Dodging and parrying system is broken

[Wolfie]

It's ridiculously hard to time it right. Doesn't matter what I do, it seems never consistent. I think it is broken.

Why not have a big button come up like a QTE to tell me when to dodge or parry? That way I know. This feels very busted otherwise, like a dodgy casino.

It is ruining the game for me.

[Encleaver]

Parry is hard, try dodging till you learn attack timings. And game is telling you when to parry with sound queues... Very unlikely that something is wrong with your game. Just need little bit of practise.

[Xєn]

For 95% of encouters, refer to the sound.
Sorry my english is not the best but you have a little whistle when a hit is about to land, just time it right and then just repeat the rythm in your head.

for the 5% remaining there's no sound but it's very visual it's not like those charging attacks that comes out of nowhere (just refer to the sound)

[Evilsod]

Let me guess, you picked Expert?

Parry timing is consistent but very tight. Dodge timing is consistent, but more lenient (since you don't get a counterattack). The best advice is to always dodge stuff until you get the feel for it. If you're still getting hit, you're dodging way too early. If you're not reacting, you're dodging way too late. If you get a Dodge, your parry would've failed. If you get a Perfect, you're good to go for parrying (think there's a bit of overlap but it's close enough).

[GameBuild]

Originally posted by Wolfie:

It's ridiculously hard to time it right. Doesn't matter what I do, it seems never consistent. I think it is broken.

Why not have a big button come up like a QTE to tell me when to dodge or parry? That way I know. This feels very busted otherwise, like a dodgy casino.

It is ruining the game for me.

It takes practice to get a proper parry. That is the reason we can fight merchants.

Using keyboard for parrying is easier than the controller's shoulder button. What worked for me was simply swapping the buttons for parry and interaction (enabling Steam Controller Input and editing the layout), now my success rate went from 0% to 30% without much practice. Yesterday I defeated the boss Sprong and I was able to parry a few of its attacks.

[Bunny]

i'm pointing to Ongbal on yt

[Nauct]

It's not hard amigo, just breathe and hit the parry button right as the attack is gonna hit you

[Soulgain]

Originally posted by GameBuild:

Originally posted by Wolfie:

It's ridiculously hard to time it right. Doesn't matter what I do, it seems never consistent. I think it is broken.

Why not have a big button come up like a QTE to tell me when to dodge or parry? That way I know. This feels very busted otherwise, like a dodgy casino.

It is ruining the game for me.

It takes practice to get a proper parry. That is the reason we can fight merchants.

Using keyboard for parrying is easier than the controller's shoulder button. What worked for me was simply swapping the buttons for parry and interaction (enabling Steam Controller Input and editing the layout), now my success rate went from 0% to 30% without much practice. Yesterday I defeated the boss Sprong and I was able to parry a few of its attacks.

Oh yeah. I've been dodging the entire game pretty much, and finished it all the way like this. Now, I'm trying to adapt to parry, but I absolutely hate shoulder button, circle for dodge is much more comfortable, but with R1 it always feels like I'm pressing it slower, gotta try to map it somewhere else. I'll try your method, or maybe some other button, but certainly it seems like I should do something about it.

[Pocket Dog]

If you're having a difficult time parrying, then practice dodging, as you get a larger window of opportunity. The devs are pretty generous with dodging here.

You also need to relax and really focus on and study the enemies and their movements and sounds. They like to perform delayed attacks, which can obviously really mess with a player's timing. It's like a Souls title in that, if you're not relaxed and focused, you're going to get ground into hamburger, and that's going to frustrate and discombobulate you even more.

[Tallenn]

You will get a lot of replies just telling you to "git gud" without any help whatsoever as to how to do that. So, I'll let you know what helped me. I also found it very difficult to pick up on the timings for dodge and parry, and "just practicing" wasn't helping.

I tried out the "Easier or Harder Dodge and Parry" mod found here: https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/28?tab=description

First, I tried the "Even Easier" setting, and found it to be too easy, so I switch to the "Easy" setting, and played that for a few hours. When I felt I was really getting most of the parries, I switched to the "Slightly Easy" setting, and played a few more hours. Finally, just earlier today, I removed the mod completely. The next time I play will be straight vanilla. I'll see how that goes, but I feel like I've gotten much better since I started, so I think it will be challenging but doable.

Some of us just don't have the same reflexes as others, particularly if you are older, like me (60), but perseverance and using good tools can help get you through.

I will probably never be able to beat the game on expert, but you never know. My first play through of Stellar Blade was on story mode, but eventually, I was able to beat it on Hard mode (regular game, not NG+).

[dustin1280]

Nothing at all is broken with the Parry/Dodge system...
If you are having issues it's a skill issue not a game mechanic issue.

Reduce the difficulty if it is giving you so much trouble...

[ehrgeiz.rabenschwarz]

Originally posted by dustin1280:

Nothing at all is broken with the Parry/Dodge system...
If you are having issues it's a skill issue not a game mechanic issue.

Reduce the difficulty if it is giving you so much trouble...

What is it these days that every time some dislikes a mechanics someone extra clever comes along and says "Skill issue"

Have you ever thought about it that not everyone likes Souls like games and hard mode. Some people just wanna enjoy the story, the atmosphere and experience and find battles more of a nuisance than fun.

And reducing difficulty in this games makes not really a difference. Even in Story Mode it is the same tedious dodging and parrying and enemies are still hard. Why did they even bother if they can't deliver a "real" Story Mode. This is not Story mode nor easy. This would be "Normal" in other games.

[WZ]

Vanilla parry / dodge windows are insanely small at 0.15sec / 0.22sec
This is so small it can feel outright broken / bugged depending on player & setup

Rule #1 = ignore all the usual gatekeeping tossers & do your own thing
https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/28
Finally settled on "easier" myself and the game's fun factor went up * 10
Also has a "harder" version, if anyone fancies that, for even stricter windows

Rule #2 = also consider the mod that removes cutscene fps cap & letterboxing
https://github.com/Lyall/ClairObscurFix
Has no effect on pre-rendered cutscenes ofc, but most are live-rendered

Rule #3 = GLHF

[Estellese]

Originally posted by ehrgeiz.rabenschwarz:

Originally posted by dustin1280:

Nothing at all is broken with the Parry/Dodge system...
If you are having issues it's a skill issue not a game mechanic issue.

Reduce the difficulty if it is giving you so much trouble...

What is it these days that every time some dislikes a mechanics someone extra clever comes along and says "Skill issue"

Have you ever thought about it that not everyone likes Souls like games and hard mode. Some people just wanna enjoy the story, the atmosphere and experience and find battles more of a nuisance than fun.

And reducing difficulty in this games makes not really a difference. Even in Story Mode it is the same tedious dodging and parrying and enemies are still hard. Why did they even bother if they can't deliver a "real" Story Mode. This is not Story mode nor easy. This would be "Normal" in other games.

If this game was a souls-like difficulty, I would agree.

But it is not. It is more difficult than the average game, but that's because the average game on the market right now has -zero- difficulty. On a scale of 1 to 10, this game clocks in as a 5. Dark souls clocks in at an 8. The average "nightmare" difficulty in modern games clocks in at a 2.


This gets a LOT of pushback for good reason. Games used to actually use the full 1-10 scale for difficulty. Not just the first three. But as years go by games are becoming more and more like a movie that you only sometimes need to interact with, specifically because of people who ♥♥♥♥♥ and complain that the maximum possible difficulty the game offers is too hard and absolutely refuse to just play on a lower difficulty.

They have their easier difficulty, they don't have to play on hard mode. They can have all the lower difficulties and those of us who want more than an interactive movie can have our hard mode. But they, for some reason, MUST play on hard mode and hard mode MUST be made easier for them. They can't allow other people to enjoy different things.

That's an issue. And that's why there will always be pushback. If you don't want to be challenged, then turn the difficulty down. If you want a challenge, then learn the game and get better at it.

[Bran]

think about it that way if parry or dodge was ez then whole game is a story mode
it is good as it is, just learn how to play or change build for tank, heal

[The Dogfather]

@OP you need to 'get gud'. Just because you can't do it does not mean its broken. This guy has mastered the combat mechanics so, so you can too if you put in the effort.

I was hopeless too at at the start of the game, but with some practice I am making about 60% of my parries now and about 80 % of my dodges. I refuse to drop it to story mode.
https://youtu.be/Tb3i5GfBz7o