Play Soku online! Who's up?

Yeah. If you want to play with the CPU before jumping into netplay (which would be a good idea, to learn the game's mechanics and pick a character), you can play with the CPU. Just note that the AI isn't very smart, and is very easy to beat even on the hardest difficulty.

Also, note that Hisoutensoku is an expansion to Hisouten. You have both games in one package. To play Hisouten, open the SWR folder and run "th105e.exe". (the reason it's called "swr" is because Hisouten is also called "Scarlet Weather Rhapsody"). Make sure you run the "e" version, since that's the one which is English. The same is also true for "th123e.exe" i.e. Soku.

The first thing you want to do is learn your controls. In the menus, use the arrow keys to move around, Z for "Ok"/"Yes" and X for "Cancel"/"No".
The controls ingame are those:

Movement:
- Up: S
- Down: X
- Left: Z
- Right: C
Attacks:
- A (melee): B
- B (bullet): N
- C (bullet): M
Special:
- Flight: Spacebar
- Switch Spellcard: D
- Use Spellcard; V

You can change those inside the Profile option in the menu. If you create a new profile for yourself, don't use the "Create new" option, use "Copy" on "profile1p". To choose the profile you created with your name, go into VS Network in the menu and use the "Select profile" option. (to select a profile for player2, hit "C" inside the character select screen, but you probably won't need this).

Each profile also has a spellcard deck for each character. Modify those as you wish once you learn what each spellcard does. The reason to copy and not create new for your account profile is because the create new will give you bad default spellcard decks.

The game has some mechanics you should understand to play:
1. Canceling. Anyone who plays FGs should be familiar with this. For people who are new to FGs, canceling is a technique where attacks come out faster (the reason is that you skip their recovery, but I won't get into technical details here). To do canceling, simply use attacks in an order from weak to strong. i.e. A->B->C->Special->Spellcard. Note that while bullet canceling always works, melee canceling only works if the melee attack touched the opponent (either hit or got blocked), so you can't cancel A->B if the A attack missed. An important thing to know is that you can cancel bullets into a jump -> allowing you do to air melee right after bullets.

2. Flight. This is unique to soku, and you don't have this in any other FG. If you hold down the movement button (by default, spacebar) while holding a direction key, instead of walking or jumping, you'll fly in that direction. Note that flight consumes energy from your 5 orbs, so don't fly for too long, or else they'll get depleted. Those same orbs are used for attacking and defending, so if they run out, you're in for trouble.

3. Blocking. Like any FG, to block, simply walk backwards. If somebody attacks you while you hold back, you will block that attack instead of getting hit. You can also block in the air. Also, on the ground, there are two types of blocking: high and low. To low-block, just hold down+back. Some melee attacks hit high, while others hit low, you must block them correctly. For every wrong block, you lose an orb of energy. If they are depleted, you can't block, and you get hit.

4. Grazing. This refers to the act of flying through bullets, also unique to Soku. While melee attacks have to be blocked or else you get hit, you don't have to block bullets. You can simply fly through them, and they won't harm you. Note that some bullets go away once you graze them, while others stay, so pay attention when exiting graze. When in doubt, just block.

5. Border Escapes. Simply called "BE", a BE is when you hit the movement button twice while blocking. If you do this correctly, you characters will lose 1 orb of energy for 13 seconds, but in return you will get into a jump or flight mode instantly, without waiting for your blocking to end. This allows to get out of a sequence of attacks that would be otherwise difficult to escape witout getting hit. To BE upwards, you need to hold the down direction while BEing.

One person has to host, and the other has to join. If you're the host, use the first option in VS Network "Server Setup". It will ask you for a port - make sure that port is open. If you don't know how to open ports in your router, google it, it's not hard. http://portforward.com

Once the host opened a room, anyone can join it. The host should give you his ip and his port, in this format: 50.23.23.111:10800 i.e. port:ip. Copy his port:ip with ctrl+c so that it's in your computer's copy memory (called clipboard in official terms) and then just select the 5th option in VS Network which is "Connect to IP from clipboard". Good luck, have fun!

If this is unclear, the players on irc.rizon.net #hisouten will help you out in getting it to work. Also, come to #hisouten to find plenty of players to play with from all over the world. Most people are already very experienced in the game, so bring more people from TL to have people on your level to play with, and then the regulars will help you both improve.

Don't pick suwako. It's a joke character. Everyone else are good, the game is pretty balanced. Some might feel easier at first, but once you learn to play each one correctly they can all do well.