One aspect of gaming that I’ve never really been into is the competitive aspect. Very rarely do I actually like to compete against other players. The only times I’ve ever really given competitive games a try is when my friends me to play a multiplayer game with them and with Dead by Daylight, but in both instances I never really tried to get super into them or actually do well competitively. I’m just there to have fun! Whenever I’ve tried to do more than that I tend to get stressed out and frustrated especially when it comes to losing. But all that has started to change recently for me. And it’s all because of fighting games.

I guess you could say that I’ve been ‘aware’ of fighting games for awhile now, watching people play fighting games competitively is something I really enjoy! But it wasn’t until somewhat recently that I actually gave them a try for myself. I had dabbled here and there, picking up fighting games that caught my eye, but I hadn’t really tried to proper learn how to play one until Guilty Gear Strive came out a couple years ago. Which is when I learned there is a very big difference between trying a fighting game and actually trying to learn how to play one.

Despite how much I enjoy watching others play fighting games, it took me a long time to fully try one myself and that’s mainly because learning to properly play a fighting game can be tough! Doing cool combos and pulling off the flashy moves isn’t as simple as it is in other games which can always be a shock to anyone looking to get into the genre. It was for me! I feel like this is the biggest hurdle a lot of fighting games face. How do you make the game accessible and easy to pick up for new players while also giving it depth and substance for the veteran fighting game players? Well if you’re like me, watching fighting games be played from afar, and are on the fence about trying to get over that hurdle, you should absolutely try to! Because once I did, I figured out what really makes fighting games shine. And that’s the feeling of improvement!

As I mentioned before, the first fighting game I really gave an honest try to learn was Guilty Gear Strive. The game, and series as a whole, really pulled me in with it’s flashy visuals, awesome character designs, and banging soundtrack! And for awhile I thought that’s why I kept playing the game too. It wasn’t until after I put the game down only to pick it back up again when new characters were released that I started to realize why I was enjoying the game so much. And to my surprise it wasn’t something exclusive to Guilty Gear Strive. I was coming back because I wanted to learn how to play these new characters, how they’d feel compared to the rest of the cast. I wasn’t coming back just because the new characters looked awesome and to listen to their new themes. After all, I wasn’t jumping into versus or arcade mode, I was going straight to training! Learning how to play the characters and improving was not what I was expecting to get out of Strive or the genre in general. And while you can obviously improve and get better at any game, for me fighting games are the only games where I can feel that improvement the most. Even if that improvement can be rough to achieve.

Beyond tough controls and difficult combos, I think the other big thing that can turn people away from giving a fighting game an honest shot is the fact that improving at the game is harder than just going into training mode and practicing there. Because no matter how good you get at a certain combo or landing a particular super, none of that is going to matter unless you get a good feel and understanding of how other people play! And the best way to do that? Losing.

The expression “No pain, no gain” is very much a cliche and is very much not always true, but I feel like it does work when it comes to fighting games. This is something I realized when playing Street Fighter 6 recently! As I was saying before, you can learn how to play a particular character all you want, nailing their combos and figuring out all there moves, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t figure out how to play them against other people. Or more specifically other characters and how people play them. Which more often than not means that you’re going to have to lose a lot. You’re not going to figure out how to counter a particular mix up or know which of your opponent’s attacks aren’t safe on block in a single match. That stuff only ever comes with experience. It’s going to take awhile before those things start to click in your mind, especially if you’re someone new to fighting games like me!

I remember being afraid to get into fighting games because I thought that I’d never be able to remember or perform long combos. I assumed that would be the hardest part and that if I ever did manage to learn I’d somehow be great at fighting games! So you can probably imagine my surprise when I did manage to learn and pull off some great combos consistently but was still getting my ass handed to me when playing against others. Learning some awesome combos is really just half the equation, the other half is learning how to create openings or when to capitalize on when your opponent leaves some for you! Funny enough, learning your opponent’s combos can sometimes be more important than learning your own. But to make this all even tougher is the fact that obviously every character is going to have more than one kind of combo, they are all going to play differently depending on who is playing them. While you’ll certainly see similarities between each player playing Ryu for instance, they will still likely play him very differently from one another. Someone might wait for you to jump in or approach them while other people might be more aggressive. Admittedly it’s quite a lot to keep in your head. Personally I firmly believed that I would never be able to not only figure all this stuff out but also to keep it all in my head. And while it can very much be a struggle, I began to realize that I liked the struggle and that it’s not an impossible one after all. Because after losing so many matches because I failed to realize when I should be attacking or what bad habits of mine my opponent was exploiting, I did start to learn. And not only that, I started to improve. And I could actually see and feel it happening!

And that is the beauty of fighting games to me! It took me ages to learn, to have it click, but I finally get it. It’s less about winning matches and far more about improving, feeling yourself grow and get better. Now I’m not going to lie, losing sucks. It’s never a fun feeling even if it’s necessary. But after losing over and over, you really do start to learn. I remember a specific moment when playing Guilty Gear Strive where I was playing some casual matches against someone playing Leo, one of the characters from Strive. We played for awhile, going for at least 15 matches together and of those matches I won maybe 4 or 5. Despite that though, it was a blast! While I didn’t win much, I improved a lot! And those 15 matches helped a ton when it came to fighting future Leos online. I started to see the patterns in his combos, learning when it was safe for me to strike back or to jump away. I began to get comfortable with reacting to everything he was throwing out! And while you could maybe get all this info from watching some Leo combo videos, it’s a completely different feeling when you actually have to do it yourself!

Both seeing and feeling this growth and improvement is something I personally hadn’t really experienced in another game, at least not on this level. Sure I’ve been able to see myself improving when it comes to getting a new high score in something or winning a game online, but with fighting games it almost feels more earned? I feel a lot more pride when it comes to getting better at fighting games than anything else. And while that could just be me I don’t think I’m alone. Because it really is less about winning and more about improving and testing your skills! Winning a match because your opponent didn’t know what they were doing instead of winning one because you out played them or capitalized on their mistakes is not that fun. It really is about going head to head against someone of similar skill! Or learning from someone that clearly has more skill than you. And only fighting games have really given me this sense of growth and improvement.

It’s a shame that I feel it’s kind of hard to explain all of this through text, I feel like someone needs to play a fighting game for themselves to really understand. Which is harder to convince others to do, even more so because not all fighting games are the same, someone may be capable of enjoying the genre but might just have trouble finding the right game in it. But I do hope that this post helped inspire some people to do just that! To give fighting games a try even if you feel like they might not be for you or if you’re afraid of being bad. Which is probably going to be the case but that’s kind of the point! Fighting games are about learning, not being good from the get go. I just hope more people can figure that out!

But those are just my thoughts! What are some of yours? Do you play fighting games? If not, are you thinking about giving them a try now? I’d love to hear your thoughts so don’t be shy!

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