What can I do to get better?

[Sumaragi]

I've been playing Melty Blood for about a week now, obviously not that much, but I figured a week's worth of practice would be enough to beat someone who picked up a controller against me without having played the game before. I'm totally new to 2D fighters so I'm pretty sure I suck horribly, but I thought I was a little better than that. That being said, I was pretty demoralized losing about 10 rounds in a row to this guy, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips to share that may help me become more skilled?

Thanks...

[F9|Chibi]

Stop liking little boys.

[IamtehSEX]

watch some vids and learn the combos from that.  then just keep practicing.  and if you wanna get better fast, always play people better then you.  dont worry about losing because it happens and you learn more from it.

[Zaido]

basically what IPWT said.. and also play more people so you can get a feel how human players think and play

[Sumaragi]

I've been trying to get my friends to play, but apparently like, no one in the entire state of North Carolina has even heard of Melty Blood. It's really hard to find someone.

[Mailorder]

If it's your first 2D fighter, then just keep on playing.  I lost 5 games in a row to someone who picked up the game in a week - and I had been playing for two months.  However, that dude actually spent a few hours each day of that week to practice.  While for me.. I practice maybe an hour every week or two.  Of course, that's changing now that my semester is almost over.

While I encourage you to keep on playing, don't keep on playing if you're on a losing streak.  Lots of people lose concentration when they're on losing streaks and start playing worse.  Take a break, play later.  And record your matches.  You'll be able to fix your game better if you can watch it from a third-person perspective.

[Animeruko]

Its been said allready but, Practice mode is your friend.  Everything else is just experiance vs many players.

[Zanir]

How would you guy suggest getting better at the basics of the game?

I play Miyako and I got her combos down pretty well. But I am absolutely dreadful the working of the game (air dashing tricks, bara canceling, reading the opponent, knowing what to do and when),

I'm guessing to just play people. The problem is that I can only play people maybe one or two days a week. Three if I want to fork over some cash to go to the arcade.

Should I just put the training bot on max difficulty and play with her for awhile?

[scottind]

if youre talking REALLY BASIC BASICS, here's some tips.

most basic comboes go from weak to strong, in a chain. Most of the time to make things easy, do it while youre crouching, so A, B, to C.  (example. A, A, A, B, C). Later on you'll learn what everyone calls your BnB (Bread-and-Butter) which is your primary combo for dishing out damage.

Practically all characters have a "launcher", it's a ground hit that knocks them into the air. You chase them down by tapping Up, on your d-pad. From there you can follow up with another combo same way you did from the ground.

LEARN TO BLOCK PROPERLY. I personally think this is more important than learning combos. This is something you just can't get from playing the computer, you gotta go to the arcade and play against real people. Basics- people coming from the air, you block high. dash-ins from the ground you block low. If you're knocked down, statistically you should favor blocking low, unless your opponent is tricky.

LEARN TO IDENTIFY WHEN TO ATTACK. You generally attack from a neutral vantage by dashing in from the air, or from the ground. If you're on the defense blocking an attack, recognize gaps in your opponent's attack so you can get away safely. Then start over again.

[Kaistar]

I agree with Scott 100%. Learning to block is probably the most important thing to do in any fighting game -- sure you can blitz and kill as fast as you want, but if you learn to block everything well, you're pretty fucking hard to kill.

[Choco]

Yes. Blocking. Just ask people how much I was blocking at the West Toast 3 tourney. Or during the first two hours of my time at Arcade Infinity the day after that tourney.. Yeah. Learning to identify when you're at a disadvantage and what you need to block and shield will be the beginning of your greatness.

[yukiko]

first 2d fighter?  no mb comp?  then play more 2d fighters

play more gg, play more cvs2, play more 3s, play more marvel, etc

basics are basics.  footsies carries across all games, same with zoning, same with chain combos and link combos, 2in1s, etc.  the knowledge that you need to be good at 2d fighters is not exclusive to each different game.  the skillsets actually overlap a lot.  different games are just taking what you already know and learning the game specific details.  basics can be learned on any fighting game.  recommendation?  live at your local arcade, pick up more fighting games.  play play play.  you need experience.  also, training mode.  your first 2d fighter, you havent gotten used to the manual skill and muscle memory for the motions and timing for button presses yet, so work on that.  just start simple dial a combos and work on them.  i suggest starting with a simple combo from an A attack, and doing it over and over in practice mode, until you can literally hit confirm into the combo automatically.  from there, expand your combo into the bread and butter, and work from there.

[AkiraTheMastodon]

Practice your execution on your BnB's to perfection.
Practice can only go so far, to fill the rest of the gap is matches against people.
Fighters usually have things in common, the general basics of things carry over, like Yosio said.
I basically play against people everyday [coughnolifecough yes i know] to further my playing.
I stayed in practice to perfect my execution in BnB's, played through Arcade mode a bit to be able to execute them in a fight, then moved on to matches against people.
Practice, practice, practice.
Work on execution of specials and BnB's.