Sifu

I had a bit of an experimental run through level 1 last night where I think I had my eureka moment with the dodge. Died a lot more than any other run through 1 I've had so far, but it was my most useful playthrough yet.

Also came to the realisation that you need to be extremely proactive with crowds. It's much better getting to work on thinning the herd ASAP than it is to do the Batman/Assassin's Creed thing of letting them surround you so you can take turns trying to parry/dodge each of them.

The avoid is by far the most useful thing on the game, the timing window is pretty big. And yeah ultra agressive is definitely the way to go.

Yeah the focus sweep is pretty invaluable on boss fights. I think I'm going to have to grind out the catch a thrown weapon thing for the third boss.

I feel your pain because I can't fucking do it yet either. I find a combination of holding L1 to block some of the shit, flicking up and down to hop and duck under low/high blows and tapping R2 to dodge and then hold to run away is about where my defence is at the moment. If it helps, I find it's key not to allow yourself to get surrounded or pinched into corners and against the wall and shit, manage your environment and placement. Definitely don't get hit from behind because that hugely damages your structure meter, which is tied in somehow to how much damage you take from all hits even light ones. I think.

Being able to grapple out of those situations would cheapen it. Spatial awareness and making sure you don't get cornered is a big part of what makes the group fights so interesting.

I disagree. It's not like the switch place grapple does damage, and it's an unlock so is there to give you more dexterity.
You can go from full health to dead in less than 2 seconds simply because the first hit prevents you from guarding again immediately, and the next hits are all incoming. If you get surrounded you literally cannot move, so what are you supposed to do? Yes, you should avoid getting into bad situations but when they happen you should have a method of being able to get out of them to continue being able to fight.
It happened to me last night, simply because I dodged an attack but I couldn't see a drawer unit behind me, and as I span the camera to see why I couldn't step back I had 3 enemies push forward. Game over. Tried to guard but it didn't matter - structure broke because guard still takes damage, and dead. Whereas a 'R2+forward' would've just allowed me to switch position with an enemy, retreated and refocused.

I've been done in once or twice by being boxed in but it's always felt of my own doing. The camera can be a bit shit at times though. Been a few occassions when I've been backed into a corner all I've been able to see is a wall while my health bar evaporates.

I‘ve bought this. I blame Decks. I love it. I am terrible at it.

Nah it's brilliant IMO. Combat is really engaging and the levels are just the right size for me to have the patience to learn. It's got quite strange timing to some of it but I think it's intentionally there to stop you leaning on skills picked up in other games.

Ahh that is literally the encounter where I always die in The Squats. I thought you'd pulled it back nicely in the corridor as well.

Yeeting the guy down the stairwell was an absolute thing of beauty.

I've done the Squats with no deaths.
I'm currently on my best run of the Club, about to take on the 2 assholes before the boss room, age 22.

Ok, going into Sean at age 23, one death on the clock.

Must admit, these PS5 sticks are fricking annoying. Fingers seem to roll off the top very easily compared to my Xbox pads - especially in the heat of a sweaty ninja battle. Might need some double sided gorilla tape.

Probably need to calm down, take a breath and Zen the fuck out of the baddies.

Unlikely to happen though.