So, I’ve been trying to learn Gen in SF4. I really like the character, he’s very different from the usual ‘old man’ character that you see in other fighting games that tend to rely on Turtle or Zoning styles.
So I went into training, and I got pretty decent at his combos, landing them 9 times out of 10. But, you have to use this character against an actual person in order to really learn. You go online and some obnoxious shoto scrub beats you down because you simply don’t know what beats what or just how much (or little) priority your character has.
It was horrible dudes. I used Gen’s Crane stance and cr HK and thought I could launch him, and (at the start of the round) his jFP out-prioritizes my hit and he does the usual SRK combo, and I was shocked that immediately Gen’s health is cut down to almost 50%. I’m still experimenting, I try the wall dive, I don’t try to get him but just fake him out, not realizing that it is completely unsafe, and he gets two other lucky hits in. Suddenly I’m down to 25% health.
Then I get my comeback, hit him with Mantis ultra, then get him with some Slap Chop combos, bringing him down to around 10% health and he mashes for dear life for Ryu’s ultra and wins.
Luckily I switched characters and destroyed him as Gen and Bison. But that’s besides the point. How do you guys break in a new character?
first of all, you go to the SF4 section where people will be more welcoming and give you better information. if this was your original question and it was a generic one, I could answer you better. but your question is directly pertaining to SF4, a game I’ve yet to play.
notice the things that make the character good. use those things more than the others. that’s the secret. how do you know what they are? you play and find out yourself.
how do you do it fast?
Step 1: find a move you like doing and do it a lot.
Step 2: if the move gets you punished, stop doing it so much. if you still want to use it anyway, find out the times you’re allowed to do it. if you’re not allowed to do it, discontinue all use of the move and refer back to step 1. If it doesn’t get you stuffed but doesn’t hurt them, discontinue all use of the move and refer back to step 1. If it doesn’t give you a big advantage, discontinue all use of the move and refer back to step 1.
Step 3: refer back to step 1, but with a different move this time.
On 2DF/GGPO, the most popular way seems to be to select new char, play as him, lose to opponent then reset the game at the very moment he lands the finishing blow and write “you noob that char sux I picked him by accident”