I would encourage anyone learning Tekken to not worry too much about picking an easy character and instead just pick someone they enjoy. A lot of the generic Tekken fundamentals translate really well between characters, and playing a fun character can give you more motivation to learn.
That said, Leo and Paul are who I would consider the most beginner finally. Each has good generic pokes, a good df2 that you will have to learn to not press all the time, solid mids and an abusable (but launch punishable) knockdown low to teach the low/mid mix-up game.
Tekken tiers are SUPER compressed. There isn't an unviable character in the cast. The minute things that separate 'good' chars from 'bad' ones only really manifest at high levels of play. Pick whoever tickles your fancy. Character selection won't impact your ability to learn the game.
That being said, there are a suite of generic tools that are common to most characters, and these are the moves that kind of form the backbone of how the whole game works. If you're playing a character who is missing a couple of them, you should eventually take a moment to mess with a character who has the full set. Not to pick up as a main, but just to get a feel how these tools are applied in a match, how your opponents want to use them against you, and how your main character wants to use their other tools to cover their absence.
Also - I fucking love writing 200 word essays about tekken. Everyone is always welcome to bother me with silly questions.
Fergus' guide is up to date as far along as Zafina
Leroy - Harder to nail down because I have a single day of experience with him - but he's extremely well rounded. He's very good at almost everything. Great defensive options, great carry and damage (and he never has to sacrifice one for the other). Fantastic wall game. If I had to call out downsides, he doesn't have a throw game at all, his punishers are 100% average (which isn't really a negative I guess), and my initial impression is that his okizeme is kind of weak. That could be a case of me not finding good setups, though. He might have crazy oki and I just don't know about it.
Ganryu - All Offense, No Defense. Do you want to just shit an unending stream of plus frames all over your opponent's face? Do you feel like throwing around potentially the highest damage output in the game? Are 50/50 mix ups too weak for you? Rather toss around some 33/33/33s? How does a class 2 mid launcher with decent tracking that also happens to be +5 on block sound? Would you like the best low in the game? Fuck it, let's throw some unfair oki on top, to boot.
That's Ganryu. Power comes at a price, though. If you're not in the driver's seat, You Are Fucked. No hopkick. No jab. No high crushing, no low crushing. No magic 4. Really, only one panic move in the entire arsenal, and its -13 on block. If someone gets in your face to pressure you, you block or you die, full stop. It's only fair, you're doing the same shit to them. You do not have options to peel someone off of your ass. By playing The Pressure Monster, you basically give your opponent the option of playing the same game right back.
Honestly the hardest thing to learn in Tekken is understanding Tekken’s flow movement wise.
Like, in 2D fighters if you wanna get in? Like really go for it? You jump in heavy and the onus is on the opponent to stop you. Not only that, but since you did the thing, the punishment for not landing that jump is not often 70% of your life bar.
The closest equivalent in Tekken for that similar reward is running up and lawlhopkicking or throwing out a snake edge. And you can lose 70% of your health for
A. Thinking about running in and not blocking.
B. Having the audacity to run in.
C. Running in and they block the hop kick/snake edge.
Universally. For the entire cast.
But after you get over that mental hurdle and get used to that flavor? Tekken’s a fine wine.
That said it is a knowledge heavy game so climbing is as much character/mechanic knowledge as skill.
I think the beginner level stuff is pretty accessible, and if you like studying matchups, the high level stuff is reasonable.
Intermediate, though? Baffling. I'm good enough to keep up with better players in common matchups. But Bob? Lucky Chloe? Lars? Lee? What are their gimmicks? What's steppable, what's a tech trap, what's a frame trap? I feel like I'm back to square one.
That said it is a knowledge heavy game so climbing is as much character/mechanic knowledge as skill.
I think the beginner level stuff is pretty accessible, and if you like studying matchups, the high level stuff is reasonable.
Intermediate, though? Baffling. I'm good enough to keep up with better players in common matchups. But Bob? Lucky Chloe? Lars? Lee? What are their gimmicks? What's steppable, what's a tech trap, what's a frame trap? I feel like I'm back to square one.
I’m only speaking for myself here but personally that’s fiiiine.
When you run into those people mash rematch real hard. Or send up the batsignal here and run them sets.
Personally I can field an intermediate Lily, and a degenerate Katarina and Lucky Chloe for anyone needing to see those characters.
Or just ask Knob and you can learn how to tech King throws through PAIN.
From memory though
Bob I can’t speak on cause all I have is T6 memories of him.
Chloe is a degenerate 50/50 monster(meaning she wants you to duck, and will do things to try and make you)and Lars likes to annoy you into making a mistake so he can punish it.
Characters I consider myself skilled with: King, Marduk, Law, Paul
Characters I am confident and comfortable enough with to play regularly but probably wouldn't pick in tournament: Feng, Bryan, Steve, Asuka, Bears, Negan
Chars I technically know a lot about playing, but have high execution that I regularly drop online: All 3 Mishimas, Lee
Characters I am bad at but still play sometimes: Jack, Yoshi, Noctis, Kazumi, Anna, Lei
I think I last played Tekken seriously in 4. I was a Tiger/Eddy/Christie main.
I got into the online only f2p Tekken for a while too at launch, but they weren't available so I learned Asuka because she was very beginner friendly.
If I picked up Tekken 7, I'd probably try Eddy/Christie again, but Chloe looks fun too. If there's no "bad" character to start with, I guess its nice to see no one saying those two (at high level play) is bad, but also if no one's talking about them, maybe theres just nothing that makes them interesting? Or they've become very predictable?
Leroy seems pretty blatantly overtuned. Unlike some of T7's other seasonal top tiers, I'm comfortable calling him a top character almost immediately. I generally try not to make snap judgments on such things but he really does seem *that* good right off the bat.
I think I last played Tekken seriously in 4. I was a Tiger/Eddy/Christie main.
I got into the online only f2p Tekken for a while too at launch, but they weren't available so I learned Asuka because she was very beginner friendly.
If I picked up Tekken 7, I'd probably try Eddy/Christie again, but Chloe looks fun too. If there's no "bad" character to start with, I guess its nice to see no one saying those two (at high level play) is bad, but also if no one's talking about them, maybe theres just nothing that makes them interesting? Or they've become very predictable?
Tekken is weird in that, if you don’t see a character, 99% of the time it’s not because they are bad or even mediocre, but because Tekken as a community tends to revolve around Mishima’s and Bryan for character choices.
Usually it takes a diehard specialist to wake people up on how good a character is. It happened in T7 for Jack, Bears, Kazumi, and most recently Akuma and Craig.
Both Chloe and Eddy have some dirt for sure and have some solid fundamental things they can throw in with the cheese, so you’re in good hands.
Hehaichi joins Smash, sakarai makes a 90 minute video teaching players EWGF.
Still saying it should be Yoshimitsu for Smash to rep Tekken & Soul Calibur simultaneously.
Plus, I mean, he's a lot more fun & memorable than Heihachi.
Eh, I dunno. If you rate them based on "number of times they have thrown their son into a volcano" then I think Heihachi is the clear winner here.
+2
Options
H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
edited December 2019
One of them is a dual-class samurai/ninja who, in different appearances, has been undead, a cyborg, or had flesh-and-blood animal parts, and knows bizarre special techniques like a teleport and the ability to spin their sword around to fly like a helicopter.
The other is a sinister businessman who is exceptionally skilled at martial arts. Basically bald Geese Howard.
If we were talking about a guest appearance in Street Fighter or Fatal Fury I'd say Heihachi's the better fit, but Yoshimitsu is a much better choice for Smash Bros.
Characters I consider myself skilled with: King, Marduk, Law, Paul
Characters I am confident and comfortable enough with to play regularly but probably wouldn't pick in tournament: Feng, Bryan, Steve, Asuka, Bears, Negan
Chars I technically know a lot about playing, but have high execution that I regularly drop online: All 3 Mishimas, Lee
Characters I am bad at but still play sometimes: Jack, Yoshi, Noctis, Kazumi, Anna, Lei
Yeah, I am happy to run sets for beginners or for matchup practice. I can do Josie, King, Noctis, Hwoarang, and Kazumi. And I'd like to pick up Julia and Leroy this week.
Hehaichi joins Smash, sakarai makes a 90 minute video teaching players EWGF.
Still saying it should be Yoshimitsu for Smash to rep Tekken & Soul Calibur simultaneously.
Plus, I mean, he's a lot more fun & memorable than Heihachi.
You forget that Heihachi was also in Soul Calibur.
No I didn't. I just don't think it's relevant. One guest appearance exclusive to a rival console's version of SC2 hardly matters against Yoshimitsu being a regular playable character for both series since their second (SC) and first (T1) entries. Fans would be pissed if they were to use Akuma or Geese Howard to represent Tekken. Heihachi doesn't count as an SC character for the same reasons.
Posts
A bit outdated as it doesn't include the new seasons but still good.
But some easy characters are Leo, Asuka, Alisa, Katarina, Bob, Claudio, Jack, Kazumi, Shaheen and a few others.
But even some of the intermediate characters aren't that bad.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yqgxbES6su4clpQou2hzlZN40rpPBtwmMRKWfexbj3g/edit
Fergus' guide is up to date as far along as Zafina
That said, Leo and Paul are who I would consider the most beginner finally. Each has good generic pokes, a good df2 that you will have to learn to not press all the time, solid mids and an abusable (but launch punishable) knockdown low to teach the low/mid mix-up game.
That being said, there are a suite of generic tools that are common to most characters, and these are the moves that kind of form the backbone of how the whole game works. If you're playing a character who is missing a couple of them, you should eventually take a moment to mess with a character who has the full set. Not to pick up as a main, but just to get a feel how these tools are applied in a match, how your opponents want to use them against you, and how your main character wants to use their other tools to cover their absence.
Also - I fucking love writing 200 word essays about tekken. Everyone is always welcome to bother me with silly questions.
Leroy - Harder to nail down because I have a single day of experience with him - but he's extremely well rounded. He's very good at almost everything. Great defensive options, great carry and damage (and he never has to sacrifice one for the other). Fantastic wall game. If I had to call out downsides, he doesn't have a throw game at all, his punishers are 100% average (which isn't really a negative I guess), and my initial impression is that his okizeme is kind of weak. That could be a case of me not finding good setups, though. He might have crazy oki and I just don't know about it.
Ganryu - All Offense, No Defense. Do you want to just shit an unending stream of plus frames all over your opponent's face? Do you feel like throwing around potentially the highest damage output in the game? Are 50/50 mix ups too weak for you? Rather toss around some 33/33/33s? How does a class 2 mid launcher with decent tracking that also happens to be +5 on block sound? Would you like the best low in the game? Fuck it, let's throw some unfair oki on top, to boot.
That's Ganryu. Power comes at a price, though. If you're not in the driver's seat, You Are Fucked. No hopkick. No jab. No high crushing, no low crushing. No magic 4. Really, only one panic move in the entire arsenal, and its -13 on block. If someone gets in your face to pressure you, you block or you die, full stop. It's only fair, you're doing the same shit to them. You do not have options to peel someone off of your ass. By playing The Pressure Monster, you basically give your opponent the option of playing the same game right back.
Like, in 2D fighters if you wanna get in? Like really go for it? You jump in heavy and the onus is on the opponent to stop you. Not only that, but since you did the thing, the punishment for not landing that jump is not often 70% of your life bar.
The closest equivalent in Tekken for that similar reward is running up and lawlhopkicking or throwing out a snake edge. And you can lose 70% of your health for
A. Thinking about running in and not blocking.
B. Having the audacity to run in.
C. Running in and they block the hop kick/snake edge.
Universally. For the entire cast.
But after you get over that mental hurdle and get used to that flavor? Tekken’s a fine wine.
Intermediate, though? Baffling. I'm good enough to keep up with better players in common matchups. But Bob? Lucky Chloe? Lars? Lee? What are their gimmicks? What's steppable, what's a tech trap, what's a frame trap? I feel like I'm back to square one.
I’m only speaking for myself here but personally that’s fiiiine.
When you run into those people mash rematch real hard. Or send up the batsignal here and run them sets.
Personally I can field an intermediate Lily, and a degenerate Katarina and Lucky Chloe for anyone needing to see those characters.
Or just ask Knob and you can learn how to tech King throws through PAIN.
From memory though
Bob I can’t speak on cause all I have is T6 memories of him.
Chloe is a degenerate 50/50 monster(meaning she wants you to duck, and will do things to try and make you)and Lars likes to annoy you into making a mistake so he can punish it.
Characters I consider myself skilled with: King, Marduk, Law, Paul
Characters I am confident and comfortable enough with to play regularly but probably wouldn't pick in tournament: Feng, Bryan, Steve, Asuka, Bears, Negan
Chars I technically know a lot about playing, but have high execution that I regularly drop online: All 3 Mishimas, Lee
Characters I am bad at but still play sometimes: Jack, Yoshi, Noctis, Kazumi, Anna, Lei
Maybe it's finally time to buy it and get my Eliza on
You can't put a vampire with devil horns in your video game and expect me not to play as them
I got into the online only f2p Tekken for a while too at launch, but they weren't available so I learned Asuka because she was very beginner friendly.
If I picked up Tekken 7, I'd probably try Eddy/Christie again, but Chloe looks fun too. If there's no "bad" character to start with, I guess its nice to see no one saying those two (at high level play) is bad, but also if no one's talking about them, maybe theres just nothing that makes them interesting? Or they've become very predictable?
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Tekken is weird in that, if you don’t see a character, 99% of the time it’s not because they are bad or even mediocre, but because Tekken as a community tends to revolve around Mishima’s and Bryan for character choices.
Usually it takes a diehard specialist to wake people up on how good a character is. It happened in T7 for Jack, Bears, Kazumi, and most recently Akuma and Craig.
Both Chloe and Eddy have some dirt for sure and have some solid fundamental things they can throw in with the cheese, so you’re in good hands.
Steam Switch FC: 2799-7909-4852
I mean you’re not wrong.
But when you sign up to Mishima’s, you are signing up to EWGF.
Which is, quite easily, the highest ratio of difficulty to perform/how.often you have to do it in Fighting games, period.
If you are a Mishima player you are ONLY a mishima player, because you HAVE to perfect electric.
And you can Mishima daily, for years, and still drop the one you needed, even at a world class level.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
Still saying it should be Yoshimitsu for Smash to rep Tekken & Soul Calibur simultaneously.
Plus, I mean, he's a lot more fun & memorable than Heihachi.
Eh, I dunno. If you rate them based on "number of times they have thrown their son into a volcano" then I think Heihachi is the clear winner here.
The other is a sinister businessman who is exceptionally skilled at martial arts. Basically bald Geese Howard.
If we were talking about a guest appearance in Street Fighter or Fatal Fury I'd say Heihachi's the better fit, but Yoshimitsu is a much better choice for Smash Bros.
Shizza was fucking cool people, this is terrible.
Really strong player who then kinda vanished from the national scene, I had always kinda wondered what had happened to him.
God that sucks, degenerative disease like that out of nowhere has to be a complete nightmare
Yeah, I am happy to run sets for beginners or for matchup practice. I can do Josie, King, Noctis, Hwoarang, and Kazumi. And I'd like to pick up Julia and Leroy this week.
Anybody, hit me up on Discord, I'm actually pretty excited to jump back in now that family obligations are in a lull between holidays. https://discordapp.com/users/149006709610905600
I'm on ps4
I only have the dlc on PC, but I double dipped on the base game
You forget that Heihachi was also in Soul Calibur.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
No I didn't. I just don't think it's relevant. One guest appearance exclusive to a rival console's version of SC2 hardly matters against Yoshimitsu being a regular playable character for both series since their second (SC) and first (T1) entries. Fans would be pissed if they were to use Akuma or Geese Howard to represent Tekken. Heihachi doesn't count as an SC character for the same reasons.
I am PC only and I am forever jealous of PS4 Jin swag.
Harada is asking you for shit your opinion on TxSF
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless