Newbie question about "throwing balls". [Gameplay - combat system]

[Jake the dog]

Hello there.

I just bought the game, and i'm trying to play it with a controller, but that throwing balls with the right analogic is pretty hard for me.

So i want to know, playing this game with a controller (DS4) does make it harder?

Mouse and Keyboard is better?

How important this balls are to the combat system?

Those answers will make me decide about keeping the game or not, so i really apreciate the help. :D

[Dark Thoughts]

IMO M&KB is better because of the easier & quicker mouse aim.
The balls are very important throughout the entire game and especially during boss encounters.

[Grzemek]

This is coming from someone who played through Crosscode over 4 times in Early access and almost 100%'d the game now, solely on a gamepad. Although I admit I've relearned playing on a gamepad pretty recently, first game being Witcher 3 and Crosscode following soon after.

Ball throwing is trickier with gamepad compared to mouse, but definitely manageable. I can count on 1 hand situations where I was frustrated enough to grab a mouse for a single shot in a puzzle because I couldn't hit a static target on a gamepad even if my life depended on it. I would say moving around and combat (especially switching your elements) is way faster and comfortable on a gamepad, but it might be a matter of what you're more used to.

Mouse and Keyboard better? In general, I would say M&K and gampad are equal, but give advantages in different aspects. For example if your character build and combat gamplay is focused on throwing balls, it's obviously easier to master on M&K. But I did a heavy throwing-based playthrough on a gamepad, it was fun and definitely doable.

How important are the balls to combat? Well, melee and balls are equally important source of your damage. Some enemies can be hurt only after you shot them with specific projectiles or at specific moments. Some enemies straight up fly above you or away from you when you approach them in melee, leaving you with an alternative of shooting them from the distance, running away or abusing maximum ranges of Melee/Dash arts which can grow tedious. So balls are like half the combat. Also sometimes you need to hit envoronmental objects within a fight, and those objects are unreachable with melee.

[lachsen]

In general opinions differ about whether M&KB or gamepad are better. It boils down to preference. For example, Xdragon, a speedrunner and one of the best CrossCode players I know, plays with gamepad.

It's true that throwing balls with gamepad is harder, but it's something you do get better with over time. In turn, close combat, movement and dashing are more flexible with gamepad. In general gamepad players tend to rely less on range combat and more on close combat which is definitely a way to play the game. All puzzles and challenges should still be playable with gamepad.

[Aegix Drakan]

I play with Gamepad (it's more comfy for me), and It's just fine.

Yeah, mouse is a little more precise and snappy for throwing balls, but the gamepad controls are totally A-OK.

[Emerald Lance]

Certain enemies can only be defeated by throwing balls at them, including some bosses. If you have trouble with the standard twin stick shooter format, keyboard+mouse is just as easy to use with a few compromises. I'm typically a "gamepad only" player in all games (I refused to play Minecraft on PC until the Windows 10 version came out with gamepad support), but CrossCode works well enough with keyboard+mouse that I sometimes switch to it for this game.

[Jake the dog]

Thanks everyone for the answers, specially the Dev, is good to see a fast response from the community, makes me belive that the game is good and people are loving it.

The thing is i just bought a DS4 controller, and i'm not in the mood of playing games without it. But i don't wanna to get frustrated by mechanics either.

Anyway i found the feedbacks very positive and i wil keep the game to see.

Thank you guys. =)

[Atlessa]

Would like to add that I'm a Gamepad user myself, but occasionally take one hand off of it... to reach for the WASD buttons on my keyboard for precision 8 directional movement. I will still aim my Balls with my right hand.