The Fighting Game Diaries: I (don’t) know what I’m doing

Lately I have returned to watching people play fighting games. There has been a bunch of Guilty Gear Strive, a bunch of Street Fighter (Third Strike and Alpha III) and Granblue Fantasy Versus.

I own one of those games – Granblue. In my heart of hearts its Strive I want. But Strive is expensive and Granblue was a PS+ freebie. Needs must. That being said, I’ve had with my initial experiences. I engaged with training mode, I did a run of arcade mode and one-off matches here and there (with the AI).

Arcade mode was fun but nothing special. The AI didn’t do too much – in one case it did nothing for a round – I got a perfect because the AI just stood there. Not great for practice. But most of the computer opponents did something – nothing crazy but something (probably should have played on something other than normal) and I got to press buttons and see cool stuff happen, so that was nice. I still have the problem of practicing stuff, then being unable to remember the things I have practice and just default to basic punching and kicking. I guess that will come with time.

Against the AI. You can tell because it makes no attempt to block a telegraphed super. As an aside – god the animations are amazing in this game. Just look at it. Look at it. LOOK AT IT! It’s gorgeous.

Then I did something. I rooted around in some draws and found an ethernet cable. And in a fit of pique, not really knowing what I’m doing I plugged the cable in the back of the PS4, ran it down the stairs into and plugged it right into the modem. So, with my ability to link together basic moves and my brightest achievement being the conquering of arcade mode on normal I set out to the wonderful world of online multiplayer. On a game that’s two years old. With no rollback. With no PVP experience in since putting down Dark Souls III. What could go wrong?

It’s weird I did this. I somehow managed to bundle up all my anxiety and just go online. Of course, there’s nothing there to be anxious of – worst case scenario is losing at a video game. There are worse things. Irrational thought processes are a thing.

As per steam charts, Granblue has a player count, for the month of September averaged out at 104, peaking at 252. There’s no way to get an accurate figure on PS4, but it can’t be that much. All the lobbies are pretty much empty – I found two lobbies with people. Across the whole world. One person in the Tokyo lobby. Eleven people in the New York lobby. And they all had way more experience than me. With not great connections. It’s fun learning environment.

No one there but ,e.

Same across the entire world.

Aside from New York. 11 people where there.

One person in Tokyo. They never engaged with me.

That was it for 10/10/22. In an hour and half period I fought like 4 people in ranked mode. It hasn’t been unusual to fight the same person five times in a row – because there’s no one else on my level. That level being incredibly low. And when there’s no one else around on my level, after a while the game has to match me up with someone. In one case, that someone was triple S rank with 700 or so wins. I lost. But I took 2 rounds. I’ll take that.

I’m pretty sure this person took it easy on me. When they turn it on you can see the difference. Still, across two fights I took 2 rounds. Given the rank difference, I’ll take it. Winning would have been nice but hey, can’t win them all. I put my best forward. I’ll keep doing that.

My expectations were low. They’ve gotten lower. I started on the C rank and now I’m on D. I morbidly curious is I can go down to an E (edit – there’s an F rank – fun stuff). I’m not good at this. I have my moments, but hoo boy when people are better than me, they are better than me. It is demoralising when someone runs a train on me. It’s hard to figure out how to stop it. It sucks to watch. Well, it’s awe inspiring to see, but it still sucks to be on the receiving end. Sometimes though it’s the simple stuff that catches me. I’m bad at countering jump attacks – I get caught a lot with those. Lately I’ve managed to catch a few with anti-airs but it still a massive work in progress.

Another thing I’m bad at is blocking – specifically crouch blocking. In my simple Dark Souls brain blocking is simply blocking. In fighting games, a low block can be caught out by a high attack. Getting used to that is tricky. It’s going to be an ongoing process. There’s just so much to learn – I’ve got to get spacing down, I have to learn which buttons to use and when (I need to let go of my attachment to down and X). It’s going to take time.

All of this means me record is pretty poor. Like 7 – 33 bad (edit – it’s like 8 – 50 now). It’s rough. It’s hard yards. But there is something good here. I’ve not quit. Even if I get hammered, I do the rematch. I’ve never turned down a rematch or bailed. I’ve not disconnected (more on this later). And sometimes, I get a win. Sometimes I win two in row and take the match.

A win. There are rare but I will take them.

Those wins mean a lot. They don’t come along often. I’ll take them. I mean, they come against people who are worse than me – that’s what I assume. I can’t think that it’s much else. Maybe I’ll get better, and I’ll get confidence in my abilities, so I stop thinking like that. Let’s work towards that. But yeah, it feels good to see the win screen. There is something special about fighting and overcoming a human opponent. I’ve not had that for a while. I’d forgot how it feels. Not going back to it in invasions though in Souls games though – I’ve no urge to optimize invasions builds.

Another one. Neat.

Finishing this post up – on one night I got a win. After lots of losses I got a win. I was in my D rank, and they were mid C rank. I beat them. I felt pretty good. It was a good boost to my confidence. I clicked rematch, and they bailed. A best of 3 and they bailed.

I’ve never bailed. I’ve got that going for me. I think on some level I’d rather have that than the wins.

I’ve also never disconnected on a loss.

I don’t often do this, but what a bitch. Seriously. I spent all night getting shit stomped. All night. A fought one dude who was S rank like 6 times (perfected me like 4 times) – never quit, always did the rematch. And this dude, who won the first match even, loses once and quits.

Still counted as a win though. Against a B rank no less. I kept at and got something for it.

I dig that.

Notes and Asides:

I should have mentioned that I have been maining Zeta. In large part because she has a spear – swords get all the glory while spears and polearms are essentially the driving weapons of history. At least until the gun showed up. That, and she’s got a cool design. I dig her. I’m just sorry I keep letting her down with my play. I’ll keep on trying, keep on trying to get better.

As much as I do lose (and will continue to) I will admit even though going back to the AI guarantee’s wins it doesn’t feel as good. Fighting humans, that’s where it’s at.