I gotta be honest, playing SFIV either on the 360 or the PC can be kind of discouraging at times. I’ve only started playing the game for about two-three weeks, but my streak is like 6-100 right now. I have lost quite a bit.
This is normal, right? I’ve watched the tutorials and I keep sparring in the training room before going on and fighting the usual Ryu/Ken/Sagat group. But I still lose quite badly, and I’m hoping this is not due to something that I’m just doing wrong and most likely because all noobs are like this.
Sakura. I’ve always liked the character since I used to play her in Marvel vs Capcom 2. Nevertheless, compared to people like Sagat and Blanka, she always feels kind of weak.
I watched those videos. That person is quite good as Sakura.
Something that just popped up in my mind. Is it me, or is everyone much better in Ranked play and much worse in Player Matches? Maybe that’s just a misconception…or is it?
I can totally relate to the OP… I have been there. I actually dropped Vanilla because I simply could not win…EVER. I’d seriously lose maybe 30 or so games in a row before I won. But with the introduction of Super and the replay mode I got to sit back and WATCH, but not just watch…UNDERSTAND why I lost. Too much of this, not enough of that, poor spacing, silly jumpins, lack of anti airing etc. It was a tough thing to watch myself play and see HOW bad I truly was. But its an important part of developing your gameplay. Learn your character, learn your combos, learn your normals, etc…but at the end of the day you have to learn yourself. What made you jump right there… why did you mash out right there…etc. Learn that, limit that. Watch yourself improve. Best of luck going forward.
You need to be more realistic about your win/loss record at your current experience level. The only people still playing vanilla SF4 are die hard maniacs. As of now, it’s unrealistic to expect that you can beat these people. The correct expectation at this point is that you should be losing almost if not all of your games.
Also, spend your time playing online even though you’re getting your ass kicked non stop. You can practice all the combos in the world in training mode but it still won’t stop you from getting your ass kicked because you won’t have learned how to block a human player.
I still play vanilla SF4, not amazing by any means but pretty decent. That being said, I see quite a few newcomers to the game in ranked/player matches. Finding people your level shouldn’t be too hard.
Learn from your mistakes and you will improve all the time.
Most people just play and never learn, they keep mashing LP DP when they are in blockstring(they wont improve their defense that way).
I would say, don’t focus on winning or losing, but whether or not you think you are getting better. Are you learning anything from the fights? Are you figuring out better ways to punish whiffs or unsafe moves? Things like that are what you should focus on and the wins will start rolling in.
Quoting for truth.
I’m a movie maker - Making movies out of the games I play adds an additional layer of enjoyment to a game (Being able to be creative, or just throw out material for people to look at) and SF4 is no exception. However, I didn’t start making movies for the hell of it or for entertainment, I started making them for critique - To see, for myself, my good and bad features, see what I did right and what needs work.
Vanilla SF4 obviously does not have a good Replay system like SUPER does so outside of big Championship Mode wins you have no way of re-watching a past fight unless you can record.
I have a movie dating as far back as a week after I bought the game, and one as recent as yesterday - The difference in skill between the two is immense and it’s all thanks to a number of things:
a) Researching matchups, how your chosen character fares against opponents and understanding what you can/should do vs what you can’t/shouldn’t do.
b) Practice, Practice, Practice - Do the Training Mode a LOT, including the feature where you need to complete specific combo’s to advance (This is a good platform for showing you the basics and what the character is capable of, even if it’ll only be about 40% of that characters capabilities) and also practice AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE against people of your own skill level - You learn nothing from dominating an inexperienced player and you learn only a slight bit more by being dominated.
c) Forget Win/Loss. It means nothing. I’ve been playing since Jan 09’ and it’s not uncommon for me to lose to someone who has picked up the game purely because newcomers tend to adopt a ‘random’ playstyle, or people do things that you just DO NOT EXPECT in a higher level of play - Example, good players will not be mashing SRK’s or constantly spam-jumping around like rejects or throwing out nonsensical moves at unpredictable times but when you do face this kind of nonsense it’s impossible to read and this can lead to a lot of frustration or unessecary damage taken.
d) Head to the Sakura Forums (In your case - On SRK I live in the Balrog Forums) and get critique / movie links / thread help / advice from the community there.
e) Practice, Practice, Practice even more.
Newcomers cannot and should not expect to waltz into such a competative game and just succeed right from the start - You will lose, a LOT, until you fully understand the game, the mechanics, your character, all the other characters and your own limits. Until then, don’t lose faith, just enjoy the learning experience.
For the sake of example:
A few days after I bought the game - HILARIOUSLY BAD (January 09):
[media=youtube]DvYdUUd2iTw[/media]
One of my half-decent bouts - Learning and doing semi-alright (mid november 2010):
[media=youtube]NlldXVgFyVY[/media]
And you know what? Balrog is hailed as one of if not the most linear and boring characters in the game - Me I absolutely love the character and I’m still trying to learn and improve - As said before, one of the most fun aspects of SF4 is the learning process and improving yourself as a player.
I’m still midlevel at best (and proud) because I can look back on my recordings over the years and see the improvements. Seriously, if you can in anyway record your own gameplay, do it as much as possible and self-critique it AND have more experienced players critique it as well on the Forums - Don’t pay much heed to YouTube keyboard heroes.
Losing is only bad if you care to win. I get losses using multiple characters but not much when I have a general idea of how to play the game. For now don’t even try mind games, at least get input down first if you want to get anywhere.
There’s no way anyone could be that terrible in that video above, that’s a cheap way of trying to bring up that person’s spirit up. Any who keep practicing but let us know if you get any wins since you wont know how to practice the proper way and if anything you’ll only have better execution then a complete and utter scrub giving you a false sense of accomplishment.
The thing that improved my game most is slowing down (not rushing in trying to pull off special moves), and got good at footsies. I play Bison and I feel he has awesome normals to play footsies with.
Stop looking at a loss as a bad thing, when in fact a loss can help you even more than a win, by helping you see what you did wrong so you can fix your mistakes for future matches. There’s nothing wrong with losing in this game. Literally you gain just as much (probably even more) experience when you lose a match as you do when you win a match, so it’s all good. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t try your hardest to win, but don’t get frustrated by it. Also, this game has been out for several years now, with a pretty large fan base/community, so your opponent, johndoe1994, isn’t just some noob guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he might even come to this sight and read up on strategies, tips, etc, and might just know what to do against your character.
So ya, do your best to keep playing and to keep learning. And in the end, if you’re not winning and starting to hate SFIV, then take a break for a while. I mean, you got the game to have fun right? Don’t let it turn into a chore just to win (as I used to do lol). Hope this helps!