>>714912586
>i'm not very far into the game atm, just been dicking around gran soren
So around level 10-20? The game really doesn't pick up until you're about halfway through your vocation. It's not that the game is bad before then, it's simply that the combat is very deliberately neutered and simplified until you unlock more vocation ranks.
Itsuno did this because he wanted to mirror the hero's journey of a hero going from zero to hero, so you'll start as a scrub, level up your vocation and unlock skills, and then become a badass.
Once you're in the "badass" section, you can do all kinds of unique attacks and skills. Striders for example get: an attack where they leap in the air and spin around like a beyblade with their swords, another attack where they can throw out wires and pull enemies to the ground, dodge rolls, double jumps, the ability to animation cancel out of any animation etc. You put all of these different skills together to get a truly mobile and insanely aggressive fighter.
Which leads into my next thing. The amount of choice you're offered in every combat encounter is unparalleled imo. You have a light attack, a timed light attack combo, a heavy attack, a charged heavy, a light jump attack, a heavy jump attack, a grab, a grapple, the ability to climb, and 6 unique skills of your choice.
