right help me here this is frustrating

[That Terrible Biscuit]

right Iv had the game for about a month now and its an interesting game, characters and Akihabra is a place Iv always wanted to go. British Otaku here.

I like the game. But seriously...the combat is awful, clunky, hit or miss, slow, annoying, buttom mashing....

Im level 4 with just basic equipment and armed with an LCD monitor. I have about 28000 yen.

Iv just done the fight where you interupt that little concert. Tried doing some side missions.

Cant do them. Because everytime I start a fight others jump in and its like a riot and 5 vs 1. I get so far and probably strip about 17 till I give up because Im fighting for nearly an hour.

How do you end fights fast and effectivly. Or am I too weak atm?

Point is how can you make fighting not so hard?

Im using an X360 controller so if anyone has any combo tips etc please help because I want to play it but play it with minor frustration.

[Gabby]

You're too weak. The amount of yen you have tells me you haven't bothered to upgrade your equipment yet. See your little sister and start using all that equipment you loot to enhance what you have. Also LCD monitors are a little slow. I'd augment a faster melee weapon or hand to hand gloves.

Also if a fight is increasing in people it means you're not being careful and hitting innocent bystanders who are more than happy to join the fray.

[That Terrible Biscuit]

Right il try focus on that. Its also part of my JRPG style I basically grind to death rank up as much points as possible then upgrade everything and not just one thing at a time.

And people join in anyway some of them get hit by others as im trying to gain distance to straighten my clothes.

[Vicky]

You can do 'Forward Attacks' and 'Guard Breakers' by holding forward/back while blocking, it helps with positioning.

Jumping attacks knocks enemies down, giving you time to fix your clothes.
Jumping attacks can get anti-aired (SHORYUKEN) by moves that hit high or have super armor (haven't really tested).
Can be used to corner carry and 'tech chase'.
They will try to do, what I think is, a forward attack when you jump towards them, you can hit them before the hitbox comes out if you time a second jump attack right, knocking them down again. (possibly an infinite vs a single opponent)

You can 'tech' a knockdown by hitting jump before you hit the ground, I just noticed that so I haven't done any testing.

Get Sonico's Guitar (5000¥ at the junk store, Plaza, top left road), Mid5 launches them and combos into High1-4, and if you do Mid5 you launch them again, I don't remember the flowchart but I think you can catch them before they land with a Low1-2 and finish that one with a 5Mid.

The combo should be something like this.
Mid1-2-3-4-5>High1-2-3-4>Mid5>Low1-2>Mid3-5>Low1-2

Mid5 cancels into 'Grab'
High5 cancels into 'Grab', but high grabs whiff, you have to go for mid or low.
Low5 launches them in a weird way (think forced knockdown, unless 'picked up' by someone else before hitting the ground) and cancels into 'Grab', whiffs sometimes, you do get 1 or 2 aditional low hits on them before they can get up.

Also, Low5 looks to be safe on counter hit, you can backstep or run before they hit you, might only be if they counter with slower attacks though.

Trying to make super long true combos is what kept the combat interesting for me.

Tohko's gloves also looks like a great combo weapon, you look like a Tekken character while comboing with them.

[Ashlem]

I just used a plain ol' metal baseball bat. It worked good enough for me. I tried not to use the heavy hitter weapons that have a cement block icon, as they're slow and most of their attacks frankly suck, at least for a newbie.

You should do the side missions, especially the one where you hunt Synthisters, so make good use of that camera app to id them.

I like to beat them up in side and junk street, as the streets are narrow, so there's less room for them to run around in, and random people will often avoid you so you can avoid hitting people by accident and having them join in the fight. Plus there's no cops there, so you don't have to worry about aggroing them. They can be beaten, but only with decent gear and more importantly, experience with the combat system.

Strip their clothing, then sell it and buy better items to do fusion with via your sister. Don't fuse weak stuff that you strip from random strangers, as you don't get a lot of gain from them, and it costs the same whether you fuse a 10 durability shirt vs a 35 durability shirt. As the stats on your gear goes up, your attacks do more damage, and you can take more damage from hits.

This guide will tell you which items give you the best bang for the yen.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=458961993&insideModal=1

You can do the defense/counterattack thing mentioned earlier, but I like to go on the offense, and beat them up as much as possible to get their clothing down, then chain-strip the opponents.

[Skipper]

I use some awesome one-handers like the Maid Ad Sign, Prinny, and Wooden Sword.

Especially the wooden sword and its near-instantaneous, homing/running mid and high attack, and a sweeping low attack. It has decent combos and counter attacks which you can follow up, and attacks that hit enemies on the ground. With a bit of practice and upgrading you can be near invincible against both bosses and mobs. Its only flaw I think is its generalized unblockable attack, which leaves you vulnerable for almost a second while charging it.