I want to be gently introduced to character action games. What's the best one to start with? PC only

[ninja666]

Recently I've been pretty burned out on games, so I decided what I need is to try something slightly different from the usual. After some thinking I realized I barely ever touched the character action genre, mostly because I've always found it too intimidating.

I'm no stranger to fast-paced, reactionary melee combat. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with the Dual Blades in Monster Hunter. Playing as a Strider in Dragons Dogma was a ton of fun, too. I had some fun with Dark Souls 3 as well, although I only played a small part of it due to my PC not being able to handle the game most of the time. The thing here is, however, that this is about as fast as combat gets for me before I'm unable to focus on everything that's going on on the screen due to sheer speed of the gameplay. Also, while I definitely can perform chain/combo attacks to a degree, the game loses me the moment it requires from me to do inputs more complex than a combination of two-three button types in a short-ish sequence.

Is there a game you'd consider appropriate to gently introduce someone like me to the genre, without the skill gap I have to conquer being too wide, or is it purely the kind of games where lightning-fast movement and fighting game-like combos are king?

I only play on a PC at the moment and a low-end one at that, so the recommendations should be something I can run. It shouldn't be that much of a problem, though, since such games come out very rarely and pretty much all of them have been released for PC at some point in time. Here are my specs:

- AMD Athlon II X4 @2.8GHz
- 4GB RAM
- Radeon HD7770 1GB
- Windows 7

Thanks in advance for helping me out.

 

[sXeth]

Castlevania Lords of Shadow was a fairly accessible one in the vein of God of War.

The first one wasn't super-popular, and the second one was (a bit exaggeratedly, though the stealth sections are dumb) maligned, so they're probably reasonably cheap too.

The various interchangeable licensed Platinum Games are also generally pretty forgiving.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Never played a character character action game before playing Metal Gear Rising, and had a blast with it.

 

[CaitSeith]

Bayonetta. If you don't mind all the sexual references, it's a blast.

 

[wings012]

Well, Devil May Cry 5 just came out. Though being a brand spanking new game, it's gonna have heavy requirements.

3 and 4 are also on PC, and it ain't hard to emulate a PS2 in order to play the first if you so wish. There's also the DmC reboot by Ninja Theory, which in my opinion was very fun. Even if the combo options were a bit of a clusterfuck, it's lightning fast and has insane combo length and variety with the ability to hook yourself towards enemies or hook them towards you instead. These are all quite old so I don't think hardware requirements are a big deal.

Often a lot of the time with these character action games though, is that despite the insane combo variety - you'll typically end up sticking to just a few combo strings you are comfortable with. As long as you learn enemy patterns and dodge accordingly, you really don't need to get too familiar with all the combo system has to offer. Typically just figure out a bread and butter attack string, and other strings are based on necessity. Sometimes an enemy type needs a shield broken which requires a strong attack or something, or some enemies need to be launched. Most of the time it is only as complicated as you wish it to be.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Well, Devil May Cry 5 just came out. Though being a brand spanking new game, it's gonna have heavy requirements.

No it didn't, comes out March 2019.

 

[ninja666]

Well, Devil May Cry 5 just came out. Though being a brand spanking new game, it's gonna have heavy requirements.

No it didn't, comes out March 2019.

Yeah, that kinda confused me for a minute there. Had to google the release date to double check if I'm not insane because I could swear I saw 2019 as part of the planned release date in the trailers.

Bayonetta. If you don't mind all the sexual references, it's a blast.

Isn't Bayonetta, like, super difficult? I've always heard it referenced everywhere as such.

Never played a character character action game before playing Metal Gear Rising, and had a blast with it.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow was a fairly accessible one in the vein of God of War.

These sound like reasonable starting points. I'm still on the fence between them and Bayonetta, though. I'm gonna wait till someone confirms or denies my concerns regarding the difficulty before making my final decision.

The various interchangeable licensed Platinum Games are also generally pretty forgiving.

By that you mean Legend of Korra, TMNT and such? I might give them a whirl. although I'm not really keen on playing games based on franchises I don't know or care about (yes, somehow I managed to not watch even a single episode of TMNT, Transformers, or Avatar during my entire life so far; I guess I didn't have a good childhood, or something).

 

[wings012]

My bad. I saw it on sale on Steam and had a massive brainfart. Didn't realize it was just pre-purchase....

 

[sXeth]

The various interchangeable licensed Platinum Games are also generally pretty forgiving.

By that you mean Legend of Korra, TMNT and such? I might give them a whirl. although I'm not really keen on playing games based on franchises I don't know or care about (yes, somehow I managed to not watch even a single episode of TMNT, Transformers, or Avatar during my entire life so far; I guess I didn't have a good childhood, or something).

I'm more personally familiar with Revengeance and TRansformers Devastation, but yeah, those ones too.

While Bayonetta was a bit tougher, their licensed stuff seemed to be pretty forgiving. The combos and higher level play were still there, but you could get by with a pretty basic level without getting punished overmuch in them..

 

[BrawlMan]

snip

Already beat me to it. But yeah, you can get the entire DMC series on Steam now. Make sure if you get 4, it's the special edition. Korra, TMNT, and Transformers Devestation you can't get digitally anymore, because Suckivision does not have the licenses to those properties anymore. You can find physical copies of Transformers and TMNT (consoles yes; PC, I do not know), but you are out of luck with Korra. If you need pick one, just get Transformers and skip TMNT. When 5 does come out, you might need an uprgade

I also recommend Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising. Assault Spy is pretty great from what I hear, but I never have played it. And majority of these games don't require much hardware; especially AS. I would recommend Onechanbara Z2: Chaos, but the PC version is known for having problems, so you might as well get the PS4 version. Unless there were fan made patches that fixed all the issues. There is also Ninja Blade if you want a poor-man's version of Ninja Gaiden. It was made by From Software, so you get to see one of the titles they were doing before they found their footing with Dark Souls.

 

[anthony87]

Isn't Bayonetta, like, super difficult? I've always heard it referenced everywhere as such.

It can be, but it and the Devil May Cry series only really get super difficult on the higher difficulty settings. The Easy/Normal difficulties are pretty good at easing you in and they both have some degree of "Easy Automatic" mode where you basically mash the attack button and do combo.

 

[ninja666]

Isn't Bayonetta, like, super difficult? I've always heard it referenced everywhere as such.

It can be, but it and the Devil May Cry series only really get super difficult on the higher difficulty settings. The Easy/Normal difficulties are pretty good at easing you in and they both have some degree of "Easy Automatic" mode where you basically mash the attack button and do combo.

I see. Doesn't sound all that bad, then. I think I'll go with Bayonetta, since it's the only one of the bigger ones that I haven't actually seen any gameplay footage of, so I'd be going in absolutely blind into it. Thanks for the help, everyone!

 

[CaitSeith]

Bayonetta. If you don't mind all the sexual references, it's a blast.

Isn't Bayonetta, like, super difficult? I've always heard it referenced everywhere as such.

What anthony87 said. Just be sure to explore the levels well, so you get new weapons to have fun with.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

These types of games tend to have very forgiving lower difficulty settings. You can't go wrong with Devil May Cry 3 and 4. You don't have to play the first two, but I'd at least recommend the first one. DMC2 gets a lot of hate for a reason, even today. I think that you can even play that spin-off/reboot that didn't quite go anywhere DmC: Devil May Cry. Since you're not a fan of the original franchise, you'll probably be able to enjoy it more than the fans.

 

[BrawlMan]

These types of games tend to have very forgiving lower difficulty settings. You can't go wrong with Devil May Cry 3 and 4. You don't have to play the first two, but I'd at least recommend the first one. DMC2 gets a lot of hate for a reason, even today. I think that you can even play that spin-off/reboot that didn't quite go anywhere DmC: Devil May Cry. Since you're not a fan of the original franchise, you'll probably be able to enjoy it more than the fans.

Since 2016, I was able to have fun with DmC: Definitive Edition as it added or fixed mechanics that were problematic with the original release. My problem with DmC is that it was an unnecessary point of the franchise, played like a lesser version of 4, and had a story up so far its own ass. Had DmC been a spin-off or a DMC-like title with different names for all of the characters, the game might have fared better. This was the era where companies were following the "dark and edgy" for the sake of it, or influenced by COD in some way. The Japanese were trying too hard to appeal to the West, instead of focusing on what sells or makes them unique. See Capcom or Koei-Tecmo. I won't drag this off-topic, but as a DMC fan, I enjoy the reboot far more now, than I did since its inception.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I would really recommend going with the special edition of DMC4. DMC4 is great for newcomers and beginners.

The game starts with a new character, Nero, who is a great character for beginners. He basically has a single moveset and his sword moveset is very large, and easy to tailor to your play style. He makes it easy to understand the basic mechanics of the game.

Then halfway through the game switches to Dante, and Dante is a style beast. He has 4 different fighting styles right off the bat, and gets 3 guns and 3 melee weapons through the course of the game. He can switch between all of these on the fly and create crazy combos (the most complicated in the series).

So the game ramps up very well and does a good job teaching you the mechanics as it goes. The once you finish the game you unlock 3 more characters, all with their own completely different fighting styles and you get to continue your learning curve on higher difficulties.

The game definitely has some problems, but mechanically it's a great introduction to character action games.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I think I'll go with Bayonetta, since it's the only one of the bigger ones that I haven't actually seen any gameplay footage of, so I'd be going in absolutely blind into it. Thanks for the help, everyone!

Awesome, Bayonetta was the first character action game / spectacle fighter that I really played and it ended being my favorite game of last-gen. Just take the time to learn the dodge offset mechanic (allows you to continue combos after dodging), it makes the game so much more rewarding.

 

[ninja666]

Alright, so I played a bit of Bayonetta already and I'm slightly confused. Is the combat supposed to be this loose and floaty in those types of games? 90% of the time, I can't even tell whether or not my hits are connecting, since there's no discernible difference in how a hit and a whiff feels.

 

[Bad Jim]

I think I'll go with Bayonetta, since it's the only one of the bigger ones that I haven't actually seen any gameplay footage of, so I'd be going in absolutely blind into it. Thanks for the help, everyone!

Awesome, Bayonetta was the first character action game / spectacle fighter that I really played and it ended being my favorite game of last-gen. Just take the time to learn the dodge offset mechanic (allows you to continue combos after dodging), it makes the game so much more rewarding.

Bayonetta is actually on sale at the moment.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/460790/Bayonetta/

 

[BrawlMan]

Alright, so I played a bit of Bayonetta already and I'm slightly confused. Is the combat supposed to be this loose and floaty in those types of games? 90% of the time, I can't even tell whether or not my hits are connecting, since there's no discernible difference in how a hit and a whiff feels.

EDIT: Depends on the game. Bayo 1 & 2 will feel a bit floaty if you're used to the old DMCs or Ninja Gaiden, but once you get used to it, you won't notice much difference. Learn to be patient with your dodges, there is always a rhythm to these things. There is a difference for when your attack wiffs or hits. There is always a little hit mark whenever you land an attack or your opponent gets hit stunned. Tougher enemies are harder to hit stun or parry your attack in the case of human sized bosses. I recommend spending extra time in the training room whenever your in a loading screen.