New to this Game - How's the learning Curve?

[MarcusSoul]

Hey all, I just got this game the other day when it came out on Playstation plus as one of the free games of the month and prior to downloading it I watched a lot of top 8 tournament matches from different events and what I wanted to know is how is the learning curve and are ToDs a very common thing? I noticed it would seem one hit would very often result in a dead teammate. Regardless I'm doing the tutorial now which is one of the best I've seen.

 

[Spencer]

As far as other fighters, it has a more forgiving learning curve. Add to that a top notch training mode, and it is probably the most beginner friendly fighter you'll come across (though admittedly, that isn't saying a whole lot... it's a brutal genre for newer players).

TODs are not common. In fact, outside of a few circumstances, they are impossible. Skullgirls is more reset based. You put them in combo and reset the combo to keep scaling high and the damage on. When you start out, you'll feel like you were TOD'd though. Until you get better at the game, you'll likely be half worthless at reading resets and reacting, so once locked down, you might stay locked down. Persevere and you'll be fine.

There are happy birthdays though. If you are able to catch both the point character and their assist (off of an assist call) in the right circumstance (usually a corner), you can effectively TOD the assist by snapping the point out and juggling the assist (the infinite protection doesn't protect the assist).

 

[gold163]

Touch of Death theoretically never happens to the point character because every combo will hit an upper limit of the Infinite Prevention System (you used the same move too many times in one combo) or you hit the upper damage limit (Undizzy/Drama, the green bar under your health).

What you're probably referring to is when an assist character gets hit, in which case neither Undizzy nor IPS kicks in (which is fair game, because you called in a bad assist and got punished for it), or the point character got reset (which isn't actually just one combo by itself, there's a mixup there and the combo counter starts over).

My personal opinion is that the learning curve isn't any steeper or shallower than any other fighter. There are going to be things that you can grasp almost right away and there are going to be things that you'll need to research and practice in order to fully understand, and these are going to differ from player to player. Have fun with the game!

 

[CaioLugon]

You probably watched the videos from last evo, it's not like that anymore, combos back then did 14k without too much trouble, now you have to struggle to reach 8k

 

[dragonos451]

What caiolugon said is probably what happened : most videos you find on the top of the search results on youtube are old, so you can't really rely on what you see in them.
ToDs still exists on the actual version, though, but it's only for solos against 3girls teams, mostly, as in this case the damage dealt by the solo is MASSIVE.

 

[MarcusSoul]

You probably watched the videos from last evo, it's not like that anymore, combos back then did 14k without too much trouble, now you have to struggle to reach 8k

Yeah EVO 13 is where I saw all the killer combos. Now forgive me cus I'm not very familiar with the terms used in this game but do you mean that the scaling during a combo was changed so that ridiculously high damaging combos wouldn't be as common?

 

[Arcana]

moved to beginner thread

 

[CaioLugon]

Yeah EVO 13 is where I saw all the killer combos. Now forgive me cus I'm not very familiar with the terms used in this game but do you mean that the scaling during a combo was changed so that ridiculously high damaging combos wouldn't be as common?

Mike added undizzy, it limits the length of combos.

 

[kanalgrävare]

Yeah EVO 13 is where I saw all the killer combos. Now forgive me cus I'm not very familiar with the terms used in this game but do you mean that the scaling during a combo was changed so that ridiculously high damaging combos wouldn't be as common?

Mechanics where changed and added so as to make the combos shorter, rather than make any individual hit do less damage.

 

[dragonos451]

BTW, you should change the name of the thread so people know what it's about (and other newcomers will be able to find and have their answer they wanted to ask the same question)

 

[MysteriousJ]

ToDs were a thing in evo last year, but since then, the undizzy system has been implemented. This doesn't reduce damage of attacks, but makes combos WAY SHORTER by allowing the hit character to burst out of the combo when the undizzy meter is full. On average, it's about long enough for three ground strings and two air strings. What you have to watch out for now are resets.

As for the learning curve: It's as steep as you make it. For single player mode you can play through the story and arcade (don't take beating the final boss seriously, she's supposed to be stupid hard) on various difficulty settings, which will allow you to practice hit confirming and combos. If you hop online, you'll probably run into some very good players, who, as with any game, will completely destroy you. If you're not the type who enjoys learning the very hard way, you should be able to find some other beginners on this forum to play with. Personally, I recommend being able to easily beat arcade on nightmare (sans final boss) before trying to play online. For me it's frustrating to play other people before I'm really comfortable with a character's movement.

Good luck, and I hope you have fun with the game!

 

[DARKNESSxEAGLE]

It's my belief that the learning curve in Skullgirls is actually not steep at all, rather just a diagonal line like a forward slash (/). The problem a lot of beginners (and probably also experts) have, though, is that they don't realise just how long this line is. Arguably it goes on forever, and that can be really daunting if you're at the bottom and end up fighting someone higher up than the average player.

EVO '13 is a rather different game to what we have now; giant combos are a thing of the past as there is a little meter (technically a number) that rises as a combo goes on and when it reaches the top you have the ability to burst, thus knocking the opponent away. There is also IPS, but you can read up about those in various threads on the beginner forum, in guides on Steam, among other locations and in our game mechanics thread (remember, go at your own pace; only read up on stuff when you feel like improving your understanding of the game).

If you're looking for a game with a very long lasting appeal, then I think fighting games are for you. If you prefer playing games in very short bursts, or playing a whole array of games then I can't recommend them quite as highly, although I still suggest trying Skullgirls out because it is easier than most 2D fighters to get into.