The Misadventures of a Loli and Her Bucket

Wow, has it been that long since I last updated? Time sure manages to fly.

Since my last update, I have been in a serious love/hate relationship with Persona 4 Arena (P4A). Some days I feel really good about the progress that I’m making in the game. Other days, I feel like I just want to quit playing the game entirely. For the longest time, I couldn’t find just one character that I was comfortable with (if you couldn’t tell from all the posts that I’ve made regarding the game). I’d do really well with one character one day, and then the next I would feel like I didn’t have a single clue as to what I was doing with said character. I was satisfied then frustrated then satisfied again. Even though the mechanics were getting more and more cemented in my head, I still felt as if I wasn’t getting what I was looking for from the game. By this point, I decided that I needed to either decide on a character or just accept that I wasn’t going to improve in the game. Trying to remember the mechanics for three characters all at the same time while you’re learning a game is definitely not an effective way of learning the game. Especially when you’re already confusing things as they are with just one character.

Much to my surprise, I ended up settling on Elizabeth as a character. I was going to stick with Yukiko, but a lot of her combos seemed too fast for me to hold on to. Her moves made a lot of sense to me, and I loved the flexibility that I have with her setting up traps and keeping a ranged game… but I feel that her mechanics are just too complicated for me right now when I have a tournament around the corner. I may pick her up later on in the game, but right now I need to focus on someone who I feel solid with. That character happens to be Elizabeth.

I’m a little nervous, of course. Out of all the characters in the game, Elizabeth has the least amount of health. She also has a lot of mechanics that require a significant setup… and, in turn, also require a significant amount of risk. As most of my fighting game friends know, I tend to get in people’s faces a lot in fighting games, and my blocking leaves something more to be desired. I’m taking a pretty heavy gamble here playing as Elizabeth, but she’s the only character who I genuinely say that I feel the most comfortable with as of this very moment.

Her combos actually feel like they make sense to me. Rehearsing and rehashing her combos doesn’t feel like a chore–I actually feel like I’m learning something. The timing doesn’t feel sloppy to me. Her aerial combos are actually interesting, fun, and possible for me to do. While, as I said before, I can see myself probably picking up someone else as a strong secondary to make up for what I’m lacking right now, but I think I’m going to be sticking with Elizabeth through the tournament that’s coming up.

This is still scary. Don’t get me wrong. Out of all the characters I play online, Elizabeth has the lowest win percentage. I’m feeling that this is going to change, though, since the last two matches I played as Elizabeth in, I ended up winning. I usually don’t win matches with her. And, from what I can tell, people at this initial level are actually rather intimidated by my Elizabeth. And this is all after two or three days of seriously training with her.

I think if I keep up my game with her, that I am going to be something that might actually be worth fearing in this game. Sure, it takes me a little while to get the grasp of things in the game (after all, the only fighting game that I’ve ever really taken seriously in a long time has been BlazBlue), but I think I’m learning faster than I’m giving myself credit for.

I think the thing that has benefited me the most is that I’ve finally settled down on one character. When I was flip-flopping between three characters, I never found myself actually learning combos with the characters that I was playing as. I was really good at getting pokes in on my opponents, but when I’d get something going, I would never have the ability to string something together to punish the pokes I was able to get in. I could do this with all three of my characters, but after that? I was pretty much SOL.

Sure, the combo training is helping. It’s helping quite a bit, as a matter of fact. I don’t think it would have helped nearly as much if I didn’t just stop messing around with so many characters, though. There’s so much depth to Elizabeth’s play style, and I don’t think I would have been able to grasp any of this if I didn’t start taking playing as one character more seriously. I might actually have a decent chance if I keep on grinding this game out before the tournament.

Of course, I can already see Ryyu pounding my face in, but I think I’ll actually be able to hold my own if I keep up what I’m doing thus far. 😛

Lesson #1: Playing Persona 4 Arena (P4A) while drinking makes me less stressed out during matches, but I seem to get really reckless in what I can do. Not to mention any sense of performing combos seems to go right out the window. I still won a couple matches, but man, I ended up losing a lot of matches, too.

My win/loss ratio in P4A is nothing to marvel at, especially since most of my matches have been played while under the influence of alcohol… or have been played by my friends when they’ve just been hanging out while we’ve all been drinking. Most of my best matches have been on Tyler’s PSN account. My win/loss ratio with Teddie on there is better than on my own personal account. I’ve also noticed that I can play better as Teddie on his account, but I do a lot better with Yukiko on my own personal account.

I’m really starting to like playing as Yukiko. Even though I was so bad at it with Lambda-11 in BlazBlue, I seem to do a really good job of it with Yukiko. I love setting up traps, I love tricking the opponent into falling for my traps, and I love endlessly harassing my opponents with Yukiko’s fans. It’s almost, in a way, worse than me trolling online as Teddie. Teddie’s unblockable is annoying for sure, but few things annoy people as much as me not letting the opponent get close to me because I’m endlessly pelting them with Yukiko’s fans from every direction humanly possible.

I also actively started using my anti-air attacks with my characters, which has also effectively improved my game just a little bit. It seems like a lot of scrubby players were catching a lot of people off guard just by air dashing in instead of just mashing A. Now I seem to be doing a lot better against people who just mash A and people who just air dash in then mash A. At least this is somewhat comforting.

I ended up doing a lot of research on the mechanics of the game on Friday before getting some training in. This was probably one of the most beneficial things that I’ve done since getting the game. Since I understand a lot more of the mechanics of the game, I have a better idea of how to play against other characters. It is still a lot to think about, and I do still freeze up when I’m trying to process a bunch of pieces of information as rapidly as I need to, but I’m feeling good that I can take the knowledge that I’ve obtained so far to apply to my game. I just need to take the time to feel it out before it becomes second nature.

I’ve been a little distracted since I recently picked up Sleeping Dogs, but I can’t let my training falter any time soon. Gotta keep reading, gotta start practicing the combos I researched, and I gotta keep playing other people to get a better feel of what I can get away with. I should probably start watching more match videos and streams, while I’m at it…

Alex Jebailey had a Persona 4 Arena (P4A) stream where he wanted to see how many matches of P4A that he could win while playing as Chie… one-handed. I had a lot of fun watching the stream. He ended up losing more matches than he won, but he did manage a couple of really good wins. I was also pretty impressed with how many moves he could pull off one-handed. Sure, anyone can just mash A, but it appeared that he was doing a lot more than just mashing A. Tyler, Dani, and I were watching the stream while Tyler and I worked on assembling my new media shelf for all the video games I brought to my new place. Alex eventually opened up a lobby where, if people wanted to join, they could send him a message and play some P4A on stream.

I was tempted to join, but I still think I’m pretty terrible at the game. Everyone else playing on the stream seemed significantly better than I was. I watched a bunch of the matchups, hoping to learn some new tech. I’m still feeling a bit intimidated, but I guess it could be worse.

I bumped up my win/loss percentage today. It was mostly due to a relatively scrubby Yosuke and a couple matches against my friend Ben who I met through Twitter and met in person at EVO. I’m still sad my percentage is so dismal, but I did end up playing a bunch of matches while I was drinking yesterday.

I think I’ve settled on Teddie being my main and Elizabeth being my sub. I’m pretty good with both, but I think there is a lot more opportunity for me with Teddie. He is freaking adorable, not to mention he’s one of the best troll characters. Nothing makes people mad more than Teddie’s baseball bat and the Teddie Circus.

There are some days when I want to go back to playing BlazBlue because it’s safe for me. Then again, while I’m pretty good at executing a couple of combos with Lambda as well as setting up a few combos (not to mention that my corner combos are absolutely GDLK). Even with all that being said, my blocking is still weak, I’m not great at punishing random hits, and I do tend to play Lambda as a rushdown character instead of how she was meant to be played–zoning. I want to go back to BlazBlue for a little while, but that isn’t going to help me with P4A.

Since I’ve pinned down my characters, I think I’m going to start looking up character-specific matches, combo videos, combo lists, and frame data for the characters I want to play (Teddie and Elizabeth). This research should give me a little more to work with. Even though it seems like a lot of reading and a lot of extra work, I noticed that when I did my research with Lambda, things paid off. Practice helped, sure. Challenge mode helped, too. Understanding the deeper fundamentals of the game as well as watching higher level play always opened up more ideas and opportunities for me. Even if I couldn’t master the higher tier combos, it would give me an idea for ways to punish the opponent if I ever caught them off guard.

I really need to devote more time into playing against other people, watching matches, and doing my character research. I think I’ll start doing that today, along with all the other things I have already been doing.

I’m far from even considering myself decent at the game, but I’m definitely having a good start. Week one has been more successful than I could have ever hoped for.

(I never meant for my personal blog to turn into a solely P4A blog, but this sure seems like a good place to ramble and rant about my personal experiences into yet another fighting game for me.)

I think I’ve finally narrowed my main character selection down in Persona 4 Arena (P4A). As much as I would want to say otherwise, I think my main is going to be Teddie. I seem to grasp the system of his moves the best at this particular moment, and I do enjoy playing as him more than I do with the other characters that I’ve been trying. When I originally tried the game at EVO 2012, I had my heart set on using Akihiko as my main. I don’t see that happening at this very moment. While he has a lot of interesting moves, I just don’t feel as comfortable using him as I do Teddie or the other two characters I’ve been playing.

As for my sub, it seems as if I’m tied between Elizabeth and Yukiko. I have a decent grasp on both characters. I think it depends on how I feel as I progress in the game. It’s entirely possible that I could end up using Elizabeth or Yukiko as my main, but it all really depends on how things go as I start seriously training in the game.

I’m so proud of Tyler. He’s starting to get significantly better with Labrys and his execution with her moves. I think he’s actually better with Labrys than I am with any of my characters at the moment. He is regularly able to punish most hits he gets in with some of the combos he has learned so far. That is a lot better than anything I’ve done so far. I have a pretty advanced understanding of the mechanics of the game (since I’ve played Guilty Gear and BlazBlue in the past, and the mechanics of the game are similar in one form or another), but it sure has been something else trying to master the nuances of a new game when I’ve only focused on one game for so long.

On Sunday, Tyler decided to start playing some online P4A matches. He had some mixed feelings about how he did–won some matches, lost some matches. Even though my friends and I were drinking at the time, I decided to hop online and see if I’ve learned anything from all the challenges I’ve run through and the matches I have been playing. While I was initially concerned with my ratio, I figured that the only way to start learning more about the other characters was to start playing other people. Hell, I was hopeful that I would get to watch other players and possibly pick up new tech while I was at it.

Interesting experience.

I’ve noticed a trend in low-level characters that I’m good against and ones that I completely fail against. I seem to have a hard time fighting against Yu. A lot of his moves are so fast, not to mention that they hit hard. I’m good against low-level Yosuke’s because they try and rely on being fast rather than calculating a strategy. I am hit or miss against Akihiko. For low-level Akihiko players, I can easily bait them into rushing right into Teddie’s baseball bat. And oh my god, if that isn’t hilarious. Pretty much anything a basic Akihiko player does, I can knock him back and away really easy. And Mitsuru? Fuck Mitsuru. I can’t play as her, and I can’t play against her. Shota seems to be really good with Mitsuru, though…

One thing I’m trying my hardest to work on is my blocking. Since I’m starting to pay attention to all the characters’ moves and patterns, I’m starting to figure out how to maximize my block strings. I still get myself caught in a bunch of traps, I still mess up button inputs (thanks, BlazBlue muscle memory), and I still haven’t memorized my main characters’ move sets entirely.

My win/loss ratio is pretty awful. I lost a couple matches, I won a couple matches, Shota won a couple matches, Tyler won a couple matches, but in the end I lost more matches than I won.

I still get a bit of nerves when I play online. The feeling used to be so much worse when I first started playing BlazBlue online. When I’d get into a match, I would be incredibly tense, and I would feel my body pumping adrenaline through my system. My hands would often be shaking, and I would have to calm myself down before the next match. The feeling eventually became more natural in the long run, and when I play matches now, I don’t feel nearly as panicked and stressed as I used to. Everyone was right in saying that it is important to play matches online, with friends, and in tournaments. Playing in high stress situations on a more frequent basis helps you prepare for future high stress situations. I’m sure I’ll still tense up and mess up when I get in a high pressure situation like a tournament, but there’s only one way to fix this–adapt to the stress.

I’m still not sure how I feel about my progress in the game, but I haven’t even had the game for a month! It took me so long to get as decent as I was in BlazBlue… why am I so finicky right now? I know things will get better if I keep playing. I know I can.