"Abare Story" Part 1 - Help Me

"Abare Story" is a new series of written columns on Help Me's Tekken Mura website where he goes into details about any experiences with Tekken. The first part of this series stars the site's owner Help Me and reads as If he was .... Interviewing himself. It gets a little sappy in some part but it's worth a good read since it discusses several topics like his origin, trips to Japan, thoughts on the game and more. Since it was all in Japanese, I went ahead and translated it to English for everyone here.

▌"Abare Story" - Part 1 - Help Me
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So when did you start playing Tekken, where'd you get that Ring Name ('Help Me') and what was it like when you were learning Tekken?

Originally I didn't like video games that much back in Middle School, I was more of a Yankee (delinquent youth) during my teen rebellious age in school.

I started playing more video games during my first year of High School but they were to help kill time back then ・・・

During that time, I got into playing The King Of Fighters in my spare time so I would sometimes go into an arcade to play it. Looking back on it, I remember hearing laughter from the players on the opposite side of the cab every time I would mash on the buttons.

But I guess that was because I was a small fry back then. I started practicing the game since I got angry after losing to other players. When I got tired mashing buttons, I would go home and think about the game.

The day Tekken 5 came out in arcades, the arcade was bustling. I saw a large amount of people playing that game so I went to go watch it, specifically a Steve Fox player. I thought the game and that player made the game look cool so I went to try it out.

About my RN ･･･ I got it when I was a beginner of 3D Fighting games.

I thought it looked fun how people were using the their Tekken 5 cards so I went and bought one despite not knowing how it worked. I actually wanted to register Jin onto the T5 Data card I bought but I accidentally selected Lee and I couldn't change it. I didn't have much money since I was still a senior high school student to buy another T5 data card so I stuck with playing and learning Lee.

I registered a suitable name at first on the card at first but then later lost a lot learning the game so I would put 'HELP ME' as my card name. It was a cry for help, literally.

So that's how you ended up as a Lee player but is Lee your main character today？

Did you see the characters I registered to use at the upcoming Special Hammers Cup 2 tournament？

Yeah, Paul & Law.

So it's that.

So you stopped playing Lee？ 

I have to consider what Harada-san thinks when he balances the Tekken games...

(FW: The above response was just Help Me being coy, he still plays Lee)

What was it like when you were just average at the game？

Being honest, a lot of Korean players back then were really ashamed when they lost.

Knee especially, when he would frequently come to the arcade and play against the good tekken players at the time and lose.

If you used to watch old Shinjuku JoyBox videos from Japan, it would be roughly around the same time.

I was still a beginner at 5th Dan at the time but, one day I got to fight someone with the ring name 'Knee.' Knee was famous at the time for his deathmatches with other players.

At first I was winning some matches in our fight but it was like natural that I would eventually lose in the end. That session with Knee was what got me to love deathmatching.

Back in Tekken 5, you could take 80% life if you managed to score a Silver Knee (u/f+4) at the wall with Lee.

I was able to win a few matches against Knee because of it and I could tell he would get furious over it. ･･･ I think.

The strategy that got me those wins was me landing that 80% combo and then just dashing up to him on wakeup and just throwing him.

After winning a few times like that, Knee would come up to me and say "Ah, so tired right now, I can't break throws" and then go home.

I occasionally would just call him a Deathmatching bastard when he came back.

But because of that and various other instances, I think the matter of a person's pride was a big part back then.

Can you tell us an episode from your trip to Japan for the first time in 2007 for Tougeki (SBO)？

There's a lot I can say but, I still firmly remember the Shinjuku JoyBox arcade incident after all this time. The date was 8/18/2007..... or somewhere close to that. (hahaha)

On that day me, NaengMyun Sungin (Leemario) and 200 Won were supposed to go back to Korea but we all slept in late and missed the return flight.

We had to postpone the flight but eventually we got the flight plans changed which let us stay in Japan for an extra day. We were glad for that even though we didn't have that much money.

Between 3 people we had to share 1100 yen so we had to eat low cost cooked rice and we were all still wearing the same clothes we had on the day before.

We all then went to the Joybox arcade in Shinjuku with no change of clothes only to get thrown out by an arcade employee because he thought we were a bunch of poor beggars. Even though we were in the arcade yesterday playing…

Not sure if that guy is reading this but if he is, any words for him?

That guy taught me that it's necessary that you have money on you so thank you for that. Which reminds me of something else in Joybox arcade.

If you happen to lose your purse or wallet over there, you'll probably get it back in roughly 20 minutes as it was exactly as you left it. If you happen to leave your belongings on a seat in that arcade, players like Fukushi would wait until the owner came back to pick it up before using that seat to play games.

I was very grateful for that despite not being able to talk Japanese at that time. But I did happen to lose my Tekken card the next day ･･･

You said that you once were really skinny and lost a lot of weight, how much exactly？

I went from weighing 96 Kilo to 63 Kilo.

I rose up in the ranks when I was conscripted into the army which let me have some spare time. I would use that spare time to do motion exercises.

So all day long I would be mountain climbing, digging with a shovel or skipping rope which got me losing weight. I would also study exercise techniques and general nutrition back then.

Thanks to all that training and effort, I make a good trainer today. Having a simple diet as well as regular exercises was really good for my health.

Simple you say, well next topic,

Awhile ago people thought that you were gay, was it true？

The players in Kansai especially (West Japan including Osaka) said that your activity with AO was gross.

I actually got asked this before by an Arcadia writer/reporter ・・・

To be serious, I have a girlfriend！I just happen to love really cute things.

Like for instance, I'm in love with Aragaki Yui & Aoi Miyazaki！

Although, I love Uehara Ai the most ・・・

Let's stop here。

Would you happen to have a good relationship with any Japanese players？

I'd like to think that I have a good relationship with some players although I'm not sure if they feel the same way back ･･･

I think I have a good relationship with AO and Fukushi！ Even though I did beat them a lot.

It's hard to have a conversation though since learning Japanese is difficult ･･･

Oh and I love Takeyama-san！ This would get me called gay wouldn't it.

You should be a bit more careful with the words you use.

I think I have a good relationship with Take, Shana and Nyanchuu ・・・ Or maybe I don't have any hostilities with any of the players I fight over there.

Recently in Seoul Station's Game City arcade, I met a Japanese player I played at Matador Cup 5, Black Jaguar-san！I thought that people didn't have that much of a good memory and would easily forget me but ・・・ That wasn't the case！ It didn't matter that I was good or bad at Tekken ･･･

I was once lost on a previous Korean travel trip but I was able to meet Kimu-san from Chiba who remembered me and helped me out！

I'd like to think that I can meet everyone some day.

Moving onto Tekken, what are your thoughts on the difference between Japanese Tekken and Korean Tekken？

That's a difficult question, well for starters I think that Japanese players use everything their characters can do ･･･ Korean players just use the basics / fundamentals.

I don't really care for individual play styles, I just look for patterns and the combos players use.

Why I would think this？ Because I don't really have much interest in it.

From what I look at, Japanese players tend to fight at a distance and use the partner character primarily to counter certain situations.

For Korean players, besides being near the opponent while fighting, the partner character is just used because of the first character messing up.

These play styles are too numerous in this game. I think you'll understand this more when you watch Yuu and Hao deathmatch videos.

If we were talking about using tools in the game to always win, Feng players for example will probably use b+4 after landing a ws+1 on hit to an opponent with low life since the b+4 will cover a lot of situations that the opponent could do. I find that the Korean players will always use what will always 'work' to get the win and not deviate much. 

So that's how you see it but what about other foreign countries, do you think they play differently？ 

Generally, I think they play like the Japanese excluding the Kansai region of Japan which I think plays similarly like Korea. Although I don't understand how every country plays the game, just the ones I've personally been too.

American players will generally always be on the offense, Koreans will always go with the safest options that will counter most in the game and I think the Japanese will always have these deviating strategies with their moveset. I prefer to go with the safest 'Korean' options. This is how I think when I take in the general atmosphere of different regions.

Different countries and areas have differing playstyles is that right?

What about those players that have been playing Tekken for a long time, In terms of players developing their own style, how would you prefer them to play the game？

You don't have to change it up ･･･ In the old days of Tekken 4, there was various stage gimmicks like being able to hit people into telephone boxes which would lead to a lot of bugs which you probably ended up losing to in that game. When Tekken is back to being like that, then maybe you should change it up.

Do you think Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has any problems？

I think the game was really well made for players like me, the balance of the game is the best in the series so far. Anything that might be really good for a character in this game ends up being rather minor.

The time it takes for an average TTT2 deathmatch to finish in an arcade is also good I think. Although it does get tiring play really high ranked players ･･･ Playing anyone ranked Tekken Lord or higher will always take a long time to finish so it makes the game turn into a test of stamina.

It seems like Tekken this time didn't gather a lot of newer players,

Do you think this is an issue with the nature of this game？What do you think is the reason？

I think the people that like games in general will find that Tekken Tag Tournament 2 looks charming and cool. I think the issue though is that it takes way too long for new players to get familiar and used to the game.

For example, say that a completely new player went to play TTT2 and picked Leo to use. Later he then finds out that he can't use Leo all that good because her standard combos are really difficult to pull off. This then leads to the player feeling dull or boring about the game which he'll then stop playing because he doesn't know much about it. 

Aside from the component of making reads between players (Yomi) and technique commands, in order to enjoy the game at a beginner level, I want the game's basics and fundamentals to be a bit more easier.

Anything else to add to that？

I find the customizations in this game to be lacking, I've got stacks of fight money going unused. I guess an update would be asking too much. 

You said that Tekken Tag Tournament 2's balance was good, but isn't there strong characters and weak characters？

Usually when I think of ranking the characters in this game, I first think of the combo damage the character can do.

Secondly I think of how well the character can pull out of bad situations or instances in which you mess up. But I generally think all characters in the game can do that.

So on the first point, if the character has a while standing launch for -17 that does more then 24 damage, then I think that's good. Whether or not the character can do more then 24 dmg with a while standing launch punish for -16 contributes.

With that in mind, these are the current characters that do less then 24 dmg with their ws launch punishes for -16 - [ Anna, Lee, Baek, Bob & Alisa ]

Onto the second point, I find it hard to turn the game around when the opponent has momentum with these characters - [ Lee, Hwoarang, Wang, Asuka & Jun ]

There are more characters that I think are weak but I'll get into more details about that at a later time.

Well, could you at least list Best 5 and Worst 5 characters in the game?

Best 5 are - [ Nina, Eddy, Paul, Bruce & Feng ]

Worst 5 are - [ Lee, Alisa, Jun, Kuma/Panda & Baek ]

In May there is the Special Hammers Cup 2 Tournament and you have decided to team up with Japanese players.

Yes, I teamed up with Shana and Nyanchuu.

On my character choices ･･･ Since it's a team tournament, I let my team members decide which characters I should use.

Shana picked Law & Paul after watching tournament videos with me in them.

I actually wanted to use Yoshimitsu ･･･ Sorry Yoshimitsu, I had to stop.

You lost with Dragunov after using him at Matador Cup 5, what are your feelings on that

That he really is a True Tekken God.

･･･ Anyways it's going to be a major landmark if I win with Shana's characters.

Which player are you most worried about？

Nobody in particular, I lost to Deku last time in tournament so I think I'm more worried about myself ・・・

I don't know if he's going.

This discussion has gone on for a long time so this is the last question. What was the reason for creating this website [Tekken Mura]?

To teach people a lot about South Korean tekken through columns on the site which I write.

It's also difficult to find information on Japanese Tekken so I wanted this website to help share information for those that were looking for it.

I hopefully want this to be a big Tekken community site for everyone to enjoy. Especially with a game like Tekken where players in arcades are naturally mutual with each other or even end up being acquaintances.

But right now the site isn't that big yet since we just recently launched, so I wanted people to know the site a bit more through stuff like this.

From here on out, what do you plan on doing？

Since there are things on this site that are unfinished, I want to focus on finishing them quickly.

After the tournament I plan on creating good beginner guides as well as conduct more interviews.

I also plan on adding a system that will get Tekken news to the site fast. The bulletin boards are up on the site so people are free to enjoy themselves on it.

After certain events are finished, I plan on doing more.

Last words:

First of all ･･･ Since there isn't a lot written on the site right now, you're free to post anything ･･･

Any Tekken related questions or talking about thoughts/opinion on the game are all accepted on the site and encouraged for discussion.

If your confident and knowledgable about the game, your welcome to contribute on the site.

Someone also please tell me how to get around the Tokyo Soshigayaokura area！

I'll still be studying the Japanese language and I hope I can get better at it with the help of everyone！

I look forward to working with everyone！

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Source ▶ http://www.tekkenmura.com/abare/26485

Comments

[Fulcrum]

Thanks a lot! Very interesting

[J1N]

Nothing wrong with being gay. Couple of us fairies hold it down big time!!! I love rocking str8 boys then rubbing I. In their face that they were destroyed by a "fag"! What could you possibly say to that??!!

[J1N]

it in*

[Forest]

Help Me! is always fun to watch. I agree that TTT2 is very balanced, but hard for new players. I also agree that AO is cute! haha

[ZTS]

Damn both HelpMe and Knee think Lee is bottom tier.

[SKYmjams]

i dont know if Help Me is gonna read this, probably not, but i actually think he is a true beast in this game, and sometimes watching the green game land stream i liked very much one of his red sweters... Hope someday you can come to Venezuela as JDCR did the last year and play with us

[Carmen]

Helpme's Japanese is pretty good!

[rickstah]

i dont like how his favorite JAV actress has my last name

cool.

[youknow]

ty wonkey.