Mini-Guide: Sidestep Direction

A fun SIDESTEP DIRECTION MINI-GUIDE for VF5REVO that I wrote on the fly in the unofficial VF Discord

This introduces developing players to the power of evading in the correct direction, why, and the idea of influencing the fight with it instead of being manipulated by your comfort

MINI GUIDE: SIDESTEPPING DIRECTION

LION
- Generally evade to his back as this avoids half circulars that are immediately very damaging.
- The half circular attacks that he use to hit to his back (the ones you would evade to his front) are generally setup attacks that are slow or are lower damage so you can manage this risk by learning how to defend against his Side Turn game

SHUN
- Evading to his front avoids a lot of scary things but it does expose you to his low kick 1KK.
- To reduce the risk of 1KK, it’s good to usually stay down after getting knocked down by it as Shun’s ability to pressure you if you techroll here is very strong. You still want to mix up how you get up, but I recommend staying down more than tech roll.
- You can discourage 1KK further by low blocking the first Kick and whiff punishing/crushing the second high kick but you will want to jab this because Shun can do 1K (punishable), 1KK, or 1KKG (Shun falls down to ground—you can restand this with the right countermeasure).
- Once Shun is drunk enough (8+ drinks), he becomes super scary and your defense will need to be tighter and more accurate and his Chouwan uppercut (236P) can punish any mistake (including failed evade)

AKIRA
- Generally evade to his back.
- But you will witness the power of delayed fast mid attacks hitting you out of failed evade
- But Akira has a half circulars that covers his back: 46P+K+G.

SARAH
- Evade to back normal.
- Evade to front against her flamingo stance.
- Lab the sequence 4K (guarded) —> FL 6KK. if you evade the FL 6K, train yourself to guard the K followup and 13 frame punish

BRAD
- Generally evade to his back.
- But lab his “slipping K+G” as this is a react-able situation where you want to evade to his front or it will hurt.
- If he uses his sweep or Bryan Fury spin kick, you can take a couple of those before it’s becoming a problem. But try to guard and punish these.

IT IS VF SO….
- Predictability is always the part of your game that can be assaulted.
- However, evading to the proper side is a form of control over your opponent’s good option.
- Evading based on UP/DOWN is evading on comfort but this gives the opponent potential control over you and risks eating more damage before your adjustments.
- Evading based on FRONT/BACK gives you control and your opponent has to work around your evades before adjustments.
- MY BIGGEST TIP IS GET USED TO STARING AT THE OPPONENT’S FRONT FOOT. The front foot indicates “evading to their back” if you evade towards that front foot. This is a much easier way to see their stance at most times
- Enjoy getting used to this game’s evade system! The game gets so much better the more you master this system both as attacker and as evader! ☺️

SOCIAL LINKS
THIS GUIDE ON TWITTER
THIS GUIDE ON BLUESKY
THIS GUIDE ON REDDIT
This Guide can also be found on:
THE OFFICIAL VF DISCORD
THE VF (COMMUNITY) DISCORD

ABOUT MINI-GUIDES
MINI-GUIDES are guides I post on fleeting social media like Twitter, Discord, Reddit, BlueSky, even on Facebook. The purpose is that they are written in the topical moment and even though I am a long-form writer, I have found that writing these on the fly has helped many players in the moment of their direct interest & curiosity and that even short-form fleeting media readers will engage with them.

I will try to share more of these contents here on VFDC as well in case it has appeal for readers here, though VFDC’s best strength as a traditional forum is the fullness of comprehensive and complete exploration of topics.

I try to use these moments to bridge the different locations of resources so it is my intention to link people to VFDC as well, when I make these posts.

 

I chose the characters I did because I think they are strong cases that are easier for developing players to understand and start applying the concepts right away without too many rules and numbers (and techniques) blowing up their grasp of the concept.

There are good rules of thumbs to follow with much of the cast but you quickly want to get into ECD and frame situations affecting the mix up and other details. But with the characters I put in the mini-guide, these are strong strategic plans that should work greatly for a beginner getting used to evading in the stronger direction and exercising more influence in the match.

If there is a character I kind of regret not putting in there, it is Taka. So I will write some Taka notes here:

TAKA
- In general, evading to Taka's FRONT is really strong.
- However, because of the threat of Taka's throws, you should be working on EVADE-THROW-ESCAPE while evading to Taka's Front.
- Taka's throw game is powerful FORWARD and BACK but you might want to use the BACK-THROW-ESCAPE to avoid being rung out by Taka's combo throw or position switch.
- You will also want to keep an eye out for Taka's 4P+KP Twin pistons. As a beginner, if you evade the first piston, plan on doing GUARD-THROW-ESCAPE against the second piston and work on punishing this sequence on guard (with an easy 15 frame punisher).
- Another move that Taka players may like to use is his double chops to your shins 2P+KP. The good thing is that Taka needs to Counter Hit you with the first chop to score the second. If you see this move, including if you evade the first chop, work on guarding low and punishing this sequence. You can do this whether you get Normal Hit, evade, or guard the first chop ^_^
- The biggest obstacle to evading Taka's FRONT is Taka's 4P. If Taka uses this move, defend when you get hit by it. Again, GUARD-THROW-ESCAPE is recommended.
- If you apply evading to Taka's FRONT while making good use of THROW ESCAPE and general defense against Taka's biggest threats, the Taka matchup will become much more manageable for the player.