i have cerebral palsy and i treat inputting things like a puzzle, finding strange control schemes and weird sitting positions to optimally play. i get decent strive results and it feels incredibly satisfying to be able to see my growth as a player through results. i got 5th at strive roundhouse which isn't too bad
You're taking a disability and turning it into a drive to get better and work around it instead of letting it keep you down. That's fucking awesome, dude. Good for you.
I’m glad this was a discussion…these days it’s mostly about the drama and negative feedback that we forget the reason why we even love the game/fighting games…my love for fighting games has grown so much over the years the more I learn about them….I’ve been playing fighting games since I was 5…my 1st fighting game I played was sf2 in the arcade and (OG) mk1 on console…and this is the most engaged I’ve ever been in fighting games and the fgc in general
Definitely how I felt playing Celeste vs every other platformer I dabbled in throughout the years. There's something about the juice and the movement that looks and feels so cool when you do it right.
When I started watching League Worlds in 2016 or so, I tuned in because a player had a ridiculous name and we found it funny to root for him, only to discover he was a top laner like me and I was genuinely getting invested in his tournament progress. The next year, he was on a completely different team. Most of them were. Split up, now. There was no narrative thread, this team I had put my weight behind just got replaced with something else and I was wondering how the hell you're supposed to be a fan of a team when there's no continuity. That turned around with fighting game esports. SonicFox was the first truly great tale I heard, and ever since that I was locked in to the arc of DBFZ's first competitive broadcast year like it was the original anime itself. I had so many feelings because I could recognize and decide on my allegiance to various competitors. I had really, REALLY strong feelings about the winners and losers. I continue to. All this is the reason that I'm ideating a manga-style graphic novel to make about such types of characters in the FGC. I wanna make a battle manga about this specific thing. I hope I can pick your brain for ideas for it someday, Sajam, provided anyone ever reads this comment this far. Doesn't matter, I'll be out there trying
I studied game design and it was wild to see people who wanted to be professionals that didn't think Fighting Games were the best place to go to understand gamefeel. People get so caught up in trying to outgrow arcades that they forget why fighting games persist
1- aesthetics- the symphony of art, music, effects and violence is just my fav especially in 2d games. 2- i like seeing life bars bleed (but mostly with cool stylish combos) 3- character matchups and system mechanics that convey a specific feeling. Freestyle gameplay- in anime games, strategic positioning in grounded games, team dynamics and synergy- in tag games etc. 4- reward for time invested. Having a clear ceiling that is easy to demonstrate to a layman viewer is something unmatched by many genres.
Fighting games are the fastest-paced chess matches you'll ever see. At the highest level it's not really about who knows the game's mechanics better or who has better execution - those things are certainly present, but after a certain point, matches are much more about reading your opponent, about finding and exploiting their weaknesses with the tools you have available with your character
It's really fortunate for us that fighting games were introduced before online was a thing. The arcade social experience really was the most optimal way to enjoy a game like this that would otherwise exhaust and frustrate you, and because we know that from experience we've been able to maintain that and let people who didn't grow up with the arcade also experience it.
I just started playing fighting games last March as a hardcore League/Shooter player. The most fun thing to me is that it's a pure exercise in mastery - i.e. getting REALLY good at this one thing, and the roof is endless. I also love how focused you have to be during a round, it's like getting mini bursts of extreme focus that only happen during very specific plays in team based comp games.
One of my favourite things about FGs is exploring and learning a new character/game, just hitting the lab and try out all their tools and see how it all comes together.
The reason I like fighting games is that shounen protag feeling of walking the path of self improvement and getting stronger. Overcoming obstacles and setbacks, growing my skills and seeing that training pay off, having wild highlights and getting to come back and win against overwhelming odds (and sometimes getting washed without any recourse).
the gameplay design space of fighting games puts the character design space in a really interesting place. fighting game character design is just so fun
I've been realizing that rythem games are similar to fighting games aswell. No teamates, slowly improving, banging music, you can be casual are elite, and expensive controllers 😂. No wonder i love both so much.
2:17 I’ve never heard anyone bring that up before, but I had the same experience is sfv with Muay Thai and Sagat. Being able to spam roundhouse kicks in sparring and in a virtual fight is part of what got me into learning fighting games.
Also, I have to mention how important FGs are for my personal motivation. +R being as difficult to master as it is, but ever so inviting to lab and dissect made me pull inner energy that I never expected I had. I legitimately found so much cool stuff in a year. It feels really personal to me, and I love sharing what feels like bits of myself with people and seeing them appreciate or use it. It changed a lot of me for the better.
I like fighting games because they get my blood pumping! When I fight a real fun and even-sided match, it really doesn't even matter whether I win or lose.
Fighting games have unironically allowed me to learn the most about myself with how i learn and grinding and improving. I love this genre, I've grown as a person during this journey
I think the coolest part of fighting games is all that stuff you mentioned applies at all level of play. That pit of your stomach feeling is there even when it's just family and friends.
Best thing about fighting games, is saying stuff like "hope you like dicks!.... get ready!", in an unironic fashion. Also funny to hear Sajam act like he was irl tornado-throwing people lol.
If it weren’t for fighting games, we’d never hear poetic statements like “That’s so pringles”; “If you don’t scare, I don’t scare”; and “Farts on you, takes a shit on you.”
Fighting games have always been a social thing for me. All the way back when I was a kid, playing with a sibling sucked for single player at the time, because there was this big deal about taking turns, trying to portion out gametime between two people and it was all just a mess. Instead, we could just play Tekken 3 and have both people able to play at the same time. As I got older, I'd learned to appreciate how both as a topic of discussion and as a social activity, fighting games are an interesting subject. Fighting games appeal to such a vast demographic for such wildly different reasons, from writing to aesthetics to mechanics to strategy, that getting to interact with people through them in such different ways is what draws me to them. To me, the main appeal of fighting games is their insane lore, trying to adapt a conventional story into a long string of excuses for the cast to beat each other up, but depending on who I'm playing with, I engage with them in alot of different ways. With one person, I grind matchups and strategies and clash heads as we drive each other to compete. With another person, I've marathoned every fighting game adaptation from TV-shows to movies. With some people, it's just something to do with our hands while we talk. I talk about them mechanically, I discuss character design and music, there's so many different things that people fixate on with fighters and what draws them to the genre, that your experience playing them with each person is wholly unique. That's what fighting games are all about to me and it's something I've barely ever had with another genre. I've never had a consistent group big enough to host a room for just us in an arena-shooter. Team-games are actually quite horrible as social activities, because it's all just people being frustrated and upset on both ours and the enemy's side, so I slid off MOBAs and the like immediately. Co-op games can be like this, although I find that because we're very directly working towards mutual goals together, that experience winds up usually being very focused on playing the game, whereas fighting games feel alot more lucid in how much they are the center of attention to me (It's a weird phenomena to explain, I know). 1v1 puzzle games like Puyo, Tetris or Puzzle Bobble come close to that, though there's not as much to talk about in aesthetics or lore in those alot of the time and as puzzle games, they take alot more of my attention while playing. Fighting games are just this perfect storm, a mad amalgam of elements that come together just right to form the ideal video game social lubrecant.
Fighting games are so much more personal too, like if i win I feel like I earned it as to where in team games you can get carried and feel like you didnt reallt contribute. And when you lose you have nobody to blame but yourself. Fighting games teach you an important life lesson that you need to hold yourself accountable for the decisions you make and not look to point the finger at someone else.
Thank you for making this video Sajam, glad to hear some positivity around fighting games, i’ve been dabbling in fighting games since about 2013 or so, with Mortal Kombat 9 and SF4 but didn’t fully commit to grinding a fighting game until SF6 came out, and i’m having an absolute BLAST, climbed all the way from iron to master, entered some tournaments, did ok, but it’s been such a fun journey, got some of my friends to grind SF6 for a bit too. Also grinded out Strive and Tekken 8 for a bit, thanks Sajam, i wouldn’t have invested so much time into fighting games and learning a healthier mindset without your videos.
I love that comparison of ranked being a desert to the lobbies being an oasis. I think it's that mentality, and the combination of older fighting games having unpopulated ranked queues, that makes me stick to the player match side of things.
I love how there's so many levels to their depth and target audience. If you ask someone in the community if they wanna play this niche game no one in the main stream has heard of they'll probably have it or take the time to set up the game and then just have a blast along with the community making them work in modern hardware when they really don't have to.
Some of the most fun I’ve had playing fighting games is losing. It’s that feeling of climbing the mountain and not reaching the peak but realizing how much closer you are than before. If anyone is waiting to go to a local because they don’t wanna go 0-2 you are missing out because once you go 1-2 or even win a round of someone it’s amazing
There's so much I love about fighting games. It's one of my favorite ways to spend time with other people. The characters are so tactile and expressive that no other game type comes close to the feeling of being there with the other person. Running my little fight game community has been one of the most rewarding efforts I've ever made. Getting stronger at fight games taught me so much about my own skill-building needs and showed me that there's no real limits to where I can grow. I learned how to play the piano so I could get better at Aoko! Working on combos helped me understand rhythm more fundamentally and started to break down the barriers I was having with music practice. I learned how to work at something consistently, for a long time, without working too hard during that time. I learned how to ask specific questions for help, and I learned how to sense *other people's needs* when it came time to train them. But even besides that and without other people, I would still love fighting games. They have the coolest characters with the sickest movesets and killer osts to boot. I've been in love since GGX Advance and I'm not giving up any time soon.
Fighting games are one of the only genres that can generate the cinematic fight sequences we see in our favourite films and anime. It feels like you're directing the experience, each fight is a new episode.
I’ve been saying this. Fighting games are all about the work you put in and to me it makes it feel more personal when you really put in work to improve and when you finally see it paying off just feels awesome. There really is no other feeling like it in other games
the sense of expression i feel in fighting games is really unmatched, every character ive played feels like a unique version of themselves because they have my habits, and follow my patterns, and their power increases with mine
I think one of the coolest things about fighting games is that it's the closest thing to being an anime protagonist where you have to go on training arcs hitting the lab to perfect this technique or that technique or combo and then actually hitting it in a real game is actual measurable progress and it's the sickest feeling in the world. And then having a friend that's around your skill level is like having a rivalry where you push each other to get better and have this close competition where you're always learning each other and getting a sense for how the other plays and you just push each other forward to learn and get better together. Having close matches in a fighting game is probably the single coolest experience I've ever had with a video game.
Growing up, I had a home copy of 3rd Strike. Loved fighting games, had no one to play with, and mechanics in 3S were especially daunting for me playing by myself. Years later, as an adult, I found friends at a local arcade that played 3S. It didn't feel like work to learn when we were all hyping each other up and sharing tips. It's a night and day difference when you find people you vibe with.
This is gonna sound anime as hell but my favourite thing about fighting games (and especially competing in them) is the absolute transcendend flow you sometimes get into. Barely any other genre makes me live between the seconds as much and intensely as fighting games do. There's nothing else you're thinking about except how to dismantle your foe, suddenly nothing else matters anymore. All you're thinking about is finding a path to victory. Granted, they definitely don't happen all the time, but when they do.. those are the moments I live for and why I compete in fighting games. Also very nice video! Very much appreciate the energy!
I know it's dumb but sometimes I see like boxing and I'm like "awh man, you should'nt have use a big start up move. He made a poke and now he's on plus. If you make that move, you'll be on minus when clearly he's looking to whiff punish you"
The feeling that never gets old for me, is when you lab a certain interaction and when it happens in a match there's that split second where your mind goes: Ok I'm ready for this just gotta NOT drop it and you hit it for the win.
You touched on it briefly but my favorite part is the variety of ways to engage with a fighting game, got 5 minutes, practice your execution. Got 45 minutes, lab a set-up. Got an hour, play some ranked. Got 3 hours, run a FT death. Theres something to do always you're never time gated, but anything you do will help your overall progression
for me, the "getting out and seeing people" point resonates the most. commentary being a reason for me to fly out and see folks i would never meet otherwise: huge reason i'm still sticking around, engaged in the genre, and gaming with yall 🫡 speaking of engagement -- congrats on yours gamer! best wishes to you both 🎉
I don't know if you guys ever listened to SF6 on a good headset, but the SFX on this game feels HEAVY. Seriously, listen to Ryu, Akuma or Marisa LVL 3, you can feel the soul coming out of the body of the opponent
The main reason I’m still into fighting games, despite all my issues with the genre and scene, is characters. I adore how fighting games create individual feelings for so many characters and how that creates a connection to them. I’ve never watched Dragonball, let alone GT, but I now have an emotional attachment to Super Baby 2 because I just love looping. There’s no characters out in the wide world of games quite like ABA or AKI; these strange little freaks, with their strange fighting styles and freakish individualism. No Kratos screams or Pokémon cries are ever gonna give me the dopamine hit of Geese Howard saying “Predictabo” and flipping someone like a ragdoll. Even Guest Characters, I love Guests, dude. I love seeing how a character like 2B, from such a vastly different experience can be implemented into Granblue. I’m ecstatic, as a fan of Cyperpunk, to see Lucy in Strive and see how that gameplay system I adore will be adapted into Guilty Gear. It’s got me in a chokehold, man, I love Fighting games characters. P.S: Congrats on the engagement, Streamer
@@cheef825That’s the unique gift of fighting games like DBFZ and Marvel. Deepcuts, or even just non-mainstream, characters get to shine in a way something like movies would never let them
It's a level of immersion that makes imagination a lot more...ethereal I suppose? Sometimes I hate that I separate reality and fiction so easily (knowing how a game is made can break the illusion and make imagination a lot harder), but fighting games always came the closest. They feel like avatars that we can explore different ideas through or see ourselves in. Games like Tekken and Street Fighter embrace different cultures around the world and show them to a large audience. Others explore the wildest concepts and make them look really cool. It's one of the reasons Guilty Gear is one of my favorite series, not just fighting games. It's very creative, and being a fighting game boosts the immersion than if it were another genre.
I enjoy exploring the desert. Reaching a new peak, which I've done several times in the last month in GBVSR and once before that in SF6, is always satisfying. There's treasure out here.
-because there's so many ways to enjoy them. Alone, with friends, online with strangers, to practice combos, to improve in rank, to dunk on people, to continuously be dunked on and grow. Cause they're fun. So so goddamn fun.
No matter what anyone says, nothing beats hitting a fat COUNTER for the game to give you a huge pause which feels almost like a full minute, announcer screaming out of their lungs and absolutely eviscerating half of the opponent's life bar after confirming into a cutscene super while your favorite character says their iconic line.
Im on the other side of the "friend who doesnt care about winning" thing and it's why I appreciate fighting games too haha. I obviously try if Im in a team game, but every once in a while my brain goes "...but wouldn't it be funny if-" and I have to shut it down. But if Im playing Faust, I can say: you know what, it WOULD be funny and Im going to do it right now. It feels nice being able to goof off and try stupid unorthodox strategies without letting anyone down if it fails.
I play both to a moderate level (1600~1700 MR in SF and Diamond in League) and I can say that both offer the same feeling but in different ways. Fiora in League of Legends is a very real character and I feel very strong playing her. Irelia really feels like a god when you get the correct play.
Fighting games have definitely made me a better, more determined, and empathetic person. Every now and then I get to use these strengths to improve the world around me instead of using them to farm death threats for doing whiff light tatsu into DP or playing Asuka Kazama, which is a cool bonus
For me its a mix of things. I love the characters.I grew up with most of them. I like their 2d nature for some reason. And I really like the fact that, with every match, I get better and not my character through some artificial means like equipment or level ups. Every character has the capacity to be great and us players have the ability to unlock that greatness. Its literally like learning a martial art yourself, with the difference that it is a digital one.
I don't know about love but I do like fighting games. Even if it's been a struggle to continue liking them at times. Between all the depression about being bad at them or liking all the "wrong ones"...there's a reason why I still continue to stick around despite all that.
I feel like fighting games are where you can play as a really specific character and they'll be fully realized and satisfying to play as. Like in an action game like DMC you might have one or two additional guys to be, and usually with those kinds of games there's still a "main" character that has more sauce than everyone else. Fighting games are really the only game where you could be the wacky fat dude and he's just as nuanced and fleshed out as the leading guy. His own special moves, combos, theme music, victory quotes, every character (ideally) is equally as valid as each other, so you're really allowed to express yourself in a way no other video game offers.
DOOM MENTIONED RAHHHH Listen, I'm old(ish), comin' up on 40. I love that tactile, arcade feel and sound design carries hard too. Just so happens that Doom and Doom 2 absolutely blast.
I never put the two things together but I realized just now that i like Korean martial arts characters cause i studied Korean martial arts for a long time as a child. Took me over 40 years to realize that lmao.
I get what you're saying but like. I've tried so many fighting games and I don't feel like I ever have that level of control of any character, physically and especially mentally, never comes. I feel like I'm experiencing sleep paralysis when I'm trying to get my character to do anything. I love all the aesthetics, sound effects, music, all of it. But the physical barrier to entry, no matter how much I will sit there and try to grind a simple qcf or hcf consistently, even before you get to the real hard stuff, is always going to be a physical barrier to enjoying these games that way. Been trying to play fighting games all my life and I've accepted that it'll always be this way and I'll be happy with the fact that fighting games will always remain the number one genre for spectating
I'm new to fighting games, started with SF6 and I have to say, I deeply regret not getting into them earlier in my life No other genre gives me the satisfaction of improving and learning as much as fighting games
I play games because I like pressing buttons good, fighting games have strict rules and give me immediate feedback on whether I pressed buttons good or bad and they give you infinity ways to press buttons good. There is also undeniably a therapy aspect to fighting games, I can say that they are good for me outside of being fun.
I play fighting games to buy $300+ arcade stick I'll use a couple of times and only spend 10 minutes in training mode and then quit the game when it "dies".
The one thing i miss from most fgs and fgs tournaments is team/crew battles. I feem fgs provide a very unique dynamic of being able to be on a team and by youself at the same time, and all the strategic decisions provided by the meta, match-ups, etc, make for a really rich experience. I'd love to see this explored more
I may be uncompetitive AF, but I still love 'em for the wacky characters, moves and lore. And the combos-very satisfying to pull them off. And let's not forget the most important draw: the crazy poses and voices, especially in the older ones. THAT's the real reason the new ones outside of Mortal Kombat and Smash can't compete market-wise despite leaning into competitive more: less lactose tolerance.
Satisfying game feel goes a long way. It's why a ton of my favorite games are stuff like DBFZ, Resident Evil 4, Risk of Rain 2, Hades 1&2, and in some ways Bloons, Yu-Gi-Oh and rhythm games. It's one thing that's really, really hard to nail but it sticks with you forever. I would not have thousands of hours in my favorite games if they weren't satisfying to play.
I agree with pretty much everything Sajam said. Especially the part about creating the feel of an old arcade space. That’s why I normally don’t play fighting games online. I much prefer the in person events.
I love 1v1 competition. It's just so engaging. Be it chess, table tennis, RTS games or Fighting games. The 1v1 aspect was definitely always a huge part of the appeal for me. And fighting games are the video game that does 1v1 in the best way for me, I do love RTS games, but they are long and the action is nowhere near as immediate. The punchiness of a match in a fighting game, it's hard to beat in video games in other genres. Also it just feels great to pull off some amazing read, or some sick combo, or whatever, to do something sick. That feeling of knowing what someone is going to do, and figuring out how to counter it all in the span of seconds. You get that in other games of course, but the intensity of fighting games makes those hype moments even more fun and exciting. In short, I agree with the funny youtube man.
I never really got into street fighter until the SF6 Cammy reveal. I was like yeah this looks fucking nuts. Now it’s my second most played game. And I’ve gotten back into fighting games in a way I haven’t been for over a decade. Fighting games rule man.
compared to other multiplayer games, I love how quick yet long the play sessions can be. the origin of the genre as a quarter muncher means the individual matches are quick, but these days you can also spend hours in the lab just learning more. it makes it both a personal journey and a competitive match against someone else- so awesome. similarly i love how expressive they are, everyone can play in their own way, you can even get your ass kicked by a dude playing with his tongue (rip broly). they always have awesome characters due to crossovers and 30 years of legacy where the way a character plays is just as important as how they look and sound, see mvci magneto fiasco to see how much we care about that
I'm a bit bummed I'm in a weird spot with regards to fighting games. The moment I didn't chase and maintain an improvement cycle, my enjoyment of them dropped super hard. It might mostly not even be the genre's fault and it may be that I found the thrill of the chase in a different hobby. But yeah, played them for a decade and a half and there's little to no spark anymore. When there is it's very bite-sized and temporary. I think i'm getting more comfortable with that relationship as time goes on, but i'm still a little shocked "the thing I liked so much" just isn't hitting as much even when the current gen of games looks and plays wonderfully. Cherish what you have right now folks
For me, its the characters. I especially love Street Fighter for being international and including characters from all over the world. Also watching someone make hard reads over and over is the hypest thing to me. Hard reads are in other games too, but they're not as satisfying as they are in fighting games.
That bit about doing nothing but combos in training mode kinda resonated with me. I haven't played him since he got juiced in S3, but earlier on I played Goldlewis exclusively in training mode, just doing this one sick combo that did 350 damage a few times, then go play the actual game with a different character.
Damn we’re never going to have the Sajam FGC Retirement Home arc
one day...
Sajam has higher standards than to stoop to playing MMOs
One day we’ll see Sajam streaming Final Fantasy 14 right before he heads to combo breaker to play Majong
He’ll be playing MH Wilds like the rest of us in February
STREET FIGHTER is a game for OLD PEEPLE
don't have to worry about teammates.
i used to think i didnt care about this until 2xko. youre spitting
Hell is other people, facts!
he says that
this is a big reason why I committed to fighting games and moved away from fps games competitively. I still like playing fps games tho.
Don't have to worry about teammates and each game is about improvement and self honing. It's amazing
I play fighting games to raw dp
👀
based
RAW
FULL SCREEN
TATSU
That's what I play your mom for.
(I'm sorry)
Gold burst for life
i was worried you actually werent that big of a fan mr sajam. thanks for clearing that up
"Oh you're a fighting game fan now?"
i have cerebral palsy and i treat inputting things like a puzzle, finding strange control schemes and weird sitting positions to optimally play. i get decent strive results and it feels incredibly satisfying to be able to see my growth as a player through results. i got 5th at strive roundhouse which isn't too bad
You're taking a disability and turning it into a drive to get better and work around it instead of letting it keep you down. That's fucking awesome, dude. Good for you.
good on you mate
People like you are inspiring man. Keep up the grind.
Love an FGC homie that's part of the CP gang. Good shit
Good work ant, love seeing you cook
Just one thing I want to say. Fighting games are something so great
The FGC feels stronger than ever. Having both new peeps and old heads brought together at locals makes them so worth going to
No room for stupid Twitter arguments when everyone is sat next to eachother in the same venue watching the same top 8
I’m glad this was a discussion…these days it’s mostly about the drama and negative feedback that we forget the reason why we even love the game/fighting games…my love for fighting games has grown so much over the years the more I learn about them….I’ve been playing fighting games since I was 5…my 1st fighting game I played was sf2 in the arcade and (OG) mk1 on console…and this is the most engaged I’ve ever been in fighting games and the fgc in general
1:54 Armored core 6 is the first time I felt that while shooting a gun in a game
you should try the other armored cores too
Definitely how I felt playing Celeste vs every other platformer I dabbled in throughout the years. There's something about the juice and the movement that looks and feels so cool when you do it right.
@@pedroscoponi4905 Pizza Tower and Hotline Miami too!
> Character design
> Expression through gameplay
> 1v1 skill
> Growing as a player
These are my big reasons
Saw the news on Reddit congratulations on the engagement!
When I started watching League Worlds in 2016 or so, I tuned in because a player had a ridiculous name and we found it funny to root for him, only to discover he was a top laner like me and I was genuinely getting invested in his tournament progress.
The next year, he was on a completely different team. Most of them were. Split up, now. There was no narrative thread, this team I had put my weight behind just got replaced with something else and I was wondering how the hell you're supposed to be a fan of a team when there's no continuity.
That turned around with fighting game esports. SonicFox was the first truly great tale I heard, and ever since that I was locked in to the arc of DBFZ's first competitive broadcast year like it was the original anime itself. I had so many feelings because I could recognize and decide on my allegiance to various competitors. I had really, REALLY strong feelings about the winners and losers. I continue to.
All this is the reason that I'm ideating a manga-style graphic novel to make about such types of characters in the FGC. I wanna make a battle manga about this specific thing. I hope I can pick your brain for ideas for it someday, Sajam, provided anyone ever reads this comment this far. Doesn't matter, I'll be out there trying
I studied game design and it was wild to see people who wanted to be professionals that didn't think Fighting Games were the best place to go to understand gamefeel. People get so caught up in trying to outgrow arcades that they forget why fighting games persist
1- aesthetics- the symphony of art, music, effects and violence is just my fav especially in 2d games.
2- i like seeing life bars bleed (but mostly with cool stylish combos)
3- character matchups and system mechanics that convey a specific feeling. Freestyle gameplay- in anime games, strategic positioning in grounded games, team dynamics and synergy- in tag games etc.
4- reward for time invested. Having a clear ceiling that is easy to demonstrate to a layman viewer is something unmatched by many genres.
Fighting games are the fastest-paced chess matches you'll ever see. At the highest level it's not really about who knows the game's mechanics better or who has better execution - those things are certainly present, but after a certain point, matches are much more about reading your opponent, about finding and exploiting their weaknesses with the tools you have available with your character
It's really fortunate for us that fighting games were introduced before online was a thing. The arcade social experience really was the most optimal way to enjoy a game like this that would otherwise exhaust and frustrate you, and because we know that from experience we've been able to maintain that and let people who didn't grow up with the arcade also experience it.
This is true but also the FGC has generally gotten friendlier and continues to do so, so we may be having a bit of rose colored lenses there
I just started playing fighting games last March as a hardcore League/Shooter player. The most fun thing to me is that it's a pure exercise in mastery - i.e. getting REALLY good at this one thing, and the roof is endless. I also love how focused you have to be during a round, it's like getting mini bursts of extreme focus that only happen during very specific plays in team based comp games.
One of my favourite things about FGs is exploring and learning a new character/game, just hitting the lab and try out all their tools and see how it all comes together.
The reason I like fighting games is that shounen protag feeling of walking the path of self improvement and getting stronger. Overcoming obstacles and setbacks, growing my skills and seeing that training pay off, having wild highlights and getting to come back and win against overwhelming odds (and sometimes getting washed without any recourse).
real life zenkai boost hits different
Not really sure why i play fighting games, but it definitely isnt to block
True!
the gameplay design space of fighting games puts the character design space in a really interesting place. fighting game character design is just so fun
I've been realizing that rythem games are similar to fighting games aswell. No teamates, slowly improving, banging music, you can be casual are elite, and expensive controllers 😂. No wonder i love both so much.
something Rivals of Aether 1 did not get enough credit for is its sound design
such satisfying PUNCH to a lot of the sounds
FAX
2:17 I’ve never heard anyone bring that up before, but I had the same experience is sfv with Muay Thai and Sagat. Being able to spam roundhouse kicks in sparring and in a virtual fight is part of what got me into learning fighting games.
This is what got me into it. it feels exactly like practicing martial arts
Also, I have to mention how important FGs are for my personal motivation. +R being as difficult to master as it is, but ever so inviting to lab and dissect made me pull inner energy that I never expected I had. I legitimately found so much cool stuff in a year. It feels really personal to me, and I love sharing what feels like bits of myself with people and seeing them appreciate or use it. It changed a lot of me for the better.
Hitting buttons sometimes just feels so satisfying, especially when you get in-sync with your own character
Saw the news from Brian's comment section today.
Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Jam! So happy for y'all!
I like fighting games because they get my blood pumping! When I fight a real fun and even-sided match, it really doesn't even matter whether I win or lose.
Congratulations on the engagement!
Sajam gets engaged and suddenly he talks like he's an 80 year old grandpa telling his grandkids about his prime
Fighting games have unironically allowed me to learn the most about myself with how i learn and grinding and improving. I love this genre, I've grown as a person during this journey
Congrats to you and Emily!
I think the coolest part of fighting games is all that stuff you mentioned applies at all level of play. That pit of your stomach feeling is there even when it's just family and friends.
Best thing about fighting games, is saying stuff like "hope you like dicks!.... get ready!", in an unironic fashion.
Also funny to hear Sajam act like he was irl tornado-throwing people lol.
If it weren’t for fighting games, we’d never hear poetic statements like “That’s so pringles”; “If you don’t scare, I don’t scare”; and “Farts on you, takes a shit on you.”
Fighting games have always been a social thing for me. All the way back when I was a kid, playing with a sibling sucked for single player at the time, because there was this big deal about taking turns, trying to portion out gametime between two people and it was all just a mess. Instead, we could just play Tekken 3 and have both people able to play at the same time. As I got older, I'd learned to appreciate how both as a topic of discussion and as a social activity, fighting games are an interesting subject. Fighting games appeal to such a vast demographic for such wildly different reasons, from writing to aesthetics to mechanics to strategy, that getting to interact with people through them in such different ways is what draws me to them. To me, the main appeal of fighting games is their insane lore, trying to adapt a conventional story into a long string of excuses for the cast to beat each other up, but depending on who I'm playing with, I engage with them in alot of different ways. With one person, I grind matchups and strategies and clash heads as we drive each other to compete. With another person, I've marathoned every fighting game adaptation from TV-shows to movies. With some people, it's just something to do with our hands while we talk. I talk about them mechanically, I discuss character design and music, there's so many different things that people fixate on with fighters and what draws them to the genre, that your experience playing them with each person is wholly unique.
That's what fighting games are all about to me and it's something I've barely ever had with another genre. I've never had a consistent group big enough to host a room for just us in an arena-shooter. Team-games are actually quite horrible as social activities, because it's all just people being frustrated and upset on both ours and the enemy's side, so I slid off MOBAs and the like immediately. Co-op games can be like this, although I find that because we're very directly working towards mutual goals together, that experience winds up usually being very focused on playing the game, whereas fighting games feel alot more lucid in how much they are the center of attention to me (It's a weird phenomena to explain, I know). 1v1 puzzle games like Puyo, Tetris or Puzzle Bobble come close to that, though there's not as much to talk about in aesthetics or lore in those alot of the time and as puzzle games, they take alot more of my attention while playing. Fighting games are just this perfect storm, a mad amalgam of elements that come together just right to form the ideal video game social lubrecant.
Fighting games are so much more personal too, like if i win I feel like I earned it as to where in team games you can get carried and feel like you didnt reallt contribute. And when you lose you have nobody to blame but yourself. Fighting games teach you an important life lesson that you need to hold yourself accountable for the decisions you make and not look to point the finger at someone else.
Thank you for making this video Sajam, glad to hear some positivity around fighting games, i’ve been dabbling in fighting games since about 2013 or so, with Mortal Kombat 9 and SF4 but didn’t fully commit to grinding a fighting game until SF6 came out, and i’m having an absolute BLAST, climbed all the way from iron to master, entered some tournaments, did ok, but it’s been such a fun journey, got some of my friends to grind SF6 for a bit too. Also grinded out Strive and Tekken 8 for a bit, thanks Sajam, i wouldn’t have invested so much time into fighting games and learning a healthier mindset without your videos.
I love that comparison of ranked being a desert to the lobbies being an oasis. I think it's that mentality, and the combination of older fighting games having unpopulated ranked queues, that makes me stick to the player match side of things.
I love how there's so many levels to their depth and target audience. If you ask someone in the community if they wanna play this niche game no one in the main stream has heard of they'll probably have it or take the time to set up the game and then just have a blast along with the community making them work in modern hardware when they really don't have to.
So glad he mentioned DMC for game feel. There’s almost no greater power fantasy and the visceral nature of the combat is so important.
Some of the most fun I’ve had playing fighting games is losing. It’s that feeling of climbing the mountain and not reaching the peak but realizing how much closer you are than before. If anyone is waiting to go to a local because they don’t wanna go 0-2 you are missing out because once you go 1-2 or even win a round of someone it’s amazing
There's so much I love about fighting games. It's one of my favorite ways to spend time with other people. The characters are so tactile and expressive that no other game type comes close to the feeling of being there with the other person. Running my little fight game community has been one of the most rewarding efforts I've ever made.
Getting stronger at fight games taught me so much about my own skill-building needs and showed me that there's no real limits to where I can grow. I learned how to play the piano so I could get better at Aoko! Working on combos helped me understand rhythm more fundamentally and started to break down the barriers I was having with music practice. I learned how to work at something consistently, for a long time, without working too hard during that time. I learned how to ask specific questions for help, and I learned how to sense *other people's needs* when it came time to train them.
But even besides that and without other people, I would still love fighting games. They have the coolest characters with the sickest movesets and killer osts to boot. I've been in love since GGX Advance and I'm not giving up any time soon.
Fighting games are one of the only genres that can generate the cinematic fight sequences we see in our favourite films and anime. It feels like you're directing the experience, each fight is a new episode.
I’ve been saying this. Fighting games are all about the work you put in and to me it makes it feel more personal when you really put in work to improve and when you finally see it paying off just feels awesome. There really is no other feeling like it in other games
Going to majors and other live events and feeling the crowd get hype for insane clutch moments and character reveals, there’s nothing like it
the sense of expression i feel in fighting games is really unmatched, every character ive played feels like a unique version of themselves because they have my habits, and follow my patterns, and their power increases with mine
Something I love about sf6 is how satisfying combos feel, even the shortest combo feel amazing. Hitting a ryu stHP punish counter feels incredible
I think one of the coolest things about fighting games is that it's the closest thing to being an anime protagonist where you have to go on training arcs hitting the lab to perfect this technique or that technique or combo and then actually hitting it in a real game is actual measurable progress and it's the sickest feeling in the world. And then having a friend that's around your skill level is like having a rivalry where you push each other to get better and have this close competition where you're always learning each other and getting a sense for how the other plays and you just push each other forward to learn and get better together. Having close matches in a fighting game is probably the single coolest experience I've ever had with a video game.
Growing up, I had a home copy of 3rd Strike. Loved fighting games, had no one to play with, and mechanics in 3S were especially daunting for me playing by myself.
Years later, as an adult, I found friends at a local arcade that played 3S. It didn't feel like work to learn when we were all hyping each other up and sharing tips. It's a night and day difference when you find people you vibe with.
This is gonna sound anime as hell but my favourite thing about fighting games (and especially competing in them) is the absolute transcendend flow you sometimes get into. Barely any other genre makes me live between the seconds as much and intensely as fighting games do. There's nothing else you're thinking about except how to dismantle your foe, suddenly nothing else matters anymore. All you're thinking about is finding a path to victory.
Granted, they definitely don't happen all the time, but when they do.. those are the moments I live for and why I compete in fighting games.
Also very nice video! Very much appreciate the energy!
I know it's dumb but sometimes I see like boxing and I'm like
"awh man, you should'nt have use a big start up move. He made a poke and now he's on plus. If you make that move, you'll be on minus when clearly he's looking to whiff punish you"
Aesthetical satisfaction cranked to the max, mechanical depth and exploration of cool ideas and concepts, WAKE UP SUPER EVERY DAMN DAY!
"I play this game cuz my character's hot and I like them"
As a Cammy, Ed, Testament, Leo Kliesen and ABA main I feel called out
Dw cant be you Cammy is the only attractive one.
The feeling that never gets old for me, is when you lab a certain interaction and when it happens in a match there's that split second where your mind goes: Ok I'm ready for this just gotta NOT drop it and you hit it for the win.
"Fighting game is something so great"
You touched on it briefly but my favorite part is the variety of ways to engage with a fighting game, got 5 minutes, practice your execution. Got 45 minutes, lab a set-up. Got an hour, play some ranked. Got 3 hours, run a FT death. Theres something to do always you're never time gated, but anything you do will help your overall progression
Fighting games is something great man. Congratulations on your engagement btw.
for me, the "getting out and seeing people" point resonates the most. commentary being a reason for me to fly out and see folks i would never meet otherwise: huge reason i'm still sticking around, engaged in the genre, and gaming with yall 🫡
speaking of engagement -- congrats on yours gamer! best wishes to you both 🎉
Congrats on getting married! :D
Holy shit, I check it's real
Pretty sure he’s just engaged. Not married yet.
I don't know if you guys ever listened to SF6 on a good headset, but the SFX on this game feels HEAVY.
Seriously, listen to Ryu, Akuma or Marisa LVL 3, you can feel the soul coming out of the body of the opponent
The main reason I’m still into fighting games, despite all my issues with the genre and scene, is characters. I adore how fighting games create individual feelings for so many characters and how that creates a connection to them. I’ve never watched Dragonball, let alone GT, but I now have an emotional attachment to Super Baby 2 because I just love looping. There’s no characters out in the wide world of games quite like ABA or AKI; these strange little freaks, with their strange fighting styles and freakish individualism. No Kratos screams or Pokémon cries are ever gonna give me the dopamine hit of Geese Howard saying “Predictabo” and flipping someone like a ragdoll. Even Guest Characters, I love Guests, dude. I love seeing how a character like 2B, from such a vastly different experience can be implemented into Granblue. I’m ecstatic, as a fan of Cyperpunk, to see Lucy in Strive and see how that gameplay system I adore will be adapted into Guilty Gear. It’s got me in a chokehold, man, I love Fighting games characters.
P.S: Congrats on the engagement, Streamer
bro fr im not much of a comic book fan but i love sentinel lmao i didn't know the robot was a jobber in the xmen comics until like 2 years ago
@@cheef825That’s the unique gift of fighting games like DBFZ and Marvel. Deepcuts, or even just non-mainstream, characters get to shine in a way something like movies would never let them
It's a level of immersion that makes imagination a lot more...ethereal I suppose? Sometimes I hate that I separate reality and fiction so easily (knowing how a game is made can break the illusion and make imagination a lot harder), but fighting games always came the closest.
They feel like avatars that we can explore different ideas through or see ourselves in. Games like Tekken and Street Fighter embrace different cultures around the world and show them to a large audience. Others explore the wildest concepts and make them look really cool.
It's one of the reasons Guilty Gear is one of my favorite series, not just fighting games. It's very creative, and being a fighting game boosts the immersion than if it were another genre.
shoutout to Big Men that do big moves. I love you guys and i wish we got more of you
I enjoy exploring the desert. Reaching a new peak, which I've done several times in the last month in GBVSR and once before that in SF6, is always satisfying. There's treasure out here.
-because there's so many ways to enjoy them. Alone, with friends, online with strangers, to practice combos, to improve in rank, to dunk on people, to continuously be dunked on and grow.
Cause they're fun. So so goddamn fun.
8:27 Franky
I love being the sole person responsible for my wins/losses, and I love how good the practice tools are compared to other games
No matter what anyone says, nothing beats hitting a fat COUNTER for the game to give you a huge pause which feels almost like a full minute, announcer screaming out of their lungs and absolutely eviscerating half of the opponent's life bar after confirming into a cutscene super while your favorite character says their iconic line.
I just saw the good news on Twitter, congrats on the engagement!
Im on the other side of the "friend who doesnt care about winning" thing and it's why I appreciate fighting games too haha. I obviously try if Im in a team game, but every once in a while my brain goes "...but wouldn't it be funny if-" and I have to shut it down. But if Im playing Faust, I can say: you know what, it WOULD be funny and Im going to do it right now. It feels nice being able to goof off and try stupid unorthodox strategies without letting anyone down if it fails.
I play both to a moderate level (1600~1700 MR in SF and Diamond in League) and I can say that both offer the same feeling but in different ways. Fiora in League of Legends is a very real character and I feel very strong playing her. Irelia really feels like a god when you get the correct play.
Fighting games have definitely made me a better, more determined, and empathetic person. Every now and then I get to use these strengths to improve the world around me instead of using them to farm death threats for doing whiff light tatsu into DP or playing Asuka Kazama, which is a cool bonus
The learning process and that journey is why I can’t stop.
For me its a mix of things. I love the characters.I grew up with most of them. I like their 2d nature for some reason. And I really like the fact that, with every match, I get better and not my character through some artificial means like equipment or level ups. Every character has the capacity to be great and us players have the ability to unlock that greatness. Its literally like learning a martial art yourself, with the difference that it is a digital one.
Pretty much how I feel about fighting games compared to other competitive games.
As an aside, congrats on the engagement!
I don't know about love but I do like fighting games. Even if it's been a struggle to continue liking them at times.
Between all the depression about being bad at them or liking all the "wrong ones"...there's a reason why I still continue to stick around despite all that.
I feel like fighting games are where you can play as a really specific character and they'll be fully realized and satisfying to play as. Like in an action game like DMC you might have one or two additional guys to be, and usually with those kinds of games there's still a "main" character that has more sauce than everyone else.
Fighting games are really the only game where you could be the wacky fat dude and he's just as nuanced and fleshed out as the leading guy. His own special moves, combos, theme music, victory quotes, every character (ideally) is equally as valid as each other, so you're really allowed to express yourself in a way no other video game offers.
Thank you for making such a fun video. I had a smile on my face the whole time.
it’s hilarious how the top comment on Brian F’s most recent video is congratulating Sajam on the engagement instead of the top comment here
Im just out here smiling when i land an aegis mix up. Thanks sajam for getting me into these games
DOOM MENTIONED RAHHHH
Listen, I'm old(ish), comin' up on 40. I love that tactile, arcade feel and sound design carries hard too. Just so happens that Doom and Doom 2 absolutely blast.
I never put the two things together but I realized just now that i like Korean martial arts characters cause i studied Korean martial arts for a long time as a child. Took me over 40 years to realize that lmao.
congrats on the engagement!
I get what you're saying but like. I've tried so many fighting games and I don't feel like I ever have that level of control of any character, physically and especially mentally, never comes. I feel like I'm experiencing sleep paralysis when I'm trying to get my character to do anything. I love all the aesthetics, sound effects, music, all of it. But the physical barrier to entry, no matter how much I will sit there and try to grind a simple qcf or hcf consistently, even before you get to the real hard stuff, is always going to be a physical barrier to enjoying these games that way. Been trying to play fighting games all my life and I've accepted that it'll always be this way and I'll be happy with the fact that fighting games will always remain the number one genre for spectating
I'm new to fighting games, started with SF6 and I have to say, I deeply regret not getting into them earlier in my life
No other genre gives me the satisfaction of improving and learning as much as fighting games
I play games because I like pressing buttons good, fighting games have strict rules and give me immediate feedback on whether I pressed buttons good or bad and they give you infinity ways to press buttons good.
There is also undeniably a therapy aspect to fighting games, I can say that they are good for me outside of being fun.
On a side note congrats on the engagement big Sajam
I play fighting games to buy $300+ arcade stick I'll use a couple of times and only spend 10 minutes in training mode and then quit the game when it "dies".
I play fighting games because of Guiles biceps
They don't have tattoos, they have birthmarks
When he said "You can play fighting games because you think your character is hot and you like them" I felt seen
The one thing i miss from most fgs and fgs tournaments is team/crew battles. I feem fgs provide a very unique dynamic of being able to be on a team and by youself at the same time, and all the strategic decisions provided by the meta, match-ups, etc, make for a really rich experience. I'd love to see this explored more
The sense of fulfillment from winning purely because of your own skill and knowledge feels so good
“Over here, you have a f’in weather map. And over here, this dude just got punched and died.” Love it
I may be uncompetitive AF, but I still love 'em for the wacky characters, moves and lore. And the combos-very satisfying to pull them off. And let's not forget the most important draw: the crazy poses and voices, especially in the older ones. THAT's the real reason the new ones outside of Mortal Kombat and Smash can't compete market-wise despite leaning into competitive more: less lactose tolerance.
Satisfying game feel goes a long way. It's why a ton of my favorite games are stuff like DBFZ, Resident Evil 4, Risk of Rain 2, Hades 1&2, and in some ways Bloons, Yu-Gi-Oh and rhythm games.
It's one thing that's really, really hard to nail but it sticks with you forever. I would not have thousands of hours in my favorite games if they weren't satisfying to play.
I agree with pretty much everything Sajam said. Especially the part about creating the feel of an old arcade space. That’s why I normally don’t play fighting games online. I much prefer the in person events.
I love 1v1 competition. It's just so engaging. Be it chess, table tennis, RTS games or Fighting games. The 1v1 aspect was definitely always a huge part of the appeal for me. And fighting games are the video game that does 1v1 in the best way for me, I do love RTS games, but they are long and the action is nowhere near as immediate. The punchiness of a match in a fighting game, it's hard to beat in video games in other genres.
Also it just feels great to pull off some amazing read, or some sick combo, or whatever, to do something sick. That feeling of knowing what someone is going to do, and figuring out how to counter it all in the span of seconds. You get that in other games of course, but the intensity of fighting games makes those hype moments even more fun and exciting.
In short, I agree with the funny youtube man.
I never really got into street fighter until the SF6 Cammy reveal. I was like yeah this looks fucking nuts. Now it’s my second most played game. And I’ve gotten back into fighting games in a way I haven’t been for over a decade. Fighting games rule man.
compared to other multiplayer games, I love how quick yet long the play sessions can be. the origin of the genre as a quarter muncher means the individual matches are quick, but these days you can also spend hours in the lab just learning more. it makes it both a personal journey and a competitive match against someone else- so awesome. similarly i love how expressive they are, everyone can play in their own way, you can even get your ass kicked by a dude playing with his tongue (rip broly). they always have awesome characters due to crossovers and 30 years of legacy where the way a character plays is just as important as how they look and sound, see mvci magneto fiasco to see how much we care about that
I'm a bit bummed I'm in a weird spot with regards to fighting games. The moment I didn't chase and maintain an improvement cycle, my enjoyment of them dropped super hard. It might mostly not even be the genre's fault and it may be that I found the thrill of the chase in a different hobby. But yeah, played them for a decade and a half and there's little to no spark anymore. When there is it's very bite-sized and temporary.
I think i'm getting more comfortable with that relationship as time goes on, but i'm still a little shocked "the thing I liked so much" just isn't hitting as much even when the current gen of games looks and plays wonderfully.
Cherish what you have right now folks
For me, its the characters. I especially love Street Fighter for being international and including characters from all over the world. Also watching someone make hard reads over and over is the hypest thing to me. Hard reads are in other games too, but they're not as satisfying as they are in fighting games.
That bit about doing nothing but combos in training mode kinda resonated with me. I haven't played him since he got juiced in S3, but earlier on I played Goldlewis exclusively in training mode, just doing this one sick combo that did 350 damage a few times, then go play the actual game with a different character.