Has anyone gotten good @ SC4?

Maybe I looked at some of the combos wrong or something. Or actually, I bet the Soul Calbur forum I went to didn't have updated combos for SC4.

LOL I was looking every where on how to soul charge.

 

Marginal. I think you understand what im trying get at here about Maxi being interupted and left at big disavantage.Do you use Maxi? Cause Even after AA or BB why is it that his "Not Quite" works half of the time? I find my self being hit out of it a lot. What are the properties on that move for it to be successful?

 

I don't know why you think Maxi is weak. I'm up to level 44 and I get abused by Maxi more than any other character... I just can't figure out when to counter without getting hit by another endless string.

He reminds me of Lei Fei in that he's like a freight train you have to slow down to beat. He can keep coming at you with that flowing offense and it's up to you to find a spot to stick in a counter attack. I get the feeling Maxi's disadvantages are very small.

I need to find out where in the string to interrupt and get my offense going. That one guard break he has is really fast and hard to avoid. He's in your face with the nun-chucks and then he's suddenly charging a guard break and I can't move in time.

Maxi has become my arch nemesis in the past few days...

Siegfried is very tough too but I've played against a few more Nightmares in the past few days and he seems even stronger. Nightmare has some juggle combo involving a double kick that's just murderous to my soul...

 

You want freight train, just deal with sophie. Whoring angel dash is like Tekken BS- if that isn't patched I'm just going to give up on the game.

 

Are they going to actually patch the game play??? Did Namco say that a future XBL update would address balance issues that arise???

 

I quit VF for awhile to play this game..one thing this game is good at is making me appreciate VF even more. Not to say SC4 is a bad game its actually a good break from VF but that's all it can be for me just a small simple break. Despite how much depth you want to say this game has I still believe it was designed for the casual gamer in mind "the mashers". When you can do strong move after strong move without being at punishable disadvantage then that's what a game becomes a mash fest. This is a big improvement over 3 however but I still feel the game isn't as balanced as it could be

 

join one of me or Denkai's rooms, so we can play vs Ivy

 

As far as punishing power moves I'm finding most of the characters 6k or some variation of one of their boot to the faces does wonders for breaking into 'em. Gotten so many CH's because people forget I have a kick button.

 

Unlike in VF speed difference in basic moves varies depending on the character so basically not everyone can punish

 

I think this statement is pretty true. Some characters might be slow to the point where your best counter option is a kick move (Astaroth maybe... Super-slow and super-strong.)

The problem that I have a little more often with punishing is that the difference between character's ranges are so huge that you can't always block AA and answer with your AA (against Kilik for example.) You have to pick an attack with enough speed AND range to counter his blocked AA or you whiff and feel more pain.

 

Yeah, Maxi's my main. AA and BB are at disadvantage if they're blocked. That's when it usually gets shut down. On hit, you can get them to work.

3BAK and loop variations that get to RO AK quickly tend to be the safest strings now.

Gerns:

I explained some of Maxi's biggest choke points a little earlier in the thread (PG 5 IIRC). I think Maxi is definitely not Lei Fei. Lei Fei can confuse you, but he also has a ton of good moves, sabakis etc all that really play a strong role in disrupting retaliations and giving the opponent strong reasons not to stick their hand into the blender.

Maxi seems dangerous, but he's vulnerable after a blocked AA, blocked BB Maxi starts stance looping at that point and he's fair game. The guard crush (the jumping B?) can be interrupted at any point during the jump, the jumping kick GC can be ducked (this is a natural followup from the B GC for most mashers) Which sets them up for Ivy's wrB among other options.

On top of that, Ivy's spacing game is a pain in the ass to break through for Maxi. Most of his options for closing the gap are linear (which Ivy can shut down), so I usually have to be patient and work my way in.

As a Maxi player, I've seen Maxi get stuffed so many times in so many situations that I know he's not a juggernaut. He's just intimidating. I've shut down every Maxi masher I've come across, so I know it's doable.

 

The game is all about knowing which move you have in your arsenal that's fast enough to break up your opponents combo.

I play with Raph, and I've noticed that he has one of the fastest kicks in the game. When people mash me, I wait for the right time, then kick and start going off into a string of my own.

As far as ranked, IMO the best player doesn't always win. For instance in VF5 it's easier to adjust because the defense is better. I wish you could guard while rising on SC4 like you can on VF5. I've lost way more then I should but I don't mind it really.

When you go on ranked be prepared to face Mitsurugi, Kilik, Seigfried, Nightmare, Cervantes, Sophitia.

 

You can. Just hold G. Hold down after hitting G to rise guarding low.

 

SCIV offline is vastly superior to SCIV online. I'd even say more so than VF
it's not even a good training tool for somewhat competitive play.

All I know is without a reliable GI due to lag large/slow characters suffer. I play a
nifty Zas but simple button spamming stops a lot of my options. It's like the name
of the game is get close and spam online. On 5 bars it's not so bad. I can GI
there somewhat reliably. On 4 bars I swear I can see almost a .5 second delay.
I tried doing some GIs on Mattfabb as he spammed Taki B,B's to no avail, even
against Outfoxd Astaroth I did better when I decided to just spam A,A's and B,B's
after everything that missed.

In other words SCIV online is really just for drinking parties.

Now offline it's pretty sweet.

 

I've noticed the exact same thing. Although people use those characters a lot, it's helping me recognize their strings better cause I get so many games against them.

I played a few good Nightmares last night and I think he is going to be pretty scary once people really get the hang of him. He seems to have a slight edge on old Sieggy in the speed department.

 

play my nightmare Gernburg

 

Make more blog posts! Your VF5R one was a great read dude. You're a good writer and people want your opinion on VF. I do...

Yes, we will DEFINITELY play tonight if you're on...

 

I can beat Mitsurugi's Kilik's, Cervantes and Sophitia's on a regular basis, but I'm having a tough time beating Siegfried and Nightmare. I think that I'm just going to have to learn a different character to fight against them with because I can't really get into my mid range game with Raph against good Seiggies and Nightmares. His horizontal moves have enough reach to hit me when I step back evade with Raph and Yun everytime and since they're horizontal they hit me when I try to sidestep. Which character handles Sieg/Nightmare the best? I'm tired of losing to them.

 

I played Denkai's Nightmare last night and he was a nightmare. He does this thing where he uses Nightmares double kick to pick you up off the ground for a nice OTG combo and a ring out if you're too close to the edge.

Since he invented that little setup, other people have been doing it too. I'm thinking of warming my Lizardman[/size] back up so I can have two guys I can use well to throw people off with my match-ups.

 

I dropped SCIV allready.

My disc refuses to load Raphael(who happens to be my main), Sophitia and Yoshimitsu.

The vast majority of people online are garbage at the moment anyway and I've allready been invited to join six SC4 "clans". So I've decided to wait a few months until people get better and the Halo crew go on to Gears 2.