Part 1) General Gameplay Part 2) Fighting
- General Gameplay
Start the game with a random name.
Keep spamming X until you get to the first dialogue (A lot of this game is spamming X to progress, but not in fights!). You can keep spamming X however Starks' dialogue requires you to press Down as well before X. Keep spamming X in the character selection until you get to the style selection. You want to pick Kickboxing by pressing X - Left - X. Kickboxing is the first style which saves time AND it is the best style for quickly finishing enemies once you understand how to use it.
You first 'training' doesn't require you to do anything so just press Triangle - Yes.
Once you get to your flat, you want to learn the correct emails or just spamread all of them until you can press exit. You want to prepare for this after every fight.
The first part of the game is you fighting in random venues against random fighters. At this point you have to try and find a quick fight. Just try to stay close to your starting hood (The Bronx) in order to save time.
Before you move on the to the next part, remember you have to upgrade your Kickboxing to max (Upgrade it until stage 3) and invest every dev point you have into Lower Strength. You can do one big upgrade before the first tournament (To get stage 3 Kickboxing and invest the rest in Lower Strength) and one after the third tournament.
After a serious amount of starting fights you will get a message by Manny inviting you to a tournament in the Dragon House (Map - L - L - Down). There is an opening dialogue when you select the Dragon House venue so be prepared. You have to fight 3 fighters. Don't try to use a 'Ring Out'-strategy. Using the standard strategy for fights is a lot faster. (See below!) Remember, after winning the first tournament you have to go back to the Dragon House for the 2nd part of the tournament: Another 3 fighters.
Now you have won both tournaments you have been introduced to D-Mob. Don't sympathise too much with him yet. He will guide you towards becoming the top man so he can eventually push you off the throne.
You have to continue with some random fights now until you get a mail by O.G. inviting you to the third tournament: The Gauntlet. At this point you will know: 3 fights.
A few more random fights and you receive the news that O.G. was killed by Crow. You have to fight your gang members in order to become the new O.G.. Repeat after me kids: 3 fights. You finish all of them off and become the new gang leader.
DO NOT RECRUIT ANYONE. This takes too much time and you will never use any of these members anyway. You will have the standard 3 members of House, Snowman and Pockets. Always choose yourself.
Now at this point the 'Takeover' part of the title comes into play. You have to fight in about every venue in each hood until you conquer all of them. Focus on one hood at a time. You can't conquer Manhattan until you conquer every other hood however. Take this in consideration. Also, you don't have to fight in the Dragon House anymore, as it doesn't count towards your conquering progress.
There will be members sending you emails about helping them out and there will also be some random fights that have to do with Angel. You have to do these as well, but don't worry: They play out naturally (Usually after you conquered a hood).
After some long conquering you get to fight in Club Murder. This is the beginning of the end. Normally you have to fight Warren G here first. Once you defeat him you go to Crow's Office to finish him. DON'T USE THE WINDOWS TO FINISH HIM. Use them as environmental attacks, but don't throw him out. This will take too long.
After these fights D-Mob betrays you in Club Babylon. He will run to the Dragon House.
Once you go there, you will find Jervis and Starks. You have to fight them one by one.
Now you got rid of the cops all that rests is D-Mob. You will go to the 125th Station and fight him there. You will usually finish him before any train comes, so don't stand around waiting for those. D-Mob is a nasty fighter. Watch out for his rising charges and grapples. Keep him busy with kicks and punches and finish him quickly.
Congratulations! You finished Def Jam Fight for NY: The Takeover. Hopefully in a worse time than me! (So I can still be proud of myself.)
Good Luck!
- Fighting
Fights are really easy, but can get out of hand really quick if you make mistakes or you get unlucky.
What to do in most situations does not depend on the fight or type of fighter you are facing. The basic idea is to use your strengths and run with them. As you already know, we don't upgrade anything except our Kickboxing and Lower Strength. So you might think you don't deal a lot of damage, but this is where DJFFNY's system comes in handy.
You see, your opponent has 2 bars of health. A light green bar that decreases and regens. This is what I call 'Current Health'. The dark green bar, 'Real Health', is the health that your opponent can regen to. Now, the bigger the difference between his current health and real health is, the more damage you deal. QUD: Dealing damage fast is the way to go.
As we picked Kickboxing (WHICH WE ALSO MAX OUT!) we can surely focus on our kicks. Our lower strength already has 20% in it to start, which will surely help. If you can max it out after the third tournament you should be golden.
There are 3 things you should never do. 1] Blaze: Your blazing animation alone takes about 5 seconds, let alone your blazing move. Even if you can execute it perfectly you will add AT LEAST 9 seconds to your fight time. There are about 60 fights in the game. 60 times 9 = 540 aka 9 minutes you will add AT LEAST, just for some flair. I know the blazing moves are the thing that sold this game, but you don't want to use them to be fast.
2] Keep throwing your opponent against the environment: Yes this is strong and very good, but you only want to use this as a finisher or after a clinch grapple.
3] Keep punching/kicking: Your opponent will block and counter at one point, and then you will take some pain.
What you should do:
- Kick/punch 2-3 times (Don't keep going until you bring them off balance, this is a stupid mechanic and just adds time).
- Grab them and start a clinch.
- Clinches: Punches are faster, but your main damage come from your kicks. They are 'harder to counter' and deal a bit more damage. However concentrate on punches when you see low hp.
- Use flying kicks! (O towards enemy - Square). These deal some serious damage + they can finish!
- Finish enemies with flying kicks/clinches/environmental attacks or full kick combos.