BlazBlue!

[Indigo]

Yeah, I was mostly just online to stalk every now and then to see if you were on Blazblue and assumed you've been playing a new game (Clax no Kuni), and occasionally played some, mainly at night, though for a good while today.

[Deleted]

Yep, I'm pretty much going to take a break from single player and just play you whenever I can. (Though next week is probably not going to happen...)

At least until I get sick of the Clax, the witch, and the Ghibli and decide to throw myself against attack on highlander. Sorry I didn't see your invites, I often leave the PS3 on and wonder away from it to do other things for about a half hour.

[Indigo]

I figured that's what happened, the PSN is pretty terrible at notifying any messages after the initial pop-up... Or rather, just doesn't notify at all unless you check yourself.

[Deleted]

It saps my lifeforce to play this game, I tell you. It's both one of the most fun and also most stressful games I think I've ever played. Not to mention I was basically just flailing about using Kokonoe, how did I ever beat Bang using her? I need to practice with her some more, I need to practice with Relius too but Kokonoe needs serious work. That said, even trying to get combos to connect during training mode can be stressful for me.

But your Bullet is simply insane! 5K off of a distortion? That's insane! I'm assuming it was a fatal counter or something, and I guess the follow ups use up another 50 heat? I was too busy dying to notice.

[Indigo]

And after that, I still can't take the final game home, dropped so many chances there, but at least I got the satisfaction of that second round where I won with a reversal through Ignis.

I think the follow-up did use 50 extra before the patch, but it doesn't now. Yeah, it's pretty insane, but it requires heat level 2 and 50 meter, and it's a 720 input so it can only be used in certain situations... And it has pathetic range (and can't connect if you jump), too. Can be grab-escaped if I try to use it in a combo. So it's either a mindgame tool (mostly if you want to risk faking it out an airdash), or just as a reversal.

So basically, you just gotta respect Bullet on wake-up if she has heat level 2 and 50 meter. That's why I desperately just heated up expecting to get punished and cornered, I was trying to turn the tables and... It worked! But yeah, it's like a signature anti-pressure tool. Just gotta respect her and/or bait it. Like most characters who have a reversal anyway. Hers is just a distortion grab and an entire tool dedicated to it. She can do it without heat but it only does about 2000 and can't be followed up, but still entirely shifts you into the other corner. Heat level 1 followup only adds a tiny bit of damage but can be followed up with normal combos for a tiny bit extra, but it ends in the middle of the screen.

Well, there's your anti-Bullet knowledge. I doubt I could get you with that move anymore, but it can at least give some psychological security as you just don't want to be near her on wake-up or during any small opening where she can pull off a 720.

Oh, and you can punish a blocked lock-on with no heat level.

... I think my Bang is falling behind though, I'm getting far too used to Bullet's style. And I at least knew what I was doing with Kagura.

[Deleted]

Your Kagura is fine, but I think those matches were more a matter of my Kokonoe sucking and you having grown too used to escaping the gravitons. I still don't know how to use charge characters, Kagura's projectile and DP are moves that I find impossible to pull off in a real match.

[Indigo]

Kagura's combos involving charging his projectile are really tough to learn. Feels so awkward doing stance attacks while holding backwards, and the timing for his BnB is near frame-perfect. I haven't trained seriously with him that much, but thankfully, he can be played well at a basic level with all his options and powerful range, but I need to start learning combos out of his fast 5B once the enemy is close. Still, I have to admit your Kokonoe wasn't very threatening... Considering how much you beat me with her, I was scratching my head a bit when I won both matches just playing Kagura casually (and whiffing tons of stuff), and... Kokonoe vs. Kagura is the worst match-up for him.

I just brought myself to learn Bang's true BnB that uses IAD cancels and poison nail, so I'm going to start abusing how you act when poisoned...

Anyway, you should start training and learning combos, I'm getting more Bang for my Bullet here while it felt like I was fighting an old version of Al...

[Indigo]

Expected Al post first as always.

Where's your energy? We have to do at least 50 matches a day...

I still wonder why you don't use a lot of Relius' moves... You're great with him but it seems your potential is locked since you barely use any of his Ignis moves except for two, aside from combos. Ignis' 'dive kick' air setup, the yo-yo thing for okizeme... And all her other moves. Also, invincible swagstep that Ignis can attack during...

Well, it's sad that apparently Bang is my worst character right now... I think I'm even better with Carl right now than him. And I think my Kagura has already surpassed to my second best. Hey, those in-game strategy tutorials may teach you something, they actually teach you basic stuff to play the character well, I learned Kagura can actually do the [stance > attack] inputs and hold them down during a combo and it'll automatically do the stance attack as fast as possible, and other cool little things like his ranged distortion executes faster than others in the game, and his reversal is air-unblockable, and other special properties of some attacks.

Right now I'm baffled how Kagura is considered terrible. He has great okizeme, extremely good range, and mix-up with highs, lows, and even cross-up. An air unblockable reversal and a fast command grab and projectile... Even an attack that 'guards' while attacking.

I've been playing around with other characters since Bullet doesn't have much more to learn with her limited moveset... I was sucking with Hakumen but I stole the win with OP counter super. And secret Izayoi training! Her teleports are so fun, especially the teleporting air combos. Your Terumi was a lot better than last time, and it felt odd to be rushed down by you... But you were using really unsafe blockstrings.

AFK learning Gurren Laggan

[Deleted]

Actually I had a huge amount of energy, more than usual. That's not quite true, I was practically asleep when we first started (I think I had my eyes closed at the start of a few of the early matches) but eventually I got more and more excited as the matches wore on rather than more and more tired. I do play these after midnight, after all. But yeah, I kind of feel like practicing more now. I'll have something to do now that I'm close to done with Ni No Kuni. Shame I'm going to be playing through Xillia 2 all of next week... seriously, we're starting tomorrow, and after a game of dungeons and dragons with some friends, we aim to play it constantly until completion. We're nutters.

Anyway... I used Terumi because he was precisely the correct character to use when I was in that mood. He relies a lot on momentum and pressure, but I haven't used him much so I know his moves but not how any of them really gel together. My Kokonoe sucks. I have to use her more.

Ignis' A (or D, drive) moves aren't great. It's all about the meter that I'm far too careless with anyway. Yo-Yo is decent Okizeme but I also get decent Oki from 2B for no Ignis cost. Dive kick has basically no range. I use pretty much all of her other attacks. I use one of Relius' new attacks, but not so much his slow but long ranged Swiss army knife thing. I think that's supposed to be a combo tool that I haven't really fiddled around with yet.

I suck with using Relius' distortions. I'll tell you a secret that absolutely murders me... I can't pull off 214214 inputs. Usually, I have to attempt them several times in order to get them to work, even in training. It's weird, because I can do 214 inputs with ease, spamming Ignis buzzsaw constantly. I really don't know why this is, I just can't, it feels loose and unnatural in my fingers no matter how much I try to commit the input to muscle memory. This means that I have to be on the opposite side of the screen so that it turns into a 236236 input instead. It's a damning flaw.

[Indigo]

I thought it was just me... I can barely do some combos facing left. I can rarely pull off an IAD during one of Bang's combos facing left, and sometimes I drop Bullet's combos when I have to do 421B/D inputs. Thought it may have been me using the analog, but I couldn't do any of that consistently with the d-pad either. I think the 360's analog was much better for left-side... And this is probably why people play these games with fight sticks.

I think you can get used to it if you just keep doing it a lot in training mode, at least... Though I drop combos in general when facing left, it may also be partially because I always only practice from the default position facing right, but it really just does feel a bit iffy. I think the analog is way better though so you may want to try getting used to that for a bit and see how it goes. It may be the PS3 controller's design, though, whether it's d-pad or analog, pulling to the left really feels like a stretch where you almost have to move your entire hand.

P.S. shame on you you didn't respect cornered Bullet with heat level 2.

I just searched and found this

[Deleted]

I never dared to try using the D Pad. Facing left, I'm actually not too bad in all honesty, at least with Relius. At least when facing left I'm actually able to use my astral finish.

[Indigo]

Yeah, just sort of generalized facing left into left-side inputs.

And yes, it's a shame... Now I'll have to play with random people online all week.

[Deleted]

People online are either merciless and nearly impossible to beat or absolutely useless. Very rarely will you find yourself evenly matched, but good luck. You'll probably see me online a lot but I wont be able to play.

[Indigo]

My online warrior adventures have started.

Honestly, it's not that bad. A few people were easy, and a few were really tough, and some were fairly even. The newer players give a good workout and training, and the good players have been really exciting to fight with a lot of close fights.

I don't think you really get ROFLstomped at this point... Unless you face some pro EVO level player. But even then there's a point where you can put up a good fight against anyone. The key to not getting stomped is learning a good defense and staying calm, and learning the best ways to approach safely. I faced a lot of good players today that did huge combos and had huge pressure, but when you lash back, they get into that same position.

That's high level play, anyway, even players in pro matches tend to get destroyed occasionally (EVO finals), but it's very back and forth. And our own matches, too... When was the last time you played online with randoms? I don't think you'd get taken down too easily if you can beat me who just stood up to a lot of strong players with Bang.

You're gonna have some catching up to do if I keep playing online for a week while you don't play at all...

[Deleted]

Well with Relius, I'm already level 11. I'm pretty confident with my ability to play online, but it's probably been about two weeks since I last played.

[Deleted]

I'm a bit rusty... you seemed to have transferred your ability to play Bullet over to Bang. Perfect aside, she felt much less threatening to me even when you picked up momentum. I didn't mean to pick Terumi, I wish they'd let you go back.

Good Izayoi though.

[Indigo]

I've been trying to hold off on choosing Bullet so I could improve on Bang... I've been through tough times playing online with randoms using Bang, but it really has been paying off. When I hear this, I just can't accept him not being my best... I'm glad I could pull off his IAD combo then ends with the poison nail, even when I was facing left. Guess there's some things in the heat battle that you just do. I'm happy how far I've gotten, even though you were a bit rusty.

I was also doing worse with Bullet because going back to a hop-dash after focusing on Bang for so long, and especially in comparison to Bang, Relius can shut her away in neutral game. Her air approach isn't as good as Bang's (two airdashes, amazing j.2C kick) and has pretty bad range, and her ranged pokes are among the slower B jabs in the game, and it takes too many frames to hop-dash and start with 5A... Anyway, I'm a bit rusty with her, but I think it's also that you're getting better at fighting her as she has an extremely straightforward playstyle. You even blocked a lot of my blockstrings. Next time try attacking back after the 2C double kick or 5C fire punch, or a non-heated lock-on. You need fast reflexes but jabs can punish them.

I haven't practiced much with Justice Gundam Mecha Musume (she even has a distortion called Trans-AM...), and I'm kind of surprised I won... I just did a lot of spacing with her, and dropped every single combo. But I guess she does fare well against Relius with rivaling range and fast projectiles, and that teleport can punish Relius across the screen doing an Ignis attack.

[Deleted]

Good games, but I was getting tired and I felt it was a good place to stop when you needed to go.

We're both really out of practice, me especially. I wanted to use Kokonoe in some matches, but I knew I would be even more limp against your better characters.

[Indigo]

I don't think I'm out of practice... I've gotten Bang's IAD combo down (and microdashing) 100% of the time facing either direction and pulled it off a few times in our fights. I had a much easier time approaching and got a lot of crossup with his reverse aerial, and escaping your pressure.  I got all four seals a few times... And pulled off a Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan overdrive shining finger combo. About the only thing I felt wrong was I kept doing his low combo all the time when I had chances to go big since I wasn't concentrating enough if you were standing or crouching, but even then, I feel I'm at the best I've ever been... I've still been playing occasionally, and Bang's easily my best now.

My Bullet seems to have suffered though, she's been in the backseat for a while, but I still learned some new tricks with her. Like the fake-out 5C while you're recovering into her 720A grab distortion so it catches you on wake-up, and good opportunities for heat ups that even RElius can't catch. And that sneaky little link into her astral from her roll attack. I learned some combos but admittedly I'm of practice with Bullet, so I dropped a lot of stuff with her.

I'm also getting the hang of Carl again, managed to get some little sync combos and good sandwich positioning going. I learned Amane for a bit but apparently that day's training went out the window...

Anyway, not sure why you think I'm out of practice, I was really just showing off the whole time with Bang with airdashing all around you and some random attacks and overdrives (and how the last match ended) I've been playing and training for two weeks while you've been focusing on Xillia, I hope you'll shift gears back soon pubs are getting a little dull...

[Deleted]

Oh right, sorry. Reason I thought you seemed out of practice is because I still managed to hold my own despite the fact that I felt like a fish out of water, flopping about on the ground to begin with. I think I started to get a little better, but right now I'm more rust than metal. I don't think your Bang was as good as it was the last time I fought you, but your overdrive combo was pretty great.