pegglefrank
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A lot of people who play Lethal League also play Skullgirls, probably because they're both high-quality indie fighters. I thought it'd be a good opportunity to bring it up here.
Lethal League is an odd fighting game. It's a projectile fighting game, which means that, instead of attacking your opponent, you're attacking something else in an effort to attack your opponent indirectly. Basically, you hit a ball, and the ball bounces around the stage at an angle depending on how you hit it. If/when it hits your opponent, your opponent dies instantly. Each player gets 8 lives, or 6 lives in quickmatch, and matches usually last around 3 minutes.
The game doesn't really share that many similarities with other fighting games, which is why it's in its own genre. Regardless, I'll try to explain it.
Personally, I'm near the head of the community, but I don't play much anymore. I originally wrote most of the high quality guides for the game, and I still hang out in the group chat; a wicked, lovely place where we all talk aboutporn and anime Lethal League. Look it up on Steam, go to the community hub, then click "Join Group Chat" in the top right. You can even follow the game to join the official Lethal League group, so that you can join the chat remotely from your friends list.
You can find the game here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/261180/
You can find a short write-up on the currently available guides here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LethalLeague/comments/3b1frd/guides_new_to_the_game_willing_to_read_to_get/
You can find my guides here if you want to pick the game up and need some help: http://steamcommunity.com/id/baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/myworkshopfiles/?appid=261180§ion=guides
Lethal League is an odd fighting game. It's a projectile fighting game, which means that, instead of attacking your opponent, you're attacking something else in an effort to attack your opponent indirectly. Basically, you hit a ball, and the ball bounces around the stage at an angle depending on how you hit it. If/when it hits your opponent, your opponent dies instantly. Each player gets 8 lives, or 6 lives in quickmatch, and matches usually last around 3 minutes.
The game doesn't really share that many similarities with other fighting games, which is why it's in its own genre. Regardless, I'll try to explain it.
You have two attacks: swing, and bunt. If you swing at the ball, it'll send it straight by default. If you hold down while swinging, it becomes a d-neutral, and if you're on the ground, then it becomes a d-ground. If you're in the air, it becomes a d-air. The same occurs if you hold up while swinging, except the swing becomes an up-neutral. An up angle will always be the same no matter if you're grounded or in the air, so we don't use separate terminology for that. If you hit the ball with a d-neutral, it'll go down, if you hit it with a neutral/straight, it'll go straight, if you hit it with an up neutral, it'll go up, and if you smash it, it'll go down. The angle of the ball set by these attacks depends upon the character who hit the ball. Candyman, for example, sends the ball almost straight down when he smashes (~80 degrees), while Dice sends it at a much shallower angle (~25-35 degrees). Hitting the ball with a raw neutral will give you 1 meter. Neutrals also increase the ball's speed by 1. Neutrals can be activated instantly (no startup frames), but they have active frames and recovery frames, so if you just spam the swing button you're bound to die eventually.
If you bunt at the ball, it'll set it to a certain speed and make it obey gravity. Hitting it will give you 2 meter instead of 1, but your opponent can steal it for their own meter. Hitting a bunted ball induces reduced hitlag. Bunting also reduces the ball's speed by 2-3.
When you hit the ball, time stops for everyone but your opponent. You can't move, the ball can't move, and the ball can't be stolen during this time. The higher the ball's speed is, the longer the hitlag. You can bunt during hitlag if you're the one frozen to create a blue shield around the ball, which is called a parry. If your opponent hits the parry, they'll be stunned for a short period of time. This is to prevent people from stealing the ball right out of hitlag. You can only parry during hitlag, so you have a few frames to parry at the standard ball speed, which is 8. The last person to hit the ball tags the ball, which means that the ball can't kill them. Because of this, your opponent absolutely must hit the ball if it comes towards them, or they die. You can also hit the ball into a corner and survive, because the ball will be tagged to your team and it won't kill you. You can disable tagging in the options but it's stupid. The guy who set up our tourney at combo breaker almost disabled ball tagging.
If you jump and hold forward/down while swinging, you'll do a smash instead. Smashes have a frontal and an upper hitbox, both of which become active at separate times. It doesn't matter which hitbox you hit the ball with, unless you're playing Switch, but Switch is a weird character so I won't get into his spec. Smashes double the speed of the ball, but send the ball at a predetermined angle depending on your character, so they're very easy to predict. The speed is doubled the moment you smash the ball, and the hitlag is calculated afterwards. Because of this, if you smash a 50 speed ball, the hitlag will be as if the ball was moving at 100 speed. Smashes have a characteristically long hitlag because of this, but the hitlag caps after a certain speed, so they don't always have more hitlag than neutrals.
If you hold the swing button after doing a neutral, you'll build up a charge. You can move left/right in the air while charging, and you can turn around on the ground, but you can't do both of those things at once. Hitting the ball with a charged shot will double its speed and have bunt-like hitlag. Charges that are set up to catch the ball after hitlag can be cancelled via clashes.
You have a maximum of 4 meter. When you hit the ball, you gain 1 meter. When you bunt the ball, you gain 0 meter, but if you hit the bunted ball, you gain 2 meter. Parrying uses up all of your meter, but because you get 1 meter from hitting the ball, you can always parry every hit. When you have 4 meter, pressing the swing button during hitlag will activate your spec. This will use your meter instantly, so if your opponent thinks you're going to use your spec, it may be wise to parry instead to kill them. The spec for each character is very unique and can shift the motion of the game, though some are arguably more useful than others. (Raptor vs. Sonata)
You can't cancel out of anything, with two exceptions. Raptor's spec can be cancelled out of with a bunt, but it's rarely ever useful, and you can also cancel your opponent's swing/bunt if you match it with your own. This is called a clash; it stuns both players, and because the ball can't kill the last player who hit it, the player who didn't hit the ball last is likely going to die. However, clashes require setup and timing. You can't clash a neutral with a bunt, a bunt with a neutral, or a neutral with a smash. You can only clash a neutral with a neutral and a bunt with a bunt.
There are no charges. There are no quarter circles. There are no 360's. At most, you have to do a 2-button combination, and that's it. Lethal League is a fantastic fighting game to get into because of this; you can play it on your regular old keyboard even if you don't own a controller. You won't be pressing more than 2 buttons at once, so it's viable to play with a cheap keyboard even at the highest level. It also turned me into a keyboard fanboy. Regular controllers are just as well, of course.
You can play 2v2, and by that I mean real 2v2; you can play with three other players. You can also play FFA. Both of these modes are a bit of a nightmare if you aren't organized. You can also play 3v1 for some reason.
There are 6 characters currently in-game, technically 7 if you count Doombox, which is basically the Marie of Lethal League. The characters are: Raptor, Switch, Candyman, Sonata, Latch, Dice. Each character has their own angles, which is the most important thing about them, though they also have different active/inactive frames, jump heights, methods of movement, and specs. The frame data for just about every character is different. A member of the community, Smellyhobo101, is currently trying to make gameplay mods for the game.
If you bunt at the ball, it'll set it to a certain speed and make it obey gravity. Hitting it will give you 2 meter instead of 1, but your opponent can steal it for their own meter. Hitting a bunted ball induces reduced hitlag. Bunting also reduces the ball's speed by 2-3.
When you hit the ball, time stops for everyone but your opponent. You can't move, the ball can't move, and the ball can't be stolen during this time. The higher the ball's speed is, the longer the hitlag. You can bunt during hitlag if you're the one frozen to create a blue shield around the ball, which is called a parry. If your opponent hits the parry, they'll be stunned for a short period of time. This is to prevent people from stealing the ball right out of hitlag. You can only parry during hitlag, so you have a few frames to parry at the standard ball speed, which is 8. The last person to hit the ball tags the ball, which means that the ball can't kill them. Because of this, your opponent absolutely must hit the ball if it comes towards them, or they die. You can also hit the ball into a corner and survive, because the ball will be tagged to your team and it won't kill you. You can disable tagging in the options but it's stupid. The guy who set up our tourney at combo breaker almost disabled ball tagging.
If you jump and hold forward/down while swinging, you'll do a smash instead. Smashes have a frontal and an upper hitbox, both of which become active at separate times. It doesn't matter which hitbox you hit the ball with, unless you're playing Switch, but Switch is a weird character so I won't get into his spec. Smashes double the speed of the ball, but send the ball at a predetermined angle depending on your character, so they're very easy to predict. The speed is doubled the moment you smash the ball, and the hitlag is calculated afterwards. Because of this, if you smash a 50 speed ball, the hitlag will be as if the ball was moving at 100 speed. Smashes have a characteristically long hitlag because of this, but the hitlag caps after a certain speed, so they don't always have more hitlag than neutrals.
If you hold the swing button after doing a neutral, you'll build up a charge. You can move left/right in the air while charging, and you can turn around on the ground, but you can't do both of those things at once. Hitting the ball with a charged shot will double its speed and have bunt-like hitlag. Charges that are set up to catch the ball after hitlag can be cancelled via clashes.
You have a maximum of 4 meter. When you hit the ball, you gain 1 meter. When you bunt the ball, you gain 0 meter, but if you hit the bunted ball, you gain 2 meter. Parrying uses up all of your meter, but because you get 1 meter from hitting the ball, you can always parry every hit. When you have 4 meter, pressing the swing button during hitlag will activate your spec. This will use your meter instantly, so if your opponent thinks you're going to use your spec, it may be wise to parry instead to kill them. The spec for each character is very unique and can shift the motion of the game, though some are arguably more useful than others. (Raptor vs. Sonata)
You can't cancel out of anything, with two exceptions. Raptor's spec can be cancelled out of with a bunt, but it's rarely ever useful, and you can also cancel your opponent's swing/bunt if you match it with your own. This is called a clash; it stuns both players, and because the ball can't kill the last player who hit it, the player who didn't hit the ball last is likely going to die. However, clashes require setup and timing. You can't clash a neutral with a bunt, a bunt with a neutral, or a neutral with a smash. You can only clash a neutral with a neutral and a bunt with a bunt.
There are no charges. There are no quarter circles. There are no 360's. At most, you have to do a 2-button combination, and that's it. Lethal League is a fantastic fighting game to get into because of this; you can play it on your regular old keyboard even if you don't own a controller. You won't be pressing more than 2 buttons at once, so it's viable to play with a cheap keyboard even at the highest level. It also turned me into a keyboard fanboy. Regular controllers are just as well, of course.
You can play 2v2, and by that I mean real 2v2; you can play with three other players. You can also play FFA. Both of these modes are a bit of a nightmare if you aren't organized. You can also play 3v1 for some reason.
There are 6 characters currently in-game, technically 7 if you count Doombox, which is basically the Marie of Lethal League. The characters are: Raptor, Switch, Candyman, Sonata, Latch, Dice. Each character has their own angles, which is the most important thing about them, though they also have different active/inactive frames, jump heights, methods of movement, and specs. The frame data for just about every character is different. A member of the community, Smellyhobo101, is currently trying to make gameplay mods for the game.
Personally, I'm near the head of the community, but I don't play much anymore. I originally wrote most of the high quality guides for the game, and I still hang out in the group chat; a wicked, lovely place where we all talk about
You can find the game here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/261180/
You can find a short write-up on the currently available guides here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LethalLeague/comments/3b1frd/guides_new_to_the_game_willing_to_read_to_get/
You can find my guides here if you want to pick the game up and need some help: http://steamcommunity.com/id/baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/myworkshopfiles/?appid=261180§ion=guides
