At a loss USF4

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Okay , so I have around 230 hours in SSF4 AE+Ultra . I’ve played Ryu for like 170 hours then picked evil because I can’t stand to see Ryu’s face anymore , that is how boring ,annoying and useless he is towards learning the game , contrary to what people say , atleast in my case.

Allright so , in all this time I still couldn’t pick up the game properly , I still have no clue about frame data , timings , proper execution , proper normal usage , I don’t know the matchup against 85% of the characters , I am simply horrible at this game and I am just not getting any better, in fact i’m getting way worse as the time passes , I simply have no idea what I can do to improve my playing , I’ve spent enough time in the training room , but my combos are only slightly getting better ever so often and when I go in an online match I can’t do anything , if there’s a proper player at 1000-1500 pp ( not to talk about those above ) that can frame trap and such , I can’t do anything I just sit there blocking and when I try anything I get hit , if we’re talking about lower than 1k , usually people spamming the same thing over and over beat me, I may take a round but thats about it.

People told me to pick Ryu at first , I did but it wasn’t satisfying at all , I wouldn’t learn anything , all I ever did was jump hk into sweep or mk hado , shoryus , hado “spacing” , but most of my normals always got beaten by chars such as cammy , chun , guile and even if I won it would feel plain , so , in the end i decided to drop him and try something new , I’ve tried all the characters but I couldn’t find absolutely anything , most of them had a very hard execution , I couldn’t do even the most basic combos with them , I’ve tried Makoto , Yun , Ibuki , all in vain , then I picked evil , he definitely is harder the play than the others because of the low hp and the fact that he is so combo reliant , but I kind of found him allright , I could hit the basic st.hp-mk.axe-lp-lk.tatsu-shoryu combo in the training room most of the time , but then again , in a real match it would all be useless , I’d get beaten by lame players spamming blanka balls or ryus that all they did was jump in 2xlp-mp-hado , also I can never tech throws , don’t expect them 90% of the time and when I do I can’t react in time .

Long story short I am horrible at this game and can’t get any better , I am simply at a loss , don’t know what to do anymore , don’t know what character to pick so I could have the least bit of success when playing with anyone , I can’t charge , the specs won’t allow me to grapple or play characters that require things such as holding the fireball in for combos in juri’s case ,etc.

If you guys have any suggestions at all ,beside quitting the game I would much appreciate.

Specs : PC - Keyboard

2

Apologies if this sounds rough, but have another look at the 3 parts I quoted above. You’ve put nearly 200 hours into Ryu, don’t know his normals, and do j.HK cr.HK all the time? The fact is that while you may have put time into playing the game, I don’t think you’ve put much time into learning it. People say to learn the game with Ryu - that’s because he has all of the tools and moves to teach you practically every aspect of SFIV gameplay if you apply yourself to it, not because after a certain number of matches a pop-up box appears with the message “Congratulations! You’ve unlocked DP FADC into Ultra!”. Learning to get good at SFIV (or any fighting game, for that matter) requires work - real work.

Keep doing j.HK to get in? Force yourself not to.
Don’t know how frame data works? Google it or look it up on youtube.
Don’t know how to deal with a matchup/move? Take it to training mode, or ask a (specific!) question here.

tl;dr - you need to put some time into reasearching the things you don’t fully understand before you can improve. Nobody on any forum anywhere can give you advice like “do combo A, B xx C with character X” and make you start winning - if that was the case everyone would be doing it already. If you have a *specific *question then asking on SRK in the correct section is a good way to get answers, but at some point you need to sit down and say “OK, today I’m going to integrate X into my gameplay, even if it’s uncomfortable and I lose even more than usual”.

Pick whoever makes the game fun for you. You can learn the basics with any character, just some have a steeper learning curve or make it easier to fall into gimmicky traps along the way.

Incorrect. I use what is essentially a keyboard and I can do all of that. As it happens I use a character who doesn’t have charge moves or 360s, but I can still do the motions on command without much trouble. If I wanted to main one of those characters, playing on PC with a keyboard wouldn’t stop me - nor should it you.

3

Don’t worry , I know I suck , I know I haven’t learned anything , that’s why I was asking what exactly to do . I’ve googled things such as how to get in with evil , ibuki tutorials ( one character I really liked but the learning curve is abbysmal ) , but they are complicated , I don’t know where to start and nobody really takes much of their time to explain how things work to one who has no base in fighting games , all you ever find are intermediate-level guides.

I’ve done that where for like 40 games I forced myself not to cast any fireballs and only try normals but I got my face bashed in really hard and if I don’t jump I don’t know how to get in really.

Charging is a personal thing , I can’t do it because I can’t time moves right and I can’t even do a basic cancel while holding backwards , and when I switch sides I tend to get it all mixed up. Grappling using 3 fingers on wasd is torture…

4

Firstly, I started out maining Ibuki and I can testify to the fact that the people in the Ibuki subforum here are really cool. Ask them stuff if you’re having trouble.

Googling is something you only want to do to find out general game information, such as how frame data works on so on. Otherwise you’re better off asking specific questions to people you know will have the answer. If you’re having problems with Evil Ryu, the general thread in the Evil Ryu section could be a good start, or create a thread in this section specifically for that one problem you’re having so that you can get precise answers.

I keep mentioning being specific because it’s really important. “I’m bad, how do I get good?” is vague and hard to answer. “How do I get in with Evil Ryu?” is better, but is still difficult to answer because you need to do different things against different characters and players of different skill levels. “How can I get around fireballs with Evil Ryu without jumping?” Is even better, and you get bonus points if you can name a specific character that’s giving you trouble with that, because then people can explain exactly what each player should be doing.

The next step is to then take the answers you get and force yourself to use it in your games for the next day/week/however long it takes. It’s uncomfortable to stop yourself from going back to old habits, but this is how you learn. Then you’ll eventually feel like you’ve got a better grasp of what you should be doing against X, but Y is giving you headaches. So come back and ask another specific question for that one thing, get answers, and work on improving that part of your play. The important thing is that you actually apply whatever advice you’re given, because there’s no point in asking these questions if you’re still going to autopilot j.HK all day. If the advice you’re given doesn’t seem to be working, then go back and explain to them what you’re trying and how it isn’t working out and get more advice.

5

Just make it a point to evolve your game and keep playing. That’s all you need to do. This takes time and doesn’t happen overnight, but anyone is capable of doing it. In Vanilla (and to an extent Super), I was pretty terrible. I just did *anything *and hoped it’d give me a win, but this was only effective against players with a similar mindset. I had no idea about anything such as punishing, blocking mix-up’s, and things of that sort. I didn’t really care, either. Just because you think you’re horrible now doesn’t mean it always has to be that way.

One thing that’ll help is having fun with Training Mode. If you take the time to understand your characters normals and special moves, you’ll begin to feel ***more ***comfortable utilizing them in an actual battle. Start recording the training dummy to jab jab throw, jumping HK walk up throw, empty jump into throw, or any other situations where you *feel *a throw is coming so you can focus on improving your reaction so you can tech the throw. We all get thrown, but if you practice, you’ll minimize the amount of times you take unnecessary damage from throws. Also, record the dummy to jump at you so you can focus on your anti-air reactions.

As long as you want to get better, there’s no reason why you won’t. Keep at it.

6

Everyone will tell you how important time spent on the game is but that actually is meaningless. Its about how much effort you put into learning. You can learn a game in months and not years depending on how you approach it. Unfortunately most fighting games can’t be mastered through their training mode.

7

These tutorials are great for learning actual street fighter. People tell you to learn Ryu because he is balanced in every aspect of Street Fighter (except Vortex, which isnt typically what people talk about when they say street fighter)

All of these videos have critical information that apply to SF4





^Much of this information applies to SF4. He explains zoning better than anyone IMO.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQQCan5oo90 <- the absolute best tutorial ive seen on footsies so far.

8

One trend that I cant stand on SRK is that you have people answering this very common question with the answer that ultimately comes down to “keep playing”

Playing is irrelevant if you arent playing correctly. You have to actually know specific things before you can reasonably expect to win, and this is done through communication.

9

get a stick or controller, of course your not going to improve on a keyboard.

10

It seems you’re far too worried about other aspects of the game before learning how the game works or understanding the fundamentals.

200 hours is nothing. With 200 hours of experience, you should be terrible. You’re not the only one. To be good at this game, you really have to study it. Being good at this game requires more studying and practice than any typical American college course.

Read everything. Watch every video. Watch your own matches. This video helped me a lot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5xs1lkcMlI&list=PL13KoUNKKsK0dtyaRtOmJPsOGpH_Cubrm&index=3

Most importantly, don’t feel like you’re the only one. A lot of people play this game and mentally give up when they think they’ve hit a wall. They then remain at that skill level forever. You can always break down that wall. It just takes work. It’s all apart of getting better.

11

I’ve poured at least 200 hours playing Ryu too, and I’ve hit a wall too (basic frame traps, dp fadc ultra, hit confirms somewhat consistent, zoning still shit) and I still get bodied by literally everyone in my local scene, even the ones who are considered really bad.

One thing I have learned is that though its okay to obsess over winning, its no good if you’re only playing to win and you lose motivation because you’re not winning.

A lot of watching pro gameplay, thinking about it, trying to analyze the opponent’s tendencies and their reactions is a huge part of learning the game (outside of getting used to physical dexterity - execution and reaction time).

Stop getting bodied online if you’re not thinking about how you lost… once you find out why you lose, work on it.

At the moment I think your best bet is to understand how spacing plays a huge role in SF4, and how frame data works in the game.

don’t give up m8, you’re not alone

12

Thank you guys , I will watch all those videos and see where I can go with that info.
The thing about my gameplay is that I have to improve everything and I also have to learn everything , I find it really hard to take a lot of info at once and really understand it when it comes to complicated game mechanics , so I never really knew where to start learning the hard stuff , like timing , frame traps and all that stuff , as Ryu I could win because he is noob friendly , you can win without doing anything really , you just need to shoryu when they jump , hado to keep them out , throw a sweep here and there , when they are scared , jump on them and pressure a little , but that only works on bad players really because It’s hard to find someone of your skill to practice against . I had a friend that was about at my level but he got ahead really fast , now I can’t beat him almost at all , he picked up characters like Honda , Cammy , Guile …

Anyways , I will see to those videos , I may find something that can help me in there.

13

He’s usually recommended because I think he teaches the fundamentals better than any other character. I know you didn’t mean it literally, but I disagree with the notion of “you can win without doing anything really”. I think the things you’re doing when you win with Ryu exemplify the fundamentals of the game (proper AAs, zoning with fireballs, footsies, etc.) He doesn’t have blazing speed or many tricks up his sleeve, so you’re forced to use his basic tools to win. It doesn’t only work against bad players. You just have to out-fundamental the better players.

14

I doubt that you can consistently uppercut people who jump at you. If you can do that and force people to go for a ground game with you, you’re already 2K PP 5K BP.
That’s almost literally everything you need in SF4 to beat most people. A solid anti-air game and a somewhat functional ground game.

At least with Ryu that is.

15

Zoning with fireballs is not a fundamental part of the game, given the number of characters that don’t have projectiles. Playing Ryu is a trap for newcomers; they almost never learn how to control themselves and stop spamming fireballs or DPs.

To paraphrase Juicebox; pick someone like Guy or Cody if you want to learn fundamentals. No fireballs, no DPs, and no, Bad Stone doesn’t count. You MUST develop a good ground game to succeed.

16

And newcomers who play Guy spam run > slide and newcomers who play Cody spam his special moves. There’s no difference. If you’re going to learn the game, you’re going to learn the game. It doesn’t matter who you pick.

17

Part of learning any character is the process where you spam good moves until you find out where they don’t work and then gradually start using them only at the right times imo