Should I maybe consider trying to use Gouken as my main character? Im still trying to learn fundamentals using Ryu, when I anti air though it often doesnt seem to work well for me, racting late maybe. Also I miss opportunities sometimes and cant seem to land combos at all, just single hits most often. Since I cant seem to land hits often, but Gouken seems to do alot of damage when he does hit, would it be worth trying? Also I read his inputs are a little easier too and I could still use fireball similar to Ryu?
You are sort of looking in the right direction in the first place, but not long term.
Gouken is easier to play in the beginning, but very hard to master.
If you learn SF you will like his backthrow to ultra, his angled fireballs and monster damage without any linked normals (HP to palm) off combos.
But when you get to a point, where you begin to lose to a certain character like say Adon, it will become very frustrating to play Gouken, since you can’t just do reversal dps.
I first played Ken in vanilla for maybe a month or 2 and switched to Gouken for very weird reasons.
He had to be unlocked in that game, and he had backthrow to ultra, so I thought he was cheap, lol.
Few years gone past since, and I learned fast, he is hard to play in the long run. I still sticked with him and am proud of it.
Do you mind being patient and learning spacing? Do you mind having to always be aware of when to use great proximity tools like cl.st.mk and cl.st.hk? Do you mind being absolutely molested after being knocked down? Are you prepared to have Zangief and Akuma just run you over after knockdown when you guess wrong? Do you mind having to make a lot of informed guesses and thinking ahead two steps? Do you mind running away sometimes? Do you mind losing to Blanka? Does being grabbed 8 million times make you sick?
These are things you need to be prepared to accept. The rewards are great and it’s really fun to go boss mode with Gouken but you need to accept that most likely, you will be putting effort and time into a character that was meant by Capcom to be a novelty and nothing more. And you need to be prepared to listen to the people on this website because they will make you better.
This man speaks the truth. I have been playing him since vanilla street fighter 4 and he’s fun as he’ll but his flaws will get very frustrating to deal with. I have tried dropping gouken many times but I’m stuck on the old man. He’s awesome but not the best designed character. I will forever play him but I’m really trying to play a more solid well designed character like ryu for example.
Thanks everyone :). Does sound like he could be hard to play against certain characters. Maybe I try him as a 2nd character? I liked using a far fireball and dash forward with cr.hp when people jump…alot seem to fall for that. And his ex tatsu for anti air since I seem to react late for anti air.
In ultra street fighter 4 Gouken will be better and worse because of delayed wake up. Delayed wake up will make it easier for gouken to get up off the ground and block (you are still going to have to deal with people throwing you all day)and play defense better. The problem with that is that goukens safe jump set ups will become kinda useless and if attemped on the wrong character if they pick delayed wake up you can be placed in a bad spot. So goukens along with everyone elses safe jump meaty general okizime( wake up pressure) game just got weaker.
Ultra with be about having a strong ground game rather then knock down auto pilot wake up pressure.
As for goukens buffs so far. EX tastu got a HUGE buff it hits crouchers so thats very good. Standing light kick is special cancelable which slightly improves his ground game. Lp palm got more range which also impoves his ground game. Cr mp got more frame advantage on hit which at a closer range allows us to combo into fireball. Ultra is going to be different and right now im not really sure where gouken will stand with the three new abilities (red focus, delayed wake up, and double ultra) and how strong he will be. I guess we will eventually find out.
Personally I think its more important to fix his tools to where they work 100% of the time like lk tastu and his counter wiffing win activated.
Gouken is not a good choice at almost any level of play if you’re really, truly playing to learn or win. I love the ol’ man but the truth is the truth. As a beginner he doesn’t have much in the way of teaching you footsies, his wake-up game is very limited, his execution is piss easy, his sweep will teach you bad habits, and so forth. As a more advanced player you’ll be frustrated by his lack of mid-range options, slow/unsafe anti-airs, inability to open up crouch blockers, could go on.
I still play him though, and lots of us do, because he’s very fun and visceral. The impact of his max punish is truly something to behold, lol.
Why would he be bad in teaching you combos?
Not everybody starts with learning 1Framers lol.
I think his easy combos especially mp - sweep or hp - palm are perfect for starting as they offer great reward for little practice. (And as a beginner you still HAVE to practice even those.)
If you want to be fancy with Gouken there is still a lot of harder stuff around and it looks awesome also.
Even so, I still think of Gouken as being a relatively poor choice for anyone. He loses really, really badly to standard noob shit if you don’t know what you’re doing meaning new players will lose a lot with him without really knowing why they’re losing. Just pick Ryu or Guile or something, something with a reversal, and save yourself a lot of headaches and heartache when you drop him later for Akuma. >_>
Personally I think Gouken should be everyone’s first character. I think at the bottom/foundation of everyone’s game should be defense. There’s not a better character in the game that teaches you that.
Sucks when someone really loves him and wants to use him as their main but if nothing else, he teaches you probably the best aset anyone can have as far as intangibles possessed in any fighting game.
Gouken Con: He doesn’t have a onesize fits all reversal… (YET) and he’s suspect to getting grabbed and focus attacked (for now).
Gouken Pro: He can so a lot of other things besides having a mashable srk and he does a lot of damage.
At the end of the day, you’ll just have to decide if you are willing to play without a dp and jab confirm, to do all of that damage.
You learn slow with him, but it’s definitely very rewarding and will help you learn the game in more depth, b/c if you want to be good with him you will have to study the game more b/c of character specifics.
