Fighting games are a mixture between Psychic and Technical understanding.
Psychic understanding is knowing and predicting the mind of your opponent.
Technical understanding is reading the game state and predicting the next actions of your opponent from the game state.
Distance between two characters can be thought of as "Psychic Safety". When far enough away from the opponent, the player is in no *immediate* danger from the opponent's mind and actions (Psychic and Technique).
Psychic Risk is the total of negative possibilities from any point in a given gamestate for one of the players.
Psychic Safety is the total of positive possibilities from any point in a given gamestate for one of the players.
Psychic Possibility is the total of all possibilities from any point in a given gamestate for one of the players.
Closing the gap between opponents lessens Psychic Safety and increases Psychic Risk. Psychic Risk is the increasing possibility of danger. Most attacks can be "safely" avoided by blocking. Whenever fighters are close enough, blocking is not safe because throws (which counter blocking) become viable. Within a certain range the player can no longer rely on a safe Technique but must use Psychic abilities -- shortening the distance *forces* Psychic action because there is less safety in Technique.
An important gameplay element is the ability for players to alter the Psychic Possibility and increase the opponent's Psychic Risk or increase their own Psychic Safety with a Psychicly Safe Technique. A psychicly safe technique is a technique which has *NO* possibility of being "countered" -- 100% safe or 0% risk.
It is my belief that a game that does not support 0 risk techniques will feel too "random and uncontrollable" to the players. A game that has too many "0 risk" possible gamestates will not be "interesting" or "challenging", because players will only have to master the gamestates and not each other's Psychic mind.

Link Options

	Step	Walk	Rush	Standing Punch	Standing Kick	Forward Punch	Forward Kick
Finish	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Step	X	X		X		X	X
Walk	X	X		X	X	X	X
Rush	X	X	X	X		X
Standing Punch	X	X		X
Standing Kick	X	X		X		X
Forward Punch	X	X		X		X
Forward Kick	X	X		X		X

Hitconfirms

	Standing Punch	Standing Kick	Forward Punch	Forward Kick	Throw
Hit	Standing Kick	Walk	Standing kick	Step	Step or Rush
Block close	Standing Punch	Finish (unsafe)	Finish	Finish (unsafe)	Finish (unsafe)
Block far	Finish	Finish	Pressure or finish	Finish	Finish (unsafe)