How much characters do you play..?

__Azure

I'm cursed by my genuine infatuation with too many characters in SSFIVAE(Guy, Ibuki, Adon, Juri, Ryu), to a point that I cannot even choose between them. I literally can't bring myself to drop any of them. I'm just curious as to how many characters many of you play and if me trying to learn 5 is even ethical(Links be damned). Thanks.

blufang

Learn as many or few as you choose. However the more characters you try to learn the more you spread yourself thin. If you go with just one character, you will probably end up doing better in the long run.

0sh

I guess it depends how much experience you have with fighting games and what your goals are. If you're a beginner, I'd suggest narrowing the number down to 2 or at the very most 3 if the styles are suitably different.

Personally, I almost always use only one character and don't even experiment with the others much once I've made my choice. In the last few weeks I've picked up a second character for SFIV, though (picked up Sakura, previously used Ibuki exclusively).

doubleoh

ya but playing as more characters helps your main a lot when it comes to understanding matchups

Huggy Bear

I'm the same. I play the entire BB + GG Roster along with about half the AE and MvC3 Roster.

Kick the habit whilst you can.

pherai

doubleoh, post: 7955471, member: 69866 wrote:

ya but playing as more characters helps your main a lot when it comes to understanding matchups

eh in the beginning when you are just struggling with basics i dont think its as effective as just playing against those characters

Trouble Brewing

doubleoh, post: 7955471, member: 69866 wrote:

ya but playing as more characters helps your main a lot when it comes to understanding matchups

At most skill levels, especially those relevant to newbie dojo discussions, practicing matchups with one character gets you a lot farther. I don't really get why people believe otherwise.

GordonsBeard

I play 100% of my characters.

Uroboric

I've only had one consistent main for SF4. I always get bored with it and start working on alts, but then become bored with those before getting anywhere with them.

I think the ideal is probably 2-3 characters after one is really good at the game, to cover match ups and keep things interesting.

PointBreak91

Hopefully Street Fighter V will go back to it's roots, and just have 8 playable characters, no mirrors, and Chun Li on top. Problem solved.

4neqs

? Guile and Dhalsim were the tops of WW

doubleoh

Trouble Brewing, post: 7955958, member: 5950 wrote:

At most skill levels, especially those relevant to newbie dojo discussions, practicing matchups with one character gets you a lot farther. I don't really get why people believe otherwise.

Well, it helped me out personally, so I get why people believe it. I play Abel exclusively but playing charge characters like Guile and Balrog for a few weeks helped me understand how they work.

darsh_marklar

I play cammy, ken, gat, and recently ibuki. I find I'm improving with all of them. Learn as many as you want, if you were going into a tournament narrow it down then. I agree that 2-3 is ideal though, I don't take my ibuki trainig very seriously

Kikuichimonji

Trouble Brewing said:

doubleoh, post: 7955471, member: 69866 wrote:

ya but playing as more characters helps your main a lot when it comes to understanding matchups

At most skill levels, especially those relevant to newbie dojo discussions, practicing matchups with one character gets you a lot farther. I don't really get why people believe otherwise.

Because playing multiple characters helps you evaluate each character's strengths and weaknesses better. You might know that Ryu's cr.mk is really good, but you don't appreciate it until you play Dudley and you have to work your ass off to beat Ryu's cr.mk. And when you come up against something where you don't have a way to fight it straight up, you have to think out of the box and also rely on patience and the game's systems. AKA blocking a lot and waiting for the right moment. You end up learning things that you might not necessarily realize you HAD to learn because your main character didn't demand it as much. And you can use that new knowledge to round out your gameplan and your understanding of the system mechanics.

Playing multiple characters is fine if you don't use it as an excuse not to learn matchups. Stuff carries over in between matchups as well.

Just play someone who kicks your ass with a 20 game win streak. You'll pick your shit real fast, if you're anywhere near as competitive as I am.

Necrotrophic

__Azure said:

I'm cursed by my genuine infatuation with too many characters in SSFIVAE(Guy, Ibuki, Adon, Juri, Ryu), to a point that I cannot even choose between them. I literally can't bring myself to drop any of them. I'm just curious as to how many characters many of you play and if me trying to learn 5 is even ethical(Links be damned). Thanks.

I pretty much only play Chun and Akuma. I play Cammy, Yang Ryu and Guile when im just goofing around.

Pick one character for a while

LiangHuBBB

Guile and Blanka on a decent lvl.
Ken and Ryu on a beginner lvl.

The Martian

Lol, much.

It does suck. I like playing so many characters. My main main is Cammy of course, but on the side I like playing Dudley, Sakura, Dhalsim, Gen, Viper, and Dictator. Starting out it's probably a bad idea to try and divide your focus across so many characters, but once you think you've got the basic mechanics of the game down then go nuts. 

K.O.wned

At a semi competitive level, Seth only.

As "I know what I'm doing but need practice", Evil Ryu and Fei.

Playing only Seth was making me nuts.

ugo_2u

Since I accepted that character loyalty is BS now I play the following characters.

Ryu
Ken
Seth
Guile
Honda
Fei Long
Akuma
Sakura
Chun Li
Gen
Adon
Bison
Rose
Cody
Evil Ryu
Yang
Blanka

All good and I kick ass with them all.

Highlandfireball

If you understand the basic rules of the game well and have above average footsies and you're anti airs are on point you can pretty much play any character and beat up noobs all night with their own main, with basic character knowledge and a couple of combo's.

There becomes a point in this game where you're level is reflected through you're general play. For instance Mago or Fuudo could pick a character they've never played before and beat you 10 straight with a character you've mained for 3 years because they understand the basic rules better than 90% of players. 

I think the more characters you can learn the better if only to see the other side of the fence but learning the game is more important than learning characters. 

Oilforthewin

I basically play with Dictator, Hakan, Dee Jay, but first started playing with Ryu and Ken and still use them sometimes, however play mostly with the first 3 characters.
I use them, because their gameplay is for me interesting and i think it is a good mix of different characters.
It should be said that it is amazing, how hard is it to play with Hakan. He is actually very good, but is much more demanding than other characters in this game, especially in the area of executing moves. Playing with a shoto is easier and those guys have also the right moveset to fight all other characters very easily, Hakan has other options and possibilities, a very different mindset is needed to play with him.

Highlandfireball said

There becomes a point in this game where you're level is reflected through you're general play. For instance Mago or Fuudo could pick a character they've never played before and beat you 10 straight with a character you've mained for 3 years because they understand the basic rules better than 90% of players. 

It is honestly character depending, i mean i have seen footage of Kazunoko playing with Hakan, he really struggled with him(i doubt that he even understood, how to play with him), Infiltration plays a decent Hakan, however it is still lacking.

This is video with Kazunoko playing Hakan.

Highlandfireball

There are obviously some obscure characters that are slightly outside of the Street Fighter frame work though. Hakan, ELF etc. 

Saying that give Mago an hour in the training room and he'd probably be twirling you into 360 oil set ups in no time. 

Spacing, footsie's, AA, wake up defence, reactions, corner pressure etc etc are all basic points in the game. 

I like to think of it as playing the guitar, we've all got access to the same equipment and can play the same song if taught, just some much much better than others. 

deteknician

I'm not a pro player and I don't expect to be so I play about 8-10 characters competently and I'm working on more.

If I wanted to be pro and my main goal was to win tournaments I'd focus on one main and one backup to cover bad match-ups.

King9999

I try to stick with one character.  The more characters you use, the less proficient you get with them.

Great_Dark_Hero

Knowing how to play many characters can be a big help for match ups, developing strategies, and adapting to situations.  Infiltration did apply this sort of thing when he fought Dieminion last year on EVO, using Gouken (rather than Akuma). The same applies to Bala when he went against Madkof the KOFXIII EVO finals when he tried to make adjustments to his own game play. It can really be a big help...  

RandomDR

Knowing as many chars as possible is, in my opinion, really useful, since when you get to know some chars better by playing them, you will be able to learn the match-ups much easier. Also i think that if you just keep playing 1 char for too long, you will eventually get bored of him/her, so its a nice thing to play some new chars every now and then ^^

darkzero197

Its useful to learn a lot of characters so you can understand matchups, Infiltration has 4 mains, so its not like there arent pros who do it too.

I main Seth, Evil Ryu, Cody, Ken, and Rose

But most of what I practice is with ken and seth because those are the ones I wish to take to tournaments, the other characters are for matchups I like with those characters, I played ken for so long I was like I need a new character today... And thats what I did when I got seth, playing one character is boring, like when gootecks switched to rose after not wanting to play rog anymore, if you only play one character, its not nearly as fun

Necrotrophic

PointBreak91 wrote: »

Hopefully Street Fighter V will go back to it's roots, and just have 8 playable characters, no mirrors, and Chun Li on top. Problem solved.

I would love a game where theres only 8-10 characters. Itll be easier to learn the entire cast, and itll be way easier to learn each matchup

tanabe

King9999 wrote: »

I try to stick with one character.  The more characters you use, the less proficient you get with them.

this.

i prefer to stick to one character and dominate with said character.

Kenji124

I play

Ryu
Ken
Akuma
C,Viper
Sakura
Fei Long
Cammy
Yun
Yang
Rose
Chun Li
Cody
Guy
Dudley

I only gotten Ryu to a B rank with Cody close behind but I had enough time to practice and learn some of the Bread and Butter for each of them but matchups is something I don't understand, even getting a message form someone saying I need to learn matchups. I was confused and I didn't know what he meant

pherai

lol what a surprise. someone who plays over a dozen characters doesn't understand matchups

not to pick on you but someone earlier in this thread suggested learning every character to learn matchups.

A-LX

^To be fair, it's highly likely he hasn't actually mastered the characters he's listed above. Because I'm certain that once you actually get to a decent level with a character, you will understand exactly what to do when you're fighting against said character.

pherai

A-LX wrote: »

^To be fair, it's highly likely he hasn't actually mastered the characters he's listed above. Because I'm certain that once you actually get to a decent level with a character, you will understand exactly what to do when you're fighting against said character.

Well are we talking about mastering characters (which imo means you're winning or close to winning tournaments) or getting to a "decent level" (which is super ambiguous)?

Either way I disagree. Playing as character x is not the same as playing against character x. Why would anyone ever be uncomfortable in a mirror match if that were not the case?

Kenji124

I believe I haven't mastered anybody. Maybe a technique that the character may own or needed to win but to be a master of a character is highly doubtful. I can win with these players, more than others but in true mastery in my opinion , only Ryu and somewhat Akuma. I'm getting viper there but feel like I'm at twenty five percent with her

A-LX

pherai wrote: »

Why would anyone ever be uncomfortable in a mirror match if that were not the case?

Because they might think they other player is better and might find out they dont understand the character as much as they think they do?

Maybe it's just me, but I actually like mirror matches, because I know exactly what to expect from the character I'm facing, same happens when I play a different character and face my main. I usually almost never lose against someone who uses my main unless he's a better player, but then I would've lost anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered if he was playing a character I play as well.

As for your question, I guess I meant good enough to compete in tournaments. Don't you agree that when that's the case, you will basically know the match up, because you know what your opponent's options are, unless he found out some new tech you didnt know about?

pherai

A-LX wrote: »

Because they might think they other player is better and might find out they dont understand the character as much as they think they do?

That's my point. If playing as a character was such great preparation for playing against that character, you'd think this problem would almost never arise (however in my experience its pretty common). IMO learning a matchup by playing as the character should be something you do when you have no access to a person who specializes in that character. It's not a bad option, but kind of inefficient given the alternative, especially in the case of execution intensive characters.

A-LX

Yeah true, it's not always the most efficient way to learn the match up, but it does prepare you better for the match up than not knowing the character at all, which was basically my original point. Based on your last sentence, it seems you agree with that, so I guess there's not need to discuss this topic anymore, hehe.

Chukz15

For Marvel: I'm maining Nova, Doom, and will probably learn Wesker just for te ease of use ten Magneto for a bit more synergy.

For AE: I'll stick with Ryu and then two other characters. Another shoto, and a rush down/grappler.