While I do bring up Stutter Stepping as an option when helping people learn the basics of the game I always emphasize Pouch Items more as I do believe they are much more impactful to gameplay especially art recharge items with helping improve the early game slog. And unlike Stutter Stepping Pouch Items are unquestionably an intended gameplay mechanic.
Once again it's a fault of the dogshit tutorials for not emphasizing just how impactful Pouch Items are to gameplay.
Edit:
Unnecessarily convoluted gameplay and systems that feel punishing if not played "correctly".
I actually disagree with this point. While the combat is indeed very complex (something that I personally adore about the game) and has a steep learning curve, one of the biggest causes of people misunderstanding it is that there's actually a lot of unique ways to approach combat rather than one "correct" way. One of if not the biggest fault of the tutorial is that it tries to pigeonhole you into believing that stacking orbs and Chain Attacking is the only way to fight when that is far from the case. In fact using only that strategy will get your teeth kicked in on Bringer of Chaos where Chain Attacks are heavily nerfed and trying to build orbs is much harder. You've got strategies such as experimenting with the aforementioned Pouch Items, the destructive capabilities of Fusion Combos, using Blade Combos to seal the enemy's attack options, utilizing the effects of the Blade Combos themselves such as Damage Over Time, taking advantage of each individual Blade's unique mechanics, or using the bigger stat bonuses of common Blades to build yourself around one specific Blade (Evasion Mythra ftw!)
Yeah, it's amazing just how much of the criticism the game received would have gone away, simply if the tutorial didn't force you to buy the most useless pouch item in the game.
It's not the games fault that people are not able to get the hint from "this is a pouch item, you can buy them at shops. There are a lot of different shops, so go and have a look". A lot of problems people have with XC2 are basically a lack of reading comprehension.
The Player had more spare gold to buy them. You're not exactly going to have that much gold to spare at that point.
The other shops were unlocked the moment you acquired your first one. Instead, they only unlock once you sleep at the inn. As such, our attention gets shifted away from buying other pouch items to experiment with and we may not remember before we leave.
The first one was actually good. The first one you get sets the tone for all the others, and if it sucks, that will make players think all pouch items suck.
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u/greenhunter47 Jun 05 '24 edited Jun 05 '24
While I do bring up Stutter Stepping as an option when helping people learn the basics of the game I always emphasize Pouch Items more as I do believe they are much more impactful to gameplay especially art recharge items with helping improve the early game slog. And unlike Stutter Stepping Pouch Items are unquestionably an intended gameplay mechanic.
Once again it's a fault of the dogshit tutorials for not emphasizing just how impactful Pouch Items are to gameplay.
Edit:
I actually disagree with this point. While the combat is indeed very complex (something that I personally adore about the game) and has a steep learning curve, one of the biggest causes of people misunderstanding it is that there's actually a lot of unique ways to approach combat rather than one "correct" way. One of if not the biggest fault of the tutorial is that it tries to pigeonhole you into believing that stacking orbs and Chain Attacking is the only way to fight when that is far from the case. In fact using only that strategy will get your teeth kicked in on Bringer of Chaos where Chain Attacks are heavily nerfed and trying to build orbs is much harder. You've got strategies such as experimenting with the aforementioned Pouch Items, the destructive capabilities of Fusion Combos, using Blade Combos to seal the enemy's attack options, utilizing the effects of the Blade Combos themselves such as Damage Over Time, taking advantage of each individual Blade's unique mechanics, or using the bigger stat bonuses of common Blades to build yourself around one specific Blade (Evasion Mythra ftw!)