How do you get GOOD at fighting games?

theMot

Reformed collector of junk
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As soon as the match commences, retreat to the far left corner. Continually jump on the spot and heavy kick. That’s how I got good.
 

joe8

margarine sandwich
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Get a good stick, but don't go overboard with it or, if you've always played on a pad for your entire life, KEEP PLAYING ON THAT FUCKING CONTROLLER.

Holy shit, you have no idea how many players force themselves to learn playing on a stick and end up being absolutely garbage while they are already good with their own pad.
If you look at big tournaments you'll see that there are several top players playing on a pad, so just play with what you know best and feel most comfortable with. If you want to try out a stick, then sure, go for it, but don't force yourself down that path.
I would have to disagree with this. Even people who are masters on a controller, will not be as good as a master on a stick, and they should try to master fighting with a stick instead.
There are advantages to playing with a stick (compared to a controller) that might not be obvious.. such as it's easier to change your play (and still play skillfully), when your character switches to face in the opposite direction, which is a major advantage. For example, dragon punches and spinning piledrivers can be more difficult to do on controller when facing left, as you're used to facing right most of the time. It's easier to do difficult moves like the piledriver on a stick, as it moves more freely than a D-pad.
People should play with sticks all the time, rather than a controller, as even using a controller occasionally probably messes up your stick skill.

With a stick, you control it with your whole hand, but with a controller, you're just controlling the D-pad with you thumb. So, there's better control with a whole hand.
 
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123►Genei-Jin

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I would have to disagree with this. Even people who are masters on a controller, will not be as good as a master on a stick, and they should try to master fighting with a stick instead.
There are advantages to playing with a stick (compared to a controller) that might not be obvious.. such as it's easier to change your play (and still play skillfully), when your character switches to face in the opposite direction, which is a major advantage. For example, dragon punches and spinning piledrivers can be more difficult to do on controller when facing left, as you're used to facing right most of the time. It's easier to do difficult moves like the piledriver on a stick, as it moves more freely than a D-pad.
People should play with sticks all the time, rather than a controller, as even using a controller occasionally probably messes up your stick skill.

That really depends on what type of games you're playing.
For older arcade games then Stick is generally the way to go.
Most 3D fighters like Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter and DOA work great on gamepad.
You also have to take in mind what kind of character you're going to play, charge characters like Guile may work better on pad (no dead zone and the ability to charge buffer with both the pad and the analog stick like Knuckle-Du does)
However the vast majority of modern Fighting Games have been developed with gamepads in mind and work quite well with them. There's plenty of top players winning tournaments with gamepads (Knuckle-Du, Problem-X, John Takeuchi, Smug to name a few)
There's also controllers like the Bitbox for people who preffer all buttons like a keyboard or gamepad but also want the arcade stick layout.
 
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donluca

Ninja Combat Warrior
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Aug 19, 2015
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Some very strong advice from Genei-Jin. If OP is still around, take them very seriously.

The best training mode I've ever tried is definitely in Skullgirls, although that's a pretty combo-centric game, but it might be worth a shot (and the game is fantastic).

EDIT: there's also a super simplified fighter which I really can't recall its name where you don't have much comboing and every button does a move or a special move.

EDIT 2: Fantasy strike! https://store.steampowered.com/app/390560/Fantasy_Strike/

This is really a great game to grasp the basic of fighting games.
 
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GTO77

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May 14, 2019
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I just spend most of my time on offense. I only really defend against long range attacks or against the CPU (since the patterns are a lot more predictable). For combos, practice the aerial combos for Capcom fighters. Also good to learn basic combos from the CPU. Street Fighter is a good example where you can practice and learn the combos the CPU uses. One good example is Guile: jump attack with medium punch (chop), upon landing right next to opponent - low weak kick, followed by low medium kick, into somersault kick. The more you practice, the more these become second nature and you're able to pull off the moves in quick succession.
For your super combos, try to break the opponents defense first by using a weaker attack and then quickly follow up with the super. That way they can't block it.
Those are my contributions to this discussion.
 

LonelyWarbler

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Practice is really the only way to get good. You basically play a fighting game using muscle memory. I don't see what my opponent is doing and react, I know what my opponent just did and make a choice based off what they are able to do and what I know is possible with their character. Fighting games are more about mind games than moves since execution is usually equal at the highest level.

My advice for starting out is to learn a character's basic buttons, movement characteristics, and an anti-aircraft(if it's a 2d game). Play some matches from both 1P and 2P until you know your range, speed, and execution perfectly. You can actually rank up pretty far in online fighting games purely through a mastery of the fundamentals.

The next steps really depend on the game. The general case is to learn a combo and a punish inside out. Learn how to use your basics to open up room for a combo. Start learning your matchups to recognize punishable moves. A good combo and a punish will take you very far. After that it's just labwork and patience. You will study your combo and see how to extend it, see if a different set of moves does more damage, and pry the deeper nuances of the game you choose. There really isn't a tutorial for that level.

If you want to just learn 2D foundations and mind games, Samurai Showdown is an excellent series. It's all about punishes and spacing. You can get a taste for high end fighting games without the barrier of incredibly complex execution. It's also super hype and a joy to play.
 

ebinsugewa

Rosa's Tag-Team Partner
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Simplification, practice, and time.

It's alluring to try to do Genei Jin shit on day one, but you suck and are wasting your time. Start playing rounds/matches solely to accomplish certain goals, i.e. anti-air every jump for one round, only attack by whiff punishing, land five throws. Have one 'bread and butter' combo that you can land from any situaion, and only use that combo. It will not be sexy, and after a while it won't be that fun. But it's the best way to get good in a short amount of time.

Landing the opportunity to do your simple combo(s) is a much more valuable skill to work on than actually executing anything. You can practice execution later (and it can be done alone in training mode/against the CPU, so maximize the time you have playing against real opponents). There's too much happening in real time for you to be able to focus on it all for quite a while. Thus, simplify.
 

famicommander

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Focus on learning one character. Learn what sort of spacing and location that character needs to win, and then learn how to get and control that space.

Play against other humans whenever possible. If not in person then at least online.
 

todosnk

Crossed Swords Squire
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I started playing samurai shodown 2 and my technique in the very first year was always "jump, slash, cover, slash, jump back, repeat". it turned out pretty well.
samurai 2 at 2p against friends is really nice. its a very tactical fighting game (of course you can always use special moves and so on) but its not alike SF2, Samurai is more paused and you need to think before doing anything.
AoF2 for example is faster, in this game, throwing the opponent followed by a "hadoken" and repeat will beat the game in most stages pretty easy.

Practice with friends is definetely the best way. Until you get to MK11 and try to unblock Shao Kahn ingame voices by completing the combo tutorial. Then you'll see that everything you learned until now in regards of how to play fighting games its useless :) Next step is give up modern games and go back to 16 bits, which I always do :D
 

blotter12

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Nov 15, 2013
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- Pick a character
- Understand your normals and their properties
- Practice execution of specials
- Understand the properties of your specials
- "Properties" are things like range, hit box, active frames, invulnerability, cancelability, does the move cause knockdown, etc.

With 2nd nature execution of specials:

- Learn when to use each move: some are anti air, some are good for zoning, some are good for confusing an enemy who is getting up
- Learn combos

With this, you can put together your general offensive gameplan. You should be able to execute your "bread and butter" combos 100% of the time at this point. B&B's are combos you do at predictable points, like a mid screen B&B, opponent in corner B&B, etc. Sometimes these are all the same combo and it's fine to rely on 1 or 2 combos while you learn more. You should also have at least 2 options of what you want to do in different situations, including at different ranges, what to do when an opponent jumps in on you, what to do when you are getting up or what to do when your opponent is getting up.

When you're comfortable on offense with your main character, you get to learn the same with the next character. With knowledge of what another character can do, you can start putting together a match up in your mind. For example, if you know the character you're facing has a strong up close game, then rely more on your longer range attacks.

You'll find out that sometimes you're character just doesn't have a good option in a certain situation or maybe you want to keep yourself from getting predictable. This is where Yomi comes in. Yomi is very basically thinking a step ahead to try and counter what you think your opponent's counter is going to be. Let's say your best option after getting knocked down is a dragon punch and you assume your opponent will counter this by blocking your move and countering. You can counter this by NOT throwing the dragon punch and throwing them or something.
 

donluca

Ninja Combat Warrior
Joined
Aug 19, 2015
Posts
529
- Pick a character
- Understand your normals and their properties
- Practice execution of specials
- Understand the properties of your specials
- "Properties" are things like range, hit box, active frames, invulnerability, cancelability, does the move cause knockdown, etc.

I knew this would have come in handy:


Watch closely. There's a lot of truth in there.
 

munchiaz

Robert Garcia's Butler
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Nov 13, 2011
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1,299
being good against the CPU and being good against actual people are two totally different things. Depending on the game(s) you play, you may want to seek out your local scene. Playing online is a good way to practice, but the best method is to get out there and play against other people in a live setting. Internet, and fighters have come a long way, but because fighters are so frame specific, playing online just doesn't cut it.
Like others have said, try out multiple characters. Go to training and look for high damage combos, that are easy. See what the optimal punishes are for jumping attacks, starting from low attacks ect. Find out what your characters best anti-air attacks are, and best tools for the neutral game.

It's a lot of work, but IMO fighting game are the most rewarding games you can play. Specially because its just 1 V 1, and if you lose its your fault.
 
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