---
title: 'The Importance Of Fighting Game Fundamentals | Real Talk'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=27ZOkiJYlhM'
video_id: '27ZOkiJYlhM'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# The Importance Of Fighting Game Fundamentals | Real Talk

> Source: [The Importance Of Fighting Game Fundamentals | Real Talk](https://youtube.com/watch?v=27ZOkiJYlhM)

## Summary

This video discusses the critical importance of learning fighting game fundamentals, using Guilty Gear as a primary example. The speaker argues that many players skip basics to chase flashy combos, which hinders their long-term improvement. He emphasizes that fundamentals like spacing, anti-airs, and bread-and-butter combos are the foundation for all advanced play.

### Key Points

- **The Trap of Flashy Combos** [0:09] — Players often try to learn cool moves they see online without mastering the basics first.
- **What Are Fundamentals?** [0:54] — Fundamentals include spacing, footsies, knowing your buttons, anti-airs, and reliable bread-and-butter combos.
- **Anti-Airs in Guilty Gear** [1:44] — In Guilty Gear, air blocking changes anti-air strategy; you need to use moves like 6P or situational anti-airs.
- **Delaying Strings** [4:33] — Changing the timing of a string can make an unsafe move effective by catching the opponent off guard.
- **Testing Your Fundamentals** [11:21] — If you can win by only controlling space and anti-airing, you have a decent grasp of fundamentals.
- **Fundamentals Are Never-Ending** [12:21] — Fundamentals are an ongoing journey; there's always more nuance to learn.
- **Don't Overcomplicate** [16:01] — If your opponent keeps falling for the same mix-up, keep using it until they prove they can block it.

## Transcript

[Music]
i want to talk about learning the basics
in fighting games right and i guess in
this case since i played guilty gear
let's talk about guilty right when
people learn fighting games
probably reason why they try to learn is
because they see something cool on like
youtube
you know they see something cool on
youtube so you see something cool on
twitter or what have you and then
they're like man i want to do that right
obviously they like go get the game try
the game out and then you know they
immediately try to learn that thing or
let's say they've already been playing
and they kind of
play the game to some degree and they
see the cool thing and they won't do the
cool thing
and then they tried in matches or
whatever and they can't do the cool
thing because either eight they don't
have the execution or what have you
right
so
this kind of stems into like why you
should learn the basics right it doesn't
matter what character you pick
the basics are important right learning
your spacing learning your footsies
learning what buttons do what learning
your anti-airs where you have
situational anti-airs and that's a
little bit more nuanced but you know the
basics is generally like general poking
making sure you have a good anti-air
making sure you have reliable bread and
butter combos you can go into maybe a
counter hit combo or two and that's not
really too advanced these are just
things that you just should already have
kind of like unlock right
it's like playing street fighter and not
being able to do short short super right
not being able to do crotch short short
super is really bad you know in the
instance that you need it or a simple
hit confirm right you need to have those
things because you can't maximize your
damage
so when you're learning fighting games
you have to have these things down right
so taking it to a point of like
anti-airs right
you all know if you play like a shoto or
a character with a short you can you
know you have an easy way to anti-air
right
but then you take it into a game like
guilty gear where like you know
you can air block
you know i'm saying the
entire ep pretty pretty freely because
there's no more air unblockables in
guilty gear anymore right
so
you have to be smarter about that and
like react to when they're throwing out
like a button and using like 6p or 4
punch if you will or if you have a
situational anti-air like
let's say geo crouching heavy slash or
close slash you know chip 6h 5h you know
685h2h all those are anti-airs you know
some of those require you to be at
specific spacings and stuff like that to
find some kind of consistency for them
so it helps you with like your spacing
it helps you make better well-informed
decisions about how you want to play
your neutral et cetera et cetera right
so a lot of people tend to overlook this
i think it's bad
you know it's not you're not doing
yourself any kind of service by like
disregarding fundamentals
like sometimes some of the best players
play super fundamental don't do any like
none of the flashy stuff they're just
like you know fireballs and uppercuts
you know and that's one of the reasons
why a lot of people for example
back in the street fighter four days you
had people on like otaku complaining of
how like oh street fighter just a
fireball fest they're not even fighting
it's like
i mean
you know these are people that are not
even taking into consideration the
microspacing around the fireballs where
they're reactable where they're not
reactable like it's on a surface level
they don't get that right but if you're
learning the fighting games you have to
you do have to learn those nuances of
like where it's reactable where you
where it's jumpable or it's not jumpable
where you have where you have to force
yourself to walk and block
et cetera et cetera so and this is all
fundamental
you know
and even then you know learning like a
basic you know footsies like
when i say footsies is input you know
like you're
learning your poking game right with
your character so if you have like say
in guilty gear right you know you have
kai
kai's normals are actually very good
they have great hit boxes on them
and uh they do hit from afar they are
great in combos they are great to poke
and annoy the hell out of your character
or rather they're good to annoy the
opposing character you know that you're
playing against and
you can create like a wall of just
normals without even doing anything you
know what i'm saying
so
these are these are the things that
people overlook
and you know i if you're watching this
and you're listening to me right now i
trust you when i say that that's not
something you want to do when learning
like guilty gear or any other fighting
in this case we'll just keep using
guilty gear
and uh
learning how these are special moves
also a thing right with kai you know his
special moves aren't really the safest
right
however you do have ways to confirm into
your special moves you do have ways that
you can delay your strings into your
special moves to kind of trick up the
opponent
and like let's say like his fireball's
not really safe on block right but
if you do like a delayed string into
your fireball then that changes it it
doesn't matter that it was unsafe per se
it's just the fact that you've opened up
another door
to
essentially
use that tool now
sure they'll be like oh i should have
punished you for it well guess what you
didn't
and it's not that you shouldn't have not
punished me it's just you did it
in such a manner that it had like a
different rhythm to it you know
and that's another thing right
when you're when you're learning you
learn to build up a rhythm and whatnot
and how to change up your string
sometimes you'll just auto pod the
string because it's like okay to do
because it's safe you know
but like after a certain point when
you're playing against people and of
like higher caliber like that starts to
slowly like diminish
right even myself right now playing
jackal like a lot of times i'm using
like 5k 2k into a soccer ball kick and
then summon
honestly doing that all the time is bad
because they get a read on my pressure
and then they can counter hit me and
then i take a lot of damage
it's sometimes it's hard to break out
the muscle memory because like for
example i guess with jackal it's just
it's such a good string to like kind of
do that it makes sense to just do it a
good chunk of the time
but you know
the underlying theme here is to change
up the time
like changing the timing and going for
the soccer ball kick to like frame trap
them
into pressing a button and fishing for a
counter hit obviously i'm not all there
yet with the counter hit combo but you
know obviously there is there is
something there in that regard maybe at
the rc maybe not
it just it just depends you know maybe
it's screen specific maybe it needs to
be in the corner maybe in the mid screen
you can do something else maybe they'll
go into a setup
and then
as you can see like the basic parts of
the game now turn into more complex and
they lead to more complex situations
right so having good footsies is
important having good ways to confirm is
important delaying your strings are
important
you know it is literally like the entire
like anything you can think of in terms
of fundamentals it's there and i feel
like even like a basic throw game you
know take throws like
in guilty of strive strike throw is a
really strong
general set of pressure in the game
right
and if you're not
decent at that
then you know that's another part of
your pressure game that's not weak now
you're lacking in your in like your
throws and you don't want to be lacking
you don't want you don't basically you
don't want to be caught lacking in your
fundamentals seriously
if you can't even set up a basic tick
throw to open up your opponent
and you're just pressing the same string
over and over with like the same rhythm
you're not giving your opponent anything
to think about anymore like everything
is already made plain plain and simple
it's all clear it's clear as day you've
you you've officially played yourself i
guess the best way to look it you
legitimately like played yourself so
yeah you think about that
how do you start learning fundamentals i
mean
you start learning fundamentals by
asking yourself the basic questions
what's my
one what's my anti-air
two what are my best pokes
three what are my good up close pokes
aka range zero
you know what are your mid-range poke so
basically you ask yourself the long
range
mid-range close range pokes your
anti-airs
and like regular bread and butter combos
you know and there's some things in
regards to ant tires you might switch up
maybe have to do an air to air like a
jump jab or something like that to try
to discourage them from jumping at you
you know meet them air there and change
the situation to something else like
there's
you know once you get to the
fundamentals portion then more questions
can be asked and answered like does that
make sense like it's it's a lot of give
and take
right
so
because you know how to anti-air now now
when you're anti-air right so let's say
like uh
we'll use axel right in strive
axel's crotching slash is an amazing
attire in this game right really really
amazing
leads to a lot of damage
now if you
happen to trade with that you have to
know how to combo it right because let's
say you practice doing it on a clean hit
and the clean hit and tires and like
i'll say cleaner than like it's a clean
anti-air it doesn't trade or anything
like that it hits for a counter hit use
the counter to confirm boom you're good
to go right
but what happens when it trades you also
have to be ready for the trade so it now
turns into okay i know how to
anti-normally oh shoot now i gotta go
into the advanced style of ant turning
with it where i'm looking for a trade
maybe you're looking for it to trade
maybe in this matchup it's good that it
trades so you can take advantage of the
trade and come out on top
right because axles 2x low profiles
anyway
and the angle that it hits is really is
really really strong for where he's at
sure there's a dead zone but it's very
difficult for a lot of cast of those
it's difficult for a lot of the cast to
get into that dead zone to punish him or
like kind of throw off his hand tires
so
you learn how to reorient yourself you
hit the you hit the uh the counter hit
trade
2s and 2 anti-air combo and it's like
cool you took this much damage your
enemy took that much damage you know
that's a big difference
you know so you have to be ready for
those things and that all comes from the
fundamentals
you know what i'm saying
then yeah and the other part of it is
also air throwing too right where you
want to change up like how you want to
anti them because air those are anti
errors
so let's say you know the sky's jumping
very predictably
you have a good read on it you react to
it and you see it in your air throw it's
like boom all right now you can turn
that into another situation you know so
you see i'm saying
like there are
everything stems from the fundamentals
like everything stems from the
fundamentals if you don't
practice those things and just have them
down
like i said it's just it's just going to
be a very difficult time down down the
road
in fighting games no matter which one
you play
it doesn't matter if you're playing
tekken guilty gear street fighter
you know world heroes freaking fatal
fury it matters not kof there is still a
level of fundamentals and each game
definitely takes the fundamentals of
fighting games on a different level
right street fighter is obviously the
most basic
guilty gear is a little bit actually a
little bit it's a lot more advanced
because you know you introduce air
dashing into the mix double jumps triple
jumps you know double air dashes all
those things kind of like take those
same basic concepts and they're kind of
like
excelled even further
you know because you have more control
over your jump arc and having control
over your jump mark is very important in
fighting games too
that's a little bit more of an advanced
thing but you know
regardless the game does have air dash
and stuff like that so on on a per game
basis while the fundamentals of fighting
games are universal each game has its
different set of you know rules and
subsystems and stuff like that that you
have to get used to to take those same
fundamentals to the next level
how does someone intermediate to
fighting games know they actually have
the fundamentals down i might feel like
i do but do i really
i mean think of it this way right
let's say you're playing online
and you are playing against an online
opponent
and
you take the most basic things and you
start winning take for example you start
playing a basic game of like i'm gonna
control this one spot
and if they jump at me i'm going to
anti-them and i'm going to go back to
this spot and i'm going to control that
spot
right
if you do that
then and you do it well against more
than one opponent then i would say that
you definitely have a fairly decent
grasp of fundamentals because that means
you didn't have to do anything special
to win you didn't do any oaky situations
you do any mix-ups you just beat them
with two plus two is four
so if you can beat someone with like
okay i'm gonna just press this button
right here i'm i'm gonna control the
space right here i'll anti-you with this
right here and this like if like this
area is my bubble
and you have to respect this bubble i'm
gonna force you to respect this bubble
then i would say that you
probably have fundamentals down but
fundamentals are still like a uh
it's like an ongoing thing like just
because you have fundamentals doesn't
mean that like it stops right it's like
i understand the basics
but like there's other ways to kind of
push forward within the basics
right there's more advanced things to
the basics
that make sense
it should make
sense yeah it's it's never ending it's
like
it's like art you know like
the journey to being a great artist
never ends you know and it's the same
with this the journey to being a great
player it never stops like you always
learn more nuanced things to make your
fundamental game that much better
you know
it's uh yeah fundamentals are definitely
conditioning
okay i feel that once you start doing
basic stuff with intention
that's meeting your basic fundamentals
but there's always more correct
absolutely 100
there there's always more like once you
have things down and you're doing stuff
with intent
like it makes more sense
you know
you're gonna stick to eating glue i mean
that wins games
you know but i guess it also depends on
what you want out of your fighting games
too right like if you're okay with just
going ham
nothing wrong with that
just know that like in a lot of ways
it's kind of like uh
it doesn't
it doesn't really matter if you do go
ham in a sense too because there's
there's you know there's some merit and
skill to that but like you're also
denying yourself being good at like
the literally the basics
like you don't want to not be good at
the basics to some extent
if you're just like super unga bunga
sure you'll win games you know but you
know that's not how tournament players
win
and everyone's goal is different i'm not
going to sit and say everyone here's a
tournament player when he's trying to be
a tournament player nah i know that's
not the case
some people just play just to be good
because they just want to be good
and there ain't nothing wrong with that
as long as you understand like why
you're playing and what you're playing
for and if you're okay not learning
those skills that's fine
because in some cases some players are
actually good like at just strictly
rushing people down how are you doing
you know i can tell you from experience
yo thanks for the follow
i can tell you from experience right um
i used to be a very i'm still a very
aggressive player but at the same time
i've also learned that like from playing
a multitude of players over the course
of time that like sometimes that doesn't
always get you to win sometimes you have
to play a little bit more past it
sometimes you have to do a little bit
more reading sometimes you just have to
see more out of your opponent sometimes
you have to see
you have to put things in place to make
your opponent give you information
because when you get the fundamentals
down then there's another layer to it
which is gaining information i'll get
into that another time because that's a
whole other topic in itself but like
you know it's
there there is merit to every style of
play
it's just knowing when to bring it out
and knowing when to turn like no one
want to turn on and no i'm going to turn
off
if you turn on and it's on too long
your opponent might get a read on that
and then take it take a chance and do
something but wild
and it throws off your bunga and you're
like man hit me with that there's no way
he's gonna do it again and he does and
then you start to regress because you
don't know whether or not you should be
going for that type of stuff
i'm saying
so i
you know
play however you like but i'm gonna keep
pushing that like having the
fundamentals down playing on a
fundamental level is always good and it
helps you stay
in line believe it or not
i tend to believe that it keeps you in
line because
if you don't have to be advanced on
something why bother
you know if your opponent is not showing
you that you have a reason to be more
advanced in your approach for the way
you punish them it's pointless to try to
go past two plus two is four
it's like
if your opponent is dying to the same
mix-up why would you change it
like just do it until he blocks it
you know that's kind of a fundamental
thing too
like you do it until they stop blocking
until they start blocking your mix up
properly
otherwise
you know mix them up and it's not really
a mix-up because you just know you're
going to get it
if a lot of people you know at the
higher levels of play if they recognize
that a player is dying to one thing
there's no reason to do anything extra
literally like sometimes players kill
themselves because they want to do more
and it's like why do you need to do more
when you're when you're the opposing
player can't even keep up with your
basics and then they do something that
throws off you know that cool new thing
that you learned or whatever and it's
like
some people they mentally get thrown off
for their game
because they're like man i can't believe
i did i missed that that was the i
practiced that every day huh he just
pressed jab on it nah there's no way you
try it again he jabs you again and then
he kills you that time one time he just
jabs you out next time he just jabs you
and does like a full-on combo and you
die for it like
you have to know when to hold them and
when to fold them in rust
don't need to step up your game until
they show you a reason yep pretty much
pretty much
yeah like you know flare abusing hover
yeah hover dash slash yeah yeah you just
gotta respect it you have to all right
well if you're not gonna mash her out of
it and show that you're willing to like
get around it
that you know player has all the right
in the world just keep hover dashing on
you all day long just making you look
like it's like a chump
it is what it is
i have an issue of dropping a complex
precise input getting punished for it
and then mentally needing to do it again
even if it's not a good option at that
point yep that's exactly what i'm saying
that happens to a lot of people they're
like there's no way
he was that smart and it's like well
maybe he hadn't seen the setup and he's
taking a chance because he doesn't know
what he's you know what he's looking at
so
does that mean you should try it again
yeah
just not immediately
if you do it immediately you're just
giving yourself away you know
and there's there's there's more to it
than that but
yeah
yeah i think that probably will just do
it here for fundamentals there's more i
can say but
i think this will
this will suffice for now
and always talk more about this another
time i think it's still like a really
good topic because i feel like
fundamentals are just like they're just
ongoing there's like it never stops with
the fundamentals like
even that like the basic things even at
life you can be really good at those
things and then come back and revisit
them and you're like man i'm doing this
even better more efficiently you know
just think of anything in your life that
you do on a basic and fundamental level
that you do like efficiently and it's
because you do it all the time let's see
what this is so
be sure to practice your fundamentals
man
be sure to do it because
you should
you should
anyhow that's gonna do it for
fundamentals you guys
just gonna do it right there
[Music]
you