What on earth am I doing wrong?

[Seraphias]

I picked this up after a few folk told me it was pretty much the cream of the crop when it came to fighting games. It's a genre I really don't have much experience with and I fancied a swing at it, I've only really played Street Fighter II on the SNES, SCI/II on the Dreamcast/Xbox then SCIV on the 360. I expected to struggle a little at first but with NGII and DMC4 (action, but vaguely similar I'd hoped) 100% as well as going around 65-7 IIRC online on SCIV (mixing things up with Siegfried, no cheap moves/spamming) I thought it wouldn't be too hard to pick up.

Damn was I wrong, I've muddled through Arcade mode with Ragna (supposedly a newbie friendly character) easily enough but have just spent the last half hour getting pounded by V13 on normal. It's hard to recall any game that has done that to me before on the default difficulty. I can't seem to get any combos going/workout out (instant counter/block then comboed to hell, not to mention that 40 hit thing I can block maybe half the time). Reading through here I tried the dustloop forums/guide but to be honest I haven't a clue what any of it means (both the terms used and whatever the shorthand for combos is, I just don't know what they're talking about).

I've always been a very offensive player in what little experience of the genre I've had before, and certainly in any action title I've played, does this game favour a much more defensive style of blocking and countering only? It seems extremely slow paced movement wise to me and feels like I spend most of the time trying to get near an opponent to even hit them whilst the AI bounds around all over the place. (Doesn't help that the left thumb stick of my pad is a bit banjaxxed so when I try to jump-dash or sprint it only works perhaps 50% of the time and likewise for blocking, though as I said I tend to favour blocking as little as possible anyway. Works fine for most games but I wasn't able to use it for the precision NGII needed, I had thought this wouldn't matter until the higher levels of skill with this game but perhaps not the case?) The seemingly limited move list I'm assuming is just down to me only starting out and knowing few half-combos.

Has this been a bad choice for a fighter genre newbie? Right now it just seems like I'm going nowhere fast and what resources there are out there assume a given level of understanding before even looking at them.

[alex555]

No you didn't pick wrong, the same happened to me when I recently got the game, I couldn't make anything work and got my ass kicked a lot of times, at first by Nu. I couldn't make anything to work at first, and look, now I have all the achievements.

Anyway pick a character you like to use and the keep using it, go to the story mode, training, get you some achievements, and you'll start picking experience. You'll soon feel confidence using 3 characters you're good with (mines where Rachel, Noel, and Ragna), then in no time you will be able to pick any character and master his/her abilities.

You don't need to be to hard on yourself if at first you don't manage to beat arcade, because if you want to things be done right now you won't do it. Relax, play the game, and in no time you'll be a good player on BlazBlue!

Btw remember this game isn't for a week, you need to have patience and win experience with your characters.

[MR. RAiDER 702]

With more practice, you'll get better at most characters and the basics of the game (ex. countering at the right moments), but like the above poster said, just really focus on someone you enjoy using.

I thought the same thing at first, when I got the game earlier this month and barely beat Nu at the easiest difficulty, yeah I sucked haha

Than after playing more and more, and mopping up the story mode; I can now easily whup her at any difficulty with any character (quick tip: Try rushing the CPU and constantly attacking her up close, don't give her distantce or she'll use those specials to destroy you)

I've also went on to get the Dante, Leonidas, and that unforgiving Azure Nightmare achievements once my skill was goon enough

[Taiyz]

I was looking through some old replays of mine, and I had similar issues to you while starting out. I'd walk really slowly, wouldn't really go for obvious combos, and I'd just hit the enemy and get away from them before they could retaliate, constantly doing hit-and-run attacks (well, more like hit-and-crawl.)

Dashing is a big thing in BlazBlue, a lot of combos need you to close distances quickly and it's hard to land a hit on an enemy unless you take them by surprise. I would advise getting used to moving fast; even if you don't know any combos, as long as you can pressure your opponent and keep them blocking, and learn where each character's attacks hit (so you can block...!) then you'll be in business.

Once you get more into the game, you should probably learn some fighting game terminology. For instance, the combo notation you were mentioning, typically they go like 6C or jB or whatever; the numbers refer to the direction pressed (look at your numpad on the keyboard!) the letters refer to the button pressed (the buttons go from A-D starting at X and going clockwise, so X=A, Y=B, B=C, A=D) and prefixes such as j, jc and djc refer to positions, in this case jumping (jumping attack, jump-cancel, double jump cancel...There are also jump cancel cancels, but let's not get into that.)

Sadly, the best advice I have is to hold out for Continuum Shift. It's got an actual tutorial mode which I hear is pretty decent. It's also got a challenge mode which teaches you quite a few basic combos for every character, and some advanced ones.

[Seraphias]

Cheers folks, it's coming along slowly. Some characters definitely suit me more from a pick up and play point (Noel and Taokaka) and combos are coming bit by bit naturally enough to the point where I don't feel frustratingly useless at the game or need to get stuck into guides at such an early stage. A new controller helped immensely as well and the more I play the more fast paced the game is getting as I learn to move around better. I don't recon I'll ever be any great shakes at fighting games but hopefully can get myself above the mediocre.

I'm guessing my expectations of my ability to pick and and play were just far too high to begin with.