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

[Darwock]

I have switched them off to the greatest extent available to me - it only displays how many matches I have played. Unfortunately I still know that the full details are all listed there in the player data, and that any of my friends or opponents can look at it (from either the leaderboards or the battle log) so I can’t shake it off. I know it’s stupid but that’s how it is.

 

I’ve only ever used Lei-Fei, from VF4-Evo, to VF5 in the arcades when I moved to Japan, and then on the PS3 - so it feels the most natural to me, but with finally having regular online competition I’ve noticed how the automatic stance switching in the strings leaves me with huge predictable holes in my defence that good players can exploit every single time. I need to get better at not following the usual flow of inputs I think. I’m getting a lot more comfortable with Pai now so I think I’ll continue with her and hopefully any experience gained will transfer when I go back to Lei, so I can figure out my weak spots.

 

Back on my main account tonight (4th dan for Pai, 8th dan for Lei), and every match it found was green. The opponents came regularly too. It might just be the lower (and higher?) ranks that were struggling with matchmaking ?

 

 

[Down by Law]

Man I hope if there is a VF6 they cut down on the amount of giant combos that involve scooping a fully grown person 2 inches off the floor for 60% damage. It looks ridiculous and it's annoying to be on the receiving end too. 

[Kayin Amoh]

Feels great doing it though!

[Kayin Amoh]

Whoa, Jesus. Had my first online matches since the patch and it's made everything about a million times worse. Now waiting about five times as long for a match offer, most of them are red and the three I played were barely playable. Even dropped out on an Akira after a single match instead of doing best of 3, it was that bad.

[Darwock]

That was my initial experience too. Tonight, it was back to how it was before (for me). Challengers coming every 10-15 seconds, and always green connections. All I can think now is that it’s the weekend and the right time of day, so more players were on.

[Kayin Amoh]

I've been watching Asian players on twitch, and they're getting fast and smooth matches consistently. A Norwegian player was taking ages to connect and always going up against the same guy.

 

Wondering if it's thrown regions out of whack, the JP / Korean scene seems to be doing fine compared to Europe.

[Down by Law]

It matched me up against the same guy three times , so I deliberately waited for a yellow connection

 

Same guy again 🥴🥴🥴

 

 

[Hyper P]

I had a few games on Friday night, it was mainly rotating me around the same 3-4 players in ranked, but the system did also highlight some yellow/orange bars.

[Kayin Amoh]

Found a youtube channel with some cute and friendly simple combos. Here's them for Vanessa's OS: 

 

 

 

Not for every character at the moment, but easy to understand.

[Darwock]

I wish I could stay in the 1st-5th dan group indefinitely. My Pai ranked up to 6th dan and now I’m getting huge losing streaks. Still not desensitized to it, there was one Wolf who had no challenge from me whatsoever as he just kept chaining throws, and as I didn’t know the correct escapes there was nothing to be done. I should be quite philosophical about that but it still got me tilted  

 

This next recorded match was not a loss, but I’m interested in opinions from better players - there was way too much blocking going on, and I know in those situations you are supposed to go for a throw, but I don’t know how to ensure I am in a safe position to do so (in range and with frame advantage). At the moment my throw tactic goes something like “I have remembered the throw exists - I’ll try it now!l” usually meaning I grab air or get kicked. Was there any point in this match that was a good set up for throwing? He did it to me, but I never returned the favour. Or is there some other reason this was so drawn out, like too much reliance on the same moves?

 

(I actually saved this for the little [‘mon then!] moment we both did just before 3:00, made me laugh a bit)

 

 

[Down by Law]

I've topped out at Veteran - The losses smash the bar and the wins don't fill it back up quick enough. Yo-Yoing around 26-28 for the last few weeks now, which is fine by me. The newest patch has either affected the matchmaking or the playerbase has cratered - if it's a green connection, it's the same person every time. Likewise for Yellow etc, you can work out who you'll fight based on the colours. I find it hard to believe it's just the same 3-4 people playing in my area and it's not a netcode fault.

 

 

That flipkick damage is rediculous!

 

Still pleased with the finish though 

 

[Darwock]

I think I would have had to stop for fear of a heart attack if I was at that rank and finished a game like that. Awesome.

 

I’m trying to cram some useful information from vf.com - what is a ‘wsK’ in the context of “Pai's wsK is one of the best moves to crush Rising Attack”? K is kick obviously, but ws?

[Kayin Amoh]

While standing? As in, you're getting up from a crouch? However, that's usually 'while rising'. Could also be while sidestepping. Definitely not a wall splat.

 

Edit: A little labbing and it's almost certainly 'while standing'.

 

 

Honestly, VF terminology can be pretty confusing. Abare and Nitaku? Wut?

 

Also, for you: 

 

[Goemon]

7 hours ago, Darwock said:

I wish I could stay in the 1st-5th dan group indefinitely. My Pai ranked up to 6th dan and now I’m getting huge losing streaks. Still not desensitized to it, there was one Wolf who had no challenge from me whatsoever as he just kept chaining throws, and as I didn’t know the correct escapes there was nothing to be done. I should be quite philosophical about that but it still got me tilted  

 

This next recorded match was not a loss, but I’m interested in opinions from better players - there was way too much blocking going on, and I know in those situations you are supposed to go for a throw, but I don’t know how to ensure I am in a safe position to do so (in range and with frame advantage). At the moment my throw tactic goes something like “I have remembered the throw exists - I’ll try it now!l” usually meaning I grab air or get kicked. Was there any point in this match that was a good set up for throwing? He did it to me, but I never returned the favour. Or is there some other reason this was so drawn out, like too much reliance on the same moves?

 

(I actually saved this for the little [‘mon then!] moment we both did just before 3:00, made me laugh a bit)

 

 

If you suspect someone is going to throw all you have to do is attack, you don’t have the plan a throw escape attempt. As long as you’re attacking their throw will fail. Throw escapes are more to be used for when the opponent blocks a move from you which is a guaranteed throw move or just to cover you in the scenario where the opponent is at advantage.
 

If you go into training you can find this out. If you have a move that when blocked leaves you at -10 then you need to think about throw escaping as you can’t do anything before they can throw you. 

 

The majority of moves are negative, which makes it your turn after blocking an attack. However a lot of moves aren’t negative enough to guarantee a throw, so it’s totally normal to have sessions of blocking back and forth because you take a chance to throw that the opponent isn’t doing something else.
 

The best time to use throw is when you believe you’ve convinced the opponent they must block. This can come after 1 punch or it can be 3 strings consecutively, you just have to get a feel.
 

The game is designed around reading the opponents tendencies. 
 

Watching that video you were very lucky, you went for combo into low kick far too many times. The opponent blocked it every time and that move leaves you at -18, which is very dangerous. If the guy had known his punishes better he could have taken you for a decent chunk of health every you did it.

 

You should definitely go into training and look at where your moves leave you on block

[Down by Law]

Just pick Goh he's only got two moves

[Faded]

friendly reminder that you don’t always have to finish strings. Especially if opponent has caught on that you’re doing ppp sweep and blocking everytime. Do ppp low throw. 
 

Conditioning goes a long way in vf. Try not to fall into repeating the same habits and instead look at how your opponent is responding to certain situations, put them in that situation and crush them with the move that beats their response. I suck at every single technical aspect of vf, all my wins come from winning the Rock Paper Scissors game more times than the other guy. 
 

Don’t stress about rank. Don’t worry about winning. Have fun with the guessing games and figuring out some set ups that work for you. Winning will take care of itself after a while. 

[Darwock]

I’m in training mode right now with CPU set to guard. Every time I do that string I was spamming above, the low kick somehow goes through the guard for a hit and I don’t get to see the frame data. Can confirm all the other finishers for that string have a worse disadvantage than -18 though. 
 

This is where I get a bit lost, as that implies all of these moves are too risky to use (although I suppose it’s just about not being predictable).

 

In training is there a setting I can do to ensure that the CPU will actually block everything?

 

Also I’m trying to follow those Pai combos above and think there’s an error in the first one - the video shows a 46K+G but the command listed is a 6K+G. Bit frustrating until I went through the command training and found the kick that matched.

[Faded]

7 minutes ago, Darwock said:

I’m in training mode right now with CPU set to guard. Every time I do that string I was spamming above, the low kick somehow goes through the guard for a hit and I don’t get to see the frame data. Can confirm all the other finishers for that string have a worse disadvantage than -18 though. 
 

This is where I get a bit lost, as that implies all of these moves are too risky to use (although I suppose it’s just about not being predictable).

 

In training is there a setting I can do to ensure that the CPU will actually block everything?

 

Also I’m trying to follow those Pai combos above and think there’s an error in the first one - the video shows a 46K+G but the command listed is a 6K+G. Bit frustrating until I went through the command training and found the kick that matched.

Most strings in the game are unsafe if you finish the last hit. The idea is the ppp part of it gives you time to hit check and you can stop before finishing. The opponent has to gamble to pressure you after because the canned K will still beat anything. 
 

Jacky’s 6PK is an excellent example of this. You block the 6P and it’s your turn, but if you try and take it and jacky finishes the string you’re getting knocked down. You guess right and you block the K he’s punishable. You give him too much respect and he can just apply fraudulent pressure over and over.  

[Faded]

Wife is off to bed so I’ll be around for the next couple hours if anyone fancies some good old fashioned ninja shit. 

[Faded]

Apparently the room match bug has been fixed. ggs to kayin and bacon last night, persevering in the face of said bug. 

[Down by Law]

 

🥴

 

 

 

[Darwock]

I just went looking for the news about that and also found that this Sunday they are doing the first online tournament. Not sure if it’s Japan only, but it”s limited to 128 players. How is that going to work I wonder.

 

edit - I know it’s unlikely given the previous lock-ups @Down by Law, but could that have been a rage quit? I mean that was literally stopped on the winning hit 😕

[Down by Law]

I don't think so - the connection started getting shaky on the last round and he was in action when it dropped..I don't blame the other player at all. Bet they loved it though 

[Down by Law]

 

Good grief man one wrong read against POWERHOUSE Eileen and I lose 50% of my bar? 

 

There should be some damage scaling surely 

 

 

 

 

[Darwock]

I watched some of the tournament on YouTube - that ‘preparing’ menu option didn’t change at all, so I guess it’s nothing to do with it. In fact, the tournament doesn’t appear to have been open to the public at all? It all seems to have been co-ordinated outside of the game, which is not at all what I expected (in comparison to the other esports game I have played, GT sport).

 

The Jean player in the finals came across like a total prick, so I had personal investment in the other guy (Jacky) winning, and he did. Very satisfying.

[Kayin Amoh]

The huge amount of videos coming out is gratifying. Learned a lot more since this came out than I did at any point beforehand.

 

Even started learning a bit of Jefferson on the side.

[Darwock]

Maybe not the most valid reason to bump this thread but I just randomly found out that the voice of Kage is the same guy that sang ‘Daytooooonnnnnaaaaa! Let’s go away!”.

[Kayin Amoh]

Any reason for bumping this thread's a good one. Anyway...

 

 

Annoyingly, my no game woes continue. Watch a Japanese stream and people get green games every ten seconds. I put it on and wait several minutes for a red one bar. It's a crushing shame for the bestest fighter around.

[Faded]

Same here. Had this running in the background most of the night. Maybe got five games in. 

[Goemon]

Not sure what’s happened. Either everyone has dropped off already, they’ve turned off a load of servers or they‘ve bust something.
 

Having limited game time, I’ve unfortunately stopped playing this  When I’ve only got like 45 mins to play something and the best I can get is 1-2 games and the rest of the time is waiting then I’m just not going to waste my time.
 

I don’t understand why it’s not constantly buzzing.