VF help...

Recently, my friend started playing VF4 at my house. His only prior experience for VF is the VF2 on the PC. I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on how to help his game out so he gets better. One thing is he seems to have a problem with blocking, he thinks that his blocks dont work since when I attack at certain ranges or heights, it goes over/under his block. He does get the hang of timing his blocks pretty well. He seems to be able to block low quite well, but not always. Also, he tries to counter my moves with a punch or kick. Such as, when I am running towards him, he tries to punch, but I do a faster move and hit him instead. This frustrates him greatly. He also cant do any combos yet.

Can anyone give me any advice on how to help out his game, or to get him better habits, or block better? He also likes to use Lei-Fei, Sarah, and Kage. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

One tip you should probably give your buddy is that blocking high is better than blocking low, and he should throw out nothing bigger than a punch, a low punch, or an elbow... then look for chances to throw if any of those moves interrupt your attacks. If he goes for the big attacks right away, they'll just lose to something faster.

It might help to explain that by using weak jabs and low punches, he will "stun" you long enough for him to try a bigger move such as a sarah db+K or a kage df+P. If he tries those moves without stunning you a little first, then you'll have time to stuff his attacks with your own jab/low punch.

Lastly, you should give him the "Bread and butter" combos listed in the bottom of my combo guide. For sarah it's db+K --> df+P,K --> u+K. For kage it's df+P --> P --> d+P+K,K.

 

Low punch and leg sweeps. I'd emphasize those, especially if blocking is
lacking. I recently played a button-mashing rookie Lei who knew
absolutely nothing about VF do's and don'ts, and this guy almost totaled
my Aoi. It required a LOT of LP interrupts to break his flow,
because his flow was completely unpredictable by any standards. I think
Lei Fei allows for that, and I was surprised and a little red-faced before I
realized that I was showing off for a crowd, rather TRYING to show off,
and my little bubble was being burst because I couldn't land the big throws, ect. This is
due to lack of setting up using the LP or jab. I didn't think I'd need to. All this to say, your
boy just needs to learn how to set up his cool killer moves with those little stun-interrupters.
Oh, and teach him how to do the safe down attack (I'm rusty here, is it UP-Punch?); when he knocks you
down, his character performs the down attack only if you're not TR or rolling to
avoid it (his character simply leaps backward and is left at no disadvantage). This is something I
think is fundamental for a new player.

 

This advice is pretty useful. Can you also give advice on how to do combos, advanced moves, and throwing a lot and at the right time? Combos like, knee to a canned combo or thee seperate moves.

 

A trick to doing combos which makes life a lot easier: After certain attacks in the combo, tap uard. That guarantees the game doesn't confuse what you're trying to do with something else.
For example if you try to do pai's -> -> combo, you should
enter the commands like this:
,[] -> ,[] -> ... that way the game does a kick, a jab, then a plain K,K combo. If you don't tap guard you might get pai's combo (kick into ankle punch)... or after the jab, you might accidentally get pai's punch-kick canned combo.
So tapping guard prevents all those potential screwups.

For throws, your friend should figure out which character you like to play, and then which moves are throwable if he blocks them. I think you're a wolf player right? He should throw you after every short shoulder, every knee, after any elbow, etc.

I wrote a little section in my jacky faq (which should be up soon) on throwing, y'all should check that out.

 

That advice is pretty sound for someone with some experience in playing VF. But my friend, you could say, is a total newbie at this game. He doesnt really have any knowledge to what moves are guarenteed after what, when to throw, etc. So, essentially, he just needs the basic stuff first. When his game gets moderately more advanced, Ill give him the stuff you told me previously. And yes, I am a Wolf player. He also thinks my Wolf game is unstoppable, where as I would most likely easily be beaten by some of the other players around here. Just so you know the level we are playing on.

Thanks again! /versus/images/icons/grin.gif

 

doh /versus/images/icons/smile.gif
specifics are where the game's at, doing homework can help a lot.

For game theory, the basic guessing games in VF are the same as in most other fighting games.... attack or throw. He just has to figure out when to attack and when to throw. He shouldn't do either after getting hit by something or after having a move blocked. But he should try attack-or-throw when he lands a punch or low punch on you, or after blocking your attacks.
That's as general as I can get.

Oh, also, when in doubt low punch.

 

Thanks again! I think Ill let this post die for now. Ill be sure to pass this on to my friend. Thanks for all your help!