Reddit mentions of Simplifying Street Fighter: A New Player's Guide to Preparing for Street Fighter 5

Just how familiar are you with "fighting games mechanics"? Do you understand the term footsies and what that entails? Do you understand the difference between chains, links, and cancels? Do you understand the importance of space control and stage position?

Looking at your post history, I see that you come from playing MKX for about 8 months -- footsies is not a huge part of that game. The neutral in MK tends to be very brief before both players are on top of each other trading strings. There is a lot more nuance to both getting inside and keeping someone out in SF. In MK there are a ton of hard counters where the situation is generally "IF THEY DO X, DO Y". SF has a lot more flexibility in timing and options. The mix ups once people are inside aren't as silly and straight up 50/50s as they are about proper conditioning to break someone's guard, not just hoping they miss a tough guess.

To answer your final question:

>So what tips do you guys have for me and what should i practice either than combos? For my character and the game in general?

I'd say pick up USF4 and start playing Ryu. I would read the above link to the footsies handbook so you have a greater understanding of what's happening under the hood of the game. I would personally advise picking up /u/gootecks book called "Simplifying Street Fighter" -- a $5 investment for material that is explicitly designed around using SF4 as a preparation tool to get you ready for SFV.

As a final note: You should understand that you might be "familiar" with fighting game mechanics, but you probably don't know as much as you think you do. Try to stay modest and be open to learning new info. In my opinion MK is a lot more simple and straight forward of a game. Get inside, trade strings, go for mix up strings that are typically unsafe on block or pressure strings that are safer on block to try and frame trap and set up different strings. There's just more to SF. Combo timing is more difficult, keeping people out can be more difficult, getting inside is more difficult, all because the answer is never so simple as "I'll just teleport when he fireballs" or "I'll just use my f2 kombat kombo to go from mid screen to immediately in his face." Here is a huge list of resources that will also be helpful in learning the game.

Good luck.

If you wanna learn street fighter, there are already now a lot of guides with stuff that is still the same in SFV. I myself have only started playing sf some months ago. Anyways, two good reads are The fighting game primer (free) and Gootecks Simplifying Street Fighter, both can help a lot understanding the basic principles.

Hey, welcome to the community! I would strongly suggest you get this book here: Simplifying Street Fighter by Gootecks
Yes it costs money but it is by far the most comprehensive and complete guide to SF basics out there (imo).

If you don't want to shelve out money you can find all the info found in that book online for free. But you will have to go through several sources to get it. If you go this route start here:
Fighting Game Primer
The dl-link is at the end of the post. This is the closest you will get to Gootecks book. But it is not as in-depth as Gooteck's book at some points.

After you got down most of the things taught in either of those books you want to look into:
footsies handbook
This is a lot more in-depth and advanced but essential to becoming good.

If you did as the Primer or Gooteck's book told you you'll still be playing Ryu by now. If you want to change up characters you should search for some character specific tutorials/data on youtube, shoryuken, eventhubs and on this subreddit. If you don't know whom you want to main there is an exquisite tier-list for beginners over here. Also there is more general and character specific info on this subreddits wiki.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Either use the daily threads like this one for today, or post your own thread if it is a bigger/more in-depth question.

Hope this helps!

http://www.amazon.com/Simplifying-Street-Fighter-Players-Preparing-ebook/dp/B015KLJCJI

I've seen some real lab monsters hitting awesome combos and fail their BnB's online. My brother in law is like that.

In his particular case it's because he tenses up and tries to mash the fireball out if that makes any sense. Like to input it way faster than actually needed (and hitting the button too soon at it) because of how much his mind is in stress mode. Specially against gimmicky characters, even before they actually try their gimmicks.

The good news is: for online matches you can do the input analysis, too! He knew he tensed all up, but it was not until I showed him his replays with input display on that he really understood it.

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So my suggestion to you is this: Go to the replay of that last match that made it so obvious to you that you came here asking for help. We need that very match. Enable input display for your character and PAUSE at the moment you dropped that move/combo that was like "the last drop" before you decided to come here. I bet one "simplifying street fighter"-ebook with you that whatever you do wrong, it clearly shows there. And through the entire match it is very likely to repeat in the same pattern (like always the button too soon, always doing hadouken without crouching-forward, etc). That will tell you what to remember and what to train first.

It's not intuitive to stay calm when rushed down, granted. But it is usually what helps get you out. Also I never said it is easy. :P

Jumping gets you fucked until you've proven to the other player that you're enough to worry about on the ground.

Your default when trying to defend should be to try to defend.

It looked like you pressed buttons every time you got knocked down, once the other guy notices this he can just punish you all day for big damage.

You should check out the Amazon book by /u/gootecks

http://www.amazon.com/Simplifying-Street-Fighter-Players-Preparing-ebook/dp/B015KLJCJI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450358424&sr=8-1&keywords=gootecks

If you don't wanna invest the $5 into your game, he (and many others) still have great fundamental books online.

You should worry less about long fancy combos and more about anti-airing, not jumping, having a decent defense, and winning with your normal buttons... in a word: footsies.

If you plan on playing SFV what you're doing will cause you to lose games much faster and with less of a clue why.

Until you've got thousands of hours into the game the 'less is more' phrase is certainly applicable to not getting blown up by guys who have better offense than you and know more safe setups than you at a lower level. A lot of people at your current level don't know how to do anything but press buttons and when you block everything they're doing and just watch them, they will generally start to panic.

Edit: Be warned - Most guides will have you learn to play Ryu. Even if you don't plan on using him yourself you definitely want to understand him as he is probably the most played character in the game, and many of the other characters have been build around him.

ok so first of all, please don't complain about Laura when you just admitted you are still learning the basics of the genre. I know losing in SF can be frustrating as hell but saying stuff like that in a post asking for basic gameplay strategies is likely to piss off many FGC vets and stop them from replying with advice.

Having said that I suggest Gootecks' book, Simplifying Street Fighter. He focuses on Ryu but explains many important basic mechanics, strategies and other concepts of the SF series.

I would also recommend adjusting your approach a little bit... Another reason the guides you commonly see are written the way they are is because in a real world match there are a million factors that can and should influence the decisions you make. People don't want to fall into a strict mindset of "if this happens, mix them up like this" because it is predictable. You should be reacting to your opponent and deciding what to do based on what you've learned about your opponent's play style, as well as the current situation, not following a strict plan (The popular ken flow chart makes fun of this concept).

I know it isn't easy but really the best way is to just practice, and watch pro matches. There's no magic trick to just easily explain what to do in every situation. So when guides say "this is a good poke" or "this is a good mixup" and they leave it to you to decide when and how exactly to use that tech, it is not because they don't want to be helpful to newbies, but rather because they recognize it would be impossible/impractical to give those details for every situation (or even a majority of them). Note that I am not great at this game by any means this is just my take on it. Hope this made sense and good luck.

Simplifying Street fighter by Gootecks helped me a lot. His beginner series on youtube is also really good. This is focused on street fighter but the fundamentals carry over.

Welcome to the community! A good place to start, although the tutorial takes place on an older version of the game, is the VesperArcade tutorials

This links to Chapter 5, where he'll get into just about where you are knowledge wise. They're pretty long but they cover everything you need to know in terms of what people will be doing in matches.

After that, as mentioned below Gootecks' book is a really great read for learning the basics of Street Fighter gameplay. Link to the book! There's a free trial for Kindle Unlimited so you'd be able to read it for free.

It's not a long book by any means, so you'll be able to finish it and study it thoroughly by the time the trial ends. Have fun!

Watch these video's and take notes.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrmoaJYUVTau3RHXrqPM_kwa9WxXik20
Read this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Simplifying-Street-Fighter-Players-Preparing-ebook/dp/B015KLJCJI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453422358&sr=8-1&keywords=gootecks

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplifying-Street-Fighter-Players-Preparing-ebook/dp/B015KLJCJI

https://youtu.be/st5CUkIHIM0?list=PLb7WxVCajLYH1vj6vHh-t79VPvtPIuapK

These are two great videos by MetalMusicMan to start you on the basics.

You also may want to check out Gootecks book, Simplifying Street Fighter: A New Player's Guide to Preparing for Street Fighter 5 http://www.amazon.com/Simplifying-Street-Fighter-Players-Preparing-ebook/dp/B015KLJCJI

f you are new to fighting games and this is something you are serious about it can get very frustrating sometimes but, keep with it and if you ever run into any problems never be afraid to ask someone.

I would suggest you check out this book. great for starting out.

It may have been gootecks's first book, which teaches you fundamentals through Ryu in SFIV.

Gootecks book is cool as a quick guide to get up and running in SF4 with Ryu. He also defines a number of important terms. It's free to read on amazon if you sign up for a 30 day trial: http://www.amazon.com/Simplifying-Street-Fighter-Players-Preparing-ebook/dp/B015KLJCJI

Sirlin's book is great for getting into the right mindset. DHood123 linked it.

Fighting games are inherently competitive. I don't understand why someone would buy a fighting game for the single player. There are much more interesting single player games.

The execution in this game is silly easy. You should not be expecting results if you can only play for 30 minutes every few days. If you could play that little and not get destroyed it would denigrate the integrity of the game.

If you could spend 30 minutes playing every few days and add in 30 minutes to an hour each week of watching youtube videos or reading guides I think you would see improvement.

I would suggest reading Simplifying Streetfighter, by gooteks, if you can spare $5: https://www.amazon.com/Simplifying-Street-Fighter-Players-Preparing-ebook/dp/B015KLJCJI

It would give you a very effective crash course on fighting games. I would also take a look at Bafael's BnB guides: https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFighter/comments/465d20/bafaels_bread_and_butter_combos_for_13_characters/

You can get better at this game by playing 30 minutes every few days, but it will take a long time. If you add in some extra curricular stuff your playtime will be much more productive (and will be more fun). Good luck.