About Pom's Puppies...

[Queezeey]

Hey guys. New fighting game player here, and I just had a question on the mechanics of Pom's puppies (the ones she calls with her magic). So, in the streams, we've seen the devs controlling the puppies, who appear to be able to run through the opponent and get behind them (I'll add a picture for reference).

As you can see, Oleander is forced to face Pom with the puppies behind her.
My question is: how is the opponent supposed to deal with having a puppy behind them? From what I've seen, the characters don't appear to have many (if any) backwards-facing moves to hit them with. I know Paprika has her screenwrap and Tianhuo her directional cancel Firecracker, but for characters like Arizona I can't for the life of me figure out how they'd hit them.
With my limited knowledge on fighting games, it seems like an extremely safe way to pressure specific characters, and I just wanted to know if there were any way to counter it.

 

[TheOneZeelOne]

Well of course at this stage it's hard to gauge stuff like this. My instinct here in this specific situation would probably be to jump over them, as atleast these levels of puppies don't seem to have a means of getting to you in the air. Then you could either attack them from the air or get to the left of them so you can attack them more easily or atleast keep them from surrounding you.

I don't remember if this was answered in the stream or not but now I'm wondering if Pom can control her puppies as she's being attacked. Some were comparing her to Ms. Fortune from Skullgirls, who could do similar tricks with her head; in that case she couldn't do anything with it whilst she was taking damage. If Pom works under similar principles, than another simple answer would be to just keep the pressure on her and then you won't have to worry about the pups behind you.

 

[Stars]

Also keep in mind that they start in front of Pom, so they're not going to suddenly appear behind her opponent. If they get behind you, it's either because they ran toward you, and you didn't stop them, or else you moved past them yourself.

That said, they have shown some moves that appear to attack on both sides. I don't know how low it will hit, but Oleander has at least one attack that has her turn away to summon an arcing attack from Fred that goes back to front.

 

[DShou]

Regarding fighting game mechanics, generally you will have to apply pressure and block as necessary. The puppies need to be close to your position to hit it seems so if they approach/you get pushed into them (while blovking) you can jump past them given an opening.

Although puppet characters can be overwhelming by a good player you should hopefully still have options. If they were attackable on their own then immediately you have an edge when you're able to.

 

[EAiscool]

Arizona has that stomp move. I'd imagine that hits behind her. But yes, she probably is going to be very difficult to deal with. That's one of the benefits of learning how to play puppet characters.

However, if those puppies got onto your other side, it's generally going to be because you let them get there. Even if they ended up being there because of a combo, it's still technically your fault because you got hit.

I personally tend to think of a puppet characters, well, puppets as a projectile of sorts. Avoid them as much as possible and block when it's near you, then get on your opponent and don't let them use it.

 

[DShou]

I personally tend to think of a puppet characters, well, puppets as a projectile of sorts. Avoid them as much as possible and block when it's near you, then get on your opponent and don't let them use it.

Oh no
Puppy Projectiles
MissileOP

 

[danmiy12]

Seeing how you can juggle those puppies, you can completely prevent them from getting behind you if you dont want them too...and it didnt look like they needed that many hits to be forced to retreat. And like said above they always start at poms location so they cant just pop up behind you they have to get around you without you taking them out. And looking at how it is now they have hit stun and juggle mechanics so the pom player has to take into account that she cant just get them behind you without a fight.

edit: and even if they get behind you, some characters have attacks that can hit behind them throwing those puppies into the air probably despawning them in the process. And seeing how pom needs them in order to do reasonable damage she has to plan out her puppies and use them to fill in holes in her combos.

 

[CrpCrwls]

Oh no
Puppy Projectiles
MissileOP

That remind me of something else...

Spoiler