Finished the standard playthrough, before release I was asking for the game to have more crazy weapons like Nevan, Lucifer or Cavaliere from DMCV...Now I think that Bayo3 has set a new standard for crazyness in the genre. The weapons (and demons) that Platinum has come up with far surpass anything I could've imagined. They did it, the mad lads!
I started a new playthrough on Expert to try to find all the missing familiars, verses, chests and whatever. I'm currently on a Witch Trial where you can only damage enemies during Witch Time and I don't know if this only applies to the Trial or if it's because of the Expert difficulty, but I think that Witch Time is shorter? I mean, if I get a perfect dodge I get the usual length, but otherwise I'm getting really short times like when you don't nail the parry with Viola. I don't remember noticing this during my normal playthrough, in fact I thought that it was easier to trigger Witch Time compared to 1 and 2. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe Witch Time is extended in Standard difficulty?
Just finished chapter 1 and Inhave spent 2 hours on training mode. There are so many layers in the gameplay that I cannot believe people used to complain about xenoblade.
TBF, Xenoblade's combat system is the poster child of "complex but not deep"; There are a million of subsystems but they don't translate into you having to make any meaningful decisions, you just apply the same increasingly convoluted method every time (this is speaking about X and 2, I have only played a bit of 1 and nothing of 3 at all).
Bayonetta is quite the opposite: There are a lot of subsystem but each one requires some consideration. For example, taking out the Demon makes you vulnerable, unless you buffer the inputs and let go, but then you need to check that it doesn't get killed or enraged (as I started using more and more Demon Slave I've also had to start using the quick despawn command which I thought was useless before). Trying to make Baal sing all 4 parts of her song means that you're effectively babysitting the Demon, instead of it just being a quick win button that destroys everything on the battlefield. Even the most straightforward ones like Madama and Gomorrah can have a lot of nuances once you try to use them to set up combos for Bayonetta, like launching big enemies so you can continue with an air combo with Bayo.
Yeah I mainly just stick to the default guns, and for demons I’ve been mostly just using Madama Butterfly and Gomorrah, and it’s been okay but I can’t help but feel that something’s missing without a deeper understanding of the combos and all. If it was more accessible, I’d be motivated to actually play the game past the ending and go for all the bonus challenges and getting Pure Platinums and all, but as it is the Bayonetta games ask for a higher level of skill than I’m going to be able to realistically achieve in order to do any of that. But oh well, the games are still fantastic regardless.
(Also I’m not a bro. =P)
It helps a lot to categorize combos by their finisher. For example, with the mic:
- All weapons have a short PKP combo that ends in a straight, forward Wicked Weave.
- All combos that end on a P after a K use a launcher that makes you jump as well.
- All combos that end on a K use an AoE audio blast.
- The PPPPK combo is an exception that ends on a straight, long-range audio blast.
There are also some general rules that apply to all weapons:
- All combos that have 3 K usually trigger 2 Wicked Weaves, so they have a slow but powerful finish.
- All combos for all weapons that end on (pause)+K end with a launcher that makes you jump as well.
- Combos for all weapons that end on (pause)+P end with a launcher that won't make you jump. This is usually only used in short 2/3 hit strings that don't trigger a Wicked Weave.
- Generally, most combo strings start with P, except the KKKK combo that all weapons seem to have (haven't checked them all yet).
- Combos can only go between P and K twice (meaning, you can find something like PPKKP, but not like PKPKP).
- Generally, P are straight forward attacks and K are slower, AoE attacks.
- The longest combos have 6 attacks and are usually PPPKKK or PPP·KKK.
Once you make this combo classification for a weapon, you can start using combos willingly. You'll still be mashing, but now you may decide that you want to make the long range blast and use the PPPPK combo willingly, or want a launcher so use a PPKP or PPKKP combo (note that you can start mashing P and then halfway decide to go on a route that ends on P passing through a K)... Air combos are the same as ground ones, so this also applies for when you're in the air.
Then, you can start adding other special moves:
- Jump+P/K which are usually used to extend air combos while gaining height.
- Back+P/K as an instant launcher (P launches just the enemy, K launches both of you and holding it down keeps you in the air extending the move). Usually these are the same as the combos that end on (Pause)+P/K.
- 360+P/K is and instant WW AoE
- 2xforward+P/K lunges you forward (this move is great for that Witch Trial where you are being constantly pushed by the wind).
- Back-forward P is an instant forward WW.
- Back-forward K is an instant WW right in front of you.
As you can see most of these are shortcuts to the finishers you do in the combos so you can either use them when there's no time to play the whole combo string, or just for variety.
If you want to stop mashing, the best way is to hold the button down and start doing combos slowly extending every hit for as long as the extended hit effect lasts. In the heat of the moment, this helps a lot because you are effectively doing nothing, just holding one button down, so you can use that time to assess what the enemies are doing and decide if you can continue the combo or if it's time to dodge. Also, by holding the attack button down you'll actually execute a dodge offset, so the combo is kept alive and you can continue with the string. With the time that this method adds, you can even start deciding what finisher to use and what combo route to take. Eventually, you'll again start inputting combos quickly and only holding the button down when things become overwhelming and you need a moment to think. I usually tap the buttons to go through the combo quickly, but if I see than an enemy is winding up for an attack, I start holding the button down so I can concentrate on dodging the attack right on time and then finish the combo after that.