Home Strategy Soul Calibur 5 defensive tech by AvoidingthePuddle

Soul Calibur V has only been out one day (well, a few days in New Jersey), so it’s only natural everyone’s looking for an early edge over the competition. So far I’m floundering through the changes made to my beloved Ivy, but other players have had a little more luck figuring out SCV’s mechanics.

AvoidingthePuddle recently posted two great videos demonstrating two very powerful defensive tools. One’s the intentionally difficult parry-style Just Guard, and the other is… probably a glitch. But it’s a glitch that beats out high/low mixups, so you better learn it before your opponents do!

 

Just Guard (not the Lady Gaga song)

Much like parrying in Street Fighter 3, Just Guard is a defensive move that annuls an attack if executed at the exact moment said attack would hit you. It’s performed by tapping block (Guard) very quickly (or down + Guard for low attacks), and will result in a neutral or favorable frame result for the defender in most cases.

Just Guard is obviously difficult and risky to pull off compared to Guard Impact (the old parry from Soul Calibur 1 through 4), but since Guard Impact now requires meter, it seems like a fair tradeoff. Just Guard can cancel out unblockable moves, so expect to see it being used (and mostly failing) in crazy tournament-level play.

 

Fuzzy Guard for fun & profit

If you’ve played other fighting games, you have probably heard of “fuzzy guard” even if you don’t know exactly what it is. The term generally refers to an input that allows a player to defend against more than one type of attack, even if the game engine typically makes players choose between two or more defensive modes.

In this case, AvoidingthePuddle has discovered there’s a way to defend against vertical strikes and low pokes at the same time, which is huge against characters who rely on this for 50/50 mixups. That said, it probably won’t save you from getting your ass thrown to the ground repeatedly, so don’t expect this to grant you online invincibility.

 

Liked these videos? Check out AvoidthePuddle’s YouTube channel for more Soul Calibur V tricks.

6 replies to this post
  1. Just guarding is not for me. I’ve tried so many times and can’t get the “tap” in order to do the just guard. I shall keep practicing !

    Ps. You can’t just guard the Critical Edges right?

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