Basic Game Questions

[euphemism]

I started playing MBR a few days ago, and as it's my first fighting game, I'm having much difficulty trying some of the air combos. That, and I have a few other questions:

1. What does Akiha's fire pit do?
2. It seems that movement in the air is a lot more important in MBAC than MBR, from the videos I've seen - MBAC characters seem to do a lot more air combos and fly around a lot, whereas they are sparser in the netplay videos I've seen on Youtube, where I see only two or three per round.
3. I've seen some combo videos that have 60+ hits on training mode. Is it reasonable to expect the experts to land the same number of hits against a human opponent? Or even the CPU?
4. In some of the other threads, there are references to j.B, dj.B, etc. Does j.B refer to a B while in the air, or a B while pressing up? dj.B, I assume, is quickly pressing down then up+B. Which makes for some spastic button pressing...
5. I've spent a few hours trying to get some of the combos working - mainly trying with Akiha. Launch with BB, jump with B, C, then I fail to do anything else. Occasionally (1 time in 50) I get an additional jump, somehow, for an additional hit. Once I even managed the throw. What am I doing wrong? One thing I've noticed is that in order to get the jump, I have to push up on the second B - so that my button mashing comes to something like B jB jB jB jC (the extra jB because I'm fairly sure I'm putting in extra inputs). Judging from the guide, what I should be inputting is B jB jB dC j jB jC <throw>, with each of the j's being a separate press?
6. I seem to have an easier time using the keyboard than the gamepad. Unfortunately, I can't press certain 3-button commands, like down+right+(, or .). Or up+left+n. Are there any keymappings that avoid these problems?

[necrosnake]

euphemism said:

I started playing MBR a few days ago, and as it's my first fighting game, I'm having much difficulty trying some of the air combos. That, and I have a few other questions:

1. What does Akiha's fire pit do?

You use it twice. Once to get them inside the pit, and twice to light it up and do decent damage.

2. It seems that movement in the air is a lot more important in MBAC than MBR, from the videos I've seen - MBAC characters seem to do a lot more air combos and fly around a lot, whereas they are sparser in the netplay videos I've seen on Youtube, where I see only two or three per round.

Actually, I think air combos are the most important part of MBR. You can keep your opponent immobilized while wailing on the in the air.

3. I've seen some combo videos that have 60+ hits on training mode. Is it reasonable to expect the experts to land the same number of hits against a human opponent? Or even the CPU?

Indeed. Players can get way past 60 with infinite combos(My friend knows a few with Arcuied and Akiha) And he plays only aginst CPU.
4. In some of the other threads, there are references to j.B, dj.B, etc. Does j.B refer to a B while in the air, or a B while pressing up? dj.B, I assume, is quickly pressing down then up+B. Which makes for some spastic button pressing...
5. I've spent a few hours trying to get some of the combos working - mainly trying with Akiha. Launch with BB, jump with B, C, then I fail to do anything else. Occasionally (1 time in 50) I get an additional jump, somehow, for an additional hit. Once I even managed the throw. What am I doing wrong? One thing I've noticed is that in order to get the jump, I have to push up on the second B - so that my button mashing comes to something like B jB jB jB jC (the extra jB because I'm fairly sure I'm putting in extra inputs). Judging from the guide, what I should be inputting is B jB jB dC j jB jC <throw>, with each of the j's being a separate press?
6. I seem to have an easier time using the keyboard than the gamepad. Unfortunately, I can't press certain 3-button commands, like down+right+(, or .). Or up+left+n. Are there any keymappings that avoid these problems?

I don't know any of the letter business. Sorry.

[euphemism]

Thanks for the help! As for question 6, I've found a keymapping that works nicely, after discovering that the player two keys don't have any conflicts.

The basic problem I still have is figuring out how to get the last three blows/throw in in the air combo; I can do the launch, get in two attacks, but generally can't reliably produce the second jump that gets in two more attacks + a throw (and the CPU does it all the time... I'm envious!). The main annoyance right now is that I seem to need to push up in advance (buffer?) in order to jump with the next attack. Any suggestions?

Some other questions...
Where can I find some 2.501b replays? Looking around older forums, I've only found really old replays that can't be played :/ I suppose, since MBAC came out around the same time as 2501b, that the number of people playing MBR dropped somewhat...

It seems to me when I play against the CPU in vs mode, and select 'once again' repeatedly, the CPU difficulty level goes up. Does this happen or do I just gradually suck more as time passes?

How does Warcuied's Marble Phantasm work? When it activates, all I see is a giant sphere slowly falling down, and it disappears when I inevitably get hit >_<

When Warakia activates his Arc and starts screaming 'tako tako tako...', what does the term 'tako' mean?

Edit: Doing some more research I discovered that what I need to pull off is generally called a 'jump cancel'. How is that done?

[linalys]

1. What does Akiha's fire pit do?

Sitting there: drains circuit, burns life.
Activated: it hurts the other person.

2. It seems that movement in the air is a lot more important in MBAC than MBR, from the videos I've seen - MBAC characters seem to do a lot more air combos and fly around a lot, whereas they are sparser in the netplay videos I've seen on Youtube, where I see only two or three per round.

Not really. I would question the mbft vids you see on youtube right now if they aren't really using air movement. Air movement was STRONGER in mbr with no minimum height restriction and earlier cancel points on IADs.

3. I've seen some combo videos that have 60+ hits on training mode. Is it reasonable to expect the experts to land the same number of hits against a human opponent? Or even the CPU?

Hits don't matter, damage does. If 60 hits does enough damage to justify it sure, but I'd imagine it usually doesn't so you won't see it.

4. In some of the other threads, there are references to j.B, dj.B, etc. Does j.B refer to a B while in the air, or a B while pressing up? dj.B, I assume, is quickly pressing down then up+B. Which makes for some spastic button pressing...

j = jump dj = double jump

5. I've spent a few hours trying to get some of the combos working - mainly trying with Akiha. Launch with BB, jump with B, C, then I fail to do anything else. Occasionally (1 time in 50) I get an additional jump, somehow, for an additional hit. Once I even managed the throw. What am I doing wrong? One thing I've noticed is that in order to get the jump, I have to push up on the second B - so that my button mashing comes to something like B jB jB jB jC (the extra jB because I'm fairly sure I'm putting in extra inputs). Judging from the guide, what I should be inputting is B jB jB dC j jB jC <throw>, with each of the j's being a separate press?

Dunno what to say. I just push 9 when I want to jump. Maybe watching some input will help.

www.geocities.com/linalys/AKiha.zip

6. I seem to have an easier time using the keyboard than the gamepad. Unfortunately, I can't press certain 3-button commands, like down+right+(, or .). Or up+left+n. Are there any keymappings that avoid these problems?

Nope. Just push 2, 2+6, 6 and the game will read it as 236.


7. The main annoyance right now is that I seem to need to push up in advance (buffer?) in order to jump with the next attack. Any suggestions?

Just practice it, not really sure what to say that can help.


8. Where can I find some 2.501b replays? Looking around older forums, I've only found really old replays that can't be played :/ I suppose, since MBAC came out around the same time as 2501b, that the number of people playing MBR dropped somewhat...

FT is dead. The Japanese are probably like 99.5% AC right now. The rest of the world is probably less so because they don't have access to a ps2 or an arcade machine. There are no "recent" 2.501b replays. Just the people playing mbft through netplay.

9. It seems to me when I play against the CPU in vs mode, and select 'once again' repeatedly, the CPU difficulty level goes up. Does this happen or do I just gradually suck more as time passes?

No idea, but I'll guess no.

10. How does Warcuied's Marble Phantasm work? When it activates, all I see is a giant sphere slowly falling down, and it disappears when I inevitably get hit >_<

Hit warc and it'll stop. If you can't hit her, do any move with invincibility as it comes down and it'll miss. You can't block it as it is unblockable. So backdash, activate, or do any normal/special with invincibility.

11. When Warakia activates his Arc and starts screaming 'tako tako tako...', what does the term 'tako' mean?

KATTO. Katto = Cut.

12. Doing some more research I discovered that what I need to pull off is generally called a 'jump cancel'. How is that done?

Press an up directional after most any normal. You CANCEL the normal/special into a JUMP.

[redadonis]

Tako...... yaki?

[irovax]

Tako... means Octopus.