Guess I'll describe Youmu a bit since I mostly play as her when VS-ing. WOT incoming.
Youmu Konpaku
Colour: A ? green, B ? blue, C ? burgundy, D ? black
Spellcard: A ? Flash Cut Type, B ? Six Realms Sword Type
Type A ? Flash Cut
If you choose this option, your playstyle will likely centre around staying at a distance and spamming her spellcard at every opening you get. The appropriate distance should be the length of her spellcard?s dash so that you can immediately follow up with a combo. You can also initiate with a mirage slide into a melee combo and tag on her spellcards during the higher tension modes. Done right, the damage adds up quickly. Your opponent will likely try to minimize the effective of this strategy by staying at a shorter distance away from you, but just out of melee range. This almost completely shuts down Youmu?s moves ? you cannot melee, your projectiles kinda suck, and your spellcards will likely miss. If this happens, keep your cool and wait for high-tension mode to use your charged spellcard. Note that her Type B has vastly superior combo potential due to the difference in spellcards while this type has better maneuverability and is generally less predictable when vsing other players. On stages such as Hakugyokurou or SDM, retreat behind the Saigyou Ayakashi (it's effing huge for those who haven't played the game) or the Clock Tower when in low tension mode to force your opponent to pursue you and nail them with the spellcard just as they come round the corner. Smarter opponents will dash so you may still miss.
Projectile ? Spirit Wave (15 charges)
Myon sends a crescent shaped projectile at your opponent. Crappy damage. Usually used to force the opponent to move.
Charged Projectile ? Spirit Blast
Youmu shoots Myon at the opponent. Travels noticeably faster than her normal projectile. This has a knockback effect and can be used to set up for combos although it?s unreliable.
Spellcard ? Human Sign [Slash of the Present] (1 charge)
Fast dash and slash, decent range (roughly 1/10 of the arena?s length). Does slightly more damage than a 3-hit melee combo. Has a significant wind-up time during which you can be interrupted, so don?t start this up too near your opponent unless she?s hitstunned. From mid-range onwards though, it?s easy for opponents to confuse this for Youmu?s block unless they pay very keen attention to how she holds her sword. Once activated, it will dash through projectiles. Note that Sakuya can freeze you in mid-dash you activate this after she does time-freeze skill of hers and that it?s possible to miss if your opponent is moving. You can lead your target somewhat by pressing a direction key while activating it.
Charged Spellcard ? Half Ghost [Slash of the Eternal Future]
Extremely fast dash and slash ? you effectively cannot see her dash, so think of this as a teleport-slash. Mainly used to suddenly appear in your opponent's face. It doesn't connect as often as it sounds.
Ex-Spellcard ? Hakurouken, the Sword that Cuts through Delusions (1 charge)
Appears as a normal block with her sword held at a slightly different angle (how trollish), but if struck by a melee attack during this block, Youmu counters with a strike from her Hakurouken that stuns her opponent for roughly 2 seconds and pushes her back.
Hi-Tension Spellcard ? Obsession Sword [Blood of Ashura]
Very fast dash and slash like her normal spellcard. The difference is that this has practically no wind-up time. Note that this can also miss if your opponent is dashing.
Climax Tension Spellcard ? Slash of the Reflection of Stars in the Night
Opponent is disabled for the duration of this move. Basically Youmu goes apeshit and does a bazillion slashes which send waves of projectiles at her opponent. The projectiles look like her normal projectile, except purple and slightly larger. If she is too far away, she will dash within range before starting the slash. I?ve never seen this miss before and (Scratch that, it CAN miss after all. She fires a very fast-moving white ball that disables the opponent before commencing the rageberserkslashfury and if that misses, that's the end of the spellcard right there.) It does a tonne of damage, but combo-ing after it is essentially impossible. For this reason, try using this just as the climax tension phase ends. You?ll generally have better things to do during climax tension anyway. Get creative with chaining her spellcard, melee and hi-tension spellcard for massive damage.
Ehh... other stuff.
Notes on Controls
Note: Stamina = those small orbs under your life bar. These deplete on certain actions and will recharge with time.
Q ? lock / unlock on to opponent. When locked on, up/down flies to/away from opponent and left/right flies in a circle around your opponent (if she?s stationary) to maintain the same distance at all times.
S ? Flies up
D ? Flies down
A ? Special. Will describe later; this key is mainly used with something else.
Z ? Boost/Dash. Not available during low tension mode! Tap it together with a direction key for a quick dash in that direction. Hold it down and charge it for a sustained dash, as long as you have stamina for it. Cancel by pressing Z again. Change direction mid-dash by tapping Z + direction of choice again (can be S or D too).
X ? Ranged attack. Can be charged for a more powerful / different shot.
C ? Melee attack. Watch the melee cooldown ? it?s the 2nd green bar from the top at the right hand side of the screen. You can tag on a melee attack at the end of a normal dash by, unsurprisingly, tapping C during your dash. If you do so, your opponent is knocked back if struck.
V ? Guard. Note: Only guards the area in front of you. If you activate this just as your opponent strikes with her melee attack, your opponent will be stunned in front of you for about a second.
Now the fun stuff? Remember the A-button?
A + S or A + D ? Mirage slide. Slides to the front (A+S) or back (A+D) of your opponent. Works even from a different elevation. Again, you can tag on a melee attack by pressing C. Such an attack will stun and knock your opponent back significantly. This consumes 6 of those stamina orbs, so don?t spam it!
A + X ? Uses spellcard. Hold both buttons to charge up the spellcard. Release X to unleash spellcard. If you release A first, you?ll end up charging a shot instead.
A + C ? Uses the hi-tension spellcard. Obviously only available during hi-tension and climax modes.
A + Z ? Uses the climax spellcard. Obviously only available during the climax mode.
A + V ? Uses the ex-spellcard (also known as support spellcard).
Sometimes you get into this weird-shooting mode. A message will come up on screen telling you to mash buttons quickly. This seems to happen when you and your opponent both do mirage slides, melee and connect at the same time. Mash either Z, X, C or V quickly. First to reach 30 hits wins and the loser suffers big time damage.
Tension modes
Low tension ? Happens when the battle timer reaches the dark blue portion of the tension bar for the current BGM track. No dashing, no mirage slide, seems that your melee does 3 hits but has a longer cooldown between strikes. This can be significant enough that if your opponent is in high or climax tension, she can strike you in-between hits. Can?t tell so far whether you do less damage or not.
Normal ? Light blue portion of the tension bar. Melee does 3 hits. Everything else except for the hi-tension and climax tension spellcards are available.
High Tension ? Yellow portion of the tension bar. Lower recovery time when hit (not sure how much exactly, but you can interrupt someone's combo if they're in low tension), your melee combo now does 5 hits. Hi-tension spellcard now available.
Climax Tension ? Pink portion of the tension bar. Your melee combo now does 7 hits. Even your ranged attack is now boosted (some characters shoot 2 or more projectiles per shot). Climax tension spellcard now available. Note that the final frames of a climax tension phase is ?usually- designated Finale Tension (you?ll see this term when you create the tension file for BGMs). This seems to have the effect of boosting the damage of the climax spellcard by adding on a final move after the usual climax spellcard. For this reason, I try to activate the climax tension spellcard only during these frames for maximum effectiveness.
Note: In any BGM, the total duration of low tension phases is at least equal to that of the high tension phases. There can only be a maximum of 4 low tension phases, and 4 high tension phases. High tension phases can account for at most 20% of the time. Climax tension phases can account for at most 10% of the time and there can only be at most 2 climax tension phases. Finale tension accounts for at most 20% of the climax tension time.
Main Menu
Note: If you use the number pad, 8 = down, 2 = up. Use the direction keys instead.
Arcade Mode ? Play through the story
VS Mode ? Play against AI or another player via splitscreen mode (up to 4 players)
Network Play ? Connect to or host a game over the internet. Open port 18000 if you want to host. You?ll need the IP of the host if you?re connecting. Don?t connect to the Lobby Server unless you?re in Japan.
Survival Mode ? Play vs the AI in a gauntlet of fights, each harder than the last.
Tutorial Mode ? Uhh? follow instructions that scroll across at the bottom of the screen to learn how to play the game. The instructions are in Japanese.
Training Mode ? Go nuts in the arena vs comps or other players. Health automatically replenishes and you can also turn on an option to see how much damage you?ve done for each combo. You can also set the difficulty level and behavior of the AI.
Player Statistics ? See your victory percentage, how many fights you?ve won, how many you?ve lost, how much damage you?ve done/taken in total, how much time you?ve spent in game? see these statistics for your network playtime as well as individual character time too
Replays ? self-explanatory
Options ? From top to bottom: Controller Vibration Mode, Screen Rumble (when hit), Camera Position (Left/Right), Voice Acting, BGM / Sound Effects / Voice volumes, Minimap Type (Fixed Orientation / Turns with you), Automatic Correction of Guard Direction, Arcade Mode Difficulty
Quit
Edit: Some typo. I'd write a bit about VS-ing specific characters, but it's friggin' long. For now, if you're going to VS Okuu, just watch out not to eat too much damage while using your spellcard (only charge through her projectiles when you know for sure you can follow up with a combo) and don't just let her blind you with explosions while she suddenly appears behind you for surprise control-rod-bashy-time or surprise Subterranean Sun :V
Edit: I suck at organizing these things.
