In the Zone

Have you ever been in the zone with VF4. When I mean "in the zone" I mean that your reaction time beats the computers, or you always know how to get out of a situation in the game. You basically become unbeatable. Does this ever to you when its human vs human opponents. It is an incredible feeling when you play this game, because behind each character in the game is a human player and within each good player there are mastered fundamentals. Once you understand the concepts in the game you become so accustomed that the game seems to slow down, but you are moving faster than ever. Just to share with you guys, sometimes I get in the zone, and I would like to share a quick example with you. I was playing Kumite mode in VF4 and I lost a couple of times as a subjagator. But the next thing I know I was getting excellent by excellent and before I knew it I was a Demon Lord. When I snapped out of my zone my fingers were killing me, but for that dynamic winning streak i don't think any A.I. could even come close to me. The funny thing is I know how to freeze the computer with some of Wolf's moves, but I didn't want to cheepen the experience by playing with that. It was pure reflexes baby. Anyway I have just recontinued my Kumite experience. I started in January, but I didn't pick the game back up since the middle of may. My Kumite record is 567 and 26. I play with Wolf.
But I could have done better because sometimes I would under estimate the cpu and sometimes I just didn't care. Please post one of your in the Zone Stories.

 

I know exactly what your taking about but as I play as Akira I 'd like to say I rely on some good yomi rather than " being in the zone " as you put ( imo they're the same thing it just sounds like I know some japanese! /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif).Very occasionally I'll hit a point when I attack non stop and seem to be able to second guess any attempt at a hit on me.It's cooler with some one who has reversals , as after constant pressuring you wait for a reaction ( or try to force a reaction ) and reverse it just to show them its check mate in your favour!Sometimes I'll go for big combos or repeatedly try and reverse and just take a beating but when I make sure to concentrate and not let my hands move faster than I want them to I find I'm capable of more than I would ususally give myself credit for...like doing Akira's " 3 knee " combo twice in a round on evo or continually finishing all floats with m-shrm to m-dbpm ( something I can still mess up very easily ).
I find when I go through these phases its generally against ai opponents but thats probably as it don't have an awful lot of human opponents to play against. /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif meaning a lot of human-human fights can boil down to a stale mate.

 

what exactly is Omi , could someone make a list of those types of terms and their meanings? i know sabaki and inashi but not really the rest.

 

The "Zone"

There is definately such thing as the "zone." I play alot of Akira also, and there are times where I will pull around an 85-90% win ratio for Quest mode, but occassionally I will enter practice mode right before I go to Quest, and from there I have gotten like 75 win streaks, with minimal effort.

Once you get on a roll in either Quest or even Kumite mode, there is not alot the AI can do to stop you. Once you begin to recognize patterns in the AI, winning continuous matches is simple. What is also good about VF4/Evo, is when they script randomizes your opponent based on "rivalries," every time I face the same person within a couple matches, they use the same damn AI routine thay they always do (just with more aggression), and I can beat them all the time.

Finding the zone is not that hard to do if you are constantly winning, but at the higher levels of the Evolution arcades, maintaining the "zone," is wicked challenging, not to mention that losing just a single match is very discouraging. /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

Re: The "Zone"

I used to get in the zone a lot more when I used to play Tekken- more human competition back then.

The zone is a real thing. Just check this article out, it compares an athelete and a VF 4 player!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2154092.stm

Awesome article

 

No problem:
Yomi basically means " seemingly mind reading ".This obviously isn't possible , HOWEVER , by careful selection of tactics you can almost force a player to react in the way you want them to and then go for either a reversal or a move that you know will counter theirs.It is seemingly you anticipating your opponents move and reacting accordingly.Players who act as if they are reading your mind are said to play with " sick yomi ".

Machi play is very defensive play.In essence you are continually moving around the arena looking for an opening and when one presents itself BANG you punish them good.Akira can play machi well due to his guard break and SPoD a deadly combination or some of his many high damage float >DLC combos etc...

Okizeme ( Oki ) play is pressuring a downed opponent.Once you've knocked them to the floor you make their attempts at getting back to their feet as bloody hard as possible!

Uramawari ( Ura ) is the act of switching position over a downed opponent to take advantage of their rising attack going the wrong way as it will have " tracked " you the wrong side as it were.In evo Akira's can be used to " slide " over a downed opponent or sometimes his body check + can be used to do it.

Nitaku - 1 of 2 .This is when someones defense is limited to either
1 preventing a throw with a strike or
2 a strike with a guard
and will occur when defense is down by 5/6 frames.
Credit should co to sanjuro for some of the definitions I have ysed above and for more inj depth analysis check out re-charred-sigh's guide on using Akira....all the stuff on fight styles is near the end.btw sorry everything sounds Akira specific it's not but's he's really the only char I use. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

If you see a japanese word used on the boards and are curious as to the meaning, use search. Usually you'll get multiple posts and you'll get a pretty round notion of the meaning of the term.

Uramawari specifically has been subject to debate & some would prefer not to call jumping over or passing through a downed opponent (in vf4/evo anyway) ura. Dig around abit.

 

Yeah sorry 'bout that but I was just trying to write down all the terms I knew .I have actually seen all the posts on it but didn't wanna get myself involved in it's debate!

 

[ QUOTE ]
csnape said:

Uramawari ( Ura ) is the act of switching position over a downed opponent to take advantage of their rising attack going the wrong way as it will have " tracked " you the wrong side as it were.In evo Akira's can be used to " slide " over a downed opponent or sometimes his body check + can be used to do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't the 2,4,6+p (dblplm) also be used to pass through a downed opponent (though a simple jump is much easier and less risky)?

 

I kicked this guy in the groin while we were playing once, and I knew exactly what his character would do on screen, nothing . Seriously though, I know the feeling, I get it more when I am fighting in martial arts than VF, but there is that feeling, like your senses are heightened and you just "know" what is going to happen. Totally sweet.

 

Yes that too but I don't normally rely on that style of play so I'm a little rusty on what does and does not work.I find myself relying on machi or yomi play ( I'd like to think !) rather than much else.

 

Then i guess i have decent Yomi because i play Aoi and a little Pai and i reverse the hell out of my opponents and my oki with Aoi is also pretty good. But for a character other than akira what are some good ways to switch positions with a downed opponent? their rising attack doesn't track at all? so you just get a free backthrow/combo or whatever?

 

Err.. well you could have good yomi play or you could just be going for reversals all the time.Yomi is all about something called "conditioning" essentially ( I think ) wherby you "make " ( you obviously actually can't make your opponent do anything...well unless you tickled them or something hehe...) your opponent react in a way you know they will or want them to react and counter accordingly eg it could be that your after an MC for a big float combo or just that you wanna keep the pressure on and hence do a well timed reversal ( btw sounds like you do play with decent yomi as all reversals should be almost instantaneous reactions).'fraid I don't know many other oki moves with other chars.For Akira the better to use are DJK over low rising opponents, or DBC or tech rollers or a ( very ) well timed m-shrm for high rising attacks.If you do a search for the chars you're after and the styles I'm sure you'll find loads of ideas or check out re-charred-sighs Akira guide as he covers pretty much all types of play style ( non-Akira specfic ) at the end.If in doubt experiment.