"A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_^)

Fact: you can never have enough good VF play! I just verified that now that I am back from my 9 day's trip to Japan. While I don't have good success stories of my experiene, I would still like to share my thoughts with you. So this is going to be a semi-brief report of my VF experience in Japan.

The vacation was meant to include touring and sightseeing as well as some VF whenever there is chance, so I may have not played as much as others would probably have. But after what I've seen, I wouldn't mind just spending days and nights doing nothing but Evo in Shibuya.

I arrived on Friday December the 13th. I was, naturally, tired from the long trip, and was carrying my hand bag with me while hopping into trains heading to my hotel room. My friend chose the most convenient place for me to stay: A room in a hotel next to a station 5 stations away from Shibuya, where I knew I was gonna spend most my time.

She suggested that we take a quick walk in Shibuya, and I immediately agreed although I don't usually like doing anything after traveling before taking a good shower. We left my hand bag in a locker in Shibuya station and headed to the crowded streets...

Wide streets, colorful illumination, buildings with video projections on the windows of some of them, people (So many people) walking everywhere and crossing the streets everywhere, not to mention the various christmass ornaments here and there. This is Shibuya, and I immediately fell in love with it! Again, I knew I was gonna spend some time here.

Another reason why I liked Shibuya is that some of the branching narrower streets are kinda designed for people not cars (Although you still see many cars, it's not the same as in the big wide streets; you get the idea), so you can just walk and walk and have fun.

We took one of those narrow roads between two ornamented christmass trees, and after a couple of minutes we found a nig place painted Red called Club Sega Maruhan. It's a relatively big game center with many floors (Part of it just for Pachinko). So naturally, Evo had to be there. After asking, we went down the basement to find 5 versus city style Evo machines next to each other, with the label "Version B" clearly visible on the screens. Only one player was playing, and I thught of just taking a quick look and getting a VF.Net card. I noticed one or two Guilty Gear XX machines behind the Evo ones. A quick glance through this floor made me decide that this place probably beats any other arcade anywhere else outside of Japan! Anyways, I got my first VF.net card and left, knowing for sure that I will come back...

Saturday. After finishing my visit to one of the temples, and when I was done touring for the day, me and my friend met with one of her friends from Kyusho (Sp?). We met in Shibuya and decided to have dinner, and I walked with them until we got into the alley where Club Sega is, since the restaurant they chose is probably 3 stores next to it. I wasn't hungry because I had a late lunch, but I thought of joining them... Only after I take another look into Club Sega. They waited for a table and I ran to the arcade...

This time a couple of people where playing. I popped my new card into a machine and randomly challenged someone. Before this, and besides the match clips we DL, I had a slight exposure to Evo, so I knew I needed some time to get used to it. The arcade cabinet, by the way, is the best thing ever! The ball in the stick is crystal colored, and the buttons and everything showed that this is specifically designed for VF.... Yet I still wasn't used to the stick at all, and found it hard to modify moves. Still, the machine is 10 times better than anything I can wish for.

Back to the match, I played and easily lost. My card displayed No-Name at the time. I challanged another player, and lost. I was playing kinda randomly, but I didn't care because I was still having fun. It took 6 straight losses befor my friend came and took me back to the restaurant.

So I 'tasted' my first games, and saw how addicting the whole thing is. I had to go back, which I did immediately after dinner. My friend taught me how to go back to my station, and I looked forward to some good Evo time.

About 14 straight losses! Ouch! This is bad; if I was making any progress, it was a hellishly slow one. I took a walk to the end of the Evo machines, and saw a tournament board. 1st Angel! There wo go; the first display of a player I know! She actually reached the final I think (And maybe won the tourney). Another English ring name I saw was Gerrorizer. Anyone care to remind me/tell me who he is?

I went back to playing, and I saw a girl pull up a card and play. It was a relatively new Lion Card, and I think she lost against somebody. Her ring name was *-Style (Replace the '*' with a Kanji character). Later, she pulled another lion Card which was older and had more wins. I challanged her, wanting to try my luck. I finished one of the rounds with the announcer saying "Excellent" in my favor, but still ended up losing the match. She had a decent Lion.

Monday. My card had 0 wins and 30 losses sometime later that day, and I finally found it embarrasing to challange anyone with that crappy record. I started playing without the card, and only won once! /versus/images/icons/shocked.gif

Maybe I wasn't good enough, but I know they were mostly very good players. Sometimes they would humilate my Akira badly before letting him go down, which showed how little experience I had with the game. I managed to be patient.

I will continue my report of the following days as soon as I get the chance.

Later for now /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

 

Tuesday. I got a new card and started playing. This time I fared better, and I had a record of %50+ at noon, but it dropped to %40+ at night, since I learned that the better players played at night there. They stay until midnight by the way. So this day was kinda the stepping stone into a little more stable gameplay for me, as I started recognizing players' habits and dealing with them accordingly.

Wednesday and Thursday were also kinda average. On Wednesday I had a good mix of wins and losses, and actually played so many games just against one player who had cards for Jacky, Akira, and Pai(And maybe others that I haven't seen). He would stick with one of his characters, and when he loses so much with it he would switch to another and do the same. This is also the kind of guy who would keep challenging until you leave, even if you take a couple of straight wins he would still come back and challange you. His ring name was Dolphins. On Thursday I played against a Wolf player called Brgrking, who was decent too, and I ended the night with a record of %40.7.

I forgot to mention that meanwhile these days I was trying to register my cards with no luck. It didn't work for me for some reason until Friday, where I gave it a last shot and it worked (Thanks go to Gaijinpunch and yamato for their help with some of the stuff, although I never got to meat Gaijinpunch unfortunately). So on Friday a little after noon I left the internet cafe close to Club Sega and headed to try the card there. I played a few games until nobody was there and left. The plan was to find High Tech land and play there, because I heard it was popular.

I felt stupid when I found it very close to Shibuya station, but decided that I was gonna spend all Friday there until midnight. So I went to check and see how the situation is there... 6 Versus city style machines packed with players, not to mention some spectators who are also very good players waiting for their chance. So I wondered why people come here when it's not very different from Club Sega.... But wait a minute, there were another 4 Evo machines laid out parallel to the 6 machines, also packed! One of them was connected to a huge screen as well /versus/images/icons/smile.gif.

So you can imagine having 20 players playing at a time, and probably the same number of players watching and would be playing soon, not to mention some others who would visit later. There was also a one player only machine for people who want to test stuff.... This was basically a VF heaven, and once you get started you will never stop as long as you have money.

Only here I started to notice that players would mainly seek same rank opponents so they can try to rank up. I think I was sho-dan at that point, and as soon as I advanced to 2nd dan a 2nd dan player jumped in and challenged me. "A Challenger Comes", I can't describe the feeling I got everytime I saw this message on the screen. Very fun, and very very addicting....

I practically played against all kinds of players here, each with a different style. Some people would not fall for simple okizemi tools like a side kick or a + against TRers, and some others would duck and stand quickly to avoid getting thrown after TRing and to block middle attacks. One Aoi player used to give me trouble just by punching or low punching any of my okizemi attempts, where he would gain initiative again to torture me with some other stuff. I sabakied few of those punches to make him stop doing that, but never managed something beyond the buffered in and a DE after tha sabaki (Like a Spod for example).

Some people also gave me trouble just by dodging my oki, where they succeed almost all of the time unless it was a Spod, which I landed pretty rarely.

One Akira move I was really successfull with is his ++. So nice and would give me a low kick to a ground punch if they fail to TR (And most of them would forget to QR or TR). That was actually one of the moves that I was determined to use more often, and I did.

I found myself bothering some people alot with Akira's ~. Not all people are used to it, and often when I am playing people my level, they tend to fall for the second hit more often. One guy I played against learned to evade the second hit only because I abused the move to death on him.

Another move that started to come out more naturally is Akira's +. Especially on heavies, that traditional Shlram into the + works quite nicely. I remember I also did this alot after blocking Kage's low sweep. I think it doesn't work on Lau though, or maybe it's stance dependant?

Most of the stuff I used and am talking about is pretty basic, but you'd be surprised how well these things can work. Actually, so many things are so different on paper and in theory than in real play. For example, some people don't like Akira's SE throw now since it doesn't have a guaranteed followup. I found myself using it a lot, especially against good Throw Escapers. Try landing a + or a + on a good player and you'll be surprised how often and how well they can TE (Sometimes you are sure you will get the throw, yet they break it! I remember this Lion player who, I could've sworn, backdashed and escaped my +, maybe 2 times at least). So what I did with the SE was to really surprise them, like do a SE then any of the regular throws, or a SE into a low punch into any of the throws. You get the idea. Sometimes it's better to take the chances of the guessing games rather than waste a throw attempt.

Back to the subject of players seeking same-rank opponents. A couple of players used me as stepping stones for their higher ranks, before I learned to be more careful in ranking matches.

I took a break around evening for Dinner, and when I came back, I noticed many people were gathered in the left lane of 6 VF machines: This was Bun Bun Maru beating people with his Wolf /versus/images/icons/smile.gif. He was wearing the same hat he had on the Beat Tribe DVD, and I think he had a small winning streak.

So I thought of having my first match after the break against BBM. He had a record of something like %1500+ wins and some %1400+ losses I think.

More on that later when I am on, I think I am jet-lagging now. Take care all /versus/images/icons/smile.gif.

 

Re: "A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_

/versus/images/icons/cool.gif Nice report - it's good to know you managed to pull up to a respectable 40%, I was beginning to think maybe japanese really were *that* much better than everyone. I take it you spectated (but didn't challenge) BBM?

Also, I guess it'd be unrealistic to ask if you'd noticed any version-B specific stuff? I think it's mostly small, subtle changes that aren't obvious without many hundreds of version A games under your belt.

Any cool specific gameplay stuff you saw would be of great interest.

 

I always love hearing about this kind of stuff...

 

Re: "A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_

Actually what I saw really shows how unbelievably good the Japanese are! I never played against a newbie(I don't even think they exist; especially with the game being out for a while), and I don't remember playing against people who don't know what they are doing. I was basically dealing with so much brain power transmitted through the characters /versus/images/icons/smile.gif, which was why it was so fun.

I did challenge BBM of course; I actually didn't spend much time watching anyone play, because I wanted to have as many games in as possible. This reminds me of something I noticed: Some players like to observe their opponents' habits and patterns before they challenge them again. I saw this Jeffery player in Club Sega who would observe his opponent very closely after losing against him, before challenging again. I always thought that people just jump in against opponents of their level then learn how to deal with them within a span of a couple of rounds, but that's not always the case.

Anyways, I went to the other side of the BBM machine, and waited until he beat the other guy. I was on about little below %40 at the time, and he was about %50+, so I thought maybe I have a chance (Actually it was gonna be fun regardless of the result, seeing how famous he is).

Our match started. The 2 things I remember about BBM's Wolf, is that he, like all other Wolfs I played, knows how to use the Knee effectively. He kept MCing me with a knee and following up with the traditional +, where he still can force a pressure game while I TR/QR. I played against a couple of Wolfs and I can say the knee is still deadly in good hands.

The other thing I noticed is how often he was able to Giant Swing me! I considered myself a decent throw escaper, but he managed to get a couple of GSs in on me for some reason /versus/images/icons/smile.gif.

I think he also uses the LP Inashi alot, but I don't remember seeing him catch anybody with it (Not while I was there I mean, but maybe in clips). I lost the match, but was planning to come back later /versus/images/icons/smile.gif.

I noticed another force that people were also spectating, and it was none other than the VF love team! I saw three players of that team and I think they were all %80 (I Was able to really understand more how hard it is to get anything above %65 or %70 with that extremely high competetion, so It was easy to tell that they were dominating the place). Some people were just watching the VF Love Sarah play against the computer!! He has a VERY VERY good Sarah by the way (Who's a Demon Winged Sarah sometimes, and an Angel Winged one some others). I am not an expert in Sarah play so I can't comment on the tactics he was using (Can't even remember actually (^_^ ), but he had a decent winning streak and at some points, like I said, he was just playing against the computer.

So what would you do if you were in my place? Why, challenge them of course!! That was Friday, and I was gonna leave on Sunday, so I wanted to get first hand experience on how the really good guys play (Read: On how to get a beating /versus/images/icons/laugh.gif).

I challenged the Sarah player without a card of course. At first, he chose to block more and see what I can come up with, and once he figured that out, it was a complete ownage!! Unless I play 20+ straight games or something against that guy, there is NO way I could beat him. I am glad I played him though, as I was curious on how it feels to be on "the other side of the machine".

I also played against their Shun player (This time with my card), who easily confused me with the fancy new stuff Shun has and also beat me easily. The ranking system is accurate enough from what I saw. You can play your best close matches against opponents with close ranks and %s, while you can easily get owned against the higher players. That's why people just try to find the right opponents to rank up and get more experience while at it.

I moved to 2nd Dan at some point on that Day. I saw this innocent female Pai player challanging some people. She was 2nd Dan too, so I thought I should play. I beat her 3 rounds straight, but I think she wasn't very used to playing against Akira.

Later she challenged Bun Bun, and she beat his wolf /versus/images/icons/smile.gif. I kept alternating between playing against other players and coming back to BBM, and I ended up playing a total of 4 or 5 matches against him. Halfway through this I saw that BBM plays a decent Goh (He was 2nd Dan with a %60+ ), whom I also played against within those 4 or 5 matches. The only thing I remember about his Goh is that he used the sabaki Tsukami entrances often, and during the hold he would input a desired throw really fast that I could barely see his Goh pushing in the specified directions. I learned how one of Goh's Tsukami throws has a long throwing range as I was rung out by it from a good distance /versus/images/icons/smile.gif.

The good thing is, I was able to beat his Wolf once during those 4 or 5 matches, and I was happy. It was a close match, and I think I learned to be more careful with Wolf's Knee, so that it wouldn't produce the MC stomach crumble.

Those 10 Versus city machines were ALWAYS full by the way, so like I said, you can spend hours and hours and hours just playing. At the end of the night I played some more games, including a game against a Jackey player called scsa, and finished with a record of 78 Wins/ 132 Losses, and a %37.1 rate. I left around 12:10 AM, and people were still there!!! (They didn't even show any signs of leaving /versus/images/icons/smile.gif ). I only left because the last train comes around 12:25 AM, and I didn't want to take a cab if I stay more. That was the end of probably my busiest VF day in Japan.

I need to have some breakfast so I will come back with the last small part of the report later /versus/images/icons/grin.gif .

 

Re: "A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_

I kinda forgot about the thread, (^_^; ) but I felt I need to finish the tiny part remaining now...

On Saturday there were a little less players, but still enough to keep anybody busy for hours. There was the VF Love Sarah dominating again. And again, sometimes spectators would just watch him play against the CPU /versus/images/icons/smile.gif. I played against many players and spent some time to move to 3rd Dan.

The highest character I played against is probably Jackey, but there were less Laus than I expected (Jackeys were not marginally high either, just slightly more than the other characters). I still played against all characters, including many good Brad's. My day ended with 100 Wins/ 172 losses, and I got back home earlier to prepare and pack my stuff.

On Sunday I was feeling a little sick because I knew I had a long flight home. This always happens to me upon flighing and I never figured out a way to get rid of it. I had some time before going to the Airport, and my friend suggested I spend some time playing Evo. I liked the idea, although I don't remember myself ever doing anything besides worrying before flying. So I headed to High Tech Land again, and my friend stayed in a Cafe next to the Arcade.

It was around 11:20 Am, and only 2 players were there playing against each other. I decided to watch a little before playing, and I saw that something was wrong: One of the 2 players was just standing there and taking a beating! I was puzzled for seconds before it hit me that they were simply cheating!! They had really suckky records (Much much worse than mine), and they were just ranking up the easy way. I remembered that I saw a tournamet anouncement in there for a tourney (Or VF gathering?) to be held on that day at 3:00 (Too bad I couldn't catch it), so I thought maybe they are ranking up for that tourney or something. But still, they could have just played without cards for a while until they improve before using the cards again instead of just cheating. I played against many good players who don't use cards, so it's common.

I put a coin in the machine next to one of those guys and played against the CPU. That's a good way to get challanged too, because same-rank opponent can easily see your stats and jump in and challenge, and that's basically what happened.

I should say that playing made me feel refreshed and focused, probably because it made me think of just one thing instead of just worrying about many things /versus/images/icons/smile.gif. I played against a 4th Dan Kage and I beat him. I then played and beat an 8th Dan Jackey, and another high ranked player I forgot. I was feeling good and happy that somehow playing Evo kinda 'healed' me /versus/images/icons/smile.gif.

I moved to 4th Dan sometime in there too, and then the Kage player from before came back and challenged me to rank up. I had some of my most fun playing against him for several consecutive matches, and both of us tried to figure out each other's styles and counter. I had a funny throw escaping moment with him in one of the matches where I probably escaped 4 or 5 consecutive throws starting with a side throw, and including + and +. I couldn't help but smile after that, and I think the match ended in my favor, but I think I was average in that match. Also, I failed his chance of going up to 5th Dan and I also lost 2 chances to go up myself. I finished with a record of 117 wins and 182 losses (%39.1?).

I finished playing around 1:10 PM, and felt sad that it was the last time I played in Japan. I just can't express how much fun it was to be playing randomly against tens of players; you never get tired or bored of it /versus/images/icons/smile.gif. I went back home with my card as a memento, a card that I will not be able to use again for some time (^_^; ).

I will finish with some questions for those who can answer:

I remember Gaijinpunch used to complain about players pulling out their cards before the records register. What I saw is that the card stays magnetically locked for some time after the match untill everything is registered before you can pull it out. Was it also like this before and people used force to pull the cards out, or it's a new thing?

This one is about Akira. Since the first time I played Evo when it was briefly here a couple of months ago, I wondered why I never saw any Akira in the clips doing a ST > ~ combo.... Or is it possible? I tried it myself many times when I played by myself when Evo was here, but with no luck. But I could've sworn I got it once in one of my early matches in Club Sega (I am not sure though, maybe I was seeing things /versus/images/icons/smile.gif ). So anyone can confirm? I know the timing is completely different for the second hit in this one because the first one is specially buffered in, but maybe it can be done with practice? What do you guys think?

 

Re: "A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_

Well, ST~Sgpm~Dbpm will give you more damage so maybe that's why you don't see people doing the DE follow up after the Sgpm.

 

Re: "A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_

But the DE followup would be guaranteed on everyone right? /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

 

Re: "A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I remember Gaijinpunch used to complain about players pulling out their cards before the records register. What I saw is that the card stays magnetically locked for some time after the match untill everything is registered before you can pull it out. Was it also like this before and people used force to pull the cards out, or it's a new thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

When you put in your card, the machine reads it and displays the char. As long as you don't hit a button to select the char, you can pull the card out and put in another one. Once you select the char, the game locks it in.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />

This one is about Akira. Since the first time I played Evo when it was briefly here a couple of months ago, I wondered why I never saw any Akira in the clips doing a ST > DfP~P combo.... Or is it possible?

[/ QUOTE ]
I've been told that it's impossible to do +P~P after ST. I'm not sure why it wouldn't be possible, but it seems that +P after ST is somehow different than a regular sgpm. Other than that, I can't really tell you anymore about it. Those are just my observations.

 

Re: "A Challenger Comes"; brief personal Tokyo Shibuya impressions (^_

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I remember Gaijinpunch used to complain about players pulling out their cards before the records register. What I saw is that the card stays magnetically locked for some time after the match untill everything is registered before you can pull it out. Was it also like this before and people used force to pull the cards out, or it's a new thing?

[/ QUOTE ]
The cards do stay Magnetically locked after you select your character......but it is still possible to force the card out. The record will just record next time you use the card anyway. This damages the card slots though, sometimes when I played the card didn't lock and popped out during the match.......there is also a penalty of -2 or -3 dan points if you pull out the card on a same dan match. This happened to me a few times not because I pulled out the card but because it popped out during the match. You can also lose items that you are wearing if this happens.

Regarding the Akira +,, it is not possible because the hit from the single palm after the Throw is different.keeps them crouching longer so the 2nd part will whiff, It would work nearer a fence but there are much better things you can do with a single palm wall hit /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

Anyway I'm glad that you had a good time in Japan. I also know how you feel about leaving,I felt quite sad. I'd like to get a job or study out there so I can stay for much longer