Devil May Cry 4: 2

[TDK]

What about the right trigger? I mean, you don't use it any way and that IS the traditional fire button for most First Person Shooters, etc.

[Lord of Joshelplex]

I put it on R2. That button isnt ever used.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by ThunderousWrath

Skillful use of buffering Charged Shots is nothing new in the series, but with Nero it's much more useful than with Dante. Why? because Nero has two near-simulataneous ultra-powerful shots, whereas with Dante you've gotta mash out all of Dante's charged shots at once. That's right: all of them at once -- i.e., if you interrupt them with a sword-attack, you lose your charge, so you're basically stuck just trying to sidestep while shooting. In a game where mobility is key to victory, this is a bad thing.

Tips for Nero's charged shots:

1) Learn to hold down your Guns button whenever you use a Buster attack against an enemy. If the attack can do more damage because you're mashing the DB button, I like to slide my right thumb over to the Guns button, and then switch back as the animation ends so I can maintain my charge if necessary.

2) Learn to combo your Charged Shots. With Nero, they give a "float" property not unlike using a High Roller attack. Use them like one. My personal favorite goes like this:

Charged shot -> High Roller -> (buffer Charged Shot) Aerial Rave -> Buster -> (release Charged Shot)

3) Learn to use your Charged Shtos defensively. They knock a lot of enemies away, so they have great value as a tool for nabbing some breathing room. Remember that you can start charging up even when you're getting the shit kicked out of you and you're on the floor -- in fact, that's a great time to start charging up because no one can hurt you, and you can't do anything else.

And this is possibly my most valuable tip for those who see the value of Charged Shots but have trouble with them:

4) Learn to be comfortable with Charged Shots. The most common reason people forgo such a great skill is because of button placement -- i.e., they have trouble buffering the Charged Shots because their thumb isn't wide enough to access the Melee button while keeping the Guns button depressed.

...So what? I say. You got a skinny thumb, that's no reason to miss out on all the sweet charging action. RE-MAP YOUR CONTROLS! Put your Guns button in a place where you'll be most comfortable charging up the Blue Rose -- some people like to put it on the shoulder button, but I've always thought of that as impractical.

When you need hover-frames and you can't shoot fast enough because your Guns button is on the left shoulder, don't come cryin' to me!

IMO, the best place for the Guns button would be the B button on the 360 controller, or the O button on the Six-Axis. This way the base of your thumb has easy access to the Guns for charging purposes, while the tip is free to use your sword as much as you want!

I actually just slide my pointer finger around and use that for the sword, rather than remapping the controls.

Also, I find that only the level one and level three charged shots are really of any use. Level two doesn't light enemies on fire long enough for it to make much difference, other than a slightly larger damage differential. The kickback is roughly the same, and that's the big thing about the level 1 and 2 charge. You knock them on their ass and away from you. This is a good thing, but not really necessary. Like, ever (streaking is faster and hits more enemies for greater knockback than a level 1 or 2 charge). With the level three you get the super damaging explosion as well. This is super awesome.

I really never ever find myself needing to pull off a one or two charge shot. There's few situations where just firing off a couple normal rounds or streaking doesn't get the job done just as quickly.

Level 3 charge shot, however, is THE quickest way to take down Blitzes Mephistos and Fausts, as you can break their shielding in one or two shots (and for the Faust/Mephistos, you can use your buster attack to pop one out while charging to full, and then pop the caps in another, and not have to worry about dodging the flying shit while beating up the insect). It's also a very fast way to take down pretty much any other enemy if you have your gun pre-charged, which I've come to realize there's no reason not to.

I could have sworn that to charge in three you had to walk slower. I could be wrong, as that I never really used guns in three (or one), as they were just plain slower than using the sword, so long as you were good enough to use the sword without getting the piss kicked out of you. But I coulda sworn.

However, in DMC4, you can still run full speed and have full access to every single non-gun attack in your arsenal while charging (at least for Nero). This means that you should be able to start every fight with a level three charged shot to the face of whatever you deem to be the biggest threat. This will either kill it out of hand or leave it near enough dead that you shouldn't have any problem mopping up.

[ThunderousWrath]

Originally Posted by Krylo

I could have sworn that to charge in three you had to walk slower. I could be wrong, as that I never really used guns in three (or one), as they were just plain slower than using the sword, so long as you were good enough to use the sword without getting the piss kicked out of you. But I coulda sworn.

Nope. You could run around just fine in DMC3 while charging the Guns button, although keeping the Lock-On button depressed made you walk. When charging Artemis's Multi-Lock ability, you could only walk because you had to hold Lock-On by default. So in a way you're right, but it only applied to one gun.

But there's plenty of ways to get around without or running walking -- i.e., Stinger.

[Krylo]

Ah yeah, I was thinking DMC1. In DMC3 I just plain never used charged shots, except the multi-lock.

Why? 'cause the charge shots didn't 'cause knockdown and the extra damage wasn't worth the charging time most of the time--plus the whole "You have to stand there and shoot them all at once" thing.

I just used the E&I to float myself, and little else.

[ThunderousWrath]

Yeah, E&I were really more of a defensive tool than an offensive weapon in DMC3. Even once you maxed them out and equipped them while using Gunslinger at level 3, they still had one primary use: hover frames.

I guess you could also use them to juggle enemies after a non-rising High Time, but bah, why?

That said, they did have one amazing use, in retrospect. WILD STOMP!

[Buddha Fett]

One of my friends got this on launch day; the jealous bastard still won't let me play it.

[TDK]

So? I walked in the night of the day it came out and they had like four copies. I didn't even preorder it.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I do that all the time, I never pre-order and yet I always manage to get what I'm after.

In other news, DMC4 has, as predicted, pursuaded me to upgrade to the next gen at last. Just got myself a HD tv in preperation for getting a ps3 on saturday.

[Red Fighter 1073]

Wow, I don't ever wanna play this game anymore. Mission 11 against Sanctus was just.. the worst boss fight I have ever experienced. Yes, worse than Angelo Agnus. I had 2 Vital Star S and 1 Gold Orb. I used the 2 Vital Star S to beat him down and he only had 1 hit left in him, but my buster didn't finish him off. I used my Gold Orb and with a full Health Bar, I couldn't finish him off because I only had two seconds after his shield broke until he pussied out and ran back to his goddamn Savior. One hit, one fucking hit..