Post by unimportantguy on Aug 14, 2021 10:52:32 GMT
You captured exactly how I feel about playing on a stick. I'm playing noticeably worse at the moment as I adjust, but it's just so damn fun! That said, it does encourage some of my worst tendencies...
lol I'm bad at Strive part 49: TOTSUGEKI TOTSUGEKI TOTSUGEKI
I've expressed before my philosophy of "Never work harder than your opponent makes you." This is probably the purest example of that I've posted here so far. I feel a kind of shame at doing this but if it works, that's my opponent's fault for not doing any of the huge number of things they could've done to stop me.
You captured exactly how I feel about playing on a stick. I'm playing noticeably worse at the moment as I adjust, but it's just so damn fun! That said, it does encourage some of my worst tendencies...
It's like the stick itself is a new toy that you are using WITH a video game. It's a great combination!
And you'll definitely get the hang of it and play at least as good as you did before. As long as you are having more fun with it overall though, a winnar is still you 👏
I've expressed before my philosophy of "Never work harder than your opponent makes you." This is probably the purest example of that I've posted here so far. I feel a kind of shame at doing this but if it works, that's my opponent's fault for not doing any of the huge number of things they could've done to stop me.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 15, 2021 10:28:46 GMT
I'm getting there. I still hit an occasional wrong button, but honestly that has about a 50/50 chance of being a better decision than the one I made consciously!
lol I'm bad at Strive part 50: Mint Chip May-hem
I think this is actually the first time I've been forced to play a non-default May color scheme. It threw me off more than I'd like to admit- on at least a couple occasions I was looking at the wrong May!
Bonus Content:
I had no idea this could happen. May's like "Fuck this shit I'm out"
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 17, 2021 12:43:43 GMT
Okay, I think I'm more or less back up to the level of skill I was playing with before switching controllers
lol I'm bad at Strive part 51: Back to Floor 9
Now I can actually try to improve. Honestly, I feel like I've already improved a little just because having all the buttons at my fingertips on a stick makes me more likely to remember to use all of them, which in turn helps in varying my approach a little to make me a bit less predictable.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 19, 2021 0:18:00 GMT
Whoops I forgot to post this earlier. Played, captured, uploaded, and forgot to hit the "publish" button on YouTube.
A key strategy of mine, in addition to "never work harder than your opponent makes you," is "Convince your opponent you're a moron so they aren't prepared when you show competence." That works perfectly here, though some of the convincing is being done by genuine fuckups on my part.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 19, 2021 11:45:41 GMT
I may have mentioned before that one of my big problems playing on my 360 pad was accidental jumping. Playing on a stick has almost completely gotten rid of that problem, but now I occasionally face a different problem:
lol I'm bad at Strive part 53: The Accidental Crouch
Didn't ruin my match this time, but it's absolutely why I lost Round 2: I was trying to block high but kept accidentally crouching. Other than that I have the I-No matchup reasonably well-scouted at this point and at least usually know how to get through it, assuming I don't run into players who are way, way better than me.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 20, 2021 12:26:33 GMT
I'm back to the point now where I'm continuously bouncing between floors of the ranking tower. Which is frustrating because it means my sets are constantly getting interrupted by the floor changes. But at the same time, this tipping point is where it feels like I do my best learning, starting to figure out the tough matchups while refining my betters ones. Case in point, a few weeks ago I considered this a matchup I was just no good at at all.
lol I'm bad at Strive part 54: Tiny Dancer
I'm not kidding when I say that fighting Anji always puts Elton John's Tiny Dancer in my head. I can't even really explain it but there it is. I don't even particularly like that song.
Man, you’re really getting good at making them pay with that spinning anchors away / wrecking ball special! I used to wonder why I could barely buy a win online even though I only bounced between a few characters, now I understand how much commitment people out there have! You’ve improved dramatically even since you started posting your videos. This has been cool to watch, and please keep posting! 🐬⚓️
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 22, 2021 2:56:09 GMT
I really owe whatever improvement I've made to Guilty Gear Strive's excellent tutorials, fantastic netcode, and strict ranking system. Thanks to those elements, I'm almost never being hampered by online play lag, rarely get into a completely one-sided matchup, and always have somewhere to go if I feel like I need to bone up on a specific mechanic. These combine together to create an environment where I'm always able to improve. Sometimes I feel like I'm not getting anywhere, which can be frustrating. That's part of why I started saving and uploading replays in the first place. Looking back at my earlier videos, I can see clearly how far I've come, and how far I have left to go.
If I have one complaint, it's that I wish there were more high-level May players posting replays online for me to study. Basically the only one I've found is TempestNYC. Who's amazing, don't get me wrong, but it'd be nice to see a wider variety of players and their approaches. It is a good feeling when I see arguably the best May in the country using some of the same approaches I do, though.
Edit: Here is the kind of play I aspire to. This is TempestNYC vs. SonicFox at this year's Evo.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 22, 2021 10:13:02 GMT
Today, I decided to consciously work on baiting opponents. I've long had a tendency to fling myself right into invincible reversals and command grabs, which was losing me more matches than I felt comfortable with. So, I spent some time just working on trying to bait out opponents' supers.
lol I'm bad at Strive part 55: Baiting the Hook
While I made plenty of mistakes along the way, I got pretty good at baiting out this guy's Heavenly Potemkin Buster. I'm also getting decent at baiting out Sol's Heavy Mob Cemetery, which, surprisingly, can be countered with a horizontal Mr. Dolphin. I'm... still working on the invincible reversal part. I only recently learned about the idea of Safe Jumps and now I guess I'll have to practice them.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 24, 2021 20:08:58 GMT
Still over here working on baiting out supers. Some opponents are pretty wily about when they pull out those invincible reversals. Others, however...
lol I'm bad at Strive part 56: Reeling in the Catch
In general, I got the strong feeling like this dude was responding really poorly to what I was doing. He got caught by almost every fakeout dolphin I did, fell for the ol' MAY LARIATO twice, got his super baited out by me just dash-blocking... pretty much any time I shifted tactics in any way he got instantly caught out by it. I think sometimes people just get so caught up in executing their own gameplan that they forget to consider what you're doing.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 25, 2021 11:43:47 GMT
I got back up to Floor 10 tonight! Ranking up requires winning 5 matches in a row and I was getting really nervous because I wasn't playing very well. Thankfully, my opponent in this match was playing even worse.
lol I'm bad at Strive part 57: Post every Double KO
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 26, 2021 12:15:06 GMT
They announced the contents of the balance patch coming on Friday! I'm a bit apprehensive because they're changing the hitboxes of some of May's normals and I just know that's going to screw me up a bunch until I get reacquainted. On the other hand, they're adjusting May's command grab to allow you to combo off of it outside of the corner, which is amazing. In the meantime, enjoy me dunking on a Nagoriyuki.
lol I'm bad at Strive part 58: Just another Day on Floor 10
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 27, 2021 12:45:01 GMT
The new DLC character isn't quite my speed, so I didn't play her this evening, but I can still show her off this way. Gotta love the Death Valley Driver super.
lol I'm bad at Strive part 59: Hunting the Jack-O'lope
Also I pretty much instantly fell in love with this theme. It gives me heavy Queen Don't Stop Me Now vibes.
Post by unimportantguy on Aug 28, 2021 9:52:15 GMT
Ever since I posted that video of me and some friends playing Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R, I've been organizing an extremely informal Friday night Guilty Gear play session with a couple friends, which I call Friday Nite FITE. This week, with some encouragement and a deep-discount sale, I convinced them to step up from Accent Core +R to a more recent game.
lol I'm bad at Strive SPECIAL 2: lol we're bad at Xrd Rev-2
This game rules. It lacks some quality of life stuff Strive has that's very important to me (Notably, Strive lets you macro dash/airdash to a button instead of double-tapping the joystick), but it's just a joy to both play and watch. While I disagree with the hardcore old-schoolers who insist that Strive isn't a real GG game, and it will continue to be where I invest most of my time, I think there's room for two Guilty Gear games in my heart, and Xrd Revelator 2 definitely feels like it deserves that spot.
