I'm terrible at this game, need help!

Hey, I actually have Virtua Fighter 4, but nobody reads that forum anymore, hope i'm not intruding /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I am wondering if doing the Virtua Fighter Evolution training will help me beat VF4? My friend has Evolution and has offered to let me borrow it, but if the training is different for that game, I wont bother...

Anyhow, not sure about the Playstation 3 version, but VF4 is impossible! It is really hard to do the moves, I'm using my left thumb on the directional buttons, and most of the time what I input doesn't work. There are even moves that you are expected to do within 1/60 of a frame!! Crazy!

Also, very hard to know if a high, mid, or low attack is coming, I have no idea most of the time how to defend! Plus there are 3 throw evasions and you cant guess which is the correct throw evasion.

Anyone have advice for me, or is mastering this game very rare, like becoming a virtuoso at the violin? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Thanks,

Wahooka

 

Practice mang. That's what I'm doing.

 

The tutorials in VF4: EVO will help you a lot with your defense, you got to take the time to understand them and practise it though.

I'm pretty sure most of the EVO stuff will work in VF4 so yeah it's definitely worthwhile.

 

Not that I'm in any position to be giving advice here, but what Plague suggested to me about the block/counter flow of gameplay has helped tremendously, and made the game a bit more fun in the process. Before that, I was trying to play VF with an all-out Street Fighter style of offense, which doesn't really work at all with the pacing in VF. It's a lot like chess; you have to wait your proper turn and realize the advantages of the situation -- as well as your opponent's tendencies -- before launching a counterattack.

As for knowing what to defend and when, yeah, practice. Linear attack strings are the best to start with learning to defend (and dodge) in my opinion, because honestly, if you ever get online with VF5, that's all you're gonna be up against when you first start out. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

I'd suggest *not* playing Akira for your first character. He requires a lot of dexterity trainning, and I feel like your time would be better spent learning how frames / advantage / disadvantage works.

 

A lot of people have talked about FRAMES and how they figure into strategy, but I don't really know what this means, can someone explain it to me?

Also, is defending against string attacks a matter of knowing the opponents move list and guessing which attack they will use? Like you know a certain combo is likely to come, so you choose to guard against it? Or can the good players see the punches coming?

 

The thing is those linear attack strings always start off mid (as far as I'm aware) and are ended with either a low or mid attack, so they get pretty easy to defend if you know how they work. Lau's PPP rush is a perfect example, it seems a lot of newer players think they can get away with simply hammering PPP (probably ending with d+K since it ends low and is therefore "tricky") right at the outset and not get punished for it. But you have so many options for countering that it's ridiculous; you can simply block and wait for the HUGE advantage after the d+K, or you can poke with low attacks until they figure out they're screwed, or you can sidestep/evade and launch your own offense immediately.

Nowadays, when I play people of my own ilk online (i.e. scrubs), the first thing I do is hold G and simply wait to see what happens. If it's a Lau/Lei-Fei/Blaze player, I guaran-damn-tee you 9 times out of 10 it will be a PPP rush right out of the gate. Once they figure out that rushdown doesn't work against another living human being, they're like a deer caught in the headlights. (And then comes the disconnect. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif )

Keep in mind I'm talking on a total beginner level here, the experts would have to weigh in on defending attack strings at higher levels.

 

http://virtuafighter.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vf5:system_part_2&s[]=frame

This explains frames better than I ever could. It's the way of measuring who is at advantage (disadvantage) and by how much. To explain it very quickly.

If we both punch at the exact same time with the same character -we both get hit.

If you punch and I block it, then we both try to punch* as soon as possible - my punch will come out sooner.

Because I recover faster from blocking the punch than you recover from having your punch blocked.

* assuming that your 2nd punch isn't part of a string.

 

Frame is a unit to measure time in this game. The game animates at 60 frames per second. All the disadvantages and advantages when moves are blocked or hit etc. are measured in frames.

 

I am starting to understand this game a bit better, how defense works and the timing of executing moves... I dont really know how to succeed at this game yet, but I see that I've improved, even in a week...

I really have trouble with moves that require certain directional arrows.. diagonal arrow is difficult, also difficult is down and then right, almost forces you to roll your thumb, which isnt that easy..

Other then that, im getting better at this game, and defeated my first opponent today!!

Thanks for the help..

Wahooka