Street Fighter IV Normal Trial Tips
Help on Special Moves, Combos, and Links for Capcom's Fighting Game
Damage comes at a premium in Street Fighter IV. Learning combos is important because eventually one can’t count on opponents making mistakes to get the win. Fortunately, SF4’s Trial mode allows players to learn practical combos without searching the Internet.
Tailored for each character, the trials organically grow in difficulty while subliminally teach other aspects of the game’s engine. The Normal Trails covers basic commands and require the execution skills necessary to be a decent player.
Trial 1: Normal Commands
This trial deals with bare basics like pokes, throws, command normals like Ryu’s Forward + HP and target combos. The only difficult command is Sagat’s Fake Kick (Hard Kick, then Hard Kick), where the second HK has to hit immediately after the first.
Trial 2: Special Moves
The second trial is a rundown on special moves, super combos, and ultra combos. Beginners should be aware of the following:
All Commands: Commands do not have to be inputed just as the move list says. An example is Zangief’s Spinning Pile Driver: Even though the command says to rotate the joystick or d-pad 360 degrees, rotating from Forward to Up Back clockwise allows him to execute the move without jumping.
Charge Commands: Holding Down Back on the joystick or d-pad is known as the universal charge position. For characters like Vega that means by holding Down Back he can charge both his Rolling Crystal Flash (Hold Back, Forward + Punch) and Flying Barcelona Attack (Hold Down, Up + Kick).
Rapid Commands: Moves like E. Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap active after five inputs of any punch (kick if Chun Li) button. The strength of the attack depends on the final attack inputed. That means players can use the other buttons to both input the command faster and activate the move reliably, by sliding the thumb across the buttons or using fingers to hit multiple buttons.
Trial 3: Basic Combos
This covers canceling normal attacks into specials. Gameplay wise, it’s better to attack with a relatively safe normal and then combo into special than using a special and getting punished. The trial also teaches players how to input commands during other animations. Known as buffering, this is also useful for masking commands like rapid specials and Zangief’s and Akuma’s Super and Ultra combos.
Some combos ask the player to cancel normal attacks into Focus Attacks (MP+MK). The combos themselves aren’t useful, but they introduce players into Focus Canceling. At the cost of one EX stock, Focus Cancels allow players to break out of special moves to either dash backward to avoid counter attacks or dash forward to continue combos. Dashing out of a Focus Attack is the lesson taught in Focus Attack into Ultra combos, and Focus Cancels play a key role in the Hard Trial combos.
Trial 4: Intermediate Combos
Building on Trial 3, most of the combos here add jump-in attacks at the beginning or super combos at the end of basic combos. Some combos also ask players to do EX specials or juggle attacks as well. Some combos can only be done in corners, but test to see if they can work anywhere first.
For charge characters, players have to learn how to buffer charges while jumping forward. Move the joystick from Up Forward to the required charge positon as soon as the jump starts. If a player has trouble with that, try rotating the pad or stick to that position. The game will count the charge at Up Back or Down Forwad depending on the special, allowing more time to charge.
In buffering special moves into super combos, the special usually fufills one half of the super command motion. For example, after Ken’s Shoryuken (Forward, Down, Down Forward + Punch), the player only has to input another Down to Forward and punch to activate Shoryureppa (Down to Forward twice + Punch).
This is the same for charge characters. Barlog charges Back into Forward + Punch for Dash Straight, then another Back to Forward + Punch for his super (Charge Back, Forward, Back, Forward + Punch or Kick). With his Buffalo Head (Charge Down, Up + Punch) move the joystick from Down Forward to Up Back to keep charging his Ultra (Charge Back, Forward, Back, Forward + Punch).
This trial will be a roadblock for most players. Players should make sure they can do the end of the combo and then work back to the beginning. Learn where to buffer motions and charges, and reflexes improve faster in real matches than training mode.
The difficulty of Trial 4 varies with each character, so if someone is stuck on one character's trial, try another's. Zangief's trial is the easiest, while Chun Li's is arguably the hardest. Once the trial is clear, players should return to it regularly until the combos become second nature.
Trial 5: Links
A link is comboing one normal into another by hitting the second normal right when the animation for the first one ends. Study each normal and see how fast it takes for a character to return to a standing state. The window between the ending animation and the stance animation is where a link will work. Links take precise timing that can't be learned in one sitting, but they also extend combos and attack strings that pressure blockers.
At whatever level the player is at, the most important thing is to keep calm and never give up. Don't stop trying the trails just because one seems impossible. Just as in anything else worth doing, improvement only comes through learning from failure.
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