Combos: Difference between revisions

 

 

Combos will often give points or help fill up a [[Mana Meter]] when completed properly, but they most often allow the player to access powerful special moves. In fighting games, each character will usually have his own unique set of combinations and special moves.

 

 

The technical definition of a combo is a sequence of moves where if the first hit connects, the entire sequence is unblockable (compare to [[Mercy Invincibility]]). However, many players use the term more casually. See [http://home.att.net/~miller.daniel.r/comic293.htm this episode] of "[[Kid Radd (Webcomic)|Kid Radd]]" for the natural consequence should a fighting game character ever face off against a [[Platformer]] character.

 

Very much [[Truth in Television]] for martial arts, as fighters will train to deliver a series of moves which are easy to do in succession, maintaining momentum while preventing the opponent from recovering.

* Combos as we know them first appeared in ''[[Street Fighter II (Video Game)|Street Fighter II]]'' by accident; While playtesting the game, the developers discovered a glitch where certain combinations of moves for each character were able to strike in succession before the victim could block between them, allowing players to rack up damage a lot faster. The glitch was kept in as the developers thought it wouldn't be notable. Players and publications quickly caught onto these and spread the word. By the time ''Super Street Fighter II'' came around, the game was actively counting the hits of each combo.

* Another Capcom series, ''Vampire'', or ''[[Darkstalkers (Video Game)|Darkstalkers]]'' in U.S., was the pioneer of zigzag chaining, where players can chain normals from weakest to strongest, tracing a zigzag line with the button presses, making this series a grandfather to the ''Marvel'' series, ''Guilty Gear'', ''Melty Blood'' and countless doujin fighters.

** The ''[[SSX (Video Game)|SSX]]'' snowboarding series uses the same idea, giving the biggest bonuses for simultaneous tricks (a flip ''with'' a grab).

*** The ''SSX'' moves were further translated into ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Skateboarding]]'', which obviously give the biggest bonuses for power-up moves.

* Every ''[[Tales Series|Tales]]'' game lets characters combo beyond their basic attack sequence by chaining skills together, offering bonus experience among other things for players who can cooperate to make extended hit chains. ''Symphonia'' gave a title to anyone who pulled off the most basic combo in the game (Lloyd's hit combo into Majinken) as well as an additional string of titles for ever-mounting comboes (up to 100 hits). ''[[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Tales of Destiny]] Remake'' and ''[[Tales of Innocence (Video Game)|Tales of Innocence]]'' have battle systems geared around comboes - any ''Innocence'' character can generally get to at least 20 or 30 hits ''on their own'' by endgame, and the AI tends to be very helpful in driving the number into the hundreds against some bosses.

** The Tales mantra, for those curious, applies to all games except ''Destiny Remake'', ''Hearts'', and ''Graces'', which used the separate CC/EG gauge, and runs like this: "Attack, attack, attack, tokugi/base, ougi/arcane." Insert extra attacks and tech tiers where applicable.

* In an odd use of the trope, ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'' allows you to combo [[Limit Break|Quickenings]], including chaining attacks from other characters.

** Chain combos are used in ''[[Final Fantasy X 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X 2]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'' as a means of increasing damage, and in the latter game, a way to max out the [[Break Meter]]. The first three games in the series also had a combo counter, but this had more to do with getting around system limitations in order to display huge amounts of damage rather than be something beneficial.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' uses a "Combo" system for the Rogue class (and cat-form Druids, which play the same at their core); Rogues gain several moves that add "points" to a combo meter on their target, which can then be ended with a finisher. The game, however, is slow enough as to not produce the traditional combo feel. There are some more traditional combos mixed in as well, especially at top tier play.

* Even Pokemon has produced some combos with its attacks, such as Hypnosis+Dream Eater, Rain Dance turning Thunder into a 100% accuracy, Sleep Talk and Snore only working when asleep, Mindreader & a otherwise low-acc insta-kill move and so on.

* ''[[Grandia II (Video Game)|Grandia II]]'' had combos as the ''basic'' attack. When ordered to attack, the character would unleash a flurry of strikes on the selected enemy: two at level one, up to four or five with upgrades by the end of the game. The moves they used, however, were selected automatically. The alternate basic attack was "Counter", which was just one normal strike that canceled whatever attack the enemy was preparing at that moment.

* [[Halo 2]], of all things. There was a glitch called "BXR" that allow a player to melee with B (which centered the crosshairs on the target's head), press X to cancel the frames of putting the gun back to your shoulder, and Right trigger to finish your target. There were several like this; BXL (BX and stick your target) and others. Removing this in Halo 3 unfortunately prevented lowering guns on XBL for some reason.

** This is also easily done in ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' but unfortunately, you don't get as much of a reward asi n say, ''[[Super Mario Bos]]''.