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The hardest fighting games to get into.

Blaz Blue easily. I'm a huge fighting game player and fan, and I've played most versions of Blaze B but man that game just pisses me off... only fighter I've played where I feel like I'm in the dark the entire time.
 
"Anime" fighters, as many have already mentioned. Character-specific mechanics on top of loads of system mechanics and combos matter a lot more than in Street Fighter/most KOFs.
 
I found P4A easy to learn and very hard to master, thanks to most personas having a slightly separate timing. It's almost like everyone is a tweaked BB Carl.

I'll go with KOF13. The feeling when you spend an hour trying to go through a mere four command combo challenge...
 
Always found the 3D ones easier to get into because most of the main moves you need are really simple to execute, as opposed to 2D that can have some insane inputs like that stupid Raging Storm.
 
Yea I picked up XRD on PC and swiftly regretted that decision. It's just way too much for me to handle.
 
Karate Champ /thread

That damn bull!

ScrewAttack-Video-Game-Vault-Karate-Champ-Grandfather-of-the-Fighting-Genre.gif
 
At this point I can imagine MvC 2 and 3 are probably almost impossible for newbies. It's just too hard to find any sort of real scene for 2 anymore and the sheer amount of STUFF you have to know to be competitive in 3 is just nuts. Tons of fun to play and watch but the level even between "beginner" and "mildly competent" is huge.

ArcSys fighters aren't TOO bad, if you can look past all the nutty systems and stuff that the game layers on. Most don't really become essential until you are really ready to start mastering a character; otherwise the games play by a fairly loose set of rules and allow you to be pretty flexible with most characters, which is good for newbies. Like Marvel though, the skill ceiling is in the stratosphere somewhere and beginners really have to step up to make headway against anyone good.
 
For me it was KOF. It's more fun to learn one character at a time, no matter how complex the game is, than it is to learn three characters simultaneously. Marvel had enough universal systems to make me feel slightly better than useless with characters I didn't know.
 
family_guy said:
It has an easy combo mode.
Click to expand...

The single button combos are intentionally weak. It's okay if you only ever intend to play casually but if you want to actually get better at the game you need to learn real combos.

I've never ever been a fan of "easy combo" stuff in fighting games because they always put you at a disadvantage compared to regular combos, and if you start using easy input modes as a crutch then you're going to hit a skill ceiling you can't get over unless you go to manual combos, at which point you're basically starting at square one again.
 
I am very good at fighting games but I cannot handle the fast paced anime games. Too chaotic, too much going on. I can't even follow what's going on as spectator. Props to those players, it's a very different skillset than what I prefer.
 
I think Guilty Gear XX Accent Core is the hardest

FRCs alone are a huge barrier to most people and some characters (I-No) rely on them heavily. I doubt most people could do something like 5K HCL 6FRC6 consistently for example. Xrd is really a cakewalk in comparison.
 
DeathByBacklog said:
Karate Champ /thread

That damn bull!

ScrewAttack-Video-Game-Vault-Karate-Champ-Grandfather-of-the-Fighting-Genre.gif
Click to expand...

True Story, Karate Champ is the first game I played in an arcade where I got far enough that I'd gathered a crowd around me to watch. I was 4 years old and had to stand on a bucket to reach the sticks.

I've never replayed it though, don't want to ruin my childhood memories of it.
 
King of Fighters XIII- Its an amazing game, but the execution barrier is insane. Most fighters slowly ramp up but this ramp is vertical. You get as far as basics and then its pure execution and specific timing training. I feel it completely alienated casual players from wanting to get good at the title. When several year veterans still drop their own combo multiple times a year and mulitple times in the same tourneyits a bit heavy handed on execution.

Arcana Heart series- This series has one of the worst aesthetics around. Its Waifu Wars. Plus to add to that it has one of the most nondescriptive in game menus to what you are equipping to your moveset ever.

In this game you have the ability to equip INSANE entire movesets worth or passive abilities, supers, ultras and custom Marvel 3 x-factor like bonuses. The only thing you see is an ambigious atk/def modifier listed on the arcanas you equip at the select screen...not a damned hint that you just equipped immunity to chip damage or homing projectiles and beams. Not a hint that you just equipped for your "custom xfactor buff" permanent hyper armor or the ability to poison off of ALL normals! NOTHING. NOWHERE DOES IT LIST WHAT ARCANAS DO IN GAME. All it will do is give you the inputs in the match. Plus it has a very robust system of homing dashes, homing dash cancels, steerable air dashes, wall splats, guard breaks, clashable attacks, air unblockable attacks, and other stuff like breakers and a guts system that varies at what health per character they start taking less damage!
This game is one of the greatest sandbox fighters I've ever had the privilege to play. Its insane and the basic cast themselves have some of the craziest and coolest setup tools and special mechanics around.

Too bad no one will ever have the will to dig deep enough to find out all that since it gives you no in game reference to any of this and its all hidden behind an incredibly unappealing waifu aesthetic. :(

Phantom Breaker Extra- Aside from being something digital only, or import only this title is also an anime fighter with so many mechanics that you just can't keep up even if you know them all. Cancels, armor, just defend, clashable attacks, parries, other kinds of parries, dash cancels, xfactor cancels, breakers, jump cancels, dodges blah blah blah.

Basically the game is non stop clash sparks as moves fly around point blank and accidentally bounce off one another or get dodged. For a fighting game with Smash Bros style inputs it sure isn't easy to start playing. The whole easy to learn difficult to master thing with this one just feels like its straigh tup difficult period. In the end, I generally see most people say to hell with goin in period because the cluttered mechanics cause too much reactionary unplanned situations and they just straight up attempt to zone each other too death. Easier to run and pew pew than go in and get randomed out of a combo on hit.
 
Killer Instinct with combo assist is pretty hard to play if you're anything lower than a mif-tier fighting game player I feel.
 
Street Fight Third Strike is the hardest.

With Tekken it's easy to get into but as you said OP the juggling system is what separates the amateurs from the masters.
 
Maybe not the hardest, but certainly more complicated than they really needed to be. Pick a Touhou fighter that's not the two most recent ones, Hopeless Masquerade (13.5) or Urban Legend in Limbo (14.5). They were made simpler in response to the others being too complicated.

Specifically, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody (10.5) basically throws a whole bunch of extra shit on top of the earlier fighter, Immaterial and Missing Power (7.5). Hisoutensoku (12.3) acts mostly as an expansion pack to 10.5 and adds more of the extra shit. There's quite a bit to learn even on the basic movement level, and then you add in the weather, spell cards, and so on.

Example.

Then you have to become an arcane wizard and manage to get the netplay to work.
 
"With Tekken it's easy to get into but as you said OP the juggling system is what separates the amateurs from the masters."


The movement is what separates the amateurs from the masters, most BnB Tekken combos aren't difficult. Moving in Tekken with Korean backdashing, wavedashing, sidestepping, etc. and having complete mastery of that is where the top players really shine (on top of their fantastic decision making and reading).
 
I don't understand how Virtua Fighter can be hard. At entry level you can pretty much play it as DOA without the easy reversals.

Unless you try to start with Akira, who unfortunately is the cover character. Akira is meant to be execution heavy. Not for newstarts to VF.
 
Uhh... really? Your examples are Tekken and Virtua Fighter? I frankly found the two series (and most 3d fighters) to be easier to get into than the like of Street Fighter or Capcom Vs. I can't even reliably do a hadoken.
 
Blazblue CP/CF

Guilty Gear XX AC+R

Tekken Tag 2

USF4

KoF series

UMvC3 and MvC2

Smash Bro's Melee

ect.

Fighting games for the most part are not easy to get into.
 
Tekken is damn hard. High execution barrier (for some characters) and a crapton of stuff to memorize just to get out of the "mashing buttons" phase. It's very easy to get juggled, get up in the wrong way and juggled again until KO. Just moving around efficiently requires a ton of practice (unlike VF or DoA that make it super easy).

Arcana Heart is also crazy complicated. It's great if you like to experiment and have a ton of time to dedicate to the game, but otherwise is very overwhelming.

lol @ everyone saying Virtua Fighter. No wonder everybody says it's the best ever and nobody plays it.
 
I think people try too hard to enter Blazblue/Guilty Gear games.

I mean, i never played with Roman Cancel but can still have a lot of fun with the game... And i don't think there is anything wrong with that.

For the hardest fighter to get into, i would say Virtua Fighter too, it's very hard.
 
xyzls said:
I don't understand how Virtua Fighter can be hard. At entry level you can pretty much play it as DOA without the easy reversals.

Unless you try to start with Akira, who unfortunately is the cover character. Akira is meant to be execution heavy. Not for newstarts to VF.
Click to expand...
That's what happened to me. I went into VF expecting DOA. And chose Akira but found it insanely difficult.

I should give it another try.
 
oneida said:
what is hard about akira.
Click to expand...

"JYUU-NIN HA-YIN DA-YO!"

I'm sorry but the list of games in the first page makes me laugh. Now granted I ain't the biggest FG pro around, far from it, but if I were to make a list it would include
Melty Blood (at least until I've played it more thoroughly)
Arcana Heart 3

Especially Arcana Heart 3; the dang game has like half a dozen ways to play each character :V
 
Aside from games NO ONE plays anymore (TvC, SFxT, Garou) then I would say Tekken.

I feel like I can never get past the point of mashing in Tekken. :/
 
shaowebb said:
King of Fighters XIII- Its an amazing game, but the execution barrier is insane. Most fighters slowly ramp up but this ramp is vertical. You get as far as basics and then its pure execution and specific timing training. I feel it completely alienated casual players from wanting to get good at the title. When several year veterans still drop their own combo multiple times a year and mulitple times in the same tourneyits a bit heavy handed on execution.
Click to expand...

And this is why a number of KOF fans don't like XIII, and stick with 98, 02 or their UM versions. High execution + Long combos = What could be considered the most "un-KOF-like" KOF game in the series.

Prior to XIII, what could be considered the most difficult thing to learn about KOF would be its variety of movement options. It can take some practice to really get the likes of short hopping and etc. down pat. But even so...nothing that makes the game as difficult to get into as XIII or some of the other games in this topic.
 
VF is just too convoluted for me.

However, I'm of the opinion that most fighting games rely too heavily on endless dial-a-combos.
 
oneida said:
what is hard about akira.
Click to expand...

Apparently to some people doing the classic 1FK make him difficult, even though it's not used often, depending on play style.

To be fair, I always felt like Dragon Lancer was his hardest move to time right, but he's got the easymod version that does less damage, now, so eh.

That or people just think he looks like Ryu so he must be Ryu oh no he's not Ryu Eff this noise I'm going back to SF2.
 
I played tekken competitively and yes, A skilled Tekken player can demolish someone who hasn't mastered frame advantages, juggles and resets. A perfect probably every single time.

You will get punished, HARD in that game if you're not careful.
 
Anything besides SSB or Soul Calibur (Kilik). The fighting game genre isn't exactly beginner friendly. I'm hoping pokken isn't too hard to pick up cause I'd like to give that one a shot.
 
ArcSys games are definitely always more complex at least with the amount of systems within the game such as roman cancels.
 
"VF is just too convoluted for me. "


VF is by far the least convoluted fighting game mentioned in this thread.

No meters. No specials. No supers. No reversals. No bursts. No resource management. Just two people in a ring punching and kicking each other and that's it.
 
People answering Virtua Fighter... what exactly is hard about the game (at least compared to Tekken)? Genuinely curious. It has less buttons than pretty much any other fighter and the moves are largely just direction + button. Combos are rather short (though damaging). There aren't a lot of complex movement techniques either (ala Tekken).
 
I can't understand why people find Virtua Fighter so hard to play. It's the only fighter I feel I can play halfway decently. The execution barrier doesn't seem too high, it only has three buttons and the fights move at a pace I can cope with.

I'm pretty much shit at every 2D fighter in existence. Even supposedly casual friendly stuff. Most move too fast for me.
 
People grossly exaggerate KOF XIII's execution requirements. It merely emphasizes stick motion accuracy over button press timing, and it has combos of various degrees of difficulty/effectiveness for most characters so you can work your way up.
 
Street Fighter 1 because the controls are ass. It basically has no input leniency on the specials so getting a shoryuken is like hitting a link. I never played the game on the pressure buttons but I heard it was 100x worse to get what you want and they broke easily.
 
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