Hey ive been playing fighting games for about a decade for fun, but ive never been really good.
Right now the games I have to practice on are
s2hd remix
3rd strike
ssf4ae
guilty gear xrd
cvs2
I am used to games like gg and mk where you can just sort of… tactically mash buttons (as opposed to blind mashing) and generally win against shitty players…
but when I started playing xrd I noticed I was losing every single match online. To pick up on some better fundementals I started playing vs cpu in sf2turbo, but nobody was ever online, so I transitioned over to third strike. Third strike is my favorite fighting game ever really, but lord I am terrible.
I generally try to avoid shotos because they feel bland (though i grab ken or akuma if the matchup is really bad). I am mostly trying to learn alex but I get my ass kicked 90 percent of the time, and Im not sure what mistakes im making. He doesnt really have combos more difficult than 2-3 hits… maybe its his slow speed? Im not sure if im not hitconfirming right, or if my footsies suck… (alex has terrible footsies in general)
The only times i ever seem to win are when im akuma and airball cheese against mediocre players. YES I do go to training mode, YES I do look up character strategies, and yes I play vs cpu first. For third strike ive also been watching pikachuakuma to see some good gameplay b/c top tier players stick with cheeseball characters like yun, (I also read the entire ebook “how to not suck at fighting games”)
Also learning to parry hasnt been too easy. I cant parry kens shoryu in parry challenge 3. The first hit i can 50/50 parry, but the timing between the hits doesnt make sense to me. Is it the same timing as when the hits normally connect? A little early? is there a pause due to the parry animation? hm…
doesn’t help most of the players have been playing close to a decade online ;p
Id play more AE, but I really dislike sf4 for some reason. I cant place my finger but its just not fun to me. too much dependence on links? Also I get my ass kicked there too (oops)
i am not entirely sure exactly what to ask here. Any advice in general.
I can’t speak for any game other than 3s, so I’ll just try and give advice on that. If you’re looking to try and get better with Akuma, nothing against him but there are better videos to watch, especially if you’re watching those double perfect videos since most of the time the other person doesn’t really know what to do and thus he can really do almost anything and still win. As for parrying, you could maybe try and get down just parrying single hit moves before trying to parry multiple hit ones. Ken’s shoryu starts up in 2 or 3 frames so you need to tap forward or down before the move starts to parry the first hit successfully, this applies to all moves that start up that fast. You should definitely ask any further 3s related questions in the 3s subforum, there’s a beginner thread there that would really help you.
nono I dont play akuma, I play alex :o
and first hit isnt too hard, its multi hit moves that give me trouble. The timing of consecutive hits confuses me
Thank you for your reply
in neutral, alex is basically far mk, c.mp, in some cases f+mp, and carefully spaced jumps into j.hp. the main idea is to knock down and then turn it into a high damage/stun mixup with powerbomb, kara throw, tick setups, and meaties. some players to watch are genki and kazuya. read alex section for more info, but post in the regular section otherwise nobody will know that you posted
multi hit moves have different timing for parries than if they hit, yes. when you parry a move, you and the opponent are frozen for 16 frames, so the whole thing slows down by a lot. that doesnt happen if the move hits. over time youll get adjusted to the parry timing of moves and it wont be a problem. the trials arent really that helpful though. no ken is going to just walk up and do a dp and you will never have to parry a multi-hit dp unless youre about to be chip killed.
thank you dude you are a lifesaver!
I learned Im doing space game wrong, and i am improving my footsies
I never learned how to karathrow, meaty or ticksetup, the guides ive found on the subject always use language that confuses me.
Vaguely Im aware kara is inputting an attack, and then throw quickly, which causes a safer throw animation?
Meaties are having your attacks mid hitbox on wakeup over enemy
and tick setup is baiting vulnerability with a safe attack (jab) into throw?
Im also watching this vid for some ideas on how to alex. guy is DECENT with most characters, which is why i like his vids. his twelve is actually good which blows my fucking mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkU5LmQvNic
I can’t speak for 3s (only SF4). I assume it’s the exact same thing, but maybe it’s not so take everything with a grain of salt.
A kara throw is when you cancel a normal or special that moves your character forward into a throw. I’m not sure if “cancel” is the proper term because the normal (or special) doesn’t even come out. The idea is to give your throw more range. In SF4, Makoto and Ken have very good kara throws (not sure if they have the same ones in 3s). Ken’s forward + MK (?) moves Ken forward quite a bit, but before the kick comes out, you can throw.
Meaties have nothing to do with hitbox. It’s about the active frames of a move. The idea is to connect your attack on it’s last active frame, thus reducing the overall recovery of the move.
I can’t think of the words to properly describe a tick throw, but it’s kind of like conditioning your opponent to block something safe for you (like 3 crouching jabs) and the next time you do 2 crouching jabs wait until he is out of block stun and go for a throw instead of another crouching jab. I always thought of it like, you wait a ‘tick’ while your opponent is still holding block and you throw.
If you don’t understand, hopefully someone else can type it out better than I could.
I might if I were you, just go into training mode and work on the parry timing. I’ve played 3s for awhile, but I feel like parrying is more having a guess at what your opponent MIGHT do, and if you’ve paid attention, there’s a good chance you’ll be right. It’s more about studying your opponent’s reactions than anything else from what I’ve gathered. But going into training mode and at least working out the timing of certain moves never hurts.
I’d say stick with 3rd Strike and Xrd. Those are my two favorites personally (I agree with you on SF4 not being much fun) and I feel like they give back a lot the more you learn about them. CvS2 is pretty awesome even if you’re just playing alone tho.
kara throw is cancelling the startup of a move into throw to give you more range (but if I’m not mistaken this also usually means your throw has more startup. not 100% sure on this though). kara throws are generally not the same moves from SF3 to 4. check our your character’s subforum and there should be info on what your useful kara throws are.
meaty just means that you time your attack so that your opponent wakes up into your active frames, so that they can’t do anything except block or use an invincible attack or they’ll get hit.
a tick throw is when you put your opponent in blockstun, and then throw him immediately after he becomes throwable again. you can mix this up with other attacks too. for instance with Ken if you attack with a low short and they block, then you walk up throw, that’s a tick throw. but you could also attack with a low short, it gets blocked, then walk up and then low short twice looking to confirm into super. it definitely can get more complicated/specific than that but that’s one example.