Talbain unblockables.

There are a surprisingly high amount of unblockables in Vampire Savior, partially due to Fuzzy Guard, and partially due to downright glitches. Talbain has two. Hooray!

In this post - again, taken from Dustloop - I will explain the way to trigger the unblockables, along with my best explanation of how it works and some practical applications for them.

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Unlike certain unblockables in VS, Talbain's are both a bit gimmicky and I don't use them much. For the sake of understanding, I've bolded where the unblockable attacks occur in the combo.

1. ES Beast Cannon unblockable: When an opponent blocks a BC that's going straight downward (2), the next hit, if done quickly enough (6 or 9) will be unblockable. I don't know exactly why this works, but it's not a crossup, because you can do it midscreen...although it's hard as hell to do. I'm 99.99% sure that you need to do the 2 into 6/9 fast enough for it to count as a block string in order to get this unblockable to work.

(No one is exactly sure why this unblockable works. However, I did take the time to dig up technical guru Xenozip's musings on the subject, with my additional comments in bold:

"...I do know that you can do the unblockable in a manner that the opponent leaves blockstun and can move around, at that point it doesn't matter which direction they push to block. So downleft/downright, left/right, nothing can block it. They will actually walk around instead of raising their guard as if [Talbain] isn't attacking. So, it's possible (probable) that it could be another proximity guard glitch. But rather than it being a distance thing, the game 'loses' Gallon's position/proximity on the playing field, and the opponent simply can not/won't raise their guard." (What  Xenozip is referring to when he says 'proximity guard glitch' is that when a character does an attack from very specific distances, the defender simply won't try to proximity guard the attack. This phenomenon is why Bishamon's ES Hayate is an unblockable attack against most of the cast.)

 "On a side note though, if the [Talbain] player does the last BC too slow the opponent can air block it. That's probably what Takahashi meant, in that if you do it at the right time they can't block on the ground and they don't have enough time to get into the air and block (since there's a jump startup window where you can't airblock)." (Takahashi is an extremely high-level Japanese Talbain player who let us filthy Americans know about this unblockable to begin with. When Takahashi showed me the unblockable, he insisted thatTalbain has to be very close to the ground in order for the unblockable to work. Takahashi's English is not fluent, however; so Xenozip was making an educated guess as to what he was trying to tell me.)


As far as practical applications go:

- If your opponent is just sitting in the corner and blocking, you can do a 6 9 2 6/9 8 ES BC, and the last two hits will connect for marginal damage, and more importantly, a knockdown. Again, this COULD be done midscreen, but it's much harder and you have better things to be doing.

- You can also bait DPs to land the unblockable by doing 6 9 8 2 6/9. The 8 will (hopefully) dodge the DP entirely, and then you can come straight down on them and set up the final hit of the ES BC to be unblockable. If you are playing high level players, this will probably be the only way you see this unblockable come up in play.

- You can also mix it up by doing 6 9 2 and then landing. This allows you do just do a Throw option select, or even block to bait a DP.


2. Dark Force Unblockable: The very first attack that Talbain's Mirage does after starting a Dark Force is not unblockable, per se; however, it doesn't cause an opponent to guard if they are holding back. Thus, if you can find a way to make your very first attack in Dark Force a meaty attack, you can set up a situation where the opponent gets up into a meaty Mirage attack, which they won't be able to block.

While this sounds totally sexy, the reason why this isn't broken is because Talbain's Dark Force randomly picks between two different variations, where one set of Mirages hits faster than the other. Since there's no way to predict which one you're going to get, there are no 100% guaranteed setups for this unblockable (e.g you can't get a knockdown, activate Dark Force, and have a 100% chance of landing any meaty combo you can think of).

 What we do have, however, is a setup which will either get the unblockable or wind up being extremely safe, courtesy of high-level Japanese Talbain player, KENGALLON:

 - Activate Dark Force, P Throw, C.Mk xx Quick Move, C.Mk xx ES BC (3 Hits)

What's happening here, is that we are baiting a tech hit with the P Throw. If it's teched, Talbain can do his C.Mk kara-canceled into Quick move at the earliest possible  moment, which is a 100% setup with one of his DF speeds. If the unblockable connects, we have already done Quick Move, and will have enough time to link a second C.Mk into an ES BC for 3 hits.  

It's important to remember that Dark Force is a defensive maneuver. When you activate the Dark Force, it's not to do the unblockable; it's simply another way for us to get a knockdown and safely escape pressure. In other words, if you P Throw your opponent and they don't tech, deactivate instead of standing around like a jackass. If your C.Mk doesn't turn out to be unblockable, do what you need to do to ensure a save deactivation. If you don't feel confident trying the unblockable setup, run a safer tactic. Enjoy.