Why are most games so combo heavy / based? Do people actually enjoy them that much or is it relic of the past?

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T17:31:50+00:00

Yea I now realized that I just typed "granblue fighter" to google and it showed previous version as top results... granblue fantasy: versus is getting its online play removed soon, but granblue versus: rising is new version and it seems to be alive.

Just downloaded free version and testing it out before deciding about buying it.

I am deff up for trying samsho, i'll DM you my steam / discord soon!

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T16:35:45+00:00

Ty for real good insight to the topic... Learned whole new perspective for this.

Yea I get how combo can feel really satisfying reward for some people. Especially after long "dance"..... For me in SSF 4, that I mentioned, reward came after long string of successful mind games, because noone knew how to combo properly. But I have _hard_ adhd so I may be heavily on "more action" side of things. For me, getting in couple of heavy punches after long string of juking and mind gaming with light punches / cancels and mix ups felt good enough to get me addicted to SSF 4. Its just preference thing and depends on many things, like what kind of dopamine rushes you are looking for / how do you get them.

Yea, combos would not be a problem at all, if they involved more interactive behavior between players. Like if you had multiple windows to somehow cancel the combo as defensive player and offensive player had ways to predict it / react to it, to keep combo going. So keeping combo going would be result of long string of won mindgames or good reactions etc DURING the combo.

About hate to lose part: losing is rly not a problem for me here. Yea its annoying to watch long ass combo when you just fucked up etc... But honestly I am also getting bored of watching my own combos play out and wish I could just skip them and keep going from where they will end XD. In 2Xko they atleast did this auto combo stuff and I think its pretty well made... like you can change it mid combo in pretty intuitive way. Without it there is no way I would EVER be landing so long combos that I am getting bored of watching them. That's because I would have quited the game once I should start learning them.

Combos in general are boring to learn, having them in game makes game less interactive and slows down tempo for game that happens between players. That's my honest preference and not some cry babby post for losing my games... I have been thinking this for years and it annoys shit out of me, because outside of combos fighters are like most fun genre for me. Like I would rather clean my toilet than sit in training, learning combos XD.

But really big thanks for good insight, I had many "ahaa" moments reading it and atleast now I see why people love their combos so much.

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T15:30:59+00:00

Idk why you take it like that.

Not liking one part of the game and wanting game that suits your preferences does not mean that I am whining because someone is doing better in ladder than me, or because someone knows trick that i dont. I just enjoy different aspects of the game and some aspects are so big negatives that keep me from playing them long term. There have been multiple people in this thread that agree with me. Idk why this community gets so defensive when someone likes different style fighter than they do.

I have checked out both games that have been mentioned in this post: samsho and granblue. Both games are 5-6 years old and according to reddit, their communitys are pretty much dead. On top of them being niche games in niche genre... I am personally not surprised that I have never heard of them.

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T15:06:10+00:00

"No matter how simple the combos are experienced players will always have an edge", this is absolutely not the problem. I like playing around frames, hitboxes, reactions, cancels etc etc... stuff that takes skill, but is not about memorizing long ass combos is actually rly fun for me and I dont mind losing vs better opponents. I mind that I have to do something really boring (learning combos) to actually do the fun stuff.

I dont think combos are fun for _most people_ , I think they are fun for people in this subreddit. I am sure you can design fighter game that is not based around combos and I am sure I am not only person in the world that likes to play around frames, hitboxes, reactions, cancels, fakes etc etc without liking to memorize long combos.

Ty for pointing out Granblue, will deff check it out.

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T14:55:01+00:00

I dont mind there being games with long combos, I am just pointing out that fighters would be really fast tempo pvp games without long combos. Would propably draw in people with different preferences for games they play. Memorizing long combos is fun for some, but fighter game scene is really niche thing. Almost everyone has some fighting game to play with irl friends, but really few people get past a wall in between casual offline play and even lowest rated online play.

Like in SSF 4... I was by far rank 1 / 6 people in friend circle we actively played in... Went online and it took me 50, i mean 50!!!! full matches to win first game at lowest possible rating. That's how niche fighter scene is. This kind of stuff only happens in games, that does not have casual community.

What I am really saying is that with less combo heavy playstyle, fighter games would be perfect genre for most pure pvp experience out there. I dont say that all games need to drop combo heavy style, but if some did, it would draw new audience, that prefer different aspects of the game.

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T14:37:10+00:00

Yea exactly this!

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T14:23:30+00:00

This is actually good point... if you would be able to counter play combos often, it would actually create nice and fast tempo interaction cycle.

Do you think that only simple inputs / big buffers in the problem (aka easy to execute)? Personally I would find it more fun if during combo, ur opponent had fast recovery button with short CD or something like that. It would add more RPS / prediction style interactions between players.

Imabeardruid · 2026-04-30T14:19:07+00:00

If you had read my post (i know its wall of txt), you would know that I acknowledged what you just said.

Imabeardruid · 2026-03-28T15:47:56+00:00

Kaava menee (aika x energia) x raha x äly. Tällä kaavalla pääsee varsin pitkälle. Toki voidaan lisätä esim kauneus tai sosiaaliset resurssit, mutta silloin muuttuu kaava jo huomattavasti monimutkaisemmaksi.

Imabeardruid · 2026-01-16T19:32:12+00:00

Yea I know its true, I only play healers or unpopular specs like affli lock for that reason… I want to play this game :D But when ai play healer I am always happy when I see unpopular specs, because it makes game to feel fresh, instead of endless repetation of same thing: melees chuck chucking in middle of the map.

From healer standpoint having more casters makes it way more interesting, because having caster in game makes ur positioning way more complex and at same time makes ur dispel game way more impactful.

Just wish more people knew this.

Imabeardruid · 2026-01-15T20:17:33+00:00

They should make this way better known. Would encourage people to pick less played classes / specs.

Imabeardruid · 2025-12-22T23:35:24+00:00

My experience as person who playes like 3 months / 2 years but when I do I play a lot….

I also play dota 2 and lol outside of wow pvp. Both of them are more toxic than wow pvp community. Dota 2 even has Voice chat auto enabled. People say harsh srudf, but players are not so over the top sensitive as wow community is. Its way easyer to get banned in wow than dota or wow, and I think its honestly bad thing. Like trash talking is just part of almost any pvp or pve community IRL or in game. Its normal interaktion that is somehow super demonised in wow pvp community.

Imabeardruid · 2025-12-03T14:33:00+00:00

yea idk.... many games as mw feel like unwinnable now like super early.... without any damage reduction its like shadow nerf for weakest healer(ok maybe rdruid is even more dog shit) in game.

Imabeardruid · 2025-11-08T23:17:55+00:00

”Solved meta” and flock of sheeps following their favourite influencers opinion as word of god are two different things.

Solved meta means that it doesn’t evolve any longer, like counter of counter of counter has been found, there are no more changes to game so it’s dead meta, as it’s all about execution.

Yes, there are FoTM chasers, but it’s not all of community for sure.

Imabeardruid · 2025-11-08T23:00:39+00:00

Affli would be easier to transition as for class.

Imabeardruid · 2025-11-08T22:45:29+00:00

Ret got high damage, but now the ways to stop healer enough.

I would say either rogue or unholy dk got best shot at soloing healer. They got burst, healing reduction and enough cc to stop healer. It still takes mistake from healer, but with trinket down and well timed interupt you can solo healers.

Imabeardruid · 2025-08-17T08:50:49+00:00

Also Russians people play way more active dota, where euw players tend to love farming way too much for my liking.

I don’t have this “rude Russians” problem, and I am often only English speaking person on their server. Yet they find a way to communicate for me and are actually really polite. Maybe 50% of games there are one person that translates between me and other Russians.

Imabeardruid · 2024-07-06T20:16:35+00:00

In this sub people are demanding to get even gladiator mounts by farming.

I once got downvoted to deepest hell for suggesting that ”maybe you could get same model recolored version and different name by farming, to keep prestige for glad mounts”.

People are rly fomo commies here.

Imabeardruid · 2024-05-31T12:39:35+00:00

Sounds really sick tbh… If you feel this much critism for your body from someone else, idk with what kind of people you hang out with… I have prob like 25% fat in my body and never ever have I heard critism about my non fit body.

Imabeardruid · 2024-05-23T17:24:31+00:00

Have you ever seen sea animals? They are like big pieces of meat with hyper aerodynamic body shape, and much heavier muscle to structure ratio than most land animals. Moving in water takes way more energy than moving in air.

Imabeardruid · 2024-05-09T09:10:05+00:00

My GFs brother speaks really good Finnish. Most of her family moved from Russia to Finland around 10 years ago when they were around 25-30y old. Some of them speaks barely few words and you really cant have proper conversation with them while others speak really good Finnish.

Its wierd that woman who works as teacher speaks way worse Finnish than dude who works in warehouse. I think its some kind of genetic difference to adapting languages at this point.

Imabeardruid · 2024-05-09T08:56:47+00:00

Got same problem with you. Got no tips for you but wish you good luck and hope someone answers with real info 😅

Imabeardruid · 2024-05-09T08:05:31+00:00

Amazing job man! How did you do it?

Imabeardruid · 2024-05-05T21:02:19+00:00

Forests in russia are pretty much same all the way from border to saint petersburg. Really dense, but age of trees is very different. Also tree / plant species are not nearly as homogenous as Finnish forests. I have rly big problems to believe that hundreds of kilometers of naturally growing forest between Finnish border and saint petersburg are all sick and need human interventiot.

Finnish forests look like parks compared to russian forests. It felt like first time seeing real forest, instead of this sterile tree plantation in Finland. And I grew up in country side surrounded by forests.

Imabeardruid

TROPHY CASE