I'm about 12 hours in, level 24 or so, chapter III, and mostly just screwing around in the Duscae region.
I still can't quite wrap my head around the combat in this game. I'm playing with Wait mode activated.
Primarily:
- Targeting seems unnecessarily difficult. Is there any indication that I'm locked onto an opponent? When I hold R1 and press L3 or R3 (forgot which one), I don't see any visual indication that I'm locked on. I think it works sometimes, but it seems to break if I touch the right stick at all.
- This leads to a great deal of confusion in any battle with more than 4 enemies or so, which seems to be the majority. I can't seem to focus fire any specific enemy like I would want do, and most battles just turn into a slog where I'm gradually chipping down all of the enemies pretty evenly.
- I find it hard to keep track of what's going on. I'll look away from health bars for a minute and see a couple of my party members suddenly super low on health the next. Am I just not getting it, or is there a distinct lack of visual feedback when it comes to enemy damage? Also, is there no way to get my party members to automatically heal themselves?
- The block/parry system seems really inconsistent. Sometimes, I will nail the button prompt (holding down square), but I'll end up getting hit. One moment I'll think it's because I was in an attack animation (big sword), but other times the block/parry will go off even if I'm mid-swing, so it just really doesn't make much sense to me. I find I spend a lot of time not attacking and instead waiting in block mode to parry. Is this dumb? Is there any clear explanation of how this system works?
- The camera system is really annoying in most situations. I find myself constantly having to use the right stick to reposition the camera, even with "far" selected for the camera range. Even still, trees branches and other shit get in the way and completely prevent me from being able to see the action.
- Level for level, the enemies as part of mob hunts seem way stronger than the typical mobs roaming the world. Is there any UI indication that tells you which mobs are "powerful" compared to "normal?"
All of this compounds to making me not really enjoy the combat. It seems interesting, but just isn't a lot of fun to engage with thus far in practice. Any advice?
1. The reticle focuses on the target. I've never had an instance where I wasn't sure who I was locked out, only in getting a lock on just the one I want.
2. In big battles, my advice is to warp away and then cast magic to clear out the battlefield, then pick off the remaining guys.
3. There definitely aren't enough visual cues for your team mates, but generally you won't get them chipped down if you don't charge in. Not sure what it is about the combat system, but the further away YOU are (like a warp point) the less your team mates seem to take damage wise. Use warp points to your advantage ALWAYS for this and other reasons (warp attacks do more damage, can cause vulnerability, can break targets, etc). Also your team mates WILL heal themselves if they have magic on them with healing effects or when one of them get knocked down... but if they are all getting swarmed, they'll never have a chance.
4. The system is completely dependent on your attack animation. If you want a more reactive experience with blocks/parries, you're going to need to use the daggers versus the broad swords or axes. Broad sword attack animations, for example, last about 2 seconds and you can't parry during them... but the trade off is they are more likely to knock an opponent into vulnerability.
5. The camera is awful. If you can't see, instead of trying to button spam or turn your camera, it's usually better to use a warp point. See #2 on how often you should use warp points during battle.
6. Levels don't scale like you think they would, especially if you're been grinding out levels. For example: I'm currently level 37, but I'm being wrecked every time I go against 34 coeurls. This is mostly to do with the fact that while you can continue to level up without progressing the story, you can't acquire new weapons and accessories without progressing the story. I'm currently on chapter 3, but my level is far beyond what it should be.
Also ditch wait mode. It was a last second addition that really doesn't add much and really ruins the flow of combat. The combat was designed around real time and even someone with pretty slow reflexes like myself can handle it pretty well when you remember that you are supposed to be using warp points.
TLDR: Warp points. Use them. ALWAYS.