Marco's Saikyo Dojo: Getting Into Street Fighter V

Welcome to your hobo go-to guide on how to delve into Street Fighter V! Never played any of the Street Fighter games? Is this your actual first time playing Street Fighter? Well let’s try to ease the approach by preparing you to know and learn the functions & features to fully delve into this competitive fighter. Here’s what you need to know:

 GAME FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES 

• Ex Special moves: When you perform a special move with two of the same type of punch/kick buttons, your special move will become a ex move & have additional properties/damage/effects and cost a bar of your Critical Gauge aka Super Bar. 
•  Stun Gauge: A mini bar underneath your health bar where you as you receive damage consecutively the bar will fill up and if it’s full you’ll become in a dizzy state. 
•  V-Skill: By pressing Medium Punch + Medium Kick together you can perform a V-Skill. V-Skills differ between all characters and can consist of an attack, parrying attacks or projectiles, maneuvering options, etc. V-Skill does not require any V-Gauge or Critical Gauge & can be used anytime. 
• V-Gauge: A red bar on the lower left/right that will fill up as you receive damage and perform successful V-Skills. You can use up a sectioned single bar of your V-Gauge to perform a V-Reversa. Max your V-Gauge bar and you can activate your V-Trigger. 
• V-Reversal: A V-Reversal is when you are blocking an incoming attack and immediately you press Forwad and all 3 punches/kicks(Depending on the character) & you will perform a counter attack(Think of Alpha Counters from the Street Fighter Alpha series). V-Reversals will use up a bar of your V-Gauge. 
•  V-Trigger: When you max out your V-Gauge you can activate V-Trigger by pressing Hard Punch + Hard Kick together. Activating V-Trigger is where your character will be in a buffed state( or depending on the character will perform moves not available when V-Trigger is not activated) where your normals &/or special moves will have buffed properties(ie Ryu activating Denjin Renki will add electricity, damage & stun to his normal & special moves temporarily). Once activated your V-Trigger will slowly lose meter. Unused V-Gauge will not be carried over for the next round. 
• Critical Gauge & Critical Arts: A blue bar underneath the V-Gauge bar that will fill up as you attack your opponent. As the Critical Gauge is maxed out & ready to be used, you can use your Critical Art aka super move. Unused Critical Gauge will be carried over to the next round. 
• Throws, Throw Escape/Techs & Recovery: To perform a throw you press Light Punch + Light Kick in close range. You can also escape throws by pressing the same Light Punch + Light Kick. When you’re knocked down you can immediately recover by pressing Back or Down direction + two of the same type Punch/Kick buttons. 

And that’s some of the basics of functions & features you need to know when getting into Street Fighter V! In these next set of articles I will break down each character in the roster of their strengths, weaknesses, skills, tactics and why you should pick these characters. Let me know in the comments section or vote on the twitter poll on which characters you want me to delve into first!