So I’ve been practicing on my Arcade stick on SFIV. I have the TE SFIV one. I have standard setup, top 3 white buttons, LP,MP, HP and Lower ones the Kicks. However I set the top Black Button to Focus attack. It’s really the only way I can focus cancel my moves on the stick.
So my main thought was am I gimping myself by setting it up so that a button will Focus Attack for me? Specially since arcades (unless I’m wrong, which might be) only have 6 buttons for the Punches and Kicks? Should I take the time to learn it the Natural command way, by hitting MP+MK then dashing? Or does it not matter?
Also on a side not, should I practice my combos on a dummy or go online and actually play live opponents? I’d go to an arcade but I know of none around here, sides maybe downtown (Chicago).
Its a bad move to learn a setup that deviates from the arcade layout.
Its going to mean constant button remapping at local gatherings, its a PITA at at tourney, and it means you will never really be able to play well in an arcade.
Take the time and learn it right, you will thank me later on.
You need to practice combos on a dummy and on real people - playing the arcade is ok for this, but not generally a good idea because you can get bad habits with setups the “machine” will let you get away with that a human wouldn’t.
Go into training, pick a combo/move/tactic/setup/whatever, and practice it until you think you’ve got it down. Now go do a player match and see if you can pull it off “in real life.” The goal is not to win - “winning” to you is “did you incorporate your new skill.” If you won the match, and didn’t try your new skill, then you “lost.” Then once you can incorporate the new skill, now see if you can use it to win matches - and then you just file it away in your bag of tricks that you may or may not use in any given match.
Practice combos on a dummy. Just don’t get too obsessed with really fancy 1 frame link combos and make sure you know how to do your character’s BNB. For example, knowing how to do the lk shunpu, c. hp link with Sakura or the s.lk, s.hp link with Rufus is something you really need to know. But while knowing how to do Akuma’s far s.hk c.lp s.hk etc. loop is good and all, that shouldn’t be your focus in training mode until you can do all the basic stuff with consistency on your opponents.
Then you need to apply this stuff, and that’s where playing against real people come in. Don’t practice these combos in ‘real matches’ against CPUs, as all this will do is teach you bad habits.
Great help from yall thanks. Yeah been trying to main Ken since he’s my favorite, and trying to practice his jumping mk cross up into his target combo into Shoryuken, but for some reason can’t DP on command with stick yet, sometimes it justs Hadokens.
As for Gameworks I didn’t see it there last time but I guess I just missed it. Nice to try out what I learn after while against an opponent that will hopefully not lag ^^;
With the hadouken coming out instead of the shoryuken it usually means you’re moving the stick from the DF position to the F position instead of staying in DF. That or you’re pressing the punch button too late.
Dude with ken, you absolutely MUST master his kara throw and abuse the shit out of that.
As soon as you get the other guy guessing blindly as to whether or not you are going to kara throw, that is what cracks his defense open and allows you to start really working the metagame.
Practice this until you get it down 100%: c.jab > c.jab > Kara Throw
You can do that off any jump in or crossup.
You can then start the mixups:
c.jab > kara throw
c.jab > LV 1 focus dash up > X (where X can be a throw, a light attack, or crouch tech)
c.jab x 3 > low short xx RH tatsu
Ken’s best single punish by FAR is the following:
CLST.RH XX RH Tatsu
and once you land that, you are left right in their face, only to start the mixup game above.
Most of the online scrubs still haven’t figured out that ken’s DP is good, but he has better tools that will force your opponent to become frustrated and make errors, which then opens safe chances for you to land big damage.
You should be able to win most matches without using his DP at all.
Thanks a lot mate. Guide actually helping a lot. Finally corrected the Hadoken/Shoryuken problem. Now I just gotta practice till I can do it from both sides.
Yeah I need to practice his Kara Throw, can get it once in while but most times just whiff throw in front of em. Also what does the first part stand for in this?
CLST.RH XX RH Tatsu
I’ve been using his Target combo into EX Shoryuken to punish, but would love to use that one since it better if you can clarify the meaning.
Close standing roundhouse. It’s Ken’s highest damage/stun normal that can be canceled. I wouldn’t say that particular combo is his best punish, though. Ken’s better off using a meter, imo. Hk tatsu leaves ken at -1 on hit. That means you can get hit by quick command throws for free…yea, getting punished for landing a combo. Ex tatsu puts you at +1, which helps with the mixup game and allows you to jump out of a command throw. Cl.hk xx ex srk is a great punish, also. 350 damage and no links or anything…just a simple cancel.
I’ll have to try some of those alternates to the punish I mentioned above…I’m no ken expert,but I usually end up conserving meter for FADC since at least once per round, I will get knocked down and want to wake up safely.