I put another video of one of my matches up on Youtube. It really isn’t that interesting, but comments would be good.
A couple things I know I need to work on are not relying on knockdown/ crossup so much, spacing and AA. I miss a couple links here and there but who doesn’t? Has anyone else gotten frustrated with tick/ kara throws online lately? It seems like every opponent I face mashes c.lp or c.lk or srk during a block string so when I go to throw I get hit out of it. Any tips would really be appreciated.
Here’s the link: [media=youtube]MW8oCvJ5sWA[/media]
i know what you mean about people spamming during your combo’s… i try to identify this quickly then start to stop them at random times then punish whatever they were spamming. if they are spamming jabs just time yours for his recovery and start a new combo (it’s easier if you get pushed out a bit), if he srk’s well do whatever the hell you want to him… i prefer to throw his ass as it keeps me in full control of the situation. anyways once you get him to calm down with spamming during your combo’s start going in for throw/kara-throws. just note he’s prolly gonna start mashing option select throw… at which point stop your combo’s and throw a srk to punish his whiffed throw (make sure to end your combo where you are out of his throw range but in kara-throw range) this sets up perfectly for a ultra if they take the bait.
1st off.
Maybe post a vid of you losing… or actually having a difficult time. Fighting against a jump back fireball Akuma is not a hard match-up. More specifically - a match that required you to be on the defensive and having to block pro-longed strings and assault set-ups.
2nd.
You do links into canceling DP’s fine. Your cross-ups on wake-up are pretty good - meaning they are at a angle which is hard to counter.
So if you do them fine… why not try Ken’s more damaging combos/risks. Involving Tatsu.
As of right now, in that vid. I was thinking… why not just use Ryu?
So take a further step away from differentiating from Ryu and go for some high risk/high reward stuff.
Right now you are a knock-down fighter. The tactic is just fine… but let’s see some high damage and risk combos next.
Also - get into the habit of doing “crouch AA DP”. It’s easy to do and effective. You have a much wider window to input your move and you are safer as you are launching from a crouched position. It took me a good day to overcome my normal DP movement and change to this crouching DP. But I haven’t looked back since.
I used to only do tatsu combos, but for some reason I’ve gotten lazy with them and I think I rely too much on srks especially online. I think that’s just because mind games are hard to play online especially against opponents who will just do the same thing all the time preventing tatsu mixups/ tick throws etc, my default ender is just OST since most will srk or throw.
But you are definitely right, especially about the AA DP, since AA is probably my biggest weakness.
Also I dislike Ryu. I think I like Ken’s flashiness too much to switch, although I think everything about Ryu would make things easier. Did I read something about how you were going to switch to Ryu or Akuma?
Online man… can’t do anything you want to do anymore! It makes you play differently from live.
I’ve mained Ken since the release of SFIV on arcade. Lots of money spent on this guy since. There’s a comp every 2 weeks at one place and every other week is casuals meet up for tight-arse tuesdays (1/2 price on all cabs).
Then there’s a monthly comp held in a hall called ‘ranbats’. And a big tourny held by a casino’s arcade 1-2 a year.
The most major tournament is in about 2weeks from now in a booked out hall.
There’s a ranbat online tourny for all Australians (yes, i’m aussie) Held every couple of months.
And then there are the random tourny’s held by radiostations and public events like festivals.
So what I’m saying - after a year of playing competitively and seriously with Ken…
It is time to move on
Ryu is the more logical choice for competitive play
I play every character in the game. But only mediocre in skills. It’s funny how I can do better against Boxer, Blanka and Gief with a mediocre Ryu… when I usually get smashed with a very experienced Ken.
AND THERE ARE LOTS OF BOXERS, BLANKAS AND GIEFS in these parts!
Akuma would be a Ken replacement in relation to ‘fun’. That guy has crazy mix-ups!!! Demon flip shenanigans!
But I’m just too damn competitive… need Ryu’s stableness. So after this major comp in 2 weeks… I’ll be stalking the Ryu forums
-so fast… love her dash.
-her pokes are heaps good (funny as hell beating gief players with it)
-ex bird kick is awesome anti-air or a general, “get the fuck away from me” move
-combos into ex kicks do a chunk of damage
-cr.rh is … awesome
-her mix-up game is good
-powerful across the screen ULTRA. Trying to juggle with that is hit and miss. Hilarious when you miss the ULTRA juggle… and the opponent ends up standing into the last parts of it and getting hit anyway
-her target combo just looks cool… and is soooo much better than Ken
LOVE THE CHUN!
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Been working on the ‘dash forward’ ULTRA. Can’t pull it off. Hm… maybe I should head to the Chun forum for that. Nah… I’ll just concentrate on Ryu
LOVE THE CHUN!
^^lol…thats usually the case, but until I can soundly whoop the guy above me ass, I will stick to Ken, only then shall I make the transition to Ryu/Akuma.
Although, I have been toying around with them a lot lately, but nothing too serious.
I dunno about that one Gunslinger. For one, **Dr. Chaos **is a beast, and playing him really showed me that I don’t CROSS UP ENOUGH. seriously, an unexpected xup with Ken is almost impossible to block, you have a much better chance of countering on wake-up, and even that’s hard.
Blanka HAS to come to Ken, and Ken can punish every one of his efforts. Ken’s jab beats his ball, one EX srk after a FA rainbow balls usually puts you in control of the match cuz it hurts! step kick Kills blanka and puts him in the corner. basically a defensive Ken can own blanka.
Same with rog…Ken’s FB actually work in this match up and if you throw a couple, rogs will do a move that goes through FB which you will punish on block…again step kick is a great tool, and best of all–Kara throw RIPS rogs!!! and once you get a knockdown, you can x-up without worrying about getting countered. again, a defensive Ken, I think has a great chance of beating rog, even match IMO.
Gief–yeah Ryu is better…Sagat–yeah Ryu is better…against good gouki’s—yeah I’d even give that to Ryu, even though the match isn’t that tuff for Ken.
In competitive play, you probably see more gats/giefs/rogs/bisons and Ryu definitely has better match-ups, but Ken is just fine to use exclusively;)
Hey Doc. how was Elite-Zeus last night? did he give you a run?
You guys should stick with Ken. I’ve been playing him for a long time now. I know the match-ups, tactics, framedata and strats for him. It would be silly of me not to go learn someone else.
I’m not giving up on him. I’d just like to be REALLY GOOD at more than 1 character. Going to be hard breaking that f+mk habit
i actually think its easier to fight sagat and gief with ken. i play both characters and in fact mained ryu for a good while before switching to ken. i just think ken has more options against those to especially with that f. mk
It was 4/5 him but thats the first time I ever played a fuerte and I got 3 perfects on him. They were GGs though :chat:
I think we both have been playing the same time since I started out playing sf4 late aug/early september. You should be skilled with atleast 2 characters. I believe my Shotos and Balrog are all tourney viable. Just Ken is my signature character so I’ll stick with him 90% of the time. Using all 3 of the shotos help you in different areas though, so its actually good to use them or atleast I think. And when you combine everything you learned through using them they increase your overall gameplay with Ken. Just my take on it. Plus you said the same thing awhile back about switching to Ryu cause of his focus attack, you’ll be back :karate:
HAHAHA. Bastard. I was just practicing another shoto to better improve my skills overall!
He’s my signature character too. But my Ryu is just not good at all - need to stop playing Ken all the time.
I’m sure there is more to ryu than zoning. My current ryu is a zone heavy player. That is only half of his capabilities. He can mix up just as good as Ken. I just need to practice his setups- I want to have a poongko style ryu.
