Fighting Game Tutorials: To Be Or Not To Be?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
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I opened this thread basically to get everyone’s opinions on fighting game tutorials and strategy guides (Hope I don’t get banned for this:confused:).

Nowadays, you can see vids of various fighting game tutorials on the youtube and any other site with vids. I notice folks put them up to show other folks who want to get into a particular game the basics, depending on which character you want to learn how to play as, movements, when and where to use specials/supers, etc. I’ve been playing fighting games on and off for about 12 years and still love them to this day, but these tutorials got me thinking; is there really one way to play a character? Do you have to learn specific combos in order to have a fighting chance?

Since I’ve been playing fighters, I’ve always found that just going into the practice mode of whichever fighter you play and play around with the character; learn his/her movements, range of attack, specials/supers, and most importantly, playing with your favorite character the way you want to play with him/her. I don’t think (imo) that there’s a “certain” way a character should be played; if you want to play your certain way with a character and thats how you practiced it, go for it; but thats just what I think. Don’t know if this is a good example but here it goes: King on Tekken is a very versatile fighter in my book, so whether you want to play with him as a bare-bones fighter or wrestler is your choice. But its folks out there that say “oh this is how you suppose to play with him” and whatnot; now why would I want to play just like the next person? Wouldn’t it be wise to do your own thing? Of course use elements that you think will make your fighter better, but to me, I would like to have my own basis of the character I’m playing as. Since I’ve been watching these vids on youtube, it just makes me wonder…

Now don’t get me wrong, I myself have asked for help on how to play with characters in various fighters, which also brought me to produce this thread. Do you guys out there feel that you should just check out vids/strategy guides to learn the basics of a character? Or do you think that just going into the training room and learn on your own? Or a little bit of both? I hear alot of stuff like “bread and butter” combos and stuff like “you need to learn this such and such if you wanna be real good with him/her”; just want to know everyone’s opinions on this subject. And please no hate mail, just your honest opinion will do just fine:wgrin:

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There is a certain way every character should be played, because they are designed to be played a certain way/

I play with Baiken in Guily Gear Accent Core. I would say that I’m an exclusive Baiken player, and that is the only character I play with. I can’t play with her like Milia Rage, because Baiken is designed to be an defensive player with unreliable pokes and shoddy mixups. Baiken is meant to be a turtle character, and rely on her counters. she has Gatlings but no much can be done off of them, except maybe an air chain, into a FRC mat. Overall, the pace of Baiken is essentially, back IAD tamtami, wait for your opponents offense, counter them, follow up. Occasionally you can try to lock them down with a block string into her razorcrane, but it gets predictable. Her tension builds slowly, so no crazy ass abare tactics, her defense sucks, she is light meaning that she can be comboed like crazy, and her combos aren’t really all that. Baiken is all about FRCing her mats for pressure/mind games, possibly getting a throw, or a combo and then oki after knockdown. She can’t be balls out aggressive like Sol, Milia, or Eddie. She isn’t designed to be that way.

Like Guile and Dhalsim are meant to zone and not rush. But Balrog and Bison are.

An agressive Baiken is just not going to be like Koichi’s I-no. She is just going to be slightly more aggressive the the next guy using her. She just doesn;t have what it take to be a total rushdown character. Sure you can pressure, and mixup a little, but that’s as far as it go.

Like YSB Hugo is a little more aggressive than Hayaos, but he’s no Genji-jin Yun.

Overall, there is a general way a character should be played, and this is what tutorials tell us. during a match, you will incoporate your own things into your character that are unique to only you. Even though someone may use the same character as you, they aren’t going to think the same way you think. My Baiken is very defensive, back IAD tatamis all day, fishing for a whiff, gattlings, and IADs back from a 5s. You’ll see my do this often in a match with Baiken. I’m comfortable doing it. I’ll totally safe with her. I’ve seen more aggressive Baiken players though. So it’s all in how you choose to play.

In terms in innovating a character, you aren’t going to be doing that unless you happen to live in Japan.

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Calling Thongboy Bebop…

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Generally I approach new fighting games by experimenting around with all of the characters. Once I find a character that I think I could stick with for a while I start delving into what I can figure out with them on my own. Then once I think I am good enough with what I have figured out myself I will look at FAQs and tutorials for the game to see how my discoveries about the game match up to the pro knowledge. I guess that I view tutorials as resources that will let me go to deeper levels in a game once I have got the basics down.

I know that in Guilty Gear I probably would never have figured out on my own to do stuff like Jump Installs or IADs without looking at a FAQ. An I probably would never have figured out how to do Kara Palms in 3S without looking at the Yun thread on SRK.

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Virtua Fighter 4 and Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution had it right on console versions when Tutorial modes were concerned

Leagues better than VF5’s

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I’d love a tutorial on some of the deeper aspects of Fighters History Dynamite and Vampire Savior…esp FHD, those youtube vids are mind boggling…