Jabodie posted... The first time I played the game, I thought the first boss fight was basically unbeatable, though the game was shit, and left it for like a month or two before trying again.
Then I took like 3 potions then stomped it.
The first boss is definitely the hardest thing in the game by miles, especially if you are still learning the mechanics. The way the stances work is super jank: basically Group Stance is god tier if there are 3 or more enemies and utter ass if that's not the case, and it's not for the traditional reasons like "AoE becomes more efficient with more targets" but rather "the stances just have ridiculous modifiers to your hit/damage/dodge rates based on whether you are in a situation where the game deems them effective".
I think I actually won the first boss fight with an instant kill off Aard when I won it, now that I think about it.
On the other hand, Witcher 2 is broken super hard if you immediately get tier 2 of the bomb skill in the alchemy tree and just bomb through the entire game, but all the other alchemy stuff is pretty crap with how they balanced potion toxicity (like the skill to have 4 potions going at once allows you to use literally a single combination of 4 specific potions that isn't very good). Getting at least one tier of the evasion distance skill is essential for travelling faster. I think I liked 2's combat the most despite how weird the skill tree balance was, with how you actually have to get out of the way of attacks and how tactical signs feel.
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"That is why war is so tragic. To win means to make victims of your opponents and give birth to hatred." - Kratos Aurion, Tales of Symphonia