I just rented DOA4 and man... i've never been so frustrated at a game in my life... The game is extremely hard... and i'm not sure if i like it or not... i'm hoping someone can set me on the right track here.

I can't counter... i hit back and A and i see the counter animation, but i never succesfully pull it off... HOW DO YOU COUNTER?!?!?!?!

the combos are ridiculous... sometimes i just can't recover, they hit me once, then i start falling down adn they just dont let me... the keep hitting me and hitting me, til i'm almost dead and have little or no chance to recover.

Is there a good tutorial anywhere to play this game cause i'm struggling hard here. I used to play Doa2 hardcore on ps2 and DOA3 for xbox, and was quite good at them...but i just can't get the hang of DOA4.

I want to love this game i really do, the graphics are amazing and the animations are top notch as usual, but yea... gameplay not so much... Does anyone have some advice on how to play this game?

Countering a low punch/kick is and X, countering a mid punch/jumping punch is and X, countering a high kick/High punch is and X, and countering a mid kick/jumping kick is and X.

If you wanna play PM me for my GT and ill play with you for a bit and teach you some things.

Correction...
countering a mid kick/jumping kick is and X.

*all moves assuming you're on the left hand side of the screen.

I just pasted wrong icon you know damn well I know the difference LOL.

I should hope you do

I'd offer to help train as well but I'm no where near as good as you are

If you look I have 2 counters that are the same I meant to put it forward and I used the icon because explaining the diagonal ones gets complicated

I know you know what the counters are... I was just correcting it for the OP so they didn't get confused

Most frustrating game ever?

Have you not played Ninja Gaiden?

Think he's refering to the learning curve most fighting games have them and DOA does NOT you can't button mash like mortal kombat. You can take any character you want in DOA 4 and ill choose whatever character you want and just counter you with him or beat you normally. There's no real superior characters although theres cheap shit with each character but each move has a disadvantage its like rock/paper/scissors in doa.

lol, this is why i stopped messing with fighting games a long time ago

MK, a button masher? PAH! ... when UMK3 hits the XBLA we'll see how well your button mashing holds up

while it's quite obvious that truly skilled DOA players like yourself can conquer button mashers any day I'd say that DOA is more of a button masher then the MK series is (at least more so then the old 2D ones, I might agree with you about the 3D ones though).

When it comes down to it ANY skilled fighting game player should be able to wipe the floor with a button masher no matter what the game.

I can rock MK but I was refering to mk as a button masher for the fact that anyone can pick it up and play for 3-4 mins and get most of the stuff down its not as comprehensive as lets say DOA.

I found DOA4 very approachable from a beginner perspective. Within 2-3 days of renting it I was able to beat the story mode with any character on the default difficulty, and could survive around 20 fights in survival mode. The training mode where it teaches you each move is invaluable. You don't even need to memorize each combo as much as just getting an idea of what the character(s) can do and then "mashing" with those general concepts in mind.

Also the fact that there is a throw button and a counter button and each character works on the same principles made it much easier to learn the game while playing through different characters (as opposed to a game like Tekken).

Apparently you didn't go online I can run threw story mode(hell my record is 1 minute and 13 seconds with kokoro on singles and 2 minutes and 15 for tag with I don't even remember)

ahh, I see. I agree with that... each character has the same basic move set and then a handful of unique special moves (and in MK3 combos as well). As long as you got the basics down and the special moves/combos you're golden. DOA is much more "comprehensive".

heh heh, while you never really see how good a player you really are until you play online I'd still agree with Krimson that the game is very approachable to beginners. DOA4 is less so then previous installments but still the basic "rock-paper-scissors" concept is pretty easy to get the hang of.

Advanced players have basically just been playing long enough to recognize most of the moves an opponent could perform and has memorized enough of their own character to know what trumps it and keep from repeating themself.

Doa is not hard to play or to win in you just can't pick it up and expect to be awesome.

me and twistedsymphony are playing right now in a private room if anyone wants in drop me a PM and ill send you an invite.

Which characters do you play? The computer is easy to beat if you constantly mix up the levels of attack and block, countering is not really that useful to learn at the beggining as the cpu punishes you alot if you counter incorrectly, a good defence comprises mostly of blocking and attacking in the enemies recovery stance with your string or a throw.

I use whoever. I can do everyones combo throws and plenty of 13+ hit juggles/combos.