Im new to VF, please help on gameplay, greatly appreciated!

i am thinking of buying a stick for VF4 evo. However, i dont know which ones to buy. i am also looking at the price ranges: 30$ and under. to me it seems pointless to buy a 50+$ stick because i just wanted to give a stick a try. are there any stick that are around the 30$ range. any recommendation of a good stick? i am thinking of buying the tekken 4/SCII stick bc it weight less and cheaper, maybe? i dont know weather i should buy a vf4/evo stick because it only has three buttons. and bc it has only 3 buttons, it is very limited to other fighting games that i want to play,. also, the vf4 stick is around 40-ish$. any suggestion???

by the way, in the vf tournament or vf event gathering, does any veteran there uses a pad?

 

I guess I'll throw my 2 cents in.

For doing crouching moves from standing, try this motion to buffer the croush dash. For example, + for shoulder, and for double palm.

For DLC, 1st get down +, 100%. Know that the stick has to return to neutral between these two moves, you cannot simply slide from to . After that do + by itself and get used to the motion. Then put them together. You can do it as fast as you want, but it has to be inputted accurately.

SC2 Hori stick is good, many people use it. Tekken 4 stick I'm not sure, I think there was some thing about it not being properly detected by some games, maybe someone else knows. Just don't get a Pelican.

 

dont the tekken 4 and SCII stick have the same design and size, just different color and picture? how come the stick nowady cost so much? i mean the ps2 is about to be replaced,so y cant the stick cost a little less?

and yes....i did got the 100%. i could even do combo with it like , , , and or and such variations...its the im having trouble with.

 

DLC is tough on a pad.

+...gotta go directly from to then etc. just like any dash. I don't know if this helps or not just, is the key.

 

[ QUOTE ]
s_aki said:

DLC is tough on a pad.

+...gotta go directly from to then etc. just like any dash. I don't know if this helps or not just, is the key.

[/ QUOTE ]

have you perfected that on a pad???
by the way..i check the prices on the sticks...all of which are around 50$. what is up with that price considering the ps3 is just around the corner? can you really use the ps2 arcade stick for the ps3???

 

To Condor: Yes, granted that the PS3 is still backwards compatible with hardware, which it should be beyond a shadow of a doubt. 3k staggers on CH, has long range, and can punish -16 frame blocks, AFAIK. BTW, it's not uncommon to pay $250 plus for a good stick regardless of the game you are playing, so it's definitely a commitment you have to prepare yourself for. It's worth it though. I screwed up my hand something fierce trying to play competitively on a pad. Save yourself from tendonitis; buy a stick. To the VF community How useful is P+K+G series for Akira, anyways? (Sorry for the noob question). Thanks for all the useful advice on buffering crouch dash and whatnot, folks. It's much appreciated.
To tribaL: Sup, man. Good to see some Tekken players on the board; makes me feel less awkward.

 

I find it's mainly useful against crouching opponents in fuzzy situations, and people who dodge to Akira's back. (won't apply in VF5 unfortunately) It's not bad during tech roll situations either.

Keep in mind however, that Akira has safer, and better alternatives.

 

im sorry, but are you talking about or something else???
BTW, anybody knows what "just-frame" means??? i know that a lot of tekken and SoCal2 players memtion "just-frame", but i never hear(read on thread) a VF player mentions it.

 

SPOD is an awesome move.

1. It's one of the not many moves in VF4 which does the full damage on a crouched opponent. Against someone who refuses to stand up on KG cancel, KG followed by SPOD works well and forces them to give up on that idea.

2. It's a great mc punisher on high risk sweeps(Wolf's 3P+K, Lion's 2K+G etc). SPOD can do more damage than Yoho combos if wall's involved.

3. It's great to use on your opponent's wake up. If you place it at the right timing, it will beat any of their attacks on a major counter due to the frame adv on wake up and it will also hit when your opponent choose to stay ducking or ETEG in the wrong direction.

Knowing the timing on placing an attack to beat your opponent's fastest attack is a great way to open up a lot of opportunities on your Oki game. Even if you use even the slowest attack in the game, if you place it at the right timing, it can beat your opponent's low P on MC.


<-The above statement mainly applies on Oki situation btw.

4. The mental damage. If you ever got hit by it, you'd know what it means. =)

 

after practicing with akira i have serveral questions about him:

1. As you have known, i use a pad. so obviously, is a lot more comfortable for me, but between and , which one is his "main" launcher. what i mean by this is which one is the better, safer launcher. and what are the risk/benifit of each? which one do you suggest i should use more often?

2. Ok, so im not gonna bitch about not being able to input in the SPoD, with a pad and me being new to VF, SPoD is an impossibility. but i do have question about the SPoD.
a) does the SPoD strictly just to "punish" the opponent by reducing a lot of health? what are the benifit/risk factor directly or indirectly associated with the SPoD?
b) does the SPoD "safe" under these circumstances: the first hit is blocked or incorrectly inputting the command. what i means is with a failed attempt to execute the SPoD, does it gives akira enough "recovery frame" to avoid being counter or throw? or am i just fucked, if i failed to execute teh SPoD?

3. even hours of practice, i still could not get the ++. what i means is, i cant connect the last part of the command (. i tried buffereing +, but i still could not get it right. is it possible to do this on a pad at all?

4. i hate to write this last question/comment but, everytime i play against the AI for about an hour or so, i get really frustrated with this game. and its not bc the AI is cheap or anything like that, its the controll of the gameplay that bothers me. i hate to use the word "stiff", but as of right now, thats how i feel about the gameplay of VF. i feel like my movement is very limited, and due to the complexity of the commands, i get more frustrated the longer i play. any feedback on this???

 

1. They have very different characteristics, with different purposes - neither is 'better'. If you can crouchdash into the it's the fastest mid in the game but you'll get reamed on block by any character with a good 14 frame combo starter (jacky, lau, etc); is much slower but safer on block. http://virtuafighter.com/commands/index.php?chara=akira&ver=evob

2. a. see maddy's post above. especially on wakeup.
b. http://virtuafighter.com/commands/index.php?chara=akira&ver=evob

3. http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-m-49-en-15-evo%2Bstick-70-25t.html

4. Stop worrying about learning SPoD or combos or any of that. I'm not an akira player, but all you really need right now is , throw, and a big move (if you like , stick to that). As for movement, learn to dodge and crouch dash. The 'stiff' feeling will go away once you're good at recognizing the situation you're in and responding. If its neutral, throw or . If they blocked, choose between dodging or your big move. Stick with that until you're comfortable moving around; once you're moving by dashing, dashing elbow, crouch dash, or dodge, things will feel more fluid.

 

You might want to think about starting with a character other than Akira. And yes, SpoD, DLC, Knee, etc. are all possible on pad.

 

Starting out with Akira is tough especially on pad. Here are my reasons.


If you pick any character in VF to start out, first thing you'd do to learn that character is probably going through it's move list. That's what I did,too. Here's the thing.


Say you pick Aoi as your main. Since you have played Tekken or other fighting games, I assume there wouldn't be many moves in the command list you can't pull off. Maybe her chain throw'd need a bit of practice(the one starting with HCF P+G), but other than that, you should be able to get her moves down in a day or two. What can you do next? You can learn her combos and practice other techniques like the fuzzy guard etc.


it's a different story with Akira though. Akira's move list ,as you've already found out, isn't like Aoi's. I am not saying you should pick Aoi here, but I just picked her as an example for the comparision. SPOD, DLC, and AS3 are not something you can master in a day. Even SDE takes a lot of practice to pull off not to mention the infamous Akira knee.

I rememeber me practicing DLC for couple of hours everyday, and it took me about 2 months or so to make it reliable. You might be able to do it in a week or might take you longer than that, but it takes a lot of practices to master those moves. Then, here's the worst part.


Say after 4-5 months of practice, you mastered all the moves on Akira's command list. You should be good with Akira and expected to win against people or even CPU. Wrong.

Why? Because, what you have done is nothing but learning the moves in the move list. There are a lot more things you need to know and be able to do to win in VF.


What you have invested in practicing Akira's moves over that 4-5 months period is nothing more than the 1 day of practice that you would of had to invest to learn the moves if you had picked Aoi or others in the first place.

Would you expect to win if you just got done going through Aoi's move list when you start out? Probably not. The situation is the same with Akira.


With that said, if Akira's the most appealing character for you, that's the enough reason to play him really. But, you should be very patient and dedicated in order to make a progress with Akira. The reason why I recommend using stick from the get go is that you'd have to re-learn pretty much all the command stuff if you make the switch. So, the earlier the better as you won't be wasting much time.

 

1. I'm assuming he means shoulder ram, and not single palm. It and yoho both have their place, but shoulder has evasive properties against low punch in closed stance making it a strong option in many situations.

2a: Akira's only front side half circular, at least in evo. Also, it has evasive properties against low punch in open stance.
b: It's -15, which means your opponent is guaranteed a lot.

3: Yes it is possible, i can almost guarantee your problem is that you're not inputting it fast enough. I can do it on pad after a minute of warmup with at least 80% success on the left side, and random success rate from the right.

4: No comment other than this has to do with your inexperience more than anything else. You might be used to sf where you're playing a constant poke game or whatever, but that's not how it works in vf.

When a big move is blocked, you need to think about defensive options/throw escaping and fast -- not about trying to buffer in your next attack. And when you get to the point where you're just throw escaping on muscle memory the game won't feel stiff at all, in fact you'll realize you're pressing the buttons at ten times the pace as you were with any other fighter.

 

i have a question about throw escape. someone earlier to me to "input in the last 'direction' before +". i am guessing these are the possibilities: +, +, +,+, and +. so that means i am going to guess on either of thses five combination right??

BTW, much thanks to KoD for showing me that website. i really like that vf4evo stick. but based on the picture shown, what are the two "white" buttons just below th orange ones. since this stick emphasize on just three main buttons, can i play some other games i.e. tekken, soul cal, SF and such...on this stick??

 

[ QUOTE ]
Condor said:

i have a question about throw escape. someone earlier to me to "input in the last 'direction' before +". i am guessing these are the possibilities: +, +, +,+, and +. so that means i am going to guess on either of thses five combination right??

BTW, much thanks to KoD for showing me that website. i really like that vf4evo stick. but based on the picture shown, what are the two "white" buttons just below th orange ones. since this stick emphasize on just three main buttons, can i play some other games i.e. tekken, soul cal, SF and such...on this stick??

[/ QUOTE ] yes, and +. the throws you should be escaping are the high damage ones for each character, but also consider RO potential and most importantly what your opponent keeps doing.

also, it's opposite, so if your opponent does +, you need to press + (the command he would have pressed to do the throw on your side)

 

sorry if i bother about noob VF topics so much. but anyway, how do i roll to the left/right/back after i get knock down? i do know that i need to press ++(or is it just +, im not sure which combination so can someone clarify this for me?) just as soon as i hit the ground to get up imediately. so how do i rool around, avoiding careless actions?

 

The two white buttons are useable in the quest interface, but aren't really necessary. I wouldn't recommend trying to play tekken or sc using them b/c of the size and placement, and there arent enough buttons for streetfighter games. But VF is a better game anyway, and 30 bucks is a decent price for that stick, even after shipping.

++ hops up in place (quickrise), add or to roll to the side (techroll). you can only roll back after you've already hit the ground. Mash inputs other than to decrease your recovery time on the ground. You have gone through the tutorial mode in training, right? If not, do so.

 

Just in case you haven't already, make sure you do the entire training mode in the game. It's really useful.