a retrospective on yiik's battle mode
Hey there, i havent posted here in a while so you know im here for posting a long ass yappost that i couldnt otherwise post on twitter. Recently i have played the I.V update with the Old Battle Mode (OBM for short) turned on from the start, beating the whole game like that. During that i've come to realize something, something pretty screwed up, the old battle mode? I like it, i like it more than the new one. It's pretty strange to me, back before I.V i used to await the new battle mode but now after more than a year of I.V being out i came to prefer the state of YIIK's combat in which i was introduced to the game.
As you can see by the title of this post its meant to be a retrospective on YIIK's combat in general, both new and old. However if you came after I.V and maybe want to try out or retry the old battle mode, this post can also act somewhat as a guide on how to have more fun while doing so.
First of all i want to adress the big elephants in the room with old combat so that later i wont have to talk about them. There are quite a few things surrounding the OBM that are part of the reason why people dont like it, however at its core OBM doesnt requires them to be like that. This includes the super slow Mind Dungeon, the tone being too silly for YIIK's story, the super slow combat, and so on. I want to also adress the speed specifically and the fact that you can hold Enter(or right trigger on gamepad) to speed up the combat, you aren't told about that anywhere and even if you were, having to hold a button to skip super long battle animations is still shitty imo. Here i want to focus mainly on the core game design of fighting system itself while mostly ignoring the bad systems on top of it. Also last note before i properly start, when talking about OBM i mean the 1.25 version, i haven't played the 1.0 and dont really care honestly.
The Affinity System
When comparing the OBM and NBM the thing i want to discuss first is the Affinity System, despite the fact that from the first glance the Affinity System is identical in the 2 battle modes, however the ways they handle it are very different. Originally it was added in 1.25 update with improving the OBM in mind and honestly i'd say that OBM is where it can really shine. The main idea of Affinity System is that every character is assigned one of 5 affinities that work with each other like rock paper scissors by granting you resistance to an affinity you're strong against but getting more damage recieved from affinity you're weak from.
This system encourages you to use an option often overlooked by YIIK's players-switching party members, if you dont know the "SWITCH" button at the bottom of the list allows you to switch your current party member to any you have in reserve, this DOESNT waste a turn and you can switch your party member as any times as you want until you actually do something. In combination with the Affinity System, it's recommended that in the case all enemies are strong against your party member's affinity it's better to switch to someone else or if you lack such character to instead use an item or a supportive skill.
This combination of OBM and the Affinity system reaches it's peak potential in Vella's Mind Dungeon, where you can access all 5 affinities at any time you want. The Essentia's Mind Dungeon on the other side suffers plenty from it, counting that you have only 2 party members and they both have the same affinity, literally not allowing any strategy around it and making you suffer if you encounter an enemy that is strong against metal.
Ultimatly i'd say that this dance of switching your party members on the go, especially in fights with wild card affinity, can be pretty fun and is done pretty well.
The I.V's use of it on the other hand feels very underused and added only because they already added it in 1.25 and didnt want it go to waste in I.V. You cannot switch your party members on the flight in I.V so the amount of damage increased and resisted from affinity isnt as noticable as in OBM.
In NBM Chondra also lost her ability to have a proper Wild Card affinity, while in OBM it resulted in her affinity changing every turn, in NBM it just means that you change it by using the Copy Element skill to copy Affinity of an enemy you're currently fighting, making her have effectively the neutral affinity if she doesn't. Want to note that in OBM Chondra has a Strong Stance, it doesnt say so in skill's description but chosing this stance swaps Chondra's affinity to instead copy the affinity of enemy who attacked her, which can give you more control over your affinity since it will stop changing every turn on its own now, but at the cost of not being able to use other stances.
It is also weird to me how the star of the show of NBM-the Kartas, don't use Affinity that much. The only exception is the Deep Well karta that always changes your Affinity to water, which IS useful and can be used for strategic play, however there being no other karta that change affinity in any way at all is really weird to me, since if done right it could probably replace having the need to switch characters with having to use your karta at the right time to get needed affinity.
Status effects
You'd assume that since NBM completely lacks minigames and is more focused on the traditional RPG combat it would have more focus on status effects than OBM. You'd assume. Surpisingly NBM isnt really that focused on status effects with it being more advised to just attack most of the time, theres also very limited amount of characters that can apply status effects at all.
Outside of bleeding (which gets irrelevant more and more as the amount of HP you and the enemy have increases during progression) the main status effect there is is being Blinded, something that can be applied only by Michael and Asuka from your party and not a lot of enemies, with the Blinding Flash skill usually failing so often it would be better to just punch the enemy instead of wasting turns.
Same can be said about the Confused status effect that is als applied by Michael and that also mostly misses, i want to note that there is no accuracy stat that would make you hit these more often as you progress and that these skills arent affected by LUCK at all.
You can set enemies on fire as Alex and theres a very limited amount of enemies that can set you on fire, with fire being mostly just bleed 2 where it stops mattering the more hp the enemy and you have, making the flamethrower skill on Alex basically worthless by the time you get it.
There is the seal skills effect that can be used by Nameless, however what exactly counts as an enemy skill and who you should use it on isnt at all clear.
Confuse used by enemies is an interesting and actually dangerous thing to happen to you, however there are only 2 bosses in the whole game that can apply Confuse on you, one of them being Xenanu so theres basically 1 boss that can apply it and no enemies, making it more of a gimmick of this specific boss and not a full on status effect. Same can be said about the "Nostalgic" status effect that can only ever be applied on Chondra in Perfume King fight but for some reason is listed in the status effects list in Mind Dungeon.
The OBM despite it's main focus being mini games gives you access to better status effects to use. Alex and Essentia can apply sleep to enemies, this allows you to deal with an enemy later and focus on other enemies instead in case you want to kill them 1 by 1. Michael can apply sickness on enemies, while also capable of applying buffs on ATK and DEF on party members, which can be stacked, making him a good support character. You can apply stun on enemies if you do well on Claudio's bushdio minigame, applying some good damage alongside it. Enemies using status effects are also more threatening in OBM, with monsters such as the Stop Sign and Sheep Man being extremely dangerous, requiring you to either take them out first or use status effects yourself from preventing them to attack you.
Weapon Progression
The weapon progression in 1.0 and in I.V is very different, with the biggest victim of these changes being the MC himself-Alex. I will also talk about some other characters' weapon progression but not all of them because the most important and biggest change being to Alex's.
Alex's weapon progression
Pre I.V
In Chapter 1 you start with your worst record, however get an upgrade to it pretty fast in either Factory Hotel or if you but it at Record Stop. In Chapter 2 you can buy the Stolling Bonez LP, which has objectively worse stats but allows you to spin Alex's record one more time in his Beatdown minigame, rewarding players who are good at this minigame. Chapter 3 has whole 4 different records you can get as you progress through the chapter, each of them giving you different amount of spins on record in Beatdown minigame and different stats, giving you a big variety of records to use before you achieve the Mystical Ultima LP Legend-the best record in the game. After that the only records you will get are One Hit Wonder in Chapter 4 and Legends of Ragnarok LP in Chapter 6, each of them being sidegrades to MULPL that you can spin less times in the beatdown minigame but give you buffs on other stats, which can be useful if you use the EP Strike or LP Toss skills on Alex often since they're not affected by the buff on Beatdown minigame.
I.V Chapter 1 is the same with same 2 records being in same places as where you get them in old version, however starting with Chapter 2 there are big differences. There are no new record you can get during Chapter 2, none at all, you beat a whole ass fucking Golden Alpaca with Chapter 1 LP. You can get Blinkerton in Chapter 3 during the path to radio tower, Strolling Bonez is now available after you beat perfume king and thats it you get MULPL you get the ultima weapon. Despite the fact you already got MULPL, you can get 2 whole records in Chapter 4: The Vampires of Goth LP and the Back Alley Boiz LP, 2 whole records that are significantly worse than MULPL but that you can still get for literally no reason. Also a reminder that in I.V there are no minigames or anything that can be buffed by the records, so them having worse stats is just them having worse stats there is no choice between stats or between more spins. The Broken Record is now a weapon you can use for some reason, however in stats its still better to use MULPL. The Legends of Ragnarok is the only record in game that is better than MULPL, which has most of it's stats better than MULPL.
Claudio's and Chondra's progression
Ok this one is going to be way shorter.
Chondra lacks a lot in weapons early on in 1.0, with her not having any new weapons at all in Chapter 3 but getting multiple in Chapter 4, with her ultima weapon the flaming hula hoop being given to you in Chapter 5. In I.V you can get a glowing hula hoop after beating the perfume king, but otherwise its mostly the same.
Claudio can get a new sword in the Mt. Town Cave, with getting better swords in further chapters, his ultimate weapon being Masamune that you can get right before the fight with proto comet. Claudio's Bokken of the Ageless Tree is the best weapon you can get before the world starts ending, however it gives you the least time to use Claudio's bushido, encouraging you to be faster with it to properly utilise it's stat increase. In I.V you get swords more on him more regularly, with the Bokken of Ageless Tree not having really any downsides at all.
In conclusion i'd say that in I.V it's better.
Bosses
When Michael in I.V said that hell is an eternity of quality, not quantity, he certainly didnt meant the I.V bosses because there are way more of them than in previous version, however most of them lack any real challenge or a mechanic to make them really unique. Most of the bosses in I.V are just damage sponges that hit somewhat hard and thats it, this issue most likely stems from how much I.V's game design relies on Kartas and trying to use them to make a fight more unique, however theres quite a few big problems with that approach.
First problem: theres quite a number of Kartas that are either effectively just a stat up for the enemy or dont have that big of an effect to make a lot of difference.
Second problem: you can destroy the Kartas. What i mean by this is that despite the fact that Kartas are these multi-purpose things is a pretty interesting concept to work with, you having to destroy them first to deal damage to the enemy makes them last way shorter in the fight, so even if an enemy has some karta that gives them a super cool effect that matters you then just destroy it early on and for the rest of the fight the boss' starting karta doesn't matter.
The few bosses that are exception to this issue are (in my opinion): the Golden Alpaca, Perfume King, Twisted Beings. Perfume King especially is the best designed boss in I.V overall, his use of status effects and also him stealing your kartas making him a good challenge, requiring you to both try to get rid of Sexy Cops stealing your Kartas and healing perfume king, but also getting rid of said Kartas on perfume king so his already powerful attacks don't hurt even more. Threatening Fan is on my memory the only boss that can get his Kartas back, which can be pretty threatening counting that 2 out of 3 of his kartas are silver spoon, however him having so little HP and you having so many party members makes him a rather fast fight, with sheep men in the same dungeon having more chances of killing you.
While the OBM has pretty interesting boss fights, there are extremely few of them in the whole game, which is especially a problem counting that the last real boss fight is in chapter 4 while you get your best equipment mostly in chapter 5. The Golden Alpaca is a well designed boss overall, however the speed at which he summons and consumes the soul survivors that you have to intentionally try to ignore them for him to even have a chance of using his special move. Then there's the Gothic Entity which starts with your entire party at 1 HP and half of it dead if you fail to dodge attacks, you are also required to switch to Vella to remove it's immunity, overall a good fight. Then there is the Yuzu fight which requires you to use the sleep status effect and Panda to prevent the med bot from healing Yuzu and to prevent Yuzu from stunning Alex, the second phase of the fight is pretty underwhelming however. And thats it, the twisted beings and proto comet are forced losses and the 4 proto Alexs are more of mini bosses.
The New Norm
If you reached the NG++ in I.V you might have noticed that the Old Battle Mode option in settings isnt crossed out anymore, making it possible to experience the OBM with addition of 3 whole new bosses from I.V: the Perfume King, the Threatening Fan, and the new Twisted Beings. Sadly these new bosses aren't the only additions to the Old Battle Mode in I.V, first of all there's a ton of bugs in general, such as shops selling items completely for free or shops being from I.V and not OBM. There is also the problem of OBM's and NBM's having an ugly child in I.V OBM that is the result of some OBM's weapons being obtainable only through chests, which are now replaced with I.V chests, however the shops are the same as in 1.0. The equipment items from I.V also all have a problem of not having their stats properly displayed, with it being possible to see the difference only if you compare it how it would be without that item equipped. The new boss fights are interesting, however they aren't that unique to play I.V's OBM just for them, the Twisted Beings fight especially is just the same as in I.V except way slower and you have to die yourself instead of there being an insta kill attack.
Overall i would say that if you're playing on PC and want to try out the Old Battle Mode, you will have way more intended battle experience by playing legacybranch on steam, you will however lack some QoL changes made in I.V such as the faster running speed in overworld or a part of Essentia's Mind Dungeon being cut. If you're playing on a console tho: good luck.
