"The thing that no anime player can do, let's talk about blocking" *melty blood music plays* Idk why but that killed my sides

Platform fighters like Smash have an interesting take on the block button - it's a very limited resource. Pressing the shield button puts up a bubble around your character that blocks from all sides, but it shrinks as you hold it or if it gets hit. This ends up exposing parts of your hurtbox, forcing you to choose between a swiss-cheese defense or dropping your shield so it can regenerate. And if it depletes completely, you get put into a vulnerable state similar to Street Fighter's stun state. Also, parrying requires you to let go of the shield button within 3 frames of getting hit, making it very risky. If you let go too early, you get hit. If you let go too late, you'll be trapped in blockstun. This encourages you to mix up between shielding and defensively using Smash's ridiculous movement options.

What I've noticed from most fighting games I've played is that people wanna do anything other than just blocking

Using the block button in GBVS actually extends your hurtbox, putting you at a disadvantage compared to someone who is using directional block. It's useful in very specific cases and at low levels, but cross-ups still definitely work. As always, it's just a question of conditioning your opponent.

I love this mans videos, like its not a cool comment, or a funny one, or a creative one. I just wanted to say it

In defense of the block button, in 2D, block button definitely causes a ton of issues, but in 3D fighters like Virtua Fighter and SoulCalibur, where you have free rein movement, block button is actually a superior choice than standard back-to-block, as it offers the devs more free rein to adjust the game's movement. It's also the reason why Tekken movement feels stilted; as it was built with back-to-block in mind, they couldn't really do drastic changes to the movement.

Heritage for the Future has guard cancels and push blocking, both of which are meterless, which makes defense a very good option. It's definitely needed when damage is so high in that game. IMO it makes the game feel much more interactive when you're defending

I love Adachi's theme, but every time it starts to play, it means that the video is already ending... Happy new year btw!!

1:20 Polnereff from jojo heritage for the future has a move (stand on 6B) that is -5 on hit and -2 on block

honestly i wish that block button defense in gbvs was kinda like how the cooldown system worked; if you chose the easier input it has downsides, so block button would make your opponent more plus but you get crossup protection, whereas regular blocking is more rewarding but you have to be more mindful.

Damn, the Rivals music at the beginning had me hoping there’d be coverage on platform fighters. Other people in the comments have covered a lot of the basics, so I’ll just talk about the two extreme sides of the defense spectrum: Rivals of Aether and Melee. In Rivals, you basically live and die off your spacing and movement. While you have rolls and a dodge you can do in the air, there is *no* way to block. Instead, the usual shield button is replaced by an extreme version of the parry: a quick (but not frame 1 iirc) option that has a very obvious visual cue and 30 frames of recovery on “whiff”, but when done successfully not only leaves you invincible for a short while, but also either reflects projectiles or immediately stuns the opponent for >40 frames. In Melee, defense can get so busted at times that people can eat huge punishes after they “win” neutral. You have the same options you see in every other Smash Bros., but all variations of DI (impacting the trajectory and/or position of your character during hitstop) are much, much stronger. In particular, ASDI completely flips neutral (admittedly mostly at the higher levels of play) on its head. It gets really confusing, and even most of the Melee community doesn’t know how it works, but the basic premise is that it allows you to completely negate the hitstun on a huge majority of attacks by literally just holding down. Obviously, it does have some drawbacks: 1. It can’t prevent characters from going into tumble/knockdown, though even that can be negated to some extent by stacking other defensive mechanics on top of ASDI 2. While the easy execution allows even scrubs to break many true combos, Melee is non-commital enough that getting a punish off of ASDI is almost always a strike/throw or timing mixup.

I think anybody that has put a decent amount of time into the Soulcalibur series would tell you that the block button definitely has a place in fighting games.

Would have liked to see more 3D fighters besides just Tekken mentioned, like Virtua Fighter (could've talked about the fuzzy guard, binary sidestepping system, attacks beating throws, etc.) or Soul Calibur (guard impact is basically parrying, and it also has its own take on sidestepping with stepguard) or even bloody roar where they got all the parries and special canceling bullshit idk

Honestly I've always found there's an interesting hierarchy of types of invincibility in fighting games. Armour - Lets you tank through 2 to 3 hits while still taking damage. Super Armour - Same as armour except there's no hit limit. Guard Point - Like super armour where there's no limit to the hits it can tank, but also has the added bonus of dealing no damage since you're technically blocking while the move is happening. Invincibility - Entirely blows all the other three out of the water because of invincibility often works in a way where the person is simply immune to attacks, phasing through them during the invincibility frames. This also removes a weakness all the other three have in that attacks being absorbed in armour count as hits, and guardpoint counts as hitting someone who's blocking, both allowing for gatling options to be performed. Whereas invincibility counts as a whiff. There's probably other types of invincibility and stuff like this that I'm not aware of.

Tekken 1 King's Down Forward 1 is +3 on hit and +93 on block.

I feel like smash does the block button mechanic the right way Not only can you only block for so long, since your shield depletes as long as you hold it and every attack you block will take off some additional shield health, but it also limits what you can do after blocking. You can either UpB, UpSmash, Jump, or grab out of shield or drop your shield to return to a "neutral stance" (all of which can range from fast to very slow depending on the game and your character of choice), meaning your options after blocking are very limited, and depending on your character you might still have to deal with your opponent crossing up your shield because your only good out of shield option might only hit on one side. But the devs balanced this out somewhat by making sure most moves are minus on shield

Defense is definitely my favorite part of fighting games. The more options the better. This is why I love Guilty Gear bc everything has an offensive and defensive use.

7:05 Here's something that's riskier if you have to use a block button. It essentially means you're not going to automatically block if you mess it up and you're still in range.

Defense is one of the reasons melee is my favorite game. You have movement, shields, dodges to avoid hits in neutral, but then once you get hit you have Trajectory DI, smash DI, slide offs, amsah techs, etc. You never stop interacting with your opponent

I'm a little surprised most fighting games with a block button don't lock the direction your character faces. Feels like such a simple thing to do if you wanted a block button but still wanted crossups to happen.

"You need to give up space to block." Guilty Gear Strive: *laughs in dash block*

What about C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER?

There are some other examples, like attack counters The Dead Or Alive series for example has Holds as a core mechanic. They give you the chance to counter every type of attack, if you guess it right. In DOA6 they even added an "universal" hold that requires resources.

Been following your channel for a year, love your videos and glad to see your channel growing!!!

So I'm trying to prototype a fighting game where you can cancel anything into anything using a regenerating stamina bar. Blocking brings an interesting design question. I'm not adding high/low attacks because it'll be too hard to block, so what if the challenge of blocking just depended on your timing of when you attacked back? Say every move was unsafe on block, unless you had stamina and did a cancel. Now if you're in block, you will take a ton of chip if the enemy decides to spend all their stamina on you, but if they just do small links - you'll never escape pressure unless you time an attack well. Thoughts?

I think it'd be cool to have more fighting games with dedicated non punch-ya-face buttons, such as movement buttons and non regular defense buttons (Melty for example does it well having a shield button with a ex guard similar to Alpha counters) defense and movement options are cool and sometimes I feel we get too many offensive buttons over them...

"Can't wait to for someone to find a move that's minus on hit and plus on block" Tekken 1 King's df+1 low kick was +8 on hit and +93 on block. PLUS NINETY THREE. The strategy against df+1 was to let yourself get hit by it in neutral and wait until it pushed you out of range.

I love how you can literally see the Core-A Gaming influence! Really good video keep it up :)

Plays Rivals of Aither music in background "Let's talk about blocking" Me: Ya. I would like to do that in that game.

While I do prefer back to block in 2d fighters, I think it feels just as awkward and counterintuitive in 3d fighter's, as the block button does in 2D fighters. I've always hated the amount of input overlap and janky interactions in Tekken. SC and especially VF feel much better to me.

"The parry in 3rd Strike is better than sex" yeah that's fair

An observation from the first 3 minutes of the video: fighting game tutorials teach 'hold back to block' and 'hold down-back to block low hits', but don't cover the importance of your changed spacing.

I've always been a fan of block buttons since I was raised on Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, and Smash, but it's so rare that they're implemented well. Ideally, I think they should be an optional control setup choice that effectively acts as a macro for "back" that doesn't change directions until you release. This makes it have the same risks as back to block as it can't automatically turn around for crossups, you still lose ground if you aren't also holding down, and players can pick based on comfort instead of optimization.

12:32 Slight contention with this point - I've heard people use "armor" and "super armor" pretty interchangeably for a state where you take full damage but aren't interrupted, and more often I've heard "guard point" be described for moves where you can technically hit them but they don't take any damage (e.g. Beerus' DP or GGST Leo's guard stance when he holds S or HS). And Z Broly's 236HS in the footage technically is still what you call "armored," it just has 10 hits of armor which is unusual for DBFZ. I understand that situations where 236HS' armor gets broken are so rare it might as well be a non-factor except for the damage taken, but there ya go.

Once again Granblue has found the way to do it right with the block button. It has traditional blocking giving you both options, guard button extends your hutbox and takes a couple frames to get out of which makes throw teching harder. It also doesn't negate crossups as evidenced by Lancelot being top tier first season all thanks to a triangle jump and a very short range teleport. Block button is likely to keep showing up in future games as seen in DNFD which controls a lot like a non-platforming Smash with it's command heavys, direction contextual special button and a guard button that lets you dodge and wavedash. Speaking of teleports, the game that completely kills left-right cross ups including it's abundant and extremely cheap teleport attacks? Mortal Kombat, that is a block button done wrong. Or arguably a game so stupidly broken in the offense the only option they had for defense was static, non-resource intensive faultless blocking.

Having a block button feels like the best idea in 3D fighters. In Soulcalibur, if I want to side step, I just side step. If I want to jump or crouch, I hold guard to then jump or crouch. There is a clear and useful separation between movement categories this way. Meanwhile in Tekken, sometimes I try to side step in a panic and I end up crouching or jumping instead, which probably gets me killed.

I wish we could see more clips of people playing crazy on the defensive side, I swear it’s always agro clips I see

The movement defense plays also a major on slam masters 2 too, when its come to running and slide to avoid attacks , cross up, projectile but there is also the Invicible rope bounce on stages that related to the movement defense.

Funny how I haven't seen and MK footage. Either way, funny and fun stuff. Have a happy new year mate.

You and Leon Massey are in a vein of your own. Good shit man.

Noticing your use of music from RoA do you have a take on what the workshop means for the future of open source/fan made content in fighting games?

I love your videos man You screaming trust me got me rolling

I like the block button in Soul Calibur. It really works for the mechanics of the game in particular. Main thing is that you are extremely encouraged to not actually block and instead read the opponent's attack to dodge.. Sidestepping is as easy as holding up or down and there's actually labelled "Vertical" moves which are vulnerable to it, meanwhile a lot of the most reliable moves such as your ever present A,A combo are highs you can duck. Blocking is something you're supposed to do on reaction or prediction, not consider it a state of default whenever you're not attacking like in a lot of other fighting games. .. That and also (with the exception of Voldo) blocking turns you around to face your opponent, but every character has back turned attacks which are hella strong you could do instead. Using the block button unnecessarily in that situation means you lose access to those attacks. *_BUT_* while holding block you are frozen in place, if the opponent gets behind you now somehow you need to physically remove your finger from block and re-block to reorient yourself to the new direction, it's why Groh is super strong during Soul Charge mode, he's the embodiment of _"Teleports behind you"_ and you gotta be constantly be reorienting your block.

anybody know the song that started playing in the movement section? I miss when gekko would credit the music used

Gekko posts always makes my day

There is one defense option you didn't mention it is the "delayed wake-up"

i'm curious on your take about Tohou Hisoutensoku 'dash to graze bullet' defense. what criteria it will be?

were not gonna talk about that korean backdash lolll

The only time ive truly liked blocking is when its been a secondary defensive option to dashes and parries. Its the easy fallback when you have no read but puts you at a disadvantage, its unfortunate how many games rely on blocking as their key defensive option as its woefully boring compared to active defense

1:29 that's just mercury from the sailor moon fighting game

That's the most perfect thumbnail i've ever seen

No mention of 3D sidestepping, 2D KOF-style dodging, lane-switch mechanics (Fatal Fury, Guilty Gear Isuka), performing moves that shift your hitboxes enough to hop or duck or otherwise avoid various attacks, open and closed stances in Virtua Fighter, systems where similar strength moves clash without causing damage to either party, rock-paper-scissors counter systems like DOA, SamSho's weapon catch, etc. Covers SF3's parry, but doesn't mention Mark of the Wolves. No mention of Mortal Kombat when talking about a block button. To be fair, I can understand people not wanting to talk about Guilty Gear Isuka.

What song is it that plays at the beginning of this video? It has such a dreamy feeling

great vid. Rivals of Aether music in the beginning, heeeeell ye

Guys help please what is that music at the end?? I know I've heard it before is killing me

Pokken Tournament (criminally underrated game) has a block button, but like in Smash it is a limited resource and can be broken with enough pressure. There are moves that can break shields instantly, though you have to charge them and be vulnerable for half a second (which means there's counter-play). There's even shield break set-ups with the right Pokémon / support. (Please try Pokken out, i love that game to death)

Fun Fact: in every Arc System Works Fighting Game (like Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and Persona 4 Arena.) characters can use a Defensive Mechanic called Instant Block.

I like dnf duels block button. You don’t have to guess on cross ups anymore but you take significantly more grey health; so when your opponent manages to open you up you take way more damage. It rewards using the normal block because you’ll take way less grey health

excellent video, also I think I played you in SFV I remember it being a good match!

Hey I hope this is ok with you but I was working on a script video which is very similar to this, I was going to talk about defensive mechanics in fighting games that were interesting to me like Push Blocking, "Get off me" (burst in fighting games) and parry. The whole presentation was going to be very different and I go over different games, but I still really want to get this video out sometime but I'll make something completely different if it seems like I'd be copying what you just put out.

Okay, this is a much more situational one in standard fighters than it is in games like Smash, but there is one other semi-unofficial aspect of defense... character size. Big characters have a larger hurtbox and are generally slower, but also tend to have better reach. (Usually. *Glares at 3S Hugo*) On the other hand, small characters can be incredibly difficult to touch. One of my favorite characters is Servbot from MvC2. He's the lowest-tier character that isn't named Roll, but he is the smallest unmodified character in any 2D fighting game. He is literally so small he can stand under several projectiles, and some supers like Venom Web don't even work on him. Granted, this is more of a passive defensive trait, but it IS an aspect of the character-choosing and gameplay process, so I thought I'd bring it up.

Great stuff

What music is used in this video?

Babe, wake up. New GekkoSquirrel video

I love parrying so fucking much

That juri skin is life

Button block opens up strike throw mixup more, most button block games let you neutral duck grabs. It just makes strike throw stronger while sacrificing left right mix

Ill take that fu. D-pad master race

What about the defensive option that is mashing?

Offense wins matches, Defense wins tournaments.

Kings df1 in Tekken 1 was like +66 on block and +4 on hit, don't think it was negative on hit

Can‘t wait for the next video 🔥

Me? Early to a Gekkosquirrel video? It really is Christmas!

How did you not talk about Burst? :(

1:50 depends on the inputs, methinks Are there Charge characters in games with Block Button?

Also the block button makes whiff punishes harder. In games like MK and SC where block can only be done with a button, you lose the OS of being able to walk back and block at the same time (common whiff punish set up). This then leads to players having to take risks to secure whiff punishes.

1:25 In smash, moves can be much more negative on hit than on block at low %s because of how little hitstun weak attacks have. An example of this would be inkling bair, which is -2 on block but punishable on hit with most characters jabs/grabs

Remind me of Bloody Roar , iirc it have Auto Guard/Guard and Heavy Guard where in your neutral stance it's automatically block light middle attack Heavy attack will crush that guard in which you will have to hold block button or hold back button

There’s also shielding, directional influence, and air dodging from smash

I feel like the best fighting game with a block button is Soul Calibur. The reason for this is because it's quite easy to break through your opponent's guard. There's always classic mixups, but simply hitting them enough times will cause them to stagger. You can't just turtle behind the block button because it will eventually fail you.

rivals main menu music amzing

Anyone know the song at 6:26?

whats the music that starts at 1:00 ?

Happy new year

I would really appreciate a music used paste bin in the description of your videos cause god you use some absolute bangers that I don't know the title of!

Tekken has moves that knockdown, but to avoid follow-ups, are negative on hit. Idk if there is one of those that is plus on block tho

1:25 How about the whole defense strategy around sonic the fighters? Well for a diferent but eady example look at thet old as f sailor moon game where stuff can be worse to defend than let hit, from frame advantage to damage

is this the chimney sweep version of leon massey

I constantly try to just sit there and block combos and mix up. Now if I can remember to faultless defend in Guilty gear.

Air is bad, shows tekken 7, Akuma and Geese laugh.

Who needs defense when you can just spam Yukikazes as Hakumen?

personally i prefer holding a button to block in any game, i don't play a lot of fighting games but there's a few ways in which it balances out Chip Damage nearly every game that has button block has you taking a small portion of damage when hit, in some instances this can kill (although in the case of non-supers i prefer living with 1 HP), but in others it still adds up over the game Guard Crush in some games certain super moves will not only deal damage through guard, they'll put them in a guard break state which opens them up to a ton of damage, and many games have non-supers that can do this as well, or there will be a meter that depletes with each hit, forcing you to evade or attack eventually. Super Meter in games where you build meter from attacking, it's generally a bad idea to just go on the defensive all day since they'll build meter while you don't. Timing and let's not forget some games like Kingdom Hearts, where guarding is entirely timing based, guarding needs to be pre-empted, if you press too early or too late, you get hit. personally prefer the other system as here, dodging has more overlap

My excuse for preferring button guards is because I’m a smash fan And to make crouch a block it would ruin air game with the fact that airgame is crucial to competitive play and if you don’t have fast fall than it would become less fun for competitive play But I do like me some street fighter

I get to talk about defense in Soku! Soku has no normal grabs and highs and lows don’t hit if the opponent blocks them incorrectly, instead causing additional blockstun, locking defensive mechanics, and reducing a gauge used for shield and other things by 1 (of 5) which when depleted, stuns them and reduces their max gauge by 1. The gauge and the guage’s max refill over time. Frame 1 projectile immunity is present on most forms of movement, but projectiles reduce the shield gauge, can be jump or airdash canceled, and can be canceled into from any melee. Soku has a “guard cancel” that rather than being an attack, cancels block into a projectile immune dash or jump at the cost of 1 max shield gauge. What this all causes is “strike or throw” is replaced with “projectile or melee” and you need to open your opponent’s guard 5 times to punish block (which is made easier with things like 15f high low mixups and a very generous cancel system).

I'm somewhat sad that doa didn't make it into a video about defense in fg, it has the most interactive and, to me, interesting defensive game by far. But I understand that doa has a weird reputation and that it is also not a popular game.

If granblue didn't have the block button there would be alot of unblockables And there are so OS that you can't do while using the block button so you don't Wana always be using it. You definitely have to do down back and the guard button to play that game effectively

Name of the song at the start of the video plss

Making a fighting game and was wondering if having a grapple parry is a good idea High risk high reward Character a throws out a long attack character b predicts it and boom high positive for character a because of a long wake up and if it whiffs long recovery animation

>1/3 of the video dedicated to Movement >Not a single word on Melee 😔

3:55 This Is The Greatest Rebuttal of All Time