Original Tomb Raider 1, 2, 3 and The Last Revelation all used lock-on for combat. Once the player brought their weapons up facing within a 30 arc of an enemy , their guns would be locked on. As long as that button was depressed they could then run, jump, and flip in any direction all while shooting that target. In fact the player could check if distant or hidden enemies were even there by bring up their weapon and seeing if the guns followed any targets.
@monkeyking1969: True enough, but I'm not trying to create a list of games with lock-on combat. Otherwise there would be an uncontrollable slew of games to add. Dark Souls and DMC all jump to my mind immediately in that context.
In my mind "Lock-On Combat" is a specific genre, and I'm trying to come up with the definitions of that genre by compiling all the games that fit it and finding the shared traits.
So far, it shares roots in fighting games more than action-adventure or brawlers. The key being that there's not / rarely a time when you aren't locked onto an opponent. Usually also arena based, 3rd person over-the-shoulder controls. Usually very dodge heavy as well. Basically, think of Virtual-On as the epitome, and then I'm still trying to feel out where the boundaries are.
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