Normal Attacks
As far as normal attacks go, each character only has the following:

• Standing L, M, H
  
• Crouching L, M, H
  
• Air L, M, H

Jumping
There are two kinds of jumps: normal jumps and High Speed Jumps. High Speed Jumps are performed by beginning a crouch right before jumping. Generally, they move faster than normal jumps do, which can be useful for slow characters like Tama no Hikari.

While jumping, most characters (perhaps all characters?) are only vulnerable from the briefs upwards, and their legs become intangible. This means that characters who are above their opponents can sometimes have a positional advantage.

Grabs
Performed by pressing →H while very close to your opponent. This technique will ignore an opponent's block, but be warned that if your opponent is too far away your character will perform a Standing H attack instead.

Combo Strings

• Any standing or crouching normal can cancel into a standing or crouching normal of greater strength if it hits an opponent or is blocked.
  
• Crouching H can cancel into a jump only if it hits an opponent and is not blocked. Crouching H is the only move that can be jump cancelled.
  
• Any air normal can cancel into any air normal of greater strength if it hits an opponent or is blocked.
  
• Any normal can cancel into a Special Move.
  
• Any move that is not a Super Move can cancel into a Super Move.

Stamina
Stamina is a resource each player gains and loses throughout the fight by performing various actions. It is represented by the row of candles at the bottom corners of the screen. Once the row of candles completely fills up, you gain a single Stamina (the number next to the candles is the number of full Stamina you have). It is valuable, since players with more Stamina have more, stronger options available to them. Actions which earn Stamina include:

• Whiffing normals (only a little bit of Stamina)
  
• Striking the opponent with normals
  
• Performing special attacks (seems to get the most Stamina)
  
• Taking damage

Players can hold a maximum of three Stamina at one time and cannot gain any more Stamina at that point until they have spent some of it.
This meter can be spent on:

• Air recoveries (one half Stamina)
  
• ES attacks (one Stamina)
  
• Super Combos (Three Stamina)

Tech
While you are in the air, being hit by any attack will put you in a falling state. Fighters cannot act while falling, which leaves them vulnerable to follow-up attacks. In addition, falling fighters will land prone on the ground. In this position, they become invulnerable, but still cannot act until the charcter gets back up onto their feet. All in all, this adds up to a lot of wasted time the opponent can use to prepare for another assault.

While falling, you can press the Special button and spend one half Stamina to reset yourself to a jumping position. This maneuver, called a Tech, will allow you to act again after a brief recovery period. Beware, though; if you are struck again before landing (even if you are hit during the recovery period) you will once again be put into a falling state.

Special Step
This maneuver, called simply a "Step" by the instruction manual, is performed by either double-tapping forwards or backwards; or by pressing fowards or backwards in addition to the Special button. It does not cost meter. By performing this action, your character becomes invincible and moves in the chosen direction. This allows you to escape corners or dodge powerful attacks, but there is a brief period of vulnerability afterwards. This technique cannot cancel into anything, even an ES Attack.

ES Attacks
Almost all special moves have stronger versions that are performed using the Special button. These versions, called ES Attacks, cost 1 Stamina. The only exception is Nininga Shimaru's Shadow Cloning no Jitsu, which does not appear to have an ES Attack version.

The goal of the game is to deal as much damage as possible to your opponent while receiving as little damage as possible. One of the best ways to rack up damage quickly is through combos. Here is the magic combo, the starting point for coming up with combos for any character:

↓L ↓M ↓H ↑ airL airM airH

Although this combo isn't foolproof (for example, it doesn't work for Brief of Zoro), it's a reasonable place to start for most characters. Adjust it as necessary.

The trick is that you don't want to continue the combo too far if your opponent blocks it because the stronger the move you use the more punishable it is on block. Fortunately, most characters can use Light Attacks multiple times before commiting to the combo. If you notice your opponent block the Light Attacks, I don't recommend continuing on to the rest of the combo.

In this game, every air attack will immediately cancel upon touching the ground. Use this to your advantage to set up safe combo starters, especially after your opponent has been knocked down. Throwing out a couple air Light attacks then immediately following with a low crouching attack is a great way to beat an opponent's block.

A few additional notes:

• There is no damage scaling, so you will not be punished for starting a combo with repeated Light attacks.
  
• Counter-hits don't do more damage or hitstun.

This guy has a super-weird hurtbox because he sticks his arm out so far. This hinders him in a couple of ways: first off, he can be hit by standing attacks from very far away; and secondly, he is very prone to jumping crossups because he'll automatically turn to face his opponent and consequently get hit on the arm. Note that most crouching attacks will still miss his extended arm, so he's mostly worried about standing and jumping attacks.

His strength lies in his fast attacks and easy, high-damage combos. His standing and crouching jabs are absolutely phenomanal, coming out way faster than most other characters' while still reaching very far. They can (and should) be mashed to get four or five free hits in, since they're safe when blocked and the mashing makes them easier to hit-confirm into combos. Even his heavy attacks are fast.
Another noteworthy move is is Wind Godfist, which functions wonderfully as a quick anti-air. His Harakiri special also works as an anti-air, but requires more startup time. To compensate, its disjointed hitbox makes it outprioritize many dangerous aerial attacks.

Spam jabs. Often.

Combos:
LLLL... M H [Shoulder(L)] [Shoulder(ES)]
Basic beginner combo. On block, feel free to just end it with the jabs. Even the M and H are relatively safe, but NEVER, NEVER throw out a Shoulder without knowing for sure it's going to hit.

LLLL... M ↓H ↑ jL jM jH [Harakiri(H)] [Wind Godfist(SP)]
Ah, here’s the fancy stuff. The Harakiri(H) is performed after you land on the ground. Its intent is to catch the opponent while they’re falling to set up for a high-damage Wind Godfist ES. However, with combos like these the opponent can air recover by spending half a bar of meter, so it’s important to hit-confirm the Harakiri before commiting to Super Wind Godfist. You have to be quick about it, though; I recommend inputting the directional inputs for Wind Godfist ahead of time and waiting to press SP until after you hitconfirm. If you think your opponent is very likely to air recover, you might delay or even omit the Harakiri and Wind Godfist.

LLLL... M ↓H H ↑ jL jH [Harakiri(H)] [Wind Godfist(SP)]
(Against an opponent who doesn't have enough meter to air recover) Identical to the above combo, but after the launcher instead of jumping immediately you throw a standing H then jump. It's not realy worth it unless you know for certain your opponent can't air recover, since the standing H connects so late. Also, the standing H causes the opponent to fall a bit, so the jM must be omitted from the air sequence.

(against air opponent) LLL… H [Wind Godfist(H)]
If you catch your opponent in the middle of a jump with a jab then standing M, crouching M, and crouching H will all be too low to connect. Instead, skip straight to Standing H and finish with a Wind Godfist, or substitute a Wind Godfist(SP) if you feel like spending meter.

Tama no Hikari is a slow but powerful close-range fighter who is very beginner-friendly. His moves and combos are straightforward and simple while providing a lot of flexibility.

His main weakness is his very slow movement speed. However, this can be overcome by moving via High Speed Jumps. Although his normal jumps are obnoxiously slow and floaty, his High Speed Jumps are actually excellent. Using them, he can start combos with Light air attacks or set up crossups with the generous hitbox of his Heavy air attack.

Unmotivated Slapping doesn't trap the opponent inside it and leaves Tama very open to counterattack; unless you're using the ES version to finish a combo the move is awful.

Strike with Pan is a versatile move that can be used to finish combos, punish an opponent's whiffed normals, or simply poke from a distance. Because of its large disjointed hitbox it's fairly safe to throw out when the opponent is far away, and it can beat out many of an opponent's attacks because the pan cannot be struck back. In ground-to-air strings, it substitutes for Standing H, which will whiff against aerial opponents. Finally, the ES version will very likely dump the opponent into the corner, but only at the end of a ground combo, which limits its usefulness.

Spin for the Present is a good combo finisher for air combos because opponents who tech will still struggle to avoid its multiple hits. Other than that, I don't recommend using it.

There's really no reason to use Tama's ES attacks outside of combo finishers.

This character is a defensively-oriented zoning character geared towards keeping the opponent at a distance with unorthodox attacks. Like most zoning characters in this game, he lacks a reliable close-range anti-air option. As such, he relies upon his Standing H to catch faraway opponents early just as they begin their jumps.

Although he's great at forcing opponents to take the initiative, he struggles when they actually get close to him. He doesn't do a whole lot of melee damage if his opponent techs out of his shuriken combos, and because of the small hitboxes on his air normals there are some opponents who avoid his air combos.

While his H attack deals with opponents who try to jump, his Shuriken no Jitsu overwhelms opponents who stay grounded. This move far outranges anything other zoning characters can launch, and so it makes it very difficult to camp out Nininga. However, since it can be avoided by jumping, it should really only be used as a projectile when you expect your opponent to remain grounded to either block it or attempt a projectile attack of their own. In combos, it sets up high-damage finishers that force the opponent to either air recover or eat massive damage. Just don’t use the super version of this move (which is absolutely awful). His meter is better spent elsewhere.

His second special attack, Cooking Knife no Jitsu, functions mostly as a grounded combo finisher. Since it’s unsafe when blocked, it’s best used as a followup to his standing H. The super version acts as a more versatile followup, and it usually follows the normal version or his special attack Shuriken no Jitsu.

His final special attack, Shadow Cloning no Jitsu, isn’t very reliable. It makes him untouchable almost immediately, which is great, but it’s also extremely telegraphed. On top of that, the mix-up isn’t all that hard to deal with, since anybody with an anti-air can just use their best anti-air move and automatically turn around to catch him wherever he falls. I don’t recommend using it. If you do use it, though, remember that the strength of the button used to input the command determines which clone he reappears as: Light = leftmost clone, Medium = middle clone, and Heavy = rightmost clone, no matter which way he happens to be facing.

Combos
↓L ↓L… ↓M H [Cooking Knife no Jitsu(L)] [Cooking Knife no Jitsu(SP)]
Basic combo. Make sure to input Super Cooking Knife no Jitsu very early after the normal version, since the input window is short.

↓L↓L… ↓M ↓H ↑ jL jM jH [Shuriken no Jitsu (L)] [Cooking Knife no Jitsu(SP)]
More advanced combo. This takes advantage of the fact that thrown Shuriken have very persistent hitboxes that remain active well after the shuriken strike the ground. If the opponent doesn't air recover, they will impale themselves upon the shuriken and leave themselves open to a nasty Super attack. If they do recover, make space with a backwards evasive roll or pressure further with standing H. In the corner, you may have to throw the Light version of the shuriken to account for the decrease in distance, but the combo will still work.

(at a distance) H [Cooking Knife no Jitsu] [Cooking Knife no Jitsu(SP)]
The followup to a long-range blowdart. Adjust the strength of the initial Cooking Knife no Jitsu as necessary.

(against air opponent, at a distance) H [Shuriken no Jitsu(M)] [Cooking Knife no Jitsu(SP)]
For when you catch an opponent as they begin to jump towards you so the blowdart connects while they're only slightly above the ground. Once again, a combo that exploits the duration of Shuriken no Jitsu's hitbox. Even if your opponent blocks the initial hit and you accidentally proceed to throw a Shuriken, it's still pretty safe since you're at that distance (at least, safer than a blocked Cooking Knife). This may be air-recoverable, but I'm not sure.

In playstyle, he reminds me of Super Tamade. He's not quite as fast but his hurtbox is less extreme and he gains access to a much-better Crouching M. In fact, his Crouching M is an outstanding and safe anti-air move that makes short work of opponents who try to jump. It's an absolutely incredible move. Use it.

His projectile attack, Hado, seems pretty useless. It can barely even be called a projectile, it's so short. The startup is pretty awful, and all the input strengths result in the exact same frame data and power, so it's not very useful. The super version is great, though, since it's a completely different move. Use the super version to punish the opponent's whiffed attacks from any distance.

Banaku, a sliding punch, is unsafe on guard, so it's not all that useful. The L version can end ground combos and cancel into a Super Banaku, though. That's cool. If you decide to throw it out in the neutral and it gets blocked, you can still salvage the situation with a Super Hado, but you pretty much just wasted a bar of meter imo.

His anti-air special, Kyan-Pai, doesn't have nearly as big a hitbox as Super Tamade's Wind Godfist. Since his crouching M is a much better anti-air, I mostly just use this move as a followup to Crouching M against air opponents.

His level 3 Super is good.

I haven't found any interesting advanced combos, aside from the previously mentioned 2M to Kyan-Pai combo against opponents above you.

His normals are bad, his combos are poor, his specials are finicky... but he has access to arguably the best special move in the game: Placing Neko Bomb, Nya. This move does a lot of things for him: First off, he gains a substantial amount of Stamina immediately when performing it, even if it gets cancelled into an ES move before he completes it. What this means is that whenever you perform the ES version you can input the normal version just before and get a free Stamina discount. More importantly, though, the bomb can't be interacted with after it's placed, so even if you get hit the bomb is guaranteed to go off. Generally, when the bomb is about to go off you want either your character or your opponent's character to be directly touching it. If your opponent is touching it, they're forced to jump beforehand or block; if you're touching it, it acts as a defensive safeguard so that if your opponent attacks you they get hit and they can't combo you.

The L version of the bomb explodes the soonest, the H version explodes the latest. Really, it comes down to preference.

Nekomimi usually wants to place these when his opponent has been knocked down or is too far away to attack. After each combo, he can place one, immediately gaining meter, so he gathers meter faster than any other character in the game. General rule of thumb: IF YOUR OPPONENT IS DOWN, YOU PROBABLY SHOULD PLACE A BOMB! Of course, what better move to use with this meter than ES Placing Neko Bomb, Nya! This version is what really makes this move stand out. It covers a good half the stage with bombs, giving Nekomimi an immense amount of pressure for free. He can attack with virtual impunity knowing that his opponent's counterattacks will get them blown away before then can begin an air combo. Because the opponent's counterattack options are limited, Nekomimi's other special attacks become more threatening at this point, too.

Although you'd think the bombs could work into combos, they are actually quite a nusiance. They launch the opponent upwards like a crouching Heavy attack, but Nekomimi can't jump-cancel without using a crouching Heavy, which will miss after the bomb hits. This limits Nekomimi's combo options: either connect with a crouching Heavy attack the moment the bomb explodes, or abridge the combo using a Special Move. The bombs are still worth it, though.

Use the ES version of the move while you're facing the center of the stage, since the bombs won't bounce off walls and will instead fly right off the stage.

Rolling Attack, Nya is a bit odd because it actually becomes more unsafe when it hits an opponent or is blocked than it is when it completely misses. That's because unless it's immediately cancelled into an ES move it will send Nekomimi recoiling into the sky completely unble to act. The L version is a bit managable, but each other version travels farther and results in much more recoil. For that reason, if you plan on using the move blindly I recommend only using the L version. Since Nekomimi's standing H attack is too slow to combo in ground-to-air strings, it can substitute for an H against air opponents.

If the attack whiffs because the opponent is using an evasive Step or is in the air, the cooldown is almost nonexistant. This is where the move's true use lies. Since Nekomimi doesn't have a reliable anti-air move, when the opponent jumps sometimes your best option is to use the H version to roll on out of there and escape completely. When ending an air combo, you can throw out the H version and if your opponent avoids it by Teching you're completely safe, off on the other side of the stage! Go drop a bomb or two while you're at it! You even get meter, too.

Neko Rocket Punch~, Nya is a bit useless for the most part. It's slow and has a tiny hitbox with a huge blind spot right in front of Nekomimi. However, it becomes useful when combined with bombs already on the stage. In that case, it (and the ES version) act as useful ways to combo off exploding bombs when the opponent is too far away to hit with normals.

Combos
IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO USE THE SP VERSION OF ROLLING ATTACK, NYA THEN USE THE L VERSION AS THE COMBO FINISHER! NEVER FINISH THE COMBO WITH THE H VERSION!

L M H [Neko Rocket Punch~, Nya] [Neko Rocket Punch~, Nya(SP)]
Basic combo.

↓L ↓M ↓H ↑ jL jM jH [Rolling Attack, Nya(H)] [Rolling Attack, Nya(SP)]
If you want to do as much damage as possible in a combo, this is a good one. Even if they Tech, the Rolling Attack (H) is still safe. Honestly, though, I'd rather drop some bombs than proceed to the Rolling Attack, but maybe it might be a good idea if the opponent's almost out of health.

(against air opponent) L M [Rolling Attack, Nya(L)]
Ground-to-Air combos can be finicky, so I wouldn't spend meter on it. H is too slow to connect.

(bomb goes off) [Rolling Attack, Nya(H)] [Rolling Attack, Nya(SP)]

(bomb goes off) [Neko Rocket Punch~, Nya] [Neko Rocket Punch~, Nya(SP)]

Anybody who's played Marth from the Smash Bros. series might have a good idea of how this character functions. He's the only fighter in this game with a sword. Naturally, most of his strategy revolves around keeping the opponent at a distance using his sword. His sword is invulnverable to attacks, which is nice because he can poke his opponent with it oftentimes without allowing an opportunity to counterattack. Like Nininga, he lacks a close-range anti-air attack, so he deals with jumping approaches by snuffing them early with his long-range Standing H attack; under almost all circumstances this is followed by a Light Decapitation.

This character's strengths are his range and his uncanny meter-building ability. However, once the opponent gets close to him he crumbles.

This character struggles immensely once opponents manage to close the gap his sword creates, since even his light attacks are painfully slow. Making things worse, his crouching M, crouching H, and standing H (and sometimes even his crouching L) attacks all tend to whiff at point-blank. His Electric Orb special, too, has a blind spot at point-blank range -- even the Super version. Things only get worse once he's stuck in a corner, since his only escape is probably to perform an evasive roll forwards and eat a full ground combo because of it. Under NO circumstances should you purposefully allow the distance between you and your opponent to shorten.

As far as specials go, his Electric Orb is a clear winner. You can throw it out when your opponent is on the ground and they'll be forced to block it when they get up if you timed it right, so basically you get free meter after a knockdown. Using this move just gets you a ton of meter in general and it's hard to retaliate against.

The best way to spend his meter is usually on the Super version of Electric Orb. This Super is a great tool for when the opponent is about to breach your defenses. It's quick and pushes back the opponent pretty far. Also, it works great as an anti-air if you don't have enough time for a Light Decapitation. Pretty much just an overall panic-button Super move, just don't use it at point-blank range because it might whiff.

Combos
↓L ↓L ↓M H [Light Decapitation]
This is his bread-and-butter against grounded opponents. Although his crouching L is fairly slow, it makes up for it with range. If they block you you might want to cancel the combo into Electric Orb(L), which is quick and difficult to punish when blocked.

(at a distance) ↓M H [Light Decapitation]
↓M is a great move that reaches very far very quickly. Note that ↓M will whiff against jumping opponents since it's so low. What makes this combo great is that it's perfectly safe even on block when performed at a suitable distance. Once you see that the crouching M connect (even on block) don't be afraid to continue attacking to establish distance. Do be cautios about spending meter on this, though, since sometimes the opponent might be too far away for a Light Decapitation.

(at a distance) H [Light Decapitation]
This combo works better than the previous ones if you think there's a possibility your opponent might jump. If they block at a distance, you're still safe. If they jump and get hit in the air, Light Decapitation will still combo. Very safe.

(close range) LLL M H [Light Decapitation] [Light Decapitation(SP)]
The go-to "get offa me" panic combo. Normally, crouching L is prefferable to the standing jab, but when you're uncomfortably close a standing L (or sometimes standing M) is the more suitable attack. You could attempt a crouching H into an air combo off a hit confirm, but B. Zoro's air combos are pretty inconsistent and probably not worth attempting. This is one character who does not enjoy being in the air.