New to the 2D Genre, Having Trouble Learning the System and Improving

[SCPartisan]

Hello all! As the title states, I'm new to 2D fighters (playing P4A) and I'm having a really hard time figuring things out. My competitive background is in the 3D genre (Soul Calibur series as my main game and a bit of recent dabbling in VF5:FS) and so far everything I've learned and have been doing in those games has meant absolutely nothing in this game haha.

Could really use some help on some of the system/gameplay stuff (wake up, dealing with/applying pressure, etc...) if anyone is willing to help out a scrub that wants to learn!

So far I've been doing a bit of reading and video watching but it hasn't helped me as much as I had hoped (maybe looking in the wrong places?). Anyways, I seem to be at a total loss so any and all feedback is welcome! Thanks in advance!

Edit: Just saw the note about the stickies. Sorry if this crosses in with some of those.

[Digital Watches]

There are two main things you're probably going to have to get used to in the switch from 3D to 2D fighters:

First: Technical/input/timing differences.

No matter what you've gotten used to in 3D fighters, the technical tricks are almost certainly going to be different. Setting aside the obvious things like "Block is no longer a button," you're also going to have to get used to the primary mechanism for accomplishing things in fighting games: Buffering inputs. You've almost certainly noticed that, as compared to most 3D fighters, directional inputs do a lot more actions that aren't directly moving your character around. Because of this, most 2D fighters have a concept of buffered inputs, and most experienced players, whether they know it or not, have mastered a number of tricks involving the input buffer that give them an edge on people who haven't played 2D fighters as much.

Additionally, timing will be a difficult transition, especially when dealing with mixups. Not only will you have to deal with a considerably different set of options to look out for, but also oftentimes they will be coming at you much more quickly than in a 3D fighter. The same applies to things like confirming hits. Especially coming from something like SC, you should find someone who's willing to practice with you and just have them run their pressure game while you try to block it. It's really the kind of thing that you'll only get better at with practice.

Approach/Defense

As I mentioned before, 2D fighters have a considerably different set of options than 3D fighters. Learning to deal with approaches from the air, faster high-low and frametrap mixup, crossups in general, projectiles in general, and the generally more intense offensive options afforded to players in an "airdashing" style 2D fighter can be intimidating even for people coming from something like Street Fighter. This is a two-fold problem, as not only is this something you'll have to learn to deal with, but something you'll have to learn to use yourself.

A couple of rules of thumb:

-Air approaches are risky because there are many moves that are unblockable from the air, and because anti-air hits often more easily lead to a damaging combo from most hits.

-Block low by default UNLESS the opponent is in the air. In almost every game of this genre, overheads from the ground are pretty slow, and a throw is easier to see coming than a fast low. Mixup is hard to read, but it's much harder if you're not defaulting to blocking low.

-It's better to block than to swing. If you see something coming at you, don't try to beat it unless you're 100% sure you can, or it's your only option. Frametraps are arguably the strongest type of mixup, and getting baited out is actually usually worse than just blocking wrong, because counterhits are often punished more severely.

Learning to defend will often be a matter of going up against good players, and learning to go on the offensive effectively is even harder: You'll have to experiment a lot, but it helps to watch matches of good players (Japanese players) of whatever character you intend to play. Getting a handle on character-specific options for a wide variety of characters will help your defense, and getting a handle on yours will help your offense.

Unfortunately, a lot of it is just going to come down to experience. So get out there and play a lot!

[SCPartisan]

I figured a lot of the learning process would come with experience but your post has helped with a lot.

Thanks!