Is it better to specialize or generalize?

AuLord

AuLord

[08] Mercenary
A sort of age-old question regarding fighting games. Do you marry your character, or do you play a wide variety? Of course there are grey-areas as well; some people prefer to play two or three characters, but is there an advantage to generalizing or specializing?

There are those who can play a whole wide-variety of characters and succeed greatly. They can gain a lot of knowledge about match-ups, approaches and when one thing doesn't work in a tourney, they can always try another character on the opponent.

Then there are players who only play one character. They receive the advantage of learning every nuance a character has. They can bring this fighter to new heights and in a way, negating having to learn a new character because they can defy a counter-match pick just by pure knowledge and expectation.

When you learn objectively, you can observe a wide variety of approaches, and learn a multitude of enemy weaknesses to pick apart, as well as having an enormous amount of experience to draw on. If you learn subjectively, you can see the game from inside to out, using one set of tools as a means to overcome any opposition.

Is there a better approach? I'm actually just curious what the community thinks. While I don't believe there's a right or wrong answer, I think it makes for interesting discourse.
 
It's good to specialize, but in a few characters... I specialize as Ivy and have Voldo and Hilde as my "backup" or my other good characters, but I still can't coordinate them like I can with Ivy.
 
Generalizing allows you to avoid bad odds. Specializing allows you to overcome the impossible odds.
 
If you want to get really good, pick ONE character and stick to it.

Once you know that character very well, then you can branch out. But I'd suggest specialze until you can overcome impossible odds, and then generalize so that you can avoid bad odds.
 
I believe that the best is specialization.
Every character has their own better way to punish a certain opponent's move.
Better know every options of your character versus the whole cast. (Your tech jump attack can punish this move, but your other character's tech jump options can't punish it.)


...That said, I'm an alt-a-holic, so I can't stick to one character for very long before I need something new...
 
the more you know about the whole cast the more chances you have of beating them and the best way to learn about a character is to play it instead of knowing the moves and its best counters, it lets you at least know what options or approaches the opponent is thinking of taking against your character, even if its not always accurate.

though it backfires if you don't have a main character that you know inside out.
 
Step 1) Pick a character you like most and enjoy using. Learn the game through that character. Baisic/core gameplay should begin to develop here.

Step 2) Know what your character can do the rest of the cast.

Step 3) So you know your character inside and out. Now its time to develop your skills with other characters. You should choose the top 5 moves to know and utalize with every character. Just 5 moves...This will help you learn thier strengths against your character.

Step 4) Teach yourself a combo with each character and when to utalize. For instance...if you teach yourself to combo off a wiff from your opponent with Hilde you will probably never wiff against her again.

Step 5) Win at Evo.
 
I think if you're new to the game, you definitely want to specialize in one character. Once you get the hang of the game, using two or more characters is a perfectly viable playstyle.
 
In my opinion, it's best to master a character, and then get good with a character that's similar (ie Sieg and Nightmare). Then, it certainly helps to get a character that's nothing like your first character (ie Sieg and Xianghua). Picking Xianghua to back me up against fast characters really helps sometimes.
 
generalize. To beat your enemy you must BE your enemy. If you can play everyone decently/well then you know what moves they have and you know what YOU would do in a situation which gives you a basis for your defense against your opponent (best offense is a good defense?). Once you've generalized THEN you can specialize to the degree that you pick ONE player and make them your own personal god-tier. plus it jsut makes the game more fun to use different characters

of course you should probably START with one character for a little while when you FIRST play the game.. but quickly starting to generalize is always good. I mean, you might pick a character later on that you end up deciding is your favorite in the game. Hell, I started SC 2 by playing nightmare...moved to mitsu and then got very good with cervy and ivy. In SC4 I started with cervy (didn't like how ivy was SO different to sc2 version) and then I picked up yoshi cuz he felt the most fun. And then I got good with him and main him now. So you never know who you'll get good with unless you try other characters. You could potentially be missing your "perfect fit"
 
hellbottom said:
the more you know about the whole cast the more chances you have of beating them and the best way to learn about a character is to play it instead of knowing the moves and its best counters, it lets you at least know what options or approaches the opponent is thinking of taking against your character, even if its not always accurate.
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This is a very VERY good point. While you don't necessarily have to master every character, as long as you can the basic understanding as to how each character operates in a fight, then blocking and anticipating their moves can suddenly become a lot easier to do.

Other than that, though, I don't really see the point of getting good with the whole cast... that is, unless you're into Random vs. Random fights. :P
 
In SC2 I generalized I had 3 characters. Ivy main, 2nd Astaroth, 3rd Yoshi.

Ivy I knew well, but if they could beat her I brought out Astaroth and usually could beat them. If both lost I'd rely on the awkwardness and life gaining power of Yoshi.

However in SC4 my Ivy is VASTLY better than my Astaroth and Yoshi. They've pretty much become novelty acts whenever I feel like having fun rather than owning competitively with Ivy. At this point I'm so specialized in Ivy I can't find a single character to adopt as a true secondary. No character operates like her and being so used to her complexity I feel awkward playing the simpler characters. I've tried Astaroth, Yoshi, Amy, Nightmare, Cervantes, and Algol and I simply can't adopt any of them beyond spamming the basics, Astaroth being me most intelligently played of them all.

I fear generalization in 4 since each character is so vastly different than past installments. If I were to say pick up Hilde (who I would love to but have no clue how), she may harm my Ivy since they're are a full 180 on tactics and I may get them crossed. I still find myself trying to do Ivy's 2K with Nightmare for a quick low and doing nightmare's slow footstomp instead. Ivy needs very fast inputs that are deep and complex while Hilde needs constant focus on holding and releasing buttons and even requires me to remap my controller possibly.

The only real advantage is when it comes to counter pick I guess. I'm trying to adopt a fast character to compete with rushing characters that are difficult for Ivy. I need to try Talim and Taki next. I don't like the JF's of Setsuka. However, it may just be better to learn counter strategy with one character. Comfort will be out frame data.
 
IvyFanboy said:
In SC2 I generalized I had 3 characters. Ivy main, 2nd Astaroth, 3rd Yoshi.

Ivy I knew well, but if they could beat her I brought out Astaroth and usually could beat them. If both lost I'd rely on the awkwardness and life gaining power of Yoshi.

However in SC4 my Ivy is VASTLY better than my Astaroth and Yoshi. They've pretty much become novelty acts whenever I feel like having fun rather than owning competitively with Ivy. At this point I'm so specialized in Ivy I can't find a single character to adopt as a true secondary. No character operates like her and being so used to her complexity I feel awkward playing the simpler characters. I've tried Astaroth, Yoshi, Amy, Nightmare, Cervantes, and Algol and I simply can't adopt any of them beyond spamming the basics, Astaroth being me most intelligently played of them all.

I fear generalization in 4 since each character is so vastly different than past installments. If I were to say pick up Hilde (who I would love to but have no clue how), she may harm my Ivy since they're are a full 180 on tactics and I may get them crossed. I still find myself trying to do Ivy's 2K with Nightmare for a quick low and doing nightmare's slow footstomp instead. Ivy needs very fast inputs that are deep and complex while Hilde needs constant focus on holding and releasing buttons and even requires me to remap my controller possibly.

The only real advantage is when it comes to counter pick I guess. I'm trying to adopt a fast character to compete with rushing characters that are difficult for Ivy. I need to try Talim and Taki next. I don't like the JF's of Setsuka. However, it may just be better to learn counter strategy with one character. Comfort will be out frame data.
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it probably doesn't help that Ivy and Hilde are the two weirdest characters in the game..lol
 
Nope, no it doesn't. The biggest issue I have is being so used to complexity of her combos I feel weird when another character online lands 2-3 hits. I'm like "crap! I only hit them twice! that means I didn't do any damage and they're able to attack agains already! Le Gasp!". Every one else feels like a spam match or a giant poking fest when so used to playing Ivy who is constantly changing styles on the fly making her feel deep and intricate.
 
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