Ohh, you mean lack of absolute guard? Yeah, I get what you mean by that.
Well, without red parrying, this would have no use at all : what do you wanna do between blocked hits of a combo which by definition doesn’t allow you to do anything but block again?
Even discarding red parry the necessity to hold back discourages mashing and I’m a ok with that! :tup:
Exactly. You can’t just put the controller down while someone is doing a long block string because you have to react/predict when he’ll ease on the pressure and counter accordingly. So you always have to be on your toes, even while blocking. So in a way you aren’t just trying to “stay solid” with good D, but you are also looking for a poke in that block string that you KNOW you can out prioritize, beat to the hit frame, out reach, etc. and not having absolute guard allows you to instantly change the momentum this way. I find it really interesting.
Another weird thing to consider is sometimes choosing to stop blocking can be advantageous. Sound crazy? Example!
If Ken is blocking Gouki’s sa1, blocking the last hit pushes Ken back the furthest. Many times, blocking all except the last hit keeps Ken in range for low mk x jinrai, while blocking the last hit only has Ken in range for raw jinrai. Go for the red parry cause even if you fail (get hit or just block it) you still get a beefy punish!
haha, that reminds me of that story Jeff Schaffer talked about in his videos, about how Mike Watson would trap him in the Knee Press loop. He let go of the joystick and went to the bathroom, and when he came back he was still doing the loop.
Yeah, I know. I just wanted to skip to the most cool part of 3S not having auto-block.
I’m so-so on auto-block. If the game needs it, fine. If not, don’t put it in b/c it ruins the game with mashing dps.
MvC2 & 3 quite literally need auto block b/c you’re getting hit from both sides and sometimes high and low.
SF:alphabet soup does NOT need auto-block b/c you’re being pressured from one side very-slowly.
Happy to see new 3S players joining the community. As it has been already said before: just play and enjoy the game, don’t bother with w/l ratio or stuff like that. Learn the basics by playing online and you will get better day by day (just leave the shitty SF4 game behind you).
I’ll be a 3S scrub as well so anyone on PS3 who wants to play against a newbie hmu
Kaiten92
I started playing fighting games back in 2002 (?) when Virtua Fighter 4 released on PS2 in Europe. I still consider VF my main game but SF4 got me into SF. I have played a bit of SF3, but it was only a little and it was a long time ago.
While SF4 is a nice game, it just does not feel “right”, I don’t know what it is. SF3 felt way better so on Tuesday when 3SoE is released I will probably leave SF4 for 3S.The community around 3S seem to be more old school too, which is a huge plus.
I do need help though. I am absolutely worthless at SF for some reason. Like, absolutely fantastically bad.
My main problem is that I tend to read a lot about the game but the knowledge does not help me. For example: I know that you should not base your game around jump-ins in SF4, yet I cannot stop them in a real match (so I often lose to players who constantly does jump-ins and get all mad about it).
So, instead of getting salty, I want to break this habit and have decided to learn as little as possible about the game (I know the basic mechanics of the game, parries and such).
I will be playing Makoto as main and a bit of Ryu on the side. What is the first thing I should practice?
Also, how do I practice judging distance in some effective way?
Hah, converting my knowledge of the game into actual gameplay is pretty much my exact problem too…
This sounds like “unfamiliarity” with your character and their characters’ abilities. In 3S, jumping isn’t necessarily bad or good UNTIL you know what your character can do in the “jumping-in” situation and the “anti-airing” situation.
For example, on basic terms, JUMPING IN on Ken & Dudley are both “bad.” But then you mentioned parrying.
[LIST]
[]OK, well both Ken and Dudley can dp. Parrying will stop that, and dps aren’t “relatively” hard to parry.
[]What if you parry first hit of dp & they cancel into super?
[LIST]
[]If Ken cancels into super after your first parry, he juggles you for two maybe 3 hits. No biggie.
[]Dudley will hit you for the rest of his super which is BIG damage.
[/LIST]
[]Who has more options?
[LIST]
[]Ken:
[LIST]
[]Down fierce xx . . . .
[LIST]
[]tatsu
[]dp
[]super
[/LIST]
[]Dash under
[]Block
[/LIST]
[]Dudley:
[LIST]
[]Down fierce
[]button xx . . . .
[LIST]
[]sway back
[]dp
[]DUCK UNDER (xx SUPER, if he has it)
[/LIST]
[]DUCK UNDER SUPER
[LIST]
[]remember that duck under is INVINCIBLE to high hits.
[]If the Duck under crosses under to the other side, you’ll have to parry the OTHER direction: Good luck.
[/LIST]
[]Dash under
[]Block
[]Chains:
[LIST]
[]strong, forward, fierce
[]forward, roundhouse, fierce
[]short, forward, strong, fierce
[]Most of these will knock you out of the air
[/LIST]
[]Sway back:
[LIST]
[]at the correct spacing, your jump in will whiff & Dudley will hit you in the air with sway back which he can cancel into super
[/LIST]
[]Other stuff
[/LIST]
[]General Rule: Don’t jump in on Dudley (at a specific distance)
[/LIST]
[/LIST]
As for jumping-in and parrying, it’s safer against Ken than against Dudley b/c Dudley as a character has 30 million options. But, that’s only if that Dudley will punish jump-ins. If THAT player let’s you jump in, then by all means go for it optioning parry.
Also, what is your reward for jumping in after parrying everything? A basic combo. Jumping in on Dudley has GREATER risks, but you only get the same reward as for jumping in on Ken.
Now for ANTI-AIRING, Makoto has similar options as Ken, but I think they’re more effective b/c of Makoto’s rushdown gameplay. B/c Makoto spends most of the time getting in, if your opponent goes to you, more power to you. Now it’s up to your personal reactions.
[LIST]
[]Did they already press a button in the air?
[LIST]
[]Reset with any button depending on what you want to do afterwards:
[LIST]
[]st. strong
[LIST]
[]dash in to keep close and start your mixup
[]mix up without dashing in
[/LIST]
[]cr. forward
[LIST]
[]" " " "
[/LIST]
[]st. jab
[LIST]
[]" " " "
[]on some characters, jab resetting the opponent is the perfect distance for kara karakusa
[/LIST]
[]st. fierce (if you saw the jump in very early)
[]st. forward
[]st. short
[/LIST]
[]Karakusa catch
[]Sweep --> proceed to puree them Makoto’s mix-up
[]DASH UNDER!!!
[LIST]
[]especially if this puts them in the corner
[]Or, this puts her in the corner with SA2 which you will try to set-up
[/LIST]
[]BLOCK
[/LIST]
[]What if they jump in and are parry happy?
[LIST]
[]if you make them parry when they’re still high in the air, you can still dash under.
[]button xx jab fukiage (dp), sjc, button
[]button xx EX dp
[LIST]
[]this crosses under and hits them from the other side
[/LIST]
[]if they parry your first reset attempt, press jab to try to reset again (if they are still high in the air)
[]BLOCK
[/LIST]
[/LIST]
This sounds like unfamiliarity with the characters’ pokes. This will come with experience. Sorry, no amount of reading and theory will replace practice.
Now, you’ve probably done a lot of reading again. Now for training mode and the local arcades. GOOD LUCK with Makoto!
Check out Mimora or Boss makoto. They are my favorites. Other notables are Tominaga, Heikichi, Momochi’s, & J’s.
Makoto is more about block string pressure mixup.
Play with good people that are good at teaching you what you’re doing wrong.
How to be a 3rd Strike Master: Learn to Block. Seriously. If you can learn to block and don’t try and parry everything in the world, you’ll achieve Nirvana.
Also. you’re going to be tempted to try and parry everything when you wakeup… don’t do it. This leads to the Darkside.
True.
To add to that…
Learn to throw… Throws are going to be most of your damage / setups / mindgames. Throws are fucking godlike in this game… Dash up throw = OP
Or raw walk up and throw. Always my favorite.
Thank you for your answer!
I know theory wont help me, but is there no way besides playing matches that will teach me the distance of my characters pokes? Some training method of some sort? It seems that I have a really hard time assimilating experience from matches. Maybe it has to do with my age (31) or maybe I’m not focused enough?
Good to know I’m not alone.
I love reading theory and trying to find strategies, they just wont happen in matches though. 
I have tried this. Usually when I find good people they tend to get bored. 
Also, as I said before, I kind have a hard time retaining any knowledge from my matches.
I have actually sunk quite a lot of time into SF4 + AE, and I am still very bad.
I honestly did this when I first learned how to parry…learned the hard way not to do that.
Your age might stop you from being the next Kuroda but it won’t stop you from not being a scrub. LOL.
You’ll just have to find somebody that doesn’t get bored. I’ll volunteer to teach ya a bit when the game comes out and see if it does anything for ya. Just message me.
DJ, you on PSN or XBL?