Sailor Moon S

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jougai Rantou!? Shuyaku Soudatsusen
Developer(s)	Arc System Works
Publisher(s)	Angel (Bandai)
Producer(s)	George Yuno
Designer(s)	Yasuhiro Sato
Release Date	JP: December 16, 1994

Introduction

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jougai Rantou!? Shuyaku Soudatsusen (美少女戦士セーラームーンS: 場外乱闘！？主役争奪戦) known in the fighting game community as simply Sailor Moon S, is a fighting game developed by Arc System Works (credited under Angel) and published by Bandai. It was released on December 16, 1994 for the Super Famicom.

In recent years, the game has seen a resurgence in many FGC circuits around the world. If you're interested in learning more about #ArcSysSMS, joining a local community, or starting your own, please check out the Moonlight Fight Society Discord!

Controls

• Directional commands are listed assuming your character is facing right onscreen (1P side). [4] and [6] are reversed if you're facing the other direction. The numbers refer to "Numpad Notation"

Basic Controls

Numpad Notation

Control Config Screen (English)

[8] - Jump

[4] - Retreat (guard during enemy attack)

[44] - Backdash (can be guard-cancelled into)

[2] - Crouch

[1] - Guard low (during enemy attack)

[6] - Advance

The buttons below can be changed to the user's preference after character select before each match.

Y button - - Light Punch

X button - - Heavy Punch

B button - - Light Kick

A button - - Heavy Kick

Auto Mode

• On the Control Config Screen, you can change from NRML to AUTO mode.

• Using default controls: Press individual face buttons while holding down a shoulder button to perform a corresponding Special Move. To use the Desperation Move, press both shoulder buttons together. As this eliminates charge times and makes other moves significantly easier to execute, this mode is banned in competitive play.

Basic Gameplay

Normal Moves

• Four normal attack buttons listed above under Controls. Punches and Kicks of both light and heavy variations. Kick buttons typically have better damage and range. Punch buttons tend to have specific uses depending on framedata/hitboxes - check out the characters pages for more information.

• Jumping light normals are active from button press until you hit the ground or it touches your opponent

• Close Normals: Some characters have some different normals if they're next to the opponent. Important examples are Neptune and Pluto, who's Close HK and HP respectively are overheads.

Dashes

• Every character in this game can backdash by pressing 44. They go varying degrees of distance depending on the character, but they are all super long compared to the backdashes of most fighting games (some even going full screen!)
• Backdashes are fully invincible until the last frame.
• Moon and Uranus can forward dash. Moon's is a flip that goes most of the screen, while Uranus has the equivalent of a backdash that moves her forward, minus the invincibility.

Special Moves & Desperation Moves

• There are universal differences between light and heavy specials; light versions are slower or go less distance and recover faster -- whereas heavy versions are typically faster, hit harder, and have much longer recovery.

• Desperation Moves: When your character has low life (they will be breathing heavy in an idle pose) OR there are less than 10 seconds left on the clock, you can use your character's Desperation Move. You have an unlimited amount - there is no super meter!

• A 15-frame directional input buffer allows you to buffer special moves. This means you can do inputs like 4214+P as Moon and get a backdash cancelled immediately into heart. You can also buffer Special Moves and Desperation Moves during any other move, and it will come out as long as you finish the input starting four frames before said move recovers. The game also has three frames of input delay like most SNES games.

• Any Normal can be cancelled into any Special or Desperation Move, theoretically. This include backdashes and forward-dashes, as they count as Special Moves.

• Backdashes make characters airborne which allows characters to use their air specials out of backdash. Example: 44214+P for Moon's Heart Attack out of backdash.

• The Game only allows 1 directional input per frame; inputting Special/DM directions too fast will caused dropped inputs.

• No Pre-match Charge: Unlike most fighting games, characters with charge moves cannot charge them before a round starts. However, there is an exception to this rule unique to this fighting game. Charge time from the prior round carries over into the next round. This even applies in-between games!

Hit & Damage Properties

• Moves can hit High, Mid, or Low. Every attack from the air that isn't a fireball counts as a High and every crouching heavy kick sweeps Low. Crouching light kick and crouching heavy punch can be Lows and varies by character. Every attack that does not hit High or Low is a Mid.

• There is NO damage scaling in this game, resulting in combos doing high damage.

• Characters have both body and head hurtboxes; Head hurtboxes take more damage than body hurtboxes.

• Counter-hit damage exists, and the damage can potentially stack with head damage. A Desperation Move that deals both counter-hit AND head damage can take a majority of a health bar.

Throws

• All characters have at least one normal throw, done by pressing 4/6 + HP or HK (see character pages for details)

• There are Four types of throws -- Techable throws, Multi-hit-style untechable throws, Air throws, Command throws.

• Throw tech is done by pressing any button twice. (just mash it out)

Guard Cancels

• You are able to cancel your block stun into any Special Move, Desperation Move, backdash, or forward-dash. This is a very common technique at high-level play, and is the defining difference between this game and other games.
• Knowing when to guard cancel into a dash to create space, GC into 360s to punish foolish jump-ins, dragon punches to retake momentum, or projectiles to win fireball wars, etc., is key to success in this game!

Side Advantages

• Sailor Moon S is not a perfectly symmetrical game; Player 1 and Player 2 have different properties on the same move in the same situation. This is probably due to development oversight or game glitches, and sometimes referred to as “Port Advantage.” However, the game is very consistent once you understand the rules. Side Advantage explains the advantages that P1 and P2 each have.

Playable Characters

There are 9 characters in Sailor Moon S, and they are all very unique. Click on each character below to view their moves & strategies. An overall Character Move List is available for printing.

Character Move List

Sailor Mercury	Sailor Moon	Sailor Mars
Sailor Jupiter	Sailor Chibi Moon	Sailor Venus
Sailor Pluto	Sailor Neptune	Sailor Uranus

Game Footage

For detailed tournament archives, check out this page.

Tutorial Videos by Koushun

• 【Mix-up Movie】Sailor Moon S【SNES】
• 【Combo Movie 1】Sailor Moon S【SNES】
• 【Combo Movie 2】Sailor Moon Super【SNES】

Notable Tournaments

• animEVO 2018 (Top 4), 8/4/18
• Frosty Faustings XI (Top 4), 1/18/19
• Combo Breaker (Top 8), 5/24/19
• CEO 2019 (Top 8), 6/30/19
• animEVO 2019 (Top 4), 8/2/19
• Climax of Night (Top 3), 10/27/19

Competitive Play History

• Under Construction

Menus

Trivia

• Among the Senshi's name printed on the box is another person's name: George Yuno. Yuno is the producer of this game who also directed and produced Sailor Moon: Another Story. He stepped down on Super S' production, taking a supporting role as Masayuki Sato served as Executive Producer on that title (not to be confused with Masayuki Sato, the animator)
• Every boxed copy of this game carries a Toei Certificate of Authenticity sticker. There is a very rigorous coloring scheme that applies to these stickers which ensure their authenticity.
• Many staff who worked on this title later went on to work for Arc System Works, given many of Arc's games share production credits.

Tier List

Koushun's 2018 | Matchup Chart

S
A
B
C

NeoRussell's 2018

S
A
B
C

St. Louis, MO 2019

S
A
B
C
D

Other Games

Super S

FighterS

The 3DO Game

Various Emotions

External Links

• Moonlight Fight Sailor Moon S
• TMNT TF CE + SNES Fighters

Sailor Moon S
Sailor Chibi Moon	Sailor Jupiter	Sailor Mars
Sailor Mercury	Sailor Moon	Sailor Neptune
Sailor Pluto	Sailor Uranus	Sailor Venus

List of Fighting Games
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