I’m new to Alpha 3 and i’d like the learn to play as A Sakura. If you could help me out that’d be great :wgrin:
Before anyone says it, the reason I don’t want to learn V is because I got the DC version (even though people say it’s a bad version) and the V-ism combos are going to be hard until I can afford a decent arcade stick.
Can you atleast do this combo?
crouch short x2, stand short, fierce dp.
Also, do you own a ps2? You should get the Alpha Anthology, because not only does it have a better version of a3 than the DC, it would be easier to get a stick for ps2. Plus more people to play and might actually play.
Even that I struggle with. I’ve just been doing jabs then a jab sho-oh-ken after the jumping mk cross up. Maybe I just suck.
I was considering Anthology, but the thing is I need to get some sticks for my DC for other games besides A3 anyway. Ah I dunno. I might get it eventually but i’m stuck witht he DC version for a while due to money.
Well, get that combo down first, and then post up again. Then we can work from there. That combo is essential, even more so for A and X-Sakura, because they get more damage from it than V-Sakura does. Plus in general, that combo has so many uses for her overall gameplan.
Here’s a tip, in practice mode just start small. Practice the timing of doing 2 crouch shorts together, to see and understand how big/small the window is for timing on it. Get to know your margin for error. For the stand short, a good shortcut is to tap towards (:f:) and short, and follow that up with the down, down/forward for the DP.
Well, I get you on the sticks thing, but you might be able to get a converter for your DC also. As a matter of fact though, just check out the Trading Outlet section, or the Tech Talk section of the forums and find someone to make you a custom stick with both DC and PSX support.
Honestly, I might suggest using her in V even if you can’t VC because back FP is just too good to pass up. If you have a lot of trouble with combos, don’t worry so much about it for now. Sakura’s biggest strengths are her long range, high priority normals.
Back FP goes through just about everything and you can chain a charged fireball off it if it counter hits. It also makes for a great ender to pressure strings. s. RH is an awesome long range poke and c. MK is surprisingly high priority as well.
Early jump RH will stuff any non-reversal anti-airs and s. jab and c. FP makes for a good ground-air anti-air.
Jumping FK as you know is a great cross-up. Depending on how you time it, they have to block in a different direction, and you can hit confirm Slide’s :d::lk: (x2), :lk: > :dp::hp: combo from it.
If you really can’t VC with her at all, you could always just do repeated DPs after activating.
if you can’t do the normal sakura vc (jab dp, back+fierce, hurricane, stand fierce, forward hurricane etc)
you should just try jab dp, back+fierce, short hurricane, back+fierce, forward hurricane, etc
you get to the corner slower but the timing is much less strict, you should be able to figure it out relatively quickly once you get the motions down. then again,
i’ve never played on a pad, but i can’t imagine linking supers out of cr. shortx2 can be any easier on a pad than vc’s will be (especially sakura’s)
if you must play a-ism, stand roundhouse, stand forward and crouch forward will be key at mid range, then land a sweep and do crossups. you’re just going to be relatively hosed for anti air. (stand jab i guess)
Thanks, i’m working on it.
Thanks :wgrin:
I’m having trouble with either that. A question, are the hurricane kicks supposed to hit? So far I can’t get more then one back+fierce to hit and the hurricane kicks aren’t hitting after the back+fierce. Just asking because I once saw a V-Sakura vs Zangief vid where the Sakura player was just using the hurricane kicks to move forward.
Cool, sounds alot like what I did (or tried to do) with the small time I spent with Sakura in A2.
the hurricanes don’t hit, they serve to a)prevent you from reaching a neutral state, since you execute them during the fierce’s recovery b) propel you forward enough so that you can hit the enemy with the next fierce.
even if you can’t get a handle on the mid screen vc’s, playing v-ism is still worth it because of the back+fierce (like kyokuji said)
maybe try to learn the corner combo first (jab dp, hadoken(whiff)->stand fierce etc) that way you’ll at least have some way to utilize your meter, even if only when you corner your opponent. something like get them cornered, stand roundhouse, they (maybe) attempt to jump out -> activate, jab dp, etc. you might actually need to whiff a short hurricane to get close enough, i don’t know. just go to training mode and don’t stand up until you can do the vcs 
also, punch throw all the time: unholy range, sets up crossups perfectly
In case you don’t understand what he means by this, you can only tech flip/air recover when you hit neutral; neutral being either the default standing position or any time you just finish recovering from a move.
By canceling one move in to another, you avoid hitting neutral. This is also have crouch/walk-cancels work. You hit down right when you land from a jump (because jumps have no real recovery), and then either jump or walk forward immediately, thus avoiding the neutral position. Crouch cancels also avoid the corner juggle limit, which is how CC infinites come in to being.
Basically for variable combos, you need to find combos that work in such a way that your opponent can’t flip out, which means canceling one thing in to another over and over while trying to maximize the damage from said combo at the same time. You don’t have to cancel a move on the first possible frame, just before you hit the neutral position, or basically before the recovery animation finishes completely.
Yeah, the first VC I ever tried was Akuma’s jab DP > FP > Fireball whiff in the corner.
I was thinking that this information is overwhelming for someone new to a3.
It’s obvious that V-Sakura is better than A/X-Sak even without use of meter, but it’s about getting a handle on the game right now, building a foundation.
If at the moment he cant get down some of the basic combos, those gotta be worked on first. What makes you think that he could confirm things like back+fierce into charged hado, dp, or whiffed hurricanes? There’s too many different limbs to work with in V at first, you might be trying to defend yourself and attack and do all back+attacks when not having a handle on how the game works first.
Thanks, i’ll give that one a shot, and yeah, her punch throw is great.
Thanks, that makes alot more sense now.
And Slide i’m still having trouble with the combo your posted in your first reply, hahaha.
You might try crouching Jabx2, standing short into the Fierce DP, was always easier for me.
Jumping Short and Strong are good, Strong moreso vs people in the air.
Sweep and the punch throw both setup the crossup loop.
F+FK Overhead is good.
Fireball super can be used as anti-air, and vs early jumpers because you can catch them on the way up and it can’t be air blocked. [media=youtube]pIC3zb0lwiE[/media], 5:15
Far standing Roundhouse is good.
Standing Jab or crouching Fierce for anti-air.
Yeah, i’ve used the fireball super as an anti-air before, and like it was in that vid (by accident 
). And awesome vid by the way. I’ll remember the jumping strong.
Still can’t really do the cross up, i’ll practice more a bit later.
Late but man I wish I seen this sooner, always good to see another person tryin to get A-ism Sakura down. Like this guy I have little experience with Vism Sakura, and I really rely on her 2 supers in the anti-air fireball and spinning kick.
Yeah I always try to get her super fireball as close as possible because:
A) It’s hard to jump over.
B) Chips
C) Recovery Time
But I noticed that her spinning ground super has incredible recovery time and start up. The chipping isn’t really there but feel a lot safer at times trying this super when I know I can chain it together often.