New to online - need help with Shun's low counters

Hi everyone, been trolling around the last couple days. I really appreciate the intelligence and insight exhibited on this board and look forward to learning as much as I can. So much to absorb. I've played Virtua Fighter since Virtua Fighter I in the arcade in my teens and just love being Shun. Haven't played humans much since VF1 but have played a ton of single player. As I've read here they are two totally different beasts. I have all Shun's moves down but applying them against humans, situationally is difficult so far. I think my Xbox win percentage is like 12% after 60 matches, so I've only just started. Played a Shun online with a 90% win percentage and he really showed me how much I suck at this game right now, but want to get better.

I have two questions.

1.What is the most efective low-throw counter I can use with Shun, when I defend I do a lot of low defense and there are several characters that just destroy me with the low throw when Im doing this, even when I know its coming. What low throw counter should I first try to employ in your opinion?
2.The controller; do the majority of you use the Horti (is that right?) stick or have you adjusted to playing with the Xbox/PsIII controller? Am I going to be at a serious disadvantage by being a d-pad guy? I have a hard time recovering from staggers because my left thumb can't shake the d-pad from its position very well at all.

Sorry for the length, thank you in advance for anyone who wishes to reply.

 

1. Well... perhaps the "obvious" answer is to throw escape (input the same low throw command your opponent uses right as they do it, kind of a guessing game depending on how fast your fingers are), and you'll take 0 damage. It can be hard to learn, so for a simple solution, I'd probably just say low punch in anticipation. It's fast, and you can't be thrown while attacking. Just learn some followups for the punch depending on whether it hits/is blocked/whatever, because repeatedly low punching will just get you killed.

2. I think most use the Hori stick, it's pretty awesome. But that said, the pad isn't really that bad... a couple characters (Akira...) are nearly impossible to do their whole movelist without a stick, but the game is more than playable, I used ps2 pad on VF4 for years and had a lot of fun still. Also note, stagger recovery is much more precise in VF than it sounds... hold guard and rotate the stick, the number of different directions you're able to hit controls how fast you recovery. Just going left/right back and forth only covers 2 directions out of the possible 9, so it's actually a very bad way to deal with staggers.

 

Thank you. Most appreciated.

 

Re: New to online - need help with Shun's low coun

If you're getting low thrown from disadvantage, don't low punch to beat it - it can cause throw clash. Use a mid - chouwan, whatever.

 

Re: New to online - need help with Shun's low coun

Hi withdrawal

True the Hori stick is more accurate but I play Shun with 360 controller and its not much of an issue as Shun, maybe the 270 throw is harder but thats about it. It is really hard to do some characters complex moves however.

Modifying the dpad by cutting away the plastic bit around the dpad helps alot with the accuracy. Theres a thread about it somewhere here in the 'console' forum I think.