Question for all us stylish action enthusiasts

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TWOxACROSS

Hot-blooded God of Guns
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Nov 6, 2012
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So, I've had this random idea in my head for a while.

If anyone remembers the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden got himself a b!tchin' katana that was used by tilting the right analog stick, which controlled the path the sword took when he attack, eg tilt up to make him slash upward with an uppercut, tilt down to slash downward from overhead, slash vertically by tilting to a side, stab by pushing R3, and spin the right stick to perform a spinning slash. I had always loved that idea because it let you come up with your own combo of sorts.

Now, I was thinking, what if there was a stylish action game a la DMC and Bayonetta that had a mechanic for your melee weapons like that? Say, you could slash about byt tilting, and you could also perform more elaborate actions by holding R1. So you could launch a foe Hightime style by holding R1 and tilting the right analog stick up (hold the tilt to travel upwards with them, of course), hold R1 and hold down on the right stick to Helm Breaker, and perform a stinger with R1+R3. You could even have a slam attack that keeps you in the air and knocks the enemy to the ground by holding R1 and simply tapping the right stick down instead of holding it for that Helm Breaker.

There can even be mechanics in place for how you wind-up and follow-through with your attacks, so say, swinging down and then up would incur less start-up on the subsequent upward slash because the downward slash puts you in the position where an upward slash would start from. There could be animations for making the character spin if you attack in the same direction twice, like slashing leftwards, then slashing leftwards again causes the character to spin, or do something fancy with the sword like Dante does in his Rebellion pause combo in DMC3/4 (where he spins Rebellion around himself by swapping it between hands).

Plus, there could be a legitimate parrying system where you could block an opponents attack by meeting their weapon with yours. They go for a downward strike, so you respond by attacking with am upward strike, and your blades meet for a sweet little parry. Hell, combos of parries could happen if the enemy is aggressive and keeps attacking. Then you can try to find openings in their combo string to go from parrying to attacking, using a move that has less start-up than the opponent's attack.

I'm just wondering if this is something that would actually be received well, having mechanics that allow for custom-designed combos, still free-form, and all that.
 
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Sounds like it would take some getting used to, but also interesting and fun.
 
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I guess you could use the standard combat buttons as well as this gameplay mechanism. Yeah, nice idea. I dig it! :cool:
 
Any particular reason why? Or just didn't dig it?

I'm just thinking about if people feel they could get that same sort of stylish satisfaction out of a system like that which has combat in the vain of DMC/Bayo, or maybe more if they can find more freedom in it.
 
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The only kind of sword attacks that would work with the analog stick is this kind:
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I also didn't like the sword part of MGS2, just quit using the sword and used guns afterwards.

If I didn't enjoy that control scheme for a slow paced action/stealth game, I'd detest that kind of control scheme for a fast paced hack n slash, if you're in a massive battle that relies on quick reactions you're gonna be whacking that analog stick all over the place like you're jerking it off.
 
In MGR though, the blade mode wasn't used often in more strategic manners. It was just basically an overkill finishing move. You hack the guys up until they're blue then hit the button to just go insane on the analog stick or buttons.
 
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Well, there were a few strategic points for using the Cut mode in MGR, but still never anything to parry like what I'm talking about. To an extent, I guess the directional-based slashing is similar in concept to Skyward Sword's, only in a way more aggressive manner.
 
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As cool as this idea is, it runs into a simple problem:

Both MGS2 and Rising had one thing in common when they implemented this system, which was that your opponent was either standing sill, or Raiden had entered some kind of slow-mo attack mode like Blade Mode.

The reason I don't see this entirely applicable to games like Devil May Cry is that the enemy is never standing still long enough for something like this to be used. With the ball-grinding, teeth-shattering difficulty of past DMC games, I couldn't imagine using something like this in the heat of combat.

Now, if Dante had something like this in DmC whenever he entered that slowed-down Devil Trigger of his, I could see it working well...especially with the enemies being prostrate and helpless in mid-air. But as for those attacking, I'm not so sure.

But, hey--I'm not a developer, so I can't deny anything from being possible. I didn't think Nintendo could ever make banging a real-life a pair of Bongo Drums into an adequate means of controlling a game, and they did the impossible and proved me wrong with Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat.

 
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The idea itself reminds me a little of Neverdead and Too Human (both pretty much b-list games, still kinda fun tho).
The problem I see with it is that the gunplay gets pretty much taken out if you don't want to get shooteresque with it, I'd see that as a downside of sorts. Of course you could try to make it similar to the melee combat.
What would you do with the other 4 buttons (square, x, triangle etc) ?
It would be quite a chore to play with good combos and reach those buttons.
Ah well I'm thinking to much about this, if the game is good I'm sure I'd get used to it anyway XD
 
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I'm not sure if it would work with really fast-paced H&S games, since attacks like Million Stab require you to press a button really fast... which in your game would be 'tilt the stick forward repeatedly really fast', which wouldn't work. Attacks do need to be intuitive, so you can't replace 'tilt repeatedly' with 'shake the stick', because that would move your blade in all kinds of directions. Or at least it should.

Like VampireWicked said, Analog sticks also don't have the precise direction as directional buttons. AND, in the case of the PS4, the sticks only respond if you tilt them all the way, which doesn't allow for subtle movements.

So basically, I think the technology isn't quite up to it yet.
But, I think it sounds interesting. It sounds like some kind of Wii version of Metal Gear Rising, with improved parrying, and with DMC/Bayonetta's far camera angle.
 
Sounds brilliant to me. My first thought was 'I think you're two steps ahead of today's devs', and reading the other comments I see others agree. You're thinking a bit advanced, if y'know what I mean.
You should totally join a dev team and bring us the next best thing dude.
 
I think it has potential, though it might take some getting used to. ^^; Gotta commit it to muscle memory, and all that.

But otherwise, yeah--I think it would be a worthwhile videogame endeavour. :)
 
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Well I too didn't like the sword in mgs2 like Vampirewicked but that was mostly because it came too late in the game for me to get used to it.

the other reasons she(?) pointed out do weigh on my mind but Twoxaccross's idea feels like a good experiment for some indie game to tackle.