My interest in Street Fighter V cooled off for a number of reasons. One, certain aspects of the way the game was designed mechanically didn’t jive with the way I like to play fighting games. Two, I had a very difficult time coming to grips with my first 0-2 defeat at Red Bull Proving Grounds. Finally, I was getting destroyed by every Urien player in sight.
Introduced near the middle of season 1, Urien is a force to be reckoned with. He has a killer tool-set that allows him to dominate in many ranges while being able to string together lengthy combos for massive damage. Best/worst of all is his Aegis Reflector V-Trigger, that is unparalleled as a tool for starting combos, extending combos, and creating reset opportunities.
Each time I matched up against a Urien player, it was like watching the same movie over-and-over. I would either get beaten to a pulp, or strike Urien enough to allow him to activate his V-Trigger and turn the tables on me. After piling up loss-after-loss, my motivation to play the game fell through the floor.
But whose fault is that? While Urien is considered to be a very strong character, he’s never been viewed as broken or overpowered by the competitive scene. On top of that, Urien players haven’t exactly dominated at tournaments, though there are some phenomenal Urien mains out there. It took a very long time to realize that the problem was the man in the mirror all along.
Unlike in years’ past, I did not actively seek to understand the match-up. He was a paid DLC character that I had no interest in playing as, therefore I didn’t have any interest in buying. Where that came to haunt me was in learning how to fight against him. Without him in my slate of characters, I couldn’t play the character to understand how he works, nor could I spend time with him in training mode to find counters to his techniques. Instead, I wanted to try and learn everything in the heat of battle, which has ended poorly.
Yes, there are other ways to learn the match-up that don’t require me to play a live opponent. There are guides and other online resources I could have referred to. For whatever reason, I was reluctant to use those to my own detriment. Maybe it was my dumb pride. Maybe I was just lazy. Ultimately, I didn’t do what I needed to do to be ready for those fights. So I lost repeatedly until my drive to play the game deteriorated.
Is that necessarily a bad thing? No. Players can drop a video game at any time for any reason at all. As much as I love to compete in fighting games, there were other things I wanted to do than to lose to Urien ad nauseam, or put in the work to finally get the upper hand. But I can’t honestly say to myself that Urien is broken, overpowered, or whatever other excuse I cook up in my head for losing to that character. With the recent release of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, if I want him to stop haunting my dreams, I need to come to the battle prepared.
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In Third Person 