I had a friend of mine that had been adapting from smash to street fighter. We found that skull girls was a good intermediate to get back to the basics of a more traditional fighting game. Obviously not 100% good for transition but its good for the fundamentals and has good tutorial mode. Might be worth looking into?
lol, I’ve played SF before, SFIV was probably the first fighting game I tried to take seriously and didn’t mash. But no one wanted to play and the internet connecton sucked in college so I dropped fighting games almost entirely(except for Smash Kappa).
I have played a little skullgirls(I’m an indiegogo backer!) and if there were more time in the day, I’d freakin’ go back.
It’s a bit of an adjustment, but I really just think I’ve gotta unlearn SFIV, sweep out the cobwebs. That and practice.
I tried some Mika online today, and I think she’s a fun and interesting character so I decided I want to learn some more. Most of all, what do I do on the opponent’s wakeup? Whenever I got a knockdown I didn’t know what to do at all. I just crouch jabbed and neutral jumped alot, but I know those are shitty options. So what does Mika do on opponents wakeup? Also, what is her crossup/best crossup?
Telling you what to do on all of her different knockdowns is pretty hard because the timings are all slightly different, but in general…:
Best moves on their wake-up:
f+hp - The best attack you can use. It’s +3 on block (frame trap to s.mp or f+mp), launches if you catch them trying to jump, and CCs them for a big combo if they tried pressing buttons or teching throws. An example of a good timing for this attack is after any combo into an MP, HP, or EX Shooting peach and the opponent does a back recovery, then dash, f+hp will stuff their wakeup buttons.
s.mp - Quick to come out, safe on block (-2), and can be hit confirmed into f+mp for a sweet combo, as well as s.hp xx CA if you have meter and are fishing for damage. In the same situation as above (after an MP/HP/EX Peach knockdown), dash, s.mp will hit any buttons or jump attempts cleanly if they did a quick recovery. Basically, s.mp is your meaty on a lot of knockdowns if they quickrise, and f+hp is good when they backroll. It’s all situational, so take that with a grain of salt.
f+mk - Can go over low buttons if they try doing c.lp a lot on wakeup. On counterhit, it combos into s.lk -> mp xx MP/EX Peach. In certain situations, it can be timed to beat their options on both quick rise and back roll (i.e. after MP/HP/EX Peach knockdowns) by doing dash, f+mk. However, you only get a combo on counterhit if they quick rise, but on any hit if they back roll. On a quickrise however, f+mk is -3 so it can be punished by faster characters looking for it. On backroll it is safe on block.
Command Throws - Once they respect your attacks and stop pressing buttons, throw them when they block. Simple. Punch throw to swap positions or gain higher stun mostly, and kick throw for keeping them on the same side (i.e. keep them in the corner). Kick throw also lets you apply the same dash -> s.mp/throw mixup I described above if they quick rise. You only get to pressure them on a punch throw if you throw them into the corner, otherwise you don’t really get a follow up.
Your best cross up is j.lk. Learn the spacing to apply it. Air d+mp can also cross-up, but doesn’t have much pay-off and is very unsafe on block, so use it sparingly. Mika also has LOTS of ways to set ambiguous cross-up situations using her V-Trigger. I won’t detail them all here, but a simple example is something like blocked c.hp xx V-Trigger (no delay), qcf+lk. You’ll jump over them with the air-throw JUST before the assist flies in, so they have to switch blocking sides really quickly or they take the hit. If they try to jump out, the airthrow catches them. They can use an invincible move to beat this though, so try not to overuse it or be too obvious. Mika has a LOT of stuff you can do with her V-Trigger to create these kinds of situations. Check out the video thread or just mess around in training mode and see what you can find.
I think he means “what should I do as Mika waking up.”
The answer to that is exactly what you’re doing. Block, jab, or jump. You don’t have any invul reversals, so don’t waste the bar. A meaty anything can only be blocked.
vreverse block jab jump ex wingless
what happens when a command throw and normal throw clash? does a normal throw beat out a command throw? it also feels like command throws have a slower startup? i checked and they are both 5 frames, so why do i always get thrown back by my opponent?
I think the hit boxes are different on it which might lean you forward a bit and therefore get you hit by some characters throws? Don’t quote me on that though as I’m fairly sure that command throws SHOULD be beating normal ones if they do ‘collide’
in sf4 if two throws (command vs normal/command vs command) met each other on the same frame there would be a random winner. im not sure if thats how it still work in sf5.
video for reference: https://youtu.be/lea9o487UpU
Pretty sure that SFV has random winner for same frame air-throws (in the rare instances when that occurs) so it wouldn’t surprise me if that was extended to other throws in the game.
quick question, what is the best thing to do after f.mp, f.mp? when the opponent bounces back to you?
If you are mid arena, and dashing back to bounce them the usual options are:
charged s.hk ex peach - this gives you corner carry and good damage
lp peach (wiffs) lk wingless - this helps build meter, not a bad option for an early passion press.
dash forward c.hp - this resets them so you can go for a throw or mp to start the blender up again.
If they are near the wall so you don’t back dash, but not point blank:
charged s.hk ex peach - good damage, corners them
c.mp - resets them
If they are at the wall, and point blank:
f.hp c.mp to reset. You can v-trigger the c.mp to add another mixup by crossing under them extending your turn.
I hope that covers what you’re looking for 
Is command grab / st.mp a legit mix up situation? If it is, is jump in lk, st.mp / command throw legit?
What do you mean?
Sure, jump lk/crossup lk into command throw is common, you can do s. mp instead which will stuff people trying to hold up to punish your command throw. Or crossup lk, s. lp, s. mp/throw
Ok so I used mika for the first time in casuals last night. Some observations:
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command grabs are more effective when you condition the opponent to respect your blockstrings. Fortunately her pokes (cr.lk, sr.mk, st.lp) are all solid. St.hk is great to throw out once in awhile. I found st.lp to be the ideal tick given the frame advantage.
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the goal is to land st.mp to passion press so you can carry them to the corner for her reset game. That should be her gameplan.
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maximize v trigger as a reset / mix up option. Still haven’t gotten the hang of this yet.
I think Mika is supposed to be a bully. Get them in the corner and keep them there, mixing command grabs and f. HP to keep them guessing on wakeup
I’m not really great at fighting games and I’ve never really had a good sense of how to play grapplers. I know you want to throw them, mix them up with blockstring games and wakeup games. Is there anything else I’m missing? I just feel like I don’t get how to use them proficiently.
Mika feels limited to me, ie lack of reversal Besides ex peach, but maybe I’m missing something?
What are some general principles I should be using when aying her besides getting the opponent to the corner, and throwing them a lot. Or maybe I should ask, what are all of the techniques at my disposal for doing so?
I guess there is the thing you need to learn about expectations and how to use them to your advantage? Most people when they see R.Mika they are going to want to jump when they wake up. That is because they /expect/ that you will throw and that is the answer to it, ‘neutral jump punish’. This is especially true if you go for a meaty grapple right away. The way to work around this, and in a sense ‘be a grappler’ in general, you gotta learn when and how NOT to grapple. You gotta learn when to try a meaty Lady Mika instead or go for a jab. When to do your OWN neutral jump. When to just out right do nothing. It is that layer of mind games that dominates R.Mika’s thinking, because she has multiple tools for almost every situation and can force people to guess a lot more than most if you use all her tools.
You also gotta learn what pokes and anti airs work on individual characters. Her poke game is important and without it you will have a hard time keeping on the offensive and to be honest R.Mika is one of the suckiest characters to play without pressuring the opponent. Her tools are designed to bully, to keep you guessing, to make the other side quiet. Unlike four there is no ‘general button that works in this general senario.’ If you want to get past the bronze levels and fight a game with more layers of thinking you gotta learn every single character match up intimately. SFV has such varied character design and has taken away a lot of the general purpose win tools for most people that the spacing and situations for each move you have to be different character to character. The footsies game is going to be different against each and so is your poke and punish game. These things are even more important for a grappler since their buttons and R.Mika’s especially have shitty on block frames compared to some non-grapplers. You HAVE to think more about strategy and the character match up accordingly. Each button is that much more important.
As for your trouble with no reversal, I know it sucks and is one of the more frustrating aspect of R.Mika. Blocking and jumping and maybe throwing if you got them mixed up enough with those two options on wake up are going to be important.
Finally, for your last question there is starting to be some good resources on the forum to help you learn how to get people into corner and generally keep up the pressure. I am going to highly recommend forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/208610/peaches-and-irish-whipped-cream-r-mika-knockdown-omnibus because b4k4 generally knows what he is talking about and did a lot of fucking work to make something useful. If something THERE confuses you obviously feel free to ask anyone there we are all more than happy to help people with these sorts of things even outside the beginner area. We want our community resources to be helpful to everyone.
Good luck with your training.
Thanks for the reply. I was practicing some stuff from his post earlier this morning and I thought that some of it was pretty difficult. I mean, the timings had to be perfect. The no-recocery strings where.you’re whiffing the first three moves then meaty with the fourth. I could hit like 10% of the time and I’m using a stick.
If this is what it takes, constant practice in the lab for meaty strings, then maybe she’s not the character for me because I don’t have the patience for that.