Why you should play every Character

I don't just play Lee... I play Violet as well.
memes: / massivezug
ref;
TBS "Tekken 7 Complete Character Overviews [4K]": • Tekken 7 Complete Char...
Fergus "Character Overviews (T7)": docs.google.com/document/d/1y...
#Tekken #FGC
Try and have a good time (-:

[@alexrobin]

This is my main problem with tekken. I am quite good at my main characters, and I really enjoy a close matchup. But I am simply never gonna invest the time to practice the appropriate response to every character’s moves and strings. That feels much like a job, and I already have one of those.

[@Makneuro07]

You gotta enjoy learning

[@Kenlac92]

That is a fair criticism however part of enjoying tekken for me, is enjoying that learning process. I like labbing and learning how characters tick. How i can work around their strengths and exploit weaknesses.

[@stanfordc5125]

yes, we have to do all of that to be as good as our idols … but I do feel like there’s a way to work around this with our limits as the average player who takes Tekken seriously.. My obsession with rank and beating others dissipated and for the past 4 months, and I’ve actually done nothing but practice mode. Not always for educational purposes either, just for fun!… like end of the work day I just sit in practice mode for 30 minutes before bed, because I want to enjoy Tekken but not the stress of trying to beat someone who might BM me. Like I took Xiaoyu to see why I always get mixed up from her only to learn she’s not too scary (imo). I took Dragunov into practice cuz I figured I never was interested in him, but “why not?”, and ended up learning his whole moveset and how to break tackles. Idk there’s a lot to learn but you ENJOY LEARNING if you just take your time and not attempt to be like a pro player. Anyway, after my little “hiatus” with “playing seriously”, I played my first ranked game in ages last night and got Fujin, which is my personal record. Overall feels great. Sorry for the long post, just wanted to share my perspective.

[@stanfordc5125]

Like others said, I like Tekken + fighting games because I like dissecting matchups and characters. It’s not for everyone and it could be why FGs are so inaccessible to new comers . But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to still learn at one’s own pace

[@bugglemagnum6213]

Its just gonna take me 10 years

[@MegaASMR20]

I gotta say a MASSIVE THANK YOU for the Tekken Guides. I’ve been a Smash player for a long time. But as of recently, I’ve found that it’s giving me less and less joy to play. I’ve liked Tekken but never took it seriously. But watching your guides give me Confidence to jump back into it. Thank you to the Moon ❤️

[@stanfordc5125]

I’ve abandoned smash almost entirely to play Tekken. And I’ve played since N64. Been obsessed with Tekken 7 since 2018 :) fun that we share a similar background

[@MegaASMR20]

@@stanfordc5125 Nice. I think its the movement of Tekken that I found as a nice fit. (Even though Movement isn't being emphasized ENOUGH nowadays)

[@stanfordc5125]

@@MegaASMR20 for me it was more of the Meta and freedom of expression. I didn’t like that in smash I couldn’t play who I wanted because some characters are hard stuck in “low tiers”, or even if they were high, they’d have a really and I mean really hard time on certain matchups. Like changing characters is the correct solution in many cases rather than just adapting (can you tell I like Little Mac yet?) Also, being edgeguarded very well just made me mad too often and feel like I couldn’t do anything/ I wasn’t allowed to play (Mac joke aside, I main Mario). In case you’re coming from Melee only, I could never get into the idea of being forced to main either Fox, Falco or Marth instead of just who I preferred. In smash, there’s a real rock-paper-scissors dynamic when it comes to choice, but imo it’s too strict and the options you have are limited. But Tekken 7 is so diverse (moveset-wise, situational-wise) that all characters have an opportunity to win at any given time. I’m allowed to be proud to main a specific character, and even express my playstyle differently from other people who main the same char. There’s more than one way to end a combo, get out of pressure, initiate pressure, etc. Finally, needless to say but the game is just beautiful to look at

[@MegaASMR20]

@@stanfordc5125 Amen Brother

[@MegaASMR20]

@@stanfordc5125 I absolutely agree tho. The Movement of Smash Gravitated me to Playing Steve Fox. Plus I've always been a fan of the "Boxer character" in most fighting games (Balrog, TJ Combo Lil Mac, Dudley) But you already know how Lil mac is. Its an all of nothing gameplay which can be really fun. but if you wanna win or climb ranks, he's a chore to play..... OH WAIT THERE IS NO RANKED CLIMBING IN SMASH! NOT LIKE YOU WANT TO BECAUSE ONLINE blahblahblah. Tekken is another game with a large roster, which appeals to me, because I'm superficial lol. And YES SIR Tekken is beautiful and the ability to customize your character appearance is just the Icing on the cake 👌

[@tyrenace6597]

I like the tunnel vision visual. No matter how long I played tekken. I could not for the life of me, take focus off of my own character to look at what the opponent was doing. It was always at least 60-40 or 50-50. I would have loved it to be 20-80. This is why I couldn't really tech throws, or blocks lows, especially online. I guess if you had experience with every single character, you become familiar with some of the things the character does. You'll be able to focus more on what they are doing.

[@victorfranca85]

You just need to pick an easy execution character and work on developing effortless flow state. I dont need to know what my character is doing. Its always back 3 hahahahaha. You focus on the opponent in between rounds. And download what they are doing right and what is punishable. Just by the look of the animations you can see of you are in plus frames trap. Asuka has a safe mid that looks punishable. But people figure it out and dont press buttons after.

[@tyrenace6597]

@@victorfranca85 Oh, don't worry I was a Geese main the moment I bought Tekken 7. I was an SFV player so everything translated flawlessly from the 2D aspect of the character. I just couldn't really get the hang of teching throws and blocking lows. They were easily exploitable against me. Often times you can tell a player has gotten lil tilted at the match up when they did those things to me repeatedly. When they weren't before. Then they end up noticing that I have no answers for this, then they build up a streak on me. What they did out of tilt ended up working for them. Even though I knew they would do these things over and over. I couldn't react, even when I know my own character, I still had tunnel vision for my own character. Mainly because I didn't know what my opponents character could actually do. Defense in tekken 7 is not as easy as SFV. I didn't have to have to learn all the characters in SFV. I had just had general game plans like anti-airs, and stuffing out dashes. Was a lot simpler game so match up knowledge came easier. The highest I've ever been in Tekken 7 is emperor on PS4. While the players I use to tussle with done already got TGP.

[@assassinonprozac]

I have the opposite problem where I pay too much attention to what my opponent is doing and never even look at my character. This has led to me getting hit by so many random moves because I didn’t realize I was in a stance, (I play Lei so that’s a big problem) or back turned, or even that I was crouching. I guess this is better than paying too much attention to what you’re doing but it’s still a problem.

[@samtorento4493]

Very valuable video man, I feel like the tunnel vision thing is real. Often people get too caught up in playing their own character that they start to develop the bad habit of only seeing Tekken from that 1 perspective. If more players would just venture out of their comfort zones and explore different characters, not to mention archetypes, I feel like even salt would be greatly reduced as the player would understand that their opponent is just Tekkening different. I gained a lot of knowledge of this game from playing 100% of the cast.

[@TK_TheFURY]

Well I play 5 fighting games and most of their casts 😂 the only reason I do this is to become familiar with matchups, know character specific strategies and setups (matchup knowledge is 50% of intermediate and high level game mastery in tekken specially)

[@kongobongo6538]

Completely valid. I do the same to a lesser extent. Strive, SFV & DBFZ I tried the majority of the cast for the MU knowledge alone. I can't be bothered when it comes to Tekken though (70+ moves in Most characters is ALOT to get through), so I only take characters I run into into the lab. It has now basically gone to the point where I have some knowledge on 60% of the roster, but I still feel lost against characters like Lili, Asuka & Julia lol

[@Guitar-Dog]

@@kongobongo6538 I agree. Last night I played against an Anna (lost hard, don't know the MU) Met the same guy playing Negan 20 mins later and went 3-0 (I know Negan)

[@TK_TheFURY]

@@kongobongo6538 lmao, I main julia 😂

[@jestyo0o]

Oh nice vids bro

[@andymrb]

That sounds very exhausting. No really. When I play another game I just browse through their move lists. Learning characters for the match up knowledge didn't feel that overwhelming for me when a fighting game roster had 20 or less than characters.

[@DonQuixe]

Awesome video! i agree 100%.. theres so many characters in fighting games nowadays why just stick to one especially when you realize you've hit a barrier and need a fresh perspective.. there's always something to learn about other characters if you just try them out.. which always benefits you in the long run 👍🏾

[@disruptor6550]

Quality video Zug, thanks a lot for these useful tips 💪🔥

[@Kenlac92]

This is awesome work. I main yoshi, and because of that i take pride in knowing how to play most of the cast. Its valuable in helping me make the most of his unique toolset, which often is deepwater for the other player unless they are especially keen to the setups and mindgames.

[@itzjaysee]

Watching your videos gives me hope and motivation to keep playing tekken and learning. I was discouraged. It’s very hard and I don’t have much time due to work. But I will take my time and learn.

[@pwj223]

Your videos are beautifully put together dude👌🏽super digestible.Wish I woulda found this channel sooner!

[@heythatsme5000]

Im learning so much thank you

[@tonightsbigloser1580]

When you talked about looking at your opponent more than your own character, I related to that a lot. I used to play smash ultimate a lot, and I think a huge jump in my skill was when I stopped looking at what my character was doing because I was so used to my main and the legal stages that I played on that I knew exactly where they were without looking at them. Felt kind of godlike in my analysis once I started doing that. Unfortunately my switch broke so I can't play smash anymore though.

[@felipez3115]

Its so good to learn caracters in T7, almost all of them are different and so fun to use lot of them.

[@RedBull78hero]

3:52 I can't believe you put Ping Pong The Animation Theme song in this video! I just started to listen to that song on repeat like a month ago!

[@WeeabooDojo]

Yooo zug back with that fire mixtape 🤣🤣

[@BakedConjurer5]

idk if its mentioned in the video but i think this is applicable if you are already a veteran at the fighting game your playing or your beginning to get the hang of the game, because not only your having range of fighters but you will get familiarized by the moves so that when you counter that fighter you can predict or know the next move of your opponent

[@wisdomseeker0142]

You’re absolutely correct. This strategy is not for beginners. When you start getting towards emperor level or Ryujin you really Have to be skilled against multiple matchups in some capacity.

[@razeota-p4089]

This is why when i meet a character that im bad at online then I'll go play with them 20 consecutive games straight just to learn how they act and figure out the proper punishes. I never went into labbing because i enjoy the experience of losing and then winning anfter figuring them out

[@Iam1nsane]

Great content.

[@Ldarkkratos]

Good choice with the bomberma 64 music

[@maddinkn]

Ecosia! Thank you for showing this instead of google search.

[@Xenos_hive]

You can’t just unpack my character in front of everyone like that

[@Not2sure]

Man that tunnel vision tip is honestly going to help I can tell hahaha , I just look at my charector unless we backdash two or three times lol

[@addydiesel6627]

I always agree with your views. But for this occasion I beg to differ. When I was new to tekken I thought the same and tried to learn 4 characters at once. Eventually my first main became my weaker main as I favoured playing my second main who is currently my best. But what made me realise I don't need to play other characters to learn defense was that I always (almost always ) lost mirror matches with my best main. I went to punishment training and a whole new world opened up for me which made me realise offence and punishment are 2 separate things that have to be learned from scratch. The very same moves I was dishing out daily had a completely different meaning when trying to punish. I had to learn whether to step left right or just block punish, something I never thought about when using these moves offensively. TLDR; In a nutshell my 2 years of maining my character did not help me to develop punishment skills against the same character movelist .

[@lapis3965]

I agree with the idea of playing the character being the best way to learn said character for a particular match up. It particularly helped me in a game like "BlazBlue Central Fiction", which is a game that is arguably just as complex as "Guilty Gear XRD Revelator," with the game like Revelator having legacy skill, meaning if you haven't stuck with the game since the original back in 2008 you have a MASSIVE hill to climb in learning frame data for each character's normals, gatlings, and overall mobility options that can be used on offense and neutral. Then there are the game's plentiful system mechanics, such as having a half a dozen options on defense that you need to master such as having four ways to block based on specific scenarios for example, and the game having a multitude of wake up options with each having a specific use, and that's not even going into the Drive mechanic, which is a unique action for each character, which there are OVER 35 of, which MOST of the cast plays VASTLY DIFFERENT from each other. Mainline BlazBlue games were HUGE in japan, with it being popular in many Japanese arcades, and as Obama stated in a podcast with Blasted Salami that the series had at one point been up there even with the almighty Tekken in terms of popularity. With many veterans like Dogura ( who is one of the best players in Guilty Gear who uses Slayer) and Fenrich ( who is arguably the best BB player, and currently one the best in DBFZ) representing the series for a long time . Sadly, The series just never took off over here in the west. However, the lack of popularity nationwide doesn't equate to the game's quality.The fact that is arguably the most unique AND complex 2D fighter on the market, but isn't talked about hardly at all in the west was always baffling to me. Especially when I read comments, and watch videos of people in the FGC complaining about how boring fighting games have gotten recently, or how easy it has become and yet will REFUSE to give the game a try. Thankfully, that seems to be changing, for instance Lord Knight, a tournament player who plays a variety of different fighting games recently made a fighting game tier list and put "BlazBlue Central Fiction" near the top, as well as popular Guilty Gear content creators like Obama saying on blasted salami's podcast that "BlazBlue Central Fiction" is arguably just as hard as Guilty Gear Xrd, finally, there's Kizzie Kay, who is a pro Sin player in GGXRD who says BlazBlue is his favorite fighting game series. For those who want to see high level game play in order to get a grasp of how hype this game can potentially be for you, I'd recommend a video titled "BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Grand Finals - Evo 2014" on youtube, and while the game represented there is not Central Fiction, I think it works, since Central Fiction is more of an evolution of Chrono Phantasma any way. Other channel's include "Burst Recap" and "Jourdal" for more high level Japanese play. Finally, BB TAG and mainline BlazBlue games are two SEPARATE things all together, with BBTAG having it's own set of rules with the system mechanics, and SIMPLIFYING ALL of the characters. It's for these reasons that you can't approach "BlazBlue Central Fiction" in the same way that you would BBTAG.

[@eproductions5115]

One small look down your previous videos has shown, I've come to the right place.

[@WickdUser]

The tunnel vision hits hard for me. I’m usually like that but just recently I started focusing on my opponents character and boy it improved my performance by atleast 30-40%

[@samarthkapil6579]

People play games for fun and if you're not having fun then you are more likely to hit a mental barricade. Learning new characters is part of what make fighting games fun imo. I have switched to three characters after hitting their peaks and that has allowed me to ascend to a higher rank with each new character I learn.

[@Goteiii]

I really apreciate your content and you vids are really well made. You touch on very intresting topics as well. Thing is, I disagree on this one. For a number of reasons explained bellow: (I apologise in advance for the long comment) 1) Playing a character should be something you like. So, playing a character you don't like, even to learn how to beat them is out of the question. 2) Some characters are so tough to get into because of how unorthodox they are, how big the execution demands are or how extensive their command lists are. Characters like Jin, Lee, Akuma, Yoshi, Lei, Mishimas, Steve, Nina etc are a handful to pick up and understand so it would take months for you to claim that you can play these characters well enough so that you understand what they're about. I main Law for example and I am constantly even after almost 2 years figuring out new utilities for his moves and he's not that complicated. Far from it. What good will it do if you play Nina in neutral for a while utilising he "top moves?" It's not her neutral that gives people trouble, it's her billion strings that are either cheesy and require you to react to something or cancel into backsway stuff for more confusion. And most players won't give you answers on how to deal with Nina by throwing the character against them cause they don't know themselves. 3) Going on to understand the surface of a character and what works best with them is not going to win you any matches against intermediate - low level players. ESPECIALLY with underused characters. Take Raven for example who is another character I play. Her QCF4 is -14. Knowing that, reading guides and watching good players you will realize it's only meant for whiff punishment and maybe for baiting because it recovers really fast on whiff. But the very few times I've encountered Raven, they spam stuff like qcf4, backturn snake edge and powercrush, f2,3, uf4,4, her 1,1,4 string etc. I thought "they are mad". But they are actually not. Since no one faces Raven, very few people know this. So they get away with it. All I'm saying is, if by your logic, you picked Raven for a while just to see what makes her work, qcf4 and other punishable stuff she has is not the answer. What I like to do instead, is observe what other players I watch or fight against do with various characters and the moves that cause me trouble. When I get to lab the character, I go through with these moves that cause me trouble and try to find ways to beat them. Another good thing to do that's helped me is to see which strings are punishable and have practice dummy do the string variations as well as not finishing the string into buttons. For example AK's f2,1 is duckable. So I make him do f2,1 and then f2 into throughs, f2 into mids, f2 into dickjab or d1,4 and try to react to that. Find ways to option select their mixups when they cancel into stances either via stepping or checking with a move. Getting muscle memory to react to lows and strings etc. The only character I didn't have to do that with is Law who is my most played cause I'm so familiar with his animations that I can react easily to almost all his stuff. I do admit, that you can do what you suggest with some characters that are easy to pick up, simple and with few moves like Kazumi, Dragunov, Shaheen, Gigas, Claudio, Katarina, Josie etc

[@DeliriumPig]

good video, but the real treat was the Ping Pong music

[@2dhikka576]

Hello from TBS

[@TheCrispyTwinkies]

I like the idea, but I, along with a lot of people, aren’t like this. I 1trick characters in fighting games. Sometimes I’ll have a new character that catches my eye, but other than that, my character pool is very small. I learn characters by going against them, I analyze people’s play styles, I watch how to counter, and I find my own ways. It isn’t optimal to play every character to get a great feel for them. I’ve learned how to go up against MANY characters I’ve never even touched because they look boring.

[@cloudcoastgaming]

I been called a Jack of all trades bu friends for this very reason. The good thing about games like tekken is if you bene playing for a long time you’ve at least faced many of the characters for so long even if u barely use them you know how the tekken meta is especially with buttons and strings.

[@zigzag3720]

Once you learn jin you never wanna go back, hes got everything in his moveset

[@kayanims]

I totally agree

[@pangkamotegames]

*way back 1999 when i first saw an arcade game since then i swear to myself to fully explore every game exists as much as i can*

[@pangkamotegames]

i even travel much by walking as a kid for hours just to watch people play and play something new

[@somethingsomething9006]

UMvC3 and Soul Calibur series are the only fighting games I've played where I've seriously tried and played the entire roster. I have to *really* like the game to do it.

[@JustN0tMe]

Ecosia browser👏🏾 Respect🙏

[@Demon_Aura]

I would like to do that if I had enough time

[@anon3631]

Just play Feng, embrace the monke

[@kombatfear4496]

Anyone remember what the 1:04 minute handball game is called?

[@victorfranca85]

Every character = Asuka. Specializing is the way to mastery!! I play against every character but aint no way i am switching from Oscar. And I def dont want to main king or a dlc. Maybe Marduk if i need to be extra cheap. I like a defensive play style. Its less stressful. If your character lacks the tools. poke generic. Best thing is the online tutorials and semipro/pro streamers. And from the animations themselves. If your character looks stressed, you are in negative frames, and its time to block or take counter measures to escape. But the character design of Asuka is perfect for me. Throw game is there too. I dont lab or grind characters. It becomes a burden. Just youtube shows me everything i want to know. Especially Peter's tutorials and of course Salami

[@a.alphonso6193]

she's awesome, i love keeping people the hell away from me

[@victorfranca85]

@@a.alphonso6193 ive been obssesed with jun/asuka for over a decade. she is just the perfect entry level character imo. Whiff punishment 101

[@diamondgirls6541]

You cant master match up without labbing. Im Asuka main too but still find myself need to know char's match ups hands on. YT tutorials are great but u need to apply it and have muscle memory

[@8bit_pineapple]

I main King and play him defensive. Why don't you like him 😅 Wiff punishing electrics with b+1, 2 feels good. He's a very good poke and counter hit character. His kick parries / right punch parry are nice for some string defence or hard reads. And if you care about a throw game, aside from backturned shenanigans King and AK are the only characters with a viable throw game against good players. But tbh with good fundamentals you don't need to throw as King.

[@victorfranca85]

@@diamondgirls6541 I have 15 years of asuka/jun its memorized. I only have trouble with cheap characters at the wall. besides that, its catch me if you can in hopes they whiff within the class one launcher range

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

I always bounce around somewhat it was easier at first since my friends did not own the game

[@Noum77]

What I learned recently is you don't need to play the other characters, which is the opposite of this video I know lol. Bc even you can struggle against your main sometimes even though you shouldn't according to the logic of learning your opponent's characters to assimilate them. My strategy is just to learn to counter, labbing if you will, that way I don't clutter my head with thousands of move I don't really need to play my mains

[@AndreyOrochi]

Salami just mentioned you and you guys rule

[@beastcoolyo]

only here for the match up buff

[@Senumunu]

Lee is my main and when i want to chill i pick Josie im good :P

[@Enty94]

I do, I play kuma and panda. Checkmate.

[@CoolyCools]

Lmao

[@lwazinkasawe3887]

I would, but, Hwoarang and Steve's move lists scare me

[@stanfordc5125]

Characters with stance canceling and/or transitions into stance that aren’t even in the movelist are the ones that frustrate me. like Law DSS transitions, or Lei and Hwoarang. But we can only study so much… work smarter not harder. I’d use practice mode for the frame data and high mid low, but I’d watch VODS on pro player fights to learn how they use the setups and transitions, and analyze what 10% of moves are even being used before pretending to attempt memorizing whole movelists

[@ryanreliford4738]

"You can reverse engineer a winning strategy" Proceeds to show someone plugging 😆

[@q6969]

I would like to point out that this is the opposite of advice in Guilty Gear, because every character is so unique that what, say, Sol wants to do against Ino and what he wants to do against Nagoriyuki are so drastically different that it's almost like piloting an entirely different character. It's much more important to familiarize yourself with everything your character can do, and then watch what your opponents do to you.

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

Bedman I'd such bullshit Soo Is Jacko it's great

[@Ninjabob568]

give me mokujin please..

[@davidparry5310]

The idea of playing every character just to familiarise myself with all the match-ups is a non-starter to me. In order for this to work, I'd imagine that one would have to learn how to play each character at least somewhat competently, and for me, that's just way too strenuous and laborious. Learning how to competently play *one* character is hard enough work for me, much less several dozen. We can't all be Knee.

[@21kHzBANK21kHZ]

After attempting to do that with Tekken for a while I have to disagree. I say you should only learn what you get hit by the most. Learning everything that your opponents' characters can hit you with is just too much to try to remember, and worse yet if you learn every single character then when you get to the end of your learning process you will have forgotten almost everything about the first character you decided to learn. If you commit only to learning what opponents hit you with the most you'll save a lot of time and actually have context because the defensive measure is now tied to a bad memory, that being the memory of getting hit. Considering how much there is to learn in the game your best bet to keep the mental stack as low as possible is to try to focus on the few very important moves that you get hit by and mentally organize the others so they are as little of a threat as possible.

[@stylesheetra9411]

Never paid for a dlc and never I will

[@KanishQQuotes]

I played tekken 3 at arcade. All the boys chose jin and Paul Me on the other hand smoked them with my julia

[@DogcrotchHell]

99% of people will not be able to do this. It takes many many hours to learn even the basics of one character, and there are 52 of them.

[@avoidthevo1d]

However, why would i play cheap shit if its not enjoyable, i would rather enjoy beating the crap out of the opponent who didnt want to learn the game and picked a cheap character

[@loto7197]

This is a bad take imo. Majority of people who play multiple characters are mediocre, players specializing in 1~2 are who impress me most of the time. Jack of all trades, master of none..

[@UndefeatableKing]

Just because you don't agree with it doesn't make it a bad take. Massive Zug has a point, and I agree with his assessment of dabbling with multiple characters. It helps you look at the game from different perspectives, also helps you appreciate the unique tools your main has.

[@Working_on_life]

By playing other characters, you can gain matchup knowlegde in a more fun way than labbing in training mode. Do you really know the matchup if you cannot use the character? Just my opinion.