How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Autocombo

I think at this point, autocombos have become such a standard and accepted part of mainstream fighting game design that we don’t bother with the cyclical discourse cycles about it anymore. I don’t think I even have particularly strong opinions about it at this point in time, though my perspective on any aspect of fighting game design has largely mellowed out to “any mechanic is a tool that you have access to as a designer,” and I was mostly upset by people treating autocombos as a kind of monolithic statement about who a fighting game was for, etcetera. Same way people used to talk about comeback mechanics. I hate fighting game discourse.

Note: the title is a bit misleading as I have never had any kind of negative opinion on autocombos, but that’s not really the point

After my positively glowing review of the Dragon Ball FighterZ open beta, you may be surprised to learn that I actually really enjoy this game. This won’t be an actual review of the game, so here’s the short version:

Dragon Ball FighterZ is truly something to behold. It’s gorgeous, colourful, fast and responsive, and while the game has a heavy focus on close range offensive play, there’s enough variety in the character designs to keep the game from feeling overly homogeneous. That said, in a lot of ways it feels like an expansion on some of the concepts used in the development of Persona 4 Arena (a notoriously silly fighting game), and while it has a few kinks of its own to work out, you probably won’t like this game if you didn’t like P4A. For those that do, however, you’ll find that if you’re willing to take it seriously (but not too seriously), Dragon Ball FighterZ has a lot to give.

Now, onto the real reason I’m writing this.

The dreaded autocombo is always a topic of heated debate whenever it’s revealed that a high profile fighting game will be using them. Said debate usually fizzles out fairly quickly as everyone once again realises that it’s really not that big of a deal, but I’d like to throw my two cents in on the matter anyway, given some experience I’ve had with DBFZ and living with someone who is perfectly happy with their primary Tekken strategy being “do running 4 with Asuka a lot”.

I’ve always liked the concept of the autocombo. I enjoy playing fighting games with people no matter how informed in the genre they may or may not be, and the autocombo means my less informed opponents can capitalise on clean hits without me having to explain what hitstun is. While most fighting games leave it at just one autocombo, DBFZ has three — one for each of the primary physical attack buttons.

The reason this is great for casual players is that it gives them options to actually deal some damage beyond single hits for every button they use, besides just the light attack button (where most autocombos are usually placed). This encourages players to actually explore the button that each autocombo is attached to, providing a gateway to at least some basic reasoning as to why you would want to use each button and when. It essentially creates a solid entry point into some of the basic mindgames that are so central to the fighting game genre.

What’s more, DBFZ itself goes further to give each autocombo a specific use. The L autocombo is the flashy, unique one on your fastest attack, the M autocombo is the one with the super attached to it if you want to be even flashier (or do more damage if you’re interested in that sort of thing), and the H autocombo has the Smash property attached to its first hit, making hits with this attack feel very visceral and satisfying. Each button and autocombo serves a distinct purpose, condensing and simplifying the usable options a character has so that a less competitively-inclined player can understand them without completely losing out on their larger benefits.

And all of this is, of course, to say nothing of how the autocombos have numerous nuances in their properties that create a wealth of new options for competitive players to explore their possibilities in combos and pressure.

In conclusion, autocombos are good, DBFZ has the best autocombos because they provide distinct options with distinct uses to players that aren’t interested in going to tournaments, f*** you fight me etc.