I used a cheat table to "skip" the gameplay and damn, this was still well worth it.

[Arndell]

After 5 or so hours of finding the combat annoying, even on story mode when you can take plenty of hits, it was still just tedious because of so many slow animations and low attack power making it take longer.
Yeah if i enjoyed the combat I would appreciate the attempt at telegraphing and I wouldn't mind the low damage because it means you actually have enough turns to set up an attack.

I do feel like this halfway point is an example of trying to please everyone, jack of all trades master of none.
A lot of fans of turn based games likely wished it was actually turn based and not twitch reflexes.
A lot of fans of twitch reflex games likely wished it wasn't turn based at all.

Broad generalisations I know, i'm sure for plenty this hits just right and they like both, I think it's both a bad turn based game and a bad twitch reflex action game.


Anyway! i'll stop moaning about the game mechanics now, I feel I have justified my thoughts on them enough.

I just used a cheat table to have the first turn, infinite AP and one shot everything, I played the game basically like it was a visual novel, yes you do lose incentive to explore for gear upgrades, but this games story, world and music are worth it on their own.

17 hours of quality content when fast fowarding through all the battles, I don't think the plot took a wrong step even once and every location looked incredible with a soundtrack the rivals the best of Final Fantasy imo.




TL:DR - I'm someone who thinks the gameplay sucks, but if you like RPG's for the plot, just cheat so you can see this through, well worth it for story game fans.

[Ratsplat]

Out of curiosity, on easy, did you try to build defensively and use pictos that made taking hits not as bad? What about grinding? I feel that if certain things are taken advantage of, these mods shouldn't be needed.

[Arndell]

Originally posted by Ratsplat:

Out of curiosity, on easy, did you try to build defensively and use pictos that made taking hits not as bad? What about grinding? I feel that if certain things are taken advantage of, these mods shouldn't be needed.

Because the parry is just ridiculously powerful and is the best way to get AP to use any turn based skills, I just starting pumping ALL points into defence and HP.

If i can survive more hits, that gives me more chances to parry, and a single parry does about 10 attacks worth of damage.

On story mode the enemies hit low enough in most cases that you could get away with missing parries, but then I just found it tedious to bother with.

The turn based strategy side of the combat is completely nullified by the twitch reflex based side of it, I didn't want to spend so many hours trying to learn bosses timings like a rhythm game and investing into the skills and trying to build a good combo felt so moot when a single parry would do as much damage as a whole setup.

The story and world hooked me strong at the start, so the way the actual gameplay behaved was really disappointing, it didn't feel like part of the "experience" it felt like a chore to delay my time between the good bits.

[Itty Bitty Diddy]

the combat is so good in this game that it should be a framework for every turn based game going forward. shame it didn't land with you, but nothing can satisfy everyone.

[Arndell]

Originally posted by P.Diddy's Baby Oil:

the combat is so good in this game that it should be a framework for every turn based game going forward. shame it didn't land with you, but nothing can satisfy everyone.

I feel that way about the way they do it in the FF7 remakes lol

You deal with your own positioning on the field and like this game, you even deal with your own dodges and parries, but the way the ATB works means it still functions as a turn based system overall, it's just a good hybrid with actual action combat.

The FF7 remake stuff is just a lot more balanced, no single mechanic in those games dominates all combat encounters as much as parries do in this.

[heather1348]

This could be an option. I haven't bought the game so far because people are complaining that even the story difficulty level is too frustrating. It is starting to make me wonder if the story mode is bugged - labeling a difficulty level as "story" implies little to no challenge, so even the most reflex-deficient of gamers shouldn't be getting frustrated by it. I've never used Cheat Engine or anything like it, and getting it running on my Linux system might be a bit of a hassle (and I'm too lazy to bother with it right now), so I'll probably wait for a while and see if the story mode gets fixed or other options are added in a patch. If not, I'll look into this and/or see what mods turn up on Nexus. So far, there is one that makes the dodge/parry system more forgiving, but that isn't enough for me, because I despise systems like that and I don't want to engage with it.

The only combat system that I enjoy at all is classic turn-based with no dependence on reflexes, and even then, only when it is well designed, as in Baldur's Gate 3. For any other type of combat, I'm simply not interested, and I want it to be either extremely easy or possible to skip entirely. This game looks great from a story standpoint, so if I can play the game like a walking simulator, I'll be satisfied.

[Arndell]

Originally posted by heather1348:

This could be an option. I haven't bought the game so far because people are complaining that even the story difficulty level is too frustrating. It is starting to make me wonder if the story mode is bugged - labeling a difficulty level as "story" implies little to no challenge, so even the most reflex-deficient of gamers shouldn't be getting frustrated by it. I've never used Cheat Engine or anything like it, and getting it running on my Linux system might be a bit of a hassle (and I'm too lazy to bother with it right now), so I'll probably wait for a while and see if the story mode gets fixed or other options are added in a patch. If not, I'll look into this and/or see what mods turn up on Nexus. So far, there is one that makes the dodge/parry system more forgiving, but that isn't enough for me, because I despise systems like that and I don't want to engage with it.

The only combat system that I enjoy at all is classic turn-based with no dependence on reflexes, and even then, only when it is well designed, as in Baldur's Gate 3. For any other type of combat, I'm simply not interested, and I want it to be either extremely easy or possible to skip entirely. This game looks great from a story standpoint, so if I can play the game like a walking simulator, I'll be satisfied.

I used some program called "wemod" that seems to have a load of cheat tables for tons of games, I dunno if it works on linux? but maybe you could look that up rather than trying to use the actual cheat engine program yourself.


The story is easily worth it just to play as a walking sim.

[Viper]

Learn how to play. There is a lot of strategy. Attacks are necessary to build AP to use skills Timing is necessary to parry and dodge. Take all that your complaining about out and the game would be so so much less than it is.

[Shadowlet]

Originally posted by P.Diddy's Baby Oil:

the combat is so good in this game that it should be a framework for every turn based game going forward. shame it didn't land with you, but nothing can satisfy everyone.

So good that parries and dodges invalidates defensive attributes and setups yep.

[Platapoop]

What do you mean by low attack power? The enemy? Your team hits the damage cap pretty consistently at ~level 20 so I wouldn't say the damage is low. Most trash mobs encounter I've met die in one full turn or two. On expert difficulty, but I don't think expert changes your character's damages.

I think they should have made the dodge window significant on story mode though. Like a full second or something, but also you shouldn't be dying even if you don't dodge, right?

[Arndell]

Originally posted by Platapoop:

What do you mean by low attack power? The enemy? Your team hits the damage cap pretty consistently at ~level 20 so I wouldn't say the damage is low.

Perhaps it changed later on, but for the first hours before I stopped caring, I could do a normal attack for 50 damage, or I could parry counter for 500.

I could spend 3-4 turns setting up a burn stack and the right stance on Maelle to get a big attack out, but if i pulled off any parries during the setup, the enemy is dead before it matters.

My first few level ups I did put points into attack power, i had an augmented physical picto that I had on Gustave and I was actually trying to do the combat properly.

The parries just nullify the need for any other system in the game, and plenty of the enemies have frustrating feint animations or overly long combos.

"low damage" i meant anything that your team did that wasn't a parry.
I was hoping that turning it down to story mode would mean I could treat it like an actual turn based game and trade blows with the enemy, but non parry attacks were pathetically weak and if i pulled a parry off the fight was over anyway.

[Shin Happens]

There is a free cheat table that auto parries and auto dodges, you only need to trigger jump counter and gradient counter manually, which is easy enough.

[Shadowlet]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

There is a free cheat table that auto parries and auto dodges, you only need to trigger jump counter and gradient counter manually, which is easy enough.

Auto pilot

[eeeechuta]

don't blame him, story mode is not "that" easy.
and the fights are fun at the beginning but they get annoying...
when you start beating them in one turn, what's the point.. might a well play no fight and focus on the environments and story.

[Nauct]

You could just play on easy or create a build that one shots everything or get good and parry.

But why have fun when you could just mindlessly mash X through the game? Some people are easily entertained I guess

[JiveTurkey]

Yea OP I agree only on Act 1 here but the story rivals (and somewhat parallels) many excellent fantasy novels. I'm thinking Sanderson - the short story about the woman who runs a spot of safety on a continent overrun by violent spirits.

The prologue had my eyes watering and I barely know these characters.