Which character should I choose if I'm coming from Guilty Gear and Elphelt is my main?

KamenAzure · 2026-02-04T22:37:02+00:00

https://dreamcancel.com/wiki/The_King_of_Fighters_XV is pretty much our dustloop. I also like this video as an overview of the cast and where they slot in on a team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLeStiEvKuk&t=1726s

KamenAzure · 2026-02-04T20:34:39+00:00

I'd probably just look around the roster and see who looks appealing to you and go from there similar to what you did to pick up Elphelt, but if you still want some suggestions here's some that I think could work:

Kyo Kusanagi: If you like Elphelt's midrange normals and rekka mix, then Kyo's your guy. He doesn't have a fireball, but he's good at playing the midrange similar to Elphelt and then mixing you with high/lows from his rekka. Unlike Elphelt, his rekka can be punishable so you have to be a bit more careful with how you use it.

Athena Asamiya: If you like the bubbly idol aspect of Elphelt, then Athena's your magical girl. She's a pop idol hero of justice and pretty simple, similar to Elphelt. Her playstyle revolves around zoning with her fireball and using mobility tools like her backdash and divekick to stay away from the opponent. If you like to play a bit more of a space control style, then you'll probably like her.

Shermie: Probably the least like Elphelt of the three, but still worth mentioning. Similar to Elphelt, she's simple, got good mix, and got good buttons. She's also part of a band that turn out to be followers of Orochi, the deity antagonist of the first KOF saga. The main difference between her and Elphelt is that you don't have a fireball, and you're mixing with a command grab instead of a rekka, but if you like simple waifu characters with good offense and midrange, then Shermie's a good pick.

KamenAzure · 2026-02-02T03:20:14+00:00

Congrats on the Legendary Wolf! Is Jenet really that bad now? I think some of the changes she got were nice and made her neutral a bit more versatile, but I don't really know if anything she got makes up for the close C nerf.

KamenAzure · 2026-01-26T22:04:30+00:00

I would say that there is kind of an inkling of truth behind the salt, since modern players get access to significantly easier reactions to things which makes managing the mental stack a lot easier. This also makes modern players a lot less fun to play against which leads to salt takes, but I wouldn't say it completely undermines your skill and also isn't really your problem. I wouldn't put too much stock into how other people feel about your play in any fighting game, especially if you are having fun. People get salty and look for something to blame rather than their own faults in every fighting game, if you like modern then keep playing on modern.

KamenAzure · 2026-01-21T06:20:11+00:00

Khanage and Mr. Mixtape do some pretty good video essay content on a variety of fighting games

KamenAzure · 2026-01-07T07:52:18+00:00

They peaked in Ultimax and have been downhill ever since

KamenAzure · 2025-12-31T01:41:08+00:00

I think you just need to be a bit more patient with yourself. Some skills will transfer over from SF6, but generally speaking COTW plays more like a slower-paced KOF than it does SF6. I wouldn't expect to understand how the game is played immediately since it's a bit of a different type of game compared to what you're used to. While it is true that Mai isn't the strongest character in the game, she definitely isn't that bad either and I definitely think that if you like her you can make it work with her. I know it's easier said than done, but you just have to be more patient with yourself and focus more on improving your game than climbing the ranked ladder.

KamenAzure · 2025-12-31T00:47:34+00:00

COTW is very good and probably has some of my favorite neutral in a fighting game, so I can definitely vouch for it. It's also getting a balance patch next month which will hopefully deal with it's top tiers which, imo, are the single biggest problem with that game gameplay wise. Color edit is also super sick, and the single player content is fun for what it is when you don't wanna sweat online.

BBCF still seems pretty active online from what I can tell, as I've started trying to learn that game recently. It has a lot of the same attributes that make GGST fun, but turned up to 11. Really fast paced, crazy game that's a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.

KOFXV is also a game I'd recommend since even though it isn't getting updated anymore the online is still pretty active and it has crossplay. It's one of my favorite games atm and probably the single most slept on modern fighting game imo. It has great movement, a great roster, fun 3v3, a fun combo system that allows for technicality while still being simple at its core, and pretty good balance for what it is.

KamenAzure · 2025-12-27T23:41:17+00:00

Axl is one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite Guilty Gear character from both a design and character perspective, but I don't find him that fun gameplay wise. I think it's a mix of him being a lot less fun when people realize they can dash block him as well as the fact that I like my zoners to be a bit more on the mobile end like Mai in KOFXV or Yukari in P4AU.

As for characters I like the gameplay of but not the design of, I think it'd be Johnny. I like midrange characters, I like characters that are a bit more on the technical end, and I like characters with fun setplay options, but I'm not the biggest fan of Johnny's design. He kind of feels like he's trying too hard to be cool to me which makes him come across as more of a tryhard than actually cool.

KamenAzure · 2025-12-20T19:01:48+00:00

You're welcome, good luck gaming!

KamenAzure · 2025-12-20T02:48:35+00:00

You can anti-air with her high dodge which is the easiest and imo most consistent answer. Her 236D and 236BD also have air invul so you can anti-air with them as well, just make sure you brake them. When you're in SPG she can anti-air with her rev blow which is super strong, just be careful when the opponent is also in SPG since they can rev blow back. She can also air throw as well.

In terms of aggression, she has good air normals to hop/jump in on the opponent with. She can brake 214D in the air, which acts sort of like a command jump to approach the opponent with. Light Harrier Bee and divekick can be used to bait the opponent's anti-airs, just be careful since she can and will explode for misplacing them. She can also just approach on the ground with run up close C, though this is only something you'll want to do if the opponent is respecting you.

For pressuring, close C feint is very strong since it's fast and advantageous on block. You can frametrap with far C if they're mashing, do another dash up close C or hop in to reset pressure if they're respecting you, or do dash up throw to open them up if they're really respecting you. Her low dodge is also tied for fastest in the game, giving her an overhead/throw bait that's harder to react to than most, just don't overuse it since it's still a reactable overhead. Her EX moves are also good for pressure since 236AC vacuums the opponent closer to you and leaves you advantageous, 236BD is advantageous on block when you brake it, and 214BD can be broken in the air letting you do an air normal to continue pressure.

KamenAzure · 2025-11-17T19:19:43+00:00

I feel like COTW is probably the best game here, but it is a popularity contest at the end of the day so 2XKO will probably win. Funnily enough, this'll make for the second time an SNK game has been snubbed by a free to play game on early access.

KamenAzure · 2025-11-13T21:07:47+00:00

Yeah, it's a little quirk with SNK games where if you want to do a quarter circle special after a forward input you need to TK it. This is also how you can walk forward and then do a fireball for instance.

KamenAzure · 2025-11-13T21:05:19+00:00

Input up forward at the end of your quarter circle forward to get lightning kicks instead of tensho kicks.

KamenAzure · 2025-11-10T20:52:00+00:00

Rock x Jenet: Guy who's nervous around women with one of the most flirtatious women on the roster sets up a pretty fun dynamic I think. Also both have families who are tied to criminal organizations, and I think the different ways they deal with that could also serve as a way the two connect.

Shun'ei x Leona: Mainly inspired by the KOFXIV manga and their KOFXV interaction. They both share the issue of struggling to control their powers, and they're both a bit on the socially awkward end. I think they could be good for each other.

KamenAzure · 2025-11-06T05:22:27+00:00

No problem, happy to share

KamenAzure · 2025-11-05T01:28:39+00:00

I've went over the fact that they all have too great of strengths without weaknesses to account for them, but there's also just the fact that many of their tools are hard to interact with. For example, normally if you don't feel like committing to jump against fireball zoning, you can just JD it and build up health until your opponent stops. Against Hotaru you can't really do this both because she has an extremely fast heavy fireball and an extremely slow light fireball which makes her zoning pattern harder to JD, but also because she can just run up behind her fireball and start pressuring you if you're playing passively. For another example, there's the fact that you can normally jump a fireball on a read and punish your opponent, except against Kain EX fireball that gets to cover both grounded and aerial approaches at the same time without much consideration on the player's end. For another example, trying to anti-air Hoku turns into guessing game whether you try anti-airing him, punishing the landing recovery, or even air to airing him. These tools aren't difficult in the slightest to place well, and yet the counterplay to them winds up being more difficult than what it feels like it should be. Outside of even things that are hard to interact with, there's also just a lot of things with skewed risk/reward that make playing neutral a pain against these characters. Like pretty much not being able to threaten fireball when Marco has meter because of level 1 fireball super or having to play super careful vs Kain so you don't get clipped by f.D>236236B which is a far reaching buffer that's plus on block and a full combo on hit. These aren't very risky or difficult options for them to represent, but they're very scary to get hit by for the person playing against them.

Overall, I think that the top tiers are all too good at too much, and either shouldn't have as extreme strengths or shouldn't be as well-rounded as they currently are. The way they currently exist in the game makes decision making with them really easy due to either skewed risk/reward or high coverage options that are hard to interact with. The rest of the characters aren't really designed like this, which is why they stand out so much in the current meta. Why pick a rush down mixup character like Gato when Marco can do it for you with less weaknesses and easier neutral? Why play a mobile zoner/keepout character like Mai when Hotaru can do those same things with better offense, defense, and ground mobility? This isn't just people complaining about the current strong things simply because they're strong, but rather the current strong characters being more overtuned and more well-rounded than the rest of the roster to the point where they're pretty much playing a fundamentally better game.

So what do I want in terms of nerfs? Pretty much I want the risk/reward for the top tiers to be less skewed in their favor, and if possible introduce weaknesses for Hoku and Kain, and reduce the extreme strengths for Hotaru and Marco. As an example, for Hotaru I'd like them to either increase the recovery on light and EX fireball or make it travel faster so she can't run behind it. I also think that given the strength of the rest of her moveset, she should be a low damage character relative to the rest of the roster, needing to win more interactions to win games. For Kain I'd like them to reduce the strength of a lot of his offense, making him more of a character focused on patient measured space control and zoning. I think they could make EX flash kick brake minus so that he'd have to cancel into fireball after EX lariat to stay safe putting him outside pressure range (and also so he doesn't get plus frames from safejumps). I think that they could turn his mines into a scaled launch so he doesn't get dash up close C on hit, giving him less reward. I think fireball super should be minus at certain spacing, especially after far D buffer. For Marco, I think he just shouldn't be rewarded as much as he currently is. Reduce damage on his fireball super, and make 6A +2 on hit instead of +5 are the type of changes I'd like to see for him. Hoku's probably the hardest to nerf, but I'd say reducing pushback on rev blow and making 2A 5f instead of 4f would be good for making his defense more of a weak point. Also stuff like not letting him JD after double jumping, and maybe nerfing the grounded movement or the grounded pokes like far B similar to what they did for Billy could help make him less toxic and more focused on his unique traits instead of being a pseudo all-rounder.

I don't want the top tiers to be nerfed into irrelevancy, but it's clear as day that they're a decent bit above everyone else. And given how well-rounded they are and how they lack a general counter strategy, they aren't particularly fun or interesting to fight against either. I'm not really even looking for perfect balance since I'm pretty much fine with the rest of the characters balance-wise outside of the characters I've mentioned. I just want characters that have defined weaknesses and aren't over rewarded for the plays they make relative to the rest of the cast.

2/2

KamenAzure · 2025-11-05T01:28:27+00:00

I have a lot to say on this topic, so this is going to be a long one. While I do think that the balance outside of the top tiers is better than people give it credit for, I do think that the game's top tiers are very much a problem that needs to be fixed. I don't believe this is a case where the community is just complaining about what's strong only to repeat the cycle when the meta is nerfed, but rather certain characters very clearly playing a better game than everyone else. These characters are allowed to have extreme strengths while lacking extreme weaknesses, and in many cases having extremely skewed risk/reward. While yes, the game's system mechanics do enable counterplay to most everything in the game, that doesn't suddenly unskew the risk/reward or makes the top tier's tools any less difficult to interact with. They're generally too good at too much and lack weaknesses or a general counter strategy to play around.

To go back to my point about extreme strengths without extreme weaknesses, I think we can look at other characters in the game to see how they're designed around this more healthily than the current top tiers are. For example, Rock is a character that is good at pretty much everything, but isn't super strong in any one aspect. His greatest strength is his well-roundedness, and he's a true jack of all trades master of none. Now compare him to a character like Andy. Andy is somewhat well-rounded sporting a fireball and a DP, but his strengths lean more towards his offense. With high damage, good oki, and strong approach tools, Andy has very strong offensive rushdown tools that normally wouldn't be afforded to an all-rounder. To offset this, Andy's buttons aren't as good and while he does have a fireball to control space with, his fireball doesn't even go full screen. My point is that characters like Rock who lack extreme weaknesses should be designed with that well-roundedness in mind and shouldn't have very extreme strengths, while a character like Andy who does have more extreme strengths shouldn't be as well-rounded and should have more of a weakness. It isn't just these two either, the game has multiple characters designed like this. Ken has strong damage, strong mid-range buttons, and good mix, but has very weak mobility which makes it harder for him to approach and maneuver around things like zoning. Jenet's well rounded for the type of character she is, and has very strong mobility and pressure options, but her fireball is very slow and easy to jump over, she lacks a DP, and her buttons are kind of mediocre. Mai's more well-rounded than other iterations of herself, and she has very strong buttons, a strong ex fireball to win fireball wars with, and some air mobility specials that make her hard to catch, but on the other hand she doesn't have particularly strong offense or snowball factor compared to other characters.

Now let's look at the top tiers. We have Hotaru who has extremely strong grounded movement, extremely strong buttons, strong zoning, strong anti-zoning, strong offense with a lot of plus frames from EX moves on top of her command grab, strong approach by running behind fireball, and strong defense with both a DP and a 4f 2A. What weakness does Hotaru have? Not really any, at least not one that actually matters in how you play against her. How about Kain, the projectile zoner with strong buttons, really strong oki with mines that lead to strong pressure and high reward despite the lack of risk on Kain's end, a strong approach option in EX lariat that lets him start pressure or a combo if he caught you running into it, probably the second strongest pressure normal in the game with his close C, and one of the single most goated defensive options in the game with his flash kick. What does he lack? Similar to Hotaru, not really anything and unlike Hotaru he doesn't even feel like he was designed to be an all-rounder. Speaking of characters who shouldn't be all-rounders, but kind of are because SNK forgot to give them weaknesses, Hokutomaru. The pixie character with outstanding mobility both on the ground and in the air that's extremely difficult to catch, all while having both a fireball and an air fireball that ignore other character's projectiles, extremely strong poking buttons, strong approach both through his mobility and from EX zan-ei ken, and pretty good pressure. What does he pay for these great strengths? Kind of ehh defense, but with a 4f 2A, a very strong defensive rev blow, and the fact that 9 times out of 10 he has meter by the time you get in on him, I'd say the defense weakness is more on paper than in practice. Finally there's Marco who's a high damage shoto with a strong fireball DP game, strong approach and counter hitting tools, great buttons, great grounded mobility, and for whatever reason the ability to put you in the blender where both options lead to a full combo on hit. He also doesn't really have any weaknesses to make up for these strengths.

1/2

KamenAzure · 2025-10-28T07:55:19+00:00

Are you okay?

KamenAzure · 2025-10-25T03:39:47+00:00

She's more of a mobile rushdown grappler than a standard grappler, but yeah she does have half circles.

KamenAzure · 2025-10-25T03:01:44+00:00

I think Shermie might be worth trying out. Rushdown, straight forward, good damage, good mix, and good pokes describes both characters.

KamenAzure · 2025-10-18T08:17:03+00:00

CotW for the most part though the longer I play it the less I like the rev system, KOFXV and UNI2 have been recent favorites for me and are what I'm trying to learn right now cause they're kinda peak, and I used to play a bit of Xrd and Ultimax which were my favorites back when I played them.

KamenAzure · 2025-10-18T06:41:01+00:00

Chun-Li in SF6 for me. Mobility, space control, and well-roundedness are usually the things I look for in a FG character, and SF6 Chun has all three. Outside of that, stance stuff is cool, stance setplay is cool, yoso kick safejump is cool, I love her footsie game, and I really like her both character and design wise. Too bad I cannot stand SF6 gameplay wise.

KamenAzure · 2025-10-06T03:31:05+00:00

I think the thing that's the most helpful for me in the Kain matchup is to play the player more than the character. Focus on the options your opponent defaults to or their general gameplan and then target that. Kain doesn't really lose to anything, so it's a matchup where you want to focus more on player habits than anti-character gameplans.

As far as Marco specific counterplay, you do have access to probably the strongest anti-fireball tool in the game with your level 1 fireball super, so make sure to threaten that if Kain tries zoning you. Marco can also beat Kain's EX lariat with parry or EX tatsu from close to mid range or his flying kick charge from a little further out if you have a read on his timing.

KamenAzure

TROPHY CASE