It seems like this thread has become an argument over whether it's okay for a game to be hard. That's not my problem with this game - I love hard games.
But I do feel like the game must at least help you onto the first step of the ladder and explain the basics. A good challenge should be easy to learn, tough to master. W101 is the opposite. It's bloody impossible to learn, and not particularly difficult to master once you've been told what's going on. I find the idea that fans of the game pass around half-hour long tutorial videos as a key point to help new players enjoy the game to be very telling in this regard. I find the fact that most people say that the entire first play through of 20 hours+ is just a tutorial to be very telling as well. This game is the very opposite of easy to learn. This game is borderline inscrutable in many ways.
The way your team is knocked out by attacks is unnecessarily punishing for a game full of conventional mechanics in distinctly unconventional packages, where a great deal of trial and error is needed just to reach the level of basic proficiency that experienced action gamers can enjoy right away in Bayonetta or practically any other decent character action title. That's part of what I meant when I said the game was dragged down by frustrating design choices. It's true: TW101 could be every bit as unique and inventive without slapping down players for making mistakes as harshly as it does. What if your fallen team members revived themselves more quickly? What if enemy attacks broke your unite morphs without scattering your team across the battlefield? What would have been the downside to allowing struggling players (i.e. everyone, at first) to have a more enjoyable learning process?
I remember a blog entry on Platinum's site about Bayonetta 1. The enemy AI designer (or someone with a similar role) discussed the finer points of keeping players engaged during challenging combat. Too easy and the player won't feel threatened; too difficult and the player will get frustrated. This sensitivity to the player's experience is absent in TW101. It is brutal and relentless. Players are funneled through a chaotic gauntlet of escalating challenges with no opportunity to get their bearings except by replaying earlier missions. This isn't a fundamental design flaw, it's a balance issue. One that would have been simple enough to correct by tweaking a few gameplay mechanics.
Why not let players dodge even with an empty battery meter, but not use Unite Guts unless there's enough charge? Why not allow unlimited use of the Wonder Liner to retrieve items and knocked out team members, and to queue up unite morphs, but require charge to actually confirm a new morph? TW101's battery meter could work much like Bayonetta's magic meter, where charge allows you to perform additional or powered up moves while your basic move set and most recent morph remain available at all times. Wouldn't the game be better with this and other small changes to improve combat flow and general accessibility? To me the answer is obvious.
(BTW, there's no good reason why the genre switching sequences and challenge rooms shouldn't be separately or more leniently ranked, or not ranked at all. None. To tie unlockables to such tedious busywork is offensive to anyone who values their time. Bayonetta got it right by allowing players to purchase unlockables by inputting codes at the telephones in level 2.)
This is a wonderful post, and you really capture a lot of what I feel about the game here. There's a difference between challenging design and frustrating design.
Anyway, I kept a bit of a running diary of my last hour playing the game so that people could see how I got on. Here it is:
Operation 005-B:
Inside a lava temple on the gamepad. Cant see shit, captain. This is terrible. Moving the gamepad to look around is horrible and isnt working. I keep getting the camera stuck against a wall. I clearly need to use bomb to slow the fire down but it works so inconsistently. No space to draw in here, can't see anyway. This is a terrible piece of design on every level. This isnt working. The single worst use of the gamepad I'm yet to encounter in a game.
Fighting two guys on a see-saw bridge. Its just impossible to see where I am in comparison to them from this camera angle with the swaying bridge. The enemies are easy, but I fall off again and again. Its impossible to enjoy this.
Cut-scene time. Story is still cute, visuals still great. I'm willing to play to see how this plays out, I really do love this game's style.
Platforming around a lava area while robot jumps causing lava waves - terrible. No sense of weight or placement in the platforming at all. Died 3 times from not being sure where I was exactly compared to the wave of lava. Hate these kind of sections.
Alright, finally, a normal combat section! A single large enemy appears, I combo the shit out of him, pure platinum all around after a series of consolation prizes on the last couple sections. When this game is just me vs one or two enemies on flat ground it really shines. I love the core mechanics and the combo systems are fantastic. This time I climb attacked to stun the enemy, sent out a blade and a hammer on their own, then became the fist to launch the enemy and kept him in the air with the gun. Looked like one of those Saur videos. 4 different items in about 3 seconds, he didnt know what hit him. Tons of fun. Tons of fun.
Please note - I do know the combat mechanics. The amount of people linking me to videos I've already watched or teaching me mechanics I already know at this stage is annoying.
Massive Cube Boss (Part 09) - Killed it perfectly again. Pure platinum. Loved this battle, easy as pie when you know what you're doing. The game is just about worth it for the standard battle alone, which really are unique and inspired.
Overall, though, this was a terrible level and so inconsistent. Displayed tons of stuff I dislike about the game. So many people who like the game handwave terrible gamepad sections or platforming sections and I'm not sure why - they materially affect my enjoyment of the game.
Operation 005-C
The boss was quite readable for once. Clear what you needed to do, not so much trial and error like the last few. Took him down without much difficulty.
Then Punch-out. Punch-out was brilliant. Exactly the kind of genre-break that the game needs. Pure quality, with depth to it. Most of the genre-switching had nowhere near this amount of polish to it. This one felt fully-featured, so it was a huge positive, and I loved it. Game also eased you into it before asking you to fight the boss. Good design!
Decent battle against the bad guy inside the robot, he went down surprisingly easy. Then genre-switching again while escaping the volcano. This part was lame. All flying sections appear to be lame. Again, the chapter could have finished on such a good note had he just left that final lame section off. Editor, where are you?
Has to be mentioned how stylish and amazing all of the action looked, though. Most other games would dole out the last 10 minutes of action across an entire game. Here it's something new every 5 seconds. I can't help but respect that. The game is a visual eyegasm at basically all times.
Operation 006-A
An ice level. Sounded like a nightmare but was less annoying than I thought slipping around. Most of the action was on level ground, which I appreciated. Some new enemies who were surprisingly easy. Won't go into as much detail but I liked this level a hell of a lot more than 005-B.
I'll continue on later.