Galford (SS2)

Introduction

He’s a fighter who wants to be a lover, and he’s out to spread peace and justice at the tip of a sword. He’s Galford D. Weller, American ninja! If you enjoy versatility, speed, and mobility without being a stereotypical featherweight pixie, Galford is for you.

Story

According to SNK cannon (gathered from the series intros, endings, etc., including SSRPG), Galford is the nice guy son of an American Sheriff killed in the line of duty. He left his family behind and became a sailor, whereupon his journeys he heard stories of ninja and their amazing exploits. Intrigued, Galford sought out Hanzo (yes, that one). Hazno did not train Galford personally, but gave him and Eathquake (huh?!) both permission to learn under the wife of his master.

Earthquake quit in short order, though obviously not before learning quite a few tricks. Galford stuck with it and now uses his skills to defend “justice”. His sword, “Sword of Justice” is forged using metal from the bullet that killed his father, though at the time of SSII Galford does not yet know who the killer is (this is a little nebulous – the timeline of Samurai Shodown Sen is not well established and might even be a retcon).

Also unexplained is where Galford acquired his control of electricity - later games make it pretty clear his electrical powers are an innate ability and not tied to specific techniques like Hanzo’s various fire based attacks.

At some point during all of this, Galford met and went ga-ga over Nakoruru, but whether or not she returns his feelings, her duties to nature usually prevent anything coming of it. Sieger’s SSII ending also implies he, Galford, Wan-Fu, and Charlotte are all allies. It’s probably safe to say Gaflord is on friendly terms with all the non-evil cast members.

Moves List

Normal Moves

Standing

A – Galford uses his lead hand to swipe at the opponent with a backhand motion. Quick and decent damage, but the range is poor.

B – Galford swings overhead with one arm in a C shaped arc, stepping forward on his front leg. Overall this is your best poke. It comes out fast and has reasonable range. Damage isn’t great but it does the job. Use this to wear down your opponent in footsie games, but don’t stand around trading with Haohmaru, Charlote, or Ukyo. You won’t like the results.

AB – Galford somersaults forward and performs a nasty looking overhead strike. Looks cool, but it’s very situational. Takes forever to execute and even longer to recover. Damage output is divided over three hits, each slightly more than a standing B. In theory that would be awesome, but normally only one can connect. End result is that damage and stun are absolutely pathetic for a standing AB. Worse, even a clean hit leaves you virtually no frame advantage, and you can’t cancel out. It’s Galford's only standing slash that doesn’t recoil stun when blocked, but the atrocious recovery makes that a moot point. In short the only thing this move does well on its own is get Galford killed quickly.

All that said it is the prime ingredient for a couple of some utterly devastating combos involving Poppy that can often take out your opponent in one go, so don’t discount it entirely. See strategies and combos for more info.

C – Galford throws an insanely quick head level roundhouse kick. It’s his fastest standing attack – that rear leg practically teleports into your opponent’s face and retracts just as quickly. Not bad range either, though it completely misses crouching opponents. Not much damage, but more than most C kicks. Use it mainly as a harassment tool and to stuff incoming attacks.

D – Same animation and functionality as C, trading speed for damage. Still faster than most moves of its kind, and with the extra damage it’s worth using now and again as a poke. Just be careful, because you’ll take a lot more in return if countered.

CD – Galford throws a spiffy jumping back spin kick right to the side of his opponent’s head. Very fast and damage output comparable to some weaker characters’ AB slashes. Unfortunately the short range really limits its use. For some opponents, you need to be almost near enough to trigger the horrendous close CD. Like Galford’s other standing kicks, this one also misses crouching opponents. It does have one interesting property though - Galford is airborne on the very first frame, meaning he can dodge low attacks like a hop. I don’t have the reflexes to make anything of this, but it might have some situational counter attack uses. Can also occasionally work as an anti-air if the range is right.

Standing, Close

A – Galford strikes vertically downward with his far arm, crossing his own body. Does average damage for a close A, comes out almost instantly and recovers quickly even if blocked. Use this to back off an aggressive poker or to keep the pressure on.

B – Same animation as A and comes out just about as fast, but does more damage at the cost of slower recovery. I don’t use this one much. It’s not a bad move at all, but most of the time you have better options.

AB – Now here's what I’m talking about! Galford rears away with both arms and comes back with everything he’s got in a huge overhead slash. This move looks like it would hurt, and it does. Considerably stronger than Hanzo’s counterpart, it’s one of the most damaging close AB’s in the game, only losing out to Jubei, Seiger, and Genjuro. This by extension makes it one of the most damaging attacks period, and in a high damage game like SSII that’s saying something.

Two of these and your opponent is dizzy. Four and he’s dead. Best of all the damage comes in one big chunk, so no worries about grazing hits. Land it whenever possible, but don’t just swing randomly because the startup and block recoil both leave Galford more open than a 7-11. Look for ways to punish, surprise and combo instead. More on that later.

C – Galford drives a quick knee into his opponent’s gut. Works essentially the same as his standing C, but doesn’t miss crouching opponents.

D – Same as close C, but adds an extra frame where Galford turns his knee inward a bit to absorb the recoil. Stick to this one over close C. Damage difference is well worth the very slight speed loss.

CD – Galford shows off his flexibility training by throwing a nearly vertical side kick. Pretty fast and it does damage on par with weapon strikes; if disarmed this is your single strongest basic attack. Good luck ever getting it to hit though. Has ZERO reach and even at point blank range it will whiff right over half the cast! It also lost the excellent ground to air priority from SSI. The only real use is giving Sieger or Earthquake a solid boot to the face now and then, but in those situations you almost always have better options.

Standing Unarmed

A/B/AB – All three versions use the same animation - a lunging straight punch to the breadbasket. Despite appearances there are subtle differences in speed between each. All come out fast with solid range and top tier damage output compared to other punches.

Standing Unarmed, Close

A - Very fast backhand. Damage is what you'd expect, but speed and priority make up for it.

B - Harder, slower backhand. Otherwise same as A.

AB - Three hit auto combo consisting of an elbow, backhand and finally the normal standing punch. Doesn't do nearly as much damage as appearances would suggest - close CD is considerably stronger. However the first hit comes out almost instantly, plus it or the second hit can be canceled for a true combo. As icing on the cake the whole move is nearly impossible to punish when blocked.

Crouching

A – Galford lunges slightly and swings vertically with his rear arm. Short range but very quick. Unfortunately it doesn't hit low. There are usually better things to do, but if you are cornered this can back them off for a little breathing room.

B – Same animation and basic properties as A, but trades speed for some more damage. Good for chopping down low kicks, but very situational.

AB – Yet another excellent AB attack; I guess SNK was making up for the horrendous standing AB. Anyway, Galford grabs his weapon with his near arm and swipes low with a backhand motion, almost like his standing A. Even without all his other tools this move is good enough on its own to make Galford dangerous. It comes out fast, hits low, knocks down and like all ABs does a ton of damage. Excellent dizzy potential too.

Want more? Strangely, the hitbox reaches slightly above Galford’s head, making this a very surprising and damaging anti air if timed correctly. Range isn’t outstanding but it’s good enough to get the job done. The only real issue is a fairly long recovery, but even that can be nullified by canceling. Part of the infamous rush trap (more on that later too).

C – Galford pokes at the opponent with his near foot. Even faster than standing C, this spams fast as you can push the button. As you might guess, it removes barley a pixel from your opponent’s life bar, but it hits low and stuffs a lot of other moves. Use it now and then to harass and annoy them into making mistakes, or to counter moves that are normally safe from retaliation.

D – Galford whips his rear leg forward. Has kind of an awkward animation that makes it look slower than it is. Hits low and sweeps your opponent off his feet. A nice general purpose sweep. Use this in place of crouch AB if you are unarmed and want to sweep when up close.

CD – Very similar to his standing CD, Galford throws a full spinning back kick, but aimed low. An all-round excellent move - it comes out fast, hits low, sweeps, has good range, recovers quickly and even does fair damage. Compliments crouch AB perfectly - use AB for maximum damage and this one for reach.

One other interesting use is item collection. If you don’t want to risk running up to grab a food drop, just stick this out instead and Galford will snatch the morsel right out from under his opponent’s nose! The only real disadvantage this move has is that you might accidentally trigger the less useful crouching close CD instead.

Crouching, Close

CD – A nifty looking but not particularly functional attack. Galford somersaults in place and throws a rolling two hit axe kick. Does pretty good damage, but doesn't hit low and leaves your opponent standing. Decent recovery, but the big problem is the absolutely horrendous start up. It practically begs to get counter hit. Avoid this move unless you’re going for style points.

Crouching Unarmed

A – A quick backhand. Doesn’t hit low, but it’s nearly as quick as crouching C and does a bit more damage.

B – Same as A, with a nearly imperceptible trade off of speed for damage.

AB - Crouching version of the standing lunge punch. Nice priority and damage for a punch, but since it doesn’t hit low your kicks are usually a better option.

Jump

A – Galford swings downward with one arm - basically an air version of his close A. Covers in front and slightly below with excellent priority. Beats just about anything air to air if you’re close enough, but range and damage are not worth it unless you have no other options.

B – An air version of his standing A. It has a very high hit box and nice priority, so if you are quick this is actually a pretty good ground to air defense option. Won’t rock any worlds but still does decent damage.

AB – Galford throws a hard vertical chop - looks very similar to Haohmaru’s and is right on par with it in quality. Excellent reach and coverage in front and below Galford. Jumping in is generally a bad idea in this game, but if you must this one of the best. Will win a few air to air battles too, and like most ABs it hurts plenty when connected.

C – A weird looking back kick. Stays out quite a while and has excellent horizontal range. Your longest reaching jump attack.

D – Same as C. A little more damage, but doesn’t stay out as long.

CD – A spinning back kick similar to standing CD, but completely horizontal. Takes a while to execute, doesn’t reach as far as it looks. Hits hard if it connects, but otherwise not really useful.

Jump, Horizontal

CD – Galford throws a hard side kick at a slight downward angle. Quick, powerful, aims perfectly for a jump in and it has high priority over most ground attacks. Can cross up if timed correctly. Only stays out for a second though, so plan accordingly.

Jump Unarmed

A/B/AB - Again the straight punch. Functionally it takes the place of your armed jumping B.

Throws

Note: All of Galford’s throws cause the same amount of damage but vary wildly in their positioning effects, so chose the one that suits your strategy best. There does appear to be a throw priority in place, and if so Galford must be high on it. I find playing as Galford or Hanzo I can consistently throw my opponents in situations most other characters can’t. Feel free to toss most of the cast about at your leisure.

B/AB – Galford somersaults backward with his opponent, similar to the classic Frankensteiner, but instead pins them flat to the ground with his hands and bounces away. The bounce carries Galford quite a distance, about the same as his normal jump. Note Galford bounces to the opposite side he releases opponent, so if you throw them to the right, Galford bounces away to the left.

D/CD – Galford grabs his opponent in a scissor lock, then cartwheels head over heels, taking them to the ground and following up with a slash to the throat (!!). Opponent bounces away a short distance in direction of the throw while Galford remains in place.

Unarmed

D/CD – Same startup as the armed version but instead of a slash follow-up Galford flings them away midair. Probably his most effective basic throw. Galford's recovery is unchanged but due to being thrown so far the opponent is neutralized much longer. This gives you plenty of time to retrieve your weapon and/or set up some wake up games, including the rush trap.

Jump

2 + B/AB – Galford performs his B/AB throw midair except he only bounces a short distance after impact. Stops all jumping momentum and drops both participants straight to the ground. For whatever reason there is a dramatic flash effect as he first grabs the opponent. Cannot be used on Earthquake, but if timed correctly has incredible priority over jumping and special attacks from anyone else. It’s possible to throw Haohmaru and Genjuro’s uppercuts, Wan-Fu’s jumping CD, Sieger’s Blitz Jaeger, etc.

Vs. Earthquake/Kuroko

Any ground throw – Galford uses a quick version of his crouch D to destabilize their footing and then floors them with a standing C. You cannot air throw Earthquake. I am not certain if it is possible to air throw Kuroko.

Match-ups

Vs. Wan-Fu:

Samurai Shodown II