Advice to all new Skullgirls (or any game for that matter) players from a professional gamer

Classic Fighting Games Skullgirls
61

We not saying go do nothing but practice mode, but pratice mode is a good place to make sure you can get off the moves you want before you switch to a local on online play.
I every once in awhile go and practice quarter circles and other moves. While I am no Pro material, I can beat most mid tier players.

There is a mark difference between playing casually for fun and playing serious competitive match
You want to go for fun, play for fun, there nothing wrong with that. But if you want to be GOOD and you want to make those Pros ay tourneys sweat, you going to have to grind that practice mode till pratice mode becomes your bitch and goes to the kitchen to make you a sandwich.

Hell I have a friend whos good at Blazblue just because he plays the PSP version alot (I really mean alot), yes I said the PSP version on a PSP. He isn’t a top tier pro but he can give local tourney players a run for their money. He just sits there play story mode on everyone, then plays alot of random arcade match ups, so he knows everyones moves and combos pretty well.

And you are going about it wrong. You have to want to Practice, you have to want to sit there and meticulously hammer out every move and combo till where you can reproduce the same results everytime.
If you can do all that in 45 min go for it, but I am telling you there no short cuts in success.

Why do Football (or insert sport here) players run drills during practice instead of actual playing the actual game?
Why do you have to practice martial arts moves painfully slow before you allowed to ever go full speed?
Why do artist sketch instead of straight up go to oil paintings?

You have to be Hungry for it, but you also have to prepare first.

@Evolution169 you do not want to practice because you do not want it, you aren’t hungry enough for that victory.
You keep that attitude and you always be in that beginners room.

DO NOT MAKE EXCUSES, MAKE SOLUTIONS!!!

62

So I guess now I have to decide whether I want to spend hours upon hours in training mode, or stay in the beginner room. Actually, I don’t think the beginner room is even a viable option, because as time goes on and newer games come out, the number of beginners will dwindle until they are too rare.

Sadly, I’ve put in time into GGXX/AC training modes, but those games are dead online. And, while Skullgirls is really cool, I would play GG over all else.

Also, I guess it’s just the way fighting games are, but in other games you do get better by playing online. Try and get good at Quake Live by playing bots, it will never happen.

63

I think going to training mode is a must. I feel most people just pick a character and go online to learn their character’s moveset. Every time I pick up a new game or character, I simply go to training. I agree with playing local first then heading to online later as you can sit down with the player and chat about what you can improve on. My sister’s boyfriend introduce me to MvC 3 and we always had long playing sessions. I remember one that lasted 2-3 hours and I went 3-90. After that I want to improve on my skills and he left the game over, from there, I hit training and arcade mode 24/7 and because of that, I got better.

I agree dstln. Training mode alone can’t teach EVERYTHING and I praise Namco for the Fight Lab mission as that taught you everything you need. I also praise developers who add a network simulation, so you can practice in any type of lag. Not too sure if trails (SF4 and UMvC3) really help but I think they give you a basic idea what your character can do.

64

Quake does not have Combos and speciality moves. Its a Gun and run kind of FPS.

Comparing Skull Girls to Quake is like comparing Metal Gear Solid to FarmVille.

You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance. is my signature for a reason, not because its a funny mistranslation of “If you cannot overcome the Rising Dragon Punch, you cannot win!” but it also states the impossible. When Ryu said You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance in Street Fighter II there was no Sheng Long. How you beat someone who do not exist?

FOOL!!!

I can already see your heart is not in it. You put time into Guilty Gear Training Modes? What like five minutes and get bored?
Did Rocky got bored of lifting rocks and pulling carriages ment for horses to pull in Rocky IV?
Did Ray Lewis got bored of doing drills in practice?
Did Daniel got bored waxing card in the Karate Kid? (well actually he did, but it paid off didn’t it).

Do you see Daigo Umehara bitch about having to do practicing for Street Fighter?

There no special trick, no secret weapon, their several dozen grip styles for a joystick and each style a pro will swear by it, no magical arcade stick or game pad that makes you better and your TV input lag a sorry excuse.

I start my mornings with a cup of herbal tea

65

You don’t go to tourneys just to compete. You go to play against a wide variety of opponents in casuals, to increase your matchup knowledge, and to learn new stuff from watching other people. Yes, you can get a lot of this online, however local play/tournament casuals is still preferable to playing online because you can ask questions and get answers faster (ideally with hands-on application of principles and techniques), and you also don’t have to worry about input lag. There’s also something to be said about playing an opponent next to you instead of over a wire. There’s a tension there that you can’t find anywhere online.

Concerning training mode, Danny was right about a lot of things. Ultimately, this is what you ideally need to be using training mode for:

– Familiarization of normals (crouching, standing, close, far, air, etc etc), command normals, and special moves. Do them until you can visualize them all when you close your eyes.
– Doing execution drills: Practice the same move over and over until you can do it 5/10/20/whatever times without messing up once. If you’re doing to 20 and you screw up at 16 – start over. Do the same thing with combos. Practice them until you can do them without even thinking about it.
– Practicing hit confirming by using Random Guard and confirming your pokes into your combos a set amount of times without dropping it or doing the full combo while they’re blocking (unless your blockstring ends in something safe).

Too many people go into training mode without a goal. They go in, act on whatever random thought comes to mind, practice until they’re frustrated, and then quit without having learned anything. Always go into it with the mindset of “I want to master this combo,” “I need to work on my hit confirms,” or “I need to familiarize myself with what is unsafe.” Even the best professional players hit up training mode regularly.

After all that, take what you learned and go play against other people, ideally of your own skill level. If you play someone better and get steamrolled, don’t get discouraged. Ask them questions about the match, take what they say to heart, and then apply it to your training.

Don’t be afraid to play the computer, either. In the case of Skullgirls, the AI on the hardest difficulty actually isn’t that bad. I used to run through arcade mode a few times in a row (resetting when I got to Marie) just to practice my stuff on a “live” opponent.

66

I already said over 100 hours.

No my heart isn’t in it enough to work all day in the heat and then spend 2-3 hours grinding against a dummy. Actually, the grinding part isn’t so bad because I do enjoy learning my character and discovering exciting new things. The worst part is when I start to fall asleep while playing. Maybe when winter gets here I’ll have more energy for that.

Whatever the case, I feel like I need a fighter to tide me over until GG Xrd comes out. Skullgirls is pretty awesome, and the PC community seems to be great, so this might be worth the grind and caffeine guzzling. But I just gotta try it and see.

67

skullgirls is more of a combo game. Play a more footsie orientated fighting game, if you know the special moves you can directly play online, there is not much need for a training mode, besides learning really basic bnbs. Mastering the game happens against real opponents. And with these games you know why you lose, because your oppoent outplays you and not because he is a roboter who does a 50+hit combo because you got hit one time. Dont want to learn the shit? Then skullgirls is the wrong game (its also for me).

68

No.
You are mistaken.
Its not Training mode that teaches you bad habits…its playing against the CPU in versus or arcade mode that teaches people bad habits.

69

Obligatory.

70

Rocky IV isn’t the best in the series, but it definitely has the best montage. That old school training vs New school is epic.

71

MissionSchabernack is either a troll, or hasn’t played or followed this game’s development. Either way, ignore him.

BnBs are no longer that long, and they are easy to do (it’s not like you have 29 links in a 30 hit combo. It’s all just magic series. And with all the multihitting moves in this game, the number of hits looks more intimidating than it is). And footsies absolutely exist in this game.

72

I learned my worst habits playing against people online. The crap that works online doesn’t always work in actual play.

I agree completely.

73

Well, he did say that he doesn’t play the game. I think he played the game and his first impression formed when he went online and got repeatedly owned by large combos. I had the same first impression as well, that the game was just combos when your opponent makes a mistake. But I decided to go on youtube and watch EVO videos so I could see what high levels of play look like.

He obviously shouldn’t be offering an opinion on how the game is played if he hasn’t put in the time and advanced to higher levels.

74

Does it
Where

75

One thing to note is that EVO 2013 used the console version, and a lot of the really long stuff is not possible in the beta (and soon won’t be possible on console either).

76

I tried to play against a player in expert lobby. He was very good and fast. I couldnt do much really, except draining a little more of his energy in the last match. That speed and reaction was beyond my level. Problem was more with defense, not offense. Combos could be avoided but he used every idle millisecond to his advantage

I checked his profile. Over 230 hours in the game and it is barely 1.5 month old on Steam. Dont know if he owned the console version prior to that. Those are the gaming hours I’ve spent in all games in a year…

I’ve never put so much dedication in a game even during my NES childhood…
I’ll stick to intermediate I guess.

77

Are you all blind?

the game insists mainly TODs, there are combos after combos. Resets? Yeah air throws, wow, very dramatic, the opponent may have fell aslep during the combos anyway. The pace of the game is completely destroyed, if you find that appealing, okay. Not for me, I am out and play fighting games where I dont have to wait or make a coffee during the match.

edit: oh yeah and recent development. I followed the change lists, but I am not interested in beta versions. the CURRENT version for me is the actual console version, and yeah, its a combo game, I think I mentioned something like that lol. Actually the developers recognized their mistake and try to change it in the future, I was preaching it from day 1 skullgirls against a wall of skullgirls hipsters and now the majority want shorter combos, wow. But dont you dare say anything mean to skullgirls on srk, where any single change or news is on the frontpage.

78

The problem with this is that a lot of FGs have already established playerbases and trying to get on their level is like trying to dig through a brick wall with a spoon. SG is new on PC so if you start now you might be able to catch up but in games like SF4 a ton of the players are already really good and you’re just going to get shit on.

It’s a vicious cycle of players not getting into the game because of no fellow newbies to fight.

79

SG already has an established playerbase. Many of the console players donated money during the IGG campaign for the PC Version.

80

So in 4 days when the beta stops being a beta, and a couple weeks after that when consoles are brought up to speed with undizzy, you’ll come in here and redact all your previous comments? Awesome! See ya then.