Jerain

Recently, I've picked up P4AU and a fight stick in hopes to learn a traditional fighter. I've played some competitive SSBB in the past, but that's a totally different monster. Otherwise, the only real experience I've had with these kinds of fighters were the two weeks I tried to learn Skullgirls and when I'd go with a few friend to an arcade and screw around on the SF4 machine. After reading up on guides on this site and playing for a bit, I immediately realized a few flukes and habits that inhibit gameplay. I'm making this thread for tips on how to improve on mechanics and drop these habits. 1. Button mashing While its getting better, I sometimes can't help but input a single command two or three times when I'm rehearsing a combo. I also noticed that in an actual match instead of training mode, I stop consciously thinking "stop mashing" and go straight back into it. Is this just a thing that improves over time, or is there a certain method to prevent this from happening? 2. Adjusting my B&B combo When I had just started playing, I bought Marie and pulled up a few simple combos to rehearse. Good news: one combo stuck, which I can basically perfectly pull out now. Bad news: muscle memory is making it hard to do anything else. Whenever I see a situation where after a 5AA, it would be better to string into 5C > 5BB > j.c...., I automatically go into 5B > 5C > 2AB... etc. I feel like just spending more time in training mode doing other combos can help with my variability, but after a while I'm not really feeling any different. 3. Reaction times Besides just playing more, is there a way to improve reaction speeds? For example, I would sometimes whiff an attack accidentally online, and instead of immediately playing more defensively/zone, I would basically go brain dead for half a second and get punished because of this. Especially on Marie, where the 5C has quite a bit of lag if it isn't cancelled, I just can't fathom in time what to do during that period, which ends up in losing a card and probably getting caught in a combo. Might add more later if I find some more problems to fix.

You guys are awesome. I have another few questions Another one of Marie's combos is:2B > 5C > 2C > 2B > 236A (crossup) > 5A > 5C > 5BB > j.236B How is a crossup set up from a 236A? It doesn't seen like I can do anything out of it other than airdashing or OMC. Also, how exactly do I practice the technical parts of the game like punishing or teching, is it just bringing the information into arcade or online to practice?

Bump, I have another question. Currently I'm learning Marie and one of her combo starters is: 5AA > 5B > 5C > 2AB > 236C First of all, does the first AA mean inputting A twice, with no direction input? Second, I'm not seeing a difference between 5AB and 2AB, am I doing something wrong or is the 2 just for a quick nudge or something along those lines?

Thanks guys. I played Skullgirls before this but it's a totally different monster since its mechanics are nothing like this game's.

I'm a long time Persona fan, but I never actually got into P4A because it was a totally different genre. However, after watching a hefty amount of gameplay, I finally picked this game up and it had just come in the mail today. I've played through the tutorial and a few games, but as of now I needed clarification on a few mechanics (this game has a few too many). 1. How often is the auto-combo mechanic used in higher level play? Is it just straight up better to mash out one of those combos in some situations or is there always a better manual option? 2. I see competitive players use controllers instead of fightsticks sometimes, is there a reason or is that just a preference/financial thing? Currently I'm using a fightstick but its pretty dinky. 3. In the lists of combos on the guides on this site, what do the numbers mean? For example, 5A > 2B... etc. 4. What are the reasons for playing Shadow type characters, besides for variety? On tier lists I see online (I don't know how accurate they are but they'll do) the Shadow characters are lower, if not significantly lower than their regular counterpart.