Is it just me or is the Parry/QTE system actually broken?

[Pomni]

I genuinely don’t get how anyone is defending the parry and attack QTEs in this game. It’s some of the worst combat design I’ve ever seen. Half the enemies have these weird delayed swings that feel completely unnatural—you can’t even tell when you’re supposed to parry. It’s like you’re expected to memorize every encounter instead of reacting based on instinct. That’s not skill-based, it’s bad design.

The QTEs are somehow even worse. Tiny, brutal timing windows that barely make sense, even on normal difficulty. I’ve played a lot of action games, but this feels straight-up unfinished. Having to parry multiple times just to counter once, then getting randomly punished because the enemy changes its pattern mid-fight? Come on.

And this is only the beginning. Imagine how bad it’s going to be later when you’re fighting multiple different enemy types at once. It’s already a mess with one!

I honestly don’t know how anyone can call this “fun.” If this is supposed to be challenging, it’s missing the mark badly.

[Dave_El_Jefe]

Sorry to be that guy... but. Git Gud

[Ziack]

Honestly I'm not really a huge fan of it either, especially on Expert. Kind of just makes me anxious to miss each one as if I do, I will die, and healing seems limited, at least in the first few hours of the game.

[Stoibs]

100% not you.
It's all over the forums and other social media.

It's certainly an.... ambitious and experimental system I'll give it that.
One that sadly isn't landing with all players however :/

[Horrible Marksman]

Originally posted by Ziack:

Honestly I'm not really a huge fan of it either, especially on Expert. Kind of just makes me anxious to miss each one as if I do, I will die, and healing seems limited, at least in the first few hours of the game.

Healing becomes very common very quickly between skills, pictos, and Lumina.

Example, I built my Gustave as an auto attacker who only uses skills if I need to overcharge for a break. He essentially full heals himself on every attack and is my hardest hitter. I believe that was made possible in the second or third zone. You start to get more options pretty soon after that as well.

[Kylask]

Seems fine to me, but then again I play a lot of hack and slash, so the tight timings isn't really a big deal. My advice for you is to focus on perfect dodging first, since it has the same timing as perfect parry, but doesn't carry the same risk.

[stebobibo]

It takes some getting used to. But after that, it's good. I literally recorded gameplay, and watched it back frame by frame to learn the timings. This helped me a lot.

[DEVILDICE]

Is a second topic really necessary? Almost word for word too. Why post on two different accounts?
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1903340/discussions/0/592895271730486695/

[ArmedTerror]

It's crazy how many people are complaining about this, and here I have been playing on expert and am actually disappointed the game is starting to get really easy a few hours in. I play a lot of really hard souls-like games though, and Lies of P has some of the tightest parry timing out of any game you will ever play, not to mention that almost every single boss in that game has wind-up/delayed attacks. I find that I am right at home with this combat system.

I have actually been getting the feeling that this game's combat mechanics were inspired by the souls-like genre, and I think that's why a lot of people are finding it difficult and frustrating. There probably isn't a super large overlap between people who play games like this and people who play souls-like games.

I think the combat system is really fair and it is very achievable to be able to parry 90-100% of attacks consistently, even if you never encountered a certain enemy before, there is just a learning curve to get the timing right. It makes the game very satisfying to play for me, personally. But the developers probably didn't realize the type of gamer that they would attract with this type of game would not be the one's who typically enjoy these mechanics.

[RakataEpsilon]

People need to practice basic dodges since it has a greater window to get used to enemy movesets. The game literally tells you this in the tutorial and reinforces the fact that not everything can be parried and shouldnt be

[SeraphLance]

Originally posted by ArmedTerror:

It's crazy how many people are complaining about this, and here I have been playing on expert and am actually disappointed the game is starting to get really easy a few hours in. I play a lot of really hard souls-like games though, and Lies of P has some of the tightest parry timing out of any game you will ever play, not to mention that almost every single boss in that game has wind-up/delayed attacks. I find that I am right at home with this combat system.

I have actually been getting the feeling that this game's combat mechanics were inspired by the souls-like genre, and I think that's why a lot of people are finding it difficult and frustrating. There probably isn't a super large overlap between people who play games like this and people who play souls-like games.

I think the combat system is really fair and it is very achievable to be able to parry 90-100% of attacks consistently, even if you never encountered a certain enemy before, there is just a learning curve to get the timing right. It makes the game very satisfying to play for me, personally. But the developers probably didn't realize the type of gamer that they would attract with this type of game would not be the one's who typically enjoy these mechanics.

Honestly with the bonfire mechanic and what effectively amounts to Estus Flasks also being in the game, part of me wonders if this initially started off as a souls-like, that then turned into a JRPG when the developers couldn't figure out how to manage a multi-character cast in the former.

I think the overlap between souls-like players and JRPG players is pretty big actually, but that's not necessarily the same as the players that want to play a fusion of both at the same time. I've noticed a lot of the people on the pro- side explicitly don't like turn-based combat.

[Stoibs]

Originally posted by ArmedTerror:

It's crazy how many people are complaining about this, and here I have been playing on expert and am actually disappointed the game is starting to get really easy a few hours in. I play a lot of really hard souls-like games though,

You just answered your own question.
The game definitely favours people who have action-game experience, especially souls things. It's incredibly punishing for the turnbased/tactical only crowd =(

Originally posted by SeraphLance:

Honestly with the bonfire mechanic and what effectively amounts to Estus Flasks also being in the game, part of me wonders if this initially started off as a souls-like, that then turned into a JRPG when the developers couldn't figure out how to manage a multi-character cast in the former.

I think the overlap between souls-like players and JRPG players is pretty big actually, but that's not necessarily the same as the players that want to play a fusion of both at the same time. I've noticed a lot of the people on the pro- side explicitly don't like turn-based combat.

100%
The more and more I play the more I think how Soulsy and less 'JRPG' things appear to be.
I thought it was just the odd similarity or reference at first but you may be onto something there..

[Alt]

Game does not expect you to parry/dodge everything. The big hit attacks are telegraphed pretty clearly, so those can be parried/evaded without much sweat. Everything else that is hard to parry/dodge usually doesnt deal much damage. Game gives you plenty revives and heals to use, "bonfires" are not far between each other, so you replenish heal and revive potions quite often. I dont see problem here.

[Reformed]

Originally posted by Alt:

Game does not expect you to parry/dodge everything. The big hit attacks are telegraphed pretty clearly, so those can be parried/evaded without much sweat. Everything else that is hard to parry/dodge usually doesnt deal much damage. Game gives you plenty revives and heals to use, "bonfires" are not far between each other, so you replenish heal and revive potions quite often. I dont see problem here.

Problem is redoing encounters wastes the very limited time before we're dead and rotting in the ground

[Cleril]

Originally posted by RakataEpsilon:

People need to practice basic dodges since it has a greater window to get used to enemy movesets. The game literally tells you this in the tutorial and reinforces the fact that not everything can be parried and shouldnt be

This. Don't worry too much about being perfect on the QTE. The game is mostly forgiving.

If a fight is truly giving you trouble, it's probably optional.

[Spiritos]

Different moves for different attacks. Not all are dodge. Experiment learn the mechanics.