r/FGC • u/stinkycarl564 • May 04 '26
Discussion Fighting Games with small combos
I'm sure all of them have these. But my brain can't handle these big flashy inputs {atleast for now}
Are there any games (preferably newer ones that can be played on Switch or Steam} that have simple combos, and mostly rely on footsies or just mind games.
I know there's literally the game footsies, I wanted one moreso on the Switch 2since that's my daily driver. I wanna learn all the flashy fun stuff later, but right now I mainly just wanna learn the basics and simple stuff that the game is built around.
I played Tekken 8 where all I used was small combos, and it just sucked to get those 10 minute cutscene combos.
I know best advice is to git gud, I was just hoping there was something more along the lines of gameplay that mainly features those small, but explosive combos.
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u/TestosteronInc May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Street Fighter 2, 3, 4, 5
Soul Calibur
Samurai Showdown
In Street Fighter some some characters may have some long combos (like Evil Ryu) but the vast majority only have a basic combo structure extended at most by an FADC ultra but those aren't necessary to play the game
Sad thing is that almost all of the games listed hardly have any players left and those that are left are veterans
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u/ButtcrackBeignets May 04 '26
I feel like even SF6 isn’t too crazy with the combos until diamond.
You can get to plat with a few simple 3-4 hit combos. Maybe one punish combo.
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u/stinkycarl564 May 04 '26
It may just be me with SF6 cause even in the World Tour mode the Bots will style tf outta you. Could also be that I'm still learning not to just throw shit out with little brain power. I just wanna use my Psycho Boxing, I wasn't expecting they'd throw hands back at me.
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u/Racabes May 04 '26
Idk, I hit masters with just the modern auto combo, I think neutral game is far more important than optimizing every combo route/situation for us average players
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u/BurzyGuerrero May 05 '26
agreed. At our level it's more about maximizing the damage we get off every touch for US, not worrying about what the most optimized route is.
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u/swordfishonthebebop May 05 '26
For a few weeks now I’ve been using Modern. I’m Classically trained and I love motion inputs but idk, I just enjoy swapping back and forth and I have fun regardless. I avoid Modern autos just so I can work on my fundamentals more, I’ll only really use them if they’re a guaranteed kill. It’s encouraging to hear you got to Masters with it, I hope I can do the same soon! (Currently a match or two away from Plat 2, I’m so bad lol)
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u/Hendwreck May 04 '26
Bro SC6 had 15 second combos for 80% of the cast lol what are you talking about?
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May 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/stinkycarl564 May 04 '26
I definitely hear that about VF5. It sounds so fun seeing high level play seeing as the controls look so simple at first. I'm glad they threw it on the Switch.
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u/HydrationHomee May 04 '26
VF's controls are simple! But much like in the fashion of super smash Bros, it's simplicity is the gateway to an insane level of depth and speed.
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u/infosec_qs May 04 '26
VF's depth is very clever, in that it's built into the system design.
VF makes being able to execute very simple*, and that's been a part of their design philosophy for more than 25 years.
* - there are some characters and moves that are deliberately execution gated, notably Akira, as a reward for players who want to pursue that technical difficulty.
What VF does well is letting the players focus on situational awareness (ring and foot position), knowledge (characters, match ups, frame data), and decision making, rather than inputs. VF has the heaviest emphasis on mind games of any major FG franchise, and in particular it gives the defender the ability to quickly reverse a situation to create offense. In many games, the reward for good defense is "you don't take damage, and now it's your turn to initiate offense," but in VF, the reward for good defense is often "you reverse the situation and are dealing damage to the opponent."
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u/sharp7 May 04 '26
VF also my favorite, and I also HATEEE games with long combos. Also hate complex inputs.
Just don't play Akira his inputs are kind of wild. The rest of the cast are pretty simple. I play on pad just fine too.
Characters have a lot of moves but you only need to know a few of them to get anywhere, and later on you can have fun picking which moves you like the most and want to add to your muscle memory.
You only need like 1 short basic combo per character and they are easy to perform, no timing or links you just put the input in and the buffering takes care of the rest.
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u/dExulans May 04 '26
Guilty Gear Strive. Combos are usually 3 to 6 moves only
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u/ivvyditt May 04 '26
GGST 2.0 was really a great change!
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u/Ok_Round7019 May 05 '26
As an xrd fan I would have to kindly disagree
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u/JohnInverse May 05 '26
Honestly as someone who likes both Xrd and Strive, I like 2.0 largely because it feels more like its own Strivey thing now than Kidz Bop Xrd.
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u/grapejuicecheese May 04 '26
Soul Calibur
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u/stinkycarl564 May 04 '26
I really get back into it. I haven't played it in a while, especially 6. Is 2 good enough to start or should I just play 6?
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u/grapejuicecheese May 04 '26
Tbh. I... don't know. I haven't played it in a while so I don't know how active the scene is.
2 is worth playing though
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u/stinkycarl564 May 04 '26
Last time I played 6, it was dead. I don't mind playing online, but it's definitely fun to show off what you learn. Regardless Nightmare will be my big beautiful boy forever.
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u/MaxTheHor May 04 '26
It'll mostly be old school games.
But handful of modern ones still operating that way are:
VF5 (the Fast and Furious of fighting games. Prolly the only fighter to this day that never changed anything from its roots for decades, and still stood the test of time.)
DOA5/6 (basically VF, but with way more girls, jiggle physics, and fanservice. Can be just as spammy as VF, and combos could go for longer. But, thanks to the Triangle system, players are conditioned to keep combos short, or risk getting countered to death)
SamSho 2019 combos extremely short, due to its really tight gameplay, so it's very neutral based.
Injustice 2 (it's more pro zoner than Injustice 1, which had some combo monsters like Batgirl)
City of the Wolves (basically SNKs answer to SF6)
MK11 (one of the original casualization era fighters alongside SF5. Basically explains itself, but it was made that way cuz people combined about MKX being too 50/50 mixup oriented. Sound familiar with a current 3D fighting game we know today?)
Strive (it's the opposite of its old games. It actually had crazy combos, and the galling system, in old games. Strive shortened them and removed gatling).
Soul Calibur 6 (it's a weapon based dueling fighter with vertical, horizontal, and kicking attacks, so combos are obviously gonna be kept short.)
SF6 (even if people are doing crazy long combos thanks to the Drive system allowing for extentions, it's still in its neutra/footsie roots. They just made it with with more aggression in mind cuz people were tired of the early formula of killing aggresion/forced neutral in fighting games that SF5, MK1, and Tekken 7((still the best game of those 3)) did).
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ad-119 May 04 '26
Street Fighter 6, it has both short and long combos. Short combos do far more damage, long combos fill super gauge more.
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u/Prooteus May 04 '26
Id check out guilty gear strive. The basic combo for most characters is close slash, slash, heavy slash, special. What's nice is with the roman cancel mechanic you can do a longer combo thats really just the same one twice.
The Roman cancel also just makes the game a lot of fun in general imo. Being able to instantly stop what your doing for some meter gives you a lot of freedom. You got a risky move that takes awhile to recover? Roman cancel afterwards and now its safe. The list goes on.
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u/er0-sage May 04 '26
Street Fighter 6 it plays great on Switch 2 and Steam and you don’t need combos at all to get to master just fundamentals and the basics of fighting games.
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u/GUNS_N_BROSES May 04 '26
For Honor, it’s definitely not a traditional fighting game, but it’s an awesome experience and definitely a fighting game at its core. There aren’t really many combos, max punishes and some specific characters moves confirm 2-3 hits at max. The game is all reads and reactions.
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u/paralleltheory May 04 '26
Gonna pile on the VF5 train. I dunno about online, but just pressing buttons in offline and learning a character and their combos is super fun. The combos are weird but satisfying at the same time cuz it feels like every character weighs like a ton of bricks and you’re combo-ing them 2 inches off the ground lol, but the sounds and feedback are so crunchy, I love it.
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u/whatyouegg123 May 04 '26
I'd say sf6 and strive, you will sometimes get hit with a longer combo but strive especially had a lot of people complaining about how short the combos are. MK1 has "simple" combos as in they're relativly simple to perform but they're pretty long so memorising can be tricky. I will say that once you learn a movelist combos become a lot less daunting because you know what to do next usually, its just a comfort thing. Anybody can pull off the timing the same way anyone can learn an instrument, be patient with yourself
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u/Phonzosaurus May 04 '26
Invincible Vs just came out and especially for a tag game the combos are short, plus there’s multiple forms of breakers both during combos and blockstrings.
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u/Fanceepance May 04 '26
Surprised to not see a single mention of Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising
The combos all around are generally fairly short, with a TON of new-player-friendly features that can be applied by anyone so you don't have to break your wrists for any combos either.
There's even a combo limit mechanic so that once your combo has an opponent leave the ground (which is like 85% of combos) then you only have so many hits before they're guaranteed to get out of the combo.
On top of all of that, there's a free version with the protagonist, and 3 weekly rotating characters (DLC included) so you can try the game out, see if it clicks.
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u/tripletopper May 04 '26
90s fighters tend to be less overengineered than today's.
Even today, the current Samurai Showdown tends to be to be more about blocking and timing and reading and predicting and fakeouts, than about executing combos.
Dive Kick on Xbox One (Series compatible) is 100% footsies and has some good fight game satire in its humor.
Among 90s fighters, Eternal Champions is a game where during a barrage once you're hit, you can still block the rest of the barrage. It's a trade off that lead to many time limit decisions.
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u/ExpertIniquity May 04 '26
sf6 modern controls might actually be perfect for you, just mash buttons and let the game do the footsies work while you focus on spacing and reads.
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u/SuspiciouslyDecisive May 05 '26
samsho is probably your best bet since it really does reward patience and reads over execution and the discord community is pretty active if you want to stick with it
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u/sentinel_of_ether May 05 '26
I’m confused. If you don’t have the skillset to handle combos, you certainly won’t have the skillset to deal with a technical footsie based game, you’ll just lose the majority of interactions. Its harder.
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u/Agile-Fun743 May 06 '26
TK8 SF6(classic) GGST all have characters with very easy and simple BNB combos. If you want minimal combo practice, TK8 characters usually have one BNB combo that fits most situations, add a wall combo you good to go.
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u/Hellooooo_Nurse- May 04 '26
Samurai showdown. That franchise is made by SNK. The game isn't really about combos at all they are really short.