The Longest Grind 06 - Garou: Mark of the Wolves

The game may not be in the spotlight in today’s ever-growing fighting game community, nor the company that developed the game is the same as it was, but no one can deny the excellence that Garou: Mark of the Wolves brought to the fighting game genre. It is one of SNK’s most revered games outside of the top King of Fighters games where it has garnered respect of fighting game fans from numerous backgrounds and preferences. Garou is well known for its excellent fighting, distinguishable and personable cast of characters, and beautiful presentation from the outstanding soundtrack to the colorful animated stage backgrounds.

I instantly fell in love with the game 15 years ago when I purchased the Sega Dreamcast version of the game. I still own that copy with me to this day, and it still works! It was one of the many Dreamcast games I pour in numerous hours and gotten much joy out of, even though I mostly played the game alone back then without the knowledge of the advanced mechanics and other items that I did not know back then I know now. There are some mechanics Garou has that are similar to other games, and other mechanics that I cannot recall if any other fighting game has. It’s interesting to learn these mechanics now that I’m more infatuated with the ins-and-outs in fighting games and increased my affirmation in Garou.

T.O.P. System

The T.O.P. system gives the fighter increased damage on their attacks, slowly restores health up to the end position of the T.O.P., and access to the T.O.P. attack. I knew about the first two attributes back then, but never knew about the attack until recently. The T.O.P. attack has the character perform a close-encounter attack then flip away, which sort-of acts like a dragon-punch. It’s something I’ll need to think about and utilize a little bit whenever my character’s T.O.P. is activated.

Low/High Dodge Attacks

Some fighting games have mechanics specially for overhead attacks, such as Street Fighter III’s universal overhead attacks, up to Persona 4 Arena’s all-out attack. Garou has it’s own version of an overhead, dubbed “Low Dodge Attack” from the Garou Dreamcast instruction manual. The character will perform a hop then attack high. Garou also includes a “High Dodge Attack” where it dodges (maybe standing) and aerial attacks with a unique attack.

Feints

I do not think to my knowledge that many other fighting games ever had feints as a fighting mechanic accessible to the entire cast. There are many fighting game character that has feints as part of their special move attack, to fake out performing their special attack to surprise the opponent. The fighter’s feints look like taunts on the surface. They’re not much use if they’re simply thrown out there, but can be an effective tool to pull out once in a blue moon.

Breaking

I never understood how Breaking moves worked when I younger and never executed it at all. But with better understanding of the genre nowadays, breaking moves occurs where a character cancels one move in order to quickly perform another action. It’s similar to the roman cancel/rapid/one more cancel mechanic from the GG/BB/P4A Arc System Works games or FADC (focus attack dash cancel) in Street Fighter IV. In Garou, breaking moves are limited to a character’s specific special attack. All Garou characters have one move where they can Break and follow-up. [Tizoc has two special moves that can be breaked.] It’s a nice tool that can serve both as an additional offensive tool to cancel that special move into additional attacks afterward and a defensive tool to stop the entire special move to be performed and punished by the opponent who has blocked or avoided that particular special move.

Just Defend

Just Defend is Garou’s version of Street Fighter III’s parry, whereas if you block at the same time your opponent’s attack is about to hit you earns you a Just Defend, which gives the player two significant benefits. The first benefit is the ability to counterattack the opponent’s attack. Some attacks cannot be counterattacked by simply blocking and waiting for their opponent’s attack to finish because the opponent’s attack has a ton of priority or advantage frames that makes it very hard in many instances to quickly counter. Just defend diminishes some of the advantageous priority of the opponent’s attack and gives the player the opportunity to launch a counterattack. The player also earns a tiny bit of health back with a successful Just Defend.

Didn’t Know ‘Til Now

There were a few recent revelations that I never knew Garou had recently. There are probably a few more secrets that I probably did not know still exist in Garou, but whatever they may be, are neat to know. Hotaru and Hokutomaru are the only ones (I think) in Garou that can perform an air throw. Bonne Jenet has a secret third super that is only performed from a Just Defend, then A, B, C.

Similarities with Street Fighter III?

If you do pit Garou and SFIII against each other, you can see both games share a lot of characteristics. Both games represented drastic changes from their previous iterations of the franchise with a brand new artistic look and a brand new cast of characters with only the main iconic protagonist carried over (Terry Bogard for Garou, Ryu for Street Fighter). Both games were released around the same time (vanilla SFIII in 1997 with Garou in 1999) and features parry/JD with short strung combos, attacks that generally dish out significant damage, and proper use of advanced mechanics to gain the upper hand. But that’s where the similarities end between the two games. Once you get a feel on how both games play, there is a grand difference on how you will end up playing both games.

Still Active?

Unfortunately, Garou isn’t significantly played much worldwide online or featured much in fighting game tournaments despite its acknowledged excellence. Even though a X-Box 360 version of the game is available with online play, I would highly advise people to NOT PURCHASE THIS VERSION OF THE GAME. The online netcode developed in the X360 version is downright terrible. Luckily, there is a way to play pretty stable Garou online. But it’s not available on modern gaming consoles or handhelds, it available through a PC program called Fightcade. There is no word an updated re-release of Garou with good netplay announced for consoles. [AKA not gonna happen]

I do not have much opportunities to play Garou through Fightcade, but I’ll try to get some matches in over the weekends/holidays/days off if possible. I’m terrible in the game, but the game is still very fun to play nonetheless.

The Last of the Original SNK Greats

The old and revered SNK that everyone recalls is long gone when they first went bankrupt in 2000. The current version of SNK, SNK Playmore, isn’t the same SNK that I recall. Outside of some great KOFs (particularly KOF 2002, KOF XI, and KOF XIII), SNK Playmore has not done much for me. Their celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Neo Geo consists of a mere bundle sale of SNK classic games on Android. Garou was one of the final releases of the good old kick-ass SNK and it still holds up for me to this day. Everything is simply beautiful and well executed in all aspects of the game, whether its the fighting and mechanics, the personable characters, and presentation going above and beyond a normal fighting game would contain. I am especially fond of the soundtrack and stage backgrounds.

[My top four SNK pillars are Garou: Mark of the Wolves; The Last Blade 2; King of Fighters 1998; SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium]

Thanks for reading!