Kizuna Encounter/System

Movement

On top of the basic movement options of walking and jumping, every character is also able to dash forward or backward by double-tapping the relevant direction. Forward dashes are of particular note, because they can be cut short at any time by pressing back during the dash animation. This is very useful for general movement as well as some combos and setting up some tricky mixup scenarios after a knockdown.

The ninjas Gozu, Mezu and Jyazu have the unique property of being able to double jump.

Blocking

Blocking on the ground like almost every other fighting game, but air blocking causes a large pushback in the air and forces your character to a blocking pose until you land which cannot be broken. Air blocking is active from 1F after hitstun ends in the case of an attack connecting while jumping.

Guard Cancels

Press 236A during blockstun to freely retaliate with a special move -- which special move is used depends on your character. King Lion/Leo’s guard cancel is Minimum Upper, while Rosa counters with Meteor Angriff, and so on. If your special move has a followup attack, it cannot be used after a guard cancel. Guard cancels can be baited if they’re unsafe/slow enough or you can somehow counter them, so they aren’t free of risk. You need these to reverse the flow and try to get your offense going.

Rush Combos

Every character is capable of chaining their normal attacks together in a sequence similar to Guilty Gear gatlings. The basic premise is that light normals chain into heavy normals, punch and kick normals can chain between each other in any order up to two times, and both punches and kicks of any strength can chain into weapon normals. Strong weapon normals can additionally be chained from strong punches and kicks as well as standard weapon attacks.

A basic example of a rush combo to help visualize these rules: 5BB 6A 5C 6C

Tag Teams

It is called Super Tag Battle. Each player selects two characters to play as. The match ends when any character is knocked out, like if Tekken Tag Tournament was somehow more punishing. Tagging is done by pressing D within your team’s Tag Zone, which is the marked square where you begin each round.

Surprise Attack

When you have 50% or less health and are in your tag zone you can press 421A to perform an autocombo attack alongside your benched tag partner. The damage dealt can vary depending on your team composition, but generally speaking it's not anything spectacular. There are two universal points in its favor: one being its long invincibility during the forward movement, and the other being that it's plus on block and generally quick enough that it can't be GC'd on reaction.

Emergency Tag

If you are at 50% or less health, inside your Tag Zone, and your opponent’s point character has over 50% health, you can input 421D to do a tag attack. Your benched partner will tag in and jump at the opponent with a knockdown attack. This animation tracks the opponent's position anywhere on the screen.

These also can function as an alternate Guard Cancel, and are generally safer than most other Guard Cancels if it whiffs or is blocked. It will probably get blocked but it’s pretty quick and tough to punish without prediction; your partner can’t get hit until after they land. This can catch projectile throwers or reckless attempts to bully you out of your Tag Zone.

A minor but important difference from a regular tag out is that the 1st frame of the animation is not invincible and it is possible to get attacked and not tag out at all. There is a known game-crashing bug if you KO an opponent on the 1st frame of their Emergency Tag.

Health Regeneration Ranks

When tagged out, your benched character will slowly regain health; tagging out will decrease your regeneration rank one level, taunting will grant one rank on the 1st frame of animation. There are 5 ranks of health regeneration referred to as Ranks S/A/B/C/D where S is unique to the Good Friends teams (see Unique Teams). There is no way to actually see this rank on the HUD.

Because taunting can be canceled very early on in the animation it's usually pretty safe to stand back and rapidly taunt cancel, but the regeneration rates are very slow regardless of rank compared to other tag team fighting games so don't stress on this element.

However, the boss characters do not play by these rules. They are forced to fight solo and take slightly less damage to compensate. This means they get no health regeneration and cannot take as much damage as a well-managed Tag Team, but they are incredibly powerful by themselves to make up for it.

Unique Teams

There are 6 team combinations in the game that can cause the aforementioned mechanics to act differently. We'll call them "good friends" and "enemies" on this wiki.

• Good friends: Gains S rank health regeneration, buff to Surprise Attack damage.
  • Hayate & Eagle
  • Gozu & Mezu
  • Joker & Chung
• Enemies: Nerf to Surprise Attack damage.
  • Gozu & King Lion
  • Mezu & King Lion
  • Joker & Gordon

Throws

Throws are performed by pressing 4/6C when close to your opponent. They are instant, and there is no whiff animation if the throw doesn't connect, as a 5C/6C will instead come out. These are an integral part of offense to punish Evasive Actions and prevent your opponent from mindlessly Guard Cancelling. They are guaranteed damage if they connect, but your opponent can “soften” the throw by inputting 4/6C right as they are grabbed, taking less damage and landing on their feet. Everything said here also applies to air throws, for the characters who have them. Note that throws will still connect if you are in your pre-jump frames, so holding up is not always a free way out if the setup is tight enough.

Universal Overhead

Press B+C to perform an overhead attack. This gives every character access to a grounded attack that must be blocked while standing. These are generally too fast to react to, and if spaced correctly or performed as a meaty, will allow combos afterwards. Some have enough hitstun to simply allow combos afterwards regardless of how they hit. Most overheads are attacks performed out of a short hop (a tobi geri overhead), but a few are done on the ground. Hopping overheads cannot be thrown during the portion where the character is off the ground. Regardless of hop or no hop, overheads are considered airborne very early into the animation, so getting counterhit results in your character flipping out and resetting rather than remaining on the ground.

Universal Low

Press 3+A (meaning you input 3 and A at the same time from a standing position) to perform a low hitting attack. You can always use this as an OTG attack.

Evasive Actions

Sidestep

Pressing AB will result in a Sidestep, where your character briefly becomes invincible to attacks (but not throws). Sidesteps can cancel out of your wakeup animation, so they can avoid meaties. The invincibility lasts a decent amount of time and has punishable recovery, but it helps avoid projectiles and stray hits or mixups. The risk means this isn’t something that can be abused.

Circle Step

Pressing 6AB gets a Circle Step. Your character runs forward before turning around, being intangible through the forward movement. Like Sidesteps, Circle Steps can cancel your wakeup animation to avoid meaties. The main use of this is to escape the corner or potentially get in on an opponent who whiffs a projectile with a long recovery. This can also be punished with a throw during the recovery. Also bear in mind that your character automatically turns to face the direction they came from at the end of a Circle Step, irrespective of whether or not they moved past the opponent.

Both Evasive Actions can be buffered during wakeup, which will cause your character to perform it on the first actionable frame after a knockdown. Using these options to mix up your wakeup is very important if you don’t want your opponent to run a train on you with their okizeme.