Getting good with all characters?

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
#1

I’m a returning SF2 player, who never played the Alphas or SFIIIs or even much vanilla IV. I’m maining Deejay because I mostly played him in HD Remix, and because I enjoy gettin’ lost in da beat.

A lot of the time playing online though, whether I win or lose, rather than wanting to play again and see if I can improve on my previous game’s performance; I find myself wanting to play AS my opponents character because they did something awesome I didn’t know that character could do.

Back in the megadrive/snes days of SF2 and more recently in HDR, I’d regularly do “double random” select with equally skilled friends of mine. We all sucked, but we all sucked equally so the matches were even and varied, and it was a lot of fun.

I think maybe in SSFIV, the “hook” that will keep me coming back might not be being the best DeeJay I can be for tournaments, but being solidly mediocre with all 35 characters with an end goal of being able to hit “Random” in a ranked match, and being able to take down your average flowchart Ken; or to just have fun at casuals. The added plus in Super being that “random” doesn’t show your opponent (or you) your character until the match begins, so they can’t optimise by picking the appropriate Ultra.

I mean, Capcom put a lot of work into this game, and I spent a lot of time reading the developer blog posts about Super, after all that it seems weird just to reuse my old main from HDR and neglect the majority of the content. At best maybe I’ll find someone I like better than Dee Jay, and at worst I’ll eventually pick up that “C to shining C” achievement.

So from the more experienced fighters, I was wondering if there’s a “best way” to go about doing this?

I know the challenge modes teach a lot of the basics, and the individual SRK character forums have a wealth of information, but there’s a very wide gap between being a knowledgeable theory fighter, and pulling this stuff off in muscle memory.

I figure at the very least I need to know all special, super and ultra inputs, as well as any special properties/uses they might have (Like how Chun’s ultra 1 can punish fireballs from full screen, and her Ultra 2 rules the skies), as well as notable normal attacks. One BnB I can pull off per character would probably be useful as well.

Also how much time is probably needed per character?
Should I choose random all the time, or should I have 1 dedicated character only for set periods of time?

Thanks for any advice and sorry about the teal deer.

#2

I do this too. It’s awesome. But you know what? I never thought about doing on a ranked match, but I really like this balzy idea. I’ll do it soon. =)

As for how to proced, I’ld say the best way is take some time with each char, and eventually go back a few matches to see if you haven’t forgotten anything.

But I do think that all this comes with a cost: the more well-rounded you are, the less specialized with a particular character you get. To learn everybody, or to learn everything about somebody, that is the question.

#3

Aye, this is definitely the downside, but I think I have realistic expectations of my eventual plateau of skill, and I’m pretty much destined for “Below average”.

I think at my skill level, I’ll enjoy being well-rounded a lot more.

Thanks for saying it’s a “balzy idea”, I just do it on ranked because I don’t often feel like waiting in Endless, and I don’t care about points loss.

#4

A good idea to learn matchups and opponents though can be good if you DO a bit more endless though. Make or join a small room, three or four players max, and take the time if you lost to view how your opponent reads others. Not being afraid to lose with new characters and learning the opponent instead of being hyper focused on your own mistakes helps you become well rounded rather quickly versus constantly jumping into the UI into just another loss against a new opponent. That’s a lot of hurdles to jump at once.

#5

That’s a good idea, I was thinking of doing something similar also. What I’m planning to do is to pick a char ie. Ryu then do all his trials first to get a feel of his combos, what links to ultras, ect then play a round of Arcade mode against the CPU to practice everything then from there start going into Ranked matches until I get 1000BP and move onto the next char. That way I’ll also be able to get probably the 3 achievements (clear all trials) (clear arcade with all chars) and (all chars to C ranked)

#6

i think the way to go is the way you have most fun with :slight_smile:

#7

Hmmm, yeah thanks for that.

Or even me. I find replays of losses quite useful if a little painful to watch.

“Don’t jump in. DON’T JUMP IN! HE HAS METER! Oh goddammit…”

That sounds like a pretty solid way to go about it. Doing all trials seems like a more daunting task to me than getting good (by your own standard) with all characters. I’m not sure if I’ve fully completed a single character’s trials in Super. In Vanilla I could at least do all of Zangief’s and Seth’s.

#8

The best way to go about learning all characters? Just play. A lot. When I play with my brother our matches will typically quickly devolve (evolve?) into both picking Random. So long as you at least know the movesets of all the characters you can do alright. Learn a combo or two with every character and you’ll likely succeed against most standard flowcharts online.

One thing that can aid you in online play is to sorta trash talk before the match - that is, tell the opponents you’re picking Random. I joined a 2v2 Team Battle and when I joined the two guys on the opposite team (obviously friends) go “Yo, who do you main?” and I just responded “I pick random.” They’re like, “What? You serious?!” and I stayed quiet. When my turn came up I picked random and they were pooping their pants. Managed to seal a victory just from intimidation.

Biggest hurdle I bump into with Super is not knowing all the 2nd ultra inputs. If I get Cammy or Fei Long with U2 I always fucking forget what the input is, and some characters like Guy or Ibuki… I literally know nearly nothing about. Really just comes down to playing a lot, playing varied and having fun. The suggestion about doing the trials was good, too.

#9

This is a great route. Learn the moves/combos. Get a feel for executing them in matches against the CPU. Then take it online till you get the C rank. Not only will you get the 3 achievements for doing that but you’ll probably have unlocked all colors & taunts too. and you’ll become a beast in double random matches.

#10

if you want to get decent at all characters i would go the 1 character at a time approach. cause if you’re just choosing random all the time you won’t learn the proper distances, mix-ups, timing, etc. it’ll be like a jumbo mess trying to learn bring them up all at the same time. unlike if you just learn 1 by 1. that way it’s more of a systematic approach. if you play them one at a time then once you get it, you get it. once you’re satisfy w/ that character’s skill then you can just move onto the next character. then if you go back to playing that character it’ll only take a few games at most to get your timing, distance, etc down cause you’ve done it before.

#11

I hate to admit it, but I’m too much of an all-around gamer (and with limited time due to work) to be that focused on this (or any other game) to the extent of being able to call all characters “sub-able” in a match I’d go into with confidence about winning. Even now, I’m looking at next week’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 and thinking it will be nice to break from Super. Then, next month, I’m going to be looking at playing the heck out of Sin & Punishment 2 (as I did with Bayonetta). Right now, I’m juggling Super, Monster Hunter Tri, and Bit.Trip ************* Runner. Gah, I love the Bit.Trip series!

#12

It took me a year to get as good as I am now with El Fuerte. Only reason Rose is a secondary cause I used her a lot in the Alpha days, with Sakura coming along as the third. I’m decent with all SF II and Alpha characters, so coming to SF4 is an easy transfer for me (reason why I feel sad they didn’t put in R. Mika). So I’m one of the few who can pick random and do decent since I know the basics. Random is fun, too, cause it challenges you to use characters you don’t use often and the thrill of seeing who you’re going to fight.

#13

I’m a pretty all around gamer too, but if you think about it, you could use characters to kind of book-end your play experience, as opposed to the uncertain and long reward towards perfection with your character of choice.

“I’ve hit C Rank with Ryu, I feel I’m good enough with him. Now I’m gonna go play Mario Galaxy 2. Maybe next time I feel like Street Fighter I’ll start on Zangief.” etc etc

#14

as said, you will eventually get good with all characters by simply playing a lot. Many top players such as Sanford Kelly seem to be able to beast with any character on the roster. I guarantee you they havn’t spent an incredibly large amount of time on every character, they are just so familiar with the game that they can easily adapt to learning a new character.

#15

This is something that I have aspired to do in almost every fighting game that I play. I end up playing the game so much that, yeah I have my main characters, but I really could just hit random and devise a strategy on the fly with a character that I’ve never used before. In my opinion, that really shows your skill in SF. One of my good friends I play with locally (who has a pretty beast Akuma)…me and him will double random if we’ve been playing all day. Most of the time I beat him though because I can play with just about all of the characters in this game.

I even tried out Makoto and Dudley, who I never really used in 3s,…and I can win with them!

#16

Hey, just coming back here to tell I DID hit the random button on a few ranked matches. Here’s how it went:

  • First match I get C. Viper. Jeez… One of my worst characters. I lost, then picked her a few more times to see if I could improve, and I did. Still lost at the end, though.

  • After that I get Ryu on a mirror match. That was an easy win, since my oponent was a noob.

  • After that, Rose. Not a big problem, but Soul Satalite was. I much preffer Illusion Spark… I lost, and I blame it on the ultra.

  • Then I get Seth. TWICE. Against Boxer! I did fight well, I feel like I did most of what I wanted… but I lost. Damn Seth takes hit like a little girl.

  • Finaly I got Fei Long, facing Dudley. Interesting fight. I lost, but on a rematch I won.

So, random has give me 1 character I can’t use (C. Viper), 2 characters I barelly use (Seth and Fei Long), 1 character that I can use, but with the ultra I hate (Rose) and 1 character I know the basics, but I don’t use (Ryu). It was an interesting idea, for sure. Feels like a challenge to put your BPs into risk with a character AND an ultra that you don’t pick.

I invite other people to do it, too. Get balzy and risk your points! =)

PS: Yeah, I’m pretty sure my skill level is also just “bellow average”, or, at the most, “average”

#17

Just play a lot and play around with all of the characters from time to time.

Your goal isn’t to be good with them but to understand their basic mechanics and when they can or can’t do certain things. This is to help when you’re fighting against them.

#18

i like randoms but i must say i havent done it at all in Super. i did it a lot in SF4 though. like kelter said i didnt really get good with everyone but i did learn how to punish most common situations and when to be defensive/offensive with most of the characters. until you learn what you can and cant do, just screwing up and messing around is half the fun lol. if anyone wants to have some random matches on psn add me!

#19

lol, I thought I was the only one. I can play as almost anyone, now. I’m up for a double-random match anytime, just add me on the PSN :karate:

#20

This is precisely how I play fighting games. I get average with all the characters with some merely being favorites. I enjoy being able to know what other characters are capable of as well, and when someone pulls off a crazy combo, I know just how well they pulled it off due to my previous experience with that character.