I don't know if I'm in the right place, but here goes...

[disneyanime91]

Hi all. I'm a first-year med school student in Singapore with an unhealthy obsession with video games. I've played Soulcalibur casually since 2 (but skipped 3 because I didn't have a PS2) and had a thorough amount of fun on SC4. I used Spawn & Talim in 2, and Darth Vader in 4 with Nightmare and Talim as second choices, but even then I kept it simple as I didn't go online to play, what with the pretty engaging offline modes. With SC5, I'm starting afresh with Ivy, and I might pick up Ezio sometime down the road.

I bought 5 becuase I wanted to keep up with the series, but to be honest, I suck at fighting games that are not Dead or Alive or Tekken titles. I might rank fighting games as my second most favourite video game genre after (J)RPGs, but I have never completed Arcade mode against AI more difficult than the default settings on SC4, and my Win-Loss count currently stands at 0W21L on MvC3. And I have just come off the PS3 after an hour of getting Ivy's ass kicked by Edge Master on SC5's Quick Battle. I can go entire matches without even landing a hit on him...

So you are probably asking: Why are you here then?

Because I want to get better. I'm not looking to get so good as to be able to go competitive, though, just enough to get all the offline trophies (and hopefully a few of the online ones as well), and to hold my own online (a 1:1 Win-Loss ratio is all I'm looking to achieve with my level of skill). So here goes my first set of questions:
1. How do I use Ivy effectively, offline and online?
2. Is using Ivy even a good idea to begin with?
3. What's the most effective way to get better against high-level AI?
4. Should I invest in a Hori Fightpad or something similar?
5. Speaking of controllers, is there an 'ideal' way to hold the controller?
6. Finally, D-pad or analog stick?

I'm sorry if I seem really rushed about all this, but I really want to have fun with this game both online and offline... and unfortunately being a total noob doesn't help at all.

 

[Pocky-Yoshi]

You'll be fine. Pocky Yoshi says hello and is pleased to meet you.

Right now, all you need to do is just have fun. As for Ivy help? Here's a soul arena link for you: http://8wayrun.com/forums/ivy.97/

Now Pocky Yoshi will answer your questions.
1. Just play and get used to her. Ask for help if you need it.
2. My question to you is: is she worth it for you?
3. Well, I'm a noob for now, but it takes time before we can reach that stage.
4. That's up to you.
5. Lulz. Whatever floats your boat. =)
6. I usually use D-pad for my own reasons, but that's what I feel comfortable with.


In summary, everyone is at "infant stage" right now. It'll be awhile before we all improve. But until then, feel free to ask any question. We're here to help. Though Pocky Yoshi is gonna have his hands full playing SCV lol. Anyways, great to have you on board.

P.S. Pocky Yoshi apologizes to other new 8wayunners he didn't say hi to. SCV takes my time hehe.

 

[minhtam1638]

1. The Ivy subforum should help you with that.
2. See #1.

3. Personally, I think the best way to get better against high-level AI is by taking a character you like to play, in your case probably Ivy, and facing a computer high-level AI by learning how to guard. No, I don't mean learning how to use . I mean looking at your opponent's attacks, how their weapons move, and determining where those weapons will land on your character. This helps you learn how to defend each attack properly, and the more you see those attacks, eventually, you'll be able to find key holes in certain attacks and take advantage of them.

Sometimes, it may be more to your advantage if you practice online more than offline. From my experience with SC IV, and no doubt this will happen in SC V as well, there are certain characters that appear more often than not, and in many instances, especially on game release, you will see a lot of new players relying on more characters than others and using the same moves frequently (remember all of them Kilik players, SC IV folks?). This might speed up your defending skills to the point where you will know what to do when you see those attacks. The downside, of course, is that they tend to help you counter certain characters and not others.

4. I personally would like a MadCatz tournament stick, but it's up to you. If you want to be able to hit the competitive scene, then it's a must to get some sort of arcade controllers. If you want to be able to enjoy the game and go for just a 50% win percentage, then a PS3 or XBox controller is fine. I'm 61% with an XBox Controller on SC IV, and the only reason I use controller is because I have no place in my home to put away a tournament stick.

5. Not really. Just hold it in a way that is comfortable for you.

6. Same as #5. I prefer the D pad because it's 8-way run, not 360-way run, and sometimes I hold my analog stick smackdab in the middle of and , making the character do what I don't want it to do, but I've seen players do extremely well in both the D-Pad and the Analog Stick disciplines.

 

[disneyanime91]

Thanks guys, for being so forthcoming with answers to my questions :) I really appreciate the help, and hopefully I'll be able to hold out long enough online... Going to try and turn the frustration at constantly losing into motivation to get better!

 

[ShenOu]

Hey dude,

I'm sorry I didn't get to this thread soon, so I hope you still see this.
Singapore actually has a few really competitive Soul Calibur players and there are many casual players who join us on a regular basis as well. You're welcome anytime to join us, we meet up frequently at this shop at Park Lane Shopping Centre (Near Dhoby Ghaut/Bras Basah MRTs) called Tough Cookie Gaming Cafe.

We also have like about 5 players who are constantly looking for casuals on PSN and XBL (I'm on XBL btw) so you can leave your psn ID/gamertag here and I'm sure people will add you for some games. You can also just look for us on FB/our blog (www.facebook.com/soulsingapore and www.soulsingapore.com) if you find that platform easier to use than coming to the forums.

We also hold events, we have a big tournament coming March 3rd, we are trying to make it as newcomer friendly as possible so do come down and take a look. I'm on the organising team and I'm making it my personal mission that players like yourself, should you choose to come down, will have a fair chance of walking away with some nice prizes so do consider checking our event out.

I'll end off by answering some of your questions questions.

1. How do I use Ivy effectively, offline and online?

The answer to this is subjective, every player has their own taste in character design, be it the aesthetic appeal, moveset or fighting style. I haven't taken a look at Ivy yet personally so I can't answer you here.

2. Is using Ivy even a good idea to begin with?
A good idea for? To have fun? Any character you enjoy playing should be fun to play right? If you're just looking to play with friends and not get thrashed by them then just play who you like and pick up tips to improve slowly. If you're talking about tiers, I'd suggest not to worry about unless you're talking about being highly competitive and attending international tournaments like WGC or Evo.

3. What's the most effective way to get better against high-level AI?

I would suggest not to bother at all, higher AI difficulty settings are usually meant to execute counters to high level play at an inhuman level. This usually means that if you read up on advice given by other players who are talking about just casual or competitive play, the AI will react to you perfectly and give you a hard time pulling off any move at all. For ridiculous difficulty modes, players usually have to end up abusing AI exploits like spamming a particular move over and over again, which ends up being not very fun at all.

4. Should I invest in a Hori Fightpad or something similar?

If you like playing in an arcade setting or enjoy playing offline with other players, I'd suggest you pick up a Fightstick. Fightstick vs Fightpad vs Default pad in the end just boils down to what you're comfortable using. The only logical advantage to getting accustomed to a fightstick is the fact that the fightstick layout (although there are some minor differences) are standardized regardless of console or arcade. We've seen many players who have difficulty using Xbox360 pads because they are used to ps3 pads and vice versa. We have players who cannot play SC2/SC3 at the arcade because they never used a stick before. This is the only clear difference, other than that it's just your personal preference.

5. Speaking of controllers, is there an 'ideal' way to hold the controller?
Again, see above.

6. Finally, D-pad or analog stick?

Once again, personal preference. :)