Tutorial

The "Uramawari Setup" causes the fighter's rising attack from the ground to strike in the wrong direction. For a while now, VFnumbers have been testing different ways for his main character Lei Fei to cause this quirky situation. Now he has made a series of short videos, showing how the entire cast can cause the uramwari!

What should you do when you are not 100% sure if your opponent will attempt a throw? A good option is to input/buffer a throw escape! In Final and Ultimate Showdown, you can only choose to escape one throw direction at a time. In "Chanchai's Throw Escape Theory", Chanchai gives his opinion on what throw escape direction you should choose. You can read his article on his Evernote Blog and discussed the topic here or in his VFDC thread.

For players new to the Virtua Fighter series, the game may be overwhelming or feel very different from other games they have played. WireMan, who recently finished his A-to-Z of VF5US, has started a tutorial series for new players based on Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution in-game tutorials. Evolution's tutorials was the starting point for many VF fans and is still highly regarded by many.

THINK! A brilliantly written article by Jin (@jin_hm) for Virtua Fighter players of all skills, backgrounds and experience levels. Packed with many tips and words of wisdom that are applicable to other fighting games as well. Check it out!

In the Exploring Fighting Games series, episode four describes an approach one might use when learning a 3D fighting game for the first time. While it uses Tekken 7 as the game to demonstrate the approach, you'll find that most of the ideas put forward apply to Virtua Fighter as well, especially for new comers to the game!

Have you ever felt that your reactions are too slow? Or that you can't keep up with the speed and flow of the game? We often tend to blame ourselves and write the problem off as due to bad genes or old age. However, this 2012 blog article, titled Reaction Speeds in Gaming by Kayin, shows the actual cause is more than likely a mental issue, rather than physical one, and can be overcome with a change in the way you think. (potentially NSFW language)

Note: The first part is a translation of Kame's VF5FS Beginner's Blog Post by Modelah. The 'Attacks from Stance' section was written by @VFnumbers, with 'moves that will keep you in stance' added by Modelah.

Author: Kame
Years playing Lei-Fei: 11 (note: as of June 2012)
Years as a fighting game cameraman: 2

Lei's Characteristics, Strengths and Weaknesses
"Use your unique stances to bring opponents to their knees!"
Lei has 7 unique stances at his disposal, far more than any other character. With a wide range of attacks from these stances the Lei player can create a variety of offensive and defensive patterns to suit his or her playstyle.

I know this isn't a new thing, but I want to do it anyway. In here are videos to teach new Wolf Players on how to punish the entire cast of characters after blocking their unsafe moves. Keep in mind I'm posting the max damage combos. However,in a tournament or an actual fight I also like to use safer combos or combos that lead to some wake up game.

Note: This was written by Kissa and translated by Modelah.

Kissa's VF5FS Beginner's Blog post

Hi, I'm Kissa, a Shun player from Tokyo. I played Lau in VF4 but have mained Shun since VF4Evo.

Shun's Characteristics, Strengths and Weaknesses
Some of Shun's basic techniques are poor when compared to other characters. For example, Shun's 'elbow' attack is a disappointing -3 frames on hit. It's also slower at 15 frames rather than the standard 14 frames. Another example is the punisher, which is -1 on hit (though to BT is +3).

Though some of his basic moves are poor, Shun has many unique stances and because there are many ways to transition into them, you'll never be short of choices to dazzle your opponent. Among them is the Chōkarō stance (entered with etc), a powerful tool for leading into damaging setups.

Note: This was written by Amuzan and translated by Modelah.

Amuzan's VF5FS Beginner's Blog post

Hi, I'm Amuzan. I've been playing since VF1 and have been using Shun since VF2. I pop into busy Tokyo arcades from time to time so hit me up for games if you see me around!

Shun's Characteristics, Strengths and Weaknesses
Shun is the only member of the VF cast that has a drinking system; the more drinks he has, the stronger he becomes. The number of drinks you have is displayed on the screen as drink points (X) during the match, and new moves become available as you drink more. Other characters have moves that will strip you of drink points, so managing your drinks is very important for Shun's game. As you start out with 0 you should focus more on getting drinks than damaging your opponent. This means that as Shun, not only do you have to have a sound nitaku game but you've also got to have a strategy of getting more drinks during the match. I think this extra depth makes Shun a very rewarding character to pick up.