I really hate the combat system

[Jase]

God knows what the author was thinking with this dreadful combat system. I have a gazillion crystals that seem totally useless. I was even given a shield crystal, but I don't use it because the combat system is rubbish, I can't control anything so what use is a shield that I cant predict and what the hell are those three roman numerals at the top? I really hate it, why couldn't we just have proper skills that was can actually use, when we want to instead of this random crap. If I don't bring the woman with the shield I just die. The healer guy is pretty useless with his awful heals. Katie is utterly useless, she hits like a wet flannel. Why cant the player just have a shield skill and heal skill, attack skill, like normal games.

Don't even get me started about the stupid poker.

Good thing I enjoy the story, minus the cheesy sentimental bollocks, but most of it is entertaining.

[A_s_o30]

I'm also not a fan of combat system in the game, and I completely agree with what you write.

[jminatl]

The important bit is that the combat system is not a typical button masher and doesn't use a classical 'die roll'.

Instead it uses cards and poker hands for a similar effect. I despise card games generally, but this isn't really a card game, it is a combat system that happens to use poker-hand values for the mechanic. A lot of people find it interesting and different.

Stats/Skills in game (Level, Int, Chr, Str, Sword) all come into play in combat. How and how much evolves over time and there are various ways to improve these over time.

The part about lack of control I think is going to be perspective.

The combat system is not a control by timing and click approach. It is control by turn-based play and strategy.

While the cards drawn introduce some randomness, the player is in control of which cards they play and where they play them. There may be numerous or very few (or no) viable options on a given hand. Which cards and where they are played selects the poker hand value, which selects the gem that is triggered and the result the opponent experiences.

The basic poker play system is detailed here: https://loveofmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Poker

Note that if you don't insert and at least slightly optimize which gems are in which slots you will likely have atrocious damage making combat tedious and failure prone (which may be what you are describing?)

Gems, their effects and how to obtain them are detailed here: https://loveofmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Poker/Gems

Companions are upgraded over the course of the game.

Companion abilities, when available and how to improve them are here: https://loveofmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Poker/Companions

There is a great deal more information (and infinite spoilers...) in the player wiki and the game is designed to teach a player the mechanics as they go through, but it's easy enough to blow past that stuff.

[Melone]

I know there are many players of erotic VNs out there who only want as fast as possible jump from one erotic scene to the next. I really like the combination of erotic visual VN, RPG and strategy.
The idea with the poker elements is not perfect, but something new. My main critic about it is that it's better not to put your best gems into the highest slots (Royal Flush).
It's possible to change the difficulty of the strategy fights and there is a cheat menu which makes it easy to get better gems. Another point of critic is if you don't use the cheats, it's not so easy to keep track in mind which gem you have in which slot.

[KukoTheMadhatter]

Originally posted by Jase:

God knows what the author was thinking with this dreadful combat system. I have a gazillion crystals that seem totally useless. I was even given a shield crystal, but I don't use it because the combat system is rubbish, I can't control anything so what use is a shield that I cant predict and what the hell are those three roman numerals at the top? I really hate it, why couldn't we just have proper skills that was can actually use, when we want to instead of this random crap. If I don't bring the woman with the shield I just die. The healer guy is pretty useless with his awful heals. Katie is utterly useless, she hits like a wet flannel. Why cant the player just have a shield skill and heal skill, attack skill, like normal games.

Don't even get me started about the stupid poker.

Good thing I enjoy the story, minus the cheesy sentimental bollocks, but most of it is entertaining.

actyally... Dylan can get upgrades and learns a heal over time skill,
katie has 3 upgrades, and MC gets some skills in book 2

[Kjas]

The combat system is difficult to learn but after you understand it then its fun. The solution if you don't like the combat is do as I did and set the difficulty to easy and do auto battles all the time. I let the a.i. fight itself and watched and eventually figured it out.

[ZiffyHead]

This is a great game with an excellent story and the combat system has a surprising depth that can be mostly ignored if you want by simply letting the game suggest which cards to play each round.

The combat is actually interesting and has an unexpectedly strategic depth to it (especially for a VN) if you choose to engage with it.

Whoever fills up the outer rows, gets an attack using each row that just got filled and if you have a field of wild cards and the bad guy is the one to fill them, it can be devastating.


My only complaint is that the game automatically creates the "highest ranking" hand that it can when using wild cards, but because of gems, I would rather choose myself (form a list?), so that I can use a lower ranking hand with a certain gem that would be the more strategic choice.

[Jase]

Originally posted by Kjas:

The combat system is difficult to learn but after you understand it then its fun. The solution if you don't like the combat is do as I did and set the difficulty to easy and do auto battles all the time. I let the a.i. fight itself and watched and eventually figured it out.

How do you get upgrades? I'm only playing for the story, I don't bother with all the ancillary stuff.

[apophis37]

Originally posted by Jase:

Originally posted by Kjas:

The combat system is difficult to learn but after you understand it then its fun. The solution if you don't like the combat is do as I did and set the difficulty to easy and do auto battles all the time. I let the a.i. fight itself and watched and eventually figured it out.

How do you get upgrades? I'm only playing for the story, I don't bother with all the ancillary stuff.

Upgrades come in the form of Gems, wich u can buy (vendor unlocks when u talk to Thor (unavoidable so no need to search for that event) or find/loot on monsters u killed in elsewhere.

[Targonis]

Originally posted by Jase:

Originally posted by Kjas:

The combat system is difficult to learn but after you understand it then its fun. The solution if you don't like the combat is do as I did and set the difficulty to easy and do auto battles all the time. I let the a.i. fight itself and watched and eventually figured it out.

How do you get upgrades? I'm only playing for the story, I don't bother with all the ancillary stuff.

You can buy or find gems throughout the game, but then, you need to apply the gems to your deck. Pick the gem for one pair, two pair, straight, etc. As you get better gems and apply them, you will do more damage or apply different effects. Set a barrier for three of a kind, and then when you lay down a three of a kind in combat, the barrier gets applied. That sort of thing.

[Jase]

I just fought this thing with 50k hp and it was so tedious and there's no cancel button. My character reaches 1 hp and never dies. What is the point? Just remove the damn combat system, this would be so much better without it.

[Targonis]

Originally posted by Jase:

I just fought this thing with 50k hp and it was so tedious and there's no cancel button. My character reaches 1 hp and never dies. What is the point? Just remove the damn combat system, this would be so much better without it.

Poison helps...

[lIllKiLLIlll]

I love the combat system. I feel like it is a game within a game. I spent hours just grinding monsters for fun. Also once your character / companions get their upgraded specials they are over powering if anything.

[Strife]

I didn't like the combat system at the very start, I'm not a fan of poker type games and that actually kept me from purchasing the game sooner. Once you actually start to experiment a bit with it and see that there is actually strategy involved, it opens up a lot of other avenues you might have thought were pointless before. At first I just went straight damage gems and hit auto, my first step away from that was mixing rage gems and cluster gems. I like to first try to build a bit of rage, the hit them with the cluster next and the damage can be unreal. There is a lot more than that, give it a shot.