On Dissidia Duodecim

[Pyre1million]

So! Now that the game is out (or the demo for us not in Japan), we can assess it! All the little mechanical changes and whatnot. I'm going to try to compile a list of pros and cons, and anyone else who cares to, please add to the discussion!

Cons first

1)Chase Sequences are BAD now. In the original Dissidia, it was impossible to take a hit in them so long as you were careful and paid attention. Now it is literally almost impossible NOT to. Brave attacks have next to no warning at all, and even if you see them coming, not pressing X before they launch means you're going to take the hit no matter what. This leads to hitting X preemptively, which causes you to eat HP attacks when the computer switches to those.

Chase Sequences did need to be fixed, yes. But this is a bad, bad change to a major aspect of the game, rendering what should be a test of calmness under pressure and reflex into a coin toss.

2) Assists are fairly pointless. It's not that they are a BAD mechanic - they don't detract from the game in any concrete way. But they're a pretty meaningless addition that only serves to clutter up your options and the screen while playing - the intention of them, to balance out character weaknesses, was simply excessive from the get-go. Characters are SUPPOSED to have weaknesses and strengths, it's what makes for varied play style. So we're stuck with a cool-looking but meaningless and annoying extra system.

3) the various tiny alterations to improve the usefulness or scale back the overpowered nature of attacks are sometimes too much in one direction or another. Many attacks are almost or outright impossible to avoid now, which is a problem for HP attacks.

Pros

1) Forcing the player to expend their full EX guage when using it to interrupt an attack is probably the best possible change they could have made. In one simple change they altered an entire aspect of gameplay, and simultaneously rendered one of the most broken characters (Gabranth) into a MUCH more balanced and manageable opponent. By extension, using the EX gauge in the Assist system takes that meaningless add-on to the game's engine and gives it an element of strategy that makes it less meaningless, since you now must choose between having a full Ex Gauge or calling in your assist character.

2) The various tiny alterations to improve the usefulness or scale back the overpowerd nature of attacks are sometimes very effective. Some attacks that were near-useless in the previous installment have been bumped up to exceptional usefulness.

3) Damage on EVERYTHING has been scaled down to a huge degree. This is a simultaneous pro and con, as while it makes for longer, more varied fights, it can also make those fights take stupidly-long as each character tries desperately to build up enough brave for an HP attack to matter at all. At high levels though, this will likely eliminate the infuriating one-move kills that some characters were capable of (Cloud in Inward Chaos anyone?), which can only be seen as a good thing.


The only other complaint I've managed to find about the game so far involves the incredible negligence/incompetence/ evil on Square Enix's part regarding the omission of characters from 6 and 9 and how that information was related to the public (or rather, kept from the public explicitly). While I'm tempted to include that in the discussion here, it runs a huge risk of sidetracking things. So, I'll tuck my thoughts on that into a spoiler; let's try to keep any responses to it in the same, to avoid sidetracking more meaningful discussion.

Spoiler

Now let's be honest - when you realize you are running out of space in your game for things that every reasonable customer will be expecting, you either cut the extemporaneous shit (Full CG cutscenes introducing characters, needless cluttering add-ons to mechanics, etc. etc.) out to make room for the more important elements, or you tell your target audience some time BEFORE you release the game, instead of the day you put it in stores so that a few thousand people own it by the time anyone realizes something's amiss. The only excuse for that kind of PR is being new to the industry, which Square Enix is not, or being pretty much evil, waiting to release the information until you're sure it can't meaningfully impact sales. Seeing as Square Enix IS a business, the latter is much, much more likely. So all of us who were waiting for new characters from games that just happened to be our favorites have to accept the colossal, explicit "fuck you" from the company, and carry on.

 

[-Seraph-]

Chase sequences aren't that bad, it just takes to time to get used to them. I've had trouble dodging HP attacks, but I'm also a little stuck in the old ways trying to get over the nasty habit of jump resets and lack of DC combos. Chase is fine after you log enough time into it, just practice, and if you don't want to continue to chase sequence you can stall it and proceed to fight in your own way. Now they could have slowed it down a tiny bit, but I'll get used to it with time, it's really no different than other split second reaction aspects of other fighting games.

Assists are hardly pointless, they add a massive load of options to your arsenal and DO offer a means to offset certain character weaknesses. They function the same way assists do in other fighting games, to counter act certain negative aspects of the people your using. The player and assist character can still be left vulnerable to extreme punishment as well. Assist also work for combos, distractions, shields, and EX busters. The amount of options they give you change how the entire game is played and are hardly just a flashy and useless add on.

Wait wait wait....did you just call Gabranth broken? Excuse me for a second while I got laugh my ass off. He wasn't broken at all, and the changes made to him in this game don't change that fact. While he was pretty good in EX mode, he was a total wuss outside of it and was easy pickings. Even while in EX mode, he was not all THAT powerful. Yea Duel Rend was a ***** to predict, but he was far from the likes of Zidane and Kuja. They actually buffed him in 012, allowing him to cancel attacks into EX charge (while outside of EX mode of course), and making him invulnerable to one of EX breaks effects (granting opponent the neutral brave).

Damage has been scaled down yes, but it doesn't make fights last too much longer than usual. See now that there is brave break, EX break, and Assist break, there are plenty of ways to get a big boost of brave points if you play your cards right. And with assists making it easier to land HP attacks for characters who don't have BP>HP links, it become less about hoarding your brave to the point of one hit KO, and more chipping people away in some cases.

Although I am glad that the HP cap has been raised so 9999 brave 9which is still the brave cap) will no long instantly kill you. From what I've seen, through legit means, the max HP so far is 15000 or so.

As for the whole FF6 and 9 character fiasco...I'm not even gonna bother touching that. I've argued that way too many times so I'm just gonna leave it at "whatever".

My biggest complaint is mainly the lack of true online play. That is one thing this game really needs as I don't have a PS3 for the use of ad hoc party and Xlink is a real finicky system.

Another disappointing aspect is no assist customization. For a game that has such a heavy emphasis on customization, it's a shame you can't customize the move set of your assist character. Why the fuck does Golbez has Air attack system and Glare hand? I'd rather have Gravity force for wall rush effect and Rise wave for follow up air combos dammit!!

Oh well, I'll make due with these changes in time, no use being stubbornly stuck in the old ways.

 

[Pyre1million]

I'm wondering if the problem I'm having with Chase Sequences is just my PSP - I have yet to succesfully avoid a Brave attack any time that I didn't hit X before the attack began. Until I manage to get other examples from the people I know who own the system, I have to conclude that the entire mechanic has been adjusted too far to the swiftness direction. The ability to cancel out of a major mechanic of the game because it's no longer viable is not a good thing.

Regarding Assists, that was my point: Characters are SUPPOSED to have weaknesses. Having an unwieldy extra option to counteract the weaknesses of a character you're playing is needless: the entire point to playing a given character in a fighting game is that you understand and deal with their weaknesses and make the best use of their strengths. Perhaps with enough practice they can become worthwhile, but without that they're just annoyances, and one more thing to keep track of in a game that has had its pace moved up to 'frenetic'.

You've never played against a human opponent who uses and stats out Gabranth properly, have you? With the right gear setup and play style, getting to/ harming Gabranth before he has a full EX gauge is nearly impossible. Regarding his being broken, it was entirely possible to have a full EX gauge, wait for your opponent to launch an attack, then active EX mode and hit them for an instant or two-move-to-EX burst win. Add to this the fact that Gabranth could easily out-damage Chaos with only a decent gear setup, and way Innocence functioned and Gabranth snapped the difficulty curve of the game cleanly in half.

Then again, the idea that you consider a character as low-end as Kuja broken is baffling to me, to the point I wish I could see what playstyles we're both speaking from - I've never found Kuja more than a moderate annoyance at best, no matter the difficulty level or playstyle.

The scaling down of damage turns the entire game into chipping people down. While a completely viable strategy (and amusingly more in keeping with the RPG roots of the franchise), it gets tiresome, and boring, very very quickly. But again, if that's the price to pay for negating single-combination kills at high levels, it's worth it.

Same for the HP cap. It worried me at first, but again, not having to worry about losing the second the opponent does anything is nice.

And regarding the last, you could have left it at "fiasco" and been completely accurate.

 

[-Seraph-]

Characters STILL have draw backs even with assists. Assists are there for more than simple counter balancing. They're used as pressure, and are a means to balance out the combo system as in the first game, there were characters with some seriously powerful DC combos. You don't simply use Assists for attack though, they do a whole lot more to the system and when you spend enough time with them, you'll see they are far from unnesecceary.

I also played Gabranth and know about the whole gear junk. But there in lies the problem to that argument, you can make ANYONE overpowered with the right gear. In competitive play, there tends to be standardized rule sets (which 012 allows you to make), and he is far from overpowered. If you're playing an "anything goes" rule set, well...My Golbez, ExDeath, and Jecht will have a nasty habit of cleaning house.

If you think Kuja is low end, you are HORRIBLY mistaken. He along with Zidane and Terra are top tier characters in competitive play. He may not be horribly broken, but he has a serious advantage over many many other characters. Calling him low end is just a joke, he had serious air superiority, and in Dissidia 1, that meant you were top dog. How this will all pan out in 012 is still up in the air, but the devs have made some reasonable efforts to balance characters out.

They may have scaled down the damage, just it's still pretty easy to get high brave real fast. The only aspect of damage they scaled down was critical hits, which was for the better. Everything else is largely the same save for a few minor adjustments to certain moves.

Crits are no longer x5 damage and are now x2 which is a whole lot more fair. And if you're adding crit bonuses to your characters, you can still do some serious damage. I and plenty of people have had no problem racking up 2-3000 brave in a short time and then bringing down the pain. At high level play, it's not really that much different than the first.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

There's a demo?

All I saw was that Prologue that I had to PAY FOR.

 

[Pyre1million]

Again, it's not just the gear for Gabranth. The gear setup simply helped - the easy way being giving him the special items that had him at instant full EX from the get-go. His damage was still far beyond any of the other characters even with sup-par gear. And once he was in EX mode, very nearly the only option was to stay away from him until it ran out, thanks to his damage output and the priority of most of his moves. Barring taking advantage of his inability to be a threat OUTSIDE EX mode, there was no real way to beat Gabranth if he was being played by someone halfway competent.

Again, I've never faced Kuja and had him be much of a threat, nor have I ever played him and had him be useful when compared to pretty much anybody else in the game. His attacks are universally easy to predict and counter, and he does low-end damage on all of them regardless of gear. Superior air mobility didn't mean much in the face of minimal defense and minimal ability to harm the opponent. I need to see if this is altered in Duodecim.

So far I've found it functionally impossible to get Brave anything resembling 'high', but that may be because I'm playing just the basic story mode of Prologus, and Lightning's moves are irritatingly low-damage. I must try whatever else the demo has to offer.

I'm also finding that attempting to dodge pretty much any attack is pointless now: the range on most moves has been upgraded to the point where it simply isn't possible to get out of the way, and the invincibility frames being reduced on dodges makes the entire mechanic almost useless. While this thus makes blocking much more important, as opposed to the near-useless role it had in the original Dissidia, that requires figuring out the new timing on blocks, which seems to have taken a note from the timing on Chase Sequences.

In terms of a good change, the vastly extended time on dashes makes those movements much easier, as opposed to having to repress R and triangle several times to get anywhere.

 

[-Seraph-]

There's a demo?

All I saw was that Prologue that I had to PAY FOR.

Prologus is a paid demo, costs like 3 bucks. It's sort of like DLC as well as a demo. You get game data for unlocking Aerith as an exclusive assist character, a short prologue to the games story (hence "Prologus"), and items you earn in it are transferred into the full game. It's pretty much a giant chunk of the actual game given to you.

If you don't care about the Aerith assist, then you don't really need to get it, but 3 dollars for a 240mb download that is a massive chunk of the game is a reasonable price. Arcade mode is fun and will keep you occupied till the full game, 30 battle gauntlets are an excellent time sink.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

There's a demo?

All I saw was that Prologue that I had to PAY FOR.

Prologus is a paid demo, costs like 3 bucks. It's sort of like DLC as well as a demo. You get game data for unlocking Aerith as an exclusive assist character, a short prologue to the games story (hence "Prologus"), and items you earn in it are transferred into the full game. It's pretty much a giant chunk of the actual game given to you.

If you don't care about the Aerith assist, then you don't really need to get it, but 3 dollars for a 240mb download that is a massive chunk of the game is a reasonable price. Arcade mode is fun and will keep you occupied till the full game, 30 battle gauntlets are an excellent time sink.

The fact remains, I'm playing the demo to find out if I like the game's changes enough to buy it. Anyone who spends $3 for the Prologue, already has a good chance of getting Duodecim anyway.

This is based off the practice of Case Zero, I assume. The issue being that Case Zero itself HAD A FREE TRIAL. A demo of a more extensive demo, if you will.

 

[Pyre1million]

While I really don't care about Aerith (and in fact have joined the crowd angry at her inclusion in any form when other, better characters have been left out, take that dead horse), I agree about the advantage. 3 bucks for a chunk of the game, DLC content and transferable benefits is more than reasonable.

On the heels of that, though, so far I'm more aggravated by the demo and the changes I distinctly dislike more than anything else. Since I've been having to find reasons to convince myself to buy the full game, that certainly isn't helping tilt me towards spending the forty dollars on it.

 

[-Seraph-]

Again, Gabranth wasn't broken and never was, this is universally agreed upon by the Dissidia community. His stats compared to other characters wasn't all that much more powerful. Oh sure he was strong, but other than Duel Rend, his other attacks were not hard to avoid. Hell he was like mid tier I think, it was easy to keep him from going into EX mode, and his HP attacks were easily avoidable. Even if the Gabranth player is being a noob and spamming innocence from the top of the stage, it was still easy to demolish him.

I guess you have never seen a serious Kuja in action, because trust me he's no laughing matter. Air superiority meant a lot in Dissida, and Kuja had some nifty tricks that allowed him to become a serious threat. I've payed and seen enough competitive play of Kuja to know that he's not as you think he is. Just go take a look at http://dissidiaforums.com/index.php if you think I'm kidding. They will laugh at any notion implying that Kuja is a low character. You under estimate how powerful air game was in the first game, it really did lend things to be in favor of aerial fighters.

When you start playing arcade mode, especially hard mode where you use lvl 50 characters, you start to see the damage nerf is not as bad as you think it is. Also, lightning isn't a high damage dealer, she's average in terms of damage output while she excels in situation adaptation and versatility. Play Cloud, Jecht, or Graland and you'll see how easy it is for them to just dummy opponents.

Dodging work fine, timing has slightly changed due to the increased speed of the game. Remember, it takes a while for all this to sink in as at first it can feel a little jarring. Plus there are some perks in the full game that may remedy your problem. Just look up precision dodge and prevision block and know true greatness.

Wait 40 bucks? The game is actually 30 as stated by SE, unless you live somewhere where the retailers or country is shafting you. The game is 10 bucks cheaper because of the future DLC costumes and music (all optional of course).

 

[Pyre1million]

Hadn't checked the SE statement. The fact that they're actually making statements at all is an improvement.

I'm still fascinated by this Gabranth thing, and again I have to wonder if it isn't just a difference in playstyle. I can't imagine a situation where playing as Gabranth and losing is likely, regardless of the opponent. Innocence in either of its forms was nearly unavoidable, and he only ever had to hit a few times to break an opponent outright. Barring the Ex Depletion abilities, I also can't imagine how a character could keep him out of EX mode. Again, unless the person playing him doesn't understand the dodge and block functions.

I'll look into the Kuja thing. Given his low-end damage, what advantages did he have besides superior aerial mobility? I never found that to be helpful when the opponent can see everything you're throwing from miles away and block it all fairly effortlessly.

Observation - Arcade mode HEAVILY improves the Prologus experience. There is a lot of difference between trying to play Lightning, and playing a character one is actually familiar with. The fact that Arcade mode has been improved (I could hug whoever gave you the option of switching moves around) is also a bonus.

 

[-Seraph-]

Yea arcade mode is a huge difference compared to the small little story mode. I still find it funny that you have to unlock Cloud in the demo though...but it's not that difficult, you just gotta defeat Tifa when she decides to show up. Wait wait...you can switch the moves around in the customization menu? dammit I feel stupid. I didn't think you could do it so i never bothered trying, it'll make playing certain characters more comfortable as there are some moves mapped to places I wouldn't map em.

Innocence wasn't that difficult to dodge, you could easily dash away or jump out of the way. The nerfed the range on it in 012 if you're concerned about it. And the blast from Guilt will no long come out if the initial sword stab doesn't connect. I think Duel Rend does a little less damage but that's about all the nerfs he got which seem reasonable.

 

[Pyre1million]

Those sound like fantastic balancing nerfs for Gabranth. Innocence was easy to avoid IF you were positioned in a certain place when it was fired. If you were too close to Gabranth, but not close enough to get over him, there was no way to get out of the way. Innocence in the air had the same issue, though was less brutal thanks to its slower speed and lower range.

This alteration where you can only choose which direction to dodge while on the ground is firmly in the area of a BAD game mechanic, however, given that it's already impossible to dodge certain attacks WITH the ability to decide direction.

And yes, you can switch Arcade mode move maps (though not select entirely different moves), and it is GLORIOUS. Getting to play Warrior of Light with the moveset I'm used to for him is literally like breathing fresh air after having to deal with Lightning's setup.

 

[-Seraph-]

This alteration where you can only choose which direction to dodge while on the ground is firmly in the area of a BAD game mechanic, however, given that it's already impossible to dodge certain attacks WITH the ability to decide direction.

I'm confused as to what you are talking about here. You could always choose which direction to dodge, you can choose the direction of your dodge in the air too. And no attack is unavoidable, that's just total nonsense, it's just a matter of timing and execution.

And to deviate from some of this bickering (if you can call it that), so far I am enjoying Kain and Lightning to an extent.

Lightning is exactly how I imagined her to be, a walking swiss army knife with the tools for almost any given situation. Her damage output is average, but with the right assists and some of her combos, she can rack up a good amount of damage. Her attack speed is pretty average as well but proper timing, punishers, ect...will always overcome said short comings. Always shifting between her 3 modes is crucial in order to win with her, and it keeps the opponent on their toes and forcing them to adapt accordingly.

Medic is great way to top off your brave and bait the opponent. Throwing out Thundaga then swithcing to medic and using cure is a GREAT way to bait mages as Thundaga block low priority magic. I really lover her, I do enjoy versatility in my characters and she delivers. Definitely being added to my list of mains.

Kain is a fun fighter as well who can keep pressure on the opponent with his triangle dash. Although he has some great moves and a very good areal combatant, he's rather predictable. The spacing for his moves feels a bit weird too, but good timing can remedy this. He's just a bit too vertical for my liking. His vertical game is great, but his horizontal game feels a bit lacking to me.

I gotta play more of him, but I can see him becoming one of my secondaries at least.

 

[Pyre1million]

The game's instructions and the actual play seem to be contradicting each other. One of the helpful little advice screens claims you can only choose which direction to dodge while on the ground. In practice, however, it appears aerial dodging is just the same as always.

As to timing and execution, no. Or rather, a significant part of that is now direction as well. Attempting to dodge Glare Hand in any direction but toward Golbez will get you hit utterly regardless of your timing. I've yet to figure out how to dodge Meteor Rain or Hell's Gate at all, to the degree I'm assuming it's just flat out impossible until the option to increase dodge distance comes up.

 

[-Seraph-]

Glare hand has always been a frontal or reverse dodge depending on your distance from Golbez. A lot of Golbys attacks can be dodged by dodging over/towards him.

Meteor rain I an had no trouble dodging and only got caught in it like twice. It has tracking so it's a matter of dodging before the attack starts to hit, run a bit and then dodge again.

Hells gate is laughably easy to counter, a simple reverse or overhead dodge can avoid it.

 

[Legion IV]

It looks intresting and all but... I never could get into Dissiedia. Am fan for life of FF i have a Gaint ass FF display taking my guest room up (my guest beter like FF lol)

Dissiedia just felt kind of silly. It didnt take into consideration anyones real powers, it seems more like dragon Ball z, everyone flying around and shit. I think i've spent like 35% of my time fighting on the ground.

It takes way to many liberaties and changes around characters and there personality oddly. They didnt even add Auron Or Snow or shadow! just blegh.

Tifa cant fly, neither can 75% of the cast in that game.

 

[sb666]

I'm not getting it seeing as the couldn't be stuffed adding any thing from final fantasy 9.

 

[Hisshiss]

Sounds about on the mark, especially the thing about chase sequences..ive taken to just letting them end now, since the odds are so painfully stacked in even an average difficulty bots favor that it's just not worth doing.

As for the assist system, I think you just need to practice with it a little more, whatever its original intention was, I find that it helps ALOT against those stalemate fights where your either up against someone who always has you on the run or more likely a bot that just refuses to take a hit ever, dodging 45 times in a row. The assist allows you to line up really powerful and if executed properly, near impossible to avoid combo's that can really tilt the battle in your favor, especially with, as you said, damage being much lower than it was.

On that topic, the main reason (aside from minor scaling changes) were not all getting insta 9999 broken in this one is because they scaled back the damage from a crit from 500% to 200%, makes all the difference in the world. And best of all, it makes other strategies at high levels other than "stack as much free crit abilities as humanly possible then 1 shot them" viable. Thank cosmos for that. (see what I did thar? Lawl).


Edit: Oh yeah, someone higher up mentioned the other use of assists, which is breaking out of combo's and Hp attacks, which actually can be even more useful than using it offensively. And that boon is very vital now since you can no longer exmode stagger out of combo's without giving up your entire bar for 1, maybe 2 combos during the revenge bullet time thingie.

 

[Pyre1million]

Glare hand has always been a frontal or reverse dodge depending on your distance from Golbez. A lot of Golbys attacks can be dodged by dodging over/towards him.

Meteor rain I an had no trouble dodging and only got caught in it like twice. It has tracking so it's a matter of dodging before the attack starts to hit, run a bit and then dodge again.

Hells gate is laughably easy to counter, a simple reverse or overhead dodge can avoid it.

Except dodging toward someone now means taking the hit from most of the attacks you're trying to dodge: Blade Beam, Meteor Rain, and others can no longer be dodged this way at all.

I'm intrigued at your description of how to dodge Meteor Rain, because it's not working for me. Dodging before the attack hits simply causes the tracking to nail you before you get the chance to move anywhere, thanks to the now-huge recovery time on everybody. This has so far proven true for me and all computer opponents: the only way I've seen anything dodge Meteor Rain is by being too high, or going directly backwards at such an angle the move can't track. But I suppose I could keep trying it to see if I can get it to work.

Given that overhead/ forward dodging now gets you hammered, I'm not sure how that's supposed to help against Hell's Gate. It's like the trick to it in the original game, where dodging too soon got you slammed no matter what, has now been extended to the entirety of the attack - it's simply not possible to dodge far enough out of the way, no matter when you try and do it.

It looks intresting and all but... I never could get into Dissiedia...It takes way to many liberaties and changes around characters and there personality oddly. They didnt even add Auron Or Snow or shadow! just blegh.

Tifa cant fly, neither can 75% of the cast in that game.

The flying everyone does is just a battle mechanic - essentially porting Advent Children's physics into a video game (and the FF6 cast was capable of the same stuff in cutscenes, at least). Character's personalities remained almost entirely intact, albeit it was character's personalities from specific parts of their timelines - Terra in the original Dissidia was between World of Balance and World of Ruin, Cecil was from after the completion of FF4 but before the After Years, etc.

As to added characters, see both the point about the omission of characters from FF6 and 9, and also the semi-legitimate point that they were looking for characters that would bring unique gameplay aspects with them - hence one reason Yuna made it in over Auron, when the latter obviously fits the concept of Dissidia much better

I'm not getting it seeing as the couldn't be stuffed adding any thing from final fantasy 9.

Like I said, I'd prefer to address this in spoilers. But if you scroll up you can see my take on it, vis a vis incompetence/ negligence/ typical large corporation evil, depressingly so for a fanservice game.

Sounds about on the mark, especially the thing about chase sequences..ive taken to just letting them end now, since the odds are so painfully stacked in even an average difficulty bots favor that it's just not worth doing.

As for the assist system, I think you just need to practice with it a little more, whatever its original intention was, I find that it helps ALOT against those stalemate fights where your either up against someone who always has you on the run or more likely a bot that just refuses to take a hit ever, dodging 45 times in a row. The assist allows you to line up really powerful and if executed properly, near impossible to avoid combo's that can really tilt the battle in your favor, especially with, as you said, damage being much lower than it was.

On that topic, the main reason (aside from minor scaling changes) were not all getting insta 9999 broken in this one is because they scaled back the damage from a crit from 500% to 200%, makes all the difference in the world. And best of all, it makes other strategies at high levels other than "stack as much free crit abilities as humanly possible then 1 shot them" viable. Thank cosmos for that. (see what I did thar? Lawl).

Yes, even having gotten used to the new timing now, Chase Sequences are simply no longer worth it. A tiny mistake gets you hammered if you even perceive warning at all: they managed to ruin one of the major mechanics of the game. Which honestly was to be expected given that it was a fighting game getting major gameplay overhauls, but it's still aggravating.

I'm beginning to figure out the uses of the Assist system, or at least the "Surprise, my partner just attacked you from behind" uses. Using Assist characters to block or do anything besides set up combo attacks just seems to result in enough needless effects on screen to make Super Smash Brothers cringe, along with slowdown and generally just being more confusing than it could possibly be worth. Attempting to use an Assist to break out of any ongoing combo has yet to have an effect other than Assist Lock and eating the entire combo anyway. Combos that don't deal steady damage are a different story, but those are few and far between.

It is good to notice that the damage reduction makes higher levels so much more manageable, while still leaving characters to play the way they used to - being able to outright shatter someone's Brave with any given one of Warrior of Light's Rune Blade combinations, for example.