Almost missed your message lol!
This could be a solution. But we don't want the player to stun lock the enemies.
I appreciate and respect the effort you've made to reply to folks. So, [[SORTA LAW-DISCLAIMER]] before I open my mouth(figuratively) to do some backseat-game-design.. I should turn-tables to try to look at things from your perspective, most notably from the aspect of being a developer of a potential hit-game.. And only imagination as a limit to what sort people are out there, I might as well disclaim from any and all stipulations toward this game and/or dev. staff considering any&all possible ideas worthy of pursuit or further development; made from or come upon by comments made in a public setting (e.g like this posting) by yours truly.
And eventhough I am not egotistical enough to think I might arrive upon an idea worthy or suitable for the game brewing inside that beatiful, juicy nogging of..(wait what?) ..of your game, yet to be fully realized in an interactable form.. So, no matter how much I'd like to give any of my ideas credence, they might not just be suited for adaptation.. But you know what they say about a broken clock.. So, if by chance I might stumble upon an idea worth pursuing, feel free to use 'em without any fear of claim of ownership..
[[END of SORTA LAW-DISCLAIMER]]
-So, with all that out of the way; Here's my pitch: ..uhm, wait.. I actually had nothing To pitch.
-Addendum: Oh, actually, the stun-locked enemy-problem could be mitigated with a second enemy.. That would incentivise the player to adapt to juggle enemies, or keep moving.. And the 'attack-animation interruption', while empowering the player, could also give you to the excuse to make the enemies more able to attack the player more readily, i.e when they're on the move..
(though mitigation of the damage could be warranted..
-Both in perspective of difficulty-scaling, and immersion; Picture it yourself how much more difficult it would be to apply strength to a strike when you're in hot-pursuit, while some dumbass-commentor would be running..)
-This also would require the player to be capable to "twirl around" and strike the enemy on a moments notice..
Also, like Manlybadass- also professed liking for this atypical mob-behaviour; That some enemies strike/get hit & take a small detour and get hungry to strike once more..(Tho' I do understand why you did it that way.. [R])
-But the mob could also just be able to jump back,
--Which could also happen when the player misses the timing to strike at the right moment, or perhaps strikes with some sub-optimal weapon(If other weapon forms are planned)
..But some of these would require more thought on enemy placement, to keep things balanced.. Not to mention extra animation-work)..
Also, some players simply might not like all that much if all the enemies are aggressive, capable of striking as they're moving, and slink away, just to come back to strike again while chasing.. -So, while knowing some wieners are whiners all the way anyway..
-There should still be a need for the, if you excuse the term: the default-class enemy, you've already presented..
-But all this is more of a question of where do you want to allocate the effort and resources.. Because intriguing in-world story-telling, which you've been doing great btw, are more then able to carry a game..
Thus, for purposes of extra-resources, I would've paid++ for your demo, but that being non-possible, I can only indicate interest with ideas, and help you to add more resources for development by vowing not to disturb you with'em again.
--So, if you read this up to here, I can only offer you 5-stars and a parrot-sticker made purely from imagination.
And relieve you of duty to reply.
-d
Edit: F*damn typos.
What a humble and great post!
Honestly I'm shocked that some people would be so invested in Kanpeki. It feels like a dream. I'd like to give you a reply worth the time you've invested into the game.
I've read your post many times, gave it a few days to try and come up with a good reply, Here goes nothing!
The main inspirations for the combat (while not very apparent in the game) were FatalFrame and DarkSouls. I loved how every fight in Fatal frame felt like a struggle, you need to adapt to the third to first person perspective change, find the ghost, wait as long as possible to charge the Camera Obscura while keeping them in sight and far enough from you to avoid taking damage. And finally take picture. I really wanted to capture this feeling and recreate it into Kanpeki!
I find melee combat very rare in classic survival horrors games and even less interesting. In Silent Hill 3 for example you just mash the attack button and wait for the monster to die. It's not fun nor stressful. We really wanted to avoid that for Kanpeki's combat. That's why we've added the active reload mechanic, I think it works well and that we shouldn't change it too much.
Apart from that I agree that the combat doesn't feel good. And I think the sort of "parry" mechanic (Attack right before the enemy attacks you to inflict a devastating blow to the enemy) you've described could really work into making the combat more nuanced and interesting (As long as the window is short). Having enemies lunge at you could also make it harder and more interesting.
I think we should also rework the stagger system of the game, change it to "Hitting the enemy will stagger them every few seconds" to "Hitting the enemy enough times staggers them, grantting you the opportunity to deal an extra hit without fear of danger". It would make the stagger feel less random and more fair.
I also plan on removing the cooldown between Hoshi's attacks, making her feel more responsive.
Last change I've had in mind was to add a dodge mechanic, I think it could add more depth and allow for different playstyles, it would also make players feel less as if "they're trading hits with the enemies" which was exactly what I wanted to avoid lol.
One other problem I've identified with Kanpeki's combat is that kiling enemies does not reward you in any way. They don't drop anything, they come back when you heal ect... It makes the player try to avoid fights as much as possible which is not something we wanted. I've failed to come up with an easy to implement idea for that lol!
Anyways, these are just ideas I've had, not sure if any of them will go into the final game, I have yet to discuss this with the other team members!
PS : Have you any experience in game design, Unity or Blender? We're looking for motivated folks to work on the game's full release! Let me know if you are interested!
Hoping I gave you something interesting to think about
-Wilhelm! :)