Could someone school me on the combo system and timings in different fighting games?
For example, when you compare Mortal Kombat X to Street Fighter V, you can tell right away that their combo system is vastly different.
Could someone go into the technical details behind that?
Besides those two games, are there other types of combo systems implemented in other games?
MK and NRS games in general use a different system where combos are based on whether or not the attacker has returned to a neutral pose, with the exception of juggles and capture states.
SF and all other fighting games’ combo systems are based on whether the character being hit has recovered out of the hit animation (hitstun) back into a neutral pose.
The only game I know enough about the underlying combo system to would be Street Fighter 3, specifically Third Strike, though they all work pretty similar.
As far as grounded combos are concerned, it’s pretty much the same as most 2D fighters. Every attack as an amount of hitstun it inflicts, if you recover fast enough, you might potentially still be plus enough to hit with another move, depending on how much hitstun is left on the opponent, compared to how fast your remaining moves are. For instance hitting with Ibuki’s 5MP leaves her at enough advantage to link into her 5MK, but due to pushback, this is very difficult to do and character/spacing dependent. Then of course you have cancels, supers and such, the majority of which make up your grounded combo game. Most of which I find to be pretty self explanatory if you know basic fighting game stuff. Small quirks to 3S’s grounded game is that a character who gets stunned will receive 1 more frame of hitstun, and characters who are crouching will receive more hitstun and take more damage. (How much varies per move)
Let’s talk about the aerial juggle system, which is where most long combos take place in 3S…
Certain moves “launch” the opponent, putting them into a juggle state, where they can be hit. Against airborne targets, each attack a character has a few set properties:
Every move has either the ability to “reset” your opponent when hitting an aerial opponent, or putting them into another juggle state. (Stunned aerial opponents, will always be juggled)
Whether your move “resets” or not, every attack in 3S technically puts your opponent into a juggle state until the character falls out of the hitstun of your attack, this allows moves which have long hitstun or early cancel able frames to combo, even if the normal used would reset. For instance, Dudley can combo against an aerial opponent with (most of his buttons honestly) 6MK and 5HK into his DP. This is because his cancelable frames are early and the hitstun is long. Likewise, Ryu can cancel his cl.5LP into his EX DP only, because it’s fast enough to combo from such a light hitstun move.
Every move has a juggle point value associated with it. This number is added to the opponent who is in a juggle state when that move connects. Each point added resets but decreases the amount of juggle time until the opponent becomes invincible. At juggle point 0 and 1 for instance, you have essentially until the opponent hits the ground, while for each point added, this time decreases. It caps at 15, which is the game’s default value for “uncomboable” moves, however even that value still technically puts the opponent into a juggle state for a frame or two. The general rule is you get 6 juggle points, 7 it gets incredibly tiny, and 8-15 are essentially pure invincibility beyond canceling into moves as per point #2.
Certain supers rather than add juggle points, SET the juggle value back to 0. This is why during a combo where Ryu can hit with his EX Joudan (3 juggle points), he can then land his Super Art I, which sets the value at 0 and puts them into a juggle state, and can proceed to combo into another EX Joudan, which puts the opponent into another juggle state (at a value of 3), and then hit with something else. This concept in previous SF3 games led to many broken and easy infinites, as a lot of normals just reset the juggle point value instead of adding to them. Ibuki could just infinite off of her cl.HK launcher because the first hit of it set the value to 0.
Even when reset in the air, the opponent can still be hit by supers, which have a special property of being able to hit reset opponents. Regardless of being reset and not in a juggle state, the juggle time bar is still going down based on the point value, if you super someone before that timer is at 0, it will hit. For instance, Dudley’s 6MK I think has a juggle value of 3 points, and is set to reset the opponent. If you hit the opponent with 6MK, cancel into ducking rush to keep the distance in check, then do a super, you will catch the opponent still recovering in the air. They can at that point only parry your super or be hit. Try the same thing on a 15 point move that resets, and the super will whiff. Even at 5-6 it will likely whiff due to the timer going away too quickly.
–
Anyway, that’s the gist. I’m sure others can tell you more about their game of choice. The whole SFIV and V way, with the arbitrary attack values on juggles confuse me. Each move has it’s own value, and even if an opponent is in a juggle state, you can only connect with moves with that value or higher. Very restrictive, very unintuitive, but it forces balance and streamlines the system.
Except, as I pointed out in my previous post, NRS games such as MK.
Grounded combos in NRS games are based on the attackers recovery frames. As long as the attacking character has not recovered, the combo can continue. This means the only way to extend grounded combos is to find strings that can be special cancelled out of… hopefully into something that inflicts a capture state (e.g. freezing someone with Sub-Zero).