After experiencing the beauty of manual passing,
I've switched to manual shooting about two
months ago, hoping I would have mastered it
by the time PES 2021 was out.
But even after perfecting manual passing which
I highly, highly recommend by the way, directing
manual shots was a completely new level of
challenging... and that was true even with
seemingly easy bouncing balls on my striker's
stronger foot
But as with most things, practice makes perfect,
And it didn't take long before the manual
screamers started pouring in.
Now it's extremely difficult to learn, and
I'll cover why, but with enough practice,
you'll be able to score goals you rarely see
with assisted shooting, and you'll truly get
to enjoy this rendition of the beautiful game.
I'll start with a confession.
Default assisted shooting in PES -whether
it's basic or advanced- is only satisfying
when it actually works.
That is when the engine decides to reward
you with a straight shot that won't randomly
float over the bar, which brings me to the
biggest reason to switch to manual.
I quickly discovered that my shots on manual
were almost always straight, never too high
and floaty the way they used to be with assisted
shooting.
The input I needed to put in to pull off a
rising or dipping shot used to be very counterintuitive
with assisted shooting,
But on manual, if your player has the trait
-whether it's a dipping or a rising shot-
this is the shot they will automatically use
when they shoot, and it's the main reason
I've stuck with manual shooting.
I mean look at this lovely Asensio rising
shot using no extra inputs
As a result, manual shooting has more level
and satisfying feel.
I also feel the ball speed on full manual,
corresponds better to real life shooting.
I think they made it this way to make low
shots possible on manual when you underpower
your shots.
And yes, I've scored low shots on manual this
way, and it feels way more rewarding than
when I did it with advanced shooting.
That doesn't mean you can't shank shots over
the bar with an overpowered manual shot, especially
if you're using your weaker foot, which makes
the shot less forgiving for even a slightly
overpowered manual shot.
Here Bale keeps his weaker foot shot under
control by not overpowering it.
It really depends on how you're receiving
the ball before taking the manual shot with
the weaker foot.
You also need to take your running momentum
into consideration when powering up your manual
shot.
Do it right, and you'll be rewarded with a
manual beauty of a goal.
And while long rangers are technically more
feasible on manual,
You can't just shoot from anywhere and expect
a banger.
You can't shoot at just any angle if the defender
won't let you turn.
And don't expect players who aren't good with
shooting to suddenly score bangers.
Your player's shooting stats definitely still
matter.
When you're not facing the goal, avoid overpowering
your manual shot,
...otherwise it will just sail wide even if
you get your angle right.
Even Messi won't produce a banger with an
overpowered off balance shot.
I mean look how much better Mane's similar
shot is, with only a slightly less powered
up shot.
And these are the very slim margins between
two very similar shots that I'm talking about
when attempting to describe how....
..rewarding it is to score a FUMA goal.
What makes it so rewarding is the extremely
steep learning curve involved with manual
shooting.
The first reason behind this steep learning
curve compared to manual passing is that you
get to practice manual passing with every
pass you make in the game towards the goal.
These manual build up passes happen a lot
more frequently than the single shooting opportunity
you might get at the end of each play.
You can probably string over 10 manual passes
together before getting a single opening for
a shot on target.
And when the ball is lost you need to start
all over again and work to get that shooting
opportunity.
As a result, you get used to manual passing
a lot faster than with manual shooting.
Secondly, the margin of error with directing
manual passes is a lot more forgiving -I mean
Benzema can lay it off anywhere here between
these angles and Hazard will still get the
ball.
Compare that to manual shooting, where you
have a very tight angle to aim your analog
stick at, before your shot goes off target.
In this play, Modric is running head on facing
the goal, I have plenty of time to slightly
move my stick towards the left post, but I
still can't get it right.
And coming fresh from assisted shooting, where
you get used to moving your stick generously
when aiming, expect to see extremely wild
misses when you first embark onto this journey.
I'm talking comically wide misses.
I mean at one point, I was so happy just getting
my shots on target, period.
And when I would pull off a series of difficult
skills, I found myself aiming for the center
to avoid wasting the play
It just felt painful to pull off an impressive
trick, then tilt my stick a little too far
off target when trying to aim around the keeper.
And it felt just as bad after pulling off
a lovely manual lob into the box
So I just found myself going for the center
of the goal to avoid wasting all those beautiful
manual through passes.
Because even if I had all the time in the
world to aim my shot, tilting the stick slightly
away from the center of the goal can translate
into a much bigger change in the outcome.
But even if your manual shot is well directed
to the sides of the goal, you have to deal
with the excellent keepers in PES this year,
which makes your job even more challenging,
especially against top tier teams.
Hitting a manual shot on target and around
the keeper is simply not a guarantee that
you'll score.
Third difference compared to manual passing,
is that your receiving player will move towards
the manual pass you've placed, regardless
of where it goes.
But the goal on the other hand, will not move
towards your manual shot.
Actually, your player will move to the ball
a lot faster than the opponent marking him.
This makes you care less about the exact placement
of most your manual passes, because so long
as it's into an empty space, your player will
move to the ball,
unless you're trying to thread a pass through
a defense, which is very rewarding to pull
off.
But otherwise, with manual passing, receivers
will go to the ball, making your life a lot
easier.
This means you need every bit of accuracy
to get your shot exactly where you want it.
Finally, with manual passing you usually have
plenty of time to accurately aim your stick
in the direction you chose.
But with manual shooting, the opportunity
to shoot -especially on Superstar-- is so
slim that you have very little time to accurately
aim in that already unforgivably small target
before unleashing your shot.
This is actually quite realistic.
Like here Benzema barely has time to turn
and aim.
And as in real life, you sometimes just aim
at the goal and hope for the best.
I did find that most my goals on full manual
involved having more time to properly aim
my shot.
And this here is my first goal on full manual.
Notice how much time I had to modify my aim
relative to the direction of my run.
As a matter of fact, it's always easier when
you don't have to aim at all, and just shot
through the direction of your run.
But even those shots along the same direction
weren't easy when I first started.
And as in real life, I usually require many
manual shooting attempts in the beginning
of a game before getting my angles right.
This adds another layer of Realism to the
game, and makes the goals you score on full
manual shooting a lot more rewarding.
So let's see how Kroos fares on his third
atempt.
And this is actually what I love about the
realism of manual controls in general.
There's an element of trial and error, which
realistically builds up the necessary experience
needed for you to manually deliver a ball
to your striker.
Speaking of Realism, remember all those long-range
assisted curlers in my previous videos?
These used to be my most commonly scored goals
in PES.
Every video I made had comments about how
easy pulling off long range assisted finesse
shots looked in my videos.
I mean you can even argue they were as easy
as scoring a free kick in PES.
And you know what?
You guys were right, the long range assisted
finesse shots were too easy to pull off.
I mean Firmino isn't even using his stronger
foot here.
Sadly, on manual controls, finesse shots are
borderline IMPOSSIBLE to pull off.
It doesn't matter which player you're controlling.
Whether it's Messi or Salah using their stronger
left foot from an easy angle, it just refuses
to happen.
As a matter of fact, any shot that requires
not just an extra button to press, but also
a need to compensate for the swerve in your
shot,
is just too much thinking you won't be afforded
against a Superstar opponent on manual.
And even when I'm afforded the time to figure
it out, I couldn't score a single manual finesse.
Even in training and on Salah's stronger foot,
and I'm not even changing my stick's direction,
look how wildly off target a manual finesse
is produced.
So when i began to overcompensate for the
swerve, I started getting closer and closer.
I'll post a tutorial if I ever get manual
finesse shots nailed down, but I honestly
feel it shouldn't be this hard.
Eventually, I started aiming for the center,
Then I started just shooting straight in situations
where I used to go for a finesse, because
it was easier without the extra button and
adjustments, albeit the wrong shot to take.
And here I actually got the angle right, but
forgot to press the finesse button.
It's just too many things to juggle given
the short time you'll have to make your manual
shot.
And I'm not even mentioning the times the
ball didn't spin even though I'm confident
I had the right input.
Really, any shot that requires an extra command
is challenging on full manual, even if it's
a simple chip shot.
Which is actually realistic because those
shots are special in real life too, and require
a little extra thinking.
You end up either messing up the power bar
part,
or the timing of shot,
or sometimes the timing and power are right
but your direction is ever so slightly off
target.
Most times I ended up calculating for too
long with no time to actually pull it off.
Out of frustration, I'd go a regular shot
when I should have chipped the keeper
And you know what, sometimes that worked and
I was able to squeeze it in!
But with practice, yes, I was able to score
a few chipped shots, but they were all these
same short chips over the keeper using a highly
rated player with excellent ball control.
I mean with enough time you can score long
range manual chip shots
But they are no where as easy as they were
on assisted shooting
Now I want to talk about this realistic modded
broadcast camera angle and how it makes manual
shooting 100x harder, especially the closer
you get to the goal, as the camera starts
to skew.
Things were already hard enough when I was
directly facing the goal.
Imagine how harder it would be when you were
coming in from the sides.
I mean imagine how I felt when I pulled off
this sexy nutmeg before messing up the finishing.
And some of these stadiums have low views,
making it even harder to aim your shots when
you're on the far side.
Especially that finesse shots are not really
an option, at least not at my current stage.
I tried doing this thing where I shoot in
the direction of my run, but it's not that
simple,
albeit a good technique in my earlier days.
There seems to be a need to overcompensate
when aiming, like here I actually was aiming
for the far angle.
I actually found it easier to aim the further
I was from the goal, because it was harder
to mess up subtle movements of the analog
stick.
But eventually I learned to power up first,
then calmly change my aim.
Another way to do it is to modify your aiming
trajectory according to the direction of your
run
Speaking of getting better with practice I
mentioned in my manual passing video how challenging
I found manual crossing to be.
Well after plenty of practice with manual
passing, I'm back in love with crossing, but
my new problem is getting those manual headers
in.
Like everything else, it's only a matter of
time before I get the angles right,
And I feel that getting the crosses right
was the difficult part to be honest,
and I'm now able to reliably deliver the ball
to my striker's head.
But again, the stellar keepers aren't making
my life any easier
That said, I feel like it's the most satisfying
play to watch unfold in PES,
and there were several moments where I thought
I would finally get a header in.
And while I did eventually score from a manual
cross, it was off this beautiful manual volley.
I actually did score a manual header from
open play once, but it was an own goal.
So yeah.
Corners were a completely different issue
altogether.
I had no idea why easy headers with good heading
players would consistently keep sailing over
the bar.
Even Mane's Karate skills were no match for
this weird bug.
This same issue plagued my headers off free
kicks into the box.
I tried that technique where you fill the
power bar all the way while pressing upwards,
and I did have some success with it, being
able to finally aim lower,
....and eventually scoring my first manual
header goal off of it.
, but sometimes it didn't work, and that was
frustrating.
Eventually I moved back to my standard corner
technique powered to 3/4 of the bar, which
Matip beautifully converts here.
I think I've actually scored an equal number
of AI own goals off corners.
I mean look at this really tight defensive
AI header.
Before I leave the topic of crossing, you've
already seen this lovely scissor kick in the
intro,
Now because of the more random nature of a
manual cross, I found the ball landing more
frequently behind my strikers, triggering
a pleasantly high proportion of backward kicks
I found them surprisingly easier to aim than
with headers.
And honestly, this alone made manual crossing
worth all the practice in my book.
And the same way manual passing triggers a
whole new set of animations to accommodate
all those last second passes in any direction,
which I discussed in my manual passing video,
...with manual shooting you can trigger a
sudden clearance animation,
You can even trigger a shot on your way down
after tripping onto a player's foot.
You can trigger a shot from any position,
really, which...
means.. even more bicycle kicks.
Since I've moved to manual shooting, I've
seen trajectories that assisted shooting won't
even allow.
For instance, assisted shooting tends to shoot
through a gap, but on manual, I can randomly
hit this player's knee by mistake.
While in this one, I'm just aiming through
the gap and hoping for the best.
With manual shooting my decision making is
more realistic, knowing that the game won't
help me hit the target.
So here I feel that passing back to Suarez
down the middle would be easier than taking
a shot from this angle.
While in this play, it's the last few seconds
and I can't risk missing the target, so I
just go for the center.
And here I make sure I bring the ball on Isco's
stronger foot, before taking my shot.
Now compare that kind of diligence to my assisted
shooting days,
when I'd dare take a long range finesse shot
with a player's weaker left foot, and score
with my stick all the way to the left.
Finally, as I did in my manual passing video,
let me review the AI's behavior on manual
shooting.
I actually feel like their shots are more
frequently towards the center of the goal,
in a realistic way.
This was similar to the way I aim most of
the time on full manual, to avoid a wide miss.
Speaking of wide misses, I'm pretty sure I
didn't see the Superstar AI miss so widely
before I switched to manual shooting.
That included shots with the goal wide open
And similar to how I aimed my volleys to the
center of the goal,
The AI was more likely to do the same with
their volleys.
Even the AI's header missed the target in
a way...
...that reminded me of my own misses when
I'd forget to aim.
Players miss realistically too, like Sterling
here.
Fine I'm being too cruel and he's been through
enough.
Back to the AI, even when they scored, I felt
the ball trajectory to be a lot more varied
and random than it used to be on assisted
shooting.
And it looked too similar to my goals on manual
shooting.
I mean look here at this finish here through
Courtois's legs.
I don't remember seeing many of those before
I made the switch.
Or this Suarez header to the ground and off
the post.
That all said, when the script wants the AI
to score, it'll still score through the tightest
of angles
So take it easy, and start with manual passing.
Watch my video on the beauty of manual passing
if you're not sold on it yet.
And you know what, you can technically manually
pass the ball into the opponents goal.
Or into your own goal, for that matter.
You can also do things with manual passing
like pass the ball to yourself, because PES
doesn't have the triple tap sprint that FIFA
does, and I recently made a video about that.
And as you transition to manual shooting,
my advice is to first focus on getting your
shots on target, before attempting to aim
around the keeper
And just take your shots at the beginning
instead of going for a manual finesse.
Also remember that I'm having a harder time
than most because of my realistic broadcast
camera angle.
But with enough practice I got used to it,
and was able to link amazing manual passes
to manual chip shots in no time.
I've been playing football games for 30 years,
and I actually made a video about that journey
across the different console generations,
platforms and game franchises -I'll leave
a link to this video in the description-
but switching to manual passing and shooting
is easily the most rewarding gameplay change
I've experienced playing football games throughout
all those years.
So how do you switch to full manual?
At the side select screen, press the "X" to
Edit Personal Data, then set your Pass Support
Level to off, and your Shot Type to Manual.
And that's it!
This video was made possible thanks to the
generosity of my Patrons who are seeing this
video earlier after getting a behind the scenes
look at its making, and for whom I'm trying
to find a way to have my entire PES folder
shared for those who want to play a version
that looks like mine, but aren't into the
complexities of modding.
Be sure to follow me on twitter at KnightMD1,
or on instagram, and soon on Twitch when I'm
good enough to play live!
So thanks for sticking around, and see you
in the next one!
