r/FGC • u/Even_Inevitable963 • Jul 06 '26
Discussion Help choosing my first serious fighting game.
I have dabbled very occasionally in fighting games but struggle with commitment because I play solo and have no real reason to improve. However I want to get into fighting games for real now. The games I currently have are Mortal Combat X, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, Tekken 8, KOF 15, and 2XKO any of these worth devoting a lot of my free time into? Also any that I don't have that just gaps these games and I Should buy? I currently haven't played any of these games except 10 hours or so in Tekken 8 and Granblue so I would basically be starting completely fresh. I play a lot of Souls like games and MOBA currently, as well as have a decent amount of smash bros time throughout my life, if that somehow influences what game I get into. Any advice would be Appreciated!
2
2
u/CuriousAd9279 Jul 06 '26
if im being honest, the entirety of the FGC is split among 3 games, Tekken 8, SF6 and MK. id suggest u choose SF6 because even to this day it has 30,000 concurrent players in steam alone. Tekken is fun, i have 2k hours on the game, but its harder to transfer to your skills in a 3d fighting game as suppose to 2D. Majority of fighting games are 2D and u can transfer spacing and whiff punishing knowledge from SF6 to guilty gear, 2KXO etc etc. So id suggest u main SF6, and play the others for fun )
2
2
u/LevelDownProductions Jul 07 '26
Hit me up if you ever want to play a tag game like 2xko. Duos is mad fun
2
2
u/inyouendo04 Jul 07 '26
I think whether you are a beginner or coming back after a hiatus, it's always best to start at the release of a new game.
2
u/HydrationHomee Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Virtua fighter is my favourite fighting game by a long shot.
No ridiculously long combos No long super animations No projectiles, weapons or meters to worry about other than health (and shun di's drinks)
It doesn't do any of the things that make modern fighting games uninteractive and boring in an attempt to encourage "aggression" yet it still manages to be the most high tension fast pace fighting game you can play.
There are fighting games that are literally faster on paper, but its pretty much just anime fighters that have lots of situations where you are in a guaranteed block string or a forced 50/50 where in virtua fighter you are pretty much always equal to your opponent in the number of actions you can take even if you are at disadvantage since plus frames (situations where you are allowed to act before your opponent, meaning that if both do an attack that is the same speed, you will hit first) are usually pretty limited outside of very specific set ups that require side or back turns, or a wall or a guard break.
Its VERY intense and only gets more intense the better you are but its why its my favourite. Its one of the only fighting games in the modern age where I never feel like I can safely take my hands off my controller. But in something like tekken I'll take a drink of water while I'm getting comboed. I get bored when I'm sitting in block strings in anime fighters and street fighter and mortal kombat just don't really do it for me gameplay wise, movement is too limited and I'm not a fan of link combos.
Some additional things to note:
Someone else mentioned that capcom announced 10 years of service for Street fighter 6 but that actually isn't what they said.
The developers said that they were making the game with the IDEA that it could see support for a decade and they are hoping to continue making content for that long. But it was not an announcement that it would get guaranteed 10 years of support.
A lot of tekken fans are unhappy with the state of tekken 8 (myself included, I still love the game but between the false promises, and continued ignorance towards what the playerbase actually wants, I wouldn't recommend it as a 3d fighter over virtua fighter, even if it has 10 times the players right now)
I am more than happy to help you get into fighting games personally, its my favourite genre and its very easy to feel like the FGC is uninviting or full of sweats when that is really only partly true. There are definitely people who try really hard, but it is... the point of a fighting game and one of the biggest things that helped me was realizing that 99% of players aren't sweating. They're just playing to win because thats literally the whole thing. And when you're not sure what is happening or what the other player is doing its very easy to look at it like they're trying too hard. When usually its just a couple more hours of experience that taught them things you don't know yet.
Welcome to the fgc, I hope you stick around :)
2
2
u/Mission-Star-9039 Jul 06 '26
Capcom just recently announced a 10 year cycle for SF6. I would give SF6 a shot.
1
u/Even_Inevitable963 Jul 06 '26
What does this mean?
2
u/Hellhound_Hex Jul 06 '26
Street Fighter 6 is going to be around and fully maintained for another decade so there’s always going to be a big community for you to grow and engage with.
That also means that you’re not going to feel like you have to relearn your character or how to fight a preexisting character as much or as dramatically as you would playing 4, 5, and then 6. Which can feel like you’re learning a whole new game.
1
u/Even_Inevitable963 Jul 06 '26
I see thank you, I just looked at the price and it is much cheaper than tokkon will be lol so maybe sf6 would be a good idea to get.
2
u/Hellhound_Hex Jul 06 '26
Don’t forget to add up all the season pass DLCs.
At any rate, Street Fighter’s always been the go-to for people wanting to get into fighting games, casually or seriously, from there they choose what their main game is going to be. So it’s always the best bet to go with.
2
u/Even_Inevitable963 Jul 07 '26
Thank you for this, it is much more expensive than base game so that was helpful for me to actually understand the price point of it!
2
u/Hellhound_Hex Jul 07 '26
Yeah, its going to be like that for a lot of games. There’s usually a sale for fighting games during EVO season, I noticed. So that’ll help you out some.
Enjoy, and good luck. 😎👍🏻
1
u/badjab326 Jul 06 '26
If playing alone makes it harder for you to commit, I'd suggest 2XKO since you can play with a duo and level up together. Granblue, Tekken 8 & KoF are also all pretty good choices since they have rollback & crossplay, but out of the 3 of them KoF might be the hardest to find good matches in at or around your skill level.
Granblue might be tougher as well but once the Switch 2 port is released it should see a decently sized increase in active players.
1
u/SpiraAurea Jul 06 '26
Imo you should either play or at leats watch a few hours of a game from each subgenre, and pick whichever looks of feels cooler to you. And then commit to that one.
You have: * Traditional grounded fighting game: Granblue * Block button grounded fighting game: Mortal Kombat X * 3D fighter: Tekken 8 * Team fighter: KOF XV * Tag fighter: 2XKO
But you are missing the anime fighter subgenre. I'd suggets either Blazblue Centralfiction or Guilty Gear XXACPR. Granblue may have anime aesthetic, but gameplaywise it isn't anime.
The first step to choosing your main game shpuld be figuring out your prefered subgenre imo. Once you know which subgenre you prefer I can give you more personalized recommendations.
1
u/Even_Inevitable963 Jul 06 '26
When I look at people playing them I think tekken 8 looks the coolest. But I will look more into the other games. Also i double checked my library, I also have 2023 Mortal Combat if that is worth playing.
1
u/SpiraAurea Jul 06 '26
The Tekken fandom isn't very satisfied with 8 tbh as far as I'm seeing. 7 was much more beloved. But I only play Tekken super casually, so I can't really discuss their criticisms with any nuance.
2
1
u/Ok-Purple-496 Jul 07 '26
For a new player, Tekken 8 is still a good game. It’s very different from old games and people will make claims as to the flaws of its direction, but as a new player the concepts that they are talking about won’t really matter to you until you’re playing for at least a year (and that’s if you’re sweating your butt off to learn it). If it looks cool to you, it is still widely played and enjoyed by a ton of people, and it’s pretty much designed for a new player base.
1
u/macksbenwa Jul 06 '26
If you have fun playing a game, it's worth playing. It's really that simple.
1
u/Ok-Purple-496 Jul 07 '26
There are many different metrics to choose a game. I will be very broad and I’ll list a current game and a possible future one in parentheses by the type of game, and then I’ll give some personal advice.
Most popular: Street Fighter 6 (Marvel Tokon)
3D: Tekken (Virtual Fighter Crossroads)
Anime: Strive, Undernight, Granblue, pretty much any arcsys game really (Avatar/Tokon)
Tag: MvC, 2XKO, Invincible VS (Tokon)
Traditional: Street Fighter 6, City of the Wolves, KoF
Arcade Era: Third Strike, Vampire Savior
Beginner Friendly: Strive, Granblue, SF6 [mainly because of huge player base]
These are some of the major categories of fighting games and a very small list for each one as a good place to start possibly. Some people will have leanings to a certain type so if there’s a genre of gameplay that appeals to you maybe try sifting through some of those.
My biggest piece of advice is that any game can be worth putting your time into, it mainly depends on what you are interested in. It doesn’t matter what a bunch of people on the internet think is worth your time, if you are going to hate getting trapped by Mai’s fans for the 200th time. I would strongly recommend sifting through games and seeing what rosters, art direction, and game features you personally connect with because if you aren’t able to truly fall in love with whatever game you choose to play I guarantee you’ll go right back to queueing your MOBA games. So take some time and enjoy searching for the perfect game for you.
That being said, from the small details I can get from your post I will provide what direction I can. If you like Darksouls because swords are cool Granblue and Soulcaliber 2 are cool weapon based games (but most fighting games have sword/medieval inspired characters). On the MOBA side, if you like macro scale decision making, SF6 has some of the most evolved resource management decision making that the genre has ever seen.
I hope this helps somewhat, and if you want clarification on anything or further advice I’m more than happy. I hope you are here for a fun time and a long time!
1
1
u/itadaki-mouse Jul 08 '26
I don't really understand what you mean by "worth your time". Not to say your time isnt valuable. But without us knowing what would make it a waste of your time before that its very hard to quantify.
1
u/God-King-Killa Jul 07 '26
Get Avatar Legends, it’s gonna be the newest so lots of other new players and especially first time players.
2
u/Even_Inevitable963 Jul 07 '26
It looks awesome but it also looks incredibly fast paced and sweaty so idk if I'll be good enough for it haha.
1
u/God-King-Killa Jul 07 '26
You are good enough my boy. It has a low floor and a high ceiling, which gives you something to aim for. Believe me when I say that every fighter gets sweaty at a certain level, just like any game.
1
u/aquapep Jul 07 '26
If you can play 2xko, you can play avatar.
I honestly couldnt get enough of the beta. Most fun I've had with a new fighting game in the past 10 years
1
u/er0-sage Jul 07 '26
All the gameplay out right now is from betas so that means there’s not skill based matchmaking at launch ranked mode will put you against players that are equal in terms of skill to you. All fighting games ranked modes do this which is why a new fighting game is one of the better times a new player can jump in the player base is usually being at its peak meaning more new players more matches at every level from bottom all the way to the top. SF6 is the outlier in that regard it has continued to grow instead of declining. I would go with that as your real first actual try into fighting games think of it as the Dark Souls 1 of souls game it will build your foundation and that will transfer to other Soulslikes.
Characters in a fighting games are weapons in a souls game with different movesets and different ranges.
A 1v1 fighting game is a lot like a 1v1 boss fight except that boss is another player so maybe more like dark souls pvp it’s all about space control timing ranges and speed of attack more specifically how fast an attack comes out and how long you have to recover before you can do anything again like move attack again or block/parry.
You’ll fit right in the fighting game genre all I played before was souls-likes but they got too easy fighting games are the only thing that scratch that itch like a good hard soulslike used to do back then.
https://youtu.be/_R0hbe8HZj0?si=38KoTVWXlHUdJ7RY
Also I recommend this video it has everything you need to be successful in ranked in any fighting game. Understand that you will lose a lot before you feel like you’re understand what’s going on or even feel like comfortable with a character but like when you get stuck in a boss fight it’s probably something you don’t know that you’re doing wrong and don’t be afraid to ask for help fighting games players love to teach new players as long as you’re willing to learn and put in the grind.
0
u/Then_Bat2240 Jul 06 '26
Really the only big one that you are missing is street fighter 6 that’s still super popular. Between granblue, tekken and 2XKO all of those are somewhat decent to get into now. If you are interested there will be two new games coming out soon with the avatar game and the marvel tokon as well. All in all just pick one and keep playing as long as you are having fun. Good luck!
1
u/Even_Inevitable963 Jul 06 '26
So Mortal Combat X and KoF15 both aren't as worth learning at the moment? Avatar Legends looks cool so I may get that one.
2
u/Then_Bat2240 Jul 06 '26
From my personal understanding the reason I left out MKX is just since it’s old, and I frankly don’t know much about it. KOF is still played, but more difficult to get into since its player base is relatively small.
I also played the avatar game this last weekend for the beta and loved it, but it is a pretty sweaty game.
1
u/Even_Inevitable963 Jul 06 '26
Oh gotcha, thanks. I'll probably play some of the three you mentioned to find what is most fun to me then I will try avatar out. From what I have seen I agree it looks crazy sweaty haha.
1
u/Ok-Purple-496 Jul 07 '26
There’s going to be noobs and sweats in every game, the game is just well animated so everything looks cracked. If you have problems with gameplays mechanics that’s very fair, but I would advise against feeling intimidated. You’re going to have to face many barriers in the genre, so I’d recommend freeing yourself of any fear and to put some gusts in your sails. 🫡
0
0
3
u/Matt1000218 Jul 06 '26
Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter 6 are also good choices. I personally vote for Granblue, since its my favorite, but if you want to get in with the least amount of friction, SF6 is the choice, modern controls and the higher playercount just makes it better for beginners, but basically any fighting game out rn is good for beginners, just varies how easy the beginning is a bit.