Quick Little Story Rant

[DarkaiXeno]

I've recently joined this game about 2 days ago, having fun so far and got used to things pretty quickly. I've had almost no problems with the storymode, and I can tolerate the occasional bugs, but there was only 1 stage that really urked me the wrong way.



Seriously, who would look at this and be like "Yeah, this seems like a very fun, innovative, and balanced match"?! As of yesterday I had already beat it, but the time I had to spend on it was infuriating!

Every move I made had to be pitch perfect; I blocked every attack, deflected every grab, and yet, I STILL barely made it by the skin of my teeth with a sliver of HP left. I probably would've been done earlier too, however, the damage from the enemies specials can slice through your hp like butter even when you're blocking, so there was the RNG aspect where I hoped to god they had trash specials each match, or I would die simply because of the superior stats they had, which also annoyed the hell out of me.

Please, for the love of god, made it easier so other new comers wont have to walk through hell like I did, and I hope when and if the storymode grows, that there will never be a match like this again.

 

[moisterrific]

Isn't this one of the expert difficulty levels? It's called expert for a reason, no?

And you managed to beat it so that makes you an expert.

 

[DarkaiXeno]

It being in expert difficulty isnt the problem that I had with it. Let me clarify what I meant.

I have no problem with challenges. For instance, I have no problem facing a 5k armed cerebella with invincibility with only 3 silvers(stats 1k or under and no cerebella). It's very challenging, but if you can find ways to work around your disadvantages and win the match, you get a strong sense of accomplishment and you feel good beating the match, as you showed your superior skill against the bots raw stats and buffs.

This match, however, not only relied on skill, but it heavily relied on RNG for me to win. As said in my previous post, in my past matches against this stage, the reason why I couldn't finish the stage earlier than I should have was because of the RNG of what skills the bot took. There were several matches I had where one of painwheel's specials chunked my HP bar over 20% of my valentines health while I was blocking, and the match was decided because i couldnt keep blocking the rest of painwheels or parasoul's damage for the rest of the match. It didn't matter how skilled I was at blocking or deflecting, at the end of the day, RNG was what dictated whether I would win the match or lose the match.

That being said, when I finally completed the stage, I didn't get the same feel of accomplishment as I did with the other challenge stages, because the end result wasnt because I had superior skill over stats. I felt a sense of relief that I wouldnt have to go through such a troublesome stage again.

If you want to make the arguement that it is expert, then sure, I agree with that. But in my opinion, I just feel that skills, stats, and stipulations should be balanced to give the player a grave disadvantage that he should still be able to overcome if played right with the right strategy, rather than you'll still lose even if you play the match perfectly because one special that was equipped with RNG just so happens to chunk you for a lot even through your block.

 

[Osterus]

It being in expert difficulty isnt the problem that I had with it. Let me clarify what I meant.

I have no problem with challenges. For instance, I have no problem facing a 5k armed cerebella with invincibility with only 3 silvers(stats 1k or under and no cerebella). It's very challenging, but if you can find ways to work around your disadvantages and win the match, you get a strong sense of accomplishment and you feel good beating the match, as you showed your superior skill against the bots raw stats and buffs.

This match, however, not only relied on skill, but it heavily relied on RNG for me to win. As said in my previous post, in my past matches against this stage, the reason why I couldn't finish the stage earlier than I should have was because of the RNG of what skills the bot took. There were several matches I had where one of painwheel's specials chunked my HP bar over 20% of my valentines health while I was blocking, and the match was decided because i couldnt keep blocking the rest of painwheels or parasoul's damage for the rest of the match. It didn't matter how skilled I was at blocking or deflecting, at the end of the day, RNG was what dictated whether I would win the match or lose the match.

That being said, when I finally completed the stage, I didn't get the same feel of accomplishment as I did with the other challenge stages, because the end result wasnt because I had superior skill over stats. I felt a sense of relief that I wouldnt have to go through such a troublesome stage again.

If you want to make the arguement that it is expert, then sure, I agree with that. But in my opinion, I just feel that skills, stats, and stipulations should be balanced to give the player a grave disadvantage that he should still be able to overcome if played right with the right strategy, rather than you'll still lose even if you play the match perfectly because one special that was equipped with RNG just so happens to chunk you for a lot even through your block.

I've played for over 2 months.. since beta launch.

I still CANNOT complete this stage.

I've done all content except this stage. It's overtuned.

You need like a 1.2k++++ bronze character now. I've tried aroudn 100 times with a 900 fighter level peacock and still cannot beat it.

NOTE: you can complete the rest of the story and gain like 99% completion except doing this stage. You can go on to act 5 and do those quests... or do the quests around this one.

 

[Crescent Rose]

I've played for over 2 months.. since beta launch.

I still CANNOT complete this stage.

I've done all content except this stage. It's overtuned.

You need like a 1.2k++++ bronze character now. I've tried aroudn 100 times with a 900 fighter level peacock and still cannot beat it.

NOTE: you can complete the rest of the story and gain like 99% completion except doing this stage. You can go on to act 5 and do those quests... or do the quests around this one.

I was quite lucky, I beat it before the infinite tap combo issue was fixed. I just went into game as filia and just tapped away.

 

[Osterus]

I was quite lucky, I beat it before the infinite tap combo issue was fixed. I just went into game as filia and just tapped away.

Yeh... for those of us who didn't complete it.. it's super impossible without spending like 200k into a bronze character and getting ALL upgrades.

Even then, I don't know if it's possible because I still feel with a 1.3k bronze the 2.4k silvers will destroy me based on INFINITE BLOCK AI.

 

[DarkaiXeno]

The worst part in my opinion is that it bites you in the bum as well. Its a "normal" stage, so it doesnt give you any bonus rewards for completing it, unlike other challenge stages (yet this one is more unfair than any challenge stage as of now) , save for completing the whole story itself. Its by far the most annoying match.

The stipulation should let you use 2 bronze characters, and raise the stats of the enemies by 500-700 to compensate. That way, the match relies less on the RNG, it'll still be difficult as hell to beat, but it'll open up more windows of success for a player to achieve.

For those of you who are still stuck on thst stage, I barely made it with my 700 Icy Hot valentine. I can make a seperate thread telling you how i was BARELY able to win after multiple times, and maybe that could help you with the stage as well.

 

[Cellsai]

You need like a 1.2k++++ bronze character now.

I've told you before it's very possible with 800 FS fighters, though it's still really tough

I'm of two minds with this stage:

Pros: Firstly, I really like it. It's rock hard, and is basically the only challenging stage in the entirety of Story Mode. Almost every other stage you can just barrel your way through with enough grinding. This stage requires careful tactics and understanding of how the game and your characters work. I actually wrote a mini guide on this. It's giving so many people issues I'll go expand the guide more soon and give it it's own thread. I've done the stage so many times now I can beat it basically 99% of the time with any character on 800FS.
I really do think the game needs stages like this. Truly challenging events to aim for to break up the grind of just going through Prize Fights over and over. What makes this especially great is that it's balanced for everyone. It doesn't matter how many golds or how long you've been playing, everyone is still hit with the same extremely low FS limit.

Counterpoint: The difficulty spike is extreme to say the least. The stage used to be far easier. You had to fight three opponents instead of two (thus reducing each of their FS), and the AI was hella easier to beat. The combination of these two changes sent the difficulty through the roof. It can be pretty discouraging to hit this wall.

Overall: I think the stage difficulty is fine, but I think the positioning on the map is wrong. Right now you have to beat it, then it unlocks two more nodes on the map. This stage should be a Treasure map at the end of a path somewhere, so it really does become a fully optional stage.

A question though since I can't remember how it works: If I don't 100% Going All In on Expert (Chapter 4), can I still do Ascent of a Woman (Chapter 5) on Expert?

 

[nopantsu]

I beat this stage with Icy Hot as well, it was ridiculous. I had to use like 3-4 energy refills.

This stage is definitely broken. Most of my runs I got killed just from block damage while waiting for a opening. I couldn't win until the AI took a bunch of bursts/taunts.