Anyone else hate this healing system?

[Devilpants]

Building up a meter as you fight and spending it on attacks that heal you sounds good on paper, but in practice, it has resulted in more game overs than victories. I'd rather have potions I can find and buy, or even health pickups from stunned or defeated enemies.

[Ninefoldrin]

I really like the healing system honestly as someone who likes really active playstyles. I just blend pulse into my fighting. Different directional pulses work better in different situations. An up pulse works well when it's too dangerous to attack something directly.

[Dexaldem]

I think the healing system is actually well-designed. It rewards good execution of the game's mechanics. xD

[Cloymax]

I don't hate it in and of itself but I do hate how it actually conflicts with wanting to use Pulse offensively. The left/right pulse attack is an extremely useful move in many situations, but I need to save Pulse for health...

[Devilpants]

My problem is that it feels like a death spiral. You build meter by doing combos, then mark an enemy, and spend meter to do an attack that heals you. But my lack of skill in doing combos led to my low health in the first place, so I have to do what I'm already bad at to get health back. And if I play well enough to not take damage, then I'll be sitting on all this meter that I won't be using JUST IN CASE I need it later, which means I won't be using those cool and useful attacks.

Apparently there's an ability that makes enemies drop health pickups, but why isn't that something players get early on when we need it most and aren't good at the game yet? It feels like the devs played their own game so much that they forgot about the possibility that someone could even be bad at it and designed around their own skills accumulated throughout development.

[CID]

Originally posted by Cloymax:

I don't hate it in and of itself but I do hate how it actually conflicts with wanting to use Pulse offensively. The left/right pulse attack is an extremely useful move in many situations, but I need to save Pulse for health...

Huh, I use the left/right pulse attack most for healing. The down pulse only gives you slightly more health but I prefer the left/right's ability to fly directly at the enemy over sliding on the ground. The up pulse I almost never use due to how little health you gain from it.

[Jolly Red June]

Originally posted by Devilpants:

My problem is that it feels like a death spiral. You build meter by doing combos, then mark an enemy, and spend meter to do an attack that heals you. But my lack of skill in doing combos led to my low health in the first place, so I have to do what I'm already bad at to get health back. And if I play well enough to not take damage, then I'll be sitting on all this meter that I won't be using JUST IN CASE I need it later, which means I won't be using those cool and useful attacks.

Apparently there's an ability that makes enemies drop health pickups, but why isn't that something players get early on when we need it most and aren't good at the game yet? It feels like the devs played their own game so much that they forgot about the possibility that someone could even be bad at it and designed around their own skills accumulated throughout development.

I think the system is very well implemented. The problem I think with your experience is that you're equating your "low health" status being solely caused by your bad combos, which is not the case. Blocking, dashing, poise breaking, learning enemy patterns, multi-managing abilities, keeping focus on hordes etc. are all factors of not taking damage. Combos can be but they're primary focus is doing damage and chaning. Also, don't focus on the pulse meter as being a valuable resource, it's not and you can easily recharge it, use at as much as you want.

Another thing I want to comment on is the small health orbs that drop from defeated enemies. I don't see it being that useful, sure it would be nice, but I doubt it's that crucial to survival in early game. The moment when you change your mentality on how to play, the game becomes easier.

[Teyar]

The healing system is actually inspired - The trick is you need to stun an enemy before using the Down pulse, or have Justice up for using the Towards - Either Up or Back are probably something you want to rely on more to heal while enemies are still active.

The other factor is making damned sure you're using all the charge moves - The down-charge while grounded move, which costs the least of any purchasable - Knocks off two poise dots, and by the time the animation is done, you're already charged through the next. It's possible to knock some bosses down before they even finish their first animation this way.

[CID]

Originally posted by Devilpants:

It feels like the devs played their own game so much that they forgot about the possibility that someone could even be bad at it and designed around their own skills accumulated throughout development.

So well put, for so many indie games. I think it is one of the most common flaws I see in indie projects. Too many indie games feel more like you're playing a challenge ROM hack than something that is skillfully balanced. (Though there is the niche that loves those and that's given rise to the precision platformer sub-genre).

[viktorhallo]

Originally posted by CID:

Originally posted by Devilpants:

It feels like the devs played their own game so much that they forgot about the possibility that someone could even be bad at it and designed around their own skills accumulated throughout development.

So well put, for so many indie games. I think it is one of the most common flaws I see in indie projects. Too much of this in a game makes it feel more like you're playing a challenge ROM hack than something that is skillfully balanced.

not really, the game isnt crazy hard even on vicious. i definantly see easy and probably normal aswelll being doable for people of average or even below average skill.

[CID]

Originally posted by viktorhallo:

Originally posted by CID:

So well put, for so many indie games. I think it is one of the most common flaws I see in indie projects. Too much of this in a game makes it feel more like you're playing a challenge ROM hack than something that is skillfully balanced.

not really, the game isnt crazy hard even on vicious. i definantly see easy and probably normal aswelll being doable for people of average or even below average skill.

I think you misunderstood me, or the quoted individual, or both. I wasn't referring to difficulty/challenge, especially not with the combat in this game. Rather balancing, of a multitude of things that need not be detailed beyond level design (hence the challenge hack comment). Also, my comment was made to take the quoted statement to a more general view on proper balancing within the indie scene at large, mostly with level design as the main consideration. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love indie gaming, far more than mainstream, but balancing is the most common flaw I see. (Huh, I just reread my quoted comment, yeah, that's my fault. I need to reword that).

[Black Captain]

There’s a game called There is no Light that has an attack focused healing. It’s even worse than this game but playing that game first made this one tolerable. It makes you not want to use some cool combos for fesr of depleting your healing. I stayed using the basic combos and charge attacks with my time bomb and never used healing until I needed it. Playing on hard, I typically had to heal at least once

[Zelakon]

I like the innovation of it, but my main issue with the healing system is that it requires three buttons to be pressed simultaneously.

It just feels clunky, and there's no reason to require the attack button pressed again when the sword is locked onto an enemy; it ought to just require pressing the heal button to cast the sword, then that same button plus any directional input to heal attack (or the same button without any other input to recall it).

Better yet, why did they even bother with a projectile? Its hitbox is so large that it's trivial to attach to enemies. Would make much more sense to just have a standard healing attack following the same input logic as above!

[Guillermo Del Torment]

I feel like I must be playing wrong, because I have never once successfully launched a Pulse attack outside of the tutorial.