I finally understand why it just doesn't feel good to play.

[Fenrir Wülf]

So the game really wants to be more Sekiro than Bloodborne. That's fine. Thing is, if you're going to try to emulate Sekiro, you better be as good as good as Sekiro, and more importantly, you really need to understand the how and why Sekiro works.

The game really, REALLY wants you to block / perfect block. And that's a fine mechanic to have. But it's so badly implemented here. Not only are the blocking windows completely inconsistent, perfect blocking DOES NOTHING. It blocks damage, and nothing else. Enemies DO NOT GET INTERRUPTED. Not even mobs. Try perfect blocking one of the guys that charge you with a lance. You'll perfect block the first hit, but he will literally not stop his attack and you'll still take damage from blocking the rest of the charge. WHY?

And trying to perfect block bosses and mini bosses just feels terrible. Again, there's no interruption when perfect blocking. So you have to perfect block every single hit of the five hit combo that has different attack windows. It just doesn't work. I get it that it matters the most on fury attacks, and that's fine, but perfect blocking normal attacks should DO something.

Oh but god forbid YOU get blocked. YOU will be going 5 feet back into a stun lock. Not the enemies though. Not even the rando mobs you kill by the dozen.

And there's just a real lack of feedback. When you parry in Sekiro, you have FEEDBACK. There's a very visual and audio feedback. Here there's almost nothing.

And then there's the dodging. Awful. Completely and utterly terrible. It's far, FAR too short and far too slow for a game like this. Again, compare Sekiro. It's fast, and it gives you some distance. Not here though.

And then there's the weapon durability. Look, I get it. Most Souls like have something like that. Dark Souls had it. Bloodborne had it. But Sekiro didn't. Elden Ring didn't. And in DS 1 and 3, it literally didn't even matter at all because it went down so slowly you would never run out before the next bonfire. It mattered in 2, and it was a mistake. Durability finally got removed because it's a needlessly frustrating mechanic that honestly doesn't belong in an action game like this. This isn't a survival crafter.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but the game would actually benefit from being MORE like Sekiro. Drop the durability completely, less weapon crafting, less needless RPG mechanics, focus more on the parrying / blocking.
Or, actually go full Bloodborne like most people thought it would be. Actually go for the trick weapons and weapon crafting, and more stats and more dodging.

Right now the game is at a really uncomfortable inbetween that just doesn't feel good to play. Unfortunately, this far into production, with a release date in barely 3 months, we all know the feature lock is in. It's all bug squashing right now. And it's really unfortunate because there are some DEEP revisions needed to make it actually better and fun.

TLDR: In the famous words of Report Of The Week: "My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."

[thiago_moreira91]

You hit the nailed on the head. On the positive side, the atmosphere, art style, and level design are great. If the combat is polished, this can be the first actually great non-FROM Software souls-like game.

[inkbiegel]

art style sure, but level design? this is about as linear as it gets.

[Radgol]

perfect blocks are doing dmg to the enemy posture, and on the donkey boss it breaks his weapon meaning, he does almost no dmg to you after it breaks.

[cobber888]

its feels better than i thought i would atleast

[DriftSpace]

I also had issues with the parry/block not feeling like it was very rewarding, so I stopped trying. There's a reason FROM SOFTWARE makes success in these events incredibly obvious with sound and animation; the developers want players to know they did something good, and to reward them for it.

[Machination]

In case you missed it(it sounds like you did), there's a skill tree that you gain access to at the end of the demo if you sit down at the chair by Gepetto. There are some upgrades which address some of the points you brought up, somewhat. One of the upgrades allows you chain a second dodge, basically increasing the distance of the dodge. There's another upgrade which enables the perfect guard to charge Fable energy, which at least adds some more value to the perfect guard though I guess I do agree, it would be nice if there were more of a stagger/interrupt (at least on the basic mobs).

I also want to mention that I don't find the low weapon durability to be too unreasonable since they give you the ability to repair in the field using the grinder. Even if you have repair during a long fight, it's not too hard to sprint away and make some distance in order to do it. Plus, there are Urgent Repair kits which apparently repair weapons instantly, though I haven't had to use one.

[Kairyoko]

I did not mind durability actually. Its just a grind away with that item. I actually thought it was more of a interesting mechanic than an hassle. But i agree with the other stuff. There are alot of things in the controls that feel unresponsive and the dodge is way to short. Also on the Parade master boss there is just very few instances in the second phase where you can actually hit him. Even if you are patient and wait him out, he will hit you! It still has alot of promise but must solve some issues first

[twiggy]

it doesnt feel good to play because dodging and parrying is tied to framerate and anything higher than 30fps will make the game incredibly difficult

[AlienTestosterone]

Originally posted by twiggy:

it doesnt feel good to play because dodging and parrying is tied to framerate and anything higher than 30fps will make the game incredibly difficult

I capped at 60 and its a breeze.

[causality]

Originally posted by Fenrir Wülf:

Try perfect blocking one of the guys that charge you with a lance. You'll perfect block the first hit, but he will literally not stop his attack and you'll still take damage from blocking the rest of the charge. WHY?

That's false or we're playing a different game.

[MLadie]

Everyone needs to read this. Both players AND developers.

You nailed everything.

[Meqdad]

agreed 100%

[Grifter]

I see Sekiro being mentioned a lot... this tells me not to bother. I hate rhythm games.

[Stardog]

I agree with all the points brought up. The combat feels so gods damn bad I just don't even want to finish the demo and kill Mad Donkey. I love the art style, the characters, the style, but that combat is like eating rusty razor blades.

[Gearwar]

The problem with the perfect block is also that unlike sekiro the block is not instant. So there is also a delay on the player animation that you have to factor in. Its small but its there, which is also a big part of the reason why perfect blocking feels so inconsistent.

It is as OP said, that perfect blocking does nothing to the enemies, wether normal or bosses and I guess thats where the difficulty ultimately comes from. You can not block the whole damage, perfect blocking only works for one hit and does not allow you to punish anything and the dodging mechanic is too slow to be constantly viable.

I also noticed that, in case of the rapier (dex char) the hilt special attack, that basically allows you to counter an enemy hit if timed like a perfect block with big damage, more often than not will counter the enemy attack but you still eat the damage from said attack. Meaning you still get hit, despite pulling off the counter perfectly.

It lacks a bit of polish.

Oh and for the lvl design, it looks like bloodborne aesthetically.. or atleast it tries to be reminiscent of it, but the layout itself reminds me more of the simplicity of demon's souls. Its fine, its just a copy of three different games and it does not do anything better than either of those.