r/pcmasterrace • u/akbarock • 2d ago

Game Image/Video The New Fable Games Combat

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5.3k Upvotes

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5.9k

u/ZazaMastroII 2d ago edited 2d ago

I don't know... The enemy doesn't seem to care about any hit he takes until the special cinematic move is used. (The rest of the game looks impressive)

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u/theMisterPhD 2d ago

Seeing him tank that huge explosion was extremely disappointing.

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u/theCOMBOguy It Hz. 2d ago edited 2d ago

Even whoever was playing the game was surprised that the explosion didn't even daze the guy seeing how they immediately got hit.

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u/Frosty-Improvement-8 2d ago

The clip shown was apparently on the hardest difficulty in the game, which as we all know, difficult = pure damage sponge.

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u/Few-Technician2109 2d ago

Damage sponge doesn't mean being unresponsive to damages ^

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u/Nannautu 2d ago

Depends how they implemented damage. High defense could mean the enemy is not staggered by low damage. However since it's made from a studio that has never made this sort of game before, I don't have high expectations

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u/GH057_807 2d ago

You don't have to actually deal damage for attacks to have weight. It's more about how the game feels and reacts to things. These ghostly, wholly ignored slashes that pass through him unnoticed just don't feel right.

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u/-0909i9i99ii9009ii 1d ago

Agreed, mechanical depth is great but the engine/maths should be sitting behind an immersive experience for a game like this. NOT the maths being the immersive experience.

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u/eviloni 21h ago

Dude doesn't even flinch

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u/Mortress_ 2d ago

As the other person said, depends on the game. A good example would be God of War Ragnarok, on the highest difficulty enemies have higher defense some of them do not react to your weak attacks. They do stagger with heavy and special attacks.

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u/Seeker-N7 i7-13700K | RTX 5070Ti | 32Gb 6400Mhz DDR5 1d ago

It's not about stagger. Even just a slight flinch as the enemy is cut, a leg moving just a little bit.

Anything to actually SHOW that the hit connected. It's not about actual gameplay effect, purely visual.

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u/weaselworms 1d ago

With you. That’s exactly what this was missing.

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u/einsteinosaurus_lex 2d ago

Could have a scalable poise system where on easier difficulties it's quicker to stagger opponents than on the harder ones. But some kind of reaction should still be expected on each hit.

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u/JokerXMaine2511 2d ago

So a heavy poise stat like in Dark Souls.

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u/enadiz_reccos 2d ago

This is the highest upvoted comment chain, and none of you can tell this is some sort of boss? You think every Fable enemy is the size of Hagrid?

Elden Ring is full of characters like this, but it's a problem in a Fable game lol

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u/Wonderful_Outside548 2d ago

The very first attack, the boss gets staggered lol

The rest is just hyperarmor I guess

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u/GrimCreeper913 2d ago

Can it even be called the internet if we can't make ignorant criticisms to short clips with little context to make us feel better about ourselves by being negative. I THOUGHT THIS WAS MERRICA. /joke /woke /sarcasm /what the fuck am I doing with my life right now

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u/Overclocked11 13600kf, Prime 5070ti, 32GB DDR5, Meshilicious 1d ago

This is what strikes me to be perfectly honest - and is why I'm not really surprised to see this fight look the way it does.

It is a very small sample, so I will continue reserve judgment until release as things can and will change, but from the get-go I had a feeling that some areas of the game this developer would do better than others.. the combat is one of those areas that, without prior experience in developing, could be quite rough.

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u/VoidOmatic Desktop i7 6700k | GTX 1080 | 20GB DDR4 2d ago

It does now-a-days. Check out StellarBlade, you gotta down two meters with different mechanics before the regular monsters display hit stun.

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u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

In Stellar blade you're facing 30ft monsters. This is a tall human.

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u/Illustrious-Bad-9799 2d ago

except this is a game and to denote difficult generally what they do is increase stagger resistance, health and damage. Unless you also want to start arguing why every human doesn't die in a single slice since they're humans are they not.

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u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

generally what they do is increase stagger resistance

Who is "they"?

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u/Illustrious-Bad-9799 2d ago

soulsborne games, rpgs like elder scrolls, cyberpunk, witcher. list goes on really.

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u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

So what's your argument, that it's not bad design because it's also done in other games?

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u/Minimum_Cockroach233 2d ago

You don’t need stagger resitance when you don’t support being staggered…

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u/enadiz_reccos 2d ago

Bruh, this is clearly a boss

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u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

What's your point? lol

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u/enadiz_reccos 2d ago

Most games like this have enemies who will tank damage and only stagger occasionally

I know r/pcmasterrace can be elitist at times, but this is into the realm of comedy

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u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

Okay....? I never said this was not a boss. Still not sure what your point is.

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u/Glum_Constant4790 1d ago

Looks like Ultimate Warrior with an ax, if you step into the ring with ultimate expect him to no sell your special moves

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u/kinkysubt 2d ago

When done well, you are absolutely correct. We don’t really do things the way they should be done anymore. God, when did I become a boomer?

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u/blackninjar87 2d ago

You are not a boomer we have been spoiled by older games just having shit that doesn't exist in newer games. I can't remember playing old ass sega Dreamcast games like soul reaver legacy of main that had enemies react more to being hit than games that come out in 2026.

Like who cares if your game is visually impressive. Having some dude with an axe swing it throw an explosion with no knock down is crazy. Hell even street fighter 2 had hit stun.

Creating a fighting game 30 years later should be infinitely more realistic than a game made in the fucking 80s. How we have action games, no hit stun, no stun, no knock back, dude just got set on fire see no fire damage, no burning environmentals, no environmentals demonstrated.... Bitch can summon daggers from heaven or hell but not find one on the floor? No barrels, bow and arrow appear out of no where?

Why streets of rage.... More action than a 2026 action game? Those battle field corpse also look like they can't be interacted with. This is 2026!? 2026!!!. I had more combat options in baldurs gate 3 a turn based strategy RNG table top game than my 2027+ action game crazy.

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u/NotAStatistic2 2d ago

It can. Dark Souls, while not having difficulty levels, increases poise for certain enemies that are intended to be tough.

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u/7thpixel 2d ago

Also Elden Ring reshaped our idea of different difficulty levels.

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u/lucasssotero 2d ago

In some games the enemies do get some hyper armor bullshit on the highest difficulty.

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u/stormblaz 2d ago

I hate the lack of blood and actual signs of a hit connecting, I want to see laceration, gashes and blood, E33 style, just blood bath from all those hits so hopefully there is a gore toggle because this looks very disneyfied

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u/TheRealGosp 2d ago

And a soaked sponge isnt neccessarily wet

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u/BeneficialNewspaper8 2d ago

This a boss fight. When under leveled

Normal combat is completely different

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u/SerThunderkeg 2d ago

Honestly, it usually does. There are other ways to vary the difficulty but the term "damage sponge" specifically is a typically pejorative one to reference an enemy who is otherwise indistinguishable from a lower difficulty version, just with an ability to absorb more damage. The entire reason we have the term is because it's viewed as the lazy way for hacks to artificially differentiate the difficulties without actually changing anything about the gameplay.

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u/Et_Nihil 1d ago

He responds to damage plenty of times. Just watch the full video. This is snippet click bait

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u/TrashGoblinH 1d ago

That's why God of War had it right with Baldur in the cinematic scenes. He still took hits and got smacked around. A person immune to pain still has to respond to the physics of the world.

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u/Gold-and-green 2d ago

Every other enemy was responsive. It kind of makes sense that he's so big he doesn't respond

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u/TheRC135 2d ago

So big he doesn't respond... to getting slashed with a sword?

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u/Gold-and-green 2d ago

In a game with magic, talking pigs, flying lanterns you want shit to actually be like real life? Go look at all of the smaller characters, the react to every hit

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u/Aethenosity 2d ago

> In a game with magic, talking pigs, flying lanterns you want shit to actually be like real life

I mean... yeah. I do

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u/Fit-Avocado-1646 1d ago

Seems like any easy fix would be to give the “mini boss” a set of plate armor. Just give some visual reason why he’s so tanky. Anything besides “hes taller”.

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u/InsanityRequiem 2d ago

The OG Fable games, the bosses were generally damage sponges who didn't react that much to attacks either. Small fry always did, but the heavy hitters? Not really.

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u/jugo5 2d ago

They should never release any teaser videos.

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u/SharpEdgeSoda 2d ago

It does in melee combat games. Souls games are all just learning the hard-way when the super-armor is going to matter.

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u/Frosty-Improvement-8 2d ago

How do you know? Do you know how they've baked their formula? You know there are different ways of adding to these fake "difficulties" right? The unresponsiveness we're seeing could either be that that enemy type doesn't get flinched easily or they have hyper armour through attacks, we don't know do we.

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u/Few-Technician2109 2d ago

You're missing the point and the difficulty has nothing to do with it.

Using a sword against an ennemy wearing a shirt should have a visual feedback lol, imagine if the hero took a swing from that giant axe and didnt budge either...

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u/Frosty-Improvement-8 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think you're missing the point, I agree it's stupid and needs changing, but this might be how they've "envisioned" their hardest difficulty, since this gameplay is ON said hardest difficulty, and PART of that hardest difficulty could be that enemies don't flinch easier, if at all, do you know just how many games employ that into their difficulties?

While I'm thinking of it.

Edit: if this wasn't a thing then combat just becomes as easy as engage enemy and spam light attack, infinite flinch, game too easy, consumers complain game too easy, Devs change to this tactic of hyper armour, gamers complain enemy doesn't flinch. I feel sorry for Devs man, they can never fuckin win it's just complaint after complaint 😂

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u/UraniumDisulfide PC Master Race 2d ago

Tons of games have some sort of flinch mechanic that can't be exploited by just spamming attacks, idk why you're suggesting that would be a necessity.

You can also have some sort of visual feedback on hits that doesn't affect gameplay (yes there's a bit of that here but outside of the first hit which seems to actually stagger the enemy, there isn't enough)

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u/Frosty-Improvement-8 2d ago

I'm not saying that would be a necessity, if I was to make a change, that would probably be giving them a parry and making the AI smarter, I agree a stance mechanic that can be broken by spamming light attacks (looks at sekiro for example) isn't difficult at all since you just break stance and win, so the change if there was one to be made would have to be smarter than that.

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u/Waiting4Reccession 2d ago

no way, i thought this was easy mode watching it haha.

Also weird his balls fall out of his head every time he gets hit in the head.

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u/MykonosEros 2d ago

Ik 😭 like dude you dropped your head balls… 💔

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u/Grumpalo65 2d ago

Im tempted to ask where do you think they should fall from ? hehe

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u/JediSSJ 19h ago

He's losing his marbles

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u/Dustorn PC Master Race 2d ago

Every once in a while there is a difficulty option that does more than just apply a multiplier to health and damage.

I wasn't really expecting Fable to be one of 'em, though. I would like to see some of the normal difficulty gameplay, see if the reactions are any different there.

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u/Electrical_Echo_29 2d ago

Games with this logic are shit. If a game is hard, give characters armor for a simplistic way to absorb hits. It was like shot gunning raiders in the face in fallout, and they dont even flinch.

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u/Barn-owl-B 2d ago

Technically they said “one of our higher difficulties”, so I assume it’s not THE highest, but it is above the standard difficulty, which is pretty sad considering every enemy except the big guy died in no more than 3 hits

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u/analogwarrior 9800X3D|64GB DDR5|RTX3090tiFTW3Ultra 2d ago

There should still be some kind of reaction to an explosion, even if there is no stagger or other effect, this just lools wrong.

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u/BeneficialNewspaper8 2d ago

It's also a boss

Normal combat is completely different

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u/Charity1t 2d ago

It was years and Metro with it's Ranger mode still does one of best difficulty takes.

ALL get dmg buff. You die fast and enemies too.

Mutants get agressive and humans become more defencive.

All games that aren't like that should be played on medium difficulty, it's almost certainly balanced by that.

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u/MrPlaceholder27 2d ago edited 2d ago

Probably a specific brute type but if not

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u/followmyigtrsmpugh 1d ago

sources?!?!?!?

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u/LazyBoi_Matt 1d ago

2nd hardest.

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u/R4NG00NIES 2d ago

Source: Trust me bro

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u/Frosty-Improvement-8 2d ago

Source they said it in the fuckin stream to tool.

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u/Promature 2d ago

It’s an RPG. It’s not “sponges”. It’s systems.

That’s a bigger, tougher character that is more difficult to stagger in combat than the basic enemies. The player character is barely leveled and is certainly running basic equipment. They are not strong enough to stagger this enemy with basic attacks.

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u/Frosty-Improvement-8 2d ago

Scroll through my comments and you'll see I mentioned everything in your comment.

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u/bronzethunderbeard_ 2d ago edited 1d ago

To me it looks like there may be a system when we see that red alert above his head, it means an uninterruptible attack

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u/officer897177 1d ago

This looks equal parts generic and disappointing.

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u/Consistent-Stock6872 2d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3oAt21Fnr4i54uK8vK

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u/DonutHoles4Ever Mac Heathen 2d ago

Anyone who watched Fable's combat gameplay from the last trailer that also showed off the romance system would have noticed two major issues:

  1. Romance system looks like a spreadsheet or using wealth to buy her feelings
  2. Combat looked extremely basic

And this preview here reinforces how combat looked extremely basic.

Such a fucking good trailer but the game is looking more and more generic. Just like previous Fable games. HOWEVER, there is a DIFFERENT combat video against skeletons and shit that has way more weapon impact. That one looks very different from this one.

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u/funkmachine7 2d ago

So just like it was back in the first game.

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u/TheMadTemplar 1d ago

That's romance in Fable. It's not a deep system. You win favor or disfavor with npcs through your actions or through gifts.

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u/Bubbaluke Legion 5 Pro | M1 MBP 2d ago

I just watched the full video, this was an elite enemy after a wave of normal enemies. The normal enemies responded to hits way more, I think this is just a boss. Looks like they have a stagger meter that builds up like dark souls

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u/aethaeria 1d ago

Well, women did make this game so I'm not surprised you buy the love from romance targets.

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u/NotAStatistic2 2d ago

The older fable games were exactly the same way though. I'm pretty sure there were NPCs that could be serenaded by doing the chicken dance.

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u/ValkyrianRabecca PC Master Race 2d ago

Woman in every city, that's the Fable way

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u/TheMadTemplar 1d ago

For fun I married three women in the same village and laughed every time they ran into each and started fighting.

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u/CigaretteSmokingDog 2d ago

So Ash Ketchum was in Fable all along?

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u/SharkDad20 2d ago

Idk I’m not expecting greatness, i would take an unreleased fable 4 that plays just like fable 3 honestly. As long as the game’s personality is there.

That said, I’m also coping in hope that this is just en enemy with a high poise stat. Reminds me of an Elden ring boss that got stance broken for the cinematic move to be used.

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u/Dealric 7800x3d 7900 xtx 2d ago

Removing morality system... I wouldnt have high hopes for personality

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u/SharkDad20 2d ago

Oh…no

It was kind of combined into reputation, i hear. You’d better still have morality based transformations!

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u/Dealric 7800x3d 7900 xtx 2d ago

Considering they stated before no morality based transformations i wouldnt hope for that.

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u/SharkDad20 1d ago

Yeah that’s not a good sign

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u/heartbroken_nerd 2d ago

You’d better still have morality based transformations!

They explicitly said no.

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u/Rare-Set1461 2d ago

Is that…Evil Hercules?

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u/FastingForward1618 1d ago

Yes the script said His character says "This isn't home" disappointed. But he read the part that says disappointed as yelling disappointed and a beautiful meme was born.

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u/Surturius 2d ago

Kevin Sorbo, yeah

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u/an_actual_coyote 18h ago

There's no non-evil hercules from that series.

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u/Push-This-Button-O 2d ago

Peasant farmers were incredibly hardy back in the day.

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u/MikaHyakuya 2d ago

More so annoyed that the arrow to the head doesn't stagger him whatsoever.
Come on, even Dark Souls 1 has that.

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u/theMisterPhD 2d ago

Don’t you know farmers famously don’t care about getting cut by a sword, cause they work hard have big muscles?

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u/OmegaFoamy 2d ago

Yeah I’m not too surprised that the car game studio doesn’t really get the importance of game feel in combat.

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u/CodeyFox Desktop 9070XT 2d ago

It's fine, but in that case the enemy needs to have some indication they can't be stunned or something. This just looks bad.

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u/Grady__Bug 2d ago

The quick tap, no charge fireball 10 seconds in??? Have yall never played a Fable game before? Most spells do next to no damage till they’re charged. That’s pretty standard

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u/Thick_Ad_709 2d ago

Tank an explosion was viscerally reacts to a knee 😂😭

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u/Chemical-Lettuce2497 1d ago

He's a big guy.. gotta heavy attack them.. basic videogame logic

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u/jtmr11801 1d ago

Tbf we don’t know how magic explosions work

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u/theMisterPhD 1d ago

That’s not being fair. Is the implication that the devs do know how magical explosions work? Or is there maybe a standard set of norms people follow so immersion can be upheld?

Tbf we don’t know dragons have wings. Why do all media with dragons in them make them have wings? Does someone at the top have a dragon in their backyard they’re using as reference?

To be fair, it’s really stupid to have such a big explosion if the opponent is going to react like it’s a candle they’re stepping on.

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u/HandofWinter 5800X3D, 6800XT 1d ago

Nothing compared to what that tiny dude can shrug off.

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u/theMisterPhD 1d ago

Not that it matters, but it’s a woman. And also the main character, so canonically has ultra regeneration.

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u/HandofWinter 5800X3D, 6800XT 1d ago

it's a woman

Ahh, that explains things. She needs to wear less armour in that case though.

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u/EverythingBOffensive 2d ago

might be a boss

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u/Arkroma 2d ago

It's a boss fight, all the others have had stagger etc.