Swticthing From The Pad to The Stick

I've now seen this technique work 4 times. 1rst I used it myself, and then recommended it to 3 of my mates and we all had success.

If you were not lucky enough to start playing VF with a joystick, and instead used the PS3 or XBox controller, and now you want to switch to a joystick, you might find it hard at first.

I played VF4, and VF4EVO with the PS controller. When I tried to switch to the stick for VF5, I got frustrated fast, because I had already developed muscle memory and habits on the controller, and when I went to the stick it was whole different
feel. My skillz immediately dropped and I couldn't beat my friends or even the CPU on normal (I could win on easy). At first I put the stick down, but later after being beat in a tourney by someone using the stick, I picked it up again.

Here's what I did

1) I picked a VF character that I did not know but wanted to
learn

2) I named the profile trainee (so that I wouldn't care about
the win/loss ratio)

3) I started exclusively in Arcade mode (on easy at first)

4) I picked a few moves from the movelist of my new fighter
and the OM, DM, recovery techniques and played in arcade
mode until I could easily beat dural on that difficuluty,
and then I added a few new moves and increased the
difficulty and played until I could easily beat dural
on that setting, I repeated this process until
I could be dural on very hard with the stick

5) I then challenged a few of my mates who I knew were scrubs
I used the stick with them ( I lost 1/2 the matches)
they laughed at first.
( I realized I needed more practice)

6) I then went to Quest mode and learned all of the moves
and combos, for character and took him to
conqueror on highest difficulty with a win
percentage in the low 90's.

7) I then challenged my mates again this time with a 7/8
win ratio

8) Once I could easily beat my mates with my new character,
I went back to my main character and went through Quest
mode from scratch to Conqueror

The whole thing to a few months or so. But the end result I am now playing with the stick and IMO have doubled my game. While I was learning, VF5 felt like a brand new game all over again I lost the weakness of having to depend on special button settings. IMO it also seems easier to play both sides when using the stick (I think that has something to do with the d-pad) Moves that felt awkward on the pad feel more intuitive on the stick (for the most part), and I picked up an extra fear factor. When playing mates offline and you have a stick and they don't (the sound of your stick during the match is intimidating) It just sounds more like you're kicking their ass than when both players are using the controller

It was also fun learning the basics again, if you've started out with the controller and played for any real amount of time, almost everything is reflex and you're doing stuff automatically. When you switch to the stick, you have to kind of re-learn all the little things, which in my case improved my game big time.

For those of you who are out there thinking about switching from the controller to the stick, it is worth it, and if you
start with a plan, you can exceed the skillz that you have on the controller in a few weeks.

 

I agree.

 

I agree

 

Remember that he's describing "Swticthing From The Pad to The Stick" - Swticthing is pronounced "Swih tik thing" and should not be confused with other actions.

Now back to the SoCal DVD.

 

If you are comfortable with Pad, why would you force yourself to switch into stick? Well, unless you are ready for Arcade version but we all know that won't happen.

 

There were some LeFei moves that I found awkward on the pad
for example:



is awkward for me to enter correctly and consistently on a pad,
and any other move with a similar pattern. But I can correctly and consistently execute it on a stick in any situation I need it. Also since I don't have shoulder buttons on the stick and I don't use short cuts buttons anymore (for some reason) I feel more flexible in choosing my next move (can't explain that though).

 

I think different people feel very differently about pad and stick

I could do this type of motion on pad really well, since I grow up playing SF on pad, I could play gief on pad and can do his 360 out of nowhere, I can FADC ultra. I even played 3D fighter like Soul Calibur 1 with DC pad just fine.

However, when I first played VF, it all changed. With VF has to be a stick, I just can't do moves like P+K fast enough or well enough on a pad.

BTW great post, which stick you are using now?

 

as an akira player, i found the execution heavy moves are torture on my thumb using the d-pad. even after 3 months of practice and online matches, i still cant consistently pull off certain moves/combos, especially when playing on certain sides. plus my left thumb tip is now always swollen and peeling(ew). so i finally decided to build a stick. oh man, how nice it is pull off a SPOD or a buffered double palm in a combo with no problems.

but some moves that were so simple with the dpad feel insanely difficult on the stick. EDC is giving me fits. My stupid wrist/arm refuses to go from evade to dash that quickly. pretty much anything with a double tap is iffy, diagonals are the worst. is there a specific grip that will help, or is it just a matter of practice? maybe there are some akira players on here that could enlighten me? i've seen a few like bigbossryu and hades dancing around like madmen with akira. what is the secret?

 

There are multiple possible grips which all are viable. There is video about them + related discussion here on VFDC, I will recommend you to check it
http://virtuafighter.com/threads/how-do-u-hold-ur-joystick.14054/

Anyway, hot diagonals and doubletaps, movement and everything... It is just matter of practice. pad have some advantages over stick in this. It can be overcomed, but it takes tome and practice to do so.

 

This may be just my personal opinion, but...

I will say that 8gate is better for 2D-s (lots of QCF HCF moves, 6523 moves etc); 4-gate is better for 3Ds and beginners.

To the 2nd part of your question - it completely depends on your preferences. But from what I saw, I think most top-level japanese/korean players are using wrists because of the speed of inputs it allows.

 

With the 8-gate, you can do circular motions smoother more consistently- you can put contact on the gate all the way through the circular- like a half-circular motion. But with a 4-gate, it allows you to find the diagonals like Down-Front (3), or Down-Back (1) easier. You can also do crouch-dashing more easier... BUT HERES THE KICKER... IT DEPENDS ON THE PLAYER. Those comments are for sloppy inputs. If you're sloppy, my previous comments hold true. But some guys can play on any gate and be consistent. In theory, you're not really trying to hit the gate on some motions/inputs, you're supposed to make the smallest/quickest possible motion.

But like I said a million times- your curiosity will always be answered by trying/doing.

 

When I get my 1st stick, it taked me 6 months of intense training to get my direction inputs to be OK.
I am slow learner with serious fine-motor problems tough