I must be missing something.....

[maestro]

The difficulty of this game just seems so..... unreasonable.

First, they start you off with a ridiculous time-limit where you must run out of the first area before you can even come close to exploring what it has to offer, and then they shunt you off into the 2nd area.

Once there, they give you relief in informing you that you don't have a time limit anymore.......but you do.

It's called the hunger meter and limited hunting grounds.

The first hunting ground is rather annoying -- half of the things you can hunt in there which don't always appear, aren't really good for food (your character complains about bad tastes and odors and the stuff doesn't fill your meter very much), and after one time of hunting, it goes yellow which means they want you to find another spot ASAP.

The other two spots I have, have enemies that are far too powerful for me to kill without some extreme luck. You're supposed to automatically know the attack patterns before you even attack them, and/or you're supposed to learn the attack patterns, but sheesh. Those snakes? I've killed 3-4 of them, observing them as often as I could, and the game still hasn't told me their attack patterns or their elemental strengths. How many times do I have to observe them to know basic need-to-know information to actually survive against the stupid things?

Just earlier, I tried to fight one and it got me to Red status after *two* attacks because I was unlucky enough to incorrectly guess what I should do, and just spamming Earth attacks obviously isn't going to work. And let's not get started on how ludicrously overpowered goats and other things bigger than a rabbit are, but yet you don't have a choice, you *must* hunt at these areas with the enemies way too powerful because in the 2nd area, they only give you *one* sensible hunting location which will not provide you with enough energy to last until it turns green again.

Not sure what I'm missing here. I get they want you to learn about stuff, but I don't have time to go to a hunting area and spam the observe command over and over and over and over again, because I'll die of hunger, but I try to attack something, and I can't actually kill the stupid thing without getting badly hurt, and by the time I finally recover from that, I'm hungry again and this leads me into this endless loop of rest hunt rest hunt rest hunt and even after several times of this, I STILL don't know enough about enemies to know what I'm supposed to do.

I suppose there are wikis and stuff for this, but c'mon... I shouldn't have to look this stuff up on a wiki. I like the format of the game, and I like the general style, and concepts, but I think the battles have to be the main thing I'm not liking about this. Also, how picky the "Strike!" prompt is... they say to hit it when the two rings are together, but you get like half a second time to react to when it turns red, and half a second too early or too late and you fail. It seems way too picky. Also, they give you almost zero time to do the slash thing while chasing an enemy too. You're supposed to spam clicks, but yet somehow have enough time within half-a-second to drag your cursor down over it while frantically trying to click it to chase it?

I think a difficulty slider for the battles would have been really nice for the people who don't want to have to grind through several playthroughs before they can finally unlock enough information to actually get anywhere in the game and/or so they don't have to look everything up on a wiki.

[Hybrid]

I for one appreciate the realistic touches. We are playing as a newborn dragon thrust into an extremely dangerous life in the wild without information. That means we need to look at the goat with enormous horns and say, "Hey, it might hurt if that thing rams me. Maybe I'll go hunt a baby pig instead." If everything were super easy, the premise would not be nearly so compelling.

There is no need to consult a guide or wiki. Be cautious. Learn from mistakes. Try something different. It's meant to be replayed, not meant to be an effortless theme park.

Perhaps you would have better results seeking help and improving your knowledge rather than just complaining. You know what they say about flies, honey, vinegar, and the catching thereof.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Hybrid:

I for one appreciate the realistic touches. We are playing as a newborn dragon thrust into an extremely dangerous life in the wild without information. That means we need to look at the goat with enormous horns and say, "Hey, it might hurt if that thing rams me. Maybe I'll go hunt a baby pig instead." If everything were super easy, the premise would not be nearly so compelling.

Yeah, you try to hunt a baby pig and it calls its mother and you are dead 2 rounds later or having to flee and now you're both hungry and badly wounded.

The problem I'm having here, is that they give you very little that you can actually survive battle with, and the few things you *can* survive battle with, you can't hunt often enough to actually sustain you. It seems to be this endless loop you can't escape from.

There is no need to consult a guide or wiki. Be cautious. Learn from mistakes. Try something different. It's meant to be replayed, not meant to be an effortless theme park.

I never said it should be an "effortless theme park" but really now. I'm the cautious sort of player normally already, and I can't help but to feel that the idea of a dragon the size of a large dog being mortally wounded by a rabbit or a snake is just silly. Especially when you are forced to hunt these creatures or you will die in 2-3 days. It just seems that no matter what you do, you're done either way.

Perhaps you would have better results seeking help and improving your knowledge rather than just complaining. You know what they say about flies, honey, vinegar, and the catching thereof.

In-game, you don't have TIME to examine enemies 20, 30 times to get their information unlocked because you must eat now or die and guess what? the stuff you Could win against, are hunted out and the only two hunting spots that are open have stuff that are just too difficult to kill because the game did not give you enough time to do that learning you're supposed to be doing.

And I thought I was here asking for help?

Pretty sure I titled this thread "I must be missing something" and I'm waiting for someone to tell me what that something actually is, instead of somebody coming here to insult me because I didn't start the game with the foreknowledge to already know everything.

I mean, do I have any of this wrong? They start you off on a really tight time-limit, and they go "you need to spend time learning what these animals do" but yet they only give you 3 or so opportunities to examine the animals during a hunting attempt (which is precious already), and after 15+ examine commands I still don't know what I need to know....

Something just seems really really off here.

Oh, and that time I wasted examining some of the food in the first area? Well.... that was wasted time because I can't hunt a lot of that stuff (rabbits and snakes seem to be the only carry-overs) anymore, so time spent examining those creatures was utterly wasted apparently. Not that the game gave you any clue that you were wasting your time with the other stuff in the first area. Then they drop you off in the second area with only 1 hunting area populated by stuff you are actually (somewhat) strong enough to actually hunt, IF you get lucky enough to correctly guess the order of attacks (that you still don't know).

From the looks of things, they expect you to die, die, and die again who knows how many times before you finally have enough of them unlocked that you can actually survive long enough to enjoy the other things the game has to offer and that just seems to be really strange design to me.

It's not about challenge, it's about wanting to do more than hunting and sleeping, to do more than grinding to unlock creature information so I know how to actually fight this stuff so I'm not getting half killed every battle.

I'm trying to use the tools the game gave me, but they don't seem all that effective in actually doing what you're supposed to do. Examining creatures doesn't seem to really DO that much, at least not in any reasonable frame of time when it comes to how often the game expects you to be eating, vs how often you CAN actually eat unless you get lucky (which will eventually run out).

It just kinda feels like I'm banging my head against a wall with little to no progress made, to be quite honest. Not really sure having to restart the game 10, 20 times is all that palatable.

[Velcarx]

While gaining animal knowledge is certainly helpful, if you're hurting that badly for energy, perhaps focusing on successfully performing a hunt would be beneficial. Getting the hang of the sneak strike system is easily the most important part to hunting. If you really want the knowledge, you could use brace while in combat, significantly reducing damage while gaining 1 point of knowledge. I think 15 points will allow you to see its attack patterns, and 20 points will master it.

If you still need energy, there are a few events you can do where energy is easily obtainable. As long as the bar doesn't empty entirely, you'll be fine.

Also, I'm sure most of us have had the "killed by a bunny" moment.

[cavy]

Huh. I didn't find it that hard. I mean yeah, I died several times before making it out to the end of part one even, but it's still not that bad.
My advice: focus on Deathbite Tail beasts in part one. They don't run from a small dragon, so you have plenty of chances to brace angst them in combat and learn their secrets. Once you know enough about them, you can burn the bodies and not be poisoned, thus allowing you to hunt and learn on a much less low tank of fuel. Yes, you have to hunt a lot, especially in the early days when you can't catch as large food. Since they carry over to part 2, you can get fed there, then explore the segments above and below from where you are and unlock more hunting grounds fast- I believe your Lair borders on two more zones with prey in them, if you grab the right ones.

[idreamofgeni]

You are, indeed, missing something. Firstly, you are not meant to make it from beginning to end in one try. The game is definitely punishingly difficult the first several tries. What you need to do to make things more doable is to repaly childhood and adolescence and observe and/or fight with bracing against many creatures until you attain mastery of them. Every creature mastery increases the amount of elemental power you can start with in subsequent runs of the game. Tarot cards are also important for boosting your elemental power, so unlocking those when and where you can is very important. Only by mastering as many creatures as you can will you be able to perform things with efficiency early on, or achieve difficult landmarks like killing the lumberkin that wants to die in the first area. In fact, some things, like that one, literally cannot be done the first time you play the game... or even likely the second or third time, because you just won't have the elemental power to swing it until you've mastered a decent number of creatures and/or obtained a few tarot cards.
The game is not so linear as to have you begin, play and make it to the end in a single try, especially not if you want to obtain all the artifacts.

[maestro]

Originally posted by idreamofgeni:

You are, indeed, missing something. Firstly, you are not meant to make it from beginning to end in one try. The game is definitely punishingly difficult the first several tries. What you need to do to make things more doable is to repaly childhood and adolescence and observe and/or fight with bracing against many creatures until you attain mastery of them. Every creature mastery increases the amount of elemental power you can start with in subsequent runs of the game. Tarot cards are also important for boosting your elemental power, so unlocking those when and where you can is very important. Only by mastering as many creatures as you can will you be able to perform things with efficiency early on, or achieve difficult landmarks like killing the lumberkin that wants to die in the first area. In fact, some things, like that one, literally cannot be done the first time you play the game... or even likely the second or third time, because you just won't have the elemental power to swing it until you've mastered a decent number of creatures and/or obtained a few tarot cards.
The game is not so linear as to have you begin, play and make it to the end in a single try, especially not if you want to obtain all the artifacts.

Hmmm.

So THAT's what the game means by "your elemental bond has increased" ... finally mastered a couple creatures and the game goes "your elemental bond increased" but I was like "huh? I didn't get any power that I notice?"

[Thorin]

Your first (few) run will be trash, get more mastery for the animals and cards for the next runs, you will start much better elemental stats. Also there are a few obvious best route or at least good starting route, like the water spirit in the first area, you need to explore one area, and speak with it and answer the three question, but you get quite a bit of water and enough free energy for the four days, also get the firefly space for more free elemental power.

Also you need to learn how to fight properly, your animal masteries actually help here, but the best simply learn the system and what the animals use most of the time, and you get much better results.

And one last advice, earth three is a must, try to build your early game to get it, and all combat will be much simpler, more hp and reduced damage, probably the most game changing level, and not obvious before you know it, later you will reach it more or less always when you need it, but in the first few runs, not really.