Fappy said:
I'm sure there is some kind of common practice among pros that requires a rigorous training regiment, but I am not interested in that. I want to know what the common folk do to learn characters and combos.
I've been playing BlazBlue as my exclusive fighter for a few years now (playing on and off with long gaps in-between) and found that I have a pretty basic system for learning characters. I usually start with tutorial in-case I need a refresher on the basics, then I move on to Story Mode/Arcade mode. Generally I play those to get the basics down for all of the characters and what-not, but I have found that practicing against AI isn't all that useful.
Most good fighters have some kind of challenge mode that teaches you combos which I do with every character I intend to play. I get as far as I can until the combos get too impractical and then I go back and try to do the practical ones a few times more to get them down.
Then the most important part: Practice Mode against another player. I feel like doing practice mode matches (infinite life and what-not) against another human player is probably the most useful thing you can do. Not only do you learn how to fight against certain opponents as select characters, but the infinite life and varied nature of what your opponent is doing allows you to be experimental in a way you normally couldn't. There's nothing cooler about this than figuring out a new combo through experimentation. Bonus benefit: two people are learning to play characters for the price of one. Me and my buddy did a 1 1/2 hour practice match last night and I figured out all kinds of stuff with Noel that I had never know was possible (and I have played her a lot already) as did he with Hakumen.
So I ask you people of the Escapist, how do you learn new characters in your fighters of choice?
The problem i have with playing against someone in practice mode is that most people would take it less seriously than a real match . Kinda like playing poker without real money vs playing with real money . When there are actual stakes , you play differently when they aren't . Not to say it's impossible , but it's usually the mindset people ( including myself ) have .
As for me .
1:I play through every character once ( really long in UMVC3) in arcade mode while button mashing to get a feel of who i like and want to potentially play as.
2: play through arcade mode again with only the people i like to make sure i still like them .
3:go into training and check out their move sets.
4: chose 2 people whos movesets tickle my fancy
5: go into challenge mode and go through as many as i can
6: practice the most practical combos
7: go online and lose A LOT
8: understand why i am losing and try to improve on that ( usually it's my defense )
9: go back into training mode and figure out what moves i can use in what situation
10: go back online and lose more but by a smaller margin
11:repeat steps 9 and 10 until i get a win/lose ratio of 1
12: try out trickier things
13: find out a way to perfect my opponent
14: sit back and be amazed at my progress
This is the exact process that i used in UMVC3 . And i can now perfect my opponents if they get sloppy and everything goes my way .