5

Play who you find is fun , if you choose someone like the people said above ^^^ and you don’t like them you wont enjoy the game . If ibuki is who you like then putting in all the effort will be easier than someone you dislike. However she has quite a high learning curve , so if you ever feel like you’re getting nowhere stick with it and it will eventually pay off! Hope this helped! :slight_smile:

6

I would say, play the character you want to play and want to get good with !!!

Yes its true, you will find easier success at the beginning with other characters, but once you understand the basics of the game and learn the combos and setups of your character along with hours of played matches, you will be glad to have sticked with the character you like.

GOOD characters for beginners are always the Characters with SAFE! Moves. Because beginners are bad, this is sad truth in teh world, beginners will mash and repeat to mash unsafe special moves, they will get punished for it but dont learn from it and repeat spamming unsafe moves. You have to learn to play with your normals, a lot of beginners are playing characters only with their special moves along with jump HK sweep combos. So pick a character with safe specials which cant be punished on block (or at leastd not that easy), so Bison (lk sissors), Balrog (lp dash straight), Guile (sonic boom) or adon is a decent choise, they all have also good buttons (pokes).
But as mentioned play the character you like, your friends are also playing quite hard character with ibuki and dhalsim (ok cammy is a nobrainer), so you will be fine with ibuki.

7

Where is this question coming from? thats 4-5 times in the last month or so. Is someone in the Ibuki forum telling people not to pick her first? There are a number of technical characters in SF4, but the thread is always about Ibuki. There is something statistically off here.

8

Everyone wanna jump on that Sako/vortex bandwagon lol

9

Go with ibuki, there is an amazing comprehensive online guide available for her. Why waste your precious time learning an easier character, when you can be using that time to further your ability with the character you actually want to end up playing?

10

Go with who feels right then bust your ass to learn everything you can about them. Ibuki is technical and will not be an overnight success. But as goes with most characters, the loyalty will eventually pay itself off. You could pick up someone a little more balanced/easier to ‘learn’ the game with, such as a Ryu…but I agree with Blufang, learn your characer and get on with it.

11

Ibuki is fine because she has easy combos AND hard combos. Her s.lp s.mk is like a 4 frame link, and leads to a knockdown. You probably won’t be able to do a lot of the high-damage stuff but Ibuki has great footsie tools (b.mp, s.mk, df.mk, cr.mk, etcetera). Her kunai crossup offense isn’t too hard, it’s just timing and practice.

Don’t fret too much about stuff like super jump cancel U2 or her 1 frame links off spin kicks.

Just don’t become the average online Ibuki where all you do is jump back kunai, random surprise low neckbreaker, and wakeup EX DP.

Her best anti-air is b.mp. If you cancel it into her command dash you can do a little combo off of it.

12

If he doesn’t win and can’t remember set ups , he won’t enjoy the game either and he’ll be back in here with another thread about how he can’t win or start an offence.

I don’t really subscribe to the “play who you like theory” if it’s someone who has no experience with fighting games. It’s easier and quicker to improve with a character that covers a broader range of techniques than one that will involve (for a newbie) throwing kuni’s on every wake up and mashing some buttons when you land or throwing out full screen neck breakers.

13

Watch out for your Cammy playing friend, she too good… If he gets on your case cause he’s beating you a lot just remind him how easy mode cammy is… You have to be really good just to beat your average B cammy player… Lol
And Dhalsim well he’s just annoying… But I Play Yun/Ken so he’s not really a problem match up wise…

14

lean more than one character at a time, even as a beginner. Just alternate days :slight_smile:

15

It seems like a trend of late to tell folks to play whatever character they like, even if the person being given this “advice” has no prior experience with fighting games. (Similar to this is telling folks to play whatever game they like. Hey, more power to ya but there’s obvious consequences to picking an obscure game versus one that the majority are acquainted with; and the lifeblood of any competitive game is the amount of competition available.)

I know the rationale behind telling folks to play whomever they want: idea being that most characters can all be played in a basic manner, up to a point. Yeah, Ibuki can play the footsie game, and a beginner doesn’t have to have her more technical stuff down, yet. But the fact remains Ibuki is designed to be a character that focuses on getting a knockdown and executing her post knockdown setups. Footsies and simplified combos alone won’t really cut it with this character. Since a beginner to fighting games is going to have to learn spacing, footsies, and stick to simpler combos characters like Guile, Ryu, and Bison would be the most ideal starting characters since these characters can get the most mileage from learning and playing to these core aspects (i.e. their gameplan doesn’t necessarily require the player to be familiar with post knockdown setups to win; and this way, a beginner can take things step at a time and focus on learning proper fundamentals first without the distractions).

The fact is for a person with no prior experience with fighting games, there are characters that would be better left avoided and there are characters that are more suitable at an entry level. It’s not a death sentence, you’re not stuck having to play Ryu for life, you can change to a character to one of your choosing after progress is made, but people sure react as if character choice is permanent.

16

Ibuki is all about vortexs, and that’s the very thing which most people absolutely detest in SF4. In fact lots of people absolutely hate her and think she’s one of the most BS character in the game, despite there not being a lot of strong Ibuki players as she has a steep learning curve. As far as teaching you the fundamentals of SF4 and fighting games in general she’s a terrible choice, so unless you are a huge Ibuki fan I don’t think she’s a good choice for a first character.

17

I’d wouldn’t go with Ibuki straight up if you have little fighting game experience. I’d try learning characters with easier execution first. Once you understand the mechanics of the game (not just the character), then start changing it up. Play with everyone and try them out, this helps you build on your knowledge of each character and you’ll learn a thing or two about what they can and can’t do. From that you can apply that to whoever you’ll main and will serve as an advantage to beating those who pick those characters.

18

As long as you really stick with it and work your ass off to learn stuff, no character is bad for a beginner. Expect maybe Gen.
This is from someone who’s very first character ever was Juri in Super. I unknowingly set myself a somewhat steep learning curve :stuck_out_tongue:
One of my friends is actually learning Ibuki in the same light as you right now, but he’s very casual so he doesn’t really progress. Just practice everyday and you’ll get there.

19

Ibuki has really good footsies too… it’s not like he’s playing Seth.

And besides, instead of telling him to play Ryu or Guile instead of Ibuki, you could just tell him to pick up one of those characters on the side.

20

Viper

21

I appreciate all the input, I’ve stuck with Ibuki so far and have put a lot of hours into her since I made this post and am enjoying her thoroughly. I do want to get better in the long term and improve at the game, but my most immediate concern is staying up-to-par/ahead of my friends that started with me.

I’ve come to realize that Arcade Mode is relatively useless and have spent most of my time losing on the ladder and playing with my two friends. Most of my games consist of trying not to get grabbed by the Dhalsim when I get in range and trying to kill the Makato (they switched from Cammie) before she kills me. My actual gameplay is mostly just normals, target combos when I can actually execute them properly, and using Tsumuji when I probably shouldn’t be.

I have a couple of questions, but they aren’t particularly relevant to the original thread, so disregard if need be:

[details=Spoiler]1.) I win against the Makato 90%~ of the time and the Dhalsim 70% of the time, are the learning curves on these characters sloped differently?
2.) While I can usually tech (not sure if this is proper usage of ‘tech’) throws made against me, Dhalsim’s tends to go through the vast majority of the time, is it a matter of range, speed, or is it all in my head? What should I be doing to counter this?
3.) I have not progressed to a level where I can properly execute my SJC Ultra 2, so it ends up getting blocked 75% of the time (I mostly just use it as a desperation tactic when I really need to make a large comeback). Should I just pretend I don’t have an Ultra until I’m able to SJC into it? I can occasionally get it off just due to the low skill level of myself and the two people I play with, but they are competent enough to punish my recovery when it fails.
4.) I understand most people have their “main” and then they have “secondary” characters. Are the secondary characters usually similar to their main or completely different so they can fill a different role/perform better against the main’s poor match-ups?
5.) Arcade sticks. I have a cheaper one currently in shipping (I’m sure it is a “you get what you pay for” scenario, but I digress), but am curious as to some of its uses. My main concern with the 360 controller is I’ll sometimes move the joystick slightly too far and ruining the combo I was going for. Most notably, I have a tendency to accidentally move the joystick up when doing either quarter- or half-circles, which results in my simply jumping into people and getting smacked around. How much more precision does a stick typically give? Will I be any less prone to these accidental motions?[/details]

Again, thanks for the assistance and sorry for the long-winded posts.

22

Makoto has a better matchup against Ibuki than Dhalsim. Dhalsim is all about specific counters for specific things, and solid base gameplan. Things like learning curve slopes are very subjective.

When does he throw you? If it’s on wakeup, time your meaty earlier. If it’s after a slide, just tech faster. He’s usually down frames significantly after a slide, so a well-timed jab should beat his throw as well.

Well you can ultra through fireballs and combo from super to ultra situationally. Also focus crumple -> U2.

Honestly just practice it. Some people do a full 360 for the first motion and then the qcf + kkk. If you get another special, you didn’t do the ultra motion fully. If you get a jumping normal, you were too slow in your button input. If you get an empty super jump, you were too fast in your button input. If the ultra is blocked, you super jumped too late.

Who cares if you mess it up while you’re learning? Stop worrying about winning, start worrying about getting better.

Depends on the player and whether they feel confident in their counterpicks in a tournament. Mostly different so they can practice their weak points and switch up their gameplan in a tournament. Don’t play a character you hate.

[quote=“Arckan, post:21, topic:159185”]

5.) Arcade sticks. I have a cheaper one currently in shipping (I’m sure it is a “you get what you pay for” scenario, but I digress), but am curious as to some of its uses. My main concern with the 360 controller is I’ll sometimes move the joystick slightly too far and ruining the combo I was going for. Most notably, I have a tendency to accidentally move the joystick up when doing either quarter- or half-circles, which results in my simply jumping into people and getting smacked around. How much more precision does a stick typically give? Will I be any less prone to these accidental motions?[/spoiler]I hate to be the bearer of bad news… but you’re not gonna be happy with a cheaper stick. I’m assuming you bought a SE or something. You should buy a Sanwa joystick and buttons to install in your stick.

A stick is not inherently more precise, but you are offered greater control because the field of motion on your wrist is more conducive to precise and fast qcf’s than your thumb.

23

If I remember correctly Dhalsim has a larger than average throw range (i.e. he can throw you from further distance than most) which may partially explain why he’s getting more throws on you. You may even be crouch teching too early so that your cr.lk comes out first and he’s just throwing while your move is still out and also out of range to hit him. I would try delaying your throw techs versus Sim; you don’t have to tech at the precise moment he throws, the window of time to late tech is pretty lenient.

The idea behind having a secondary character is to cover for your main character’s bad matchups, but of course there are people who play characters that are similar to their main (e.g. Geif main with T.Hawk secondary) so it’s not a rule, but ideally that’s the purpose of a secondary.

24

Yes but if they REALLY enjoy the characters they will watch tutorials and what not to do’s , and it will be easier to learn when they’re enjoying it , instead of dragging out training sessions with characters they find boring. However playing multiple characters at a low level is very helpful.