Are some QTE supposed to be unwinnable with specific characters in H.P Lovecraft difficulty mode?

[Drowned Dreamer]

Hello Song of Horror players,

I completed my first playthrough a few days ago, so I am trying to achieve a second one with the highest difficulty (H.P Lovecraft).
In this mode, I have the feeling that some QTE challenges (the horrific events in which the Presence attacks the player) seem literally unwinnable when playing a character who has a low value on the required Stat.
For examples:
- I couldn't make it with Alexander during the first episode, when the first "Darkness" or "Hide in the dark" event (I'm not sure about the name in the english version) occured, despite trying many times. I guess Alexander's very low Serenity is the reason.
- Right now, I'm stucked while playing Erica during the second chapter. I have to go out from the gallery, but each time I try (I copy-paste a backup save), the Abyss QTE occurs. Erica's low Strength seems to make it impossible to survive here.

From your personal experiences, do you guys know or think those challenges are intentionally made to be undoable with the weakest characters in H.P Lovecraft difficulty? Or are those QTE just insanely hard?

Furthermore, in Lovecraft mode, I can't survive the Darkness/Hide in the Dark QTE, whoever I play, while I managed to survive almost every time it happened during my first playthrough... Any tip?

Thank you in advance for your help, and have a nice game.

[Drowned Dreamer]

After many tries, I finally managed to make Erica survive from the Abyss in Lovecraft mode. But damn, what a painful sequence... The same can be said about the Door challenges while playing a character with a low Strength value, even if those are shorter. These QTE require very fast pressing, and quick reactivity.
I also completed my playthrough in Lovecraft mode today.

For anyone who would see this post in the future after encountering the same kind of situation, here are my advices for each type of QTE events:

- Door: Press the button/key as fast as you can, and keep an eye on how much the Presence managed to open the door so far. Don't even think about always doing fully charged actions. At the beginning, do one or two fully or almost fully charged blocks, then more ou less charged blocking actions (depending on the situation).

- Darkness: The button/key has to be pressed right AFTER the sound of the heartbeat. Doing this way is not absolutely necessary in other difficulty settings, so you may need some practice when starting a playthrough in Lovecraft difficulty... Be careful about the sudden changes of pace.

- Abyss: Doing the QTE with keyboard made it easier for me while I was playing characters with a low Strength value. With a stronger character, it is also manageable with a controller.
If the player is fast enough, they can completely prevent the Presence from grabbing their character. They have to click as soon as an undead starts to move in order to grab one of the player's arms (the button that you will have to press is revealed at this very moment).

- Silence: In my opinion, this one is by far the easiest. The player has to control his two circles (the white one and the one with lungs drawn on it) at the same time, in order to make them aligned with the dark circle (the one you have no control on). As long as the three circles match, the blind monster won't notice you.

- Requiem: The first one in Chapter 4 is pretty easy, it is intended to be some kind of tutorial. But for my part I couldn't win anymore of them after this in Lovecraft difficulty. I have the feeling that the camera controls are badly designed here, but I may not have understand what I really had to do.
If these QTE truly are a problem for you, the best option may be to use the Tarot Deck (unlocked by collecting all confessions during the fourth Chapter). Just flip over the Requiem card in your inventory. In return, it seems to increase the chances of encountering Silence-type QTE events (a huge advantage for players in my opinion).
Another option: just enter again and again in a room in which you are sure that the Requiem can't occur. If I am not mistaking, it can only appear in open-air locations in Chapter 4, and only in the corridor with many patient cells in Chapter 5. By repeatedly entering and exiting a same room, your goal will be to force the Presence to attack you a few rooms away from the one in which the Requiem can manifest itself. After succeeding against the Presence occurence, it will not be able to attack again for some time. Just keep in mind that you must avoid to run as much as possible: running will allow the Presence to appear again sooner. You NEVER NEED TO RUN, unless you're facing a Door mini-game or trying to get the Prior's confession in Chapter 4.

[iceweb38]

Strange that you had these problems, I know Lovecraft is intended to be harder but not to the point that the QTE would be undoable with the weakest character.
I play on PS4 with a controller though so maybe it makes things easier ?

About REQUIEM, oh you'd be very surprised to find out it CAN happen in inside locations, especially on Lovecraft !
I had it happen on chapter 4 in the dinner room (very hard), and the room in which you find the Silver Key.
As for Chapter 5, it can happen in the dinner room, the entrance hall and the corridor with patients cells.
You may check my videos :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28RqUv8gpOE

The thing with Requiem, especially on Lovecraft, is that you can have many ghosts to spot at the same time if you're too slow. After the first ghost, a second one is set to appear (and you will hear a sound) if you take too long to destroy the first one. Having multiple ghosts at the same time is what causes many to lose.

[EviLDoØm.ttv™]

Characters can get exhausted overtime, the longer you take, the harder it gets, so if attack chain too much, yes it can get to an "impossible point", That's why there's tricks to "recover from exhaustion" like the candles calm the character and the presence,

Some attacks are harder with certain characters, but once you master the QTE's timings, the only one that used to be unfair was the darkness attack, since hiding spots could be too far to reach, which has been reworked

My worst enemy is requiem, there's places where you don't want to be attacked at with them haha