First strike completely ruins balance

[McStreamy]

Great game and all, but the balance is completely out of whack, and I feel like first strike (R1 to pre-emptive attack, not the pictos) is the primary reason it's busted. 95% of battles your entire team goes first, in the order of your own choosing as well. So the "optimal" way to play is to basically set your team up in a way that wipes any enemy comp in a single turn, a one trick pony setup. This also completely negates any use for the Speed stat because you usually don't need a second turn anyway (mostly during early game, on some bosses or endgame stuff).
While yes I could *not set up my party to one shot enemies* I shouldn't have to cut off an arm and a leg just to see enemies have a turn. Battles become much more dynamic and engaging when you don't get first strike. The r1 move should honestly just be removed entirely (or maybe only apply to a single random party member who goes first, but after that, based on Speed). Make it like other turnbased games. Sometimes you get pre-emptive, sometimes the enemies do, and based on level difference and/or pictos you could make it occur more often. But right now, even expert (for the most part) is a joke unless you cripple yourself.

[Moon Rabbit]

So don't do it.

[Vree]

The game is as hard or as easy as you want it to be. It's very easy to just not build your team around what you described. Plenty of builds to choose from that are fun, viable and not game breaking busted

[McStreamy]

Keep in mind the onus of balance falls on the devs, not on us. If I think of a fun build and I can only use half my lumina because adding more would trivialize the game, then that's poor balance on their end.
First strikes shouldnt be given out freely, its too powerful. What if they added a pictos that says "auto parry every attack" for 0 lumina? People would say "wtf that's game breaking, don't put blatantly overpowered stuff like that in the game". Except that one would be obvious from the start, first strike on R1 has been engrained since the beginning of the game where it wasn't as OP yet, it's grandfathered in. I don't think people realise how much it actually breaks though.

[asdf]

The problem isn't that you can go first, the problem is that it's even possible to wipe out all of the enemies in a single turn (mostly in boss fights, trash enemies don't matter that much). Would the gameplay really be any more interesting if it were "restart the fight until you dodge their attacks for the first turn, and then still burst them down"?

Also, for that matter, even without first strike, it still wouldn't stop people from one shotting bosses before they can really do anything - there's also the picto that just resurrects you whenever you die for the first time which can pretty easily replace first strike (even if the boss goes first, the worst they do is trigger the resurrect, and then it's your turn the same way it would've been with first strike and you can still one shot them the same way). If you were really obsessed with actually going first, you could also technically use auto death in combination with the ability that resurrects you once per fight and the ability that makes you act first whenever you're revived (and if you're doing that you may as well add in the break on death picto too to just break the boss at the start of the fight).

The game needed to make most of the picto buffs stack additively instead of multiplicatively more than anything else. The damage scaling just gets way too out of control in the lategame because there are just too many multipliers that are all multiplied together.. though to be honest, even without that, there are several infinite loops that can prevent bosses from ever acting regardless of how much health they have. There are just too many broken abilities in the lategame for any simple fix.

[Ratsplat]

And the argument of 'just don't use it' doesn't work when... if you go that far, you'll realize that there just isn't much to use that doesn't just make the game easy. When a game gives you tons and tons of tools to make yourself awesome, you want to look awesome doing it. 1 Shotting a boss when you have 3 characters with 6 skills each isn't an awesome display.

[bladeddragonknight]

This game is pretty much just an overhyped movie that you have to hold the play button constantly to watch meanwhile ACTUAL good GAMES are ignored. This is what happens to GAMING when you cater to casuals. You get MOVIES with EXTRA steps, Game is practically just a visual novel.

[Ratsplat]

Originally posted by bladeddragonknight:

This game is pretty much just an overhyped movie that you have to hold the play button constantly to watch meanwhile ACTUAL good GAMES are ignored. This is what happens to GAMING when you cater to casuals. You get MOVIES with EXTRA steps, Game is practically just a visual novel.

Well they apparently didn't cater enough when difficulty is one of the most common complaints.

[bizarre]

Originally posted by bladeddragonknight:

This game is pretty much just an overhyped movie that you have to hold the play button constantly to watch meanwhile ACTUAL good GAMES are ignored. This is what happens to GAMING when you cater to casuals. You get MOVIES with EXTRA steps, Game is practically just a visual novel.

tell me you havent played it without telling me you haven't played it.

[toughnails]

It's just a JRPG thing. It's like sneaking up on enemies in Persona 5, that also completely trivializes the game. You get the first turn, hit all the weaknesses, gg ez.

Expedition 33 is an amazing game, but I am very unhappy with the balancing. There are just too many ways to "break the game", so if you want a challenge you'll have to impose a lot of restrictions on yourself.

[DaxiraxJr]

Originally posted by McStreamy:

Keep in mind the onus of balance falls on the devs, not on us. If I think of a fun build and I can only use half my lumina because adding more would trivialize the game, then that's poor balance on their end.
First strikes shouldnt be given out freely, its too powerful. What if they added a pictos that says "auto parry every attack" for 0 lumina? People would say "wtf that's game breaking, don't put blatantly overpowered stuff like that in the game". Except that one would be obvious from the start, first strike on R1 has been engrained since the beginning of the game where it wasn't as OP yet, it's grandfathered in. I don't think people realise how much it actually breaks though.

So don't use it. Like genuinely, if that one thing is upsetting you and you have full control to not use it... then don't. Also don't use the picto that lets you go twice in a row. The one that gives you a shield at the start of every turn is kinda good too, don't use that.

[Maiden In Black]

Originally posted by McStreamy:

Keep in mind the onus of balance falls on the devs, not on us. If I think of a fun build and I can only use half my lumina because adding more would trivialize the game, then that's poor balance on their end.
First strikes shouldnt be given out freely, its too powerful. What if they added a pictos that says "auto parry every attack" for 0 lumina? People would say "wtf that's game breaking, don't put blatantly overpowered stuff like that in the game". Except that one would be obvious from the start, first strike on R1 has been engrained since the beginning of the game where it wasn't as OP yet, it's grandfathered in. I don't think people realise how much it actually breaks though.

You decide what you do, not the devs. The devs give the tool so that the people who actually enjoy looking for the most busted ♥♥♥♥ out there can do it. It doesn't force you to also do it. I don't buy the argument that just because something is in the game, you have to use it.