Which character to pick for a noobie..?

Hello....this is the first virtua fighter game i have ever played and I was wondering whether you guys could give me some info on who are good starting characters and who the advanced but best characters are....If it helps any im pretty good ad tekken tag so moves shouldn't be too hard to pull off...any input will be greatly appreciated...thanks in advance..

 

Start with Jacky. Or Lei Fei. But don't button mash.

grib.

 

I'm new to VF as well, but an experienced Tekken fighter. I've started with Lei Fei. I think the different stances would throw off a total newbie, but an experienced fighter should be ok. He seems pretty cool. If I could just find a move for when the opponent is lying down....

 

I'll second the vote for jacky. I wouldn't bother with lei. He isn't much like other VF characters, and to understand VF properly you should understand basic attacks like how an elbow works, what a knee does, how a typical PPPx combo is used... Jacky's got all of these. Lei's either doesn't have them, or his versions are pretty weird and may be used differently.

 

I think Sarah is the perfect character for a beginner simply because she has a nice blend of speed, range, and damage potential. None of her moves are hard to pull off, but you need to develop control and timing to avoid being punished regularly.

That said, it is possible to mash with her some.

Common VF beginner session scenario: Two characters on the screen. One is Sarah, the other is blocking.

 

Your assessment of Lei is correct -- he's initially confusing, even to good players, but that wears off pretty quickly.

Having read creed's reply to my previous post, I must say he's right. For someone new to VF you probably want to start with someone more representative of how the other characters work. This means that Lei, Shun and Vanessa are probably out!

You can't go wrong with Jacky. He's easy enough for beginners but (like all the characters) will support advanced play, so will "grow" with you.

Of course, in the end it's all about having fun and if you're enjoying Lei Fei then go for it. It's just that if you want to learn VF in the most efficient manner possible it's probably better start with someone else.

grib.

 

Well, I think which character depends on your personality. Which character do you relate to the most? Some of the more advanced characters require more effort to learn properly thus meaning you will loose more early on. If your comfertable with that, than choose who your heart desires n' stick with that person.

 

Jacky is the popular choice, but you may also want to think about Lau.

Lau is a fantastic beginner's character because:
- Easy inputs for most of his moves
- Offensively oriented, which is what most beginners' are
- Can almost be button mashed in a controlled manner and still be effective
- Fairly quick knock down low attack, especially useful to those not accustomed to throwing

 

Thanx for al the input guys...the advice is greatly appreciated...in tekken i use the mishima people(ie. kazuya, hiehachi, and jin also some nina and wang) so wouldn't mind if maybe there are some vf4 characters that mimic their styles...i will probably start of with jacky then...also is Akira a good character to learn with...

 

well, Akira isn't that complex again IMO.
His movelist is the shortest in the game IIRC.
A hard thing about Akira is that he doesn't have any long easy canned combos.
He has three canned combos, Akira Special 1, 2, and 3 (Stun Palm of Doom, Dragon Lance Combination, and Akira Special 3, which is new to VF4, so it has no English nickname yet) and the first 2 ones are quite hard to do without some practice.
So you will be relying heavily on custom combos to deal your damage (but so are most characters). Finding these combos and executing the right one is the difficult part.
I don't really like playing him (there are enough people playing him already), but give him a spin, maybe he's right for you.

note: Please everyone feel free to point out any mistakes in the above, I don't play Akira /versus/images/icons/wink.gif

 

In the IGN Interview, Yu Suzuki did a little Lei-Fei boosting. He seemed to imply that Lei-Fei might be the easiest to play. I think he was pulling our virtual legs. But Lei-Fei is fun nonetheless. Each of the characters is as deep or as shallow as we want them to be. There are common moves to each. I say play with them all for about an hour each and see which one captures your imagination the most. Bruce Lee fans will easily gravitate toward Jacky or Sarah. Drunken fighter fans will love Shun Di. ice-9 is right about Lau being a great choice for n00bs. Lau is a hammer and blocking is his main line of defense: very easy to pick up. Just the kind of character I hate to use. /versus/images/icons/wink.gif