Breaking enemies attack

[Szynek]

Hello,

So first of all, last game like that I finished was DS2, so forgive me if I'm a bit rusty and miss-remembering something. Also, my opinion is based on ~30 minutes of demo version.

Generally speaking something about this combat system felt off to me, as I was having problems even with regular enemies. After couple of retries, I realized why: the enemies do not seem to react to you hitting them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC in most Souls-likes (actually, in most games in general) when you hit a regular enemy that is before or in the middle of attack, it has some effect on them, I mean it stuns, or at the very least breaks their attack. Here: nothing like this ever happens; the enemy starts something that looks like a heavy attack, so I respond with light one, but that has 0 effect on him; my hit lands first, and then his lands before my animation finishes. What makes it really infuriating though, is that logic shifts in reversed situation, as every time I try to attack, and enemy is faster, it breaks my animation and basically locks me from attacking (unless I block or dodge-roll out of the way).

This by the way makes heavy attacks pretty much useless, as I don't know if there is a situation when the enemy's attack is so long, that you can perform it, without a risk of enemy hitting you either before, or right after the animation finishes.

Admittedly, combat became somewhat easier once I realized that (basically you have to dodge-roll or block after 1-2 hits, as this is when the enemy is going to attack again, and you hitting him will not affect that at all). Still, it seems like a weird behavior, I can totally understand it for larger enemies, especially bosses, but not some random enemies.

I'm wondering if this is just my problem, or am I missing something (?)

[Totus Tuus Amogus]

Yes, this is certainly a problem and makes slower, heavier weapons obsolete. I really like the game, but it has a lot of design choices, such as this, implemented just to make it artificially more difficult. The issue is that even with them, the game is really easy, even of the hardest mode. The only thing they accomplish is making everything more annoying than it should be.

[Razorhunter]

If you DPS certain bosses hard enough they get sort of staggered for some seconds, about mobs its really a problem. No matter with which weapon you hit them they wont get staggered at all. Only some armor abilities do that. Really hoping for that to change.

[magus]

yeah, that's what make me not buy this game. I really HATE when you hit enemies and they don't care, go on with their animation and still hit you.
I can understand they won't stop for every hit (like in Lies of P), but here they just have infinite poise.
The roll is also a problem, too slow and sometimes it won't go in the right direction.
Parry is very risky too, the window is very small.
Looks like the way to go is hit and run. I don't remember playing dark souls like that.

[Razorhunter]

Originally posted by magus:

yeah, that's what make me not buy this game. I really HATE when you hit enemies and they don't care, go on with their animation and still hit you.
I can understand they won't stop for every hit (like in Lies of P), but here they just have infinite poise.
The roll is also a problem, too slow and sometimes it won't go in the right direction.
Parry is very risky too, the window is very small.
Looks like the way to go is hit and run. I don't remember playing dark souls like that.

Youre pretty wrong about that. You can infinitely block everything, every boss without an issue. Rolling has INSANE iframes, it doesnt matter into which direction youre rolling. Just parrying is totally useless indeed.

[JigPappy]

Certain weapon attacks will interrupt certain enemy attacks (for example, the 2nd hit of the scimitar heavy attack), but don't rely on it unless you want to memorize all the attacks. Just block, parry, roll, counterattack. Use distance and timing to win fights. The combat is actually really fun and flows well if you play by this game's rules and don't expect other games rules in this game. It can be hard though because genres and labels set expectations that can be difficult to let go.

[KungFusedMike]

my only gripe is that you don't get rewarded for parry appropriately. I like how small the parry window is, but you should be able to do a finisher after each one, not build up a meter and occasionally get paid off.