How difficult the game is?

[Toni 'Bō' Jones]

Hello all,
Happy Expedition 33 day - I hope y'all having a great time playing!

as title proclaims - I am curious about the game's difficulty. Is there anything close to story mode with reduced battles/complexity of them? any possibility to play the game on 'easy' mode, any difficulty settings? I know that you can turn off QTE in fights - but you still have to use dodge/parry system. can you save at any time or there are checkpoints only?
Is this game a good entry point into JRPGs, as a beginner-friendly?

asking for a friend.

[Eunostos]

Originally posted by Themightyred92:

Originally posted by Dilapidated Potato:

Been playing on GamePass.

The tuning is all over the place. Some enemies will flat out pancake you in a combo if you don't dodge/parry every attack, and once you miss one it's real easy to miss the rest.

I've started leveling 100% Vitality since most of the healing is %HP based. So the more HP I have the more I can heal. Damage output doesn't seem to change dramatically from what I've seen though I haven't tested a full glass cannon build.

I'll be totally honest -- I think the game is kind of terrible.
Visually it's gorgeous but I've found the writing to be absolutely terrible... and the combat just has not been very satisfying. The parry timing is way too tight for a turn based game. The combat would honestly be better if it was focused more on the combo system and less on the quick time events.

I dunno, I don't think I've ever been more excited for a game to come out -- and then spent more time roasting it.

I want to love the game but good lord there some terrible design choices.
Like -- I keep getting these weapon upgrade stones and these items I'm supposed to be able to increase my "Lumina" points with.. but you can't even use them until you get to your camp.. and then when you can go to your camp you still have nowhere in your camp where you can use them...

I'm assuming I'm going to be adding things to the camp.. but at this rate all the items I've collected will be obsolete before I can even use them in my camp.

Don't even get me started on the writing either. Like.. Good lord. I'm recording my entire playthrough and I am actually sad because I wanted to love the game but all I've just been finding that I've spent most of my time playing absolutely roasting the game sofar.

Not sure why the game has good reviews tbh. I was expecting something moving like FFXVI... and it just hasn't even almost built any emotional attachment for me.

Bleh :/

if you think the writing is terrible in this game then i cant take you seriously

Depends what you want out of your fiction, I suppose.

The voice acting and music elevate the script a little and it's performed in a beautiful setting, but the writing is at a ham-fisted "young adult" level, the pacing awkward, and the themes more shallow than the initial 'oscar bait' presentation suggests. If that's enough for you then sure, it's not terrible. Just bad.

But given the skill and care put into the art around the game (bagel and mime costumes notwithstanding) I hoped for equal craft in the narrative and character interactions, and instead am met with exchanges like the lemons - which is as bad as ME: Andromeda's My Face is Tired or most of Veilguard.

I'm trying to just turn off my critical thinking and focus on the feelings it's trying to invoke like I was playing a David Cage game, but i'm near the end of chapter two and it's unlikely i'll bother with chapter three given that even the glowing reviews have said the ending is naff.


Also as an aside, though this is not actually the game's fault, the fact the first time I came across this combat system was "Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga" is very distracting :D
(Was that the first mario game to do it the timed hits/defences thing or just the first one I played?)

Edit: Gamepass too. I was so sure i'd be having a taste there and then running out to buy a PS5 hardcopy but nah. I *love* how many AAs in recent years have had interesting and unique settings but I wish more of them would do their art justice.

[Exto]

Playing normal difficulty and forced to play perfect against an optional boss because he one shots me with every attack. You could skip the guy but I had to beat it. Only way to beat him for me was to parry all of his attacks. Got Professional achievement out of that one.

[:pensive:]

Originally posted by Exto:

Playing normal difficulty and forced to play perfect against an optional boss because he one shots me with every attack. You could skip the guy but I had to beat it. Only way to beat him for me was to parry all of his attacks. Got Professional achievement out of that one.

get used to it

[Lambi]

Originally posted by Toni 'Bō' Jones:

Hello all,
Happy Expedition 33 day - I hope y'all having a great time playing!

as title proclaims - I am curious about the game's difficulty. Is there anything close to story mode with reduced battles/complexity of them? any possibility to play the game on 'easy' mode, any difficulty settings? I know that you can turn off QTE in fights - but you still have to use dodge/parry system. can you save at any time or there are checkpoints only?
Is this game a good entry point into JRPGs, as a beginner-friendly?

asking for a friend.

There is a story mode difficulty where dodging/parrying isn't a necessity. And you can also enable automatic QTE (this does not include dodging/parrying). And if you do both of these things, the game is pretty easy. Personally I don't think the game is particularly hard in general, but you do need to at least somewhat be able to dodge/parry if you're playing on anything that isn't easy difficulty.

[Eunostos]

Sorry yeah, more on topic: Things can still be threatening at least through chapter two if you really cludge your timings, so far it's avoided the RPG trap of becoming too much easier than it starts.

Which is nice if you're happy with what you picked. That's for normal/hard - I'd say story is certainly beginner friendly like you're looking for, Toni. Your friend should be able to progress story easily while still getting some satisfaction from the dodge/parry interactions even though nailing them isn't truly necessary.

edit: Clumsy phrasing.

[nephalim]

I'd really like to see a QTE timing difficulty slider.

[Reda-Ou]

On normal mode you can pretty much 1 hit every boss with a decent build. Unfortunately the higher difficulty is focused on parrying which can be frustrating with the variance in frame time making the whole parry system jank af (maybe OK if you have a beast computer and 0 frame time variance).

[ovg3]

I find it more difficult than souls games. It requires perfect dodging/parrying even on lowest difficulty and you will die just from few hits unless you go grinding the side content before main quests. Also the damage you deal if you avoid grinding is miserable and bossfights could last 15+ minutes

[C1REX]

Originally posted by ovg3:

I find it more difficult than souls games. It requires perfect dodging/parrying even on lowest difficulty and you will die just from few hits unless you go grinding the side content before main quests

This is only true if you for some reason don't upgrade Vitality and intentionally make it hard.

[Lambi]

Originally posted by C1REX:

Originally posted by ovg3:

I find it more difficult than souls games. It requires perfect dodging/parrying even on lowest difficulty and you will die just from few hits unless you go grinding the side content before main quests

This is only true if you for some reason don't upgrade Vitality and intentionally make it hard.

It's not even true then. Even with zero points in vitality/defense, you still won't be one-shot since enemies deal less damage in easy mode. The only conceivable way I can imagine this being true is if they equipped no gear that gives defense/vitality, they never specced in anything that gives vitality/defense, and skippped past enemies so that they're underleveled.

[nephalim]

Originally posted by Saaguen:

It's less difficult than a souls game for sure.
I was never able to consistently parry in Souls, it's easier in E33 after you start learning ennemy attacks. Rolls have an even wider window so use that first.

You don't have to parry at all to beat Dark Souls. Turtling and ranged attacks are options. I beat DS1, DS3, and Elden Ring without parrying anything.

[shadowsfm]

On normal difficulty, the first 3 major bosses are fairly easy. The 4th (which ever one has 2 lives), on the other hand, is going to need a little more effort in getting good

[FromChaosTheory]

It's an rpg. And this one is pretty moderate on difficulty. You can just play on easy if you want

[C1REX]

Originally posted by nephalim:

Originally posted by Saaguen:

It's less difficult than a souls game for sure.
I was never able to consistently parry in Souls, it's easier in E33 after you start learning ennemy attacks. Rolls have an even wider window so use that first.

You don't have to parry at all to beat Dark Souls. Turtling and ranged attacks are options. I beat DS1, DS3, and Elden Ring without parrying anything.

You don't need to parry here as well. Healing during fights is unlimited if you do it wisely. AP regenerates during fights like stamina.

[Bran]

it depends how much skill you have to click parry/dodge but also how much you grind, i play on expert and for me game can be even harder but dont suggest you with that prologe fights with robo-mime and Maelle at docks, this two are very hard at start and only for skin and music in camp, soo nothing important

alsoo you can find people on steam that speak game is too hard cus QTE parry soo
it depends