What's it like to play Street Fighter in Japan?

[ShinAkumax]

It's just fair, someone tells me what is it like to live out a dream.

[Chachi]

Kinda like showering in prison.

[DS]

It's like playing SF in America. Except less American and more Japanese.

[Shion]

Probably smells the same.

[woof]

now deathscythe that's just crazy talk :looney:

[EveryFlowerFlow]

training mode

[Jaldaboath]

In communist Russia Street Fighter plays you!

[Se7in]

Kinda like showering in prison.


:rofl: :lol: :rofl: :lol:

Close thread.

[Doc Holliday]

There was a Pyro vid floating on youtube where he basically said that it's just like playing in America except, no scrubs. Everyone knows what the hell they're doing and is capable of handing your ass to you with all the trimmings.

[Kayin]

Kinda like showering in prison.

I lol'd. :rofl:

[CoMpOuNd]

If you lose a match they make you Samurai Suicide yourself... or you bring shame onto your ancestors! Why do you think all Japanese players are good? The bad ones died...

[Dios <-X->]

if by dream, you mean getting raped and perfected on a dialy basis, then ya, i guess.

[Stuckey]

A friend from the military pretty much said what was said above by H82. The only difference is that no one that puts their money in the machine is to be taken lightly. They may not be God's gift to SF, but they are competent. Anyone that plays can beat you if you don't bring your A game.

[ChennehCis]

There was a Pyro vid floating on youtube where he basically said that it's just like playing in America except, no scrubs. Everyone knows what the hell they're doing and is capable of handing your ass to you with all the trimmings.

It really depends what arcade you go to, but yeah, the people that do play generally have a good idea of what the hell they're doing. On a subconcious level however, I think I played better mainly because each game is 100 yen (about a buck), so you really try to make each game count. :sweat:

In other games like MvC2, some know how to play but others are really scrub/or simply do not use the assist button whatsoever, resulting in getting badly beaten by any remotely decent team. Of course in games like CvS2, where I experiencing RCing first-hand, was definitely a real eye-opener.

I remember it was also nice (and rare) to see older games like Zero 2, KoF98 and other fighters played at fairly high levels.

[BananaWeed]

I guess it'd be pretty cool to play in Japan. Of course you'd get raped for the first while, but you should get a lot better - unless you're a total scrub.

[Mechanica]

I guess it'd be pretty cool to play in Japan. Of course you'd get raped for the first while, but you should get a lot better - unless you're a total scrub.
What if you couldn't afford to drop $1 per loss?

Kinda like showering in prison.
ROFL. This shit nets rep. :tup:

[Shibuya]

its weird cause you the only american then they talk about you....so its like more pressure to win...then when (yes i say when) you lose they start talkin and you get all paronoid thinkin they talkin about u suck or something.......i just like showin up japaneese especially in their country.....

[white shadow]

if by dream, you mean getting raped and perfected on a dialy basis, then ya, i guess.

At least by knocking you down a peg or 2 it puts your skills into perspective, allowing room for improvement. Except in Smash Bros., I'd own them in that.:karate: GAME SET BISHIES!!!

[aku]

Where I was(Fukuoka), you're either doing awesomely, or getting raped. I actually fared decently up until I faced these two folks: one played Oro and the other was Q. I felt violated after playing against them 'cause of getting constantly stunned and outpoked respectively. =(((

There were only a few 3S players in that area though. Everyone else played Slash, Melty Blood, T5:DR or VF5 while Sega was doing their testing locations.

[BananaWeed]

What if you couldn't afford to drop $1 per loss?

Heh, then you shouldn't really be in Japan. Isn't it like, one of the top 3 expensive places to live?

[aku]

..wait, it's not set to 2 games for 100yen everywhere? Otherwise I've seen locations that're set to 50yen for 1 game.

[Biolink]

Just searcing around,numerous lists that I have checked have Japan the #1 most expensive country to live.

http://www.aneki.com/expensive.html

[DS]

Heh, then you shouldn't really be in Japan. Isn't it like, one of the top 3 expensive places to live?


The sad part is, they have better cabinets than America and, yet, when Broadway City and LazerPark were open in Manhattan, a game was about $2. No lie. NYC sucked hard for arcades if you were looking for inner-city competition. CF was probably the cheapest place in Manhattan to play.

[BananaWeed]

The sad part is, they have better cabinets than America and, yet, when Broadway City and LazerPark were open in Manhattan, a game was about $2. No lie. NYC sucked hard for arcades if you were looking for inner-city competition. CF was probably the cheapest place in Manhattan to play.

Wtf? TWO DOLLARS A GAME?! That's insane. I hated paying 66 cents a game (two tokens, 3tokens/$1).

[DS]

Wtf? TWO DOLLARS A GAME?! That's insane. I hated paying 66 cents a game (two tokens, 3tokens/$1).



Yup. NYC, baby. One of the most expensive towns ever. And I hate it. Since then, both places closed down and with two dollars I destroyed whatever comp they had. Good times. Still not worth it though.

Another shocker: They had a sitdown XvSF cabinet with HAPP parts and the shit was STILL $2. I'm telling you, it was the worst. Especially since they were the only two places that allowed for some practice time since no one really played all that often.

[BananaWeed]

No one played often because those prices were ridiculous. :tdown:

I thought NYC would have a bigger player base, because it's so uh, big.

[DS]

No one played often because those prices were ridiculous. :tdown:

I thought NYC would have a bigger player base, because it's so uh, big.



Oh, we have the big player base. But, that's only limited to Web2Zone, NYClan and Chinatown Fair.

Plus, at those two places I mentioned, I became a staple figure there. So, when everyone heard of my legend(don't know why) they never played. Easy practice when you want to brush up on some execution before heading home. And the sad part is, people ACTUALLY played me multiple times and I would tell them "Dude, don't you think you're wasting your money? It's not that serious for $2." They insisted. As usual. And they still lost. All that money. :sad:

[DoublexxCyclone]

Its like playing at arcade infinity in socal, without the asian guys who bring their gfs.

[Azrael]

For one thing, it's a lot less social. You all know the style of Japanese cabs - most of the time you don't even see the guy you're playing against. The guys watching may talk to their own friends, but people wouldn't really turn to a random stranger and say "That was some hot shit!" There's also enough cigarette smoke to rival any bar/club I've ever been to.

A big limitation of the Japanese style cabinets is figuring out who's next. In America, you used to put your quarters up on the machine. Simple, but efficient. Some machines even gave us numbered quarter slots to make things run even smoother. In Japan, there's no such thing. Everybody just kind of stands behind a machine, and there's this awkward waiting period where you try to figure out who's going to take the empty seat. If no one goes for it, then maybe you do. Also, because of the set-up of Japanese cabs, you pretty much just have to pick a side and hope that person loses. If he wins, you can try wavedashing over to the other side but on a busy day, chances are somebody was already waiting there and they took the seat. So it's like you're playing a game before you even drop your yen in - who's going to win the battle? On which side do I stand?

Also, if you play and lose, even if you don't see anybody who's behind you, it's courtesy to at least get up and back away from the machine before challening again.

As many of you know, I play at a-cho. If I go during the down-times and fight against the scrubs (who are still damn good) that's one thing, but aside from that the competition is really, really good. I mean, "See you at EVO" good. On one hand, it's awesome to be able to challenge some of the best players in the world whenever I feel like it.

On the other hand, it is a bit frustrating. Unless you want to be a training room dummy, you've GOT to work for it. Practice, practice, practice. That takes dedication, and more importantly, time. Something I've found I don't have that much of. Unless you like getting beat down, you have to put in the work. I wish I could just drop by as I pleased and fight people with an actual chance of winning, but that's not possible. Unless I want to be a perpetual loser, it forces me to devote time to something I only want to do when I have that spare moment or two.

So, it's kind of good mixed in with bad.

[{PFH}-Lake]

its like trying to make more money then Bill Gates

[Ducky]

There aren't any scrubs there and it's definitely less social... just like H82 and Az said.

On another note, most arcades I visited in Japan were 50 yen a game.

[Doc Holliday]

I'll tell you what, if I'm throwing down a buck a game, I'm winning. I'll work my ass off until my hands are bloody and unrecognizable. But yeah, Japan scares me. Not really the competition, but the lack of social skills that I'm apparently reading about. Going to the arcade should be competitive and fun at the same time, not a fucking samari death match where you shoot each other the 1000 yard stare and where the loser hari kari's themself because they lost. I'd still love to eventually go and play them.

[R.P.D rookie]

I heard sa3 Q is hot stuff in arcades in Japan right now. And people laughed at me when I said that shit was mindgame city and all-you-can-eat stunbar on your opponent. Good thing Japan is catching onto something I was rocking back in 2001. Nevermind that they had the game a few years before me even then.:wonder: The sa3 thing probably wasn't popular then.

[Ducky]

I'll tell you what, if I'm throwing down a buck a game, I'm winning. I'll work my ass off until my hands are bloody and unrecognizable. But yeah, Japan scares me. Not really the competition, but the lack of social skills that I'm apparently reading about. Going to the arcade should be competitive and fun at the same time, not a fucking samari death match where you shoot each other the 1000 yard stare and where the loser hari kari's themself because they lost. I'd still love to eventually go and play them.

You aren't really staring the guy down or anything... it's just the cabinets. They are versus city style cabs where you don't sit down/stand next to who you are playing, they are on a different cab sitting across from you and you never really see them. It's not a lack of social skills, more like a lack of interaction between players during a match. You aren't sitting next to the guy, you don't have to say anything, you just play. It is competitive (or as competitive as getting whooped on nonstop can be, in my case) and fun (since I enjoy playing and was learning a lot from the experience... I couldn't really bullshit with the guys there since they were busy watching the matches and waiting and there was the language barrier).

[Dasrik]

It's kind of like that movie "Lord of the Flies", only with a lot less subtext and a lot more video games.

[starkilled]

You aren't really staring the guy down or anything... it's just the cabinets. They are versus city style cabs where you don't sit down/stand next to who you are playing, they are on a different cab sitting across from you and you never really see them. It's not a lack of social skills, more like a lack of interaction between players during a match. You aren't sitting next to the guy, you don't have to say anything, you just play. It is competitive (or as competitive as getting whooped on nonstop can be, in my case) and fun (since I enjoy playing and was learning a lot from the experience... I couldn't really bullshit with the guys there since they were busy watching the matches and waiting and there was the language barrier).

I don't know if this is true, so can you confirm this? anyone else who has been to a few japanese arcades can also..

I heard the arcades over there are very loud. Is that true?

[Azrael]

^It is true, I said the same thing earlier.

Even if you understood Japanese, two random guys wouldn't turn to each other and strike up a conversation. That kind of thing doesn't happen much in Japan anyway, arcade or otherwise.

[Taito]

- Anyone understand the deal with players just sparring and bullshitting around with characters? Back in 'Japan Part 1,' whenever I stopped by my local arcade (Playland at East-Fussa-- Omniexizt should know what I'm talking about) nobody would play Third Strike seriously.. they'd just parry and kara and UOH until time ran out. Then I would step in, play seriously (not that I was ever all that great at 3S but anyway), beat the other guy.. then they'd all look at me like I shit in the punch bowl or something.. I hope I don't go to the grave not knowing WTF was going on there.

Then again, it's not like any SF game after Super Turbo had a huge following in Japan..

- About convos.. that arcade was more laid back than the usual hardcore, mean-mugging, chain-smoking arcades I used to visit in Tokyo.. the kids there used to gather and talk to me not caring how much Japanese I understood.

EDIT: Astro City cabs are American-style, where the 1P and 2P sticks are side by side and both players are sharing the same screen. That 3S cab was set up that way, come to think of it.

[The Mullah]

I don't know if this is true, so can you confirm this? anyone else who has been to a few japanese arcades can also..

I heard the arcades over there are very loud. Is that true?

Why would you doubt what he says? Having played on vs city cabs and in other arcades in asia and having seen plenty of jap vids it sounds true enough to me, it's not like longstanding srk'rs come into threads making shit up.

Try googling versus city cabs and jap arcades instead.

[MOD]

go to any arcade down in Akihabara or actually anywhere in and around Tokyo. You've got usually some damn good comp. And all that crap that Azrael said was right. But they will talk to you. You just need to be speaking Japanese. But the truth is nobody wants to lose to the Gaijin.

[Chritorisu]

i go to japan every winter, and every time i've gone, i play street fighter. i go to these arcades in yokohama, and everybody i play (most of the time) are pretty decent as far as challenges. the arcades i went to are 50yen a play

for mvc2, i rarely lose... not many people play that over there anymore

for street fighter 2 turbo, i get my ass handed to me

for 3rd strike, it varies, but they mostly kick my ass


and yes, usually conversations aren't started when you play your opponent.

and yes, its much more noisy and clacky.



the thing i like the most about arcades in japan is that there is usually always competition everyday from like 5~close.

[ShinAkumax]

Thanks everyone, good stuff.

[Doc Holliday]

You aren't really staring the guy down or anything... it's just the cabinets. They are versus city style cabs where you don't sit down/stand next to who you are playing, they are on a different cab sitting across from you and you never really see them. It's not a lack of social skills, more like a lack of interaction between players during a match. You aren't sitting next to the guy, you don't have to say anything, you just play. It is competitive (or as competitive as getting whooped on nonstop can be, in my case) and fun (since I enjoy playing and was learning a lot from the experience... I couldn't really bullshit with the guys there since they were busy watching the matches and waiting and there was the language barrier).

I was talking pre-match. You know, sizing up your opponent. Psyching him out by using stupid mental tactics. Actually I'm just full of shit :rofl:

[starkilled]

Why would you doubt what he says?

I never doubted anyone in this thread, it was a rumor, was something a friend told me.

it's not like longstanding srk'rs come into threads making shit up.
I never accused anyone of making "shit up". If it seems like that please show me where.

Try googling versus city cabs and jap arcades instead.

If I wanted to do that, I would have done that a long long time ago.

[HeartNana]

In addition to what Azrael said, after you play someone, for some reason, even if you can clearly see eachother after you stand up, they will REFUSE to give you eye contact. Something about that, i dunno, i rarely ever see players (unless they're friends already) give the other guy props for beating them. If i got my ass handed to me, i'll go over there and tell them it was fun, that they're strong at the game, etc. I unno, feels like common courtesy to me, but its alright to literally ignore the people you're against, when i find that hard to do when the dude was standing next to you after you just beat them.

And while yeah its common courtesy to get up everytime. If the guys that are playing arent getting up, chances are they're friends who are sessioning and dont want to be interrupted. I usually dont bother when they get like that and just play something else. If its a really popular game anyways, chances are they wont be able to do that.

And yeah, nobody like, EVER plays mvc2 in Japan, so anytime i see anyone play (which is rare) its always someone picking like, Ryu/Ken/Akuma or teams along those lines. Needless to say, i dont even bother playing against them cause its not really worth it.

[aku]

It's kind of like that movie "Lord of the Flies", only with a lot less subtext and a lot more video games.

hahaha, I hope I'm not the only one that got this. :wonder:

[Stylistics]

My only arcade playing experience in Japan was when I went to an arcade in Kyushu just waiting for the bars to open. I didn't follow fighting games when I lived in Japan and I decided to play some video games before "getting my drink on". I was shocked to see Street Fighter A.E. and reminisced about the good ole' days back in 1991-1993 being a 'neighborhood champion 'an all. I played Original Guile and was getting whooped by the CPU.

Some dood on the other side then challenged and I was shocked," O MY GAWD, I AM GOING AGAINST A JAPANESE GUY!". He picked Ken (forgot which version) and he was decent, but I beat him. He then challenged me again and I won.

Seven wins in a row later, my boy found me and told me that my favorite "buy me drink" bar is open and then I just bounced out while the match was in play. Before leaving, I saw the other side ( ya'll know about the two sides in Japanese arcade right?) and saw a line forming up to challenge me. I was like," dayummm, I didn't know I was that good..." Or they were just pissed cause they were getting beat by a foreginer.....

That was my only experience playing in Japanese arcades in the five years I stayed in Japan. It was when I came back to the U.S. that I got into fighting games again...

[HeartNana]

I dunno, Japanese people dont generally get pissed. There's a few, but not nearly as often as Americans get pissed. They just care about playing, it seems. =P

[Stylistics]

The only time I saw a "pissed off Japanese gamer" was when my boy (hella good on Soul Calibur II) had a 50 game winning streak. and This dood kept on playing him, and playing him. My boy was like 20-0 against this guy and he just flipped. Dood tossed the chair that he was sitting on and started looking crazy at me ( I was chearing my boy on the other side)! and when this other guy tried to play my boy, he got that 100 yen and threw that shit away like a fast ball. That dood was crazy...

but in no way I generalize Japanese gamers from that experience. If I was getting beat 0-20, I'd be pissed too .... 100 yen times twenty is $20.00 US I'd be mad too....

[HeartNana]

Well, i demoted this one guy in tekken dr and he took his cigarette butt and from the other side of the machine, tossed it over at me. I just loled at him.

[Oni_Ryu]

I would imagine playing SF over in Japan is equivalent to training under 10 times normal gravity.

Get good in Japan, go back to the U.S and find that your skills have improved drastically.

[Saotome Kaneda]

There are a few childish fucks here in teh JPNz. But most of the guys I know are good peeps. The gaijin here in Okinawa are pretty much a solid part of the community, language barrier or no.

I'll put up more of my thoughts later.

[HeartNana]

Ditto, the few gaijin that DO show up to the arcana heart tourneys at Ko-Hatsu and such are still part of the community. Sometimes the guys speak english to me, other times i speak japanese to them, either way, its pretty cool. One of the guys asked me to join his team for a tourney in the next couple weeks. That wouldnt happen if people were all "omg foreigners", thankfully the people of my generation dont care about things like that and would rather have fun than focus on stupid stuff like different places of birth. One of the reasons i continue to play Arcana is cause of the guys i know.

[BananaWeed]

There are crazy people everywhere. Some wanna brawl over a videogame, which is laughable.

If you're really good and own up some jap players, do you command respect right away? Or do they get mad and do whatever they can to throw you off your game and beat you?

[JackTenrac!]

...better guard those starchips. Japs render your Life Points.

...that went well.

[HeartNana]

Banana weed- At first theyre indifferent, but if its over a long period of time, usually the "command respect" thing happens. Multiple occasions, the other guy has come up to me and started talking to me and complimenting me and so on. A lot of them dont see it as "i hate this guy cause he's better than me" theyre like "i respect this guy because he's better than me". The only time Japanese players tend to mess with you is when they KNOW theyre gonna win and then they just dick around, and you can tell they're just messing around. That can get annoying, but again, its in-game only, and no matter how much of an ass someone can be in the game, theyre prolly a cool person.

[Pat the Great]

most tokyo arcades, with the exception of MORE, are 100yen/game. however, they'll put each game on best of 5 rounds, not 3, except MORE which does 2/3 like we do.

this is probably why MORE is so good for cvs2. cvs2 is a fuckin ripoff at 100yen/game because you can't change the rounds to make it last longer. but at 50yen? cheapest deal in japan. if they made cvs2 booths or something people would spend the night in them when they missed the train just running away with a-blanka or something instead of sleeping at manga cafes.

[Doc Holliday]

I would imagine playing SF over in Japan is equivalent to training under 10 times normal gravity.


:rofl: @ the DBZ reference

[Lebowsk1]

I recently recorded a PB in a London (uk) tournie (top 8 finish, field of about 30).

Just today I bought a PS2 with Alpha Anthologies for practice.

I'm going to Japan in April.

So I'm finding this all very interesting indeed. My game is Alpha 3, and I know I'm no champion but I'd be very disappointed if I didnt beat at least 3 JPN players. Anybody got any good tips for A3 arcades in Tokyo, graded by standard of opposition if possible?

[Azrael]

Know crouch-cancelling. Know how to fight against it. That is all.

[maxx]

:rofl: @ the DBZ reference

i feel its the same way with playing in ny and cali. just assuming..never went to japan.

jesus...just when i thought i was getting reasonably ok with mvc2..i went to ny..haha...owned..destroyed...i bet thats how it is to play sf in japan.

[ChibiT89]

hahaha, I hope I'm not the only one that got this. :wonder:

oh man, I wanna get it.

[1/2Man1/2God]

for me it's like playin Sf on another planet...

[altergenesis]

Whenver I'm sitting at the cab, and I'm spamming against the CPU, if someone puts in coins across from me, I always stand up to check who it is. I just feel like I need to know, who I'm playing against. Although, the only time I get up and go to the other side to say "GG" or something similar, is when I'm out of money.

OR

If they rape me, (I auto leave as not to get my ass kicked again) a simple "Arigato" for kicking my ass and a polite bow is good enough. =P

[BananaWeed]

lol you should say "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

[altergenesis]

Which is why I leave. No one likes a loser who doesn't know when to quit.