bars

[Bastard Mami]

This topic is to talk about the different types of bars fighting games have and their behaviour.

Since the previous topic on dizzy was pretty productive I decided to make a topic to talk about "bars". as the years pass fighting games have more and more bars (whether or not they are visible as long as they affect gameplay I consider them bars for the sake of this topic).

Damage/lifebars, you get a set amount of this bar then it gets decreased as you get hit, you don't decrease or increase it directly and once it's gone is round over. later games gave you moves that can affect the lifebar and even tag absed games have autorefill on certain conditions.

Dizzy bar, while it is rarely a visible bar it has been present since sf2 times, this also gets increased while getting hit, but by a different amount than the lifebar, this one normally recovers by just not getting hit, some attacks damage this bar directly (as in more than their relative damage implies), once it's empty the character enters a dizzy state in which it is vulnerable.

Guard (break) bar, this also gets increased while getting hit, but by a different amount than the lifebar, this one normally recovers by just not blocking, some attacks damage this bar directly (as in more than their relative damage implies), again, once it is empty p2 enters a more vulnerable state.

Power bar, present since aof1, iirc. it is used to perform more damaging moves, normally it is filled by performing special moves, connecting any attacks and blocking. depending on the game it either starts empty or full. normally it is not affected by the other player.

those are the most common types of bars for fighting games, other types of bars are present only in a few games and are there to give the game a bit more depth so it's not easy to generalize them.

note: the rumble fish and omk had a lot of influence on me as a player, since those two are the two fighting games I like the best outside of kof and they implement more modern concepts on fighting game mechanics.

rage bars (samurai shodown): this bar gets filled as you get hit, similar to the lifebar but once it's full you gain adcantages and enter a "powered up mode", so it's actually positive and works as a comeback mechanic.

offense bar ( the rumble fish ) : works very similar to the power bar, except that this oen does not increase while getting hit, it gives you access mostly to offensive abilities.

defense bar ( the rumble fish ) : works slightly similar to the power bar, but this one does not fill while attacking only while blocking attacks, this also fills while not attacking, provides a way to give p2 some initiative as you ahve to stop rushing him if you want to fill this bar and this gives you access to specific super moves, mostly of defensive nature.

touch bar (omk): it fills by itself just by letting time pass, it can't be filled by other means, it is spent for tagging and some extra cancels.

skill bar ( kof13 ) : fills by itself by letting time pass, it can't be filled by other means, it is spent for tagging and super cancels.

...

Those are some bars that first come to mind, some things worth discussing would be more bars that are present in other fighting games or how many bars are included per game (like, classic sf2 has got two, life and dizzy).

[Jmorphman]

skill bar ( kof13 ) : fills by itself by letting time pass, it can't be filled by other means, it is spent for tagging and super cancels.

You mean KOFXI.

Although speaking of XIII, you should add the hyperdrive gauge.

[MellyInChains]

mana bar (battle monsters) - somebody tell me what the fuck this thing does, apparently not even artmoney can figure it out

[aznperson569M]

From what I know, Guilty Gear, Melty Blood, and Blazblue have some modifiers on health bars (Or more specifically, the health values depending on if the character is low on health).

And Blazblue has Guard Primers for it's guard bar. Tager has 10, and some characters like Carl or Hazama have 3 or 4 because they shouldn't try to be defensive or something. 

[GOH]

Does T.O.P. from Garou count? It's in the lifebars itself so I dunno.

[Basara Bogard]

Dizzy bar, while it is rarely a visible bar it has been present since sf2 times, this also gets increased while getting hit, but by a different amount than the lifebar, this one normally recovers by just not getting hit, some attacks damage this bar directly (as in more than their relative damage implies), once it's empty the character enters a dizzy state in which it is vulnerable.

In some games, this bar is full, and decreases when you were hit. When the bar is empty, the character goes dizzy. This happens in games like ClayFighter 63 1/3 and (not sure) Akatsuki Blitzkampf

[MellyInChains]

nah, blitzkampf doesn't have any dizzy mechanics

[Nanashi_1337]

I'm not sure if you would count it as bar, but the new P4U fighting game uses the Persona bar in the form of 4 cards. If your Persona or you (not sure about the second one) are hit while the Persona is out, one card is depleted. If you lose the 4 cards, you get Persona Break, and you won't be able to use attacks that require a Persona, nor Burst (even if the bar is full) until you recover them again, which takes some time to regenerate after you've suffered a Persona Break.

[DatKofGuy]

What of the CVS groove bars?

[Bastard Mami]

so how many bars does the average current game has ?

life bar, generic power bar, stun bar, guard break bar, skill bar specific to the game.

What of the CVS groove bars?

Dunno, never cared too much about cvs since it did not make a proper arcade impact here.

Does T.O.P. from Garou count? It's in the lifebars itself so I dunno.

yeah, dunno, it's effects are completely married to the lifebar, so it's more loike a powered up mode, kind of like some kof version in which you gain advantage whle being on low health.

I'm not sure if you would count it as bar, but the new P4U fighting game uses the Persona bar in the form of 4 cards. If your Persona or you (not sure about the second one) are hit while the Persona is out, one card is depleted. If you lose the 4 cards, you get Persona Break, and you won't be able to use attacks that require a Persona, nor Burst (even if the bar is full) until you recover them again, which takes some time to regenerate after you've suffered a Persona Break.

sounds like another skill bar overall, nice.

[Loona]

I liked KoF XI's approach of having a power bar and a skill bar, with the skill bar being used mostly for special cancels, and especially due to the fact that cancelling a guard with a roll or a CD attack no longer consumed the same kind of bar that let you use supers.

With that in mind, might as well have separate bars for defensive and offensive skills, but with some small passive bonus of the bars aren't being used at all, in case the player doesn't know about or can't use the commands that consume the bar - for example, the classic KoF mechanic  (early games, 94 to 96) of  having it making you stronger once it's full, although the damage bonus should be much smaller if that isn't being used as a super - and something equivalent for defense and a bar for defensive skills.


Something not actually translated into bars but which comes to mind is what was said in an older thread here about breakers, how the longer a character spends without attacking, the stronger the next attack will be - the GUI gives no indication of that, but it seems simple enough to make it more visible via bar.

[XGargoyle]

Daraku Tenshi's Power Bar works similar to Samurai Shodown's rage bar. However, the big difference is that players could charge it at will and that attacks by either player fills the gauge (more increase for own attacks, less increase for enemy attacks)

Once the bar is full, it goes automatically to MAX mode, which enables enhanced damage and attacks, but it gets depleted in a short time, 440 ticks if I remember correctly

[MellyInChains]

then there's also that silly thing where desperation mode gives the player MAX mode the whole time but that's another story