The stronger blowback attacks can function as anti-airs, long-ranged pokes, and hefty frame trap attacks.

The effectiveness of each Blowback Attack varies by character though universally all of these attacks have large hitboxes once active. Throws are activated with and and so a fast, safe close attack will activate should a normal throw attempt fail.Įach character can perform a unique Blowback Attack with +, which performs a slow, extra-hard attack that causes a soft knockdown on hit and can be canceled into specials or DM's.Upward, vertical normals like Iori's Close are superb anti-airs on top of being strong offensive moves Terry's Close is an example of a fast close attack that hits twice and can easily be hit-confirmed off of. Close attacks have big hitboxes and work as strong meaty attacks, plus certain characters have exceptionally powerful close normals that can also anti-air or hit multiple times.Combined with hop pressure, 2-in-1s into command normals or specials, the threat of the faster-recovering Crouching, and the possibility for the blocking opponent look for an opportunity to Guard Cancel Roll, the attacking player can often continue attacking after a blocked close attack. This differs from Street Fighter where it is a universal rule where close attacks are hugely negative if uncanceled. If a close normal is blocked then both players are at a neutral advantage.Punishing with a Close Heavy attack is easy due to the rapid startup while leading to a damaging combo.Because of this, close normals have many uses. Since these are heavy attacks, this means that the fastest attacks also inflict heavy hitstun, and they can be canceled into command normals and special moves freely.

Instead of a 'Crouching LP' or other light attack serving as the fastest attack as in Street Fighter and many other fighters, most KOF characters' Close and/or attacks are even faster (which usually fall in the 2-4 frame startup region). These attacks are especially important in KOF. One way of thinking of this is that close normals are a type of command normal that only trigger in proximity of the opponent. Once the player is 'close' to the opponent, using certain button-attacks will cause a different move to be used. Certain characters also have different normals when neutral jumping or hopping, but this is quite rare in KOF XIII.Ĭlose normals appear in many fighting games. As in any other 2D fighting game, each character has a full set of normals when standing, crouching, or jumping. At their core, normals are the key components in commanding the grounded space, attacking and defending when in the air, hit-confirming combos, creating frame traps, anti-airing, and so forth. Normal attacks in KOF are fundamentally as strong as in Street Fighter or most every fighting game.

King kof 13