SFV Neutral Game

Street Fighter V
1

Hi everyone, I’ve been playing SFV off and on since the release and something that still trips me up to this day is that I cannot for the life of me understand the neutral.
I’m ultra gold, and I’ve played with various characters over the seasons.
Recently I was playing against a few ultra platinum’s and noticed that the neutral seems like a bunch of button presses… which I hardly doubt is the right answer at all!
I understand the concepts of whiff-punishing, shimmy’s, baiting and such but when it comes down to it, I usually end up getting hit with a higher priority move, or I try to throw out a higher priority move only to get stuffed by a light. It seems like the game is built on movement but I don’t really understand how I’m suppose to be moving.

I’ve looked up tons of videos about it and reviewed my own replays but I still can’t figure the problem out and hope that someone might share some tips.
Its interesting to play against people of all skill levels because it seems like people of higher level understand the neutral more… yet I’m completely blind to it.

If anyone needs more information my cfn is of the same name as my username.
Any help is appreciated, thanks you!

2

If you want some specific advice instead of a thread that degenerates into arguments about SFV having shitty neutral compared to past SFs, you should post your characters.

In the most general sense, what I can say is this.

If previous SFs were about baiting buttons, SFV is more about baiting movement. If you have a game plan that pressures the opponent into moving in a predictable manner and you have a consistent way to punish the opponent for moving that way, the game will make more sense to you, in terms of its neutral.

1 Like
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well, I main G right now. I’ve played Ryu, Akuma, Sakura, Urien, Chun.
But regardless of the character, I’ve always had trouble with it. I just can’t seem to figure out when I should push a button.

I can understand what you mean about baiting movement… I’ve noticed a lot of players tend to walk back to bait you walking forward so they can do something… making someone jump is kinda the fundamental of it all… command throws and throws are really strong because of the movement aspect… lol sorry i’m just tryin to brainstorm it
I’m trying my best to understand it, thank you for you help :>

4

Use Ryu…

5

I have used ryu… regardless of the character I still have trouble.