First ever Air Dash Fighter Advice Please

Classic Fighting Games Persona 4 Arena
1

This is my first ever Anime fighter, I am primarily a MK person, MK9 is my current game but Persona looks so cool and I always wanted to branch out and try a different fighter so I picked this gem up yesterday.

I don’t know where to begin, in terms of how you actually play these kinds of games. I understand how to play MK9, it’s block strings, pressure and how to get out of pressure, and performing combos based of X or Y situations.

I’m completely dumbfounded here.

So far, I’ve been messing around with Naoto and I like her but she’s really hard. Some of the Combo notions I try to do just to get a feel don’t even work.

The list of characters I like so far are

Naoto
Aigis
Mitsuru
Akihiko
Yosuke

Elizebeth and Yukiko seem cool too.

I main Jax in MK9, and I like a rush down character. Or a flashy kind.

2

Rush down + Flashy = Yosuke
Rush down + top tier + easier to use = Aigis

3

what the fuck is an anime fighter?

4

I’m coming from mostly Capcom games, but I know how you feel.

The biggest differences you need to get used to are the differences in “strings” and the concept of momentum. It’s hard to explain but I’ll try.

In Capcom/MK after strings are completed you often return to “neutral” except in certain situations (knockdowns, etc), where in this game, due to the differences in hitstun/mixups, after you complete a string your opponent is often at a disadvantage where you can continue your assault with another mixup/zoning tool and your opponent has to find a way to escape. This is kind of strange to get used to, as you are fighting more consistently throughout the round.

This makes recovery/teching/counters/smart mobility more valuable (which takes some getting used to as well… typically in fighting games “pushing buttons” is bad, but you need to do it intelligently to recover in this game) and is overall just a far different pace than used to.

When it comes to zoning, it’s just different in this game. You don’t (typically) see the same ability spammed as often as you do in other games, the best zoning has to “mix it up” with different abilities/angles, and if you do so you can put your opponent under heavy pressure that’s hard to defend against, similar to how rushdown characters keep you locked down in other games.

Also, characters have a lot more unique mechanics in this game. If you do the same special with A or B it has much more different effects than you typically find in other games - in other games its just slightly different projectile speed, but in this game it will have effects such as A keeps an enemy in hitstun for a combo, B knocks back for safety. Advice beyond what I discussed here is a lot more character specific.

So what I suggest is, take the list of characters you gave us. Go in to challenge mode on EACH of those characters, and see how far you can get on them. That will give you a “feel” for the advanced mechanics of each char. See if that narrows down the ones you are interested in.

Once you have it down to a small list (or decide on one you want to focus on), I suggest replaying the Challenge mode again, but this time pay special attention to the combos as you complete them, and try to think how you can combine them. The challenge mode actually does a very good job in this game of showing you the deeper mechanics, and gives you different “pieces” of combos, but leaves it for you to figure out how you can combine them.

You really have to get creative in this game. There are less overall moves for each character, but more ways than usual to combine or use them. You should also try to look up information in the (few) wiki’s available. For example: http://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=Persona_4:_Arena . You may find many interesting things about your abilities. A lot of them can be “held” or “manually detonated”. A lot of them have non-obvious effects (such as being able to be combo’d in or out of the corner in certain situations).

But yeah, try to narrow down your list of characters. They play very distinct in this game, and excel in a specific type of gameplay. We’ll be able to give you much better advice once you decide on a character.

5

X-Copy Japanese players. find them on jourdal and pktazn youtube channels. Start doing what they do, and eventually you’ll also understand WHY they do it.

6

Ok well tonight I just messed around in the training mode for a bit.

I’ve learned I like:

Mitsuru, but, I don’t know how I’ll be able to perform her combos because have no clue on how to charge her special while she’s comboing like her BnB’s suggest on Dust Loop: 5AA>3B>2AB>Charge

**Aigis, **I like, but she seems REALLY technical from what I’ve read so far and just by generally playing with her. Lots of Jump Cancels and things I see. So I don’t know if I should play her, but, everything about her is awesome and her combos/specials are awesome.

Chie, Another badass character, she’s fast and crazy, especially more interested in her after watching Big 2 tonight. My combo counter resets after I was doing 2A>5AA>5B…

**Yukiko, **Her animations are cool with the Phoenix.

**Yosuke, **I’ve tried him, don’t like his Persona, because it’s a Frog, even though it’s been suggest he is flashy/rushdown.

So, that’s it, I’ve narrowed it down to these characters I like in order.

Picking one is so hard.

7

If it helps you settle on someone, every character has some harder stuff for you to worry about. [S]Chie’s standing normals do not chain, for instance; you must link 5A > 5B and 5B > 5C for any combos involving those attacks[/S] (A Chie player below tells me this is wrong… I got it from another Chie player. I shouldn’t talk about characters I don’t play, I suppose…). As such, I recommend just picking a character and sticking with him/her; you will get combos down eventually, and matchup experience is very important in this game.

8

Huh? Of course her normals chain, every character’s do. 5A > 2B > 5B > 2AB for example is a simple BnB gatling combo. 5B can be chained into any of her persona attacks, many combos begin with 5B > 5C or 5B CH > 2D.

9

If you’re just getting into “anime” fighters, I’d start with Blazblue. This game is just kinda…eh.

But if you insist…then just pick Kenji.

10

I swear I saw someone claiming that 5B > 5C was a link. I don’t play her though, so I’ll take your word for it. Corrected my other post.

11

It was probably me, because she has a combo where you need to delay 5B > 5C instead of chaining it, but it’s a juggle combo. Most people miss it because they try chaining instead.

12

I’m still trying to understand how to block effectively. I somehow get hit by 80% of incoming attacks easy. I think I’m missing something here. Great game overall; learning Labrys is rewarding though I can’t keep her alive long enough.

13

Changed the thread title. The term “anime fighter” is dumb.

14

Well you picked the right character to learn how to block with, sincs Labrys players really need that skill. What is the main problem? Are you being thrown off by deceptive ranges, or crossed and mixed up with great regularity? Blocking effectively really just comes from 2 things: patience and a knowledge of your opponent’s options. Both will come with time if you work on it.

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15

One bit of advice alot of folks will tell players new to the genre is to hold down+back as much as possible when in doubt. Crouch block should cover a good 60% of all attacks coming your way. The next thing you need to learn is to recognize things that will go through crouch block -namely jump in attacks and overheads (in the case of P4A, the All Out Rush). From there, you can work on improving your defense and slowly but surely learning how to punish.

16

Play score attack mode. Yosuke and Naoto will teach you to stop pressing buttons very quickly. Should give you a pretty good start on reacting to high/lows (especially against Naoto), as well as not panicking when you keep getting crossed up (in Yosuke’s case). And thanks to the AI’s 1F reaction times, if you try to beat it honestly without using gimmicks, you’ll generally only get hits with frame traps or punishes (the AI even auto-techs out of throws that aren’t counter-hits) , so you’ll learn how to do those as well.

Once you’re comfortable with that, play against real people and try to figure out what their mixups are.

17

Honestly, I think it’s a combination of problems. One thing is that persona’s definitely throw me off, especially rushing down for red axe. I’m not much of a Marvel kind of guy so a lot of hectic shit on screen is definitely not my cup of tea. I’m unaware if instant block is only applicable in between air-tight block-strings or just before character gets hit. I guess I’m oblivious to all of my options for defense outside of regular blocking; I usually block when I feel like my “time is up” in terms of my block-string but more often then not I eat shit for that and there’s the match. I’m having the most trouble against Yu, Liz, Yosuke, and Mitsuru without a doubt.

This is actually great. Since seeing this post, I did find out that mids are crouch-blocked too which definitely adds depth to my already shallow foundation of this game. I’m sure I’ll grasp the overheads in due time after gaining a mass amount of match up experience. My only instance of playing it so far has been training, and online in player matches; horrible way to really grasp the concepts of the game but I’d rather a semi-fair fight and learn something possibly substantial rather than CPU’s random antics.

Trust me, I’ve tried. No bullshit, out of 60 player matches online, I’ve only managed one round against a Yukiko so far.

18

Funny how one does not think to point out the little things, but they can be the most effective. Yes, given that overheads are much rarer and often telegraphed, you should always block low when given the chance.

Blocking is important with Labrys, very important. The axe gauge makes you think you need to bumrush all the time with her and while this is true in some matchups it can be suicide in others. Correctly blocking an opponent and punishing them brings you from green to yellow just as effectively as waving around j.B does, and the knockdown you get allows you to transition to the aggressive more safely.

19

The general rule for just about any 2D fighter is:
highs/overheads: must be blocked high
mids: can be blocked high or low
lows: must be blocked low

20

You can instant block while already in blockstun. This is actually a nifty trick that very few people seem to be using right now. If you block the first hit (or first few hits) of a long multi-hit blockstring or move (i.e. Liz’s disruptor, Yu’s beam super, Yosuke’s Garudyne, etc.), you can just mash back/down-back to instant-block all of the remaining hits. Not only do you get a couple additional frames of advantage when it’s over, but more significantly, you gain a shitload of meter (2 per hit, if I’m not mistaken).

And yeah, keep in mind all of your defensive options. Very rarely do people have air-tight pressure. There’s usually always a gap in there somewhere that you can use to get out with either a DP, a roll, a 5A, a 2B (if they’re doing empty jump mixups), an alpha counter (whatever they’re actually called in this game, the 6+A+B action), a backdash, a throw, a hop or a super with invincible startup. If you get knocked down, you can also always delay your tech so your post-tech invincible frames overlap with part of their oki setup, and you have one less thing to deal with. Keep trying different things and anytime something works out, keep it in mind for the next time you see the same mixup. You’ll eventually get used to it with time and practice.