Re: RE: Indivisible

I think I’ve found the perfect way to describe my feelings on Indivisible as of…huh.  Right around Halloween time.  Fancy that.

It’s like this.  You know those trust exercises they have you do with someone else?  The one where you fall backward, and count on your partner to catch you or whatever?  If Indivisible were that partner, then you’d fall flat on your back -- but instead of hitting concrete or dirt or tile or carpet or whatever, you’d just take a little spill onto a cushy mattress.  Yeah, you were let down by someone you trusted, but it’s fine.  You’re still in a good enough place regardless.

I can’t bring myself to hate Indivisible, or even dislike it.  I’m glad it exists.  I’m glad it got crowdfunded successfully.  I’m glad it’s pushing against the grey goo apocalypse that is the modern AAA game industry.  The problem is that, simply put, it has problems.  I’m not one for game development, but I’m not confident that the issues are solvable with patches and updates down the line; it seems like the sort of stuff that’d take a complete overhaul, if not a sequel to start fresh.

I talked about the story last time.  Now for the gameplay this time.  And let me say this to start: it was a mistake to play Tekken 7 in the same timeframe as this.

Pared down to the absolute basics, Indivisible is just a revival of Valkyrie Profile.  I have the sequel, albeit on a disc that’s only seen gentle use.  Tangent aside, it (i.e. Indivisible) works like this: instead of strictly controlling your party members via menus and options, each one of the four is mapped to a face button on the controller.  Use the button a character is assigned to, and he or she will go on the attack.  You’ll still need to be mindful of a quasi-ATB gauge that decides when you can act, though.  Sure, you can pepper foes with one quick jab as soon as you’ve got a stock in your character’s gauge -- or you could do the smart thing and wait for two/three/four pips to load for the full assault.  Taking advantage of your stocks, mixing up your offense with neutral, up, and down-inputs, and coordinating with your party members (who can attack simultaneously as long as they’ve got pips) is how you’ll rack up BIG DAMAGE.  Also, you have a super meter for REAL SOVIET DAMAGE, so there’s that.

Defense is handled in functionally the same way.  Enemies have ATB gauges of their own (though you can’t see them, as is the standard). When they go on the attack, you’ll have to meet their offense by pressing the button that corresponds to the fighter under fire.  Hold the button, and you’ll block.  Press it with the right timing, and you’ll parry to minimize the damage.  You’ll occasionally have to hold a button to block with your entire party (at the cost of meter), and in even rarer situations, stave off command grabs.  But that’s the gist of combat. 

It reminds me of the “lose at the character select screen” phrase thrown about every now and then among the FGC and memers online.  The most important element of Indivisible’s combat is deciding what sort of team you want to bring into a fight.  What are you looking for in a character, or a team at large?  Want raw power?  An edge in speed?  Utility?  Techniques?  Survivability?  Synergy?  With so many fighters to choose from, you’re spoiled for choice -- though eventually, you’ll be able to put together something that strikes your fancy.

Until I get Naga Rider, I’m running a team with Thorani, Phoebe, and Yan alongside Ajna.  Leg master Yan has enough speed to smother foes, and can continue her combo strings in midair -- whether it’s to feed into progressively-higher launchers, or to smack baddies back down for a ground bounce.  Either way, it’s a good setup for giant mom Phoebe, who can land her anti-air grab with ease once Yan sets them up.  And even once she lands on terra firma, Phoebe’s grab gives Thorani more than enough time to snipe with her hair water bullets (and by extension lay down puddles for healing or damage over time).  And of course, Ajna can go in to tack on a little extra damage.

That’s one strategy I found, but not the last.  You can squeeze in a little extra time for your ATB gauge to refill if you have Yan go last and land her ground bounce; while enemies scurry back into position, you’ll get some extra pips for sneaky surprise attacks, or otherwise a leg up on foes.  Phoebe’s neutral attack launches spears like arrows, so she can pierce through multiple targets at once if they’re lined up.  Thorani may not have raw power like her comrades, but setting up her puddles and then pulling the trigger can downright erode the HP of larger enemies.

There’s all sorts of tech with all sorts of characters.  Kushi can use her bird for AOE attacks on multiple foes.  Baozhai the pirate has access to Hidden Missile straight out of MvC3, with all of the utility (and damage) that that implies.  Zarha’s the dedicated bard who brings buffs to the table, and a Level 3 super that stops enemy attacks so they’ll get on the dance floor instead. 

But the pure platinum star may end up going to Nuna.  Setting aside the AOE potential of her neutral attack and the successive launches of her up attack, her down attack lets her plant a…plant on the field, and wallops enemies that touch it.  At a base level, it’s a trap that tacks on some extra damage.  Cut a little further beyond that, and you’ll realize that if used properly, it’s a move that, once triggered, drives enemies back from their animation/AI pattern.  Put simply, Nuna can completely cancel out an enemy turn.  Not all enemies (the trap will whiff on flying foes), but enough to make your eyes bulge when you see it.

It’s obvious that this is a game made by fighting game developers and fanatics.  A huge chunk of the depth and fun of this game has to be plugging in party members to string together new combos and setups -- seeing what you can do with your crew.  It’s not a bad idea, honestly, and one with a handful of incentives; a higher hit count means gaining extra meter and damage, which by extension feed into more damage when you pop a super (or save it for a clutch full party heal/revive).  Let the records show that there’s a road for you to follow.

Problem is, it’s not a long road for you to follow.  Also, the road leads straight into a brick wall.  Or worse.

There’s an incentive for you to make big combos…except there isn’t.  More meter to fuel your supers, and more damage per offensive dump, sure.  The problem is more of a psychological one than a mechanical one.  I’m deep into the game at this point, but the further in I go, the less of an impetus I feel to push myself.  To find those optimal combos, devious setups, or even aim for precise timing.  Not only does it feel like I can win the majority of my fights with pure basics, but I am winning with nothing out of the ordinary.  No need to excel, learn, or improve.

This is in the starkest contrast to, say, Tekken 7 (though any standard fighting game will do, so slot in your fave as needed).  It’s a core problem with Indivisible that may be impossible to fix: there’s no sense of danger or urgency to the combat.  No reason to push yourself because there’s no threat.  It’s leaning on the fighting game genre without purely capturing the essence of the fighting game genre.  The ball and chain here: the RPG mechanics hold the fighter back -- and the fighter holds the RPG back.

There aren’t any decisions to be made in this game outside of picking your characters and deciding which combo you’re going to use -- which, outside of enemies with their guards up or the power to heal from magic attacks, never needs to change or adapt once you’ve “cracked the code” with your team.  Everything goes smoothly every time once you’ve got your play in place.  To put it in perspective: for as energetic and frantic as fighting games can get, they generally operate on a turn-based system.  It’s just a matter of using specific actions to extend, steal, pass on, or regain turns.

There’s an active element to every fight, especially once the AI difficulty -- let alone the spontaneity of a human opponent -- ratchets up.  So many variables are at play every time.  Are you in the right position?  What’s your attack range?  Will your next move be safe, or easy to punish?  Are you predictable?  Is your opponent predictable?  Whether they’re lightning fast or deliberately paced, every fighting game is a dance.  It’s a clash to see who can gain the upper hand -- who can find the chance to land their combo, counter an enemy’s actions, or otherwise slip in a stray hit.

In Indivisible, there is no dance.  No real danger.  Variability comes and goes like the tide, and the waves are from a breeze-caressed lake instead of a sprawling ocean.  You don’t consistently have to worry about positions on the battlefield.  Everyone is guaranteed a turn, and the AI is too simplistic and limited in offensive options to keep you on your toes -- so once you’ve figured out how to reliably parry their attacks, they’re just dummies for you to beast on.  Outside of Nuna’s trap interrupts (or a party member losing all their HP), everyone is guaranteed a turn.  One turn for a baddie or two to throw out a couple of hits at best.  One turn for you to run through your optimal combos again, unimpeded.

I’m doing my best to learn some Xiaoyu combos in Tekken 7, but there’s WAY more to it than just “do combo”.  I want to be comfortable with both the character and the game, so that when I take the fight online, I’ll be ready.  I need to be prepared for when things go wrong, because they will.  Human error, bad judgment, missed opportunities, crumbling under pressure; there’s a level of stress that’s part and parcel of the genre, elevating it into the niche-yet-beloved holdout it is today.  For better or worse, that tension is what I live for.

By and large, Indivisible doesn’t have that.  Leveling up my game in Tekken 7 feels essential for survival.  In Indivisible, it might as well be there for shits and giggles -- and it’s weaker for it.

I’ll still contend that the gameplay is good for anyone wondering.  But as time wears on and I draw closer to the end credits, that “good” is slowly turning into good enough.  The combat’s getting exceedingly routine; it comes alive again whenever Ajna gets a new incarnation, but can still plummet right after if I find the new party member to be a total wash.  I’d say that the boss fights inject some adrenaline, but for the wrong reasons.  So far, the most challenging parts of those chapter-capping fights have been the platformer sequences thrown in mid-battle -- many of which rely on annoying gimmicks that not only sap your health, but will make you start boss fights all over again if you can’t adapt.

I guess the only other ace up the game’s sleeve is its Metroidvania-style platforming.  And it’s…fine, I guess.  It certainly does feel good when you clear a platforming challenge on your first go, least of all because you sniffed out the correct sequence of abilities (of which you have/gain many) to get you through.  But it’s not a gameplay aspect I’ll cherish for years to come.  It’s there and it presents some rooms for you to clear, so there’s not much to say or do besides “clear those rooms”.  The most annoying thing about the platforming is that, despite the game being a Metroidvania in spirit, there’s a crucial part missing.  Why does it take more than a dozen hours to unlock the ability to warp to places you’ve already been, and even then, it’s still a slog of a walk to get where you want?  You know how much time I could have saved after clearing a boss fight if I’d just been able to warp back to the ship?

Lab Zero, I’m not saying you should just stick to fighting games from here on out, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut…there’s a part of me that’s thinking it.

As a reminder from your friendly neighborhood blogger-man, you can still like something while also pointing out its faults.  And for now, I still like Indivisible.  The problem is that boy oh boy, does it have some faults.  It’s not much of a fighting game, because it doesn’t have those moment-to-moment thrills and variability per clash.  It’s not much of an RPG, because virtually all of the preparation and management (of resources, of equipment, whatever) has been stripped down to party member choices.  So I guess that makes it the most successful at being a platformer -- with light puzzle-solving bits -- but that’s not saying much.

I don’t know how I’m going to feel about this game a month or even a week from now.  I had high hopes for it -- still do, honestly -- but lately it feels less like I’m playing it for fun, and more out of obligation.  Like I have to, for this blog and to justify my impulse by.  That’s not a good spot to be in.  But maybe that’s the blessing I need.  Maybe when the boss is down and the day is saved, I’ll know for sure that it’ll all be worth it.

If nothing else, it provides solid proof that Thorani is best girl.

Well, second to Naga Rider, obviously.  But you get the idea.