6 Likes
Alright I’ll bite, I’d love to hear your criticism in more detail if you could spare the time
I finished the game for work on the second-hardest difficulty. I liked the hair.
- Defensive actions like parry can’t interrupt offensive actions. This is a stylistic choice more than a RIGHT or WRONG choice, but non-interruptible attacks works better with slower attacks, and needs to be paired with clear, readable divisions between attacks.
- Speaking of clear readable divisions, the player’s attack chain is not! It’s flashy and smooth but doesn’t communicate the underlying structure of the light chain the player is performing, making it difficult to read and learn the moments control is returned to the player. The dual-blade is especially poor for this.
- The player block animation (holding the blade diagonally from the upper left) is difficult to distinguish from standard attacks. This makes it difficult to determine if a parry failed because the player’s input was incorrect or because the game dropped the input because it was disallowed. Additionally, repeating the block/parry action blends the arm back into the block state – it should have a very clear ‘snap’ to indicate the parry window. God of War’s shield sparks are a good example of distinguishing this.
- Enemy tells and attack timings are all over the place. These games need consistency and the speed difference between attacks in the playbook of several of the dark troopers (the dual batons guy? seriously?) is unreal. Fast attacks are fine but an NPC the player will fight five times in a game pulling an attack with a 400ms shorter tell than their rest is not ok.
- what is the design intent of the ranged + melee encounters
- no seriously, I could wear out a red pen underlining and crossing out encounters
- Why are so many encounters constructed with multiple opponents when the combat is so lock-on heavy and the player’s attacks do not hit multiple targets easily? Souls games don’t handle multiple opponents well, but they treat this as a failure of the player to control the space. God of War handles it well, but has a suite of rules to limit enemies attacking from behind and a character with wide attacks. The player’s force powers are a limited tool that generally ends fights; it’s priced too expensively to be used effectively as crowd-control.
- Monster designs generally place their desired fight position outside the player’s attack range. There are far too many extremely-short-tell leap attacks. There are player-mobility-debuff attacks that are followed up with nothing in particular. Creature playbook design feels haphazard and random.
- what the balls was that Kashyyyk platform with three spiders and four slugs that is not acceptable
- Level design appears to have no consistent philosophy on the purpose of constrained enemy groupings. God of War has fight arenas. Jedi sometimes does. Souls games have chokepoints and aggro groupings. Jedi almost always has multiple opponents and no aggro-pulling or space-controlling tactics. Therefore importing the level-design techniques of a Souls game doesn’t get them encounters that play out with spatial consideration and fear of dark corners, it gets them units standing dumbly in groups until Fight Time.
- What does importing the Souls game death/checkpoint system mean in a game which cannot express a variety of combat encounter design like a Souls game, in a game that does not encourage mastery of unique enemy types, whose aesthetics are not built around struggle? It means muddled design.
- The finisher moves are well implemented and, along with the block meter, push combat to end with a good last ten seconds. Good job! I always leave combat happier than when I’m in the middle of it.
11 Likes
Guess I will play this next week and report back.
I forgot one
- One-on-one character AI doesn’t leave windows of idle or taunt behavior. This is appropriate for humans which can be interrupted into the block pose, but it’s egregious on many creatures, especially the yeti-like humanoids that can leap several times in a row, leaving no window for healing abilities.
- The healing animation is very slightly too long. I’d put the point of heal about 100ms earlier – they use the toss->catch to give a clear point of heal but don’t time the health restore to it properly after designing the animation the do so!
- The entire tech tree, is lame. I apologize that this is only partially a combat complaint.
2 Likes
That platform with the slugs and spiders is a real standout as something that just…could not have been given much QA at all.
I eventually settled for running for the chests and scans nearby and letting myself get killed than deal with them.
I just played this game a month or so back and I can’t picture what spider/slug platform you guys are talking about. I recall a section with three spiders and I think a single slug right after a not-bonfire, but that took place in a regular arena-style area.
That’s probably the one. Kinda has a “bridge” going over it. Just remember it being hard not to get swarmed by the spiders and knocked over by the slugs if I wanted to roam that area.
1 Like
I tried the highest dificutly and this is absolutely no souls game and the combat is far too sloppy. Fromsoft gams work with their known avatar and known verb set. Dropping it down for fun star wars-uncharted times.
I liked the implications of working class star wars and would have liked that to be longer but remember how dorkuses went mad after Jedi Outkast held the saber out of reach for 4 levels.
Bumping this down to Jedi Master immediately makes it a playable video game.
@BustedAstromech brought up some valid points about the combat; it could use just a little more friction but what’s in place certainly feels - in my opinion - to have the requisite level of Fromsoft DNA. The visceral sensation of clashing steel in Sekiro is sorely missed with a lightsaber but Fallen Order is honestly not that far off. Playing it on anything less than the hardest difficulty makes it neither a Souls game nor an Uncharted times. I can’t speak for your level of Souls mastery but even if the combat feels ropey to you, the bonfires in Fallen Order are generous enough where you’re never going to hit a wall.
Man this game makes a questionable decision at every corner.
Why do I have to confirm I want to reload when that is the only option?
The blinding white light when you start this game is a crime.
I have now bumped it down to nornal because the encounters suck.