-------------------------------------------------
The King of Fighters 2003
Ash Crimson Character Guide/FAQ
Version 1.0
By Bryce G. (Youkai Kouga on gamefaqs.com)
SteelFangedSamurai@gmail.com
-------------------------------------------------
Notice: This FAQ is to be posted ONLY on gamefaqs.com
unless the author (me) gives permission otherwise.
Ash Crimson, and the King of Fighters are both
copyright of their respective owners.
_____________________________
Update Log
_____________________________
Version 1.0 (12-11-04)- My second FAQ for KoF2k3!
If I do another one, it'll probably be for
Shingo, the third character on my team.
-----------------------
Table of Contents
-----------------------
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Jargon
1.2 Basic KoF2k3 Engine info
2.0 Quick Movelist
3.0 Ash's Moves
3.1 Normals
3.2 Command Attacks
3.3 Special moves
3.4 Desperation Moves/Leader Desperation Move
4.0 Strategy
5.0 Combos
6.0 Miscellaneous
6.1 Alternate Colors
6.2 Storyline Stuff
7.0 Afterword
-------------------------------------------------------
1.0 Introduction
-------------------------------------------------------
So anyways, Ash is one of the new, overpowered characters for the
new saga of King of Fighters. Yay! King of Fighters has a Guile
wannabe now! Dope. Although his character design is a bit... odd
*cough*REMYRIPOFF*cough*.
So... Why play Ash Crimson?
Strengths
+Very good at turtling
+Versatile
+Good priority
+Scrubby
Weaknesses
-Isn't Duo Lon
-Lack of special moves (not that he needs any more though...)
-LDM is one of the weaker ones
______________________________________
1.1 Jargon
______________________________________
d, df, f, uf, u, ub, r, db = The respective direction on the joystick
A,B,C,D- The respective buttons on the game...
s.X = Standing X
c.X = Crouching X
j.X = Jumping X
P, K- Punch and Kick, respectively (means either punch will work)
_x,y- Hold x down for 2 seconds, then press y direction. Also called
charge x,y in the guide.
qcf- quarter circle forward (d,df,f)
qcb- quarter circle back (d,db,b)
hcf- half circle forward (b,db,d,df,f)
hcb- half circle back (f,df,d,db,b)
Link- Combos without a cancel. Takes stricter timing than cancels.
DM- Desperation Move
LDM- Leader Desperation Move
SDM- Super Desperation Move (not in KoF2k3)
HSDM- Hidden Super Desperation Move (not in KoF2k3)
CH- Counter Hit
XX- Cancel
Wire- This is when they bounce off the wall from a move. If a move has
"Counter Wire" properties, the opponent will bounce off the wall
if you hit them with it on the counter hit
______________________________________
1.2 KoF2k3 Engine Info
______________________________________
For convenience, I've added engine information to this FAQ, and I'll
probably add it to any future KoF2k3 FAQs I write.
*Blocking (hold b or db)- duh. b blocks high and mid, db blocks low and mid.
*Jumping (press U, UF, or UB)
*High Jump (press D, DB, or DF, then U, UB, or UF)
*Run (press f twice quickly, hold to keep running)
*Backdash (press b twice quickly)
*Throw (f+C or f+D when close)
*Throw Tech (f+C or f+D when about to be thrown)
*Short Jump (tap U, UF, or UB)- This is the standard KoF feature of short
jump. If you just tap up and let go real quick, you'll do a short
jump rather than a high one. This has several uses, such as doing
a quick CD attack on an opponent.
*Tag Teammate (BC or CD)- New to KoF, using this will let you switch out
characters. Afterwards you will be unable to tag until the
message by your super bar says "TAG OK" BC tags the first ally
on the list that's not out, and CD tags the second ally that's
not out.
*Power Tag (qcf+BC/CD)- For one stock, you attack while you tag out.
If it hits, it guarantees you a free combo by the character
tagging in. Very powerful!
*Roll (AB or b+AB)- Doing this will cause you to roll (or slip whatever)
and become temporarily invincible. However, you can still be
thrown, and they also have a short recovery time where people
can punish them, so don't abuse it just because you turn
invincible temporarily.
*Recovery Roll (AB as you touch the ground from a fall)- This lets you
instantly recover to your feet after being knocked down from
an attack. It's especially important that you can do this in
KoF2k3, because it makes K's unblockable trap escapable.
Note that some moves (such as sweeps) cannot be recovery
rolled.
*Counter hits (interrupt an opponents attack)- When you counter an enemy
attack, you deal more damage, and more properties are given to
the move (such as wire).
*Guard Cancels (CD, f+AB, or b+AB while blocking)- Cancels your guard
and does the respective counterattack, forward roll, or backwards
roll. Costs 1 power bar.
*Wire system- Some moves have properties that when they connect, they'll
bounce the opponent off the wall, allowing you to juggle them
longer. A move will be marked if it's wire or counter wire.
-------------------------------------------------------
2.0 Quick Movelist
-------------------------------------------------------
-------------
Throws
-------------
Brumaire- b/f+C
Brumaire (switch directions)-b/f+D
--------------
Command Moves
--------------
Messidor- f+A
Floreal- b+B
Prairial- b+D
-------------
Special Moves
-------------
Ventose- Charge b,f+A/C
Nivose- Charge d,u+B/D
Vendemiaire- (close) hcf+C
------------------
Desperation Moves
------------------
Thermidor- qcfx2+P
Pluviose- qcfx2+K
Sans-culotte (Leader only)- A,B,C,D
-------------------------------------------------------
3.0 Ash's Moves- Analysis
-------------------------------------------------------
______________________________________
3.1 Normals
______________________________________
---------
Standing
---------
Close A- A quick elbow by Ash. It gives a decent frame advantage,
enough to follow up with a tag attack. Other than that, just
your ordinary jab. Cancellable.
^__________________________________________________________________^
Close B- A quick kick forward. Nothing else really. Close A is
pretty much in all ways superior at point-blank range, though.
On the other hand, it's his longest range cancellable standing
move, so it's an okay poke to use.
Close C- A punch by Ash. Basically your DM combo starter after
jump-ins, though you probably won't be using it that much for
anything else, because you can't charge down for his B&B.
Pretty good move I guess. Cancellable.
Close D- Ash knees forward. Basically this is a slower, more
more damaging version of Close C with more recovery. Close C
is a lot better... the only time you should use this instead
of Close C is in punishment situations in order to maximize
the damage done, as it's much harder to combo off of jump-ins
and the move has to be pretty deep. Cancellable.
Far A- A quick jab by Ash forward. Fast, but recovers slower than
it actually appears. An okay poke I guess but nothing more.
Far B- Ash puts his knee up, pauses for a short moment, then
kicks forward. This move can only be used from a range
outside of where it will hit the opponent though (okay, it
CAN hit the opponent just standing there, but the window
between a close hit and whiff is REALLY small) so it has
limited uses. Other than as a really ghetto anti-air
if the opponent is charging at you the brief pause before
the kick might have some uses for throwing off people that
just charge directly at you, but I dunno.
Far C- A stab forward with quite a bit of range on it (about a
third of the screen. Like Far B, it has an annoying pause
before Ash actually thrusts forward. Other than being
kinda telegraphed it's a pretty good poke to use if you
don't want to move forward with the longer ranged Floreal.
But then again, his sweep has the same range, hits low,
and may come out faster...
Far D- Mule kick! This is Ash's longest ranged normal, but also
his slowest. That and it's telegraphed to high heaven make
in not a terribly good move to use...
---------
Crouching
---------
Crouching A- A poke forward. Cancellable. Fast and does more
damage than Ash's crouching B, making it preferable for
his B&B combo and such, though it doesn't hit low like his
crouching B of course.
Crouching B- Low kick by Ash. Hits low and cancellable.
Crouching A is pretty much in all ways superior to Ash's
crouching B, with the exception that it hits low, making it
a much better combo starter since it allows you to mix up.
Crouching C- Guile-style uppercut. Cancellable. Great anti-air,
but can get stuffed by stupidly overprioritized stuff while
his Nivose doesn't as much. Also lags pretty badly after
the initial hit too.. Good to use when you don't have a
charge ready to anti-air them, but otherwise it's better
to stick to other moves with longer range and less
recovery.
Crouching D- A pretty good sweep. Comes out fairly fast (not K'
fast, but you get the idea since I'm comparing it to his
sweep lol), hits low and knocks down. Great pressure move
to use.
---------
Jumping
---------
Jumping A- Downward punch by Ash. Not terribly useful really.
Jumping B- Forward midair kick by Ash. Excellent air-to-air move
due to the angle, and gives the longest hitstun out of all
of Ash's jumping moves, allowing links to everything including
his close D, making it a viable option for jumpins, though
jumpind D does twice as much damage.
Jumping C- Ash smacks his opponent upside the head. Fast, but
that's pretty much it, as it causes very little hitstun. Can
crossup, but very hard to do so.
Jumping D- Ash kicks downward. Good hitstun, relatively fast, does
the most damage out of his jumping moves, and is easily his
best crossup to use. Overall a great move.
______________________________________
3.2 Command Moves
______________________________________
Messidor (f+A)- A slow overhead that can't combo into anything.
Even from a command cancel. The only redeeming factor is that
it's sort of hard to see coming, and that it's an overhead.
That being said, I think this move was put in place in part
to mess with his Ventose.
Floreal (b+B)- Ash stands on one leg and thrusts the other forward,
while moving forward at the same time. This is the poke of
ownage right here. High priority, relatively fast, safe,
HUGE range, and moves forward while keeping the back charge.
Abusable sometimes but depends on the matchup, as some
characters have moves that can deal with this better than
others.
Prairial (b+D)- Ash twirls counterclockwise like a ballerina (lol?)
while moving backwards. This move is extremely hard to
connect against a standing opponent. You have to be pretty
much at throw range for it to hit. Despite that, this move
does have its uses. You can screw up jump-ins and crossups
easily. Other than that though, I dunno about this move.
Power Tag- qcf+AC or qcf+CD- Ash does his close D animation and tags
out. Fairly useful for Ash as he doesn't really have that many
huge combos, so he can use this along with a jumping move for
more damage. He can also link it off of a Close A too!
______________________________________
3.3 Special Moves
______________________________________
More in-depth strategy on how to use the moves is in the strategy
section.
Ventose (charge b,f+A/C)- Ash throws a crescent of green flame at the
enemy. A version hits once and comes out fast, while the C
version comes out slower, but has two hits and can absorb
regular projectiles. Works sort of like Double Reppuken. Both
versions have amazing recovery, making it practically
a practically unpunishable move The charge time is average,
probably around the same as SSF2T Sonic Boom. A great fireball
to use. Whether it's spammable or not depends on the matchup
though.
Nivose (charge d,u+B/D)- Ash somersaults upward, a trail of flames
coming from his ankles. Excellent anti-air, wakeup, and
punisher because it comes out so fast. Used in a lot of B&Bs.
However, it's punishable (though not nearly as bad as you'd
think for a Flash Kick type move...), so don't just throw it
out randomly. High priority too, I don't recall ever having
this stuffed.
Vendemiaire (hcf+C)- Ash does a three-hit unblockable combo that
knocks the enemy straight up in the air, allowing a followup.
I really don't use this move much, in all honesty, though I
probably should, because this is really a great mindgame
tool to use if you choose to pressure the opponent. Use it
like a command throw. Note that although this is
unblockable and subject to some of the rules of throws,
it isn't a command throw. This means there's no whiff
animation if you're out of range (awesome!), but as a
tradeoff, it can't grab opponents out of rolls. More on
this move later.
_______________________________________________
3.4 Desperation Moves/Leader Desperation Moves
_______________________________________________
Thermidor (qcfx2+P)- Ash forms a giant ball of green fire in
the palms of his hands, then pushes it forward. It moves
slowly and cannot be comboed without a super cancel.
However, it's a great pressure tool to use, and to to
top it all off, has HUGE invincibility frames at the
start to beat out everything. Oh, and that's not all.
If you hit them point blank range with one, it'll knock
them down and set them up so they HAVE to deal with it
again. And the fireball itself beats regular projectiles
(ties with other DM fireballs though). If Ash is hit in
one of the few non-invincible frames while he still has
the fireball in his hand but has not released it, then
it disappears. Use for pressure and reversals.
Pluviose (qcfx2+K)- Ash does three somersaults in a row, for
a total of 6 hits. This DM is a sharp contrast to his
other one. It comes out so fast that you have to
block before the flash (meaning it probably comes out
during the super freeze), and is extremely comboable
with decent range despite what it looks like. Although
you have to block before the flash, still don't throw
it out at random (using it to counter is okay, but it
has no invicibility, so things already in hit frames
may stuff it). Thermidor is a better DM for that
anyway.
**LEADER ONLY**
Sans-culotte (A,B,C,D)- Green flames shoot up from the
ground and Ash powers up for a period of time. During
this time he can do Ventose and Nivose without
charging. If Ash tags, he loses the powerup. As far
as I can tell, the startup to the LDM is completely
invincible... So anyway.. It's NOT bad... it's just
that all the other LDMs are MUCH MUCH better. Yeah,
you can pressure the enemy like crazy for a bit, but
the damage isn't guaranteed, and there's no insane
combos you can do just because you don't need to
charge (well, ones you'll actually be able to pull
off in a match..). You are far better off using
another person as leader unless you absolutely
love this LDM.
-------------------------------------------------------
4.0 Strategy
-------------------------------------------------------
Ash can play differently depending on the situation. You can
spam flames, turtle your ass off, or pressure. Generally speaking
I use Ash differently depending on the matchup, but usually I end
up mixing up between pressure and turtling.
___________
Offense
___________
The following are excellent pressure moves:
Close A
Far A
Crouching B
Crouching D
Jumping D
b+B
charge b,f+A
hcf+C
qcfx2+P
A,B,C,D
1.MIXUP
-----------------------
Ash has pretty good lows, an okay overhead, and an unblockable
command combo for mixup on pressure. His sweep is good but not godly
like K's, and his low B is useful as it comes out somewhat fast
and is great for comboing into Nivose since crouching C is sooooo
slow.... Messidor, his overhead, is kinda crappy with its short range
and slowness. It's hard to see coming though. Personally, I think
that it's probably a better idea to use a tick hcf+C or short jump
overheads instead now. It comes out faster if you do it at the right
time after the tick, it's unblockable, and does more damage/has more
options after you land one. Plus, there's no whiff animation.
2. PRESSURE AND POKES
-----------------------
Close A is a little tap that gives enough of a frame advantage for
you to be able to link a power tag out for a free combo. Of course,
it's kinda got a short range... so Far A is more useful when not as
close.
Crouching B is your fast low, and Crouching D is your knockdown.
Use c.B into _d,u+K as your B&B if you have a charge, otherwise
go to b+B, qcfx2+K. Crouching D isn't the fastest sweep, but it's
pretty good still.
Depending on the matchup, you can abuse b+B a lot. But some
characters (like Ash, Iori, and Leader Ryo) can simply DM through
it or counter it a faster move if you're too predictable. If they
block it, you're safe though. Further, after a b+B, you can link
a qcfx2+K DM if you time it right, which isn't hard to do at all
once you get the timing down.
_b,f+A is an excellent pressure tool to use because it has such a
small recovery on it, despite the charge. You can keep a charge
while moving forward if you use b+B anyway. If you think they'll
roll or counter-fireball a charge b,f+A, then throw out a b,f+C
instead. It's slower to come out, but just as safe and can go
through one non-DM fireball.
3. DEALING DAMAGE
-----------------------
Ash isn't really a combo character. But you've probably figured that
out already. Primarily his damage comes in the form of his pokes,
and a bit more from landing a couple of B&B into qcfx2+K DM.
Sooooooo... poke them eheh. land a b+B, link it into a DM lol.
__________
Defense
__________
Anti-air:
If you have a charge ready, you will want to use a Nivose.
otherwise, you're going to have to use Crouching C or b+D.
Nivose doesn't usually get stuffed, but crouching C can be beaten
out by some highly overprioritized moves such as K's Jumping D.
b+D can screw up crossups since it moves backwards, or make them
land on Ash's leg and get hit.
More in this section later lol.
-------------------------------------------------------
5.0 Combos
-------------------------------------------------------
(!) denotes a Thermidor setup, where the opponent is forced to
deal with a Thermidor after you connect the combo.
*c.A, c.A XX _d,u+D
*c.B, c.A XX _d,u+D
*j.D, c.B XX _d,U+D
*j.D, Close C XX _b,f+A
*j.D, Close C->b+B, qcfx2+B
*c.B, c.A->b+B, qcfx2+B/D
*j.D, c.A->b+B, qcfx2+B/D
*Close A, Power Tag
*hcf+C, Power Tag
*Power tag in, Close D->b+B, qcfx2+B
*Power tag in, short jump j.D, Close B->b+B, qcfx2+B
*hcf+C, _d,u+D XX qcfx2+A (!)
*_d,U+K XX qcfx2+P (!)
-------------------------------------------------------
6.0 Miscellaneous
-------------------------------------------------------
This is where stuff that really doesn't matter that much but is
still interesting to know goes.
Ash's music is "Splendid Evil"
______________________________________
6.1 Alternate Colors
______________________________________
All outfits have the same colors except for the main color of his
suit: Crimson secondary color for clothes and hairband, and
white hairband. I repeat, the only thing that changes is the
main color of his clothes.
A Color- Red clothes
B Color- White clothes
C Color- Pink clothes
D Color- Green clothes
______________________________________
6.2 Storyline Stuff
______________________________________
Ash's official profile as of The King of Fighters 2003:
http://www.snkplaymore.jp/official/kof2003/english/character/hero_ash.html
Name: Ash Crimson
Fighting Style: Personal style (using special flames)
Birthday: February 14th
Height: 178 cm. (6'0 for the metrical inept)
Weight: 59 kg.
Blood Type: O
Measurements: Unknown
Birthplace: Unknown (raised in France)
Hobbies: Nail art
Personal Treasures: His fingernails
Favorite Food: Sachertorte (sweets)
Dislikes: Bothersome things, uninteresting things
Best Sport: None (because sports are a bother)
Brief story synopsis of Ash Crimson (SPOILERS AHEAD):
Ash is a brand new character to King of Fighters 2003, so not much
is known about him YET other than he's a villian and powerful,
probably around as powerful as Kyo, since he takes down Chizuru
in the Three Sacred Weapons Team ending.
The official introduction for the Hero team does not really say
anything about him though, and neither does his ending.
In the Three Sacred Weapons Team ending, he grabs through Chizuru's
chest (?), and withdraws some sort of emblem, then says he thinks
he'll make Iori serve him next before he escapes.
And.. that's about all that's known about him without speculating..
-------------------------------------------------------
7.0 Afterword
-------------------------------------------------------
This FAQ is to be posted ONLY on gamefaqs.com unless the author (me)
gives permission otherwise. Ash Crimson, and the King of Fighters,
are all copyright their respective owners.
Thanks to SNK for making a great game
Thanks to Fierceslash for the strategy forum and their attempts to
resurrect the fighting game scene for SNK games.
http://www.fierceslash.com
Thanks to SRK.
http://www.shoryuken.com
Thanks to you for reading my FAQ.
