Ryu

Alright! It's JDE here again! It's been a while since I did my last progression blog. I'm also able to record videos & broadcast a bit. I plan on doing it so that people can see what it takes & how they can progress as a player as "I" learn & play the game. 

Here's a quick paragraph of what's been going on here. So in between the times of TFC which I went 0-2, but just wanted to participate & show my support for the game, I was still hung up on the character that I wanted to use. For a while, I thought Ken was my guy, but it turns out that he wasn't. He had the rushdown that I was looking for, but his spacing didn't feel right to me. So I went back & did some more research over my favorite characters in the game & ended up liking Ryu's overall gameplay better. His spacing with the fireball & his offense was what I was looking for. The ONLY thing that I dislike about him in his slow walkspeed. So much like Kasumi in DOA, I main one of the main characters in the game, but as long as it's one of my favorite characters in the game, I'm going to have fun with the game regardless. 

It also turns out that despite how much I studied & learned this game, I went about studying my character (Ryu) wrong. I understood what to use, but not "when" really to use it. This alert came when I played my boys, BFK (Jackson), Gill Hustle (Greg), Brightgamer (Joesph), LuCky Lo0pz (Allan Paris), & Hoodless (Mark Macklin). Shout outs to them! 

So without further due, I went back to study on Ryu as a character. Ryu is a character who has a very good fireball game to control space, great keepout game, great anti-air game with the medium Dragon Punch (DP aka Shoryuken; SRK), but can also get great damage on offense. Here's what I come to release:

Cr. MK (Low forward) & Cr.HK (Low roundhouse) are his strongest whiff punishers. Cr.HK is a hard knockdown with oki potential. In order to use these tools, he has to be within character range. Otherwise, he's whiffing them. With Cr.MK, a fireball can be used as a follow up. 

For his overhead, I have been using his collarbone breaker (Stand F+MP). It's 2 hits that can be combo linked on counter. 

For anti-airing, there are quiet a few things that he can use. The main anti-airs that he uses are his Medium SRK & his Light SRK FADC into Ultra 1 (Ultra Fireball; Metsu Hadoken). The other anti-airs that he has are Cr HP (Low fierce) in close jumping distance (3 or 4 steps away), standing HP, standing HK, both can be used in a very far jumping distance on his opponents. 

My next venture will be his air-to-airs. For combos, since I've been focusing on his main aspects, I haven't been putting to much emphasis on them. I just been keeping it simple. 

SPS (Solar Plexis Strike)  Heavy SRK
SPS Light SRK FADC xxUltra 1xx
CrMP CrHP xxHeavy SRKxx
Cr.MP Cr.MK xxHeavy Fireballxx
Cr.MP Cr.MK xxFireballxx FADC Cr.HK
Jump HK crHP xxTatsu (all depending on where I am on the stage)
Light SRK FADC xxUltra1xx

That's it for now. I will have more of my progress & breakdown soon. Stick around. Here is my YouTube channel with my videos playing him:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAnPxvkgcENfTn4a7FPxMQ

Ken Masters part II: Offensive combos

Alright, here is my part two of my Ken progression blog. Before I get started, I want to give shouts to NinjaCW, Gill Hustle, Balrog Hairline, & SRK for giving me tons of info of these juggle combos (& the game sessions recently as well) & how to go about using them. I have a good list of combos but I've been keeping it simple with the BNB's of Ken. I don't have all of the actual juggles that he can do, but the ones that I have will do me enough justice that will help me level up my game with him. The ones with a * mark are the ones that I'm using.

cr.LP crLP Heavy DP (SRK)
crLP crHP Heavy DP (SRK)*
Stand LP Stand Heavy DP (SRK)*
Jump HK Stand HP Heavy DP (SRK)*
Jump HK Stand HK Heavy DP (SRK)*
cr LP cr LP crLP Heavy DP (SRK)
crLK crLP Heavy DP (SRK)
crLK crLP crHP Heavy DP (SRK)
crLK crLP crMK (blockstring)
Jump HP Stand HK Heavy DP (SRK)*
Jump HK crLP crLP crLP crLP Ex Hurricane kick (Tatsu)
Stand HK Heavy DP (SRK)

The rest I've just been experimenting with to see what kind of use it is. Also, I've been working on his FADC with Ultras. I'm actually still testing his step kick (F+MK) & his HK with heavy SRK to see if it actually links. I'm not 100% sure on it. There is still a lot to be done with him. I still want & need to find combos setups with his sweeping enders. I feel like a secondary (Chun Li) will be on hold for a good while. I'm trying to fully understand Ken & how to win with him before I look to Chun. This is a great start however. I will be back with more on this & what I come up with in space.

Ken Masters

Note: I'm writing this blog also as a note taking reference for progression.

Here is my 2nd blog post or part II on USFIV & my progression. I was actually in a bit of a crisis for a while when deciding on a main character & a secondary since that I have 7 characters in the series that I enjoy. At the end of the day, I wanted a shoto fighter in the roster. The character that I chose to main is Ken. My reasons for using Ken is that because he suits my style of offense. I don't mind the weaker fireball (hadoken) for a stronger offensive game. The other that I intend to put in my back pocket is Chun Li after I have put my Ken on a good skill level. I stick Ryu with them since he has some characteristics in common with Ken. Difference is that he controls space a lot better. SRK, SF Youtube links, & some info on Event hubs are proving to work really well for helping resources. Of course some friends are helping out too.

For the most part, while continuing through the tutorials, I have been working on the following:

• Basics & Fundamentals of Street Fighter
• Ken's tendencies 
• Offensive game (some)
• LP crMK variants
• LP crMK fireball
• LP crMK hurricane kick
• crMK Fireball (blockstring)
• crLP crHP variants (crLP crHP, fireball, etc)
• Foosties
• Gap closing ( F+MK, step kick)
• Whiff punisher (HK)
• Still need to learn to link it if possible
• Anti-Airs
• Overheads
• Few Crossups
• Throwing
• Hit-confirming
• Crossing up
• FADC
• FADC forwad/back dashing through fireballs
• FADC & whiff punishing
• FADC with jumping
• Teching
• Tech-throw breaking
• Ground teching

For the most part, just working on the simple stuff that makes up SF & Ken. The things that I need to do are very obvious, like working on his kara throw, getting some combos, & continue working on this stuff. I'm still inconsistent, but just sitting down in the lab finding this stuff is good alone. 

This is where I'm at right now. I will continue with the next blog of progress as soon as I get it back rolling again. 

Ultra Street Fighter IV

Hello. What's up ladies & gentlemen? This is J.D.E. (or J.D.) bringing another blog entry. This one is me going into the Street Fighter (SF) community, preparing to play Ultra Street Fighter IV (USFIV) offline in tournaments, & enjoy the ride.

I also will make a quick mention of the Chattanooga Fightclub (CFC). I will represent them every now & then in tournaments. It's not a sponsorship. It is my local fighting game community scene as a whole that we have put together, travel, & compete in fighting games when we can. So expect CFC|J.D.E. to show up on the stream when playing.

I've been a fan of SF for a very long time. It is among my top 3 favorite fighting game franchises alongside of DOA & MK. This decision has been a long time coming. I just wanted to waiting until this version, USFIV came out in order to do it. This is also the 1st time that I'm using a fightpad instead of the regular pad. I had the other SFIV builds for a while, but wanted to start from scratch & "learn" it for real with other newcomers to the scene. I've played casuals in a lot of games to show the games love, but this one I decided to get into since it's one of my favorites. I will say that this is probably the most competitive fighting game that I have ever played to date.

There are tons a players that are much beyond my league & have a lot of work to do. I had some friends even tell me that I should just "stick to casuals because it's much to do", but this is what I like to do & honestly one of the things that I live for as a fighting game enthusiast. This is one of the main series that kept me off the street, in the house at night. Seeing this game played in person & on stream just gets me even more hyped to learn & play.

I've been doing numerous amount of video tutorial watching, even making out a playlist strictly for the game itself & the character (s) that I play. I even have a notebook full of notes, much like I did for DOA (yes, I write down a lot of notes studying the games). My main character decision came from 2 things: characters that I enjoy throughout SF & my style of play. The favorite characters are Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Cammy, Sakura, C.Viper, & Ibuki. In general, I like the shotos a lot like how much I love ninjas (Ibuki) as a preferred fighter in a fighting game. My style of play emphasizes on offense for the most part so I chose Ken to focus on completely with Chun Li probably going to be my secondary once I feel I can venture off.

This is pretty much where I am now. I'm just practicing the basics, fundamentals, & learning about Ken's tools & where his strengths/weaknesses lie. Still lots of work to do, but it was great getting the feel for the game with some friends on Xbox Live. I'll come back with more thoughts as I progress & travel.