Started to play Grand Master on the first run

[Nikanuur]

...and feeling like a true... ...erm... padawan in their very early days.

THIS IS HORRIBLY DIFFICULT!

And I love it.

I mean, I did the first boss 15 times before I understood what I was doing wrong. Then I slowly overcame it.

Only after another 10 gameplay hours of more-luck-than-skill combat situations have I realized that I have to start paying attention to the space between the enemies, how close they can cover it, and position myself accordingly by actually fighting the first enemy—and not, as in other games, somehow going along with it.

The combat suddenly feels like I'm on the verge of understanding fluency that is not only effective, but also pleasing to watch.

On the verge.

Because as soon as I did it correctly the first time, my ego took control through pride, and I botched the last hit so much that the mere doggo stripped me of 3/4 HP with three quick attacks, doing me in.

Now, I have to learn to temper the rush of emotions and focus on peace of mind and centering myself.

True padawan beginnings, indeed.

PS: You guys, who also love the SW universe, have you also finally started to learn Arabesh from the lore textbooks like me :3 ?

[X YdoC]

I'm also playing grand master for my first run. It feels like the balance isn't all the way there. Like the damage and parry mechanic is fine, but enemy stagger is pretty whack. It makes fights with multiple enemies feel extremely BS at times. It's like you have to kite and bait and poke a lot and idk it just feels not very well thought out. I switched to blaster stance and double blade stance and it works out pretty solidly. Less kiting and more blasting. I was able to beat the double frog fight so that's somethin. Still wish the enemies actually staggered though.

[Geist]

I am still early in the game but the most annoying enemy so far is the B2 Droid. Not flinching when hit and using blaster and missiles in melee range.

[viktorhallo]

i beat it at gm. and it is a very good difficulty compeared to what most other games do like horizon, assassins creed and many JRPG were they basicially just gives enemys tons of health and call it hard. they also dont have the stupid midboss checkpoints that the new gow games have. but i did however miss the gow ragnarok difficulty lock that prevents you from changing back to the highest difficulty if you decide to lower it.

i think difficulty inconsitencys is the biggest problem with GM 10% of the enemies are crazy hard, and the remaining 90% feels like they got a normal mode moveset and agression. some bosses are crazy hard with one shotting grabs with insane tracking and others are so slow they cant even hit you.

going head to head with every enemy dodging and parrying is the most skillfull way to play, but its sadly not the most effective way to play at GM unless your absolutely godtier, jumping around gradually picking off the enemies while evading the others just seem more effective. lightsaber throws and blaster also seems to strong against enemies that dont block-parry them.

[Nikanuur]

Originally posted by X YdoC:

I'm also playing grand master for my first run. It feels like the balance isn't all the way there. Like the damage and parry mechanic is fine, but enemy stagger is pretty whack. It makes fights with multiple enemies feel extremely BS at times. It's like you have to kite and bait and poke a lot and idk it just feels not very well thought out. I switched to blaster stance and double blade stance and it works out pretty solidly. Less kiting and more blasting. I was able to beat the double frog fight so that's somethin. Still wish the enemies actually staggered though.

I agree. That's what I felt initially too. But imagine how a real fight would look like. Against enemies that mean business and work in group. I believe exactly this would happen. Unceremoniously stagger-locked to death. Might not be the best of common arpg combat, but I'd argue it's damn interesting because of it actually.

Anyway, only when I started doing the things stated in the OM, the combat suddenly started to feel fluid and along the lines of "Carving my way through stuff to and fro in a ballet of death." I say started, because it happened only several times so far and I have to practice more, haha. I hope I won't throw my gamepad against the monitor soon :D

[real hideo kojima]

started on that too, outside the occasional 1shot move (and a few encounters where theres just a tonne of enemies) grand master feels like the intended difficulty

[Nikanuur]

Originally posted by viktorhallo:

i beat it at gm. and it is a very good difficulty compeared to what most other games do like horizon, assassins creed and many JRPG were they basicially just gives enemys tons of health and call it hard. they also dont have the stupid midboss checkpoints that the new gow games have. but i did however miss the gow ragnarok difficulty lock that prevents you from changing back to the highest difficulty if you decide to lower it.

i think difficulty inconsitencys is the biggest problem with GM 10% of the enemies are crazy hard, and the remaining 90% feels like they got a normal mode moveset and agression. some bosses are crazy hard with one shotting grabs with insane tracking and others are so slow they cant even hit you.

going head to head with every enemy dodging and parrying is the most skillfull way to play, but its sadly not the most effective way to play at GM unless your absolutely godtier, jumping around gradually picking off the enemies while evading the others just seem more effective. lightsaber throws and blaster also seems to strong against enemies that dont block-parry them.

Exatly. There's an added dimension to hitting, parrying, dodging in comparison to other games. One has to think not only about the right time-frames to do combat stuff, but also about the correct place and time regarding the whole group. I don't know if I make sense. Just hitting and dodging like in other games won't do. One just serves themselves to another enemy blindly way too often that way.

[X YdoC]

Originally posted by Nikanuur:

Originally posted by X YdoC:

I'm also playing grand master for my first run. It feels like the balance isn't all the way there. Like the damage and parry mechanic is fine, but enemy stagger is pretty whack. It makes fights with multiple enemies feel extremely BS at times. It's like you have to kite and bait and poke a lot and idk it just feels not very well thought out. I switched to blaster stance and double blade stance and it works out pretty solidly. Less kiting and more blasting. I was able to beat the double frog fight so that's somethin. Still wish the enemies actually staggered though.

I agree. That's what I felt initially too. But imagine how a real fight would look like. Against enemies that mean business and work in group. I believe exactly this would happen. Unceremoniously stagger-locked to death. Might not be the best of common arpg combat, but I'd argue it's damn interesting because of it actually.

Anyway, only when I started doing the things stated in the OM, the combat suddenly started to feel fluid and along the lines of "Carving my way through stuff to and fro in a ballet of death." I say started, because it happened only several times so far and I have to practice more, haha. I hope I won't throw my gamepad against the monitor soon :D

It's not so much that I get staggered, that's expected, it's that the enemies don't get staggered when I hit them is what makes it feel like it wasn't very well thought out for grandmaster difficulty. It's totally beatable and 90% of the game is still pretty easy for people familiar with souls likes. It's just those few fights that are meant to be challenging (which is where I get my fun) end up leaning towards "I have to rely on cheap tactics to be effecient" which in my opinion isn't what hard difficulty is supposed to be like in these types of games. That's why I say the balance isn't all there. Now the BT droids with there helicopter attacks is stagger lock central and that is pretty BS, I haven't found a way to get out of it once I get caught, but other than that and one shots I feel like everything is pretty fair on the receiving end. Edit* for example, most of the melee type enemies only get staggered when you break their posture, any normal attacks they just super armor through, and I feel like that should be reserved for the red unblockable attacks or for truly strong enemies that have a clear strength advantage. Now maybe force attacks have more stagger, and maybe the cross guard does, idk I haven't used that stance much, but it seems like regular saber attacks have almost no stagger potential on anything but the weakest enemies. That's my only issue with GM. I like to play re-actively like sekiro, as this games combat closest resembles and it just doesn't work as well as it feels like it should in that aspect IMO.

[Dessolos]

I wish i started with GM instead of Master but was unsure of the diffiuclty and i didn't want to change the diffiuclty even tho i could. Especially since even after 20-30ish hours i was still changing weapons around and seeing what i like. Since everything is fun but some weapons are easier to use abilities / combo with and get more of a jedi feel instead of spamming attack all the time looking at you single blade.

[Nikanuur]

Originally posted by X YdoC:

Originally posted by Nikanuur:

I agree. That's what I felt initially too. But imagine how a real fight would look like. Against enemies that mean business and work in group. I believe exactly this would happen. Unceremoniously stagger-locked to death. Might not be the best of common arpg combat, but I'd argue it's damn interesting because of it actually.

Anyway, only when I started doing the things stated in the OM, the combat suddenly started to feel fluid and along the lines of "Carving my way through stuff to and fro in a ballet of death." I say started, because it happened only several times so far and I have to practice more, haha. I hope I won't throw my gamepad against the monitor soon :D

It's not so much that I get staggered, that's expected, it's that the enemies don't get staggered when I hit them is what makes it feel like it wasn't very well thought out for grandmaster difficulty. It's totally beatable and 90% of the game is still pretty easy for people familiar with souls likes. It's just those few fights that are meant to be challenging (which is where I get my fun) end up leaning towards "I have to rely on cheap tactics to be effecient" which in my opinion isn't what hard difficulty is supposed to be like in these types of games. That's why I say the balance isn't all there. Now the BT droids with there helicopter attacks is stagger lock central and that is pretty BS, I haven't found a way to get out of it once I get caught, but other than that and one shots I feel like everything is pretty fair on the receiving end. Edit* for example, most of the melee type enemies only get staggered when you break their posture, any normal attacks they just super armor through, and I feel like that should be reserved for the red unblockable attacks or for truly strong enemies that have a clear strength advantage. Now maybe force attacks have more stagger, and maybe the cross guard does, idk I haven't used that stance much, but it seems like regular saber attacks have almost no stagger potential on anything but the weakest enemies. That's my only issue with GM. I like to play re-actively like sekiro, as this games combat closest resembles and it just doesn't work as well as it feels like it should in that aspect IMO.

Nicely put. I feel you.