Help me understand the combat system

[74 prairie dogs in a trenchcoat]

I don't understand how fighting in this game is supposed to work at all. I keep failing to face the enemy when I attack even when I'm pressing in their direction. Every one of my attacks has ridiculous ending lag that gets me hit with attacks that I see coming a mile away because I just never enter the block state even though I've been holding the button the entire time. I'm supposed to start a combo to activate overlimit, but it never seems to work on the enemies I actually want to go into overlimit against and more often than not the boss gets to activate overlimit instead and wipes my party when I was about to win.

I've tried doing that manual cancel thing, and while I can barely manage to sometimes get something that maybe looks like it off I'm pretty sure it's the unrelated forward guard dodge mechanic. Meanwhile, whenever I watch a video of how to fight things the people in them are having Yuri do ridiculous stuff like chaining seven free run attacks in a row and call that a normal person engagement, when I'm having trouble just getting his basic attack chains off because either they miss the enemy completely or he gets interrupted because he's so slow to do anything.

I have to retry basically every boss fight a bunch of times because I keep ending up with most of my team below 25% health which pretty much always leads to a wipe, and every time except for that wolf thing it's against a boss which all the guides and things say should be trivial. Like, right now I'm up against Zagi on the boat, and every time I think it's finally safe to attack he just instantly stunlocks me as soon as I begin the attack animation, does like 3 artes in a row when I can't even chain together more than one without going into overlimit, and now I'm dead. Before him was the wolf thing that everyone agrees is terrible, and before that was the golem which just arbitrarily stopped me from executing any combos even when I was behind him and his shield was down, and spent half his time spamming huge AoE attacks and the rest of the time turning towards me so I couldn't get behind him like all the guides for the fight say you're supposed to do.

It's starting to really get on my nerves. I can accept being kind of bad at the game, but I don't think I should be this bad when I'm playing on normal difficulty. I know I'm not undergeared because I'm buying the best armor available every time I have the option, and I'm not underleveled because the characters won't shut up about how easy the regular enemies are. What on earth am I doing wrong?

[OnlyOffensive]

the very basic is - You have mostly use free run to avoid enemy atacks or bait them and avoid, then when you feel its safe you stop it and start attacking. Every basic attack has its own direction , you have to use left stick < > ^ and down with it. For example there is simple basic combo down attack then left attack and you make enemy spin, with up after you throw them into air or with > attack you push them away. In the beginning you can do 3 basic attacks + finisher ( arte ) after it you will get recovery frames. You have to block/move/attack when its safe. Using directional combos really help in the beginning. You can also attack from free run, its only one attack and recovery after but it has great chance of stun, especially if enemy starts his own attack.

The game is hard though.... All i can say you want to learn combos and good movement and practice like in any other combat game. Watching some of those fights, how people do it on hard might really help to understand game better too.

[Simon]

The game is pretty hard at the very beginning due to having very limited skills etc. Eventually, you will unlocked more skills and able to do combos more smoothly as you keep playing.
Anyway, you should practice to use defend more.

[Ommunist NaviB]

The game is hard like that. Alot of Bosses have AOEs that hit your team. Some bosses can even use burst arts on you. With Zagi on the boat you gotta block like crazy. He will brake your block most of the time tho. My line up for that fight was Yuri, Repede, Estelle and Rita. Also try not to use the overdrive to much in that fight caz he can get stunlocked when you go in it. Also try and put your team in Full charge. If all else fail put it on easy.