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I'm going to rant about LF2!
....how will I do that you ask? What can I even say about an old freeware game?
I PLAY IT, and now I will unleash all my frustrations in a form of text into this lovely lovely Livejournal, which coincidentally has an LF2 layout. The story of that though is that I was playing the game and the dead bodies just happened to land that way. (With the exception of Firen, stupid Firen.) So I got a bit inspired by that and screenshot'd it, then created a layout with it as the focal point. Viola. If you don't believe me I had a recording.
Let me tell you something about the game that may be very surprising to anyone who cares. I just play with CPUs because...well, just because. If you told me to rate the ten characters from toughest to least, well, they tend to vary between who you choose but a general idea would be:
Woody, Deep, Davis, Henry, Dennis, Louis, Rudolf, Firen or Freeze (tied), John
Let me explain! Woody's AI can make a lot of incredibly damaging combos. Sometimes they're easy to escape from after the first few hits, but his Tiger Dash can hit you if you flip or if you don't flip.There is a small change to escape it via a flip depending on the timing, but mostly he hits, which is deadly. I'm not particularly good at countering Woody with any character, though Henry obviously has an advantage being a far-ranged character. On the other hand while Teleport is slow, if he manages to pull it off where the ends up sometimes surprises me. I especially have a hard time with Woody when I'm Rudolf. (I especially have a hard time with ANYBODY when I'm Rudolf...lol.)
Deep has combos similarly to Woody. He may not run fast but his attacks are fast and powerful, and his Dashing Strafe is especially hard to counter. I'm not particularly good at flipping at the right time so he won't hit me with all the hits, sometimes I can avoid him after two hits from the attack, sometimes I just get knocked back anyway. His energy blast is extremely fast (and counters even Freeze's ice blast with correct timing!) and his Strike attack counters incredibly easily. He is not as versatile as Woody, which is why he is second. In fact sometimes I overlook him to take down Davis first instead.
Davis has the Dragon Punch. Annoying, annoying Dragon Punch. Also his run attack and his Strafe attack can counter shots, oh and so can his Dragon Punch. Oh, and his Dragon Punch can counter ANYTHING (besides maybe ice and fire, but still). His energy blasts are decent enough to get the job done. Did I mention his stupid Dragon Punch? I swear that thing is overpowered, even moreso than Deep's Dashing Strafe. At least Dashing Strafe is a bit slow to start and ISN'T used to counter. Dragon Punch does EVERYTHING. I hate Dragon Punch.
Henry. I love Henry a lot, but he's actually not especially fun to play with nor especially fun to play against. First, he has the Sonata of Death. If you're not close to him and low on life, INSTANT BAD END!!! He also has the tendency to survive in battles with multiple COMs, especially since he likes doing nothing off-screen while I'm trying to kill Davis but losing huge amounts of HP points because of his damn Dragon Punch. He also has the Dragon Palm, one of my favourite attacks to use, but also one the most ANNOYING attacks to fight against. If I get close to him he's toast, but he has many attacks to stop you from getting close, and the Sonata of Death's range will stop you from ANY SIDE AT ALL. Beware. I suppose killing him first is actually wise...
Dennis' attacks are a bit on the slow side but they're really annoying when they get you, particularly his Strafe. (All these Strafes are annoying...) Once he uses it, you cannot get out of it, which is the annoying part. It's instant lost of HP, no HP you can save. Even though it's not much since he doesn't use much MP (Much like Deep, who also doesn't use much MP, but still kills of TONS of HP) he can just spam spam spam it, and also his Chasing Blast while easy to avoid is rather annoying. I'm not very good at multitasking, lol. Dennis does seem to have the best AI of the bunch.
Louis' armour and his Phoenix Palm are rather annoying, but I much rather complain about that Whirlwind Throw. It is SO DAMN ANNOYING. Doesn't take much HP off AT ALL and while good to pad onto a combo, he does it OVER and OVER and OVER again. What's the point when he only takes off like 2HP!? I guess his other attacks aren't good either, with the exception of Phoenix Palm (but his is slower than Henry's Dragon Palm). I especially hate facing both he and Henry on the same team with a character ofJohn or Rudolf anybody. Armour and palms = BRICK WALL OF DEATH.
Rudolf is not particularly hard to fight against at all. If any character in LF2 has the worst AI, it would be Rudolf. However sometimes he just spams multiple ninja stars which, if done at correct timing traps you in the stunned state, and thus he CHEAPLY TAKES OFF MILLIONS OF HP! That is especially annoying. He's more of an annoying character than one you'd get especially frustrated at (Woody). He wastes time by turning invisible, or clones himself to waste more time. He'd be more formidable if he did something and wasn't wasting my time all the time. He is also the worst teammate ever.
Firen and or Freeze are similar characters with similar attacks. The only reason I rate them even lower than Rudolf would be because despite how strong they can be they're not well-used by the AI. The only time I REALLY get frustrated with them is if I'm a close ranged fighter, particularly Davis and Dennis, that the radius of their attacks are larger than any other attack (with the exception of goddamn Sonata of Death) so if I try to approach them to do ANYTHING I die. Or lose health. I COULD use energy blasts from afar, but their own fireball and ESPECIALLY ice blast, which murders Davis' and Dennis' blasts, are far superior and thus a waste of MP. BESIDES those two characters, Firen and Freeze are a cinch.
John. Poor, poor John. There's really nothing about him I can't counter, sadly enough, at least with the COM. He tends to die first, or is easy to kill, etc. There are times I'd die from him but it's probably because I did something stupid (like keep flipping, or keep running into his easily avoidable shields). It's not that the AI can't use him, but he's a very different character that simple spamming cannot really do justice. His attacks just aren't strong enough an AI can handle with. John is best used with a human brain.
On the other hand, if I rated each character from the easiest to use to the hardest...
Henry, Deep, Freeze, Davis, Woody, Dennis, Firen, Louis, Rudolf, John
Henry is easy because he is far-ranged. If I ever force you all to play LF2, pick Henry first. He just stands at the side and slaughters everybody. That's why I said to kill him first up there, but I don't usually since he's my favourite, and then regret it later. (Henry and Woody are tied for the number of times they kill me) If someone tries to come up to you, a simple Dragon Palm or Sonata of Death if you're bold will do the job. His Critical Shot is real strong, but it's kind of pointless to use all that MP for an attack that does equal damage to the Dragon Palm on one person unless there's like a row of people stupidly walking towards you. He also has multiple shot, but I rarely use that. (unlike multiple ninja star)
Deep is also easy because of how powerful and quick his attacks are. He easily has one of the easiest combos, with Strike and Leap Attack combined, and that kills of SO much HP with so little MP it's not funny. While Henry is MP extensive Deep is not, and STILL has quick and powerful attacks. His Dashing Strafe takes up a chunk with little MP as well (if timed right), and his grab Dashing Strafe is also rather easy to use, while only taking off a MEASLY 15 MP! While destroying 1/3rd of your life! My fastest matches are usually with Deep.
Freeze is only this high because of his Summon Sword. A sword that freezes upon direct impact. That is the only reason. I tend to not take out his sword because I find it too easy, and go along with his other attacks. (You may say that limits me, but the attacks I only use with Henry and Rudolf are even MORE limiting). Freeze will make Stage 5 a breeze with that sword, and will have a cakewalk over those lovely knights. Summon Sword is really just like some sort of beginner's weapon or something. If he ever drops it, be sure to pick it up.
Davis I find is also not that difficult to use. He has the Dragon Punch that can counter almost anything, and many of his other attacks can reflect energy blasts. He also has pretty easy combos, though not to the degree of some of Deep's while taking out lots of HP. His MP usage is average, and not ridiculous like Henry or ridiculously low like Deep, but he leans more to Deep's side on that department. He is only rated above Woody because some of his combos are slightly easier to do.
Woody is a bit harder because some of his combos took me a bit of time to actually do, however when you CAN do them Woody is destructive and being the most versatile of all characters is thus fun to play with as well. His 0MP combo can knock off 1/3rd of your health...with NO MP! His Flip Kick and then jump kick attack is deadly, and a real pro can do flip kick, flip kick, jump kick, and jump kick again, maybe even add in a Tiger Dash. Mastering Woody is a good idea, but I like to stray from being like other people.
Dennis has slower attacks than the above two, and that is his downfall, and thus making him harder to use. Dennis really has no trademark flashy attack. His Whirlwind Kick could arguably be it, but it has no flashy energy on it and also isn't that hard to counter at all. He does on the other hand have an unblockable KO combo, but nobody uses it seriously since it's too cheap, but besides that Dennis is indeed a challenge to master.
Firen. My only gripe with him is how fire is contagious. If you touch the fire you fall down. It is in that case difficult to get in combos if the person is falling down. If you, as Firen, touch the person you set on fire, you too get set on fire, which is somewhat stupid. It is however possible to hit them while they are on fire without being set on fire yourself, but you need to be facing them the other way and have correct timing, or hit them with fireballs or something. I believe his fireballs are his strongest attack, and combining that with inferno is a pretty deadly combo. His Blaze attack is good for countering as well, but isn't very strong.
Louis is the slowest of the slow. He's not like Deep where he only runs slow. He runs slow AND attacks slow, and thus he will never get the first hit and thus will inevitably fail. It's true he has armour to probably counter that, but many of the other characters have attacks that can counter back that counter, so his armour is somewhat useless in that sense. His Phoenix Palm is stronger and more versatile (goes both ways) than Henry's, but again is completely utterly slow. You could Whirlwind Throw and then hope they flip to attack them with a Thunder Kick or something, but still. His Thunder Punches I would actually trade for everyone else's jump/run/dash attack (except maybe Henry's, lol.) His best bet is to Transform and become the super cheap Louis EX, but he'd be dead before you'd be able to use anything (unless you spam cheap his MUCH faster Phoenix Palm in that state...)
Rudolf. Rudolf ranks low on yet another list. Why do I like him again? Well he's a ninja. Unfortunately many of Rudolf's attacks are completely utterly useless. Disappearing is useless because even you yourself can't see him, and if you hold up a weapon to see him the others will see him (well, COMs are stupid and won't anyway). His cloning ability is good distraction for about two seconds. His Transform ability however is very useful, since it turns him into someone else (though that kind of ruins the point of Rudolf's pure Rudolf attacks), and his multiple ninja star I find is good in combos! (But don't spam em like a cheapass!) What I DO like about Rudolf is his Leap Attack and his Run/Dash attacks. They are very powerful and use 0MP! Compared to his MP extensive useless attacks like cloning and disappearing...
John is dead last once again. If you are a beginner, for the love of all that is holy do not use John. You will do nothing with him. His shield is simply a shield (any of Davis' attacks can do that! Though John's lasts longer.) His energy disk is easy to avoid, and his energy blast is so simple and weak that John really isn't that useful. Luckily his range with his stick is a bit far and he has a small combo, but he's just not what you should be using if all you do is spam attacks. Heal can keep him on the battlefield longer to do nothing, though.
BUT...one more list 8D.
If I were to list the FUNNEST to not as fun characters...
John, Woody, Freeze, Firen, Rudolf, Henry, Davis, Deep, Dennis, Louis
John is absolutely awesome to play with. I don't use his Energy Disk that often but I sometimes do, and I rarely use Heal unless I am in the most dire of all that is dire situation. His shield combined with his energy blast is the funnest thing ever. First, his energy blast is very simple, and I love that. It makes his blast easy to aim (and beginners don't really aim, they shoot straight) coupled with the fact that it is very quick, so John can surprise someone with it. His shield can surprise people too, especially at the right timing. If someone is jumping at me or running at me (Tiger Dashing at me, Whirlwind/Thunder Kicking at me, etc.) a shield will knock them off the air! I also love combos with the shield and the energy blast. If you know how to use John, he is absolutely-fucking-tastic to play with.
Woody always is high on these lists, no wonder he is the favourite in the community. Woody has tons of combos and ways to knock someone back up into the air that he is always fun to play with! Even just dicking around with his Teleport can be fun! He may drop further if I start beating the other team too easily with him, but if I can find more combos to do and attempt he'd probably stay high on this list. Really, he and John are easily on the top in terms of the number of combos. (John has literally hundreds.) Just flip kicking COMs before they can hit me is fun, and really. I can't say enough about how fun Woody is, though I tend to not use him as much as I am focusing on being a certain character...
Freeze is indeed fun to play with. He and Henry I believe are the only ones that can kill themselves with their own attacks. (Firen's Explosion as recoil but it won't work if the attack will kill you, but Firen's own fire can kill himself, I suppose) His ice blast can mutiply and knock back other blasts and watching Dennis or Davis getting hit by seven ice blasts at the same time is hilarious. His strong Icicle and his lovely, lovely Whirlwind are other two gems. His Whirlwind can pick up items and obliterate the foe in the air, or Freeze with correct timing can kick them while they're frozen, which is also fun.
Firen too is fun, but lower than Freeze due to lacking Freeze's ability to knock back energy blasts with a bang. Firen's Explosion attack is awesome to see if he does it out of nowhere, while managing to burn many many others. He also has his Blaze, and watching stupid COMs walk into his trail of fire is indeed fun. He can also burn himself! Anything with an explosion has got to be fun, after all.
Rudolf arguably could be OMG the funnest character ever! All you need to do is transform into someone or clone yourself millions of times! I agree that IS fun, but it can get boring. (I do however like going to survival, about to die, then cloning and transforming while proclaiming: "GO, MY HENRYS!!!" and then dying. Lol. Out with a bang.) However in a fight where you'd like to win fairly, Rudolf ranks a bit lower in that department. Since I don't use his fun skills such as cloning or disappearing due to its uselessness, I am stuck with the other ones. Transforming makes him about as fun as he can be as any other character, but dash attacking, or run attacking can be tiresome, but hey, I'll take it.
Henry could've ranked higher. He SHOULD'VE ranked higher, but the fact that he is rather easy to use drops him down this low. He manages to stay in the middle of the pack because he can kill himself, and if I'M not Henry, but a teammate of mine is, and Henry uses Sonata of Death, watching those items destroy other COMs or Dragon Punching them or Whirlwinding them, etc. is indeed very fun. Every time a teammate Henry Sonata of Deaths I always get giddy and try to smack the people floating up top!
Davis I think is rather fun. Punch, punch, punch, grab, strafe, Dragon Punch, Dragon Punch again! Fun. Oh wait, the other guy died. Well, your fun lasted very long. His energy blasts are also very standard as well, but his combos are rather fun, if only they'd last a little longer...
Deep is this low simply because of how goddamn easy it is to kill others and others VERY fast with him. Without taking off much MP at all. I guess knocking back blasts with his own blasts (even the ice blast!) is fun to watch, but I can't really think of much else.
Dennis has no flashy attacks. His strongest combo KOs the other player and isn't that fun to watch or do. I'm also not very good with him, so it's rather frustrating to keep playing with him to win while not finding him particularly fun.
Louis. Dull. Blah. Boring. Geh. Sure, I can Whirlwind Throw over and over and over and over....or Phoenix Palm or Thunder Punch. I dunno, not really that fun at all. He's so slow it's hard to really do anything with him. Ah well.
....and FINALLY...most efficient teammate to least!
Henry, Dennis, Woody, Davis, Deep, Louis, John, Firen, Freeze, Rudolf
Henry is of course the best teammate to have. He stays out of your way. SURVIVES because he's always off to the side. Leave him alone and he might die, but he somehow tends to live anyway. All his attacks seem to be DESIGNED to help you as well, what with their ability to hit more than one person at once (Palm, Sonata, Multiple Shot, Critical Shot can do it...and I just named all his attacks) and his own default attack too! Henry is the best best BEST partner ever. I love it when he's on my team. The only time he may be unhelpful is if he's offscreen and doing nothing, but a simple COME! command will bring him over. (DO NOT make him COME and RUN into a Whirlwind or Dragon Punch! I did that with John to keep him alive [he kept himself alive somehow against 2 other people!] but it killed him orz)
Dennis' high AI is really helpful when he is on your team. He knows when to use attacks and st just real good at being a teammate. I have absolutely no idea why either, but when he's on my team 80% of the time he is helpful, will survive, or do a great amount of damage. He does have two energy blasts, and his chasing blast is a surprise to your opponent if he's only focused on you. If you have Dennis on your team, you will be awesome.
Woody is against high on a list. I'm going to stop talking about why, I have pretty much explained everything. He is good. That is why. Have Woody on your team and you'll have no problem!
Davis seems to like being in the middle of the pack, the average of the average, and here he is again. He is indeed good with Dragon Punch and his other attacks and whatnot, but as a team he's not as helpful. He might end up dying quickly just as well because he's always in the heat of the fight. In the middle to get all his punches in. Good damage but not exactly the best survival rate, and he may not help either. He's good for a 1v1 battle like many close-ranged characters are however, but in terms of team battles other characters are better considerations. If he DOES survive though, he'll be a very reliable character...but I can say the same to others. It's just that his Dragon Punch is awesomely useful.
Deep would make sense up top, right? Well he kind of suffers the same problem as Davis up there. He does make a good tandem with Rudolf (or Freeze/Henry, sometimes). It's just that as a close-ranged character he runs in and gets himself killed, but if he can pull out a Dashing Strafe he'll be very valuable. It is not a bad idea to have a bunch of close-ranged characters together if they can keep up a huge amount of damage, but if he is the only one he better survive or he won't be very helpful late game.
Louis is here due to his ability to Transform and his Palm attack. What keeps him back from the top five is again his slowness, and the fact that he can hurt his own teammates with his Whirlwind Throw (so stupid! I keep getting smacked in the head with it!) Anybody with a palm is very helpful since a palm can counter just about any attack you throw at them, except his is slow. His armour also tends to keep him alive, but if he ever transforms a Louis EX is indeed advantageous to have on the team if you manage to keep him alive as well. (Get him to drink milk or protect him because his defence at that point is pitiful.)
John would make sense as a very helpful helper. He can heal you and he can block things. See the thing is his arguably strongest attack, the Energy Disk, is homing. So it randomly chooses a victim. Instead of the thing smashing into Davis who is Dragon Punching you and about to do it again, it might zoom off and pick off Rudolf drinking a beer instead. So VERY helpful. I guess I could say the same with Dennis's Chasing Blast, but his uses less MP and is clearly not his strongest attack, while Dennis also seems to have smarter AI. COM John also NEVER FUCKING HEALS YOU. EVER. Maybe once in the hundreds of times I've played LF2. He prefers healing himself, so uh, not very useful either. Once again the computer can't do anything with him and so he is not useful as a teammate.
Firen would be more useful if his goddamn fire didn't burn you too. You might say that little bit of HP you lost isn't much, but in the long run it could really matter. His fireballs are great to counter, except it'll also burn you, as will pretty much every one of his attacks. Besides that his normal punch range isn't very far, so he'd have to get real close to you to punch with you. At the same time if you're stuck in a combo, a fireball would knock you down and free you, but so would any other attack from any other character. Not particularly helpful unless he can get all your opponents in an awesome explosion.
Freeze is even less helpful than Firen, but only slightly. I find the fact that he can freeze you as well especially in strong attacks like Whirlwind a little troubling. For Firen he only burns you a bit, but if Freeze's strongest attack can hurt you then that's not good at all. His AI, like Firen, is also kind of dumb, so he tends to die first if he's on your team. On the rare occasion he IS smart however, he'll be very valuable, just try not to get caught in a grab while he's using an ice attack...
Rudolf, Rudolf, Rudolf...oh Rudolf. His best bet is his clones. When I have Rudolf on my team he tends to do nothing at the side. If I call him he comes, tries to help, doesn't really help much, and dies. If only Rudolf's main attack was with his sword instead of silly ninja stars. He could be helpful when invisible, but he tends to miss with it or grab an item or something silly. If he EVER, and this is rarely, disappears and clones at the same time, he'll be incredibly useful, maybe even moreso than Henry! If only he did that more often. Rudolf's AI is too poor to really do anything to help, please hope and pray if he's the last one alive on your team...maybe he'll be cheap and spam multiple ninja stars.
Rudolf is always low on these lists...so why on earth am I using him as my main character, you ask? BECAUSE HE CAN BE ANYBODY ELSE. JUST Rudolf, and he's not the best, but if you can be ANYBODY YOU WANT with Rudolf. I say that's a free pass! Also I'm an indecisive bastard, but I wouldn't mind being John or even Freeze. Henry too if he wasn't so easy to use.
With these lists, we can deduce these things.
On a 4on4 YOUR TEAM SHOULD BE:
YOU (Woody), Henry, Dennis, Davis
AGAINST
Rudolf (hahahaha), John, Freeze, Firen
As you can see Henry lived the longest, did the most, while Rudolf did the least. Freeze also did some damage but died too quick. At one point (1:12 on the LF2 timer) I was smashing the air in great fail but Henry saved me and those two killed each other, leaving me freely to kill Louis. Woody would've done more if I hadn't wisely killed him first, and yeah.
This only the usual though. There are times Freeze lives to the end and is super epic awesome, or Rudolf actually helps! But yeah.
And that is your useless info of the day!
*looks around*
I'm going to rant about LF2!
....how will I do that you ask? What can I even say about an old freeware game?
I PLAY IT, and now I will unleash all my frustrations in a form of text into this lovely lovely Livejournal, which coincidentally has an LF2 layout. The story of that though is that I was playing the game and the dead bodies just happened to land that way. (With the exception of Firen, stupid Firen.) So I got a bit inspired by that and screenshot'd it, then created a layout with it as the focal point. Viola. If you don't believe me I had a recording.
Let me tell you something about the game that may be very surprising to anyone who cares. I just play with CPUs because...well, just because. If you told me to rate the ten characters from toughest to least, well, they tend to vary between who you choose but a general idea would be:
Woody, Deep, Davis, Henry, Dennis, Louis, Rudolf, Firen or Freeze (tied), John
Let me explain! Woody's AI can make a lot of incredibly damaging combos. Sometimes they're easy to escape from after the first few hits, but his Tiger Dash can hit you if you flip or if you don't flip.There is a small change to escape it via a flip depending on the timing, but mostly he hits, which is deadly. I'm not particularly good at countering Woody with any character, though Henry obviously has an advantage being a far-ranged character. On the other hand while Teleport is slow, if he manages to pull it off where the ends up sometimes surprises me. I especially have a hard time with Woody when I'm Rudolf. (I especially have a hard time with ANYBODY when I'm Rudolf...lol.)
Deep has combos similarly to Woody. He may not run fast but his attacks are fast and powerful, and his Dashing Strafe is especially hard to counter. I'm not particularly good at flipping at the right time so he won't hit me with all the hits, sometimes I can avoid him after two hits from the attack, sometimes I just get knocked back anyway. His energy blast is extremely fast (and counters even Freeze's ice blast with correct timing!) and his Strike attack counters incredibly easily. He is not as versatile as Woody, which is why he is second. In fact sometimes I overlook him to take down Davis first instead.
Davis has the Dragon Punch. Annoying, annoying Dragon Punch. Also his run attack and his Strafe attack can counter shots, oh and so can his Dragon Punch. Oh, and his Dragon Punch can counter ANYTHING (besides maybe ice and fire, but still). His energy blasts are decent enough to get the job done. Did I mention his stupid Dragon Punch? I swear that thing is overpowered, even moreso than Deep's Dashing Strafe. At least Dashing Strafe is a bit slow to start and ISN'T used to counter. Dragon Punch does EVERYTHING. I hate Dragon Punch.
Henry. I love Henry a lot, but he's actually not especially fun to play with nor especially fun to play against. First, he has the Sonata of Death. If you're not close to him and low on life, INSTANT BAD END!!! He also has the tendency to survive in battles with multiple COMs, especially since he likes doing nothing off-screen while I'm trying to kill Davis but losing huge amounts of HP points because of his damn Dragon Punch. He also has the Dragon Palm, one of my favourite attacks to use, but also one the most ANNOYING attacks to fight against. If I get close to him he's toast, but he has many attacks to stop you from getting close, and the Sonata of Death's range will stop you from ANY SIDE AT ALL. Beware. I suppose killing him first is actually wise...
Dennis' attacks are a bit on the slow side but they're really annoying when they get you, particularly his Strafe. (All these Strafes are annoying...) Once he uses it, you cannot get out of it, which is the annoying part. It's instant lost of HP, no HP you can save. Even though it's not much since he doesn't use much MP (Much like Deep, who also doesn't use much MP, but still kills of TONS of HP) he can just spam spam spam it, and also his Chasing Blast while easy to avoid is rather annoying. I'm not very good at multitasking, lol. Dennis does seem to have the best AI of the bunch.
Louis' armour and his Phoenix Palm are rather annoying, but I much rather complain about that Whirlwind Throw. It is SO DAMN ANNOYING. Doesn't take much HP off AT ALL and while good to pad onto a combo, he does it OVER and OVER and OVER again. What's the point when he only takes off like 2HP!? I guess his other attacks aren't good either, with the exception of Phoenix Palm (but his is slower than Henry's Dragon Palm). I especially hate facing both he and Henry on the same team with a character of
Rudolf is not particularly hard to fight against at all. If any character in LF2 has the worst AI, it would be Rudolf. However sometimes he just spams multiple ninja stars which, if done at correct timing traps you in the stunned state, and thus he CHEAPLY TAKES OFF MILLIONS OF HP! That is especially annoying. He's more of an annoying character than one you'd get especially frustrated at (Woody). He wastes time by turning invisible, or clones himself to waste more time. He'd be more formidable if he did something and wasn't wasting my time all the time. He is also the worst teammate ever.
Firen and or Freeze are similar characters with similar attacks. The only reason I rate them even lower than Rudolf would be because despite how strong they can be they're not well-used by the AI. The only time I REALLY get frustrated with them is if I'm a close ranged fighter, particularly Davis and Dennis, that the radius of their attacks are larger than any other attack (with the exception of goddamn Sonata of Death) so if I try to approach them to do ANYTHING I die. Or lose health. I COULD use energy blasts from afar, but their own fireball and ESPECIALLY ice blast, which murders Davis' and Dennis' blasts, are far superior and thus a waste of MP. BESIDES those two characters, Firen and Freeze are a cinch.
John. Poor, poor John. There's really nothing about him I can't counter, sadly enough, at least with the COM. He tends to die first, or is easy to kill, etc. There are times I'd die from him but it's probably because I did something stupid (like keep flipping, or keep running into his easily avoidable shields). It's not that the AI can't use him, but he's a very different character that simple spamming cannot really do justice. His attacks just aren't strong enough an AI can handle with. John is best used with a human brain.
On the other hand, if I rated each character from the easiest to use to the hardest...
Henry, Deep, Freeze, Davis, Woody, Dennis, Firen, Louis, Rudolf, John
Henry is easy because he is far-ranged. If I ever force you all to play LF2, pick Henry first. He just stands at the side and slaughters everybody. That's why I said to kill him first up there, but I don't usually since he's my favourite, and then regret it later. (Henry and Woody are tied for the number of times they kill me) If someone tries to come up to you, a simple Dragon Palm or Sonata of Death if you're bold will do the job. His Critical Shot is real strong, but it's kind of pointless to use all that MP for an attack that does equal damage to the Dragon Palm on one person unless there's like a row of people stupidly walking towards you. He also has multiple shot, but I rarely use that. (unlike multiple ninja star)
Deep is also easy because of how powerful and quick his attacks are. He easily has one of the easiest combos, with Strike and Leap Attack combined, and that kills of SO much HP with so little MP it's not funny. While Henry is MP extensive Deep is not, and STILL has quick and powerful attacks. His Dashing Strafe takes up a chunk with little MP as well (if timed right), and his grab Dashing Strafe is also rather easy to use, while only taking off a MEASLY 15 MP! While destroying 1/3rd of your life! My fastest matches are usually with Deep.
Freeze is only this high because of his Summon Sword. A sword that freezes upon direct impact. That is the only reason. I tend to not take out his sword because I find it too easy, and go along with his other attacks. (You may say that limits me, but the attacks I only use with Henry and Rudolf are even MORE limiting). Freeze will make Stage 5 a breeze with that sword, and will have a cakewalk over those lovely knights. Summon Sword is really just like some sort of beginner's weapon or something. If he ever drops it, be sure to pick it up.
Davis I find is also not that difficult to use. He has the Dragon Punch that can counter almost anything, and many of his other attacks can reflect energy blasts. He also has pretty easy combos, though not to the degree of some of Deep's while taking out lots of HP. His MP usage is average, and not ridiculous like Henry or ridiculously low like Deep, but he leans more to Deep's side on that department. He is only rated above Woody because some of his combos are slightly easier to do.
Woody is a bit harder because some of his combos took me a bit of time to actually do, however when you CAN do them Woody is destructive and being the most versatile of all characters is thus fun to play with as well. His 0MP combo can knock off 1/3rd of your health...with NO MP! His Flip Kick and then jump kick attack is deadly, and a real pro can do flip kick, flip kick, jump kick, and jump kick again, maybe even add in a Tiger Dash. Mastering Woody is a good idea, but I like to stray from being like other people.
Dennis has slower attacks than the above two, and that is his downfall, and thus making him harder to use. Dennis really has no trademark flashy attack. His Whirlwind Kick could arguably be it, but it has no flashy energy on it and also isn't that hard to counter at all. He does on the other hand have an unblockable KO combo, but nobody uses it seriously since it's too cheap, but besides that Dennis is indeed a challenge to master.
Firen. My only gripe with him is how fire is contagious. If you touch the fire you fall down. It is in that case difficult to get in combos if the person is falling down. If you, as Firen, touch the person you set on fire, you too get set on fire, which is somewhat stupid. It is however possible to hit them while they are on fire without being set on fire yourself, but you need to be facing them the other way and have correct timing, or hit them with fireballs or something. I believe his fireballs are his strongest attack, and combining that with inferno is a pretty deadly combo. His Blaze attack is good for countering as well, but isn't very strong.
Louis is the slowest of the slow. He's not like Deep where he only runs slow. He runs slow AND attacks slow, and thus he will never get the first hit and thus will inevitably fail. It's true he has armour to probably counter that, but many of the other characters have attacks that can counter back that counter, so his armour is somewhat useless in that sense. His Phoenix Palm is stronger and more versatile (goes both ways) than Henry's, but again is completely utterly slow. You could Whirlwind Throw and then hope they flip to attack them with a Thunder Kick or something, but still. His Thunder Punches I would actually trade for everyone else's jump/run/dash attack (except maybe Henry's, lol.) His best bet is to Transform and become the super cheap Louis EX, but he'd be dead before you'd be able to use anything (unless you spam cheap his MUCH faster Phoenix Palm in that state...)
Rudolf. Rudolf ranks low on yet another list. Why do I like him again? Well he's a ninja. Unfortunately many of Rudolf's attacks are completely utterly useless. Disappearing is useless because even you yourself can't see him, and if you hold up a weapon to see him the others will see him (well, COMs are stupid and won't anyway). His cloning ability is good distraction for about two seconds. His Transform ability however is very useful, since it turns him into someone else (though that kind of ruins the point of Rudolf's pure Rudolf attacks), and his multiple ninja star I find is good in combos! (But don't spam em like a cheapass!) What I DO like about Rudolf is his Leap Attack and his Run/Dash attacks. They are very powerful and use 0MP! Compared to his MP extensive useless attacks like cloning and disappearing...
John is dead last once again. If you are a beginner, for the love of all that is holy do not use John. You will do nothing with him. His shield is simply a shield (any of Davis' attacks can do that! Though John's lasts longer.) His energy disk is easy to avoid, and his energy blast is so simple and weak that John really isn't that useful. Luckily his range with his stick is a bit far and he has a small combo, but he's just not what you should be using if all you do is spam attacks. Heal can keep him on the battlefield longer to do nothing, though.
BUT...one more list 8D.
If I were to list the FUNNEST to not as fun characters...
John, Woody, Freeze, Firen, Rudolf, Henry, Davis, Deep, Dennis, Louis
John is absolutely awesome to play with. I don't use his Energy Disk that often but I sometimes do, and I rarely use Heal unless I am in the most dire of all that is dire situation. His shield combined with his energy blast is the funnest thing ever. First, his energy blast is very simple, and I love that. It makes his blast easy to aim (and beginners don't really aim, they shoot straight) coupled with the fact that it is very quick, so John can surprise someone with it. His shield can surprise people too, especially at the right timing. If someone is jumping at me or running at me (Tiger Dashing at me, Whirlwind/Thunder Kicking at me, etc.) a shield will knock them off the air! I also love combos with the shield and the energy blast. If you know how to use John, he is absolutely-fucking-tastic to play with.
Woody always is high on these lists, no wonder he is the favourite in the community. Woody has tons of combos and ways to knock someone back up into the air that he is always fun to play with! Even just dicking around with his Teleport can be fun! He may drop further if I start beating the other team too easily with him, but if I can find more combos to do and attempt he'd probably stay high on this list. Really, he and John are easily on the top in terms of the number of combos. (John has literally hundreds.) Just flip kicking COMs before they can hit me is fun, and really. I can't say enough about how fun Woody is, though I tend to not use him as much as I am focusing on being a certain character...
Freeze is indeed fun to play with. He and Henry I believe are the only ones that can kill themselves with their own attacks. (Firen's Explosion as recoil but it won't work if the attack will kill you, but Firen's own fire can kill himself, I suppose) His ice blast can mutiply and knock back other blasts and watching Dennis or Davis getting hit by seven ice blasts at the same time is hilarious. His strong Icicle and his lovely, lovely Whirlwind are other two gems. His Whirlwind can pick up items and obliterate the foe in the air, or Freeze with correct timing can kick them while they're frozen, which is also fun.
Firen too is fun, but lower than Freeze due to lacking Freeze's ability to knock back energy blasts with a bang. Firen's Explosion attack is awesome to see if he does it out of nowhere, while managing to burn many many others. He also has his Blaze, and watching stupid COMs walk into his trail of fire is indeed fun. He can also burn himself! Anything with an explosion has got to be fun, after all.
Rudolf arguably could be OMG the funnest character ever! All you need to do is transform into someone or clone yourself millions of times! I agree that IS fun, but it can get boring. (I do however like going to survival, about to die, then cloning and transforming while proclaiming: "GO, MY HENRYS!!!" and then dying. Lol. Out with a bang.) However in a fight where you'd like to win fairly, Rudolf ranks a bit lower in that department. Since I don't use his fun skills such as cloning or disappearing due to its uselessness, I am stuck with the other ones. Transforming makes him about as fun as he can be as any other character, but dash attacking, or run attacking can be tiresome, but hey, I'll take it.
Henry could've ranked higher. He SHOULD'VE ranked higher, but the fact that he is rather easy to use drops him down this low. He manages to stay in the middle of the pack because he can kill himself, and if I'M not Henry, but a teammate of mine is, and Henry uses Sonata of Death, watching those items destroy other COMs or Dragon Punching them or Whirlwinding them, etc. is indeed very fun. Every time a teammate Henry Sonata of Deaths I always get giddy and try to smack the people floating up top!
Davis I think is rather fun. Punch, punch, punch, grab, strafe, Dragon Punch, Dragon Punch again! Fun. Oh wait, the other guy died. Well, your fun lasted very long. His energy blasts are also very standard as well, but his combos are rather fun, if only they'd last a little longer...
Deep is this low simply because of how goddamn easy it is to kill others and others VERY fast with him. Without taking off much MP at all. I guess knocking back blasts with his own blasts (even the ice blast!) is fun to watch, but I can't really think of much else.
Dennis has no flashy attacks. His strongest combo KOs the other player and isn't that fun to watch or do. I'm also not very good with him, so it's rather frustrating to keep playing with him to win while not finding him particularly fun.
Louis. Dull. Blah. Boring. Geh. Sure, I can Whirlwind Throw over and over and over and over....or Phoenix Palm or Thunder Punch. I dunno, not really that fun at all. He's so slow it's hard to really do anything with him. Ah well.
....and FINALLY...most efficient teammate to least!
Henry, Dennis, Woody, Davis, Deep, Louis, John, Firen, Freeze, Rudolf
Henry is of course the best teammate to have. He stays out of your way. SURVIVES because he's always off to the side. Leave him alone and he might die, but he somehow tends to live anyway. All his attacks seem to be DESIGNED to help you as well, what with their ability to hit more than one person at once (Palm, Sonata, Multiple Shot, Critical Shot can do it...and I just named all his attacks) and his own default attack too! Henry is the best best BEST partner ever. I love it when he's on my team. The only time he may be unhelpful is if he's offscreen and doing nothing, but a simple COME! command will bring him over. (DO NOT make him COME and RUN into a Whirlwind or Dragon Punch! I did that with John to keep him alive [he kept himself alive somehow against 2 other people!] but it killed him orz)
Dennis' high AI is really helpful when he is on your team. He knows when to use attacks and st just real good at being a teammate. I have absolutely no idea why either, but when he's on my team 80% of the time he is helpful, will survive, or do a great amount of damage. He does have two energy blasts, and his chasing blast is a surprise to your opponent if he's only focused on you. If you have Dennis on your team, you will be awesome.
Woody is against high on a list. I'm going to stop talking about why, I have pretty much explained everything. He is good. That is why. Have Woody on your team and you'll have no problem!
Davis seems to like being in the middle of the pack, the average of the average, and here he is again. He is indeed good with Dragon Punch and his other attacks and whatnot, but as a team he's not as helpful. He might end up dying quickly just as well because he's always in the heat of the fight. In the middle to get all his punches in. Good damage but not exactly the best survival rate, and he may not help either. He's good for a 1v1 battle like many close-ranged characters are however, but in terms of team battles other characters are better considerations. If he DOES survive though, he'll be a very reliable character...but I can say the same to others. It's just that his Dragon Punch is awesomely useful.
Deep would make sense up top, right? Well he kind of suffers the same problem as Davis up there. He does make a good tandem with Rudolf (or Freeze/Henry, sometimes). It's just that as a close-ranged character he runs in and gets himself killed, but if he can pull out a Dashing Strafe he'll be very valuable. It is not a bad idea to have a bunch of close-ranged characters together if they can keep up a huge amount of damage, but if he is the only one he better survive or he won't be very helpful late game.
Louis is here due to his ability to Transform and his Palm attack. What keeps him back from the top five is again his slowness, and the fact that he can hurt his own teammates with his Whirlwind Throw (so stupid! I keep getting smacked in the head with it!) Anybody with a palm is very helpful since a palm can counter just about any attack you throw at them, except his is slow. His armour also tends to keep him alive, but if he ever transforms a Louis EX is indeed advantageous to have on the team if you manage to keep him alive as well. (Get him to drink milk or protect him because his defence at that point is pitiful.)
John would make sense as a very helpful helper. He can heal you and he can block things. See the thing is his arguably strongest attack, the Energy Disk, is homing. So it randomly chooses a victim. Instead of the thing smashing into Davis who is Dragon Punching you and about to do it again, it might zoom off and pick off Rudolf drinking a beer instead. So VERY helpful. I guess I could say the same with Dennis's Chasing Blast, but his uses less MP and is clearly not his strongest attack, while Dennis also seems to have smarter AI. COM John also NEVER FUCKING HEALS YOU. EVER. Maybe once in the hundreds of times I've played LF2. He prefers healing himself, so uh, not very useful either. Once again the computer can't do anything with him and so he is not useful as a teammate.
Firen would be more useful if his goddamn fire didn't burn you too. You might say that little bit of HP you lost isn't much, but in the long run it could really matter. His fireballs are great to counter, except it'll also burn you, as will pretty much every one of his attacks. Besides that his normal punch range isn't very far, so he'd have to get real close to you to punch with you. At the same time if you're stuck in a combo, a fireball would knock you down and free you, but so would any other attack from any other character. Not particularly helpful unless he can get all your opponents in an awesome explosion.
Freeze is even less helpful than Firen, but only slightly. I find the fact that he can freeze you as well especially in strong attacks like Whirlwind a little troubling. For Firen he only burns you a bit, but if Freeze's strongest attack can hurt you then that's not good at all. His AI, like Firen, is also kind of dumb, so he tends to die first if he's on your team. On the rare occasion he IS smart however, he'll be very valuable, just try not to get caught in a grab while he's using an ice attack...
Rudolf, Rudolf, Rudolf...oh Rudolf. His best bet is his clones. When I have Rudolf on my team he tends to do nothing at the side. If I call him he comes, tries to help, doesn't really help much, and dies. If only Rudolf's main attack was with his sword instead of silly ninja stars. He could be helpful when invisible, but he tends to miss with it or grab an item or something silly. If he EVER, and this is rarely, disappears and clones at the same time, he'll be incredibly useful, maybe even moreso than Henry! If only he did that more often. Rudolf's AI is too poor to really do anything to help, please hope and pray if he's the last one alive on your team...maybe he'll be cheap and spam multiple ninja stars.
Rudolf is always low on these lists...so why on earth am I using him as my main character, you ask? BECAUSE HE CAN BE ANYBODY ELSE. JUST Rudolf, and he's not the best, but if you can be ANYBODY YOU WANT with Rudolf. I say that's a free pass! Also I'm an indecisive bastard, but I wouldn't mind being John or even Freeze. Henry too if he wasn't so easy to use.
With these lists, we can deduce these things.
On a 4on4 YOUR TEAM SHOULD BE:
YOU (Woody), Henry, Dennis, Davis
AGAINST
Rudolf (hahahaha), John, Freeze, Firen
And the game will be over in about twenty seconds.
But that'd be too easy.
For me my favourite is something like this:
ME (John), Henry, Freeze, Rudolf
vs.
Woody, Davis, Deep, Louis
If only because it's challenging...and favourite characters, too. Hahaha.
OBSERVE (now with silly Digimon music added!)
As you can see Henry lived the longest, did the most, while Rudolf did the least. Freeze also did some damage but died too quick. At one point (1:12 on the LF2 timer) I was smashing the air in great fail but Henry saved me and those two killed each other, leaving me freely to kill Louis. Woody would've done more if I hadn't wisely killed him first, and yeah.
This only the usual though. There are times Freeze lives to the end and is super epic awesome, or Rudolf actually helps! But yeah.
And that is your useless info of the day!
*looks around*
