Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown - PS4 Exclusive, Out Now as Part of PS+ June/July 2021.

[Down by Law]

Jacky isn't too bad - his strings are quite obvious , but watch out for those counter somersault kicks - agree Jean is a right bastard, that forward roll into 60% combo is absurd 

[Faded]

@Darwock it’s easy to say don’t take it too seriously but I’m as guilty as anyone for getting frustrated when I feel like I’m losing all the time. I’ve learned to deal with a lot of characters bullshit by just eating it over and over again until I didn’t. Sometimes you’re making progress even when it doesn’t feel like it. 
 

regarding throws - yup, you just have to know the animations or have a grasp of what each characters highest damage direction is. It’s not as bad as it used to be at least, having to break 4,2 against kage 6,3 v akira, 4,3 against jacky etc. One thing you can do is just pick a direction and stick with it, example 6p+g lazy throw escape style with hitting guard first and then holding the escape. Get hit by a throw after this? You now know that’s not a 6 break. 

[Faded]

Me and my good friend Jack Daniels played until 3am until things got a bit too laggy (and blurry). Ended up hitting lv26 with a 69% win ratio. 
 

Nice. 
 

For all the talk of defensive technique over the last few pages I’d like to reiterate that I am doing absolutely none of that whatsoever. I’m just back dash launchering, abusing anti 2p moves and tft’ing mf’ers out the ring everytime I can. 
 

The best game. 

[Darwock]

As I’m still in a bit of a sour grapes mode, I’d like to talk about the things that I have found most irritating - a strong contender would be Vanessa's stupid crawl across the floor spam, and Shun’s similar backwards punch thing, but definitely the most irritating by far? People that use the title ‘VF Beginner’ when they are clearly anything but. If they perfectly catch you on wake-up every single time and do perfect bounce/stagger combos without exception, they are not a f**king beginner. Hate that shit. I’ve only dabbled with VF4 Evo way back and VF5 on the PS3 (so never had human competition) but even I have the decency to use ‘novice’ or ‘rookie’ instead of claiming to be a complete newbie.

[Goemon]

I don’t know who you’re running into @Darwock but I’m now at Raider level 22 and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone who knows how to consistently beat wake up. You’re either being very unlucky or you’re making bad decisions.

 

Regarding move spam I would say again you need to know your punishes. Anyone spamming moves is a ‘beginner’ IMO they’ve played a bit and found a few things that work (at a lower level) so they’re just mashing them. Once you break this I normally find that the person is knackered as they have no other options.

 

I can understand your frustrations though. I used to play VF4 with a group of people and my m8 would get really frustrated by spammers. He was trying to play the game properly but would constantly lose to people who were spamming. I think a major factor in this is when you’re learning, because you’re processing the situations and trying to make the right choices it slows down your reactions. One thing about a spammer, is that the next move is coming out frame 1 that it can.
 

TBH one thing that they had in VF4 that they took out in VF5 was the side step attack. This was a move that you could do as part of your side step. It was pretty unsafe and you couldn’t get anything off it but it meant that you had a move that would beat relentless forward attacks, ie mashers. I remember using it a lot against people like this.

 

Interested to see more videos from you @Darwock ones where you lost to something that really annoyed you. Always good to get the rllmuk massive help you figure something out.

 

[Darwock]

Yeah I’m planning to do that, embarrassing as it may be. If I’m lucky I may already have one where I was getting battered up close (I usually save a video if someone has done something I want to study, and my PS4 is set to record the last 30mins so I’ve got quite a few matches recorded). I actually feel like I probably know what the feedback would be - it’s most likely sloppy inputs (not the punch I was looking for) and bad timing lol.

 

In the case of the spam that’s what’s so irritating, you know it’s noob level shit but it still takes damage off while you try and find the right option to beat it, and then you find it’s too late.

 

I did the same thing seeking advice with Blazblue back in the day (on another site), and well… once everyone was done laughing I had deleted my account and fled to the furthest corners of the internet.

[Kayin Amoh]

13 hours ago, Darwock said:

As I’m still in a bit of a sour grapes mode, I’d like to talk about the things that I have found most enchanting - a strong contender would be Vanessa's wonderful intercept stance that only super cool players use and I'm forever grateful to be on the receiving end of.

 

❤️

 

The nice thing is that once you learn what beats what, it's stored away for later. They'll be able to spam annoyances in the short term, but they'll also need to mix it up later on or at least be more selective.

 

I really need to play more of this game. It's a magnificent gift that came at a time when I'm insanely busy.

 

[Darwock]

Right then, I went through the recordings from last night - this was the exact string of matches that got me into that funk (there are more but I have to draw the line somewhere); I was playing with steam boiling out my ears and a feeling that my head was going to explode, loss after loss… watching them back this evening I actually thought that they didn’t look too bad. If they hadn’t been all back to back losses maybe I’d have been thinking ‘good game’, instead of going nuclear inside my brain. Still if anyone can point out where I went wrong with the round 5 defeats as I feel like I got overwhelmed in most of those final rounds.

 

As for the Akira battle - that one was extremely frustrating and I could not figure out how to get into the match at all, so if you don’t want to watch them all, please look at that one.

 

Spoiler

 

vs. Jackie

 

vs. Taka

vs. Kage 1

 

vs. Kage 2

 

 

 

vs. Akira

 

[Down by Law]

Don't play on tilt and accept you are going to lose as you learn each matchup. I've played 280 ranked matches with Brad and my win rate was 30% or so after the first 100, now it's just over 50% as I've learned to deal with different fighters and their styles, and these are higher ranked players too (I am currently 24 berserker and rarely fight Dans now) I watched the Vs Jacky video and you gave away the third round when you had him juggled against the fence when your down attack would've done the job. Practice what moves you can hit on a downed/falling opponent . The Akira player looks a lot better than his rank suggests as he's got that quickstepping down pat but he's a tricky character to fight as his moves have such odd timing compared to a lot of the cast. Kage has the fastest down jab so I just try to stay the fuck away from him or do Brad's 7pk which hops over low punched and causes a hard knockdown. I don't know what tools lei fei has for down punchers but I bet he's got one !

 

[Down by Law]

 

I loved this guy. What a good sport! 

[Kayin Amoh]

'CleanFuture2014'? He'll be clean as a whistle after that many dips!

[Faded]

Lei Fei is tricky to win up close battles with as most of the stances you end up in have very specific choices to make to avoid specific attacks.  I have zero advice with him as I’ve never put the effort in to learn him. One example is you often get into bokutai up close and then hit out of it, the evasive 2 from bokutai would have possibly evaded some of these allowing you to punish. 
 

A lot of those matches were closer than the final result suggested sometimes though. Had you gotten bigger damage after your launchers it would have been a different final score line. 

[Down by Law]

14 minutes ago, Kayin Amoh said:

'CleanFuture2014'? He'll be clean as a whistle after that many dips!

Perfect username and brad win quote combo. 

 

Note to self for the future: don't idly throw out low jabs Vs Wolf. 

[Faded]

37 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

 

I loved this guy. What a good sport! 

It does look warm there to be fair. 

[Hanzo the Razor]

18 hours ago, Darwock said:

Right then, I went through the recordings from last night - this was the exact string of matches that got me into that funk (there are more but I have to draw the line somewhere); I was playing with steam boiling out my ears and a feeling that my head was going to explode, loss after loss… watching them back this evening I actually thought that they didn’t look too bad. If they hadn’t been all back to back losses maybe I’d have been thinking ‘good game’, instead of going nuclear inside my brain. Still if anyone can point out where I went wrong with the round 5 defeats as I feel like I got overwhelmed in most of those final rounds.

 

As for the Akira battle - that one was extremely frustrating and I could not figure out how to get into the match at all, so if you don’t want to watch them all, please look at that one.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

vs. Jackie

 

vs. Taka

vs. Kage 1

 

vs. Kage 2

 

 

 

vs. Akira

 

 

I would like to go and live on that level. And not just for the sheep.

[Goemon]

18 hours ago, Darwock said:

Right then, I went through the recordings from last night - this was the exact string of matches that got me into that funk (there are more but I have to draw the line somewhere); I was playing with steam boiling out my ears and a feeling that my head was going to explode, loss after loss… watching them back this evening I actually thought that they didn’t look too bad. If they hadn’t been all back to back losses maybe I’d have been thinking ‘good game’, instead of going nuclear inside my brain. Still if anyone can point out where I went wrong with the round 5 defeats as I feel like I got overwhelmed in most of those final rounds.

 

As for the Akira battle - that one was extremely frustrating and I could not figure out how to get into the match at all, so if you don’t want to watch them all, please look at that one.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

vs. Jackie

 

vs. Taka

vs. Kage 1

 

vs. Kage 2

 

 

 

vs. Akira

 

 

Comments from me...

 

You NEVER side step, don’t think I saw a single one in all the videos. Side stepping is especially important in the Akira match because A LOT of his moves are straight. That Akira player never did a single side step hitting move. Akira is like a train coming at you and a great way to get an advantage is to side step. 

 

Another thing is that you’re doing too much is a wake up move. The first Kage got so much damage out of you whiffing wake up kick and punishing you, it cost you rounds 1 and 3. Fair enough try it in the early stages to see how the opponent reacts, but if they’re looking for it, you’ve got to tell yourself to stop.
 

The other thing to note is when you wake up with a kick and they block it, you’re negative so you’ve got to hold doing anything otherwise you’re likely to lose. In the final Taka round he blocked your wake up 3 times in and then punished you on advantage, which cost you the round and the match.

 

Feel like you choked a number of times too. Not highlighting it as a negative, it all comes with practice but I’m saying try not to get frustrated for losing when you had the opportunities, you just missed them. This cost you a couple of rounds, which had you had a full punish, would have given you the round instead. Get yourself into training and practice your combos from certain situations so it becomes muscle memory over thinking.
 

Sorry I don’t have my Lei Fei knowledge but get yourself on VFDC for a wealth of info on how to use the character.

 

https://virtuafighter.com/forums/lei.85/
 

Also watch high level Lei Fei matches to get ideas of how to deal with things.

[Faded]

On the subject of lei I really liked this guy’s little string of offence in the second round. Did I have to sit there and respect it? No idea. Sure was pressuring though. 
 

 

[Darwock]

3 hours ago, Goemon said:

 

Comments from me...

 

You NEVER side step, don’t think I saw a single one in all the videos. Side stepping is especially important in the Akira match because A LOT of his moves are straight. That Akira player never did a single side step hitting move. Akira is like a train coming at you and a great way to get an advantage is to side step. 

 

Another thing is that you’re doing too much is a wake up move. The first Kage got so much damage out of you whiffing wake up kick and punishing you, it cost you rounds 1 and 3. Fair enough try it in the early stages to see how the opponent reacts, but if they’re looking for it, you’ve got to tell yourself to stop.
 

The other thing to note is when you wake up with a kick and they block it, you’re negative so you’ve got to hold doing anything otherwise you’re likely to lose. In the final Taka round he blocked your wake up 3 times in and then punished you on advantage, which cost you the round and the match.

 

Feel like you choked a number of times too. Not highlighting it as a negative, it all comes with practice but I’m saying try not to get frustrated for losing when you had the opportunities, you just missed them. This cost you a couple of rounds, which had you had a full punish, would have given you the round instead. Get yourself into training and practice your combos from certain situations so it becomes muscle memory over thinking.
 

Sorry I don’t have my Lei Fei knowledge but get yourself on VFDC for a wealth of info on how to use the character.

 

https://virtuafighter.com/forums/lei.85/
 

Also watch high level Lei Fei matches to get ideas of how to deal with things.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I do choke a lot and end up paralyzed. I think it’s cos I’m worrying too much about the defensive game when I should probably just be keeping the pressure on by any means necessary. Regarding sidestepping, I forced myself to do it a few times in the past and always got hit anyway (possibly just bad luck or I’m not good at reading which direction to dodge in) so I kind of shelved it as an idea that would work for me. I guess I need to get used to doing it somehow.

 

To be honest I’m kind of baffled by the changes in VF5 - back in VF4 Evo when I sidestepped I could hit P+K+G and Lei-Fei would do a little chopping move after the dodge, so it made sense to me to use it. Now it’s Defensive Move or Offensive Move, but when you hit P+K+G to turn it into a DM into an OM there’s no attack, so what’s offensive about it? It also seems to imply that after a standard DM you don’t get an opportunity to attack. That makes no sense.

[Goemon]

2 hours ago, Darwock said:

 

Thanks for the feedback, I do choke a lot and end up paralyzed. I think it’s cos I’m worrying too much about the defensive game when I should probably just be keeping the pressure on by any means necessary. Regarding sidestepping, I forced myself to do it a few times in the past and always got hit anyway (possibly just bad luck or I’m not good at reading which direction to dodge in) so I kind of shelved it as an idea that would work for me. I guess I need to get used to doing it somehow.

 

To be honest I’m kind of baffled by the changes in VF5 - back in VF4 Evo when I sidestepped I could hit P+K+G and Lei-Fei would do a little chopping move after the dodge, so it made sense to me to use it. Now it’s Defensive Move or Offensive Move, but when you hit P+K+G to turn it into a DM into an OM there’s no attack, so what’s offensive about it? It also seems to imply that after a standard DM you don’t get an opportunity to attack. That makes no sense.

Yes it depends what the opponent is doing that will determine how effect your side step will be. Players mashing punch/kick strings are a bit more dangerous to side step as they likely won’t be a combo and the non-combo’ing move will track you, strings also regularly include circle or half circle hitting attacks as part of itself. This is why it’s important against characters like Akira though who doesn’t really use strings and instead uses single attacks to make his combos.
 

Regrading the Offensive move, it’s more about improving your positioning when you’re on the offensive. So if you hit someone and then look to offensive step it will position you to be attacking the opponents side, which puts you at a larger advantage.

For example, P is +2 on block, however if you offensive step after just attacking the opponent (So they are on defence and likely blocking) you will attack from the side and your P will be +4.

 

It also works for negative moves too. So Goh has a launcher that is -15 on block. It’s a guaranteed hit move and very dangerous to do. However if you offensive step and do it to the opponents side it’s only -9 which makes it safe to any attack/throw.

[Hyper P]

On 18/06/2021 at 16:14, Faded said:

Thanks to @Hyper Pfor the games last night. Really decent connection. Shame I still have no idea what to do versus flamingo stance after 15 odd years. 
 

 

Thanks, good fun! Glad I won at least one match!

 

I’ve noticed over the last few days I don’t really know what to do right as a round starts, feels like everything beats me to the punch and I lose 30%+ health from the get-go. What’s everyone’s game plan there?

 

And hello to @Bobbi Champagne Jr who’s Wolf I ran into on my ranked travels tonight. I’d no clue what to expect!

[Darwock]

I have two go-to moves on the start (a high kick that knocks them over, or a pretty far reaching mid-punch string), or the safer option is just to back-dash rapidly. Often when I pick the latter I find the opponent has done the same thing. None of them work all the time obviously, nothing is unbeatable, some characters catch even the backdash. It really is just luck, isn’t it?

[Faded]

Backdash launcher! 
 

seriously though I’ll always start off with back dash and watch the opponent and make my decisions on the following round based on their reaction. 
 

If you wanna attack right off the bat you want  something very fast or something evasive. 

[Down by Law]

If someone backdashes every round, dash up to them and throw them instead 

[Faded]

I’d never go for that personally as it’s very high risk for fairly low reward. Even if you were right on the back dash you still need them to be standing their holding guard when you reach them. 
 

Iirc connecting with someone backdashing registers as counter hit in FS and every sidekick will give the weird butt down stagger that practically guaranteed a follow up. 
 

Taka is really good at this. His standing K has crazy range and will knock a round start backdash led on their ass for a (maybe strugglable? I haven’t seen it blocked) 33P+K and that’s half a bar gone in the first exchange. 

[Down by Law]

Yeah, i think it's just the surprise factor that makes it work in my experience, I usually go for it in the final round, especially if i've not attempted or landed any throws in the fight at that point

[Hyper P]

I landed dash-forward -> throw four times last night. Fun when it works!

[Down by Law]

Man, FUCK Jacky and his bullshit somersault kick. 

[Faded]

1 hour ago, Down by Law said:

Man, FUCK Jacky and his bullshit somersault kick. 

The damage you can get off evade flip kick is fucking insane. Same with akiras bodycheck. Rage inducing. 

[Down by Law]

 

 

Made it to Guardian but man, it's tough out there. Switching back to Akira to try and move him up to the same rank.

 

I played a 33 Taka and just got fucking annihilated, straight up beasted. Surprised he doesn't appear more often, he's terrifying in the right hands

[Faded]

Well done on guardian. I got ranked back down to 25 a few days ago, partially my own fault as I kept playing in the am when the connections were flat out horrific. 
 

The lack of Taka is probably  because anyone playing him semi sensibly is going to rocket past our rank fairly quickly. He’s as strong as anyone in the game, minus any execution challenge and normal go to combos don’t work on him. I don’t think he’s broken at all, but if you don’t know some Taka specific stuff against him it’s a real uphill battle.