Post by anonthemouse on Jun 27, 2019 10:00:06 GMT -6
Welcome to Part 2 of what is now my "How they could be better" series.
This time around, I want to take a look at weapon techniques. I feel like this is going to a bit more of a divisive topic than my Blue Chests topic was. Some people like the weapon techniques as they are. That's perfectly fine. However, I personally feel that this system wasn't all that it could be, and many besides myself have expressed frustration or disappointment with the system. So let's start by breaking down the three main issues...
#1, Integration; To put it simply (or perhaps bluntly) weapon techniques feel a bit like they were tacked on, added to the game solely for the sake of being there. They don't seem to have been given the same attention that other systems were, and while every other aspect of the game is used in some way - you'll have to use different weapons and shards to progress, while cooking and alchemy are tied to side quests - weapon techniques exist in a vacuum. You never need them, and the rewards for using them are tied only to their own mechanics - you master a technique to use it with more weapons. Techniques exist in the game, but don't really feel like an essential part of the game.
#2, Mastery; The second issue ties into the first, but has some added problems of its own. Mastering techniques just feels unsatisfying. For one thing, it's almost painfully slow. Maybe there's a trick to it, but I personally found that it took both the books that speed up mastery just to get the rate to something I thought felt reasonable for a base level. Even then, enemies will tend to be very uncooperative for practising techniques on, either dying too quickly or hitting the player while they try to pull off the technique they don't have down yet. I personally had to wait until I had every shard, so that I had access to a certain item and the ability to hold enemies in place indefinitely for use as a punching bag, before I could really start mastering techniques. Even then, the rewards for the work put in aren't much. As far as I can tell, mastery doesn't make a technique stronger, it just opens up what weapons you can use it with - which by extension means that if you want to master a certain technique, you're locked into using specific weapons until you do.
#3, Reward; This is probably the broadest category, covering in general how it feels to use techniques. The first thing I noticed about techniques is that the inputs feel very precise. I, along with others, have trouble pulling off these moves reliably, even with practice. This further frustrates mastery, and makes techniques feel inconvenient compared to shards. As well, many techniques have a significant wind-up, and they are easily interrupted, especially compared to the instant-cast of shards. These two factors alone can produce a frustrating sense of "all that work for nothing" when trying to use a difficult technique, only to have it interrupted. However, on top of that, many techniques feel low powered when compared to shards. As an example from my own play, on the Minerva, I found myself using the Dominus (a sword obtained from a special name selection), and compared using the weapon blast sword technique to my Cerulean Splash. It quickly became apparent that the shard was always the better option. If I was going to spend MP either way, it might as well be on the one that was faster, easier, and more damaging. Beyond that, though, as I said in my previous point, techniques don't improve unless your weapon does. Just fighting my way through Seemas on the galleon increased the Grade and therefore damage of Cerulean Splash, but to improve the sword blast I would have had to not only find a better sword, but also to stick with the sword I had until I had mastered the technique to ensure I could use it with whatever sword I got.
So, what can be done? What follows are my ideas for improving techniques. Some may not work together, they're in no particular order, and some or all might need to wait for a sequel to happen. However, I feel that improving even a few of these areas would make for a better experience overall.
This time around, I want to take a look at weapon techniques. I feel like this is going to a bit more of a divisive topic than my Blue Chests topic was. Some people like the weapon techniques as they are. That's perfectly fine. However, I personally feel that this system wasn't all that it could be, and many besides myself have expressed frustration or disappointment with the system. So let's start by breaking down the three main issues...
#1, Integration; To put it simply (or perhaps bluntly) weapon techniques feel a bit like they were tacked on, added to the game solely for the sake of being there. They don't seem to have been given the same attention that other systems were, and while every other aspect of the game is used in some way - you'll have to use different weapons and shards to progress, while cooking and alchemy are tied to side quests - weapon techniques exist in a vacuum. You never need them, and the rewards for using them are tied only to their own mechanics - you master a technique to use it with more weapons. Techniques exist in the game, but don't really feel like an essential part of the game.
#2, Mastery; The second issue ties into the first, but has some added problems of its own. Mastering techniques just feels unsatisfying. For one thing, it's almost painfully slow. Maybe there's a trick to it, but I personally found that it took both the books that speed up mastery just to get the rate to something I thought felt reasonable for a base level. Even then, enemies will tend to be very uncooperative for practising techniques on, either dying too quickly or hitting the player while they try to pull off the technique they don't have down yet. I personally had to wait until I had every shard, so that I had access to a certain item and the ability to hold enemies in place indefinitely for use as a punching bag, before I could really start mastering techniques. Even then, the rewards for the work put in aren't much. As far as I can tell, mastery doesn't make a technique stronger, it just opens up what weapons you can use it with - which by extension means that if you want to master a certain technique, you're locked into using specific weapons until you do.
#3, Reward; This is probably the broadest category, covering in general how it feels to use techniques. The first thing I noticed about techniques is that the inputs feel very precise. I, along with others, have trouble pulling off these moves reliably, even with practice. This further frustrates mastery, and makes techniques feel inconvenient compared to shards. As well, many techniques have a significant wind-up, and they are easily interrupted, especially compared to the instant-cast of shards. These two factors alone can produce a frustrating sense of "all that work for nothing" when trying to use a difficult technique, only to have it interrupted. However, on top of that, many techniques feel low powered when compared to shards. As an example from my own play, on the Minerva, I found myself using the Dominus (a sword obtained from a special name selection), and compared using the weapon blast sword technique to my Cerulean Splash. It quickly became apparent that the shard was always the better option. If I was going to spend MP either way, it might as well be on the one that was faster, easier, and more damaging. Beyond that, though, as I said in my previous point, techniques don't improve unless your weapon does. Just fighting my way through Seemas on the galleon increased the Grade and therefore damage of Cerulean Splash, but to improve the sword blast I would have had to not only find a better sword, but also to stick with the sword I had until I had mastered the technique to ensure I could use it with whatever sword I got.
So, what can be done? What follows are my ideas for improving techniques. Some may not work together, they're in no particular order, and some or all might need to wait for a sequel to happen. However, I feel that improving even a few of these areas would make for a better experience overall.
- Tie techniques into gameplay more. Maybe have a quest where an NPC looking to become a warrior or defend their town wants you to show them different skills. Maybe have enemies or objects with special interactions when a particular technique is used on them. I think that there's a chance that Zangetsu Mode or the mysterious third character could also fill this gap by relying on techniques without the ability to use shards. In general, though, I just think the game needs to use techniques more to make them feel like a core part of the game.
- An area to train. The need to connect with techniques to really master them can be a problem, so give players an invincible training dummy they can beat up instead. Could also be useful for comparing the damage output of shards and weapons.
- Faster mastery. If the rewards aren't great, why is the effort required for them?
- More rewards for mastery. Rather than just making techniques usable with all weapons of a type, have them improve as mastred. This could come with multiple levels of mastery, the same as shards have Rank and Grade. Instead of just getting a gold star, techniques could progress through one, two, and three stars, as well as through bronze, silver, and then gold stars, for nine levels total.
- "Technique scrolls". These would equip in the ammo slot with a melee weapon, and allow a certain technique to be used with it. Specific weapons would still have their own "built-in" techniques, but scrolls would open up the ability to learn a certain technique with your weapon of choice, as well as being another way to hint what techniques exist, and how to perform them.
- More forgiving inputs. I understand the desire not to make the inputs too simple, as it would make them easy to put in by accident. However, when a large number of people have trouble with the inputs, that's also a problem. Aside from just increasing the margin for error, I think a good way to handle this would be with some unused buttons. Playstation and Xbox controllers have buttons in the thumbsticks. Bloodstained doesn't currently use these, so one or both could go to a "stance" button that can be used with simpler button combinations.
- Technique shards. This is one area I really feel the base game was lacking. There should be shards that tie into technique use. A shard that automatically performs a technique (there are several basic inputs, so there could be shards for multiple of these). Shards to speed mastery. Shards to boost power. Shards to reduce vulnerability or speed up cast time. There are just so many things that could be done here. It's a real shame that there wasn't any interaction between these systems.
yey