Homestay Akira's Virtua Education

Chapter 1: The Road To Becoming Strong
Written by kamaage and Homestay Akira
Translated by Reno
Edited by Myke

Proficiency in Virtua Fighter is akin to climbing a set of stairs -- taking it one step at a time -- so like climbing a set of stairs, we'll break this subject down piece by piece.

I talked to Homestay Akira about this subject. His strength comes not from his reaction nor from his ability to read his opponent, but from the fact that he had to climb more stairs than anyone else. A little bit hard to understand? It might be, so I thought it would be best for him to explain how to climb that proverbial staircase.

The necessary challenges and how to digest them
In order to really get what Homestay is saying and climb the ladder, you have to properly "digest" the contents of what he says. You'll be able to get a little bit stronger if you're able to do this.

The Issues
Virtua Fighter is very much a game where you have to "do" something. If you have an offense, you have "do" combos, and if you have a defense, you have to "do" fuzzy guard. I don't think a thorough explanation is necessary, but if you miss your combo, the damage you deal lessens, and if you flub your fuzzy guard then you'll eat more and more damage from your opponent. Therefore, winning is directly linked to your mistakes.

Don't mistake the order of the issues
Every action has a foundation and an application. Therefore, if you find yourself in a situation where you don't understand the foundation of an action, you'll definitely be in trouble. Once you're able to break down the fundamentals of offense and defense, and the advantages and disadvantages of each, then it's important to move on to the matter of application.

Don't juggle several issues at once
For example, combos and throw escapes. These two elements are the foundations of offense and defense, but trying to perfect both of them at the same time is dangerous. Even without dividing your concentration between the two elements, any understanding that you may have of said elements is just an illusion. Therefore the issues you have as a player should be tackled one at a time, and you especially shouldn't juggle more than two at a time.

The order of your issues is related to your own concept of Virtua Fighter
Winning in Virtua Fighter comes down to two concepts: "Do as much damage to your opponent as you can before they can do it to you", and "If I don't take damage from my opponent, I won't lose". Once you are able to figure out which concept really fits you as a person, then you'll become a lot more efficient.

In Homestay Akira's case, he's the latter type, so he shifted his focus on that and began to work on his defense. At first, Homestay's ratio of offense and defense was something like 8:2, so he started to tackle the issue of defense. Once he firmly understood the fundamentals of defense in Virtua Fighter, he slowly shifted his attention to the the matter of offense.

Taking it one step at a time
Homestay Akira really emphasized this point several times. For example, when practicing Akira's SPoD, you should not practice doing the entire thing all at once. To start, get the first hit off. Once you're able to do that absolutely perfectly, do the first and second hit until you can do that perfectly. Once you can do that, add the third hit.

Remembering this doesn't mean that you'll safely execute it 100% of the time. And I can't completely say with this that you have digested all of the issues at hand.

On top of all of that, you need to evade with 100% accuracy, by inputting up or down properly. Sometimes, when you input up, your character jumps. You must delete those errors from your playstyle. So the first thing to perfect is inputting up or down　with 100% accuracy.

Once you can do that, the next thing to do is to evade and throw escape at the same time. Then practice the easiest throw escape direction, the one you feel most comfortable with. Depending on person, the easiest throw protection might be or . Just practice the one you're most comfortable with. Once you can do that, then you need to evade with throw escape in any direction. When you can do that, repeat it again, but this time evading with multiple throw escapes.

By piling up your practice like this, you can reduce your misses and reduce the damage taken.

The Summary
Virtua Fighter is a game that in order to get good, you need to gather up the elements that are directly related to winning or losing, and to boost them to the best of your abilities.