Unrelated to current events, but I have a request. I would like to know why people are so fond of combos in their fighting games.
I like the concept of fighting games, that even if the actual objective is to reduce a single number to 0, there's a lot of positioning and some rescource management going on. Something like a real-time pokemon match. Combos don't seem to fit into that. They're something that you spend a lot of time on, but they don't add much depth to the descision-making process. In the pokemon comparison, I can't really find a more flattering comparison than IV breeding. I can definitely see reasons for other ways fighting games require massive amounts of input precision (more moves than normally fit on a controller, for one), but not combos. Given their prevalanece, there must be some reason people want combos in their games, but I really can't see it. I would like to get more into this genre, but because there's a central design point I can't understand, ARMS is basically the only fighting game I've gone beyond hyper-casual with.
This is difficult to answer in full because it varies a lot depending on the game in question. A key thing, though, is to not look at them in isolation. They are a big part of using risk-reward to evaluate your options. What combos are available to you can vary a lot based on things like spacing, hitconfirms, proximity normals, corner, resources, counterhit, crouching, frame (dis)advantage, etc. Here are some (simplified) examples to better illustrate what I'm trying to say:
- Something like Gouki's tatsu can combo off of a canceled normal only if you are close enough for the first hit of the tatsu to connect. This means that something like low forward xx tatsu is less effective as a poking tool than as a follow up to a jump in.
- Similar to above, your basic light, light xx super confirms might require you to be pointblank when you use the first light if you want the second light to reach. So even though the pushback and frame advantage for your hypothetical character's close medium allows you to frame trap with their low short, if the second light whiffs then that combo isn't really an option and you would need to rely on other buttons for that situation.
- Set play characters can use their giant balls of fire/puppets/whatever to open up a much greater variety of potential hitconfirmable combo starters when they get the sort of knockdowns that allow them to setup. There's also stuff like Urien's/Oro's/Denjin Ryu's unblockables that play a big factor in what moves those characters like and the risks they will be willing to take to get the ideal knockdown.
- A lot of characters will have pokes that can cancel into a really rewarding combo but the poke itself isn't hitconfirmable and the the cancel is unsafe on block. This limits how you would use that cancel; aggressively fishing for a low forward hit is something a Chun-li could do but another character would have to buffer their cancel behind a poke that will whiff unless the opponent just happens to walk forward. (and therefore, won't be blocking) There's also sometimes option selects like DED.
- Proximity normals are often designed so that they are plus on block and hitconfirmable as opposed to their far counterparts. Sometimes far normals can't even cancel/combo into anything at all. A good example is Gouki standing forward; far forward can't cancel into anything and is negative on hit while his close forward +2 on block and gives you enough frame advantage on hit to link into SA1 from a hitconfirm.
- Some extra rewarding combos are only possible in the corner. Granblue is an excellent example of this as it's basically a universal rule. For example, a midscreen combo for Zeta is basically always going to be the hitconfirm canceled into 66L/H or super while in the corner she gets to dump 3-4 ex moves into an easy safejump setup. In other games, powerful corner specific combos might be the trademark of specific characters as opposed to a general rule. This gives designers a way to differentiate character playstyles as those sort of characters will value corner carry more in their combos as opposed to routes that may give slightly better oki/dmg/stun etc, for example. Blockstrings/pokes that have strong pushback gain value as safe ways to progressively push the opponent towards the corner as do some predictable throw setups where teching the throw pushes the defending player away (and into the corner).
- Third strike Chun-li is notorious for a lot of reasons, one of the big reasons being her SA2 and all the amazing buttons she has to hitconfirm into it. However, when she doesn't have meter her damage is a lot weaker. This further fuels into her typically defensive playstyle in most matchups as you want safely build meter by whiffing buttons, stuffing enemy attacks with her pokes, and whiff punishing with moves like her fierce. Once she has the meter, the threat of her SA2 makes her kara-throw vs strike mixup game A LOT more threatening and her pokes can be used much more aggressively as well.
- Some games give frame advantage when you counterhit an opponent and/or if you hit them crouching. Some moves (like Gouki's tatsu) can whiff if the character is crouching (assuming they are small enough). For counterhits, some combos are only possible when you get that counterhit advantage (either because the followup needs the extra frames of stun or the counterhit state gives you a more reliable hitconfirm) and that impacts what blockstrings a character will tend to focus on as well as how much they value situations that allow them to threaten those sort of mixups. The possible extra frame advantage from crouching works the same way but it can also incentivize hitconfirms that give you extra time to confirm if the enemy was caught crouching or standing. Moves that force standing may also become the central tool in that character's blockstrings and combo routes.
This could go on forever. I've mostly focused on examples typical to 2D street fighter-esque type games which is a really limited scope in the greater whole of the fighting game genre. Anime/3D/Team fighters have very different combo systems (that further varies between games within the specific genres) that allows for unique ways to design gameplay and characters. You just have to try a bit of everything until you find whatever it is that you like best.
Check out Killer Instinct btw if you are interested in a game where interaction mid-combo is a prominent feature. (there's also things like Guilty Gear/Blazblue Burst) Also, there's the Smash games for options that stray from traditional fighters.