@@nyxa8734 real talk, I throw on an audio book or long RU-vid vid and just kinda phase out doing the inputs. I’m no where near perfect, but I’m a lot more consistent than my friends lol. I’m working on legit fundamentals too
Take it from a guy with 1.6K hours in T7: you'll get there eventually, and it feels amazing. The first time you get someone to plug on you after you block their snake edge for the third time... you never forget it. The first time you duck a mid-high string that you've never even seen before just because you intuitively know... there's nothing like it. I promise you, it's worth it!
Ay thats sick to hear, i like hearing about others' journies and all. Thanks for the encouragement, ive been wanting to get into tekken forever and finally am able to with 8 and this is super heartwarming as someone whos new and all, ty❤❤❤
The intuitive micro ducking is one of the most satisfying godlike feeling things😂 i feel like if i put 600 hours into tekken like i have sf6 i could get really good, tekken just clicks and flows more naturally for me, im not dropping sf but tekken 8 is so good im going hard on it
Trying to punish a deathfist is like trying to defuse a bomb with the manual in front of you. You know what to do, but you don't have the heart to go through with it.
Difficult defense leads to such rewarding moments when you finally get it right though. Tekken dopamine didn't come from when i learned my 80+ damage situational counter hit combo. It came when i finally blocked 1 out of 15 Bryan hellsweeps, broke that grab, and low parried junkyard dog for the first time.
Nothing was more satisfying than sidewalking in front of a teal rank Kazuya who was throwing out electrics, then whiff punishing him like "you thought you were slick? eat this 80 damage combo into the wall"
When Tekken 7 came out, I told a guy that it was my first competitive Tekken. He said "Don't worry, keep grinding and by the time Tekken 8 comes out you'll be decent." I didn't realize how true that was until Tekken 8 came out lol
Never assume your opponent can think unless they show you otherwise. Useful advice for any competitive game, even more so for fighting games and especially Tekken
@@heroicsquirrel3195 The worst players can sometimes beat the top players (in any game) because they do something so stupid, so unthinkable to the pro player that they could NEVER have seen it coming or expected them to do that.
as an okay player at tekken, my very beginner level of advice is: check with a jab (if you know they're finished attacking). if you get hit, it means you were minus. use that as a repertoire to learn frame data as you play and master your gameplay one interaction at a time. if there is something specific that is hitting you and you cant find an out, experiment with some ducks, side steps and if all else fails, lab the move/character. Secondly: Find your key moves and tools that will help you beat the specific type of player you're fighting. Finally: don't forget to have fun, kids
Same here except I forget to have fun I get too mad at myself for not having an answer to things in the moment I don't take it out on the other player but I let it soil my mood that I allowed myself get grabbed back to back or the classic get hit with 2 low kicks and then you finally duck to check the low BOOM launcher
completely relatable. sometimes satisfaction can come from beating the thing that beat you in the past, like grabs and low, other times it can simply be landing the thing you wanna land. long as you can focus on the cool aspects, compliment your opponents gameplay from time to time to not write it off as something not to get angry about, you'll start to feel more leveled in those situations and overall have fun. you're already starting off with a really good mindset by not getting mad at others @@skitteh2021
As a multi-character TGP and one time TGO in T7, let me upgrade these to instantly help you. Instead of checking with a high check with a fast mid, generally a df1. It's 3 frames slower than your high but you're not going to get murdered by all the really strong high crushing moves. If you're getting counter hit, you're less than +3 after the string. So try a high next time. If a string feels really oppressive or safe, and doesn't obviously look like a mid, try ducking the last hit. If their string ends in a mid its probably -12 or worse so do df1. If it punishes, then you're in the money to try more ambitious punishes. Some characters have quite ambitious movesets, so knowing the basics is awesome.
Aris' Law junkyard rant is iconic and perfectly exemplifies how baked into Tekkens essence and identity those random legacy knowledge checks are. He was talking about some back in the day like Tekken 3 shit that was 100% applicable to T7.
Sorry to be clear after searching: I really mean the last half of his Law tutorial anecdote/aside.. but in a later video just playing lobbies he pops off on a scrub who tried to junkyard him, resulting in the iconic rant. But for the actual info and the reason it's such a knowledge check, watch the tutorial.
I think Tekken is the most low-floor high-ceiling fighting game I've ever played. It's extremely easy to pick up and immediately mash out some stuff and have fun. I know people who has no idea what frame data is, and have a great time just playing the game. But the amount of things you can learn and pick up is crazy, and a novice like myself could never even get close to beating someone who's good. This is the reason why Modern controls and easy specials never really bothered me at all. Because Tekken show that you could definitely make a game that's both easy and hard at the same time.
Deadass. If you know your launchers, a string, a combo, when to block and use your heat; you’re FKN set until you reach at least orange/red ranks I feel.
Can confirm. I grew up playing Tekken 4 and 5 Hwo in arcades. Never learned a single "real" combo in that time. Just launchers, sidesteps, and a few other moves. Got my ass beat all the time, but I still came back any time I had any extra quarters to spend. The games were so damn fun, just with those few things.
That exists in tons of games, but I'd appreciate if the part where you get out of mashing and into intentional play was less frustrating. Less of a knowledge check, more of an application. That sort of thing.
Personally I cant get into tekken at all because of this stuff- the barrier to having any defense is so high, and mashing just isnt fun to me. My first online fg for example was strive, I played Ky on launch and never just ran people down, but I climbed to floor 10 within a couple weeks because I just learned to how read my opponents simple mash patterns and block/punish/callout accordingly. Super fun, I enjoy playing defense a lot. Tekken looks sick but it just is too much for me to get into because I feel like I cant play defense at all without 1K hours
I have played Tekken for 30 years literally and was competitive between 5DR and Tag2 (traveled to Final Round for T6 and nearly made it out of pools) and I STILL get knowledge checked to this very day. You HAVE to accept that you will lose to actual literal caveman tactics. I mained Bob but now since I don't have Bob I have switched to Asuka and I can't even punish Kazuya's 1, 2, 3, 4 string because I just don't have the muscle memory like I would for Bob. Just be patient. We're all floundering over here, including some vets. What I can say is the replay function is SPECTACULAR for learning. If you're just starting out I would watch the replay of every match.
@@Joetime90 haha yeah I'm pretty sure that was the one I was at. I went with some guys from Cincy who were way better than me at the time (and to this day really) I played against Anakin on an open setup and I could tell he wasn't trying and I remember being annoyed and telling people that I beat Anakin (technically I did). I wanted to get a chance to talk to NYCFab for Bob tips but never ran into him.
Low level Tekken is mostly button-mashing Mid level Tekken is mostly knowledge-checks High level Tekken is mostly movement and safe pressure Low level Tekken is fun for casuals. High level Tekken is fun for hardcore players. I don’t know who mid level Tekken is fun for, but if you are interested in high level Tekken you have no choice but to power through the ocean of knowledge-checks.
6:04 You have accurately described me as a Yoshimitsu main. It's just so much fun seeing opponents freak out because they don't know what the hell you're doing but you don't either 🤣
Every FG will teach you this lesson, but Tekken is particularly up-front about it: you have to earn the right to play "the real game." You must become a good scrub before you are allowed to become a bad "real" player. Otherwise you have no foundation.
Honest to god, the best thing you can do starting out if you're drowning in the move lists is to cut your moveset down to the bone and just roll with fundamental tools for a bit. As you get comfortable using those, you'll notice other interesting moves that cover gaps in your options and incorporate those. Having the fundamental tools as a foundation allows you to build on with more niche stuff surprisingly easily, while also cutting down on the complete and utter chaos you feel you're diving into off the bat.
This is what I did because I wanted to learn azucena from day 1 but her movelist was so overwhelming. Learned a few pokes, and combos, played some low ranks matches for a while to get the feel of playing her till I felt comfortable learning more advanced things
@@myass1547 The most obvious are your jab, your mid check (usually d/f+1), your t1 launcher (usually d/f+2), and your hopkick (usually u/f+4 but you might have to do it as u/f
if you want to learn defense for long term improvement, playing really defensively just blocking all day and letting youre opponent do a bunch of stuff is good because even if you dont punish it and just die without being able to do anything you can take control in the replay and figure it out. also use replays to find better combos or better offensive sequences in certain situations or whatever and youll be able to learn a lot this way from a single replay. you can also go to online replays and watch people who use your character to see what theyre doing and try to take control to see if you can do it yourself.
I'm probably wrong but I dont mind playing my baby version of clean and losing early. I practice hard shit for a bit, hop online, get dogged by mashers, and it's not that bad lol. I will say tho I have wasted hours of my life labbing punishes to trash moves with the hope that knowledge check will be useful in the future (it's not)
I love tekken because defense and offense have so much depth to them. Offense is still poweful but whiffing is so potent it makes neutral feel completely different. Tekken is unique because it's punishing without being blindingly fast. Or as complicated as you think. It's a lot simpler than at first expectation picking up. Which is so cool. Very low floor but such an awesome ceiling
I personally fell of Tekken because of the relatively larger number of knowledge checks you need to know and engrain into your muscle memory to make it further than red ranks or maybe from blue ranks depending on your character and state of balance. having good fundamentals only takes you so far once others have them as well. I don't really know why the development of this game is pro legacy skills and against "adaptive learning" but the solution to making Tekken be a game that all players can learn without needing studying be their main/only source of learning is to design hit affects similar but much more subtle than training mode. Essentially make high, mids, and lows identifiable by their hit effects, and have three or four intensities/brightness's for those effects to indicate the block frames >0, -1 to -9, -10 to -14, =0 to -9 and =< -10. Players who already know framedata and have the muscle memory still have their advantage to a slightly lesser degree where as players learning will possibly take in the information and try to react. But just because they have this info, doesn't magically give them the execution needed to punish. There's still a lag between what they learn and being able to respond accordingly. Some might get discouraged for failing or even getting punished for trying to do the right thing, but its still more fun to learn in matches to most than it is in labs (I imagine old school arcade players can relate). It's cool that they devs try to make it easier for new players to get in over the last few tekkens be it by adding armored moves, supers, simplifying wake ups iirc, etc. But I think making it easier to close the gap from legacy knowledge goes much further than these types of gameplay features could any day.
I started out in Tekken 7. Seeing a lot of mashers. Great way to beat it if they’re mashing jabs after mids you can generally throw out a jab check to beat them. There is counter play so be careful but for the most part it will work.
I finished the story on medium in manual mode and I can confidently say I know exactly 0 combosdespite spending hours replaying the challenges in training. I am apparently incapable of retaining information.
Getting past mashing state is opening the door to your Dunning-Kreuger - You know how much you don't know, and losing to people who don't know you hurts the ego.
Going from Street Fighter to Tekken feels like going from wizened old hermit master to 6-year old with sock-em boppers on his 12th bottle of mountain dew.
I started a few days ago and got pretty far by having 5 things in my arsenal: power move against mashers (armor+knock back), low counter (victor), launches, a move to hit sidesteppers and a combo to follow launches. Don't need to know wtf my opponent does😂
The "be patient" advice is pretty strong. I learned from Ippo that I need to have a good jab as a foundation. As an FGC veteran, but new-enough to tekken to where idk what anyone else does, I can slowly get an idea of when the opponent is negative and when their strings are over, and then also tell when they might think to block or do something to escape "1" pressure. I ended up ruling low rank with my left lmao
It's also worth pointing out that since it's a new game there's still some returning players who've played Tekken the last 20+ years that are in lower ranks, it's only been a week so a lot of them won't get filtered out for prolly a month or so especially if they play multiple characters. Plus 32 matchups is a lot in general
“If you feel like they’re doing scrubby shit, you need to figure out what despicable day 1 stuff YOU can do” this is so true. Never felt realer than playing someone in SF6 mashing drive impact and then realizing you can just be a gorilla and mash it too because they can’t react either. It’s not broken if you both have the tools, you just have to adapt and use them too.
I really wish fighting games let you pin combos somewhere on your screen at all times and in all modes. As soon as I close the movelist, I've already forgotten the buttons I need to push. Let alone trying to push buttons when someone is pushing theirs 😂 It's going to be another brutal grind trying to learn to play T8.
I’m new to tekken and it feels absolutely amazing when u duck a string you have seen a lot and counter that shit with an uppercut into a full combo. It’s one of the best feelings I have had in fighting games
Coming from SF6 and not having played Tekken since i mashed TTT on PS2 it's so fun and exciting to finally learn Tekken and see my favorite SF youtubers doing the same. What amazing times for the fgc.
For more advanced beginners, learn the systems!! For the most part, moves work similarly across the roster. Exceptions happen occasionally based on character and archetype. For example: Most d/f+2 mid launchers are -13 on block. Exceptions: If the character has a safe d/f+2 that launches, it probably only launches crouching opponents. Shoulder and back attacks are often LAUNCH PUNISHABLE at -15. this also trains you to start seeing those moves and experimenting while in battle. This helped me when T7 launched and i was drowning in the yellow ranks.
Great vid, as a defensive player learning tekken was a nightmare you have to not only know so much but you have to have the skill to do it also. I'll just watch others get mad.
Nice vid! The tension between short-term winning and long-term development is very true! If you try to get better long-term you have to try to accept that you'll lose vs "cheap stuff". Realise the different goals between you and your opponent and use it to keep your mental.
I disagree with the last part. If you wanna get out of ELO Hell, you definitely need to start learning how to get good at the game. But what does this mean? Learn how to take advantage of mashers that don't care about the game. For example, Victor's WR2 is great cuz I can use to bait CHs with 1+2, same with my 10f punish, usually you'll do 1,1,2 but I do 1,2. why? Because it leaves me +8 and people will mash anyways so I can do 1+2 and get that juicy CH. Learn your punishment, you only need 2. your 10f and your 15f or launcher (some characters dont have 15f launchers) and learn how to be patient. However, you cannot fight shitty players, the same way you think you should fight good ones. Set ups don't work if the opponent doesn't know they're being set up. This will also help you learn to adapt to different game styles
For beginners this is the best advice i can give: Learn a couple new moves a day, familiarize yourself with your chatacters spacing and low,mid,high options(dont need a crazy amount) Check with Jab, new players dont really know how to deal with it and you can get mixes out of it with some characters (like Kazuya) Lastly and most importantly, take your time, pick a character you like and enjoy the journey. Its going to be long, do not give up.
I've been playing tekken for years and thought of myself as an intermediate level player at least but now I very clearly realize that I am still a beginner at heart. Thanks Sajam, very eye opening.
I got to Orange rank as Victor and that is basically the game. 1) When in doubt, don’t mash, 2) Use your jab and mid check try to figure out your opponent’s habits. 3). Use a CH combo starter to make your opponent feel dumb. 4) have a launch punish combo and a while standing combo. I don’t think you need much more than that to do pretty well…. The rest is the annoying and painful process of grinding game knowledge.
I watched this and went back to the game and it’s still JUST as frustrating. So far I have not felt like anything has happened for a reason regardless or a win or loss. Every win feels like I got lucky or because I struck first and every loss feels like it was unavoidable. It’s a guessing game because there’s no way you can memorize all these strings even labbing every day. The only reason I keep playing is because of sunken cost (£50+) the game’s presentation amazing, Lili is great and I’m slightly insane. Maybe it’s over for me because now I’m too used to short term success, but this doesn’t feel fun enough to be worth the time long-term.
I was watching rangchu clips cause i wanted to learn kuma and thought his playstyle is too safe maybe i should find someone crazier and then I found master of salmon I think I'm gonna stick to watching rangchu clips...
Can confirm, I'm a dumbass and have no business winning anything, but so is everyone else I run into, so I seem to be making progress. I play Hwoarang, and I know it's going to take me a long time to get actually good with him. So for now, I'm running very basic pressure that just puts me plus, and hitting people who try to press buttons. Sometimes, basic stuff works.
That stuff that makes me angry when playing Tekken works exactly like you described. It is not me being mad at my opponent, but it does make me mad, and it makes me miserable enough that I don't care to break through that barrier and learn Tekken. By contrast with other games, when I get hit by something I've never seen before, I usually understand why, and what I should have done instead, in a way that I don't when I play Tekken.
@@shadowfrces3171 It has the tools to learn what wrong after the fact, but in the moment, it's not really feasible to intuit the answer, so it becomes an exercise in having seen that move before, enough to recognize it when it happens again. And that's where the frustration comes in.
The biggest piece of advice I will give a new player is just play. Do not try to study every character's move list, you will lose your mind, and you will not have fun. If anything, understand the core buttons of a character and how the character plays overall, and you'll be fine. Tekken is a game where you really learn by playing, and you need to have fun playing, because you are going to get your ass kicked until you start learning. In Street Fighter, there is very much a "Here's how this character is played", but Tekken is more about the player and what they're doing. So even if you know the character, no one character is going to be played the same by 3 different people. TL;DR, don't get hung up on character data, you will instead find more success by feeling out your opponent.
First Time Tekken player, hit yellow rank yesterday with Azucena! Having a blast learning T8. The Arcade story, combo challenged, punishment training and Rooflemonger's beginner guides have done a lot for me getting started :)
This was honestly so helpful I went straight to your Twitch and subbed. Not sure I've had my status as a player explained in such a natural way where I 100% understand like "yeah, that's exactly how it is!"
Having fun is the most important thing when picking up something new, so if that means learning your unga to their bunga, then go for it. I will say though, if you actually want to start deciphering their offence, T8 has one of the best replay functions out there. Not only will it automatically tell you "duck that high" or "that string is unsafe, punish with this", you can immediately jump in and start playing from that point rather than trying to set up the same situation in practice mode.
There's a reasonably well-known anecdote that I unfortunately have no source for, which is that Justin Wong filled at an arcade tournament for Tekken 6 due to a player dropping out and despite at the time basically never having touched Tekken he still made it to top 8 because Tekken is a fundamentals game.
I played MasterofSalmon earlier today! He/she is as trashy as he/she is in this video haha. Sure he/she is “better” than the average player, but with the way they play, I don’t believe they’ll make it far past Ganryu.
Yeah I stuck in yellow hell trying to play normally and learn the game till i noticed noone was doing that so I said fuck it and got to orange with one simple string. Frame trap into 1+2 grabs. I won like 10 matches in a row. I had Kings eating throws and rage quitting
I have a new series called Tekken is Life. It’s aim to get beginner’s to intermediate as quickly as possible. Check it out it teaches mechanics and what moves to do with them.
Tip for low rank Kazuya players: Hellsweep CONSTANTLY until the opponent starts blocking low, then use Dragon uppercut on their wakeup. Easiest conditioning I've ever experienced in my life.
I actually completely agree From Just watching the First minutes. Get a character you Like, Test a few If you want offline, get into practice. And get a gameplan for you character. I did exactly they Same as this Guy. Start with a Heat engager, get a good Basic and easy Combo down, just Something that deals about 50-60 damage. Get a Plan to Finish them off with strong attacks or weird attacks or try to get the combo again. This got me easily into purple Ranks for playing the First time since casual Tekken 3 And mayyybe after this or even during these games you will learn about other Options you have, Block, and get so comfortable with your buttons and Game Plan to try Out other buttons
If you step left, crouch while standing...... what the hell did you say to me?😅 Hearing tekken explained, no offense, it went over my head I had to rewind a few times 😅. That being said, I'm just gonna have fun lol. 100+ moves? Bet. I'm gonna use every last one of them lol. Great video though.
I play Yoshimitsu just because he has so many random knowledge checks that I know nobody's going to know how to beat below a really high rank Oh, and Yoshi has a 50-50 mixup off of his Heat Smash because he's +10 on shift into Dragonfly stance- So just... Don't mash
I think the earlier you are in your time with a fighting game, the less winning matters. If I lose to a Draganov, but I managed to while rising punish one of his highs, I win, because next time I might be able to punish 2. And eventually, I'll be able to punish then on demand, and when THAT happens Draganov is gonna be a way easier matchup. Take this, expand it across more and more characters/concepts and you have described (getting gud). That isnt to say you cant use broken strategies if they work: I love making people 'learn today' as much as any player. But you can literally do that blindfolded very quickly, so what becomes fun is finding other ways to get advantages and applying them more and more liberally.
I started playing Azucena after the patch she got nerfed as a total ameuter to the series as a whole, learned some actually really tight conversion that I decided to make my "bnb" which I'm 95% sure is inoptimal, and when in the game I end up winning via back 3 spam. The low that puts you into back turn with frames. Or 1 1. Or forward 4 4. Like yeah I can duck highs, but mids are my worst enemy rn and I don't feel like I'm learning once I do what works at the time. But ig that's just the learning process.
everything single opponent i fight- do everything possible to get offence then spams 50/50 low & mids, or grabs for guaranteed damage repeat the effort it takes to play defense is not worth the effort it takes to place offence. Successfully blocking and punishing a move will only give you 1/4 of the damage that move would do if it lands.
That's why I can't do Tekken. I understood very quickly that at the beginning for a LONG time it's just gonna be me and my opponent flailing at each other fishing for hits and unfortunately, that's just not fun imo. I enjoy mind games, outsmarting my opponent and ultimately feeling like I earned the victory or deserved the loss. There would be so much to learn before I could feel that way in Tekken and I simply don't like Tekken enough to put the time into getting there.
Hi when I started in tekken 7 I used Claudio he’s great for learning tekken fundamentals and is not complicated play defensive use up+4 it has massive range use back+1 and check people with forward+3 if they get hit follow up then just learn a basic combo
I made a post on Reddit about a week ago asking what a good fighting game for beginners is and all the answers were mostly tekken 8 so picked it up and now I’m watching videos of fighting game vets I’ve been watching for years say “yeah the game I played was pretty crazy but this game is absolutely bananas difficult” great suggestion Reddit.
I get so frustrated with tekken sometimes lol. Alot of players realise I'm limited (can't wavedash and am inconsistent with electrics) and will just press me and seemingly spam me when I'm at the wall and I can't even get a hit in. I play kazuya, I know he's hard but I like his moves.
Edit - thanks for sneaking in a concise character specific 'how to get started', I can't say thanks enough. Really had trouble getting to step 1, you just finally gave me the keys to the car in the way I needed it. Thank you. (original post) I stalled in t7 because I got jabbed to death. I know there's answers to everything but at that particular time I just wasn't ready for what was in front of me. It helps to jump in during a new release, so here we can go!
As someone who started in tekken 7 and got their ass handed to them, it is hilarious now when I come across a new player that relies on mid/high/low strings and because i can recognise them and start blocking and launching them they then bail on rematching :L :L Like you know if their scrub offence worrked they would 100% instant rematch :L :L
8:15 jabs checks are great but don't make it your default reaction if you think you're plus.That shit only works at begginer/intermediate, high tier players are gonna start stepping and ducking jabs and you wil get lauched or punished
advice for king players: fuck you advice for playing against king: most new kings just run the same flowchart over and over again, if you're getting grabbed try ducking more until he shows that he knows what a mid is
You don’t need to know everything, what you need to be able to do at the lower to mid levels, is understand what your consistent whiff and block punishes are, 1 or 2 ok juggle combos, and some heat engagers and how to punish spammers.
so you are telling me paul players are more dumb than honda players in sf6? idk man... i played some degenerates in t7, but it wasn't quite the same level. now i'm scared of t8 ranked.
ah :| at first i didnt wanna watch the video because i didnt wanna consider myself a Beginner out of pride but now. it almost makes me mad how perfectly you describe what im going through in ranked right now..... maybe i should print the script to this and glue it to my wall😭
It took me over 2 games to get decent tekken dr and 6. I finally started placing in 7. Also finding the proper character that works your play style. A lot goes into tekken, and even moves not on the move list. Suggest is a lot practice and if you can, go to your locals. Locals help you network to players who help you understand the game. Also due to social media, there's a lot of pros who post tutorials.
Honestly im kinda glad i picked devil jin ws my main cuz he kinda does force me to have a semi decent neutral game, still has some actually brain dead stuff like his +8 followup on crow step which lets me consition people to not smash afterwards w a big frame trap so i can run a wave dash mixup way safer
With how fast paced the game is now. Either you always would get frustrated or you change your habit and trycpicking up a new move or two and try to improve. Like in the arcade days of old it will always be the spirit of competition that will drive you to improve in tekken no matter how much angry and frustrated you are of the game
I played my first Tekken game ever as Jin vs King. Dude was mashing the whole time so I just round start heat move and did Jin's super armor attack over and over and won lmao
