I’m 30 yo from Sydney, Australia, losing that hand speed by the year
So anyway, I have alot of time on my hands now 8-12 months of staying at home and not working (liver treatment).
I have SSF4 on the Xbox with the champ edition arcade stick, lots of fun but I get owned online for the most part. I have a few questions hopefully people can answer. Yes I have seen alot of video from alot of Akuma players and watch EVO when I can.
My first question is, if I do all the Akuma trials ( and other character trials) will I get better?
Will I get better if I keep getting owned online over and over again without really knowing what I did wrong?
Also, what are some good things to practice with Akuma, like exercises?
I can’t pull off moves that I want 100% of the time, is this bad and are the pro’s able to pull them off 100% of the time?
Thanks for reading, I’m on XBL my GT is Slavic Sniper (no I don’t snipe all day in FPS gameslol) I would love it to play one of you guys here (prefer Australia) so you can give me some feedback rather than post up a video, but I can do that if needed.
A little bit. The trials are a gimmicky add-on to the game that demonstrate some of the basic applications to moves and basic combos for each character but rarely do they touch on practical techniques and situational setups. They can be good to wrangle your execution in some cases but on the whole I think you’re best to practise combos and setups found in the sticky threads on this forum.
A good starting reference is this combo guide by loltima:
[media=youtube]bCfuEXzJ_d0[/media]
And his channel with a LOT of Akuma-centric techniques here:
If you don’t understand why you lost or perhaps fail to minimise the recurring instances that get you smashed out then you won’t really be learning a great deal and you’ll find your progress slow and frustrating. Pay attention to your own losses and take note where a lot of your health gets sapped away. Do you lose to throws? Do you jump too much? Are you attempting to anti-air and fluffing it and being punished in response? Are repeated attacks suckering you in? Are there certain things you realise you don’t know how to defend against? etc.
See loltima’s guides as linked above. Also check the sticky threads here - the combo and vortex threads in particular. Personally I think its worth practising and refining good defense with Akuma given that he is the weakest character in the game (behind Seth) and also to practise basic combos for maximum damage when an opening presents itself. All Akuma players for example should be able to net between 250 - 350+ damage from ripe punish situations.
Execution proficiency improves over time. At first you’ll find things require you to focus whereas later things will come naturally. Its a little bit learning how to drive a car. The real test of execution skills is when under a mountain of pressure when it really needs to count or executing a combo or special in a certain situation that will determine a victory or loss. Even the pros screw up now and then - some more than others.
Australia has a pretty active community though many are also now playing Marvel Versus Capcom 3. Join our online community to hook-up with other players and see whats going on in and around Australia in terms of fighting games. Our nationals are coming up very soon and we also have an international tournament in Melbourne in a couple months featuring a few heavyweights from Japan (and quite possibly the USA?):
We also run somewhat regular arcade and console sessions in Sydney though lately the console sessions have been MVC3 centric with the SFIV folks preferring instead to meet at a couple of arcades in the city to smash away.
We often meet on Tuesdays for example at Galaxy World on George Street as a $50 game card can be had for $30 making it a good deal. GW has eight networked cabinets running Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, as does Goodgames, which is an arcade opposite Central Train station. Lots of details can be found on the OzHadou website and forums - check it out.
SRK is still by far the best resource I think in many ways for raw character specific information and international goings on, but for local things definitely check out OH.
Not going too much indepth in my advice seeing that you are a beginner and I made alot of beginners quit with my babbeling so.
Try not to do U1 outside of anti-air or punish situations.
If u score a sweep try to stay on your opponent, make him guess and when he guesses wrong punish him, instead of running away.
You can also use the vortex gamogo gave you a link there.
Block more, if you are not playing footsies or on the offensive, block.
Use cr.mp to put pressure on the opponent.
on that reversal happy cammy, do a cr.mp and then just block to have a free punish.
Thats all for now.
In 1 year, with the right training method you can become a beast.
I’ve been training a player myself and after 3 months he can compete with the rest of the players here :).
Make sure you understand the IV game engine first.
Read up and try out the basics of Akuma, and understand how he is supposed to be played.
Watch videos, memorize what is being done, and do it yourself.
Some of this may be harder for you, especially if you’ve never played SF prior to IV (have you?). Personally-speaking I can pick up any SF game and at least play it at a mediocre-decent level just from experience (though I must admit that IV has been harder to learn than any other, just because zoning is much less prominent). So, here’s my advice to you (in order):
Learn EVERY special move and super Akuma has.
Do all his trials.
Check up the basic vortex videos through Youtube (linked here earlier).
