Fighting Mechanics: Let's discuss

[SlySpy]

I actually already went into this a little bit in another topic, but it seems like I'd be able to go into more detail in this one, so I shall elaborate.

First of all, I may be a minority here, but I thought Shenmue's fighting system still holds up as the best fighting system in an action adventure game, and I don't like the idea of making it Arkham-ish in battles against multiple opponents, and only having a detailed fighting system in 1v1's. I believe a good way to make battles against multiple opponents better is to improve the footwork, so there is more fluidity of movement, and a method of clearly locking on to different targets. Additionally, I'd like a controllable camera, so that your vision is never impaired, and a method of punching or kicking behind or to the side of you to push back anyone trying to surround you. Moreover though, the game should do a good job of explaining how to take on multiple opponents. The reason why I never had a problem with it was because I always tried to adhere to real world logic, so if surrounded, I'd go for a grapple and then try to stay on the outside so that I couldn't get surrounded, or my moves interrupted. If the game had masters who perhaps better explained to the player how to deal with multiple opponents, while providing more tools, instead of automatic counter systems, you would improve the fighting aspect without sacrificing depth.

One great thing about the fighting system is the rpg element. The fact that you can increase the effectiveness of certain moves through practice allowed you to determine what kind of fighter you wanted your version of Ryo to be. If you wanted a strong grappler, you could make one. If you wanted to be mainly based around punches or kicks, you could do that as well. If you wanted to be a jack-of-all-trades mixed martial artist, you could even go for that, so long as you adjusted your tactics to allow you to fight as such.

I believe a good way to further this roleplaying aspect is to add customization to a common fighting game facet present even in Virtua Fighter games; the combo system. In Shenmue 1 and 2, you do get a few combos you can pull off, but they obviously weren't customizable to any extent. I feel a good way to go about this would be to maybe have a certain amount of combos that can be constructed (maybe one three hit custom combo, and one four hit custom combo at the beginning of the game). In order for this to work properly, each move in your move list has to fall into an archetype. To make this concept clear, I'll break my archetypes down into numbers.

Archetype (1) would be for combo openers. These are fast, sharp, straight-to-the-point moves that can be used as the opener to a combo, and also used in the middle of one. Examples would be Tiger Knuckle, Rain Thrust, Twist Knuckle, Crescent Kick, and Trample Kick.

Archetype (2) would be for combo mid-strings. These are moderately fast, powerful strikes can only be used in the middle of a combo. Examples include Hold Against Leg, Iron Palm, Sleeve Strike, Upper Knuckle, Swallow Dive, and Backfist Willow.

Archetype (3) would be for combo enders. These are powerful moves that can only ever be used to end a combo. Examples include Elbow Assault, Twin Hand Waves, Cyclone Kick, Windmill Kick, and Brutal Tiger.

Archetype (4) would be moves that can not be constructed into custom combos. Usually powerful movements that have to be set up as single, powerful strikes. Examples include Double Blow, Lunging Strike, Brutal Uppercut, Shadow Reaper, Twin Swallow Leap, and any throwing moves.

A combo could be constructed in any manner of ways as along as they adhere to the archetypes. Combo templates for a four hit combo, for instance would be as follows:

(1)-(1)-(1)-(3)
(1)-(1)-(2)-(3)
(1)-(2)-(1)-(3)
(1)-(2)-(2)-(3)

That's four templates with any particular moves of your choosing, with this system, any two players could be completely different in terms of fighting style, based on their combos. The way I'd have the inputs planned out is to have the direction of the d-pad be determined by the first hit. The rest of the hits in the combo would simply be pressing the punch and kick buttons correspondingly.

For instance, if I open up with Tiger Knuckle, the combo would start of by pressing X. Therefore, if my 4-hit combo was (Tiger Knuckle)-(Rain Thrust)-(Twist Knuckle)-(Brutal Tiger), the button input for the combo would be (X)-(X)-(X)-(A).

On the other hand, if the combo opened up with Twist Knuckle the opener would be the input for that movement which is <-X (<- meaning backwards relative to your opponent.) A 4-hit combo of (Twist Knuckle)-(Hold Against Leg)-(Backfist Willow)-(Cyclone Kick) would have the button input of (<-X)-(A)(X)(A)

I'm curious to know what you guys think of this system. I think it could work well, and perhaps to add more of a feeling of progression, you can get a higher limit of combos to construct, along with longer combo strings as your skills go up.