Being a guy who appreciates, but stopped playing fighting games because of the generally high skill ceiling, YOMI Hustle really got to me. The idea of having a fighting game where i don't need to worry about failing to execute a move or have blazingly fast reflexes seemed like a perfect fit for me.

At first, however, I felt disappointed. After playing a few matches, I thought to myself: 'if you have to guess the opponent's next move, then this game is all about luck!'.

The thing is, just like 'rock, paper, scissors' and regular fighting games, there is a lot more to this than dumb luck. After all, If luck really were the only factor at play here, I wouldn't have been utterly destroyed by more seasoned opponents over and over again.

As I steadily improved and started to grasp some of the basic concepts (like DI, IASA, proration and free cancels), I started to realize that your skill matters. A lot!

Of course, veterans still wipe the floor with me, but now i kinda get what I did wrong. Maybe my move was too obvious, maybe I didn't mind my move's IASA, forgot to use free cancel or (embarrassingly) used a whiff cancel at 2f advantage.

Also, I have to note that the community of this game is as wholesome as it gets. Other players often give me valuable advice and/or halt the match to patiently teach me a new move or something. The dev constantly updates the game, which is an amazing plus.

Playing YOMI Hustle also made me notice that every fighting game is, in fact, a real-time strategy game. This realization led me to watch my first Evo in years and deepened my appreciation for the genre. So I have to thank it for this renewed love for fighting games and everything they encompass.

To sum it up, this is the most effortless recommendation I have ever made on Steam. YOMI Hustle can be intimidating to new players, since it certainly has a steep learning curve. However, that is offset by the sheer joy of uncovering the mechanics and noticing how much better you became after some time. The only complaint I can think of is that I won't have any free time to play it for now, as I am dangerously close to a deadline because I played a ton of it in the last weeks. Buy it and have a good one!

What if instead of your only move is hustle it was called your only move is freaky and it was just sex

Do not try to play this game unless you are planning to play with someone else who is also new to the game. Otherwise, the gameplay is repeatedly pressing the "I acknowledge that I am in hitstun" button, which is decidedly less fun than being perfected in a normal fighting game