"Reactive Fighting"

[Naly]

I'm very interested in this game. I've played games like FF, so I'm somewhat familiar with turn based combat. However the description describes "reactive turn based fighting" and this somewhat scares me. I don't have great reflexes in game. I'm afraid I won't be able to fight effectively. Is it hard to time things?

[Vorcera]

I play on expert, and I am no souls or sekiro player at all.
Still manage to get through my 12 hours just fine. Though died a lot haha.

But i think if you keep it on medium (expeditioner) or easy, it will be fine.
Easy mode says in the game that dodging and parrying isn't a must.
Expeditionor it is recommended

[Namontro]

The "reactive turn-based fighting" in the game isnt actually hard once you get into it. You quickly get the hang of it.
Sidenote:
The dodging in this game, unlike in other turn-based games, has a big impact. If you dodge right, you can basically win most fights (Im just 5 hours in so it could change).

All in all, the gamplay is smooth and fun. I would recomend.
Have fun

[HotSipOfColdTea]

Originally posted by Naly:

I'm very interested in this game. I've played games like FF, so I'm somewhat familiar with turn based combat. However the description describes "reactive turn based fighting" and this somewhat scares me. I don't have great reflexes in game. I'm afraid I won't be able to fight effectively. Is it hard to time things?

I have beaten many other RPGs with QTE elements (Legend of Dragoon, Mario RPG, Shadow Hearts, Sea of Stars, FF8) and even had good success rates on them all.

This game I cannot progress and the dodge timings seem to be desynced with the animations. I have 1/20 dodge rates.

I highly suggest you do not buy this game until they fix the dodge system with at least an optional setting to give an indicator like the attacks currently have.

[Vorcera]

Originally posted by Namontro:

The "reactive turn-based fighting" in the game isnt actually hard once you get into it. You quickly get the hang of it.
Sidenote:
The dodging in this game, unlike in other turn-based games, has a big impact. If you dodge right, you can basically win most fights (Im just 5 hours in so it could change).

All in all, the gamplay is smooth and fun. I would recomend.
Have fun

Don't take "if you dodge right you can win most fights" as this is good.
If you focus only on that, you will have a snoozefest and it will kill the joy completely.
Working on builds that connect between characters, is the fun part. To connect your parries with AP points that you can use for skill usage. Dodging won't give AP unless you have a passive equiped that gives you 1 each turn, when you dodge.
Meaning, if you just dodge constantly, you won't get many hits in, meaning your fights take ages.

I play on expert and feel like some enemies take ages to take down, but that is because I am charging AP to give sort of burst damage in moments where all party members line up with the correct skills, status effects and all

[Grahor]

You will not enjoy the game if you don't enjoy pretty damn challenging memorizing-and-timing based dodging. I'm pretty good at it, but I don't enjoy it. Dodging is important, you can't skip it.

[EJR]

The way it works is when you do skills there are QTEs where you have to hit your button at the right time to maximize the effect of what the skill does ie deal more damage, heal more, buff damage, etc. Same applies to reacting when the enemy attacks you, you need to time it exactly right to perfectly dodge an oncoming attack or to parry it. It's honestly a fun system but it is very brutal for those not used to it.

IMO it has a strong Souls-like method of teaching the player how to play with hands-on experience as the only way to "git gud" at this is to learn and memorize every attack of every enemy. It's actually great when you get it down, and pulling off some counters or just not getting hit is satisfying. The downside to this is that nobody playing this wants a Souls-like experience when playing this game, there are times you may be stuck on the same enemy because it keeps killing you for not timing it perfectly. This is excruciating painful if you are stuck on a mob for story reasons; I myself took 4-5 tries to take down the boss in the ocean place, and am currently stuck on some tiki mob in the red forest.

But other than that, it is genuinely a fun game. ATM it is my favorite and best game of 2025 so far.

[wildcardbitches]

Originally posted by HotSipOfColdTea:

Originally posted by Naly:

I'm very interested in this game. I've played games like FF, so I'm somewhat familiar with turn based combat. However the description describes "reactive turn based fighting" and this somewhat scares me. I don't have great reflexes in game. I'm afraid I won't be able to fight effectively. Is it hard to time things?

I have beaten many other RPGs with QTE elements (Legend of Dragoon, Mario RPG, Shadow Hearts, Sea of Stars, FF8) and even had good success rates on them all.

This game I cannot progress and the dodge timings seem to be desynced with the animations. I have 1/20 dodge rates.

I highly suggest you do not buy this game until they fix the dodge system with at least an optional setting to give an indicator like the attacks currently have.

git gud. I parry 75% of the attacks.

[HotSipOfColdTea]

Originally posted by Namontro:

The "reactive turn-based fighting" in the game isnt actually hard once you get into it. You quickly get the hang of it.
Sidenote:
The dodging in this game, unlike in other turn-based games, has a big impact. If you dodge right, you can basically win most fights (Im just 5 hours in so it could change).

All in all, the gamplay is smooth and fun. I would recomend.
Have fun

Why are you giving this advice to someone who is worried about dodging in general?

The gameplay is not smooth and fun if you have a 10 percent dodge rate or less. Try playing this game while simulating that dodge rate and it will be a miserable and frustrating experience because the game relies on you dodging around 80 percent attacks or so (or higher).

I will say I did have some fun watching a JRPG streamer be very frustrated at the game.

[HotSipOfColdTea]

Originally posted by wildcardbitches:

Originally posted by HotSipOfColdTea:

I have beaten many other RPGs with QTE elements (Legend of Dragoon, Mario RPG, Shadow Hearts, Sea of Stars, FF8) and even had good success rates on them all.

This game I cannot progress and the dodge timings seem to be desynced with the animations. I have 1/20 dodge rates.

I highly suggest you do not buy this game until they fix the dodge system with at least an optional setting to give an indicator like the attacks currently have.

git gud. I parry 75% of the attacks.

Ok, so do you think the game would be fun if you parried only 10 percent of the attacks?

[WinterCreation]

Default difficulty - expeditioner - seems well balanced for newer players. Started on it, since I had no idea what the game has to offer, liking it so far. Learning reaction stuff... slowly, newer really played parry games.

[Willow Rivers]

The game is on game pass. If you don't have game pass you sign up to try for $1 I beleiev still and try the game out there before comitting to it.

I do not have great reflexes either and I am playing on Story Mode and am progressing slowly through the game. I am getting better at timing the parry and dodge and having a lot of fun even when I die repeatedly on a boss until finally beating it.

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Naly:

I'm very interested in this game. I've played games like FF, so I'm somewhat familiar with turn based combat. However the description describes "reactive turn based fighting" and this somewhat scares me. I don't have great reflexes in game. I'm afraid I won't be able to fight effectively. Is it hard to time things?

It’s hard and people don’t get it every time. I get it like 20% of the time but it’s extremely satisfying. You get a nice slow motion and deal massive damage.

Just invest into HP and healing spells. I can’t express how OP this is. You can get like 7x more HP when the same lvls spend on damage will give maybe 20% more damage. Or even less. So 20% easier game vs 700% easier game.

Then just have fun with parry. It will be just a cool bonus when you get it but otherwise you can play the game like any other JRPG with unlimited healing.

[PsychoDD]

Might just switch to Expeditioner too. I cant parry at all and about 50% of parries dont even trigger after pressing the button. Dodging is also hard. I am just slowly grinding crumbles of xp from the Portier mob with two characters for past 2 hours. There is no fun in that.

[StaticExtasy]

I'm bad on dodging, the timings just don't feel right to me with the animations at all. I know i'm getting old but i'm not that Old.

[Namontro]

Originally posted by Vorcera:

Originally posted by Namontro:

The "reactive turn-based fighting" in the game isnt actually hard once you get into it. You quickly get the hang of it.
Sidenote:
The dodging in this game, unlike in other turn-based games, has a big impact. If you dodge right, you can basically win most fights (Im just 5 hours in so it could change).

All in all, the gamplay is smooth and fun. I would recomend.
Have fun

Don't take "if you dodge right you can win most fights" as this is good.
If you focus only on that, you will have a snoozefest and it will kill the joy completely.
Working on builds that connect between characters, is the fun part. To connect your parries with AP points that you can use for skill usage. Dodging won't give AP unless you have a passive equiped that gives you 1 each turn, when you dodge.
Meaning, if you just dodge constantly, you won't get many hits in, meaning your fights take ages.

I play on expert and feel like some enemies take ages to take down, but that is because I am charging AP to give sort of burst damage in moments where all party members line up with the correct skills, status effects and all

It's true that a good build is definitely the better choice. But there's also the option to play the game focusing on the dodge or parry mechanic and perfecting it. In the end, it's a personal decision what you choose for yourself