3. Execution Woes — Patience (Tekken 7:FR)

Sami Nash
Sami Nash
Jul 24, 2017 · 8 min read

In a sudden realization of horror, I recognized that my Guilty Gear main, Ky Kiske, has never forced me to challenge my execution, leaving me with horridly sloppy inputs. Hopefully, this is an ongoing journal cataloging issues with my own execution in fighting games in hopes of improvement. My previous log is here! I look to write a few words on the frustrations of hitting harder combos and performing difficult techniques, my thought process surrounding the problem, and how I solved it.

Warning: There is some heavy fighting game jargon below. If you need explaining or defining of terms, contact me on my Twitter @Samifish11 for any questions.

As a disclaimer, I will be approaching this with a fairly new player with a comparative minimal amount of information. I will be using many shorthand names, including freely writing inputs in the Tekken player’s preferred notation. If something is difficult to understand or you are curious as to what I am saying, you can find some help on the Tekken Jargon page on tekkenzaibatsu.com, which I use frequently to learn Tekken lingo, or you can ask me on Twitter for clarification!

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At Evolution 2014, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was in the lineup representing 3-D fighters. I knew next to nothing about the game, and honestly, it wasn’t on my radar. I had no childhood Tekken experience and no interest to get into the game at the time. However, TTT2 had the Friday finals spot, and the tournament was wrapping up in one day. So I’m just walking around and minding my own business, and a wild Tasty Steve comes up, telling me that he needed to charge his phone, that top 8 finals was about to start, he was going to cheer on his friend Just Frame James, and invited me to watch with him. Combined with Steve’s unrelenting enthusiasm for the game and a series of great finals matches, I was hooked on Tekken.

However, I was very busy attempting to be a stronger Guilty Gear player and decided that, at the minimum, I could be an avid spectator, promising I would introduce myself to the franchise as a competitor in the next version of the game. I became a huge fan, and even though I didn’t play, I adored watching, as I thought Tekken was one of the best fighting games for spectators. Combos are simple to understand, being punished meant you got launched in the air, and most of the moves seemed believable, as opposed to a Street Fighter Hadouken or Tatsumaki. Now, Tekken 7 is upon us, and since then I’ve had a blast playing it. It has really challenged my skill in spacing, awareness, and ability to anticipate what my opponent is thinking, as well as giving me a breath of fresh air in the fighting game genre.

In terms of combos, Tekken’s system is rather different than 2-D fighter combos. In 2-D fighters, combos are performed by chaining the hit-stun of one move to another, not allowing the opponent to recover. Being new to the series, I don’t know a ton about how the combo system works in Tekken, but very basically, it feels like it is an attempt to keep the opponent in the air with juggles. There are definitely nuances, but at face value this is what I see it to be.

The reason I’ll be doing an Execution Woes on Tekken 7 despite it being my entry into the franchise is two-fold. First off, I wanted to show how I approach learning execution in a different engine. I have played Guilty Gear for many years, and throughout that time, I believe I’ve developed a secondary feeling on how to make execution easier for myself. Maybe, without realizing it, I’ve become accustomed to the way Guilty Gear inputs to such a degree that I don’t even think about it twice. In this way, I might have a biased view on how to approach execution that might not be intuitive for others. Secondly, Tekken 7 is awesome. I’m having a tremendous time with it, but it is also teaching me a little bit about myself execution-wise and has forced me to address those issues.

Prologue 2 from Tekken 6, Leo’s introduction to the series

In this game, I am playing Leo Kliesen as my preferred character. She is defined as a character with strong neutral buttons and good okizeme, which is my preferred archetype for fighting game characters. I’ll be going through one of her mid-screen bread-and-butter combos, which taught me a few concepts that I can carry when learning her other combos. Although Leo is considered to have fairly easy combos, there was a hiccup or two, giving me something to think about.

Onto The Problem!

I should preface that what I’m stating in this paragraph are probably terms I’ve made up, but what I hope this does is help you understand how I’m approaching Tekken. I’ve learned Leo’s combos follow a simple path — starter, stabilizer, filler, ender. Starters usually include launchers like D/F+2 or a hop-kick like U/F+4, then followed with a move to make sure the filler can be comboed into without much issue, which is what I call a stabilizer. This part of the combo is dependent on the starter, and usually the decision is made on how high the launcher sends the opponent. This usually follows into the filler portion, which can be equated to the section the tailspin is used. Lastly, a combo finisher, which is based your situation or what you want after the combo is over. Ending with F,F+4,3 can leave you closer and give you better okizeme, while F+1+2 can give you great corner carry and/or wall-splat if you’re close enough to a wall. Put this together, and you get a combo similar to this:

D/F+2 F+2 B+1,4~D/F WS+3 F+4 KNK 2 S! dash F+1+2

The first problem came around the WS+3. Up until then the combo is fairly straightforward, as you just hit one button after another. Getting used to tapping directions instead of holding was a hassle at first; I’m very set in my ways, but this isn’t where the issue lies. After KNK stance (Kinkei Dokuritsu, e.g. F+4) which can be accessed by the 4 in B+1,4, a crouch dash can be performed by inputting a D/F direction. This will move Leo forward like a regular dash, but low to the ground, where she is considered to be in crouching state. When coming out of the dash, you can perform a while standing move (WS), meaning it is done coming out of the crouch state. This is a mechanic that’s unique to Tekken and was something that took a while to understand how to perform. Since it is done out of a crouch state, it is done by simultaneously letting go of the stick to return to neutral and pressing the button needed. Often this is done to punish blocked lows or whiffed highs, giving the player the ability to do strong punishes while otherwise not possible.

Understanding what a WS+3 was is one thing, but using it was another. Originally, when attempting the combo, I would try to get a WS+3 into the F+4 KNK 2 but the F+4 would miss, falling short on the opponent. This goes into one of my main issues in execution — patience. I have a terrible habit of mashing the button as soon as I have the ability to, which, admittedly, I get away with most of the time. However, here it was a detriment. Tekken’s lenient buffer window allows the player to input a 3 at any time during the crouch dash to get a WS+3 in the first frame possible,but I needed to travel further in order to get this done. After a lot of struggle, trying to fit a dash in the middle, and realizing that the timing might be slightly different per character, I noticed that the WS+3 F+4 connected when the WS+3 hit as soon as the opponent hit the floor. This gave me a visual queue to help me perform the combo rather than attempting some manual timing.

Shunya Yamashita, my favorite Tekken portrait artist

The second issue came from inputting the F+1+2 after the dash. Tailspins, or screw attacks, represented by S! in notation, forces the opponent into a spin state, giving a fairly universal amount of hit-stun but ample timing to continue the combo afterwards, so much so that dashes are usually performed after tailspins. F+4 KNK 2 puts the opponent in this state, giving that time to dash and then F+1+2. The issue came about when attempting the F+1+2 after the dash, which is done by inputting F,F. This is an issue because F,F+1+2 is a command grab, and will not connect on an opponent in juggle state since they’re considered airborne. Combined with Leo’s movelist, the input buffer was actually working against me! It was storing the F,F from the dash and transferring it into the command grab. Naturally, I thought that maybe explicitly inputting the F,F F+1+2, being a dash tetsuzanko, would alleviate this. Although this is true, this is where I learned the patience and use of returning stick to neutral. First I would perform the F,F F+1+2 too quickly, essentially carrying over the F,F to the command grab by pairing the second and third forward input. What I had to change is my patience with the input, allowing the stick to return to neutral to achieve a F,F,N,F input. After, I waited an extra frame to make sure that was the case, and then performed the F+1+2. The result? Massive corner carry and a sick combo that I call mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXok7WbTyCA

I’ve linked a practical combo video for those also learning Leo. My combo is very similar to the first one, but isn’t optimal, as I enjoy a good tetsuzanko (a powerful shoulder maneuver). My interest in Leo came from her being a Bajiquan practitioner and I was very lucky her play style suited me. I am having a blast learning Tekken 7 and hope that there are more execution barriers to break so I can learn more about this game.

If you have any extra questions regarding my process or other factors of fighting games, feel free to contact me at my Twitter @Samifish11 and I’d be more than happy to share a discussion with you.

Sami Nash

Written by

Sami Nash

Guilty Gear Player + Fighting Game Commentator. CFC Hooligan.

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