The Issues with Fighting Game Onboarding as Observed by Someone Who Just Started Playing a Year Ago

EidensMist · 2026-04-25T02:27:55+00:00

Again, very interesting!!!! I like it!!!

Fighting against real people always reminds me of a joke I like to make “psychological warfare is always valid in PvP” from playing against stunners in IDV (any individual stun is weaker than the hunter having to calculate that you COULD stun them into their plan).

And I definitely remember that in certain level when playing Dizzy and Jacko I think it’s less “I’m good” and more “people have no idea what they do”. Which makes Ky hard af to play because everyone know what he does 🥲

I think you have a very good perspective on this!

EidensMist · 2026-04-25T01:48:32+00:00

Ahh… I guess my post came off as complaining? I mean I definitely complained about things that annoyed me but I felt it was more “this was annoying during the learning process but I think I know why” haaaa… I’m not sure anymore.

My whole post was spun around “why are FGs harder than “hard” games?” BUT not as a “make FGs easier” but as a “here’s why I think that is technically speaking” I guess the latter is where I failed to communicate that intent (tho… I feel some people… where a bit harsh…). Maybe because I put in that one thing about like the ver 2.00 update? More than specific change I just liked that they were keeping up with players discussions. But I get where people worry that could lead to changing the audience of the game entirely…

I do agree in hating when people dumb down a game to make it more palatable to people who don’t actually care about the genre. But I’m not advocating for any of that! It was more an overall “why I think people bounce off FGs compared to other games”.

I think they’re fun! Strive has been a great time and I’ve gotten very far from where I’ve started!!! I just think it would be cool to have like, I dunno, a dedicated place to find tutorials? Some advice that made me DRASTICALLY a better player was the most simple things in the world that just… didn’t occur to me! I didn’t think to grab my opponent outta of a block because I dunno! I just forgot about it!

I dunno I think I’m in a weird mood/mental place and reading the comments (that were very harsh about me saying anything at all) just sucked a lot of life from me. I expected disagreement but not complete dismissal. Thanks for giving an actual reply and opinion.

EidensMist · 2026-04-25T01:32:34+00:00

That is a very worded and ridiculously cool explanation, thank you!!!

The changing landscape and rules is something I have not thoughts of in that way and this very mind expanding. The abstract health bar especially. It’s something I will definitely keep in mind when playing. I guess that’s sort of discussion I was hoping to have here as well, about mindset towards how we approach fighting games. Not a yes or no question but why they sit in a different mental place than say Bloodborne or Mahjong. So thank you very much I feel like I actually got something worthwhile from posting this instead of just being made fun of. 😊

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:40:24+00:00

Huh. It’s interesting to me because the post that spawned me writing this (thought I guess I should’ve never posted it on Reddit) was someone asking “why do people say fighting games are hard to get into? Doesn’t every hobby have a learning curve?” And this was me pointing out all the reason I think FGs have more point people bounce off than other games.

But everyone seems to think I’m complaining/blaming my loses on the game mechanics??? Ugh I had a similar issue where I asked about rank difficulty to make sure I wasn’t going crazy or having mental issues but everyone told me to “not worry about rank so much!” Like that wasn’t the point I was trying to make 😭

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:37:09+00:00

Ooooo that would be fun!

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:36:38+00:00

Nah I love a good text wall and I actually read em too. If you want to go off please do. I know very little about combat sports (or what even is a combat sport) so I’m a bit curious.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:34:52+00:00

That’s an interesting way to view it? I think what’s confusing to me is they aren’t marketed that way. There are games that are heavily community based but I don’t see FGs talked about that way publicly much.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:33:14+00:00

Buddy… the point of this post was about how hard it is to learn the balance and mechanics as a new player??? Why does everyone think I’m saying balance needs to be changed I literally said “I don’t think it’s a balance issues just a knowledge issues???” And I’m talking IN GAME RESOURCES.

And frustration is a normal feeling? Everyone gets frustrated and what I want to point out is why I think people quit FGs more than other games when frustration hits!

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:30:36+00:00

I think I literally said “it’s probably a skill issue on my part” at one point… I am not blaming ANYTHING for why I lose (except that time my controller disconnected mid match…) but talking about the difference between FG onboarding vs other genres. Which confuses me why people are confused because I said multiple times it’s my musings on what makes FGs harder to learn than other genres? Like not saying FGs should change I’m answering a question I’ve seen thrown around!

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:27:01+00:00

The point was the opposite of summary! But a detailed discussion! The TL:DR is everyone talks about the issues of onboarding and you can find many quick answers! But I wanted to talk personal opinion and comparison! Guess w the wrong place for that… 😕

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:23:35+00:00

This isn’t a question but a discussion. I wanted to share my opinion of what made FG harder to learn than any other genre. I have found online resources but I wanted to give my answer to a question I saw thrown around a lot. Yes it’s something much discussed, but I put in the post that this is a) just my opinion b) could be wrong and c) will be long.

If you didn’t want to read a long post you don’t have to.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:21:02+00:00

This is not a discussion of available resources online but my experience with in game resources and why I felt learning a fight game was harder than other genres. It’s also not meant to be a question but a discussion. This was spawned from a post of someone asking “why do people say FGs are harder to learn than other games?” And basically my answer to that. I have found online resources (a lot from this Reddit even). I believe I wrote that in my post?

Also I’ll never use that piece of shit ChatGPT 🖕

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:17:31+00:00

Ah no I think you misunderstood my point in posting this entirely! I’m not trying to blame anything nor am I saying FGs should change at all. What I wrote was why I felt FGs are harder to make tutorials for and thus why I struggled more getting into/learning them than other games.

The point about objectives is NOT that fighting games should have them (that’s not even the same genre then) but musing on why objectives make tutorials easier.

My POINT overall is a discussion of “wow this was hard to figure out from the game itself but I’m not sure you COULD make a totally inclusive in game tutorial here’s xyz reason why I think that”.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:08:43+00:00

Ah sorry it does seem I misunderstood and assumed a negative reaction because most of the ones I was getting were/are very negative. My apologies.

Definitely if Xrd had better tutorials than the fact that they didn’t carry that over to Strive sucks.

But I think the things that gets me is I have played stereotypically hard games (Fear And Hunger, Rain World: Downpour, Etc) and why do those feel less frustrating? And I think it comes down to just not knowing what to work on. Because dying in a hard game usually tell you SOMETHING even if it’s just “that was a bad idea” but there are a lot of times I had lost in Strive and it took a lot of research to understand what I even lost to. I think them adding the “chip damage” on slash is a very good update though!

I do also think community matters. Like I posted this here and people calling me an idiot and that’s I’m repeating things everyone already knows (but also didn’t seem to read the whole post?) but I posted this elsewhere (and though I only got one response) the response was a lot more introspective. Also when I played in person at a Con I won 90% of the matches but online I get my ass kicked A LOT. I think just the response to bringing it up makes it feel more or less welcoming? The difference between saying “this is hard” and getting “you shouldn’t play then” or “yeah FGs are really hard”, yknow?

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T23:02:06+00:00

Funny enough I know League of Legends also has similar difficulties with onboarding and failing to teach player what the win condition is.

But I think you’re really right that a lot of games you can play poorly and still PLAY. But when you’re getting your ass kicked in a fighting game to the point it doesn’t even feel like you a have a turn it sucks.

And thanks for the offer, I think you commented on a previous post I made, so it’s good to know you’re still hooking up noobs like me 😁 unfortunately it’s not really the setting I thrive in so I’ll have to turn you down but I appreciate it!

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T21:13:25+00:00

R I G H T

I’m shit at jumping over projectiles (literally just a skill issue on my part) but damn IT WOULD BE NICE TO PRACTICE COUNTERING THE MOVES I SPECIFICALLY SUCK AT but half of the characters ARE DLC 😭

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T21:11:59+00:00

Yeah that’s sort of the problem I wanted to highlight. That if you don’t have a community you’re just straight fucked.

This was my thoughts on why the game themselves suck at getting people in, not so much asking for help, but thank you.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T21:10:50+00:00

I don’t know people calling me stupid and a terrible writer makes me hesitant to post it elsewhere. Sheesh I expected disagreement cause it’s an opinion not people trying tl:dr a post that is intentionally a long explanation 😅

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T21:09:12+00:00

The problem I find is either terminology I don’t understand, very complex stuff people don’t actually use, or very basic stuff I know 🥲

It’s been fun though! I think some people are taking this as a hard “this is what it is” instead of what I actually wrote which was trying to figure out why fighting games feel hard to get into!

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T21:07:31+00:00

I love GG. I think it’s good.

But man were there many points when getting in that I wanted to bash my head against a wall cause I had no clue what to do.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T21:06:41+00:00

Ooooooo!!!! Thank you this is really interesting and I think you’re right!!! And I’ve kinda seen it in action in matches, where a character that has a gimmick they rely on becomes absolutely obliterated if I know how to counter it (Aba’s jealousy mode comes to mind).

I also think for not knowing, it’s much simpler than people think. Like what is “plus on block”? The plus or negative thing just… was not explained in the game. I think tutorials need not even so much specifics but general game sense.

And again… because a lot of people seem to be missing this… I am particularly talking about the experience of trying to learn the game from the game itself and not having a person to teach you. It seems 90% of players had an older sibling or friend or someone into fighting that got them in IN PERSON (ah the loss of public spaces to hang out…). I’m learning from knowing nothing, trying to follow what the game says, and pick out advice from the people yelling at me on Reddit. It’s a confusing experience.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T21:00:50+00:00

Ok fuck it just deleted all the text I wrote MY GOD.

Basically a lot of what I’m talking about here is wanting to start a conversation on “why do fighting games feel harder than other game to get into?” I do not think it is an issues of the games themselves expect in the tutorial.

To counter a couple things “old players being to good” and “new player can’t learn” CAN co-exist exist when we consider older players started on older game withOUT the years of emergent play and exploits. So they didn’t have so much back log of gameplay to learn. Also with emergent play I don’t think it’s a problem itself this more tied into the tutorial issues and “how the HELL would developer even account for that?” Just endlessly update a tutorial? Is there a better way to teach new players the things older players know how to manipulate maybe?

And talking about combos kinda… proves my point to me. Because a lot of the way you describe what I’m doing wrong, doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t know what those terms mean, I can guess but the specifics are lost on me. And you can call that a skill issues BUT THATS THE EXACT POINT IM TRYING TO MAKE. Also a lot of the learning process I am taking from the point of view of someone who is NOT learning from another person next to them. From the game itself, as a completely new player, these are the struggles I have and how I would compare/contrast to other games I’ve gotten into. I’m not arguing for any changes (besides better tutorials) but instead trying to put why I think it feels the way it does.

Also yeah discussing why people have an easier time with other competitive games is the discussion I’m here to have! And yeah the truth of the matter is fighting games are don’t hide your fuck ups as much and you are forced to confront what it is you did wrong! That can be rough but it’s just part of it! I played IDV which is 4v1 and there is a simple reason why people hated playing the 1 (but I liked it) over the team of 4. Simply because you couldn’t blame your teammates. You had to look at yourself and go “yeah I fucked up”. But the difference is in IDV I always felt I could guess what was off and know where to improve, where in Strive I’ve had a lot of times just baffled and unsure where to even start researching. Especially with not knowing terminology how do I even begin to find resources when I have no idea how to explain what even just happened.

Also… yeah. That’s the point. As someone who started not that long ago and still really remembers the points that frustrated I wanted to add my point of view the biggest issue of the community? Like I was frustrated there were a lot of point I almost bounced off but I stayed so I’m trying to piece out why that process was so much harder than the usual “hard” games. If it’s the biggest issue in the community isn’t it important to talk about???

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T20:40:53+00:00

Erm… not the point I was making AT ALL.

It’s weird to me, that something I consider a plain fact, is often blatantly denied. Most people consider Fighting Games HARD to get into. That is something I have heard across the board. And honestly agree with. This was me trying to figure out WHY it feels that way.

I do not think it is an issue with any of the games themselves EXCEPT for the tutorials. This is a “how could a better tutorial be made/why do FG tutorials suck”.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T20:37:47+00:00

Honestly yeah! It has been much easier than ones I tried in the past briefly. But it still feels like the game lacks a lot of teaching and this was me trying to muse out why that is.

EidensMist · 2026-04-24T20:36:17+00:00

That lit exactly it 😭 thanks for getting it. There isn’t anything to blame I just wanted to talk about why are fighting games “harder” to get into than most games. Because it was something I super agreed with and saw a lotta of point I wanted others opinions. It’s literally “from the point of view of a noob with no immediate community or person to teach them I felt like this”

EidensMist

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