If you believe that then it is going to be really hard having a meaningful conversation about each game's combat systems. So I will just say....to each his own but you just seem unnecessarily dismissive of the combat in those games.
they literally are not real fighting systems.. there's no real decision making involved, or depending on game very little.
Having different weapon classes does not make the combat deep, it just means you have more than a sword to use to fight and I honestly don't see how the other systems are restrictive.
different weapons bring at the very least gameplay diversity.
I don't see how any game 'gives' us actual control over the characters action. Being able to switch weapons is an action that is still made via an input method such as a controller. Same with any other action that a player does. Developers can put in a punch action between two enemies that is not connected in a context sensitive way but that is just going to look off. Why does it matter if that same punch action between two enemies is a little smart and context sensitive? Unless I am misunderstanding your point here.
the issue is that you take agency away from the player. if you take away agency you also take away the feel the player can get for the character's actions.
if you press X and 1/3 the time your character does a horizontal slash, 1/3 of the time he does a vertical slash and another 1/3 of the time a diagonal one, you feel less in control of your character and getting a worse feeling for inputting combos that need timing.
now add context sensitive animations and you will not be able to accurately judge what you input will result in.
in Ghost of Tsushima pressing Square can result in your character standing still and doing a horizontal slash, a vertical slash, a diagonal slash, him automatically locking on to a nearby enemy and doing a slash that look different still from the ones before etc.
you lose control of your character. your input is merely an attack command, not a command for specific movements.
if a combo looks the same every time you input it you will get a feeling for said combo, which in return gives the developers the possibility to implement more complex combos that require timing and precision.
if the developers make the fighting system too context sensitive you can't do do that. context sensitive movement means the player will never see the same string of animations and therefore can't accurately judge when to follow up with the next button press. this results in the developers needing to loosen the precision required to input combos, limiting the possible complexity of the combos and precision needed to perform them
Here I just disagree with your take on it so to each his own. I enjoyed it...it was fresh and different.
theres nothing fresh and/or different about it. games did it before and did it better. see Nioh
hmm, weird. I am not sure what I did or didn't do but I don't remember being interrupted multiple times like that (after initially following the tip).
Perhaps I learned the different stances and which enemies to use them against quickly or maybe if you do follow the tip the first time it won't show again, but I dunno, it wasn't that much of an issue for me I guess and I know it would be something that would have annoyed me. I remember how that kind of thing happened in a Need for Speed game at the start with a tutorial where they stopped gameplay without the option to skip.
it happens every time the game thinks you used the wrong stance too often agains the wrong enemy type.
it's a color code, like I said. Use Red Stance vs Red Enemy, use Blue Stance vs Blue Enemy... only that they don't call it or Red, Blue etc. and don't color in the enemies
stances are mostly irrelevant once you learn how to use certain moves against all enemy types equally as efficiently.
I haven't played in a while so I don't precisely remember my typical combo I did but I know I basically used the same 2 or 3 moves against all enemies and killed everything fast and easily. (I played on hard btw.)
so basically I found a way to fight enemies my way, and the game didn't want me to do that, never saw that in any other game and it annoyed me.
I guess Sony knows their clientele is usually of the highly casual type, so they saw the necessity to implement this so even the last soccer mom knows she's playing wrong.
