Hello all, I have had this game for about a week and after being completely confused for pretty much this whole week and losing every match until today, I'm starting to figure this game out. But I still have some oddly specific questions, and no amount of internet searching has helped me here. While I'm not that good at them, the fighting games I have experience in are SF3, SF4 and KOF. I got curious about 3D fighters so tried playing VF5FS, really liked it, except... there's hardly anyone playing so thought I'd try DOA.
Some questions
This sounds dumb, but is there a "right" way to block? In 2D fighters it's of course holding back or down back so I'm pretty used to that, but in VF5 (which fundamentally controls fairly similar, if slower, than DOA), you've got the guard button (which is for me in the exact same spot as the hold button in DOA). I feel like using the hold button to block helps me avoid walking backwards if I don't want to so gives more control, but frequently I tend to hit a direction and so do an actual hold on accident, which of course whiffs. I read somewhere that changing sidestep to 3 buttons + up or down is the "right" way to do it, I tried it and it really helped. Is there a "right" way to block?
Maybe this is just me but... is online ranked a total crapshoot? I'm playing on PS3 with a good internet connection and while I either go for 3+ bars or 4+ bars, frequently I get laggy matches. Additionally it seems to take a long time to get into a match. And then when I do, about half the time it is a Kasumi player, and they kind of mash jabs all day, which isn't very fun or helpful to play against because all I end up doing is blocking the strings, then hitting them with lows which they don't block. Lobby matches seem to definitely be better, but if I search for a room usually there's several people in there, sometimes that's fun to watch people but I'd like to play for more than 1 game in a row (I'm new so in a winner stays room I get to play once every several matches). Also if I create a room with 2-3 slots it usually takes fooorrrrreeeevvvveeeerrrr to get someone to play.
I can't seem to make up my mind if I prefer playing Pai or Hitomi. Pai is fast, no one I play against seems to understand her moves at all (I don't either!), but she's a lot more technical and does little damage with pokes and short combos (which I as a new player tend to rely on for my damage). Hitomi is slower, simpler, far more damaging, but in some ways a one-trick pony. So far my strategy with her seems to be poking with lows, till they start blocking low then try mids for actual damage. My question is, any more explanation of Pai compared to Hitomi, which is more of a good beginner character, and what's the gameplan for each of them? Also, it's easy to find nice simple bnb combos for Hitomi, but nearly every Pai combo I've been able to find are kind of advanced and I'm still adjusting to the execution in 3D fighters.
Lastly, any recommendations for finding local DOA players to play offline? I have just recently started looking into the local fighting game scene, and from what I've found so far it seems to be 3S, USF4, KOF XIII, Tekken, and Smash. Any recommendations for finding helpful players to play online on PSN?
Sorry for the essay but I'm always wordy and wanted to get all of the questions I had about the game out of the way right at the start.
Some questions
This sounds dumb, but is there a "right" way to block? In 2D fighters it's of course holding back or down back so I'm pretty used to that, but in VF5 (which fundamentally controls fairly similar, if slower, than DOA), you've got the guard button (which is for me in the exact same spot as the hold button in DOA). I feel like using the hold button to block helps me avoid walking backwards if I don't want to so gives more control, but frequently I tend to hit a direction and so do an actual hold on accident, which of course whiffs. I read somewhere that changing sidestep to 3 buttons + up or down is the "right" way to do it, I tried it and it really helped. Is there a "right" way to block?
Maybe this is just me but... is online ranked a total crapshoot? I'm playing on PS3 with a good internet connection and while I either go for 3+ bars or 4+ bars, frequently I get laggy matches. Additionally it seems to take a long time to get into a match. And then when I do, about half the time it is a Kasumi player, and they kind of mash jabs all day, which isn't very fun or helpful to play against because all I end up doing is blocking the strings, then hitting them with lows which they don't block. Lobby matches seem to definitely be better, but if I search for a room usually there's several people in there, sometimes that's fun to watch people but I'd like to play for more than 1 game in a row (I'm new so in a winner stays room I get to play once every several matches). Also if I create a room with 2-3 slots it usually takes fooorrrrreeeevvvveeeerrrr to get someone to play.
I can't seem to make up my mind if I prefer playing Pai or Hitomi. Pai is fast, no one I play against seems to understand her moves at all (I don't either!), but she's a lot more technical and does little damage with pokes and short combos (which I as a new player tend to rely on for my damage). Hitomi is slower, simpler, far more damaging, but in some ways a one-trick pony. So far my strategy with her seems to be poking with lows, till they start blocking low then try mids for actual damage. My question is, any more explanation of Pai compared to Hitomi, which is more of a good beginner character, and what's the gameplan for each of them? Also, it's easy to find nice simple bnb combos for Hitomi, but nearly every Pai combo I've been able to find are kind of advanced and I'm still adjusting to the execution in 3D fighters.
Lastly, any recommendations for finding local DOA players to play offline? I have just recently started looking into the local fighting game scene, and from what I've found so far it seems to be 3S, USF4, KOF XIII, Tekken, and Smash. Any recommendations for finding helpful players to play online on PSN?
Sorry for the essay but I'm always wordy and wanted to get all of the questions I had about the game out of the way right at the start.