Week 12: Learning AF- Gloomy Invitation

     Welcome to another week of Learning Anime Fighters! This is an ongoing blog where we discuss learning Anime Fighters (AF). This week is a little bit spare due to two reasons. One, we are now a week after our first major offline tournament so I did not need to train as hard for it. Two, I was super busy this week and I just got tired and went to bed early a lot, late night being my main gaming time.

    Related to this, is this week's blog is probably going to be much shorter compared to my previous ones. Are we winding down? Maybe. Or I could just hit a slump for a week and maybe I'll be back at this week. I guess we shall see. However this onward to this week.

Monday

- Since the tournament is done I've decided to jump back into UNICLR and started with Hilda's trials.

- Hilda us so much work but her UNICLR trials do feel much easier compared to her UNI2 stuff which is par for course for the more harder characters (Seth/Bya/Chaos) that I have done so far.

- UNICLR's Seth's 4-8 and 4-10 done. I'm finally beginning to understand the delay necessary for his 623x attack which really makes these combos so much easier.

- Add 4-13. The delay just makes sense now.

- With 4-2 I realize I should start with my back to the wall so the wall bounce part becomes easier to pull off and that worked.

- 4-15 done. Actually one of the easier ones once I got the timing for 214[B], FF Kick down.

- I have actually completed the last Seth trial's in UNI2 so I realized I just need to do 4-16 and 5-2 and 5-3 and I'll be done with Seth's trials in UNICLR and that blows my mind.

- 4-17 done. Noticing the 214[C] after Cast Veil Off (CVO) needs to be timed compared to UNI2 where I can just do it. Good to know.

- 4-18 done. Since I did it in UNI2 I knew the UNICLR one could be done.

Tuesday

- UNICLR's Seth 5-2 done. Really came down to delaying the FF Kick considerably. 2 more to go!

- 5-3 done. Just like 5-2 you got to delay FF Kick.

- 4-16 done. As the last one this really felt like the most technical especially when it came down to the timing. The micro-walk after 214C into the 6C, small delay Veil Off (VO) is really the hardest part.

- On that note we are completely done with Seth in UNICLR. This is something I thought I could have never done. Seth in UNI2 is a different beast but this has motivated me to keep at it.

- Akatsuki's 5-2 done. Just really need to train my muscle memory to do aerial B,C,A which felt foreign to my fingers.

- Speaking of buttons: My button layout for all anime games might be a bit unique and is set up thus. A,B,A+B,A+D on my top row, C,D,B+C,A+B+C on the bottom row. The back four buttons can be changed around but I will not compromise on the placement on my A,B,C,D as a box. This is a rollover from my Marvel and KOF days.

- Turns out Akat's 4-7 can be done without the re-jump 2C. You can just do 2C after the neutral aerial C. Make it so much easier.

- This is not possible in UNI2, you need to do the re-jump 2C. However the UNI2 starts with 2A,2A whilst UNICLR's variant is 2A,2B so maybe the 2A,2B has less hit-stun? Testing needed.

Wednesday

-  Akat's 4-12 is done as well. Used the same strat above and did the aerial 2C after the neutral aerial C. This is way is sooo much easier.

- 4-5 done. Such a strange combo and nowhere near optimal. Really had to get used to delaying the jumping A,B as the opponent was descending but early enough to have time to do the dashing B.

- 100% Akatsuki in both games now. Feels good.

- The only characters I have picked up in UNICLR and I have no 100% yet are Merkava, Hilda and Bya. 8 100% out of 11 characters is pretty impressive.

- Turns out you CAN do the UNICLR combo with 2A,2B,C,6C in UNI2 and do not need to do the re-jump to get aerial 2C. So 2A,2B does have less hit stun. Nice to know.

- This will probably be a short 'Learning AF' week. I have been getting really sleep come Midnight. I've actually been doing most of my combo trials during the day.

- I have also fully embraced 'Tainted Grail Conquest' this week and been playing a lot of that too. This is good because literally in my last Learning AF blog we were discussing me getting stuck and frustrated.

Thursday

- UNI2's Seth harder Tiger Knee (TK) 623x combos still feel out of my reach.  214B,214A,214[A],7 combos especially. However I originally thought I could do do any of Seth's advanced combos and look at us now. I will keep at it.

Friday

- Making progress with the above combo. I think I understand when to do the 214B now and I found a guide that explains you need to do it early and I agree. It actually needs to be done as soon as the input the TK 623B and you do the 214B as he vanishes.

- I can do a variant of this combo off 2C (2 hit), 214[C] combo now. I also found out that surprisingly 2C is safe for a sweep so that is a good hit confirm combo starter.

- Spent a good portion of my afternoon working on Seth's hard combos and got no success. Bruv it should not be this hard.

- I did finally beat Tainted Grail Conquest tho. Turns out I just need better cards and a better approach to certain battles. A RAVE for it will probably be coming soon.

- I am thinking of not wasting a whole afternoon again. I think I'll put a limit on how many times I can fail the Seth combos and than move on to Blazblue Central Fiction or go do some UNICLR characters I have not complete/ started.

- Speaking of, looks like Linne in UNICLR has the infamous 2369 air fireball combos I have heard about. Ironic that UNICLR has the harder combos for once not the other way around cause UNI2 definitely did not have any combos like that.

- Also to make her even harder is she still has her aerial 6[C] combos which anyone who reads this blog know I can not stand doing. Akatsuki's combos with aerial 6[C]... *shudder*

This is my new most hated move. Move aside Akat's aerial 6[C]

Saturday

- Break Night. Spent a good portion of my day helping at my church for a Mother's Day luncheon. Was super tired at the end of the day and just wanted rest.

Sunday

- Break Night. It was Mother's day and I was exhausted at the end of the night again. This weekend was a real bust for any video games LOL.

WHAT'S NEXT

    Now I've finally beaten Tainted Grail Conquest, I think I might actually start playing Darkest Dungeon 2. I do not know why I've been putting it off and the wild thing is I did the same for the original Darkest Dungeon and I ended up loving it. Hopefully the same thing will happen with DD2.

    Anime Fighters-wise, I think I'll focus mostly on UNICLR this week with some BB: Central Fiction thrown in. I can justify it by saying I ain't entering a UNI2 tournament soon so I can play what I like.

    I know this week was shorter but I still have a drive to get better at AF so we will not be stopping anytime soon.

AV

    

Learning AF: Week 4- Decisions, Decisions

 Welcome to another Learning AF blog! First let us do some house cleaning. This blog is an ongoing account of me picking up and learning Anime Fighters (hence AF). Our main focus is on Under-Night In-Birth Sys:Celes, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising and DNF Duel. However as of today, we are adding a final anime game, Melty Blood Type Lumina! I feel 4 games should be sufficient tho and I'll add my thoughts about learning Melty Blood in our next Learning AF blog. This blog is is also written in successional way so you can really see my learning process. With that out of the way, lets dive into Week 4 of Learning Anime Fighters

Monday

- Feeling I was neglecting Granblue Rising; I hoped back into it today.

- Since I got the deluxe edition with the season pass whilst it was on sale, I  already had 2B from Nier Automata already as well as the upcoming new characters, Vane and Beatrix respectively.

- 2B is actually has pretty complex (not surprisingly) set of moves and a quirk where her combos do not work inside a corner. Her combo routes are fun tho and I enjoy mucking around with her. I do question if I can her 720 super (where she self destructs) with MidNite/ my Leverless controller. The irony of the game with the simple inputs having a 720 super has no escaped me.

- Speaking of MidNite, I did not sit right with me that I had to switch back to my stick to do Grimnir's one trial so I was determined to complete all his trials with MidNite only. Eventually I pulled it off and it required a lot of trial and error. Also I noticed for the last section you can air dash forward not up forward and it'll still count, which actually helped a lot (even tho I can do it was the up forward motion too aka 9).

- Belial was last and his quirk was his moves can push enemies closer to him or further away. His combo trials were not hard but the irony is that I need a corner to keep folks close where I could not use the corner with 2B. Still none of the character screamed main material for me so I think I sticking with Zeta and Djeeta so far.

Tuesday

- Carmine was originally the hardest UNI2 character I tried (more on that later) and the fact he has specific timing and has UNI2's version of what they call 'negative edge' (a concept where you hold a button down and release it at specific times). Carmine also has a quirk which he leaves behind blood puddles which he can activate with other specials of his. Very cool. Once we understood that, his combos became much easier, he is not 100% done but I completed some of them.

- Merkava's trials are still complex to me through, despite trying them before. I was making some head room but my biggest issue is cancelling his 66B into 66C. I tried to look up videos and read forums to find help but I found nothing.

Wednesday

Leona custom colors FTW

- Made a Leona custom for Linne and attempted clean up some of her trials. I was able to complete her final trial which involves cancelling into her super and her 22A/B/C combos make more sense to me now. I do not see myself maining her but I do enjoy not being completed stumped by her like I was in Week 3.

- Nanase was another character that seem complex at first and her aerial mobility is very high, even more than Kaguya making certain combos harder. She seems to require a lot of tiger knees into aerial 236A to keep her combos going.

- I found the missing piece of why my combos kept failing with Nanase. I was doing aerial 236 hold A when I could have just done 236A in most cases. Her Combos became much more doable after realizing that. I also think I found the main culprit for my finger pain with Nanase having a lot of combos involving long presses.

- Finally completed all of Wagner's combos. As the person I had in mind as my main when I picked up UNI2 I actually happy I could at least finish her trials. I might still have as a back-up if Kaguya doesn't work out competitively.

- Merkava's 214 charged air fireballs which OTGs (Off The Ground) was another sticking point for me but I realize it can be buffered during his 66C attack, that made those combos much more doable instead of constantly trying to tigerknee them. 66B into 66C combo paths still elude me through. I might ask locally if anyone knows the trick to it.

Thursday

- Monk in DNF release day. I already posted some thoughts in my Monk blog but this one is more my thoughts when I first started using him.

- First, he hits like a TANK and he is built like one too. Damage gets nutty especially with his Gold Cube awakening (aka when his below 30% health) allowing more damage and sway/ duck cancels on hit and whiff and also after certain Magic moves. 6S, S after 6M for example.

- Kind of wish his movement options was not locked behind a motion and a button (aka 6S for Duck, 4S for Sway) mainly cause it requires some finger gymnastics to constantly do the high level stuff.

- Speaking of, holding 6 down helps a lot in harder combos, for example 6S, M, 6S, S. The 6S, S has a weird cancel window I had to get use to as well.

Friday

- Friday was a weird day, I was over-tired and did not sleep well. I still did some more Monk training (lol) and was finally able to complete his last combo trial which was surprisingly hard compared to his much easier 1-7 trials. All of them done with MidNite which I am trying to use exclusively for DNF Duel

- Almost done with Hyde and Linne's trials, the remaining ones are some of the hardest ones but I think overtime I should be able to complete them. Hyde's 66C into 236 moves still kill me and we will be re-visiting that problem very soon.

- Whilst I was grinding these trials out, in the background I was listening to Tsukihime lore to prepare myself for Melty Blood. The lore is WILD and I think I already have some characters I want to learn in mind.

Saturday

- Remember above when I said Carmine maybe the most complex character I've used. This was what I thought until I tried Byakuya. Not only is 66B into 236 rekka strings and double tapping after he does his web attacks. I can honestly say, he maybe the first character where I do not understand his quirk. Right now he is my biggest hurdle.

- Discouraged by failing to get Byakuya down, I switched to Mika, whom I heard is very easy to use. She has some quirks too like having to waiting after her mash A to do her charged C attack into her charged B+C attack. I also found out doing a charge C into a charge B+C manually wasn't working for me so I actually use a B+C macro to make it easier and it made a world of difference.

- Mika gives me heavy Gallon/ J. Talbain from Vampire/ Nightstalkers fame. The cancelling of her air attacks into another one into another one. As a former Gallon main (a long time ago), I found that very fun. She is also very funny as a character and I see why folks have latched onto her as UNI's unofficial mascot. Her character design really does not appeal to me which I have discussed in previous blogs. The young loud Lolita type really doesn't vibe with me.

Sunday

- Going forward Sunday is going to be a rest day for me, will probably won't do much on those days. Sunday is also dedicated to church, resting and spending time with my family. My Mondays are always busy too at work so I like getting a good nights rest before diving back into that.

WHAT'S NEXT:

So the crux of the matter and the reason for this week's title. I am purchasing Melty Blood Type Lumina and I intended on playing it, however this would mean I will playing at least 4 different games at once. Kind of crazy considering I used to play one, sometimes two fighting games at most during my whole fighting game career. So I think even tho I am playing all these games at once I need to make a decision which ones I should focus on competitively.

The no-duh is of course UNI2. Its the game I have been coming back to a lot, I have pretty much decided on a main and secondary and I intend on attending a tournament at the end of this month to play it. If you did not figure out I was going to go mainstream with this, I have clearly failed as a blog writer lol. I would love to go mainstream with DNF Duel too, especially with Monk being as fun as he is and of course Spectre is Spectre and I get to use MidNite but being realistic there is no real competitive market for DNF Duel.So of course I should then settle on Granblue Rising BUT whilst I enjoy playing it and I get to use MidNite, I have not latched onto it as much as my other AFs. I could start focusing more time on it and see if my attitude changes about it. However we might have a dark horse in the form of Melty Blood: Type Lumina. Seeing is I am a fan of how French Bread games play, Melty Blood (also by them) has similar style and shares some common traits (reverse beat originated in Melty Blood for example) so I might favor this game instead. Mind you this is just speculation because I have not actually played it but after this upcoming week, we might be ready to make said decision. However I'll need to divide up my time to fit all 4 games in PLUS get my break day and still play Marvel's Midnight Suns on the side which I started like I promise myself.

Also I did not follow up like I said with going online with my respective games but hopefully I can rectify it this week. A lot of the cool stuff I want in Granblue is locked behind the online component too and of course I want to get some player vs player exp before going to an actual tournament for UNI2.

On that note; this is week 4 of Learning AF.

AV