(SPOILERS) Help - I'm confused about why I'm in the place that I'm in.

[Korgano]

Looking for an experienced player who can help me resolve an issue.

I've been enjoying the game (despite some frustrations with the combat) quite a bit, but I'm confused. Trying to leave Zeffo after completing the second tomb there, I found myself fighting a bounty hunter with a jetpack, flame, etc. His name was something stupid like Bing or something. He killed me after what seemed like some kind of cheap, unblockable attack. Instead of respawning, my character is now in a completely different area. I tried to reload so I could fight the bounty hunter again, but the game doesn't seem to keep any old saves. I would really like to go back and defeat the bounty hunter, especially since I've put a lot of effort into upgrading my character. If he hadn't had that cheap attack, I know I could have won the fight. If you can help me fix this, please let me know!

[Goro san]

Its part of the story, jail escape sequence is next, after you do, you can go to normal mapps again.

[Korgano]

Thanks for the comment! That seems like kind of a lame way for them to move the plot forward, especially since the game has been all about persistently (and I'm playing on Grand Master, so it has been LOTS of persistent) trying and trying again until I finally take down the boss. Feels deeply unsatisfying to have that process taken away. I guess they "subverted expectations." LOL

[iambear.]

You can't defeat him it's part of the "story"
It adds nothing to the story just adds a few more minutes of game play.

[Korgano]

Seems kind of lame, and counter to the idea that your character is growing. The boss fight before (with the lightsaber wielder) ended in a similarly abortive manner. It's kind of become a frustrating trope in a game that initially seems to be about actually defeating your enemies.

[Goro san]

Ok, so obviusly spoiler but Yure gonna face this, and many more (they get randomly chosen from pool) bounty hunters again, you can defeat em then.

[Korgano]

I should hope so! I'm ready for a boss fight that ends with a dead boss!

[BlackGhost]

Yeah, as everyone mentioned, it's part of the story presented in a really questionable way. If you pay attention too, you'll see that when the death screen shows up, it says 'Awaken' instead of 'Respawn'. Though, I'm sure that's pretty easy to miss if you're the type of player that will just mash through the death screen to get back to the fight. I'm more curious as to whether the boss fight is actually beatable (Think of something like Urizen in DMC5.) but it doesn't seem like it which is really stupid given the combat premise of the game. I guess some corners have to be cut and player control has to be stripped away for the sake of 'cinematic immersion' or whatever the lame excuse is to defend some of the game's design decisions.

[Korgano]

I think for me what cheapened the whole ordeal was the fact that the game handled the story moment inside of the combat. If I fight a boss and I defeat them, but then there's a cutscene showing that they were actually holding back, or that they had a last-ditch strategy left to try, or backup showing up or something, then that could explain why I ended up where I was via cinematic. But it's precisely the fact that the "story" interfered with the combat that made me upset. It is deeply frustrating not to be able to respawn and play the fight again. I saw the whole "awaken" thing, but I thought "no, that's not right. I just got beaten in a fight, so I'm going to go back and play it again." So I quit and tried to reload, and found that the game had autosaved me into a jail cell. There are already other issues with the combat that make it feel cheap: constantly having to fight hordes with one-on-one-focused combat abilities, unparryable attacks that aren't labeled with the red flash, attacks that home in on you and hit your character while you're rolling out of the way of them, and more. So the game is already on thin ice. But when the game is all about getting stronger - you as the player getting better at combat while your character gets stronger via upgrades - there's nothing that cheapens the experience MORE than the developer saying "nah we just win this one no matter what" by manipulating the combat mechanics. It's abusive.

It abuses the goodwill between player and developer. The developer says "here's a challenge." The player says "I'm up for the challenge" (especially if they pick a higher difficulty level that is predicated on more precise combat mechanics, which is what I chose to do.) It's that "agreement" between developer and player that makes a hard game fun. But that fun and satisfaction of meeting the challenge is ruined when the developer "cheats." I would much rather have fair-feeling combat than little "original" story twists. Like I said, I think there are ways to tell whatever story they want will keeping the combat transparent.

TL;DR Keep cutscenes and combat mechanics separate, lest you frustrate the player!

[Korgano]

I think it's also important to reward the player for understanding the world they're in. As soon as I saw a bounty hunter, I knew what to do. Stay away from the fire, reflect the blaster bolts, avoid rockets. I knew how to beat that combat. And you can believe that I rolled out of the way (well, I *hit the buttons* to roll out of the way) of whatever little cheap electrical thing it used to "beat" me. As a lifelong Star Wars fan with 10ish hours into this game, I KNEW what to do. And the game still said "nah, we win this one."

"It's outrageous. It's unfair."

[Solid Snake]

Originally posted by BlackGhost:

Yeah, as everyone mentioned, it's part of the story presented in a really questionable way. If you pay attention too, you'll see that when the death screen shows up, it says 'Awaken' instead of 'Respawn'. Though, I'm sure that's pretty easy to miss if you're the type of player that will just mash through the death screen to get back to the fight. I'm more curious as to whether the boss fight is actually beatable (Think of something like Urizen in DMC5.) but it doesn't seem like it which is really stupid given the combat premise of the game. I guess some corners have to be cut and player control has to be stripped away for the sake of 'cinematic immersion' or whatever the lame excuse is to defend some of the game's design decisions.

You can't beat him, at a certain rate of HP remaining he becomes invincible and try to shock you if you give him the chance.

Tested myself of course.

[Korgano]

Originally posted by Solid Snake:

Originally posted by BlackGhost:

Yeah, as everyone mentioned, it's part of the story presented in a really questionable way. If you pay attention too, you'll see that when the death screen shows up, it says 'Awaken' instead of 'Respawn'. Though, I'm sure that's pretty easy to miss if you're the type of player that will just mash through the death screen to get back to the fight. I'm more curious as to whether the boss fight is actually beatable (Think of something like Urizen in DMC5.) but it doesn't seem like it which is really stupid given the combat premise of the game. I guess some corners have to be cut and player control has to be stripped away for the sake of 'cinematic immersion' or whatever the lame excuse is to defend some of the game's design decisions.

You can't beat him, at a certain rate of HP remaining he becomes invincible and try to shock you if you give him the chance.

Tested myself of course.

I was halfway tempted to load up a new file just so I could try it again. It would have been a huge waste of time, but that's how ripped off I felt. Thanks for doing the hard work!