Hi everyone, I’m new to these forums. I’ve been on the site more than a few times, though. So I’ve just gotten more into fighters a little over a year ago. I used to play MVC2 and SF2 when I was younger, but I didn’t have a clue of what I was doing. I picked up UMVC3 around February 2012 , and have been playing it at least once a week. I’ve gotten alot better since then; learning what I can from streams and online matches, getting to know the FGC, and even learning how to use a stick. But now I think I’m done with Marvel other than playing it once in a while with a friend.
I want to branch out and become decent in other games like SF, BlazBlue, and Persona. I played AE2012 here and there, and want to main Sakura, but I can’t seem to get past the Marvel 1-2-3 combo mentality. I’ve become accustomed to how easy it is to confirm hits and combo in Marvel, that its become a challenge to even connect a Dragon Punch after a normal in Street Fighter. I’m also horrible when it comes to strict execution, and online doesn’t really help either. I don’t have any friends interested and good enough to play fighters with, so I’m usually in the lab thinking of combos that I will most likely never use because I can never get to a situation where it would be used. Then I play online and end up doing 3 hit combos/SF2 combos the entire time.
So how does one that has become so used to the Marvel style learn something like Street Fighter from the ground up? How do I kick that Marvel mentality of “just going in there and seeing if it works” since I can be punished for the slightest mistake in this game?
Your first problem is one that probably 90% of the people that first start playing seriously have, it’s that they are completely focused on landing their new flashy combo they just learned in training mode on a standing dummy, that they totally disregard every other fundamental in the game and just keep getting hit out by the other players normal’s.
Then they sit there and wonder " What the hell! I can do this in training mode( probably only about 65% of the time on a standing dummy i might add) Why can’t i do it in a real match!? Wahh’ They keep mashing me out of my combo’s, you know what!? I don’t even KNOW WHEN TO USE MY COMBOS! wahhh’" Sorry but that’s the only way i could explain it, cause that’s how most players sound on the mic or at home.
You need to learn fundamentals, their is plenty of guides all over the internet.
You also need to make sure you have those combos at least 90% of the time on the dummy and CPU in CPU matches, or maybe a little less. I’m serious about the second one though, cause you will get mashed out by shoryukens all day if your combos and strings are not tight, so really work hard on that muscle memory. ^_-
Then you will start getting messages like " damn dude you never drop combos, or your blockstrings are air tight yo!!!
So what you’re saying is that your neutral game and hitconfirming sucks. These are the same problems everybody else has, to some extent or another. It’s nothing to worry about. Marvel is a difficult game to transition from because it doesn’t teach you a very broad range of skills, so you’ll need to forget what you know and learn good habits from the ground up. The most important thing probably is to learn to respect your opponent’s options; a skill which only requires you to play a lot and download all of your losses.
If you’re getting frustrated, you might want to revisit your character selection. Sakura demands execution. Even though it’s possible to learn good fundamentals with her, you won’t see results by playing her in a generic shoto style and netting basic confirms, and it might feel like you’re going nowhere. If your execution sucks, pick a character where that doesn’t matter so you can focus on more important things.
You didn’t ask anything specific about BlazBlue and P4A, but those games are in my wheelhouse, so feel free to ask away.
Honestly, at this point don’t worry about combos. Unlike Marval you can win a match in a very solid manor and never do more than a two hit combo. More important than Combos is spacing and footsies. It is the foundation of combos because without a clean hit, you will never get that combo in the first place so focus your attention on getting that clean hit. WIth Ken/Ryu if you can land a crouching Medium kick in a regular mannor, you can then learn to empty cancel a fireball everytime you stick out a cr MK that way you either get a two hit combo or chip damage, but are for the most part safe if the kick wiffs.
Although I sort of agree with what you’re saying, some characters are more dependent on combos than others. There are characters who can win by playing footsies and getting incidental damage, and then there are characters who need to get in and capitalize because their neutral game is ass. If you play the latter and don’t know how to properly hitconfirm, or try and play them like a weak shoto, you’re simply not learning the character the right way.