LogFAQs > #969198645

Hi! I've 100%'d this game and beat it something like 6 times. It has one of my favorite combat systems in all of gaming so hopefully you can turn around on it, it's well worth experiencing in full IMO.

On exp and money - even if you die a bunch and lose nearly an entire skill bar you're never really set back that much. If you're close to hitting the next full point and feel danger coming up, just make sure to eke out that extra point so you don't need to worry about it. Money is worth even less but similarly you should try to spend it or "save" it in pouches you can get from some merchants at a slight loss so you're never carrying around an absolute ton.

Mikiri Counter takes some getting used to but you basically want to go DIRECTLY at the attack and "hit" it with the absolute middle of your dodge animation. It's actually a lot easier than, say, parrying in a Souls game, but you do need to get used to it.

The combat system is 100% not meant to encourage you to fight big groups. If you're in a 3v1, you're in an undesirable situation and should do whatever you can to avoid it or get out of it ASAP. The thing you experienced with the miniboss is intentional anti-cheese design - it does suck you had to discover it that way but just know you're not going to be allowed to disengage minibosses like that. (But you CAN stealth "kill" them to get a free deathblow, and that guy's quite susceptible to it!)

For all the dozens of hours I've poured into the game I've not had an issue with getting hit out of a deathblow - you're fully invincible in the animation up until the frame where you can successfully dodge and enemies *generally* stop attacking if you're doing one. Parry sounds and feeling you'll get more used to as you go but they end up being very distinctive once you have the ear for it. There's a boss you'll fight very soon that is basically the "teacher" for this game's combat system and has extremely distinct parry sounds. It'll probably be rough but if you can beat it you'll be in a way better position to tackle the rest of what the game has to throw at you. Basically think of it as a rhythm game almost - outside of using tools, you want to spend 90% of your time fighting in this game standing toe to toe, deflecting and counterattacking with the "beat" of the enemy's moveset.