Rusted Blade
[14] Master
Honestly, it doesn't hurt to have an eye towards frame data from the start, but I'm not sure that trying to memorize everything from the start is likely to be helpful as opposed to just overwhelming. Drilling, via training and (ideally) couch play with friends is probably the best first order of business: once you have established a bit of a "feel" for your mains, can reliably execute the majority of their moves and are at least familiar with the span of their combos, natural and otherwise, then its probably time to get a firm grasp on the exact frames involved: frames are useful to know in any event, but its really when you begin to study your match-ups that they become most vital. Before then (while again, it doesn't hurt to look at the frame data) my advice is don't get so hung up on the numbers that you bypass falling in love with the flow of the game independent of the number crunching.How would you approach learning other character moves and frame data. Because there's a lot of moves in this game and it's kinda intimidating when trying to learn everything.
I don't know, maybe that's an artificial distinction I'm creating: it's been nearly 25 years since I was new to the franchise, so while I'm trying to put myself in a place where I'm picking things up with SCVI and trying to figure out which factors and mechanics to engage with first, for an efficient learning curve, it's difficult. But I do feel that you have to learn to walk before you can run, and frame data is arguably part of the running end of the spectrum (or at least getting up to a jog). As for resources to actually engage with the frame data whenever you do want to reference it, you can't really do any better than 8WR's own archive (here is a handy index that will save you some time in navigating between pages through the normal wiki top page). Others have already pointed you to useful subforums here as well, though I think their activity varies considerably from month to month these days; you'll want to familiarize yourself with this terminology list and this inputs key to help you track/decode discussions in those threads and in other discussion spaces for the hardcore community.
There's a wealth of tutorial videos on YouTube and Twitch as well: I can't really recommend anyone in particular, because I don't really use them as resources too frequently myself, but anytime I do go looking for particular content in that area, it's clear that these days there's no shortage of people talking about the mechanics on those platforms. Perhaps just as useful (and somewhat more relaxing at times!) is watching high level tournament play--particularly recent tourneys so you are observing the same meta (that is, a particular build of the game at a particular moment in time) as you are yourself working with at that time: presently, this thread is the best place to find links to tourneys on these forums, although the site's front page will give notice of the tournament itself further in advance. Unfortunately, as esports scenes go, we don't have very much in the way of really good casters, so I personally find some the tourneys difficult to watch with the sound on, but your mileage may vary, and you'll at least get some decent insight/commentary about what's going on in a match (and about strategy generally) through the livestreams and their recordings.
More than anything though, practice, practice, practice. And that sometimes means not getting too clinical all the the time and burning yourself out because you're just not enjoying yourself. In this regard, your buddies are your best asset: because they are at roughly comparable level to you, they will allow you to experiment and enjoy learning things at a pleasant pace, without it always feeling that you are behind the curve. Eventually you'll have to look for play that challenges you more (if your friends don't also continue to play and rise at a substantially similar level of skill) but to begin with, just enjoy the game as a game, social context included: there really has never been a better series of couch party games than Soulcalibur.
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