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Jason de Heras 🎮

Mar 28, 2021 • 16 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

How do Valkyries in God of War share moves/behaviors, yet offer unique challenges? The combination of altering attack roles/properties/composition forces the player to RELEARN the familiar. Let’s compare the behaviors between Gunnr, Kara and Geirdriful. #gamedesign #combatdesign

MOVESET BREADTH - Gunnr has 2 standalone attacks whose ROLE is to ENCOURAGE parry (yellow FX); their anticipation window/attack speed are similar to allow for consistent parry timing. The air version encourages players to Axe Throw. 1/2

Kara/Geirdriful have 6 and 8 standalone attacks, respectively. Kara shares Gunnr’s Dash, but the CONTEXT of the fight makes this dangerous. If the player mistimes a parry/plays defensive, they’ll be vulnerable to nearby Draugrs. The Draugrs add an element of TENSION. 2/3

Geirdriful shares some moves from both Gunnr and Kara, but adds 2 unique attacks for a formidable/well-rounded moveset. Since the player can encounter these three Valkyries in any order, their moveset differences could throw the player off or increase/decrease challenge. 3/3

COGNITIVE LOAD - Gunnr ENCOURAGES the player to parry, but doesn’t require it. All of Gunnr’s attacks can be evaded left / right / back or parried (except the one unblockable attack). Strict memorization or technique isn’t required. 1/4

Gunnr only has 1 Unparryable (RED) attack. This attack is only performed after a series of initial attacks, so the player has plenty of time to prepare. The unblockable attack has almost ZERO tracking so the player can evade to the right with minimal precision. 2/4

Unlike Gunnr, Kara’s has 2 attacks that strongly FORCES the player to evade/block. Since these attacks have similar startup poses, the player must IDENTIFY the red FX to choose evade or block. Advanced players can use Axe Throw since she's in the air more often than Gunnr. 3/4

Their opening attacks serve to highlight their differences. Gunnr/Geirdriful always evade to the opposite end of the arena and Kara always performs a Draugr summon. 4/4

ATTACK COMPOSITION - Kara uses the Feather shot once (standalone). Geirdriful STRINGS together at least 2 to keep PRESSURE. Mirroring an animation is a gamedev technique to add attacks w/out increasing budget. Some game engines do this programmatically without a new asset.

ATTACK PURPOSE - The Wing swipe is another shared attack whose purpose is different among all three Valkyries. Gunnr uses this attack as a stun lock COUNTER. Kara’s Wing swipe is a standalone attack that gives her another MIXUP when evading away and resetting the fight. 1/4

The range that Kara’s Wing swipe is initiated causes it to miss on purpose. This serves to lull the player to sleep and bait them into attacking if they aren’t paying attention or become greedy. The small burst of forward translation at the end makes this attack DECEPTIVE. 2/4

Geirdriful’s wing swipe combo is the same as Gunnr’s, but used as a standalone attack (as opposed to Gunnr’s counter attack). This gives Geirdriful another MIXUP to make the fight less predictable. 3/4

Geirdriful shares the Gunnr wing thrust unblockable but as a standalone attack with increased translation/speed. If the player fought Gunnr first, then the REMOVAL of the wing swipes before the wing thrust unblockable, will force them to RELEARN the cadence of this attack. 4/4

ATTACK RANGE - Gunnr usually evades away to initiate her standalone attacks. This gives the player an obvious visual tell but also a HUGE amount of layered anticipation time ~2-3s to prepare and react to the subsequent attack. 1/3

Gunnr has virtually no downtime after evading and then attacking which arguably makes the fight easier. This removes one less variable the player has to strategize against. The designers’ kept the intensity HIGH, but actually put the enemy in a VULNERABLE position. 2/2

Geirdriful has 6 FAR range attacks that forces the player to RESPOND in different ways. She stays safe while keeping the PRESSURE. Her lone closing attack is unparryable and gives her a HIGH RISK/HIGH REWARD attack compared to Gunn/Kara’s dashing attack that can be parried. 3/3

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Generally, in melee combat games, taking damage disables the player’s input for a small amount of time and becomes vulnerable to follow up attacks. If the player gets hit consecutively without being able to escape (dodge/block) this is usually referred to as STUN LOCKED. 1/4

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The CONTEXT of how freeze is used makes sense for the rules of these respective games. Bayonetta is harder to hit and has more health so taking damage isn’t frequent; conversely, Knight’s health is an important resource that needs to be managed against casting spells. 5/6

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