Yeah man I proper love off that game!!! Such a shame some people slate the game for their own lack of skill. There's a lot of things to think about during the setups but once you've got it down you can work insane stuff out on the go.
(basics)
A combo will start when you dodge and stun an opponent, most enemies will be stunned after just one dodge but there are some with different properties - like the black enemies which need 4 dodges. So the first thing is to learn how to dodge & stun each enemy type.
Once the combo initiates an unseen countdown begins (when you get a V sign below your VFX bar, combo has started). You reset the timer by hitting a stunned enemy or dodging another, this is where you build up points and setup your and their positions for the VFX finish. What's important here is to learn how many hits each enemy type can take before they die - you want to stun all enemies on screen and inflict maximum hits on all of them. The standard white enemies can take 3 taps, the spinning ones can take 5 - the rest you can work out
So work out a sequence setup where you stun an enemy, inflict maximum damage without killing, move to next one, stun - and so on until all have taken it *only then do you start using VFX*
When the setup is finished hit Slow and hold it (the combo ends when you release Slow). Now each enemy you hit while in slow will multiply the combo points you scored during the setups by 1 - so with a good setup where you hit lots of enemies within Slow you can max the combo at 9999Viewtifuls.
So suppose you setup 4 enemies and that gives you 340Viewtifuls - hit all 4 in Slow and that takes it up to 1360Viewtifuls.
Movement during Slow is an art! Animation cancels are vital if you want to fully rinse it, the rule is that kick cancels punch and vice versa. You can get Joe to track sideways quickly in 3 ways: 1. Rapid kick/punch cancels so that he keeps stepping while just about ready to attack. 2. Sliding to uppercut cancel, Sliding is down + kick (when you buy it) uppercut is down and punch - cancel the end of Sliding into just a couple frames of the uppercut then back to Sliding and so up (it's quick when you get the timing). 3. Hold Mach Speed within Slow for extra speed while running. Attack type is vital in Slow - Kicks will send enemied diagonally while punches Vertical or Horizontal depending if it's an uppercut or not. So Make sure you dont smash enemies into eachother, smash them away from eachother so you dont have to move about to reach all of them. Red Hot Kick will always send enemies diagonally up, standing kicks or sweeps both launch 45degrees - punch is simply straight forward, uppercut straight up. Once you learn how to aim enemies and position them during the setups you can smash them up into unreachable areas to get more V cans to fill the VFX bar.
Zoom-In is a shift-key for extra attacks, Zoom + punch is rapid punch, + kick is 360Kick, + Down+punch is rapid uppercut, Zoom + Red Hot Kick is Dragon Kick, Zoom + Jump is a rising attack, Zoom on the way down from a jump is a stomp. All these attacks are VERY powerful in Slow, against bosses are is nothing stronger than Zoom + Slow + punch/down and punch. When you earn them: Ukemi is a tech roll which is just Zoom when you hit the floor, Viewtiful Forever is a counter which you actvate by hitting Zoom when in a slow motion dodge (autoguard within Slow)
You can use Mach Speed during your setups, it acts exactly like normal attack and wont affect your combo but be careful as it's easy to kill enemies accidently. During a lot of sections extra enemies jump in after existing ones go, so a good tactic here is to kill the extra ones during the setup so that once you finish in Slow no more jump in - It's worth learning the numbers!!! As the kills will add decent points to your total.
As long as you follow the rules the combos are easy to keep going and the setups are up to your imaginaton. You gotta keep at Joe so you'll be on form for when Joe 2 comes out!
