Zella

Mainly been playing Ryu but also been having a ton of fun with Zangeif, Dhalsim, and really really liking F.A.N.G.. I thought FANG looked neat when they revealed but the kind of character I would never use, but after trying him out in Casual and Battle Lounge matches I am really liking how he plays. Haven't played a ton of charge characters in the past so it is nice to get some practice with one.

Really surprised at how much I am enjoying playing Dhalsim and FANG as they are the kind of characters I would never use in 4.

Played a decent amount of Necalli in the betas but not much in the full release, he just feels boring to play compared to a lot of the other characters. Also not a huge fan of Ken, just not finding him that fun to use and don't like the look and feel of his combos.

Haven't used a ton of it but it seems the Battle Lounge stuff is working now. Lobbies like that are a great place to try and find other players to practice with. You can get a sense of the player's skill level by their league(and LP but not sure if it shows that in Battle Lounge). Also once you are feeling more comfortable don't be afraid to try and challenge more experienced players. It helps out both people as you get a chance to improve on your fundamentals and see what higher level players do, and they get a chance to practice some stuff like combos or set ups that would normally be difficult to do against other experienced players.

I have found the AI in this game is also pretty decent at doing things actual players would do. Not so much the unpredictablility of newer players but it will use a lot of the same moves that normal players do in certain situations.

Also feel free to use the Fighter ID thread and add other duder's to your favourites and play against us.

Started to climb my way back up, got a couple good matches in then finished the night with a win over Nash 1000 LP above me. Got 94 LP and they lost 88. Still need a ton of work on my stick execution and I feel it holding me back for sure but starting to feel like I am getting a grasp for the game and using Ryu. Biggest thing for me is to stop looking to use DP's as Anti Airs and instead use on of Ryu's 10 different AA normals (back HK is so good). Also need to figure out what I can do when I guard break using a denjin fireball.

Network wise the game has been excellent tonight for me, only played for about the past hour though. Set the connection threshold to 4-5 and got mostly lag free matches within 1 or 2 minutes of each other.

Just fought a 3000LP Fang with Ryu and that is such a fun match. So technical with the zoning and footsies. Makes me want to pick up Fang a bit.

Matchmaking has been weird to me, repeatedly matched me with players at least 1000LP above me, even in ranked. Really feeling the effects of not being comfortable with a stick, the drops are real and keep blocking low when switching sides for a cross up. Really need to break my habit of trying to Wake Up with AA DP, noticing the lack of invincibility frames and hitbox seems to be smaller than in 4.

Gah all I want to do is spend a day grinding and actually learning the game decently but university seems more important.

Edit: For example I have 850 LP at the moment, it matched me with someone with 2950.

Edit 2: Again a match at me at 920 and the opponent at 2980. Seems to be prioritizing connection over LP which I like making sure there is a good connection but come on.

Decided to dedicate myself to learning to properly use my stick, promptly lost like 700 LP. Gonna stay out of ranked for a little while.

Been practicing properly parrying with Ryu, also just for fun trying to parry Chun's super. Kept messing up on the last hit but man it looks and feels great to get consecutive parries, even if they are vastly easier in V than in 3S.

Don't think I have had a more tense match against the CPU than when I was doing Ryu's Medium Survival and being forced to fight Round 30 Bison with only 30% of my life. CPU didn't seem to be great at defending against zoning but still barely won with a trade.

Also after fighting a few decent Kens I really hate fighting that character. His target combo into HK Tatsu does both a ton of damage and crazy corner carry. He and Karin are really my two main demon's right now.

Also really been feeling a lot of the minor changes to stuff like DP invincibility and how late they can be done (I swear I have gotten hit by AA DPs that start when my attack is already making contact), stuff like the general safeness of attacks and rhythm of combos.

@starvinggamer: I had a similar thing happen before too, can't remember exactly what normal but it was either crLP or crLK.

Uuuuuuuuh I am showing as being signed into a different persons Fighter ID right now. It has my correct fight history it seems but the wrong name, LP and FM amounts. Turned off the game and signed back in and now it is correct. I also appeared to have unlocked Dhalsim's easy survival colour for that guy.

Edit: Kind of annoyed I now have to redo Dhalsim's easy survival, happy it didn't happen on Medium or Hard. Hope they get that issue fixed before the Store goes up cause I assume I could have spent his Fight Money on stuff, I mean it would still go to him but still that would be a bummer.

I would say that this game is fairly intimidating if you are playing more experienced players because of how much damage can be dealt at a time, however that combined with the increased input leniency(how well timed your combos need to be) makes it also fairly accessible to a newer player in my opinion. The is not many options in game to teach you but plenty of resources are putting out guides for getting into Street Fighter right now, in particular I like a lot of the stuff Gootecks has been doing. SFV also has a pretty robust stat tracking and replay system built in so it offers both you and others a chance to understand what you are doing right/wrong and to see what others are doing.

It will take likely a lot of time and practice though. I really got into Street Fighter a year and half ago and have played pretty consistently since and I would say I am only beginning to really understand how to play. Don't be afraid to play way better players, you will likely get crushed pretty often but as long as you can start to figure out why you are losing then it is worth it.

Thinking that a fightstick is better for fighting games is a super common misconception. It really just comes down to preference. Lots of the pros use sticks because they started in the arcades, and thus that is what they learned on and are used to. There are many younger pros, and some older, who use a varieties of gamepads though. SnakeEyes who is one of the best Zangief players uses a fightpad(a controller that is still a gamepad but has extra face buttons and a different style dpad), Luffy who is a previous EVO winner uses a Playstation 1 pad, and Smug who is likely the world's best Dudley player and dominated Xbox Live used a 360 controller.

If you are able to try out a stick for an extended period of time, borrowing from a friend or going to an arcade a few times, it could really help you make a decision. I own a fightstick and prefer to play with a dualshock 4 just out of comfort as I grew up playing console games so I don't have to worry about familiarity with the controller when playing.

Fighter ID and PSN is ZacBroski

In West Coast NA

Never tried the PSN Community stuff so maybe we could do something with that?