A fighting game virgin's thoughts on a genre he hardly understands

Goth! Long time no see! :grin:

How are your shoes? :high_heel:

How else would you want me to respond to each part? :stuck_out_tongue: A giant paragraph? Lel

Iā€™m trying not to get kicked out of this thread for going off-topic so please donā€™t get me started on shoes. lol Iā€™m new on these forums and I usually like to be a member at least a week on a forum before I go off-topic in a thread. Iā€™m not getting off to a good start.

Fair enough. Still, itā€™s good to see an old friend. You as beautiful as ever I assume (you can PM me)?

You should play me in KI sometime! :smiley:

Donā€™t worry, it was very frustrating for me coming from KI 1 and 2, getting into this one. However it William be better for you un the way your brain has no muscle memory from previous games xP

youll get the hang o it in time manā€¦ the forums here will help you if you ask (as you can see people have already flooded in)

I always thought it was easier to explain combo strings as

Special move>button press>special move>button press>heavy special move

For a newbie the less KI tech lingo, the easier to explain, always.

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Everybody has understandably responded to this part with regard to the combo system, which is specifically a KI thing. But more generally, yes - most attacks in a 2D fighting game are unreactable. But at the same time, most attacks can be blocked by crouch-blocking. Typically, the things that beat crouch-blocking (like overhead attacks, jumping attacks) are reactable and/or have a higher amount of risk associated with attempting them. Throws beat crouch-blocking and are also unreactable, but you need to be a lot closer to get a throw.

So the ā€˜skillā€™ in fighting games includes having strong reaction timing (especially to jump attacks), knowing how far away you should be from your opponent to avoid their unreactable attacks, when to do some attacks of your own to prevent your opponent from getting into a more advantageous position (like close enough to throw you), and when to take some risks of your own. Then when your positioning gets you into a rock/paper/scissors situation, you have to know how to stack the odds in your favor. And then every character has a different toolset which makes them stronger at some things, but worse at others. Against an opponent who is trying to do the same thing and adapting to what youā€™re doing, a lot of things are occupying your brain at the same time, and the skill comes from managing that brainpower effectively.

Agreed. But for people who are completely new to fighting games, they may not understand what a special move is.

At least thatā€™s how my waifu understood it.

If they know the technicalities, then for sure. Youā€™re right.

True, but as far back as Street Fighter itā€™s been standard to say a special move is any move that isnā€™t just a punch or a kick and that you have to input a unique command for. Iā€™m pretty sure most casuals and newbies can understand that small tidbit almost immediately.

This is such a perfect way of explaining it! Iā€™ll admit, I generally play KI by ā€œfeelā€ as I learn more by doing something than by reading about it, Iā€™m quite the visual learner, too, sometimes Iā€™ll see things and Iā€™ll be like ā€œoh, so thatā€™s it!ā€

Youā€™ve summed it up perfectly here, a great way to explain the combo system in simple terms.

Welcome @Mummelpuffin, I hope you enjoy your journey with KI, your enthusiasm, logical approach to learning its systems, plus the fact youā€™ve joined up here to ask questions I think will take you far! :grinning:

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Right, but Iā€™m talking about someone completely NEW to fighting games who only saw SF but never actually played it. In those instances, they may not grasp the reference. A casual like me who migrated to the edge of cmpetative understood that, only because KI wasnā€™t actually my first fighting game.

Eh, either method works. Iā€™m just saying thatā€™s how I learned to play fighting games long ago.

Also I might add that being a dad Iā€™ve taught at least a couple of people that literally started with zero motor function or cognitive ability, @Thunderb3E being one if them. He caught on pretty quickly what a special move was. I think he was about 6ā€¦maybe 7 when I first let him play SF4 and taught him how to do a hadoken.

You showed him the input, when you showed him did you show him special move or literally stick motion plus button? My point is for people who have no understanding of traditional fighting games, special move means many things. Stick motion + button is exactly that.

I digress though, if both these methods helped someone, than neither is wrong. Preferences are subjective and we could go on all day on this, Iā€™d rather not.

All-in-all, we both helped someone understand what to do. Thatā€™s the important thing.

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Nothing substantial to add here but just wanted to say welcome to KI. I hope you get half the enjoyment out if it that I have.

KI has a lot going on and a lot that comes at you fast. I would definitely encourage you to play with people in Exhibition until you feel comfortable in the gameā€™s basic systems.

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