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One thing that's been present in a lot of action games in the last few years is a combat system consisting of pressing one button for a light attack, which is faster but does less damage, and pressing a different button for a heavy attack, which is slower but does more damage. This is present in For Honor, the SoulsBorne games, The Witcher 3, etc. And I have just one question: why? Ideally, this system would be balanced so that sometimes you want to use the faster attack to make sure you get the hit, but still be incentivised to use a heavy attack when the opportunity presents itself. However, it is almost never actually balanced. Either the heavy attack is too slow to use on most enemies; making the light attack superior in almost every situation, or, more rarely, the light attack does so little damage that the heavy attack is the superior option. If this problem was present in just one or two games that had this system, I would think that it's just a balancing issue. But, from what I personally have seen and experienced, it's been extremely prevalent throughout games that have this system. In addition to that, the very concept has no basis in reality when it comes to armed combat, which is usually what the game in question is utilizing. I'm a HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) practitioner, and, while I am still a novice, I can honestly say that there is not a single circumstance where one does a slower cut or thrust just to get more power out of it; the power comes from the speed and the technique. If you try to win a fight with strength against a skilled opponent, you will lose. Also, that means that two buttons are being devoted to attacks. Why not have one attack, and devote that second button to something else? Or, if you want multiple ways of attacking, why not have it that the two attack buttons each correspond to two different types of attacks? For example: cut & thrust if we're talking about swords. So... yeah; these are my thoughts on the light & heavy attack system in action games. What are your thoughts on the subject?
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