Destrega

I got tons of info on this game. One of my old favs from the PS1 days. Appears very simple at first but there's far more two it especially when you get two good players. Might write up some stuff later.

This video only goes over the absolute basics.

Damn, it almost looks like a PS2 game. Really surprised by just how good this game looks for a PS1 title, especially considering when compared to the Virtua Fighter and Final Fantasy titles on the machine. Gameplay looks pretty strong too, mostly a versus fighter I assume?

Yeah it's a 1v1 arena fighter I guess you'd call it.

There's so much more you can do.
So you saw the three types. In-game they are called Tidu (speed), Est (power) and Foh (spread).

You have an energy meter that can support 3 uses at once. You can combine these shots in many ways and get all kinds of variation. For example, a super fast power shot, or a spread of speed shots, etc. You can double up like tidu, est, est, and get a fast power shot. You get it. A lot of variations. You can do an ultimate move by using one of each type in a single shot.

All shots have a degree of homing, and certain types are strong against others. Fast is long range and linear, power is slow and strong, and spread is weak but has wide range.

There is a few types of defense. Normal, magic shield, magic dash, and deflect.

Normal- Blocks low level shots but takes chip damage. Blocks melee.
Magic shield - Blocks any shot but meter drains to maintain it. Cannot block melee.
Magic dash - It's like having magic shield on while dashing, but it's an extension of an actual shot. You go to fire any shot, and when you see the power gathering in their hand you press the dash button. The shield will be as strong as the level you charged it, so a level 1 dash will not go through a level 2 shot resulting in you being hit as normal. This dash is also an attack. If it connects, you get free melee.
Deflect - tapping the guard button before a shot connects while knock it aside DBZ style. It will work on a level 3 shot, (not super) but will not work on any shot, regardless on level, that has more than one projectile to it. Some characters can fire two of the same shot while jumping or dashing, so the second one will totally smash you while you're recovering from the deflect animation.

Each character follows this basic rule, but each have unique properties to certain shots. I'll give some quick examples that lead to some cool playstyles and tech. This is what I remember from the characters I used. There's more but I'd have to play it again to remember. This was another game I once had extensive notes for but I lost them.

Types of shots can change depending on what your doing, like running, dashing, or jumping.

*When Reyus fires speed on the ground, it's a single shot, but in the air it's 3 and still counts as level 1. Make use of low jumping shots to keep up a near constant barrage. His spread shot is weird, in that it has very limited range, but the orbs he fires hit the ground and make little 'campfires' (that was our name for them) that can hurt the opponent.

*Melina fires two speed shots when jumping. Her spread is similar to Reyus in that it sort of arcs then hits the ground and leave icicles for a few seconds that can hurt your opponent. Her power shots is average, but when done while dashing, it sends a single ice orb, that travels a little then splits into two. Use this immediately after dashing. Her super is amazing. It summons a huge ice orb thing that appears above your opponent, no matter where they are, and shoots huge homing ice spikes at them. Easy to avoid, but you are free to move and fire level 1 shots after them to try and get them stuck and hit by it.

*Teeme is awesome. He's the guy with two swords though this is just visual technically. His speed shot is so great. Standing, it just fire s standard energy pellet, but it you have higher ground, or say you were on a building and they were directly below where you can't shoot them, his speed shot will actually travel down the wall. Think of it like a shark fin travelling along the water's surface. It connects to any downward slope or wall instead of just flying over their heads like most other shots do.

His spread shot is super unique as well, but difficult to use correctly. Instead of firing an actual projectile, when he waves his swords he can place a sort of 'wave' in the shape of his sword swing arc, that hangs in the air for a few seconds depending on charge level. This goes through walls too, and can be waved over a downed opponent. You can combine it with power shots and put a gigantic wave on the field, or a really long range but small one. I trolled my friends with this so hard. They always thought they were out of range but I knew how to make many types of waves appear. The reason I said 'use correctly', is because when he waves his sword, it appears a few feet ahead of him. If the enemy is too close, it will appear behind them. Same goes for any time you use it with other combinations. You have to have learned the exact distances to use it effectively.

*Falma - Pretty boy Falma's spread shot rebounds off walls or other pieces of environment. His super is really short range, but it goes through solid objects. Hard to explain it. It's like these light beams shining from his hand. It's not a projectile. One thing I really like about his shots is that they sound like fireworks.

*Celia is my main and while quite weak, she has tons of useful stuff. All her magic looks like wind which will make her moves easier to explain. Her speed shot fires two quick shots no matter what action she's taking, and look like slices of wind. They're very weak but because there are two, you can't deflect and are super annoying. Combining spread and speed (level 2) will fire a handful of speed shots in a wide, yet short range. But what's cool about these is they stop and start spinning on the spot. This controls space and you can really annoy people by dashing after them and using melee, or using them when they're down so the get up into them. Even if blocked you've still accomplished the goal of obstructing and being a general nuisance. I love it.

Her power shot is quite good and useful in an advanced way that I'll detail later. She fires these mini tornadoes that move slowly. They can also move on a very steep up or down trajectory. Combining these with other shot types can make them do weird things. Like there's this one, I forgot the combination, where they start slow, then quickly pick up speed and home in.

Her super move is insanity. She fires a gigantic tornado that moves slowly and follows the opponent. I actually think this move might be unfair and here's why. When I fire it, and all you can do is run or shield. If you shield, I'll magic dash and melee you. If you run, I'll run after you firing level 1 speed shots similar to the strategy with Melina's super, though this one is WAAAAY more terrifying. I've caught people like this, which let the tornado pick them up and juggle them while I kept firing fast shots. Ridiculous. To make matters worse (for you) is that I can fire this after knocking you down. This is going more into advanced strats but if I knock you down, I'll jump right above your body and launch it. You'll get up in time to start running but it will be right on you.

Once major disadvantage is that the tornado cannot go uphill or through anything. If it hits ANY kind of obstruction, it instantly vanishes. Some stages are quite open, while others have staircases or other higher parts you can launch it from. Whenever I'm choosing the stage  I'd always choose the open one and my bro or friends would groan with misery, knowing what's coming. Though it still can be escaped even on those stages, it's much harder. This led to them trying to find ways to avoid or at least mitigate it but that's something I can post about later.

Ok, the more I write the more I remember but I'll stop here. This was just to give you an idea of what's really going on in this game and to really hit home what this game offers compared to what that 'how to play' video shows.

There's stuff like canceling and that leads to some SERIOUS mind games. I'll explain it tomorrow. In the meantime, you can buy the game.

I'll take about melee and cancelling.

I forgot to mention guarding can be done in the air. With normal guard, you'll be pushed back a little and drop immediately, but with magic shield, if you do it in the air, you'll stay in place until you deactivate it or run out of meter.

Melee can only be done up close, obviously, but what I mean is, you can't do it any time like just start punching and kicking on the other side of the screen. It can only happen when in range. It uses the same buttons as magic, and they change to these:

*Square is a standard 4 hit combo. Each hit is guaranteed once the first connects.
*Triangle is a single, but more powerful attack.
*Circle is a sidestep attack.

These were explained reasonably well in the video, but what it doesn't tell you is that you can mix up S and T to make new combinations similar to DW games. This game was actually made by the same devs, and you can get unlockable costumes of the DW characters from the very first DW game, back when it was a fighting game.

Anyway, some combinations launch and let you fire a shot and some knock them down. Problem is the T attacks are slower meaning more often than not, the opponent will have time to block.

The magic dash homes in so you can be running in any direction then suddenly zoom towards your opponent. If it connects on block, you're done. You'll be at a massive disadvantage, totally stuck in recovery and you will eat a free melee combo. If you hit, you're guaranteed a combo.

Moving on to canceling. Dashing can be cancelled by jumping or guarding. This leads to all sorts of mind games. For example, I used to fight my bro a lot and we were equally skilled. I'd magic dash at the start of the match and he might block, but I'd immediately jump and be slightly above him. Using Celia, I'd fire her power shot (which I talked about earlier and this advanced situation) which are mini tornadoes that can travel directly downward and lock him in place.

But then if he saw it coming he'd magic shield or fire a shot as I jumped forcing me to guard in the air. If I saw that I'd magic shield quickly. You want to tap it on and off to save meter.

Sometimes we'd both dash, then jump at the same time. From there it's anyone's guess what would happen. There's quite a few options on how to respond.

We'd often do short dash bursts and then guard cancel them to try and bait the other into doing something. If I was playing Celia, my bro would do anything to avoid being knocked down. I'd use her speed>power level 2 shot to create those stationary swirling shots in an attempt to lock him down so I could run in and score a melee knockdown, which would lead to me launching her super above him. He'd always take higher ground to avoid that if it was available.

The one problem is that in high level play, you'll rarely be using all the possible combinations because it would take like 2-3 seconds to launch something giving the opponent has ample time to put up a shield or just listen to what the character is saying because they call out those names tidu, est, foh before they shoot.

So it really boils down to a lot of level 1 shots, though with the above characters I described, you can use more powerful shots if set up right. Like with Teeme, I usually stay around pieces of the environment and put waves out, forcing the opponent to come to me.

Most supers are beam type, so using them is near useless unless you just surprise them, but those with a super that stays onscreen and follows the opponent, can use it any time and chase you down at the same time.

One thing my bro used to do when launching a super, was when powering up the shots he would purposely have a coughing fit to obscure what the character was saying. It actually working a few times and I heard tidu, est, *coughing fit* SUPER in my face.

I forget something else about dashing. So when running normally, you can fire level 1 shots without stopping, but when dashing, you will come to a halt when firing. But, some character's shots change when they dash as I've already mentioned. My main point here is how they'll slide or do a roll while shooting.

There's definitely more to say but this is all I can remember for now.

In the meantime, you can buy the game.

While it sounds really fun and great the way you describe it, no way in hell am I putting another game on the pile haha.

You speak as though I was offering a choice. Interesting theory.

Problem is it's only good with another good player.

Nadster, I just checked the Destrega board. You interested?

Sure! I think I posted there too. Can't remember though.

Never mind I found it!

Yeah I saw a few somewhat recent posts of yours there.

A while ago I wrote short character guides but I lost the notes. I think they were on my old phone with the Destroy All Humans stuff.