All the flaws surrounding the core game (minigames, narrative, decisions on difficulty, decisions on how to obtain essential movement abilities, and more) have been discussed or are already obvious enough to reiterate on them. The saving grace of KH2, and more in Final Mix, has always been its combat, yet even with some good ideas, it is so feeble that just a bit of observation would tear it apart.
The game has three different types of fights, typical of any melee action (3D) game: mob fights, boss fights and hybrids. The most interesting ones are usually the hybrids, since they are the ones where strategies cannot be so easily reused from battle to battle.
Mob fights start up being quite good, with a basic but effective enemy management exercise that is utterly destroyed by magnet and, especially, the Chicken Little summon. Anyone who has not played the game on Critical Level 1 may be surprised to read that Chicken Little is useful at all, just one of the multiple examples of the game in any other condition being so brainless that about 90% of the fights can be beaten on autopilot.
Boss fights follow your typical melee combat 3D dynamics from every action game since at least twenty years ago. You evade or block the enemy attack and, if done right, you are given a free combo, then repeat until over. Here, as usual with these types of games, both the defensive and offensive options are lacking. What matters the most is that you choose the correct answer from a very limited number of options in enough time, and then the job is done. The way to increase the difficulty is to reduce the timing window when you can respond to the enemy, which results in an empty real time Simon Says, but one that can be so addicting that recently made Sekiro to be wrongly considered one of the greatest action games ever.
The few particularities of the combat system are what demonstrate that the pillars where everything stands are not rigid enough. The most interesting part is the dynamic between magic and drive, two limited resources that can be regained while fighting and that are connected. When you lose all your magic points, you regain it with a cooldown, and in that cooldown time you gain more drive gauge when attacking. And also, drive forms restore your health and magic, so the dynamic is clearly there. However, both magic and drive are uninteresting to use.
Magic will be relegated to very rare conditional usage (aside from: magnet for enemy mobs, reflex for bosses, guess what two magics disappeared in KH3) with cure being the most blatant proof that the system is built into solutions that build on problems creating their own trouble in the way. Acknowledging that nobody used any magic in KH1 aside from cure and maybe aero (it didn’t make practical sense to do anything else), cure now uses all your MP left. In theory, this incentives using more aggressive magic usage, since you still will have cure available. In practice, it results in players running around the arena when permitted until the cure emergency button is available again.
Using cure in level 1, or in more aggressive styles of play, doesn’t make sense, so here is the second real use of MP: limits. Limits consume all your MP in exchange for releasing a chain of attacks (which changes depending on the partner used with, but there is no reason to not abuse Donald Limits when available and the differences are usually of minimal impact) and, more importantly, turn you invulnerable during their execution, probably as a poor excuse of an advantage in order to force you to use them, knowing that the initial idea was not very good.
Drive forms face a similar problem to limits, they are used because they give back an important resource, but none of them are really useful or interesting in combat by themselves, causing you to revert the form as soon as you can (maybe getting in one combo at most). This is due to drive forms taking away your defensive options in most cases (blocking and dodging). The only exception is probably Limit Form, since it is still capable of both, but the only non-conditional useful form being a new addition to Final Mix seems like another patch in something already being recognized as faulty.
Either played more casually, blindly defeating most of the hazards without even thinking about the dangers without appreciating your tools, or in a more hardcore style, turning into an empty elongated reflex test when the go to exploitable strategy cannot be applied, KH2 is a clear failure at an action game, although, I must admit, a convincingly hidden one at first sight.
The game has three different types of fights, typical of any melee action (3D) game: mob fights, boss fights and hybrids. The most interesting ones are usually the hybrids, since they are the ones where strategies cannot be so easily reused from battle to battle.
Mob fights start up being quite good, with a basic but effective enemy management exercise that is utterly destroyed by magnet and, especially, the Chicken Little summon. Anyone who has not played the game on Critical Level 1 may be surprised to read that Chicken Little is useful at all, just one of the multiple examples of the game in any other condition being so brainless that about 90% of the fights can be beaten on autopilot.
Boss fights follow your typical melee combat 3D dynamics from every action game since at least twenty years ago. You evade or block the enemy attack and, if done right, you are given a free combo, then repeat until over. Here, as usual with these types of games, both the defensive and offensive options are lacking. What matters the most is that you choose the correct answer from a very limited number of options in enough time, and then the job is done. The way to increase the difficulty is to reduce the timing window when you can respond to the enemy, which results in an empty real time Simon Says, but one that can be so addicting that recently made Sekiro to be wrongly considered one of the greatest action games ever.
The few particularities of the combat system are what demonstrate that the pillars where everything stands are not rigid enough. The most interesting part is the dynamic between magic and drive, two limited resources that can be regained while fighting and that are connected. When you lose all your magic points, you regain it with a cooldown, and in that cooldown time you gain more drive gauge when attacking. And also, drive forms restore your health and magic, so the dynamic is clearly there. However, both magic and drive are uninteresting to use.
Magic will be relegated to very rare conditional usage (aside from: magnet for enemy mobs, reflex for bosses, guess what two magics disappeared in KH3) with cure being the most blatant proof that the system is built into solutions that build on problems creating their own trouble in the way. Acknowledging that nobody used any magic in KH1 aside from cure and maybe aero (it didn’t make practical sense to do anything else), cure now uses all your MP left. In theory, this incentives using more aggressive magic usage, since you still will have cure available. In practice, it results in players running around the arena when permitted until the cure emergency button is available again.
Using cure in level 1, or in more aggressive styles of play, doesn’t make sense, so here is the second real use of MP: limits. Limits consume all your MP in exchange for releasing a chain of attacks (which changes depending on the partner used with, but there is no reason to not abuse Donald Limits when available and the differences are usually of minimal impact) and, more importantly, turn you invulnerable during their execution, probably as a poor excuse of an advantage in order to force you to use them, knowing that the initial idea was not very good.
Drive forms face a similar problem to limits, they are used because they give back an important resource, but none of them are really useful or interesting in combat by themselves, causing you to revert the form as soon as you can (maybe getting in one combo at most). This is due to drive forms taking away your defensive options in most cases (blocking and dodging). The only exception is probably Limit Form, since it is still capable of both, but the only non-conditional useful form being a new addition to Final Mix seems like another patch in something already being recognized as faulty.
Either played more casually, blindly defeating most of the hazards without even thinking about the dangers without appreciating your tools, or in a more hardcore style, turning into an empty elongated reflex test when the go to exploitable strategy cannot be applied, KH2 is a clear failure at an action game, although, I must admit, a convincingly hidden one at first sight.
7 Comments
@Parma
About the revenge value, I think it is a very tricky position for the type of 3D melee action games that contain juggling (or being able to infinitely stun an enemy in general) as a considerable essential enemy management aspect in that it is a system that makes no sense for boss fights. Juggling is the flashy combat mechanic that makes any combat look good and also it is interesting strategically because you still need to pay attention that surrounding enemies don't break your combo, something that will never happen on a one to one. So bosses essentially have no place in these types of games by definition, but they are conceptually attractive and often acclaimed when abundant.
In consequence, most of the games apply this patch procedure and end up making unconvincing arbitrary contradictions that defeat the purpose of the original system philosophy to add bosses (often resulting in the mentioned Simon Says in real time, as the end solution is to somehow make the boss break free of your infinites and forcing you to take a defensive stance. And again, apart from breaking the natural combat flow, another problem here is that blocking and moving around waiting for the obligatory opening in these games is not that interesting because of their nature).
With revenge value in particular, it is a patch that adds a fake depth of forcing or preventing retaliations and making strategies upon that (AI manipulation is quite a mess in general, being an extremely uninteresting and dishonest way to face an opponent in what at first looked like an encounter on equal grounds, outsmarting via figuring out that there was no intelligence behind it at all). I must say that is not that big of a deal in the sense that calculating the revenge is not a hustle, just a bit of trial and error and see how many full combos/finishers the enemy allows, but regardless, it is a constant failure in trying to make a physical fight look organic without going into something as complex as a more traditional fighting game, that may be one of the few genres where actually observing your opponent and choosing your individual actions carries a complex and palpable weight (specially playing against a human).
About the revenge value, I think it is a very tricky position for the type of 3D melee action games that contain juggling (or being able to infinitely stun an enemy in general) as a considerable essential enemy management aspect in that it is a system that makes no sense for boss fights. Juggling is the flashy combat mechanic that makes any combat look good and also it is interesting strategically because you still need to pay attention that surrounding enemies don't break your combo, something that will never happen on a one to one. So bosses essentially have no place in these types of games by definition, but they are conceptually attractive and often acclaimed when abundant.
In consequence, most of the games apply this patch procedure and end up making unconvincing arbitrary contradictions that defeat the purpose of the original system philosophy to add bosses (often resulting in the mentioned Simon Says in real time, as the end solution is to somehow make the boss break free of your infinites and forcing you to take a defensive stance. And again, apart from breaking the natural combat flow, another problem here is that blocking and moving around waiting for the obligatory opening in these games is not that interesting because of their nature).
With revenge value in particular, it is a patch that adds a fake depth of forcing or preventing retaliations and making strategies upon that (AI manipulation is quite a mess in general, being an extremely uninteresting and dishonest way to face an opponent in what at first looked like an encounter on equal grounds, outsmarting via figuring out that there was no intelligence behind it at all). I must say that is not that big of a deal in the sense that calculating the revenge is not a hustle, just a bit of trial and error and see how many full combos/finishers the enemy allows, but regardless, it is a constant failure in trying to make a physical fight look organic without going into something as complex as a more traditional fighting game, that may be one of the few genres where actually observing your opponent and choosing your individual actions carries a complex and palpable weight (specially playing against a human).
First of all, sorry if I seem too agressive, I mean no offense, but I have many problems with this review and as a huge fan of this game I can't help but point them out:
-Chicken Little is, like you said, a good summon, but it doesn't let you autopilot through the entire game, simply because the Chicken Little AI will not pull and stun enemies all the time, you have to play around it. It's a good summon for the early game but gets outclassed quickly and only shines in scenarios where you really need some extra crowd control, as that's the only good thing he provides.
-The defensive and offensive options are lacking? Guard, quick run, dodge roll, aerial dodge, reflect are all functional and good defensive options that work in different scenarios (with reflect being kind of like a joker card that uses MP, even then, it will still be punished if used incorrectly in the hardest fights of the game). For offensive options... let's see... you have the entirety of the magic system and your combo modifiers. And this is just base form Sora, summons and drive forms can give you more specific offensive options. Limits can be used offensively or defensively. All of the boss fights have situational reaction commands that can be used as defensive or offensive options.
-"Nobody used any magic in KH1 aside from cure and aero because it didn't make practical sense to use other stuff" KH1, the game with gravity, able to almost one shot some of the most powerful enemies in the game, stop, an amazing crowd control tool that can also be used to decimate bosses, huge AOE in blizzard and thunder, and crazy long range single target DPS with fire. But this is KH2 we're talking about, so let's see
-"Magic is uninteresting to use, it's relegated to very rare conditional usage aside form magnet and reflect" Every spell in the game is useful and has ideal scenarios to be used on. Blizzard is a long range projectile that can be used to deal damage without putting yourself at risk. It's the spell that gets outclassed the easiest but it's also the first one that you get. It's useful against bosses weak to Ice and it's probably the best magic spell to combo with. Fire is the very first tool of AoE damage that you get, and it has many scenarios where it's very useful, because this game likes to put a lot of enemies on the field. The fight in the cave with a bunch of shadows in land of dragons comes to mind. It can also be used with Chicken Little, a summon that you get very early and combos extremely well with fire. It's very good against bosses too, because of the low revenge value and good damage. Final form firaga is one of the most broken things in the game, being able to destroy health bars while adding no RV to bosses. Thunder is another good AoE spell, in this case it has unlimited range at the cost of higher MP usage than fire. It combos very well with magnet and used with thunder boosts it can clear groups of enemies very effectively. One of the drawbacks is that it's kinda bad on bosses compared to fire.
-"Cure doesn't incentive more aggresssive magic usage because players will run around the arena waiting to use cure" I really don't like this argument. Yes, some players will do that because they don't know better. I think it's the worst spell in the game, but I think it's way better than letting players spam cure without any risk like in KH1, making them extremely dependant and not having a reason to learn how to deal with boss patterns or use other magic to actually kill enemies. When you're in MP charge, you're being forced to fight, and you can't die until you get your MP back.
-"None of the drive forms are really useful or interesting in combat, the lack of defensive options causes you to revert as soon as possible" I'd say all of the drive forms are useful, with the most niche one being Wisdom form but it still has it's uses. Valor form has very good DPS and the ability to use a finisher anytime you want in a combo, which makes it really good for closing out fights. It also makes you go way faster, which in it's own can be used as a defensive option. You can also parry with normal attacks, although this is really hard to do and unrealistic in some scenarios. Wisdom form just has improved magic and a shoot instead of an attack button that makes Sora fight in a very safe way. This + the improved quick run and reflect doesn't really make you miss guarding if you know what you're doing. Master Form is focused on aerial fighting and also has stronger versions of thunder and magnet. Reflect can be used infinitely, even in the air, and with the aerial combo pluses and the ability to cancel into it at any time, you don't have much of a reason to worry about getting hit if you know what you're doing. Final Form has 2 keyblades floating around that will spin with any action Sora does, causing a lot of parries. It's probably the worst form in terms of defensive options alongside Valor, but these are meant to be used offensively, with Final having crazy AoE in every combo and spell, Final Form Firaga being completely broken, etc.
I think KH2 is rich in functional, good, situational tools, paired with good enemy design that actively makes you choose between them, having no ideal solution for everything.
-Chicken Little is, like you said, a good summon, but it doesn't let you autopilot through the entire game, simply because the Chicken Little AI will not pull and stun enemies all the time, you have to play around it. It's a good summon for the early game but gets outclassed quickly and only shines in scenarios where you really need some extra crowd control, as that's the only good thing he provides.
-The defensive and offensive options are lacking? Guard, quick run, dodge roll, aerial dodge, reflect are all functional and good defensive options that work in different scenarios (with reflect being kind of like a joker card that uses MP, even then, it will still be punished if used incorrectly in the hardest fights of the game). For offensive options... let's see... you have the entirety of the magic system and your combo modifiers. And this is just base form Sora, summons and drive forms can give you more specific offensive options. Limits can be used offensively or defensively. All of the boss fights have situational reaction commands that can be used as defensive or offensive options.
-"Nobody used any magic in KH1 aside from cure and aero because it didn't make practical sense to use other stuff" KH1, the game with gravity, able to almost one shot some of the most powerful enemies in the game, stop, an amazing crowd control tool that can also be used to decimate bosses, huge AOE in blizzard and thunder, and crazy long range single target DPS with fire. But this is KH2 we're talking about, so let's see
-"Magic is uninteresting to use, it's relegated to very rare conditional usage aside form magnet and reflect" Every spell in the game is useful and has ideal scenarios to be used on. Blizzard is a long range projectile that can be used to deal damage without putting yourself at risk. It's the spell that gets outclassed the easiest but it's also the first one that you get. It's useful against bosses weak to Ice and it's probably the best magic spell to combo with. Fire is the very first tool of AoE damage that you get, and it has many scenarios where it's very useful, because this game likes to put a lot of enemies on the field. The fight in the cave with a bunch of shadows in land of dragons comes to mind. It can also be used with Chicken Little, a summon that you get very early and combos extremely well with fire. It's very good against bosses too, because of the low revenge value and good damage. Final form firaga is one of the most broken things in the game, being able to destroy health bars while adding no RV to bosses. Thunder is another good AoE spell, in this case it has unlimited range at the cost of higher MP usage than fire. It combos very well with magnet and used with thunder boosts it can clear groups of enemies very effectively. One of the drawbacks is that it's kinda bad on bosses compared to fire.
-"Cure doesn't incentive more aggresssive magic usage because players will run around the arena waiting to use cure" I really don't like this argument. Yes, some players will do that because they don't know better. I think it's the worst spell in the game, but I think it's way better than letting players spam cure without any risk like in KH1, making them extremely dependant and not having a reason to learn how to deal with boss patterns or use other magic to actually kill enemies. When you're in MP charge, you're being forced to fight, and you can't die until you get your MP back.
-"None of the drive forms are really useful or interesting in combat, the lack of defensive options causes you to revert as soon as possible" I'd say all of the drive forms are useful, with the most niche one being Wisdom form but it still has it's uses. Valor form has very good DPS and the ability to use a finisher anytime you want in a combo, which makes it really good for closing out fights. It also makes you go way faster, which in it's own can be used as a defensive option. You can also parry with normal attacks, although this is really hard to do and unrealistic in some scenarios. Wisdom form just has improved magic and a shoot instead of an attack button that makes Sora fight in a very safe way. This + the improved quick run and reflect doesn't really make you miss guarding if you know what you're doing. Master Form is focused on aerial fighting and also has stronger versions of thunder and magnet. Reflect can be used infinitely, even in the air, and with the aerial combo pluses and the ability to cancel into it at any time, you don't have much of a reason to worry about getting hit if you know what you're doing. Final Form has 2 keyblades floating around that will spin with any action Sora does, causing a lot of parries. It's probably the worst form in terms of defensive options alongside Valor, but these are meant to be used offensively, with Final having crazy AoE in every combo and spell, Final Form Firaga being completely broken, etc.
I think KH2 is rich in functional, good, situational tools, paired with good enemy design that actively makes you choose between them, having no ideal solution for everything.
@Sarichi
No offense taken, I actually enjoy responses like this. I’ll try to go point for point in order.
- In my experience, I could stun all the enemies in the game with Chicken Little with almost no problems. I’m talking about the main game (I know post game is a bit more tricky) but the not always reliable AI is not enough. At the worst case, you will get a rare unlucky AI where enemies aren’t pulled correctly as desired, but given how short obligatory fights are, it is not a big deal to retry and get a bit more luck (it behaved very well quite often).
- When I said that defense was lacking, I was not talking about movement options but about the dynamic in which your only options are to evade or block the enemy until you are allowed to combo again (and neither of those are very interestingly made, a simple matter of pattern memorization and reaction speed). I think it is revealing to my point that I could complete the game only unlocking the first level of dash on the movement options (I honestly think that the game was designed taking into account that getting the movement upgrades is “optional”), but in any case, even if forced to use all your movement options, the same dynamic applies in every boss battle.
- About KH1 I might not remember it very well (haven’t played it in a while, though I’m pretty sure that what I said still applies for boss fights, which are the biggest and most prominent threat overall) so I agree to skip about this point.
- About magic, the problem for me is that it shares resources, and it will always be more valuable to keep the MP for reflect/magnet (or whatever circumstantial magic you need at a very particular fight) than to be truly versatile. I admit that there are particular combos using magic that may make fights slightly more optimal (which isn’t something I’m very happy with anyway) but on playthroughs that are not aiming to speedrun I think we can agree that playing around with anything that isn’t reflect or magnet (or cure in non level 1) is too risky. The fight in the cave in land of dragons is a great example where you use fire because you don’t have any better tools. Coming back to my arguments, there would be no reason to not use magnet or Chicken Little instead in that very same fight if available. All the interesting universal usages of fire magic are downgraded by better options unlocked not that later on.
- About cure, I’m in a position where I don’t think either KH1 or KH2 get it well, but KH2 seems like a response to what KH1 failed at (I think we agree to some extent here). You are forced to fight in the sense that you cannot escape the arena, but you can take a more safe stance of running away from the enemy if you want to ensure that you will have a safety card. I am also pretty sure that there are quite a big number of bosses that are incapable of keeping up with you running away from them constantly.
- With Forms the problem is that the versatility is very circumstantial (and honestly I didn't think it was worth sacrificing my standard moveset and safe defensive options in my playthrough) and, again, seem like they are more useful for highly risky experimental strats that are not worth the risk normally. In any case, their offensive advantages still are in resonance with my argument that they are useful for a combo at most (or until MP is exhausted, similarly) and then reverting seemed like the most logical and safe step.
Just for the record, even if it does not influence anything I said, KH2 was my favorite game for many years since I played the original version that came out in Europe in 2006. I’m not going to claim to be an expert on it (only finished the critical level 1 run this year, even though I have known about it since long ago and have played hundreds of hours to the game in its different versions, being possibly my most played game ever), but I think I know enough about how it works fundamentally.
If I wrote this was just to express how disappointed I was to see that KH2 always fitted with an action game philosophy that I don’t find valuable anymore and, in this particular case, a combat system that seems robust at a glance but that when inspecting on its construction seems flawed in its very conception.
No offense taken, I actually enjoy responses like this. I’ll try to go point for point in order.
- In my experience, I could stun all the enemies in the game with Chicken Little with almost no problems. I’m talking about the main game (I know post game is a bit more tricky) but the not always reliable AI is not enough. At the worst case, you will get a rare unlucky AI where enemies aren’t pulled correctly as desired, but given how short obligatory fights are, it is not a big deal to retry and get a bit more luck (it behaved very well quite often).
- When I said that defense was lacking, I was not talking about movement options but about the dynamic in which your only options are to evade or block the enemy until you are allowed to combo again (and neither of those are very interestingly made, a simple matter of pattern memorization and reaction speed). I think it is revealing to my point that I could complete the game only unlocking the first level of dash on the movement options (I honestly think that the game was designed taking into account that getting the movement upgrades is “optional”), but in any case, even if forced to use all your movement options, the same dynamic applies in every boss battle.
- About KH1 I might not remember it very well (haven’t played it in a while, though I’m pretty sure that what I said still applies for boss fights, which are the biggest and most prominent threat overall) so I agree to skip about this point.
- About magic, the problem for me is that it shares resources, and it will always be more valuable to keep the MP for reflect/magnet (or whatever circumstantial magic you need at a very particular fight) than to be truly versatile. I admit that there are particular combos using magic that may make fights slightly more optimal (which isn’t something I’m very happy with anyway) but on playthroughs that are not aiming to speedrun I think we can agree that playing around with anything that isn’t reflect or magnet (or cure in non level 1) is too risky. The fight in the cave in land of dragons is a great example where you use fire because you don’t have any better tools. Coming back to my arguments, there would be no reason to not use magnet or Chicken Little instead in that very same fight if available. All the interesting universal usages of fire magic are downgraded by better options unlocked not that later on.
- About cure, I’m in a position where I don’t think either KH1 or KH2 get it well, but KH2 seems like a response to what KH1 failed at (I think we agree to some extent here). You are forced to fight in the sense that you cannot escape the arena, but you can take a more safe stance of running away from the enemy if you want to ensure that you will have a safety card. I am also pretty sure that there are quite a big number of bosses that are incapable of keeping up with you running away from them constantly.
- With Forms the problem is that the versatility is very circumstantial (and honestly I didn't think it was worth sacrificing my standard moveset and safe defensive options in my playthrough) and, again, seem like they are more useful for highly risky experimental strats that are not worth the risk normally. In any case, their offensive advantages still are in resonance with my argument that they are useful for a combo at most (or until MP is exhausted, similarly) and then reverting seemed like the most logical and safe step.
Just for the record, even if it does not influence anything I said, KH2 was my favorite game for many years since I played the original version that came out in Europe in 2006. I’m not going to claim to be an expert on it (only finished the critical level 1 run this year, even though I have known about it since long ago and have played hundreds of hours to the game in its different versions, being possibly my most played game ever), but I think I know enough about how it works fundamentally.
If I wrote this was just to express how disappointed I was to see that KH2 always fitted with an action game philosophy that I don’t find valuable anymore and, in this particular case, a combat system that seems robust at a glance but that when inspecting on its construction seems flawed in its very conception.
DELETED
10 months ago
Deleted
> When I said that defense was lacking, I was not talking about movement options but about the dynamic in which your only options are to evade or block the enemy until you are allowed to combo again
is there an action game/brawler you'd say this doesn't apply to? not looking to press on this, just curious to know what you'd prefer to play of these games or similar ones when it comes to non-human opponents
is there an action game/brawler you'd say this doesn't apply to? not looking to press on this, just curious to know what you'd prefer to play of these games or similar ones when it comes to non-human opponents
@clownswords
Without considering fighting games and assuming long one on one fights, very few. I can think about DMC 4 and 5 (the last one particularly) where even if you have to keep up some defense on the same vein, there is an active design philosophy around never stopping your own offensive while dealing with incoming attacks (I remember the enemy staggering to be quite dependant on this). There are still some bosses in those games that skip what I said and go for the more conventional dynamic, but I recall them being exceptions mostly. I may be misremembering something because I played them some years ago though.
As a side note, Demon's Souls (and very exceptionally in subsequent Souls games too), also has some interesting one on one boss fights, mostly because they are thought as good action/adventure situations first rather than good individual combats, just like the rest of the game.
Without considering fighting games and assuming long one on one fights, very few. I can think about DMC 4 and 5 (the last one particularly) where even if you have to keep up some defense on the same vein, there is an active design philosophy around never stopping your own offensive while dealing with incoming attacks (I remember the enemy staggering to be quite dependant on this). There are still some bosses in those games that skip what I said and go for the more conventional dynamic, but I recall them being exceptions mostly. I may be misremembering something because I played them some years ago though.
As a side note, Demon's Souls (and very exceptionally in subsequent Souls games too), also has some interesting one on one boss fights, mostly because they are thought as good action/adventure situations first rather than good individual combats, just like the rest of the game.
Parma
1 year ago
I like the very beginning and end of this game narratively but boy is it suspect in every other aspect.