The FITE LAB: Post and talk about your fighting game matches

I discovered today that I play measurably better sitting at my desk than sitting on the couch. Guessing this is some combination of greater stick elevation compared to my elbows and shoulders, and the stick being on a fairly stable, solid surface. I wonder if I could get like a lap table kind of thing to play on the couch with?

lol I'm bad at Strive part 78: DYNAMIIKKU


I do tend to get pretty into my matches, but it's seldom that a match has the effect on me this one did. At the end of this match, I was sweating profusely, short of breath, and my heart was pounding in my chest like a jackhammer. I had to take a break and rest for a while. I think I held my breath through the entire last round. That super was a pure hail Mary move and I had no idea if it would work.

I am away from my computer right now and can respond in more detail later, but Faust is actually considered fairly weak in Strive. It's just that overall damage compared to health in this game is very goddamn high. As May I can regularly knock off 40% of someone's health with a short 3-5 hit combo.

Sometimes I sit back after a match and go "God good I played horribly." But occasionally, I finish a match and go "Damn that went pretty well I played pretty good." Tonight was such a night.

lol I'm bad at Strive part 80: A Miserable Little Pile of Secrets



It's hardly perfect, but that airdash heavy slash after the vertical dolphin around 1:25 or so? I've been trying to do that for months and that's the first time I've pulled it off. That corner combo around 1:50? I've been working on variations of it all week and that's the first time I've actually gotten it in a match. I feel pretty proud of this one.

I have a few combos I've been practicing in Strive for a while. The problem is that when I actually get into match, I tend to just miss the opportunities or just forget to do them. Then this happens.

lol I'm bad at Strive part 82: The Combo


This isn't that dissimilar from my favorite corner combo I posted the other day, with the major difference being that midscreen it requires a Red Roman Cancel to keep the opponent from being knocked too far away by the dolphin to keep the combo going. Combo route discussion ensues:
Strive is pretty generous about what combo routes work and do optimal damage, so I tend to go with some combination of what I find easy to do and what looks aesthetically appealing to me. May's optimal combo starter is her close Slash (cS), which has the advantages of being fast, high damage, and working as an anti-air in the right circumstances. If you can't get that, you can set up many of her combos off of her crouching Dust attack (2D). The following assumes you're familiar with numpad notation and common Guilty Gear abbreviations.

Midscreen, my preferred combo route is: cS > 5H > [4]6H > RRC > cS > 2H > [2]8H > IAD > jH. I'm bad at the Instant Airdash, though, so I often just replace it with an OTG 6H.
If I have trouble setting up a cS midscreen, I can do 2K > 2D > [4]6H > RRC > cS > 2H [2]8H > IAD > jH/OTG 6H. If I manage to carry the opponent to the corner with the vertical dolphin, I can go with a well-timed 5H to cause a wallsplat (WS). (brief explanation: In Guilty Gear Strive, after a certain amount of damage/hits done, the opponent will "stick" to the corner and the next hit will break the "wall," doing extra damage and transitioning to a new area where the situation resets back to neutral.)

In the corner, a roman cancel is unnecessary. The corner will push the opponent back into your attacks. So my preferred combo route becomes: cS > 2H > [4]6H > cS > 2H > [2]8H > WS > 6H. This version of the combo can be interrupted based on when the wallsplat happens  Generally speaking May's most optimal way to break the wall is 6H, although if she *can* get her Great Yamada Attack super in, it's superior. It's just tricky to use in those situations, because the giant pink whale flies in from the edge of the screen behind May, so if your opponent is in the corner it has to fly a long way to hit them and the wallsplat will probably end before they get there.
Like the midscreen combo, you can set up the corner combo with 2K > 2D instead of cS > 2H.

These are not necessarily the most optimal routes, but I find them both more fun to do, easier to do, and more aesthetically appealing than the truly optimal routes. For instance, one of the generally accepted optimal corner combos for May is: c.S > 2H > [4]6H > 5H > 5H > [4]6H > WS > 6[H], but I find the 5H > 5H part to be both aesthetically unappealing and also hard to pull off timing-wise. And of course there are wild kill combos requiring full meter, but all of those use Great Yamada Attack, which, as I noted above, is a pain to get off in the corner.

Every once in a while, I manage to do something kinda cool

lol I'm bad at Strive part 84: Insert Beavis and Butthead Reference here



To explain the joke and ruin it: Millia's super I keep avoiding is called Winger.

Roman Cancels are probably one of the most flexible and interesting mechanics in Guilty Gear, allowing you to do all sorts of things: Prolong a combo that was going to end. Stave off an opponent who's got you trapped in the corner. Create an opening where there wasn't one before. You just have to make sure you're using them at the right time. When you don't, this happens:

lol I'm bad at Strive part 86: Useless Roman Cancels Edition