Played this at Euro Gamer yesterday. Me and my friends had it to ourselves since there was hardly anyone playing so we got a lot of good games in. This game is BEAST! Very chaotic and “wft is happening” at first but once you get used to it it’s solid. Although you can still get caught up in the madness.
I’ll be back later to post up what I learned.
Alright, I learned all this on the fly so it’s not 100% accurate.
Attacks
The attacks are split into four different tiers. If you attack at the same time as someone else with the same tier, you clash and the characters are pushed back. I don’t know if this works with every tier. You can string tiers together for variation.
Weak Attack - General string which combos up to up to 5 times, and probably more for different characters. Can be used in juggles and is good for interrupting slower attacks.
Strong Attack - Stronger and with less speed than weak attacks. Can be held down for charge attacks.
Weak Killer Weapon - If you hold L2 while pressing the weak attack button, you go into your weapon stance. It’s a pretty powerful string which is governed by a meter under your health bar that is divided into about 4 segments. The amount of meter you have determines how many attacks you can use in that string. If you start an attack without full meter, your character will perform the string up until the meter runs out.
Strong Killer Weapon - Same deal as WKW but it allows you to access your cinematic super if you have full meter. I could of sworn I did it at half meter as well but I’m not sure. It can also be charged for a different attack. For instance; in Durga’s super he does multiple gushot kicks in your chest, and in his charged SKW you take take aim with his leg and shoot peeps.
Throws - There’s four types of throws; regular throw, back throw, ground throw, and double throw. All throws can be teched by pressing throw at the same time as someone else or just as it starts up. I don’t know if ground throws can be teched though. The big characters like Garuda and Big Bull can throw two characters at once with their double throw.
360 Attack - This is the Shoryuken of this game; pressing weak attack and jump at the same time causes your character to do a high priority move which knocks down or knocks back everyone that’s right next to you. You can do this move while in hit stun as long as you’re standing and there’s no limit to how many times you can attempt one.
The downsides are that it does no damage, locks you in place until the animation finishes, and can be beaten by SSAs if timed correctly. Zero’s 360 attack is cheap as fuck. He teleports into the air and throws shurikens which knock you straight down, and it’s hard to punish since he’s in the air.
States
Guarding - You guard with R2. Your guard can be broken with stronger attacks and items (I think).
Knocked down - When knocked down you can roll in any direction you want, stand in place or perform a get up attack. If knocked through the air you can tech roll by pressing jump as soon as you hit the ground. You can also be thrown if you are on the ground.
**Jumping/Rolling **- You can attack while airbourne and shit, although it’s more limited than ground combos. You roll by pressing jump and any direction while guarding, but the amount of rolls you can use in sequence is limited like in Bayonetta. It’s good for escaping strings which have delays and making people whiff shit.
Dizzy/Frozen/Paralysis - If your guard is broken or you are interruped during the start up of one of the stronger attacks, you get stunned and have to mash out. If you are hit with something that freezes or electrifies you, you have to mash out. I think you can sustain fire damage from explosions as well.
**Beserk Mode **- There’s a symbol next to your item boxes that fills up as you get kills or deal damage. I’m not sure if it still goes up if you are hit but it seems so. When someone on the field activates rage mode RUN THE FUCK AWAY. They are invincible and can do a barrage of attacks which rape your guard and your life. If you come across someone who has rage mode and you attack each other, you go into a DBZ style “HUR HUR HUR HUR” fight and have to mash the corresponding buttons to win the deadlock (Think Dynasty Warriors). If you lose the deadlock, your rage mode deactivates (not 100% sure on this).