Hey guys it's been a while. I want to make an update about the issues I've been having, so please don't think I am complaining, I am just looking at this from an educational perspective. I have taken a lot of time to reflect and really find out where I am lacking the most. I have a lot of people supporting me and I appreciate every single one of them.
I'm sorry this is so long, you get a special spot in my "cool people" list for reading it. The first and last sentence of every paragraph is enough to go on though. The rest is just details.
Fenris, I watched your videos and they are very impressive. You have much better knowledge of other characters' moves than I do.
Getting rushed is no longer a problem for me. I typically use 2A and 1B then poke them out of range whether they block or not. Maxi is still giving me a bit of trouble, but I've progressed a lot against him.
Cool to see that you are improving
My main problem now is I lack the understanding of most of the moves, mainly from other characters. I still have trouble with some of Mitsurugi's moves used against me. Sadly sometimes 1A and I keep getting caught in 4B. One of my common mistakes is I think they're coming in for a horizontal slash across the chest and they end up sweeping my feet instead. I am really not sure which route to take. I've heard many different things such as:
- Go into training mode and familiarize yourself with everyone's 10 main moves then practice them.
- Learn the patterns of each individual. (Which is difficult for me because I cannot keep my emotions out of the fight and it definitely clouds my judgment)
- Watch the good players and see what they do when I'm not playing. (Which is also difficult because the fights move really fast)
All of these are good ways to get better (the 2nd one being the most important), but the best ways in my opinion to familiarize yourself with a character is either
A) Play as the character for a while. Learning the character and fighting people with it is a great way to see where you struggle and where you succeed more.
B) Playing someone who mains the character on a regular basis. When you see the gimmicks enough times and find solutions to them, you can then get into the actual mix ups where you aren't just losing to character ignorance.
Another problem I have is I freeze. It's kind of scary describing it to people, but this is a very real and serious and problem for me. I literally become paralyzed for a moment as if I'm under some kind of spell. I stop breathing, and all I can do is watch and stand while holding G while they're pounding away at me. Unfortunately this happens almost every fight against a good player, typically when my guard is about to break, I am at the edge of a ring, or I am in a corner. I have to force myself to break out of it and continue the match, but sometimes it's too late. I have rarely made an impressive comeback after I freeze.
This will happen less when you get better and encounter it several times. The situation is just a "wtf is happening" factor mixed with fight or flight mode. Usually when people get this nervous they freeze up and block or they will try to mash out of their problems.
I tend to look for players who are miles ahead of my progress. The better the player, the faster I progress, right? Maybe. It also gives me the delusion that I am a terrible player if I play with them for too long. It's difficult for me to find someone who is similarly skilled to me, as I usually annihilate beginners and lose horribly to someone who has a decent idea of what they're doing. Should I be looking for people who are in my skill range?
I think it is best to fight more people on your level and above. If nobody is kicking your ass, nobody will be pushing you to get better. Every now and then you should play players below your level so that you remember how to beat their weird and inexperienced strategies.
I've looked over DrakeAlden's page of "The importance in losing" and the information is great, but I am having a hard time applying it. I get angry at times, even to the point where I purse my lips to keep myself from swearing. I keep my microphone off when fighting to avoid exposing this irrational behavior to the other players. I have been trying to get into the proper mindset of expecting to lose every round, which is usually what happens anyway, but I still get angry. If you have had this problem, any advice would be lovely. I don't get this way unless I'm playing Soul Calibur. I laugh and have fun when I am playing with friends, even if they get a perfect 3-0 against me.
The fact that you get mad means that you don't want to lose anymore, which is an important quality if you want to get better. You just have a competitive mindset, that is all. The reason why it only happens in Soul Calibur is because there is only you and one other person. It is not like CoD or Halo where you can blame some of your loss on your team. Your loss in Soul Calibur is purely your fault since the playing field is even and one on one , so it bruises the ego.
My final issue I'm having is I have trouble just "keeping it simple." To be honest, I don't much care for the flashy or pretty moves anyway, because they don't work most of the time. I just want to be fast and efficient. My mind seems to over-complicate things so my only solution it seems is to master the basic bread-and-butter moves down such as AA, 2A, BB, and variations of 6B. Also again I need to learn how to properly defend against moves. I felt like playing online just to defend against players without fighting at all. I really don't care about my win/loss ratio anyway. It's already garbage.
Being good at keeping it simple is probably the best quality you can have as a player since it targets basics. Although if you don't use your other annoying moves (2K BE, 3B, 33B, etc.), you are only holding back your options.
Hope this advice helps. If you are on XBL and have a headset, I can talk you through some things.
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