Yeah, I can confirm.
For people who were wondering about more advanced combat tactics, here are some initial impressions after a couple of hours.
With the default launcher, there really didn't seem to be enough time to jump and aircombo, but with the upgraded launcher combo (X, Y, X), you can jump and pseudo-enemy step cancel. I wasn't getting it early on because the enemies die too quickly during the beginning of the game. I
t works on the stronger baddies, though. I actually killed a boss
in one long extended jump cancel air combo. They never touched the ground, hah.
There's real time weapon switching mid combo. There's not a ton of utility to it, but it's certainly nice to have. O
ne immediate advantage is that you can use the rapid striking sais (tons of quick hits but incredibly weak) to get a huge huge combo, then switch to the sword to finish off the enemy and get the combo bonus. It's not like DMC or Bayonetta where the weapons behave very differently or anything, but it's okay to toy around with.
The teleport has a cooldown if you mash it, but as long as you wait about a second before teleporting again,
you can continuously teleport around the room... avoiding most gunfire. And then you can get upgrades that give you health after every certain hit in a combo (haven't purchased the skill yet), so I imagine that the bullet damage that people were complaining about will become negligible when you get good at closing gaps by teleporting. And yes, you can buffer teleport inputs by pressing it a few times in a row... ch
ange direction, too (it doesn't buffer the direction, you still have to change your direction as he's teleporting). Ultimately, though, it drains your cooldown all in one swoop, so it's not really worth it unless you're running away. I don't see an indicator of how much cooldown there is... that would have been nice. There is an upgrade path that lets you teleport five times in a row, though.
The teleport lets you exploit the AI a bit too. Again, it's not like DMC or Bayonetta, where there are a ton of unique enemy actions. In this game, enemies have a limited moveset. Against some of the huge lumbering dudes, you can literally bait their melee over and over until they die by X, X, teleport, X, X, teleport, X, X, teleport, ad nauseum.
I'm not sure where twosome time is yet. I don't know if it's with the default handguns or the SMGs, but I'll play around with it. If let you guys know if I find it.
There's also a counter system a la Batman Arkham Asylum. Pressing B, which is also teleport, performs a counter when there's a symbol over your opponents' head. I
t acts as an option select almost because there's no real penalty to hitting B since you'll just teleport out of trouble if you somehow mess it up.
The lock-on.... I don't get it. I haven't really tried it too much because it's not really necessary, but it's awkwardly done. It seems that enemies have you be on your screen to lock onto them and it's the same button that draws your guns.
The combat's not super deep or responsive.
You can have fun experimenting with it. The game's combat tries to do a lot of different things, but it does none of them exceedingly well. That said, I don't care. I'm having fun with it so far.
