Before now, I was a VERY casual fighting game player. My experience consisted of beating MK9's and MKX's story modes and one or two arcade modes in each game, a couple matches of Street Fighter 2 and Killer Instinct with friends, and a handful of matches of different Smash games. I wasn't super interested in them because I was too intimidated of getting my ass beat by online players and it's only recently that fighting games have started including more and more single player content for people like me.

The past few years, I started diving into the hack and slash/character action/stylish action/spectacle fighter genre with games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, God of War, etc. and I just adore these games. I'm finding it harder and harder to play games with more simplistic melee combat after playing through games that excel at it so well. However, the thing about this genre is that it can also be intimidating to newcomers because some of the combos are a little complex and encourage you to play through them multiple times in order and practice in order to get the full experience.

Weirdly enough, playing through these action games has, like, tuned my brain into being able to pull off weird button combos faster and faster to do flashy attacks and shit. Around the time Bridget was announced for Guilty Gear Strive, I decided I would try to dip my toes back into fighting games and after practicing in the game for a bit, stuff that used to be too complicated for me now makes me go "yeah I'm just gonna do this one move against the AI a thousand times until I can do it consistently," without even blinking. Playing in training mode doesn't feel like a chore anymore, it's just part of the game. It's as much content to me as a story mode is, and even though I still get my ass kicked, I at least have fungetting my ass kicked.

Tl:dr I played a different genre of games that requires a lot of practice and somehow that made labbing in fighting games a lot easier and more fun

  • Prolefarian [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Yeah it was Dark Souls for me. I even remember exactly how it happened. I was reading a weapon guide for different properties of their attacks and the guide was using terms like hyper armor and okizeme and I was like... What in the fuck is this guy talking about.

    I've been obsessed ever since.

  • FunnyUsername [she/her]
    hexagon
    ·
    2 years ago

    Also hot take about the fighting game community... you gotta stop saying shit like 6P negative edge rollback

    I don't know what the fucking you are saying :angery:

    • BrezhnevsEyebrows [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Thats like telling marxists to stop saying things like "DotP" and "dialectical materialism". You'll pick up on the terminology over time :)

      Here is a resource that should help

    • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      look at the numberpad on your keyboard. those are the directions, 5 is neutral. numpad notation is way way better than the boomer d, df, f shit. just say 236.

      rollback is about netcode you don't need to worry about it beyond a game having it is good and not having it is miserable.

      "negative edge" i'm not sure how to parse, if it's one thing idk what game you're on. soul calibur has some "edge" mechanics sometimes, but not in 2 which is the best one.

      negative on its own has to do with frame data, which is better explained in videos than a comment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R0hbe8HZj0

      • FidelCashflow [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        doesn't negative edge mean you have to hold down the button and that is when you release it?

        • Prolefarian [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          yeah negative edge is the act of releasing a button, some games register that as an input and some don't

        • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          idk the series i know well enough to talk about don't use "on release" like that except for releasing charge-up moves early. she should check the in-game tutorial of whatever that's from or one of the terminology wikis.

  • Eris235 [undecided]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Maybe that explains why I've never really liked most fighting games; I hate the gamefeel of hack-and-slash games, and have never really felt the appeal. Fighting games are alright, but in a, 'I'll play with friends at a party' way.

    I tend to like difficult games with simple mechanics/controls, so stuff like Gungeon or Schmups. Probably the closest game I actually like that has similarities to 'fighting game button combos' is Crypt of the Necrodancer, and obvi that's more of a rhythm game. Though I've heard some of my friends like like fighting games compared them to rhythm games, so its not the most dissimilar I suppose.

    I get the feeling though, I always kinda hated souls games and games like them for a while, but Sekiro won me over, and I kinda like the genre now that I have a 'feel' for how I'm supposed to approach them.

  • FidelCashflow [he/him]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    if it is relevant I never liked fighting games till I took a few boxing classes and that is what made it all click for me. a surprising amount of it crosses over. a few mma fighters talk about it. I know one guy actually pulled off an air combo in real life and it is wild as hell. a few big name fighters have talked about trying moves they have seen in games with mixed results. Plenty of pro MMA fighters do the occasional cosplay gimmick

      • FidelCashflow [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        it was mighty mouse, he hit a guy, threw him and then hit him with an air grab. it wasn't a long combo really. However, I think there is some correlation with him being a game and trying dumb things till they work.

      • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I'm imagining fuckin' MvC booting someone 20 feet into the air and juggling them for 5 seconds straight

  • barrbaric [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I must be getting old because I tried watching gameplay of GG Strive and literally cannot follow what's happening on screen, it's all just a blur.

  • FidelCashflow [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    hell yeah, who you main?

    is there a way to add friends that doesn't break opsec?

    • FunnyUsername [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      hell yeah, who you main?

      I've only played Bridget and Testament so far because I'm trans and a basic bitch. Also I'm a little averse to playing as male characters in games which is honestly going to hurt my ability to play against those characters if I don't even learn what they can do.

      is there a way to add friends that doesn’t break opsec?

      Idk unfortunately

    • FunnyUsername [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I first learned about hyper armor when I was trying to figure out how the poise mechanic in Dark Souls 2 worked so I can add that to the pile of games that helped me get into fighting games

  • The_Dawn [fae/faer, des/pair]
    ·
    2 years ago

    For me it was trying to get good at DBFZ because I like Dragon Ball, and actually realizing how beautifully deep the game is at a high level. For me it was learning frame data. I learned one of my block string enders was +frames, so if I covered it with assist, I could continue a 2nd block string. Once my own head connects a theory crafting thing like that it's all over.

    • FunnyUsername [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      DFBZ is another game that I've considered picking up just because I know two people who I could play with. I didn't grow up with the series and I don't know of a way to watch it that isn't annoying but I'd be willing to play any fighting game as long as I could play with people I know in-person.

      • The_Dawn [fae/faer, des/pair]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I really enjoy it :vivian-shrug: I think the actual mechanics are good but also simplistic enough to onboard into more complex anime fighters

  • panopticon [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Thats cool I might try those games then. I recently started playing the Movie Battles mod for Jedi Academy after having played it for a little while a few years ago. For some reason I can grasp how the lightsaber wielding works a lot more easily this time around but combos still seem kind of impossible to pull off consistently. Not sure how some people do that.

    • FunnyUsername [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Honestly I thought the lightsaber mechanics in Jedi Academy were overhyped when I tried playing it on PC and console. I mostly see it recommended with the dismemberment mod and I think that mod is what really carries it since no other game has anything resembling what a lightsaber would really be capable of.

      But if you're interested in the action games I mentioned I would suggest DMC5 Special Edition. I think that would be a good starting point because it's easy to learn but difficult to master while also being pretty high budget. You can also get the DMC HD Collection which has 1, 2, and 3 but those games are quite old now and 2 is one of the worst games I've ever played.

      • panopticon [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Oh yeah the saber mechanics in the base game aren't really anything special but the MB mod changes things up a lot and adds a lot of complexity

        Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check that out!