The King of Fighters '98/Daimon

Introduction

Goro Daimon was previously known as just "Daimon" before the King of Fighters tournament. The name means "Die, man".

Just before the first KOF tournament, he defeated Goro, prince of Shokan in hand-to-hand mortal combat, taking his namesake as a trophy.

Anyone who could defeat Goro is extremely strong, so as expected, Goro Daimon is a top tier character.

Colors

Gameplay Overview

Daimon does a ton of damage, has very high priority normals, very effective throw mixups, and is top-tier. Even from an anti-air he can do 30% or so thanks to ground pound OTGs and juggles. He has very good defense (ie takes less damage than average) and is basically a wall of pain. His only disadvantage is that he has a very large sprite. He has combos/tactics that vary from requiring nearly no execution skill to requiring godly execution. He is a decent character for a beginner.

In-depth Analysis

Movelist

	Frames	Advantage	Cancel	Block	Notes
Standing Close
	4/4/5	+3/+1	C	HL	Chain: repeatable
	7/4/9	-1/-3	C	HL	Chain: -
	4/4/13	+3/+1	C	HL	Fast, cancelable, great as a meaty. More range than close D, so you can use cr.A, cl.C as a block string.
	4/8/14	-2/-4	C	HL	Best meaty, and if not too meaty or out in the open, you actually have a good amount of time to hit-check hcb f + P off of it. Same speed as close C, cancelable.
Standing Far
	4/5/6	+1/-1	C	HL	Fast, really good anti-air against short hop. Chain: ender
	4/5/10	-3/-5	C	L	THE POKE! Fast, low, long range, cancelable. You can do repeated st.Bs, but if you think they will hit a button in between, cancel into hcf + C. You can also combo this into hcb f + P if you're in range, which most people forget about. Chain: ender
	9/9/16	-5/-7	-	HL	Nice and big, stays out a long time. Can stop short hops.
	5/6/16	-2/-4	-	HL	Fast, high priority, one of the best anti-air normals in the game. It can also punish things like incompleted Iori rekkas. It will whiff over crouching characters, so watch that.
+	15/4/26	KD/-8	S	HL	Big ass cancelable move. often used to cancel into his qcf + K counter and bait CD counters.
Crouching
	3/5/5	+2/0	C	HL	#1 poke if you're too close for standing B. Cancelable. Chain: ender
	4/5/6	+1/-1	-	L	Good poke if you're too close for standing B as well. Links into super easily since it has a long animation/advantage. Chain: ender
	5/4/19	-3/-5	-	HL	Fast, good range. Probably better options though.
	4/7/12	KD/-1	C	L	A sweep! Can be meatied pretty easily.
Jump
	5/13/-	-/-	-	H	Pretty good air-to-air.
	8/17/-	-/-	-	H	Stays out for a long time, can be used as a crossup if it's very meaty, or your opponent is close to the corner, or in the corner and you are player 2. Good setup for his grab mixups.
	9/8/-	-/-	-	H	Crosses up, has a pretty hefty hitbox (what doesn't?).
	7/7/-	-/-	-	H	Godly jump move. Good for jumping in, or air-to-air jumping back. Can be used as an instant overhead (short hop only).
+	15/4/-	KD/-	-	HL	CD in the air!
Command Normals
f +	22/4/26	KD/-12	-	HL	Not overhead! Active frames and last two start-up frames cancel projectiles.
df +	3/4+9/16	KD/-11	S	HL	Great anti-air. It doesn't beat as much stuff as standing D, but it will trade with most things, enabling you to perform a ground pound combo. Remember if it trades, you will have to re-buffer your qcb + B / qcf + B afterwards so the ground pound will hit OTG.
Command Normals
hcf +	5/7/41			HL	A Overhead Slam (hcf + A) Beats pretty much everything above the top half of the screen, his arm is not hittable. It can be air blocked if the opponent is jumping up or back, though. Can be comboed from df + C on an opponent in the air. Ends in a back turned, un-rollable knockdown, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp + A).
hcf +	12/4/37			HL	C Overhead Slam (hcf + C) Catches ground pokes, but is punishable by some fast long range things. Good to use as a combo ender if you aren't comfortable using hcb f + P. Can hit OTG. Ends in a back turned, un-rollable knockdown, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp + A).
hcb f +	0/1/35			Grab	Ragdoll Toss (hcb f + P) Instant, long range, comboable throw. Not rollable, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp + A).
dp +	8/1/23			Grab	Trip Slam (dp + K) Slower grab with invincibility. You can even use it to go through fireballs. This is his main weapon in attack/throw mixups. Set it up by doing it on your opponents, wakeup, after a sloppy jump-in, or whatever. Not rollable, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp + A).
dp +	27/1/44			L	Ground Pound (dp + P) C version is a ground pound fake. It is 'blocked' by crouching, but there is no blockstun. You don't even need to hold d/b, just crouch. This can hit OTG (on the ground) after an anti-air df + C canceled into a non-blockable move (like a throw or utility move). It is also unblockable if done as a meaty attack, but the window is small and the setups vary from character to character. The knockdown can be rolled, but if they miss, you can combo a hcf + C in the corner.
dp +	35			--
qcb +	16+17			--	Ground roll (qcb + K) Invincible during the roll, but completely vulnerable at the end of the roll. Usually used for the ground pound combo bug or to gain meter after a knockdown. Can be canceled into to roll through some auto-guard moves or CD counters.
qcb +	23+18			--
qcf +	2/12/15			--	Counter (qcf + K) Will counter any mid/high hitting normal attack or CD counter. Usually used to cancel into to make moves safer (like standing CD) and to bait CD counters at the same time. Ends in a back turned, un-rollable knockdown, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp + A).
DMs
hcb hcb +	0/1/35			Grab	Super Ragdoll Toss (hcb hcb + P) Instant good range super throw. Does damage. MAX version does more damage.
hcf hcf +	14/1/11			Grab	Super Armor Throw (hcf hcf + K > hcf + K > dp + K) A slower throw. DM version has autoguard on few frames. SDM version has super armor until recovery (ie you will still take full damage from any hits). The followups switch sides every time, and are timed as the previous part hits. MAX version does more damage. If you don't follow the first or second part, you can do a hcf + C (OTG) on the knocked opponent, however it will do less damage than the folow-ups on KOF98 (in KOF97 use hcf + C instead of the third part on the DM actually does more damage), so you should only do this if you missed the follow-ups...

Normal Throws

b or f + C - Unbreakable (mashable), forward knockdown, face forward, un-rollable.

b or f + D - Breakable, reverse knockdown, back turned, rollable.

b or f + C (just outside of normal throw range) - Breakable, forward knockdown, back turned, un-rollable.