About Tatakai:
I picked this game up in 2016 back when it was in a terrible state (no story, no arcade, lot’s of input lag, lack of character expression, lack of good tutorials, loading times in between playing online and training, player 2 couldn’t select rematch in locals, etc.). I’ve been playing the game throughout all those years and I have to say SFV is a great fighting game now. It’s a shame that the game still holds a mixed review status here on steam. Those reviews usually reflect the years of SFV being a crappy game which has not been the case for quite some time. The other common complaint is the netcode. SFV uses a rollback solution for it’s netcode which is usually a good thing. SFV’s rollback is worse than any other rollback implementation I’ve seen, but it’s also better than any other delay based netcode out there (used in games like DBFZ, Tekken 7, KOFXIV). After thousands of ranked matches I would say it’s netcode is just okay…, not absolute trash like many here would lead to you to believe. Although I would suggest waiting for a sale or free trial to try the game out online and see how it feels for you. You may have trouble playing online depending on your location. In 2018 SFV released it’s Arcade Edition update. Afterwords, there was now an arcade mode, story mode, great tutorials with demonstrations for both universal and character specific mechanics (for the love of god, watch these if you’re new, so you understand why things are happening), a second V-Trigger for each character, and everything else I mentioned at the beginning of the review had been addressed. Fast forward to 2020 and they released the Champion Edition update which further addressed character expressions by adding a second V-Skill to every character. One of my biggest complaints for years had also been addressed in that update. They added a new universal defensive mechanic known as V-Shift. Unless you had an invincible reversal or a 3-frame attack, you really couldn’t do much to stop your opponents knockdown pressure. V-Shift gave everyone an invincible option. It’s not foolproof though because there is counter play. Up until this point I’ve really only had nice things to say, so here are some cons. Dashes are way too fast and almost unreactable online. Dashing in is such a good option you have to always be respecting it if your opponent is playing a fast character. Some characters become unga bunga as ♥♥♥♥ when they have resources. I’m talking fullscreen Urien EX tackle into aegis mirror unga bunga. This ♥♥♥♥ is really frustrating and completely bypasses neutral. Fight money isn’t a good way to unlock characters anymore. That in-game currency used to be a reliable way to buy characters (I bought all the season 2 characters with it years ago), but they nerfed FM money acquisition into the ground. Assuming you buy the Champion Edition, the only real use for FM is for fighting chance (an in-game lootbox system for exclusive skins, colors, dojo items, survival items, etc.). Dojos are kind of like the clan/guild system in SFV. You can place dojo items obtained from fighting chance into your dojo to customize your own stage (this is done on the SFV shadaloo website). There isn’t enough frame data information. There should be an easy way to view complete frame data and attack information in-game. Instead, you’re going to have to go to the SFV shadaloo website for that data. For anyone looking into getting into the game there’s a couple of things to know. Fighting games are usually about many Rock-Paper-Scissors battles being played at the same time. Imagine playing RPS with 3 hands. That’s a fighting game. There are different RPS situations to be aware of in SFV, so I’ll detail some to help you get started. Everything has a weakness and the key to getting better is learning these weaknesses. At full screen, the most common keep out tool are projectiles. Jump or walk forward and block to beat these. If you’re the one on defense using projectiles, stop your opponent’s jump in attacks with an anti-air attack or an air-to-air attack. They will be forced to advance on the ground if you continue to deny their jump pressure. Continue using fireballs or long pokes (usually medium kick attacks) to keep them at bay. They may also try to dash in instead. Use light attacks (the fastest attacks) to punish dash-ins. If they manage to work you into the corner, don’t be afraid to just jump out of it. You would be surprised how often this works. At close range the RPS usually involves throws, blocking, and normal attacks. Blocking beats normals, quick normals are faster than throws (throws beat normals if they happen at the same time), and throws beat block. There are other ways to beat these options too. You can back-dash or walk away to avoid a throw. If you have an overhead attack you can also force your opponent to guess between high and low blocking to open them up. Lastly, is the mid-range RPS. In my opinion, this is the most interesting thing SFV has to offer. Here are the 3 common actions. An advancing action (usually walking forward so that your normals connect with the opponent), a defensive or “poke” action (using long range attacks to stop your opponent from advancing), and finally a “whiff punish” or counter-poke action (moving in and out space to punish your opponent’s poke attempts). Advancing actions beat counter poking because they allow you to advance, counter poking beats poking, and pokes beat advancing actions. That’s the gameplay in a nutshell. There’s more to it than this, but this should help you get an idea of how to get started. Three last things. There is a blacklist feature to block players that you find have a bad connection. Also, look up “delay throw tech.” It’s an option select you really need to know about if you want to get to a high level. Finally, check out the mods. Anyway, have fun!
