Movement Tutorial Script

MOVEMENT TUTORIAL

Let's quickly run through the basics.
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Part 1 - the bare basics

Three main types of movement, forward, back, and side movement
-You can move in eight directions just by pressing your directional pad or stick in the direction you want
	to go.
-You can buffer movement
-guard restrictions
	-moving from a standstill or changing directions causes you to be unable to guard,
		for movements other than straight forward.
		-you can guard at frame 16 for backstep, at frame 14 for sidestep, normally
		-1/7 step counts as sidestepping in regards to being able to guard out of it
		-this is after you finish your input

There's three main ways of doing those movements, holding, single tapping, and double tapping.
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Part 2 - inputs


-single tapping allows you to move a fixed distance
	-returning to neutral cancels the holding movement animation and triggers a new one
		-the game gives you some leniency, some time for you to do some combinations of inputs
			so you don't need to, say, only be inputting forward for one frame to get a tap,
			or have to press down and A at exactly the same time to get a 2A to come out before
			it starts counting as a sidestep and giving you 22A.  At the same time, the game
			can't just have you do nothing while it waits for you finish your input, that
			wouldn't be very responsive.
			It's important to know what for example a "tap" really is or what state transitions
			are happening to make both leniency and responsiveness possible because we can take
			advantage of details like that, which I'll be getting into after I finish with the
			basics here
	-allows you do to do any single-direction move during the movement except a move in the same
		cardinal direction as it will think you're trying to do a double tap 8WR move
		-diagonal moves with the same cardinal direction will read as an 8WR move
	-done properly, guarantees you won't enter 8WR
-holding directions sometimes has a slow startup animation, sometimes doesn't
	-holding a direction and pressing an attack button at the end of the input leniency period
		can allow you to move a short distance and attack in the same direction
-double tapping cancels single tap movement and allows 8WR moves
	-the dark arrow means 8WR direction which can be inputted as a double tap
	-sidestep 8WR moves have an in-built 10 frame delay,
		or rather, 10 frames of 8WR required first
	-as long as you don't return to neutral,
		switching to adjacent directions does not reset the 10 frame requirement,
		so you can do something 6632A to get 22A or 2214K to get 44K
	-gives access to triple tap for dashing and attacking with a single-direction move

Now let's talk about each major movement direction specifically.
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Part 3 - Forward Movement

Forward movement
	-this is the safest form of movement because it be cancelled immediately into any movement or guarding
		-if hit out of forward movement the property is Normal Hit
	-the holding dash is somewhat new in SC6, where before your character would take a moment to get moving,
		in this game that moment is very brief, making other techniques not as important, but still
		necessary for getting to certain positions as quickly as possible and using the right attack.
		-holding dash is still the best for using 6, 3, or 9 moves after moving a short distance
			-during the beginning of the holding dash, you're in a run startup animation,
				(which can be cancelled any time) where if you press a button,
				you'll get a 6 attack.  Swivel the stick or press the dpad up or down while
				still holding forward, to make a diagonal input, and you'll get a 3 or 9 attack
				if you press an attack button.
			-this can extend the range of your 6/3/9 attacks a short distance
			-you're not counted as in 8WR yet, so 2_8 attacks may be cancelled into immediately, too
		-keep holding and you'll enter a run, which I'll talk about in a bit.
	-single tap dash, or forward step often makes a quick step forward after a short delay.
		-The animation begins after you return to neutral after the tap,
		so you can extend the distance of the step by doing a slower tap,
		holding for a moment and then releasing.
		-If you hold too long it'll count as a holding dash,
		and your release will do the run-brake animation instead.
		-Once you release the direction, your character keeps moving forward until the step is finished
			-this allows you to return the stick or dpad to neutral and move while waiting to time
				neutral attacks like AA or BB when you've reached the spacing you want.
		-Some characters have really bad forward steps, but for a lot of characters this results in the
			fastest movement across a medium distance, especially when you don't have time to buffer
			a double tap dash.  There is a slight startup to it, though, where you aren't moving
			very fast.
		-press and hold forward again during the forward step and you'll transition into a full run,
			as if you did a double tap. Cancelling into a full run can cut out the slow movement
			at end of the forward step.
	-double tap dashes immediately put you into a full run state with no slow startup,
		the only drawback being the time it takes to physically do the double tap, in situations where
		you're not buffering it.
		-press button at the same time or after the second tap and you will get a 66 move.
			-the 10 frames of 8WR requirement starts ticking down after the second tap,
				allowing you to rotate the stick or slide your thumb around your dpad
				or hitbox or whatever to the direction of the 8WR move that you want.
		-tap forward a third time and it'll be read as a single tap for 6-moves, or more technically,
			release the forward direction during the full run and you enter a run-brake animation
			that allows the most of the same things that the idle stance does.
			-a short delay between releasing forward and doing 3/9, 2/8,
				and neutral attacks is needed, none is needed for 6 moves or 4/1/7 moves.
				-as a rule of thumb, doing moves that use directions opposite to your movement
					can done without worry of something else coming out.
	<Demonstrate dashing in from different distances in different ways>
		-<holding-6 attacks, single tap attacks, slow-tap, 6653 attacks, 6632 attacks, tap then hold,
			fast double tap techniques>

	-all backdashing and sidestepping are accessible out of all forms of forward movement,
		except full run into holding step, as you counted as being in 8WR, giving a side-8WR instead.

What's the difference between that and a sidestep? We'll get into that when we get into side movement,
	which is right now.
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Part 4 Sidestepping - inputs work a bit differently, this time if you do a single tap, it doesn't matter how
	briefly you tap, the game will seamlessly transition the animation for a holding step into
	a single tap step.
	-there's four stages of the sidestep: the microstep window, the unguardable period,
		the dash-cancel window, and the guardable or 8WR period.
		-for the first seven or so frames, you can guard cancel out of a sidestep
			I and others call this is a "microstep."
			-some characters move a significant distance during this window,
				as most characters begin moving enough to get out of the way of the linear
				attacks starting at around frame 6 of the sidestep.
				-Doing a microstep and then guarding can result in a safer sidestep.
				-If your character standing hurtbox is thin enough, you'll narrowly escape
					some vertical moves while still being able to guard horizontals in time.
			-the ability to guard cancel immediately after beginning a sidestep is something
				that can be used to cancel anything that transitions to sidestep into
				guard or something else.
		-after the microstep window, there's seven or so frames where you can't guard.
			-as with the other stages, you can still cancel into attacks or GI.
			-I don't know how to test exactly when the guardable microstep period ends
				and the unguardable period begins, but the unguardable period for sure ends
				by frame 14, and you will be hit by horizontals on frame 12.
		-however, you can also cancel any sidestep into a dash at frame 12,
			and dashes are immediately guard cancellable.
			-if you do a single tap sidestep and then buffer a single tap dash and return to neutral
				before the dash cancel window begins, you can hold guard and be able to block
				attacks coming in at frame 12 rather than 14.
		-if you're doing a holding sidestep or double tap sidestep, you will transition to side-8WR
			after the guard cancel window ends.  You're still able to use 8WR moves at frame 10+.
			-I tend to call side-8WR "sidewalking" because it's slower than the other forms of
				side movement, and won't allow you to evade some verticals.
			-The fastest and most evasive form of side movement, some might be surprised to hear,
				is done by holding up or down, what I'm calling the holding step.
				-there's a brief burst of speed before transitioning to sidewalking.
				-it's required for some characters in specific situations to get around some
					verticals.
				-but, you don't have access to any of the sidestep dash cancel techniques.
				-there's also the similar pros and cons to holding steps and single taps
					as with dashing, you can cancel holding steps within 9 frames
					into attacks with the direction input as the step, and you can
					time attacks more freely with single tap stepping.
					-if you hold step in the 8 direction you can do 7/8/9 moves,
						in the 2 direction you can do 1/2/3 moves.
				-the single tap release doesn't cancel the holding movement during sidesteps
					like it does during dashes though, so what's actually happening when
					you single tap, you're cancelling the faster holding dash seamlessly
					into the single tap, which will end in a braking animation which
					guarantees you won't enter 8WR.
			-if you double tap quickly before the step ends, you pretty much get the same thing as
				a single tap, as the second input won't start another step unless you wait until
				the step ends.
				-But, you will guarantee that an 8WR move will come out if you
				press a button.
				-Here you can also swivel the stick or slide your thumb across
				the dpad to the 8WR move direction you want, and the move will come out when
				the 10 frames of 8WR requirement is up.
		-if you want to do repeated steps, mashing a direction at the rhythm of the dash-cancel window
			timing will make you go the fastest.  This will allow you to step some multihit moves
			that will retrack against sidewalk, but you can't guard during some of it.
				-you CAN guard during the microstep phases of these.
			-that's the advantage to sidewalking, you can guard at any time start at frame 14
				since you started moving or changed directions, and don't need to time a step.
				-it tells the opponent, hey, I can't be hit by paper thin verticals right now.
				-also, you can pull out a side-8WR move at any time, which tend to be strong.
				-in the direction toward your opponent, however, you're standing still,
					actually slowly moving toward them unless you're using 1/7 sidewalking
					which is even less evasive and you can be CH'd by anything.
				-while sidewalking if they do a horizontal at speeds you can't react to, you'll
					be CH.
				-1/7 walking also counts as backdashing, so you will be CH by verticals, too.
				-this is true for all sidestepping, if you're hit by horizontals, you get CH,
					if you get hit by verticals, like in the beginning of your sidestep,
					it's NH.
				-also worth noting that if you want to move forward or back out of backwalk,
					you should do single taps unless you want to maintain 8WR for 8WR moves
		-so we went over sidesteps into dashes and sidesteps into more sidesteps,
			let's talk about sidestep into backdash
			-backdash can be buffered, but it comes out at the timing of step guard rather step dash
			-for most purposes, this is fast enough, but there are two ways to step into backdash
				more smoothly.
			-the first one is to do microstep backdash, or 24 stepping. You can guard out of the
				beginning of sidestep, so you can also backdash out it.
				-I guess you can forward dash out of it too, haven't really thought about the
					applications of that.
				-effectiveness of this varies by the character you're using and the character
					you're fighting against.
				-it's extremely good against characters that don't have
					fast mid range horizontals, which are the main way of beating it.
				-you can do them repeatedly to run away from soul charges, but after two of them,
					the game seems to prevent you from doing another one until you press
					G or forward.
					-If you do it too slowly, only one will be allowed.
					-to get around this limitation, we can do a half circle on every third
						24 step, a complete cycle being 24 24 63214.
					-I usually like to start with a regular single tap backdash.
			-the second is to do a full sidestep into a dash to cancel it early, but immediately
				backdashing out of the dash before it goes anywhere.
				-Using the same technique as the safer step, the 865G, we buffer the dash during
					the step, but this time, we time a single tap backdash at the
					start of the dash.
				-The difference is minor, you seem to be saving two frames, but it's there.
				-if you do it too fast, I think the backdash buffer overrides the dash.
				-probably the least important technique I'll tell you about.

The 24 or 214 stepping backdash cancel is probably the real metagame shifter,
	speaking of which it's about time we talk about backdashing.
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Part 5 - Backdashing is slightly more unsafe than sidestep, my testing has you guarding at frame 16,
	I've heard 15 being thrown around.
	-the main way to backdash is to single tap with every character but Maxi.  His backdash sucks.
		-slow tapping is similar to sidestep except to stand lose a lot more distance and speed
			if you don't do brief taps, holding backdash is that bad, whereas holding steps are good.
	-holding backdash is only useful for backing up and doing 4/7/1 moves at precise spacings
	-double tap backdash immediately puts you into backwalk, it cancels the single tap backdash
		-backwalk can be cancelled into another backdash, which brings us to our second backdash cancel,
			4, 44, 44 stepping.
			-the first back input does a single tap backdash.  Then you wait for the backdash to
				go somewhere, but before the backdash ends, you press back again to cancel into
				backwalk, and as fast possible tap back again to cancel out of backwalk into
				another single tap backdash.
			-you do the first backdash as a single tap, and then double tap to start backwalking
				and cancel into another single tap backdash.
			-this is the easiest and most universally effective backdash cancel.
			-I call it the DOA backdash because the player BlackMambaMoan started doing this at
				SCR 2011 I think it was where they had the SC5 beta, and he backdashing like
				crazy with Pyrrha and said he was doing it like a DOA backdash cancel.
				I didn't think that was the fastest and kept doing my SCIV style 214s until I
				saw Hates do it like a year later.
			-it wasn't much faster for Yoshi but the reason it was much faster for almost every
				other character, and this remains true in this game, is that there are fewer
				periods of stopping or slowing down, between your backdashes you're backwalking,
				not starting up a sidestep.  In this game, that sidestep startup is actually
				useful but for pure backward movement, this is faster.
			-the annoying part of this technique is that it's hard to tell whether you're in
				a backwalk or a backdash.
				-Odd number inputs will give you single direction attacks as usual,
					but if you're not committing to a specific number, by the time you
					want to act on something the opponent did, like a whiff, you're still
					pressing back direction and need to think for a moment before acting.
					-if I want to 4KB whiff punish for example, I need to do a 214KB so I
						don't get 4KB, in SCV I couldn't tell when I could 22B, anyway..
				-backwalk also requires an unbuffered double tap to get you moving forward
					any time soon, here's what it looks like if you try to tap or hold:
					-at least you can force yourself to get moving, though, if you try that
						during a regular single tap backdash, there's always a delay
						unless you use an advanced technique. It's a shorter delay,
						and nobody seemed to notice it during the beta and it drove me
						crazy because this isn't in any other Soulcalibur, usually you
						could seamlessly tap back and forth.
						-this is one thing I would ask Okubo to please fix, because the
							technique to get around it is fairly difficult and
							wasn't needed in any past game, it just makes the
							movement feel clunky.  All the other weirdness about
							the movement system makes the movement feel smoother.
						-but before I tell you about that I need to tell you about
							backstep microstep G, or 42G
						-and before that I should that when you backwalk, if you want
							to sidestep you should do a single tap unless you want
							to maintain 8WR.
							-holding dash works fine out of single tap steps.
	-42G or 48G is the fastest way of cancelling to guard after a backdash.
		-it allows you to guard on frame 14 by cancelling the backdash into a microstep
			and then guarding out of that microstep.
		-now, it isn't that simple otherwise you'd be able to guard even earlier.
			-if you try to cancel earlier than that, the game will force you
				to go through more frames of the microstep before allowing you
				to guard.
			-this way, you can adjust how far to the side or backwards your movement
				your movement goes, but if you want to do that, most of the time
				I think it's better to do the microstep first if you want to
				evade anything, though this will make your backstep less safe.
				But, you can always combine the two.
		-if you time the 2 well, you won't sidestep much at all
			and will backstep almost full length.
		-if you use 8 you won't jump unless you hold 8 too long
		-so that's the safer backdash.
	-The last advanced backdash technique might be the fastest, but it requires some strict timing, 4 g4 g4
		-pressing guard near the end of a single tap backdash allows you to backdash again
		-if you're too early, it won't work, if you're too late, it won't work at all either.
			-the reason that being late won't work seems to be that you aren't actually guarding
				out of backdash here and then backdashing out of guarding, for whatever reason,
				pressing G allows you to backdash again at a specific timing
		-after you press G, you should release it and backdash again as quickly as possible so that you
			don't enter the slow braking period of the backdash.
		-that's why it's as good or even better than the 4 44 DOA backdash cancel, you're mostly only
			doing the fast part of the backdash, depending on the character
		-characters like Mitsurugi and Nightmare have amazing 4 g4 g4s but have worse 4 24 24 backdashes
			-for whatever reason these characters get their backdashes shortened when you try 24s.
				-their backdashes are so good that their 24s are still better than some others.
	-The guard input also allows you to dash forward out of dash a bit faster I think, but we can do better.
		-we can backdash, microstep, and then dash forward to get that quick back and forth movement
			that for whatever reason the game doesn't allow by default.
		-to do this we tap backward and do a fast quartercircle forward, a 4236, or just a 436 works.
		-holding dash, double tap, or quick release tap all work out of it.
		-you get a small step out of it if you do it slow, but I wouldn't rely on it.
		-the point is to quickly move out of range and run back in before your opponent can react,
			it looks like you're backing off for a moment and then you're running right back in.

I think that's everything related to backdashing, now I'm going to talk about movement out crouch
	and force crouch
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Part 6 - Crouching is done by pressing 2G, you're in full crouch at frame 3, you don't need to be holding guard
	to stay in crouch, just be holding down.  While rising is accessible if you hold down for three frames
	and release and press an attack button, the fastest while rising attacks from standing being four frames
	slower than if you did it from crouch.  For FC attacks I like to tap G and hold down for the required
	amount so it's harder to see me guard.
	-any time you can guard, you can crouch. So for all these techniques that make it possible to guard
		earlier, it also allows you to duck earlier.
		-so this speeds up step-ducking, which is just ducking as soon as you can after you step,
			which allows you to dodge both linear moves at early to middle timings and
			high horizontals at middle to late timings
		-jump attacking doesn't require you to be able to guard, so you can step jump attack to beat
			low horizontals at even earlier timings, because you can attack out all movement
	-some moves cause you to end in crouching, which is recover crouch, and blocking some moves
		cause you to crouch, which is forced crouch -- there's a key difference here.
		-holding movement is delayed out of recover crouch, so you should tap or double tap out.
		-however in force crouch, both holding movement and single tap movement is delayed, so you
			should probably do double tap movement if you want to move at all.
		-Holding down 2 will usually keep you crouch, unless it's recover crouch and you start holding
			very early.
		-you can still do 6 and 4 and 66 and 44 moves immediately out of these states, along with 789s
		-if you don't move or hold down out of these crouching states,
			you'll be in the while rising state for a short period.
		-you can use movement to get yourself out of these crouch states and into the standing state
			for standing moves sooner than if you waited, this is required for some combos.
		-and yes I'm implying that you can not only recover crouch cancel,
			you can force crouch cancel in this game
		-RCC is done by tapping or double tapping, FCC is done by double tapping.
			-apparently you can also RCC by holding down early, I'll have to try it

Alright, I think I covered everything, but let's review all the advanced movement techniques and talk about
	movement combinations:
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Part 7 - Review
So, we have
-safer step 865G / 2632G
-multistepping 8888/2222
-step dash is done normally with any combination of single tapping and holding,
	-if you're 8WRing you need to double tap
-faster step backstep 864/264
-microstep backdash 24/84
-DOA backdash backwalk backdash 4 44 44
-4 g4 repeated backdash
-safer backdash 42G/48G
-backdash step aka boxstep doesn't need anything advanced but it's an important techique for getting away from
	fast horizontals while being able to step away from verticals
	-also if you get hit by verticals during the beginning of the sidestep you won't get CH, so you can use
		this fact to protect yourself from CHs and LHs from backdash counters.

Combinations
	-you can end every step or multibackdash with the safer version
	-24 step into a slightly early 42G can sandwich the backdash with microsteps forming a diagonal backdash
	-you can safer step into duck for a faster step duck, just buffer the 6 and time the 2G
	-you can 864 into a 436 repeatedly to create a fast 3D dash dance


But all of this won't matter if you don't know how to apply movement to your game.
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Part 8 - Applications - Not only should you know how to move efficiently and place the attacks you want out of
		movement, you should also know where it's safe to move the way you want to move and how
		position yourself on the stage effectively
		-you need to learn you and your opponents movelists and understand the ranges of their
			horizontals and unreactable moves as well as their speeds
			-ranges and speeds of horizontals will tell you where and when you'll be caught in a CH
				if they do a horizontal immediately out of hit and blockstun
			-unreactable moves have speeds that force you to guard or be hit if they're coming out,
				you'll run into moves if you dash forward into the range of those moves
				carelessly, or when your opponent is chasing after you it tells you when you
				need to start guarding or else you risk being hit before you can react
		-you need to understand their mixup range to see where it's mostly safe to be passive against
			the opponent, what zone you need to keep them out of
		-these ranges all tell you how and where you should move relative to your opponent to play an
			effective neutral game.
		-I'll probably go more into that in a neutral game tutorial.
	-Positioning on stage is a different matter.
		-don't do too many backdashes, you'll end up with your back to the wall or ring edge
		-sidesteps can help you move to a better position, the closer you are to the opponent,
			the more angular velocity you have, since you always move relative to them.
			-you orbit them in spirals toward or away from them.
				-it's important to know that sidestep brings you a little closer
				-if you both sidestep, you get closer that much faster
					-that'll happen when you try to head people off when they're
						 trying to get away from the wall or edge
			-you can often predict when an opponent will see they're in a bad position and try
				to sidestep, you can exploit this
			-by edge or wall it's a good idea to do mostly step-catchers since they're really going
				to want to sidestep to reverse the position on you
			-try to prevent other position-changing moves or use them yourself to get out of trouble
		-if you can move faster and more efficiently with these advanced techniques, you'll have
			better control over positioning and can corner your opponent without even touching them
			if you have intelligent positioning.
	-You can exploit sidewalkers by letting them sidewalk to position a where if you follow them with your
		own sidewalk, they'll walk themselves into a corner.
		-you also might be going toward a ring edge, so right before you do, you should step in the other
			direction and swing back toward the center
			-just as sidewalking moves you around the opponent, if you both go in opposite directions
				the change will be twice as fast
				-you can use this fact to escape edges too, when the opponent is trying to
					head you off, if you go in the opposite direction that you'd expect,
					you'll instead improve your position quicker than if they stood still.
	-if you give up your advantage and dash toward them first before doing a bunch of sidesteps, you can
		act like you're coming in for a mixup and quickly get to safety.