Wow, I'm glad to have a lot of feedbacks, thank you all
I will check one by one to improve the next beta.
Yeah, I agree with most reports about the unbalanced difficulty, mainly the ones related to the enemy/boss damage and aggression. To be honest it was expected because until the first public beta the game was developed using only my gameplay as a main reference most times.
At a certain point, the developer enters in some kind of "automatic" state during the tests and can't see all the problems too well. This is why this first beta was needed in order to collect many different points of view, to confirm if I need to change the boat's course or not, at least in a "SOR like" aspect.
However, there are some basic points I need to clarify, mainly about the boss fights:
- Bosses will rise after a knockdown with a brief invincibility, same as the classics. NEVER stay close to him during this time, it's programmed to half of a second of duration.
- The block feature has a limit and the cost is based on the opponent's damage value. You can defend a lot of weak hits or a few of strong hits before your defense is broken, leaving you vulnerable for some time. That said, I suggest not trying to block a rage move entirely, but you can block the first hit and then use counters to escape and make him spend his energy.
- Rage moves are limited and cost all your energy. The same goes to bosses, so stay alert until they perform it and then use dodge to escape easily.
- Most bosses CAN'T be held during a grab for a longer time. So, if you grab them, use any grab attack quickly until they hit you and escape.
- All throw/slam moves make any character invincible during the ENTIRE move. In certain boss fights you can grab common enemies to escape from any attack, including a rage.
- Running attacks are cost free and make you invincible during the first frames, so use this advantage to approach or to launch any enemy to the air and start a juggle.
- Most jumping attacks have attack boxes longer than the body boxes, so use this advantage to make some kicks reach the opponent before his attacks catch you (Blaze's forward jump attack is a good example). First, get some distance from a boss and then use the jumping attack.
- Enemies in general will avoid you in case you are facing them until their distance reaches 80px, but you can attract them when not facing. Use this trick to gain some space around you and to control the crowd, work with bosses too.
Using the same tip, rage moves are usually more effective if you are close to an opponent, even more effective if they are in a "pain" state after a simple punch (you don't need to make a complex combo, normal attacks can be used to connect with any other special move).
- After death, you will respawn invincible for a time, use this advantage to attack bosses with stronger moves.
- Most enemy's attacks are frontal and only a few are diagonal. So, you can reduce the chance of receiving an attack while tracking them if you approach with a certain distance in the Z axis.
- This one is not for bosses exactly but is a general tip, AVOID calling all enemies at the same time walking forever until reaching a stop point, this rule applies to most beat 'em up since the first Final Fight and in SORX is the same.
It was those goddamn ninjas. Can we all agree that ninjas are OP and they need to lose their throwing ability? Seriously... I quit after I lost 5 lives straight and I don't think I'll be trying again anytime soon. This is just painful - the tunnel is a narrow path, perfect for them to spam shurikens at you over and over AND OVER again.
The only thing I'd change about that area is the amount of ninjas and the electro-hand ninjas. So many in such as small space made me get continuously juggled and my health drained. Juggle limits and invincibility frames weren't even enough to protect me. I definitely lost a few lives there. I think there was simply too many of them, once I finally got through the first wave, even more fell from the sky. It was never ending.
I actually lost more lives there than I did for any boss in the game. I don't think it's that ninjas are OP, it's just how generously they are used. They can easily go from mildly annoying to enemy spam if you put too many in a small space.
Yep, I'm considering the reduction of the ninja's amount, but before let's see how it will look after the new rebalance.
when playing as Jet, he was incapable of picking items up
To get items with Jet, press the DODGE button to deactivate the propulsion system and then pick up the item normally. Press DODGE to activate the propulsion system again.
What, is he cutting his own hand throwing them or something?
lol
It makes even less sense because triple version mid air is free. When @Kratus and I were working on stuff, I took out the energy cost for it in a test copy I had. It didn't make him noticeably better, but was a lot simpler and more fun.
Yeah I agree totally, I'm planning to check every playable enemy again after all the remaining updates are finished.
Welcome
@MrWaalrus!
Playable enemies don't lose damage output, but they do lose armor, their huge HP pools, and unlimited access to specials. IIRC, bosses do have a have a hidden rage meter, but their other moves have no restriction under AI control.
It's also important to note that enemies are designed to be a one time, and usually one dimensional challenge. Other than Shiva (who's really just a playable character on the other team), they don't really have the all-round capability that default players do. This can make them seem a bit underwhelming once you're in control.
DC
Perfect read
Most bosses moves are cost free, but when turned into an special move for the playable versions it has a health cost. The same doesn't happens for energy moves, which always have a cost for playable/bosses versions.
In other words, because you can combo enemies forever, you must combo enemies forever. Otherwise, every fight is a slog. Think of it like like an exaggerated amalgamation of SOR3 and 4's systems
I understand your point due to a lot of features added, but indeed it's possible to win the game using both basic or advanced moves. Crowd control in SORX is more important than combos in general.
To be honest, basic moves offers you less risk than the advanced because you fight more reactively than aggressively, sometimes you are more vulnerable while performing longer combos and casting specials which drain your health faster than using normal moves.
Most tricks present in the classics are present in SORX too, and you can win with simplest techniques like combo reset for common enemies or repeated jump attacks on some bosses. I recorded examples below:
Basic moves short playthrough
Advanced moves short playthrough
Simple boss fight using Jump attack and Special
I mean, it's not like they're unbeatable, but the player is bound to lose a bunch of lives.
. He literally overrides my attacks lmao. I do a running attack and he stabs through it. It's either time attacks perfectly or jump attack him, which is hard when some characters can't jump. He makes me want to rage quit sometimes ngl
