Does the Overdrive system get...better?

[Khaos]

So, I'm going to be honest. I refer to this thing as the "CBB" or the Cumbersome ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Bar. I have every skill available to me right now unlocked for all character, and I still only have one or two skills that can lower it at any given time.

On top of having this mean that in a prolonged battle I'm GOING to hit red and stay there, it means I am forced to use stupid useless ♥♥♥♥ in combat. Like hitting pandemic on a solo enemy that isn't even poisoned anyway. "Oh man I really need to heal but I'll stay in the red and take extra damage anyway unless I use the buff that isn't actually helping me!"

Honestly, this system is killing the game for me. I'm past the refund window and mostly ready to just east my losses and walk away - so I'm hoping maybe it gets better, I'm hoping there's a reason to push forward.

So yeah, does it get more manageable?

[Taz]

It gets a lot better as you unlock more abilities and expand your roster. Switching out characters mid-battle is a free action so you'll pretty much always have an answer to the Overdrive bar if your formation is set up right.

[Fraggoth]

Using the "Defend" command always lowers it, therefore there is always SOME means of "cooling down" without using TP at your disposal at all times and is pretty handy for those times when you do overheat and need to minimize the downsides. Very rarely have I had to use more than 2 Defend commands in a row to get out of overheat and by that time usually some useful skill has switched from increasing the gauge to decreasing it.

I do think the game could be a bit clearer about telegraphing ahead of time when certain skills are going to switch from building gauge to reducing it though.

[abitofBaileys]

Actions that move the cursor backwards:
Defend
Switch
Ultra Move
Some skills
Some items
Skills with the corresponding Overdrive icon type

[PozerWolf]

It's very, very manageable and I have to it set to Extra Tight.
Worse case, you can use an item to help manage it better but overall it requires you more so to plan ahead at times. Think ahead and you'll be fine. And this is coming from someone who has everything set to the Hardest setting.

[Scape13]

Having multiple types of skills on each character makes it easier to manage. You can also defend, swap, use items, and there are abilities that can lower it. It's not that bad once you start to unlock more stuff

[Whirblewind]

I think your question has been misinterpreted. You either know how it works and don't care, or don't know how it works and don't want to learn, but you aren't really having fun with it either way. Having it explained to you won't change that for you, so I'll try to answer the actual question.

No, it doesn't get better. It stays as it is - omnipresent - the whole way. If you aren't interested in adapting to the overdrive bar by respecting the game's pacing, it will never improve for you. It never really gets "more manageable" than what you start with when the party first hits 5, so if you aren't enjoying it now, you will never.

This isn't a criticism of you or the game - it answers the question literally, on the assumption you understand what it wants from you and you don't find it fun.

[Rampage]

I like the system from the start tbh

[Khaos]

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

I think your question has been misinterpreted. You either know how it works and don't care, or don't know how it works and don't want to learn, but you aren't really having fun with it either way. Having it explained to you won't change that for you, so I'll try to answer the actual question.

No, it doesn't get better. It stays as it is - omnipresent - the whole way. If you aren't interested in adapting to the overdrive bar by respecting the game's pacing, it will never improve for you. It never really gets "more manageable" than what you start with when the party first hits 5, so if you aren't enjoying it now, you will never.

This isn't a criticism of you or the game - it answers the question literally, on the assumption you understand what it wants from you and you don't find it fun.

This is probably the answer I was looking for. I don't enjoy the system at all. I did turn it down to wide and am hating it a lot less now, but I still don't enjoy it a ton. I don't like puzzle combat, and I don't like to juggle some bar that exists to exist and no other reason.

[Rampage]

uh no. it exists to add another gameplay element in combat, to balance it better throughout the whole game and to prevent spamming. You actually have to think.... ohhh noes !!!

[Hentaika]

You don't really have to 'think' beyond the first time you see the mechanic.

You mostly have to waste extra time by doing a useless action instead of progressing combat.
Is it fun? For like... 10% of the game - sure. After that it gets stale. The whole '100%HP/TP' start is a bit more tolerable, but also substantially decreases the fun the game can provide in the long run...

You never feel pressured by random fights, even on hardest setting... BUT it takes quite long each time since you can't just fast click through a battle that poses no real challenge.

The ideas themselves are fine, but they are very poorly implemented in this specific game. Pair this with countless bugs on the gameplay front and you have a dull and frustrating gameplay where your actions hardly matter and your powercreep depends nearly entirely on gear... which also has extremely player time unfriendly systems.

[Rampage]

It seems you just want a game you can finish within 20 hours by spamming the A button 90% of the time....

And that you like pointless fast trash mob fights. To me that was one of the few problems with old skool rpgs though and that is why I like these systems in the game, it basically takes out pointless fast trash mob fights until you are returning to a previous area when youve become much stronger.

[Hentaika]

Originally posted by Rampage:

It seems you just want a game you can finish within 20 hours by spamming the A button 90% of the time....

And that you like pointless fast trash mob fights. To me that was one of the few problems with old skool rpgs though and that is why I like these systems in the game, it basically takes out pointless fast trash mob fights until you are returning to a previous area when youve become much stronger.

This game does exactly the opposite - it magnifies the problem by A LOT.

Trash fights are still trash here, that's exactly the problem... except now instead of being mostly 'ignorable' they actually eat away at player time while providing literally 0 challenge.
You are literally starting at full HP/SP, even TRYING to lose is pretty painful if you simply use the same skills over and over and over.
Yep, all you have to do is make like 2 extra clicks per action for no reason, that's pretty much it.

The whole point of trash fights in RPGs is to mostly create a sense of environment and a method of progression while being something you can mostly spam through as they are never intended to waste your time too much.

In this one - you are literally told - we have those unskippable enemies blocking your path. Those have 0 chance to win against you. Those can't even whittle you down in attrition since you always start fully replenished. BUT you have to beat them to progress AND they don't even give you any meaningful progression, so you are literally just wasting your time for essentially nothing, have fun!

I am fine with grind - a LOT of grind. But this one tries to avoid it and results in becoming among the worst and most useless grinds in the RPG history.

[TheBarbaryGhost]

Originally posted by Khaos:

So yeah, does it get more manageable?

I kind of love it. It adds a layer of challenge. I find spamming through fights to be so boring. This adds a puzzle element, and there are so many ways to bring it down, you don't need to just use yellow abilities to do it.

[Suasa]

Originally posted by Khaos:

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

I think your question has been misinterpreted. You either know how it works and don't care, or don't know how it works and don't want to learn, but you aren't really having fun with it either way. Having it explained to you won't change that for you, so I'll try to answer the actual question.

No, it doesn't get better. It stays as it is - omnipresent - the whole way. If you aren't interested in adapting to the overdrive bar by respecting the game's pacing, it will never improve for you. It never really gets "more manageable" than what you start with when the party first hits 5, so if you aren't enjoying it now, you will never.

This isn't a criticism of you or the game - it answers the question literally, on the assumption you understand what it wants from you and you don't find it fun.

This is probably the answer I was looking for. I don't enjoy the system at all. I did turn it down to wide and am hating it a lot less now, but I still don't enjoy it a ton. I don't like puzzle combat, and I don't like to juggle some bar that exists to exist and no other reason.

There is a reason for the system tho. It artificially adds tempo to a game genra that usually does not have any. A bit like chess when the player in front of you starts a bunch of moves and you have no choice but to play moves you don't want to, then when it's your turn to act and do a bunch of moves, you get tempo. That's one of the flaws of classic JRPGs, speed (or agi here) is usually the most broken stat just because it gives initiative.

So in the yellow part it's like opening in chess, where it's better to cast buffs and debuffs, at green the player gets initiative, then high up on green/red the enemies get initiative. It's possible to stay in red, but by that point it's like a queen sacrifice for a checkmate.

If you ask me, the real flaw of the overdrive system is that the name is too punchy for what it really does, and the bar should represent the tog of war push and pull of defense and attack in another way. But otherwise it's fine by me.

[Hentaika]

Originally posted by Boson:

Originally posted by Khaos:

This is probably the answer I was looking for. I don't enjoy the system at all. I did turn it down to wide and am hating it a lot less now, but I still don't enjoy it a ton. I don't like puzzle combat, and I don't like to juggle some bar that exists to exist and no other reason.

There is a reason for the system tho. It artificially adds tempo to a game genra that usually does not have any. A bit like chess when the player in front of you starts a bunch of moves and you have no choice but to play moves you don't want to, then when it's your turn to act and do a bunch of moves, you get tempo. That's one of the flaws of classic JRPGs, speed (or agi here) is usually the most broken stat just because it gives initiative.

So in the yellow part it's like opening in chess, where it's better to cast buffs and debuffs, at green the player gets initiative, then high up on green/red the enemies get initiative. It's possible to stay in red, but by that point it's like a queen sacrifice for a checkmate.

If you ask me, the real flaw of the overdrive system is that the name is too punchy for what it really does, and the bar should represent the tog of war push and pull of defense and attack in another way. But otherwise it's fine by me.

I think you got it completely opposite - AGI is usually the most useless stat in traditional JRPG, since it doesn't really matter, usually it takes 1 turn to fully heal full party and 1 turn to wipe out basic enemies... at most it helps you save a bit time by skipping enemy actions, but usually you have 'ambush' system for first turn so you don't even always need that.

AGI in this game is an absolutely broken stat which takes balance as a physical entity and throws it right out of the window.
Stack enough AGI and debuff AGI of enemy and enemy won't get a single turn ever, so you can completely disregard all other mechanics...

Even if we skip how powerful AGI is in this game - overdrive honestly only removes tempo... it's not like it's 'hard' to understand that you need to keep bar where it wants it to be... it's just that ~50% of the battle becomes wasted on swapping/defending or using something which in most cases is even more useless.
After ~3-5 battles you figure this mechanics and it becomes more of a time waster rather than giving battles any depth.