@tatann@lemmy.world You can deactivate the QTEs in the game's settings. But you still have to hit the parries or dodges. Though technically it is possible to beat the game even on expert without any dodges, but that requires much grinding and good tactics. On the easy difficulty you should be able to get by either way.

Even if you can't play the game, watching a 100% playthrough with no commentary is worth it. The story is easily the best part of the game. At least, in my opinion.

Reconsider that position, try the game for a few hours before committing to buying it. I’m not into turn based games either, but this hits completely different. The brief QTE damage modifiers, parry, and dodge mechanics make the gameplay much more active/involved than your typical turn based game. People describing it as a rhythm game are spot-on - these systems all integrate with the music in a way that makes it incredibly satisfying when you’re nailing it. Each party member has their own unique and interesting gameplay mechanic and they can be set up to play off of one another, adding a really cool element of strategy that, again, is really satisfying when it all comes together just right.

 Truly magical

I was hearing people talking about innovative brand new mechanics with the QTE parry system. I was so excited because how could it be new? What could they possibly have done? And its basically Mario RPG super hard mode.

Yeah, my wife has historically loathed JRPGs in part because the turn-based combat was too dull. She tried Expedition 33, fell in love immediately, and tried to show me the combat system like, "Look! It's so new and innovative! This is how all those old games should've been!" ...So I'm putting Barkley Shut Up & Jam Gaiden on her computer next time she leaves it unattended.

I've recently been playing it and I've been blown away. I find the parry system not too bad actually. I'm more than half way through the game and I've only recently started properly learning how to parry, but I love how easy the game makes it to learn. Context for anyone who hasn't played the game: when you successfully dodge, you see the words "dodge" rather than damage numbers. When you do a perfect dodge, you see the words "perfect dodge". The window for parrying is smaller than for dodging, but this dodge system meant that when I started noticing I was somewhat consistently getting perfect dodges, I decided I should try parrying more often. I find the overall difficulty tuning to be excellent. Even on normal difficulty, it's definitely challenging at points, but it feels extremely fair. You won't be able to defeat all enemies that you're able to access at any given time — there's so many times that I've tried my chances with a big guy just hanging out on the map, only to get my team wiped in one hit. However, the open world and much to explore means I can go away and come back later. Upgrade materials are scattered all over, so exploration is super powerful. I agree with you that the highlight of the game is how beautiful it is. There have been a few times where I've had to stop for a moment and just take in the scenery when it was so soul achingly beautiful that I could scarcely think.

If I remember correctly, parries and perfect dodges have the same timing window. It's just that messing up a perfect dodge still leaves opportunity to regular dodge, which is safer than parrying by far.

I am sorry to hear that. There are quite a few mods that further modify the parry and dodge windows making them way more forgiving. For the story alone I can totally recommend it and you still get quite engrossed in the scenery. And I also never perfectly dodged or parried everything so maybe that helps as a reference point. Sometimes I really had to learn to expect what was coming.

Yeah, exactly, that's what I was trying to convey. I'm not good under pressure, so I've spent most of the game opting to dodge, given it's much safer. What I like is that the "perfect dodge" notice is a subtle, helpful prompt that's basically saying "hey, if you'd tried to parry this attack rather than dodge, you'd have succeeded. Back yourself, bro."