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The "Picking a Main" thread

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Alright.

Back on dustloop after a huge hiatus.

I first got into Guilty Gear when it (I think XX #Reload) came out on the PS2 while I was working at some awful chain video store. I casually played with the game and tried to learn it through each version until Accent Core when I finally landed on Zappa and decided to start trying to play the game competitively. I live in Jacksonville, FL though and this was during what everyone calls the "dark times" so I never had any good players to sharpen skills against or help me understand the game. There was no online play possible so eventually I just dropped it without ever really learning anything about it.

Flashing forward. Looking to get back into GGXXAC+R or whatever it will be called since it is getting a modern release and will feature online play and I'm actually at a point mentally where I feel I can truly absorb/learn the game and it's large array of mechanics.

Looking for any helpful thoughts on some characters in Guilty Gear I'm interested in... I was always curious about Slayer, Testament, Potemkin, maybe Faust and of course Zappa who I failed miserably at learning last go around. If there's anything I should know about the 5 characters I listed please drop that info on me. I really have very little idea of how they "function" or what skill-sets they reward beyond their basic archetypes (rushdown, trapper, grappler, zoning, bomb). Sorry if my list is all over the place, I think I'm still learning what exactly I like in these games.

Looking to make a decision on which character to focus on first.

Thanks in advance for everyone's time and knowledge.

Edited by sircoffigus
rambling

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^That should be obvious.

@Ren: You need to take a few matches or set some time to learn how to do the motions, by just deciding that you're going to focus on those instead of winning a match or whatever. Next time you play go out and look for opportunities to use the combos or moves you're learning, and go out of your way to focus on inputting them precisely instead of being so caught up in the match that you don't notice what's happening.

To get good execution on basic moves, you should also go into training mode and practice doing the move 10 times in a row. If you pull it off just once, don't leave and call it a day, that doesn't mean anything. You only learned it when you can do it consistently. So try to do it 10 times in a row without failing. By the time you get close to doing it 10 times successfully back to back, you should be much better at doing it.

Since you're just learning these things, you have to keep drilling them into yourself so you don't forget it instantly the moment you stop playing. Eventually it'll become muscle memory and you will be able to do it without thinking about it.

In other words, grinding it out for a few hours every day. Even if I can do it 10 times in a row, it serves no point if I can't do those same 10 reps constantly without failures in-between. Which is what's happening. I get those 10 reps, but they come in between a crapload of attempts which fall short of the 10 needed to really be "consistent".

So in reality, when you say 10 you really mean like 30 or 50, or even one hundred. I shouldn't be able to bork the input at all, except for really rare circumstances. ESPECIALLY in a combo. That's the answer I'm seeing - that I need near flawless execution of something as basic as that. Not entirely flawless, but as damn near possible as I can get.

How does looking at the controller help you control what you do with your fingers?

It doesn't. It's an instinctual mental suggestion that it's supposed to work, apparently. Because apparently my mind is saying "If I can see where I'm going wrong, perhaps I can fix it". Of course, this usually ends up making things worse, since my execution is so bad that I can't even do it without relying on my vision, and even then I can't do it perfectly (looking at my pad and noticing the so-called "speed", as well as listening to voice cues, can somewhat help).

But yeah, you're right in that it doesn't help, but I guess it's one of those habitual crutches I happen to have, and that I need to get rid of. Stat.

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Use the input display feature to see where you mess up.

I've been using it. It's a matter of the muscle memory, as you call it. I'd have to practice consistently every day until I can get it down, that's kinda how bad my way with that input is. Not so much with 236 or 214, but 623 is an input that has plagued me for nearly my entire life. Even after I could use the Hadouken consistently when I learned it about 12 years ago, I've always had issues with the Shoryuken type moves. Recently, the Rekka style became easier for me, yet those 623s are a BITCH for me.

So that's kinda what I'm dealing with - I'd have to really, seriously, beat this inability to do 623 out me me. That's how bad I am with it.

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Or you could play Lambda and not deal with DPs at all. :toot:

But yeah, I didn't have too much trouble picking them up myself...

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I've been using it. It's a matter of the muscle memory, as you call it. I'd have to practice consistently every day until I can get it down, that's kinda how bad my way with that input is. Not so much with 236 or 214, but 623 is an input that has plagued me for nearly my entire life. Even after I could use the Hadouken consistently when I learned it about 12 years ago, I've always had issues with the Shoryuken type moves. Recently, the Rekka style became easier for me, yet those 623s are a BITCH for me.

So that's kinda what I'm dealing with - I'd have to really, seriously, beat this inability to do 623 out me me. That's how bad I am with it.

Well, there are plenty of characters that don't have them, but stop exagerating.

Put in TEN MINUTES per day of NOTHING but doing DPs, five minutes facing left, five minutes facing right. Do that for a week and tell me you're not markedly better.

Heck, if you even just spent the time you spend complaining about your execution on message boards practicing, it'd probably make a difference. :P

Ten minutes. Daily. DPs.

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I've been using it. It's a matter of the muscle memory, as you call it. I'd have to practice consistently every day until I can get it down, that's kinda how bad my way with that input is. Not so much with 236 or 214, but 623 is an input that has plagued me for nearly my entire life. Even after I could use the Hadouken consistently when I learned it about 12 years ago, I've always had issues with the Shoryuken type moves. Recently, the Rekka style became easier for me, yet those 623s are a BITCH for me.

So that's kinda what I'm dealing with - I'd have to really, seriously, beat this inability to do 623 out me me. That's how bad I am with it.

Everyone has to do it sometime. Might as well get it over with.

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@Renvalt:

I understand how you feel, but you have to trust the muscle memory. It works really strange sometimes and is very "lurching" in certain people. I play instruments so I've gone through this shit my whole life in and outside of fighting games more times than I can count. You actually get better at "learning" over time but that's another story.

About DPs... Just be patient. Spend at least an hour (or if you can't than half? whatever you can actually dedicate) every day just working on those DP motions. Work on right, then work on left, then try and dash in and get one.. then try and air dash in and hit and go into a DP... do all sorts of things like that and eventually the motion will be locked in your hand and you'll never forget it unless you stop playing for a huge amount of time.

If you've ever learned an instrument or martial arts or something it's all the same thing.

Remember what that musashi dude said: "It will be hard at first because everything is hard at first."

blahblahblahblahblah I'm done rambling at you.

Don't lose faith dude, you'll get it. Sometimes it just takes hard work. Eventually grinding training mode becomes fun and almost meditative.

Edited by sircoffigus
too long

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Well I've been working at Makoto for many days and to no avail can I get a dash buffer down which is part of her BnBs, it seems I sadly may have to give up her as well and find a new main.

Soul searching and poor execution. :(

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Well I've been working at Makoto for many days and to no avail can I get a dash buffer down which is part of her BnBs, it seems I sadly may have to give up her as well and find a new main.

Soul searching and poor execution. :(

You don't pick the character based on its execution, instead, you should pick the character you like then the character shapes your execution.

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Im very fond of wesker and morrigan from MVc3....any idea characters that would suit me? I tried makoto but sheesh I cant win with her to save my soul...and yeah Z motions are the friggin worst.

Edited by Matamune7

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I'm very fond of Wesker and Morrigan from MvC3. Any idea which characters would suit me? I tried Makoto but sheesh I cant win with her to save my soul and DP motions are the worst.

Well, Ragna is similar to Albert as they both have fairly safe moves and don't need too much execution or a special set-up to do decent amounts of damage.

If you like doing the "Silly Dieminion Fireball Spam of Die", there isn't really anything similar to that here, although Rachel and Lambda are keepaway characters.

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Just now picked up on Tager of all people, love using him against my friends, same with Arakune. As for Persona 4, I am really liking Kanji so far from what I see, I may actually buy that game now.

I got too many mains... I can't really just pick my one and only. lol

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Can someone help me pick 2 chars for persona 4? I typically play one very rushdown hard hitting char and a frame type turtle char. I am looking for a char in persona 4 similar to makoto in sf. Also if the char is top tier or high tier that would be appreciated.

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Can someone help me pick 2 chars for persona 4? I typically play one very rushdown hard hitting char and a frame type turtle char. I am looking for a char in persona 4 similar to makoto in sf. Also if the char is top tier or high tier that would be appreciated.

Not sure what you mean by a "frame type turtle char" but for hardcore rushdown and high tier, Chie is your girl in P4.

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Sorry about that meant frame trap. Thank you for the suggestion after I posted two of my friends who I used to play GG and Blaz with recommended Chie and Aegis. Even though for frame traps after watching some vidz I think Mitsuru would be a better pick. One last question because we are having a release day tourney on Tuesday night is there any character who has the basics for me to scrub people out and win the tournament with. Since the game seems to play like GG hopefully I will be able to use my ABA skills to pull this tourney out.

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I'm not sure who i would pick as a main in Persona 4 Arena.

In BlazBlue i mained Hazama

In Guilty Gear when i played it i usually played as Axl or Johnny.

I guess i usually play somewhat fast characters with unpredictable mixups and a bit of range.

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Perhaps Teddie; his Rage setups are pretty similar to Mist Finer in that they keep you from guarding his next combo. Also, while Mistsuru might be a bit lienar for you, but she has the "whip people to pull them in" thing going on, so I might as well mention her.

Aigis might also fit.

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I was wondering if there was anyone in P4A that played in a similar fashion to Hakumen. I realize no character is going to be just like him, but I figure there must be at least one that has a couple similarities. I unfortunately never really kept up to date with P4A news this whole time, so I'm not too sure how each character shakes out.

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I was wondering if there was anyone in P4A that played in a similar fashion to Hakumen. I realize no character is going to be just like him, but I figure there must be at least one that has a couple similarities. I unfortunately never really kept up to date with P4A news this whole time, so I'm not too sure how each character shakes out.

Short answer: No.

Slightly longer nonanswer: Depends on what you like about Hakumen

But mostly "no".

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I see. Oh well. I can always learn a new character, of course. I was just hoping for someone with similarities, but I guess I'll just go for who I think looked the best aesthetically then, which is Labrys in this case.

Thanks for the reply.

Edited by Zio_IV
spelling error

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Hi everyone. I recently started playing Persona 4. I haven't played BB in quite a while, but when I did I play Jin/Ragna. I was wondering who played most similar to Jin/Ragna in Persona 4?

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Hi everyone. I recently started playing Persona 4. I haven't played BB in quite a while, but when I did I play Jin/Ragna. I was wondering who played most similar to Jin/Ragna in Persona 4?

Yu seems the obvious choice.

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OK, so after playing for a few days Rushdown doesn't seem to work for me. Who in Persona 4 has the best defensive playstyle? Sorry for asking things like this, but I've been away from fighting games for a long time and I'm struggling to get back into this genre.

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