Well it depends, really. not many characters in SF4 play differently enough to where it’s that hard to learn multiple characters at the same time.
Now there are benefits to go with specialization, if you play the same character always of course you pick stuff up and improve quicker.
I disagree
The character in sf4 are different enough. Each char is totally unique. Certainly there’re some similarity but they play totally different. If you have a great fundamental, yes you can be good at any character picking them up. I don’t think not many of us have a solid fundamental in sf4 beside maybe glen/alen/jjj. They descend from cvs2. They already have the building block of footsie and mind games.
People like us you me and ben, there’s no way we can good with all character until later once we play the game long enough.
well, Jeff/Kurasa has a rant on how every character all fits like, one of 4 archetypes for their B&Bs, and while I’m not saying they’re the exact same, a lot of being able to play a character comes from just having good execution and knowing what’s what with them. (a lot of that comes from playing the character)
you’re not going to win a tournament without practicing a character seriously, but you get the idea i’m shooting at.
now i agree not having a main is a poor course of action. but there’s nothing wrong with knowing a lot of characters. having good footsies and mindgames def helps too.
seems like we’re basically saying the same thing.
lol, i’m workin on honda :), i have some new stuff with him now.
but as for the dhalsim matches, i was doing sloppy rushdown. and i was going for daigo DP a lot, LOL. those dhalsim matches were actually me trying to learn dhalsim poke patterns for future reference in case i need to psychic DP.
BUT you are right, dhalsim matchup is very weird to me. i don’t feel comfortable. if i ever came across a dhalsim in tourney, i’d prolly play rufus.
it’s hard to keep dhalsim honest, and a lot of any shoto vs sim is being able to condition him to do specific things so you can get your counterpokes to set up damage situations. i think these matches favor sim in short sets, but begin to favor ryu in long sets.
rufus isn’t so much about conditioning or baiting limbs, his basic gameplan doesn’t really change. that’s one of the nice things about him, and why i like him. it’s also one of his weaknesses, though.
i’m telling you stuff i already know you know again aren’t i?
specializing in 1 character is a good thing. you learn the ins and outs of that character. you get a better grasp of character matchups. if you specialize in 1 character and your opponent specializes in 1 character, you learn a more “correct” version of the character matchup because the guy who specializes prolly knows all his options and you’ll know all your options too. but if you’re trying to learn a character matchup against a player who doesn’t specialize, you may not be getting the correct knowledge you need from that matchup so if you ever come across a guy who specializes in that character, you might think something works when in fact it doesn’t.
besides, i don’t care if you specialize or like to bounce around from character to character. if you have good idea of how the game works, then bouncing around isn’t that bad, but it’s still the best idea to specialize in at least 1 character in order to learn character matchups better.
but the reason i like to bounce around is because i like the fact that i have cool unique stuff with all my characters…
rufus, chun, akuma, honda, ryu, sagat, and boxer are the 6 characters i can win with and i feel fairly confident using any of those characters in a tourney. i just recently picked up honda and he’s already like one of my better characters, lol.
i know how to play blanka, ken, seth, gief, and abel. those are the 6 characters that i can play DECENTLY but i’m not confident with them and i don’t know everything with them.
hatin on my basics kiet? 
I think its very easy for some of us to play multiple characters just due to us knowing the game realy well. When it first came out allen/glen provided alot of information about nuances of the system, and i just make sure to remember all the stuff i know about the game. Meaning, when you know what to learn with each character to be proficient you can learn a character in a week. However if you dont have enough basic knowledge to already know what you want to do with a character based on his options even before you pick him up, i too would highly suggest working on one character to learn the game just as much as learning the character. If that make sense hehe
Oh and im coming for those ranbat points baybee. No allen/nick = I’ll see Jay or aaron in the finals saturday 
Aaron- ggg is slash/reload only? Or reload/slash/ac?
Sorry man I didn’t see this until now.
You pretty much nailed it, but also remember that sumo smash can be a good anti-air in the right situations, although they really vary from character to character; Ben’s also right on j. headbutt being pretty useful. The hardest thing with Honda is that you don’t have a universal answer except EX headbutt, and then that’s not even 100% unless you always use it real late. Your best bet is to learn the ranges for trading with st. fierce because as you said the trade is always in your favor and because unless you’re about to win you need to save meter.
Yeah cr. jab is really good. Those are his two best pokes, although cr. forward will beat a lot of stuff at certain ranges which then means combo into headbutt. Play around with it and see how it goes for you, but I’ve definitely beat shoto cr. forwards with it before.
I think j. roundhouse does more damage, but I can’t remember. As for when to use one over the other, I’ve found that j. roundhouse seems to work better the closer I am, vs. jumping fierce being better when I’m farther. It seems pretty intuitive because fierce has more reach, but for whatever reason it isn’t as effective (in my experience) as roundhouse when I’m pretty close up. Jumping strong and j. forward you’ll also need to use, but they’re very situational. Jumping strong beats a fair amount of chun’s standing anti-airs, for example, and for whatever reason it seems harder for claw and guile to airthrow j. forward.
Learn to combo jab into HHS, and since I know your execution is good, cr. forward into HHS. Turning a poke into about 260 damage is really good.
Another thing is to use sumo smash sparingly. It seems fairly good at first but it’s far too punishable by certain characters (Boxer in particular) and a fairly weak choice as well (it loses to a bunch of stuff clean).
Save your meter. As I said above, if you can beat or trade without using EX headbutt, do so because there will come times when you have no other option but to EX. EX Headbutt is safe in almost all situations, so don’t worry too much about throwing it out on a hunch. Also remember headbutt in general does a ton of chip, and can be a great way to earn yourself a win at the end of the round when you force an opponent to block.
Oicho punishes a lot of things and sets up your mixup, so in that way is better than punishing with headbutt. Also, your normals set up a solid throw mixup, as if you know the opponent will try to jump out of the throw, st. fierce also catches them for good damage.
Your air-to-air normal of choice is jumping forward; jumping roundhouse is good and I prefer to use it when I know it will win, but if I’m in doubt at all jumping forward beats a ton of other normals.
hope that helps man.
Not hating p. just stating facts that I know. You have never play any other char beside boxer against me that I remember. How’s about this ?? You play anyone beside boxer against me in this weekend AR. Prove me wrong!!!
Jay
Are you free friday night??? I’m thinking of ditching work 
If I do, we can go eat some good food, go to rex play some game and stay over night at my house.
Alen
P you should be here this weekend. You can stay at my place for couple nights. Just bring your clothes…
friday night as in tomorrow night? I should be free to eat good food…lol I was thinking about going to mai lee after the tourament on saturday, but tomorrow is fine too. gonna get another 6 GOD-sandwiches for next week…
aight lets do it, if we play at aerial rave we gotta be on xbox. and i wont play boxer :cybot: been meaning to bust some chars out this weekend anyway.
Jay- boxer and beast oh u ready!?!?
Rex - Yeah, that GGG is for Slash. In Slash you could unlock the #R versions of characters to play with as well, but in the Slash engine. So you can have shit like #R Eddie vs. Slash Anji and shit like that. People are allowing EX characters as well (which is basically an alternate version of the character that wasn’t in arcades) because nobody has really looked into what they can do. Seems like it’ll be pretty cool, but the main focus will still be AC so you should probably stick to trying to learn that.
Also I’ve been practicing Blazblue and it’s getting kind of :looney:. I found some stuff that was like 
, then I was like :wtf:. But then I found something and it was :wow:, so I was like :pleased:. Roll it all up and I’m like :rock:.
The game is fun, but has it’s flaws. I was dumb to think it was on the level of GG, but I’m going to get really good at it anyway.
It’s all good; I’m going to learn Bang I think, maybe a little Tager or Jin as well. Once I figure out combos it’s going to be a wrap cuz American BB is scrubtacular!
oh and aks, don’t underestimate how good that body splash can be. i’ve seen it stuff some really weird shit, and tick right into ochio on block as well
good games aks during the last 3 weeks. learned alot in general.
kiet - good shit on the steak. yum yum. also…P. LINKING = GAWD! NEVER MISS
Since Rex’s is further away than I can get anyone over here to drive, does anyone else (other than NKI, who’s like, doing stuff?) who does hookups live like, in the city?
if so, i’m gonna have to start showing up. need matchup knowledge.
paul - thanx for the info man.
Wow, realy suprised how good the monthly ended up even with alot of people unavailable. Random srk player i invited came up with a lil crew and got 3rd place in the team tournament. Maybe we got some new players?
Aaron- u cheap in blazblue imo. GGs in the tourny, i dont think i would have won with rog.
Allen- man i cant wait to see the video, i should have stayed more patient, by the last few games u had me throwin out all kinda random stuff trying to get inside. Im glad you didnt pick honda, i think u could win that matchup for sure. Hit me up to play if you stay in town, and congrats on winning your first sf4 tourny.
PTX- gs i seen u lasering that dude’s daranja.
Raeli- u had me until the third round lol GS rufus is gettin better.
Special K- when u played good you won, only a matter of time till you get your execution up.
Lyquid/BenRa- good showing in the team tournament, no matchup experience double jepardy for the loss >_<
Weeks/Devil- u guys are improving alot, u know you balrog mirrors well.
yeah, once i lost my chance to get the first match by fucking up that ultra setup, it all went down hill pretty quickly. i think the second match might be too embarassing to watch