Strange Days: A Dr. Strange Combo Video

Behind the Visions: Strange Days

With another combo videos means another edition of ‘Behind the Visions’. This time we are going to explore ‘Strange Days’ my Doctor Strange centric combo video.

Intro: The minute I heard Doctor Strange could reverse projectiles with his hyper ‘Seven Rings of Ragador’ I knew I had to see what happen if the good Doc tried to reverse his own reversal. This is the end result. I tried to X-Factor and do another Seven Rings to reverse the reversal but I could not do it on my own. Might ask someone to help me do it for the upcoming Community Combo Video I am producing (shameless plug).

1. Bread and butter with a couple of assists to help extend the damage. I like how Strange can do a grace of hogoth whilst he calls out the Wesker assist and still juggle. Its very similar to what Dormammu can do with his spells. I also had to chuck in an Eye of Argmigato just because. Note: Both Wesker and Skrull are wearing their alternate outfits, yay for pre-orders.

2. Something else I had in mind from day one. Seeing how Strange has a pillar-esque hyper and Dormammu has a pillar move I wanted to see the two side by side. Both teams are also Strange related teams (Dorm, Strange and Shuma on both sides).

3. Nice and simple combo involving Ghost Rider assist and Eye. I realize in editing that I started a lot of my combos with standing medium, heavy, I should have varied it a bit more.

4. What better than one doctor? Two of them. Hidden Missiles helps extend the combo and I like any combos that use Mystic Sword.

5. What to do if you are cornered with Strange? Get a crumple and reverse the situation with a well timed teleport :-D

6. I wanted a way to set up the three graces crumple beam move and I figured Nemesis’ ‘Bio Hazard Rush’ was a nice way to get it. Also yes I could of ended it with a Spell of Vishanti after the Astral Magic BUT I wanted the cinematic ending and he was already dead anyway.

7. I actually had a couple crumple stun follow up combos but I like this one because of the mixture of stuff hitting Dorm. I mean, ice, missiles, arrows and a beam? Ouch.

8. First of my ‘Seven Rings’ combo. I wanted to actually see ‘Seven Rings’ use in combo videos and in un-expected ways. Before the combo, the other Strange actually set up a red grace all the way on the other side of the screen and he then set it off. My Strange uses ‘Bolts’ (which is the only time I used it in this whole video), the stun from it is considerable and can be cancelled into Seven Rings which reflect the other Strange’s fireball BEHIND me and set off the ‘Seven Rings’ cue X-Factor to cancel the rest of the animation, mystic sword, launch, Red Grace OTG, Frank West assist and a good ol’ Spell of Vishanti to seal the deal. I am pretty proud of this combo.

9. I intentionally followed up a very impractical combo with a very practical one. Thanks Wesker assist again. This is pretty much the combo I previewed in my Smash Hulk Smash! Video.

10. Again another Seven Rings combo, this one a bit more practical. How many Morrigan’s love to do ‘Shadow Clone’ and then spam fireballs? The Doctor has a cure (lol bad pun I know) for that. I love how the clone gets beat up as well, hilarious visual effect and yep, I wanted to show off my Skrull alternate outfit… what?

11. Another situation you see a lot. Doom hidden missile spam, what happens if Stephen Strange is ready for it? Dead Doom. The application of Seven Rings here is very do-able in a match.

12. I love the usage of flight in this combo as well as the abuse of Frank’s ‘weapons of survival’. Also peep the teleport so I can land straight away and do a SoV.

13. Showing the power of Strange’s ability to punish from full screen away, into a modified Impact Palm loop. Also I showed that I can do ‘Daggers’ before a Spell of Vishanti, I just chose not to because this wasn’t a combo video about damage, it was more about style. There are tons of good high damage Strange combo videos out there, I wanted to showcase something different. Hopefully people get that.

Outro: Showcasing an editing trick I want to use more for future combo videos, the switching of the outfits was a nice way to end it. I tried to do it in game (ala Desk) but that takes a lot of effort. I also love the text style used, it suits Strange so well.

Music: I am proud to say this is my very first combo video to feature my own music which I have created specifically for my projects. I have teased this before and I am sad that I wasn’t able to do it for my first video but I do think I made up for it with this one. The name of the first track is ‘Oh Yeah’ (self explanatory lol) and the second track which begins at combo # 10 is called ‘Guilty’. If people like my music, I might upload just the music as well as combos on my channel. I really hope to become a good music producer so this is just the beginning.

The Community Combo Video is next on my schedule so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading.

P

Behind the Visions: Smash Hulk Smash!

Welcome to another addition of 'Behind the Visions'. Basically this is like a directors' commentary about my latest videos. Here you'll find tidbits and nuggets of information about my videos, like why I picked this song, combo and what not.

This 'BtV' is all about Smash Hulk Smash! (video below). I am going to put in brackets what I used to differentiate this from a Vanilla combo video

Without more to say, let's go.

Intro. I kept it short and sweet, the full intro for my company is upload on this blog.

1. I really wanted to see how many f+medium aka 'Incredible Punch' I could do in a combo. Being Hulk's new move in all I wanted to showcase it. I could have did a OTG Gamma Wave into X-Factor into another f+medium but hit stun would not let me do anything really fancy. (Incredible Punch charged and partial)

2. Found out as I made this combo that Arthur's armor break glitch doesn't always cause a hard knockdown state in Ultimate. For example, in the air, he'll get combo'ed like normal. Might need to look into that and see if it did that in the original Marvel 3. With this combo, I wanted to see how many Gamma Crushes I could get. (Air X-Factor)

3. Nice bread and butter combo with no meter. Does 750,000 dmg so it's pretty good. Strange's Eye assist is great for extending combos. (Incredible Punch, Anti-air Gamma Charge follow up causing wall bounce).

4. Nice and easy Touch of Death (ToD) combo on most of the cast. No X-Factor and only one meter used. Yep, Hulk hits hard. (Incredible Punch)

5. Anti- Dark Phoenix set-up. If she has low health, don't mash because it'll cause her to transform after the throw. Make sure the Gamma Charge hits her after the throw and watch the fireworks go out. Also peep Phoenix Wright coming in at the end. I was originally going to use the Hulk sound bite where he got the Phoenix's confused but it did not work.

6. Lot of new stuff used in this one. Strange Eye assist, air X-Factor, Incredible Punch and wall bouncing Gamma Charge. This is also a nice block string set-up as well because Gamma Charge follow up is already plus and you add a Eye to cover you.

7. I love the blue whirling effect as Hulk swings Dante around. Also I showed you can buffer a command throw from his command normal, very nice tech to have. (Buffed Throw damage, wall bounce Gamma Charge and Incredible Punch).

8. Alternate combo ender to combo # 3. By using Eye assist, Hulk can cause a hard knockdown and then start his 'infinite combo' (originally found by Crouching Strong). More on the infinite later.

9. Full charged Incredible Punch only has one frame of armor (despite what some people have said) so I made sure I used it to stop 'that move'. I had to end it with Bionic Arm myself for irony's sake. (Incredible Punch).

10. Air throw and follow ups thanks to assists. Again, this combo can easily be turned into Hulk's infinite combo. Touch of Death from a throw? Scary.

11. Showcasing what might become one of my new teams (The Blue Men Group). Super Skrull's Tenderizer assist is great for locking people down mid combo. (Throw buff).

12. Alternate bread and butter with Skrull assist and full charged Incredible Punch. Lots of hard fists flying around (Incredible Punch)

13. Hulk infinite. Due to the lowered charge times of Gamma Wave, it is a lot easier to perform this on most of the cast. Also a big portion of the new characters fall victim to this so be careful if Hulk gets that starting hit on your Iron Fist/ Nova/ Strange/ Vergil.

14. Fantastic Four tribute combo. There is a lot of Fantastic Four references in this video. First we have Hulk who was a member of the 'new' Fantastic Four beating down Super Skrull, a classic FF villain. We also have Doc. Doom (in his Future Foundation outfit) helping out with 'Hidden Missiles' and later on Ghost Rider (in his Fantastic Four outfit who was in the 'new' Fantastic Four with Hulk). On top of this we have Spiderman (in his Future Foundation outfit) and Wolverine (the fourth member of the new Fantastic Four).

15. Hulk infinite and ToD on Nemesis arguably one of the characters in the game with the most health. That's an X-Factor level one as well. This combo is a reference to the big showdown they had in the Hulk's original Marvel 3 ending. (Air X-Factor)

Outro. Wolverine was 'broken' in Vanilla Marvel 3... now he is just broken... in half.

Music. I have been a big fan of this song since it was used in a hype video for Shadowloo Showdown. I felt it fit the beat down nature of this video but some people have disagreed. I do believe they don't like the song simply because its dub step tho and the genre does has its haters.

Name. I originally planned to use in game vocals mixed with the song. However I couldn't get the blend right and in the end it was very distracting so I just kept the song. I am kind of sad through because the name of the video came from a combo where Hulk said 'Smash... Hulk... Smash' LOL. I will be trying to use my own original music that I have produced for my next projects tho.

Coming Up: 'Strange Days' A Dr. Strange centric video is my next big project. It should be out by the end of this week.

Much more videos to come too including the Cincinnati/ Dayton/ Kentucky community combo video.

Well thanks for reading!

P

Smash Hulk Smash! (Full Video)

Behind the Visions: Armory

So what will probably be my last combo video for Marvel 3 and the last combo video to be upload to my pigeondrago account, 'Armory' is a perfect way to say goodbye for me.

Iron Man has always been one of my favorite comic book characters and it pleases me to no end that he has had two good movies and a starring role in 'The Avengers'. However I felt my Iron Man combos didn't really do him justice in my first video (Shades of Gray), I knew I had to go back into the lab and come back something a lot more fierce. Hence 'Armory'.

Intro: This will probably be the last time we see the old Apocryphic Visions logo... farewell old logo, you had done me well. BTW that Iron Man pic is top tier, love the vibrant colors.

1. Mid screen, jump cancel combos are an awesome way to kick off the vid, I love how the beat matches the combo hits. Also lol at Hulk's cameo at the end, did not add much damage but I had to show I was still my 'SoG' team.

2. *sob* bye double jump, hopefully IM's quicker fly will be a good trade off tho. Also ending with 'Lost in Nightmares' into Iron Man blowing up the tank is one of my favorite edits in this video.

3. down+Heavy Punch combos!! LOL that move is not worthless after all. Also notice the timing of Iron Man in full glory (red) into his 'Iron Avenger' (blue). My wife really liked that as do I.

4. Combo is done on the blue sky background for a reason oh and Quentin mentioned I did not use 'fly' combos in my last video. Happy Quen? I even did it on your favorite character hehe.

5. In hindsight, this should have been the throw combo I should have done in the 'Shades of Gray' video.

6. I actually had a left over combo from 'SoG' that was similar to this, I however re-did with a better assist, ending. I like it a lot more now.

7. I timed Hulk coming in and 'cry' at the same time. Also smart bomb combos FTW... so stylish!

8. Another 'SoG' left over I revisited, I added a lot more to it and I love all the 'rocks' on the screen, also love how the whole team is used.

9. Death combo, smart bombs for days, showing my team's synergy and ending with the same move that 'SoG' ended with = no brainer for the final combo.

Music Choice: Much like I love Kelis, I love me some Kenna. I am happy to use this song finally in a video even through it took me hours to put the two together. I do not think I have ever had this much trouble finding a song for a video. I went through many other options like songs from the 'Tron Legacy' OST, Kelis again (this time, I was going to use 'Brave') and even Black Eyed Peas' 'Boom Boom Pow'. I am happy with my final choice tho.

Also notice I finally got the aspect ration down so this video appears full screen when I uploaded it on Youtube. No more letter boxes for me! I am happy to say this is looking good for my new big project. Direct capture, no letter boxes... its going to look great.

Well hope you enjoyed it.

P

'Armory'

Changes

So I have finally decided to bite the bullet and very soon I am going to retire my pigeondrago youtube account. Whilst it was a nice run and it has a lot of subscribers, friends and videos, I feel like that name has ran it's course. >Pigeon< is now a part of my past and whilst the name suited me originally when I signed up for youtube I feel it no longer really represents me. I also feel a slight dis-connect when I tell people my company name is Apocryphic Visions and I direct them my pigeondrago youtube account.

With Ultimate Marvel 3 on the verge of coming out and hot games like KOF XIII, Tekken Tag 2 and more coming out soon plus the fact that I now have direct capture software (working on getting full screen capture, bear with me) and I will be recording combos for those games, I feel it's time to move to the next step. A next step which comprises of a dedicated Apocryphic Visions youtube and address. Another added bonus will be I will be linking it to my apocryphicvisions email address.

One of the first videos to premiere on my new channel will be 'Strange Days' my next combo video project and just like my old channel I will upload other types of videos as well (I actually hope to upload a more balance mixture of gaming and other creative works unlike pigeondrago's 95% gaming output).

The big change is coming and I'll will be making an announcement video and also premiere the new logo for the new era of Apocryphic Visions.

Cheers to the future.

P