For those you interested in making elaborate month-three combovids for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, here’s a list of naunaces that may be worth exploring.
Platform Ledge Sweep
The reaction type caused by Kratos’ D+Square actually animates beyond the time it takes to reach the ground. Sweeping an opponent off a platform ledge gives you a few extra frames to juggle them before they air tech. I’m sure someone can find a clever use for this bit of minutia!
Post-Stagger Meaty Setups
Heavy stagger reactions tend to force opponents low to the ground – stagger kneel (caused by Sweet Tooth’s j.Square) and stagger drop (caused by Sir Daniel’s j.F+Square). Therefore both can serve as convenient mid-combo meaty setups for high attacks and projectiles.
Ceiling Bounce Followups
On stages with solid ceilings such as Dojo and Invasion, it’s possible to launch an opponent into a sort of ceiling splat reaction, providing an added followup opportunity as they peel off the ceiling. Certain characters can even add extra eject attacks to their air combos.
Multi-Victim Combos
Since multi-victim combos yield diminishing returns for AP accrual, it takes a few extra hits for additional opponents to reach the infinite avoidance limit. As such, it’s possible to perform longer combos against secondary and tertiary victims.
Hedgehog Grenade Counter / Reflect Setups
Once thrown, the Hedgehog Grenade remains dormant as a proximity mine until an opponent moves within three meters. Obviously it works great as a combo extender, but it also serves as the perfect trigger for a mid-combo counter after being planted by the opponent.
Freeze Missile Combos
The Freeze Missile is my favorite combo item in Battle Royale. Upon impact, it slows victims down to 25% speed for nearly 10 seconds, including all their defensive and hit stun states. Why hasn’t anyone made a Freeze Missile combo video yet?
Killer Bees Combos
The Killer Bees are my second-favorite combo item in the game. They fire auto-targeted projectiles at the nearest opponent, with a cooldown of 0.5 seconds – perfect for extending chain combos. Why hasn’t anyone made a Killer Bees combo video yet?
I hope this helps stir up some new ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing even more innovative combovids from the PASBR community when the new DLC characters become available!
Ceiling and Multivictim combo example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj2Y392Vq2A#t=7m42s
Freeze Missile Combos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5NHx5KSZD8
I have to say, those Freeze Missle combos are awesome! Thanks for making that video. There’s so much cool stuff in it, and so many subtle stylish touches. That reverse whiff divekick combo at 1:22 totally made my day. And your capture quality is amazing as always.
Maj can you tell me how long it is until you can AD after a tech jump and how many frames it takes to AD? can it be buffered during a tech jump/ fall? I just need clarification of setups I use.
What does AD mean? Air dodge or air dash? (Kat or Boots of Hermes?)
Also what’s a tech jump? Are you referring to the automatic tech flip after you get hit in the air?
I’ll let you know if i happen to know the numbers you’re looking for, but i can’t look up frame data at this point.
yeah AD is an air dodge, tech jump is the tech flip after you get hit out of the air. Can I ask you another question Maj? Who thought of the footsies in this game? Everything is so damn safe. Especially some of the projectiles in this game.
On the plus side there are a few other ppl at Super Arcade interested in this game so Im going to start playing with them offline. Hopefully we can figure out somethings to make the game more appealing to competitive fighting gamers; right now it just looks like a zone fests and no one seems to want to give it a chance unfortunately. Which actually makes me sad cuz people arent putting your combo system to good use.
well outside of combo videos of course haha. you think ull ever write an analysis article on the combat in this game?
my bad for calling the tech flip tech jump. I know that term is used for other things.
As far as i know, you can cancel tech flip into any action (including air dodge) at any time, although i don’t remember if that includes the very first frame. By the way, tech flip is briefly invincible for around 15 frames if i remember correctly, so canceling it forfeits that invincibility.
As for “Who thought of the footsies in this game?” – i don’t think that’s generally something one person consciously dictates when designing a fighting game, unless maybe they’re doing it alone. Even then, footsies is sort of an emergent concept that’s tricky to control during full-speed development.
Every character in PASBR had to be reviewed and approved at various stages by Paul Edwards, our lead combat designer. I guess he’s probably the closest to being the deciding voice you’re imagining. But our collaborative design process was very dynamic, with a lot of moving pieces at any given time.
Our overall goal was to make sure offense remained rewarding, because we didn’t want the game to become a defensive turtlefest. We wanted blocking to be a useful tool, but never the automatic best option. I think PASBR succeeded in that regard, because blocking is the 3rd or 4th best option in most situations – which keeps the game flowing at a fast pace. That’s probably why we ended up having a lot of safe pokes.
As for writing a combat analysis article on PASBR, to be honest i’m not really sure. Maybe someday, but probably not anytime soon. I’ve been working pretty hard for the past 18 months, so i kind of need a break. Anyway i think i’m too close to the game to write a good objective analysis of it, you know what i mean?
Yeah I get you Maj; and please understand this, I love the work you do for the FGC as a whole. I value your analysis as well. I think a couple of the top players and I were discussing how zoning in this game is so strong; so while it seems to be going at a fast pace; nothing is really happening. And when you are playing a game where supers are the killers getting thrown ( when they dont have a Kill Confirm out of throw) or just being hit in the air ( because most of the cast cant produce a valued combo or kill confirm out of the air), u realize it seems more psuedo fast pace in terms of actually having to think on your toes if that makes any remote sense.
However I do think that some of the top competitors have tried to make it more competitive and they have succeeded a certain degree. I think this patch with landing lag will push the game in the right direction; I think that you remove the glitches, stable some of characters attributes ( as i feel you have done quite wonderfully in the context of the new general changes) and you’ll a good game that can be a great one and people will love to watch it. The landing lag will definitely reduce the effectiveness of some of the safest options in the game. Itll give way to more of the mixups we see in smash imo and then some. I think thatll create hype to because the pressure will feel more consequential. i feel top lvl play was getting to be a turtlefest to some; however now I believe it can steer clear of that route. Which Im glad for. I do think you all at Superbot made a gem; I think that certain things were just curtailing it from what it should be. In a brawler fighter like this there just has to be more punishment for jumping as it is intrinsically better than its traditional fighter counterpart. I think this patch with definitely do that.
Anyways I for one am excited for this patch. Oh and I have taken the time to go down to Super Arcade and meet with LLND and NerdJosh; Im going to start trying to show them some new tech and hopefully build a larger offline scene there.
Thanks for going out of your way to meet up with the Super Arcade regulars. I appreciate that and i hope you guys do manage to get something off the ground – or just enjoy some good competition against each other for a couple of weeks after the patch goes live.
Super Arcade itself seems receptive to supporting newer console games at least one day every weekend, so at least that aspect is taken care of. And PASBR still has a strong, loyal following online, though it’s not very organized and there aren’t enough major events to draw everyone’s attention.
Unfortunately it’s tough for a brand new franchise to get over that hill. Usually it takes a couple of sequels to establish those community bonds, where everyone knows where to go for news, events, matchmaking, etc.