CANCEL COMBO FAQ v1.0 By Goryus Table of Contents A) Introduction B) Notation & Terminology C) Basic Techniques 1) Charge Cancelling 2) Links 3) Juggles 4) Buffering 5) Energy Cancels 6) Attacking From Behind 7) Tornado Counters D) Intermediate Techniques 1) Instant Cancelling 2) Aura Burst Cancelling 3) Sidestep Cancelling 4) Ki-Blast Cancelling 5) Force-State Moves 6) Deliberate Whiffing 7) Transformation Juggles 8) On-The-Ground (OTG) Attacks 9) Abusing the Buffer 10) The 18 Second Rule E) Advanced Techniques 1) Kara-Burst Cancelling 2) Kara-Throws, Kara-Specials, Kara-Normals, Kara-Everything! 3) Transformations in Ground Combos 4) Resets F) Conclusion INTRODUCTION This guide is intended as a resource for those who are interested in furthering their Budokai game, whether they be beginners, experts, or somewhere inbetween. What this guide is not is a giant list of combos. This guide is intended to introduce players of all levels to concepts about the Budokai game engine of which they may or may not have been aware, as well as to discuss the import of these concepts. If you are interested in learning more about this game, in blazing new territory all your own, in learning how to do the complicated and wonderful things you can do in this game all on your own, then this guide is for you. I have done my best to render everything in plain Englilsh as much as possible. I hope you find it helpful! Let the Budokai begin. NOTATION & TERMINOLOGY s Short form for Smash attack r Short form for Rush attack e Short form for Energy attack g Short form for Guard R The R button on the PSP, used to initiate Aura Burst attacks ( ) Denotes a chain, with each individual attack in the chain seperated by a comma. For example, (r,r,r) is a single chain composed of three Rush attacks. This guide makes a distinction between a "Chain" and a "Combo". Where you see reference to a "Chain", the guide is referring to a single series of attacks that are performed by pressing a certain sequence of buttons. For example, (>r,s," character is used to indicate a direction towards the opponent, "<" means away from the opponent, "^" means the up directional button, and "v" means the down directional button. Where the guide references a "Combo", it is referring to a means of linking multiple chains together, or with special moves and supers, in a manner that is not escapable by any conventional means. The guide makes reference to three different kinds of attacks: Normals, Specials, and Supers. Normals are individual piece of a chain; for example, the (r) in (r,s,s,s) is a normal, as is each (s). Specials are special moves your character has access to, usually initiated with the Circle button. Supers are the ultimate attacks that each character possess. The intermediate and advanced sections of the guide make reference to "Frame Advantage". Frames are a method of measuring time in video games. Since most games play at 60 frames/second, one frame is a unit of time generally equated to 1/60th of a second. When a move leaves a character with "Frame Advantage", it means that the character recovers a certain number of frames before the opponent recovers. Similarly, "Frame Disadvantage" refers to how many frames slower than the opponent you recover after performing a particular move. BASIC TECHNIQUES Charge Cancelling The bread-and-butter of the Budokai combo system is charge cancelling. Many attacks, whether at the beginning, end, or middle of a chain, can be charged up by holding down the button used to initiate them. This has several advantages: fully charged moves cannot be blocked, cannot be dodged, and do more damage. There is, however, one much bigger advantage you get from charging up a move: you can cancel it. A typical cancel is performed by pressing the Guard button while a move is in the process of charging. This will cause your character to immediately abandon the attack and revert back to a neutral state. This has many advantages; first and foremost, it is much faster than allowing the move to complete normally. This means that you can cut out the long recovery times and follow-up attacks that inhibit many otherwise useful moves. In many cases, you recover so quickly that you can continue hitting your opponent before they've finished reeling from the last below you delivered! This is the basic, most fundamental concept you need to grasp in order to start doing combos in Shin Budokai. It is also one of the most flexible, and has important gameplay ramifications outside of doing combos. If you're interested in experimenting with charge cancels, a good starting place is Goku's (>r,s,s) chain. Enter in the chain as three distinct button presses, and hold down Triangle when you enter the second (s) command. When you see Goku's leg swing up and start glowing, use the meaty part of your thumb to press the X button (while still holding down Triangle). If you do it right, you'll see Goku magically revert back to a neutral state, and get to watch as your enemy's head bobs comically from the kick he just took to his jaw. Practice this a couple of times, and once you're confident in your execution, try following it up with another attack before he finishes recovering. If you do it right, you'll see the combo counter increase, and you will have just performed your first successful Budokai combo! Be aware that hitting twice with the same chain will knock the enemy down and end your combo prematurely, so try to look for ways to extend your combos with other chains. There is only one way to avoid taking massive amounts of damage from a properly performed combo. Your character has an out in the form of a Teleport Counter (performed by pressing > + Guard at the moment of impact). Consider these to be similar to bursting in Guilty Gear. They act as a get of jail free card, but they take an enormous amount of Ki - three bars. If you use up all your Ki with a Teleport, get outguessed, and get caught in a combo, there's nothing you can do but sit there and take it like a man. For that reason, Ki is the single most important resource in all of Shin Budokai. If your opponent catches you with less than three bars of it, you have no way to escape the impending pain. At the same time, just about everything you want to do - dodging, special moves, throwing Ki-Blasts, using Aura Bursts - all consume Ki. Finding the right balance in this fundamental conflict is the key to being successful at Shin Budokai. Links "Link" is a generic fighting game term for a move that strikes an enemy before they can recover from the hit they took right before it. Typically, they are done by performing a move with good recovery, striking the opponent with it, and then following up with a different move before they can recover. Charge cancel combos are types of links, but not all links are done by using charge cancels. Some moves have naturally good recovery, and leave the opponent stunned for long enough that you can follow up with another attack after it completes. A good example of a move that has these properties is Frieza's (r,r,r,r) chain. Try it out! Be careful to only do four Rush attacks, stop, wait for the last one to complete, and then try to follow up with another quick attack. If you do it right, it will combo, and you will be on your way! Juggles "Juggle" is a fighting game term for attacks that strike an enemy while they are in the air, typically after being knocked up there by a previous attack. This is a fairly basic concept that most of us have at least a rudimentary understanding of - you knock the enemy into the air, and then hit them again on their way back down, before they smash headfirst into the ground. Juggles, beyond the very basic ones, have been made much more difficult in Shin Budokai than in previous games. Every chain you hit an enemy with while they are in the air will cause them to fall to the ground faster and will knock them farther away. This means that is typically hard to juggle an opponent through more than one or two additional chains. If you'd like to experiment with some juggles, a good place to start is with Cell's (e), or (e) by buffering in the command before the normal in question completes. Use it wisely. Attacking From Behind If you get a chance at your enemy's back, take it! Not only do all your attacks do more damage from behind, but they cannot be dodged, and many moves have different properties when they hit the enemy in the back. Typically, this means that they leave the enemy stunned for longer periods of time, making many new combos possible that simply don't work from the front. Tornado Counters Tornado Counters (TCs) are very flashy, and very, very dangerous. Be careful when using these; spamming them constantly is probably the #1 Newbie Mistake That Gets You Killed. Many moves, most notably those that end chains, will send the enemy flying through the air. When an enemy is struck with one of these moves, you can tap R to teleport behind them, smash them, and send them flying again. You can also specify the direction you want to send them flying in by pressing either up or down as you do the TC. This can be repeated for up to three iterations. The result is your character playing a game of ping-pong with the enemy character, bashing them back and forth lightning fast. It looks quite cool, quite brutal, and quite damaging. Looks can be deceiving. Each Tornado Counter you perform takes 1 bar of Ki. It also gives your opponent back 1 bar of Ki. And there in lies the rub. Ki is the single most valuable commodity you possess in all of Shin Budokai. Giving your opponent three bars of it - three bars! - and losing three bars of it yourself is NOT worth an extra 400-500 points of damage. Using three Tornado Counters is a six Ki bar swing, and will almost certainly result in you getting Teleport Countered, and with no Ki left to escape. The end result is you with no Ki, and your enemy with free access to your back. This is a Very Bad Thing(tm), and is likely to get you killed. I do not exaggerate when I say: use at your own risk. Keep a careful eye on how much Ki your enemy has before deciding to use one. If you judge it to be safe, then go for it - extra damage is always good! But if you have even the slightest bit of doubt, trust me and err on the side of caution. You'll live much longer that way. INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUES Instant Cancelling The speed with which moves can be cancelled is at times quite deceiving. Most moves can be cancelled instantly upon activation, before you ever see the attack come out and long before the greenish glow begins to form about the character's limb. Cancelling as quickly as possible is a critical skill to master to do most of the techniques in this section. Remember that the faster you can do the cancel, the faster you can recover and the more time you have to hit the opponent with something. Learning the correct timing to do a near- instant cancel takes practice, but the payoff is well worth the work, as it allows you to connect all sorts of moves - even supers! - that you never would have believed you had enough time to hit with. Aura Burst Cancelling Aura Burst cancelling is quite easy: just tap R while charging up a move. Making it actually do something useful, however, is not. This is the first of several techniques in this section that requires mastery of the concept of instant cancelling. The trick is to take a move that has a large amount of frame advantage after it, such as Goku's (>r,s,s), and instant cancel it into an Aura Burst/Smash. This allows you to combo into the normally slow guardbreak attack, prepping longer combos or supers. To do this, you need to first buffer (>r,s,s) and hold down the last (s). As soon as the first part of the last move connects, while still holding down Triangle, you quickly tap R, immediately release Triangle, and quickly tap Triangle again. If you do it right, Goku will cancel out of the axe-kick a frame or two after his leg swings up, and immediately dive into the Aura Burst/Smash, which will combo. This makes all sorts of interesting things possible. Sidestep Cancelling The motion to perform a sidestep is up/down + Guard. This is convenient, because Guard happens to be the button you press to perform a traditional cancel. By using the sidestep motion to perform your cancel, you can cause your character to abandon their attack and quickly jump around the enemy. When combined with the concept of instant cancelling, this can actually happen quickly enough to get you behind your enemy with enough time to link another attack, and continue your combo behind. This is a powerful tool, as attacks that strike from the back do more damage and frequently leave the enemy stunned longer, opening all sorts of new combo possibilities. To do this, you need a move with excellent frame advantage when cancelled, that also keeps you close to the enemy character. Once again, Goku's (>r,s,s) chain shines as a good starting place. Instant cancel the last hit into a sidestep, and then follow up with a quick attack (try just a Rush ot two at first, although you can get much, much more to connect once you're used to it). The timing is slightly strange; there is a small pause at the end of the sidestep, so be sure to hesitate slightly once you get behind them before pressing your attack. Ki-Blast Cancelling Regular Ki-Blasts can all be charged up and cancelled in this game. Since any normal can be cancelled into a Ki-Blast via buffering (as explained in the beginner section), it then becomes possible to cancel a normal into a Ki-Blast and then cancel the Ki-Blast to return to neutral. This allows you to cancel moves that are normally not chargeable with a minimum of delay, and opens up all sorts of interesting combo possibilities with moves that you normally would be unable to use in a successful combo. Probably the best example of this is Brolly's (r,s,s). This is much easier and less error prone than trying to convince your thumb to do it the hard way. 3) If you hold down a direction for an extended period of time, the buffer will apply that direction to every move in a chain except the first (as long as it is able). For example, you can do Goku's (r,>) for about one full second, or until the next move starts, whichever comes first, before it abandons them. This allows you to buffer in and hold a dash command during the last attack in a chain, which will cause your character to immediately begin dashing at the earliest possible opportunity. This is useful if you need to move somewhere fast. 5) Many multi-hit attacks - such as Kid Buu's (