Beat the game on normal about a week or 2 ago. I wanted to also beat it on hard but thats basically a fools errand. Story was extremely enveloping, and cant wit for acts 3/4. The final battle is about as cheap as one would expect, but my character was so developed and ready I blasted the boss to piesces. I could give people the formula to destroy all enemies, but likely better for everyone to figure it out. The save is attached, its the third save file. 6 hours isnt too bad, especially since it was the second full run through with full knowledge of the best decisions to take. As a person who immediately bought all seasons as soon as it was on app store, im looking forward to any early adopter items thst come along. Thanks!
This. I hate how the combat feels like it's rushing you with no warning when your times up. I'd have bought the season pass if it wasn't for that.
Can u explain y the fomplaints r rediculous? Ive beaten the game and honestly the most rewardingg/draining/stupid aspect of the whole game is the combat. The primary issue is that frequently enemies will attack 3/4+ times in a row and u can only hope to parry. Parry is sadly a % based opportunity that is around 13% if u r lucky. The problem is a major disconnect between the purported skills of the hero and yet his inability to block or parry the vast majority of enemy attacks. In a game like final fantasy, u have other characters that can heal u to deal with enemy attacks (and if u dont pick the heal spell then this game is practically impossible). Also another annoying aspect if battles r the timers on potions. I realize that this is a balancing issue, and again i was able to overcome this through trial and error), but its rather unintuitive that if i drink a potion i have to wait an extraordinary long time (in game time) to drink a second potion. If u have healing as a skill, u can roughly rotate healing and potion so that a healing ability is always available...but if u didnt pick healing... Restart and pick it cuz yer wasting your time. Again, i really enjoy this game, but the combat is really really frustrating unless i pick the god setup. It feels like there are not a lot of other really viable options, imo (and yes i have tried several).
Combat issues... If you kill an enemy you will get the wolf symbol, and by tapping rapidly you plunge your summer sword in and get Kai energy. But it isn't consistant; if you kill someone from a parry, you don't get the opportunity, for example. This should be explained clearly in the help section of the game so there are no questions. That energy is helpful! Someone commented that the ranged weapons are useless; but consider that they take very little if any endurance to use, that bolts and other items can be poisoned or explosive etc, and that it may mean killing an enemy earlier so they don't get another attack on you. So I appreciate the additional layer of strategy this brings. It isn't clear at first that you can level up weapon skills and summer sword skills by using them. Maybe I missed that somewhere, but I got the summer sword level up and its great...do these go up to level 3? How much a difference does it make in the number of crowns you get on the hard level vs normal? Is there any way to level up Kai powers? I'd like to see a turn bar for the enemies as well. It's annoying to parry and have two enemies attack right after your parry is over! Last comment: I think combat gets a little more interesting as your endurance builds, you get more choices that way...
I think, maybe, the game didn't do too well a job in describing Lone Wolf's abilities in detail. There are abilities with multiple forms of use and, if used well, gives Lone Wolf more than even chances of survival. Take it from a Survival player (non-healer)...as I mentioned in an earlier post, that guy has a bag of tricks that's bigger than you think. First, healing. The Healing ability isn't the only way to heal other than potions. Its counterpart, Survival, also heals - but only when you damage enemies (something like a drain ability). This is extremely useful for sword users like me (as swords cool down much faster than heavier, harder-hitting weapons). When I need healing, my favourite combo is to kick off my phase with Survival, wail on the weakest foe (doing up to five or six attacks in a round with a fatigue potion and spilling on the next weakest guy if my foe falls midway), preferably concluding with a crippling or stunning attack from my offhand weapon, and finish off with a Sommerswerd attack (the arcing attack if mastered, as that cripples every remaining enemy). I will almost certainly kill off at least one guy, seriously damage the rest, and finish my phase with full health thanks to all the attacks I've been dishing out. Second, ranged weapons - their main benefit is that they don't consume fatigue. This not only enables you to squeeze in more attacks during your phase (which should be priority #1, by the way - always aim to trim the number of enemies), but also provides additional benefits to anyone using Survival (more attacks = more health regained). Third, decide and focus on your build. Dexterity will increase your chance to evade/parry, possibly lower weapon cooldown, and probably has more unwritten benefits. I suspect the other stats have additional benefits to them too, but my character's a dex build so I can only speak for him. Fourth, if you still think you're not getting enough evade chances, you may want to think about taking up camouflage - camouflage will almost certainly grant you a parry on every enemy attack when enabled (so activate it just before you end your phase). Stun enemies by lifting them with mind over matter (or bring serious hurt with nearby debris, whichever you decide to be more tactically sound). Use Animal Kinship to summon a wolf that will attack even when you can't. Throw explosives to set enemies on fire and flares to stun them. So many ways to bring the pain! Lone Wolf is still the hero the books make him out to be - in a battle between Lone Wolf and six Drakkar, I'll still choose Lone Wolf any day.
Hi Guys, The act 3 of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf will bring to the game new combat improvements to add a deeper gameplay experience and "resolve" a lot of player's issues without distorting the current combat dynamics. Below are some useful informations (in the next release these informations will be displayed in the game). Strength= improves melee damage, Lone Wolf natural armor and vitality bar (red bar). Dexterity= improves dodge/parry rating, all technique critical chance and endurance bar (green bar). Intelligence= improves all the Kai abilities and Sommerswerd damage, Lone Wolf turn duration (countdown only) and Kai power bar (blue bar). Thank you all for playing our game!
I felt similar about the combat system at first. But after I took up the game again, in preparation for Act 2, I focused on exploring and differentiating between all the actions available to (my version of) Lone Wolf, and found that I really did not have a firm grasp of the mechanics. Previously, I had been too focused on simply different forms of attack, but I found that with judicious application of stuns (through the Wolf's Charge shield bash and Mindblast) just before the end of my sequence, self-buffs (Camoflauge and Weaponskill) before attacks, and to almost always leave enough time for me to activate Wolf's Resilience before yielding the initiative, I could minimize damage to Lone Wolf and drastically increase my staying power, and make much better use of my attack opportunities by optimizing inflicted damage. Now, combat is occasionally challenging, often easy, and always fun.
That's a shame. Combat is actually a really clever hybrid of the static and immobile turn-based systems of the Final Fantasy paradigm, and of realtime action. And there is depth aplenty to be found. But most importantly, once you have a firm grasp of the mechanics, it is fun. See my previous post and pheriannath's excellent tactical walkthrough on this very same page for some examples of that depth. Being the intricate twitch combat buff that I am, I always prefer precision- and reflex-based combat with free movement, manual evasion and blocking, acrobatics, use of physics for advantages, plus lots of tactical depth woven into the mix. Even in RPGs. Barring that (especially since few games in our history provide something along those lines ), I find Lone Wolf's system faaaar preferable to just about any static turn-based system ever. (This only includes Final Fantasy and the likes, mind you, games where your party stands still and chooses attacks from a list. TBS games with the kind of sophistication that comes from movement and positioning, terrain bonuses, elevation, plus creative ability use affected by forementioned factors, FF Tactics- and Ravenmark-style, are often as fun as my ideal realtime combat systems.) And here's another perspective: even if the combat mechanics had indeed been as impossible to master or far too hard as occasionally suggested, even if there had not been players like us who find it both easy, fun, and supremely consistent and manageable (something that kinda disproves the idea that Lone Wolf's battle system simply cannot be applied with consistency and success), the game would have been a worthy purchase just for the atmosphere, the narrative (which still leaves a lot to be desired, but still outdoes most games with grace), character progression, the dramatic choices, and the gorgeous presentation. First of all, briiiilliant post. Learned a thing or two I did not know, and I've explored these mechanics quite a bit for the past days. Secondly, is this a hidden advantage of Camoflauge? According to the ability description, it only grants automatic critical hits and prevents enemies from parrying or dodging my attacks. (At first, I figured it would work much as you describe, but was surprised to see it is an offensive ability only.)
It seems to be. I actually tried it out first before reading the description, thinking logically that it would hide me from enemies, so I wasn't too surprised to see it working like I imagined it would (notably, it kept me alive during my first Gourgaz encounter). It's kind of unexpected to see no explanation about its defensive use.
Yeah, it might not speak well for the game's documentation, but it means I have yet another tool to flaunt my (Lonely?) Wolfish might before my foes Thanks!
Well there's always www.projectaon.org where you can download the books for free (legally, with Joe Dever's blessing too) and they've got a statskeeper tool there too. But I'm liking the brand new storyline in Blood On The Snow, and I'd rather more of these new 'in between books' kinds of storylines, rather than adaptation of existing books. Rereading Chasm of Doom's and Shadow on the Sand's backstory makes me realise that there're lots of gaps in between books when we didn't know what Lone Wolf was up to. Sequel to this app, maybe? If I had to choose, I think book 4 feels like a possible adaptation. The tone is somewhat similar to BotS. Just my humble opinion!
Well, it's not. Case 1. you opens menu to choose action but - bam - right at the moment enemy decides to hit you! Menu closes before you can issue any order. Case 2. You opens menu of magic and see that cooldown isn't completed. You didn't do anything in combat, but lost precious 3 of 10 seconds. Should I proceed? This combat system is far from perfect. But devs already said they giong to improve it in few month.
They never mentioned those two aspects among the faults to be improved, nor what they actually consider less than optimal about the system. But more significantly, those particular points are some of my favourite aspects of the combat mechanics. Keeping both your own cooldowns and the approximate timers of enemy attacks in mind (as to avoid being interrupted in menus, or opening menus where there is no skill ready) only makes the system all the more reliant on skill and wits. Since there is nothing random about either, it is all about prediction, planning, memorization, and taking stock of and keeping many different factors in mind. Apply such a mindset, and the frustration might drain away entirely. As for the steep difficulty occasionally cited as a drwaback, something that is hard to argue with is the fact that on both Easy and Normal difficulties, I find the combat system intuitive, intricate (for a static turn-based RPG), often on the easy side, and fun. If a midcore (at the most) and middling gamer such as myself can learn and master it in an hour, to the point where no single battle in either chapter proves any particular challenge, the game as a whole present an often reasonable and balanced, and never insurmountable challenge, and the system feels intuitive, mechanically predictable and well balanced, then I doubt it will challenge the majority of comers.
Just wanted to say, so far Act 2 has been great! You guys have done awesome work! I also want to mention two things that sort of bother me. 1.) I don't really like the menu button placement. I don't think it should lay on the page because it can be distracting, especially when you turn a page. 2.) I'm sure others may not care, but this personally drives me crazy. I hate how often assets are reused. For example, I feel like I've come across the picture of the skulls and the other one with a bloody shield about a hundred times now. The images are nicely drawn, but I don't really want to see them so many times. It makes me feel like I'm reading the same few pages over and over. I understand that it can be time consuming to draw multiple pictures, but I'd much rather have very few pictures and a lot of text than the same picture every other page. Just my opinion and I don't expect you guys to change anything because of me. I would like to say thank you for being great developers and giving us an awesome and memorable app!
I have to agree here, there seems to be a trend within iOS games to make them easier, simpler, or probably more 'immediate'. This happens often within threads such as this, until the developers capitulate and makes the game 'more accessible' at which point the complaints are about the length of the game, or price, or etc you get the picture. I genuinely feel sorry for the developers in this regard, it appears as if it is a catch 22, and of course eats up their time attempting to please everyone. Sorting bugs, of course , should be priority, but I really have not came across anything significant. Personally I would rather have a challenging game , that I will fail at, but hopefully learn from these mistakes rather than a simplified version, but of course each to there own. My memory of playing these types of books, they were often quite brutal , unforgiving and challenging and when played properly no continue option (well maybe a odd flick back when things went wrong, ahem !). So in many ways, this in keeping with the spirt of the source material. On another note , I feel this has redefined my expectations of game books (as someone who read them when they were first released) , stunning work! I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Guys, sorry for being not so present this week but I'm in Berlin for a gaming conference and it's not so easy to regularly check the thread. It's great to come here and realise that you're discussing about the game in such a passionate way. It's the demonstration that it sparked your interest. As said, we're constantly improving the game, combat system included, so every feedback is valuable and helpful for us. About the combat: we tried to make it deep and strategic, but also accessible and fun. it's far from perfect that's why we tweaked it, adding also new skills, weapons, enemy attacks and other features. Moreover, balancing it is not an easy task but we think that we're achieving a nice compromise. So, thanks again for your support, it's very important for us and drive our work for the remaining Acts.
Do you refer to the top left one? There are many of them and they're random picked to complete a page when needed. We're adding them with every update so the issue should be solved soon by itself. Thanks to you for your support
