SvC Chaos: SNK Vs Capcom/FAQ

From SuperCombo Wiki

General

Is SVC Chaos a game that I would like?

Strengths Weaknesses
  • Runs on a potato, anyone can emulate it beating even CVS2 in that regard
  • You love fighting games with a huge focus on knowledge checks
  • Very fun to play casually; Easier than KOF2002 even though this engine is different and is shared with KOF2003
  • The game being broken makes it funny/unique
  • The characters are very fun to learn as well
  • Simple enough mechanics that if you play KOF, you're already used to anyways
  • HSDMs (AKA Exceeds) cost no meter
  • Front Step gives the game an equivalent to Third Strike's Parry system
  • FS allows most characters to be viable, even if they're bad
  • Beautiful graphics and art direction in general
  • Character endings are usually really detailed
  • Capcom sprites are so good that SNK gave Demitri more love than even Capcom itself!
  • Unique dialogue before every fight
  • No Morrigan
  • Dan is a sub-boss!
  • Violent Ken's debut!
  • Geese is super broken
  • M. Bison, aka Dictator, is awful
  • Goenitz is back and playable, but you may like that anyways
  • The roster in general, though some choices were deliberate as a means for SNK to make the game stand out from CVS2's roster
  • The game is incredibly unbalanced
  • The hitboxes are not okay
  • No story mode, only arcade mode
  • Backgrounds (subjective)
  • Dhalsim's "stretching" sound effect
  • This game is nothing compared to most SNK games
  • No team battles or grooves, only classic 1v1
  • Most SNK characters were just copied and pasted from other games
  • There are some unexpected characters here (Like Choi alone, Earthquake, Hugo, Tessa, etc.)
  • It lacks some fan-favorite characters too (Like Benimaru, Haohmaru, Nakoruru, Leona, KoF Athena, Sakura, Blanka, E.Honda, Cammy, Zangief, etc.)
  • Where are the grapplers? (We only have Hugo here)

Is SVC Chaos as broken as everyone says it is?

Very, very much so yes. This game is pretty much broken beyond repair and is not really competitively viable per se, but with Guard Cancel Front Step being the central mechanic of SVC Chaos, it helps to reduce a lot of issues with balancing the game has, albeit the learning curve is fairly steep. GCFS helps make matchups that are horrible without it otherwise become a lot more bearable. Almost everyone benefits from GCFS, but the case can be made that a very select few are awful even with it.

The game is broken, but if you like broken fighting games, you'll be right at home.

So then wouldn't it be better to ban the bosses to make it more fair?

Tournament rules for SVC have never been universally agreed upon in any capacity, unfortunately. Some people allow zero bosses, some will allow all of them, some will ban only Geese and Zero specifically, some will allow only Dan as the selectable boss, it's entirely up to the tourney organizers themselves. However, players too will feel strongly about this stance in stating that if you allow one boss, you should allow all bosses to be selectable and that the game is broken even without bosses. Generally speaking these days, if a tournament is held for the game, then it's more likely than not all bosses are allowed, as keep in mind not all bosses are top tier, plus the game is so matchup and knowledge check heavy that bosses can lose even to low tiers. And to be honest, a lot of people playing SVC enjoy the fact there are so many bosses to play anyways.

While a case could be made that Shin Akuma, Serious Mr. Karate, Athena, and Red Arremer are bannable since they aren't playable in the arcade release of SVC Chaos, indicating that they were maybe never intended to be playable to begin with, it's counteracted by the fact that Shin Akuma and Serious Mr. Karate are made playable in the AES release, then Athena and Red Arremer on console releases. There's also the case that they're all on a different level of play compared to the rest of the roster and are their own unique playstyles that don't fit SVC as well, but it further complicates the tournament rule issue.

What standard should tournaments follow, then?

As stated, there's never been a real set standard for tournament play. That said, here's a few ideas:

  • Everything legal, just let it fly: Ban nothing. The game is already broken as it is, why regulate it? Even the worst case scenarios are still nothing compared to Geese's infinite.
  • Ban all bosses: Just let the default roster rock. Plenty of broken characters in this ruleset, too, but nothing egregious and characters have a far better chance of standing out compared to the swarm of boss characters. Dan would also be banned, however, even though he sucks.
  • Ban only final bosses: A case can be made for the final 4 bosses being bannable since they aren't playable on the MVS bios. That, and Shin Akuma mirrors and Red Arremer mirrors are among the worst matchups in the game, and not even because of balance issues, but because of stuff like RA mirrors slowing the game down tremendously. Newer players would also feel heavily discouraged fighting them and just pick them to feel like they stand a chance to win anyways. Serious Mr. Karate is the most balanced of the bunch, though he still has some points that would throw off newer players. More notably, however, nothing would stop matches from devolving into Shin Akuma mirrors and both players forcibly scoring a round with Exceed, which also ends up making the set last longer to begin with. Or in the off chance it doesn't because the other Shin Akuma player just so happened to be teleporting at the right time. In general, these 4 characters specifically are considered the least healthy aspect of the game's competitive environment, thus the ruling.
  • Ban only infinites: A ruleset that Lichmassacre has tried in the past with online SVC brackets. Basically, since only the boss characters really have consistent infinites, and very strong ones at that, then banning those will help alleviate the game's balance issues somewhat. The Geese infinite would be the biggest example of this, since it's borderline impossible to counter no matter the character. Geese and Zero are both still top 2 even if you removed their infinites, and the rest are usually just inconsequential or not needed to begin with. Nothing lost for anyone, but still keeping everything else legal so the game can continue to shine as is.
  • Other rulesets: The list can go on and on, but there's several factors in deciding tournament rules. These are only a few examples.

Any tips for a beginner?

  • 1. Learn to Guard Cancel Front Step. Now.
  • 1.5. It doesn't matter who you're up against, as long as you can GCFS then even the likes of Shin Akuma or Red Arremer are significantly more bearable and are not impossible.
  • 2. Even if you suck at punishing after Guard Cancel Front Step, even a simple dash in grab is a viable punish if you are unable to do anything else. The opponent will not receive much damage, but they're still forced into a 50/50 mixup and will have to deal with you being closer to them than before.
  • 2.5. Something that doesn't get discussed much, but is still very important to remember, it is possible to punish Guard Cancel Front Step. GCFS is very powerful and the i-frames it possesses are immeasurably helpful, but it can be countered back. You must keep in mind it is not an uno-reverse card in every situation it can be used in, but it is a huge boon regardless, even if simply using it to dash in closer to the opponent. It can be countered back usually with the opponent doing their own throw, a quick jab, multi-hit attacks, or the opponent cancelling into specials/supers on block. Punishing GCFS takes a ton of practice and game sense to do well, on top of being risky. (Will eventually include a detailed scenario to illustrate this)
  • 3. You don't necessarily need Max Mode if your character doesn't benefit too greatly from it, so in those cases you don't need to conserve meter as much to obtain Max Mode.
  • 4. Other characters who do need Max Mode, it is better to learn to conserve meter. Spend the meter if it means you'll score a kill or won't need to save up for the next round.
  • 5. While less effective here due to the removal of hops, you don't explicitly need to use anti-air buttons in SVC Chaos all the time. Sometimes, like KOF, all you need to use is the good ol'-reliable: standing A.
  • 6. Never be afraid to use guard cancel blowback (CD on block). Pressure can get overwhelming in this game, especially in the corner. While it does zero damage, the trade-off of giving you breathing room to move again is more than worth spending the meter for if you have to. This applies to all characters, too.
  • 7. Red Arremer is not broken. He's annoying as hell, but he's garbage in close range and has very specific weaknesses most characters can exploit one way or another. RA players who just cycle minion summons over and over is also a sign that the player is a bad RA player, since he's vulnerable during minion summons.
  • 7.5. Please never play Red Arremer mirror matches. You will loathe this game more than Shin Akuma possibly ever could.
  • 8. Athena is not OP. She's extremely one note and easy to punish for the most part with an ounce of patience. Just front step most things she does or force her to approach you when you have a life lead, and she crumbles right away.
  • 9. Play who you want to play. People complaining are just complaining. SVC Chaos players are well aware that the game is horrendously broken and have long since accepted and embraced that fact.
  • 10. SVC Chaos is a heavy matchup game in general. Matchups between characters vary wildly depending on who you play. Some extreme examples include the bosses, like Red Arremer VS Demitri, Guile VS Mars People, Earthquake VS any zoner, among other examples.
  • 11. This game also focuses on three main aspects: zoning, punishes, and movement.

Not really tips but felt necessary to include here. - This goes without saying, but always be sure to watch out for Fightcade replays or replays on YouTube as well. SVC Chaos is even available via China's YZKOF servers now, too, if you can access that client. The game has been a sleeper hit not only on Fightcade, but GGPO as well, and always accrues dozens of replays daily. Despite its reputation, people still play a lot of SVC. On the topic of the playerbase, online SVC Chaos play is most active in North America, with some other players spread around worldwide.

I really need someone to play! Who are the best characters to learn the game with?

The best beginner characters to use for SVC Chaos may be a little subjective, but here's a quick rundown of the easier characters to pick up and play for SVC Chaos specifically, while simultaneously not teaching bad habits, and in the case of SNK characters, are even capable of teaching you skills that can be transferred over to KOF if you've wanted to try it, or wanted characters to teach you KOF fundamentals better:

  • Chun-Li: Buttons demon just like she is in SF, with a very flexible playstyle and easy enough combos to work with. Overall few cons to worry about and plays neutral comfortably.
  • Guile: Other than the weird input issue regarding charge moves, Guile is a fantastic turtle with easy combos and simple gameplay who also doesn't have to rely on meter management nearly as much as some other characters. He holds his own really well with good buttons too, and since he's difficult to open up, he's pretty straight-forward. The biggest hurdle is getting used to the NeoGeo charge motion bug.
  • Iori: One of the KOF poster boys, and perhaps the character to learn KOF with, Iori is just as well suited to teach you some of the basics in SVC Chaos, minus the removal of hops. His move list is pretty well rounded with some emphasis on rushdown. Orochi Iori is also an okay pick, but he's significantly faster and may be difficult controlling space with if you're not used to his speed.
  • Ken: A more aggressive shoto character with really easy combos to work with. Ken isn't a threat tier list wise, but still, you likely know how to play him already, leaving little in the way of new info to learn about him in SVC.
  • Kim: Pure rushdown character who, while arguably not as strong as he is in KOF2002 especially because of the lack of hops, has some of the easiest but most damaging combos in the game, good supers, and usually faces zero issue getting in and laying pressure on the opponent. He has some difficult tech that is just as rewarding, but you don't need it.
  • Kyo: Not the easiest character in the game with a large variety of mixups and a lot of combo potential, but Kyo is made with SNK design philosophy in mind. He'll teach you pretty well how to hit confirm combos, executing them, spacing, knowing when to use jump-ins, movement, etc. Also great for learning KOF with.
  • Ryu: The basics of basics shoto with an emphasis on zoning. Very easy to work with toolkit and easy combos to teach you the fundamentals. Chances are too, you already know how to play Ryu as well, leaving less work you have to put in to learn how he is in SVC.
  • Terry: Incredibly simple character who really just needs to charge in, buttons blazing. Very meter hungry but has several safe special moves, great frame data to continue his momentum, easy combos, and is rewarding for so little work.

The characters below are advised against as beginner characters. The boss characters especially can all be wiped out by experienced SVC players who know the matchup, regardless of how good the characters are, or even regardless of whether they're easy to play:

  • Athena: Sure, Athena is incredibly easy to pick up and play, and beginner players will struggle immensely against her. But the second you go up against regular SVC players, she gets completely shut down. An extremely common beginner mistake is spamming the same special moves with her over and over again when nearly all of them can simply be countered with Front Step or basic patience, leading to Athena eating a full combo. Playing Athena requires you play her using her buttons far more than her specials, but in general she doesn't teach much good use of Front Step or how match pace flows, be it dealing with zoning, punishing characters, or spacing.
  • Dhalsim: He has a ton of different buttons to use and in the right hands can really be a menace in neutral to get in against with some incredibly useful tools. The issue is knowing how to use all of his attacks at his disposal in a game with neutral as chaotic as SVC neutral is, but more importantly he has some matchups where he gets blown up in which makes the process of learning him even harder.
  • Red Arremer: A character who basically never needs to use Front Step, but also never needs to press buttons beyond a couple specific ones. Spam minions and maybe fireball and call it a day, but RA still requires you actually try and unfortunately SVC regulars will know how to deal with summons. There are gaps in his summons which can be punished, and SVC regulars know these gaps. Also, most of the other bosses give RA a lot of trouble by default. His matchups in general, really, are super lopsided. Either RA wins with little effort or RA has to put in exponentially more effort to keep up than he should be putting in.
  • Shin Akuma: By far the most commonly picked character SVC beginners are lured into playing. Almost always, they resort to constantly jumping and spamming double air fireball or his other super moves and nothing else. And yes, Shin Akuma is incredibly broken. Problem is, this teaches you nothing about how to play SVC beyond the bare minimum, nor are you taking advantage of anything else that makes Shin Akuma broken and often times you'll be called out by SVC regulars who Front Step through your pressure. And in general, playing this way never incentivizes you to use Front Step ever. In general, you'll probably also get really bored, too. Lastly, you still have a losing matchup against Geese, too, so have fun if Geese counters you.

Should the character's Exceed be a factor in who I pick to main?

If you happen to be wondering whether you should pick a main based on a character's Exceed super - after all, it is the defining comeback mechanic of the game, then the best answer would probably be to say "it's up to you to decide." It may feel like a cop-out answer to say pick whoever works for you, but the reality is pretty much all Exceed supers are good in their own right (save a very select few). Yes, some exceeds are objectively above the rest in terms of usefulness, namely Shin Akuma, Zero, Serious Mr. Karate, and a few other examples are among the best Exceed supers in the game, but at the end of the day whoever you play their exceed can be useful in some way. Even if they have some minor setback, such as Mai's combo potential with Exceed being severely limited, it will always have some use to it. Unless you're Genjuro, that is.

The few exceed supers you could argue are mediocre would have to be Kasumi and Iori's exceeds, since they are counter supers, thus you're taking a steep risk. But even then, with Iori's exceed, it is active for a shockingly long time, which can catch even experienced players off guard, albeit very unusual for Iori to have a counter at all. Kasumi's Exceed also fits her gameplay in general, being a character who is designed around punishes and baiting the opponent into mistakes. They otherwise deal really high damage, too. Other mediocre exceeds would be Red Arremer's since it is only truly effective if RA is in the corner and the opponent is close enough to him, but it is at least unblockable. M. Bison can't combo his Exceed, making it only a hard read Exceed, but it's usually not dangerous to throw out, either. For the truly bad Exceeds, Choi's exceed is random in how effective it is, if at all, but it does hurt quite a bit - but that's assuming you're using it just to attack, and not timer scam, where it performs much better. Genjuro's Exceed can rarely be useful but is far too risky in a game where you can't afford to make small slip-ups, nor does he have any real ways to combo into it beyond a close heavy attack. Even the damage boost he gets from using the first part barely helps him, if at all, and there's nothing stopping the opponent from just running away and turtling when he has Rage to time scam him of his Exceed. It wouldn't be a stretch to say Genjuro's Exceed is the worst in the game, and arguably the only truly bad Exceed. Vega's Exceed comes close with no good way to combo it, locked behind a charge input, and its stubby range (but not as stubby as some people claim it is).

If you wish, here's Lichmassacre's rough idea of an Exceed tier list, though it really shouldn't affect who you decide to main at the end of the day. You can still make almost all of them work in some way.

  • Excellent Exceed: Shin Akuma, Serious Mr. Karate, Zero, Orochi Iori = Tessa, Akuma, Mars People, Kim => Violent Ken
  • Strong Exceed: Everyone else
  • Alright/Mediocre Exceed: Ryu, Ken, Red Arremer, M. Bison, Iori, Kasumi, Earthquake
  • Bad Exceed: Vega, Genjuro

Are there any guide videos I can watch?

Made by Lichmassacre, there is a very detailed beginner's guide video to explain both the mechanics and how to better execute combos, in case you're struggling to do them, as well as a few other brief bits. You can watch the guide video here.

Technical

Where can I play this game?

Everyone plays SVC Chaos on Fightcade with the Plus and Super Plus roms. You can easily find the Fightcade website to download the client here, but you will need to find the rom separate. It uses the Final Burn Neo emulator with rollback netcode. The PS2 port was restricted to Japan and Europe, while the US only got the Xbox port, albeit it would actually be preferable over the NeoGeo port.

Is there a difference between the NeoGeo version and the console ports?

The obvious difference is the graphics are much smoother looking and overall cleaner presentation is available on the consoles, but you can switch to arcade graphics as well. You are also able to freely play on the boss stages, and bosses have to be manually unlocked, but don't require codes afterwards. There is also, of course, widescreen support thanks to being on modern consoles at the time. Up to you if it looks off or not, but the option is there. A gallery and in-game move list for each character is included, too, but it's otherwise the same game. However, one big change is present that helps every character with a charge motion: the charge motion bug is fixed. Regardless of how you start charging, downback now charges all special moves and does not require an arbitrary rule to charge special moves, so while charge characters still suffer being in SVC, their lives are made a little easier in the end.

Is there a training mode?

You will either need to load the game using cheats like with Uni-Bios, or by loading the game in AES Mode to use the in-game training mode if using Fightcade/FBNeo. Either or is fine. The console ports also have their own training modes with move lists and a few other extra bells and whistles added but it's mostly the same. Fightcade also includes a training mode lua script to use, but this has its own drawbacks (no infinite use of Exceed, hitbox display issues, takes a bit to learn, etc.) but should not be disregarded, either. Use whatever works for you.

Is there a way to view hitboxes?

Both SVC Chaos and King of Fighters 2003 share the same engine, so you can flip a couple dipswitches in order to enable the hitboxes. All that needs to be done is to, for example in Uni-Bios, to flip the DIP1-2 dipswitch (or DIP1-4 for 2003), and there the hitboxes are enabled and viewable. This is far from ideal, however, as it's fairly confusing to look at the boxes.

  • In both games, the boxes are only indicated by 4 corner borders with a tiny indent in all 4, but the lines connecting the corners like a box are completely invisibl
  • Throw hitboxes are not viewable at all for either normal throws or command grabs.
  • Projectiles have two hitboxes but are both the same color, making it unclear what the hitboxes are.
  • Lastly, there are solitary hitboxes for the heads.
  • In 2003's case, all the boxes are white, making them obnoxious to distinguish.
  • In SVC's case, there are both black and green boxes, with a pushbox that flashes between blue and white.
  • In some attacks, there are flashing purple hitboxes.

It's better than 2003 as there is some indication to the different hitboxes, but it remains unclear what each color and what each box represents that you cannot simply look at it from a glance. And if you want clean rips of the hitboxes, the plus mark in the center of the character at the bottom of the hitboxes cannot be turned off. It's something at least, but not particularly user-friendly, either. It would be easier to use a hitbox viewer for SVC with clearly color-coded hitboxes like Green, Blue, Red, that don't also fluctuate, and fortunately, one does exist!

But this hitbox viewer has its own issues... It's integrated with the Fightcade training mode lua script (made by MountainManjed, and tied into the script by peon2, thanks both of you!). The issues to keep in mind when using this lua script are as follows:

  • Throw boxes are still not viewable
  • Hitboxes have an unusual tendency to clone themselves when doing stuff like super jumps, Serious Mr. Karate qcf P, etc.
  • Why this is the case is unknown (but please, someone fix it)
  • They do not permanently remain on screen, since if a hitbox is cloned, then the old copy will be removed and replaced by the new copy. So you can at least circumvent it... sort of.
  • An issue with the emulator itself, not the lua script, FBNeo displays hitboxes one frame earlier than what the actual hitboxes are for some reason
  • This does not happen on FBAlpha, however
  • Originally, the script was offset by a number of pixels to the right, but this was fixed
  • An issue that apparently cannot be fixed, the hitboxes display one extra pixel wider and longer on the right and bottom sides (even though it barely matters)

Of course, this is far better than nothing, and beats having to use dipswitches at all, but it's not perfect, especially the enigmatic cloning hitboxes.

I'm struggling to do charge moves consistently, or they don't come out at all. What gives?

SVC Chaos, like the King of Fighters series, has 30 frame charge windows for charge motions so they charge in half a second, in other words. Thing is, you may find that your charge motions aren't coming out at all, even though you don't struggle with it in other games. That is because SVC's input reading specifically with charge motions is a little weird. In order to remedy this, before beginning to charge a special move, you need to move the stick to either only down or back to tell the game "I'm charging in this direction." Afterwards, you can then move the stick to downback (or downforward), and now the game will let you press the opposite direction so that the attack comes out.

  • If you hold down back as Guile, you're charging both Sonic Boom and Flash Kick.
  • If you want Sonic Boom, before beginning to charge, you must press back first. After that, you can then charge downback and then press forward punch and Sonic Boom will come out without error.
  • If you want Flash Kick, same rule applies only this time you press down before charging, then after the charge you can perform the special move by hitting up.
  • If you press downback first, the game will charge neither Sonic Boom or Flash Kick. You have to press either down or back for at least a single frame in order to initiate the charge.

These combos are impossible to perform! How do I improve my execution?

SVC Chaos, while not a King of Fighters game, still shares several elements of its gameplay and the engine with other KOF titles, meaning in order to improve at doing combos, you have to learn how to execute KOF combos, most notably Max Mode combo execution in KOF2002. This may seem impossible, but there's several shortcuts to it:

Esoterics Regarding Frame Data and Inputs:

  • Jumps have 4 frames of startup across all characters. Not all jumps are equal in other aspects, but they all have little startup.
  • Athena and Kasumi have 5 frames startup, and Mars People has 3 frame startup instead.
  • Like KOF, SVC Chaos has a 4-frame rule whenever you press a button: after pressing it, the game waits 4 frames to check if you press (or let go of) any directions before finalizing the input.
  • An example would be if you press st.A as Iori. If you press A by itself, after 4 frames the game will register the input as st.A.
  • In the same scenario, if you press st.A, but then press forwards during the 4 frame window, as long as forward is still held by the end of the 4 frames, the game will register the input as Iori's f.A command normal.
  • The reverse also applies: if you press f.A as Iori, but then let go of forwards before the 4 frame window is up, the game will register the input as st.A.
  • Essentially, you press a button, the game waits 4 frames to check if any directions are pushed, and after the fourth frame registers the input.

Button Holding:

  • A technique that is used by several KOF players, new or veteran, button holding is when you hold a button during motions and/or combos. It has a few notable uses:
  • Lets you buffer special moves before the cancel window to guarantee it comes out
  • Buffering wakeup DPs as you're getting up from a knockdown
  • Button holding during a combo in order to negate special moves

Motion Shortcuts:

You might wonder, "These super input motions are ridiculously long. How does anyone perform them?" In actuality, the input reader is quite lenient in KOF games (except for KOF2003, which SVC shares the same engine with ironically enough), and SVC Chaos is no different. If you're struggling with these motions, there are shortcuts and other workarounds.

  • The Orochinagi input (qcb~hcf) or Ranbu input (qcf~hcb) can both be executed in two different ways:
  • qcb~hcf > qcb~qcb~f (and vice versa for qcf~hcb)
  • qcb~hcf > qcb~qcf (and vice versa for qcf~hcb)
  • In other words, you do not need to hit the diagonals in a half circle motion
  • When performing hcf or hcb, all the game really cares about is checking that you hit (b, d, f) or (f, d, b) respectively
  • You can even mask other motions into a longer motion for the added buffer, as opposed to resetting the stick to neutral and doing the whole motion.
  • Example: Max mode combo where you max cancel a DP into a ranbu super, such as Ryo. dp C(1) > qcf~hcb A. Instead of doing the whole motion, just do dp, then move the stick up to do hcb A, and super will still come out because dp buffered the first part of the super motion.
  • Same logic applies to double qcf motions.

Other Execution Tips:

  • This isn't Street Fighter. You DO NOT need links in your combos. Overly relying on links instead of chains will likely lead you to dropping combos and getting you killed.
  • Focus on practicing your light confirms, especially off of low hitting chains such as cr.B, cr.B, cr.A. Using a mid hitting crouch light to start combos defeats the whole purpose for most characters.
  • Jump-ins must hit deep in order for them to combo. Unlike other fighting games, where you can hit the opponent's head and they remain in hitstun for a while, giving you plenty of time to follow up, in KOF jump attacks almost always have very little hitstun, meaning you must learn to time your jump-ins to hit deeper than normal.
  • The game may read a qcf motion as a dp input, mainly when you're doing a combo with a command normal.
  • Say you are Geese, and you do this combo: cl.C > f.D > qcf+A, but instead of '96-Reppu Ken, you get Geese's DP because of the forward input from f.D
  • In order to prevent this issue (if it happens to you), you can simply press up-forward while performing the qcf input, essentially a Tiger Knee input. This will override the DP input and thus give you the qcf input instead.
  • A trick known as longcuts exists in KOF to help make some parts of combos or super cancels easier. The most notable one is a DP longcut.
  • In some combos, you may need to cancel DP right away but the following motion is really long (for example, qcb~hcf). It is possible to do naturally but you need to be very quick.
  • Instead, you can do the DP motion as this: hcb~f + P and then afterwards, to finish the super input, qcf + P since you already buffered part of the motion with the longcut
  • The best way to think of KOF combos is to think of them like a rhythm where the following inputs/cancels are registered right as they connect with the opponent with some leniency, not after they connect. In other words, these act as chains, not links. A couple links exist in SVC Chaos and KOF, but for the most part you do not need to use them in combos.

Miscellaneous

What does the tier list for this game look like?

Lichmassacre's Tier List:

  • Note: Tiers are mostly ordered within themselves. Tiers are not sorted by letters or numbers, as I do not think that would accurately reflect the game's meta. The matchup heavy nature of it, on top of general broken stuff and GCFS, makes even the low tiers have a chance of winning. I would argue only bottom 5 is unviable. Letters placed next to tiers only to give a general idea of what tier letter it is, but again, the game is very chaotic so character tiers can fluctuate a lot depending on the given circumstances.
Upper Tiers Lower Tiers
God Tier (SS) -- Self-explanatory. Will crush the entire game even if you remove their infinites because they have no flaws and can do everything.
  • Geese
  • Zero

Demigod (S+) -- They still have a couple very minor flaws that can be taken advantage of, however unlikely. They are still very much broken. Not ordered within tier.

  • Demitri
  • Shin Akuma
  • Orochi Iori

Top (S) -- Able to hold themselves together very well, even against the god tiers. Also the most consistent, reliable characters in the cast (other than the God tiers). Mesh very well with the system mechanics with robust tools perfect for SVC's flow, though they still have clear cut weaknesses.

  • Tessa
  • Red Arremer
  • Violent Ken
  • Chun-Li
  • Kim
  • Mars People

Very Strong (A) -- They do the one thing they're good at incredibly well, and fit the game's pace comfortably. They still need some practice though, as they're not dynamic/can't do everything. Will still struggle in some matchups, but as a whole are pretty straightforward in a good way.

  • Guile
  • Terry
  • Akuma
  • Goenitz

Solid (B+) -- The upper-mid tier, more or less. On the same level as the characters below this tier, but are a little more consistent with some slightly better tools. Not ordered within tier.

  • Mr. Karate
  • Shiki
  • Kyo
  • Iori
Pretty Good (B) -- The mid tier characters. Regardless of who you pick in this tier, they will hold their own just well enough that they pose no serious setback. They will have to put up a fight against the god tiers, although those matchups are still winnable. Not amazing, but not awful. They will do just fine in the right hands. SMK is too much of a wild card to really judge, though constantly needing Max Mode makes him mid tier IMO, albeit still a demon in the right hands.
  • Mai
  • Serious Mr. Karate
  • Sagat
  • Ryu

Maybe (C) -- In theory, these characters can do quite well, but will take a lot of game knowledge, practice, patience, and player skill to truly shine. As is, some factor or another holds them back too much for them to be reliable, especially with this game's system mechanics. If anything, they'd probably be just fine if they weren't in SVC Chaos.

  • Kasumi
  • Choi
  • Earthquake
  • Ryo

Non-Threat (D) -- Will pose no threat, except to the absolute worst characters. Lacking serious polish and tools that make them too vanilla in a broken fighting game. They have some stuff to work with so it's not the end of the world, so they can catch new players off-guard.

  • Athena
  • Dhalsim
  • Ken
  • Balrog

Trash (E) -- These guys suck. Will be forced to rely on the one or two good tools they have, but even Guard Cancel Front Step can't save them. Dan and M. Bison are interchangeable IMO, though at least M. Bison can be annoying and run away more than Dan can.

  • Vega
  • Genjuro
  • Dan
  • M. Bison

Pick Someone Else (F) -- Not the worst character in the game, but he's still tied for it with Dan and M. Bison. He can do a lot of good punishes with GCFS, but the amount of energy you have to burn and the knowledge you need to accumulate for almost nothing back makes the grind not worth it. Ranked this low only because in the context of all bosses being allowed, Hugo gets it extremely rough against good players. If he goes up against zoners or faster characters, Hugo's only suffering further.

  • Hugo

Old(?) Tier List made by Redarts, before late 2020:

Tier Notes
God Tier -- (The "brokeniest" characters in the game, and no, they are not tournament banned, because the game is broken by itself)
  • Geese (Stop using him, we don't like to see cl.HP > f+HK infinites in a match.)
  • Zero (He is tied with Geese, and has a huge amount of options for any matchup.)
Near God Tier -- (Broken as well, but has not enough level to be a "God".)
  • Orochi Iori
  • #Shin Akuma (A stronger Akuma with infinite meter can't be broken, right?)
Top Tier -- (Those are just the "unfair" characters)
  • Demitri (FIRE! DEMON'S CRADLE!)
  • #Red Arremer (Freaking zoning/unblockable movement character. He can just swarm the entire screen with minions. Some characters can counter it too.)
  • Mars People (The damn unblockable teleport)
  • Violent Ken
  • Tessa (Strongest non-boss character.)
  • Chun Li
  • Guile
  • Terry
  • Goenitz (Koko desu ka?)
Upper mid -- (The Upper Mid guys are probably the coolest characters to play in my opinion, as they are not that unfair, and not that bad to play)
  • Kim (Braindead.)
  • Kyo
  • Iori
  • Shiki
  • Mai
  • #Serious/Shin Mr. Karate (He could be higher on the list, because he is a boss character - Say that to Athena -, but... He needs to be on MAXIMUM Mode to do his things. Oh, he can't cancel normals too, and has almost no damage on his specials, making him almost useless outside of MAXIMUM Mode.)
  • Mr. Karate
Mid tier -- (The "fair" guys. It's kinda hard to work with them sometimes, but they can be strong on the right hands)
  • Ryu
  • Akuma (Same as Choi.)
  • Choi (Annoying to fight against, but if he takes one or two combos he dies.)
  • Earthquake
  • Dhalsim
  • Sagat
  • Ryo
  • Ken
Low tier -- (The hypest characters in the world. Why? Win with one of them, and you'll see how hype it is. Low tier matches in SvC can be pretty cool too, but it will rarely happen, because everyone loves SvC Geese)
  • Kasumi
  • Genjuro
  • #Athena (Weakest boss Hype!)
  • Claw
  • Boxer
  • Hugo
  • Dan (Yup, not the weakest this time.)
  • Dictador (Almost tied with Dan, probably.)

Note: Characters with a # are selectable only on console versions of the game or the super plus romhack. I'm not sure if this tier list can be accepted(I'm updating it from time to time, and I'll try to make sure that this Tier List is as accurate as possible. I think that the Low Tier part is okay), but anyway. Some Low Tier chars can win against characters from higher tiers, because what matters is the player, not the character(Well, the problem is just... The game is just broken). For the console-only characters, it's just my opinion on where they are located.

Game Navigation

General
FAQ
Controls
Notation
HUD
Mechanics
Glossary
SNK Characters
Athena
Choi Bounge
Earthquake
Geese Howard
Genjyuro Kibagami
Leopold Goenitz
Iori Yagami
Kasumi Todoh
Kim Kaphwan
Kyo Kusanagi
Mai Shiranui
Mars People
Mr. Karate
Orochi Iori
Ryo Sakazaki
Serious Mr. Karate
Shiki
Terry Bogard
Capcom Characters
Akuma
Balrog
Chun-Li
Dan Hibiki
Demitri Maximoff
Dhalsim
Guile
Hugo
Ken
M. Bison
Red Arremer
Rockman Zero
Ryu
Sagat
Shin Akuma
Tessa
Vega
Violent Ken