Greetings VF Community. I joined about a week ago and thought I'd document my journey in this thread to hopefully help other newcomers get into the series.

I made the following thread about a week ago when I joined, and ever since I've been playing VF online every night

https://virtuafighter.com/threads/vf-noob-starting-with-pai-akira.21575/

I was a complete noob at Virtua Fighter and I last played the game properly on the Dreamcast with Virtua Fighter 3TB. I've always been fascinated with VF and wanted to learn the game properly. Ultimate Showdown gave me the perfect opportunity to do so.

My characters of choice were Akira, Pai and Lau. I always wanted to use these 3 as they remind me of Ryo, Shenhua and Lan Di from Shenmue.



As everyone knows, Akira is considered one, if not the hardest character in the game. I decided to leave Akira for the time being and choose a beginner-friendly character, which some of you kindly told me was Pai. (Just my luck, as I wanted to use her )

If you're struggling to choose a character and need some help, check out this video. It's amazing and very in-depth. Either way, try a few characters. Eventually, you will use one that naturally clicks with you.



Our friend @Sonic The Fighters also made this awesome post that will help you select the right character as a beginner.



The next steps explain how I reached the higher ranks.

Step One - VF In Game Tutorial

The first thing I did was do the in-game tutorial. It's very basic and easy. I enjoy fighting games in general so this may be why I considered it straightforward. Either way, the tutorial gave me a good starting ground into the systems of Virtua Fighter.

Step Two - Online Tutorials

The next step I took was watching online tutorials for VF. I didn't watch these in great depth. I pretty much skimmed through them as I have a good grasp on fighting game terms and mechanics in general. However, I recommend newcomers go through them properly to learn the foundations of the game. Here are a few videos that are really useful





There are also some amazing resources and threads on this forum that are super valuable, such as

5 Steps For Learning Virtua Fighter

https://virtuafighter.com/threads/5-steps-to-learning-virtua-fighter.15813/

And the Sega Tutorial series (Although I haven't watched this one in great depth)

https://virtuafighter.com/threads/segas-beginner-video-tutorials-for-final-showdown.15858/

Step 3 - Command Training & Frequent Battles

Next, you want to head over to the Command Training and pick a character that you wish to learn.

Go through their command moves and learn some essential attacks.

I recommend you read the "Starting out Series" by @Modelah on the dojo forum. It gives you a good run down of each character's weakness, strengths and gameplay strategy. Since I was using Pai, here's a link to the starter thread that I used.

https://virtuafighter.com/threads/starting-out-with-pai.18497/

For combos, you can visit the dojo forum of this site.

https://virtuafighter.com/forums/dojo.74/

Select your VF character of choice and view their combo thread. Since I started with Pai, I checked her combo thread out.

https://virtuafighter.com/threads/pais-combos-thread.16591/

You've also got the combo section of this site

https://virtuafighter.com/combos/

To be completely honest, I'm not too good at reading commands via webpages. If you fall into this category, i recommend you look at VF tournament videos on Youtube and see what practical combos the pros are using. Simply replicate them or make an easier variation.

If you've made it this far, you should have a somewhat decent idea of how the game plays, and who you would like to use. All of this will not be internalized fully though until you get some real life experience. From this point on, or even earlier, it's important you have frequent online battles. This could be room matches or ranked. I opted for ranked.

Step Four - Optimization

After learning some basic combos, getting somewhat familiar with the VF system, I continued to use Pai for about 8 hours in Rank. Her optimal attacks and combos became more apparent and easier to pull off as time went on. I continued to look at various VF videos of pros to get some inspiration and merge it into my unique style. I also made an effort to learn the following

• High low combos
• Quick combos
• Moves that stun
• Move's that bounce the opponent in the air to perform a juggle
• Mix ups
• Different throw types
• Whiff punishes
• Power moves
• etc

I also realized that one of the best attacks in the game is down punch. It's quick, effective, and can interrupt a lot of sequences. However, it can be ineffective and cost you if your opponent knows what they're doing.

I also worked on my footsies, which is a fancy word for spacing. After playing a lot of online matches, you'll get a feel for when you should attack, how far out you should be, how close you should be, and what each scenario of the fight will require to put the odds in your favor. This naturally comes with time. In other words, you have to put in the reps.

I also recommend you learn how to block. Blocking an opponent's strings and letting them finish leaves them at a disadvantage, allowing you to have a turn in the fight. This isn't guaranteed, but it is a good starting point for beginners. Just watch out for throws.

Step Five - Grind Through The Ranks

The next step I took was to continuously play the game online. I got my ass kicked many times and I won a lot of matches. Slowly but surely, I felt comfortable with Pai in fights. I had good offense and good defense with optimal punishes and combos. I made my way through the kyuu and dan ranks. I eventually got my Hunter rank.



This took about 12 hours.

Step Six - Akira Time

I was over the moon, but started to get the urge to play other characters. That's when I thought I'd go with Akira.

This dude is a completely different beast. He's more slow and heavy than Pai. And I think he's awkward to use. I repeated the process that I mentioned above. (Command Training, combos, optimal moves etc). I also watched some tournament videos, more specifically of homestay akira. This taught me the rhythm of Akira and gave me some ideas for potential combos and moves to attack the opponent with.

This video helped massively



I then took Akira into room matches. The first couple of hours were rough. I had to get used to his moves, combos etc. One big thing i quickly realized is that he plays much differently from Pai. In other words, I shouldn't be using him like Pai as she is a lightweight quick character, whereas, Akira is more heavy and powerful in his attacks.

After about 2 hours, I began to get the hang of Akira. I decided to take him into ranked games to see how I would fare. He was already at 6th Dan as the game ranks up all your characters when you reach the Hunter level which I did with Pai.

I absolutely crushed everyone with Akira. All the experience with Pai, along with learning and getting used to the Virtua Fighter mechanics naturally transferred over to Akira. I had optimal combos, good footsies, specific go-to moves, optimization etc.

I made it to Hunter rank with Akira in about an hour and a half. The win ratio was over 90%. Of course, this will get lower as I face more challenging opponents in the upper ranks, but it was nice to see regardless.





UPDATE: I've made it to the Raider Rank



Update 2: I've made it to barbarian rank



Update 3: I've made it to Defender rank



Update 4: I've made it to Sentinal rank



Update 5: I've made it to GOLD Guardian Rank



Update 6: I've made it to VETERAN Rank



Closing Comments

I love this new Virtua Fighter and the VF community has been super nice and welcoming to me. I hope this thread helps anyone out there who is considering playing VF or who would like a process/guide to help them along their journey.

I'll continue to play and hopefully reach higher ranks.

Thanks again for all the help VF community. You're all awesome.

Fight on my friends.

Special thanks to @Sonic The Fighters @Tha_FeauchA @VF2011 @beanboy