When Is It Too Late To Learn A New Character?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
1

I don’t know of any better place to post this. SRK has always had the most informative forum’s I’ve seen. So I’ll get right into it.

Now that I’ve really gotten into the SF scene and I’m rocking out with the local scene as much as I can, I’ve been wondering. When is it too late to pick up a new character? I’ve main Rose since Vanilla, and I’m sticking with her through AE and I’m hoping the best for her in v2012. But I also like playing a variety of characters. I consider myself a bit of a low-tier fan. Mostly because of the work one has to put into these characters. I was learning Fei Long in Super, but when I learned that he was considered top tier in AE, I wasn’t disheartened. I just seems like it’s no fun when you win with someone that’s top tier. But that’s another topic for another day.

Who I’ve really been wanting to learn is Abel or Cammy. But seeing as how we’re so far into the SFIV series, would it be worth it? Part of me says no. Just focus on Rose and learn her match-ups. Play Honda on occasion for the fun it (I just think he’s fun to play. I mained him in ST). The other reason I say no is because now that I’m part of a competitive scene and playing for money, I should stick to just Rose and Honda. Learning match-ups with two characters is much easier than relying on counter-picking. Granted I could just play Abel/Cammy/Honda for those match-ups that I consider hard for Rose, but as a player I feel that would weaken me. Rose is all about discipline. So if I don’t have it in me to learn all her match-up’s, what’s the point?

Where another part of me says yes. If you’re playing for money, pick the character that has an easier time against Rose’s bad match-ups. Also, another valid point is that since I’m competing in major tournaments, that the more experience the better right?

On the other hand, both those characters will be in SFxTK. And since I know Rose won’t be in SFxTK, I should just wait on learn them in that. That way when I go in, it’s a new game and I won’t have those combos from AE/v2012 already engraved into my head and any bad habits I have with them won’t cross over.

Since both are in SFxTK, I’m thinking that I’ll just wait until then until learn them. And maybe down the road when AEv2012 isn’t part of the main tournament scene, I’ll play them just for fun.

How do you guys go about picking up new characters? Especially later in a games life?

2

When is too late? Nuclear war? When Monkey’s take over the Earth? When we really are trading ‘caps’ for goods?

Can you not just play the game how you want to? I don’t know, maybe I’m old fashioned, but when I get the desire to play a new character, regardless of game, I don’t need help from a community holding my hand along the way providing reassurance. If you want to play Abel, go play Abel instead of posting mundane trite that you could easily sort yourself if you exerted any kind of mental decision making process, please, be my guest.

3

The honest truth about this is that, if you expect to do well in a tournament, you need to have at least a working competence of how the other characters play. It’ll just make you a lot more aware of what other people are dong. This doesn’t mean to go and take your 2 week Abel or Cammy to a tourney, but give yourself a break and play the characters for an hour or half hour a day. It’ll only make you a better lpayer.

4

Never too late so long as you’re willing to put in the work.

5

when is it too late to learn a new character. Short answer: Never Long answer: NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVer.

6

I say you should learn either of them. I learned a few characters during the duration of this game and it didn’t hurt my play. It also helped me learn the match up against those characters better too.