First Name said:
All this discussion is making me want to get into the more advanced aspects of the combat. I was never very good at getting the timing just right on a lot of moves. The fact that there's this whole other level that you can engage the game in is a good feeling, though. It gives it greater legs in terms of replay and as an experience as opposed to, say, God of War (not that I don't like GoW).
It's like Street Fighter or other fighting games- you can play a lot and get real good at just the basic stuff and survive hard mode. But then you can also go in depth and really master the game. Someone claimed DMC (as a series) was a button masher and I couldn't express my bafflement. It hurt my head.
It's difficult but rewarding. I'll tell you the secret though. It is all about being creative and adapting on the fly. You can copy+paste from youtube videos but that is boring. So you have to go into the mission 16 lab and start experimenting. Make sure you catalog all your available moves as a checklist and your possible cancels.
For example, recently I went in with Reb/Nev on SM. So you make a quick mental checklist. This is what I thought up before going in today.
Reb:
-Don't abuse stinger
-Rebound off helm breaker but try something new *I went with dual attack / single cancel on drop*
-Million stab is a great intro and finish, not great for the middle due to frame lag
-Combo 1 is boring, use 2
-Drive is cool but use it sparingly and try to come up with unique finishers / middle mix-ups *I'm still working on improving my drive usage*
-Mix pop shredder with high time to avoid static combos
-Check out aerial rave canceling more *Found to be boring*
-Try to fit sword pierce in *Worked out great by canceling into Nevan / kick*
-Find a way to fit dance macabre in without making it seem forced *I went with perfect distancing on an aerial juggle canceled straight into the first attack*
-Mix in surfing *Enemies recover fast on dual attack / single cancel helm
. I will have to work some more.*
Nev:
-Use reverb instead of stinger
-Use bat rift like I did with vollyball *Yep, did just that but will shy away from it from now on*
-Mix in jam session *Nope, sucks with Reb and always looks forced*
-Mix in air raid *Nothing cooking yet*
-Use airplay to keep projectiles up *I haven't done this right*
-Mix in air slash with aerial rave but watch the KD effect except near walls
-Use feedback as one of your closers but watch crazy roll on KD
-Finish with distortion *I'm overusing it but found a nice mix-up with distortion + sword pierce*
Yea, so this might sound like some crazy information to some but I find fun in breaking this stuff down. As you experiment you start to find links you like. An example would be my distortion + sword pierce + kick link. I latched onto it and then made it a goal to mix it into a nice user combo. You'll find a bunch of other links you like and then you repeat.
The difficulty comes in adapting on the fly. Not only do you have to be quick but the action on screen will never match what is on paper. You also want to be able to work with what you would call mistakes. If you throw out a launcher when you should have kept on ground melee, then adapt. That's how you discover stuff.
There is probably more calculations to maintain then godlike reflexes. Think of speed chess.