Recommend me a fighting game

[Dirty Hipsters]

So I've suddenly got an itch to play a fighting game.

I don't usually play fighting games, I'm quite bad at them, and I don't have the patience to learn the execution based fighters. I feel like if pros who have played a game for years at the highest level can fuck up a combo and lose a match because of it, then the controls are poorly thought out.

I do really like the idea of fighting games based on the basic "rock paper scissors" timing and decision making skills as well as positioning and footsies.

So having said that, I'm looking for a game that would appeal to my fighting game sensibilities.

Game needs to be on either the PS4 or PC, and I would prefer a 4 button fighter over 6 button (mostly because I don't have a fight stick, and I feel like 4 button fighters work better on a controller).

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Guity gear Xrd -Revelator 2.

It's 5 button fighter. With a pretty good story mode ( without fighting, so basically an Anime). The in game tutorials, and mechanic explanations are top notch. The characters are all reletively balanced. It has a nice design style. And its new so if you do decide to venture onlinr you will see people of all skill levels.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Guity gear Xrd -Revelator 2.

It's 5 button fighter. With a pretty good story mode ( without fighting, so basically an Anime). The in game tutorials, and mechanic explanations are top notch. The characters are all reletively balanced. It has a nice design style. And its new so if you do decide to venture onlinr you will see people of all skill levels.

I was considering that one since I really like the art, but how focused is it on execution? If I have to do a pretzel motion for anything I'm out.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Guity gear Xrd -Revelator 2.

It's 5 button fighter. With a pretty good story mode ( without fighting, so basically an Anime). The in game tutorials, and mechanic explanations are top notch. The characters are all reletively balanced. It has a nice design style. And its new so if you do decide to venture onlinr you will see people of all skill levels.

I was considering that one since I really like the art, but how focused is it on execution? If I have to do a pretzel motion for anything I'm out.

How are you with 2 quater circles or half circles or 360s or Z motions?

Basically standard execution. Combos are in general medium length.

Most special moves and button attacks are cancels so the timing is pretty lenient. Combos can be short or long. Long comboes have damage scaling so there are no infinites. Basic and intermediate combos are pretty easy to pull off. Advanced comboes are more timing , position and resource heavy.Basically it's easy to learn and hard to master.

I would like to add that you are by no mean required to learn every mechanic off the bat. ggxrd-Sign was my first GG game. I watched a recording of my first few matches compared to when i really learned the game at a competent level and its like night and day. You won't Lose because you don't know long intricate comboes, or because you don't know how to Instant air air dash.

And like i said, there are a lot of people of varying skill levels. Make a beginner lobby and beginners will come. Make a intermediate lobby and they will come.

But for and foremost the game is a lot of fun, with enough characters to find which one resonates with you and make you strive to improve. Which will vome with time if you wish.

The player base is generally kind and will give you advice if you ask ( via voice or text chat).

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Blazblue perhaps?

 

[sageoftruth]

Guity gear Xrd -Revelator 2.

It's 5 button fighter. With a pretty good story mode ( without fighting, so basically an Anime). The in game tutorials, and mechanic explanations are top notch. The characters are all reletively balanced. It has a nice design style. And its new so if you do decide to venture onlinr you will see people of all skill levels.

I was considering that one since I really like the art, but how focused is it on execution? If I have to do a pretzel motion for anything I'm out.

The game has a high skill ceiling for sure, but that's mainly because you get lots of tools and need to get used to using all of them if you want to be the best. However, if you're not looking to be the best and just want to have fun it's pretty flexible when it comes to the timing of button presses, so you can do pretty awesome things even if you're new to the game.

The Persona 4 Arena games are also pretty beginner-friendly, probably because the fanbase was originally made up of anime watchers and RPG gamers. There's the easy Mash Square auto combo, and all special move inputs are either quarter circles, dragon punches, half circles, or double quarter circles. No 360s or half circles into forwards, or any other crazy pretzel inputs.

 

[Saelune]

Mortal Kombat X.

Fight sticks are overrated. Im sure some people genuinely perform better with them, but I think most people get them because they feel expected to get them and just parrot other parroted opinions. (Though I hold this for alot of things, not just fight sticks).

I think Mortal Kombat as a series is just cathartic fun even if you're bad. Certainly one of the series that is enjoyable even single-player.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Any fighter will require a level of execution if you want to get past a relatively low level. If you dont like quarter circle motions much try a Netherealms game for 2d but I am not sure it will give you what you want looking at the rest of your criteria.

Hmm maybe try a 3D fighter so Tekken 7 or DOA5 are both pretty easy to get into as well as having a high skill ceiling. DOA5 also has a free version so you could try it without laying anything out.

Tekken 7 probably has slightly more footsies I suppose but DOA5 has more importance on positioning and has a very strong rock paper scissor system with its counter, strike and throw system. Even if you know zero moves of your character in DOA if you know how your opponent will attack you and they cant figure out how you will attack them you will win. Tekken seems to have better netcode however. DOA5 is good if you can find 4 and 5 bar.

Oh and T7 is a 4 button fighter and DOA5 is a three button fighter although throw is assigned to a button as well even though it can also be performed by pressing 2 buttons which are hold and punch I believe.

Honestly I think a Soul Calibur game would be the best fit for you from that data anyway but has not been a recent one of those...unfortunately.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

The best difficulty is one where the combo is on the outer layer of your competence. Doable but challenging. This makes for satisfying success and inspiring /motivational failure. You might wanna taste the feeling of being at that level before dismissing it as faulty.


The main thing that drives fun in fighters is a quest for improvement. If you fail something, you feel as though there's still more to know, which keeps you motivated. If a game is so easily mastered that you never ever fail anything at a certain level, that's the kind of game where I stop playing until it gets some type of rebalancing patch that necessitates you learn how to do new stuff and in the meantime I play other things, because without this feeling of active constant improvement the fun is lost.

Winning is just something you use to gauge how much you improve, if you never lose or if you lose to things that you feel can't be fixed through improvement, that will make for a dull game at high level, which is the issue with sf5 presently.


As others have mentioned Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator 2 is the best bang for your buck in this current era. Blazblue's also great too. Your issue with inputs is one shared by others so there's some chars who have simple inputs consisting of just fireballs and so on. You just wanna pick a char that fits you and not judge the entire game based on how the hardest chars play. If you check out our larger fighting game topic (the one with like 18 pages) we often talk about the game and exchange advice and information as well as organize matches so if you do get it we can set up training sessions to speed your progress up.

 

[takanabanana]

I just got Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, and I've been loving it. It's a 3D runaround fighter, kinda like Power Stone, and special attacks are as simple as holding R1 and pressing a face button. If you don't follow the anime/manga the story won't make much sense, but the gameplay should still be enjoyable.

 

[loa]

Soul calibur 2 is still good if you can get that running on anything.
Not further installments down the line tho, it kind of went downhill after 2.

Also the super smash brothers series is pretty much all about positioning with no keycombo more complicated than direction+button plus you can beat the crap out of pikachu.
So if you have a N64 or a gamecube collecting dust, might want to check it out.

 

[Oinodaemon]

I've been playing Brawlhalla on Steam for the last week or so, it's basically Smash Bros. Oh, and it's f2p.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

Guity gear Xrd -Revelator 2.

It's 5 button fighter. With a pretty good story mode ( without fighting, so basically an Anime). The in game tutorials, and mechanic explanations are top notch. The characters are all reletively balanced. It has a nice design style. And its new so if you do decide to venture onlinr you will see people of all skill levels.

I was considering that one since I really like the art, but how focused is it on execution? If I have to do a pretzel motion for anything I'm out.

That's a ***** thing to say but to each her own. Oinodaemon already pointed out that Brawlhalla is the best choice if you want a decent game with very low execution. Otherwise asking for a fighting game without execution is liking asking for an FPS with neither guns nor the first-person perspective. I am more than happy to recommend a ton of fighting games. However what you ask ins confusing.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Project M. Definitive version of Smash Bros. Only fighting game you'll ever need for pretty much anything. It's simple enough for beginning players to learn easily, but deep enough for even the top players to really sink their teeth into. And you can run people through with Link's sword, so that's pretty kewl.

Barring that, Soulcalibur 2 or MK9/10. Great if you're looking for something more traditional. Just don't play MK online. It's awful.

 

[RealRT]

Injustice, MK9/XL. Also, if you want to get better at 6-button fighters, try Skullgirls, the game has a pretty good tutorial mode that explains basic mechanics of Capcom-style fighters.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Injustice, MK9/XL. Also, if you want to get better at 6-button fighters, try Skullgirls, the game has a pretty good tutorial mode that explains basic mechanics of Capcom-style fighters.

I own skullgirls. That's where I found that I don't like six button fighters without a stick, but I'm also not shelling out $120 for a stick.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Guity gear Xrd -Revelator 2.

It's 5 button fighter. With a pretty good story mode ( without fighting, so basically an Anime). The in game tutorials, and mechanic explanations are top notch. The characters are all reletively balanced. It has a nice design style. And its new so if you do decide to venture onlinr you will see people of all skill levels.

I was considering that one since I really like the art, but how focused is it on execution? If I have to do a pretzel motion for anything I'm out.

That's a ***** thing to say but to each her own. Oinodaemon already pointed out that Brawlhalla is the best choice if you want a decent game with very low execution. Otherwise asking for a fighting game without execution is liking asking for an FPS with neither guns nor the first-person perspective. I am more than happy to recommend a ton of fighting games. However what you ask ins confusing.

To me fighting games are all about reading your opponents, figuring out what they're going to do before they do it, and then countering that. Execution heavy controls just get in the way of that, they add an additional level of obfuscation that to me seems pointless to the core mechanics.

Take for example Tekken. Every character in Tekken has 100+ different moves. Out of all of those moves each character has roughly 20 that are considered "good" and useful all the time, and the rest are just marginally useful moves that you pull out under very specific conditions, or most likely because you fucked up and were trying to do a completely different move. The reason that Tekken's button inputs are as complicated as they are is because they have to be able to accommodate 100+ moves using nothing but 4 buttons and the stick. If they instead had a more limited move list of 25 moves you would lower the barrier to entry for each character, making it much easier to learn to play every single character competently, and it would promote more reads and mind games, which are where the real fun is in a fighting game.

 

[Avnger]

Primal Rage will always be the best fighter ever made. You can probably get it running on a PC still.

 

[Souplex]

Smash Bros. The answer is always Smash Bros.
I know you said it has to be for PS4 or PC, but everyone has a 3DS, you're part of everyone, therefore you have a 3DS.

 

[RealRT]

Injustice, MK9/XL. Also, if you want to get better at 6-button fighters, try Skullgirls, the game has a pretty good tutorial mode that explains basic mechanics of Capcom-style fighters.

I own skullgirls. That's where I found that I don't like six button fighters without a stick, but I'm also not shelling out $120 for a stick.

Sticks are overrated, by the way. Six button fightpads are far better in this regard. But oh well. MK9/XL and Injustice should still be up your alley.