P-Groove. If you've read that section, you can take everything written there and apply it to Just Defend as well, and can skip reading this section). There are some Supers that, after activation, if you are not Blocking BEFORE the Chi Gathering sequence that occurs before every Super, you cannot Block in time and you will eat the Super. For example, if you are standing near Guile and NOT holding Back on the Controller and he performs his Sonic hurricane, you cannot Block in time. Even if you Hold Back or Defensive Crouch after the Chi Gathering starts and before the Super actually happens, it will do you no good: you're gonna get hit by the Super.
This goes for Just Defending, too. If the enemy performs a Super that close up to you, and you hadn't tried to Just Defend yet, you are not going to be able to Just Defend. In fact, most likely, you are eating the Super. Thus, in order to Just Defend a Super, you have to KNOW the enemy is going to do the Super in advance!!! In other words, you have to tap Back or Defensive Crouch on the controller BEFORE the enemy activates the Super. So if you are really close the Guile when he does the Sonic Hurricane, you have to tap Back before the Chi Gathering sequence. Then, you can let go of the controller, and the INSTANT the Super starts up after the Chi Gathering sequence, you'll automatically Just Defend the first hit. But just be prepared to Block or Just Defend the rest of the Super.
Of course, this IS distance related. If you are RIGHT next to Blanka and he does the Level 3 Direct Lightning (the electric ball Super), you have to have tapped Back before the screen turned dark for the Chi Gather. However, if you are a screen away, this isn't necessary. Just wait until the Super gets next to you and Just Defend as you would normally.
Also, another thing, even though joystick motions don't register when the Chi is Gathering at the beginning of a Super, this doesn't mean you can hold Back on the controller when you are coming out of the Chi Gather to Just Defend a move. If you are JUST far away enough so that you can tap Back the INSTANT the Super starts up and still squeeze in a Just Defend, keep in mind you DO have to TAP Back. If you hold Back during the Chi Gather, it will NOT register as a tap after the Super starts up, so you won't Just Defend the Super and just end up eating it.
One last weird thing that was brought to my attention by Jason Cole of Northern California: Performing a Just Defend "freezes" the "charge state" of your character. For example, let's say you are Crouching with Guile and are charged up for a Somersault Kick, and the enemy Jumps at you and kicks at you. You then let go of the joystick, immediately hit Back and Just Defend their attack. Then, the enemy lands, and before you recover from your Just Defend delay, the enemy throws out five Standing Jabs in a row, all of which you Just Defend while standing and Just Defending by pressing Back 5 times in a row.
After the enemy stops Jabbing, you can hold Up and press any Kick button right at the end of your last Just Defend delay and you will come out with a Somersault Kick! So even though you've let go of Crouch to do MULTIPLE Standing Just Defends, your charge isn't instantly lost during the Just Defend. Thus, the Razor Kick can still come out.
So basically, while you are in any Just Defend delay, time does not pass as far as Charge time is concerned. Because you are always given a small window before your Charge time disappears (which is why you can do things like Stand Fierce (HP) into a Somersault Kick with Guile), you can actually stand to Just Defend an attack and then still Razor Kick. It's a very weird trick, but could be useful for Charge characters to come out with Special Moves or even Supers after Just Defending a move.
-James Chen, July 2002
JUST DEFEND MODIFIED FRAME ADVANTAGE FORMULA
(added 12/20/03)
Yes, it's a mouthful. I'm not known for making up good names for anything. I'll change the name when I think of a better one.
I've been meaning to get exact JD frame numbers (they're not in the book) for quite some time. After a bit of experimentation in training mode, here's what I found:
Fierce/Roundhouse JDs: 18-20 frames guard stun Strong/Forward JDs: 14-16 frames guard stun Jab/Short JDs: 10 frames guard stun Special Move JDs: 19-21 frames guard stun
These varying numbers for modified JD guard stun tell me that one of two things is possible: the first one being that some of the frame numbers in the official CvS2 guide book might me off by a frame or two. While that's very possible, I'll give the book the benefit of the doubt and assume the other possible reason for varying numbers is true:
Much like different fierces have different amounts of guard stun, the same applies for JDs; there is no set amount of JD stun for a set of moves. This makes it a huge pain to tell what the resulting frame advantage/disadvantage is with a JDed move, since there is no basic formula to follow. However, here's a simple formula for getting a rough estimate on the the resulting frame advantage/disadvantage:
Just Defend Modified Frame Advantage Formula:
Frame Advantage/Disadvantage = JD stun - (active frames + recovery frames)
Let's take Sagat's low fierce as an example:
Sagat's low fierce is 7/8/14 +2F. Plug the relevant numbers into the formula and:
Frame Advantage/Disadvantage =
- =18~20F - (8F + 14F)
- = 18~20F - 22F
- = -4~-2F
So, Sagat's low fierce (normally a +2F move) gets a disadvantage somewhere between -4F and -2F when JDed. With some testing, you'll find that it's actually exactly -3F, but since JD stun is slightly different for every move we can use the formula for a good estimate.
Here's a more extreme example of JD effects:
Benimaru's qcf+roundhouse is 12/4/29 +5. Plug the relevant numbers into the formula and you'll end up with:
Frame Advantage/Disadvantage =
- -19~21F - (4F + 29F)
- = -19~21F - 33F
- = -14~12F
Ouch. From +5 all the way down to -14ish. JDing really hurts the moves that are safe or give advantage due to putting a ton of block/hitstun on the opponent.
Oh, and to avoid confusion, frame advantage/disadvantage should always be in relation to the attacker. Even though it makes sense, avoid saying the defender has a +5 frame advantage... just say the attacker has a -5 frame disadvantage instead to avoid confusion.
Campbell Tran, December 2003
