So Ive tried challenge mode for Lizzy and Yosuke and tried my hand online. So far my record shows Im 20 and 1.... Yeeeah Im not doing so hot. I cant tell how to fight when the actual fight starts. In challenge mode I get around 20-25 before I cant do much better in the trials, but when it comes to using them in fights I get stomped and can barely eek out simple attacks for some reason.

Any advice? I used to be good at fighters, but so far I've been having terrible luck getting back into fighters and being little more then cannon fodder for players. The matchmaking does a good job with rank, but all except one fight I've been posetively wrecked.

I play Yosuke and either just earned rank A or just lost my rank up match trying for A and am still B+. Most people don't know what to do if you moonsault. so get a couple high and low slashes in, use down-toward-square-moonsault-slash-moonsault-slash-moonsault-slash-garudyne. You can use X at the start, it bounces them so it makes the moonsaults guaranteed to hit if you manage to bounce them, but it also makes it more difficult to hit with them I think. If they're blocking your slashes, end your moonsault combo with a down+triangle for the quick mirage slash.

If you're not comfortable being in on them quite yet or are having trouble finding an opening, play patient and use kunai. The kunai are great for getting some hits if they try to close the gap and can break personas really well.

Use mirage slash. It's tough to explain, but knowing when is a good time to use mirage slash can be really helpful, it trips a lot of people up.

I kind of feel like Yosuke got gipped on his furious action compared to everyone else, but it can still be useful. A lot of people will get overly aggressive(Yus and Akihikos especially), especially if you're in a corner. You can use this to bait them into a garudyne, or use your furious action to trip them and reset the flow of the match. Attacking low or grabbing as they recover usually gets them. Also, getting quick with it is almost essential for being able to fight Kanji, his one throw will fuck you up. Also, I assume it would be helpful against Elizabeth's furious as well, but I haven't tested that.

Learn to mix in all out attacks. I've just recently started doing this more, but they're awesome. If you get the all-out attack, mash x and square together to get the full 16 hits then launch with a triangle. Follow them up. You can get about 3 slashes, then hit down+X to launch them again, use your double jump and repeat getting in as many hits as you can, close with a garudyne without them getting the chance to recover. Chain your garudyne off kunai if possible. If you attack low a lot people will be more likely to block low allowing you to get in the all-out attack. Not guaranteed to work, just an observation.

Tentarafoo I find is pretty tricky to land, but if you hit with it a lot of people go into panic mode and get hyper aggressive or hyper defensive. If they get hyper defensive, use your throw to poison them then unleash whatever kind of combo you can. If they go aggressive, just furious action them and punish as they get up. Yosuke's persona in general I find is kind of tricky to use but can be really useful. His regular Circle attack gets some good distance, and I'll use that mixed in with some more circles or a triangle just for poking, if done right Jiraiya can be used to launch and Yosuke has some sick air combos.

The most important thing though applies to every character. Read your opponent and read the fight. If you can know what they're gonna do and how they're gonna react, you can win. Go in with a plan, but be ready to adapt it every 10 seconds. I tend to like starting off my matches by either backing up or throwing some kunai and keeping my distance for a bit, just to see what type of person I'm against. I find generally the more aggressive someone is the worse they are at defense.

Currently, having not faced a Mitsuru in a long time, my worst matchup is Vs. Elizabeth. Second worst is either Akihiko or Kanji. Akihiko because I can't really figure out how to punish him, and Kanji because fuck that one throw that does a million damage. Yu is annoying, but manageable.

I should mention, I have probably 130ish matches and I believe a 57% win rate. I'm not sure if that's any good, but I figure it's relevant information if I'm going to be telling you what to do.

Oh, and a final note about Garudyne. If Garudyne is blocked, you have a couple options. Float from side to side or back and forth hoping their guard slips up and you catch them, or what I prefer: Try to time it so you get the right distance from them when your Garudyne ends, but not moving out too long before so they get time to see and react. If you do it right, most characters will run at you to try and punish, but you'll gain control right before they get to you which allows you to use your Furious Action and trip them up. It doesn't work all that often, but if you're Garudyne gets fucked it's worth a try.

@Hokucho: don't try to be to fancy, just use the auto combo to do damage and work on not getting hit.

@Brodehouse: That's a good question. I took a bit of a break after the tournament and just got back into it. I haven't found anything on my own, but I should try stuff or look it up.

Edit - after a quick search it looks like it's not really meant to combo into things since it beats everything, I assume this includes other furious actions. Also, I hate people who talk about fighting games. It's like reading a math formula. I have no clue what people are talking about.

Maybe Elizabeth and Yosuke don't fit your playstyle? This might not be the case, but it's worth it to try out all of the other characters in the cast and really find out who you want to choose as a main, if the most important factor for you is a character's playstyle. Other than that, like TecHits said, don't try to be fancy, especially when you don't have a lot of experience to begin with. Simply blocking and evading attacks is more important than awesome challenge mode combos. The auto-combo will do you just fine while you work these more important aspects out.

Also, just made it to SS rank. Yay. Hm, that actually makes me curious about other peoples' ranks. Maybe I'll make a poll.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Also, just made it to SS rank. Yay. Hm, that actually makes me curious about other peoples' ranks. Maybe I'll make a poll.

....I dislike you. :D

Anyway, in regards to Yosuke, I've noticed that a lot of players like to stay in the air, but I wouldn't rely on the challenge combos. They are pretty contextual and are sort of an ideal scenario type thing. You are WAY better off understanding how to play against other characters, because you can memorize fancy combos till you can pull them off blind, but if you don't understand the kind of match-ups your going into and how to play against those characters, you are probably going to get stomped sooner or later. Also, being able to adapt when your opponent mixes things up helps a lot. Dustloop should, by now, have a lot of that info if you are willing to read through the fighting game math.

@Vashyron: I hate going against Yosukes. They're flipping all over the place in the air and throwing kunai. It's annoying, but seems so fun to play as too.

@Brodehouse: I've got about 1300 matches under my belt, probably around 400 in player matches, and I'd say you were just lucky going into ranked and having that much success, as ranked matches can be a hell of a challenge at times. I win about 70% of my online matches (according to my player card), but people in ranked can be crazy good.

I definitely have more difficulty going against people in ranked than I do in player matches; I usually end up picking random in player matches and winning anyways.

@FluxWaveZ: Yeah, Yosuke's are hella annoying. You have to be really patient and capitalize on openings when they present themselves.

I've only played 160 some matches and am at a 31% win record, but I now no longer fear Mitsuru! So, progress. Keep your head up.

I'm not super fighting game fan #1, so I'm glad to be Rank C and Level 14 with Akihiko.

Take your time and find a character that you really like to play, afterwards take the time to learn that character's strength and weaknesses.