Before I get into the thread title here’s some quick background on my fighting game history:
Didn’t start playing fighting games until November 08 and started with Street Fighter HD Remix that I bought from the PSN store
In HD remix, I played mainly Guile and Chun.
When SF4 dropped, didn’t really like Guile and Chun (they just felt different). Plus i felt their AA weren’t really that good.
So for some strange reason I wanted to pick a shoto (probably because of their reliables AA) and thought that Akuma looked cool combined with his teleport and air fireball would be worth a shot.
And eleven months later here I am.
Now for those of you taking the time to read this, what is it for you that did or didn’t confirm that Akuma was the proper main for you? For me, I feel that I’m just stuck in my ability to level up with him and don’t have the consistency to hit his combos all of the time. Plus when I have lapses in judgment, I tend to pay severely. Sometimes I kinda “freeze up” mentally because I know what I want to do but can’t execute it or I give the opponent too much of the benefit of the doubt in thinking they will counter or block it and pause long enough to not take advantage on punishing my opponent further (i.e. like after getting a knockdown which option to start of with for the vortex). If I’m starting to see that I’m not the best at executing combos consistently, would it be wise to switch because of Akuma being such an execution heavy character? What I’ve started to see also, in my game is that I can beat scrubs to average players (not even sure how you measure that but people who seem that way to me). But when I start playing betters players I wind up losing because I don’t finish, I’m not consistent with my combos and my mindgames/gameplan tend to falter. Anyone have any thoughts that they tend to share on this? I thinking about dropping Akuma all together and finding someone else to main but not sure about it yet. Thanks for any responses. :china:
Sounds like you’ve played too many bad onlinematches.
Your story is the same as mine, as of picking up SF (again) with HDR in 2008, I just went with Ryu till I switched just resently to Akuma.
Online just plain sucks, when you want to level up. Even good connection can be off to the degree where you miss way too many counters, comboes etc. Like, the standard combe-ender - hp.srk for Akuma,how many times have you not done it in practice, only to miss it 90% online? I just hate it. I started with stick, then went to pad because I thought I did better, then back to stick, all the same. I suck because online has given me bad timing. I’ve stopped at some 13.000GP, I don’t give a damn anymore, means shit.
Stop playing online, or limit it to playermatches with good connection just for the sake of fun. I’ve actually come across alot more good players in PM compared to random level in CS. Go with practice mode and play offline, build a community if you have to. I did. Playing more offline made me realize how much time I’ve wasted online, although fun, getting nowhere with my execution.
When you play offline with people next to you, you know that when they miss an srk they are gonna get hell for it. Online, although some people might say its not that bad… I cannot stand it any longer ( I started playing online during release). I kind of know what you mean, in that when someone beats you online, you ask yourself: do I suck that much? tbh you probably are a lot better offline. You also level up fast offline, cuz when you miss a combo, you know that YOU missed and combo and it wasn’t lag (so you know what to work on). That’s just a jumble of my ideas.
BUT thats online in general. I have NEVER thought of taking up another main. Akuma just clicks with me. If you have second thoughts, switch.
I main Ryu and have tried Akuma off and on with little success. My biggest problem is that his DP is pickier as an AA in that it sometimes meats instead of knocks down. Also, low health and low stun just make everything riskier. On the flipside, players who make effective use of air fireball are zoning machines.
As for online, yes the lag is dumb when you score a massive juggle with light DP only to whiff ultra. >.<
I know i’ll take a lot of heat for suggesting some mashing, but the hp.srk after the light tatsu can be mashed out to get it almost 100%. Just move the joystick 2-3 times between down and down/forward and also press hp 2-3 times. Can be done really calm (not shaking the stick like a mad man and pressing hp 10 times like flowchart-Ken). I know it’s still scrubby and stuff, but it’s online and better than nothing. Also, that “bad habit” can’t be punished because it’s at a point where the opponent couldn’t do anything (besides trash talking) even if he was close to you and hear you doing it.
But yes, play “Player Matches” with people you liked playing. You can do some vortex attempts and wake up games with those players. It won’t work against reversal mashers. Against those you can only block, bait, wait and punish.
And also, if you notice too much lag, stop and move on. I know it sucks when you know you lost because you couldn’t react to stuff because of lag (i.e. endless Blanka ball and side change hop spam with 2-3 bar matches). I know it’s frustrating but trying to overcome that will only frustrate you more.
You always have to be thinking with akuma, you cant hesitate, you cant drop combos, you have to play smart and pick your fights and finish that fight as soon as it begins.
If you’re one to hesitate and drop combos all day…maybe Akuma isn’t for you, check out like…Sagat or something
I couldnt agree more. If you jumped on the akuma bandwagon and are crying because its unfair that you are getting beat by flowchart ken, ryus and sagats by all means switch. Im really trying not to sound like an asshole saying this but, if you cant figure it out maybe you should switch to sagat like paparhino said. He can ultra into just about every tool he has. Akuma is a glass cannon and you need to be able to bait and punish, push hard offensively and watch your opponent to see what he will do. If your opponent is counter happy (srks) punish the shit out of it. Finally, dont take online losses too seriously, lag is dumb and people have lag switches. Play more offline matches and level up.
Yeah I’m starting to realize this. The only problem is the scene (our community is just starting to get going) where I’m at only meets for tournaments (as strange as that sounds) and really hardly ever hosts casuals. And between my work schedule and marriage its pretty difficult to host a large casual sessions consistently. But I’m definitely working on finding more ways to play offline.
Yeah now I see why you do level up faster up offline rather than online (even with four bar matches). But it’s just hard to not play online so much because that’s my biggest way (for the time being) to get in some casuals just because of life.
Gotcha. But I assure you its easier said than done. And I definitely won’t be picking up Sagat ANYTIME soon. :nono:
No offense MOJO, but if you read my post, you would’ve seen that I didn’t say anything about the reason I chose Akuma because of everyone else doing it and because it was cool. I started with Akuma March of '09 and made my choice purely based off of what intrigued me. And I’m not crying about getting beat by flowchart scrubs. I DON’T get beat by predicable flowchart scrubs.
…Akuma isn’t execution heavy. All his bnb combos are piss easy and even fadc ones aren’t that difficult except fireball fadc fs.hk. Viper and Gen are probably the only execution heavy characters in this game.
Akuma’s problem is his low health and stun. You gotta zone and play perfectly in order to beat good players. With ryu, sagat, rufus and rog you can fuck up a lot and still win, with akuma it’s damn easy to get “randomed” even by a scrub if you’re not playing perfectly.
I only use Akuma in 4-5 bars connections or offline, if I see the connection isn’t perfect (even with 5 bars the connection can suck sometimes) i’ll switch to balrog.
Anyways, if after almost a year you still can’t win with Akuma then you’re better off switching character.
To be fair I didnt say that you were a bandwagoner I was saying"IF". just hang in there I think its safe to say everyone hits a wall and kind of feels like… ok now what? You said you havent been playing fighting games since 08’ tough it out and practice your punishes, find any way to punish with ultra, learn matches (i.e. blanka or boxer matches) most importantly PRACTICE! Reactions will come with time
To YOU he isn’t execution heavy. If you want to be an effective akuma player not only do you want to be able to zone well (in which you pointed out and I agree with) but you also have to be able to punish certain things on reaction (i.e. blanka balls with ultra, c.mk >fireball > FADC st.hp > lk.tatsu > hp.srk and st.lp > st.rh loop) when you get an opening. Akuma because of his health you have to capitalize on your opponents mistakes with punishing combos that take the max damage. Not to mention canceling normal moves into demon-flip shenanigans among other things of continuing pressure. If you aren’t able to do what you want to do when you want to do it with Akuma, it can equal to a missed chance of punishment you can put on your opponent. Not to mention possible loss of damage for you in return.
I gotcha. Wasn’t sure what direction you were going in with your previous post. But it’s all good. :tup: I think its just a matter of feeling like i’ve hit a wall and/or working on ways to playing more offline.
Akuma is difficult to use effectively because doing so requires you to have a solid foundation of almost all of SFIV’s key mechanics:
Execution
Defense
Offense
Mind games
Adaptability
Patience
If you don’t nail these key areas, your Akuma will have holes. An Akuma with holes is punished and punishment cuts Akuma down extremely quickly.
From what I’ve noticed, many people get discouraged whilst learning Akuma because they find themselves getting mopped up pretty quickly. Akuma’s poor stamina tends to lend itself to REALLY illustrating in the bold your mistakes which can end a round quickly. Conversely, with a character weighing in with around 1000 hitpoints, you can weather a few punishers and an Ultra and still be on your feet. This helps you stay in the game and retain some confidence. Not with Akuma.
You have to learn from your errors fast with Akuma and ensure they don’t happen again otherwise you’ll find yourself back at the character select screen wondering what the fuck went wrong. This lends itself to many getting frustrated with Akuma and chucking in the towel only to perhaps reconsider when they later see someone absolutely beasting with Akuma who has managed to grab his toolset by the horns combined with playing smartly.
I personally feel that the key to getting a handle on Akuma is to learn solid defense and evasion combined with maximising ALL punish situations while slowly gravitating towards an offensive style. This takes time and sometimes folks don’t stick it out.
Still, he may simply just plain not be for you. For me, I was interested in Viper and Chun for a while. It didn’t work out (lol, women) and I guess I identified with that early on and as such stuck to Gouken, Akuma and Dhalsim.
And I definitely won’t be picking up Sagat ANYTIME soon. :nono: