ComboVid.com

Writing this after doing vids for all chars but Shermie (not enough cool-stuff) and the DLC. DLC chars may get their vids on the future.
I wanted to write something about the combo system from the begining, and here it is. Many things below are just opinions, so put IMO here and there.
As with many (almost all of them?) SNK games, the combo system is well thought. You may like it or not, but it´s well constructed. It offers room for creativity, and that is what I look for when exploring combo engines.
Almost all normal attacks can hit only once to an airborne opponent and offer juggle opportunities later. The trick is that they usually can only hit once, so you have to look for ways to hit all normals in one combo. Only "normal" that can hit/juggle more than once by default is the dash attack, causing wall-bounce to a grounded opponent and wall-crumple to an airborne one.
Specials usually can also hit once too, or only a limited amount of times, losing hits or not hitting at all if used again. Many of them offer juggle options after.
The "special" bar is shared for specials and supers, so you can use them a limited amount of times, but the bar charges automatically by itself. Managing the bar is a key factor in and outside combos.
You can quick-tag if you´re grounded, and it spends some bar for the entering character. Only one quick-tag per combo, but there are ways to tag mid combo (see vids).
Supers don´t allow juggles after.
There are a few OTGs, some wall bounces (that may change to wall-crumple) and some ground bounces too.
There are air dashes, instant air dashes (useful for combos) and even a weird back-roll mid air (usefull for combos too).
There´s the usual SNK damage scaling too, but you know I don´t care too much about damage in combos.
Then there are items. Using them opens a new world... somehow. I´ve not spend too much time with them, but many of them reset the juggle properties of everything, so you can repeat everything you have done again (assuming you have enough bar). So, yes, you can do longer/more damaging combos, but not many really new things. You can use the item hit-stun to hard tag too or use them to juggle after supers.
There are a few other items that offer a few other posibilities, like Chang´s giant ball and the one that allows for EX special moves. EX special moves are usually what you´d expect from them, adding hits, damage, and or bounce/crumple properties.
So, items may make the life of the game (from a combo-maker point a view) a bit longer, but I´m not really interested in them.
I liked exploring the combo engine, but I think it´s over.
Find below link for the playlist. All vids use no itmes and, as usual, focus on variety. I feel like the very first vids may get improved (all of them, of course, but more the first ones), but I don´t feel like doing it.
All vids are done with both chars in the team being the same character. Using different characters may open a few combo posibilities, but almost all of them would be just adding a fireball here and there.
By the way, Leona´s combo posibilities are over all other chars, but the other ones have cool things too in different degrees. I can try to extend with more detaill about it if someone is interested.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... XzONDLNwmI
As usual, any opinions, comments, etc. are wellcomed and I´ll try to answer any question that may arise.

Thanks for the write-up! I have some questions, since you were kind of enough to offer.

What gives Leona the most combo possibilities?

Why is it necessary for all specials to cost meter? If it's for infinite protection, you'd eventually run out of normal moves to use between the specials anyway, right? And these combos are already pretty long, so if they were trying to manage combo length, that system didn't seem to work very well.

How come you're not interested in exploring the items? They're just not interesting or the game itself hasn't been able to motivate you to keep going?

I've been watching all of the videos on this game from you, Dark Chaotix and some others, and I have to say: To me items is what makes this game fun to watch. Sure, it doesn't add a whole lot, but they spice things up enough to make it bearable to sit through all the loops and such in a longer video (The game is too repetative for its own good imo). UFOrange does some really silly stuff with items (Although I think some of those are kinda iffy from a combo perspective, like having the opponent drop their item at the right time or stunning both characters with an item and then mash out first to continue the combo), I recommend checking those out if you haven't.

Wow! Thanx for the feedback! I didn´t expect any at all!
...I just forgot that you guys are awesome! (shame on me for forgetting)
I´ll try to answer:
Why Leona? Good normals and infinitely repeteable specials.
By good normals I mean that her normals don´t hit on weird angles and such, are fast and have decent range. Every normal (except dash attack) is special cancelable for all chars, by the way, but not supercancelable, but all specials are supercancelable with no aditional cost.
Her best normal (always talking about combo posibilities)is her close strong, because it hits twice and both hits are jump-cancelable if hitting an airborne opponent. That means one aditional normal to add to the usual combo route, cos you can juggle once with the first hit and another time with the second hit. If the second hit hits first (first hit misses), you can´t juggle later with the first hit. Anyway, this normal makes combos longer = more time to recover super bar.
On the other hand her "running slash" (RL from now) and "fireball (BL) can hit an unlimited lot of times. RL makes opponent fly higher the first time if hits if there are not previous wall-bounces (not absolutely sure about that). BL always allows easy juggles later.
The key to many combos (for all chars) is hitting with whatever normal/special as high as posible. This allows better juggles later. The dash attack (DA from now) is an easy example to understand. You can´t hit with BL after DA, but if DA hits high enough, you can. In the same way, you can hit with DA after BL, but if BL hits high enough, you can. Leona can, then, do a lot of DAs and BLs without "spending" his other normals.
So the key to many combos is to hit the DA with the opponent as high as posible as many times as posible. That´s the fun part for me: looking for ways to juggle higher than usual to do unusual juggles and finding "unseen" stuff.
Kula has too a 2 hit close strong that works similarly, and an special that can hit an unlimited amount of times, but that special is not as combo-friendly as Leona´s BL.
About specials costing meter. For some chars, it doesn´t matter because you can only hit once or a limited amount of itmes with each special, for other it matters.It also prevents combos from being even more long (and damaging) if you use items, because items reset the juggle potential of everything, sometimes even re-standing the opponent. But what you say is true, once you run out of normals, it matters less... unless you use items.
From a vs point of view, as you have to kill your opponent with a super, that shares the same meter than specials, you have to manage your meter to have enough bar to kill your opponent.
Items, IMHO, barelly offer new things combo-wise. You throw an item, you reset all juggle posibilities and can do the same thing you just have done, maybe without the starting hits and with less meter. You can use items to hit after supers too and to hard tag. You may find ways to hit with this or that higher than usual but, for me, it´s not worth. You may add one slightly different thing in a 45 seconds combo. Chang´s ball is the only one that looks slightly funny to play with. Think of items just like some kind of striker assist in other games with the extra benefits of reseting juggle properties.
Of course, no disrespect at all to whoever uses items. Indeed, I find it better this ways cos we´re not going to "step into each other´s work" in this way. It just doesn´t motivate me at all. Anyway, I´ve seen some combovids with items and, the moment an item hits, I lose interest in the combo greatly. If you look closely, you´ll see that, except for Chang´s ball, that offers some fun, the combo is almost every time something completelly normal that probably hit before quite similarly, after the item hits. Your combo is finishing because you have "spent" all your normals and/or specials? thorw an item and do everything again if you still have meter. Or use it to hard tag into your other char that probably has more meter.
Again, props for all the people doing combos with items. The usual abilities for doing combos are required for combos with items, but items just don´t motivate me.
In the other hand, in vs play, items are, no doubt, a fundamental part of the strategy and extremelly important.
I hope to have given all the info you wanted. If that´s not the case or you´re just hungry to more combo-talking, here I am.
...and again, thanx for being so awesome!

Thanks for the explanations. They're very clear!

I rewatched your Leona video after you mentioned her and noticed you were using the double knee multiple times per combo, so i was wondering if each hit of that somehow counted separately against the juggle rules. It's strange that the second hit connecting first invalidates both hits, but who knows how they actually coded it. Anyway it's an interesting system to promote variety, but the repetitive specials and allowing repeated dash attacks makes the variety less noticeable unless someone explains it to you.

Honestly though i think the least appealing thing to me about the game from a combat perspective are the noisy hit sparks. They succeed in making the fights seem more friendly and less serious, but they totally ruin the feel of the hits connecting. It's so hard to see the attack poses behind all the distracting junk that appears on screen.

The airdash stuff is cool though, and i appreciate the combos more after knowing about the height stuff. Just tracking the opponent gradually falling and seeing what you'll do to pick them up again is interesting.

As a little side note, Terry´s super moves have arcade machines magically appear, and the screens that appear in that arcade machines are, as expected, from SNK titles. I´ve been able to notice SuperSideKicks, Samurai Shodown, KOF97 and other tittles that look like Last Blade and a Metal Slug. There are other titles I can´t recognize but that sure are SNK games too.