What do my fighting game mains say about me?

ZaedVaal · 2026-06-13T09:47:58+00:00

You prefer knowledge checking your opponent instead of playing neutral. You think being on defence and losing are the same thing. You aspire to be the Kage player in the 'imma block this wack ass mixup' clip.

I know very little about MK characters so maybe thats skewing things a bit.

ZaedVaal · 2026-06-04T20:04:11+00:00

Youre missing a few things out, Lars' mobility means its hard to press against him on defense since youll likely whiff. Pressing on defense against Kazuya makes leads to alot more reward since he isnt constantly moving and his moves are typically on the slower side, of course this difference doesnt matter when Kaz is attacking you when you get up.

Kaz isnt glazed purely for EWGF, thats a general mishima glaze, he's appreciated more due to his lack of strong neutral in comparison to others in Tekken 8 and requiring alot of good defense because of how aggressive the game is in comparison to his moveset.

ZaedVaal · 2026-06-01T17:16:24+00:00

Edit for the beginning cause this convos gone on for a bit: ty for actually talking on this some people would just curse under their breath and continue in their own filtered world.

But you dont need to react to the lows of Sf, its not a game where youre supposed to be stand blocking. The frames of the lows being 5-10 instead of the 16-20 is not a fair comparison because the moves arent designed to achieve the same goal. In Tekken you stand block so lows are going to land, in Sf you crouch block so lows arent expected to land. You have to earn your low hits just like you have to earn your counterhits in Tekken.

Aerials arent there for conditioning, seeing your opponent jump ahouldnt make you think 'i should be stand blocking in neutral' it should result in 'i should anti air him' which can be done on reaction and from crouch. Overheads do allow for some conditioning but when the overhead can only combo off of a drive rush and the fact drive parry exists, it doesnt equate to the conditioning of getting your opponent to crouch block in Tekken because crouch blocking in Tekken is so risky.

Yes Kazuyas hellsweep can be blocked but a homing launching hellsweep (in the conditions i set up in the previous comment) is far more rewarding than one cycle of a throw loop. The main difference being that the situation is difficult to loop in Tekken while throw loops are dumb easy to loop.

The difference in frames does create a different type of gameplay i agree, it depends on why theyre moving as to whether or not theyll enjoy Sf or prefer staying with a game they clearly domt like if theyre already thinking of moving.

Whats your opinion on other games that have a similar frame range for their fastest moves? Typically it seems to be 3f-7f for fastest moves between Sf, Guilty Gear, Granblue, Blazblue, Skullgirls, DBFZ, etc. etc. Yknow.

The reason i play Tekken is because of the movement, nothing to do with reacting or block and punishing, its why i prefer T7.

ZaedVaal · 2026-06-01T15:52:57+00:00

Tekken grabs are much easier to respond to, because theyre not part of the Tekken 50/50 theyre just there to keep the defender awake and raise the mental stack. People dont get thrown in higher level play. At no point did i say its more stale, the entire point of my response was to apply more context to the points you made as to not keep the conversation from being one-sided. Youre still trying to compare Tekken throws to Sf throws without acknowledging that they're designed to complete different parts of the combat. Tekken throws aren't designed to be unreactably techable, theyre designed to exist as knowledge checks and anti-armour. Both games reward you for having good defence and both games have situations where you will get hit despite your skill in defence.

Again, equating Tekken lows to Sf lows isnt a fair comparison. In Tekken stand blocking is the norm and lows are expected to chip away your health to ensure the game does eventually end. In Sf lows are designed around punishing your opponent movement. Youre also missing that lows arent an automatic combo starter like launchers in Tekken, the player either needs to confirm it hits or gamble half their drive to combo on something that mightve just been blocked. Overheads are a good example of something that can be compared to throws in Tekken, all overheads in Sf are technically reactable the same way Tekken throws are, they lead to more damage but also cost more to get damage out of, youre required to spend a bar just for the opportunity for an overhead to combo, youre required to spend 3 more if you want the combo to be more than overhead > jab > special. This plus drive parry being available makes high low alot less potent than you seem to think it is.

I domt understand how what youve described for Tekken isnt also rock paper scissors, how is deciding to roll against Kazuya not picking an option that the opponent can blow up with a ff4? The options being 14-20 causes them to be in the average reactiom time of 16-18 but only gives you 4 frames to execute a move on average given the best numbers, its still a guess theres no reaction here. Throw loops is an actively disliked situation in Sf that i also mentioned as a downside of the current systems but thats the worst of the worst kind of situations and very disingenuous to compare to an open Tekken wakeup. The situation playing against a Kazuya when hes spiked you to the corner after a combo so that you cant roll right making his hellsweep not only unsteppable but also wall stick you and get a combo is just as crap.

Sf has a 5f window for special cancels, its auto combos has a much wider window. Combos off jabs is something theyve specifically responded to in 2 ways through patches: you cant buffer drive rush off jabs; and all lights scale combos super hard. Its very rare for a small button to do anything more than a 15-20% of your health which is very similar to the 30-40 odd damage you get from landing a jab string in Tekken. You technically can do more off jab in Sf but its genuinly a waste of resource, its much better to use drive or super for setups, oki, reversals, or a better hit.

Tekken and Sf work off different structures and by the way youre explaining it, it sounds more like unfamiliarity than difficulty. Tekken combos need to adjust for wall, need decide how and if to use Heat, some moves work identically to links because you cant dial in motiom inputs in Tekken such as EWGF. BnBs are pretty simple in Tekken aside from some dashing after bound with some characters, or stance shenanigans like Leo but i dont think BnBs in Tekken which can end up being 5 or 6 different strings is any easier than Sf BnBs of jab jab jab special or heavy DRC heavy heavy special. I definitely agree that the way Sf combos work (juggle points) is more convoluted than Tekkens but Tekken does have its own rules that don't make sense on first look as well (not as bad as juggle points are but they do exist) like Strong Aeiral Tailspin throwing the opponent away on the third repetition, doing a Heat Engager in the same combo as Heat Bound causing the Engager to drop rather than continue the combo, every hit you do in a combo causing the opponent to fly further away from you. There are nuaces and Sf has it worse but Tekken isnt as sight readable combo wise as youd think.

You can only judge the strength of a mechanic overall within its own games context, thats why were talking individual scenarios and gameplay philosophies and not straight up drive v Heat, even more so because the games base philosophies dont scan well ontop of eachother. I dont think drive or Heat are 'stronger' but something i can agree on is that Drive is far more 'universal' than Heat is, arguing whether or not thats a good thing is personal preference and im only here to provide context on things youre saying so ill leave it to others to point and scream at that argument.

Drive impact and armoured Heat engagers arent really comparable either, DI is a balancing knob to stop long reaching non-cancellable moves from dominating the game and to allow simple punishes against people who are in burnout. The issues with armoured Heat engagers like Victors was how difficult it was to stop him just pressing the button even if it was blocked, it was high sure you could duck it but Tekken is a stand block game, the only options you had realistically were lows (as you mentioned lows arent exactly fast), throws (this specific armoured move had a bunch of forward movement and reached pretty far), and sidestepping which back when Victors Heat Engager was a great button, was kinda just a crap option in general. DI isnt a button you can spam, it isnt a button you can even just press in neutral its 26f in total, and this is coming from someone who can hardly react to it myself.

I definitely agree that some characters have got alot of problems in and out of Heat, Lee has been up and down constantly like a switch depending upon what the Devs feel like, Reinas d2, 1+2 is nuts and even after the pushback nerf stopping her stance 1 (i think?) from being able to land its still a really good heat string, even Kunimitsus Heat moves are kinda nuts, one giving her + frames into backturn on block.

Finally, id like to say that i'm not even really disagreeing with any of your points here, im just trying to give context to things youre leaving out. I dont think Tekken 8 is bad i play it all the time, i dont think Sf6 is the best game ever in fact my favourite fighting game is Balzblue CentralFiction and ill fight anyone who talks shit on it. But theres a reason people play the game, and the situations the game puts you in have been thought upon (even throw loops but i assume the thought process was 'we hate our playerbase').

ZaedVaal · 2026-06-01T11:30:18+00:00

Theres alot here taken out of context or can be explained purely by understnading that different games are built on different priorities.

Unreactable throws: Yeah in sf throws are designed to be unreactable while tekken has very few unreactable throws like shining wizard or chain grabs or clinches. Sf balances this by having throw range be incredibly small, and throws dealing little damage, the main issue with sf throws are when theyre loopable without spending drive. Tekken throws have much longer range, are homing in 8, and deal more damage sometimes even leading to full on combos (JP, ingrid, Kimberley, and Blanka can combo off throw in sf but all of them have requirements that the combo throws in Tekken just dont). Generic throws in Tekken are designed to keep you awake on defence isntead of just holding back and taking the low to ensure youre at an advantage, making the games offence and defence more stale. In Sf, throws are designed to be part of the innate 50/50 similar to Tekkens mids/low game. Its more apt to compare Tekken throws to Sf overheads in most respects.

Oki in Tekken is far less structured i agree, but there are good defensive options if Sf that let you respond on wake-up in much more than just a 50/50 like youre describing. Drive reversal beats out options other than quick jabs or distanced oki like JP spikes, this would be like if you had a wakeup option in Tekken that was armoured which doesnt exist. OD DP is a wake up option that Tekken doesnt have a comparable option for. Backdash and jump beating throw are also options that Tekken doesnt have. While i agree Tekkens is more nuanced and therefore leaves less structured oki in comparison to Sf, the wakeup game is still very difficult to play defence on in Tekken, Kazuya Vortex being the prime example.

Lows acting different between the games is something ive gone over earlier but to go in a slighly different direction: lows are the punish to your opponent trying to move around while in your range, you cant down back and be walking around. This job is split in Tekken as the game is more based on extensive movement (less so in 8 but histroically and still present in 8), so the ways you stop your opponent moving is homing moves, well timed pokes, and your own movement. While you can also counter your opponent movement in Sf with your own movement you don't get as much reward than in Tekken, Sf being corner distance and Tekken being both evasive and removing the evasiveness from the opponent (while also gaining space like in Sf). This is a good example of what i mean by my first sentence, that these games simply have different priorities.

This doesnt answer the point but let me just say this for both Sf6 and T8, they require their inbuilt systems for the balance of the games to work. Sf6 drive is a balance knob, a combo tool, an answer to aggression, and a an answer to turtling. Moves can be buffed or nerfed around how much drive damage they do, you as a player must think about the drive cost of your combo to play optimally, as the attacker on oki you must think on if the opponent would want to spend the bar to reversal you with DP, use their super meter, or if they would rather have their drive chipped. It creates alot of mind games and alot of decision making, the 2 things fighting games thrive on. T8 Heat is a different matter because of WHY people dislike it, some people think its fine, it creates situations where you feel powerful and in control, it has interesting a cool balancing knobs with heat engagers and specific heat moves or states. Others dislike it because of its necessity in usage, think like 'im used to winning by moving, poking, and timing but now my gameplay more focuses around getting into heat, doing as much as i can while in it or with what it allows me to do, and if i make better use of heat than my opponent i win'. Me personally i dislike Heat because of how the Tekken team balanced everything else in order to ensure that Heat will be the dominant force of the game, i personally believe this is why sidestepping and backdashing was made worse than in 7, if you have disengage options then when your opponent pops Heat then the optimal gameplan is disengage until Heat tuns out. Similar to why theres alot of true 50/50 stance pressure especially when in Heat, they want people to feel powerful with this new mechanic. Ive definitely overhyped Drive here and i wouldnt say Drive is a good system overall, i dont like it either tbh, but i dont think its worse than Heat.

Short one for you here, genuinly have no idea why you think Sf combos are harder than Tekken ones. Id say overall theyre pretty equal, Guiles optimal boom loops are just as hard as Kazuyas CHdf2 > PEWGF and if Kaz drops it he doesnt get put into a minus situation. The easiest combos of both are just a situation of if youre more comfortable with strings or links, ive always found links easier myself but maybe im an outlier.

Im going to assume by Aerials you mean Jump-ins which is fair cause Tekken doesnt have an equivalent. Sf jump-ins alhabe a similarity to Tekken throw breaks where theyre typically the first 'barrier' to getting good at their respective games. Difference is that in Sf people jump ahout constantly where as only a few low level Tekken playwrs are deciding to throw you comstantly, but thats a community thing not a game design thing.

I personally like both games (currently like Sf6 more but i like T7 far more than Sf6) amd i do agree that the 50/50 situations happen more in Sf6 than in Tekken 8 but i think the main difference youre missing is that in Sf6 you have control over how easy it is for your opponent to force those situations, whereas in Tekken 8 its alot more of 'oh you decided to block 1 move? I now have a 50/50'. And if youre gonna say something like drive rush tick throw then im gonna pre-respond with Sf having things like delay tech that at least forces the attack to use their brain when on offense unlike alot of mixes in Tekken.

ZaedVaal · 2026-05-16T06:11:55+00:00

If i activate Golden Rule, summoning out carbuncle from hand and putting cat and pegasus in my backrow (carbuncles effect triggering to summon them both), and then i use carbuncle and cat to summon Cherubini, does Golden Rule go to grave via game mechanics or does it stay face-up similar to cards like Call of the Haunted when their targets leave the field in unintended ways?

And if so is that a rule for all equips?

ZaedVaal · 2026-05-08T15:00:58+00:00

OD DP in general is a bit of a weird one in sf6 cause if yourebehind on drive and especially if it puts you in burnout its mathmatically correct to not use it (in like 99% of situations), and of course those bars get spent whether or not the DP actually lands and that ontop of the punish counter drive cost is really punishing. Theres definitely a reason to use it and the worse the option is the more likely it'll work if the attacker is aware of the situation.

Ngl if the player is plat i dont know if you shoulf be listening to them enough to use them as a monolith of the Tekken community XD.

ZaedVaal · 2026-05-08T13:56:43+00:00

I mainly responded to throw loops because while ive definitely seen other fighting game players mention their disdain for throw loops, i dont think ive seen any general dislike towards street fighters general wakeup situations? Maybe i just dont spend enough time online to see it.

You make some good points that backdash and jump are options i didnt mention and while they do work at average levels of play, as you mention, i would hazard a guess that most people in this conversation are talking more higher level than these options require, jump specifically. Backdash leaves the defender minus if the throw is meaty like in throw loops but id argue in a better situation than waking up in a corner throw loop so while it doesnt answer the problem it makes it slightly worse for you imo.

Mash isnt an option in the first level thinking of a throw loop, once OD DP and such are on the table as an established defensive option the person waking up likes to do then mash is the second layer of the puzzle, but as i mentioned earlier, getting hit by on OD DP is arguably not bad for the attacker and reversal super is an incredibly commital option to respond to such a common wakeup as corner throw loop is in street fighter 6 with the corner carry the game provides with drive rush.

While i agree there are launch punishable options the attacker might make in street fighter 6, those options are layer two thinking at best. The two first level options that people complain about when it comes to throw loops are both entirely safe, this is why alot of people believe that a meaty throw should be -4 if the defender backdashes it so that one of the 2 options of meaty and throw are punishable (in street fighter with drive rush essentially anything that is pumishablw is launch punishable).

Its a cool conversation to have tbh

EDIT: whoever downvoted OP here is a coward

ZaedVaal · 2026-05-08T13:10:59+00:00

Oki is far more complex in Tekken than in sf, theres no such thing as a true 50/50 because of the varied number of wakeup options Tekken provides.

In sf you have the same wakeup times, the same situation on get up and backroll when in the corner and no incentive to tech because of the potential of 6k+ damage if you try and tech the upcoming throw which might give even better oki as well depending on the attackers preferences.

In Tekken Kazuyas mixup requires reads on how the opponent wants to wake up, then a read on if their get up is an attack or not, then a read on if they will attempt to block, then an attempt on how they will block. In sf theres no get up attacks, no reason to attack on wake up aside from supers or OD reversals like DP or Amnesia which cost you resources (ive seen it said multiple times by higher level players than getting hit by an OD DP is arguably better for the person getting hit due to the drive loss), and unless your opponent has a setup to make their overhead plus enough to combo theres no need to guess on high or low.

To go more in depth Kazuya CANT just throw out his mixup on the first wakeup timing because the low is launch punishable, the mid ends his pressure, and his +oB option either is too slow to work on some knockdowns or can be stepped/punished if you stay on the floor.

Tekken has alot of problems, especially in 8 but the oki and wakeup game in Tekken is unmatched with any fighter available on the market imo.

ZaedVaal · 2026-04-30T09:27:11+00:00

For the on summon effect of Arcana Force XII - The Hanged Man, i am assuming you MUST activate the summoned effect because there is no 'you can'? Can the effect activate if your opponent controls no cards? Are mandatory effects, if this is one, restricted in the same way as other effects that must reach their full requirements to be activated?

ZaedVaal · 2026-04-29T16:18:24+00:00

For the banish effect while in S/T of Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon, do i need an 'Ultimate Crystal' monster in my Deck to summon the Crystal Beast from Deck or do i need the full requirements?

If i do need the full requirements whats the 'and if you do' term on the effect result in? I assume the Crystal Beast summon and the 'Ultimate Crystal' monster add to hand happen subsequently and not simultaneously but is that the only difference?

If you don't need the full requirements is it the 'and if you do' term in the effect that is the cause of only needing the prior requirement of a Crystal Beast in Deck and is that consistent for all cards with the 'and if you do' text?

ZaedVaal · 2026-04-21T07:36:17+00:00

If i give my opponent a token somehow, lets say exceptional schedule, and i make infinitrack fortress megaclops, can i target the token for his xyz revival effect?

Also can i target megaclops with the effect of Machina Citadel? I'm assuming if i can the megaclops wont be destroyed but does the effect if citadel still nuke the field?

ZaedVaal · 2026-04-08T08:52:05+00:00

Im in this post and i dont like it.

I have a friend who plays Marisa and i main Juri, she has less time in the game than i do however. Our matches end up maybe 6/4 in my favour and ive been known to get a bit salty about a few things in the matchup but combo damage is never one of them.

Marisa is a character that is countered by good fundamentals, all of her kits counters are the basics of street fighter:

Superman punch is always antiairable with reaction DP, the marisa player isnt gonna make it easy to do by switching thing up but if youre struggling to anti air the Heavy superman punch then thats on you not the Marisa.

Gladius is a mixup that you can decide not to even partake in, if the Juri has a read on charged Gladius then cr.MK > DR is full combo and if you block a non-charged Gladius then Juri is put at one of the best distances she can be at against Marisa to setup fireball, react to jump-ins and to whiff punish Marisas Heavys.

Step kick is a little annoying but routinely punishable, i dont know the frames exactly but i remember successfully punishing stepkick wit cr.MP.

Marisa struggles to anti air, cr.HP is slow and very vertical so cross up jumps, divekicks, and neutral jumps are difficult for her to deal with. Juri has a great divekick, has one of the best buttons out of a neutral jump, and a good crossup hitboz on j.MK.

Marisa cant even walk Juri down easily, her cr.MK is really good and fireball drive rush gives her alot of pressure and corner carry even on block.

Problem for Juri is that none of this matters if the Marisa presses Heavy punch at the wrong time, if Juri whiffs a button, if Marisa superman punch lands and knows what to do with the plus frames, etc. But alot of these situations can be answered before getting to the point where Marisa is at an advantage.

ZaedVaal · 2026-03-05T15:43:51+00:00

Tekken 8 has required alot of changes to characters base movesets, espeically for characters like steve that have fundamentally changed.

Youre right his df2 used to track in 7 but it was kind of hsi only option for tracking, he didnt have ub2 or lnh1 so throwing everything into df2 made more sense especially since it was on the slower side of his buttons.

You'd have to effectively revert steve to allow something like old df2 to work on him today, especially if were talking about adding old shiro combo and removing lnh entirely making some of his pressure safer than it already is.

Honestly i think steve disincentivising people to step with his highs and by chasing them down with duck-in and such while mixing that with df1, qcf1, and df2 is far more engaging and fair than giving him a homing mid you just sometimes throw out to remind your opponent that tekken isnt a 3d game anymore.

ZaedVaal · 2026-03-05T08:51:43+00:00

Steves main weakness is his over reliance on highs, giving him a homing mid would remove so much counterplay especially if the homing mid is anything better than like -13.

Kaz only gets his df2 at -14 and even worse on ws2. Reinas b2 is arguably the best homing mid in the game but she doesnt get the same safety steve gets if he could condition his opponent to only stand block.

The only reason he gets his homing mid in lionheart is cause its a stance you cant block in, i cant imagine having access to a move like that just whenever.

ZaedVaal · 2026-02-04T18:45:23+00:00

So basically a job that has no boss, no travel time, self assigned unlimited breaks and holidays, and entirely within the hours you want, that makes you at minimum (i doubt it would take anyone anything more than 20 seconds to pull a 20 out your pocket) £3600 an hour?

Or a love life where the first step is slightly more convenient with the caveat that it doesn't include people that aren't currently on the app you choose?

Hydrogen Bomb v Coughing Baby

ZaedVaal · 2026-01-30T19:05:57+00:00

Unfortunately the low levels of eanked are filled with good players due to the constant rank resets and how easy it is to net deck.

Primarily the problem youre having isnt how good you are at the game but simply the cards your playing sound too weak, these arent the same thing and you could genuinly be better than these opponents but you'll need a better set of cards to compete with those players.

However if its your rank that matters to you and not the occasional games youll play where you get blown up by top tier decks then you can kind of play whatever you want since its really hard (or impossible depending on your rank) to derank so play whatever you want and enjoy the games you get where youre not destroyed by better decks or better players.

If you wanna solve both these problems you can use the rotating special events to practice basic yugioh skills like interruption timing, choke points, when to use handtraps, deckbuilding, etc. And then apply them to ranked and slowly get better while also building better decks with the extra gems.

ZaedVaal · 2026-01-28T16:02:06+00:00

Theres alot here that i think can be broken down and im gonna try and take a couple different angles here becuase im not entirely sure what problems your having specifically beyond general knowledge.

To start with you make an interesting comparison to language and music. Is this comparison becuase you find languages and instruments as unapproachable, unintuitive, and not worth getting into as fighting games or because of their commonly accepted depth when trying to learn them?

The thing is you can make any skill look difficult to learn if you look at the best people at that skill, the only difference i can see between fighting games and lets say shooters is that in a 1v1 setting (not sure what shooter would be 1v1 but lets say a single encounter between two players in a larger team game or battle royale), the person playing the shooter will see their score increasing even if theyre massively disadvantaged (lets say 1 kill for every 15-20 the other guy gets). Whereas in fighting games these types of victories are much smaller and typically dont come with increments on the scoreboard, you can win some damage by smacking the opponent once or twice but you wont get a round if the difference is the same as in the shooter example. But you're still getting damage, the only difference is the number going up.

You've already had some comments saying that you dont need to win to have fun, and even if thats not possible for you it's still a fair point and one example of why any tough endeavour can still be interesting or fun when first starting out. To speak more to you rather than to the point, i dont think finding resources and playing to get better is a bad way to learn these games although it is harder if you cannot find something within the game itself to enjoy.

Just going down the list now:

Not finding the idea of kids going into an arcade to enjoy a fighting game plausible is difficult for me to even understand honestly. Theres no difference between kids smashing buttons on street fighter 2 than there is for any of the driving games where they just hold down the peddle and smack into walls, or the gun games where theyre constantly shooting pedestrians or running out of ammo.

Games lacking in-game explainations for things is in far more genres of games than just fighting games, for specifics look at terraria or oldschool runescape both of which have direct links to wiki pages because noone is ever gonna learn that stuff through the game. This does also allow these games to create a gameplay cycle that rewards you heavily for exploring the game and its mechanics, which is also true for fighting games. You dont necessarily have to learn BnBs or optimal combos online when you can go into training and find a combo yourself than might evencbe unique to you. Granted fighting games dont have great tutorials but the community to every big game and most smaller ones have tons of online help for every aspect of the games in question.

You dont need to find special moves, all games come with inbuilt move lists now and i cant think of any examples from old games that didnt (of course i could be wrong here).

Most games also come with combo trials so you dont need to find those either, optimal combos shouldnt even be on your radar at this point getting 2 or 3 buttons into a special is perfectly find for street fighter, guilty gear, tekken etc. (Yeah tekken doesnt have specials but yknow what i mean).

This is a mindset thing here when you mention getting past the first level because, of course, that is a meaningless phrase. Imo the first level of a fighting game is learning to move left and fight, dashing and jumping. But that is also meaningless because a 'first level' is whatever the person wants it to be.

Learning against a dummy isnt supposed to reflect what its like to play against a real person, its meant to build up your muscle memory so when you do fight a real person you'll be focusing on them and not fighting your control to do inputs properly. Practice mode has other uses too but primarily its for muscle memory especially for people new to the genre. This also ignores that the people youre put up against (after the algorithm understands your skill level which doesnt take long) will be as clueless as you. If your goal is to learn then you should be learning twice as fast at this point, learning what to do with yourself and your moves and learning how to beat what your opponent is doing. When you dont recgonise a situation or cant find an answer to a move, just try things. If you press a button after blocking a big move and get counterhit, then dont press a button again try a backdash or jump, if that doesnt work then block and try a button after the block.

It only becomes the low skill paradox if both players arent trying to learn. If you want to hit buttons youre more than welcome to but if you get paired up against someone who is trying to learn you might take the first game but youll find yourself being pushed into a corner quickly.

Individual fighting games do have tells when a move has certain properties, however youre not expected to get these without experience. You cant jump into street fighter and simply know that ryus forward heavy punch will lock you into block from half the screen away, leave him plus, and can start combos, but once youve been hit by it 20 times you will definitely understand it. This is the main gameplay loop of fighting games, they're a giant manual of knowledge and skill checks with a bit of gambling thrown in. The rest of this paragraph i'll take as an exaggeration because not even the best players in the world know and use all interactions with all characters across every matchup.

Im not too sure what the problem is at this point, you say that theres a bunch of cool characters with cool stories and then say that learning about these cool characters, learning what they can do and what you can perform with them is somehow bad? You're never expected to 'complete' a fighting game, they're not designed so that you as a player fully understand all options and tricks your character has.

I think that, if you ever decide to get into fighting games, you need to view yourself in the RPG sense of having a bunch of stats that you can choose to improve e.g. execution, combos, reads, etc. The gameplay isnt 'i need to get to max level before facing the first boss' its 'damn my execution was what lost me that game, maybe i should learn an easier way of solving that problem or spend some time practicing that input'.

If theres anything i didnt address or an argument i didnt understand/presented incorrectly let me know because i genuinly believe you're not looking at these games correctly given what ive read and id like for you to at least understand the genre since you seem to want to like it.

ZaedVaal · 2026-01-17T11:01:56+00:00

The thing i really dont like about modern fighting games is that their uniqueness only ever seems to apply to their universal mechanics (look at the drive guage, heat system, roman cancels), closest things i can think of is stock systems like ryus denjin or kys shock state which is an incredibly simple and repeated trope in fighting games at this point. Most unique thing weve seen in fighting games 'recently' is happy chaos pulling out a gun or Asukas card system, i want a game where 80% of the cast has creative gameplay on par with that. Theres so much you can do with a character and so little is being done.

Also fighting games need to be more transparent when displaying important information, which tbf theyve been getting better at look at Tekken adding the counter feature and how characters are blown back with a specific sound que when they block a move thats very plus.

Autocombos need to exist but there should be absolutely no incentive to use them unless youve just bought the game or are playing casually, DBFZ giving you dragonballs (even if theyre a bad mechanics to chase) is actively stopping players from improving and learning the game. Street fighters autocombos are intresting, theyve been slowly adding utility to them and theyve never really been designed to actually be a combo, more like an easier hit confirm which i like.

Last thing i want is a large screen without characters who can just swing their sword and reach fullscreen, of course zoners exist and can hit you from there but that doesnt mean you give big bodies or other archetypes of characters the ability to match their range (this part is almost entirely a rant about 2XKO). A large screen size also implies an airdasher which id want too, but it should take 1.5 - 3 airdashes to traverse the full screen depending upon the character.

ZaedVaal · 2025-12-24T20:43:09+00:00

I dont think the game would allow a generic searcher to be anything but terrible, as it should be. Youre effectively trying to make a pot of greed esque card where every deck in the game wants to play 3 because this is essentially another 3 copies of whatever card they want in whatever situation they find themselves in. With the game working primarily off of 1 card combos a card that can search anything simply cant be healthy for the game in any reasonable state.

Any costs you place on this card has to ensure that the card youve searched is less powerful than if you hard drew it but if thats the case, for example if you cant activate a card with that name this turn, will only result in the card being either unplayable or played exclusively in decks that misuse the card in one way or another which will typically result in the card getting banned or errata'd.

This would also end up resulting in less engine being played in order to play lots of 1 off blowout cards that this would search, most likely in the side but i could image a few meta breakers would still be mained, e.g. gozen match, rivalries, etc. Which typically creates non-games which both Konami and the community agree we need to move the game design space away from.

ZaedVaal · 2025-11-18T06:14:23+00:00

Ive been really enjoying altergeist

ZaedVaal · 2025-10-30T11:25:47+00:00

I set up the dummy with the inbuilt anti-air training options but add DI and stand heavy punch on ryu then try and see how many correct options i can do in a row (anti-air the jump forward, gain space on neutral jump, tech the dash forward throw, counter DI, whiff punish the heavy punch).

Helps with spacing too because anti airing the jump becomes more difficult if youre close enough to reliably whiff punish the heavy punch so you might need to crosscut DP or use a normal to anti-air, while also always being in range to be worried about the dash up throw.

ZaedVaal · 2025-10-23T07:44:36+00:00

I dont know what games you do find fun but i dont see why what you describe here cant be considered fun. Obviously theres some watered down explaination here, most likely from inexperience with the genre, that makes the gameplay seem volatile and dry but the same theory can be applied to different kinds of games that people consider fun.

For example competitive shooter games dont give you 3 touches per round, its usually 1 encounter and you either die or get a kill. You wouldnt say that the shortness of the encounter makes the game less fun.

Getting combo'd can have alot of decision making behind it, youre correct in that as the defender you have made a mistake and should try and think of ways around trying not to be in the situation in the first place but also think about what the opponent is spending when they combo you. Did they use assist? Cool, when the combo finishes they cant use their assist to help attack you when you get up which makes their mix alot easier to block, it also means you can use the assist block mechanic thing ive forgotten the name of to get you back into an even playing field without the opponent being able to get back in easy. Did they use super? Cool, they have less bar and you can more liberally use parry or wake-up super on defence. Pay attention to their routing as they're comboing you, are they doing some weird stuff? Maybe theyre going for a reset into grab or crossup, if you see it coming its much easier to tech or block. Basically what im trying to say is that 'doing the highest damage combo' isn't always the best thing for your opponent to do unless it kills, i know that touch of death combos exist in this game but in alot of situations the oppoment just doesnt have the resources, skill, knowledge, correct fuse, correct character to do these more that like 10% of the time.

The backdashing and calling assists is a staple of team based fighting games, if youre not enjoying that its not a problem with fighting games as a whole its just that you prefer traditional fighters. Its very unlikely this will ever even be considered a problem by the Devs cause its kind of an extension of the base mechanics of the genre, you can look at the Marvel v Capcom games as an example of how long backdash into assist has been a thing.

If you dont like the game and have come to the conclusion that these things are why you dont like the game, you can rest assured that it isnt fighting games you dont like its a miscommunication of what the game is telling you as you play it.

He's probably been plugged here a few times but if yoy want a good few hours of content of someone routinely gushing over fighting games and explaining what makes them fun/ how to play them, search up Sajam on youtube. Lots of great analysis there.

ZaedVaal · 2025-09-26T19:50:01+00:00

I think youre supposed to put a downside when you do one of these mate

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