What do you need to do to get better at a versus game?
Gather information on the forums? Get all the powerful paid items? Well, those are the basics. The basics are important, but just a starting point.
Train your reflexes and spatial awareness? It may be effective for some titles, though I doubt I could beat the youngsters relying just on reflexes at my age.
I did participate in a fighting game event once during my student days and made it to the semi-finals of the regional tournament.
An opponent who easily beat me, despite my untouchable reputation at the local arcade, told me that in versus games, the one who spends more income always wins.
At the time I thought "What is he talking about?", but now I can understand it to some degree. Of course, the more you play, the more proficient your controls become, but getting more experience against a variety of opponents is a big advantage.
For me, I'm lucky if I play one player match per day. It was arrogant of me to think I could beat opponents racking up dozens of matches every single day with that kind of frequency.
Everyone is investing their precious money and time. It's only natural that those with money and time have an edge.
If someone with neither money nor time like me tries fighting on that same playing field, the disadvantage is only natural. For now, I should give up on player matches for a while.
First, I'll aim to complete all the way through to the CPU final boss. It's often said that no matter how much you master the CPU, it won't make you stronger at player matches. But the fact is, for "Guardian Troopers" with its uncommonly high degree of control freedom, CPU matches are more convenient for raising your operating proficiency. It won't be wasted effort to get to the point of operating Links like an extension of my own body before trying to learn player mind games.
So if that's settled, first is tackling the Sagittarius on Stage 5. I can't shoot worth a damn. How do I bring it into melee range? Can I endure its saturation attacks through evasion and deflection?
There are limits to boost-dashing to evade. Overheat and the boost becomes unusable for a while. Links is nimble, but can I really dodge its beams just by running?
I have an idea - if I can control the wire anchor as intended, it may be possible. Combining a different movement method from boost-dashing could enable maneuvers normally impossible. The wire anchor is especially excellent for emergency braking, which has already helped me several times against the multi-legged battleship.
The issue is that firing the wire anchor requires freeing up an arm.
Xcalibur, being dedicated equipment, can be perfectly mounted on the simple rack on Links' back. But if I'm carrying the sword on my back, I can't deflect incoming fire, which is its own problem.
There's a solution. I just need to lock the sword onto the rack for the instant I fire the wire anchor.
However, while removing it is one thing, mounting the heavy sword on the back rack while evading is an extremely difficult feat.
Wait? Instead of constantly shouldering the sword, I could just release the grip momentarily and quickly re-grip it, right?
I tried it with an umbrella in place of a sword and it worked. If I can do it, in theory Links should be able to as well. All that's left is to practice.
First, I'll start training on Stage 1 using the Buster Sword. Toss the sword up, quickly fire the wire anchor, catch the falling sword.
After a few failures, I finally succeeded, but it's nowhere near a usable level yet.
I did realize the wire anchor is convenient for retrieving dropped swords. If you get the released equipment inside the anchor's reticle circle, it seems to automatically lock on. Recovering thrown weapons must have been the anchor's original intended use.
This game really does have an amazing degree of freedom. As I thought, with some ingenuity all sorts of things seem possible.
As long as I'm not concerned about the clear time bonus, I can practice for 10 minutes on Stage 1. This is special training. All I can do is keep up this special juggling sword training until I master it.