The King of Fighters 2002/Ralf

Anywhere:
1. C, hcf+K/hcb+D - 33%/35%
2. Crouch C, _b f+C(2), (S)qcf hcb+P/AC - 45%/60%
3. Crouch C, _b f+C(2), (S)qcb hcf+K, qcfx2+P - 90% (if done right, they only have a few frames to roll the qcfx2+P)
4. c.C/cl.C qcf hcb+P/AC
5. c.C/cl.C qcb hcf+K

Move Properties:
-cancellable normals are crouch A, close C, crouch C, crouch D, jump C(high, vertical)
-CD is cancellable into specials and DMs
-_b f+P is supercancellable on the second hit
-hcb+D and qcfx2+P have autoguard
-hcb+D autoguard changes based on which hit the move is on, the 2nd and last "hit" frames seem to be invincible to rush supers, while other hit frames are not.
- _b f+P has random invincibility frames near the beginning
- hcb+B hops low fireballs and ducks high fireballs.
- CD has invincibility frames on startup.

Strategies:

Ralf is a shitty character. Think of him as a character with 6 different dragon punches. Good damage and priority, but if they whiff or are blocked you're dead.

Ralf's best tool is reversals. This can really scare the crap out of your opponent. All his non throw specials have huge priority or auto guard, cleanly beating all normals and most specials.

This is the first half of his game, if you're in a position to be defensive (say waking up), you have a 50/50 against an offensive opponent. If they try to do a meaty, reversal anything will beat it (including reversal throw). If they try and bait the reversal by blocking, throw catches that as well.

hcb+D is the best reversal against grounded attacks, on wakeup the autoguard will beat all grounded meatys, it's auto guard will also beat fireball and energy meaties on reversal. It does however lose to any air based offense. If you're opponent is pressuring from the air, go for a _b f+P or hcb+B, as hcb will duck high attacks like RED kick.

This should force your opponent to stop pressuring you in reversal situations, giving you lots of space.

The second half of ralf's game comes from poking and throwing. Ralf's pokes are only mediocre, kinda slow, kinda low priority, but are his only other tool.

Mix up his pokes, force your opponent to play footsies with you.

In close combat, the rest of Ralf's tools come sc.C and throw. sc.C will meaty and combo into super or throw. If it's blocked it's safe. Punish with hcf+K throw.

Other notes:

hcb+b has nice ducking frames and will duck things like RED kick and a lot of jump in attacks like Yashiro j.D or Iori j.D. If you're opponent follows up, thinking he hit you get a free counter hit, if not, you're slightly punishable.

Ralf doesn't really have a good air combat attack, his air to air elbow (j.C) is mediocre, his sf.C is mediocre at best, and _d u+P is awful unless your opponent is right on top of you. Stick to guarding.

The dive of _d u+P and j.qcb+P do huge guard damage. 2 or 3 of these will put your opponent in the red zone where you can proceed to c.C once or twice and land a free super. However both attacks are punishable on block with rush supers and usually a standing heavy attack otherwise, on whiff it's even worse. Using these attacks is risky but almost worth the trade against characters who can only punish with heavies.

If you're like me and abuse the shit out of s.CD. Eventually you're opponent is going to get smart and find solutions other than blocking. Against Vanessa who uses her invincible dash (either _b f+P or qcf+K f+P) to go through the s.CD and then hit you during your recovery, you can cancel s.CD to hcf+K throw. This strat is also very effective against people who might try to roll through s.CD and punish you during recovery. At the very least on hit or block the cancel is safe and builds meter. In fact it's very easy to build bar just doing s.CD xx hcf+K throw all day.

cl.D is also a surprisingly effective move. It doesn't combo or have much application, but it will tech crouch jump in and tech jump lows. Similar applications as Chun Li's close s.HK in 3rd strike.