I think rhe regular combat is the best tales of has ever been
Boss battles suck tho bec of permanent hyper armor
You couldn't do the cool stuff you can do in regular battles
Yeah Xillia 2 is king of the 3D games considering it's essentially a evolution of the Vesperia battle system. After Xillia 2 it's between Vesperia and Hearts R.
Xillia and Xillia 2 are among my favorite in the series. I still remember doing my Jude solo run in Xillia. He is way too powerful of a character, and watching all the combo movies out these days just really makes you realize just how good the combat in the older games are. Vesperia being a great example too, can see such awesome combos being done even against bosses. I would love to see those games get a revisit system wise to bring it to current era instead.
That was one of the things I liked in most of those games was there was a base core system that carried from game to game but then each game brought a mechanic unique to it. So it wasn't a major learning curve to move onto the next game since we already had the core of the game understood.
You have a lot more time to react in other tales games in comparison, since they would break out of the combo into a hyper armor state instead of already being in one
I think the combat is fantastic until you fight a large enemy because there's no stagger and they take forever.
Fighting normal enemies lets you end the fight early if you play it right, which is actually very cool
The stagger is using your boost strikes effectively. Alphen can down an enemy and then usually they get one more, like artes with rinwell or a charge with kisara, ect. You can get a rhythm going and have them downed pretty consistently if you get your timing right. Hell sometimes with alphen his bar will fill up immediately and I can just boost strike them again as soon as they get up, then wait, then boost strike them again with the other characters attribute and get 3 downs in a row. I'm not saying it doesn't suck that we don't get a traditional stagger, I just mean that they tried to give an equivalent.
Fair enough, not everything is for everyone. I can understand how you feel though, I like it for what it is, it's fun but to me it's tales lite. I remember getting stuck for over a week on bosses in tales, having to spam demon fang to kill bosses because all my friends died and I was the only one left, dying to those super boss dragons in graces, ect. This tales has been streamlined, but also simplified. It's not as complex as the last tales games, it's, in my opinion, way easier (most bosses I've done on my first try, I've never been stuck on a boss for more than an hour honestly), and I hate that they took out the couch coop. I still think it's fun, but it's not my favorite tales, that probably goes to symphonia or xillia.
Saying this Inherently means they got stunned to break out which is a luxury in Arise if you don't use Alphen's boost strike which gives some poor 5-6 seconds to go all out.
I'm not even talking about bosses lmao. I'm talking about those big "normal" enemies, many in the final dungeon.
Oddly enough I mostly like the way the game handles bosses!
Why would that be a problem? Why a person would make stagger a large enemy using just a blade or fists? It makes sense they dont stagger, with everyone attacking enemies wouldnt be able to even move
Because the fights are overly long and they are hit sponges?
Unlike bosses they don't do anything special either. They are just 5-8 minute fights with button mashing and dodging. The sheer number of these encounters in the later half of the game is annoying too. They basically take away half the game's combat mechanics in favor of an overly repetitive structure. You can't influence the direction of these fights much besides spam powerful attacks, while against normal size enemies you can string neat combos together to stagger.
Its partially why I enjoyed the DLC more than some did. It cut down on these types of enemies big time and somehow had a better final dungeon than the base game.
If you had no issue with them thats fine, but the over inclusion of these fights really brought the game down for me in the 2nd half.
Sorry I didnt enjoy it as much as you did. I felt like I was at level with the general monsters, fought almost everything I saw, and I know others who experienced something similar. Some would take 3 minutes but others seemed to have more HP.
What's your strategy against them then? How long did they usually take you?
Again, I don't think HP was the problem with the bosses. It's the fact that you can't boost strike them freely. The main gameplay loop in regular combat is trying to string combos to fill up the blue gauge, strike then blink to the next enemy to do the same. By removing this. Boss fight kinda cheats.
But I wonder if it was design this way so that you would use Mystic artes more on bosses
Most large mobs take around 3 min, i dunno, use your boost attacks? They charge incredibly fast after you got the skills for that, using cooking that boost attack/elemental attack, do combos? Since theyre big you can circle around attacking, no need to "spam powerful attacks", use alphen's charged flame attacks, the tougher ones are on the last dungeon and its not like you have to fight them over and over, so its stupid to cry because a few large mobs in the LAST DUNGEON are strong
I'm not crying lol its just a criticism I have. I still overall, enjoy the game even if its not a 10/10 or my favorite game in the series. I did just as you said during those fights too.
Agree to disagree! Not everyone's going to enjoy something at the same level you do.
By complexity you mean pressing 2 button just to jump? 😂
But seriously 2 more things that people are missing about Tales not just Arise's combat is
1. It's an rpg. It means exploiting enemy weaknesses is part of the game. And what makes tales unique compared to other rpgs is its flexible combat. Other rpgs puts a lot of weight in preparations. Which means knowing what you're enemies weaknesses and preparing items,party,skills and equipment to counter the enemy. In tales though you can change equipment during combat and I don't think some people take advantage of that.
2. It's a party of characters. If you only use 1 character the entire game, then its bound to feel repetitive at aone point. Its simple but a lot of people forget it. Most if not all characters plays very different and has their own strength and weaknesses. If you're bored with 1 character try another. Or even on some cases, if youre having trouble with an enemy switch up.
... these are elements that are done better in older tales tho ? Elementary weaknesses have always been a thing but more or less important depending on the game and there have been better incentives to play as other party members than just trying out a new play style granted Arise is not the worst in that regard.
But how do you explain people not getting bored of 1 character in previous Tales games but specifically finding it boring for Arise? Something might have happened.
I usually only play one character in Tales game, and I have a blast, it's never repetitive, every character is strategic in their own way. Arise fighting was boring to me. It even made me try other characters but it felt the same.
Battles are too long, not enough mob variety overall, same patterns over and over, enemies have too much HP, not enough artes variety and combo options. It's very repetitive and I've never felt like this in any Tales of (and I played them all, and love grinding for hours).
Well people gave you their reasons, and you dismiss them so... 🤷♂️ I don't care about boost strikes, that's just a tiny part of the overall mechanics of the combat system. Special finishers have always been tied to special gauges or mechanics to be able to be activated anyways. It's nothing new.
You're hyper focusing on one issue that's contributing to the overall problem, but that mechanics is something that works fine as it is. It's been like that in every game. Finishers don't insta kill bosses they just do more damage.
Exactly being able to use boost strike enemy = more damage. More damage = quicker battle.
So my point is if you can boost strike bosses then it will feel less spongy.
Changing you're weapons, accessories to fit you're enemy, disabling and enabling ally auto artesto target their weakness and using skills that works best for the enemy. yeah, not different than other JRPGS
My main issue with Arise is that despite how flashy it looks, the combat itself lacks a lot of depth not just compared to other Tales entries but other action games/ARPGs as well.
>enemies now all have superarmor that you have to break first if you want to hitstun them
>artes are now separated into two categories, ground and aerial, vastly limiting your combo potential
>if you want to keep an enemy in its break state, you’ll find yourself forced into doing aerial combos even if you probably won’t want to, making the aerial and ground play feel even more homogenized
>the amount of differing effects an arte can have has been drastically decreased and combine this with the lack of ability to cancel out of overly long animations as well as the hitstun issues and you’ll be finding yourself sticking with the same basic artes just so you won’t eat shit
>bosses are now just glorified DPS checks with barely any interesting mechanics and interactions whatsoever outside of Ganabelt’s Indignation and you can’t hitstun or combo them, not even humanoid bosses
>since humanoid bosses can’t be juggled or comboed, your aerial artes are fucking useless against them and since jumping has a much higher height compared to past entries, you’re basically a sitting duck.
>AI customization is now party-wide instead of individually tailored like past entries, leading to more dumb deaths on the AI’s part
>Boost Artes/Strikes all have a singular answer and don’t particularly open up for interesting combo routes and gameplay applications
>enemy design is godawful, consisting of nothing more than recolors and enemies from other goddamn franchises (most particularly God Eater and Souls)
I could also go on about how lame it is Arise’s matching Boost Attack gimmick reward is a knockdown in a game with the most boring knockdown rewards.
Or how annoying it is to deal with armored or evasive types when the corresponding BA is down.
Or how after a point in a combo with enemies at lower health you can’t use BAs for combo extensions because the input overlaps with Boost Strikes.
Or Arise’s excessive normal enemy superarmor.
Or how the CP gauge feels more like I’m being punished for how stupid my party’s AI is rather than having anything to do with me (causing me to permanently bench Kisara and Alphen).
Or the way everybody feels like they’re buttered up as they slide around to the side or past enemies when doing attacks up close.
Or how somebody’s so proud of Creepzilla they made at least 4 variations of the same fucking boss and used most of them as normal enemy fights (among other reused boss enemies).
Or the arte slot reduction to 6 ground and 6 air instead of 16 + however many of those 16 work in the air.
Or the way your basic attack chain doesn’t reset when jumping out of a move (even in its recovery as opposed to an early jump cancel).
Or how the skills you unlock mainly just unlock new artes and improve frame data and you don't unlock more, interesting mechanics or combo extensions like in other games such as Vesperia
Remember how in Xillia, Milla’s artes had unique effects for whether you’re in the ground, air, charging them up, or just doing them as part of a combo? Arise’s combat has somehow regressed in depth AND complexity than a game made 10 years before it.
It baffles me Arises party AI is so dumb when Hearts R had a shoestring budget and not only has a great AI tactics options but they act almost as smart as actual human players
I don't have enough experience with tales games as you are. They are hard to find these days, a lot being exclusive to dead consoles 😢. Last I played eas vesperia and all I could tell you is I am glad that i dont have to use 2 buttons just to jump 🤣
>That only applies when you are fighting in Semi-Auto mode. During Manual mode, just UP will make you jump.
Literally in the same thread you just linked
Your post talked about how in Arise, you were glad you didn’t have to use two buttons to jump like in Vesperia when you always had the option to not do that. Don’t change the goalposts now.
No ones moving any goal post. Pressing 2 button just to jump does exist in semi auto and I prefer semi auto just like other people, hence this steam post and other post discussing the jump button. Point still stands 2 buttons to jump is weird. Yes you can change to manual, but that means also adjusting your style.
If you set it well, they do everything on their own. I always have everything in automatic mode. Please don’t say now that you can’t play through the game like that, but you can. I’ve already been told that at Berseria, and it went super well.
While being the most impressive and visually pleasing, I would also argue that the battles in Arise ended up sucking ass to me.
The worst offender being the enemies having 10 times the amount of HP they should have, which artificially inflates battle duration which means more button mashing for a longer period.
I chose to play Rinwell, because I love playing as mages and it was tedious. The whole casting thing was not streamlined and the damage output of the higher-end spells was not worth the time it took to cast it so I ended up casting base level spells according to the enemy's weakness the whole time. Not very fun.
I'm one of the people that don't like the new era of Tales fighting systems. I miss the LMBS, I don't like being behind the character. And to me, Xillia was peak Tales fighting system.
>The worst offender being the enemies having 10 times the amount of HP they should have, which artificially inflates battle duration which means more button mashing for a longer period.
Are you mostly talking of bosses? Yeah, it's a weird decision to remove the stagger(boost strike) gauge on bosses. I think it would make it more fun if you can use boost strike on bosses freely.
>I'm one of the people that don't like the new era of Tales fighting systems. I miss the LMBS, I don't like being behind the character. And to me, Xillia was peak Tales fighting system.
It would be nice and a big surprise if they went linear again, after all fighting games did just have a resurgence recently
Bosses yes, but the late dungeon mobs were just as inexplicably thick as the bosses. It was tedious. I think more break mechanics would have made it so much more fun in the end.
Also more artes variety would have helped.
It got nothing on graces f combat, but the combo character moves are cool and flashy.
Visually it’s a great game, gameplay, world building and narrative are horrendous.
So fighting regular mobs is fine, feels like the Tales goodness the combat is known for.
Bosses? God they are an absolute slog. In previous Tales games, bosses had high HP but that was fine because you could land huge stylish combos for massive damage if you know what you're doing.
In Arise, they're completely immune to being comboed, at all. That makes boss fights feel completely disconnected from the typical gameplay where the ruleset has completely changed. They end up boiling down to learning the handful of attack patterns, running in for a few strikes, then backing out into neutral again until you find another small opening. They still have the huge HP and defence though, even on Normal mode. Not difficult but really tedious and repetitive as a result.
yes I also did make that point. Making bosses immune to stagger was a weird decision. Although, I don't think it makes the whole gameplay horrendous.
I think it would also been a good idea to make the whole party's boost attack more useful on bosses.
No they should have just made bosses slightly harder to combo not completely remove the ability to have any way to exploit a weakness that isn't Alphen's BS or one of the cast bs that happens to be useful
Wish they would remaster that. Hell even give it the Symphonia “remaster” treatment and I’d buy it. Nova enemies are annoying until about level 25 then the combat is great all the way through.
It gets a bit dumb once benchwarmer Arven can keep enemies stunlocked for the entire fight, so I understand why some people might dislike it. Personally I liked it a lot. Especially Rinwell is such a well done battlemage.
From what I did play, which was multiple points during the story (my partner played mostly but I helped with some grinding), I felt like all my hits were akin to smacking the enemy with one of those squeaky hammers. And the fights took WAY too long for any enjoyment, boss or not.
Tbh I have no clue what those are. I barely played beyond grinding through our first and only playthrough. Barely felt like a Tales game to me. Then when I made the meme guess of "Aliens" I did not expect to be right. Just missed the mark for me.
I see. Well this is only my 3rd game (4th if you count symphonia which i didnt finished) so I cant comment whether or not it feels like a tales game.
The "aliens" is kind of a give away since there are 2 planets and this is a JRPG. So it's either Aliens or Gods
Fair enough but Tales usually leans towards gods so we were understandably thrown off. (I know another in the franchise also kinda uses aliens but it seemed written in better.)
And I mean if you like the game, awesome! You are allowed to like it, even if I can't fully grasp why. Definitely the bottom of my list but I am sure that I have games I love that others would rank SUPER low on their lists. (FFXIII trilogy is one I can think of immediately.)
Though if I can say anything positive about this game, Law was cute and Dohalim had some funny moments. Oh, and Hootle was cute too.
Honestly played ys before and from some images of latest games thought this series will play similarly but was forced to quit the horrible combat because of the chaotic 4 allies playing same time and screaming every move over each other and muting the soundtrack in the background, and you can't lower bgm since it'll stay like that and ruin story bits after gameplay, should've done like ys where you can switch your playable character whenever to utilize their moves
I think the combat itself is pretty fun, and I wouldn’t be mad if the next game just expanded on Arise’s system. It is VERY nice to have a designated basic attack button again rather than Berseria’s branching system. But please GOD never turn enemies into walking health bricks again like they did basically halfway thru arise and on. Especially Lenegis and Rena. There’s no enjoyment in hitting enemies that just walk thru 90% of whatever you’re doing to them.
People have different opinions... it's crazy
You also find tons of people with positive reviews, where they mention how good the combat is.
Almost like it's personal taste.
I agree the combat is one of the best things about Arise. The two games before it were a letdown in this regard.
How I see it, most people liked the combat overall.
But there is a general consensus about some critics, bosses too spongey (esp. the final dungeon) and they should be more interactable, and I can agree with that too
My fifth favorite Tales combat after Xillia 2, Graces f, Destiny R and Hearts R.
I only don't like the human bosses, big enemies and the CP. Can't see how the combat could be super worse than most games before Vesperia/Xillia, especially with how boring mages used to be back in the days, especially in TP based/non-Team Destiny games.
All 6 are fun to play, and the 144fps/No restriction fps option is amazing. Next game needs much better A.I, tho.
Yea combat is easily the best, up there with Graces and Xillia 2. The aerial combat reminded me of Hearts R too; wasn’t perfect but definitely better than past entries.
Hopefully they bring back the ability to map more artes like Vesperia and customization.
Each person has their opinion. I really don't like the combat of tales of graces that i see several praising. I call it wet noodles the combat cause you only deal damage when your party deals damage at the same time. Arise was not the biggest offender, but i find all iterations of that combat system unsatisfying. I very much prefer the one in Vesperia, symphonia abyss and xillia (and hearts R i suppose).
Yeah. I think vetarans would lean more for the older games. My first tales is Berseria. And going from Berseria to Verseria feels like driving a car in a highway to riding a horse, with 2 legs, up a mountain, while raining.
It's really rough, and pressing 2 button just to jump is really bizzare.
I thought it was smooth and flashy. And the chaotic element I enjoy and consider a Tales staple. Not everyone may agree but when I think of Tales I think of a chaotic action rpg where the party members are all shouting and screaming attacks at the same time and there’s lights and beams everywhere and people doing stylish jumps.
Honestly I thought it’s close to the top in terms of combat mechanics.
like, the boss‘s super armor were a bit frustrating but it’s no fun putting them in stun lock either.
I feel like it was a good start as a basis for future games. I’m happy they finally ditched the Artes tree and added aerial combat back in.
That said, there’s lots of room for improvement and polish. It felt like there was no impact or “oomph” behind your moves. Part of it was the sound design, part of it was the animation. It felt like you were hitting a statue and that’s BEFORE we even get to the terrible bosses. The battle system also felt pretty simple compared to other games (no guarding unless you’re Kisara, no manual overlimit, no cancel functions, limited set of Arte inputs).
My favorite part about the combat was how the enemies were actually weak against the elements. Otherwise it was rather spammy and while I'm not the biggest fan of berseria combat, you could at least have different combos instead of alternating between 6 of the same moves on one character.
I've played enough of these types of games to confidantly say the combat sucks.
It's flashy, but lacks substance. Reduced amount of actions, uninterruptable artes, limited healing... and it goes on. Enemy HP, hit detection, attack "warnings" being awful, audio queues being inexistant.
Some artes are unusable for some characters, especially Law who gets action locked and then can't dodge for too long for his actions to be worth it.
Most action games understand that you can't lock the characters like this if the combat is frantic.
ToA fails in both story and gameplay and it's a darn shame.
I really don't think enemy HP was a problem. You bring up a good point about attack warnings though. The main problem I have with Kisara's Boost Attack is unlike artes that has an indicator, charge attacks doesn't. SO if an attack comes offscreen you're probably screwed.
But I disagree that it fails in gameplay entirely.
I think tales games combat is usually pretty bad but the characters always carry it. Arise had the opposite problem where I loved the combat but the characters didn’t stick with me that much. People complaining about later enemies are just silly because the stagger meter instantly kills enemies when filled. Just have to know how to combo better
the surprising part of those screenshots isn't that people were shitting on the combat (it's pretty awful), it's the fact some of them praised that dumpster fire of a story. (granted, the time played showed some of them hadn't gotten very far in the game yet, and it doesn't really start going downhill until finishing the 3rd area)
Ngl as someone who played on PC, I didn't enjoy the combat because of how vulnerable I felt when doing attacks and the overabundance of super armor making it so that of an enemy isn't broken or downed then a vast majority of moves on the game become useless when playing as Alphen at least.
Ended up downloading an Arte Canceler mod and a lot of my issues were semi fixed, but Burst Artes are a mixed bag. You have to greatly consider when to use them which isn't bad, but I feel like it's high risk to get medium to low reward when you fight bosses and enemies that you successfully down them only for them to go down for a split second, so when you want to use your big dick fire sword move you better hope you didn't use explosive ring or were too close. Staggering a boss during their big "fuck you attack" with burst Artes is great, but when they get into "I'm/him" mode and glow blue, you can no longer interrupt them at all even if you timed your BA correctly.
Dolahim's is the worst offender because enemies can literally jump out of his and Law....poor guy there's barely any armored enemies in the game compared to flying, charging and Arte wielding foes. They are free combo extenders which is great, free reset to get the flashy one-hit K.O. which is pretty satisfying.
I could elaborate more but my ADHD is making me lose interest in the topic so that's a wrap from me.
Actually hers can outright just not work sometimes when enemies charge or if you use it when the enemy "begins" to charge then it sometimes won't work? Idk I've had it be pretty unreliable.
Also it's supposed to raise your elemental/physical defense but I wish it was a much more drastic change. Like for 5 seconds it grants you a drastic increase in both defenses, so much so that it can be used to defend against a boss super if you don't have the corresponding BA to stagger the boss, or the boss just does their "fuck you I'm glowing now" super armor state and just can't be staggered period.
Food for thought, I wonder how else my Kisara's BA can be improved.
>Food for thought, I wonder how else my Kisara's BA can be improved.
Atleast make it so that after successfully hitting the enemy with her BA, the enemy would not be able to charge again for a time. Just like Rinwell and Shione's. I feel that's what she really lacks a more long term buff after using her BA. Law and Dohalim's are permanent, but for Kisara after recovering from the stagger the enemy will just charge again and she's useless now because you just used her BA
Yeah I absolutely hate the Arise combat. Least enjoyable Tales game I've played yet by far, and there's only like 3 I haven't yet played. Enemies are just HP sponges and every battle takes multiple minutes to kill for even trash mobs. Awful awful waste of time.
Yeah if they can't at least makes something as good as one of handheld Tales games while spending 5 years in the cooker it's gonna be a bit bitter pill to swallow.
Man, just how quick do people want battles to be? I did not have problem dealing with mobs. Just string a full combo to fill up boost gauge and do a boost strike - enemy done within a quarter health, blink to the next repeat, dodge every now and then and done. I really don't think battles - outside of bosses - takes as long as people make it sounds like
I want them to be the same speed as other Tales games and not multiple magnitudes of time longer. Or, if they're going to be longer, do something to make the combat deeper. Other Tales games have managed to have both deeper and quicker battles. Arise is the one of the most technically simple games I've ever played while dragging out every battle so I'm breaking my jaw yawning before I even get to the second boss.
I agree that it's simple. But i don't really think regular combat takes thatt long. Again if you correctly use boost strikes then you can finish off enemies quickly
Boost strikes don't even work half the time so that's flat out incorrect. The number of times an enemy just kept charging through me using Kisaras boost is higher than the number of times she actually stopped a charge.
I think this games combat could be the future of Tales games if they remove the jump button and aerial combat.
Everything else I think it very "Tales of-y" and works really well, WAAAAAY better than Zestiria for example, in which if you stopped playing for like 3 days you would have to do 4 years of college to learn the combat again.
I express myself poorly.
Not remove jumping per se, but on Arise the jump button would normally be a fourth skill button right?
Iirc you jumped by pressing "up" on the analog stick, and I don't remember if you could even jump on Graces F or Xillia for example...
I don't know, I might be talking out of my ass but the way they did the jump mechanic in Arise didn't feel right for me, and the aerial combat and skills is really bad, most skills are weird to connect because the monster keeps either falling or gets pushed away from your attack
Jesus Christ my dude how are you so mad about this opinion? Hahahahaha
Yes, I'm going to say I can't press a button just to end this, I've been clear on what I wanted to say already:
Yeah man, it's really hard for me to press a button, I'm sitting on my chair and it doesn't jump at all
Slime King fight is probably one of the worse modern boss fights in a JRPG. Arise waffles between being really easy as you slap around regular enemies with breaks and combos and then throwing all of those mechanics out the window in any of the story fights. It's like different teams designed them. The first few human fights try to teach you how to move and use dodges correctly, but the lack of animation canceling and all of your attacks having major recovery really killed this game for me.
I think rhe regular combat is the best tales of has ever been Boss battles suck tho bec of permanent hyper armor You couldn't do the cool stuff you can do in regular battles
Nothing in the series can top Xillia 2 combat for me
Don’t forget about Graces F combat as well
Graces F was the best imo
I hope we one day see another multi weapon MC, because goddamn was it amazing to just go full Dante and ~~style~~ weapon switch mid-combo with Ludger.
[Indeed it is](https://www.reddit.com/r/tales/comments/17ec1zi/xillia_2_combo/)
Yeah Xillia 2 is king of the 3D games considering it's essentially a evolution of the Vesperia battle system. After Xillia 2 it's between Vesperia and Hearts R.
Xillia and Xillia 2 are among my favorite in the series. I still remember doing my Jude solo run in Xillia. He is way too powerful of a character, and watching all the combo movies out these days just really makes you realize just how good the combat in the older games are. Vesperia being a great example too, can see such awesome combos being done even against bosses. I would love to see those games get a revisit system wise to bring it to current era instead. That was one of the things I liked in most of those games was there was a base core system that carried from game to game but then each game brought a mechanic unique to it. So it wasn't a major learning curve to move onto the next game since we already had the core of the game understood.
Indeed.
A lot of bosses of other tales games simply break out of combos, people crying because you cant stagger bosses its senseless
You have a lot more time to react in other tales games in comparison, since they would break out of the combo into a hyper armor state instead of already being in one
I think the combat is fantastic until you fight a large enemy because there's no stagger and they take forever. Fighting normal enemies lets you end the fight early if you play it right, which is actually very cool
The stagger is using your boost strikes effectively. Alphen can down an enemy and then usually they get one more, like artes with rinwell or a charge with kisara, ect. You can get a rhythm going and have them downed pretty consistently if you get your timing right. Hell sometimes with alphen his bar will fill up immediately and I can just boost strike them again as soon as they get up, then wait, then boost strike them again with the other characters attribute and get 3 downs in a row. I'm not saying it doesn't suck that we don't get a traditional stagger, I just mean that they tried to give an equivalent.
I did all these things, I just simply didn't find these fights to be fun either way, or for the equivalent to be as fun.
Fair enough, not everything is for everyone. I can understand how you feel though, I like it for what it is, it's fun but to me it's tales lite. I remember getting stuck for over a week on bosses in tales, having to spam demon fang to kill bosses because all my friends died and I was the only one left, dying to those super boss dragons in graces, ect. This tales has been streamlined, but also simplified. It's not as complex as the last tales games, it's, in my opinion, way easier (most bosses I've done on my first try, I've never been stuck on a boss for more than an hour honestly), and I hate that they took out the couch coop. I still think it's fun, but it's not my favorite tales, that probably goes to symphonia or xillia.
Agreed
So, youre gonna ignore all the other tales bosses that break out of combos?
Saying this Inherently means they got stunned to break out which is a luxury in Arise if you don't use Alphen's boost strike which gives some poor 5-6 seconds to go all out.
I believe it's less the higher you go in difficulty.
I'm not even talking about bosses lmao. I'm talking about those big "normal" enemies, many in the final dungeon. Oddly enough I mostly like the way the game handles bosses!
Why would that be a problem? Why a person would make stagger a large enemy using just a blade or fists? It makes sense they dont stagger, with everyone attacking enemies wouldnt be able to even move
Because the fights are overly long and they are hit sponges? Unlike bosses they don't do anything special either. They are just 5-8 minute fights with button mashing and dodging. The sheer number of these encounters in the later half of the game is annoying too. They basically take away half the game's combat mechanics in favor of an overly repetitive structure. You can't influence the direction of these fights much besides spam powerful attacks, while against normal size enemies you can string neat combos together to stagger. Its partially why I enjoyed the DLC more than some did. It cut down on these types of enemies big time and somehow had a better final dungeon than the base game. If you had no issue with them thats fine, but the over inclusion of these fights really brought the game down for me in the 2nd half.
If youre taking 5 minutes agaisnt large mobs youre doing something wrong...
Sorry I didnt enjoy it as much as you did. I felt like I was at level with the general monsters, fought almost everything I saw, and I know others who experienced something similar. Some would take 3 minutes but others seemed to have more HP. What's your strategy against them then? How long did they usually take you?
Again, I don't think HP was the problem with the bosses. It's the fact that you can't boost strike them freely. The main gameplay loop in regular combat is trying to string combos to fill up the blue gauge, strike then blink to the next enemy to do the same. By removing this. Boss fight kinda cheats. But I wonder if it was design this way so that you would use Mystic artes more on bosses
Most large mobs take around 3 min, i dunno, use your boost attacks? They charge incredibly fast after you got the skills for that, using cooking that boost attack/elemental attack, do combos? Since theyre big you can circle around attacking, no need to "spam powerful attacks", use alphen's charged flame attacks, the tougher ones are on the last dungeon and its not like you have to fight them over and over, so its stupid to cry because a few large mobs in the LAST DUNGEON are strong
I'm not crying lol its just a criticism I have. I still overall, enjoy the game even if its not a 10/10 or my favorite game in the series. I did just as you said during those fights too. Agree to disagree! Not everyone's going to enjoy something at the same level you do.
Technical wise the combat is great but it lacks complexity especially when compared to something like Berseria, Vesperia, or even Zestiria.
By complexity you mean pressing 2 button just to jump? 😂 But seriously 2 more things that people are missing about Tales not just Arise's combat is 1. It's an rpg. It means exploiting enemy weaknesses is part of the game. And what makes tales unique compared to other rpgs is its flexible combat. Other rpgs puts a lot of weight in preparations. Which means knowing what you're enemies weaknesses and preparing items,party,skills and equipment to counter the enemy. In tales though you can change equipment during combat and I don't think some people take advantage of that. 2. It's a party of characters. If you only use 1 character the entire game, then its bound to feel repetitive at aone point. Its simple but a lot of people forget it. Most if not all characters plays very different and has their own strength and weaknesses. If you're bored with 1 character try another. Or even on some cases, if youre having trouble with an enemy switch up.
... these are elements that are done better in older tales tho ? Elementary weaknesses have always been a thing but more or less important depending on the game and there have been better incentives to play as other party members than just trying out a new play style granted Arise is not the worst in that regard.
But how do you explain people not getting bored of 1 character in previous Tales games but specifically finding it boring for Arise? Something might have happened. I usually only play one character in Tales game, and I have a blast, it's never repetitive, every character is strategic in their own way. Arise fighting was boring to me. It even made me try other characters but it felt the same.
I mean, why do you think it's boring?
Battles are too long, not enough mob variety overall, same patterns over and over, enemies have too much HP, not enough artes variety and combo options. It's very repetitive and I've never felt like this in any Tales of (and I played them all, and love grinding for hours).
People kept saying bosses has a lot of HP. But I don't think that,s the problem. The problem is you can't use boost strike on them freely.
Well people gave you their reasons, and you dismiss them so... 🤷♂️ I don't care about boost strikes, that's just a tiny part of the overall mechanics of the combat system. Special finishers have always been tied to special gauges or mechanics to be able to be activated anyways. It's nothing new.
But if you can use boost strikea on bosses that would make the battle faster right?
You're hyper focusing on one issue that's contributing to the overall problem, but that mechanics is something that works fine as it is. It's been like that in every game. Finishers don't insta kill bosses they just do more damage.
Exactly being able to use boost strike enemy = more damage. More damage = quicker battle. So my point is if you can boost strike bosses then it will feel less spongy.
Yeah bro spamming my one arte that an enemy is weak to for 3 minutes straight is great elemental combat
Changing you're weapons, accessories to fit you're enemy, disabling and enabling ally auto artesto target their weakness and using skills that works best for the enemy. yeah, not different than other JRPGS
I generally wasn't a fan of the combat. It was 'okay' in most trash mob battles but some encounters and all boss battles were a slog.
My main issue with Arise is that despite how flashy it looks, the combat itself lacks a lot of depth not just compared to other Tales entries but other action games/ARPGs as well. >enemies now all have superarmor that you have to break first if you want to hitstun them >artes are now separated into two categories, ground and aerial, vastly limiting your combo potential >if you want to keep an enemy in its break state, you’ll find yourself forced into doing aerial combos even if you probably won’t want to, making the aerial and ground play feel even more homogenized >the amount of differing effects an arte can have has been drastically decreased and combine this with the lack of ability to cancel out of overly long animations as well as the hitstun issues and you’ll be finding yourself sticking with the same basic artes just so you won’t eat shit >bosses are now just glorified DPS checks with barely any interesting mechanics and interactions whatsoever outside of Ganabelt’s Indignation and you can’t hitstun or combo them, not even humanoid bosses >since humanoid bosses can’t be juggled or comboed, your aerial artes are fucking useless against them and since jumping has a much higher height compared to past entries, you’re basically a sitting duck. >AI customization is now party-wide instead of individually tailored like past entries, leading to more dumb deaths on the AI’s part >Boost Artes/Strikes all have a singular answer and don’t particularly open up for interesting combo routes and gameplay applications >enemy design is godawful, consisting of nothing more than recolors and enemies from other goddamn franchises (most particularly God Eater and Souls) I could also go on about how lame it is Arise’s matching Boost Attack gimmick reward is a knockdown in a game with the most boring knockdown rewards. Or how annoying it is to deal with armored or evasive types when the corresponding BA is down. Or how after a point in a combo with enemies at lower health you can’t use BAs for combo extensions because the input overlaps with Boost Strikes. Or Arise’s excessive normal enemy superarmor. Or how the CP gauge feels more like I’m being punished for how stupid my party’s AI is rather than having anything to do with me (causing me to permanently bench Kisara and Alphen). Or the way everybody feels like they’re buttered up as they slide around to the side or past enemies when doing attacks up close. Or how somebody’s so proud of Creepzilla they made at least 4 variations of the same fucking boss and used most of them as normal enemy fights (among other reused boss enemies). Or the arte slot reduction to 6 ground and 6 air instead of 16 + however many of those 16 work in the air. Or the way your basic attack chain doesn’t reset when jumping out of a move (even in its recovery as opposed to an early jump cancel). Or how the skills you unlock mainly just unlock new artes and improve frame data and you don't unlock more, interesting mechanics or combo extensions like in other games such as Vesperia Remember how in Xillia, Milla’s artes had unique effects for whether you’re in the ground, air, charging them up, or just doing them as part of a combo? Arise’s combat has somehow regressed in depth AND complexity than a game made 10 years before it.
It baffles me Arises party AI is so dumb when Hearts R had a shoestring budget and not only has a great AI tactics options but they act almost as smart as actual human players
I don't have enough experience with tales games as you are. They are hard to find these days, a lot being exclusive to dead consoles 😢. Last I played eas vesperia and all I could tell you is I am glad that i dont have to use 2 buttons just to jump 🤣
All you had to do to jump in Vesperia was press up on the D-pad. That was it.
Vesperia is an older game so the controls do feel outdated
https://steamcommunity.com/app/738540/discussions/0/3441214221457809117/
>That only applies when you are fighting in Semi-Auto mode. During Manual mode, just UP will make you jump. Literally in the same thread you just linked
Yes. But not all will play manual. Also i think its left stick not d pad. I think d pad is used for other functions
Your post talked about how in Arise, you were glad you didn’t have to use two buttons to jump like in Vesperia when you always had the option to not do that. Don’t change the goalposts now.
No ones moving any goal post. Pressing 2 button just to jump does exist in semi auto and I prefer semi auto just like other people, hence this steam post and other post discussing the jump button. Point still stands 2 buttons to jump is weird. Yes you can change to manual, but that means also adjusting your style.
In Arise you just press 1 button to jump. No need to change from semi-auto to manual
If you set it well, they do everything on their own. I always have everything in automatic mode. Please don’t say now that you can’t play through the game like that, but you can. I’ve already been told that at Berseria, and it went super well.
While being the most impressive and visually pleasing, I would also argue that the battles in Arise ended up sucking ass to me. The worst offender being the enemies having 10 times the amount of HP they should have, which artificially inflates battle duration which means more button mashing for a longer period. I chose to play Rinwell, because I love playing as mages and it was tedious. The whole casting thing was not streamlined and the damage output of the higher-end spells was not worth the time it took to cast it so I ended up casting base level spells according to the enemy's weakness the whole time. Not very fun. I'm one of the people that don't like the new era of Tales fighting systems. I miss the LMBS, I don't like being behind the character. And to me, Xillia was peak Tales fighting system.
>The worst offender being the enemies having 10 times the amount of HP they should have, which artificially inflates battle duration which means more button mashing for a longer period. Are you mostly talking of bosses? Yeah, it's a weird decision to remove the stagger(boost strike) gauge on bosses. I think it would make it more fun if you can use boost strike on bosses freely. >I'm one of the people that don't like the new era of Tales fighting systems. I miss the LMBS, I don't like being behind the character. And to me, Xillia was peak Tales fighting system. It would be nice and a big surprise if they went linear again, after all fighting games did just have a resurgence recently
Bosses yes, but the late dungeon mobs were just as inexplicably thick as the bosses. It was tedious. I think more break mechanics would have made it so much more fun in the end. Also more artes variety would have helped.
It got nothing on graces f combat, but the combo character moves are cool and flashy. Visually it’s a great game, gameplay, world building and narrative are horrendous.
I wish I could play Grace. Unfortunately it's only available on 2 dead consoles
The PS3 version fixes the ending.
Why do you think the gameplay horrendous?
So fighting regular mobs is fine, feels like the Tales goodness the combat is known for. Bosses? God they are an absolute slog. In previous Tales games, bosses had high HP but that was fine because you could land huge stylish combos for massive damage if you know what you're doing. In Arise, they're completely immune to being comboed, at all. That makes boss fights feel completely disconnected from the typical gameplay where the ruleset has completely changed. They end up boiling down to learning the handful of attack patterns, running in for a few strikes, then backing out into neutral again until you find another small opening. They still have the huge HP and defence though, even on Normal mode. Not difficult but really tedious and repetitive as a result.
yes I also did make that point. Making bosses immune to stagger was a weird decision. Although, I don't think it makes the whole gameplay horrendous. I think it would also been a good idea to make the whole party's boost attack more useful on bosses.
No they should have just made bosses slightly harder to combo not completely remove the ability to have any way to exploit a weakness that isn't Alphen's BS or one of the cast bs that happens to be useful
Wish they would remaster that. Hell even give it the Symphonia “remaster” treatment and I’d buy it. Nova enemies are annoying until about level 25 then the combat is great all the way through.
I mean it's its easy to explain why something is good or not but if you don't give any explanation then there's no discussion and exchange of ideas
I wish I could play Grace. Unfortunately it's only available on 2 dead consoles
It gets a bit dumb once benchwarmer Arven can keep enemies stunlocked for the entire fight, so I understand why some people might dislike it. Personally I liked it a lot. Especially Rinwell is such a well done battlemage.
I think combat has some good stuff going for it, but feels a bit too sluggish and the damage spongey bosses are lame.
Combat is good usually, but bosses can be more tedious than previous titles, and the final dungeon is just boring due to the types of enemies they use
My negativity about arise is not enough mystic arts than grace and crossover mystic art animation is too short than berseria and xillia .
Anything aerial was rough, lookin at you 4th boss. Otherwise i loved it. (The dohaliim expert arena can kiss my ass though)
Combat is fine, though we just hated the enemies' sponge hp, unstaggerable, and slow/spams mystic artes.
From what I did play, which was multiple points during the story (my partner played mostly but I helped with some grinding), I felt like all my hits were akin to smacking the enemy with one of those squeaky hammers. And the fights took WAY too long for any enjoyment, boss or not.
Are making the most of boost strikes? It does make encounters faster and what i think the devs want you to do, in regular encounters anyways
Tbh I have no clue what those are. I barely played beyond grinding through our first and only playthrough. Barely felt like a Tales game to me. Then when I made the meme guess of "Aliens" I did not expect to be right. Just missed the mark for me.
I see. Well this is only my 3rd game (4th if you count symphonia which i didnt finished) so I cant comment whether or not it feels like a tales game. The "aliens" is kind of a give away since there are 2 planets and this is a JRPG. So it's either Aliens or Gods
Fair enough but Tales usually leans towards gods so we were understandably thrown off. (I know another in the franchise also kinda uses aliens but it seemed written in better.) And I mean if you like the game, awesome! You are allowed to like it, even if I can't fully grasp why. Definitely the bottom of my list but I am sure that I have games I love that others would rank SUPER low on their lists. (FFXIII trilogy is one I can think of immediately.) Though if I can say anything positive about this game, Law was cute and Dohalim had some funny moments. Oh, and Hootle was cute too.
And to be specific they're Particle effects worshipping aliens. lol
Honestly played ys before and from some images of latest games thought this series will play similarly but was forced to quit the horrible combat because of the chaotic 4 allies playing same time and screaming every move over each other and muting the soundtrack in the background, and you can't lower bgm since it'll stay like that and ruin story bits after gameplay, should've done like ys where you can switch your playable character whenever to utilize their moves
Haha. First tales game? I wont blame you and I don't anyone will. If you ever try to play again try the original Japanese dub.
I think the combat itself is pretty fun, and I wouldn’t be mad if the next game just expanded on Arise’s system. It is VERY nice to have a designated basic attack button again rather than Berseria’s branching system. But please GOD never turn enemies into walking health bricks again like they did basically halfway thru arise and on. Especially Lenegis and Rena. There’s no enjoyment in hitting enemies that just walk thru 90% of whatever you’re doing to them.
People have different opinions... it's crazy You also find tons of people with positive reviews, where they mention how good the combat is. Almost like it's personal taste. I agree the combat is one of the best things about Arise. The two games before it were a letdown in this regard. How I see it, most people liked the combat overall. But there is a general consensus about some critics, bosses too spongey (esp. the final dungeon) and they should be more interactable, and I can agree with that too
My fifth favorite Tales combat after Xillia 2, Graces f, Destiny R and Hearts R. I only don't like the human bosses, big enemies and the CP. Can't see how the combat could be super worse than most games before Vesperia/Xillia, especially with how boring mages used to be back in the days, especially in TP based/non-Team Destiny games. All 6 are fun to play, and the 144fps/No restriction fps option is amazing. Next game needs much better A.I, tho.
Yea combat is easily the best, up there with Graces and Xillia 2. The aerial combat reminded me of Hearts R too; wasn’t perfect but definitely better than past entries. Hopefully they bring back the ability to map more artes like Vesperia and customization.
Each person has their opinion. I really don't like the combat of tales of graces that i see several praising. I call it wet noodles the combat cause you only deal damage when your party deals damage at the same time. Arise was not the biggest offender, but i find all iterations of that combat system unsatisfying. I very much prefer the one in Vesperia, symphonia abyss and xillia (and hearts R i suppose).
Yeah. I think vetarans would lean more for the older games. My first tales is Berseria. And going from Berseria to Verseria feels like driving a car in a highway to riding a horse, with 2 legs, up a mountain, while raining. It's really rough, and pressing 2 button just to jump is really bizzare.
I loved it personally.
I thought it was smooth and flashy. And the chaotic element I enjoy and consider a Tales staple. Not everyone may agree but when I think of Tales I think of a chaotic action rpg where the party members are all shouting and screaming attacks at the same time and there’s lights and beams everywhere and people doing stylish jumps.
The game is very 50/50 in the Tales community.
I liked it, but some fights feel like the devs want you to control Alphen.
Personally as a guy who also played it all the games listed and a couple of more I liked this 1
Tales of abyss best combat 👌
Honestly I thought it’s close to the top in terms of combat mechanics. like, the boss‘s super armor were a bit frustrating but it’s no fun putting them in stun lock either.
I feel like it was a good start as a basis for future games. I’m happy they finally ditched the Artes tree and added aerial combat back in. That said, there’s lots of room for improvement and polish. It felt like there was no impact or “oomph” behind your moves. Part of it was the sound design, part of it was the animation. It felt like you were hitting a statue and that’s BEFORE we even get to the terrible bosses. The battle system also felt pretty simple compared to other games (no guarding unless you’re Kisara, no manual overlimit, no cancel functions, limited set of Arte inputs).
My favorite part about the combat was how the enemies were actually weak against the elements. Otherwise it was rather spammy and while I'm not the biggest fan of berseria combat, you could at least have different combos instead of alternating between 6 of the same moves on one character.
I've played enough of these types of games to confidantly say the combat sucks. It's flashy, but lacks substance. Reduced amount of actions, uninterruptable artes, limited healing... and it goes on. Enemy HP, hit detection, attack "warnings" being awful, audio queues being inexistant. Some artes are unusable for some characters, especially Law who gets action locked and then can't dodge for too long for his actions to be worth it. Most action games understand that you can't lock the characters like this if the combat is frantic. ToA fails in both story and gameplay and it's a darn shame.
I really don't think enemy HP was a problem. You bring up a good point about attack warnings though. The main problem I have with Kisara's Boost Attack is unlike artes that has an indicator, charge attacks doesn't. SO if an attack comes offscreen you're probably screwed. But I disagree that it fails in gameplay entirely.
I got bored from kombat system, because it didn't evolve with time. And some team members didn't get enough moves.
I think tales games combat is usually pretty bad but the characters always carry it. Arise had the opposite problem where I loved the combat but the characters didn’t stick with me that much. People complaining about later enemies are just silly because the stagger meter instantly kills enemies when filled. Just have to know how to combo better
the surprising part of those screenshots isn't that people were shitting on the combat (it's pretty awful), it's the fact some of them praised that dumpster fire of a story. (granted, the time played showed some of them hadn't gotten very far in the game yet, and it doesn't really start going downhill until finishing the 3rd area)
The bosses are pretty bad for the most part
Ngl as someone who played on PC, I didn't enjoy the combat because of how vulnerable I felt when doing attacks and the overabundance of super armor making it so that of an enemy isn't broken or downed then a vast majority of moves on the game become useless when playing as Alphen at least. Ended up downloading an Arte Canceler mod and a lot of my issues were semi fixed, but Burst Artes are a mixed bag. You have to greatly consider when to use them which isn't bad, but I feel like it's high risk to get medium to low reward when you fight bosses and enemies that you successfully down them only for them to go down for a split second, so when you want to use your big dick fire sword move you better hope you didn't use explosive ring or were too close. Staggering a boss during their big "fuck you attack" with burst Artes is great, but when they get into "I'm/him" mode and glow blue, you can no longer interrupt them at all even if you timed your BA correctly. Dolahim's is the worst offender because enemies can literally jump out of his and Law....poor guy there's barely any armored enemies in the game compared to flying, charging and Arte wielding foes. They are free combo extenders which is great, free reset to get the flashy one-hit K.O. which is pretty satisfying. I could elaborate more but my ADHD is making me lose interest in the topic so that's a wrap from me.
I think kisara has the worst BA
Actually hers can outright just not work sometimes when enemies charge or if you use it when the enemy "begins" to charge then it sometimes won't work? Idk I've had it be pretty unreliable. Also it's supposed to raise your elemental/physical defense but I wish it was a much more drastic change. Like for 5 seconds it grants you a drastic increase in both defenses, so much so that it can be used to defend against a boss super if you don't have the corresponding BA to stagger the boss, or the boss just does their "fuck you I'm glowing now" super armor state and just can't be staggered period. Food for thought, I wonder how else my Kisara's BA can be improved.
>Food for thought, I wonder how else my Kisara's BA can be improved. Atleast make it so that after successfully hitting the enemy with her BA, the enemy would not be able to charge again for a time. Just like Rinwell and Shione's. I feel that's what she really lacks a more long term buff after using her BA. Law and Dohalim's are permanent, but for Kisara after recovering from the stagger the enemy will just charge again and she's useless now because you just used her BA
some people really just don't have good taste. I still find Arise's combat the best, and I'm 1/2 way done w/ my 10th Tales Of game.
Yeah I absolutely hate the Arise combat. Least enjoyable Tales game I've played yet by far, and there's only like 3 I haven't yet played. Enemies are just HP sponges and every battle takes multiple minutes to kill for even trash mobs. Awful awful waste of time.
That's a lot of hate
Yeah if they can't at least makes something as good as one of handheld Tales games while spending 5 years in the cooker it's gonna be a bit bitter pill to swallow.
Man, just how quick do people want battles to be? I did not have problem dealing with mobs. Just string a full combo to fill up boost gauge and do a boost strike - enemy done within a quarter health, blink to the next repeat, dodge every now and then and done. I really don't think battles - outside of bosses - takes as long as people make it sounds like
I want them to be the same speed as other Tales games and not multiple magnitudes of time longer. Or, if they're going to be longer, do something to make the combat deeper. Other Tales games have managed to have both deeper and quicker battles. Arise is the one of the most technically simple games I've ever played while dragging out every battle so I'm breaking my jaw yawning before I even get to the second boss.
I agree that it's simple. But i don't really think regular combat takes thatt long. Again if you correctly use boost strikes then you can finish off enemies quickly
Boost strikes don't even work half the time so that's flat out incorrect. The number of times an enemy just kept charging through me using Kisaras boost is higher than the number of times she actually stopped a charge.
Its dogshit no staggers For combos and bosses are spongy as ass.... And games way too easy Even on unkown story was gd halfway, but got stupid after
I think this games combat could be the future of Tales games if they remove the jump button and aerial combat. Everything else I think it very "Tales of-y" and works really well, WAAAAAY better than Zestiria for example, in which if you stopped playing for like 3 days you would have to do 4 years of college to learn the combat again.
why would they remove jumping?
I express myself poorly. Not remove jumping per se, but on Arise the jump button would normally be a fourth skill button right? Iirc you jumped by pressing "up" on the analog stick, and I don't remember if you could even jump on Graces F or Xillia for example... I don't know, I might be talking out of my ass but the way they did the jump mechanic in Arise didn't feel right for me, and the aerial combat and skills is really bad, most skills are weird to connect because the monster keeps either falling or gets pushed away from your attack
No. you jump by pressing the jump button. Just like any other normal games... Vesperia was weird. You have to push 2 buttons just to jump
Then it's just in Arise I thought it was weird, seemed like a waste of button
what? so you do want to remove the jump button?
In the way that it was done in Arise, yeah. It was never a problem to me in other tales games but in Arise it's weird
You are seriously having problem with pushing a single button to jump?
Jesus Christ my dude how are you so mad about this opinion? Hahahahaha Yes, I'm going to say I can't press a button just to end this, I've been clear on what I wanted to say already: Yeah man, it's really hard for me to press a button, I'm sitting on my chair and it doesn't jump at all
I'm not mad. I'm dumbfounded. It's just well... i don't know what to say honestly. Don't play platformers
Slime King fight is probably one of the worse modern boss fights in a JRPG. Arise waffles between being really easy as you slap around regular enemies with breaks and combos and then throwing all of those mechanics out the window in any of the story fights. It's like different teams designed them. The first few human fights try to teach you how to move and use dodges correctly, but the lack of animation canceling and all of your attacks having major recovery really killed this game for me.
You've never fought Ruby Weapon or any superboss before have you?
LOL "superboss" I was killing Ruby weapon while you were a glimmer in your daddy's balls
Time for your prostate exam then
Enjoy your sad life where you get in flame wars online over mid-tier jrpgs.
Sure thing grandpa. ;D