Bebpo said:
I'm getting really, reaaaaally frustrated at playing as the guy. He sucks and has frustrating control problems that the girl doesn't have.
The game is really made for a bow. Not just any bow, but a medium->strong strength bow. For the guy this is a problem. His bows have terrible detection of the controller. You pull all the way back that the cord lets you AND IT STILL ISN'T FAR ENOUGH And your aim circle doesn't quite close enough to actually fire. Instead of aiming at enemies you are spending 10-30 seconds per arrow struggle to just get the damn thing pulled back far enough to fire.
His spear also has control problems. When you stab forward the reticule is going to move during that stab motion. Stab + Pointer = ugh. So getting direct stabs suck and the wider spread stabs are totally weak.
His sword is good for normal enemies but for big enemies and bosses it's fairly useless.
His Big Sword/Hammer are good for big enemies and bosses but the wind up is ridiculously long to the point that the boss will have moved 75% of the time by the time you swing or the big dude will hammer you and send you flying by the time you swing.
I'm still passing the levels with the guy, but they are taking a lot longer than they should because it's just such a pain in the ass to kill anything other than small grunt with him.
The girl on the other hand is awesome. It's EDF2 all over again. They substitute the terrible controlling arrow pullback method the guy has (which is supposed to prevent you from spamming from a distance) with simply the fact the arrows cost MP to use. Plus she has auto-lock for her arrows so you just lock on like Panzer Dragoon and fire quickly.
Her magic is simple and easy to use. Point and click.
And her sword is weak but fine for grunts and aborbing magic.
And she gets 3 weapon slots instead of 2.
I wish the game didn't make you play as both of them. It works for story-branching but the guy just isn't fun. I'd give the game an 8.5ish when playing as the girl but a 5ish when playing as the guy because it's just constant aggravation of you fighting with the controls the entire battle.
I actually get the feeling it might be ideal to plug in a CC when playing the guy missions. The bow would become useful, which would help.
Man, I think you're off on Frey's usefulness.
I mean, yeah early on he doesn't have much. But some of the swords are pretty great, and while something like the Ice wand (2 and 3) are great at disposing of mid size Giants, it absoluely sucks at getting rid of waves of grunts. Early on Freya is terrible at crowd clearing. Until you get stuff like the 招雷の王笏 is she any good at clearing any crowds. Even then, you've gotta manage that mana.
I see you on the whole pushing enemies away, for some reason it happens and sometimes it doesn't. BUT, one good swipe of the hammer can send a screen full of large giants carthweeling to the ground. And if you're good about it you can keep them there.
I think the game is well balanced, it's just it takes a little bit to unlock weapons that even the playing field. Freya does indeed get the more useful shit early on.