Freestyle and Combo making in DMC5

DK's thread.

Mostly agree, but I would like to comment that we also paid a price for the indulgent physics and hitboxes. This time I don't even refer to flow, elegance and weight of the animations, but the uniqueness and individuality of styles (from players).

Freestylers and combo makers are closer to each other in DMC5, but at the cost of each freestyle clip, combo or battle being less unique compared to the others. There is a common generic look for most of the clips I watch, even if I enjoy many of them.

I am not belittling anybody. I have played and enjoyed DMC5 myself and would say the same about my clips as well.

On the other hand, one could see a clip from DMC4 without looking the author and would identify him or her with relative ease.

This is probably because of several factors:

1) While techs were/are harder, each tech had a much more unique and concrete role. Lucifer glitch for example could be applied in different situations, but its role in the whole combo or freestyle chunk was totally crucial for the entire sequence to work.

Meanwhile in 5 it's easier to find a workaround/alternative to do something visually and structurally similar to the original idea without said tech. You don't want to do reversed red-line sending the enemy to the other side? Well, you could do simply red-line into sky star travelling below the enemy and follow up adjusting the rest of the set-up. In 5 there are probably more options (tech or obvious options), but they are less unique.

2) Hitboxes were/are smaller (especially for the most common enemy), and sometimes even annoying for specific things. But at the same time it allowed players to design and put in practice more precise set-ups.

In DMC5 this concept can be present in set-ups like Balrog's dive kick used to side-switch and JC from the other side, but in most situations there is a considerable risk to plainly collide with the hitbox of the enemy without side-switching. For example: dive kick -> Balrog air punches with inertia in most situations will simply collide without side-switching (both, the enemy and Dante move a bit forwards). One can manipulate this JCing into shocking first, and then JCing shocking into the punches (the enemy has some time to fall and one can side switch above the enemy with inertia). Yet even then it's still not that consistent depending on the angle of the dive kick and other variables.

This is not the type of inconsistency significantly related to execution (the set-up is execution-wise actually very easy), it's simply inconsistent because of how big the hitboxes are.

3) Hitboxes were not only smaller, but really unique between enemies.

A combo designed for an Angelo is very different compared to a combo designed for a scarecrow, which is different to a combo designed for a frost. For freestyle it could be even more unique because of the different ways to approach these enemies. Trying to combo, playing with their movement, etc. This made players specialize not only in techs, but also in different types of enemies.

As a small summary: it's good that things are much more consistent. I was glad myself that shotgun JC, one of my favorite techs from 4, was/is this easy in 5, and many other things. But the identity/style of each player is now also more... blurry (generally; of course there are elements that can make a combo or freestyle clip more unique, like some ideas with the environment or combos presented like small fights with more aggressive enemies).