this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
869 points (98.4% liked)
Gaming
6251 readers
10 users here now
!gaming is a community for gaming noobs through gaming aficionados. Unlike !games, we don’t take ourselves quite as serious. Shitposts and memes are welcome.
Our Rules:
1. Keep it civil.
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only.
2. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry.
I should not need to explain this one.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Try not to repost anything posted within the past month.
Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.
Logo uses joystick by liftarn
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
And some people STILL can't beat it without parries.
Granted, I'm in Act 2 (Expert), and I think the ludicrous level factor into damage is to blame. The fact every other (mini)boss you fight is overlevelled, and just a few levels seem to be a 2-3x damage difference, is so stupid, I imagine someone running into 3 in a row and just giving up.
Someone on YouTube made their first playthrough an all-hit run without parries or dodges. On Expert. They had to grind a bit but made it work. I think the Curator fight where he teaches you jumping was the hardest because his damage scales with your level.
spoiler
They even beat Simon without one-shotting him. Impressive stuff.It really proves that the game can be a normal JRPG, albeit a grindy one in the beginning.
It's unrelated to difficulty, but, is it a good one though? Being grindy to me is generally a pretty terrible thing in a JRPG. Part of marketing for SMTV's rerelease was nerfing the impact of level on damage, and basically everyone loved that.
I also don't see many defensive options for the half of the game I'm at besides Maelle's redirect, or maybe absurd defense/HP stacking, if defense even works.
I absolutely hate parry systems and cheated my way through it, although I lost interest once something spoilery happened to the main character you've been playing as.
I was actually optimistic, because I like Mario&Luigi, so these combat systems CAN work. The problem is, the parry systems in E33 are 80% of your success (if you don't grind), yet are more shallow by comparison, and most of the depth is in the RPG parts that are just a supplement (unless you grind + play on easier difficulty settings, but it seems you need a Picto for AP on damage to let you have fun then)
Both Mario RPG and the M&L games have timing systems I don't mind. They have pretty generous windows and don't punish you too severely if you miss them. E33 was brutal on both fronts.
That's also because M&L requires more attention to get the timing right. You need to look for cues who the attack will go to, see if you can jump on the attack or only over it, hold the dodge button rather than press, or multitask when both bros are being attacked. Or sometimes, DON'T jump, because you then take damage. The games are puzzle/action games with JRPG elements slapped in.
E33 is extremely telegraphed (barring the very rare jukes) so it needs to compensate with tight timing and erratic animations, requiring both higher skill + trial and error. Sometimes have to press another button, but you don't even need to figure it out (I tried to jump some attacks because of Elden Ring habits lol), the enemy or whole screen telegraphs it. It's a JRPG with action slapped in, at its core at least.
For another example, Deltarune and Undertale are basically action games too, but do a lot of stuff with their dodging, sometimes even switching genres to platformer/shooter etc.
I "cheat" in M&L by pressing A+B or Y+X at the same time so whichever brother the attack is going to will jump/hit it.
I didn't mind Undertale and Deltarune's systems, either. They usually utilized full movement rather than "press the button RIGHT NOW!!!"
Parries is why the game is fun imo
Without it you would just click abilities and win every time I guess. That's something for someone too.
Some games I'd rather just take the game out of. Like expedition 33 I'd rather just be a TV show to be honest if your are making it that easy
Of course.. You'd need to balance the game entirely different.
It's just that the game is made for parries so if you take that out its kinda bland
JRPGs live or die depending on how the combat works, so I think that first point is a little reductive.