I already saw the video early, and then once again now, and still did not get that joke... It went over my head twice. Maybe I dodged it. Thanks for pointing it out.
It's a shame how many content creators think auto-gen captions are "good enough" when, for someone with a hearing difference they're...really not. Your mad respect is seconded! Thanks Dan for putting the effort in for accessibility
@@emkerr90I have perfectly good hearing and still use captions in a few different contexts, and it is SO disappointing when they’re auto generated because they’re HORRIBLE. 95% right sounds good, but in practice every other sentence is confusing.
Pretty sure there are plenty of tools to convert a script into subtitles now. Hell, you can even use ML speech to text software and pass it through subtitle generators. But creators are lazy.
@@emkerr90it takes a lot of time and effort. Some people just cant afford that. Ots nice when it happens, but I understand when it doesnt. UA-cam should work on better CC imo
My favorite genre: Specialist youtuber making a feature length movie of one extremely specific thing of their craft. I'm gonna make some popcorn! Be right back!
Editing is on point as usual Dan, love how you not only edit stuff nicely to your VO, but the _gameplay_ just syncs up nicely to your delivery as well.
Fire Emblem Engage's dodge animations are fricking cool. I love that the higher level your character gets, instead of dodging, they will parry instead, which looks fricking hardcore when they smack an arrow out of the air.
I love the dodge evolving with promotions, and it's been a thing in some form since at least the GBA. Your caveliers and myrmidons practically jump out of the way, while paladins and swordmasters show their expertise by using a simple shield deflect or lean, not even dropping their fighting stance.
@@SwissCheeseMann Yeah I love the dodge animations like the Swordmaster who just lean just slightly. It feels satisfying and a lot more impressive than some of the flashier animations
These captions are really great, actually being separated by clauses and whatnot. So many captions for YT videos are just put into an AI program and spit out with the same number of words for every line with no variance. Thanks for going through the effort to make these!
Yeah the way monster hunter dodges work there's actually a unique, contextually appropriate dodge animation if you dodge during an attack's recovery time vs. just dodging from neutral. With some weapons it's a whole different kind of dodge entirely - the charge blade in sword mode, for instance, will do a normal dodge roll from neutral, but short little side hops following an attack.
Oh man I'm glad you checked out Hyperlight Drifter, but I was hoping you'd mention how the chained endless dodge looks! It's an upgrade you can get where if you dodge again mid-dodge within a certain window, you can chain into your next dodge skipping the wind-down and wind-up, and once you get a couple chained dodges going, your character is ZOOMING and the stopping animation has you skidding across the ground. It's super cool!
The animation I would really like to see a video focusing on is falling (including from being hit). I feel like falling is sometimes overlooked for how important it is at selling physicality, and I have a pet peeve about falling being done badly in film and television.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door does have a dodge animation, technically. It only triggers when an attack is missed because of the Dodgy status effect. It causes the character sprite to swoop aside, mimicking the movement of a matador's cape.
About Bayonetta dodges, I think it is worth highlighting the implementation of the Dodge Offset mechanic. The smooth transition between attacks and dodges, not to mention the unique modifications to the dodge animation (which can vary depending on the weapon being used) are really impressive.
I hoped Dan would also mention this mechanic because it adds even more context to her acrobatics when you see her firing bullets in all directions while dodging. It's an advanced move though and isn't really explained by the games, so I guess Dan just didn't know it existed.
There's another game from recent years that does a fun thing with turning evasion into continued offense, by name of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. It's kind of like Absolver and God Hand, finding different martial arts styles and Specials to assign to the character. The thing is that you can turn a directional dodge into a special directional attack. All Stances have fully unique animation movesets from each other, some of which hit multiple times, some keep you moving in that direction, others return you to your original position, some are zig-zaggy, and have different speeds of execution. A further mechanic helps in keeping up the speed: Animation canceling. If you input a new non-combo attack the *moment* your previous attack lands, then that new move comes out immediately. So if you have your timing down, you can do stuff like X2 Combo > Right Dodge Attack > Jump Attack > Backwards Dodge Attack > Right dodge Attack > Left Dodge Attack > Special Battles are on teh smaller scale and all sapient enemies are separate individuals, likewise with their own movesets. They'll appear in different team-ups against you throughout the game and that helps keep stuff fresh. Main character's a bit like Bayonetta too. His name's Pseudo and he has, in similarity with Bayonetta: - the uncanny long limbs, - Has three different themes to his name (Pseudo's Theme, Pseudo's Return and Pseudo's Wrath) - a sense of wit as well as wisdom, - can be downright menacing when he wants to be, - he's good with a kid, - he remained in isolation for a *long* time, - He has special finisher movies that can be brutal, extravagant or both - And he ends up destroying an entire abstract concept of the world. Plus, he has unmatched hair. I'm partially joking a bit, but i do genuinely, *very* warmly recommend looking into this game. For the gameplay, for the world, for the story, the atmosphere, the art... it's awesome.
I am in complete agreement with Nier Automata's dodge being one of the best I've seen in any video game. In fact the entire game's animation pool is just simply amazing to look at and being able to combine all the different weapon types (which also have their own unique combos) was one of the first things that really made me believe that this game was truly special
DANATHAN! You cant to this to me, you cant just release over an hour of excellent and entertaining animation analysis, i had PLANS for my sunday evening, all those poor youtubers who will be forced to wait now xD I am very glad to see more videos here, well done and thank you :)
Honorable mention to the myriad bespoke dodge animations in Sayonara Wild Hearts. "Are they really dodge animations and not just button inputs entered with the proper timing", you ask? ... Well, what else is a dodge animation if not *exactly that* ?
The best functional dodging I've ever seen is in GUACAMELEE. If a hitbox overlaps your hurtbox during an invulnerable frame, you see a little forcefield effect over that overlapping area, along with a satisfying "Klink" sound. I like it because it gives you immediate feedback for every successful dodge, so you quickly get a sense of which frames of the dodge are I-frames. Most games only give you immediate feedback for failed dodges or perfect dodges, but Guacamelee has your back on all the ones inbetween.
I feel like The Witcher'e dodging would benefit from a camera that, when not locked onto just one enemy, would be able to move automatically to present a wide view of all combatants. Like it could find a central focal point between Geralt and all his nearest enemies and the camera movement could just be made to rotate around them when the player uses the stick.
So, transitioning to a low top down camera for combat? Could work. If I'm not mistaken that might be what the 2nd one did? I may be wrong, it has been half a decade since I last played TW2
hour and a half of dodge animations? Dan, you absolute mad lad! as an aside, if you wanna have fun in Fire Emblem Engage, put two fist fighters with the base rarity weapon in the training arena against each other and watch the hand-to-hand animations go nuts
He did one for the Dark Souls game (although I think that one was before Elden Ring came out). As much as I would love to see him do a more exhaustive parry animation video, I feel like that might break Dan xD
I personally think the best dodge is done by my friend when I ask him why, when I go out with him and his girlfriend, they get into an argument every time. He dodges that question perfectly
Deadlock has really good dodges for every character. They're arguable equally suited for both evasion and mobility, but as of the current patch they have i-frames against melee attacks so I definitely think they count.
I genuinely love the dodge in Ookami. The forward doge transition to a sprint with the change in the blooming flower effects, and the spinning side leaps were so much fun in both traversal and combat.
A type of animation I tend to really enjoy are critical hits in games like Fire Emblem and how different the 2D and 3D versions are. I'm not sure what other games have animations for crits other than Persona, but simply looking at the difference between Fire Emblem games can be nice.
Gotta make another comment, we GOTTA get a parry animation video next. Its probably already planned but i just have to ask for it in caze it isnt xD The Cyberpunk Boxing Parry animation feels so good, and Darksouls while simple just always Feels soooo rewarding. Also: Sekiro. Ofc.
I always had a soft spot for God of War 3’s dodges. Depending on which of the 4 weapons Kratos has equipped, his dodge animation changes from his usual “lounge forward into roll” to new animations that better fit the weapon, my favorite being the Claws of Hades; Kratos throws a claw forward into the terrain and uses his chains to pull himself to it. Sacrifices a bit of responsiveness for better distance if I recall correctly, but it just looks so damn cool
I've never felt more called out by a video and bravo for that surprise attack ending. Loved the whole video and as always appreciate the love and care you put into these. Looking forward to more!
Regarding Hollow Knight, the game also has a charm called Sharp Shadow, which increases the dash length and damages the enemies you dodge through. It has it’s own unique animation with the knight turning into an angled black shape mid dodge that plays off both the charm name and conveys the feeling of aggressiveness, matching its gameplay purpose
A great example that was excluded from the criteria - the boss Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. He separates his body whenever you swing at him, so your sword passes through the gap. Nothing communicates 'regular attacks won't affect this guy and he can dodge an unlimited number of times' more elegantly.
I always want to credit Astral Ascent for their animation work. It's nothing particularly amazing in terms of quality, but they did SO MUCH for that game. In addition to abilities that modify everyone's animations, there's one character who has a specific ability on a specific weapon that has a unique dodge animation because it's also an attack and I just thought that was a really cool touch they didn't even have to do.
A minor accessibility/ease of use note, having the game titles only show up as text on screen left me confused multiple times while listening to this in the background. It would be great to have it out loud so I know when to tune in a little more 😅 Great stuff, love it!
21:00 It looks like the reason why he's shifting to the side when performing a forward roll in the backward direction is because they're having him turn around by pivoting around his left foot like a physical monkey person instead of having him rotate around his center point like a video game character.
A fun third contribution to the Genshin Impact / Zenless Zone Zero lineage I feel is their game prior to Genshin, which is still getting new updates and plays more like ZZZ: Honkai Impact 3rd. An extra fun thing with that game is that because it's been going for over 7 years, you can wheel right back to characters from the start where they clearly had much less experience and budget and see the progression of way more polish and individuallity of all the characters. It's gone from mostly moveset copies of a small core cast to an entirely new character constantly with wildly different movement styles and personality touches (one character even uses yo-yos and they got a bunch of reference from a professional). It's not quite as wild as some of the stuff ZZZ is doing, but it's very much in the similar ballpark. Complete with unique dodges and smooth transitions to idles you'll basically never see in practice. (As the a bunch of the transitions into attacks/runs still are clearly aren't the focus). It's also got some funny points of comparison because there is a Genshin Impact character in there and she's got basically the same dodge even if the other animations have much more flourish, and they've injected an absurd amount of animation personality into Honkai Star Rail's Sparkle who came out recently, especially as she's normally from a turn-based system with no dodging. And they still come back and make new versions of some of the older characters so there's fun development and consistency in some of the sets though, at least if they're not the characters who float everywhere. Shout-outs to the couple of characters who have dodges but mostly have parries instead which would make for poor choices for this dodging specifically but they're there! The best part for checking this out is you can test every character out even if you don't own them, although you will be trapped in a tutorial to learn their basics before you get to the freeplay section. But the function is there! (Which does bypass a common issue with the gacha model for doing comparison stuff like this). Also Asuka from Evangelion is here, I'm not sure if you can see her existence if you weren't around for that more-sensical-than-you'd-think crossover event but it's just a funny thing that exists.
3D Fire Emblem dodges are usually very class-specific, and with their counters often weapon-dependant, but I think there's a rare case in Three Houses where Claude is the only one who will dodge attacks with a backflip and counter with a bow shot whilst still upside-down mid-air. He's a fancy lad. Appropiate for the guy who learns the skill Pomp and Circumstance. Considering Three Houses also lets any class basically equip any weapon, it's not always a sure thing to happen, there's kind of an absurd amount of work there. The last bit of Three Houses trivia is that it was entirely developed by the team from Koei Tecmo who usually do the Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games rather than the usual Intelligent Systems.
1:14:10 "Kinda like one of those athletes who still has a surprising amount of agility despite their huge build" so like Samoa Joe is what you're saying.
Makes me think of Augo the Beastmaster from Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. He's a monstrous rotund turkey man, but he has probably one of the quickest attacks in the game with a big shoulder roll that he immediately recovers from.
I dunno about the BEST, but Megaman Zero's animation always stuck in my head because the afterimages look cool, not to mention it helps with the sense of speed because in those games you're normally chaining dash-jumps to get somewhere fast
The animation cycle for the _Diablo III_ dodge looks like it was meant for a dodge that carries the character farther, almost as if the distance got nerfed at the last minute. (Or maybe even post-release). It has a similar feel to when a non-IK walk cycle is the wrong speed for the movement and the feet drag on the ground.
My guess for the short distance is anyone who has experience playing it couch co-op, the players are not allowed to be too far apart, stopping characters from going past the edge. The camera wasn’t designed to have enough space for a long dodge when everyone has to share the same space.
I'm sad you didn't cover the Darksiders dodges, especially Darksiders 3, where dodging can be so satisfying, especially on harder bosses with relentless attacks like Iollos, the final boss of Serpent holes
Oh FLIP YEAH, a Darksiders mention! Niiiice! Cool to see the final boss of the Keepers of the Void DLC be mentioned too. I heard good stuff about that DLC but it's rarely talked about.
@@jurtheorc8117 Well tbh, one of the lesser bosses is harder in the sense that the animations are much less clear and can one shot you quick, Iollos on the other hand can ALSO one shot you but the animations are much clearer since he's much bigger and has a more complex animation. The boss is genuinely fun since any hit is purely a skill issue, combos attacks like crazy, he is fast paced and fun and once you learn him it's pure action action action. He is one of the best bosses since it's just combat and best use of dodge mechanics since you can interrupt some of his deadliest combos with dodge counter attack It's a good DLC, I recommend it (even if it had only the final boss, his fight is just THAT good)
Devil May Cry 5 has not just one, but a *bunch* of excellent dodge animations for its four playable characters. Nero’s dodge is a pretty wimpy looking roll normally, but it turns into a really stylish acrobatic jump that can then be chained into two other dashes if you dodge with absolutely perfect timing. It looks amazing. Dante’s dodge roll is pretty slow and weak, but that’s because you’re not really supposed to press the dodge button when playing him, you’re meant to avoid damage in other ways, like with his Royal Guard parry, the quick dashes of his Trickster style (which are pretty sweet dodge animations in their own right), or the little boxer-style dodges on his fist weapon. His dodges are varied, expressive, and fun to look at, which is just Dante as a character in a nutshell. V is a character who is physically very weak, so he relies on his shadow familiars to do much of the work for him in combat, and this extends to dodging as well. His backwards dodge has his bird familiar pick him up and glide him a short distance, while his lateral dodge has his panther familiar appear at his feet and slide him around. If your familiars die, though, you lose these animations briefly, and V’s dodges become little more than stumbles. Vergil’s dodge is basically just a really fast, short, all purpose teleport. There’s a really sweet slow down effect when you perfectly dodge something, and Vergil himself has a really strong lean in whichever direction he’s teleporting that adds a great sense of force to his movement. Whoops, that was a pretty long comment, but I really wanted to sell you on this game’s animations, because they’re really amazing.
YESSS i was just thinking about your videos !! they have really helped me in art and art analysis/criticism in so many different ways along with just being flat out entertaining !!
I think it would have been great to a bit of The King of Fighters. The dodge and roll have always been a part of the series and do have the same quality as SNK animations in general (especially in the sprite entries).
Amazing video. Although a bit sad you didn't also highlight the extended dodge from the Spider-Man games (pressing Dodge and immediately following up with Jump) which is a great functional tool that puts you out of reach of heavy enemies but still maintains the springiness and flair of the characters. But I can't complain considering the scope, length and depth of this video. Thank you for making this!
Im loving this, and Im looking SO forward to the top 10 year in animation video, thats always a major highlight of every year and how I find some real special gems from the past year.
This is so cool, thanks for making a video like this! I love hearing your thoughts and opinions on so many different animations across different games.
Slight missed opportunity not to mention that Mr. Game & Watch's spot dodge is a direct reference to how he dodges in the Judge game, which suits Smash's borrowing theme very well. But you've clearly got enough on your plate I can't fault you for missing it lol
11:46: That is _not_ a joke I expected from this channel! 36:10: _Really_ not a fan of this one. It's like they curl up to spindash five feet, without any of the things that make Sonic's spindash look cool, and also they're not cartoony or hedgehog-adjacent enough for a spindash to seem reasonable. I want to put these dodges in F-tier even though F-tier doesn't exist. 1:00:25: If a game lets you swap characters mid-combat, it should let you do cool stuff with a swap. 1:18:43: Heh. Bow string. 21:54: More games should have dodge rolls with a heavy tail. The start of the animation needs to be near-instant, the player wants to move before they hit the button, I get it. But if you're willing to make your dodge a _commitment_ (or hope the player doesn't press a second button), you can do a lot with the resolution. Characterization or physicality or comedy. 40:30, 1:08:30: See what I'm talking about? 1:20:21: Insomniac agrees.
Regarding Zenless Zone Zero, the Assist Dodge and Assist Block all transition into unique character-specific counter attacks, so you're incentivized to use it often. One character, Seth, has even more mechanics to specialize using him for his Assist Block & Counterattack. So yeah, you can always do cool stuff after the swap.
Darksiders 2 and Soulstice kinda had that "dodge with a heavy tail", but in the way Bayonetta did it. If you chain three dodges in a row, the third animation will be longer, more extravagant, and have longer recovery time. I don't remember if those could be cancelled out of.
Its kinda jank but I really love the animation on god hand's forward dodge where he just moves his upper body and you can chain it with itself. Just spamming forward during some enemy's multi-hit rush attack feels like you're dodging every hit individually even though your just statically looping through like 3 animations. Feels like a very efficient use of animation.
I feel like the Bat Within upgrade to Bayonetta's dodge deserves a mention. This upgrade extends the window for a perfect dodge, letting you press the button later than you could before, and it has a different animation of Bayonetta splitting into a swarm of small bats for a moment then reforming. This doesn't replace the old animation, the new one only happens when you press the button late enough that it wouldn't have been a successful dodge without the upgrade. This unique animation feels great for several reasons. One, it lets you know exactly when you've been saved by having the upgrade, which might have been difficult to appreciate otherwise. Two, it makes sense in terms of what the character is doing: it's too late for a regular dodge to work, so Bayonetta has to use a more extreme measure to evade the attack. And three, it is stylish as hell
I agree for the most part on Lies of P's dodge animations being a bit stiff and unpolished, but it's really a shame you didn't cover the very cool unique "recovery" dodge animation you get when you dodge after being hit or knocked down by a heavy attack. P does this sort of motor-driven swivel to instantly get back onto his feet, using his hand as a makeshift brake on the ground to slow himself down before the player regains control of his normal moveset. It looks and feels awesome, and it does something similar to the Bayonetta quadruple dodge animation you highlighted that I always appreciate seeing in an action game; when an animation ostensibly designed to serve as a reaction to the player making a mistake is supposed to visually convey that the player CHARACTER in still in control of the battle, so as not to break the flow of battle or separate the player too much from the character they're controlling.
Amazing essay video Dan. I think it's worth looking at the different character dodges in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, as they uniquely convey each of the character's physicality and combat styles.
Absolutely amazing video, thank you so much for making it. Your passion and insight into game animations is honestly so inspiring, and I'm not even an animator. As for what you asked for at the end, the one dodge I have never been able to forget is the dodge for Jak from the Jak and Daxter series. It's just a roll that's barely used for combat, but it also has this delightfully springy long leap that you can do out of it that I literally cannot forget.
Very excited for this entire video... But as someone who's currently playing Nier:Automata I had to skip ahead to see what you had to say about it (Scrolling through the "Chapters" nearly made me think you left it out!) And I can't agree more with everything your said! :D
I haven't played quite a few of the games on the list, but with many of them I could feel them even by just looking at them. There's really something to be said about making things both snappy and smooth, and sacrificing form for function, but all of the S and A tiers here don't sacrifice much form, if any at all.
Highly impressive video. As soon as I saw Anby on the thumbnail, I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts on ZZZ's dodge mechanics and the personalized actions for each character. A lot of games here I've never gotten a chance to play yet either. Loved the ride
I love how the team behind Nier Automata put so much work into the little details. Even in just her walk you can see the easy confidence 2B has, with the casual saunter and the settling on the hips with each step.
I don't know about the best, but a pretty good example is Splatoon 3. The Dualie weapon class has its trademark dodge rolls. All six types of Dualies have their own properties when it comes to their dodges, how many dodges, frame data, distance covered and speed, the properties of the alternate firing mode the dodge transitions in, the Tetra Dualies have their own animations etc. There's also the Drop Roller gear ability, which allows a single roll after a Super Jump, as you can otherwise be quite vulnerable in that state. All but the Douser Dualies were in Splatoon 2, but the new Squid Roll, which every weapon has access to, was not. There’s a lot going on with it, being able to cancel it into main weapon fire or sub weapons, which immediately voids the protective frames (I say protective, because you’re not quite invincible). And you’re able to jump off walls with it and being able to directionally influence your arc in the middle of a roll.
I'm playing Nier Automata rn. Seeing it pop up on the list is nice. It's one of the animations I noticed. After 2Bs unarmed aerial heavy attack of course
I like the dodges in Devil May Cry 5 a lot. Out of combat it's just the dodge roll the series has had from the start, but when you actually dodge attacks with it it becomes a cool looking sidestep. Nero has a special ability that makes him do flips on a well timed dodge.
If you enjoyed God Hand, can very warmly recommend looking into Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from 2023. It likewise has a thing going on of finding different martial arts styles/moves, although to a simpler extent. Even still, in total there will be around 70 different moves on offer. All of the martial arts styles have their own movesets unique from one another, as do the Specials. And all sapient enemies are unique individuals with --likewise-- their own movesets. They return in different team-ups time and again and some areas have exclusive enemy types to 'em. Genuinely, very warmly recommend the game. it won't kick your butt like God Hand did, but it's not a cakewalk either. And as far as dodge animations go: All martial arts styles consist of - A combo (three or four hits) - Jump attack - Run attack - Charge attack - And a directional attack. Forwards, backwards and sideways. And those are executed by dodging in that respective direction and immediately attacking. Different dodges can be stuff like spinning backfists, a zig-zag headbutt, a jumping Muay Thai knee to the left or right, a two-part horizontal kick where the second kick goes upwards and returns you to your original position, a simple sidestep with a long karate chop straight forward, a running elbow bash, etc. etc.
I noticed an omission from the list that I half expected but understand why it is not present. Despite covering almost every other From game, Sekiro, while having a dodge, doesn't present it as a mechanic it wants you to use. That's understandable, however, given that a lot of these games also have blocks and parries, perhaps a video on block and parry animations is in order? I imagine you'd have to set a higher standard of criteria, probably only games with more unique interactions with those sorts of systems would be included. Although, I foresee Fromsoft and Monster Hunter taking some high spots again.
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos would have been interesting for the different dodges too. Dodges can become directional attacks, and different martial arts styles give different animations for these directional dodge attacks. All of the stances are fully unique from one another, so some dodges can keep you going in a direction, others return you to your initial position, some are a bit zig-zaggy, some hit multiple times... it's a cool game. Can warmly recommend.
I did NOT see a joke about Bayonetta getting A-S-S rankings coming from Dan, but I am here for it
That was just a total "wait... did he just... no... HE wouldn´t... WOULD he?... he... he in fact just did! omg!!"-moment :D
I already saw the video early, and then once again now, and still did not get that joke... It went over my head twice. Maybe I dodged it. Thanks for pointing it out.
I would have expected this 10 times more from Jones, never from Floyd
Thank goodness the ranks go from S to D and not A to F, or the rankings would be BAA. And that would presumably make Dan feel sheepish.
It is a sign of how wholesome and family friendly he keeps it that I actually said "DANIEL!" out loud when he did that.
Mad respect for having custom captions throughout the whole video
custom captions are my favorite indicator of a good youtuber
It's a shame how many content creators think auto-gen captions are "good enough" when, for someone with a hearing difference they're...really not. Your mad respect is seconded! Thanks Dan for putting the effort in for accessibility
@@emkerr90I have perfectly good hearing and still use captions in a few different contexts, and it is SO disappointing when they’re auto generated because they’re HORRIBLE. 95% right sounds good, but in practice every other sentence is confusing.
Pretty sure there are plenty of tools to convert a script into subtitles now. Hell, you can even use ML speech to text software and pass it through subtitle generators. But creators are lazy.
@@emkerr90it takes a lot of time and effort. Some people just cant afford that. Ots nice when it happens, but I understand when it doesnt. UA-cam should work on better CC imo
Dan just randomly releases a dissertation movie on a sunday.
My favorite genre: Specialist youtuber making a feature length movie of one extremely specific thing of their craft.
I'm gonna make some popcorn! Be right back!
I am locked tf in for this
This will help expand some critical language with your series. Useful research
My man Ananas ❤
Editing is on point as usual Dan, love how you not only edit stuff nicely to your VO, but the _gameplay_ just syncs up nicely to your delivery as well.
Fire Emblem Engage's dodge animations are fricking cool. I love that the higher level your character gets, instead of dodging, they will parry instead, which looks fricking hardcore when they smack an arrow out of the air.
I love the dodge evolving with promotions, and it's been a thing in some form since at least the GBA. Your caveliers and myrmidons practically jump out of the way, while paladins and swordmasters show their expertise by using a simple shield deflect or lean, not even dropping their fighting stance.
@@SwissCheeseMann Yeah I love the dodge animations like the Swordmaster who just lean just slightly. It feels satisfying and a lot more impressive than some of the flashier animations
These captions are really great, actually being separated by clauses and whatnot. So many captions for YT videos are just put into an AI program and spit out with the same number of words for every line with no variance. Thanks for going through the effort to make these!
The best dodge animation is in Pokémon where a text box appears and says pikachu avoided the attack
Yeah and that's it. no visual, no audio, just text
@ it’s an attainable result for everyone
Or in every other nes rpg ever.
Cue in galaxy brain meme
1:19:34 The backwards dodge here jumps OVER the weapon? That's so good, I would've never noticed that
Holy shit, you're right :0
That was so good! And makes so much sense to not haul around that hulking thing of a weapon more than you need
Yeah the way monster hunter dodges work there's actually a unique, contextually appropriate dodge animation if you dodge during an attack's recovery time vs. just dodging from neutral. With some weapons it's a whole different kind of dodge entirely - the charge blade in sword mode, for instance, will do a normal dodge roll from neutral, but short little side hops following an attack.
After watching Pinocchio shove his great sword through his own head to block with it, this level of fidelity was incredible to see.
Oh man I'm glad you checked out Hyperlight Drifter, but I was hoping you'd mention how the chained endless dodge looks! It's an upgrade you can get where if you dodge again mid-dodge within a certain window, you can chain into your next dodge skipping the wind-down and wind-up, and once you get a couple chained dodges going, your character is ZOOMING and the stopping animation has you skidding across the ground. It's super cool!
Less than a minute spent on the review, suspect he didn't do his homework on the game tbh.
yeah this one is really really cool. i don't think it really counts as a dodge, though, unless you're dodging pillars of fire
The animation I would really like to see a video focusing on is falling (including from being hit). I feel like falling is sometimes overlooked for how important it is at selling physicality, and I have a pet peeve about falling being done badly in film and television.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door does have a dodge animation, technically. It only triggers when an attack is missed because of the Dodgy status effect. It causes the character sprite to swoop aside, mimicking the movement of a matador's cape.
About Bayonetta dodges, I think it is worth highlighting the implementation of the Dodge Offset mechanic. The smooth transition between attacks and dodges, not to mention the unique modifications to the dodge animation (which can vary depending on the weapon being used) are really impressive.
I hoped Dan would also mention this mechanic because it adds even more context to her acrobatics when you see her firing bullets in all directions while dodging. It's an advanced move though and isn't really explained by the games, so I guess Dan just didn't know it existed.
And this mechanic is present in other PG games, too! I love using dodge offset in Astral Chain
There's another game from recent years that does a fun thing with turning evasion into continued offense, by name of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. It's kind of like Absolver and God Hand, finding different martial arts styles and Specials to assign to the character.
The thing is that you can turn a directional dodge into a special directional attack. All Stances have fully unique animation movesets from each other, some of which hit multiple times, some keep you moving in that direction, others return you to your original position, some are zig-zaggy, and have different speeds of execution.
A further mechanic helps in keeping up the speed: Animation canceling. If you input a new non-combo attack the *moment* your previous attack lands, then that new move comes out immediately.
So if you have your timing down, you can do stuff like
X2 Combo > Right Dodge Attack > Jump Attack > Backwards Dodge Attack > Right dodge Attack > Left Dodge Attack > Special
Battles are on teh smaller scale and all sapient enemies are separate individuals, likewise with their own movesets. They'll appear in different team-ups against you throughout the game and that helps keep stuff fresh.
Main character's a bit like Bayonetta too. His name's Pseudo and he has, in similarity with Bayonetta:
- the uncanny long limbs,
- Has three different themes to his name (Pseudo's Theme, Pseudo's Return and Pseudo's Wrath)
- a sense of wit as well as wisdom,
- can be downright menacing when he wants to be,
- he's good with a kid,
- he remained in isolation for a *long* time,
- He has special finisher movies that can be brutal, extravagant or both
- And he ends up destroying an entire abstract concept of the world.
Plus, he has unmatched hair.
I'm partially joking a bit, but i do genuinely, *very* warmly recommend looking into this game. For the gameplay, for the world, for the story, the atmosphere, the art... it's awesome.
I was wondering where Automata was and now it makes sense, also using A2 changes the dodge with her slipping on the floor like she is skating on ice
I am in complete agreement with Nier Automata's dodge being one of the best I've seen in any video game. In fact the entire game's animation pool is just simply amazing to look at and being able to combine all the different weapon types (which also have their own unique combos) was one of the first things that really made me believe that this game was truly special
As he says in the video, it is "function and appeal both delivered to Nier perfection"
I was gonna get upset at no DMC, but really it's the airdash/airdodge that I think is top-tier. Although Nero's table hopper animations are sick.
DANATHAN! You cant to this to me, you cant just release over an hour of excellent and entertaining animation analysis, i had PLANS for my sunday evening, all those poor youtubers who will be forced to wait now xD
I am very glad to see more videos here, well done and thank you :)
Honorable mention to the myriad bespoke dodge animations in Sayonara Wild Hearts. "Are they really dodge animations and not just button inputs entered with the proper timing", you ask? ... Well, what else is a dodge animation if not *exactly that* ?
The best functional dodging I've ever seen is in GUACAMELEE.
If a hitbox overlaps your hurtbox during an invulnerable frame, you see a little forcefield effect over that overlapping area, along with a satisfying "Klink" sound.
I like it because it gives you immediate feedback for every successful dodge, so you quickly get a sense of which frames of the dodge are I-frames.
Most games only give you immediate feedback for failed dodges or perfect dodges, but Guacamelee has your back on all the ones inbetween.
I feel like The Witcher'e dodging would benefit from a camera that, when not locked onto just one enemy, would be able to move automatically to present a wide view of all combatants. Like it could find a central focal point between Geralt and all his nearest enemies and the camera movement could just be made to rotate around them when the player uses the stick.
So, transitioning to a low top down camera for combat? Could work. If I'm not mistaken that might be what the 2nd one did?
I may be wrong, it has been half a decade since I last played TW2
Did I really watch an 1h20 vidéo about dodge animations. I didn't knew it was that intersting !
hour and a half of dodge animations? Dan, you absolute mad lad!
as an aside, if you wanna have fun in Fire Emblem Engage, put two fist fighters with the base rarity weapon in the training arena against each other and watch the hand-to-hand animations go nuts
1:23:45 "Delivered to *NieR* perfection" You might say?
okay good /SOMEONE/ else caught that.
I was indeed impatiently tapping my fingers waiting for you to bring THAT game up! Wow, what a pay off!
"Hmm, that's a good que- *ONE AND A HALF HOURS!?"*
I would love to see a follow-up video about the best parry animation.
He did one for the Dark Souls game (although I think that one was before Elden Ring came out).
As much as I would love to see him do a more exhaustive parry animation video, I feel like that might break Dan xD
It's Royal Guard.
The best perry animation is in Phineas and Ferb
@@GreyGanadoSir.
My favorite is Fire Emblem Engage. Watching you go from dodging an arrow to blocking it, then to slicing it mid-air is awesome.
I personally think the best dodge is done by my friend when I ask him why, when I go out with him and his girlfriend, they get into an argument every time. He dodges that question perfectly
Deadlock has really good dodges for every character. They're arguable equally suited for both evasion and mobility, but as of the current patch they have i-frames against melee attacks so I definitely think they count.
I genuinely love the dodge in Ookami. The forward doge transition to a sprint with the change in the blooming flower effects, and the spinning side leaps were so much fun in both traversal and combat.
I booted up Okami again and realized that the dash portion is not a doge but a dash/headbut. The spin dodge is a combat upgrade.
Holy crap that's an extensive study!
A type of animation I tend to really enjoy are critical hits in games like Fire Emblem and how different the 2D and 3D versions are. I'm not sure what other games have animations for crits other than Persona, but simply looking at the difference between Fire Emblem games can be nice.
11:50 dan we can't let you get away with this!!
Dan has mastered the dodge, we could not stop him even if we wanted to.
I don't get the joke, any help?
@@thedarksleeve the letter a, then the letter s, then the letter s again
I'm making a soulslike, and struggling with the right dodge animation. So this video is just peeeerfect, thank you :D
Gotta make another comment, we GOTTA get a parry animation video next.
Its probably already planned but i just have to ask for it in caze it isnt xD
The Cyberpunk Boxing Parry animation feels so good, and Darksouls while simple just always Feels soooo rewarding.
Also: Sekiro. Ofc.
I always had a soft spot for God of War 3’s dodges. Depending on which of the 4 weapons Kratos has equipped, his dodge animation changes from his usual “lounge forward into roll” to new animations that better fit the weapon, my favorite being the Claws of Hades; Kratos throws a claw forward into the terrain and uses his chains to pull himself to it. Sacrifices a bit of responsiveness for better distance if I recall correctly, but it just looks so damn cool
I second this. Weapon-unique dodges can be cool visually, and it's extra interesting when it leads to differences in the mechanics.
I've never felt more called out by a video and bravo for that surprise attack ending. Loved the whole video and as always appreciate the love and care you put into these. Looking forward to more!
Regarding Hollow Knight, the game also has a charm called Sharp Shadow, which increases the dash length and damages the enemies you dodge through. It has it’s own unique animation with the knight turning into an angled black shape mid dodge that plays off both the charm name and conveys the feeling of aggressiveness, matching its gameplay purpose
We all know that wizardry has the best dodge animations and it's time for society to admit it
A great example that was excluded from the criteria - the boss Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. He separates his body whenever you swing at him, so your sword passes through the gap. Nothing communicates 'regular attacks won't affect this guy and he can dodge an unlimited number of times' more elegantly.
Ah, the Rayman tactic of "Divide and Conquer".
As someone who has been working on this exact problem! THIS IS SO GOOD! Thank you Dan!
I always want to credit Astral Ascent for their animation work. It's nothing particularly amazing in terms of quality, but they did SO MUCH for that game. In addition to abilities that modify everyone's animations, there's one character who has a specific ability on a specific weapon that has a unique dodge animation because it's also an attack and I just thought that was a really cool touch they didn't even have to do.
A minor accessibility/ease of use note, having the game titles only show up as text on screen left me confused multiple times while listening to this in the background. It would be great to have it out loud so I know when to tune in a little more 😅
Great stuff, love it!
21:00 It looks like the reason why he's shifting to the side when performing a forward roll in the backward direction is because they're having him turn around by pivoting around his left foot like a physical monkey person instead of having him rotate around his center point like a video game character.
A fun third contribution to the Genshin Impact / Zenless Zone Zero lineage I feel is their game prior to Genshin, which is still getting new updates and plays more like ZZZ: Honkai Impact 3rd.
An extra fun thing with that game is that because it's been going for over 7 years, you can wheel right back to characters from the start where they clearly had much less experience and budget and see the progression of way more polish and individuallity of all the characters. It's gone from mostly moveset copies of a small core cast to an entirely new character constantly with wildly different movement styles and personality touches (one character even uses yo-yos and they got a bunch of reference from a professional). It's not quite as wild as some of the stuff ZZZ is doing, but it's very much in the similar ballpark. Complete with unique dodges and smooth transitions to idles you'll basically never see in practice. (As the a bunch of the transitions into attacks/runs still are clearly aren't the focus).
It's also got some funny points of comparison because there is a Genshin Impact character in there and she's got basically the same dodge even if the other animations have much more flourish, and they've injected an absurd amount of animation personality into Honkai Star Rail's Sparkle who came out recently, especially as she's normally from a turn-based system with no dodging.
And they still come back and make new versions of some of the older characters so there's fun development and consistency in some of the sets though, at least if they're not the characters who float everywhere.
Shout-outs to the couple of characters who have dodges but mostly have parries instead which would make for poor choices for this dodging specifically but they're there!
The best part for checking this out is you can test every character out even if you don't own them, although you will be trapped in a tutorial to learn their basics before you get to the freeplay section. But the function is there! (Which does bypass a common issue with the gacha model for doing comparison stuff like this).
Also Asuka from Evangelion is here, I'm not sure if you can see her existence if you weren't around for that more-sensical-than-you'd-think crossover event but it's just a funny thing that exists.
3D Fire Emblem dodges are usually very class-specific, and with their counters often weapon-dependant, but I think there's a rare case in Three Houses where Claude is the only one who will dodge attacks with a backflip and counter with a bow shot whilst still upside-down mid-air. He's a fancy lad.
Appropiate for the guy who learns the skill Pomp and Circumstance.
Considering Three Houses also lets any class basically equip any weapon, it's not always a sure thing to happen, there's kind of an absurd amount of work there.
The last bit of Three Houses trivia is that it was entirely developed by the team from Koei Tecmo who usually do the Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games rather than the usual Intelligent Systems.
1:14:10 "Kinda like one of those athletes who still has a surprising amount of agility despite their huge build" so like Samoa Joe is what you're saying.
EXACTLY yes
Makes me think of Augo the Beastmaster from Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. He's a monstrous rotund turkey man, but he has probably one of the quickest attacks in the game with a big shoulder roll that he immediately recovers from.
I dunno about the BEST, but Megaman Zero's animation always stuck in my head because the afterimages look cool, not to mention it helps with the sense of speed because in those games you're normally chaining dash-jumps to get somewhere fast
Also, how there isn't a crouch option, so it always looks so cool to dodge an overhead attack by a few pixels while he does the dash pose.
Yes this is the best one I will accept no substitutes
Bayonetta and Nier: Automata ending up in S tier with the possibility of being considered the best of the best? Sounds right.
The animation cycle for the _Diablo III_ dodge looks like it was meant for a dodge that carries the character farther, almost as if the distance got nerfed at the last minute. (Or maybe even post-release). It has a similar feel to when a non-IK walk cycle is the wrong speed for the movement and the feet drag on the ground.
My guess for the short distance is anyone who has experience playing it couch co-op, the players are not allowed to be too far apart, stopping characters from going past the edge. The camera wasn’t designed to have enough space for a long dodge when everyone has to share the same space.
I'm sad you didn't cover the Darksiders dodges, especially Darksiders 3, where dodging can be so satisfying, especially on harder bosses with relentless attacks like Iollos, the final boss of Serpent holes
Oh FLIP YEAH, a Darksiders mention! Niiiice! Cool to see the final boss of the Keepers of the Void DLC be mentioned too. I heard good stuff about that DLC but it's rarely talked about.
@@jurtheorc8117 Well tbh, one of the lesser bosses is harder in the sense that the animations are much less clear and can one shot you quick, Iollos on the other hand can ALSO one shot you but the animations are much clearer since he's much bigger and has a more complex animation. The boss is genuinely fun since any hit is purely a skill issue, combos attacks like crazy, he is fast paced and fun and once you learn him it's pure action action action. He is one of the best bosses since it's just combat and best use of dodge mechanics since you can interrupt some of his deadliest combos with dodge counter attack
It's a good DLC, I recommend it (even if it had only the final boss, his fight is just THAT good)
Can't wait to watch this later! Also I love the pun in the description
As someone who was waiting for that last entry to pop up throughout the entire video, I am very pleased. Excellent work as ever.
Devil May Cry 5 has not just one, but a *bunch* of excellent dodge animations for its four playable characters. Nero’s dodge is a pretty wimpy looking roll normally, but it turns into a really stylish acrobatic jump that can then be chained into two other dashes if you dodge with absolutely perfect timing. It looks amazing.
Dante’s dodge roll is pretty slow and weak, but that’s because you’re not really supposed to press the dodge button when playing him, you’re meant to avoid damage in other ways, like with his Royal Guard parry, the quick dashes of his Trickster style (which are pretty sweet dodge animations in their own right), or the little boxer-style dodges on his fist weapon. His dodges are varied, expressive, and fun to look at, which is just Dante as a character in a nutshell.
V is a character who is physically very weak, so he relies on his shadow familiars to do much of the work for him in combat, and this extends to dodging as well. His backwards dodge has his bird familiar pick him up and glide him a short distance, while his lateral dodge has his panther familiar appear at his feet and slide him around. If your familiars die, though, you lose these animations briefly, and V’s dodges become little more than stumbles.
Vergil’s dodge is basically just a really fast, short, all purpose teleport. There’s a really sweet slow down effect when you perfectly dodge something, and Vergil himself has a really strong lean in whichever direction he’s teleporting that adds a great sense of force to his movement.
Whoops, that was a pretty long comment, but I really wanted to sell you on this game’s animations, because they’re really amazing.
YESSSS I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS! You explained them really well. I hope he makes a video about DMC 5.
A new New Frame Plus video on _my Sunday?_
Dang, I'm so excited
YESSS i was just thinking about your videos !! they have really helped me in art and art analysis/criticism in so many different ways along with just being flat out entertaining !!
I think it would have been great to a bit of The King of Fighters. The dodge and roll have always been a part of the series and do have the same quality as SNK animations in general (especially in the sprite entries).
Amazing video.
Although a bit sad you didn't also highlight the extended dodge from the Spider-Man games (pressing Dodge and immediately following up with Jump) which is a great functional tool that puts you out of reach of heavy enemies but still maintains the springiness and flair of the characters. But I can't complain considering the scope, length and depth of this video.
Thank you for making this!
always a good day when you post man
Great in-depth video! I really enjoyed the breadth of the games covered, including even some I wasn't anticipating (Warframe, baby!).
Saw the title of the video and immediately said "Nier Automata" without thinking. Glad I was right :)
Im loving this, and Im looking SO forward to the top 10 year in animation video, thats always a major highlight of every year and how I find some real special gems from the past year.
This is so cool, thanks for making a video like this! I love hearing your thoughts and opinions on so many different animations across different games.
Slight missed opportunity not to mention that Mr. Game & Watch's spot dodge is a direct reference to how he dodges in the Judge game, which suits Smash's borrowing theme very well. But you've clearly got enough on your plate I can't fault you for missing it lol
KH3 dodges are neat looking, KH2 dodges are mystical. I think the posing has something to do with why in 3 they feel "thin" and less "groovy".
11:46: That is _not_ a joke I expected from this channel!
36:10: _Really_ not a fan of this one. It's like they curl up to spindash five feet, without any of the things that make Sonic's spindash look cool, and also they're not cartoony or hedgehog-adjacent enough for a spindash to seem reasonable. I want to put these dodges in F-tier even though F-tier doesn't exist.
1:00:25: If a game lets you swap characters mid-combat, it should let you do cool stuff with a swap.
1:18:43: Heh. Bow string.
21:54: More games should have dodge rolls with a heavy tail. The start of the animation needs to be near-instant, the player wants to move before they hit the button, I get it. But if you're willing to make your dodge a _commitment_ (or hope the player doesn't press a second button), you can do a lot with the resolution. Characterization or physicality or comedy.
40:30, 1:08:30: See what I'm talking about?
1:20:21: Insomniac agrees.
Regarding Zenless Zone Zero, the Assist Dodge and Assist Block all transition into unique character-specific counter attacks, so you're incentivized to use it often. One character, Seth, has even more mechanics to specialize using him for his Assist Block & Counterattack. So yeah, you can always do cool stuff after the swap.
@diamondmagus And I'm saying more games should do that.
Darksiders 2 and Soulstice kinda had that "dodge with a heavy tail", but in the way Bayonetta did it. If you chain three dodges in a row, the third animation will be longer, more extravagant, and have longer recovery time. I don't remember if those could be cancelled out of.
Its kinda jank but I really love the animation on god hand's forward dodge where he just moves his upper body and you can chain it with itself. Just spamming forward during some enemy's multi-hit rush attack feels like you're dodging every hit individually even though your just statically looping through like 3 animations. Feels like a very efficient use of animation.
Did Overwatch McCree's roll not count as a first-person dodge? Feel that was a perfect example for that
Exactly
Now I just want to reply a bunch of games to appreciate the craft that has gone into them more consciously. Darn. :D
I loved the dash dodge in Castlevania SOTN, not sure if that counts
Another Dan Floyd Feature Film! Yay!
11:50 ..........ok 👍
Cheeky!
I feel like the Bat Within upgrade to Bayonetta's dodge deserves a mention. This upgrade extends the window for a perfect dodge, letting you press the button later than you could before, and it has a different animation of Bayonetta splitting into a swarm of small bats for a moment then reforming. This doesn't replace the old animation, the new one only happens when you press the button late enough that it wouldn't have been a successful dodge without the upgrade.
This unique animation feels great for several reasons. One, it lets you know exactly when you've been saved by having the upgrade, which might have been difficult to appreciate otherwise. Two, it makes sense in terms of what the character is doing: it's too late for a regular dodge to work, so Bayonetta has to use a more extreme measure to evade the attack. And three, it is stylish as hell
Annnnnd just as i discovered you again, new video
Thanks pink floyd and carrier flagship
This made my day, love seeing an hour and a half of extremely niche analysis!
I would love to see a video analysing different walk/run animations from lots of different games!
ZZZ's dodge animations are SO clean. Jane Doe's are especially stand-out, and they add so much character.
I agree for the most part on Lies of P's dodge animations being a bit stiff and unpolished, but it's really a shame you didn't cover the very cool unique "recovery" dodge animation you get when you dodge after being hit or knocked down by a heavy attack.
P does this sort of motor-driven swivel to instantly get back onto his feet, using his hand as a makeshift brake on the ground to slow himself down before the player regains control of his normal moveset.
It looks and feels awesome, and it does something similar to the Bayonetta quadruple dodge animation you highlighted that I always appreciate seeing in an action game; when an animation ostensibly designed to serve as a reaction to the player making a mistake is supposed to visually convey that the player CHARACTER in still in control of the battle, so as not to break the flow of battle or separate the player too much from the character they're controlling.
Amazing essay video Dan.
I think it's worth looking at the different character dodges in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, as they uniquely convey each of the character's physicality and combat styles.
It’s a shame this video couldn’t grade Mario & Luigi: Brothership. As that game’s animations are fantastic.
Absolutely amazing video, thank you so much for making it. Your passion and insight into game animations is honestly so inspiring, and I'm not even an animator.
As for what you asked for at the end, the one dodge I have never been able to forget is the dodge for Jak from the Jak and Daxter series. It's just a roll that's barely used for combat, but it also has this delightfully springy long leap that you can do out of it that I literally cannot forget.
Would've liked to see CrossCode in the 2d section, but great video nonetheless!
Very excited for this entire video... But as someone who's currently playing Nier:Automata I had to skip ahead to see what you had to say about it (Scrolling through the "Chapters" nearly made me think you left it out!) And I can't agree more with everything your said! :D
Oh, I am thrilled to have another long video! Thanks for putting in a silly amount of work assembling all this footage and commentary, Dan and Carrie!
FYI, if I remember right, New Frame Plus is only Dan, whereas Playframe is both Dan and Carrie ^^.
I haven't played quite a few of the games on the list, but with many of them I could feel them even by just looking at them. There's really something to be said about making things both snappy and smooth, and sacrificing form for function, but all of the S and A tiers here don't sacrifice much form, if any at all.
Highly impressive video. As soon as I saw Anby on the thumbnail, I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts on ZZZ's dodge mechanics and the personalized actions for each character. A lot of games here I've never gotten a chance to play yet either. Loved the ride
I get the feeling Bionetta was the reason you came up with this video idea haha
I love how the team behind Nier Automata put so much work into the little details. Even in just her walk you can see the easy confidence 2B has, with the casual saunter and the settling on the hips with each step.
I don't know about the best, but a pretty good example is Splatoon 3. The Dualie weapon class has its trademark dodge rolls. All six types of Dualies have their own properties when it comes to their dodges, how many dodges, frame data, distance covered and speed, the properties of the alternate firing mode the dodge transitions in, the Tetra Dualies have their own animations etc. There's also the Drop Roller gear ability, which allows a single roll after a Super Jump, as you can otherwise be quite vulnerable in that state.
All but the Douser Dualies were in Splatoon 2, but the new Squid Roll, which every weapon has access to, was not. There’s a lot going on with it, being able to cancel it into main weapon fire or sub weapons, which immediately voids the protective frames (I say protective, because you’re not quite invincible). And you’re able to jump off walls with it and being able to directionally influence your arc in the middle of a roll.
I'm playing Nier Automata rn. Seeing it pop up on the list is nice. It's one of the animations I noticed.
After 2Bs unarmed aerial heavy attack of course
I like the dodges in Devil May Cry 5 a lot. Out of combat it's just the dodge roll the series has had from the start, but when you actually dodge attacks with it it becomes a cool looking sidestep.
Nero has a special ability that makes him do flips on a well timed dodge.
Only looking a the chapter list it looks like my favorite animation, god hand, didn't get included, shame.
If you enjoyed God Hand, can very warmly recommend looking into Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from 2023. It likewise has a thing going on of finding different martial arts styles/moves, although to a simpler extent.
Even still, in total there will be around 70 different moves on offer. All of the martial arts styles have their own movesets unique from one another, as do the Specials. And all sapient enemies are unique individuals with --likewise-- their own movesets. They return in different team-ups time and again and some areas have exclusive enemy types to 'em.
Genuinely, very warmly recommend the game. it won't kick your butt like God Hand did, but it's not a cakewalk either.
And as far as dodge animations go:
All martial arts styles consist of
- A combo (three or four hits)
- Jump attack
- Run attack
- Charge attack
- And a directional attack. Forwards, backwards and sideways. And those are executed by dodging in that respective direction and immediately attacking.
Different dodges can be stuff like spinning backfists, a zig-zag headbutt, a jumping Muay Thai knee to the left or right, a two-part horizontal kick where the second kick goes upwards and returns you to your original position, a simple sidestep with a long karate chop straight forward, a running elbow bash, etc. etc.
Awesome vid, Parry Tier list when?
The Bullet in Enter the Gungeon probably has my favorite dodge animation in any game
What a delight to find in my feed on a slow Sunday morning!
I like Kirby and the forgotten lands dodge because it was surprising the game had it to begin with
I noticed an omission from the list that I half expected but understand why it is not present. Despite covering almost every other From game, Sekiro, while having a dodge, doesn't present it as a mechanic it wants you to use. That's understandable, however, given that a lot of these games also have blocks and parries, perhaps a video on block and parry animations is in order? I imagine you'd have to set a higher standard of criteria, probably only games with more unique interactions with those sorts of systems would be included. Although, I foresee Fromsoft and Monster Hunter taking some high spots again.
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos would have been interesting for the different dodges too. Dodges can become directional attacks, and different martial arts styles give different animations for these directional dodge attacks.
All of the stances are fully unique from one another, so some dodges can keep you going in a direction, others return you to your initial position, some are a bit zig-zaggy, some hit multiple times... it's a cool game. Can warmly recommend.
Dan your videos are always some of my favorite things. They make me love learning
An hour and a half video from new Frame plus? We are eating good today
Cannot wait for the Attack animation tier list!