A combat system is exactly what this game needs.
One of the very, very few flaws I see in this game are the actual combat scenes. They're an absolute spectacle but they feel way too short for all the hype to really hit home, and compared to other vns they're not written as well as they could be. As a result none of the "bosses" felt as powerful or as threatening as they should've been. They're formulaic in that there's tension at the start, then some shit happens and the fight swings permanently in our favor with all tension evaporating once that "shit" happens. This is especially glaring as a flaw because these fights are basically the climaxes of a given arc. Usually it's sex scenes in these games, but here the whole arc builds up to a confrontation with the feeling of progression locked behind an encounter.
Here's a rundown of the fights in this game chronologically (mega spoilers):
A combat system slotted into these scenes would do the following:
- Introduce an additional layer of tension in the fight, inherent to boss fights in any other kind of game. Locking progression behind player engagement
- Pad out the fight with something fun and engaging. More fun, but more importantly alleviates the "candle burns twice as bright.." problem the fights scenes have right now.
- Introduce gameplay depth and mechanics like "hidden puzzles". The fight prototype in the game is an example of this (should be done a little better though, a better hint at the solution maybe)
- More opportunities for cool renders and animations. The "Spectacle" is one of this games greatest strengths, and allowing the devs to show us more sick shit through combat animations would be sick af. I'm imagining ff7 summon type shit for battle moves.
- We can actually see CJ contributing to the fights. In the vn the man just stands there stanced up while everyone's going nuts. I know how it works, but his contribution does not come across as things are now.
- Difficulty can be tuned to relate to the boss and the situation. Without going into spoilers with examples, I'll just say when the gang is on the backfoot, the fight is hard and you need to play defensive just to survive. When the shit happens and we get an advantage, we can play offensively. This is better than the fight formulaicly playing out as expected when the "help" arrives or whatever happens in that fight. The player would still have to earn the win by playing the game.
I don't really want to write an essay so I'm gonna rest my case here. I think the fights in this game are disappointing, because they're missing a combat system. It feels like they were written with one in mind.
