The King of Fighters '98 UMFE/EX Yamazaki

Introduction

EX Yamazaki is a midrange poking character with a strong emphasis on neutral mindgames. Yamazaki's most defining feature is his serpent slash pokes which can cover space in different angles in front of him. Combine this with some good poking normals and EX Yamazaki's neutral space control becomes quite strong. Yamazaki wants to keep you guessing over which serpent slash he will do so that the opponent starts to hesitate in neutral. EX Yamazaki can then use this hesitation to go in as his own close range mixup game is quite strong with access to both an overhead and a 1f super command grab. EX Yamazaki also gets some quite damaging combos, especially when you have a lot of meter to spend.

Changes from previous versions

98UM to 98UMFE

Normals:

• st.C can cancel into special/super moves when it connects
• f+A if not cancelled into, second hit does a hard knockdown

Specials:

• qcb+C has less recovery, is now -2 if guard cancel rolled
• HCF+K damage increased from 13 to 21

Supers: QCFx2+P Made it easier for the downward attack to hit if a grounded opponent is hit by the rising punch

Normal Moves

Close

• cl. A: ok fast feeler button with ok frame advantage. cancelable.
• cl. B: another feeler low button. used more than A since it is a low. cancelable.
• cl. C: very fast combo starter and nice frame trap. cancelable.
• cl. D: slower than cl.C but has long reaching second hitbox. only first hit is cancelable.

Stand

• st. A: very long anti hop check.
• st. B: a lower version of st.A. still does ok hop check. but this one is more suitable for anti run.
• st. C: slow punch, cancelable but too slow to utilize it.
• st. D: a big long poke. but its large recovery making it quite risky. dont spam it.

Crouch

• cr. A: quite typical crouching jab with ok range and plus on block. cancelable.
• cr. B: pretty long low. cancelable into itself or other light buttons such as cr.A. your main low confirm.
• cr. C: fast crouched uppercut. is cancelable/whiff cancelable on first part.
• cr. D: uncancelable sweep. quite long and fast.

Jump

• j. A: somewhat similar to kusanagi knee, their j.B, but not as deep and no cross up. still an ok fast jump in.
• j. B: a very long horizontal ranged kick. nice air spacing tool.
• j. C: opposite of j.B, great vertical ranged punch. a great air control move.
• j. D: very deep downward kick. nice close ranged jump in. but the range is very short.

Blowback

• st. CD: generic st.CD. not so great.
• j. CD: a great jump in, air to air with fast start up and good priority.

Throws

Choke Hold: (close) b/f + C

• regular throw, techable. Yamazaki grabs the opponent by the neck and slams them down into the ground sending them full screen away with a hard knockdown.

Whackdown Wallop: (close) b/f + D

• regular throw, techable. yamazaki grabs the opponent by the neck and throws them into the ground behind him leaving them a small distance away from him with a hard knockdown.

Command Moves

Eviscerator (Overhead): f + A

• causes hard knockdown. loses its properties, overhead and hard knockdown, if you cancel into it.

Special Moves

Serpent Slash (Upper): qcb + A

• can hold pose up to 5 seconds or release his hand in that time at will.

• Good anti airing move.

• whiffs on all crouchers.

Serpent Slash (Mid): qcb + B

• can hold pose up to 5 seconds or release his hand in that time at will.

• combos from lights and heavies.

• whiffs on short crouchers.

• good for poking at mid range, will stop hops and other attempts at moving forwards.

• can be quite susceptible to being rolled through so be ready to react to rolls with the D cancel.

Serpent Slash (Lower): qcb + C

• can hold pose up to 5 seconds or release his hand in that time at will.

• hits low.

• combos from heavies.

• can be a good sneaky low poke from far range.

Big Serpent Slash (For All):

• Hold the pose until he chatters three times, then once he chatters the third time release and he will do ALL THREE slashes from lower to upper.

Serpent Slash Cancel: D (During the Serpent Slash pose)

• Yamazaki stops his stance and returns to normal.

• can be used directly after a serpent slash to reduce the recovery on some moves. This can even allow for some new combos.

• can also be used repeteadly with the advanced mode meter as a safe way of building meter.

Sadomazo: hcf + B/D

Double Return: qcf + A/C

• Yamazaki does a close range swiping strike.

• A version will nullify projectiles.

• C version he will absorb the energy of the the projectile and it gets stored.

• Then when the input is repeated (qcf + C) he will fire a projectile back. This projectile will beat out other regular projectiles.

Judgement Dagger: dp + A/C

• Yamazaki slashes with his knife.

• If you whiff the first slash he does not go for the second.

• dp+A has a lot of reach so it's good to use when you're out of range of dp+B.

• dp+C has less reach but does more damage.

• dp+A is pretty punishable on block but dp+C is a bit safer.

Fight of Tempering: dp + B

• Yamazaki delivers a big stomping kick with two parts.

• The first hit hits mid and the second hit is an overhead.

• causes hard knockdown.

• One of Ex Yamazakis best combo enders due to the hard knockdown and the dd+K followup.

• punishable on block.

Flying Dragon Kick: down, down + B (while opponent is knocked down on the ground)

• This is a key followup after doing Fight of Tempering.

• Note the recovery on this move is quite long because he laughs for a moment once he finishes stomping the grounded opponent. But the entire animation is fully invincible until it ends, so it's actually Yamazaki who can react to their next move with DMs or regular throw etc.

Desperation Moves

Guillotine: qcf, qcf + A/C

• very fast reversal move with some nice invulnerability on start up.

• punishable on block.

• The second part can whiff if the first part hits an airborne opponent that is too high up in the air.

• causes hard knockdown.

• Max version does more damage.

Drill: (close) hcb, hcb + A/C

• a 1 frame command grab super.

• tap buttons repeatedly for more hits.

• good for combos and mixups.

• Drill Lv.5: In Max Tap A+B+C repeatedly during Drill

• a super command grab.

• does a lot more damage.

Combos

General Notes

• In any metered combo, you can replace qcfx2+P with qcfx2+AC or hcbx2+P with hcbx2+AC for more damage if you have 3 bars in Advanced Mode.
• In any combo involving the d,d+B OTG follow-up, you can optionally omit it for better oki in exchange for less damage

Meterless

Low

cr.Bx1~2, cr.A, dp+B, d,d+B:

Anywhere

(j.X), cl.C, f+A, qcb+C:

(j.X), cl.C, dp+B, d,d+B:

f+A, d,d+B:

• Overhead combo

With Meter

Low

cr.B, cr.A/cl.A, qcfx2+P:

• You can do this as cr.B, qcf+A, qcf+P for an easier cancel

cr.B, cr.A/cl.A, hcbx2+P:

• You can do this as cr.B, hcb+A, hcb+P for an easier cancel

Anywhere

(j.X), cl.C/cr.C, qcfx2+P:

With Quick MAX

Anywhere

(j.X), cl.C, qcb+ABC > D, walk-up cl.C, dp+B, d,d+B:

• qcb+ABC will do the snake arm special and activate max mode at the same time: the D afterwards should be inputted immediately after the ABC to cancel the snake arm stance, then you need to walk up and hit cl.C
• This becomes easier if you have an ABC macro and plink from ABC to D

(j.X), cl.C, qcb+ABC > D, walk-up cl.C, qcfx2+P/hcbx2+P:

• Harder, more damaging variant ending in a super

Videos

KOF 98 UM YAMAZAKI EX COMBOS by Kurama Games