Never seen this mention

[Sgt_Shligger]

Did ST do away with the lovely timed combo system? Am I just going to be hitting attack as fast as I can or is there still going to be SOME quardination involved?

[Nekomimi]

Good luck getting off all three Photon Arts combos by just jamming on the buttons.

[Kyuu]

You still have to time the comboes correctly.

[StratixEVO]

Really, in the premiere disc, it was just button mashing! Others have said this too. Did they really change it? I would be sooooo happy!

[watashiwa]

On 2006-09-01 15:22, Kyuu wrote:
You still have to time the comboes correctly.



No, you're not required to, the combo still comes out. However, if you time the button presses correctly, the combo comes out faster.

Button mashing will get you all of your hits, though.

[Kers]

Bleh, I'd rather not have button mashers. That would be sick if the sooner you link the combo the faster and weaker the hit would be, aswell as the later for more damage.. Anyways, I enjoyed having the need to time hits.

[Kyuu]

Ah, really? Well, that's kind of disappointing. However, at least correct timing does have a certain advantage. I really liked that you couldn't mash buttons in PSO, though.

[Arias]

I won't be able to time my combo's http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif (well, not in the beginning that is). I never played a PS2, don't know which button is where. Once I know it, I'll time 'em

[watashiwa]

For the people who say they would rather have a timed combo system like PSO... trust me, I don't think you would.. not when you get into some of PSU's more insane areas when you're moving more by reflex than thinking.

PSO felt more like a routine after awhile.. PSU is extremely more fast paced and I can see why they did away with requiring timing for your combos.

[Phaze37]

I showed PSO to a not-too-bright friend-of-a-friend who took an interest in it after seeing me play. After half an hour he still couldn't get the timing right for the sabre combo. The weird thing is, he knows how to play 2d fighting games pretty well, so you'd think he would know a thing or two about timing. I'm kinda disapointed that you don't need to time your combos in PSU but perhaps that's a better thing if PSU is faster paced than PSO.

[Nekomimi]

I'm telling you, you DO need to time your PHOTON ARTS combos. Regular combos can be done by flailing around mindlessly, although they won't be as quickly timed, but PAs seem to require some good timing.

[-Crokar-]

when you think about some of the greatest games of all time are button mashers

[Pengfishh]

"After half an hour he still couldn't get the timing right for the sabre combo."

My nine-year old brother got it down in two tries. He's a genius of sorts, though.

[Kuzzle]

Dude, Phaze... I'd have slapped him and told him he wasn't allowed to play anymore after only five minutes. 'Cause it's not like it's that friggen' difficult to press a button! ...Stupid people piss me off. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[Phaze37]

Well, to be fair, he was pretty baked, and now that I think of it he was probably trying to buffer the strikes like you would in a fighting game, whereas in PSO you have to wait for the strike animation to finish before you press the button for the next strike. Also, it took me nearly a full day before I learned how to combo. I bought PSO v1 the day it came out, and I jumped straight into online play without reading the manual. I was doing individual strikes the entire first day until late that night, a FOnewm noticed I wasn't comboing and said "You know that you can do 3 hit combos right?" I tried mashing the buttons to no avail. Then he said "You have to time it" and I got the hang of it within 10 seconds.

Yeah, he's pretty dumb, which is why he's a friend-of-a-friend instead of a friend. Timed combos might help to weed out the dummies like this guy at first, but even he would figure it out eventually. So let the dummies button-mash their way through the stages while those of us who know how to play PSO can time our combos to kill the enemies faster and more efficiently.

[Parn]

Out of curiousity Nekomimi, at what level with a weapon's photon art do you receive the third attack?

[Shiro_Ryuu]

I would hope they take away the timing, I mean, most other hack and slash games like Onimusha, Way of the Samurai, or Samurai Warriors didn't have them if I remember correctly, and if its gonna be much tougher, then I'm all against the timing since it might be tougher to time your combos in the heat of battle.

[Blueblur]

I'm not going to miss the timing. PSO's gameplay was fun, but startlingly SLOW.

[Parn]

Call me crazy, but I don't see the speed increase. I took a video of me doing a timed combo press and then button mashing (http://synbios.net/games/PSU/videos/combo.wmv)... if there's any difference, it's negligible.

But then, that's me swinging at air, and for whatever reason, it feels like combos pull off slower when I'm actually hitting enemies, timed combos OR button mashing. I'm starting to wonder if it's related to my framerate... I may have to test this here in a moment.

[MrPOW]

Um, from what I've played (about 15 hours) you still have to time all of your hits. With most of the faster weapons you can get away with just hitting the buttons as fast as you can...but that's only because those weapons cycle so fast. Your combo won't be as fast as it would be if you carefully times each hit. You can probably mash buttons with Handguns and Sabers, for instance. But grab a Sword and see what mashing the buttons as fast as you can will get you. It actually took me awhile to get used to timing my combos because that trademark hard-attack charging sound effect from PSO is gone.

Even with the weapons where you can hit the button really fast and get your combo, when you get to the harder enemies with faster attacks you're only going to combo as fast as you need to by timing your combos. You definately have to time Photon Arts combos because they're longer attack animations, like the Sword. So yes...timed attacks are still in the game. And I support this because it means the game requires skill outside of what level you are and what equipment you have, and that can make a player valuable when it comes time to assemble a team to try for an s-rank on a mission. And I like that.

Also, I didn't know this before I picked up the game, but while melee weapons stil have 3-button combos (not counting photon arts) like in PSO, guns (handguns at least) just keep comboing until you run out of PP.

[Parn]

Uh, I button mash just fine with a sword, actually. And button mashing with photon arts seems to work just fine, as well.

Curious... are you using a keyboard to play, or a gamepad?