User:Chris Beazell/Eternal Fighter Zero

Eternal Fighter Zero (referred to herein as EFZ) is a 2D fighting game made for the PC by a Japanese company whose name I can't translate because I can't read kanji. Its cast is entirely female, its characters are taken from various hentai games. The game contains no actual hentai. It has a fairly complex but easy to learn engine, similar to Guilty Gear. Characters' moves are almost 100% reminiscent of moves characters have in other fighting games. For instance, one character is pretty much a complete clone of Testament from Guilty Gear.

Terminology and Abbreviations
Note: These all come from the FAQ on GameFAQs, thus they are different from the ones seen here.
 * Eterny Special:High-powered moves that require a certain level of Power Gauge to perform
 * Overdrive Special:A desparation move, requires a full (level 3) Power Gauge to perform, with the additional requirement of the health bar flashing red.
 * Reinforce:A higher-powered version of a special move, requires a certain level of Reinforce Gauge to perform
 * Instant Charge:A technique that instantly breaks you out of whatever you were doing, also boosts combo damage for the next few hits and resets the stun bar.
 * Flicker Instant Charge:Essentially the same as Instant Charge, but inputted as a projectile move comes out, allowing the character to move on the screen while the projectile hits
 * Recoil Guard:A strictly-timed block, reduces pushback and incurs less block stun, so you can counterattack much faster than with a normal block.
 * Recoil Guard Counter:the move or combo inputted after a successful Recoil Guard, some moves require a successful Recoil Guard in order to perform
 * Cancelling:Inputting a move and then quickly inputting a different move will, in most cases, cancel the recovery of the first move into the startup of the second move, allowing greater combo flexibility
 * Basic Cancel:The act of cancelling one basic attack into another
 * 2-in-1 Cancel:The act of cancelling a basic attack into a special move, ES, or OV
 * Link:Performing one special move, allowing it to fully recover, and then performing the next move, while maintaining your combo. Not always possible to do.
 * Jump Cancel:The act of cancelling a basic hit into a jump, typically the hit cancelled will be one that launches the opponent into the air.
 * ES:Abbreviation for Eterny Special
 * OV:Abbreviation for Overdrive Special
 * IC:Abbreviation for Instant Charge
 * FIC:Abbreviation for Flicker Instant Charge
 * RF:Abbreviation for Reinforce
 * RGC:Abbreviation for Recoil Guard Counter
 * JC:Abbreviation for Jump Cancel

Engine
While not as deep as Guilty Gear's engine, it's deeper than most fighting games. It uses a three-button Light/Medium/Heavy layout with an extra "Special" button that may or may not do anything depending on the character you're using. Nearly all of the special moves have different versions that are selected by pressing the appropriate attack button at the end of the input. Some of these versions may be higher-powered or longer-ranged versions, others simply change the area on the screen where the move hits.

Just like most other fighting games, there are various ways of cancelling attacks. Cancelling your attacks into other attacks is completely optional, but highly recommended as doing so generally leads to higher amounts of damage.

Gauges

 * Power Gauge
 * This gauge fills as you deal damage. It has three levels, each Eterny Special requires a certain amount of this gauge to perform, usually controlled by the attack button the input was finished with.  Light versions take 1 level, Medium takes 2, and Heavy versions take all 3 levels.


 * Reinforce Gauge
 * This gauge fills slowly over time, and stops filling momentarily when you take damage. It has three distinct stages:


 * Dark Blue: No effect
 * Red: You may now perform the RF version of one special move, or IC/FIC once
 * Light blue and flashing: You may now perform the RF version of (up to) 4 special moves, and/or IC/FIC once; also, taking damage will take a small chunk of the gauge
 * Guard Gauge
 * This is a very tiny gauge between the Power Gauge and the RF Gauge that fills little by little as you guard attacks. I have noted no effect on damage scaling or guard breaking as the gauge gets filled, so I really don't know what it does.


 * Health Gauge (Health Bar, whatever)
 * This is the doozy. It goes down as you take damage (duh), and once your health gets down to 33%, it will turn red and start flashing.  Once it's flashing, you may perform your character's OV if you have the Power Gauge to do so.


 * Other miscellaneous gauges
 * Specific characters have an additional gauge that will appear beneath their health bar. This gauge is linked to one or another of their moves, usually acting as a timer, but not always.

Movement and Control
A fighting game would be downright boring if you couldn't move around. Fortunately, EFZ allows you to move.


 * Crouching
 * Some projectiles can be avoided by crouching; also, you have an entire set of crouching basic attacks open to you. Some of these crouching attacks will hit low, so alternating between standing and crouching attacks can open up your opponent for further comboing, as your opponent will have very little time to change their block accordingly.


 * Walking
 * This is the easiest method of moving, but also the slowest. Push 4 or 6 to move backwards or forwards while on the ground.


 * Dashing
 * This gets you around a lot faster than walking, but leaves you vulnerable to attack. Push 44 or 66 to dash backwards or forwards.


 * Jumping
 * Sometimes you just have to take to the air. Whether it's avoiding a projectile, or just the sudden desire to be on the other side of your opponent, this is how you'll have to do it.  Press any up direction to jump.  7 is a jump backwards, 8 is straight up, and 9 is a forwards jump.


 * Double Jumping (sometimes referred to as Air Jumping)
 * If one jump just doesn't cut it, you can jump again before you hit the ground. Typically you'll want to do this at the peak of the first jump.  Press any up direction in the air to double jump, just like with the standard jump.  Note that you can change directions in the air with a jump.


 * Air Dashing
 * Often an air dash will be highly preferable to a ground dash. Some characters have a much faster air dash than ground dash.  Also, some characters are less effective against incoming airborne opponents than others.  Simply input a dash while in the air to air dash.  Note that, unlike Guilty Gear, double jumping does not remove your ability to air dash.  One character can air dash twice, others may be able to as well.


 * Guarding
 * To guard yourself from an attack, simply hold 4. All incoming attacks at the mid or high level will be blocked, and you will take a fraction of the damage you would normally take.  This damage, typically referred to as guard damage or chip damage, can deplete your health fully but will not kill you.  To guard against a low attack, you must hold 1.  There are three guard 'zones', each attack will hit in one or another of them.  With a standing block, you can block High and Mid attacks, and with a crouching block you can block Mid and Low attacks.  While there are no unblockable setups in EFZ, there are setups that can break a standing block by hitting both Mid and Low at the same time.

Attacking
Fighting games would be boring if you couldn't attack. EFZ offers a wide variety of ways to attack your opponent.


 * Basic Attacks
 * These are the simplest attacks, but also the least damaging. Simply push L, M, or H.  Optionally, you can crouch before pressing the attack button to perform the crouching version of that attack.  All characters have two different versions of their M attack, one comes out when you're up close and personal with the opponent, and the other comes out when you're further away from the opponent.  These are usually denoted in combos with M(c) representing the close version and M(f) representing the far version.


 * Throws
 * Throws are a unique basic attack in that they are close range and unblockable. To input a throw, press either 6H or 4H when right next to your opponent.


 * Air Throws
 * You may also throw people in the air. Jump up right next to them and input a throw as you normally would.


 * Special Moves
 * Sooner or later you'll get bored of just whacking your opponent with basic attacks and want to progress onwards. These moves are slightly more difficult to input, each requires a certain directional input before pressing the attack button.  A very common example is 236L.  Almost all of the characters have a move with this input.  Special moves tend to have a different version for each attack button as well.  Using a different attack button might change the startup/recovery time, damage, and/or range of the move.  Also, performing the H version of a move while your RF gauge is red or light blue and flashing will perform the RF version of the move, basically it gets powered up, or some other property changes such as hit stun/recovery time.


 * Command Throws
 * These are essentially special moves that act as a throw. Some command throws are anti-air command throws, others only catch characters on the ground.  Some characters don't have a command throw.  Some command throws may also be comboed into for a little extra flashiness.


 * Counter Moves
 * A few of the characters have moves that place them into a counter stance for a short while, if an attack lands during this time it does no damage and the counter move executes. These generally take a good amount of timing to use correctly.


 * Eterny Specials
 * As you fight, that power gauge fills up. Here's how you use it.  These moves have fairly complex inputs.  A common example is 641236L.  In addition, the ES can be powered up by finishing the input with a different attack button.  L versions take 1 level of power gauge, M versions take 2, and H versions take all 3.  There are exceptions to this rule but for the most part it holds for all characters.


 * Overdrive Special
 * Each character has one Overdrive Special. This is a very special level 3 ES that may only be used when your health bar is flashing red.  Despite looks and the combo meter, all of the damage is on the last hit, so if you get hit out of it before the last hit, no damage is dealt.  Some OVs do other things instead of dealing damage directly, it depends on the character you're using.  For example, one OV heals the character back to half health, and another stops time for a short while, allowing you to get in a lot of hits that your opponent can't do anything about.  OVs have the absolute most complex and convoluted inputs in the game.  There is no common example, but just to illustrate the point, I'll list a few random OV inputs: 236236M H; 236236H L M H L M H 623S or 236S; and H H 6 M L.

Characters
EFZ's characters, as previously mentioned, come from various hentai games, including One, Air, and Kanon. Having never personally played any of those three games, I can't say if the names are correct or not, but I believe they are. EFZ has two boss characters, Unknown and Kanna. You face Unknown most of the time, unless you complete arcade mode without using any continues, in which case you'll face Kanna. There is also a hacked copy of the main executable file that enables Kanna and the boss version of Unknown to be played by the player. If they are unlockable in the unhacked copy of the main executable, I do not know how to go about unlocking them.

External Link

 * GameFAQs FAQ page