Street Fighter Alpha 3 Newbie Question Thread

nemoo · 2010-03-01T10:34:17.000Z

Hello you guys, since I didn’t see one here or couldn’t get my questions answered anywhere. I decided to give this long overdue thread a starting push.

I will begin with the questions I have because I myself am just starting to play A3.

Where can I find a good System Mechanics guide that includes instructions on how to do things like couch canceling, proxy canceling, kattobi canceling and general/expert Alpha 3 game mechanics?*

BradyGame’s Street Fighter Alpha Anthology Bible

http://www.mediafire.com/?zdkolwzanzz

This also includes strategies for the other games for the PS2 release!

All about Street Fighter Zero 3 Japanese Guide Book

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6WVYUWD8

Has frame data and good character information! Unfortunately it’s in Japanese so if a worthy one can translate for us that would be much appreciated!

Kao Megura’s Mechanics/Movelist FAQ

http://www.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/file/564869/295

jchesnor’s Combo Systems FAQ
http://www.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/file/564869/347

GameFaqs SFA3 page ( for character faqs and such)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/game/564869.html

*Who is a good character(s) to start with and with what Ism should you be starting with for that character or A3 in general before V-Ism if not V-Ism?
*
From what I’ve been getting there’s no particular character thats easier to start out with than others but I think if your looking to learn V-ism V Ryu and V Sakura are pretty good choices. But as I said you can start out with the your favorite character.

What should you be training on in training mode with said character? (i.e. combos, vc’s or whatever, footsies, etc.)

**Things like block strings, hit confirming, combos, footsies option select and so forth.
**

Well thats about all the questions I have so far, hopefully I can get them answered before my head explodes!!!:crybaby:

P.S. I know there is a Q&A thread and sorry for making a seperate one, just wanted to give the thread some more juice!

SOMEONE STICKY THIS THREAD!!!

Grandaddy Xenozip’s knowledge for beggining players!

Xenozip.:

I don’t have any links per se, but here’s a few tidbits that may seem counter-intuitive to beginners.

Pressing buttons or directions during block/hit will cause you to flash blue/pink respectively which reduces the penalty (damage) you receive by half. Though this doesn’t reduce chip damage but it does reduce guard bar damage (and lifebar damage when getting hit).

When getting juggled, if you know when a combo will end you can press and hold the inputs for the air recover (tech) and it will happen automatically when the first possible frame occurs. However you must press it after the last hit, each additional hit will reset the input. So for example if you get juggled by seven punches and you press and hold the tech input after the seventh then the tech will happen automatically without you having to mash it. A good idea is to tap the tech input after each hit of a long combo.

When learning v-ism it’s not a bad idea to practice mixup/shenanigan VCs to try and break the opponent’s guard. That way you aren’t focusing too hard on perfecting your combo.

Continuing the above note, it’s also not a bad idea to learn unblockables/guard crush VCs. Many characters have a way of breaking your guard, either by guard crushing you, or by forcing an unblockable (command throw or high/low).

After air teching you are invulnerable for a short time and unable to block, then the invulnerability wares off and you are still unable to block, then after a short period of being vulnerable and being unable to block you are allowed to block. However, you are immediately able to special/super/activate as soon as you tech, even when you’re still invulnerable.

The above is how “tech trapping” works. After doing a VC combo when some one ends the combo and does a jump attack to begin their crouch cancel series, you are able to tech when they jump, but doing so is usually a really bad idea because you can’t block right away so you WILL be hit by their jumping attack. In this situation your best option is to use an air special or super or activation to escape the tech trap, or to just not tech at all. If you tech and they hit you it will reset the combo count, and therefor the damage scaling is also reset. But by not teching the damage scaling will still be there. You should only go for a tech if you know you have a chance at escaping (like with an air teleport or air activation).

It’s important to understand which characters have a fully invulnerable air activations via a “glitch” (sorta). They are: Adon, Akuma, Cammy, Charlie, Dhalsim, Guy, Juli, Juni, Rose, and Sakura. These characters are fully invulnerable after air activation all the way until 1F off the ground, so they are able to counter anti-air VCs and also counter tech traps with their own air activations (since they can’t be hit until they land). The most notable ones of course being Akuma, Dhalsim, Sakura, and Charlie.

On a random side note, the last hit of Guy’s bushin chain and Guy’s kick supers are all untechable. There’s some other untechable knockdowns as well, generally the ones that force a back-roll on hit like Gyu’s df+HK and one of Ryu’s supers (the Tatsu iirc).

One thing about a lot of SF games, with the exception of SF3, is that jumping is a really stupid idea. There’s a small number of characters that “can” or are “allowed to” either because of their jump arcs or because of air special moves or whatever, but for the most part jumping will get you killed. If that doesn’t sound like fun then SFA3 is not the game for you, go play MeltyBlood or GuiltyGear.

On that note, if you’re having trouble anti-airing your opponent then something is wrong. You should be anti-airing them consistently.

Sometimes in SFA3 ticking away at your opponents guard bar can be better than any other option. Even against an opponent with a hefty gauge you can get free combos in by crushing their bar. Each crush leads to their bar getting smaller, so unlike with CvS2 (for example) crushing once or twice makes subsequent crushes very fast/easy. Even if they go for an AC to try and prevent a crush it’s in your favor, because AC’s will permanently reduce their guard bar by a notch as if they were crushed anyway, so forcing them to AC a couple times in a round is still majorly to your advantage, since the next crush will come much sooner/easier. Blanka is a good example of a character that isn’t particularly scary until he rapes off a few chunks of your guard bar. Likewise, Cody and Claw have VC’s that will cause 100% guard bar damage thus resulting in a crush unless you AC.

Learning when to tech roll and when not to tech roll can be of some help in certain situations. For example, Sakura and Karin’s BnB’s lead to a knockdown midscreen that can allow them to do an incredibly ambiguous (and reversal-safe) crossup that is insanely difficult to block correctly. In such a situation if you roll they can hit you out of the roll on the ground. But if you roll and they go for the crossup then you get out of the crossup situation for free. It’s pretty much a gamble between escaping the situation and not escaping it, but it forces them to stay on their toes and pay attention.

Aside from that I’d recommend just paying close attention to how footsies work in match videos and experimenting against human opponents. Sticking around in training mode too much can be a folly, though of course you will at least want to get a BnB or two down.

krayzeejl · 2010-03-04T23:58:30.000Z

bump - please post any good links as I’m in the same boat as nemoo…

Xenozip · 2010-03-25T05:03:38.000Z

I don’t have any links per se, but here’s a few tidbits that may seem counter-intuitive to beginners.

Pressing buttons or directions during block/hit will cause you to flash blue/pink respectively which reduces the penalty (damage) you receive by half. Though this doesn’t reduce chip damage but it does reduce guard bar damage (and lifebar damage when getting hit).
When getting juggled, if you know when a combo will end you can press and hold the inputs for the air recover (tech) and it will happen automatically when the first possible frame occurs. However you must press it after the last hit, each additional hit will reset the input. So for example if you get juggled by seven punches and you press and hold the tech input after the seventh then the tech will happen automatically without you having to mash it. A good idea is to tap the tech input after each hit of a long combo.
When learning v-ism it’s not a bad idea to practice mixup/shenanigan VCs to try and break the opponent’s guard. That way you aren’t focusing too hard on perfecting your combo.
Continuing the above note, it’s also not a bad idea to learn unblockables/guard crush VCs. Many characters have a way of breaking your guard, either by guard crushing you, or by forcing an unblockable (command throw or high/low).
After air teching you are invulnerable for a short time and unable to block, then the invulnerability wares off and you are still unable to block, then after a short period of being vulnerable and being unable to block you are allowed to block. However, you are immediately able to special/super/activate as soon as you tech, even when you’re still invulnerable.
The above is how “tech trapping” works. After doing a VC combo when some one ends the combo and does a jump attack to begin their crouch cancel series, you are able to tech when they jump, but doing so is usually a really bad idea because you can’t block right away so you WILL be hit by their jumping attack. In this situation your best option is to use an air special or super or activation to escape the tech trap, or to just not tech at all. If you tech and they hit you it will reset the combo count, and therefor the damage scaling is also reset. But by not teching the damage scaling will still be there. You should only go for a tech if you know you have a chance at escaping (like with an air teleport or air activation).
It’s important to understand which characters have a fully invulnerable air activations via a “glitch” (sorta). They are: Adon, Akuma, Cammy, Charlie, Dhalsim, Guy, Juli, Juni, Rose, and Sakura. These characters are fully invulnerable after air activation all the way until 1F off the ground, so they are able to counter anti-air VCs and also counter tech traps with their own air activations (since they can’t be hit until they land). The most notable ones of course being Akuma, Dhalsim, Sakura, and Charlie.
On a random side note, the last hit of Guy’s bushin chain and Guy’s kick supers are all untechable. There’s some other untechable knockdowns as well, generally the ones that force a back-roll on hit like Gyu’s df+HK and one of Ryu’s supers (the Tatsu iirc).
One thing about a lot of SF games, with the exception of SF3, is that jumping is a really stupid idea. There’s a small number of characters that “can” or are “allowed to” either because of their jump arcs or because of air special moves or whatever, but for the most part jumping will get you killed. If that doesn’t sound like fun then SFA3 is not the game for you, go play MeltyBlood or GuiltyGear.
On that note, if you’re having trouble anti-airing your opponent then something is wrong. You should be anti-airing them consistently.
Sometimes in SFA3 ticking away at your opponents guard bar can be better than any other option. Even against an opponent with a hefty gauge you can get free combos in by crushing their bar. Each crush leads to their bar getting smaller, so unlike with CvS2 (for example) crushing once or twice makes subsequent crushes very fast/easy. Even if they go for an AC to try and prevent a crush it’s in your favor, because AC’s will permanently reduce their guard bar by a notch as if they were crushed anyway, so forcing them to AC a couple times in a round is still majorly to your advantage, since the next crush will come much sooner/easier. Blanka is a good example of a character that isn’t particularly scary until he rapes off a few chunks of your guard bar. Likewise, Cody and Claw have VC’s that will cause 100% guard bar damage thus resulting in a crush unless you AC.
Learning when to tech roll and when not to tech roll can be of some help in certain situations. For example, Sakura and Karin’s BnB’s lead to a knockdown midscreen that can allow them to do an incredibly ambiguous (and reversal-safe) crossup that is insanely difficult to block correctly. In such a situation if you roll they can hit you out of the roll on the ground. But if you roll and they go for the crossup then you get out of the crossup situation for free. It’s pretty much a gamble between escaping the situation and not escaping it, but it forces them to stay on their toes and pay attention.

Aside from that I’d recommend just paying close attention to how footsies work in match videos and experimenting against human opponents. Sticking around in training mode too much can be a folly, though of course you will at least want to get a BnB or two down.

nemoo · 2010-07-26T13:37:19.000Z

Updates to links in first post! SOMEONE STICKY THIS THREAD, its damn good if you ask me!

tyricec · 2010-08-11T21:28:46.000Z

Very helpful post. What ism should a beginner learn?

SeanxFayt · 2010-08-13T19:07:01.000Z

I’m trying to learn V-Sakura but can’t figure out an anti air or her good pokes =[

Middlekick · 2010-08-14T01:04:47.000Z

Anti-air for V-Sakura is her crouching Fierce cancelled into her jab DP or level 2-charged Hadouken. Next would be her air throw (having one of largest throw ranges in the game), and her standing Jab.

Pokes with her quick-recovering far standing Roundhouse and close standing Fierce-> Hadouken are recommended. crouching Forward is not bad, as is her far standing Forward.