A couple o' Questions

Hello folks, Long time no see you...I've been quite busy playing something else for the past few months, hehe.

First...I play Akira since VF4-PS2 and I've been reading some posts by newbies (with all due respect..)about akira, and some people reply saying: "Akira is an hard character to master, but once you get used to it, he's the best".
Well...I play him for a lotta time, I'm able to do every little combo he has, but... Here's the point: IT'S NOT EASY.

Even after 1 year and a half of Akira playing, I still have a hard time playing him. I CAN do all the stuff, but it stills "hurts" y'know.. I'm sure that even the best akira players out there like Mukki A, Minami A, Homestay A, ShinZ, etc, sweat a little after 30/40 matches...

It's the difference between Akira and every other character... Characters like Kage need lots of timing for their TFT combos (It took me 30 minutes to do Pai's TFT combo in practise mode 3 times..), but they don't make my fingers hurt. Even combos that require fast input on the other characters are nothing compared to the fast input required by some of akira's combos.

One more thing before I ask the questions (this is getting pretty long, but I haven't talked here for a while, so gimme a break please) and this is not a joke: I didn't do any exercise for the past 26 months, and my shoulders and also those muscles attached to my neck are pretty developed. My arms too...
I hadn't really thought why...but the other day I was playing VF and I noticed how much effort I put into some combos, and that effort is reflected in those muscles. It's funny, but my fingers do 10% of the work... Most of the work is done by my arms and those muscles in the back... And no, I don't move a lot while playing..You only see my fingers moving, but my arms and shoulders are almost always tense while playing...

(I guess I exaggerated in this intro..)

The questions are simple: What's the secret for struggling? (It's one of the those things I just cannot understand...I keep down, and I move/press and the other buttons as fast as I can, and I never manage to free myself..)

Noobie question: Is it important to use every move Akira or any other character (but akira mostly...as his command list is pretty small) has, or should we stick to defined tactics with a limited number of moves? I noticed how +++, + is totally useless (if it's not, give me an example of where to use it please). Also + is pretty sucky in terms of recovery and + is in my humble opinion the worst low attack in the game... Slow, horrifying range, and damn bad recovery.. Give me some advice about these moves too please. Specially you Spotlite /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

One more thing.. What's the best way to get those 3 item missions to pop on arcade matches? I looked through the FAQ but I saw nothing about it. I know the matches, but I would like to know if there's some other way, because in missions that you don't have to win, you can just do the mission, lose, and keep losing until you get another mission in the same match against the same character.

Sorry if I'm wasting your time guys. Keep it cool /versus/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

Just quickly;

I find struggling best by ...

holding , alternatling tapping and (the hold stops any whiffed moves coming out) and rotating the stick in a circle very quickly or sometimes just manically from side to side.

As for moves I'd say about 90% of Akiras moves are useful and should be incorporated since as you pointed out he does have a smallish command list. The moves you've noted aren't amazing ones like you say. ++ cam work well at the start of a fight or as an opponent does a rising attack (with the right timing of course) and the follow up is good. The I find less useful but I've never landed a sabaki with + ... though if you DO you can follow with > DLC for a neat combo. Same as if you counter with ++ , you can follow with DLC or dbpm. Thinking about it you can use his after a back turned 2/3 DLC or after you've jumped over an opponent whos on the floor and lying side ways to you and if you counter its possible to follow with a dbpm but its not something I use that much its just an option.

 

Thx for the reply Spot.

But there's something still bothering me....I've been having problems with Throw Escapes and Struggling out of Staggers.

I want to know two things...And Please, be serious about this...
1-WHEN, EXACTLY, should someone input the throw escapes? What's the most common "motion" for inputing them (right after the guaranteed throw move, or should we delay? I need a massively detailed explanation about this..I've been searching but there's too much junk in this site...false information and noobish talk are common stuff around here, no offense)

2-WHEN, EXACTLY should someone try to recover from staggers? I noticed something funny after 1 year and a half of VF playing.... Most of you know this, I'm just telling you I, MYSELF, Only discovered this a couple of hours ago: By inputting the recovery directions and buttons (randomly) when the Joystick on the left/right is RED, you simply RECOVER. If you input them while it's green, then you'll have a really hard time getting it.. What I mean is... No one told me this before... It's not even in the GAME!! Nothing explains this crap... Are people supposed to guess this shit? I don't think so.. I always thought to myself: "What are those "red/green colours" for?"
And I never really worried about that... until today... I watched replays from the game, and players like Ohsu and such, don't really give a crap about that, and they are punished....... The green light appears and they press the buttons during that time..fucking the stagger even more..

What I did was...starting a match on WWMA2, and using ++ + with Akira until an AI would recover from the stagger and defend the SgPlm. Well...Burun 2x did that.. I saved the replay, and went to watch it after memorizing when did the red colour appear... I watched it frame by frame and noticed how the AI only tried to recover during the Red Colour time... That was my clue... I then went to challenge mode, and tried it out.. Voilá...I was right.

But there's something missing, and that's why I'm asking the question...I feel like there's something stupid... Is the recover affected by lots of different directions in a small period of time, or just fast inputing on (for example) one direction? What's the factor? Speed or Variability (well written?)?

I need an answer, please.
I'm turning into a technician...and I hate when that happens... It just means I'm getting wicked about a game.. I never gave a crap about frames and such, because my imagination is not that good..and although I'm not a masher, my main play is offense...I rarely give a crap about throw escaping.. But that's my weakness, and if there's something I hate more than getting technical, it's having myself a weakness... a weakness that good players shouldn't have. I played the game for so long, and I still only have something like 900 matches done... 5XX wins and 3XX losses..

Spot, again, thanks for the help, but I'm looking for something deeper.. I call forth DRE, Spotlite, GaijinPunch, UKguy (where have you been?..), BMF, Myke, Ice, Namflow, IBM (or whatever that Akira nerd's with god-like defenses name is..), and everyone else with brutal knowledge about this game to, PLEASE, Help me.

PS: If you want to flame, then please don't. I didn't have all this hard work writing this stuff so that people come here and post 1 line posts telling a bunch of crap. My English is not that great, so respect my work. Thank you.

 

For question #1

Basically you need to input TEs during your recovery frames of moves. If you use any type of buffer throw escape techniques, such as ETE(evade), ATE(attack), RTE(reversal), you have a total of 21 frame window for TE inputs as the buffering allows you to have 11 additional frames for TEs. Normally you get 10 frames for TEs without those additional buffering. The technique called TEG( AKA guard throw escape) doesn't require an additional action before the TEs, that's why it's TE window is smaller than the one of the others. If you want to get into more technical side, get a hold of me on IRC. I will explain it to you in more detail.


For question #2

What you said about struggling is correct. You are not supposed to struggle when the stick is green as it only makes your more staggered. When you see the red stick, start struggling, and here stick inputs and button inputs all count. As far as why doing 360 is the best, it's because when you do it like that you are inputting more inputs in a given amount of time. When you make one 360 with stick , you already hit 9 different directions, things like that.



P.S. Not a biggie, but you got some people's names wrong. LM_Akira is a different person from Spotlite, and I think by IMB, you meant IMF? /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

Thx madagascar, I appreciate that /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I know all that about ETEGs and stuff. I'm not very fond with them though /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
I can get them in challenge mode, but I can't stick them on my play...I guess I'm too nervous playing...I press the buttons lots of times even after entering the whole command...Stuff like that..I just like to be sure I did it right.. hehe

About the Stagger stuff, those tips were really helpful. I wanted to be sure about that.So more diverse directions are more important than lots of inputs on the same directions. thx =)

PS: He's not Spotlite? OOOOOOOPs....lol....

 

So more diverse directions are more important than lots of inputs on the same directions. thx =)

-> Well, no. Only the number of inputs you do matters.
You will get the same result when you press foward 9 times with a 360. It's just not as easy to do in real match. Practicing 360 in training mode to get it muscle memorizied. You will see yourself doing it without thinking in the future.

He's not Spotlite? OOOOOOOPs....lol....
-> No, he's not. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Entering inputs during the green stick makes he stagger longer/tougher to break? I thought it was just to let you know when a stagger is coming?

 

[ QUOTE ]
Myke said:
No, both red and green stick icons occur when you are being staggered. How can the game predict when the stagger is coming and give you warning?

[/ QUOTE ]

Right. I guess I worded it wierd. Green stick tells you to prepare to mash for the red (struggleable) part of a stagger.

I was referring to madddy's post:

[ QUOTE ]
maddy said:
You are not supposed to struggle when the stick is green as it only makes your more staggered.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just thought the green stick was there to tell you "hey in a second start mashing", but it doesn't actually increase the strength of the stagger if you mash during the green part does it?

 

the faq states that when the stick turns red, "...you may begin to struggle". I not sure at this point, but i guess that statement implies that starting at green might strengthen the stagger? /versus/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

Yeah Bro, struggling when joystick is green makes it harder to struggle out of the stagger. You're right. If you only do it on red it's way easier.

(If not...It wouldn't make much sense would it...? I mean... people would just struggle during the whole stagger... which is often what people do, fucking the struggling all over... and getting caught in combos..)

By the way, I would like to change the topic of the thread at least for a moment. I would like to know how do you VF Experts (hey...don't start with the false modesty ok?) practise/train.
How, or where, do you train in your ps2 (training mode? quest mode?)?
How much time per day (if you train daily..)?
And for those of you who play different characters: Does your train differ from character to character?

Thanks for the patience, and sorry about not checking the FAQ Myke. I was thinking so much about Evo I even forgot that the stagger system was the same since VF4. Stay cool.