New to Forums/KoF13. Looking for Help Learning the Game and Character Choice!

[Shadow Hado]

WARNING!  I know this is an INCREDIBLY LONG POST, and I'm hoping most people don't just click the Back arrow when they see it, or skim through it and say "tl;dr", but I would totally understand.  I've been working on this post on and off throughout the day and wanted to give as much relevant info. as I could, because I really do want to get into this game, a couple years late haha.  Anywho...

Hello!

I'm Nate S. from WI, and (obviously) go by the online moniker Shadow Hado.  I'd like to ask for your guys' opinions and suggestions on how to approach KoF13, but first, I'll fill in my FG background to try and help cater your answers to what I want/need.

Do you have any FG experience prior to KoF13?

I've been playing fighting games since the dawn of time, including every SF and spinoff, KI, MK, Tekken, VF4/Evo, SC, and various other things along the way.  As you'll notice, I started playing/wanting to play competitvely (locally) with the SF2 series (mainly CE and Hyper,) and wasn't actually competitive (travelling and such) until TTT1 Arcade in 1999.  Since then, I've played the following competitively/wanted to be great at the following:

• Almost every Tekken since TTT1, but couldn't get into T6, and have fallen way behind on TTT2.
• SF4, Vanilla through Fill-In-The-Blank-Edition.  This is a game I still hope to be able to pour vast amounts of time into again... *shrug* it's just a lot of fun to me.
• Soul Calibur 1+2.  Man I miss how much fun SC1 was to me.
• These games I played competitively fairly briefly: VF4Evo, MK2, UMK3, MK9, KI2, SF3S, CvS2, etc.
  

So if you've played/are playing so many FGs already, why KoF13?

As you can tell by my list, I could never get into SNK fighters.  There were a few of the older KoF games (I think '98, and something in the early 2000s, like somewhere in 00-02 I think) that I enjoyed, but NO ONE played them around here; the SNK multicart cabinet never had people at it.  As a matter of act, the most people I was able to play an SNK fighter with was during the early days of SamSho2, but who didn't like SamSho2?

*ahem*  Anyways, KoF13: I love prolly just about EVERYTHING about this game.  The aesthetics, musics, characters, execution level (imo, it's pretty high,) just everything... and that is why it bothers me that I can't play this game competitively!  I thrive on competition, whether I'm great or not.  I want to know that I'm playing every game at an above-average level, and that there are always people out there better than me.  Not just that, but that there are various skill levels to play against.  When I started getting really good at Counter-Strike and Halo, the skill level took a massive leap to the next "tier."  Fighting games seem to always have people within reach, slightly out of reach, and waaaayyyy the hell out there.  While I don't fear playing against anyone in any game, I still "know my place" regardless of the outcome.  Fearing an opponent means you already lost. But anywho...

Okay, great- so you want to succeed at KoF13!  Umm... exactly how new are you to the game?

Well, I've played in exactly one local tournament a year ago, and immediately realized I had no clue how to play the game properly.  That, or I just didn't understand how each character is played/"supposed to be played."  However, while I have practically no competitive experience with it, there is one thing I guess I do have: great execution, thanks to the KoF13 Trials.  I've done every Trial for every character more than 5 times now, and have continued to do them on and off for the past 20+ months because, while I don't play it (yet,) the increase in my execution level in ANY fighter due to practicing with KoF13 Trials has been incredibly noticable.  While I've been ecstatic with this improvement over time, well... doing the Trials doesn't help you learn the actual game. AT. ALL.

Oooookay, soooooo... What is it exactly that you're looking for?  This site has tutorials, ya know?

Yep!  I started reading some of them before posting this, actually.  I've watched quite a lot of KoF13 matches over the past couple years as well, so I have some idea as to what I should be doing, and how to do them, but I want to learn why, when, and where.  Also, while I know I'll eventually have to learn how to play and play against every character if I stay with it, I'd like to start with the most commonly played characters, as well as the characters I want to play, of course.  A lot of it comes with practice and experience, because it just doesn't soak in the same for me when I read a FAQ or watch matches.

Any idea who you're considering playing?  Some characters are more difficult to play/have more bad matchups than others, like most FGs...

I have a rough idea of who I'm considering, but I don't know that anyone is set in stone yet.  Oh wait- I know I want to play Takuma/Mr. Karate, but I haven't decided which one I would main; Mr. Karate seems slightly more fun for some reason, but Takuma seems stronger(?) and still plenty fun.  I guess I do like Kyo and Ex.Iori as well, probably because of my SF Ryu/Ken background, and Shen seems really cool too (plus I'm pretty sure he's really good in this game.)  

Okay before I give a list of possibles, here's my SF history, in case it helps you guys narrow the choices down.  I've played Ken from SF2 through SF3S, but he doesn't sit well with me in SF4, so I picked up Ryu.  In ST, I play O.Ken, Ryu, Deejay, Blanka, Dictator, and a lil' Dhalsim.  In SF3S, Ken and Akuma.  SF4, Ryu and Dictator, and now only Ryu, but messed around a bit with Deejay, Blanka, Guy, Sagat, Cody, and Juri.  As you can tell, I mostly throw projectiles, except in that one game I played briefly, SFxT.  I played Rolento and Raven with a splash of Ryu.

Anywho, the possibilities below have been broken into groups based on who I felt was a more likely choice:

• The aforementioned Takuma, Mr. Karate, Kyo, Ex.Iori, and Shen
• Billy (prolly because I like Rolento)
• Andy (he's a ninja! lol, but I do seem pretty comfortable with him)
• Hwa (I love doing his Trials, so I figured that means something)
• K'
• Lower Group
  
  • Ash (but does require perfect execution for the more "exotic" combos, which might explain her allure)
  • Saiki (can be annoying at times, imo)
  • Duo Lon (seems like he would need great spacing and concentration, but I could be wrong)
  • Vice (she seems pretty fun, but limited... is that true?)
  • Elizabeth (I really like her, but I seeded her in the lower group because I'm wondering if I'd be comfortable with her style)
    

Now, I realize I just listed like 1/3 of the cast, but hell, it was hard getting to that point- one of the things I love so much about this game!  But yeah- if you guys have any input on this at all, I would GREATLY appreciate it.  I'm hoping you guys can help me narrow down the list, whether it be flatout listing the characters you think I should look into, or asking questions about the list to help decide which ones will actually "fit" me.

Thank you very much if you've made it to this point of the post, and if not, even though you won't see this, I totally understand you not wanting to read it.

~~Nate[/list]

[Mr Bakaboy]

>mm... You mostly broke down everything we would tell you, but some tidbits I would throw in besides welcome is KOF in general has a lot of things to learn besides the combos if you want to be as good as it seems like you do. A lot of it is really learned by playing matches. You have a hell of a lot of experience. Since I started on SFII in 1991 and before that wrestling games since 1987 I know a bit of your mindset when you talk about the games you play.

The major shock I see is the spacing and who gets hit 1st system. It's sort of.like 3rd Strike where who gets the hit in 1st wins, not who uses what move. Also cause of rolls for starters, add short hops, hyper jumps, and dashes, the fireball game has to be used more intelligently. Sf IV, MK series. Even 3rd Strike is more forgiving then this game can be at a higher level. Spamming fireballs can happen, but you gotta know what you are doing. Those two things I would think about once you really start getting into it.

I run into a lot of high level SFIV players and that seems to be the major gripe I hear every time I play them especially when they put the time in learning the combos 1st before really getting deep into the system mechanics.

Actually I thought you narrowed down your list pretty well w/o really playing competitively. IMO you might change opinions once you see what other people do with characters, but at least you have an idea where you are going with this game.

Good Luck and don't get frustrated. This game is brutal to the new players, but once the time is put in it's very rewarding.

[solidshark]

Welcome to the site and community Shadow Hado. That was the longest introduction post, and I thank you for being detailed about your experience and interest in KOF XIII.

Given your experience, and the game itself, you've got the whole cast to play with your trials experience. Any combination of the characters you want to play will be fine, as long as they suit you.
Seems like the only thing you'll need is people to play and/or tournaments to attend. You can check our offline matchmaking - http://dreamcancel.com/forum/index.php?board=65.0  or tournament - http://dreamcancel.com/forum/index.php?board=21.0 section to see if you can get to some competition. For online, there's a netplay directory - http://dreamcancel.com/wiki/index.php?title=Netplay you might be able to use to find people. My recommendation with online is to find a few people who you have a good connection with and play/train with them often, and also stay wired for connections.