Originally Posted by Zefhyr
Kanishata, this is one of the thing who disturbed me after hearing Larian talked about the "way more strategic aspect of turn-based". In fact, sometimes the fights looks like a "rush to the hills" to the point it's more like a puzzle-game than an actual "strategy-game".
I mean if there is one or two strong strategy... this is no more strategy, this is pattern.
That and the barrels. Barrels are dumb.
I never used it during my first game (well... once to be honest, against the minotaur) but today I began a new game, I decided to fight the goblins at the mill. After having reload 3 or 4 times I just put 3 barrels of oil and made them explode. I didn't feel like Zhuge Liang nor I did feel like Lu Bu. I just feel like a sneaky gamer. Not a hero of an amazing adventure, more like a pathetic gamer using the imbalanced system of the game. Still I choose to feel pathetic than reloading for the xx times my saves. Not because I thougth I couldn't win this fight without barrels. Just because failing a fight take soooo long.

Yes exactly. And for me none of those options (using cheese strategies and tactics versus reloading again and again versus painfully wading through many rounds of combat) is acceptable. They are all extremely aggravating. That's why I have essentially given up on the combat in this game being any fun for me, and am focused only on whether the non-combat parts of the game are good enough to make the game worth my time. Or to put it another way, can playing the game in some form of 'story mode' be good enough for me?