How do I become creative with combos?

[DDutchguy]

(I play DmC and DMC4)

I'm sure you are all aware of the pro DMC (or DmC) players who wavedash to work every day and pull off the craziest stunts you have ever seen in their combo Mad videos. Yeah, I want that. But I can't get that, at least not yet.

Creativity in games has always been an issue with me, I pretty much always just stick with fairly basic combos and go with things that are practical. But I want to really step up my game and actually get something going. Most people here seem to be pretty good at DMC so I have to ask: how do you guys do it?


Like for instance, DMC4 Vergil. I can accomplish absolutely nothing with him combo-wise. I always feel like I have about 5 moves to use that can all be used only for basic hits. Meanwhile when I watch a combo video, the players trick cancel in ways that I can only dream of, they jump cancel in ways that have me going 'WHAT how do you even come up with this' and just... It's really cool. But my play is not cool. Help me make it cool.

 

[Foxtrot94]

You're a fighting game player, so it's normal that you tend to stick with your bread and butter and what's practical. So I would say that first of all, if that's your mindset, you need to get out of it. Not that there's anything wrong with it, after all if you wanna beat the game at a really hard difficulty level, it's only logical that you tend to be practical rather than fancy.

Second step, you gotta know every single move's property and how such properties work with every enemy. You mentioned Vergil, for example. So you gotta know that, say, Force Edge's launcher sends the enemy higher than Yamato's, that Sword Rain freezes the enemy, that Spiral Swords can juggle a launched enemy (which looks sick, by the way), and so on and on and on.
You need to know all those things because if you don't, you won't know what to follow up after a move, what will work and what won't, so you will always be forced to go with the standard stuff that you know is gonna work.

And then third step is developing quick fingers and quick thinking. Those shouldn't be a problem for someone who plays fighting games, you need those there too. Gotta be able to react in time when something unexpected happens during your combos, and learn the timing for chaining some moves. I'm sure this ain't any news to you.

This is my opinion. I think in your case point 1 is most important, and I suggest you pick a trainer for the games (although DmC does have a training room, I don't know if you can choose which enemies to practice on) and practice with every single enemy for point number 2. For number 3 you just need to play a lot.

And you shouldn't feel down. Devil May Cry is a deep and complex game, and some people have been playing the games for years without ever abandoning them, it's normal that you feel not up to their level of play. I'd say almost each one of us here does, LOL.

 

[DDutchguy]

So I would say that first of all, if that's your mindset, you need to get out of it. Not that there's anything wrong with it, after all if you wanna beat the game at a really hard difficulty level, it's only logical that you tend to be practical rather than fancy.

I suppose there is a certain mindset that I gotta get rid of. It's still quite hard though, because if I look at DMC4 Dante I feel like half of his moves don't really give me much mileage because of how weak they are. Pretty much the entire Gunslinger style feels very underpowered to me because of how little damage everything does (maybe excluding Rainstorm, but I feel like even Rainstorm doesn't do that much damage).

I'll likely learn to get good with Nero and Lady, they're the characters I like playing the most. Perhaps Vergil too once I get the hang of him (and once I learn how to actually dodge attacks in this game).

 

[Foxtrot94]

@DDutchguy
I thought the problem was creativity in combos, not damage.

Anyway, Dante's more about versatility than damage, but fyi, his heavy hitters are Gilgamesh and Pandora, which is actually an absolute beast in Gunslinger. Guns in DMC are mostly for combo extension and juggling, not damage anyway. For true wreckage though, you should look up Distorted Real Impact (virtually broken, but not as much as Vergil's Distorted Beowulf moves... and that's saying A LOT), and learn some setups for it, depending on the enemy.

and once I learn how to actually dodge attacks in this game

Invincibility frames moves, young padawan. Jumping, Vergil's teleport, Dante's Trickster dashes and teleports and Sky Stars.

 

[DDutchguy]

I thought the problem was creativity in combos, not damage.

Yeah but it was more a general thing with me and Dante. The creativity problem applies to all characters, the damage thing only for Dante. It's not an entirely good argument because distorted Real Impact is a thing and how Gilgamesh in general does good damage (Pandora I like never use for some reason), but it feels like his damage is very weirdly distributed. Rebellion basic combo does like 50% of a Scarecrow's health, while I can do a single just-framed Gilgamesh punch to one-shot them. Guns do terrible damage so I don't see why I should ever use it over just a Stinger.

Alright this is kinda the practicality mindset again haha


I think I also need some good examples of jump canceling, because while I understand how it works, I never do it because to me it feels like it requires setting it up in pretty specific ways. In DmC you get a jump cancel after any launcher which makes JC'ing possible pretty much any time you're in the air, while in DMC4 that's not the case so it's really weird to me.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Guns do terrible damage so I don't see why I should ever use it over just a Stinger.

Told ya, combo extension and juggling.

I think I also need some good examples of jump canceling, because while I understand how it works, I never do it because to me it feels like it requires setting it up in pretty specific ways. In DmC you get a jump cancel after any launcher which makes JC'ing possible pretty much any time you're in the air, while in DMC4 that's not the case so it's really weird to me.

The thing is that in DmC, the hitbox for Enemy Step is a lot bigger and the time frame within which you can execute it in between moves is also wider. In DMC4, the timing is much stricter, and you gotta be positioned just right so yeah it requires a little bit of setup but nothing complicated at all. So with Dante for example, it's hard to JC right after launcher, you wanna do at least a single Aerial Rave hit first, just to let the enemy descend a tiny little bit.

Also keep in mind that you wanna be positioned a little bit differently for every enemy. For example, with Angelos you wanna stay just a timy bit below their waist with your feet, with Mega Scarecrows you wanna stay a little over their body etc. Gotta experiment, the old DMC games are very technical.

 

[Solar the rabbit]

Just do what I do and button mash until it look like your good at the game.

 

[Goldsickle]

When you're not "thinking" your next move, then you know you're good.

You don't think when you need to instinctively move to dodge a threat, right?

You just have to keep playing until the whole muscle memory thing gets sorted out.
Don't be concerned about being as good as all those "switch Styles 50 times in a second" players and continue going through trial and errors.