What is wrong with the combat system?

[MrFrengLitch]

I'm at the first boss of the game.

I don't get the combat. There's literally no way to avoid damage and on hard difficulty it's a pain the a**. The character movements are also super stiff, everything actions feels slow.

Am I missing something here or is it just that hard early on?

[Forte224]

The battle system evolves so, so much as time goes on, especially if you're playing as Yuri. The dude gets broken. But yes, early on it can be kind of rough. A really easy system called Manual Cancel should help you early on. Basically, in the Artes screen, switch your character to Manual mode (as opposed to Semi-Auto or Auto). Then, when you're done with your combo, hold LT+the direction you're facing+Guard. If you do this, the character will be able to avoid the ending lag from combos, letting you either immediately guard, or start up a new combo.

Bosses in the PS3 version of the game (which this version is based on) have a mechanic that allows them to break out of combos, since in the Xbox 360 version, you could just combo them to death and they never got a chance to attack. Using the Manual Cancel method above to immediately put yourself in a guard stance when they're about to break a combo will save you early on.

That said, I wouldn't recommend trying Hard mode until you have a full party, which doesn't take very long. This game's combat is so amazing and has so many options for flashy combos, but it takes a little work to get there. The skills you eventually start getting off weapons gradually make your characters stronger, to the point that at endgame, you can fight most things by yourself without a party.

Good luck, and stick with it! This game is absolutely worth getting through those early hours. Drop it down to Easy if you have to, then bump it back up to Normal or Hard once you're more confident.

[Simon]

Unlike newer tales games, Normal difficulty is already hard enough for first playthrough. Hard mode is reserved for future playthroughs.

[Kisigma]

hack the game skills download TOV CHEAT ENGINE and u will really see the full game eperience

[Asra]

Rita will be extremely broken with infinite overlimit. Blah blah blah... TIDAL WAVE!

[Rachito]

"Im playing on hard, and the game is hard".
Well, duh.

[Greatly Annoyed Niko]

Originally posted by Asra:

Rita will be extremely broken with infinite overlimit. Blah blah blah... TIDAL WAVE!

Oh god, the number of times I heard this on the PS4 when I was doing grade farming. Hours and Hours and HOURS of just "BLAH BLAH BLAH, TIDAL WAVE!"

I could hear it in my dreams.

[WTFantastico]

I do hard playthroughs on a base new game all the time; it's definitely not meant for ng+ only. You're likely having a rough time because you're fighting Gattuso? He's a relative difficulty spike, though even Zagi can overwhelm a new player.

What you're looking for to make your character more responsive is what's called "manual cancelling" (and spell cancelling, if playing someone who can cast.) Using free run in the direction your character is facing at the end of an attack allows you to act much faster after an attack, and cancelling that directly into a guard allowes you to attack or evade much more quickly. I've solo'd Gattuso on fresh NG Hard multiple times just because of how powerful cancelling your attacks are. Yuri can basically stunlock it eternally with 3 standard hits -> cerberus strike -> cancel -> 3 hits, etc. It's not my elite super master gamer skills that I totally have and am not embellishing, trust me, it's just because cancelling is that powerful.

With cancelling properly, you can basically exert mass control over the battlefield, and every attack should become reasonably avoidable, no exaggeration. I'm currently running an Estelle-only Unknown mode solo run which wouldn't be the least possible without spell/manual cancelling. Well, not unless I cheese things with overlimit, I guess, but where's the fun in that.

Manual cancelling even has its own entry in the tutorial book you get, if that helps you learn it.

[Matex]

Using items also gives you some invincibility frames, very useful.