How Can Fighting Game Tutorials for New Players Be Improved?

[@MoonwalkSA]

When I started trying to get into fighting games, I would have progressed SO MUCH more quickly if a tutorial had been dedicated to blocking. If you've already had a Low/High tutorial, the next step isn't even hard to write: "In a real match, it won't always be your turn to attack. [Character] is going to come at you with a series of attacks, which are usually referred to as a 'blockstring' because it's a string of attacks that the defending player needs to continue blocking. Block [character]'s attacks, looking out for high or low hits, and then attack with Light Punch when they leave a gap.... If you have trouble, remember that overhead attacks, because they're harder to block, tend to leave a bigger opening!" And then you get to play it a few times with different mixups, and learn the basics of defense and the fundamentals of turn-taking and match pace in a way that's virtually never taught in tutorials. Even just the *first sentence* of that is something that someone who is totally fresh to fighting games can need to hear.

[@sanko111]

Wait, you mean I shouldn't mash that 1 move I learned 1 combo with while blocking ALL THE TIME?

[@DripNZ]

Skullgirls has in its tutorial sections dedicated to blocking high/lows consistently, as in you have to block -reactable- high/low blockstrings 3 times in a row to prove you understand what you are doing and not getting past it by sheer luck. It also teaches you how to apply your own high/low pressure, how to do tick throws, how to punish unsafe moves (this one is done by having the bot do blockstrings that sometimes end in punishable sweep but not always so you have to actually think, it’s great). It teaches you applicable skills that function outside the abstract of “here’s all your moves and supers, now go figure out how to use them on your own”

[@thechugg4372]

@@DripNZ As you already mentionned that tutorial almost made me quit skullgirls, those blockstrings were pretty unreactable.

[@the0therethan]

Honestly the most important thing new players need to learn is how turns work

[@sgm5573]

"85% of the comments were complaining about stuff I already talked about" yeah that sounds like a reddit thread alright

[@sirwaffles5280]

Meanwhile in Tekken “uhh what’s a tutorial”

[@paddyofurniture9523]

Because Mr. "Don't-ask-me-for-shit" Harada cares more about esports and dumb guest characters that literally nobody asked for

[@PebelWasTaken]

I think that helped me overall in the end. Cos the first thing i did was join a discord and asked questions as i played. If something confused me i could ask. Had actual teachers.

[@AegisRick]

Personally, I don't think a baby hand holding tutorial like Sajam is asking for would even be helpful in Tekken. There's no one simple answer to deal with every possible attack. But, a glossary of all the systems and options that we have would be great. Then it's just about studying the options and trying to apply them when you can. Ducking, sidestepping, low parry, high and low crush etc.

[@sirwaffles5280]

Patrick Sullivan aye man, I like all that shit, I was just making a joke lol.

[@ThineAlphaRooster]

@@paddyofurniture9523 he made a huge ass tutorial that did all the shit that sajam talked about in tag 2 and that game sold the worst of any tekken game ever. No one touched the tutorial when it was there and everyone complained when it wasn't there.

[@malikbeat]

One of my favorite parts about the trails in UNIST is that the combos you learn build on each other. They start you with a very basic combo then slowly alter it as you complete trials, so then the basic combo becomes, basic combo plus a jump-in, or basic combo end with a special move, then jump-in basic combo end with a special move, etc. It helps the player say "Well I can't do this form of the combo consistently yet, so I'll use the more basic one for the time being". Also, the combo's are categorized by how you'd be getting the first hit in; such as off of a dash attack or after an anti air. Little touches like that made me feel more comfortable with the character and it felt like I had a gameplan with the character before I went online

[@massterwushu9699]

malikbeat Blazblue does the same thing. You Only struggle with an input once. For example, jump-cancel-side switching with Bullet after 6C

[@JameboHayabusa]

@@massterwushu9699 Yeah, most anime fighters teach combos in this manner.

[@thesmilingvagrants]

Tutorials need to tell you what is the bulk of the game and what isn't. They present all this info like it's all equally important when that's not the case. Great video as always

[@samuelalphabet5360]

I think the Chun Li vs Zangief example you gave is an extremely good idea. It's really good as an actual tutorial giving you real experiences, but its also *way* more engaging than usual tutorials. Even the best tutorials I've seen are structured like: Exposition/fun dialogue, dry mechanic explanation, really boring "gameplay" i.e. dash forward 3 times while nothing else is happening. Fighting games are all about learning tools and then applying them in different situations, so making a scenario where you learn things and play in real scenarios its great.

[@tannerbrodt8419]

I think fighting games should experiment with “lite” game modes that limit mechanics to help beginners focus on one or two concepts at a time. For example: Core-A gaming’s sweeps and throws exercise. Have a game mode that locks your character from moving and jumping and only allow throwing or sweeping. Have it be like “see how many you can do in a row” or something. Let people have fun with the mechanics in controlled ways.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

That's a great idea! Online training is a must, too.

Hard agree. I'd like to see this integrated into real PvP play, where both players choose a desired complexity level and the game takes the lower of the two. This way, you can have meaningful online experiences right from the beginning, without requiring extensive systems knowledge.

[@BlazeMakesGames]

yeah I watched that video and his "sweeps and throws" concept felt genius to me. And then I realized that that's literally what every other game does lol. Like seriously if you think about it, most any kind of game with a sort of progression is doing this. In Half Life 2 you don't start out with every single Weapon and ability from the start while the game has you fighting striders on level 1. You start out with nothing but the ability to move and you are given a single weapon at a time, allowing you room to get used to each one individually and incorporate it into your moveset over time before the next one is introduced. And the various level and enemy designs are made to reinforce this for the player. Like how Ravenholm happens right after you get the gravity gun, and you're given very little ammo and tons of saw blades in order to try and reinforce this new mechanic for the player to show them how effective it is. FIghting games should have a mode to teach new players where you fight using only a fraction of your available moveset, whatever is the most core fundamental aspects of a character. Then after they are able to beat harder CPUs using only those moves, add in another move, only 1 or two at a time, and repeat the process. Even if you're still just fighting CPUs, by doing it this way the player can become way more familiar with the moveset of their fighter.

[@VinceOfAllTrades]

Here's a thought: the game lets you set "moral victory" conditions and gives you updates on them to de-emphasize winning a match as the only method of improving. Some examples may include: - Hitting X anti-airs in 1 day - Blocking X cross-ups in 1 day - Teching X grabs in 1 day - Taking 1 round off an opponent 2+ Ranks higher than you Many of these things have a single trophy/achievement. I want them to be user set, togglable, and repeatable so I can give myself a goal and the game can say "congrats! you did it!" Maybe if you progress/complete a goal, you'll lose less points for losing a match. Expanding on that, I have no idea why, in 2019, we still don't have the ability to make custom combos for Mission Mode. Then you could download mission packs and set THOSE as goals. There are nuances, a lot of combos can be very specific and include input tricks or micro-adjustments, but a lot of provided combos require things that aren't explicitly tracked anyways.

[@nef36]

I'm here from the future to announce that GG Strive has literally this for combo trials.

[@VinceOfAllTrades]

@@nef36 Them's Fightin Herds also has this and may have had it since before I wrote the comment. I didn't play a ton of Strive, but ngl I never even considered exploring the feature.

[@NrettG]

Dude a battle pass with stuff like this would be PERFECT for fighting games. Make them close to the characters they actually play and it can work. For example in Tekken make it where King can get 100 points if he executes 3 key moves in a match, but a thousand if they do the mexican death cradle. Stuff like that could make a good difference in fighting games where it pushes players to learn new stuff or potentially try other characters that are a good branch to their mains.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Spot on, Saj'! Yeah, the pacing of them is off. There's also almost no hint at what you should know at what skill level. It says beginner, interm, advanced, etc. but what do those words entail? Hours of play? Rank? What exactly? th0nk This makes it hard to know what to focus on and what to delay learning. Show more practical and applicable knowledge than arcane to-do lists.

[@reiji_vt4262]

I feel like every time I go through a fighting game tutorial I'm preparing for an exam. And then when it's time to apply it all in an actual match, I can't remember half of what I went through. It needs to be simplified in away that doesn't feel like you're reading pages of a textbook of stuff you'll forget because it doesn't explain it well

[@shinbakihanma2749]

Well, most fighting games are Japanese developed. And what do we know about the Japanese education system?? We know that the japanese education system is about rote memorization and NOT about actual understanding and application of the lesson. You'll see checklist of techniques and trials in a fighting game tutorial, and it'll have the vibe of "LEARN THAT" but not necessarily the vibe of "WHY you should learn that". That's exactly WHY most fighting game tutorials feel like exams. It's cultural.

[@Cambiony]

Honestly, fighting game tutorials should teach about strategy way more than they do now. I have seen multiple times, new player playing a slow grabbler and when they get a knockdown, they run away instead of pressing oki. That one Core-A-Gaming video about buttonmashing is a better tutorial than most ingame tutorials. Also just knowing the concepts relevant to fighting games would probably do wonders, because it leads your brain to analyze the situation way more than when it's just chaos.

[@DavidKyokushin]

My biggest pet peeve about FG tutorials is trying to get the combo right 90 times, then, on the 91st try, it ends up working without any noticeable input change, and the game goes : AIGHT, NEXT ONE. If they could teach you what happens if you do moves too fast/too late & tell you if you're too fast/late, etc. It would help a ton too.

[@SaviorGabriel]

Yeah, that's one thing I really hate about combo trails. I'll never forget the SFIV combo trials that just had you link 3 jabs. I've always been terrible at doing combos, but I think I have enough skill to press the same button 3 times in a row. Apparently, SFIV doesn't agree. I've never had so much trouble doing something that should be so simple. I know what to do, but I have no clue what the game wants from me when I can't seem to land 3 basic bitch jabs in rapid succession. Do I need to go slower? Go faster? Be close? Be further away? Do it in the corner? Do it on the night of a full moon during an eclipse when the planets are exactly aligned on the 17th of October on a Tuesday and offer a sacrifice to the combo gods? Give me some fucking feedback here! Eventually, I'll get it right by some fluke, and now I'm even more frustrated because I have no idea what I did right. After that, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm done with combo trails forever."

[@iliketrain10]

I feel like fighting game tutorials need to find a way to actually still feel like you're playing a game rather than being a textbook of shit where you'll only remember like 1/3 of the shit you just went through

[@massterwushu9699]

I think it depends on the kind of person you are. I bought Blazblue CF two years ago and all I’ve done are combo challenges. 30+ hrs of play and I’ve completed around 98% of them. I find them super fun and I enjoy the challenge.

[@massterwushu9699]

Bartek To ja I’m aware of that.... the fun is in the challenge. I don’t play any other games this way. I’m Platinum rank is SFV. I’m an Alex players and I don’t really do anything too fancy (like Lariat > Heavy Elbow) .... I just use fundamentals

[@frigidkitsune]

Guilty Gear had these really cool minigames with Jack-O’s minions that had players learn by trying out the game’s basic things. Really helped make it more digestible

[@kylele23]

B Tatsu if anything the combo tutorials/trials teach me which moves work in certain situations. I like Under Night’s especially because it gives you how long they’re vulnerable whenever they’re hit as a bar under the hit counter and the adjustable speed helps you see things frame by frame. It would get confusing in a game like BB where you’re just wondering if you’re not doing it fast enough (fuck you Naoto)

[@AirahsELL]

Guilty Gear Xrd has that. Their tutorial mode is a barebones affair that tells you the very basics of any game (without getting into stuff like Romans or their meter systems) and the presentation is tower defense or target break, depending on what you're learning. This also is a very basic primer for fighting against Jack-O, who forces you to play a moba in a fighting game.

[@kazenoshinobi]

i love your idea about move list's, with "recommended pokes" and " best anti-airs" and hitbox images

[@ragnarokhead19000]

I’ve never seen so many thorough & interested comments on fighting game videos before. Way to promote important discussions & interest in something super important. Loving the content & impact Sajam! 👍🏼

[@Dahras1]

One thing I think would help fighting game tutorials is limiting the moves you have access to at first and giving you a solid gameplan of what to do with the moves you have. In other genres you wouldn't dream of starting a player with 5 different moves, but even simple fighting games start players off with 10+. For beginners, having solo/tutorial content that only uses 2-3 of those moves and then introduces you to the rest over time with situations they are useful in would be really valuable. Another valuable thing might be having character breakdowns that give you a simple 5-6 move gameplan, focusing on their best moves. That way new players would be able to start somewhere. Some of my favorite character guides ever have been a short 1 sentence description of what the character wants to do, and then a list of their 5 best moves, their best pokes, and best anti-airs. Devs could steal that format to help newer players

[@shinbakihanma2749]

That's actually interesting.

[@pedrosad2435]

TL:DR Agreed. I think the game just telling you to take a break is not enough, the tutorial needs to lock progress and give some sort of "mission" to complete outside the tutorial before you can continue, force them to leave. Something like Chapter 1 you get to choose a character to start the tutorial with, basic movement and 2 or 3 moves (anti-air/pokes), then after you finish you get a pop-up to do a mission to play 5 matches against a medium level or higher CPU and hit at least 3 anti airs each match to unlock the next chapter, and asks you if you want to do the mission right away. After you complete the mission you get another pop-up saying you completed it and asks if you want to continue playing vsCPU or go to the next chapter of tutorial, the quick navigation flow between game modes needs to be there. It would probably help to change the name to something cooler like "battle class/school" or something. The name and menu layout can influence the first interest to enter the mode. It could also help to have more challenge modes. Right now is mostly combo trials and missions which are cool but are in a separate mode for some reason. There should be Pressure Challenges, Mix-up Challenges, Spacing Challenges, Defense Challenges, etc all in one place together with the combo challenges. They also shouldn't be "one and done" style. It needs to be something repeatable, that gives you rewards like in-game currency to unlock stuff every time you do it and you get more currency the better you do, so there is incentive to "farm" the challenges and (undirectly) learn characters strenghts/weakness. Players that already understand FGs shoudn't need to do "tutorial mode" to learn the game. I think having an in-game Glossary/encyclopedia could solve this, since those players have an idea of what to look for. The Encyclopedia should be accesible almost anywhere in the game, but most importantly in training mode so you can just get there, open the encyclopedia and learn things this way. The only FGs I rembember having an in-game glossary are BBCPEX and BBCF. But even there the glossary was kinda hidden in the library mode (where you read lore stuff). I would like to see 2-player tutorial mode(on/offline) as well.

[@Nooctae]

The Xrd Rev tutorial where Jack'O ask you to DO stuff, going after the ballons and showing the normals by destroying the ballons, is exactly what you describe.

[@bennymountain1]

There was similar mode in TTT2 where Violet made jump over balloons and DO stuff.

[@SultanOfSlam69]

I'd love to see the single player story mode turned into a tutorial. A great example of how this could work is in Starcraft 2 - when you load up the Terran campaign, you're given the absolute basic tools to play the game; a few basic soldiers. The game teaches you how to select your units, move around, attack, etc. As each mission progresses, you're given more and more different units, but it's a slow progression so that you're learning how to build everything and what units to use in different situations, at an easy to digest pace. By the end of the story, you know what every single unit is, how to build it and when to use it. The point you make with your Chun Li/Zangief example would be a perfect way to do this too. Start the player off with super basic moves, and then allow them to "unlock" new stuff as the game progresses, instead of just shoving info down their throat like the current tutorials do. By the end of a 10 hour story mode, you've learned anti-airs, how to deal with projectile spam, specials, supers, system mechanics, movement options and maybe even a couple of basic juggle combos.

[@tgr3423]

Fighting games have to strike the perfect balance between informing the player and making that information fun to learn.Typically, tutorials just swarm a new player with dozens upon dozens of new terms, concepts and mechanics which are usually presented by themselves in a vacuum without factoring in the other mechanics. ON top of the fact that everything is presented in a list format, which makes it feel like you're just checking off a to-do list that doesn't have much with the actual process of learning the game hands-on. Fighting games also have their own unique language that in of itself is a barrier to learning. It's like needing to learn French so someone can explain to you, in French, how to quarter-circle (236-214). Fighting games should make tutorials that teach you in increments. Just teach them moving, jumping, an anti-air or two, and how to block. Then throw them into maybe a few AI matches where that's ALL that matters. Slowly give them more information, instead of a quick burn. They don't need to know any supers, any fuckin' Roman Canceling bs, any guard break or spacing shenanigans just yet. Every so often, something new should be added to the layers of game play until suddenly, they realize they're already doing that crazy Unga Bunga FaD 20 20 Ultra Anti-Air Fuzzy Break Roman Cancel Combo Breaker bullshit without realizing they've been slowly pushed to do it, instead of being asked the minute they boot up the tutorial.

[@kinginthenorth1437]

So many times I've finished a fighting game tutorial and while I understand the system mechanics I'm immediately "wait, I have no idea how to play neutral." Did the tutorial in DBFZ and was just lost afterwards until I stumbled back to a game I already knew how to play.

[@CyberXShinobi]

Xrd and Killer Instinct had some of the best tutorials for FGs so far. Xrd even had matchup specific challenges to learn how to defeat certain tactics.

[@amarntsitran3406]

I genuinely would really like to have a full-blown information page on fighting games where I can see the moves, stats, and all of the data on characters. I genuinely think things would be 1000x better in fighting games if there was a section where I can quickly go in, select a character and go over to their move where it basically shows me a looping gif of the attacks with all of the frame data and properties of the attack including hit and hurt-boxes. Fighting games require you to learn a shit-load of information and data once you get past a certain point, the developers must all know this, so just make a nice clean space where all of that information is easily accessible to everyone.

[@shinbakihanma2749]

Great vid, Sajam. The real question is "how CAN'T fighting games improve their tutorials?!". One of the main ways is that EACH and EVERY character literally needs their own indepth tutorial and how they're particularly used and interact within the system of that fighting game. Also, each super or special move needs their own indepth tutorial on when they are or not effective. For instance, I would love to see Akuma's Raging Demon get an indepth tutorial on how best to not only perform it, but also WHEN to perform it.

[@hanniballecture]

I've always been a fan of the story mode esque tutorial where it has 'bosses' like the zangief examples that each have one basic mechanic you need to learn to beat them, after a few of those you can build upon them, make em more complex. But yeah, as a student of learning psychology I think that's the best way to do it.

[@Shining4Dawn]

As an aspiring video game developer, I thing your talk about tutorials is absolutely inspiring. I will take it to heart and try to implement as much as what you've talked about into my own games when the time comes. Heck, I think you could act as a producer/director for a video game development studio and lead them in some out right revolutionary directions. I've recently played a fighting game called Million Arthur Arcana Blood and it has the worst tutorial I've ever seen. It lets you choose if you've played fighting games before or not, so I chose yes. Then it dumps a wall of text on you with a few screenshots and then you're done. You don't even get to try ANY of it. The game's engine doesn't even load. I may have well have read this text on the game's website before buying it.

[@-nomi.-]

The biggest thing is the disconnect between doing something in the tutorial mode and doing it against a player. Instead of doing a tutorial like UNIST in one go, you should learn those things in the tutorial mode, but only be able to move on to the next tutorial once you perform that technique online a few times. It'll help a lot to space out and solidify learning while helping the player understand where they're at better. Add a cosmetic reward and it'll also help remind the player of each small steps of improvement and get them to feel good about them.

[@hazzydahaka13]

2:58 I actually ended up making this exact mistake when I showed my friend UNIST for the first time. He was (and still kinda is) a total newb at fighting games. You can probably guess how that went down.

[@Rakkoonn]

It matches with my experience. Tried getting into fighting games with Skullgirls, which has a good tutorial. Because the tutorial was long and dense I actually quit because I felt I had to finish it before starting to play. Later in Tekken I learned the very basics and quickly got into matches, which got me into the game and actually interested in learning more.

[@1Diddums]

The best way to do it. Just get sunk in and have fun.

[@bennymountain1]

I've finished Skullgirls tutorial and then got BLOWN THE FUCK up online.

[@NrettG]

Skullgirls teaches you everything and the kitchen sink but they ramp up too quickly. One second your learning movement, the next they ask you to block and entire mixup. It's a bit too extreme in some lessons yet easy in others. It's not really consistent and trying to skip ahead just punishes you.

[@kaleidoscopecakeco.3565]

I'm currently writing a Fighting Game Guide based on my experience with High School teaching, which has admittedly been very little, but a lot of experience in my professional life has been constructing lesson plans as that's something all teachers need to be adept with. The goal of each section is to provide a clear cut/hand holding series of lessons that inspire growth and independence in Fighting Games but without all of the unnecessary jargon that comes with every guide out there currently. Here's an example, most fighting game guides out there always mention Frame Data for some reason, but new players don't care about that stuff even if they want to become competitive, they just want to beat up their friends. A beginner guide should focus on the bare bone essentials. Movement, blocking, BASIC combo structure. A great guide already out there is Giefs Gym for SFV on the subreddit, it incorporates tons of teaching fundamentals for people who know nothing about the topic.

[@clockpenalty]

The best tutorial is a great campaign. Single player content tailored to teach you mechanics, rather than just throwing you against CPU bots with mediocre/cheating AI. You'll be up against boss type enemies who are designed to break the game rules in a way that requires you to learn a particular mechanic in order to beat that particular opponent. Tied into story and lore, this will ensure people have the basics down before they begin to learn strategy

[@tgr3423]

That's honestly what a lot of the Single Player content SHOULD be used for. There's no need to teach or ask a new player within 20 minutes of booting up the game to do, in my own words, "Unga Bunga FaD 20 20 Ultra Anti-Air Fuzzy Break Roman Cancel Combo Breaker" bullshit. Teach them something new like, every 3-4 matches and slowly build on what they know instead of giving a new player an information overload.

[@clockpenalty]

@@tgr3423 so its a combo breaker, but it's also a roman cancel, so likely this game has counters for combo breakers, and this allows you to break these counters by roman cancelling your breaker. They are ultra so clearly need meter, and since this technique is fuzzy it means there should be a 50 50 (20 20?) guess on what cancel to do....but this technique involves a form of dash cancelling (FaD) that results in a form of option select ensuring, assuming the enemy is airborne (hence anti-air), you always get the right roman cancel combo breaker... hence "unga bunga" What a technique. If I were to master it, I would surely be godlike.... *hits lab*

[@CaptainHandsome]

The Tekken subreddit has a thing in the sidebar/wiki that has a list of the top 15 moves for each character with little explanations, and (even though I think 15 is maybe too much for a complete beginner) it's probably the best thing to point a new Tekken player to 'cause it's like "oh ok cool, down 2 is my poke, forward 2 is my whiff punish, and i can launch unsafe stuff with back 3, i have a game plan now" instead of requiring a thorough knowledge of the system mechanics

[@playapiano666]

Check out Rivals of Aether, each character has their own specific tutorial that explains their main gimmicks and forces you to use them. It's not perfect but it's a step in the right direction.

[@hou5eheadjason]

Isn’t it crazy how fighting games do this so bad overall

[@shinbakihanma2749]

Well, the reason is because the devs are bad. They're still in the old school mentality that you should somehow figure out most of this stuff yourself.

[@AkibanaZero]

@@shinbakihanma2749 Either bad or don't believe the return on investment is there. It takes time and money to make a good teaching experience within a game and if the dev doesn't believe it will generate more sales then they won't bother.

[@TheSeventhChild]

That description of youtube tutorials is exactly my Tekken experience. Instead I gotta just cobble together random Aris clips and get beat on at local. And at least I have a local.

[@madrocts]

Yeah I completely agree, the fact that I can understand the basics of magic the gathering to realize the importance of choosing to tap a creature card and begin to learn the quirks of each color deck and be able to recognize what deck color works best for me after only an at most 10 minute tutorial shows that fighting game tutorials are seriously lacking.

[@reptylus3129]

Soul Calibur 6 provides pretty good, comprehensive strategy guides for each character. Well segmented in three parts for different experience levels, each of them describing only a small handful of the most important moves. Unfortunately they are a bit hidden in the training mode menu, and are presented as unappealing text walls. If they'd make interactive tutorials out of those they'd be top-class. Another decent approach is in Cross Tag Battle. Here we have segments that spotlight the characters specials and important normals like the basic anti-air. This could definitely use some expanding, but it's a good idea.

[@thenotebubble]

Totally and completely agree. Even the best FG tutorials are a massive wall of information, cramming all of that into a new player's head is super overwhelming. They tell you everything you need to know about *what* everything does, but give you very little info on *how* to best utilize all these tools. I didn't finally start enjoying fighting games until my Street Fighter fan friend played a game of Sweeps and Throws with me. It wasn't until I dialed things back and only worried about a small subset of options did I finally stop feeling overwhelmed and start having fun, and we were able to slowly add new moves and mechanics to worry about as I was getting up to speed.

[@ZachYoung626]

The biggest thing fighting game tutorials fail at for me is that the tutorial hits you with a lot of information and none of it feels like it builds on itself. I feel like the tutorials really need to teach you a basic set of concepts, and after each concept, they put you in the situation to practice it as much as you want. Once you complete that group of concepts, they place you in a situation to practice all of those concepts at once, with a bot that will slowly add in each function to test you and built that muscle memory and recognition.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

They should have a transcript of the lesson text you can check or share. Redoing tutorials and skipping through all the dialogue and whatnot can take hours.

[@TenchiKinjin]

"Then the screen freezes and says, INTO LEVEL 3, STEVE MY ARM!" fucking dead.

[@Evergladez]

I think dead or alive 6 has the best tutorial system right now. When you first launch the game the first tutorial isn't extremely indept it basically goes over the basics with a real time event of pressing buttons. Then theres command training that goes over almost all of the characters moves. Then theres combo challenge that starts small the builds up. Then in free training you have access to frame data, whats at an advantage/disadvantage how far it reaches and follow up potential. You can go at your own pace, I still go back and redo command training whenever I want to relearn a character.

[@ForceofNature99]

Yeah, DOA6 has a fantastic tutorial system. The tutorials coupled with the Command Training, Combos Challenges and the Skill Info move details frame data box is outstanding for learning characters and the game like you implied. They're all godsends for learning the game. The only additions I would add are character specific tutorials (beyond main moves...) and tutorials explaining how to approach neutral. SoulCalibur VI's "Combat Lessons" character tutorials are pretty handy and succinct, though SCVI's tutorial in general is a bit on the simple side.

[@Evergladez]

@@ForceofNature99 this guy has a really indept guide on getting the most out of d.o.a.'s tutorial system, really informative. I think that no fighting game should completely hold your hand plus with as many balance changes that happen they'd have to go back and redo some of the tuts if they remember. At launch mk11 asked you to press certain buttons for a jax move that had been changed around in the day 1 patch making it impossible to do by the on screen command. I'm not really a fan of character specific tuts as they could limit personal expression if you want to play ryu as a rush down character that is your call to make. The biggest hurdle in fighters is most people play to win not learn so when they can no longer win they quit.

[@Shadowking117x]

Killer Instinct does something cool with the tutorial where they teach you basic stuff, then suggest you take a break and do some matches, then come back later on once you feel like you have got a good understanding of what you learned.

[@eseph_agen]

What if you had a challenge tree. First goal, play a match. You get a little prize like fight money or whatever and 2 challenges unlock. Perform 5 combos with 3 or more hits and block 10 attacks. Combo challenge leads to, cancel a 3+ hit combo into a super 3 times. Block challenge leads into, perform a push block 5 times. Each time you complete a challenge it builds on the skills you developed, creating a natural flow of progression. This gives the player an actual concrete goal they work towards, where the game is showing them as they play just how much they are learning. Each challenge would have a tutorial attached to it, so if the player doesnt know what it wants them to do, they can just do a tutorial for that one specific thing they need to figure out. This cuts the issue of bombardment by a massive wall of information right from the start. Incorporating the tutorial into the act of just playing the damn game would help to introduce a smooth learning curve rather than expecting new players to juggle a bunch of advanced skills when they still havent even digested the fundamentals.

[@ennuigamer]

Presenting information to the player is important but it also needs to be entertaining or it will get boring fast. It's a game, not a college lecture, and people are there to have fun, not be "educated." Make teaching these things a game of its own, with music that gives a sense of urgency and some kind of score or timer to give a measurable sense of improvement. A new player needs to have fun first before they will consider getting invested; mini-games are a great way to approach that whole thing where the teaching is disguised as playing the game. I think that's why Guilty Gear Rev2's tutorial was so well-liked -- the basic tutorial was a mini-game with time trials unlocked afterward.

[@bradastrike8586]

Great video! Teaching fighting games is like teaching a language. As a teacher I’m always frustrated of the tutorials in fighting games. Because it’s a step by step progression like how languages are taught. And yeah no feedbacks and repetition

[@RavensEagle]

Ki actually had a tutorial that tells you to go online to test it out yourself before learning more tutorial stuff. And get some real fights in before learning the rest. You should check it out yourself, plus it has shadow modes.

[@harryvpn1462]

Character specific tutorials that teach you what to do with them would help so you won't have go search for the games combat wiki and guide videos just to get some idea on what you should be doing

[@chileshems88]

The thumbnail was my reaction to some of the things the Under Night tutorial was trying to get me to do because goddamn.

[@coker-jg6xn]

providing video within game, with a commentator breaking down something specific would go a long ways as well. vainglory has this for every character, they show a quick breakdown with a narrator. if fg’s expanded on something like that it would be great.

[@poultriarchy]

I'd love to see a fighter implement a tutorial system that forces you to play online to complete objectives pertaining to the thing you just learned in the tutorial. For example, the tutorial tells you how to jab, and how to block. You are immediately booted into a matchmaking lobby and once in game, three objectives appear on your screen: "successfully block 3 attacks in one round", "successfully jab your opponent 3 times in one round", "successfully block an attack, then jab your opponent". Once you complete an objective, it is ticked off the screen, and you are given a cosmetic reward or something after the game. You keep playing games until all three objectives are finished. It doesn't matter if you win or lose your games; you are only getting these rewards if you successfully finish these three objectives. Finish all three objectives, blam, back in the tutorial. You are now taught a basic movement skill: backdashing. Blam, back to matchmaking. "Backdash 10 times in a round", "successfully backdash away from an attack 3 times in a round", "successfully jab your opponent 4 times in one round". You get two objectives that pertain to the thing you've just learned, and one encouraging you to recall that important thing you learned the step before. Play games til you finish your objectives. Earn rewards. Blam, back to the tutorial. And so on, and so on. Two new objectives, one callback. Objectives are always on screen so you always have something to direct your attention to. By the time you've finished the tutorial, if you have no prior experience with fighters, you've played potentially dozens of games online and now have zero beginner online anxiety. If you are already good at fighters, you are immediately thrown three objectives worth of rewards as a bonus to your winning rewards every time you play a game, while simultaneously having the basics drilled into you once more for good measure. This might be a stretch but once you've finished the tutorial, it'd be sick if the game could then give you a "mentorship" option for newer players. Once players reach a certain rank online, they are given the option to become a "mentor", and at any point in time while online and not in a game can be asked to mentor a player who's sent out a request. The new player sending the request is given a drop-down menu of things they've learned that they want to practice against an experienced player (poking, sidestepping, low punishment, etc), and they choose which one they would like to practice. If a mentor accepts (think of it like Uber; rider requests a location and a driver who's willing accepts), both players are booted into a game with no time limit and the practice objective is displayed on the screen. Your move list is limited to the objective, so in the case of poking, both players are given only access to a generic poke, a generic low poke, and standard movement and blocking tools. You both poke the shit out of each other until either the mentor or the noob signals they'd like to end the session and you both go on your merry way. This would force a very specific gameplan for both players, and by limiting the movelists to just whatever tools pertain to the practice goal at hand, there'd be no real room for trolling. If you are getting steam rolled, you are being steam rolled in one specific area and now have an identifiable weakness to keep in mind when playing in general matches online. This might all sound a bit complicated, but I don't see it being any more difficult to implement than some of the insanely complex tutorials currently out there. In fact, the simple objectives and forced matchmaking system would actually create a lot of padding just due to time spent in matches, so things could potentially be simplified a hell of a lot. TL;DR: get thrown into matchmaking every time you finish a tutorial objective. Once you use the tutorial concept in a match, you get booted back into the tutorial. Experienced players can mentor inexperienced players in an Uber-esque, pick-your-destination type practice environment.

[@dariogonzalez8989]

This actually seems like a great idea! However, I feel like the "being forced to play online after every couple of lessons" thing has a couple of potential problems: what if, for whatever reason, you don't have an internet connection? Or what if you have one, but it's trash?

[@poultriarchy]

@@dariogonzalez8989 there could be the same tutorial available but it puts you in bot matches instead, or even has the option for player vs player locally. I reckon this kinda tutorial system even being available for offline player vs player would be a boon because you could have players use it at local events or with friends as a way to quickly figure out the basics of a new game. Bot matches are less than ideal but for learning the systems, it’s better than nothing and the fact you’d have an objective on the screen is still positive reinforcement.

[@_Snowflame]

There was a Steam review for Fantasy Strike making the rounds on Scrub Quotes a while back. The review praised the game for simplifying system mechanics and inputs, but nonetheless claimed that Fantasy Strike was still not a viable game for beginners because (paraphrasing), "players who already know all the ranges and timings for attacks have a large advantage." I can see such tutorials being helpful for learning things like footsies, but the fact remains that players must be receptive to learn. This is really treading into the territory of the "inherent difficulty" video, but I think the next step for fighting game tutorials would have to be somehow instilling a healthy competitive mindset.

[@Dreadnob]

I think most fighting games could also do with an AI that tries to emulate human behaviour, instead of just reading the players inputs. The way things are right now, all tutorials, except guides that improve your combo damage, only really apply to playing online or vs mode.

[@pon3d120]

Pointing out key moves for your character would be huge. Imagine if they gave you a safe poke, a punish button, and an anti-air to start.

[@gipgap4]

It feels too much like homework even with the best tutorials. Many fightings games have become bloated beasts which means the tutorials will follow suit just to explain it all to the player.

[@Meatex]

As someone trying to get into fighting games for the first time I can say you are 100% on the money. It is way too much info dumped on you and I don't retain it. Some games have crazy long move lists (looking at you tekken) and as you say what is important is learning what jab is useful for interrupting opponent or what and when to use an anti air and what to do when you are getting zoned. MK11 teaches (kinda) about frame data which is cool but then I still don't know the move I should be using to poke or jab - whatever you want to call it. Love the idea of recommended moves and focusing more on basics and drilling and rewarding you for doing them instead of moving straight into really hard to execute complex mechanics.

[@RoyArkon]

Mortal Kombat 11 and Injustice 2 have the best tutorials hands down. They teach everything from basic stuff in fighting games to advanced strategies to character specific guides, and they separate everything into sections and sub-sections and with proper explanations for each piece of info, so you know where to go if you wanna learn something specific and you don't get all of the info too fast. Also in the character specific guides, they explain the characters' archetypes and they give recommended attacks and tips for when and how to use them. And for each sub-section they give you a reward after completing them, whatever it is a character skin or currency to get stuff in the game. There are no better tutorials right now, period.

[@JcgLounge]

Facts

[@Crimsontears83]

I like how you basically describe what Strive is doing. I swear they watched this video for their tutorial and mission modes. Tutorial shows the basics and the missions show you all the advance stuff

[@iliakatster]

A character tutorial that taught you what the characters best poke, anti-air and their most reliable quarter circle special move, like a fireball, and a basic description of their lvl1 win condition (use long moves to keep opponent out/ get in and press buttons by going in through air or ground, avoiding the way you think they'll attack) would be perfect to set anyone off on their journey with a character.

[@Kuribohdudalala]

Unist’s tutorial helped me soooooooooooo much

[@AkibanaZero]

GG Xrd has a good one as well. Still, they only really just show you and let you practice a bit. None of these tutorials actually move into more practical applications.

[@gasparguruoftime5475]

After watching people play fighting games consistently for two years now and watching tons of tips videos and guides and whatnot I finally just jumped into Under Night. I definitely started to feel like the tutorial was an info dump. I’m no stranger to games with mechanics you have to learn, but I felt like I didn’t belong in the later expert matches when I still was struggling with blocking properly. Now I’m just focusing on blocking low and high, looking for opportunities to get my one little combo in that I learned, and not mashing (which is really really hard for me to not do). Anyway, I do wish tutorials were more like what is discussed in this video. It’s weird that in combo missions in UNIST, once I complete it I’m just left there to do it over and over until I want to move on, but the tutorials want me to move onto the next one as soon as I complete the current one once. It felt strangely paced for a noob like myself, so now I’m just throwing myself into online and trying to get these hyper basic fundamentals down.

[@glennfinito]

I feel like virtua Fighter 4's tutorial was incredibly dense but very useful and everything it taught you was useful like sidesteps and what a throw escape was. The way it kept track of stats would help you improve (VF would be like "it looks like you don't block lows")

[@thewaifuwarrior7606]

I liked Granblue Fantasy Versus' move list; it has a pretty nice description of what the move does, when and how to use it, and also has an animation of the move playing out alongside the text. I can't remember if there were descriptions for normals, though; I just remember specials

[@peopleschamp7070]

To me tutorials should be like how you teach someone a language. If you teach someone the basics of English like hello, please, thank you, nice to meet you, goodbye, my name is, etc and just throw it all in there face they won't absorb all of it unless they repeat it a few times. Tutorials when introducing a mechanic should have levels of mastery you complete it the first time you're a noob, complete it 5 times you have a basic understanding, 10 times you're a pro, 20 times you've mastered it. Instead of just oh you used this mechanic once next tutorial.

[@shinbakihanma2749]

Very good point. You complete the move once and you immediately move on to the next lesson instead of drilling it in with repetition. I like what you mentioned with encouraging the player to perform it numerous times by graduating them based on their grasp and understanding of the move.

[@AkibanaZero]

As a language teacher, I agree wholeheartedly! The problem with dry repetition, though, is that it gets boring. Having a form of mastery level tracking is fine but the practice should be something more interesting than a standing dummy.

[@00ChosenOne00]

Fight Night: Champion story mode was something close to Sajam's perfect tutorial. For Honor also did a good job, I think.

[@EastyyBlogspot]

I loved to play Blazblue Combo challenges and they did offer some help with Demonstrations but i would often see many nuances that are not explained. Recent Under night did have some of my favs.....trouble is I often forget a lot of the stuff and combos i learnt

[@niwona_]

It would be so dope for fighting games to have offline/online arcades with leaderboards that helped teach you fundamentals. Like an Avalanche inspired game for footsies, a rhythm game for combos, a FZero sort of game for meter management, etc. Tutorials that can be done with others will drive up engagement

[@Ringating]

smash bros. brawl's single player mode was a good example of this, imo. by the end of it, the player had likely used every character at least once and become proficient at basic movement and combat. there were incentives to play it beyond just treating it as a tool to learn. completing it unlocked all the characters, it had unique boss fights, its large levels were fun to explore, and it could be played cooperatively with a friend. all these aspects allowed it to appeal to a variety of players that otherwise wouldn't have been interested in learning the mechanics of a 1v1 fighting game. ofc, many of these players likely never went on to play smash in a competitive format, but some of them must have. plus, making the game more accessible in general will earn it a larger audience, which will get more people into the competitive side by means of sheer exposure.

[@dj_koen1265]

And if dark souls or mmo pvp tells you anything people enjoy pvp if its in a controlled environment they have already gotten invested in

[@Miss_Dizzy]

Hi Sajam, This's rather serendipitous because I had just earlier watched this video call "What video games are like for people who don't play video games" by Rabuten ((?)rakuten?)... or something... Anyhow, one of three interesting things in that video that is covered is video game literacy, and how easily it is taken for granted. I'd never previously thought about it but it's true. If you don't just know from previous experience how to interpret information given, it can be extremely difficult to figure out. I think a lot of difficulty with learning fighting games is all the implicit information. Tutorials seldom explain turns, or why a reversal is important. A lot of tutorials omit the really basic stuff which can make it hard for the uninitiated.

[@999samus7]

I really liked when doing skullgirls tutorial it taught me about punishing and blocking mix ups, appreciated it.

[@yosemetysamuel2265]

I feel like a good tutorial for fighting games is when it teaches you the basics. And after that the game gives you optional advanced training levels where it shows the stuff that takes longer to explain and learn. Possibly right after the basic tutorial or after a game or 2 when you get your ass beat something pops up like: "Hey did you know these teaching stuff exist that tell you things you might be interested in". If the first tutorial is too long or complicated players could skip through it or just give up on the spot.

[@TeethSkylark]

The part where you talked about tutorial videos being obscenely long reminds me of the quote, "I wish I had the time to make this shorter."

[@fatal85]

UYU's intro to Tekken helped me learn to play that game. I've played a few Tekken games. After seeing that video I clearly had no idea what I was doing or even how to approach that game.

[@cyanure1320]

yep some of them even don t let you repeat what you have just learn and pass on the other section on the spot, i would like that they let you experiment what you have learn until you re feeeling ok to pass to the other mechanic

[@Inriri]

I think a good idea for fighting games is to have a "boot camp" section in training that has a player doing an action repeatedly, both general and character-specific. Like have the player do x number of DPs (either in a row or just in general) for example, and offer daily rewards to encourage people to keep doing it.

[@bigboss6145]

Granblue had a movelist that did what you mentioned. The first time ive ever seen it, but a welcome addition.

[@_Merlin3]

Magic Moste is becoming more and more powerful each thumbnail he makes

[@gcavrubio]

Good video. I think Guilty Gear Xrd has the best learning tools among the fighting games I played. A lot of drills about fundamentals and match-ups

[@YoJimbo0321]

Based on the games that I've played, I think the ideal tutorial is a middle ground between Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and UNIST. Guilty Gear has neat little minigames that teach you skills practically by making you properly move and hit the little Jack'O minion dummies, and it has repetition based trials that have a minimum "you must successfully do X out of Y attempts to pass". But Guilty Gear's tutorial is only good for teaching the very basics and specific techniques, there's a lot of gaps in between. UNIST has a very clean, well laid out, and comprehensive tutorial (including sections on basic character game plans and basic moves), but its dense, dry, and hard to navigate if you don't know what to look for. BlazBlue has a tutorial that is basically a worse version of the UNIST tutorial, but they are fully narrated and done in character, which makes them a lot more entertaining and immersive compared to just reading text. To me, the ideal tutorial would combine Guilty Gear's hands on learning and mastery checks, UNIST's clean and comprehensive organization as well as character basics sections, and BlazBlue's fun presentation.

[@unclebutts2878]

Does this guy speak the truth or what

[@m.a.g.e.]

Fighting game tutorials would probably be more inviting and easier to understand if they worked like tutorials in single player games, where you're introduced to the mechanics one at a time over the course of the game, given a brief explanation of how they work, and then put into an environment where you have to use what you've just learned in different situations before being shown a new mechanic. Something like Granblue VS's story mode could be really good for teaching players in this way.

[@elk2594]

Subspace Emissary mode in Brawl was the best "tutorial" hands down. Here's a character, walk around with them, hit some simple enemies with clear attack patterns, maybe do some combos if you can, navigate to the end of the level. Coming from a platformer background it was the easiest way to learn what the characters did without the pressure of facing another person or the blank slate of training mode. I don't understand why fighting games can't just be platformers with extra buttons.

[@IAMOP]

In my opinion, Having Combo challenges that teach the basics is better than having section wise tutorials for beginners. For e.g. one challenge can be - Block a stagger low from dummy and do a launcher and reach certain damage This will be more engaging, most beginners get overwhelmed with the section wise tutorials.

[@Orktosqt]

I'm new to FGC, and almost exclusive experience with fighting games were MKs 1-3 and 9-11 just for the story. And i decided to focus on learning MK11 really well and play some pvp for the first time. After beating campaign, I spend 9 hours beating my head against tutorial, didn't finish like 1/4th of it, played 1 pvp match and never touched game again.

[@MikeTales]

It would be cool for street fighter 6 at least if they had Gief gym built in.

[@MoldMonkey93]

I agree. While there's a lot of tutorials for new players. There's not enough or if at all middleman tutorials for people who are good at particular fighting games going into other fighting games that utilize vastly different playstyles from their preferred ones.People that understand tbe concepts and how frames work in fighters. Like I personally play SF, VF, DoA and other 3D games fairly well. Those skills being in order from greatest/confident to least. However, I'm not too keen on anime games even though I get how they are played and how yomi is etc. Just have trouble putting things into practice as I like more methodical play. Though if you've seen me play my respective games, I play a bit on the tricky side. Which kind of was my point when you misunderstood my comment and brought up fuudo.

[@Ragna6765]

Them´s fighting herds does a pretty good job showing you the basic stuff in a similar way to the xrd tutorial, while also having optional explanations of hit/hurtboxes and framedata in a practical way instead of trough a wall of text

[@lucaswilliams7280]

I think the best thing devs could do is give players tools to create and share training modules in game. They're generally going to be more relevant to players than whatever devs managed to cook up before the game was released, and could compliment tools like youtube videos that players are already sharing. Imagine seeing a video on how to counter Paul in tekken and seeing that the video creator has created an in game training module to walk you through exactly what the video covers.

[@SmileOmega1]

I'm currently learning smash, and EVERY single time I ask for feedback, I get linked the series by IzawSmash. It's very comprehensive, but pretty much every video is an absolute infodump with almost nothing about how to learn matches via playing. even the character specific ones are super infodumpy. It'd be super nice to have a video about the very basics of my character, and going from there.

[@HolyMistahLlama]

Tutorials in fighting games should be set up like single-player modes where the skills and mechanics available to the player are necessary to progress through branching paths. This could be overtly layered, like having certain paths specific to certain characters so that you can learn unique characters and their tools, while the main path would follow the main character and stick to the base fundamentals and more advanced mechanics or concepts. One AI could be programmed to block a lot, so it would encourage the player to use his throw, or another AI could be programmed to always use their fast buttons when the player gets close, encouraging the player to use their long range normals and special moves. Everyone is different, but given that most of us are playing video games/fighting games, it's understandable to assume that we learn based off of doing, not absorbing. So instead of tossing a block of text at the player and making them read and figure out how that works in an actual match, create a series of story-based missions with the player choosing how they wish to progress based on what is more or less difficult. Can't defend those high-low mix-ups to get past this part? Try another path where you're learning how to neutral jump and walk forward. That way those players don't feel like they're being barred because they aren't picking up a single concept so soon.

[@BigDaddyWes]

I think the lack of tutorials in fighting games is a remnant of arcade cabinets.

[@galtar862]

gbfvr has the "press these pokes with screenshots" feature discussed here

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Another thing that could help is New Player Ranks. It'd be like the ranked ladder in Hearthstone. There are 50 starting ranks that players can't drop back into, and only new players play in those ranks. It gives newbies a better chance of playing vs other newbies and lessens the fear of "losing ranks because I suck" because you can only go up till you reach the "real ranks". It could help ease people into online play.

[@kwang-kv8bv]

You know what, Sajam is a good guy

[@N00BSYBORG]

Individual character tutorials could be better. Most of the ones I think of usually just tell you to do your special moves and then a few combos with zero explanation. That should be where you teach new players the important parts of a character and why. This is a good anti-air. This is a good poke. Here's a simple combo that ends in a hard knockdown. Here's an example of oki and why you'd want to use it. Stuff like that. MvC Origins and Darkstalkers Resurrection were actually pretty good about this. The movelists would even tell you why moves were valuable and straight up tell you if a move sucked.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Another thing to do would be to get rid of the chaff in movelists. Why have pointless moves? Unless they have a meme factor or something, buff them or redesign them.

[@tmanfit]

6:10 best point , this would be an actual game changer.

[@yourboyrussell6738]

SoulCalibur VI more or less has this, actually.

[@TheIronMoose]

@8:45 sajams transition skills are unmatched.

[@fefyfona4318]

Under nights tutorial was overwhelming for me. I still don't know how to utilize all the mechanics.

[@SonicBoyster]

I'd love to see some better tutorials but it's not as easy of an 'ask' as attack data. The Chun-Li vs Gief example is great for teaching the fundamentals of keeping somebody away on the ground or keeping somebody out of the air with your normals, but what does that player do when he runs into a Dhalsim? Does Dhalsim get his own short tutorial? Is it to play as Dhalsim or to play against Dhalsim? Do we create a tutorial for how to play a grappler and if we do, do we hide it under 'advanced' tutorials so we don't confuse new players? I'd like to see a tutorial for how to deal with a super-zoning character like Guile who will super-frustrate new players until they uninstall but now we're up to like 5 tutorials and we're back on the 'I'm confused where do I start?' train. I'd be happy if they'd just pay a community moderator to redirect people to Bafael and Core-A-Gaming. Or pay Sajam to do it. Somebody pay Sajam for all this content.

[@dandastardly2792]

Exactly how I feel. Street fighter V was my first fighting game in 15 years

[@NrettG]

Xrd Rev2 is the only tutorial where I went "Oh, so that's how guilty gear works.", I learned how to use burst, what roman cancelling is and how to actual use it on a beginner level, what dusts are and why their important, all the stuff where I could play the game to a level that felt like I was on the same playing field as the pros. Hell that tutorial where I learned how to block highs and lows lead to me blocking an entire string from ky online for 15 seconds before getting my ass handed to. Along with being able to entire strive and understand more about that than from it's own tutorial. I swear man, the more I play Rev2 the more I understand why its held to such a gold standard