I Want To Buy a Custom Fightstick as a Beginner -- What Do?

[213372bu]

I have lots of freetime with the current pandemic and decided I wanted to get into fighting games more seriously with a fightstick.

I understand that there are different formfactors, different buttons, different devices that work w/ certain devices, but I'm lost as to what to do.

Should I invest in any particular stick? Mod it myself (or mod it at all starting up?) Are there sites that allow you to add custom art without having to work a template and apply it yourself? Any advice is appreciated, r/fightsticks is pretty much just vanity posting, though I did like the design of this stick

[Himu]

Custom arcade stick as a beginner? Why? You don't even know if you'll take a liking to the arcade stick. If you want something fancy then arcade shock sells pre customized sticks.

Get a stick with sanwa buttons and jlf stick. Arcade shock has an option to customize your load out of your stick. Something like Hori Real Arcade Pro 4 Kai comes with Hori buttons and stick (which are bad) so it's best to customize. Sanwa is the standard and what you'll find on Japanese arcade machines. Start there and get used to it, then go from there and see where your preferences are.

Adjusting and mastering an arcade stick will take a lot of time. You'll have to find a grip and master execution with it. No need to customize it out the gate so you don't feel like you wasted your money. You can always customize later.

[Himu]

You also didn't say what system. That matters a lot as sticks come with pre made switches for specific hardware. If you have an Xbox it will not work on PS4 and there likely won't be a switch to enable that without buying extra and soldering.

[Tripon]

There's a lot you'll have to digest. Mind you, I only know so much, other people like nachobro, GodBeard, Cindi, Anne, etc. (Mix of Neogaf/Bore people I can name off the top of my head) and more can probably explain more in detail.

Anyway, first thing is that there's no reason to pick up a fight stick/arcade stick vs a controller for fighting games. IMO, it should be because you feel comfortable using a stick. Some people prefer stick, other people prefer pad. And controllers in general are cheaper, so if you find out that you prefer pads, you'll likely save money in the long run.

There's three main websites that people use, Arcade Shock https://arcadeshock.com/, Paradise Arcade, https://paradisearcadeshop.com/, Focus Attack, https://focusattack.com/ And then there's the individual companies selling already made arcade sticks, for the U.S. market, such as Hori, Razer, Qanba, etc. The U.S. market primarily deals with JP levers/joysticks due to various reasons, so if you want Korean levers/joysticks or old school American levers/joysticks,(Korea/America/UK, etc sorta followed the same design for levers/joysticks, while Japan went a different route) that's a whole nother level of digging that I have to explain.

In my opinion, realize it's an expensive hobby that you're throwing money at, don't think you'll get better because of it, if anything, you'll get worse because you're either teaching yourself a whole new way to play or relearning it. It takes a large amount of space in your room/apartment.

I have around 6 sticks ( and I lent my friend 3 of them that I'll probably never claim back due to space, not going to drive to pick them up in a pandemic) right now, and my primary one is a etokki Onmi from South Korean made by a guy named Laugh. I don't recommend you getting this because the stick itself is $200 and it cost at least $50 to ship overseas and that was before the pandemic hit. But I love how I can throw shit around on this lever and not feel like I'm breaking it.

[Himu]

Etokki is also mostly used for Tekken if you want to know.

Why do you need a stick? I switched because:

1. I'd go to fgc events and couldn't play stick. People would just let you use their stick and you'd switch it around when people would lose. I couldn't play stick so that meant I had to bring one extra thing.  If you can't play stick this also limits your ability to play on arcadeachines. If you go to Japan and want to play Japanese players in the arcades (assuming they still exist after the pandemic RIP) and you play pad? GG.

2. I reached an execution barrier with pad. Doing things like leg piano with Chun via pad was extremely lacking. So I switched. Took a six months to a year to adjust.

[thisismyusername]

I literally have a spare TE that is modded for PS360 and PS4 sitting here. I can send it to you if you want. It probably won't be good for PS5 if they don't support the hardware ID, but for a "Cheap" stick it should help you know if you want to use it further.

[thisismyusername]

You misunderstand: I'm literally looking to find a home for it. If you want to pay for it, the $80 I paid for it could be matched. That's probably the cheapest way of of knowing if you want to get another/better stick and so-on.

[thisismyusername]

Give me your address in PM and I'll try to calculate the shipping costs/etc and let you know.

[Himu]

If you want the Japan arcade experience then definitely go for sanwa buttons and sanwa JLF lever.

Look into Qanba. They make high quality sticks.

Another is the Fighting Edge which is the illest stick imaginable. Get Sanwas on it tho. Hori buttons and stick suck.

[Himu]

Another is the Fighting Edge which is the illest stick imaginable. Get Sanwas on it tho. Hori buttons and stick suck.

That's a question I guess I have, as far as the board itself you're just purchasing the formfactor and style if you're out to replace the buttons and stick? Is that much of a draw considering you'd have to buy mods for the actual input mechanics?

Yes. I'm after style and form factor. Replacing a stick and buttons are easy. It takes learning but I replaced my old stick levers entire spring because Hori Hayabusa spring is too damn light. I put a 1.5 lb spring in and took apart the entire lever. Replacing an actual lever is much more simpler and replacing buttons is as simple unplugging and snapping them in.

[bork]

What game(s) are you interested in playing?

[toku]

bless timu

[Himu]

Does it have a Sanwa JLF? If it's a TE it should.

Thanks TIMU.

[Akala]

I'd just give what you have already a shot. T7, tons of characters with wildly different playstyles and not many circular motions. Will likely hit a wall on advanced combos. SCVI not bad as well if you are fine holding a button to block.

Samsho 2019 is great and pretty beginner friendly aside from the supers, standard attacks can win games.

[Himu]

Watch this video, 21337.



Find a good grip that's comfortable. I play wine glass. I find it gives the best ability to be mobile and easily execute moves. It's a very loose grip compared to say, the Daigo grip or the caveman.

Video of various grips.



Be able to do 10 fireballs in a row on both sides. Then do 10 dragon punches on both sides.

Also, the name fight stick is stupid and limiting. It's an arcade stick. So if you have any 2d games like 2d shooters, beat em ups (depending on if they were specifically designed for controller or not), or 2d arcade platformers play on those. Try Space Harrier in Yakuza with a stick;etc. This will help master execution at a faster rate than just using it for fighting games. Beat em ups are a good go to because they share many fundamentals with fighting games.

Finally, you won't get good at fighting games just concentrating on combos. Not to say you shouldn't learn combos. But don't mistake being able to do combos as being good at fighting games.

[remy]

getting timus stick


this reminds me I have to buy some sanwas for my hrap n. I don't mind the hori lever but I'm not about those buttons. maybe I'll go pink

[thisismyusername]

The one thing I'll miss about that TE is the stick. Like I told 21337, I forget the actual details of the mods (I know it had a modded PCB to have it run past PS360 for PC [with a driver for that] and PS4 at the start of the generation) but the stick is way more comfortable than the HRAP4's default stick despite having the same size height-clearance. If I wasn't so adverse toward opening the HRAP4 up, I'd probably find a better/taller stick to put in the HRAP4.

I haven't found a good comfortable way to hold the HRAP4's stick with my pinky and ring finger under the ball-top. But I generally don't use it for fighting games given I use controller for most games anyway so...

I do hope that TE gets more use from 21337. I feel bad buying it and then never using it after being disappointed that the modded PCB had some weird-ass button configurations in SSF4 PC. This was before the Steam Controller API basically made all controllers less a pain-in-the-ass to use on PC (even shit like the Switch's joycons can run on PC via the Steam Controller API pretty satisfactorily, Please open-source it. )

[Himu]

Sounds like a jlf.

Btw JLF uses a 1.5 lb spring in it. Hayabusa hrap stick uses 1.0. So Hayabusa is very, very loose. Hayabusa feels better with a 1.5 lb but still not as good as a jlf. That's likely what you're feeling TIMU. The heavier the spring the faster the stick resets to neutral. A 2.0 spring feels like old American mortal Kombat sticks where it's very tight, and heavy, and you really need to put your wrist into it to control fully. 1.0 is too loose and flimsy. 1.5 is the perfect medium.

[Himu]

You find wineglass comfortable? Don't want you to feel like I pressured you into my grip because I mentioned it. Play what's comfortable for you.

[Himu]

Are you doing the dragon punch motion well? it's not used much in dbfz iirc but it's essentially a z. Needs to hit three points: right, down, down right, flip for right side. It's much harder on a stick. On pad I could get a dp motion just doing right then a hadouken motion. With stick you have to hit the points more accurately.

You're using the stick top as a frame for the base of your hand right? Don't want to have bad habits. Gootecks covers that.

[thisismyusername]

Sounds like a jlf.

Btw JLF uses a 1.5 lb spring in it. Hayabusa hrap stick uses 1.0. So Hayabusa is very, very loose. Hayabusa feels better with a 1.5 lb but still not as good as a jlf. That's likely what you're feeling TIMU. The heavier the spring the faster the stick resets to neutral. A 2.0 spring feels like old American mortal Kombat sticks where it's very tight, and heavy, and you really need to put your wrist into it to control fully. 1.0 is too loose and flimsy. 1.5 is the perfect medium.

https://www.amazon.com/HORI-Real-Arcade-Pro-PlayStation-4/dp/B00SULMRI4

I have Supposedly the Hayabusa according to the box. I'm not talking about the spring or anything. I'm talking actually holding onto the stick. I basically "pinch" the ball-top by pinky-ring fingers under the ball-top and on the "stick," other three fingers wrap around the ball-top naturally (not sure if that's a good description) but it just doesn't feel comfortable to use that way like the TE's stick did.

[Himu]

Hayabusa stick itself iirc is more depressed, sits lower, and idk. I hate that stick. It's the way it's designed.

[thisismyusername]

The sitting lower might be it, I felt like that was the case but I measured both sticks and they were the same height and "clearance" so I'm not sure.

[Himu]

The sitting lower might be it, I felt like that was the case but I measured both sticks and they were the same height and "clearance" so I'm not sure.

I do believe it might be related to this



"Deteriorates faster and less durable"

"slow input"