Fighting Games Explained – Do You Need Fast Reflexes To Be Good at Fighting Games?
It feels good to finally have another video finished, it makes me feel less like a one-trick pony. Hopefully I can produce more than 1 video this year!
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Music Used (in order):
– Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact – Nile
– Street Fighter EX3 – Rising Dragon
– Tekken 3 – Ogre’s Theme
– Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike – Crowded Street (Arranged)
– Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition – Yang’s Theme
– Street Fighter Alpha 2 – Sagat vs Ryu (Australia Stage)
– Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 – Nova’s Theme
Featuring footage from:
– EVO 2015 (Ultra Street Fighter 4)
– Damascus’ France vs USA 12v12
– Final Round XV
– EVO 2015 (Killer Instinct)
– CPT Online 2020 Asia East 2
– Red Bull Gaming Sphere London: DBFZ Online Finals (2021)
– Capcom Cup 2015
– Mori Calliope
– Tekken World Tour Finals 2017
– Dragonball FighterZ World Championship Tenkaichi Online Master Challenge (Europe 2)
– CEO 2018
– WinnerStaysOn London Invitational (2014)
– EVO 2017 (Street Fighter 5)
– Mastercup 9
– That Blasted Salami
– The Fall Classic 2015
– The Fall Classic 2014
– Combo Breaker 2019 (Tekken 7)
– SoCal Regionals 2018
– Sajam
– Stunfest 2015
– SXSW 2015
– Capcom Cup 2013
– Cannes Winter Clash 2015 (TEAM FRANCE) vs (TEAM WORLD)
– Capcom Pro Tour 2021 Japan 1
– SEA Major 2016
– @MachoorTV
– EVO 2021 Online NA West
– ARCREVO America 2021 (Finals)
– NLBC Online 102
– Street Fighter League: Pro-JP 2021 (Grand Finals)
– Canada Cup 2018
– EVO 2021 Online EU WEST
– Capcom Pro Tour 2020 Season Final – Day 2
– Tampa Never Sleeps (Guilty Gear Strive Tournament #26)
– The Office
– Capcom Cup 2019
– Killer Instinct World Cup 2017
– Texas Showdown 2022 (DBFZ)
– Combo Breaker 2019 (Street Fighter 5)
– Combo Breaker 2018
– Texas Showdown 2022 (Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3)
– Frosty Faustings XIV
– EVO 2018
– Texas Showdown 2022 (Street Fighter 5)
– Combo Breaker 2022 (Guilty Gear Strive)
– Press Button Win
– Combo Breaker 2022 – Midwest vs West Coast Exhibition (Street Fighter 5)
– CEO 2016
I'm sorry, but as an old-school gamer this is still too Technical and confusing to do. Between your different terminologies like buffering and just countering continuously without being knocked out, it's just beyond my scope of command input. To be honest, I don't possess anywhere near the flexes at my age anymore to compete with how games are now. Sure I was around when streetfighter first came out, but now I can't compete with what street fighter is now. And to be honest, if I was to go up against a average or Pro Gamer, they are going to probably annihilate me with a perfect game because I couldn't even touch them. So I'll leave these games to the professionals are those who are crazy enough to actually play them.
The King's Avatar (a chinese series about tournament-level MMORPG PvP players) has a very distinct character: The Magician (it's of course his fanmade title/alias). He's known for being very slow even outside the game (which was used for few comedic scenes) but he's still one of the best players in the game due to one reason: his ability to read his opponents. Unless you literally trap him with moves that can't be avoided without actual reflex, he'll most likely beat you – he will simply wait for an opening he knows is coming and then strike (just like the example given in this video, where Daigo dropped his combo and got punished for it).In fighting games, you may be able to perfectly execute the most damaging combos 100% of the time but it won't matter if your opponent simply does not allow you to pull it off.That's where stuff like mix ups (varying your attack patterns and even delaying some moves in a combo to feint the opponent into counter-attacking) or setups (doing stuff that on it's own seems useless but limits your opponent actions to give you advantage or even straight up "setting up" your opponent for a combo) comes in.There are even a few turn-based fighting games that are entirely based around decision making and eliminate your reflex as a factor completely.
Great video m8!
2:31Banjo Kazooie Mains: W I N G
nice content!
Thanks for your insights! Helping a newcomer like me understand.
yes you do need fast reflexes. you will get steamrolled by a lot of reactable mixups
Sick video. Channel deserves way more subs.
You failed to mention one aspect of the tokido buffer. He presses that st lk outside of its range. Either ken runs into it, or tokido’s attack whiffs. This mitigates the possibility of his buffer being blocked. Tokido is so great at this.
As a rookie, that's what you think when facing more experienced players. Truth is, they know the game and are prepared in advance for what's more likely to come next. Very good vid.
Thanks for posting!!
I missed you videos so much!
You sound like google translation guy.
hope you will upload more videos🎉
Most important thing is to sleep well. My sleep routine has been bad for years. I can't even play properly the match. There is an awful brain fog when I play.
As a grappler main. Big grab always do trick.
Specifically curious to me because im getting into SF and KoF but my reflexes are bad due to physical illness, i get fatigued very easily and my wrists in particular cant handle a lot of stress or tense movements.
RETURN OF THE KING 🎉
You’re alive
Note: This only applies to traditional fighters and not games like For Honor where reactions ARE important.
No but it helps. You just have to put yourself in all sorts of situations so then when the time comes you don't have to think about it.
I'm so happy I subbed. I watched your last video a few days ago and I saw it was a year old. Subbed just incase you came back, and I'm happy you did.
Glad you're back! I've missed your Ed shenanigans so much I decided to start maining him
Hola como está
Welcome back
It feels like you were more trying to answer, "Are fast reflexes the only thing needed to be good at fighting games?" The important bit of that question is the only thing . In this video, you literally have an entire section dedicated to hit confirming… which is reacting to whether or not your attack connects. Later, you bring up reacting to a characters cross up. It is pretty apparent that reaction speed is an important aspect of high level play. Is it the only thing? No. Being able to understand and predict your opponent is also important. You need to able to do both to order to be considered good (as it is impossible to rely solely on either).
And in the end, your answer is yes despite spending most of the video pretending it is no. Even then, you tried to reframe it as "You'll suck at the beginning, but you'll get better," as if it changes the answer from yes. Getting better at reacting is the same as getting a better reaction speed. The answer to the video's title is still yes.
I'm so happy to see you back, man. Your videos are great. Great taste leading with Gill's theme from Second Impact.
The only thing I didn't like about this video was the section about hit confirming, since you didn't mention how hit confirms are different from one game to another. An anime/airdasher hit is usually easier mechanically due to gatlings, for instance, but you might need to weigh going for a burst safe combo or not against your opponent's burst habits, burst gauge, and your own character resources.
At 8:45 you mention "Evil Ryu hit confirming crouching medium kick and Hadouken into FADC", but this is a 2-hit confirm sequence which is way easier than a single-hit or "raw" hit confirm. I wouldn't even put them in the same category; the FADC decision by E-Ryu is more like a combo route decision rather than choosing whether or not to do the combo in the first place.
Then there are other factors like looking at the stun/life gauge to see a visual cue on frame 1, or having a monitor with a 240hz refresh rate, or having input lag in certain versions of the game. I can see why you wouldn't want to focus on external factors, but I think they deserved a small mention at the least.
I hope your next video is just as good as this one. You have a really nice mix of production values and genuine insight.
10:40
Hey, come on now. I don't like getting hit by Greed Sever any more than the next guy, but don't give people the wrong idea.
Absolute banger video
i feel i keep having fights with myself about fighting games. its so hard to have the patience to practice how to fight in these games. i really wish i could find ways to circumvent this because i really want to get into them instead of playing them casually.
I'm glad to find this channel as you came back 🙏🏾🙏🏾
I always hear Yipes singing the Nova Force theme every time I hear it. Great video!
This is going to come across as overly negative, but my point is that most of the people who complain about this are absolutely capable.
Things that actually involve reactions rather than just timing and reads:
-Blockstrings (you need to be capable of reacting to overheads to punish them properly rather than just throwing the opponent), and ideally cross-ups as well
-Teching throws (In SFV, at least, they are supposedly reactable, ties into reacting to overheads)
-Hit confirms
-Stufing jump-ins
-Wake-ups, again, in SFV where people might do a quick get-up
-A big one is knowing what to do after a certain normal. Doesn't matter how many times I do links / cancels in training, in a real match I'm gonna just punch them and let them walk because wait, could I get something off of that button I just pressed? Probably.
I'm autistic. I have been specifically singled out as being very slow to process things, because my brain's noisy in general, random signals getting shot everywhere like white noise. You'll see me not respond to shit everyone and their mother should be capable of responding to because I simply can't think fast enough. Everyone has a mental stack to manage, and in my case it includes the stage background moving and some shit I read on Wikipedia last week. I was explicitly given extra time on tests in school becase the state recognized I'd never finish in time otherwise.
I'm also uniquely clumsy as a result. Even buffered, you need to do a special input pretty fuckin' quickly as a follow-up. A buffered DP is a whole different beast than repping raw DP a bunch, at least to me. I will wildly waggle the stick, regardless of how much I practiced, and probably just dash into them, after hours of practice.
My raw reaction time on that little site everyone loves, where all I have to do is wait wait for the screen to turn green (and that's the only thing that happens) is 333ms, about 20 frames. That is on the uniquely garbage end of the bell curve, and many things that are meant to be reactable are out of my reach as a result. The majority of people are at more like a 12-frame reaction speed, some lower.
I just watched a video of a dude who had never touched traditional fighters climb up the GGST tower shockingly quickly (to me, at least). Like, multiple floors per day, from the day he hopped online. Granted, he had a pro coaching him, but no amount of coaching can help your brain re-wire itself to start seeing the game slow down, that just happens when it happens. (Remember the first time you played an FPS or what it looks like when you hand your little brother the hand-me-down controller?) To most it was inspiring, to me it was demoralizing.
My point is, the average person can absolutely think and respond quick enough, you don't need to be a twitchy god to handle this shit, just a regular-ass human being. You can climb into Silver and then start complaining about reaction times again as an excuse for your lack of game knowledge. Meanwhile I only feel like i'm playing the game when I find other 0LP opponents (no, I have not won once, it has been weeks) yet I keep playing, because I'm a masochist like that.
Mental stack is a huge one. The less mental stack you give someone during offense, the more likely they are to react or read you correctly.
For example, in DBFZ Piccolo has a crossup mix post lvl 3 in the corner. Some people cannot react to the regular situation. However there are people that can react or option select the side you go on since it's not same frame. So how do you open these people up? Simple, you add options. They are extremely focused on blocking the correct side. They aren't gonna tech you sneaking in a dragon rush if they are respect the situation. They will get bonked on the head with an overhead. Along with all the other mix tools Piccolo has.
Now going for the original version of the mix, they are more likely to get hit by the regular low because they are looking for WAY more at once or gonna try to disrespect you because you're making them guess what you're gonna do rather than making them react to one type of mix. Also since it's not consistent what side you're gonna be on, it's way harder to reflect, DP, reversal super, etc since they have to be correct on what side you're going on unless they have specific character answers for it.
This is how you break people's reflexes and reactions.
Great video.
Nice video! I am new to guilty gear strive so this was very informative for me thanks!
Woohooooo new video, let's go 😀
Glad to have you back!
Depends on where you draw the line of "good", and the line of "fast", I'd say.
Some people are at the low, far below-average line of the bell curve. That kind of makes things pretty hard for them, even if they're well practiced. And with reflexes like that, getting into the top 100 or whatever would be very, very difficult.
But if your reflexes are around average and you want your online ranking to be somewhat above average? Don't worry about it, reaction times won't be a major issue.
The general point of "when you get better at fighting games your brain reacts faster because it now knows what it's doing" is a very good one though. That's very much true, and good to know if you're getting into fighting games.