The trick to target combos is giving the character a purpose for using it. If it’s not a cancelable target combo, then it needs to have some sort of benefit for people to even think about using it. Some launch, some corner carry, some are a low-high or high-low, some are there as a fall-back option in-case you didn’t get your confirm. (Dudley’s overhead follow-up in 3S) There’s a lot of ways to make them work, but an over-abundance in the game as a whole could be an issue. However, one or so per character isn’t unheard of in a fighter. Really just depends on if it’s necessary.
So long as they don’t design a worthless target combo like Ibuki’s LK->MK->HK in Third Strike. There is NO reason to never stop at the MK and cancel into a special or just stop, whether you got parried, blocked or what have you. If the HK was super jump cancelable, then it would at least of had… some moderately, albeit oddly bizarre purpose. So long as those don’t exist, then they can throw targets around however they want, but I definitely don’t want to see the game built around target combo confirms – that’s a character thing.
Harking back to a different topic, I am a little concerned by the statement from quite awhile ago about most attacks being able to hit crouchers. Now most standing jabs actually do hit crouchers in games often times, but it depended on the character. The phrasing makes me a bit worried about lack of hurtbox variation between the characters. That and just the overall difficulty of not being able to avoid a normal by crouching, even if you expect it. The difference between dealing with Dudley’s forward HP between SF3 and SF4 is a good example, it would whiff at max range on a lot of the cast in 3S, but would always hit mid-to-close range. Avoiding normals by going under or over them is one of my favorite things to do, which is why I loved universal overhead, as it not only gave every character an overhead, but also allowed them to slowly get in by going over low reads. (That and it was massively negative if used incorrectly, which is amazing design.)
(Side-topic, give a character a V-skill where they can go super low profile (Lean back or something?) and do a small hop – sold!)
The last thing I want is universal hitboxes to see there way into SFV, and the phrasing does make me a bit concerned by that.
Frame data is always a concern of mine, as SF4’s was god awful, and I don’t want to see that happen again, though that inherently won’t be the case just due to them making characters specifically for SFV. Still, I would like to see some frame depth, treating each frame with a little bit of thought on how the game could play out if such a unique situation occurred where maybe you only hit with the 2nd hit of such and such move. These help create unique situations, where only seasoned players of a character can get the worth out of them. Combos have never been a huge thing to SF (in my opinion), the most enjoyable and skillful combos to me are ones that stem from bizarre circumstance and good reaction and knowledge by the player. Good 3S examples would be comboing off of Alex’s j.dHP from a high height (Yes he can 100% stun combo off this and in my opinion, it was legit), or even something silly like how hitting with just the last hit of EX kazekiri does not use up all the combo points, so you can actually continue a combo (albeit barely).
Here’s some old GIFs of mine with some “meh” examples, but it’s all I have. Though twelve being able to be thrown in the air is just silly – but awesome. Poor Twelve.
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I’m just linking them so they don’t slow down the page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Row91_3v3DE 2:08 and on. (Obviously, without air-parry, this might be overwhelming. Though still, his HK is slow as hell. Still, I’ve seen it done in tournies and done it myself (Though typically off of the aforementioned j.dHP after baiting a ken into doing a shoryuken. Veeeery specific.) Watching these happen in tournies is the best, rare as it is. Situational combos are amazing.)[/details]
Combo system in mind, I actually wouldn’t mind them becoming a little less concerned and streamlined with their combo system. I always found it very irksome how I was unable to follow-up with a lot of my normals on a launch in SFIV: You may only hit with j.HP, f.LK, or a special move – DEAL WITH IT! Let’s not be concerned with the variety of setups that could spur from being able to use all of our normals, thank you.
Sorry for rambling, it is in my nature.