Good Habits

I'm a fairly new player, to both Virtua Fighter, and to fighting games in general. I was wondering, what are the best habits I should be trying to get myself into for playing this game?

 

The first thing you should do in this game after going through dojo mode obviously is to play the offline modes first mainly special sparring. Set the difficulty high and learn to beat the game that way. It forces you to play the game right from the very beginning. Finding players that use your character helps with character specific stuff and that is important too but playing special sparring and the other offline modes will set you down the right path before you play online. Real experience is vital but you need a good foundation before that. Online play encourages bad habits and you shouldnt start by playing online first that is a very bad idea.

 

Think... When you lose, don't get salty (cause everyone had received their fair share of beatdowns) think about what happened and why it happened. Also, don't use online as a benchmark for how "good" you are. Also, try to find those players that give you a hard time and play them a lot. Because people don't get better by beating the snot out of players. Also, HAVE FUN. This is the most important.

 

shadow is right about online being a bad idea when you are a beginner, i feel like i wasted my time, the only good thing is that i had fun, but i guess i had too much fun and too little practice, balance is the way to go

playing against better players online and going through stuff with them can be a good thing though, but i feel like im wasting their time and i feel bad about it ;( plus i only have like two people who i play with once in a while, so its hard to resist dat dere ranked mode when im bored


sometimes i learn a thing or two but the urge to have fun is more appealing than dojo lel

 

Playing online (under good conditions, none of that grey bar crap) is better than not playing at all. If you have the ability to play offline, choose that at all cost. However, you can still learn a bit of metagame online vs the right opponents.

Tips:
First and foremost, have fun. If you aren't enjoying yourself, you shouldn't be playing.
Control your salt levels, we all lose and have terrible days. Put the controller down and walk away.
Learn from your loses. Watch the replay and try to see how you lost. Come to the forums and ask questions. Don't be afraid to get whooped. It happens.
Learn the basics/fundamentals before learning gimmicky stuff. All the characters in this game have some sort of "gimmick" (sarah's flamingo, vane's stances, jacky...), but they all have the same set of basic tools. Learn those tools first before diving into the heavy bits.

Have fun and ask questions.

 

Here's my advice first choose a character (make sure you try everybody though) you like and enjoy. After that you should dedicate most of your time to that character and learn them by playing modes like Dojo, command training(regularly), Arcade (hardest), and offline (if possible). As for online like everyone said don't take it too seriously just use it as a way to have fun, get comfortable fighting human opponents, and get used to your character(to an extent) so you can get information on how the cast plays and what you and your character need to do in order to stop win. One thing I did when learning VF was I watched youtube vids on the game and my character, such as match vids and tutorials in order to get better. I recommend you also make a playlist on youtube so you can to store those helpful videos and when you want to go back to them you won't have to search endlessly for that one vid, but don't just mindlessly copy that player try to figure why the player is doing it and see if it can fit in your play-style and imo it helps you discover your own idea on how to play haha. Another thing most people have said make sure you have fun, don't let losing discourage you its all trial and error when learning. Finally add people so you can have people to play with because getting games randomly is hard at times and they can also help you.

 

pick a character you like and look for that character's 14 frame mid in the command list. when using this move, learn how to recognize when the move lands as a yellow flash counterhit or when its guarded. if it lands as a counterhit you can continue with a move that leads to a knockdown/combo or a throw. if it is guarded, learn how to crouch dash fuzzy guard and you will avoid an immediate throw and be able to guard any immediate attack making it your turn to attack again. try doing the 14f mid and immediately pressing guard and seeing if the move lands as a counterhit or is guarded to help clear any input buffers so you can continue attacking or fuzzy guard when necessary.

if you do a single standing jab that touches your opponent you are always at advantage whether hit or guarded. so jab into your 14 frame mid or a throw is a basic 2 step mixup you can always fall back on. (some characters have an 11 frame jab that can interrupt your 14 mid but many players will not try to jab you back for fear of another jab or your 2p)

another good way to use your 14 frame mid is immediately after blocking your opponents 2p. learning how to react to a guarded 2p will tell you alot about your opponent. many players will do 2p 2p, or 2p immediate throw without checking if their 2p even landed. if your opponent evades or back dashes your 14 frame mid you can usually recover in time to guard their immediate attack

another good time to use your 14 frame mid/throw mixup is after guarding your opponents rising kick. i mention guarding 2p and rising kicks because there should be no guessing for any character, if you guard these moves it's your turn for immediate attack.

using 2p as a poke is the basic habit everybody starts out with because its fast and goes under highs. it's major weakness is that it can crushed even when you have advantage from moves that go over lows. your 14 frame mid is made to counterhit your opponent's immediate strike at any level when you have advantage. try to limit use of 2p to interrupting your opponents strings where you can attack under a high.

so yeah learn how to use your 14 frame mid and read the wiki on this site for other system mechanics. this game is pretty rewarding once you start figuring things out.

 

First- Practice Hit checking- This is simply being aware of whether your attack was guarded or did it hit. General rule of thumb is if your attack was just guarded you should now defend, and if your attack scored a hit, keep the attacks coming... Hit checking will keep you from throwing out attacks at the wrong time and will "slow the game down" in your mind after a bit of practice. This will lead to evrything else coming easier.

Second- learn Frames- at least learn the speed of your moves (this will be a frame value) for example.. everyone's low punch is 12f (12 frames) this will allow you to know why one attack beat out another. In the Dojo turn on detailed stats and the frame data will be displayed in the lower left corner. It will tell you the speed of your move and also what advantage or disadvantage you are at after a move is guarded or hits or counter hits. This info (when understood) will explain why one move beat out another in any given situation.

Third- learn the major Defensive techniques .. They include FG (fuzzy guard) GTE (guarding throw escape) ECD (evading crouch dash) ETE (evading throw escape)

If all three are practiced, then the system of Virtua Fighter is under your belt and all that you need to worry about is the meta-game with your opponent... you will also be able to identify when your opponent clearly doesnt know something you do and use it to your advantage.

 

Wow. Sounds good, thanks for the advice, everyone.

 

Are there any good in game habits to try and develop, such as blocking/spacing/rolls, things like that?

 

The only good habit is none at all. You never know what will come your way. Unless that person is readable enough. The only good "habit" could be that you want to PK punish moves that seem PK punishable. However certain punishes that involve launchers like -18 and so on, can easily be countered by a character with good tsubaki, ie: Aoi Goh is another one so be careful how you decide to respond to him. So you should check out the vid on character punishment once you have established a character.

 

Thanks. I decided to start with Jeffrey, since he has a fairly simple and straight forward move list. That way I'm forced to spend more time learning the fundamentals.

 

Aside from everything else you should find a style of play you like to use and learn how to adapt that style to people that are aggressive, passive, or try to mix it up and gauge their foe. Playstyle makes you stand out and since it is a way of playing that you like to use you will want to practice it that much more. That is very important when you come up against a very tough foe and you need the extra motivation to push yourself on when you might want to quit. Learning more than 1 playstyle helps too for the toughest foes but you don't need to force yourself to play too hard too quickly. Pacing yourself and not overloading your brain with too much information is just as important as the basic use of your basic attack overall remember that too.

 

I also had the problem of finding a character to stick with. I went back and forth between 4-5 characters when I started. It is ok to change, but dont find that you have invested too much time into a character that you no longer want to play.

 

allright maybe i'm a little late

Here's my recomendation

Enjoy the game :everyone has already said this, but is the core of getting better and overcome the losses, once you learn the basics you begin to enjoy the game.

want to become better and enjoy the game more...and the circle goes on and on

In my opinion is the first and best

These are my recomendations

Learn to hit check: when is a counter, recovery counter, normal hit

don't overuse moves especially unsafe mode like launchers(i have the bad habit to spam launchers when i'm goin to die )

enjoy your character, his style,his moveset or even his customization lol
have to say, this character suits my style

 

Unless a whole new iteration comes out, and your character is shit and you switch mains, like you did, right, Marley?