I'll spoil it just cause it's gameplay nitpicks that most people don't care about.
Basically, an input buffer lets you hit a button while your character is still taking another action in order to queue up a following action. As soon as your character finishes their current action, they'll perform the one that you've queued up for them.
Lots of fighting games use it to make it easier to link together moves. Dark Souls is also notorious for having a very long input buffer, which contributes to the "deliberate" feeling of the combat and punishes spamming.
Unlike Bayo1, Bayo2 has an extremely noticeable input buffer. For instance, if you hit Kick twice as fast as you humanly can with Love is Blue, Bayonetta will perform two Kicks. My annoyance here is that there's a very long delay between when you actually hit the second Kick (before the first Kick even came out) and when the second Kick actually happens. It makes you feel like you aren't in control of your character, because their actions aren't aligning with your button presses.
Another example is Panther Form. If you triple tap the Right Trigger in Bayo2, you'll go into Panther and then immediately Dodge because you buffered a Dodge before you even entered Panther Form. In Bayo1, you'll go into Panther Form and stay there.
For a practical combat example, if you're trying to do PPPPK with a fast weapon on your hands (say, the bow) you have to be very careful to hit the exact number of Punches that you input. If you mash too aggressively, then you will do PPPPP. But if your inputs are too delayed, then you're not attacking as fast as you could be. This can of course be overcome by being careful with your inputs, but I'd honestly rather I not have to worry about the quirks of the control scheme. I just want my character to control intuitively, and having them do actions for buttons that I hit almost a second prior gets in the way of that.
The input buffer can also make some actions easier (I think matrix-cat has had positive things to say about it), but I've honestly never had it do anything for me except cause me to do Punches when I meant to do Kicks.
EDIT: And just to clarify, there's nothing wrong with buffering inputs in general. It just has to be used appropriately. Smash Bros. does it for 10 frames and it helps the player pull off the combos and moves that they intend to do. Bayo2 does it for what feels like 40-50 frames, and the result is a disconnect between the player's intention and the action on screen.
Lots of fighting games use it to make it easier to link together moves. Dark Souls is also notorious for having a very long input buffer, which contributes to the "deliberate" feeling of the combat and punishes spamming.
Unlike Bayo1, Bayo2 has an extremely noticeable input buffer. For instance, if you hit Kick twice as fast as you humanly can with Love is Blue, Bayonetta will perform two Kicks. My annoyance here is that there's a very long delay between when you actually hit the second Kick (before the first Kick even came out) and when the second Kick actually happens. It makes you feel like you aren't in control of your character, because their actions aren't aligning with your button presses.
Another example is Panther Form. If you triple tap the Right Trigger in Bayo2, you'll go into Panther and then immediately Dodge because you buffered a Dodge before you even entered Panther Form. In Bayo1, you'll go into Panther Form and stay there.
For a practical combat example, if you're trying to do PPPPK with a fast weapon on your hands (say, the bow) you have to be very careful to hit the exact number of Punches that you input. If you mash too aggressively, then you will do PPPPP. But if your inputs are too delayed, then you're not attacking as fast as you could be. This can of course be overcome by being careful with your inputs, but I'd honestly rather I not have to worry about the quirks of the control scheme. I just want my character to control intuitively, and having them do actions for buttons that I hit almost a second prior gets in the way of that.
The input buffer can also make some actions easier (I think matrix-cat has had positive things to say about it), but I've honestly never had it do anything for me except cause me to do Punches when I meant to do Kicks.
EDIT: And just to clarify, there's nothing wrong with buffering inputs in general. It just has to be used appropriately. Smash Bros. does it for 10 frames and it helps the player pull off the combos and moves that they intend to do. Bayo2 does it for what feels like 40-50 frames, and the result is a disconnect between the player's intention and the action on screen.
Last edited:
